Aerie clucked her tongue and squatted to feel for a pulse. At least she didn’t kill him. She assessed the room: Cara standing over Jels with the bat, looking like she really wanted him to get up again; Finn’s voice echoing from the front of the vault, the clank of the iron chains hitting the floor. So many people in here, all at once. This place had never been so crowded. “Cara, how did you get in?”
“The wards are gone. You could feel it from outside. The whole place feels different.” She waved the air away from her face. There was still a metallic taste to the air, like the flavor of rain in a lightning storm. She indicated the wreck and the ruin of what had once been the back corner of the vault. “We heard the boom, too. That explosion. Is that what disarmed them?”
“No.” Aerie scrubbed her nose with the back of her hand and pushed to her feet. “Charles is gone. His magic is gone so the wards are gone, too.”
“What do you mean, Charles is gone?” Cara’s voice changed subtly, going from clubbing-Jels-in-the-head-real-quick to something-bad-just-happened-to-my-best-friend.
Finn approached from the other side, stepping carefully around several artifacts that littered the floor. “Aerie…Where did he go?”
“In there.” She swallowed and pointed up the aisle, where Charles had stood only a few moments before. He’d looked at her like she was useless. All these years she thought it was parental disappointment. Now, she knew. “He’s inside the amulet.”
“I don’t understand.” Cara shook her head. “I thought that—”
Stepping over Jels, Aerie walked over to the charred circle on the floor where the Asmodeus amulet glowed and rattled as if a small critter had been trapped inside. “He’ll never get out.”
“But you got out. I saw you go in. Finn said he only got out because you jumped in and bumped him out—”
“Finn wouldn’t have been trapped long even if I hadn’t. The amulet had my name on it, not his.”
“So, you’re still at risk.”
“Not anymore.” Aerie lifted the amulet up by its chain and twisted it. Etched clearly in block letters across the back was CHARLES. “I Named it. It’s locked to him.”
Finn took off his cap and held it out to her so that she could set the amulet in it. “Unless someone lets him out. There’s still the book.”
Cara huffed. “So, destroy it.”
“What? No!” Jim emerged from one of the aisles, cradling a rare Star Hanger. Its delicate mechanism quite possibly had been knocked loose when it fell off the shelf.
The thought of it being broken wounded Aerie. Trevor brought that back from Venice when she was sixteen. Only three of its kind in existence, and this the only one that still functioned. Or, at least, it had. Another victim of Charles’ actions.
“You can’t destroy a grimoire,” he said. “You can’t predict what will be released.”
The way Jim held the artifact, as if he sheltered a wounded sparrow, bolstered her faith in him. “He’s right. We’ll have to hide the book. I should be good at that. And…I’ll destroy the amulet.”
“Give it to me, Aerie.” Jim’s voice was leaden and absolute. He set the Venetian treasure on a nearby shelf and reached for the cap. “He must pay for what he’s done.”
“And, so what, you have murder on your karma?” She clutched the cap to her chest and backed away. “No way. Pop was my problem. If anyone is going to make him pay, it should be me.”
“Me.” A raspy voice sounded from outside the vault. “I should do it.”
Greysen stood in the doorway holding his side, his complexion chalky, looking like he’d been dragged behind a tractor.
Aerie whooped with relief and ran to him, hugging him fiercely. The Otherworlder coughed and endured the embrace.
“You’re okay,” she said. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“You know me, child. Tough as a rock. And just as resolute. I will take care of the amulet.” He reached for the cap, tugging it free from Aerie’s grasp.
“How?” Her voice was tiny. It was one thing standing with Finn and Jim but…Greysen was family. The fact that he was standing here inside the vault with her, and not the man who had usurped her father, and raised her like a market goat—all of it threatened to knock her legs out from beneath her. Greysen always made her feel like someone cared. She needed someone to care for her, now.”
He placed a cool hand on her shoulder and drew her against him. Bending, he lay his cheek on the top of her head for a moment before pulling back. Softly, he spoke with a tone that hinted at an apology. “I will take it through the Mound. He will never again exist upon this mortal plane.”
“You can’t just send it through.” Cara slipped her arm around Aerie’s waist, giving her physical support. “There’s a consciousness inside. It has to be escorted.”
“Aye, and I will escort it.” Greysen coughed, his breathing raspy. “It was my duty to protect you, Aerie. I have not done my duties well, I fear. I’ve let you down countless times without even knowing. I should have known that whenever you insisted you were all right, you were never all right.”
She glanced behind her, where Jels still lay prone. “I learned how to take care of myself, Greysen. I was all right. A little bent, but not broken.”
“You are a fighter. And I am a guardian.” He drew himself up to his full height, even though it clearly caused him much pain. “Let me do this one thing well.”
“But Greysen, you’re my…family. I kind of really need you.”
“You are surrounded by family.” Greysen shared a somber smile with the group that surrounded Aerie. Best friend, brother, father. “And I will guard you all, as I guard the Mound from the Otherworld. None will pass. I solemnly swear it. Now, come. Dawn approaches. We must be swift.”
The Mound stood in a farmer’s field at the edge of town. Few wizards went there because the Mound was a haunted, evil place where Elemental magic boiled the ley lines, turning them rancid like pipes full of old orange juice. Children were forbidden to play there because the Elementals who lurked in the shadow of the Mound would snatch them away and feed them to the goblins that lived beneath the grassy knoll.
Or so the horseshit went. For once, Aerie was glad the superstitious nonsense still circulated in this backwards dump of a town. It would mean there wouldn’t be anyone around. She craned her neck, scanning the field and skies.
“Nervous?” Finn said, slamming the van door as the last person climbed out. “Think the bogeyman is going to jump out?”
“Just watching. Anything could be out here.” She unzipped her holding plane and pulled out a large crystal ball.
Finn groaned. “What, you’re a gypsy now?”
“Interesting,” Jim said, eyebrows up, eyes alight with curiosity. “I haven’t seen an M20 in ages.”
Aerie nodded. The old boy really knew his stuff. She had a feeling they were going to get along wonderfully. “There’s only thirteen known to still exist.”
“May I?” Jim tapped his mouth, looking very much like a child asking permission.
“I don’t know…” She pretended to think it over. “Maybe just for a moment.”
Jim took the crystal ball in both hands to admire it, lifting it to peer inside, weighing it in his hands. “I had the opportunity to use one of these when I was still in school. We had a lab with it. It was pretty cool.”
“Did you get it to work?”
He nodded, showing a small grin.
“Well?” she said with a laugh. “What did you find with it?”
“A 1973 Chevy Nova, barn-kept, with an owner who was ready to sell cheap.”
Finn made an a-ha face. “That’s how you got the Nova?”
“Mmm, hmm. And, subsequently, how I got your mother. She had a thing for muscle cars.”
He handed the ball back to Aerie—and properly, too, using both hands and rotating the ball a third-circle to clear his contact with it. Hard not to like a person who knew how to handle an artifact. She hugged it against her
chest.
“The Mound is there.” Greysen pointed into the hazy dark to a great black shadow, a swirling silver mist hovering in front of it. “Move with haste.”
As they trudged across the field, tall shadows rose and spread out from the Mound. Greysen raised his hand in greeting, the gesture returned by the shadowy strangers.
“Ho, friends,” Greysen said. “I come to pass.”
“It is not an ideal time for passing, Greysen James.” One of the men stood in front of the swirling silver door, the other man at his back, weapon ready for anything that might pass. “We must warn you. It is turbulent on the Otherside. Much unrest. The last survivors to come through warned it was becoming nigh uninhabitable.”
“I hear your words and thank you for your warning. I have a duty to uphold.”
Aerie pulled on his arm. “Please, just a moment more.”
Far to the east, the sun was approaching. The skies hovered with a pale gray that gradually warmed. As the daylight grew in strength, the silver portal weakened proportionately.
“You see the skies are turning, child.” Greysen took off his odd glasses, allowing the thin light to illuminate his eyes. “You’ve been hunting the sunrise for the last ten minutes. You know the time is short.”
“I know. I know what you have to do.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, the ache that made it hard to speak. “I just need—”
A screech filled the air and a new shadow, bigger than all of them put together, passed over head. The Otherworlders shouted and took up their arms and lit their great torches.
With a ground-shuddering thump, the shadow landed on top of the Mound. It glittered in the torch light, its sleek scales picking up the firelight and glinting it back at them. The group backed away, surrounding the mound of earth and rock.
Everyone, that was, but Aerie.
Backlit by the heralding of the dawn, a dragon stretched its massive winds. It screeched, billowing its chest, fanning the heat of its furnace.
“Aerie!” Finn hollered. “Get back!”
The dragon lowered its head, sniffing the air, eyes fixed upon her.
She met the dragon’s stare, wearing a look of grim determination.
Finn tried to pull her back. “Dummy! That’s a dragon!”
“I know,” she said, and elbowed him away. “It has something I need.”
The dragon snaked its head toward her. “You are mistaken, foolish mortal. You have what I want. And I will take it back.”
Greysen called out from the other side of the Mound. “The door is thinning, Aerie. I must pass. Give me the amulet.”
“Wait, just one more minute!” Aerie kept her eyes on the dragon. She sidestepped toward Greysen. The dragon slithered down between them, heading her off.
“Aerie!” Greysen’s tone was desperate. “There is no time!”
She gripped the amulet’s chain and began to swing it in a circle, readying it like a slingshot. The dragon’s eyes glowed as it caught the glint of torchlight and breaking dawn upon the golden relic. Its jaws parted in a hungry smile.
“Grey!” She screamed and released the amulet. “Catch!”
It sailed toward Greysen in a golden arc. He raised his hand to catch it.
The dragon snapped it out of the air and swallowed it, turning to Aerie with a toothy smile. “An appetizer before the main course.”
“Oh, shit.” Finn looked stricken.
“Finn.” She took a deep breath and cast a tracer spell on him, sending a streak of golden sparkle cascading down his shoulders to illuminate his jacket. “When I say run…”
Finn looked at her, alarm in his eyes.
“Run!”
He ran toward his father, streaking a stream of golden comet dust behind. The dragon jerked its head to follow him.
Aerie ran at the dragon. It never saw her coming.
She ran straight under its breast, clambering up and over the Mound toward Greysen. “The door. Hold it open!”
The dragon spied her and screamed in defiance, clambering up the Mound after her and launching itself into the air.
“Aerie!” Finn shook off the last of the tracer spell. “What are you doing?”
“The only thing I can!” She jumped off the rocky ledge and stood in front of the tempestuous swirling portal. Eyeing the dragon, she hefted the crystal ball.
“Mine!” The dragon screamed and dove for her.
For several moments Aerie stood her ground, defiantly standing off with the charging dragon. The beast’s eyes glittered with greed, slitted and staring at the prize Aerie held aloft. The wind screamed through the ridges in the dragon’s back as it shot like an arrow toward her.
At the last moment, she lofted the ball in front of the portal, spinning sideways to roll against the dragon’s body. Claws outstretched, the dragon snatched the crystal ball and shot through the thinning passageway, disappearing into the swirling void of the Otherworld’s passage.
The sun broke free of the ridge, spilling its copper fire across the field, the Mound, and the portal, disarming its power and turning it to solid stone.
Panting, Aerie leaned a hand on the earthen doorway, patting it for reassurance. It was closed. Everyone was finally on the right side of things. She leaned her forehead against the stone and sagged with relief.
The Elemental folk who’d been guarding the mound extinguished their torches. “A dragon,” one of the men said. “You don’t see that every day.”
“Must be a full moon,” his companion replied.
Cara hooted with relief and spun in place, sprinkling everyone with a brief shower before Finn swooped over, lifting her up and spinning with her. Jim and Greysen spoke with the Mound guards as they stooped to gather their belongings, another shift over. They murmured amongst themselves before leaving, nodding the others before they departed.
Aerie remained apart from the rest, staring at the portal, not really seeing it. Too many images zooming around on the inside to really notice what was on the outside.
Jim went to Aerie’s side. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” She was startled out of her reverie by his voice. “I’m just thinking.”
“What about?”
“I’ve got some pretty big adjustments to make.” She looked up at him and ventured a small smile. She wasn’t ready to come out with the big truth yet. That would take some time. Instead, she could give a small truth, one that didn’t hurt quite so much to say out loud. “First off, there are now only twelve known M20 crystal balls left on the Mortal Plane. I have to update the records.”
They turned and started walking back to the car, the others trailing behind. “And I should probably look up Mrs. Draconal’s next of kin…”
“The work never ends,” Finn said.
“Not if you’re lucky,” Aerie said.
Their footfalls woke the birds nesting in the grassy field, chasing them up and away, scattering them like inky drops beneath a brand-new sunrise.
Time to fly. Time for all of them to fly.
24
The Green Ridge Community Park was quiet and empty, except for a pair of joggers who loped around the running path, orbiting the small group gathered at the playground. From far off could be heard the muted sounds of traffic, a lawn mower, the echoes and the melodies of ordinary life. Sunlight flitted through the trees, shifting with the warm breezes that chased each other through the lofty oaks. It was pleasant weather for late September.
The Autumnal Equinox had opened the day with a hopeful sun rising perfectly in the East. An alignment of planes between Earth and Sun, a realignment of paths of those who had journeyed so far apart. At sundown, that same hopeful sun would descend perfectly in the West, and all would be right in the world.
Aerie stood between her father and her brother, the three clasping hands and facing a park bench. Nearby, Cara and her family stood in a group, her brothers solemn and surprisingly well-behaved. Greysen was nearby, too, with several members of his Clan. A few other
people had also arrived, circling out behind them. Eilis had never been forgotten by the people who knew her.
The park bench was laden with flowers and lit candles whose flames resisted the wind. In the center of the arrangement was Finn’s box, its collection of mementos and keepsakes. Resting within was Eilis’ amulet, its gemstone pulsing gently.
“And I shall dream in peace until you come to me…” Finn finished the last verse of “Danny Boy” with bright eyes and a trembling voice.
Such a nice tenor. She didn’t know he could sing. Then again, there was a lot she didn’t know about him.
Jim cleared his throat quietly, summoning his voice. “Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die.”
A few moments of silence passed before Jim and Finn each turned to her, and nodded. It was her turn.
“I didn’t really get to know you, Mom.” She paused. “I grew up without you, without them. Alone. All my life, I only knew what someone else told me about you. None of it was true. When we did finally meet, it was under the worst of circumstances, and it only made me believe everything I’d been told.”
She took a deep breath. “But, then, I did see you, even if just for a moment. I heard your voice and I experienced what it might have been like if things had been different. It did a lot to fix that place inside me that had been damaged by the lies and the untruths. And now, we have to move on. Without you, but not alone. I finally have a chance to get to know you, the real you, through the words of people who truly knew and loved you. And maybe by getting to know the real you, I can finally be the real me.”
She broke hands with her father and brother and circled her fingers, casting up the image of the grimoire before them. Lifting her hands, she turned the virtual pages until she came to a chapter near the end.
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