by H. K. Varian
But the booth was empty. Mack cast around for them with his mind, but he sensed they were both gone, along with the girl’s father, the anansi leader. His anger and frustration erupted in a burst of shadowy flame. I’m too late!
Then he heard a familiar voice. Fiona was speaking to him telepathically.
Mack, we’re here. It’s us, she said.
He spun on his heel. Fiona was right behind him, wearing her selkie cloak, singing a selkie song.
Mack didn’t answer. The fireballs he shot in her direction were answer enough, but Fiona quickly spun a wall of water around herself to douse them.
In a rage he shot fireball after fireball, but each one simply turned to steam when they met the water.
You’re coming back with us, Mack, Fiona said. Back where you belong.
Mack threw his head back and laughed. Fiona might be able to douse a fireball or two, but the idea of a weakling like her taking on a power like Mack was ridiculous, even before he’d had all of Sakura’s special training.
I am where I belong, Mack said, circling her. Don’t even try to capture me. I’ll knock you out before you can even begin another one of your silly protection songs.
To prove that, he took a step forward, ready to take her on one-on-one. He’d create a round of fireballs so big and powerful that her wall of water would evaporate, and then he’d capture her just like the First Four were capturing Sakura’s people.
He raised a paw, but before he could work his magic, a strange feeling came over him.
What’s happening to me? he wondered.
Warm, joyful memories surged through him. He remembered laughing with Fiona, Gabriella, and Darren over pizza. He remembered teaching Gabriella how to draw a comic; riding his bike with his best friend, Joel; and even confiding some of his hopes for the future in Darren while they practiced shooting fire arrows at a moving target.
This is happiness, he realized. I feel happy.
Mack saw that his dark flames were flickering. They sputtered, and then they went out completely. He lost his grip on his kitsune form and changed back to a human, stumbling backward and banging into an overturned chair. He ended up on his back on the floor while magic exploded all around him. Fiona stood over him.
“That’s it, Mack. It’s working. Embrace your good memories and come back to us!” she urged. “We miss you. We need you.”
I’m on the wrong side of this fight, Mack thought. How did I get here? Where’s my grandfather? Where’s Jiichan?
He was about to ask Fiona when he heard another voice. Someone else was communicating to him. It was the master’s voice.
Apprentice! You’re being weak. Find the nahual. She’s manipulating you.
Weak? In a flash Mack jumped to his feet. Anger flooded through him again along with all the pain he had been carrying inside since he joined Sakura. The anger and pain that made him who he was. The anger and pain that made him powerful. He transformed back into a kitsune, and the dark flames ignited again.
“No!” Fiona cried. “Fight it, Mack! Fight it!”
Mack smirked as she began to sing, drawing the water around her again and trying to extinguish his dark flames. He quickly sidestepped her, his flames growing bigger and darker.
Not today, selkie, he thought.
Mack cast around with his mind again, except now he was looking for the nahual’s spirit while he readied another attack. She’s well-hidden in my thoughts and memories, he realized. I’ll have to attack her physical form to get rid of her.
He shot a burst of fire arrows at Fiona, piercing her wall of water.
“No!” Fiona yelled. She seemed to be trying to signal someone.
Mack followed her gaze and directed a barrage of arrows at the restaurant’s dessert case. He incinerated the back of the wooden case in an instant, revealing Gabriella. The nahual was sitting cross-legged, meditating, and she was still spirit-walking in Mack’s mind.
Get out! Mack communicated to her.
She shook her head, her eyes still closed.
How dare she? he thought. He readied another fire arrow. Your turn to fry, nahual!
At that moment Gabriella transformed into her nahual form and leaped out of his way. But at least he had succeeded in ejecting her from his mind. Mack’s arrow hit a mirror, shattering it and the glass plates behind the case. While the desserts burned, Fiona and Gabriella moved toward each other. Fiona’s wall of water surrounded the nahual, too, protecting them both from Mack’s fire.
A tengu was using her wings to create wind gusts, ones that Sakura’s forces were struggling against. Mack recognized her—she was Margaery, the bird who worked for the First Four. A man, an impundulu Mack had never seen before, was helping her, too.
Sakura’s army pushed against the wind. They were moving in on the tengu and impundulu, despite the wind gusts, when Mack saw Fiona and Gabriella dart toward the birds. If they reached Margaery, all four of them could escape. Mack and the others would have to return to Sakura empty-handed.
“No!” Mack howled. He hurled a burst of flame at the small group and communicated to Sakura’s people. Don’t let them get to the tengu! Stop them!
But it was too late. Just as he finished his sentence, the two Willow Cove younglings, the tengu, and the impundulu collided and disappeared in a gust of wind.
Mack sent an angry barrage of fire across the room, nearly burning Adam in the process.
He let out an angry howl. Not only had they let their prime targets—Darren and Esi—escape, he had also wasted a chance to catch the other two members of the next First Four.
Sakura won’t be pleased. I have to find a way to turn this around. I need a prize to show the master. Or else.
Chapter 7
Spider Girl
Darren followed Esi down the stairs to the New York City subway system. Esi stopped at a machine to buy a Metrocard that would let them through the turnstiles and onto the train. Darren pulled out his wallet and tried to mirror her movements at the machine next to hers, but she waved him off.
“There’s no time,” she said. “And quit looking so nervous. The police will stop you for looking suspicious.”
Darren tried to relax while he watched Esi slide a credit card into a slot and punch buttons like an expert. A second later a yellow-and-black card popped out of the machine. He trailed her as she rushed hastily through a turnstile, but it wouldn’t let him through.
“You need to swipe the card before you can go through,” she commanded, handing the Metrocard to him over the turnstile.
Darren did as he was told, but still no dice.
“Slower,” she said, exasperated.
Darren made a conscious effort to slow down, and the turnstile finally admitted him. Then Esi turned on her heel, and Darren had to struggle to keep up with her long, confident strides. He followed her through one tunnel and then another. They wove in and out of groups of rushing New Yorkers and slower-moving tourists.
Finally, they ran down another flight of stairs and found themselves on a subway platform. A train pulled into the station, the doors opened, and they got on. Darren didn’t feel safe until the doors closed behind them. The car they were in was mostly empty.
He took a deep breath and then pulled out his phone. “I’ll check in with my friends,” he said.
“Don’t bother,” Esi told him. “You won’t get great service underground.”
Darren shoved the phone back into his pocket, blushing. I guess I should have known that, he thought.
He leaned closer to Esi and whispered, “So . . . why is Sakura after you?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Esi asked. “Sakura needs the anansis if she has any shot of winning this war. So she’s trying to force us to join her. My father’s been suspecting a kidnapping for months now. Sakura will hold me hostage to demand their support.”
Darren tried to ignore the superior tone of her statement, but his cheeks turned even redder. Still, he needed a fuller picture of what was really go
ing on. Was Sakura really after Esi? Or had her followers come to the restaurant to kidnap him? Or both?
“But I thought the anansis were already thinking of siding with her against the First Four,” Darren said. “Why would your father be worried about a kidnapping by a potential ally?”
“Typical,” Esi snorted. “You don’t know anything about the anansis. If you did, then you’d know that my father rejected Sakura’s deal months ago. That didn’t stop other anansi families from going over to her side, but my father and his closest followers didn’t.”
Darren felt confused. “Some anansis joined her army even though your father—their leader—rejected Sakura’s deal?” he asked.
“Anansis aren’t like the selkies,” she said disdainfully. “We’re not a uniform group that follows one leader like the selkie faction does. Anansis have minds of their own. And we use them. Why can’t any of the other Changers wrap their brains around that?”
I have a lot to learn about anansis, Darren thought. But Esi has a lot to learn about other Changers, too. The First Four’s supporters aren’t blind followers. And selkies do have minds of their own. You only have to spend five minutes with Fiona to know that.
Even so, now was not the time to school Esi on the ways of the First Four or the selkies. Sakura’s soldiers could be right on their heels.
“If Sakura has other anansis on her side, why does she need your family in particular?” he asked. He didn’t say it, but if anansis had minds of their own, it didn’t sound like kidnapping Esi would affect anyone other than her father.
Now it was Esi’s turn to blush. “She’s probably out for revenge on my father for saying no to her.”
That didn’t seem like the whole answer. Esi was definitely hiding something, but Darren didn’t think it was the right moment to push. After all, he wasn’t being fully truthful with her, either.
They were both quiet for a moment. Then Esi was the one to ask a question.
“Why do you think Sakura’s after you—an impundulu with a cursed bloodline?”
Darren thought about his answer for a moment. He wanted to tell her the truth, that he was the impundulu connected to the First Four. He felt he could trust her, somehow.
But then he remembered Professor Zwane’s warning—that Esi’s father was one of the First Four’s most outspoken critics. If only Darren knew why, he might be able to mend fences.
He was still weighing his response when the subway train took a curve and the overhead lights flickered. Darren jumped.
“That’s normal,” Esi said. “It happens all the time on these older trains. Don’t wor—”
Esi’s words were cut off by the impundulu from the restaurant. Unfortunately, this one was not Professor Zwane. This was one of Sakura’s followers. He smashed through the windowed door at the back of the car and shot a lightning bolt in their direction.
A murky haze filled the car as Esi let go with a stream of miasma. Whatever it was, it gently knocked out the few other people on the train.
Good, Darren thought. The last thing we need is for a well-meaning nonmagical person to try to help us.
“Follow me,” Esi said, rushing to the other end of the car. She opened the door so that they could jump into the next subway car.
Darren ran backward, creating an electric force field to hold their attacker back. It worked for a few minutes, but the other impundulu had many more years of experience than Darren did. The field quickly started to weaken against the attacks coming their way. Darren wasn’t going to be able to hold it in place much longer.
Esi turned, let the door go, and transformed. Even Darren was frightened by her transformation. Esi’s Changer form was a massive tarantula with long, hairy legs. She kicked at the impundulu, seeming impervious to his lightning bolts. She played with him for a few minutes until he was totally exhausted. Then she immobilized her prey in a sticky web before filling the car with her miasma again, knocking him out.
Sakura’s impundulu transformed back into his human form. He was curled up in the fetal position on a subway bench, looking to all the world as if he was fast asleep under a thick white blanket.
The massive spider turned and made her way back toward Darren, transforming when she reached his side.
The train slowed, and there was a garbled message over the PA system.
“What did they say?” Darren asked.
“Nothing important. We’re coming to our stop,” Esi answered.
The train slowed even more as it pulled into a station. People waited on the platform, and the nonmagical people in the car gathered their things and stepped toward the doors as if nothing had happened. No one even looked at the sleeping impundulu Changer as they walked past him. To them, he was simply another passenger.
The subway’s doors opened.
Still overwhelmed by Esi’s transformation, Darren stood frozen for a moment. She grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the platform.
Sakura’s soldier stayed where he was, letting out a loud snore as the subway doors closed behind them.
Darren thought he heard Esi giggle as she yanked on his hand and jogged through the turnstile and up the stairs onto the street. Then she ducked into a side alley.
They stood behind a Dumpster, trying to catch their breath. Darren quickly threw up a force field around them.
Suddenly, Esi chuckled, and then laughed, until suddenly, she was cracking up.
Is she hysterical? Darren wondered. But it didn’t seem like that kind of laughter. It sounded like Esi was having fun.
“Why on Earth are you laughing?” he asked.
Esi couldn’t answer. She was laughing too hard. Tears streamed down her face, and she held her stomach.
Should I throw water at her or something? Darren thought. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with hysterical people?
Finally, Esi’s laughter slowed enough that she was able to speak—between giggles. “My father never lets me out of his sight,” she said. “Being in battle . . . It was such a rush! I’ve never gotten to try my moves outside of training. And on a real enemy! It was kind of . . . fun.”
Darren chuckled despite himself. He had seen way too much of battle in the last year to share her sense of fun, but he could understand why Esi felt the way she did.
“You’ve got a weird definition of fun, Spider Girl,” he said with a smile.
Esi let out one last giggle and then pointed uptown. “My cousin’s apartment is just a few blocks that way,” she said. “We’d better get moving before Sleeping Beauty wakes up and comes after us.”
Darren smiled. Esi was starting to grow on him. She was much less intimidating than she’d seemed at first. “Lead the way,” he said.
Chapter 8
A New Power
Gabriella sat slumped on a twin bed, blindly staring out of a hotel room window. On the bed closest to the door, Professor Zwane was looking at Margaery’s arm. It had been badly burned in a burst of kitsune fire during their escape from the restaurant. And they had no idea where Darren was.
The professor thought Darren and Esi had gotten away in time, but Gabriella was worried. Esi’s father was nowhere to be found either. Professor Zwane tried to contact him but turned up nothing. He thought the anansi leader had probably gone into hiding until things quieted down.
But what if he hasn’t gone into hiding? What if he’s captured or hurt? Instead of helping Darren, he’ll blame him for the attack, she thought.
Gabriella felt like everything, Margaery’s burns included, was all her fault.
I’ve failed two friends now, she thought. First I couldn’t protect Mack from Sakura even after all of the special training my aunt and my grandmother gave me. And today I couldn’t defend Darren. And now we don’t even know where he is. Is he safe? Is he with Sakura?
Fiona sat down beside her friend with a take-out menu from a Chinese restaurant in her hand. “It’s going to be okay,” she told Gabriella with a reassuring smile. “The First Four said b
ackup will be here soon. Once they get here, and Margaery’s wing is healed, we can track down Darren.”
Gabriella nodded, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer or to smile in return. She couldn’t even meet Fiona’s eyes. That’s if Darren is reachable, she thought.
“We’ll be useless to Darren if we pass out from hunger. Will you tell me what you want for lunch?” Fiona asked. “You need to eat something.”
“I can’t eat,” Gabriella said, the words catching in her throat. “Not when we haven’t heard from Darren. It’s been almost an hour. Why hasn’t he texted?”
Because he’s been snatched by Sakura’s soldiers, she thought, answering her own question. She was afraid to voice her fears out loud.
Fiona could tell what her friend was thinking. “You know the First Four’s rules,” she said gently. “When you’re separated from the group, get somewhere safe first and then check in. That’s exactly what he’s doing right now—finding safety and setting up protection. We’ll hear from him soon.”
“How can you be so sure?” Gabriella asked.
“Because Darren’s defensive magic is the best there is. Plus, if he’s with that anansi girl, there’s no way the two of them could be taken down easily. Those spiders in the restaurant were fierce.”
“What if her father found out about Darren’s connection to the First Four? He could have handed him over to the enemy,” Gabriella said.
Fiona shook her head vehemently. “Darren and Esi are probably—” Her phone buzzed. “It’s Darren!”
Fiona quickly answered her cell. “Darren, you’re on speaker,” Fiona told him. “Please tell us you’re all right. Gabriella, the professor, and Margaery are all here with me.”
“I’m fine,” Darren said. “I’m with Esi.” He briefly described their escape from the restaurant and the battle on the subway. “We’re at Esi’s cousin’s apartment. She isn’t a Changer, but she knows about magic and everything.”
“Are you safe there?” Gabriella asked.
“There are anansi protection spells on the apartment, so we’ll be fine here until someone can pick us up. I don’t think we should leave without reinforcements. Sakura’s people might have tracked us here.” Then he gave them the address.
