Five: Out of the Dark

by Anderson, Holli

I shook my head at her, incredulous. “He almost died, Hal.” I sat, exhausted, and rubbed my hands over my face, trying to erase the memory of Johnathan lying pale and breathless.

  “Sasha, why does everyone keep calling you Paige?” Brendon asked.

  “Well, my name is really Paige. I had to use Seth’s sister’s school records to sign up for school … and her name is Sasha.”

  “You guys came to Edwards on purpose, then. Why? If you knew what was going on … why?” Brendon asked.

  “Because that’s what we do,” I answered. “We help people when they can’t help themselves—when they have no idea what they’re up against. We read an article in the newspaper—well, Seth read it—about all the suicides happening at your school and we knew something wasn’t right. So we put ourselves in a position to help.”

  “This is exactly why I know you’re ready to officially train. You’re already doing the work you were meant to do—and doing an amazing job of it for as little as you know. You need training now so you won’t put yourselves in such danger next time, though,” Joe said.

  We were silent once more. This was a lot to take in for five teenagers that had been on their own for so long; learning as much as we could from a single book and trial and error. It was a lot to take in for two normal teenagers who’d discovered the world they live in is much more dangerous than they’d ever imagined.

  “So … what now?” Surprisingly, it was Brendon who asked.

  “Well, young man, we need to get you and your girlfriend home. After all the chaos erupting at the school today, I’m sure your parents are frantic,” Joe answered.

  “Well, yeah, but what about these guys?”

  “These guys are in great danger and we have much to talk about. How about we get you two home and out of danger, then the six of us will make some plans,” Joe said.

  “What if we want to help?” Chari stared at her hands atop the table.

  “The best way for you to help is to stay safe—and to keep this secret to your graves.”

  “No worries about that,” Brendon said. “It’s not like anyone would believe us anyway.”

  After Brendon and Chari got their stories straight—what they were going to tell their parents about their disappearance from school—Joe escorted them to their homes. They both protested and begged us to keep them in the loop. We promised we would—knowing full well it was a promise we’d break. Their lives would be much safer without us in them.

  While Joe was gone, we had a lengthy discussion. “How long have you known about Joe?” I asked Halli.

  “Not long,” she said. “I started going to his store the last couple of weeks while you guys were at school—I was bored and trying to stay out of trouble.”

  “I understand why you went there, Hal. I just don’t know why you didn’t tell us as soon as you found out who he was—what he was. And what we are.” I said.

  She shrugged. “He asked me not to.” From anyone else, that might have come across as indifferent. Coming from Halli, I knew it came from her innate goodness and trust in people. It wasn’t even a question for her—she trusted Joe, so she did as he asked.

  “He didn’t tell me everything, anyway. He figured out there was something bad going down at the school as soon as you guys asked for his help getting signed up. He asked me to let him know when the real fight started. He told me he had ways to get us—him and me—there quickly, so as soon as you contacted me he portalled us to the football field. He couldn’t portal us right into where you were because it wasn’t somewhere he’d been before. We followed your trail from there.”

  “I’m starving.” Alec rubbed his stomach. “We should eat while we discuss.”

  None of us could stay mad at Halli, if we’d even been mad to begin with. We fixed and ate lunch. Joe returned just as we were cleaning up.

  “Gather around, Five. We have some things to discuss,” he said.

  That didn’t go over so well.

  “Don’t think you can just come in here and start ordering us around, Joe. We need your help to learn, I get that. But don’t try to boss us,” Johnathan snapped. “We’ve done fine on our own so far and we can do fine without your help if we have to.”

  “I apologize for sounding bossy. We have much to cover and no time to waste. You can’t even begin to understand the amount of information you don’t yet know. You’ve been surviving without training, but by no means have you been thriving. Without me, you could all very well be dead now, with no hope for the future of mankind. Your purpose is more important than you as individuals—the sooner you understand that, the better this will go. I will ‘boss’ you, Johnathan, because I have to. And, you will listen to me, because the world is counting on you. Now, please, sit down so we can talk.”

  “We will not—”

  “Yes, we will. Just sit down, John. He’s right, we do need his help and he did save our butts today.” I averted my eyes from his so as not to see his anger.

  He sat. So did the rest of us.

  “First thing I want to put out there is that we can’t just assume Brone is dead. In fact, chances are he’s not. He may have been severely injured—most likely he was—but you can never count a Warlock with his strength out. We have to prepare for the likelihood that he’ll be back. Now that he knows the Five are back, he will not rest until you’re all dead … or he is,” explained Joe.

  “I have a question. What, exactly, is a Warlock?” Alec asked.

  “We really do need to start with the basics, here, I guess. A Warlock is also known as an ‘oath breaker’. He is one who once belonged to a coven of wizards—or minor mages. These wizards aren’t nearly as strong as the Five or most of the Fae. They’re the soothsayers, potion masters, those who can commune with the dead. They almost always have just one of the powers but they know about the others. They stay as far away from the Fae as they can and don’t involve themselves in anything un-human.”

  I thought of Madame La Forte.

  “So, a Warlock is a former member of a coven, who broke his oaths with them—usually by betraying the trust of the coven. Warlocks turn to Demons to call up dark power; they reject the reverence of Mother Nature; they fight against humankind in their lust for more power. Warlocks usually work alone, but have been known to form Dark Covens to increase their power. Brone is a very old Warlock with a huge desire for power. It’s like a drug to him. The more he gets, the more he wants.

  “I’ve thought him dead before. In fact, before today, I was sure he was dead. I saw him die with my own eyes … by my own hand.”

  “How will we know if he survived?” I asked.

  “He’ll come for you.”

  That silenced our questions for a minute.

  Joe went on to explain how Brone could easily track us by our magical spells—which leave a trail of sorts.

  “Let him track us down. We defeated him today, we can do it again.” Alec sat up straighter.

  “Don’t underestimate his power. He didn’t know he was dealing with the powers of the Five and he was caught off guard. That won’t happen again. We need to prepare to leave at a moment’s notice; you aren’t ready to fight him by a long shot.”

  “We’re just going to let him scare us away from our home? That’s your plan?” Johnathan asked, disgusted.

  “That is the plan if you want to live to fight another day. Prepare your belongings, only those things that can fit in your backpacks. Keep them near at hand at all times. I don’t plan on moving you out just yet; you’re as safe here as anywhere else in the city. Let’s prepare to set up some stronger wards. Training begins now.”

  I glared at Johnathan with narrowed eyes, willing him to keep his mouth shut and do as he was asked. He squirmed under the intense gaze I’d learned so well from my mom. He clamped his mouth shut and ground his teeth until I thought they’d break. But, he stayed quiet.

  I fell into my bed well after midnight. We were exhausted. Joe had not only started right in on teaching us the proper wa
y to cast spells, but he also started teaching us physical combat. He was surprised at how much we’d learned from Halli. His observation of her skills brought the first genuine smile to his face I’d seen all through the rigorous day.

  We were all awakened a short two hours after we’d been dismissed.

  “Five! To me … assemble!” Joe said. At first I thought he’d said it out loud but then I realized the words were inside my head. I’ll admit—it freaked me out a little.

  Halli and I jumped up at the same time—I was glad to see she’d heard Joe, too. It was a relief that it wasn’t just more insanity taking over my brain; I’d had enough of that lately.

  We grabbed our backpacks, threw on our shoes, and sprinted to the main room. Joe had instructed us to sleep fully clothed in case we needed to make a quick exit. The boys were already there, since it’s where they slept anyway.

  We stood in front of Joe.

  “That was a practice run. Next time will be the real deal. Good job. Now go back to bed,” he said.

  He didn’t have to tell me twice; my pillow was calling me. As we turned to go I heard Alec mutter, “Seriously?”

  I looked back at Joe. He was standing closer to Alec than I was, so I know he heard him. I was relieved that he chose to ignore it. He turned and walked to a table on the far side of the room, slumped down into a chair and laid his weary head on his arms.

  “Five! To me … assemble!”

  De’ja vu.

  I awoke to Joe’s voice in my head again a few hours later.

  I started to put my shoes on a little sluggishly, and then remembered what he’d said. Next time will be the real deal. That put more speed into my shoe application process. Halli and I were up and out the door, backpacks in tow, shoes and gear belts on, faster than the first time by a hair.

  “This better be the real thing,” Alec wiped the sleep from his eyes.

  As if in answer to his comment, the trap door at the top of the stairs exploded up into the room above us as the wards were set to do when they were tampered with. Joe stood in front of us and commanded, “Hold hands!”

  We scrambled to find and grasp each other’s hands. It seemed to take endless seconds as Joe made sure we were all connected. Looking at the stairs, a wave of fear and revulsion coursed down my spine.

  “Brone,” I gasped.

  The Warlock nearly fell in his rush to get to us. He wore the same clothes he’d been wearing in his lair and at school earlier that day—only they were burned to his charred skin. The whole left side of his face was a mixture of open wounds, dripping with pus, and blackened flesh that looked like it would turn to ash if touched. His eyeball on that side was nothing but a shriveled raisin hanging from a thin strip of ligament. His injuries were a grotesque representation of what happens when a ball of flame erupts in your face. It was definitely something I could have gone without seeing in my lifetime—something I could never erase from my memory.

  He leaped from the top of the stairs to the bottom.

  My grip on Johnathan and Halli’s hands tightened with anxiety. I felt the tug of the portal Joe created and my last glimpse before being swept away was of the grotesque Brone, lunging toward us, his deformed mouth forming around a scream of rage.

  he landing this time was way more disorienting than last time. Probably because it was still dark, the sun was not yet peaking over the western horizon, and because I had no idea where we were. If I had to guess from the looming shapes and lack of trees around us, I would have guessed the surface of Mars.

  As it turns out, I was several hundred million miles off on my guess.

  Alec created a star-bright in his hand, illuminating a dreary landscape of mostly rocks and sagebrush. We were in a shallow canyon, with walls of rock on each side, twenty yards or so apart from what I could tell in the dim blue light.

  “Where are we?” Alec pulled his jacket closed around him.

  “This is Cowiche Canyon, just outside Yakima,” Joe answered.

  “Yakima? You portalled us all the way to Yakima?” Seth’s mouth hung open in shock.

  “Yes, and it wasn’t easy. I’m afraid it sapped what little was left of my strength.”

  “Well, it’s freezing out here and I don’t see much in the way of shelter, so what now?” Johnathan said.

  “We should be close to some shelter. Find a rock formation next to the trail that looks kinda like the Easter Island statues. Let me know when you find it. I’m going to sit here and rest up a little,” Joe slumped to the hard, cold ground.

  We each lit up our channeling rods and spread out to search the canyon walls. It didn’t take long.

  “Found it,” Seth yelled from a short distance away.

  I was closest to Joe so I jogged back to him and helped him up. He tottered a bit as he stood; I steadied him with an arm around the waist and a grip on his arm. He shuffle-stepped to where the others were gathered in front of a large rock that truly resembled the faces at Easter Island.

  “Now what? There’s no shelter here, either.” Johnathan hadn’t let go of his attitude yet.

  “What is visible with your eyes isn’t always the true picture,” Joe said. “Look with your sight open.”

  I concentrated on opening my sight. I drew in a sharp breath as the true picture presented itself before me—the rock wall that seemed, a second before, to butt up next to the Easter Island rock was actually a few feet to the side and rear of it. I let go of Joe and stepped into the space that hadn’t been there a moment before.

  A short and narrow entrance opened up into a large cavern after several yards. I was busy inspecting the apparent caches of supplies there when Halli came through.

  Alec and Seth were next, followed by Johnathan, who helped Joe amble in.

  “Whoa, this is awesome,” Alec said. “Paige, it was so cool when you went through, I didn’t have my sight open yet—you’re incredibly fast at that, you know—and it looked like you just sort of melted into the rock wall. Freaky cool.”

  I smiled. The scary situation we were in was just another adventure to him. A freaky cool adventure.

  “What is this place? Who left all these supplies in here?” Halli asked.

  “It’s a refuge. They can be found in various places around the world—they’re all marked with a natural replication of something else. There’s one in Arches National Park in Utah that looks like an elephant … a ginormous elephant. That one has a huge cache of supplies.” Joe’s eyes closed with exhaustion.

  “So, like Halli asked,” Jonathan interjected. “Who put the supplies here?”

  “I don’t know—I just know they were always there when we needed them. My trainer said there are forces out there that are on our side, humans that are somehow aware of our mission. Some of those wizards and minor mages we talked about last night. She even thought that maybe the archangels had a hand in assisting us.”

  “What about the Demons and the Fae … and Brone? Don’t they know these exist?” I gestured around the cave.

  Joe sighed. “They’ve accidentally stumbled across one here or there. They can’t see or enter them, but when they suspect a refuge somewhere, they just destroy the whole area. Like Mt. St. Helens … that was a great refuge. Mia was in there when Brone blew it up …” He drifted off, the exhaustion finally overtaking him.

  We let him rest, moving away from him to explore our new digs. “Brone was responsible for Mt. St. Helens?” Seth said. “Was Joe serious? I’ve seen pictures of that disaster—he must’ve had some major bad Demon mojo helping him.”

  “Yeah, no joke,” said Halli. “I wonder who Mia was.”

  “Had to be one of the Five with Joe,” I said. Silence ensued as we all thought about losing anyone from our group. It made my stomach do massive flips.

  Johnathan broke the silence of our morose thoughts. “I hear water flowing. It’s coming from the tunnel to the left.” He stood and started toward the tunnel of which he spoke—there were only two, I supposed we’d explore the oth
er one later.

  Ten or so yards into it, the rest of us could hear the water. The floor of the tunnel slanted downward at a gentle angle. After about a hundred yards, it opened into an underground cave, with a small stream running through its center. The openings on either end of the stream were too small for even Halli to fit through, but big enough for the stream. The cave itself wasn’t big; the five of us could barely fit. And that was with Alec standing in the middle of the stream. Johnathan had to duck his head to fit inside. The water was frigid. I had no idea how Alec could bear to stand in it. We filled the water bottles in our packs then trudged back to the main cavern where Joe slept.

  It had to be daylight outside by now, but none of us were up for exploring just yet. We found five warm blankets in the supplies. Halli draped hers over the sleeping Joe then climbed under mine—two bodies created more heat than one anyway. Inside, the cave was warmer than it had been outside on the trail, but it was far from cozy.

  “Paige … you awake?” Halli whispered.

  “I am now,” I said.

  “Sorry. I couldn’t sleep anymore and I really need to go outside and get some fresh air. You’d think after living in the Underground for months, I’d be okay with a cave, but it’s kinda making me claustrophobic. And I need to pee.”

  “Okay, let’s go explore our new surroundings a little.” I threw the blanket off us.

  We attempted, unsuccessfully, to sneak past Joe. “Where are you two headed?”

  “I just need some fresh air, Joe. We’ll stay close, I promise,” Halli said with such a sweet smile that Attila the Hun couldn’t have refused her.

  “Okay, but be on full alert and don’t be gone long. We have some training to do today,” he closed his eyes again.

  I smiled to myself. Joe’s training the night before had been grueling but exhilarating—I’d learned so much in just one short session that my desire for more lent to an excitement I hadn’t felt in years.

  The sun was shining and we had to shade our eyes as they adjusted to the unaccustomed brightness. Seattle was rarely this bright. Some of my excitement ebbed when I was finally able to see my surroundings. Cowiche Canyon was desolate, especially when compared to the greenery of Seattle and its surrounding communities.