by H. K. Varian
Darren watched as Ms. Therian, Sefu, and Yara each gave Mr. Kimura a slight nod. They were obviously reluctant to accept the situation, but in the end they had to agree to the wisdom of Professor Zwane’s plan.
Mr. Kimura bowed to the professor again. “I thank you, Sidima. I know you’ll do your best for Darren.”
“You can count on me, Akira,” the professor answered.
“Now, let’s discuss how best to approach Esi’s father and what our next steps should be,” Yara said. “We want to be ready to invoke the protection of Darren’s ancestors from the very moment the curse is lifted.”
“You mean if it’s lifted, don’t you?” Darren asked. “Don’t we have to plan for that, too?” He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. At first he was surprised and scared that they were going to do the protection spell today, and then it hadn’t even worked.
And now I find out that the one Changer who can break the spell—a pretty, sophisticated New York City girl—belongs to a family that hates the First Four. What more can go wrong?
The adults picked up on Darren’s uneasiness.
“Let’s not worry about that yet,” Sefu said. “Best to stay positive.”
Darren nearly snorted at that. Sefu was always the one preparing for the worst.
“Why don’t you kids head downstairs for a while?” Ms. Therian asked. “You’re protected here on campus. Go and have some fun exploring while the campus is empty. Forget about all this for a little while. We’ll come get you when we’re ready to return to Willow Cove.”
Darren thought that was probably code for “stop worrying and let the grown-ups figure stuff out now,” but he was glad to get out of the office. His mind was still full of the images of his ancestors reaching for him and the way their smiles turned to worry when they were suddenly cut off. And, of course, he kept picturing the anansi girl who might be able to save him from the curse and Sakura.
Professor Zwane caught Darren’s eye and winked as the three kids filed out. “It’ll work out,” he said. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine.”
Is it really going to be fine? Darren wondered. He didn’t share the professor’s confidence. If we waste all this time trying to get rid of my curse, by the time we find Mack it might be too late. And if this Esi girl refuses to forgive me, isn’t it only a matter of time before Sakura turns me into one of her minions, too?
Fiona and Gabriella led him out the hallway and downstairs. He wasn’t surprised to find that Fiona was heading toward the school’s library. She had fallen in love with it on their first visit to Wyndemere Academy in the spring. They had learned some valuable information about Sakura in one of the books there.
“Maybe we’ll find a book about anansi curses. Something the professor overlooked,” Fiona said.
“Unlikely,” Darren told her. “Professor Zwane is, like, the expert on West and South African tribal myths.”
“It never hurts to look,” Fiona said.
But on the way to the library they had to walk past the art studio—the room at Wyndemere Academy that had most appealed to Mack. Darren could almost see his friend sitting at a drafting table under the enormous windows, drawing a superhero for one of his many comic books. The image hit Darren so hard that he was breathless for a moment.
Gabriella must have been thinking the same thing. “It’s hard to believe that the last time we were here was before Mack—” Her voice caught in her throat.
“You know it wasn’t your fault,” Fiona said gently.
Darren knew that Gabriella felt guilty about Mack. Very powerful nahuals, like Gabriella, had the ability to spirit-walk in other people’s minds. Her aunt and grandmother had done everything they could to teach her to master the skill—a skill that took most nahuals decades to perfect—in just one week.
Gabriella had tried, in that last battle with Sakura, to use what she had learned to turn Mack around, but Sakura’s hooks were already too deep into him. All of Mack’s happiness—his joy, his hope, his love—slowly turned to despair and anger under the Shadow Fox’s dark magic. Gabriella tried to get Mack to fight against the desolation, but he couldn’t. He discovered what Gabriella was doing and used defensive magic to push her out of his mind.
“You keep saying it’s not my fault,” Gabriella said, “but—”
“But nothing,” Fiona said, cutting her off. “You did your best. We all did our best. Blaming yourself won’t help Mack now. Getting him back will. We’re going to do that, and before Sakura can do any more damage to him. I know we will.”
Darren nodded, but he didn’t really share Fiona’s confidence, at least not with this curse still hanging over him and his family.
“We’ll be together again soon—all four of us,” he said.
“I have an idea! Let’s make that happen now,” Fiona said.
“How?” Gabriella and Darren asked at the same time.
“Let’s make a comic book that brings us all together—in honor of Mack,” she suggested.
Gabriella’s expression brightened a bit. “We can show it to him when he gets back,” she said. “So he’ll know we didn’t give up on him.”
“Exactly. Only you have to draw it,” Fiona said with a giggle. “I can write the best research paper you’ve ever seen, but I can only draw stick figures.”
The three friends headed into the studio and pulled sketch pads and pencils from the supply closet. Gabriella set to the task, drawing the nahual superhero Mack had helped her create a while back, along with a wise selkie, a fierce and determined impundulu, and the kitsune who brought them all together to fight magical crime.
Darren and Fiona made story suggestions and colored in panels as Gabriella created them.
The three of them chatted quietly, intent on their story.
“I’m sorry about the curse,” Fiona said to Darren. “It must have been really upsetting to learn about. Is that why you didn’t tell us?”
“Between finals and Changer stuff and Mack’s disappearance, there wasn’t really time to think about it, let alone tell all of you,” Darren said.
“It’s kind of exciting to think that someone else in your family might be an impundulu,” Fiona said, choosing blue, green, and gray pencils to get the colors of the ocean waves just right.
“Yes and no. I guess I have mixed feelings,” Darren admitted.
“Why?” Fiona asked.
“I mean, on the one hand, if my mom or dad or Ray is a Changer, I’d be thrilled. It’d be great to feel less alone in my family, to have someone who understands what I’ve been going through. Plus, I’m not a very good liar, and it’s rough having to fib constantly about where I’m going when I’m doing Changer stuff.”
Fiona nodded thoughtfully. “My dad knows I’m a selkie, and that makes everything easier. But I don’t tell him anything about our battles. He’d totally freak and lock me in my room forever. I’m grateful I have my mom to talk things over with.”
“But there’s a downside to having Changer family too,” Gabriella said. “Especially now when we’re about to go to war.”
“Yeah,” Darren agreed, inking in a lightning bolt that stretched across two pages. “But it’s not just that. You remember the trouble I had learning to control my powers? I almost fried Fiona in class that first month of school.”
Fiona shook her head. Darren noticed that when she did, her long hair gave off the scent of the sea.
“I wasn’t hurt,” she insisted.
“I almost electrocuted you,” Darren said. “But it’s not just that. Everything about my life changed after I found out . . . everything. I can’t hang out with my friends the way I used to, and every time we turn around we’re doing battle with someone or something. I’m not sure I would wish that on anyone. If only there was a way to give people a choice, you know? To ask Ray or Mom whether having Changer magic is something they would want.”
“Sometimes I wonder if my little sister, Maritza, will have the ability and if I would be
more relieved for me or worried for her,” Gabriella said. “I just hope we manage to defeat Sakura before she comes of age.”
“At least Maritza or Ray wouldn’t have to go it alone. You’d be there for them,” Fiona pointed out. “That would make everything easier.”
“With the divorce stuff finally wrapping up in my family, things are just getting back to a new kind of normal. It’s not such a great time for any of them to suddenly develop magical shape-shifting powers.”
“How’s the divorce going anyway?” Gabriella asked.
“Okay, I guess. It’s almost finalized. My parents are sad about it, but they both say it’s for the best. Maybe they’re right. At least they’re not fighting all the time anymore. Not having to listen to that is a relief, at least,” Darren said.
“Is the custody all worked out?” Fiona asked gently.
“Last month I went to a therapist the court recommended and told her who I wanted to live with—my mom. My dad doesn’t have a problem with that as long as I see him on weekends. There’s a court date next month, but since they already agreed on the terms, it’s just a formality.”
“That’s good,” Gabriella said. “It must help to know it’ll be over soon.”
“It’s gone pretty smoothly,” Darren continued. “I don’t want anything—magical or not—messing it up. At least with all the Changer-related chaos going on, I haven’t had to think about that too much either.”
Fiona frowned. “Nothing like a power-hungry kitsune to put things in perspective,” she said darkly.
Darren added the last page, now fully colored in, to their comic book. He and Fiona stood on either side of Gabriella while she flipped through the pages for them.
It was the story of four young Changers—a powerful kitsune, a fierce impundulu, an agile nahual, and a wise selkie—who came together to battle evil. And won. The next-to-last spread showed a Shadow Fox and her army giving up in defeat, the four young Changers standing victorious together.
“Will it ever be like this again?” Gabriella asked. “Will the four of us be together?”
Fiona gave her friend’s shoulder a squeeze. “It will be,” she said. “I know Mack will come back to us.”
“And when he does,” Darren added, “we’ll show this comic book to him. He’ll know how much we missed him and how hard we fought to get him back.”
Gabriella nodded and wiped her eyes as she turned to the book’s final spread. It was a picture of the four of them standing in a circle looking proud and happy.
I wonder where Mack is now, Darren thought. And if any part of him still thinks about the friends he left behind.
Chapter 4
Sakura’s Apprentice
You need to get it right this time, Mack thought. He hated to think of what Sakura would do if he failed again. He didn’t want to face her disdain and disappointment.
Get it right! he commanded himself. You need this. Don’t make Sakura think she made a mistake in choosing you to be her apprentice.
Mack stared at himself in the mirror and willed himself to disappear. He chanted a spell, and a thick mist washed over him. First it erased his feet and ankles. Then it slowly moved up, erasing his legs and most of his torso. He concentrated on making his chest and his shoulders disappear and then continued to his face. The mist was about to cover his eyebrows.
I’m too slow, but it’s working, he thought. Finally!
But Mack’s relief was premature. As soon as he had the thought, as soon as he felt the smallest bit of pride in himself, the mist disappeared. His cloaking illusion had failed. Again.
Mack threw himself down onto the tattered couch behind him with a massive sigh. The whole thing creaked, and it had a nasty, musty smell. He kicked the ratty armrest and watched dust motes float in the dim light. He was tired of staying in dusty old holes in the wall.
Sakura should be living in a palace, not this tumbledown shack. I’m going to make sure our army has every luxury as soon as we defeat the First Four.
He was also tired of relocating from base to base. As soon as he felt like they had settled in, Sakura pulled up the stakes again. They moved at least every other week, if not more often. Mack couldn’t even remember how many places he had called home since leaving Willow Cove.
That’s a lot of new homes for a kid who never lived anywhere else but that stupid little town. First with my parents, and then—when they died—with the old man.
Mack almost used the familiar “Jiichan,” but quickly pushed the Japanese pet name for “grandfather” away. The old man, he repeated to himself. The one who tried to control your power. To block what Sakura can help you become.
Mack never knew exactly where he was anymore. He didn’t know what day it was or what time. They stayed in the dark most hours of the day, and he had long since gotten rid of his cell phone so that the First Four couldn’t use human technology to track him. Sakura’s cloaking spells blocked them from finding him using magic.
They weren’t exactly living in the lap of luxury, but that wasn’t important. Luxury would come after victory. What mattered was staying out of the hands of the First Four until he and Sakura were powerful enough to defeat them.
Sakura was helping him do exactly that. Her methods were a lot rougher than Ms. Therian’s had been, but Mack knew it would be worth it in the end. Worth it when he gained another tail, and another, and another. He planned to earn all nine—the highest number a kitsune could achieve.
I’m no weakling who needs to be coddled by the First Four, he told himself. I can handle whatever Sakura tests me with. I have to.
“You’re running out of time, apprentice,” said a voice.
Mack scrambled to his feet. Sakura materialized in front of him. She had crept up on him using the exact same cloaking illusion that Mack had failed to perfect.
“Master,” Mack said with a deep bow. “I’m working my hardest. I’ll get it soon; I just need a few more days—”
“You’ve had weeks,” Sakura sneered. “It’s crucial that you master the illusion for the next steps in our plan. I won’t fail because you’re too weak to learn a simple spell.”
“I’m very close,” Mack said. “I’m almost there. I promise. Don’t give up on me.”
Sakura scoffed at him. “Close is not good enough. You need to learn a lot more than that simple cloaking spell. I need you to be able to alter your appearance, as well.” She stepped closer and stared down at Mack’s bowed head, looking at him as if he were garbage. “Did I make a mistake in choosing you as my apprentice? Should I turn you over to your little friends from Willow Cove? Is that where you belong?”
“No! They’re weak. I’m strong, like you. I’ll get the spell—and more. I just need a little more time,” he pleaded. “Don’t send me away.”
“Perhaps it’s time to up the ante.” Sakura snapped her fingers. Adam, a nykur—an Icelandic horse Changer who could control water—appeared.
“Master,” Adam said. “What do you command?”
“I want you to hunt Mack until he’s able to master the cloaking illusion. Don’t let up until he’s successful.” She swept out of the room.
Mack and Adam both bowed to her retreating form. “Yes, Master,” they said in unison.
Sakura didn’t wait for their answers. She never did. She knew her orders would be followed. No one dared disobey her.
Adam smirked at Mack. “No special treatment now, boy,” he drawled.
The words were still hanging in the air when he transformed and jumped at Mack.
Mack transformed too. Kitsunes had the advantage of speed, but as he’d learned at Wyndemere Academy (which seemed like a lifetime ago), nykurs were not to be underestimated. Luckily, he’d gotten a crash course in evasive maneuvers from a professor there that put him at a slight advantage.
Mack twisted just out of reach of the nykur and ran downstairs into the entry hall of the broken-down Victorian mansion. Shadowy flames licked at his paws, charring the hardwood floor
beneath him. These flames were dark with a mysterious power, unlike the bright orange and yellow flames he had sported when he first became a kitsune. His fur was different now too. Instead of the bright pure white it had been, it was more muted now, with strands of charcoal and gray.
Mack hoped that the more he learned, the more he mastered, and the more powerful his dark flames would become. Sakura’s kitsune flames absorbed light and turned it into darkness. Mack wanted to do the same.
He threw himself around a corner, but Adam was gaining on him.
He’s had it in for me since day one, Mack thought. They all have.
Most of Sakura’s forces made no secret of their contempt for her newest apprentice.
The First Four and the rest of Mack’s old friends had been fighting and imprisoning Sakura’s forces nonstop since Mack joined them, but that wasn’t Mack’s fault. He didn’t know why the old man and his cronies kept hunting for him. He had made his choice. He wouldn’t unmake it.
Adam and the others blame me for my grandfather, he thought. Don’t they know I turned my back on the old man and the rest of the First Four when I joined Sakura? I’m one of them now.
The special treatment Sakura gave her new apprentice earned Mack even more enemies. Mack was clearly her favorite, and the rest of her soldiers were just plain jealous.
No matter, Mack thought. When I learn all I have to learn from Sakura, I’ll be her highest-ranking general. Then they’ll have to do what I say. And bow down to me. I’ll make sure Adam gets what’s coming to him.
Mack’s mind was so full of his vision of revenge that he nearly forgot the nykur was still chasing him. He had run upstairs and down. He even found what looked like a secret staircase, but Adam was never far behind. Now Mack heard the thundering of hooves right behind him. Adam was gaining again, and fast.
Mack skidded to a stop behind an old, sheet-covered armoire. Hidden, he recited the cloaking spell again, concentrating harder than he had ever concentrated in his life. He watched his paws fade away, but his focus was broken when Adam galloped into the room. The nykur kicked over the armoire, leaving Mack out in the open.
