Like A Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 by Matthew Phillion

Author:Matthew Phillion
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: PFP
Published: 2016-05-27T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 39:

Books of secrets

Doc Silence stood hunched over his desk, piles of books, some written in languages older than humanity itself, opened haphazardly and spilled on top of each other. They included books of magic and secrets, tomes written by wise men and mad ones, by gods and monsters, by wizards and priests.

In these books, Doc once thought, were the answers to everything. But tonight, they seemed to be just stacks of paper. Kindling for a world on the edge of burning.

He picked up a small book, bound in blue, its pages so papery thin as to appear made of mist. He set this aside in favor of a massive tome, so big it required both hands to lift safely. This one he'd stolen from a demon king, in another world, when Doc behaved bravely, yet stupidly and did foolish things without worrying who they might hurt.

None of them revealed the secrets he wanted. None of them offered the answers he sought.

Well, he thought. You don't possess all the books in the universe. The answer might be out there in some other wizard's library. Or maybe there just wasn't an answer this time. No secret spell, no weapon to turn toward the sky and save them.

He wondered if there had been beings like him living on the other worlds the Nemesis fleet had destroyed. Magicians who waved their fingers at the sky and caused things to change. Men these aliens defeated simply through relentless force. Magic was not Earth's alone, he knew. It weaved its web across all things.

"Haven't seen you hit the books in a long time." Jane stood in the doorway to Doc's suite. She leaned against the frame. Out of her costume, she wore the sort of clothes she'd first dressed in when she arrived in the Tower, jeans and a plain white tee under a checkered shirt, two sizes too big, old canvas sneakers on her feet. She'd pulled her hair back into a ponytail, but it still glowed with the reddish light of a low flame.

"Haven't had to," Doc said.

"Thought you knew everything."

"Fate has a way of reminding you that you can't possibly know everything," Doc said. He set the book down and sat on the edge of his desk, folding his arms across his chest. Jane stared at his arms, and Doc remembered how rarely she saw the mystical tattoos that covered most of his upper body. His long coat hung over the back of a chair, leaving his arms bare from his short sleeves down.

"What are you looking for?" she asked.

"Answers," Doc said. "I can't help wondering if there's a spell, some big bang I can conjure to stop them. All these books, spells, theories, and it just feels like a collection of parlor tricks when I really need something more powerful."

"You got us," Jane said. "How much more powerful you need?"

"Something potent enough so I don't have to take you up there with me," Doc said.

Jane tucked her hands in her pockets, bounced the heel of her right shoe against the toe of her left rhythmically.

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