Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) Read Free

up?”
    “Screw that. I’d rather do this without him and those things, they give me the creeps.”
    “What, the Alternatives or Lewis?” Alexander asked warily.
    “Both. He was always a bit weird, but he’s definitely been getting worse since this Archmage popped up. Veronica senses it too.”
    “We should have a private talk with Winston when we get back,” Alexander suggested sadly. “Lewis might have spent too much time in the Gloom or around its inhabitants.”
    Brooke nodded. She was quite good with healing spells, so perhaps between her and Veronica they would be able to fix whatever was wrong with the Blonde Book Wielder, if he allowed them to.
    They came to a clearing in the trees, where an old Great War concrete bunker stood with three vehicles parked outside it. Two were normal looking off-road jeeps and the third was a high-tech silver and white Inquisition truck, although luckily for Alexander and Brooke it was an unarmed variant. They had found what they were looking for.
    Lewis had come to them asking for help a few hours ago. The Alternatives, the creepy puppet people of the Gloom, had informed him of a minor rebel force looting a Great War bunker. The three of them, along with a small group of Alts, had gone in a big jeep of their own to investigate.
    Unwelcome activity and small acts of sabotage were becoming far more common on Imperia. The forces of the Trinity, the Inquisition, civilians, and even some rogue Military Peace Keepers had banded together to fight against the Shadow Circle, Winston and the Archmage, and their allies.
    Archmage Omniosis had referred to all those who opposed them and the prospect of recombining reality with the Gloom as ‘rebels’, and to the alliance between all those on his side as ‘the Omni’, and the two terms had stuck.
    Now that they had arrived there was a surprising lack of activity at the site. Crates of weapons and ammo were stacked neatly beside one of the jeeps, and only two rebels in black, grey and red war uniforms were standing beside them. Drivers were sitting in the vehicles, but they were extremely still. The whole scene was very wrong considering that it was supposed to be a quick covert looting of an old half-forgotten cache.
    “I think they’re all dead!” Brooke gasped.
    “This feels like a trap,” Alexander murmured quietly.
    “I’m not sensing anyone else. Let’s have a quick look and then get the hell out of here,” Brooke said.
    Alexander nodded, and they left the tree line and approached the two rebels by the crates. One was a man and the other was a women, both looking to be in their late forties or fifties. They appeared to have been dead for few hours and propped up to make it less apparent. Brooke quickly checked on the drivers and found them in a similar state.
    “They’re all dead,” Brooke confirmed. “We should get out of here ASAP.”
    Alexander had removed the dog tags of the two rebels and was studying them closely. “Reynolds...”
    “What’s up?” Brooke asked, moving towards him.
    “Winston’s last name is Reynolds – you don’t think these are his parents, do you? He said they were war veterans.”
    “Fuck...” Brooke didn’t know what to say.
    At that moment, humanoids in white and silver armour burst into the clearing. They opened fire with bolts of blue plasma energy and charged towards the couple with shimmering blue blades.
    Alexander shielded them both with magic and sent a barrage of fiery flares into the Autons charging at them. Some were torn to shreds and set ablaze, but others deftly leapt or dodged out of the way and continued firing with the lasers built into their gauntlets.
    Brooke used her Werewolf Shaman magic to rapidly grow vines and thorns that whipped, lashed, tangled and tore the assailing machines. With a massive degree of effort she managed to call down some lightning strikes too, but the Autons kept coming.
    Suddenly, Alexander and Brooke’s powers were gone, and no matter how