“Don’t worry about him,” the Fat Lady said from her kitchen. “He needs rest, food, and water. I’ll care for him while you worry about getting everyone out of Keitus’s grasp.” She motioned for them to join her. “But first, food.”
Nicole’s stomach grumbled in response to that, letting her know she was hungry. Weird. She hadn’t had an appetite since this whole ordeal had started. How was she going to eat now?
“I need to check on my family first,” Jacob said. His eyes glazed over as he apparently Time-Saw somewhere. He returned, focusing his gaze on Nicole, his jaw working, his eyes filling with tears. “My parents . . . Austin, Mr. Coolidge. They’ve been enslaved. All of them.”
Nicole jumped to her feet. “What? Where? We have to get them!” She shouldn’t have let them stay on earth so long! What would she do if something happened to Austin?
Jacob nodded. “This is going to be difficult.”
“Why?” Nicole asked. “Where are they?”
“It looks like Keitus’s minions dug a hole under the street in front of Professor Coolidge’s house. That’s where they’d all been fighting. The only way into the stupid cell is through the roof, and the whole place is teeming with monsters.” He shook his head. “Our people are all covered in blood. Some of them didn’t move while I was watching—I can’t tell if they’re alive.” He looked at Nicole, his eyes red. “Including Austin, my mom, and Mr. Coolidge.”
Nicole felt like someone had punched her in the chest. Her heart practically stopped beating, and pain radiated everywhere, similar to what she’d experienced while sleeping off the toxins. She blinked several times, forcing her tears away. She struggled not to scream, trying to maintain a calm exterior. “I—I thought they were supposed to be in the bone dimension. Why did everyone go to earth?”
“I’m not sure of their reasoning,” Jacob said. “I wasn’t there for the conversation. Dad just told me they weren’t willing to sit and wait while everything and everyone they loved was destroyed.”
“Why aren’t they being frozen or killed like everyone else?” Lizzie asked.
Jacob only shook his head—he obviously didn’t know.
“Probably because Keitus knows we’ll try to rescue them,” Nicole said. “He’s going to use them as bait or leverage for something.” She got up and started pacing through the Fat Lady’s huge stacks of papers and books. “This is ridiculous. We can’t leave them there, and we can’t attack Keitus.”
Jacob stared at her for a moment. “What do you think we should do?”
“Storm the place,” Nicole said. “Do something he doesn’t think a bunch of students are capable of doing. We’ll destroy his little guard and get our people back. And then . . . and then we’ll disappear from his view.”
“How do we do that?” Lizzie asked.
Nicole motioned for Jacob to lead the way to the door. “I’m not sure, but we’ll figure something out.”
“Where am I taking us?” Jacob asked when he’d reached the door and pulled out his key.
Nicole’s limbs began shaking with anger. The energy she’d stored up was begging to be released, to destroy something. And it was about to be put to good use.
She grabbed the umbrella and handed it to Lizzie to use, talking to Jacob. “Key us to Coolidge’s house and keep the link open. I’ll blast my way to that cell. I don’t care if it overwhelms me—we’re getting everyone out.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jacob opened the link, and without waiting to see what was on the other side, without knowing what she was getting herself into, Nicole stormed through, gathering as much magic as she could, then roared as she charged toward the group of monsters standing in Coolidge’s yard.
Arms spread wide, Nicole magically pulled all the debris from the surrounding area and blasted it at the monsters. The resulting explosion was so massive, the monsters were flung over half a mile away. Nothing remained between Nicole and the entrance to that cell.
She turned to face it. It was a simple wooden plank with large metal hinges. She wasn’t sure how it was affixed to the street, and she didn’t care.
Pushing outward with her powers, Nicole grabbed everything that formed the top of the cell, including the dirt and wood, and thrust it away, exposing the injured prisoners. She raced to the edge of the hole and jumped down inside. Jacob hadn’t been kidding—it was very small. Professor Coolidge, Hayla, Austin, and several others were there, including Austin’s parents. Many of them were piled on top of each other, barely aware that anything had happened around them.
Nicole couldn’t reach Austin without stepping over Hayla, and she knew the pregnant woman needed to be cared for first. She gingerly touched her shoulder. “Hayla? Are you okay?”
Hayla stirred, mumbling, her eyes opening. Nicole’s shoulders slumped in relief. Hayla was still alive. Azuriah stepped forward—his robes were torn, but otherwise, he didn’t seem to be injured. Together, he, Lizzie, and Nicole helped Hayla to her feet and walked her back through the link to the Fat Lady’s cabin.
They immediately returned as Jacob called for help with Coolidge. Blood streamed from a wound on the professor’s forehead, and mud caked the side of his face. He didn’t respond to anything Nicole or Jacob did, but he had a faint pulse.
Nicole looked at the other injured people—there were at least ten of them. “We can’t do this fast enough,” she said. “We need a Makalo to shrink everyone—we’ll never move them in time.”
Jacob nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. Let me go see if one can help.”
He jogged away, and Nicole turned back to her professor. They needed to do something about that head injury! He’d lost so much blood.
Jacob returned, Akeno following closely.
“I can’t stay for long. I’m going to shrink everyone so you can carry them out and find a place for them to rest and heal.”
Akeno looked like he’d been crying, and Nicole’s heart ached for him and what he and his family must have been going through.
The Makalo waved off her concern, though, and immediately got to work. He shrank Coolidge and walked away, carrying the professor while Nicole and Azuriah stepped to the next person and Jacob and Lizzie helped an injured man to his feet.
Tears welled up in Nicole’s eyes when she saw her fiancé. His face was so swollen, she barely recognized him. His hair was matted with dried blood, and his shoulder appeared to be dislocated. One of his legs was also awkwardly bent.
Sobs welled up inside Nicole, and she had to breathe hard to force them away. What had those monsters done to her people? Her anger returned, making her arm shake as she brushed Austin’s forehead. The wounded body next to him disappeared as Akeno shrank another person.
Austin woke up, staring at Nicole with confusion. He struggled for a moment, trying to get to his feet, but she shook her head, gently holding him down.
“No, Austin, no,” she said. “Stay still. You’re fine—we’re all going to be okay.” Her lower lip trembled as she said this, and she wondered if she was speaking the truth. Were they going to be okay?
Akeno shrank Austin last and handed him to Nicole. She held him carefully in her palm, making sure he wouldn’t get jostled. He slipped out of consciousness as she walked back to the Fat Lady’s cabin.
Once everyone was through the link, Jacob closed the door behind them, and Nicole surveyed the cabin. With Hayla, Azuriah, the Fat Lady, Lizzie, Nicole, the Silver, and Jacob at their full sizes, there was barely any room to move. How were they going to care for so many injured people in a place that didn’t have enough food or beds for everyone?
Lizzie voiced Nicole’s concerns. “There’s got to be somewhere we can take these people.”
Nicole rubbed her eyes with her free hand, nodding. She didn’t have an answer.
The Fat Lady tapped her shoulder, and Nicole turned to her. “The magic on my cabin is faltering—Keitus must know this is where we’ve been hiding. The shields weren’t designed to protect more tha
n one or two people under direct attack. We need to leave.”
“Does anyone know of a place Keitus doesn’t have access to?” Akeno asked.
The Fat Lady looked like she was about to respond for a moment, but then she didn’t. She shook her head. “Nothing that he wouldn’t eventually find.”
An idea popped into Nicole’s mind, and she hesitated as she pondered what she was about to say. Would he be okay with having all these people there? “I know where we can go, but he’s not going to like it very much.” She exhaled slowly. “But I first have to get the necklace back.”
She didn’t have to think very long before the sphere appeared in her open hand. Taking care not to injure him further, she gently placed Austin into Lizzie’s free hand, then let the sphere hover in front of her and thought about Shonlin, the visions immediately jumping into her mind. The guardian was ready for her.
“What do you seek?”
“I need the necklace I brought here several days ago.”
The guardian led her to the shelf where she’d sealed Sanso’s necklace.
The Ember God had asked her to join him and desert her friends, putting this whole Keitus ordeal behind her. She’d said no, but he’d given her the necklace, saying it would help her find him if she ever changed her mind.
She took the necklace back to the Fat Lady’s cabin. “Now I just need figure out how to use it,” she said.
Nicole turned the necklace around and around in her hand, peering at it, trying to get it to show her Sanso’s world. She thought hard about him, hoping that would do something. But it didn’t. Did it require magic? And if so, what kind? Sanso controlled fire—maybe that was the way to get it to work.
She sent a small flame to the necklace, exhilaration that she could even do that flowing over her as she tried to ignite it. That didn’t work either.
As a last resort, Nicole traced her finger along the edge of the metal, thinking about Sanso and her goal to reach him. She gasped when the necklace warmed in her hand. Instead of a glowing path appearing in her mind, as was the case with Shonlin, she felt a sudden desire to get up and walk toward the door. She did so.
The moment she got there, her hand reached for the knob, about to open it, but then she hesitated, and another urge hit her. She wanted to take the key from Jacob. She turned around.
“Jacob?” she called.
“Yeah?”
“I think I need the key. Or at least I need you to open a link somewhere.”
Jacob joined her, pulling it out of his pocket as he did. “Where do you want to go?”
Nicole shrugged. She had no idea. The urge to leave intensified as Jacob and his key drew near. “Um, I don’t know. Would the key work if you told it to take me where the necklace is leading us?”
Jacob quirked an eyebrow, but turned to the door anyway. “Take me where Nicole needs to go.” He twisted the key in the lock and opened the door. Nicole felt relief rush over her as she saw what was on the other side. Instead of the field, path, and lake that were just outside the Fat Lady’s cabin, a dark stone interior greeted them. The walls were damp with glistening water.
Following the intense desire that overwhelmed her again, Nicole crossed the threshold into the other world, trusting that her friends would follow. They did.
The room was small and tight—more of a hallway than a room. A door was at the other end, and Nicole opened it, still following those needs and desires. The handle was dry, even though it also glistened. She glanced at the walls, wondering if they were covered in something that made them look wet or if they actually dripped water. She almost touched the stone, but thought better of it. She didn’t know what the substance was, and if it wasn’t water, she didn’t want to risk hurting herself.
This door opened to a long, deserted hallway with pillars lining it. The pillars weren’t there for decoration—Nicole could tell they were supporting the roughly cut ceiling. Just beyond the pillars on either side was a crevice so deep that she couldn’t see the bottom of it. She didn’t step closer to peer down. Light filtered from above, where fires burned in trenches that lined the top of the room.
Nicole glanced back, checking on her friends as they came through the link and Jacob shut the door. Each of them carried an injured body in both hands. Please be able help us, Sanso, she thought.
Chapter Nineteen
Yet another door needed to be opened at the end of this hall. Nicole cringed when a pungent smell—acrid smoke of some kind—filled her nostrils and burned her nose, making her cough.
The room was full of ancient artifacts. Dusty tomes graced shelves, and old leather chairs were scattered throughout. It was dark and dingy, but appeared to be large enough to hold everyone in Nicole’s group, including those who were injured. Sanso was seated in a chair opposite from the door, staring at Nicole in surprise.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” he said. He jumped to his feet and crossed to her, taking her into his arms. With his face buried in her neck, he mumbled something else, but Nicole stepped away.
She glanced behind her. “I didn’t come alone. We need help—we need a place to stay. Until things are resolved with Keitus.”
Sanso chuckled. “So, you’re finally willing to believe what I said about him always getting what he wants?”
Nicole didn’t respond. She didn’t know how to, and she’d already sacrificed enough pride recently. Instead, she ushered her friends into the room. She turned to Sanso. “We barely got out on time.”
“And let me guess,” Sanso said. “You’re still determined to go back and defeat him.” It was more of a statement than a question.
She shrugged. They both knew the answer.
Nicole motioned to her friends. “We’ve got a lot of injured people—some are barely alive.”
Without her even having to ask him, Sanso started gathering cots and beds, pulling them from where they’d been stacked inside a storage area, shoving chairs aside to make room. He acted as if it was normal to have such a large group of people in his place. And maybe it was—Nicole didn’t know.
Akeno enlarged everyone, apologizing for not having any Minya containers, and Nicole helped get the injured people situated. She spent extra time with Austin, cleansing the blood from his face and making sure his injuries weren’t getting infected. He needed clean clothes, antibiotics, and bandages. She wasn’t sure where he’d get any of those. Sanso was still wearing the same outfit he’d had on when she met him, so he obviously didn’t have extra clothes lying around.
While Sanso was helping set everybody up and making sure they were all comfortable, he told Nicole a little about the world where they were now were. Apparently, it was uninhabitable by most magical creatures—Aretes and Ember Gods were the most powerful beings that could comfortably live there, which was why Keitus wouldn’t ever come. Not only that, but the world also prevented people who weren’t at least part human from dwelling there. When Nicole asked about the Makalos, Sanso explained that they had enough human in their genes to cross the threshold.
She hadn’t realized that the Makalos even had human in them. She wondered if they knew.
Once the injured were resting on cots, Sanso showed Nicole around the place. There were several random rooms not being used for anything, a cramped old kitchen—with a sink, a wood-burning stove, and a drain in the floor—and restroom facilities that stank really badly. Sanso gave her an apologetic expression, but didn’t say anything. The door they’d come through led outside. He didn’t take her there, though.
“We don’t go out very often,” he said.
Nicole didn’t ask why, though she was dying to know. The way Sanso said it made it seem very final—like something she wouldn’t be able to argue. Maybe he’d tell her eventually.
“Where are the other Ember Gods?” she asked.
“They’re scattered throughout the world.” Sanso rubbed the back of his neck. “We don’t interact with each other very often.”
Nicole remembered tha
t those who had been closest to Sanso had been murdered by Keitus when he’d decided he didn’t need their help anymore.
“Do you have any medicines or medical items?” They needed to take care of her friends.
“No,” Sanso said. “I mean, I’ve got chicken soup and other stuff that would probably help, but nothing that would heal them. Ember Gods don’t get injured very often, and when we do, we don’t respond to the same sort of things other species do.”
Nicole was disappointed. They’d have to do their best. Maybe Jacob could raid a hospital or bring Kaede sap back from Taga Village.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
The Fat Lady had been about to feed them. Yes, Nicole was hungry. But was it fair for her to impose on him when there were so many of them?
Sanso laughed when he saw her hesitation. “Come on, Nicole. I invited you to stay here. What sort of host would I be if I didn’t also offer your guests the same accommodations?”
“Do you have enough, though?”
“Perhaps.”
He beckoned for her to follow him back to the kitchen area. Instead of preparing food himself, he rang a bell.
A little door opened in the wall nearest Nicole, and a small creature entered. It was about three feet tall, humanoid, and female. She had ears on her cheeks, a long nose, and small eyes.
“Please fix Nicole and her guests something to eat,” Sanso said, motioning to Nicole.
The woman curtsied, looking up at Nicole. “What would you like?”
Nicole hesitated. “What are the options?”
“Anything you want.”
Sanso touched Nicole’s arm. “Barbara is able to create food based on pictures. If you’ve got a picture of something edible, she’ll be able to create it, even without the ingredients. It’s sort of her magical ability.”
Nicole pulled her phone from her back pocket and scrolled through the images on it. The only one of food she had was a shot she’d asked a waitress to take of her and Austin during their last date. It wasn’t much, but it showed a half-eaten chicken, some soup, broccoli, and asparagus. She showed the phone to the woman.
Withhold Page 9
