by Kristen Pham
Valerie saw Sanguina hanging back with the other Guardians from the Globe, clearly unsure what Valerie’s reaction would be to her presence. Valerie gave her a nod of acknowledgment, and some of the tension left Sanguina’s face. Henry may hate her for what she’d done, but Valerie knew that she’d been trying to save his life.
“We have a plan for how to use our powers in sync,” Olwain said.
Sanguina joined the conversation. “Our magic is complementary. When the Grand Masters decided who to send to Earth, they deliberately planned it that way so that we’d have maximum impact. If the Fractus are thinking we’ll be an easy target, they’re in for a big surprise.”
“Good,” Valerie said. “I trust your judgment, and we don’t have time to revise plans now, anyway.”
“The human Conjurors are all trained in combat,” Chisisi added. “They will not be beaten easily.”
Valerie had seen Chisisi fight, so she didn’t doubt his words.
“This may sound crazy, but the humans need to form the front lines rather than the Conjurors,” Valerie said urgently. “Zunya’s power won’t work as well on them, because they don’t have as much active magic to be stripped.”
“Makes sense,” Thai said, and he moved to the human Guardians to explain the plan.
“Those of you with magic, unleash from behind and engage in combat only when it’s absolutely necessary,” Valerie said.
“Agreed, with one exception,” Alex said. “Olwain and I will fight at the front with the human Guardians. We’ll avoid Zunya, but we won’t do much good from the rear because our power is our fighting skill.”
“I should also battle on the front lines. I’m immune to the touch of most magic, and would not be of much help in the rear,” Sanguina added.
“All right. Alex, Olwain, and Sanguina, you’ll issue instructions to the human Guardians. They probably haven’t seen as much fighting as you have,” Valerie replied.
Everyone had gathered around her now, watching her with tense expectation in their eyes.
“We don’t know a lot about the Fractus who are on Earth. Some, like Zunya, can steal magic from Conjurors. Others can affect electronics,” Valerie said.
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Elisabeth said.
“They can also throw lightning,” she added, and her words elicited nervous muttering. Still, they all pulled weapons from various places. She saw guns, knives, and even a sword. Their fear was mixed with determination, and Valerie couldn’t help but be impressed by their courage.
Before Valerie could find words to inspire the little group, Zunya appeared, cutting straight through the grass. He hadn’t come alone. A dozen shadowy forms were a short distance behind him, and Valerie recognized Logan immediately. So did Thai, she noticed as she watched him narrow his eyes.
Valerie reached for Pathos before remembering that she could do nothing to help. She saw Zunya staring at her, and his yellow eyes were triumphant. He’d enjoy watching her suffer, unable to help her friends as they fought the Fractus.
“Here we go,” Thai said, and he shoved the Byway into an inside pocket of his jacket.
Valerie’s team didn’t wait for the Fractus to reach them. Instead, they rushed forward and met the approaching Fractus with their fists and weapons raised. Zunya took a step back, surprised by the coordinated push. She knew the moment he recognized Sanguina, because a pulse of rage and fear crossed his face before he could hide it.
Valerie’s heart pounded as she watched the battle unfold, unable to fight. She suspected that many of Zunya’s team were human, rather than from the Globe. They had powers like Venu’s, an enemy from her past who had frog-like abilities to leap high, move fast, and emit poison that could kill quickly.
She saw that several of Zunya’s group had more strength than average, though not enough to completely defy Earth’s rules. Every time she noted a skill, she quickly moved through her own team, equipping them with more knowledge of whom they were up against. Alex, Olwain, and Sanguina were quick to direct the human Guardians, even while they fought the Fractus themselves. Valerie was amazed at how Sanguina’s handicap seemed to vanish when she fought, as if she were in her element only with a weapon in her hand.
When two of the Fractus began throwing lightning, Chisisi shouted an order, and the Guardians from the Globe raised their hands. The lightning sizzled in the air and fell to the ground as sparks. The sparks landed on some of her team and Valerie heard shouting. Everyone frantically patted their clothing to keep it from igniting, and no one was set ablaze.
Zunya himself zeroed in on Thai as if the Byway was giving off some signal from his pocket.
“Don’t let him touch you,” Valerie said. Her entire body was tense as she watched Zunya approach. It was physically painful to know that Thai was about to be attacked, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Thai grunted as he aimed a kick at Zunya’s chest. Thai was sweating heavily, and she could see that Zunya’s pull on his magic was having an effect.
“We need light!” she shouted to the group, remembering that Zunya’s powers worked better in the dark. It worked to his advantage that the day was cloudy.
The Grand Master of the Flora Guild, a man with white flowers woven in his short, dark hair, raised his hands to the sky. Slowly, the clouds parted, enough for slivers of light to reach the ground.
Thai ducked and tumbled as Zunya reached for his arm, narrowly avoiding contact. A shaft of light hit Zunya, and he winced, though it didn’t stop him from following up with a punch that hit Thai squarely in the jaw.
At the contact with his skin, Thai dropped to the ground. Zunya leapt on top of him, and Valerie screamed.
Chrome flew out of the air and tackled Zunya, howling as he made contact with the vampyre. Zunya might have done real damage to the wolf if Chisisi hadn’t followed up with a series of blows so rapid that Valerie wondered if he was gifted with magic, as well. Zunya expertly head-butted him, which sent Chisisi staggering backward. Despite his success, Zunya was breathing heavily.
Valerie saw Zunya scan the battle, and for the first time since Thai had been attacked, she took note of how the rest of her team was faring. The Fractus were outnumbered, and Valerie saw two of them lying unconscious on the ground, one of whom was Logan.
The rest of the Fractus were fighting for their lives, and they weren’t going to win this fight.
“Retreat now!” Zunya commanded, not waiting to see if the rest of his team followed his orders.
“Sir, what about the fallen?” cried one of the Fractus who had been throwing lightning.
“Abandon them. They’re useless to us now,” Zunya snarled.
The Fractus followed his lead, but Valerie could see a few glancing backward at their fallen comrades with regret.
“Let’s chase them down and finish them off,” Elisabeth said eagerly.
“No,” Valerie said. “We don’t know if Zunya has reinforcements nearby. He underestimated us this time, but he won’t do that ever again. We were lucky.”
“Valerie is right. I’ve seen him use a strategy in the past where he has a second wave of Fractus waiting in case he and his team are pursued. He has no problem if his men die fighting, as long as they delay the enemy long enough for him to escape,” Sanguina added.
“Let’s not risk any more lives today,” Chisisi agreed. “Is the Byway safe?”
Thai patted his pocket and nodded.
“Then we take it somewhere that can’t be easily found,” Chisisi said firmly.
“What about the Fractus? Shouldn’t we bring them to justice?” Alex spoke up, eyeing the fallen enemies.
Valerie didn’t miss Thai’s scowl at Logan’s unmoving form. He didn’t even check to see if she was seriously hurt.
An image of a wolf sniffing the wind passed through Valerie’s mind. Chrome detected large quantities of magic nearby.
“Without vehicles, we will have to leave our enemy behind,” Chisisi said as the humans glanc
ed about uneasily, unnerved by the image Chrome had shared.
It would be a long trek back to the city without any vehicles to carry them.
Valerie let her mind return to the Globe to check on Henry and the progress of the effort on the Globe, but she returned to Earth a few hours later. Chisisi, Thai, and the rest of the group had reached the electronics shop dirty and tired, but the giddiness of winning a battle had sustained them.
Thai pulled the old toy that disguised the Byway out of his pocket. It didn’t glow or change, and Thai shook it once, like that might make the key appear.
“Perhaps because Zunya ripped away your power, it will not respond to your touch,” Chisisi suggested.
Valerie saw Sanguina eyeing the Byway with a tension that only increased as it was passed around the room. It didn’t respond to contact with anyone, even the Conjurors sent from the Globe.
“Maybe that glowing key thing doesn’t appear every time,” Elisabeth said hopefully.
Valerie flashed back to the fight earlier and remembered Zunya on top of Thai, about to beat him senseless. Had he taken it then? Or at least, taken the part of the Byway that mattered, and left the shell?
“Zunya didn’t miscalculate how many Fractus he brought with him. He wanted us to think we had won,” Sanguina said, her anger in careful check except for a twitching muscle in her cheek.
Chisisi bowed his head. “So we would not follow him. Now it is too late to hunt him down.”
Chrome growled at the words. An image of following Zunya’s trail pulsed through her mind, and she knew that next time the wolf encountered Zunya, he would rip his throat out, even if it meant sacrificing his own life to touch the vampyre for such a sustained length of time. His bloodlust was so overpowering that the vision he sent was tinged with red.
“It’s okay. I promise we’ll stop him,” Valerie said, wishing she were there in person to touch his flank and infuse some of her calm into him.
She turned to her team, who had fought so hard to protect the Byway. A few minutes ago, they had been triumphant, but defeat left them slumped in their chairs.
“This isn’t over,” she promised. “You’ll recover the Byway from Zunya. I have faith in all of you. After seeing you fight today, I know that Earth is in good hands.”
In a lower voice, to Chisisi and Thai, she added, “I won’t lose the battle on the Globe. I can’t.”
“You’ll beat them,” Thai said, meeting her eyes. “But first, we need to bury Joe. We will leave for America tonight.”
The next day, Henry, Valerie, Kanti, Cyrus, and Oberon all projected to the graveyard on Earth where Joe would be buried next to his wife. Thai and Chisisi were there, along with a couple of Joe’s friends and one brother who was still living.
A few people said some words, but Valerie couldn’t process them, awash in her brother’s emotions. Henry didn’t speak as he watched his father be lowered into the grave. Tears ran twin rivers down his cheeks.
After Joe was buried, people began to drift away after muttering a few awkward words to Henry. A few came close to patting him on the back or giving him a hug, but he shot them stares that had them hurrying away.
“Give me a minute, would you guys?” Henry asked, his voice a whisper. Cyrus and Oberon left, but with unspoken agreement, Kanti and Valerie stepped back, far enough away to give Henry room, but near enough that he remained in sight.
“He’s not getting better, is he?” Valerie asked Kanti.
Kanti shook her head. “That first night, I thought that he was beginning to recover, but now I don’t think so. Last night, he screamed in his sleep, and once he woke up with a weapon his hand. At first, I don’t think he recognized me.”
“What weapon?” Valerie asked. As an Empath, Henry shouldn’t be carrying a weapon unless there was an immediate need. The Empathy Collective saw physical violence as a last resort.
“A dagger. I don’t know where he found it,” Kanti said.
Valerie saw Joe’s brother approach Henry, and the two spoke briefly before he left. Now Henry was completely alone, and through their bond, Valerie knew his grief was reaching a kind of crisis.
“We’ve got to get back to him,” she said.
“Come on, baby, come back to the Globe,” Kanti said softly. Henry nodded, and they all returned to Henry’s bedroom, where Kanti held him as he shook.
“Tell me what I can do. Anything,” Valerie begged.
Henry didn’t look up from where his face was buried in Kanti’s shoulder. “There’s nothing anyone can do now.”
With those words, Valerie’s connection with her brother’s mind was cut off abruptly. Her first reaction was relief, which shamed her. She almost sagged from not having to experience his pain. But the second was hope. He had found the strength to push her out of his mind. Maybe he’d find the strength to recover after all.
Chapter 29
Valerie didn’t know how she would cope with her grief, stress, and guilt had she not been focused beyond the now, thinking about the next step in her battle plan. She checked Elden’s seed in her pocket at least once an hour, but it remained dormant. Waiting for the battle to begin was starting to seem like an acute form of torture, giving Valerie time to see all the holes in her plan.
“But you’ve also had the time to fix those holes,” Cyrus argued when she told him what she was thinking.
“That’s probably a better way to think about it,” Valerie admitted.
They were on their way to the Society of Imaginary Friends to talk with Dulcea about her efforts in organizing the Conjurors from the guilds in Arden who were not willing to support the Fractus. Valerie also hoped she’d find Jack, because she had some questions for him about the time he spent working for Zunya.
“Do you think Dulcea wants to see me?” Valerie asked anxiously. “If she wants you to be the go-between, that’s okay with me.”
“It’s not okay,” Cyrus said. “We can play out grudges after this is over. No one wants to live in a world ruled by the Fractus. You both need to get over yourselves until this battle is finished.”
Valerie nodded uncertainly as they reached the doors of the Guild. Cyrus pushed them open confidently, and Valerie wondered if he’d broken the news to his friends at the Society yet that he’d be switching to the Weapons Guild.
“Is Cara safe?” Valerie asked, changing the subject. “She’s banned from the voting, so why isn’t she here?”
Cyrus gave her a half-grin. “She decided it was time to stop being a chicken and to talk to Mom and Dad. She’s in Messina as we speak.”
“You must be relieved that she won’t be here for the battle.”
“Her chances of survival might be higher if she was here,” Cyrus joked, but Valerie could see beneath it that he was deeply relieved.
They weren’t taking their usual path to Dulcea’s office.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Dulcea’s set up in the Grand Master’s office now that Rastelli’s in jail,” Cyrus explained. “At first, she didn’t want to move into his space, but when it didn’t look like a replacement would be found any time soon, she finally agreed.”
Cyrus led her to an enormous trampoline painted with the number “22.”
“Do what I do,” he said with a grin.
Cyrus jumped a couple of times and then shot upward, twenty-two stories and stepped lightly onto a waiting mat. Then he gestured to Valerie to follow.
She stepped onto the trampoline and jumped, air whipping through her hair and clothes as floor after floor whizzed by and she was shot almost to the top of the building. When she approached the twenty-second floor, she slowed down, and it was easy to step onto the mat that was waiting there. Cyrus also had his hand stretched out, and his eyes glinted a little.
“Come on, not even a smile?” he asked.
Valerie tried to force one, because she knew Cyrus was trying to cheer her up. He knew how much she loved thrilling new experiences, and he obviously wanted to g
ive her a moment of fun in all of the craziness. He pulled her in for a quick hug.
“It will get better,” he whispered in her ear before pulling her toward a door covered in kids’ handprints in different colors.
“Rastelli had the door specially made, before he went nuts, of course,” Cyrus said a little sadly. “All the novices get to put their handprints on the door when they become apprentices.”
The door was slightly ajar, and Cyrus pushed it open without knocking. Which was rude, Valerie realized, as she stared at Dulcea and Jack with their arms wrapped around each other, kissing as if they were relying on each other for oxygen.
She and Cyrus slowly began to back out. But Cyrus released a sound that was half laughter, half gasp, and he clapped his hand over his mouth too late.
Dulcea and Jack saw them, and Jack grinned like the cat that ate the mouse. Dulcea blushed a little, but she didn’t let Jack go.
“Get your jaw off the floor, Cyrus,” Dulcea said in her best motherly tone. “It isn’t attractive.”
For the first time in days, she was smiling. It was obvious that Dulcea and Jack were happy, and it was another little spark of light in a truly horrible time.
“I’m glad you’re both here,” Valerie said, and Dulcea gave her a grateful nod for changing the subject. “I have questions for both of you.”
“Shoot,” Jack said, settling on a peppermint-striped couch that Valerie was sure belonged to Dulcea, not Rastelli. He lounged comfortably there, as if he’d spent a lot of time on it. Then Valerie quickly looked away, realizing he probably had.
“Okay, Jack first then,” Valerie said. “It’s about Reaper’s new weapon. It works kind of like those funnel things you used when you and your friends worked for Zunya, except it enters through a wound, so you can’t run from it, and it’s way more powerful. I wanted to know if there were any tips you had about combatting it.”
Jack sat up, his brow furrowed as he thought.
“Zunya never liked us to know more than we had to about how those funnels worked. But one thing the funnel did that you might be forgetting is that it let us use the power we took from Conjurors for a little while after we got it.”
