The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl

by Paige McKenzie

All eyes turn to him. Nolan rises to his feet and holds up the map.

  “See this pentagram?” He traces his finger over the bloody lines as though playing a macabre game of connect the dots. “Hokkaido, Japan. Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. The Chukchi Peninsula in Russia. The Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia.”

  His finger lands on Ridgemont, Washington, which has no date next to it. Yet.

  “Ridgemont is the fifth point on the pentagram,” he says. “These other four points are where the previous mysterious luiseach deaths occurred.”

  “What mysterious luiseach deaths?” Mom cries out.

  “This Dubu person, super-demon, whatever… I think this is all part of his plan. Or part of a plan that he’s helping to implement,” Nolan plunges on. “He expected a luiseach death here in Ridgemont today. It was planned, it was organized. Sunshine, if you… if things had gone differently this morning, the fifth point of the pentagram would have been complete. So it’s good that you’re alive. For all sorts of reasons,” he adds, his face coloring.

  “But what’s Dubu’s end game?” Lucio asks.

  “When I was, um”—falling into the demon pit and about to die a horrible death—“I had this vision that completing the pentagram would have unleashed something major. Like a spell. Like a really bad, powerful spell that stretched across the whole planet. It felt very… doomsdayish.”

  Aidan’s brow furrows. “You saw this?”

  “Yup.”

  “Oh, honey.” Mom comes over to me and wraps her arms around me tightly. I can feel her trembling.

  Helena studies us curiously. This is how a real mom acts, I want to say to her.

  “But you didn’t complete the pentagram. So you’re safe now? The world is safe?” Mom adds in a half-hopeful, half-desperate tone.

  “I wish that were the case, Katherine… Kat,” Aidan says. “But given the information we have before us, I’m inclined to think that Dubu will not rest until Sunshine is… until the pentagram is complete.”

  Until the pentagram is complete.

  “Then we have to get Sunshine out of Ridgemont, now!” Mom practically shouts at him. “You have to take her back to Mexico! It’s the only way!”

  “Running may not be an option,” Aidan replies evenly. “We have no idea what a Markon—what Dubu—is capable of. It’s been a very long time since our kind has engaged with him, with any Markon.”

  He narrows his eyes at Helena before addressing Mom again.

  “He may have the ability to track Sunshine down no matter where she is and bring her back to Ridgemont. We just don’t know,” he finishes.

  “But—” Mom protests.

  Aidan holds up a hand, silencing her, and turns to the rest of us. “It seems to me that we have two priorities here. One, protect Sunshine. Two, figure out what this pentagram spell is and how we can stop or reverse it. And to accomplish all this, we must put our differences aside and work together. I trust we are in agreement on this, Helena?”

  “If your interpretation of events is accurate, then… perhaps. I will relay all this to the council,” Helena says coolly.

  “Please do. And of course there is a third priority. I must track down Dubu and destroy him,” Aidan adds.

  “You? What about all the working together stuff? Shouldn’t we all be searching for Dubu?” I say.

  “No. I am the only one who can handle Dubu.”

  I gesture to Helena. “Not even her?”

  “No.”

  Something inscrutable passes between Aidan and Helena—some sizzly, darkly charged, estranged-married-couple vibe. What is going on between them? And what does Dubu have to do with it?

  “You know very well that it is extremely difficult to destroy a Markon. It is practically impossible. No luiseach has ever done so single-handedly,” Helena points out to Aidan.

  “Nevertheless,” he says tersely.

  Just then the front door creaks open. Oscar barks. Lex Luthor hisses and puffs out his rabid raccoon tail.

  Aidan and I exchange a glance. We are both thinking the same thing.

  He’s back.

  Aidan is at the door in three quick strides. Lucio and I follow, and so does Helena. We take our positions, ready to defend.

  A figure in black appears in the doorway.

  But it’s not Dubu; it’s Victoria.

  Ashley is right behind her, carrying four big, flat boxes from Ridgemont Pizza. Her confused glance bounces from Aidan to Helena to Lucio to me.

  “Hey, it’s just me and Vicky. We got two pepperoni and two vegetarian. What’s up with the Fantastic Four act?”

  CHAPTER 6

  All Roads Lead to Rome

  It’s late, and almost everyone has left. Mom and Ashley are upstairs in my room, setting up the queen-sized air mattress for Ashley (and Lex Luthor–proofing it with blankets so he doesn’t puncture it with his claws). Aidan and I sit on the front porch—or rather, I sit on the rickety old swing while he paces across the creaky floorboards.

  He seems to be doing a lot of pacing tonight.

  The sky is black and clear with a sprinkling of stars, and the moon is a perfect gibbous. I am a phases-of-the-moon expert, thanks to Mom, who taught me a bunch of memorization tricks for my fifth-grade science quiz. “Gibbous” because it looks like a gibbon monkey sitting sideways, “crescent” because it looks like the letter C…

  A cool breeze swishes gently through the pine trees, and I can almost pretend that Aidan and I are just hanging out and enjoying the evening, having some father-daughter chill time.

  Except we’re not.

  “We need a detailed plan in place to ensure you are protected,” Aidan says as he paces. “We cannot underestimate Dubu’s abilities—or his intentions.”

  “I can protect myself. You trained me well in Mexico,” I assure him.

  “Not well enough. In fact, we must resume your training immediately. Monday morning. And until further notice I want either myself, Helena, or Lucio near you at all times. I have discussed it with them both, and they have agreed. Nolan, Kat, and Victoria can provide extra eyes and ears. Everyone will have a military-grade GPS-enabled cell phone that can reach me directly and immediately in case something happens.”

  “Um, isn’t that overkill? Also, excuse me… Helena? Dubu isn’t the only one who wants me dead. Isn’t being alone with her the same as being alone with him?”

  “No. Helena and I spoke again before she left, and we… she has given me assurances regarding your…” Aidan stops pacing and clears his throat. “The bottom line is, she has promised not to harm you or to let harm befall you. Her council is on their way to Ridgemont from Peru now, and—”

  “Her council is on their way here?” I interrupt, alarmed. “Why?”

  “Helena has to confer with them about you—about everything. Also, it’s crucial that we mend the rift and bring the luiseach community together. Sixteen years is long enough. Dark times lie ahead, and we cannot afford to be divided.”

  I bite my lip and scrunch up my nose, which is my go-to expression when I have complicated stuff to mull over. When I was born and released that luiseach-killing energy wave, Helena’s immediate response was to try to destroy me like a lab specimen gone wrong. She thought it was the only way to save our race. Aidan insisted on keeping me alive. Most of the luiseach community was on Helena’s side. Aidan’s only allies were Victoria, who was still a luiseach then, and Lucio’s parents, Argi and Jairo.

  Outnumbered and out of options, Aidan lied to Helena, saying he’d had a change of heart; he said he would take me into the jungle and kill me himself. But instead, he and Victoria transported me far, far away and left me at a random hospital in Austin, where a neonatal nurse named Katherine Marie Griffith promptly fell in love with me and took me home with her.

  It didn’t take Helena long to figure out that Aidan had fabricated my death. She left Llevar la Luz and took her followers with her—after she had Lucio’s parents executed for not revealing my
location. These days Team Aidan consists of Aidan, Lucio, Victoria, and me. And because Victoria isn’t really a luiseach anymore, that puts our number at three and a half. On the other side of the rift is Team Helena, which is Helena plus all the other luiseach on the planet, including this council.

  I guess Aidan is right about the need to mend the rift? The thing is, I’m the one who caused the rift to begin with. Will the council accept Aidan’s theory that it’s in everyone’s best interests to keep me alive? Or will they go all Salem-Witch-Trials on me?

  “Who’s on this council?” I ask Aidan. “Do you know them? What’s their purpose? Did any of them live at Llevar la Luz when you and Helena were… um, you know… when you guys were married? I mean, together-married versus not-together-married?” Seriously, could I sound more awkward?

  Aidan shakes his head. “She has not given me names or other details, so no. I can only guess as to the members’ identities.”

  “And?”

  “We can discuss that later. We have more pressing matters before us. Like what happens from here on out. As I said, Helena and Lucio and I will take turns guarding you around the clock, in eight-hour shifts. We will not… violate your privacy. We’ll just be nearby, out of sight, so we can take action at the first sign of trouble. Tomorrow I will pass out the new cell phones to everyone and provide detailed and explicit instructions. And you and I can resume our training on Monday morning at five.”

  “Five a.m.?”

  “Yes. You will be returning to school, and we need to fit in at least two hours each day—more on the weekends.”

  School on Monday. Ugh, I had almost forgotten about that. Although Nolan will be there in at least a few of my classes, so that’s an uplifting, glass-half-full thought.

  “Aidan?”

  “Yes?”

  I scoot over on the porch swing and indicate that he should join me. He frowns at the broken, peeling-paint seat but sits down anyway, folds his hands in his lap, and waits for me to speak.

  “Aidan, I need to know more about this Dubu.”

  “I have told you everything you need to know.”

  “No, you haven’t. All you’ve told me is that he’s a super-demon who may want me killed as part of his evil pentagram-themed master plan. Have you ever met him? Has Helena? Actually she seems to know way more about him than you do. Why is that?”

  Is it my imagination, or did Aidan stop breathing there for a moment?

  “That is not relevant,” he says finally. His voice is steady, even, without emotion.

  “Yes, it is, Aidan! The guy, demon, whatever, appears to be after me. And you said that he’s behind the organized darkness too. What exactly is that, ‘the organized darkness’?”

  “I can explain,” someone says quietly. I detect her lavender and spice perfume before I see her.

  Aidan and I glance up.

  Helena emerges from the shadows and fog and steps onto the porch.

  Aidan stands up abruptly. “I thought you had gone.”

  “I had an important errand to run. Aidan, the girl needs to be brought up to speed.”

  “I am taking care of that.”

  “Not really, no. You haven’t changed, have you? You’ve always been so… selective in your sharing of information.” Helena turns to me and regards me coldly. “Listen carefully, please. In the past few years there has been increased demonic activity all over the world. And in the past few weeks and months the demonic activity has been escalating at a dramatic rate. The most likely conclusion is that Dubu is orchestrating this—has been all along. As a Markon, he commands all demons and dark spirits. He is their king, if you will.”

  Increased demonic activity all over the world? That doesn’t sound good at all.

  “Um, okay… but why now?” I ask.

  “We saw similar spikes in demonic activity leading up to the other four luiseach deaths,” she replies. “Except this time the activity is much more intense, much more frequent than what we saw before those other deaths. Everything seems to be coming to a head.”

  “The pentagram spell,” I say with a shudder. “What is that phrase? ‘All roads lead to Rome.’ Except here it’s ‘all roads lead to the pentagram.’”

  “Yes, something like that. Although Ancient Rome was far preferable to this era. Remember when Marcus Aurelius was in power, dearest? The people and the culture were so—”

  “Helena,” Aidan says warningly.

  When Marcus Aurelius was in power? My history of ancient civilizations trivia is a little rusty, but wasn’t that almost two thousand years ago?

  Exactly how old are my birth parents? Aidan has always been vague on that point. He looks to be forty, fifty tops—and Helena looks even younger.

  It occurs to me too that this is the first time I’ve been alone with my birth parents. I don’t even know how to process the experience. This is what it would have been like if Helena had made a very different choice sixteen years ago, but it’s too weird and too painful for me to go there right now.

  Aidan turns to leave. “We must go, Helena. Sunshine needs her sleep. We can continue this conversation with her at another time.”

  “Sunshine. It’s such a… quaint name, isn’t it? So 1975,” Helena says sarcastically.

  “We must go, Helena,” Aidan repeats more insistently. “Sunshine, I am taking the first shift. I will be in the vicinity if you need me.”

  With that, he takes off and strides briskly through the front yard.

  Helena starts to follow, then turns back. “I almost forgot. I have something for you.”

  I stare at her suspiciously. “You do?”

  She glances over her shoulder as if to make sure Aidan is out of earshot, then she reaches into the pocket of her dress and pulls out a shiny object.

  It gleams ominously in the moonlight. For a second it occurs to me that it might be a weapon. I stumble back on the porch, bracing myself for the worst, and quietly reach into my back pocket for my luiseach knife…

  But it’s not a weapon. It’s a necklace.

  Helena cocks her head and studies me with a knowing smile. Can she read the fear on my face?

  “Problem?” she purrs.

  “Nope, no problem. I’m good.”

  She steps forward until we’re eye to eye. She’s no taller than I am, and yet she’s so… flipping terrifying. How does she do that?

  She presses the necklace into my palm and closes my fingers over it. “Wear it at all times. As long as it is on your person, you will have enhanced protection against all demons—including Dubu.”

  Startled, I open my hand to inspect the necklace. A star-shaped charm hangs from a delicate gold chain. The charm has a symbol on it—a hieroglyph?

  “W-what is it?” I stammer. “W-where did you get it?”

  “He gave it to me as a gift. During the October Revolution.”

  “The October… what? Who gave it to you as a gift?”

  “But it has to be our secret, so please don’t speak of it to anyone, not even your father—especially your father. Make sure you conceal it under your clothing, and please don’t misinterpret this gesture. I have no interest in saving your life. I only care about saving the future of the luiseach race. It appears these two things coincide, at least for the moment.”

  And then Helena disappears back into the shadows.

  CHAPTER 7

  The Nacho Cheese Sisterhood

  Under my PJs Helena’s gold necklace is cool and almost imperceptible against my skin. And yet it feels heavy, oppressive, like the proverbial albatross around the ancient mariner’s neck from that poem we studied in freshman English.

  What is this necklace, really? She made it sound like the demon-repellent version of a silver cross or garlic garland for vampires. Is that true, or is this a trick? Is it actually going to weaken me or sicken me instead of making me stronger? And why is it such a big, huge secret?

  If the necklace is for real, then how much “enhanced protection” will it give m
e against demons? Against Dubu himself?

  Why can’t Aidan especially know?

  Sighing, I roll over in my bed. My mint-green clock radio tells me it’s almost 1 A.M. Aidan mentioned he was taking the first shift. Where is he right now? Sitting in his car, hiding in the garage, pacing up and down the sidewalk?

  “Hey, Sun?” Ashley whispers from across the room.

  “Hey, Ash?” I whisper back.

  “Are you asleep?”

  “Nope. Are you asleep?”

  “Nope.”

  We giggle quietly. We used to say this to each other during our sleepovers back in Austin, starting from when we were ten. During those epic overnights Ashley would paint my toenails shiny pink and style my unruly frizzball with sparkly barrettes and headbands, all over my objections. We argued over what movies to watch on Netflix; I wanted film noir and screwball comedies from the 1940s and 1950s, and she wanted only the most recent releases, preferably with lots of romance and hot guys. She regaled me with endless stories about her various crushes, and I had no such stories to reciprocate with. She and I never had a lot in common even then except for our shared obsession with nacho cheese–flavored popcorn and instant hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows. But something—an invisible bond, a fierce, tenacious loyalty—always kept us together. I know without question that she would do anything for me and absolutely ditto me for her.

  We called ourselves the Nacho Cheese Sisterhood.

  Ashley clicks on a light, then props herself up on the air mattress and swats aside the random collection of sheets and blankets. Lex Luthor sleeps at her side—he and Ashley are super-tight, among other reasons because she always snuck him food under the table when she was over for a meal in Austin. He seems to have made a little cat-cave for himself under one of the blankets.

  “Why can’t you sleep? I mean, you haven’t slept in, like, a week, right?” Ashley asks.

  “Dunno. You should be super-tired too after everything.”

  “Yeah, well.” She pulls back her long blond hair and secures it with a scrunchie. “Soooo, Sunny-G, are you going to tell me what’s going on? You need to tell me, like, everything. When I picked you up in Mexico you told me that you had to had to had to get back here to keep your boyfriend from dumping you for another girl. Which was a lie. You also said your long-lost dad—that Aidan guy—wasn’t who you thought he’d be. And then that freak show in Vicky’s front yard happened… seriously, what was that? Like, are you guys some kind of cult?”