The Necropolis
Page 24
“It’s a fake,” Caelus said.
Benjamin shook his head. “No, not a fake.”
“Then it’s a copy,” Caelus said. “A cheap copy.”
Phoebe laughed. “You know that’s not true, Father. You can feel its power. And the funniest thing about it is that you’re wondering why it’s so much stronger than the one you have in your hand.”
Caelus looked down at his disk, turning it over in his hand, contemplating what she’d said. But his confusion evaporated. “Give it to me now,” he ordered them.
“No way,” Benjamin said. “Like I’d really just hand this over.”
“You may not, but my daughter will,” Caelus said. He turned his attention to Phoebe. “Get the disk and bring it to me, Phoebe.”
But Phoebe shook her head. “I’m not going to do that. You don’t have any power over me. All you ever did was lie to me.”
“Lie to you!” Caelus said. “It’s these two who are lying to you. Now bring me the disk.”
Phoebe grabbed the disk from Benjamin’s hands before he could stop her. “I’d destroy it before I’d ever hand it over,” she said.
Anger flickered in Caelus’ eyes, but he tried to replace it with love for Phoebe. “No you wouldn’t because you still love me and want me to love you. And I will love you, daughter, if only you do this one small thing for me. Bring me the disk.”
Benjamin felt the power of the two disks in the air. The life forces of the dead humans used to fuel them crackled around them, and Benjamin realized that many of the humans had died on this very spot. Ten years in the future maybe, but here at the Necropolis. He felt their spirits reach up from the ground to grab at the disk. He would have sworn he actually felt their ghosts. Like the ghosts at the Crags. They wanted their lives back. They wanted their spirits back from the futuristic disk. And he felt their hatred for Caelus. And he got an idea.
“Go ahead, Phoebe,” Benjamin said.
She looked at him like he’d lost half his brain. And maybe he had, but he had to go with his instincts.
“What?” she said.
“I said go ahead,” he said. “Go ahead and give Caelus the life force disk.” The ghosts screamed louder in his mind.
Phoebe looked from him to Cory. Cory must’ve felt it too. “Benjamin’s right, Phoebe. Give him the disk.”
Phoebe’s hands shook as she held the disk, even as her knuckles whitened from clenching it so hard.
“But—” she began, then stopped, and her face drained of color. Had she felt the ghosts too? She must’ve. Benjamin’s head was about to explode from their cries for revenge.
Phoebe moved forward and got within a few feet of Caelus.
“That’s right,” Caelus said. “Just give me my disk and all this will be over.”
Benjamin felt the energy from the ghosts growing. They were gaining power with every second that went by. Drawing it from the disk. He heard them begin to howl. Their voices grew, and joined together. And Benjamin was sure he saw sparks in the air.
But Phoebe didn’t reach out and hand the disk to Caelus. She threw it at him and jumped backward for cover. Caelus caught the disk in midair with the same hand that held the other disk. And that’s when the world exploded with light.
The ghosts reached up from the ground when the disk was freed from Phoebe’s grasp. And even as Caelus caught it, they too caught it. And as their souls exploded from the confines of the disks, the light erupted, and the disks dropped to the ground.
“What have you done?” Caelus fell to the sand to pick up the disks. “They’re ruined. My life force disks. Ruined. What have you done?”
“Nothing, Father,” Phoebe said. “We did nothing.”
“It was the ghosts,” Benjamin said. “You can’t control that much power. You should have known that, but you didn’t. It was bound to control you in the end.”
Caelus sobbed on the ground, pawing at the lifeless disks, before standing up and lunging at the three of them.
Benjamin released a final burst of telenergetic power and felt Phoebe and Cory do the same. He wasn’t sure whose reached Caelus first, or if it even mattered. Caelus fell to the ground, and Benjamin knew he was dead. Not-a-chance-of-coming-back dead.
“After this long, without the disks, he was powerless,” Cory said, walking over and moving the body with his foot.
“And without Caelus and Gaea, the world is safe,” Benjamin said.
CHAPTER 36
In Case Life Would Ever Be Normal Again
It took Benjamin a while before he was ready to head back. He walked away from Cory and Phoebe, and sat down near the Temple of Thoth. Not in the temple. The last thing he needed at a time like this was some haphazard visit from the god of time. The last thing he needed was a visit from any false god or goddess. He’d had enough of those to last a lifetime.
Benjamin put his head in his hands and thought. He went through everything in his mind, hoping he hadn’t forgotten anything. Caelus, his biological father, was dead. Gaea, Caelus’ wife, was dead. Nathan was dead. Humans couldn’t be controlled by telegens. Atlantis was free. What else was there?
He went over it time and time again, but came up with nothing. They’d covered all the bases. They’d saved the world. And now, for the first time in like forever, Benjamin thought about leading a normal life. Sure, it was only the last two years when things had really heated up, but his whole life before then had been nothing but hiding his exceptional telegen brain power from the humans. Now, nothing had to be hidden anymore. He could live free. He could live in Lemuria. Or Atlantis. Or anywhere.
Even with all the possibilities, Benjamin knew he wanted to return to Lemuria. His family was there—not that he wanted to live with them all the time. School was way too much fun. Benjamin smiled as he thought about it. School being too much fun. It was like a paradox. But the best friends he’d ever had in his life were at school. Andy. Gary. Iva. And Heidi.
He pushed an image of Heidi over and over in his mind. Were they together now? Were they an official couple? Benjamin had a hard time admitting it even to himself, but he’d wanted that for like forever. And now, Heidi seemed within his grasp. Sure, she hadn’t told Josh they were through, but that was just a formality at this point, wasn’t it?
“So are we ready to go, little brother?” Cory asked.
Benjamin smiled. Truthfully, he liked when Cory called him little brother. He was just happy to have Cory as his brother. And Phoebe as his sister.
“Sure,” Benjamin said. “Where to?”
“Let’s head back to Xanadu,” Phoebe said. “The others should still be there.”
“I know how to get there now,” Benjamin said.
“Yeah, me, too,” Cory said. And whether it was because of what they’d just been through or the triplet bond or something else, the location to teleport to Xanadu was clear in their minds.
Xanadu was a flurry of activity. Ananya had regained control. Andy, Gary, Iva, and Aurora were helping her pull everything back together. And Jack was overseeing the whole operation. Benjamin wasn’t even surprised to see Apollo by Ananya’s side. And if Apollo was upset about the whole human telejamming thing, he wasn’t letting on.
“Did you guys miss us?” Benjamin asked.
Heidi laughed. “Yeah, we were starting to wonder if you needed some help, but it looks like you got everything under control.”
“Completely under control,” Ananya said. “You did a good job, Benjamin,” she added telepathically, and went back to work.
Benjamin smiled and pitched in where he could. Part of him wanted to curl into a ball and relax for the next month, but the rest of him wanted to leap back into life full force. Which is what he did.
They used the Universal Travel Agent to get back to Lemuria, and when they exited into the Map Library, Helios and Selene Deimos stood there waiting.
“Now wasn’t it silly of me to think they might need our help,” Helios said to Selene when Benjamin walked into the room.
“Entirely silly,” Selene replied. “It seems the triplets were more than capable of everything The Emerald Tablet charged them with.”
“We would have been happy for some help,” Benjamin said.
“Wouldn’t that have defeated the whole purpose?” Helios asked.
Benjamin shrugged. Maybe it would have. Probably it would have. But still—he would have been thrilled to have the Deimos twins by his side in the fight against Caelus and Gaea.
“So what now?” Benjamin asked. He thought about Cory and Phoebe. And Heidi.
“What do you want to do, Benjamin?” Selene asked.
“I want to be near my family,” he said. “And my friends.”
Selene laughed. “So you want the best of both worlds.”
“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up,” Benjamin said. Was that too much to ask for?
“I’m too old for school,” Cory said. “But Joey mentioned something about needing help in Atlantis. I thought I might take him up on that.”
“Atlantis could use plenty of help,” Helios said.
Cory smiled. “Sounds kind of challenging. And kind of perfect.”
Benjamin could imagine Joey and Cory in Atlantis right now, poking fun at King Helios. Helios shot him a quick look, and he wiped the thought from his head.
“What about me?” Phoebe asked.
“What do you want to do?” Selene asked.
Benjamin held his breath. He wanted Phoebe to stay near him. He’d been afraid this whole time that she’d want to return to Atlantis.
Phoebe looked at Benjamin and then looked back to the ground. “I’m ready for a change.”
“You could stay in Lemuria,” Benjamin said. And he sent some happy thoughts through the triplet bond for good measure.
“You’d just be a regular student,” Helios said. “No more royal treatment. No more servants catering to your every wish. It may be a boring life.”
Phoebe smiled. “It sounds like just the kind of change I need.”
By the time they got back to school, they’d worked everything out. And Benjamin and Heidi held hands. She’d initiated it, and Benjamin had grabbed hers right back. He wasn’t totally clueless.
“Now what?” Andy said as they all walked into the main atrium.
Gary raised an eyebrow. “What else? We head to our dorm rooms and get ready for classes. Tomorrow is a school day after all, and if our schedules are still the same, that means I have an early lecture on bio-mutations of algae species.”
Andy yawned. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Gary. I’m not going to classes tomorrow.”
Gary’s jaw dropped. “But you have to. You can’t skip.”
“Want to watch me?” Andy said.
“Not a chance,” Benjamin said. “I’m sleeping in, too.” And he figured maybe if he were lucky he’d have all happy dreams about the future ahead of him. He hoped it was filled with a whole bunch of nothing. No Emerald Tablet. No Navel of the World. No Necropolis. Nothing. Just a nice normal life, at least for a while.
Author Acknowledgements
To Riley for always believing in me.
To Zachary for reading my books and telling me you love them.
To Lola for giving me a fresh perspective on
everything in the world.
To my critique buddies, both online and local—
you guys are the best!
To the awesome Austin writing community...
could I have picked a better city to live?
To my Texas Sweethearts, Jessica and Jo—
I feel like I’ve found my writing soul mates!
To all my in-person friends—
life would be awfully lonely without you guys.
To all my online friends—
you guys put the love in blogging, Facebook, and Twitter.
To Madeline for some awesome editing.
To my parents and sister for teaching me to be independent.
To my extended family and friends for
the multitudes of support.
And in case I missed you, consider yourself thanked.
Because I truly am thankful!