by Kristen Pham
Despite not wanting a front-row seat to their reunion, a pang of deep joy filled her at the thought that Henry and Kanti had finally made up. It was sweet to revel in an emotion other than pain or grief or guilt, and it also made her think of Thai.
Was she really pushing him away because her mind was fraying, or did she think she didn’t deserve the bliss that would come from being with him? She didn’t know, but she decided to be selfish for once, and give into the urge that lived inside of her at all times.
That was when she started running, and she knew that the magic that had been all but stripped from her was returning. She didn’t stop until she made it home and found Thai in the garden with Emin, carefully planting seeds in the soft dirt.
“Cara is going to show me her power today,” Emin said to Thai. “Do you think she’ll let me borrow it?”
Thai laughed. “If she can, buddy, I’m sure she will.”
Emin turned and gave Valerie a hug before going back inside. Thai turned to her, and his eyes were expectant.
“I’ve been waiting for you to come home,” he said, and she couldn’t help sensing that his words held two meanings.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I gave up, sorry I didn’t help you through your grief like you helped me, sorry—”
Thai interrupted her by pulling her into his arms.
“Me, too.”
“For what?”
“For forgetting that you’re more than a hero, you’re a person. One I love,” he whispered into her hair.
“I’m going to face Reaper again and again until I defeat him or he kills me. Even if I survive, I think I won’t be in charge of my mind for long. But right now, I want to pretend none of those problems exist.”
“Okay. Then there’s somewhere I want to take you.”
Valerie’s first official date with Thai was different from any other first date in the universe. He went to his room and pulled out a stone.
“Since travel between the worlds has been possible, I’ve taken walks in places on Earth I never thought I’d see, places that are remote or beautiful or famous. And every single time, all I could think about was how much I wished you were with me.”
Valerie’s heart thumped as he moved closer to her, standing so her head was level with his heart.
“But there was one spot I swore you had to see. Neither of us is allowed to die before going there together. Let me take you now.”
Valerie nodded, wordless, and Thai gripped her hand and held it to his heart. The world melted around them, morphing into the ruins of a once-great castle. Grass had grown in between the stones. Valerie’s gaze swept past the ruins. They were on a cliff, and there was a dramatic view of a raging blue-green ocean.
But it wasn’t the beauty of the site that struck her most. It was the hum of ancient power that was threaded through the land, through the stones of the ruined castle, and even poured from the stormy sea. Breathing it in was intoxicating. Her own magic surged in response.
The wind whipped Valerie’s hair out of its braid as she tilted her head back to breathe in the power of the place. “It’s out of a fairy tale.”
Thai’s face was alight with mischief. “You’re right. It’s Tintagel Castle, where King Arthur was rumored to have been born.”
The legend of King Arthur was one that Valerie had held close to her heart since she was a child, and ever since she’d discovered that her mother had left her a copy of the story, it had become even more tightly knit in her heart. Only Thai would think of bringing her here, and she let the magic and meaning of the place settle into her bones.
Valerie sucked in a breath, and the hum of power from the land around them synchronized with the hum of her own magic. She turned to look at Thai, half-drunk with the sensation, and he put his hand behind her neck and pulled her to him. Then his lips were on her neck, her cheeks, her eyelids, and finally her mouth.
He kissed her with all of the pent up passion of two and a half years apart. Every nerve ending in her body responded. Thai pressed her back against a tree, and she raked her fingers through his hair like she’d been aching to.
For once, her conscience was mute. Just this once, she’d let herself be with Thai. She’d face all the reasons why she couldn’t be with him tomorrow. She wanted every part of them to be intertwined, and his magic responded to her wish, leaping to flow into her, amplifying her own until she was almost dizzy. Or maybe it was his kisses that were doing that.
When Thai pulled back, his eyes were dark and shining and beautiful. “When you kiss me like that, I swear I see a world remade.”
“When you kiss me, I can almost see it myself.”
Valerie woke the next morning, her body humming with something other than magic. Something better, she decided. She had never been more awake, more ready for what was coming.
She had to do something with the energy that was bursting from her, so she tied her shoes and quietly slipped out the window, so that Mr. and Mrs. Burns wouldn’t catch her coming from Thai’s room.
Then she ran, letting her magic power her legs. Trees sped by in a raucous gold blur. She had reached the Lake of Knowledge when Henry invited her into his mind.
She tucked herself into a nook of one of the trees nearby and concentrated on her brother. He was on a training field in Elsinore with Kanti, who gripped his hand in hers.
Henry’s mind skipped between excitement and terror as a Conjuror approached him. She was tall and thin, and her body was tense, wary.
The woman’s eyes flicked to Kanti. “You said he would help me find my magic, but I’ve heard that sometimes his gifts end up being more trouble than they’re worth.”
“You can trust Henry, Gertrude,” Kanti said.
Henry took a breath. “I know you mean people like Blake, who I gave the power of invisibility.”
Gertrude nodded. “He was invisible, but breakable. Even now that he has expunged that power from his system, his bones creak in wet weather.”
“Reaper made me give specific powers to his soldiers, forcing them all into the same molds. When it ran contrary to the natural direction of that person’s magic, the power weakened, or became fractured. I won’t force your magic to do anything it doesn’t want to.”
The lines in Gertrude’s forehead eased at Henry’s words. “I weary of being at the heel of those whose magic is more evolved. I want to protect myself and my family.”
“And your country,” Kanti added.
Gertrude raised an eyebrow. “If I must. It is not a cheap price to pay, risking my life, but I will do it for the chance that my spark of magic will become a flame.”
Henry placed his hands on Gertrude’s shoulders. He bent forward, touching his forehead to hers. It was an intimate stance, but Henry’s discomfort quickly dissolved as he reached for his power.
Until now, Valerie had never thought much about her brother’s power to gift others with magic. It was a part of his mind that was always cordoned off, untouchable. When Henry opened the door that unleashed his power, it was as unstoppable as when her vivicus power raged through her, but somehow more delicate.
His magic tiptoed to the root of Gertrude’s power. Instead of being like a spark, as she described, to Henry, it was like a lump of clay, something malleable that could be shaped into different forms. Henry kneaded it, testing its texture for possibilities. What shape would make it strongest?
A power associated with water would weaken it, air would crumble it, he decided. But fire would harden it into something strong and beautiful. Henry’s imagination raced through the possibilities of what gift could be made that would enhance Gertrude’s natural aptitude.
Lightweaver. She would revel in the warmth of her gift, and the Fist needed as many lightweavers as they could get. Henry encouraged the clay, molding it, his magic manipulating it more and more rapidly as his confidence grew.
Then the power within Henry stilled. It was not depleted, but finished. The masterpiece was complete. Henry drew his magic back
into himself and stepped back from Gertrude.
Henry opened his eyes, and saw that Gertrude’s were still shut, a small smile playing on her lips. She wiggled her fingers, and light danced between them.
When she finally opened her eyes, they were shining. “Thank you.”
Henry was dazed, a little in awe of what he’d done. The curse that had made him Reaper’s pawn was now his own tool against the darkness of the Fractus, the world, the mostly closed pit inside him. “You’re welcome.”
“Next!” Kanti shouted, and another eager Conjuror stepped forward.
Chapter 35
Valerie stayed in Henry’s mind for a long time as he gifted Conjuror after Conjuror with different powers. There were two more lightweavers, more than a dozen with enhanced fighting reflexes, and many more with powers that Valerie had never heard of. They’d been dreamed up by Henry’s imagination.
He was weary, but ecstatic. Valerie guessed that he’d keep working until he dropped from exhaustion or Kanti forced him to stop. But she had to pull away and return to the world and responsibilities that were waiting for her.
She had chosen today to visit Reaper’s strongholds on Earth and the Globe as surreptitiously as possible. She doubted that Skye or Chisisi would approve of her putting herself in so much danger, but Valerie needed to see for herself what she would be up against.
At home, she wound her braid around her head and pulled on a sweatshirt with a deep hood. She looked in the mirror, shaking her head at her flimsy disguise, when she realized that she was thinking like a human. If she wanted a good disguise, there was an easy way to get one.
The Grand Master of the Glamour Guild, Roza, had set up a base on Earth in Italy. She’d told Valerie that if she was going to help fight this filthy war, then she’d live somewhere beautiful. From there, she and the members of her guild worked with soldiers of the Fist on various disguises, as well as hiding key safe houses around the world.
Valerie went to Roza’s villa and found the Grand Master talking to some of the Masters in her guild. She’d exchanged her tentacles for legs, but she was still striking in an alien way in her human form. Roza dismissed her companions when she saw Valerie.
“If you are here for a cloaking spell for another hundred soldiers, I will need time,” Roza said.
“It’s nothing like that. I need a disguise for myself. A good one.”
Roza examined her. “Who are you trying to fool?”
“Everyone. I’m going into the Fractus’s camp, and I can’t be recognized.”
“I can’t disguise you from a mind as well-trained as Reaper’s. Even some of his generals would see through any disguise I could manufacture.”
Valerie shifted uncomfortably. “I’m going whether you help me or not. Without you, I’m pulling this hoodie over my head and hoping for the best.”
Roza snorted, the sound completely incongruous with her beautiful face. “Well, I can certainly do better than that. Come.”
Roza led Valerie into a chamber off of the main hallway that was covered with mirrors.
Valerie was a little nervous as Roza examined her. “What will you do? Turn my hair blonde? Or make me into an animal, maybe?”
Roza chuckled. “Subtle disguises are the ones that work best. The magic is often overlooked, even by masters of the craft.”
A gentle hum surrounded Valerie, and she watched as a touch of silver threaded her hair. The wrinkles by her eyes and in her brows deepened, and her skin was looser. As a final touch, Valerie’s light brown eyes darkened until they were nearly black.
She could still recognize herself inside the disguise, she saw with relief. Her reflection reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t put her finger on who.
“Now for your weapon,” Roza said.
Valerie handed over the daggers she carried, and under Roza’s touch, they dimmed. They weren’t as perfectly black as the weapons wielded by the Fractus, but they wouldn’t draw attention, like a weapon forged of light would.
“Will they still work like this?”
“Not as well. I worked with Cyrus to see if we could hide the light coming from the weapons, but altering them in any way corrupts the magic. So if you are attacked today, you will have little protection.”
“Is this the part where you tell me not to do this?”
Roza’s lips twitched. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Commander. At it happens, I have a fondness for bold moves, and I suspect you could handle yourself with your bare hands against most enemies.”
“Thank you,” Valerie said, gesturing to her disguise, but she hoped Roza understood that she was thanking her for more than that.
Roza shook her hand. “Whisper your full name when your mission is complete, and the spell will fall away.”
Valerie sheathed her daggers “If only all magic could be dismissed so simply.”
Valerie had retained a handful of sand from the Atacama Desert in a vial that she’d brought with her, so travel to Chile was simple.
The sight of the transformed desert took Valerie’s breath away. When she’d fought Reaper there, she hadn’t had the chance to register the magnitude of the impact the unleashed flame had on the landscape.
Dunes of glass stretched for miles, reflecting the relentless sun. Beneath her feet, the glass was like ice, slippery and smooth.
There were a handful of tents set up about half a mile from where Valerie stood. In spite of the heat, part of her was tempted to pull up the hood on her sweatshirt, disguised or not.
As she approached the camp, the glass beneath her feet subtly changed color from pale brown to a bluish hue.
“What’s your business?”
Valerie snapped her head toward the voice and saw an enormous bear who was vaguely familiar standing at the entrance to one of the tents, his black sword held loosely in his hand.
He approached her, and Valerie recognized him. He was the Grand Master of the Illuminators’ Guild.
“Reaper sent me for a status report.”
The bear’s chest rumbled at her words. He raised his sword, and his ink-dipped weapon tugged at her magic. “Lies.”
Valerie had less than a second before the bear charged. She braced herself, her strength rushing through her body. When he hit her, it was like a bus smashing into a boulder. She angled her shoulder, and he flew over her back, falling heavily on the ground behind her.
More Fractus were emerging from the tent, two with black eyes. The brilliant desert sun dimmed as the air around her hummed with twisted magic. She threw a dagger at one, slicing his leg, and had knocked a second unconscious by the time he’d registered that his comrade had fallen.
The Fractus’s eyes were on her, assessing her weaknesses. She could stand and fight, but to what end? There were between thirty and fifty Fractus in the camp. She didn’t want to find out if she could take them all on by herself.
Valerie turned to the Grand Master, who was snarling, about to charge her again. “You’re right. I lied. Reaper didn’t send me, but I am Fractus. I came because I follow no one blindly. I wanted to see if what he says about this place is true.”
The Fractus glanced at each other, uncertain, and Valerie searched for words that would reach them. “Are we human puppets, or are we Conjurors, gifted with magic to wield as we will?”
The bear stood, glaring at her as he rubbed his back, but he didn’t attack. “Do you know who you’re talking to? I am a Grand Master.”
“Illuminators’ Guild,” Valerie said, and the bear stopped bearing his teeth in aggression. “So I assumed you’d understand.”
“Very well. You will only see that Reaper’s words are true. We hide no secrets here,” the bear growled. “But he will hear of your impertinence.”
“That one woman kicked three of you to the ground? Go ahead, maybe he’ll let me lead a bigger team,” Valerie said with a forced swagger.
She followed the bear to a tent that was larger than the others. She stepped inside, and her gut twisted.
>
They were in the spot where the flame had once burned. But instead of its light, there was a pit that was bubbling with black Carne that had come from the bowels of Plymouth. A Fractus stood over it, holding a long staff that he occasionally dipped in the substance.
Valerie kept her face blank, for the first time thankful for her years in foster care, where showing any emotions would only be used against her.
“You see? More arrives every day,” the bear growled.
Valerie nodded, hoping she looked like she knew what he was talking about. “There’s not as much as I thought there would be.”
“There is more here than you realize. The pool is half a mile deep. Any deeper, and we will hit water. But perhaps you do not believe me and would like to dive in and check for yourself?”
The bear grinned at his own joke, and Valerie took an involuntary step back. “So we really are close to harnessing the power in the glass desert.”
“Soon. After it has served Reaper’s purpose, we will push this Carne deeper, so it meets the ocean and can begin to spread all over the world. Then the humans will be safely under our control, as we planned.”
“For their own good,” Valerie said, but her stomach roiled.
The bear stared into the black pool as if he was hypnotized by its darkness. “I, for one, will be here the day Reaper activates the desert and we begin remaking the world.”
“I’ll be here, too,” Valerie said.
“You think he’ll let you, recruit? Because you tossed me over your shoulder once? You have much to learn.”
“He won’t have a choice.”
Chapter 36
Valerie hadn’t given the Fractus in the Atacama Desert any warning before she gripped the rock from her garden in her pocket and left. Her sudden exit would be strange, but she hoped that they wouldn’t be suspicious enough to report the incident to Reaper.
She saw movement in her house and slipped out of her garden before anyone called her inside. It wasn’t time to release her disguise yet, and she didn’t want Thai to see her looking like she’d aged thirty years in a day.
