Midnight Metamorphosis

by Deborah E. Kehoe

  As I listen and watch Atticus speak, I am fiddling with the ring on my finger, in awe of what I am listening to. We learned of this in school, but I didn’t realize that Dani’s and my rings were those used in this famous ritual. Somehow Avery must be related to Gaea, and this is why our rings react to each other.

  A more monotone voice speaks, and the figure of Atticus has frozen in front of me.

  “At the strike of twelve

  we, the Triad of Conn use our force of will

  to call forth the Daïmon Avdar of Tolterell

  and will siphon with this spell

  his power into those objects shelved.”

  There is an explosive pop, and a loud roaring, which turns into an evil chuckle. Through this noise, I hear my great great-grandfather Atticus speaking over Gaea, who is continuing her chant.

  “Avdar, you have been called forth and will feel our strength of will! Flora! Gaea! Join hands!”

  The noise gets louder, and the growling wind grows stronger.

  “With our names, Finn and Cleary, we unite and draw your power from you, using the powers of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water!” With the completion of those names, a shriek of rage howls through the room. Wind rips through the library, and then suddenly all is still. Papers flutter to the ground.

  “Flora! Flora, answer me!” I hear Atticus yelling.

  I jerked at the sound of a guttural voice that must be the Daïmon. “The names of Finn and Cleary will be remembered, and I vow to get back that which you have stolen from me!” With a loud crash, Avdar is gone.

  I hear a quiet sobbing, and then the sound cuts off.

  Sitting in the chair, I am struggling to breathe. I look at the ring on my hand, which had been throbbing with warmth during that final remembrance. I try to pull it off my hand, but it won’t release my finger, and in fact, seems fused into my skin. I take note of the mess in the library, but ignore it all, to run out the front door, my heart racing. I need to talk to Avery about this right away—this explains what’s been going on!

  Chapter 17

  Avery

  I opened the door as Devon was about to knock on it. I had heard his Camaro drive up. That was fast! I stepped back to let him in through the store door. The shop was closed, but you could still smell the scent of mint and Earl Grey, and a hint of vanilla from the shortbread cookies Brenna had made to sell earlier.

  He looked around curiously, and I could see him sniff, taking in the scent. He flashed a smile at me and raised a blonde brow in question.

  “Um, our apartment is in the back, if you want to come in?” As I asked the question I saw him glance towards the back door. “My aunt is actually out on an errand, so no one is, um, here right now.” I spoke tentatively, not entirely comfortable being alone with him at my house.

  We walked into the kitchen and wanting something to do I opened the fridge. “Did you want a glass of iced tea or a soda?”

  I poured us each a glass of tea and got some of my aunt’s oatmeal cookies out of a jar and put them on a plate. After working in the shop, getting drinks and sweets or plating cookies was done out of habit. Devon seemed appreciative though, as he grabbed a cookie and his glass and headed over to the couch. He threw himself down and let out a big sigh, taking a big gulp of his tea.

  “Ok, when I got home this afternoon, I decided to do some more research in our library.” He paused to take a drink of his tea, and then proceeded to explain what he’d learned about his grandparents from the journal.

  “I know your last name is Anderson, but Avery, have you ever heard the name Gaea Cleary before?” As he said that name, I glanced down at the initials on my ring. GC. I touched it gently, and then looked at his ring. AF.

  “No, but my mom wasn’t really into family history lessons. I didn’t even know about my Aunt Brenna. However,” I looked at him and glanced at my ring again, “my middle name is Cleary. Avery Cleary Anderson.”

  “Well, I think that says it all, don’t you?” He said and looked meaningfully at my ring and then put his hand in the air to show me his. “You have to be her relative if her ring is passed down in your family, just like mine is.”

  “But, when Cole and Brenna told me about my background, they didn’t mention anything about her, other than that she and Atticus called forth the Daïmon.” Shocked, I got up and sat back down again.

  “It’s possible that she doesn’t know.” At my look of confusion, he clarified. “If the ring is passed down from mother to first born daughter, then your own mother would have gotten the ring from your grandmother, and the story with it. She gave it to you right before she died, right?” I nodded a yes.

  “Like, literally, a couple weeks before,” I said quietly remembering that moment. “But she didn’t tell me anything about it!” I said in frustration.

  “She may have meant to tell you, but just ran out of time,” he said gently, and I nodded my agreement.

  “OK, so what does this mean?” I asked in confusion.

  “With the attacks increasing from the Daïmonids, we know they think you will have the power to send Avdar back to his dimension, Tolterell.”

  “Which is why they want to get rid of me,” I stated.

  “Uh, yeah,” he said, nodding his head emphatically.

  “But, you and Dani have the other rings. So…,” I trailed off not really knowing what the significance was.

  “Yeah. Well, we know the rings work together because we won that fight against the Daïmonids by joining our powers.” He looked at me. “But, they can also be used against each other, like when you and Dani shook hands in biology class and the place kind of exploded.”

  “I guess we need to be careful until we can figure out what to do.” I looked past his shoulder out the window and noticed that clouds had covered the sun, and it had turned into a gloomy day just like my mood.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he agreed. “Have you noticed what the day is today?” I looked back at him.

  “I know, Samhain is next Saturday. And, um, my birthday is also on Halloween.”

  He raised his eyebrows at me and said, “This should be an interesting week.”

  The following day the conversations at school all concerned the dance. The conversations among my friends all centered around my sixteenth birthday, and my growing powers. Cole, after a couple of days of missing school, returned to our group as if nothing had happened. Distracted by my growing friendship with Devon I didn’t press him about his absence. He and I got in a couple of practice sessions in between our games, homework, and my job at the tea shop, but I didn’t really learn anything new. Summer and Ben often hung out with us during those sessions, and Ana also dropped in occasionally around her party decorating schedule.

  We were all together this afternoon in my aunt’s backyard. Cole and I just finished today’s training, which was really just improving what I’d already learned. With practice, I could fling bolts of energy pretty quickly, and also cast a shield around myself and anyone standing near me. Summer had been a great help, using herself as a moving target. I was worried about hurting her, but Cole explained to me that my intent had to be to harm in order for my bolt to have that kind of power. So, since I didn’t want to hurt her, my bolt just gave her a slight zap. She was so quick that I only hit her with a bolt once, and when I did she giggled, saying that it tickled.

  We were relaxing around the table drinking iced tea and eating some shortbread cookies. I was tired of everyone’s focus being on me so I deflected that attention to Ana.

  “Ana, how’s the decorating going for the dance? You should be about finished with the dance being this weekend, right?” I asked quickly, before someone could bring up practicing another round of flinging bolts or hurling clods of dirt.

  Everyone looked at Ana, who flushed from her natural peachy skin tone, her freckles twirling wildly. Her natural instinct to turn her skin the shade behind her, which was the white wall of the house. Interestingly enough, white didn’t seem to be a color that
her skin could turn. Her freckles slowed down and her skin turned back to her natural shade. The wind blew a piece of hair across her nose and she reached out to push it behind her ear.

  She gave a Mona Lisa smile, “We are pretty much finished.” She had been pretty quiet about the decorations for the party, and there seemed to be a vow of silence among the committee members. She had however, mentioned last week that Dani was drafted to the committee by a couple of her new cheerleader friends.

  “What about Dani, is she still ignoring you?” I asked curiously. We hadn’t seen a lot of her lately and only noticed her lurking about a couple of times.

  “Well, she isn’t so much ignoring me as not noticing when I’m around,” she said with a small smile.” She is very busy cementing her status with the cheerleaders, and none of them really pay much attention to me.”

  Dani had her tryouts with the cheerleading squad and had easily made the team. Apparently, the gossip we had heard in class when she had first started was true. She was a really gifted gymnast, and the squad had already shown her off at her first football game. I’d heard that when our team had scored the winning touchdown she’d done front walkovers all the way down the football field, ending with a back flip.

  “One of the girls asked about Devon, trying to find out if he had a girlfriend, I guess. She said that he was already interested in someone here at school, so not to get her hopes up.” Summer, Ana, and I exchanged a look. Cole and Ben didn’t know this, but Devon and I had met almost every day to memorize our scene from Romeo and Juliet. He was still asking about Cole and me, especially since Cole had returned to the group. I’ve told him we weren’t a couple, and in fact, Cole wasn’t acting interested at all, which was kind of confusing. When Devon asked who I was going to the dance with, and I said Cole, he just grinned and said, “Thought so.” The second time Devon brought him up, he told me that since Cole and I weren’t a couple, he was going to go stag to the dance and he hoped to see me there. With mixed feelings I told him that I’m sure there were several girls who would be happy to go with him, and he said he’d been asked, and had turned everyone down which I have to admit made me kind of happy.

  I am so messed up. I mean, I really liked Cole, but it seemed like he was conflicted about being my Guardian and well, anything else. After spending some time with Devon, he didn’t seem as strange as he first had, and actually, he was kind of growing on me, becoming a friend.

  Summer opened her mouth, and I hurried to interrupt her. “Summer, have you finally decided what costumes you and Ben are going to wear to the dance?” This easily distracted her, as our costumes had been a hot topic last week at lunch. All of the couples going to the dance were dressing as famous pairs from history or Hollywood.

  “Well, Ben and I are going to go as Marilyn Monroe and JFK.” I could easily see Summer in that iconic white dress.

  “So, that means Bens costume is just wearing a suit?”

  “You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?” Ben wiggled his eyebrows at me and I laughed. “Have you two decided who you are going as?”

  Cole quirked his eyebrow at me, his piercing glinting in the sunlight. I laughed, “We’re going as Bella and Edward.” I had seen every Twilight movie and thought Cole would make a hot vampire.

  “Before or after she turns vampy?” Ana asked.

  “I thought I’d surprise you guys.” I had bought some white iridescent makeup that would help out with Cole’s vampire glow. The four of us made plans to drive together to the dance. Ana, who was working the refreshment table, was going to meet us there and I never even thought to ask if she had a date.

  Chapter 18

  Devon

  I parked my car next to my sister’s Jeep in the driveway. Finally! She’d been avoiding me, and I’ve wanted to talk to her about what she was doing on that building when we got attacked by those Daïmonids!

  The door to her room was open, so I let myself in. “Hi.” I leaned against the door jamb, watching her put makeup on at her desk. She looked at me in the mirror with a glint in her eye.

  “Hey.” She went back to putting on her mascara.

  “So, I see you’ve met a few scary friends lately,” I said watching her closely for a reaction.

  She sighed, “They aren’t my friends, but they are our father’s associates.” She turned around in her seat to face me a strange look on her face.

  I straightened away from the door. “What?” I spoke rather loudly, and she shushed me and motioned for me to close the door.

  I shut the door and turned to face her. “Why would our Father be associating with Daïmonids?” I took a step towards her, but she stood up and I stopped.

  “Come on, Devon, don’t be an idiot!” She flashed her hand at me, showing her ring, an exact duplicate of mine.

  “When father gave us these rings, he said that one day we would be using them.” She flung her hair over her shoulder.

  “You’ve been so busy playing nice with Avery that you’ve forgotten the reason why we were put into the same school with her!” She angrily walked over to her bed and picked up her purse. She threw the strap onto her shoulder and turned around.

  “Father has told me the real reason why we are here, because he knew you wouldn’t be able to handle it.” She said pointing a finger at me.

  “OK, I’ll play, why are we really here?” I asked, even though I could see where this conversation was going and I did not like it.

  “Avery, on her sixteenth birthday, is going to develop her powers, both Elemental and Seer, and you are going to take them from her. With my help.” She gestured at our rings. “These rings will enable us to draw her power from her. You’ve felt how they react to her!”

  “Yes, and I’ve also seen how her ring reacts to us.” I looked at her in question. “Why would you think that this wouldn’t backfire on us? She may be able to take our powers, too?” I looked at Dani and sat down in the seat she had vacated at her desk. “I suppose father told you how we were going to be able to do this?”

  “Yes, he did.” Dani’s expression showed her nervous excitement. “We are going to be there when she inherits her powers, during her transition.” She laughed, “I can’t wait to see the look on her face when we strip them from her!”

  “And the Daïmonids?” I couldn’t figure out why they would let us be strong enough to vanquish Avdar. “What do they get out of this?”

  “Avdar, needs a mortal vessel. Once you and I have taken Avery’s powers, he will inhabit your body. You will rule!” Her eyes glowed with an insane light.

  My family is crazy, I thought, shocked by the idea. I nodded my head, playing along “OK, so we are NOT going to vanquish him, we are going to let Avdar have my body, and wreak havoc on our world?” I tried to keep the horror from showing, hoping my face was as blank as my voice.

  “Yes!” She ran towards me and gave me a huge hug. “Isn’t this fabulous! Our family will be the ultimate power!” I lightly hugged her, and awkwardly gave her a pat on the back. Having delivered her news, Dani took off out of the room. My sister is officially insane!

  “Yeah, go us.” Like I’m going to sacrifice myself so a Daïmon can wipe us all out? Not if I can help it.

  That morning, our class was meeting in the auditorium. I tapped my foot nervously against the floor and looked around for Avery. She wasn’t usually late for class, and the second pair was already on the stage. We had been practicing almost every evening for the last few days in preparation for our scene. I was pulling my beaten up copy of Romeo and Juliet out of my backpack when the door slammed behind me. I whipped my head around and breathed a sigh of relief. Avery, Cole, and Ana walked in together. Avery hurried over to the seat next to me and slid into it. I looked behind her at Cole, and saw his face set angrily. It seems like that’s the only face the guy puts on anymore, I thought.

  “What’s going on? I didn’t think you were going to make it.” I leaned towards her and whispered in her ear. I saw her shoulder move up
a fraction, as she shivered slightly. The smell of grass and lemon lingered. I took a breath, savoring her scent.

  “Cole. He’s just, well, he isn’t really happy with this assignment.” She said and I glanced at Cole, sitting two rows back and smirked at him. He frowned back at me.

  “No kidding. Well, put that out of your head.” I nodded towards our teacher. “Newsome has put up the list, and we are going third.”

  “Great.” Avery said wrapping her arms around herself and nervously looked at the stage where two of our classmates were butchering the fight scene from the beginning of the book.

  “Hey,” I tipped her chin towards me so that our eyes met, “we can’t be any worse than them, right?” As I said that, the sound of swords clashing and two guys stiltedly saying their lines made her smile.

  “Yeah, you’re right. I just, well, I haven’t done anything like this before.” She said as she reached out and touched my arm and I stared down at her hand in shock. She’d never touched me on her own before.

  I covered her hand with mine, and our rings started to warm up, and a little sizzle went through me. She jumped slightly, so I knew that she felt it as well.

  We jerked apart at the sound of clapping and looked around. The two idiots on stage took bows and clapped each other on the shoulders. Mr. Newsome took their props away from them and set them aside, then looked at his clipboard.

  “Avery, Devon, you’re up!” Newsome yelled, and I stood and wiped my hands nervously on my jeans, then offered a hand to Avery to help her up. I heard some light applause and saw Summer slip into her seat beside Ana. They both were clapping and giving us encouragement. Avery smiled shyly over at them.