Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers, #2)

by Brenda Drake

  Tell him ego sum protector, and he knows English, the flying rat.

  Cadby looked at me curiously before wrapping his thick hands around my throat.

  “Ego sum protector,” I choked out, grabbing his hands and trying to pull them away from my neck. “Cadby, ego protector!”

  His grip loosened.

  “Yeah, that’s right. And I know you can speak English. Athela told me.”

  “Athela told you?” His voice was so deep it was scary.

  “Yes. Her spirit is speaking to me.”

  Cadby straightened to his knees. “You say you are the protector?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  He stood and offered me his leathered yellow hand. I ignored it and pushed myself up.

  Tell him you found Royston.

  “Okay, but will you stop talking in my head, already. It’s kind of freaky.”

  Cadby chuckled, which sounded more like a growl. “She’s persistent, isn’t she?”

  “That’s an understatement. She wants me to tell you I found her son.”

  His wings fluttered. “Where? He went missing long ago.”

  “He was in one of the habitats of the Somnium. When I freed him, I accidentally released all the trapdoors.”

  Arik and Kale stormed the room with their swords outstretched.

  “You’re late.” I moved in front of Cadby to shield him. “If he wasn’t an ally, I’d have been dead before you got here.”

  Arik stepped cautiously forward. “How do you know he’s an ally?”

  “A birdie told me.” I blew out an exasperated breath. “It was Athela. She said he was Royston’s guard. His name is Cadby.”

  “We know he’s his guard,” Arik said. “He was imprisoned for Royston’s death.”

  I frowned at him. “And Royston’s alive, so obviously he was framed.”

  Kale glanced at Arik. “She’s right on that one.”

  “The Wizard Council must exonerate him,” Arik said.

  “This place confuses me.” Cadby waved his arm around the library. “I keep jumping in and out of gateway books and end up in these places.”

  “It’s the twenty-first century,” Kale said. “The entries have changed.”

  Cadby looked confused as he digested Kale’s words. “I knew it had been some time since I was sent to prison, but not so many centuries. I am happy to go to the Council. I have something to tell them.”

  Arik relaxed his grip on the hilt of his sword. “Why? What do you need to tell the Council?”

  “There was an evil man gathering all the convicts from the Somnium prison I was in. He promises wealth and power to those who join him. He’s taken those who agreed to follow him to Esteril. He had creatures with him even more terrifying than myself.”

  Kale turned to Arik. “It has to be Conemar.”

  “That is his name,” Cadby said.

  “Crap. This is bad.” I paced. My foot kicked my sword, and I snatched it up. “We have to warn Carrig.”

  “There’s more,” Cadby said. “He is after his son, who’s also a protector. A witch gave Conemar his whereabouts. A place called Branford.”

  I dropped my sword and it clanged against the floor. “Shit. Do you have any other details? Like when are they going?”

  “Calm down,” Arik warned.

  Cadby’s wings twitched on his back as he watched me. “He and his men were here. That is why I was hiding on the ceiling. They are just ahead of you.”

  I grabbed my sword from the floor again and stomped out of the shop, fuming.

  “Where are you going?” Arik rushed after me. “Don’t lose your head. Why are you always charging into situations without thinking it through first?”

  “Why are you always wasting time when it’s a life or death situation?” I shouted over my shoulder. I would not fail Nick. He would do the same for me.

  “Gia,” Kale called after me. “Stop!”

  I paused and turned. “What?”

  “Arik is right. We have to think this through before acting.”

  I looked past Kale and sharply at Arik. “Don’t tell me to calm down again. I have every right to be mad. We have to hurry before he finds Nick.”

  “Your hotheadedness will get us all killed,” Arik said. “We can’t just rush into an unknown situation.”

  “I think we must rush into it,” Cadby said. “There’s no time to waste. This boy is a protector. If Conemar gets his hands on him, he will find the Chiavi.”

  Arik stared off, mulling something in his head.

  I grew impatient watching him. “Maybe we should go like in this century?”

  Arik ignored my sarcastic comment. “Kale, gather the other Sentinels, and we’ll wait here for you.”

  “Wait here?” My face heated. “We have to get to Nick now.”

  Arik stopped right in front of me and stared down into my eyes. “I know you don’t trust my decision on this—we’ve been here before—but I am your lead Sentinel. You haven’t a choice but to listen to me or face an infraction.”

  “Oh really? Like I care if I get an infraction.” I glared at him. “I’ll go without you, then.”

  “Ugh, you are the most stubborn girl,” he growled. “It hasn’t crossed your mind that Conemar will track you down while he’s in the neighborhood? You think he’d let you live when you could lead us to the Chiavi? Besides, Nick is hardly ever at his own home. He spends most of his time at yours, riding his motorbike, or at the beach.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I’ve spent a lot of time with him while you were gone.”

  He was right. I was easily disposable to Conemar, but I wasn’t backing down. “We have to find Nick before Conemar does.”

  “Bloody hell, Gia, you will kill me one day.” Arik threw his hands up. “All right, Kale, get the others and meet us at Nick’s house. Send Demos and some guards to protect Royston.”

  I sheathed my sword. “What are we going to do with Cadby?”

  “I go with you and fight,” Cadby said.

  I wasn’t going to argue with him. When facing a possible battle, I figured having a winged nightmare on your side was always a good thing.

  Kale departed for Asile, while Arik, Cadby, and I jumped into the gateway book. The cold air rushed at me, whipping my hair around my face. When I landed in the library in Branford, the book wasn’t in a bookcase. It was on the floor, as if someone had used it before me. It wasn’t even three p.m. yet and darkness cloaked the library. All the lights were off and the blinds shut.

  Arik came out of the book behind me, followed by Cadby. The only noise in the place was our breathing and the occasional flutter of Cadby’s wings.

  “Is that a nervous tick or what?” I whispered over my shoulder at Cadby, eyeing his wings.

  “It takes some effort to keep them still,” he said.

  “This is strange.” I cautiously weaved in and out of the bookcases with Arik and Cadby trailing me. “The library never closes early.”

  “Is it an American holiday?” Arik was so close behind me I could feel his breath tickle the back of my neck.

  “No,” I said.

  We reached the front door. Locked.

  “I think we’re too late.” I turned the locks then paused before pushing open the door. “Are you ready to freak people out? I’m sure the good people of Branford will be thrilled to encounter a bird creature.”

  Cadby gave Arik a quizzical look.

  “It’s called sarcasm,” Arik said. “No one will be thrilled to see you.”

  I opened the door and the alarm beeped a warning. “That’s unfortunate. We don’t have the code, so we should probably run.” I darted down the steps. There weren’t any cars or people on the streets. No movement at all. I slowed my steps.

  Cadby thumped up from behind. “I will take to the sky and get a breadth of the situation.” He sprinted up the street and took off into the air.

  “Keep your eyes on the right,” Arik said, coming up on my si
de. “I’ll watch the left.”

  I caught movement in the corner of my eye. A curtain settled in place in one of the windows of an apartment building. “It’s like the Rapture around here.”

  We trotted through the business district into neighborhoods until we found ourselves on Nick’s street. The front door to his house was hanging on its hinges, glass blown out of several windows, and the yard trampled and torn.

  Arik and I yanked the broken door aside and stepped over the debris. We searched room after room for Nick and his parents. The place was vacant.

  My boots crunched across the doorframe on my way to the porch. “Now what?”

  “We can check the school or your house,” Arik said.

  Cadby swooped off the roof and alighted onto the sidewalk. “Conemar’s legions surround a house to the north of here.”

  “My house.” I flew down the steps and sprinted across the lawn, hopping over the stout white-picket fence surrounding Nick’s yard. My boots pounded hard against the pavement. The fear of something bad happening to Pop, Deidre, and Faith surged me forward.

  “Gia!” Arik yelled after me.

  I ignored him, picking up my pace, my hand clutching the hilt of my sword. My heart beating loud in my ears. My heels hitting the ground shook my bones. The street with the crooked sign came in view.

  A burst of air hit my back and Cadby landed in front me. I veered left to avoid running straight into him, booked it up the couple of houses to my street, and rounded the corner. I could make out the pointy turret of our gray Victorian house through the trees. Passing Emily’s house, I spotted several figures surrounding the outside of mine—Conemar’s men.

  I raised my hand and ignited my globe. I skidded to a stop. On my palm sat a clear iridescent globe. It was heavier than my pink one.

  Arik trotted to a stop beside me, his eyes wide as he inspected my globe. “What’s that?”

  “I don’t know. I think my battle globe broke when I threw it at the trapdoor.” There were so many creatures and Sentinels on my front yard. “Why aren’t the police here? Someone had to call them.”

  “See that blue light overhead?” Arik pointed to the sky above my house. “It’s a charm. A shield. It controls noise and prevents phones from working.”

  A few men with Conemar spotted us. One had to be a Sentinel. The tall, broad man wore a black trench coat and balanced a smoky globe on his palm. He threw it in our direction. It exploded at our feet, throwing up dirt and grass clumps over us. I covered my face with my free arm to protect it from the spray, and then fired my globe at the man. The globe grew in size as it flew, expanding its sphere. The Sentinel dodged it. The globe sped across the yard, knocking several creatures to their knees until it busted against a rock in a cloud of glass and smoke.

  “Okay, that was strange.” I squared my stance and unsheathed my sword. Adrenaline stabbed through my veins and twisted my stomach as I readied myself for an attack.

  The Sentinel sprinted for us. Arik conjured a fire globe, turning it into a whip. He lashed it at the Sentinel, wrapping it around the man’s arm and burning through the sleeve of his trench coat. The man screamed in agony. His yells alerting the rest of Conemar’s gang.

  Mixed in with the Sentinels, hunters, and wizards were Mystik creatures. Some I’d never seen before and some I’d seen in books. A bald, blue-skinned man clutched a battle-ax. Thumping a rolled whip against her leg, one of the Fey with pointy ears and pink hair stared me down. A buff man with one eye smack in the middle of his face towered over them all. Several of Conemar’s creations, the demon-like Writhes, slithered between them all.

  A thin membrane, glimmering in the light, surrounded the house, and I knew it was Sinead’s magic. I strained to make out the figures behind the windows but couldn’t see who was in the house. Conemar just stared at us as if in shock. Beside him stood Veronique, a French Sentinel who turned traitor and joined Conemar’s side. On her other side, Bastien’s brother, Odil and Veronique’s puppet, manipulated a fire orb in his hands. Our presence must’ve finally registered, because an evil scowl flared across Conemar’s face.

  “Why are you just standing there?” he yelled. “Take care of them.”

  A hunter broke from the group and charged for us. Cadby plunged from the sky, snatching the man off the ground and then climbing high before dropping him. The hunter crashed to the ground, crumpled and broken.

  The others made to stampede Arik and me but then paused, their eyes fixed on something behind us. I glanced over my shoulder. Kale raced up with Lei, Jaran, and the other Sentinels. Behind them, Gian and Uncle Philip hastened up the driveway.

  Several seconds of confusion went by, everyone taking in the situation, before the front yard exploded into a battle. Metal slammed against metal, fists connected to skin, screams and cries sounded out into the neighborhood. The ground shook and dust fogged the air.

  Carrig and Nick bounded out of the house, with Sinead and Faith chasing after to join in the fight.

  I ran for the faery with pink hair. She snapped her wrist and the whip in her hand unfurled. She cocked her arm back and flicked the whip at me. I raised my shield to protect my face, the leather fall snapping around the edge and grazing my neck. My skin burned where the whip struck me. Before she could pull it back, I caught the thong, yanked it hard, and fell to my right knee, pain exploding in my kneecap. The faery stumbled forward, keeping her grip on the handle.

  Jaran tripped over me while fighting off another Sentinel.

  “Shit,” I yelped as his elbow slammed into my jaw and his foot kicked my sword from my hand.

  “Oh, dreadfully sorry.” He slipped over the wet grass and leaves, then balanced himself and tore off after the bald blue man.

  The faery pulled out her dagger and narrowed her eyes on me. I scampered on my hands and knees for my sword and shield. She snagged my ponytail, dragged me upright on my knees. She thrust her dagger at me, and I shut my eyes tight, readying for the blow. Something pulled her off me, and I swung around to see what it was.

  Vines from the fence surrounding the property wrapped around the faery. All the vines that crawled up the fences and house were in motion, snaking across the ground, wrapping around limbs and ensnarling bodies, making several of Conemar’s men immobile.

  I looked over my shoulder.

  Emily’s hands were up and her fingers danced as she manipulated the vines.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  “Get up and fight,” Emily ordered from behind me.

  “I should kill you for what you did,” I snapped.

  “Fine. You can do it later.” She waved her hand to send a wall of soil from the flowerbed at a charging Writhe. “Right now, you’ll have to trust me, and you might want to go help your daddy in the meantime.”

  “Trust you? You told Conemar where we were hiding.”

  “I did not.”

  “Yes you did. Cadby said a witch tipped Conemar off.” I snapped up my sword.

  “Well, it wasn’t this witch.” She blew a strand of black hair from the corner of her mouth. “Did you hear me? Your dad needs help.”

  My eyes darted to where she was looking. Pop was in front of Deidre, holding off a Sentinel with a two-by-four. I ran for them, creating my freaky battle globe and then pitching it in their direction.

  “Pop, get out of the way!”

  He glanced up to see my globe heading for him. He dived off the porch. The globe smacked into the Sentinel and blew him into the house. Deidre hurried to Pop and guided him to his feet.

  Sinead clambered up the steps to Deidre and grasped Pop’s other arm to help.

  “Gia, we have to get out of here,” Carrig said, running for the porch. Blood stained his shirt.

  I glanced at the carnage happening around the early spring marigolds. This is bad. This is so bad.

  I pushed my fears aside. “Take Pop and the others through the back. Pop’s Volvo is in the garage. Don’t wait. Just get them out of here.”

  Ac
ross the street, an older couple that normally kept to themselves peeked through their drapes, horror written on their faces. I wondered what our other neighbors were doing.

  Carrig herded Pop, Sinead, and Deidre into the house. “Stay alert. I’ll be back once they’re safe.”

  “Gia, be careful,” Sinead said before she ducked through the door after them.

  I nodded, surveying the battle and trying to decide my next move. And that’s when I spotted him. The Red charged up the street with five of his men. Fear stabbed me in the chest. The fight was already leaning in Conemar’s favor, and now it would be suicide for our side.

  Faith? What would happen when she saw him? I glanced around, trying to find her.

  Across the yard, Arik matched his sword against the Cyclops man’s ax. The man bled from many wounds but didn’t stop. He kept swinging his enormous ax at Arik. My breath hitched in my throat, and it was as if everything stopped around me. Arik.

  I have to help him.

  Cadby circled the skies above my head before diving for a demon Writhe. He lifted it up into the sky and let go. The Writhe clawed at the air as it plummeted to the ground. It landed almost too close to Uncle Philip, who tossed a ball of fire from one hand to the next, taunting a Laniar with long black hair and dressed in a suit from the nineteen-twenties or something.

  Faith had Veronique in a headlock. Veronique slipped out of the hold and slammed her fist across Faith’s jaw. Faith stumbled back and Veronique kicked her to the ground and ran off for Conemar.

  Uncle Philip and Conemar danced around each other, firing magical currents at each other and blocking the other’s attack. Kale threw a series of globes at two demon Writhes slithering after Lei. The globes hit the creatures and they dropped to the ground, stunned. Lei turned and shot her lightning globe. It struck another Writhe, blowing a hole through its chest and coming out the other side.

  My foot landed on a clump of grass and I twisted to the ground, straining my ankle. Faith pounced in front of me. She reached her hand out. I grasped it and hopped up. Across the yard, Arik was still fighting the Cyclops.

  Faith patted my cheek. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, my breaths heavy. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Your brother is here.”