Chase dropped to his knees as his breath came out in short gasps. His head spun like crazy and his brain was fuzzy, as if it were made of cotton. It was exactly like the last time he’d gotten so angry he’d become more powerful than he ever would’ve imagined, and had sent Roland sailing across the sky.
As the buzzing in his head lessened, the weight of what he’d done hit him, hard. Had he just become a murderer? Had he truly killed Janie? Was he now as bad as the Marlowes? He clutched his stomach and vomited.
“Chase!”
“Dad?” Chase wiped his hand across his mouth.
“Yes, it’s me.”
Chase shook his head and looked up at his dad as Ben leaned over him. Never in his life was Chase so relieved to see him. “Andy’s gone. And I don’t know what to do. You have to fix it.” He dropped his head into his shaking hands. “I—I think I killed Janie. Oh my God! I killed Janie!”
“Calm down, okay? Andy’s alive. Barely, but he’s still with us,” Ben hurried to assure him as he placed his hand on Chase’s shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze. “And you only wanted to protect him.”
“Andy’s…okay?”
Ben looked as though he really didn’t want to say much else about it. “We have to get him home, now.”
Chase looked around, for the first time noticing that they were now surrounded by a huge crowd of townspeople. Shivers danced up and down his spine. It was as if the three Tinkers were encased in a dark, chilling cocoon. Then the crowd stumbled and parted as Roland, Maven, Clive, and Ethan shoved their way to Ben and Chase.
“What did you do to our Janie?” cried Maven. She acted as though she actually cared about her newly-discovered niece.
“And James,” added Clive, wrinkling his eyebrows into a menacing scowl. “He’s disappeared! You had something to do with it, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know about James,” said Ben, “but Janie got what she deserved. She wanted to kill both my sons.”
Maven’s face was so red, her whole head looked ready to explode. Roland grabbed her arm. “Go see what’s happening with them,” he said firmly.
Maven gave a hoarse growl. Dragging Ethan with her, she whirled and disappeared into the crowd.
“So, are you ready to surrender?” asked Roland. “After all, you two seem to be the last ones left alive.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Ben, narrowing his eyes.
Roland slipped his hands into his jacket pockets. “Clive said he took care of the two lovely birds…” He let the sentence trail off as if he wanted to leave the rest to Ben’s and Chase’s imaginations.
After Janie’s attack on Andy, this was the last thing Chase wanted to hear. “If you creeps did anything to hurt them—”
Shrieks and howls ripped through the air. The zombie-people scrambled to get out of the way as small, blazing lightning bolts flew every which way, striking anyone within range. One man’s hat caught on fire, while another’s fishing boots melted into two rubbery puddles.
Clive yowled and hopped around, frantically swatting his pants after several of the fiery bolts hit him on the butt. Like a rat, Roland scurried behind an old rusty car. No one could tell where the lightning bolts were coming from, but they didn’t stop until a warm and sticky hand grabbed Chase’s arm. “Let’s go!” said Persephone’s disembodied voice.
Benjamin grabbed onto Chase and Andy. “Hang on, everyone, we’re getting out of here! Tinker house!”
The bedraggled and injured group vanished into a swooshing whirlwind. As the magic whisked them away, the Marlowes’ piercing screams of rage rang in their ears.
With a loud crash, they landed in the middle of a large bedroom. The Healing Room, Chase realized right away.
“Visible,” whispered Persephone. She fainted and slumped to the floor. Her hand slid from Chase’s arm, leaving a bloody handprint smeared across it.
“Persephone!” He’d never seen anyone coated in so much blood. His head whirled like a wild carnival ride just looking at it.
At the same time, Nori and Maxwell appeared, both looking as though they’d been trampled in a stampede.
“Oh, thank goodness!” gasped Nori. “I thought we’d never get out of there.” She brushed her hair from her face, which also had cuts and blood streaks, and crawled to Persephone’s side.
“Is she going to be okay?” Chase asked, worriedly peering over Nori’s shoulder.
Nori nodded as the soothing healing magic flowed from her hands and into Persephone’s cuts and gashes. After healing Persephone, she did the same to herself. When she was finished, she turned and squinted up at Chase. “You’re not dressed like a pirate, so I sure hope you’re our Chase.”
Chase opened his mouth to assure her that he was indeed the real thing, but was cut off by Andy’s ear-splitting scream. Ben was on his knees next to him. Blue light poured from his palms, but instead of healing, it was causing Andy even more agonizing pain. He was still unconscious, but his arms and legs twitched and jerked as if he was trying to run away from the torment.
“What’s wrong?” yelled Chase, dropping to the floor next to his dad. Seeing Andy like this was scaring the daylights out of him. “Why won’t he heal? The magic is supposed to be stronger when we’re in the room.”
“Oh my gosh! Who did this to him?” asked Nori, staring in horror at Andy’s injuries.
“Janie!” growled Chase.
Ben sat back on his heels and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “It doesn’t want to fix the dark magic wounds! It’s only making them worse and causing him even more pain.”
“Then why did Persephone and Nori get better?” asked Chase as he stared at Andy’s injuries that now oozed gross, white pus.
“Ours weren’t from dark magic,” said Nori. She told them about the exploding shield. “When everything suddenly unfroze, we were caught in it. Persephone got it the worst. That Clive idiot thought we were dead.”
“Then we have to do something else!” snapped Chase. The fear of losing Andy made the blood pound through his already aching head. “We can’t sit here like a bunch of losers while Andy dies!”
“I don’t know what else to do,” said Ben.
Chase reached out and grabbed Andy’s hand as if he hoped his strength would somehow seep into his brother. “We can’t let him die!”
“It’s this stinking magic!” growled Benjamin. He rubbed his red-rimmed eyes. “It causes nothing but pain and destruction and loss!”
Chase’s gaze hardened as he stared at his dad. “You need to stop letting what happened to Sam ruin all the magic in your life!”
Benjamin’s face turned as white as snow. “You know about Sam?”
“Grandfather told me. And about your mom, too.”
“Does Andy know?” asked Ben hoarsely as he stared down at his dying son.
“No. I didn’t want to freak him out,” said Chase. “He had a hard enough time liking magic in the first place. And since he’s more confident in himself, it would suck to see it ruined.”
“Hopefully being zapped by Janie didn’t ruin it,” muttered Nori.
“Even so,” said Chase, “we can’t sit here like we’ve totally lost all hope!”
Ben heaved a deep sigh. “Well we can’t take him to a regular hospital—”
Chase snorted and waved his hand at Andy. “Yeah! Try explaining dark magic injuries to one of those doctors!”
“Go get Dan,” whispered Ben. “He’s our last chance.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Answers
Murderer. I’m a murderer, Chase thought as he trudged up and down the hallway outside the Healing Room’s door. The thought was too painful to be dwelling on, but his mind wouldn’t shut up about it. You killed your cousin, freak! Your soul is going to shrivel up and turn into a dark lump of evil, just like the Marlowe’s.
Chase rubbed his burning eyes. Oh, man! Was he truly going to become like Mathias Marlowe and the rest of his family? Was he going to transform
into an evil, heartless creep? After all, he did carry out one of the worst crimes a person could ever commit. Pools of sweat formed in his armpits at his frightening notions. No! That wasn’t going to happen. Not if he could help it. Besides, Grandfather had told him that he had good magic through and through. But...what if...
Shaking his head in an attempt to rid himself of his insane thoughts, Chase stretched his shoulders and winced. Every muscle in his body ached, along with every inch of his skin. Doctor Dan had given him some sort of awful-smelling ointment to rub on his energy beam burns. The odor from it made him queasy. He took a deep breath through his mouth, then let it out slowly.
He swung around to head back the other way and almost bumped into his mom. She was standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at the door like she wanted to kick it down. “What is taking so long? I’m a nurse. I should be in there.” She put a shaking hand to her mouth to muffle her sob.
Ben put his arm around her shoulders. “You know you’re too upset to help now. Let Dan do his job, okay?”
“This is all my fault,” said Chase, his voice filled with disgust for himself. “I didn’t try hard enough to keep him safe. It was my job and I blew it.”
Anne turned to him, her eyes blazing. “Well I blame you all! He’s only ten years old, for heaven’s sake! And you expected him to be off fighting battles like—like he’s an adult. How did I ever agree to it?” She swiped at the tears dripping off her chin.
“We needed to rescue Janie,” said Chase. “Or at least we thought we did.” He looked over at Grandfather, who sat quietly in an armchair pushed against the wall. No one had asked him yet about why he’d let them go after Janie in the first place.
Chase’s eyes narrowed. Actually, it was time for some answers. He stormed down the hallway and stopped in front of Grandfather. “Why? Why didn’t you tell us? Besides the place being packed with zombies, we were totally blindsided by Janie’s crazy revelation that she and James are Marlowes!”
Ben moved to stand beside Chase. “He’s right, Dad. You should’ve said something.”
Chase sent his dad a sideways glance. It was kind of weird being on the same side as him when usually they were butting heads over every little thing.
“I’m so sorry,” said Grandfather. “I was worried you would think less of her if you knew the truth.” He reached under his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I hoped and prayed you wouldn’t be too late to save her. I had a premonition telling me everything would be fine, but, as you found out, their influences were far too great for Janie’s already fragile emotions to fight.”
“A premonition?” said Chase. “Shouldn’t it have come true, then?”
Benjamin sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Premonitions don’t necessarily always come true, Chase, since circumstances can change; especially those beyond our control.”
Chase tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling. Then what’s the point of the lousy things, he thought. The bitterness he felt put a bad taste in his mouth.
“I know one premonition that came true,” said Nori sadly.
Chase turned to her. “It was the one you had in my room, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I saw something really dreadful and frightening happening to Andy. I wasn’t sure exactly what or when it would happen, so I knew I had to help keep him safe, especially after I heard about the rescue mission. Well, I sure sucked at that, didn’t I?” Like Chase, she sounded completely disgusted with herself.
Anne swung around. “You knew? You knew and you never said anything to anyone? Andy might be dying in there,” she cried as she pointed at the door, “and you knew it would happen! How could you do this to him? To us?”
“Mom! Don’t blame Nori!” said Chase. “We still needed Andy’s help. You know he would’ve insisted we take him, anyway. And you heard what Dad said. Premonitions don’t necessarily come true!”
Nori stared at the floor. “I’m so sorry, Anne. I didn’t want to worry anyone. And I was such an idiot to think I was capable of taking care of him! She’s right, Chase. It’s my fault. I’ve already been blaming myself enough since it happened.”
“If James hadn’t been hassling me,” muttered Persephone. “Maybe I could’ve done more.”
“We know you both did your best,” Benjamin said. “We all did. It would’ve been nice to get a heads up on what happened, but we were all in danger over there, not just Andy. So I don’t want anyone else blaming themselves.”
Anne crossed her arms and turned to stare at the door again.
Persephone sniffled. “It’s still so hard to believe Janie’s one of them.” She shuddered. “It’s way too awful to think about.”
“So Janie and James truly are related to those twisted people?” asked Nori as she swiped her hand across her watery face and sniffed. “If you can call them people,” she added, wrinkling her nose.
“Yes, they are,” Grandfather said. “I know Clair and I should have told her, but…how do you find the best way to tell someone that some of the most evil, horrific people on earth are their family members?”
“Why the heck did Clair marry a Marlowe, anyway?” asked Chase.
“She didn’t know until it was too late.” Grandfather shook his head. “If you think you were shocked, imagine how poor Clair felt.”
Chase threw his hands up in the air. “I’m such an idiot! I was surrounded by clues, but never caught on. Maxwell hated James, and he was always so mean and awful. Right from the very beginning. And then Janie, she’d get so angry and resentful over even the smallest things.”
“So what?” scoffed Nori. “Like that’s enough to give away a secret the size of that one.”
“Nori has a point,” said Persephone. “A few personality quirks aren’t enough to say, ‘hey, watch out, evil’.”
“What about when James tried to kill me and Grandfather, huh?”
“Well…” said Persephone, “he did want to be Keeper more than anything.”
“I still think—”
Benjamin held up his hands between them. “Let’s drop it, okay? There are too many other things to worry about.”
But Chase wasn’t ready to stop. After nearly being killed because of a secret no one was willing to share, he was finally going to confront his dad about something that had been bothering him for months. “Speaking of secrets, why didn’t you ever tell Andy and me about this house and our family, or that we were magical? Do you know how freaked out we were to suddenly have the ability to move objects and stop time?”
Watching Benjamin hang his head and scuff his toe on the carpet runner made Chase feel as if their roles had been reversed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause problems for you kids,” said Ben with a deep sigh. “I know it was wrong, and completely irresponsible, but I guess, deep down, I hoped if I ignored it, it would all just go away.”
“That’s your excuse?”
Ben nodded.
“How lame is that?” exclaimed Chase. “I may have a ton of crazy ideas, but I do know ignoring something doesn’t make it go away! What? Did you hope Grandfather would disappear, too?”
Ben’s answer was cut off when the door to the Healing Room swung open. Anne grabbed Doctor Dan’s arm. “Is he—”
“He’s doing all right,” Dan assured her. “He’s a little woozy, and wrapped in bandages, but he’s going to live. I have to warn you, though, there will be some scarring. Those are difficult injuries. I’ve never seen anything like them.”
“Can we see him?” said Anne anxiously, already rushing into the room as she asked the question. Everyone else hurried in after her.
When Chase caught sight of Andy looking so small and pitiful in the huge bed, he grabbed onto the bedpost and swallowed hard. Andy’s dark, blood-shot eyes peeked out from thick bandages wrapped around his head and neck.
“Hey, dork,” said Chase, trying his best to hide his anxiety.
“I’m not a dork. Dork,” Andy whisper
ed in a croaky voice.
Chase cleared his throat. “You look like the mummy from one of those monster movies you like so much.”
Andy gave him a small lopsided smile. “Did we bring back Janie?”
The others exchanged looks. “Uh…no,” said Ben. “She—”
“She stayed behind,” Chase said quickly. His eyes met Ben’s as he sent him a silent message that said: let’s keep what I did to Janie to ourselves, okay? Chase didn’t want Andy or the others to know yet. He had a feeling that, along with the Mathias Marlowe memories, he would have nightmares about it for the rest of his life. That is, if he didn’t go all dark and evil way before that.
Ben sent Chase a quick nod of understanding.
“And the Shard of Magic?” asked Andy.
Chase shoved his hands into his pockets. “Still over there keeping the Marlowes as evil as ever.” Yep. All in all, the whole mission had been a total bust. Chase just hoped he didn’t disgrace himself by puking again.
“So if we had taken the Shard back,” said Nori, looking thoughtful, “would the Marlowes be good again?”
“No one knows for sure,” answered Grandfather. “The darkness might be too much a part of them now.”
“But we can’t give up on Janie,” Andy whispered tiredly.
Anne grasped Andy’s hand. “I want you to stop worrying, okay? You just concentrate on getting better, young man.”
“And by the way, Chase,” mumbled Andy, “you stink.” Moments later, he was sound asleep.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Scars
Chase’s heart pounded so hard, he thought it might pop right out of his chest. “I can’t believe it. I’m such an idiot!” After telling everyone else over and over not to do it, he’d gone and done it. He’d lost something enchanted with Tinker magic. He’d lost his lucky race car that was filled with teleporting magic. All his frantic searching had turned up nothing. He must’ve checked his pockets at least five hundred times by now. He’d also searched the rooms and hallways he’d been in since arriving back at the house.
Chase Tinker and the House of Secrets Page 24
