by Rena Barron
“It’s a door,” Frankie said, beside me again, her voice monotone.
“We can see that, genius,” Eli said on my other side.
“Maya,” a voice hissed in the wind. It came from the house. I could feel the Lord of Shadows on the other side of the door, watching me from the endless darkness. It wasn’t a dream version of him either. It was the real thing.
“You can’t be in my dreams,” I said, as the air around me warmed and my staff appeared out of thin air. I took one step forward, and the glow from the staff pushed back the darkness. It curled in on itself, retreating toward the house.
“Maya, don’t,” Eli said, grabbing my arm. “He wants to trick you into going back to the crossroads.”
A knocking sound came from the old house, like wood splintering and falling in great heaps onto the floor.
“He’s at the door,” said Frankie, her voice a whisper. “Don’t answer.”
I was starting to think that my friends were parts of my subconscious mind here to help me connect the dots. Eli represented the practical side of my brain, straight to the point. Frankie was the metaphorical side, warning me through invoking imagery. That was the exact opposite of how Eli and Frankie were in real life, which was another clue that this was a dream. The house was a path to the crossroads, and the Lord of Shadows had tapped it.
“Don’t be afraid, little one,” came his withering voice. “I’ll make your death quick if you free me.”
I countered his grim offer with one of my own. “Send my father’s soul back through one of the tears, and I’ll spare your life.”
“Are you sure?” The Lord of Shadows let out a laugh that cut right through me. “After tonight, he won’t need his soul anymore.”
My blood boiled with anger. I was sick of his threats. I banged the staff against the fence, which sent a stream of light that pushed the darkness back into the house. The door slammed shut. He was gone and the link that he’d connected to my dream, broken.
“Maya,” Eli said, shaking my arm.
“What?” I snapped as I turned to him.
His eyes were wide as he stared at something behind me. “The veil.”
I bolted up in bed, heart racing, my pajamas soaked in sweat. I fumbled to flip on the lamp on the table and knocked down my stack of comic books. The veil. I gasped as my senses kicked into action. My arms tingled as my magic picked up on the tear almost immediately. It was massive—bigger than any of the tears before. It was a gaping hole between our world and the Dark.
“Papa!” I said to the empty room, but as soon as I called his name, I knew that he was gone already. The Lord of Shadows’ last words taunted me: After tonight, he won’t need his soul anymore. Papa was in trouble.
TWELVE
Operation Go Dark
I hopped out of bed and changed into jeans and a T-shirt in record time. I could still feel the gaping hole in the veil as I tied my sneakers. My hands trembled so badly that my laces ended up in two messy knots. This was our chance. I had to make sure Papa was okay first, and when the tear was almost closed, we could slip into the Dark. I sent my magic down the staff to make a three-way call to Eli and Frankie. It was quicker to reach my friends with magic than go downstairs to the phone.
“I knew something was going on,” Eli answered before I could say anything. “Nana woke me up about an hour ago and asked me to watch Jayla until Auntie Bae got here. Then she did her celestial thing and poof . . . disappeared.”
“Um, guys, look outside,” Frankie said, coming on the line.
I jetted to the window and drew back the curtains. Flashes of white light streaked across the sky as black ink bled from the shadows. It crept across the streetlights, cars, trees, like a black blob, consuming everything. “It’s a distraction.” I hadn’t forgotten what Papa said. Never underestimate the Lord of Shadows. “There’s a bigger tear in the veil someplace far.”
“Can you get us there?” Frankie asked as I drew a circle with the staff and the first spark of magic grew.
“Yeah,” I said, a second before I stepped onto the walkway of spinning god symbols and landed in her room. “Are you ready?”
Frankie startled at the window and whirled around to face me. “That was quick.”
She was already dressed and slipped into her sneakers. I opened another gateway to Eli’s room, which was a complete mess. He had clothes everywhere.
“Auntie Bae’s watching TV,” he said, pressing a finger to his lips. “Let’s go before she hears your roaring portal or you wake up Jayla.”
“It’s not a portal,” I groaned. “A portal is like bending a sheet of paper in half to connect two points. I’m building a bridge that’ll allow us to travel at the speed of light—that’s a gateway.”
“Ohhh-okay,” Eli said, squinting at me like the difference didn’t matter. He couldn’t have been more wrong. I’d seen Papa make countless portals this summer, and they were much faster than building a gateway when traveling greater distances.
“Eli, I know you’re not up there playing music, boy,” his aunt called from downstairs. “Go . . . to . . . bed!”
He cringed, then yelled back, “Sorry, Auntie. I’ll turn it off.”
God symbols shimmered in golden light inside my head as I adjusted the gateway to seek out the tear in the veil. I was still so much slower than Papa at it. This new tear was far—much farther than the one in California. The farther apart two points, the harder to build a connection. That was why opening a gateway into the Dark took the most time and concentration. I shuffled the god symbols around to build a new walkway.
When I finished, the wind shifted from cool to warm. It smelled . . . salty. We ran through the gateway, our legs pumping hard. We were breathing fast, but not out of breath. Thousands of god symbols spun around us—stars, moons, animals, plants, geometric shapes, and symbols that defied logic.
“All those kickball games this summer paid off,” Eli said, practically patting himself on the back for suggesting that we start playing. “This is like a walk in the park.”
I was about to agree with him, but we took one step out of the other end of the gateway and dropped. “Oh, crap,” I screamed, tumbling in a heap of orange and blue everything with no ground in sight. A flock of seagulls squawked as we busted up their formation. Wings slapped me across the face, and I spat out feathers. I’d opened the gateway over an ocean. Well, that explained the smell.
The staff ripped from my hand and sprouted wings. I almost got my hopes up, but then it flew away and left us in the dust. “Hey, come back!”
I reached for the god symbols again, snatching them out of thin air with my thoughts. They spun around us like disco lights, pulsing, and slowed down our fall.
“I’ve got this,” Frankie hollered over the roaring wind. She stretched her arms toward the ocean and let out a blast of energy. Waves sprayed everywhere. In a split second, a crystal blossomed on the surface. We hit the barrier hard. It knocked the wind out of me, but it held.
Eli sat up, rubbing his head. “Is that what it’s like to skydive without a parachute?”
I climbed to my feet with my attention to the sky. High above the ocean a few yards away, shadows poured out from tear in the veil. A white light teetered below the hole, in the shape of a man. Papa! He glowed bright, and his light stretched out far and wide, pushing back the shadows. Farther down, Ogun sat astride a mega-size General, who roared, all six of his eyes glowing. Shangó wielded his double axes, chopping up the writhing shadows that slipped past Papa.
“Is it me, or is the hole getting bigger?” Frankie said, pointing up.
It had grown in a matter of moments. More shadows crawled along the edges of the tear. Some shot out for Papa and pierced through his celestial form. He faltered, falling back. Shangó and Ogun surged forward, cutting and slicing their way to him.
“Papa, no,” I screamed. He should’ve been safe at home, resting.
I reached for my staff until I remembered that it flew away.
I balled my hands into fists. I had to help Papa. Magic flared inside me. It buzzed in my ears like it was itching to burst free. Something fluttered across my vision, and I gasped as a pair of wings with a harness flew right into my chest. I stumbled back as I caught hold of them. Up close, I saw the same god symbols from my staff. Among the symbols were a sun, a leopard with raised paws, and a river.
I am the guardian of the veil.
I fumbled with the straps that got tangled in my clumsy hands. “Help me.”
“On it,” Frankie said as she and Eli both sprang to action. They wrestled with the black wings that beat around frantically.
“Oh, fun,” Eli exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “Now I have magical feathers in my mouth.”
I slipped my arm into the side of the harness he’d wrangled into submission. “Sorry! I can’t seem to get my magic under control.”
“Incoming!” he shouted, pushing Frankie and me aside. Darkbringers filled the sky, but they weren’t coming from the tear in the veil. They were coming from behind us. Too many to count.
“We’ll hold them off,” Frankie said, her magic dancing on her fingertips like sparks of lightning.
“I’ve got your back.” Eli pivoted so that he was next to Frankie and raised his fists before he went full ghost mode. “Maya, go!”
Ogun and Shangó broke off from helping Papa to meet the enemy in battle. Lightning cut across the sky around Shangó as he swung his axes left and right. Ogun and General tore through the darkbringers. But whenever Shangó or Ogun hit one of them, the darkbringer disappeared. Poof.
I flexed the muscles in my shoulders and found that the wings responded. Soon I was fumbling through the air, climbing up, even if it was the rockiest flight in history.
I’d made it halfway to Papa when darkness exploded from the tear, and too many things happened at once. It bled across the sky, blocking out the sun completely. Papa looked like a lone beacon on a lighthouse, shining into a storm. I pumped my wings harder. Everything was pitch-black except where Papa’s light pushed back a small pocket in the dark.
“I’m here, Papa!” I screamed as I flew toward him. Wading through the dark felt like I was neck-deep in icy mud.
“Am I glad to hear your voice, baby girl,” Papa grumbled. He sounded like he was being crushed under the shadows. “Help me push them back . . . Use your inner light like you did with the Lord of Shadows.”
Ice crystals crawled across my hands and up my arms, and they burned like nothing I’d ever felt before. When I reached Papa, he shifted his shape to his human form, but his light still poured out. His skin was ashy gray, and I looked down at myself, too. My hands and arms were the same. The Lord of Shadows was draining the brilliant colors from our world and . . . us.
I concentrated on the energy building inside me. The color came back into my skin, and the ice crystals melted. The heavy feeling of walking through mud went away. Patches of blue sky broke through the darkness.
“Give me your hand, baby girl,” Papa said, grimacing. His locs blew behind him in the wind, and even they had turned gray. He looked so tired. “We’ll give one big push together to close the tear.”
I squared my shoulders as I took his ice-cold hand. This was my chance to prove that I could be a good guardian of the veil.
“On the count of three,” Papa said. “One, two, three . . .”
I let go of the energy that had built inside me. Light poured out of my chest, my eyes, even my fingertips. Our combined magic hit the tear, striking against the darkness.
“It’s working!” I cheered as the writhing shadows hissed and drew back. The hole started to shrink.
Sweat poured down my forehead and stung my eyes, but I didn’t stop until the tear had completely closed. We’d done it—Papa and me. I squeezed his hand, but it’d gone slack. I turned to see his grim face. His eyes fluttered closed, and he fell from the sky.
“No,” I whispered. All the strength fled from my body, and I collapsed. I was falling too, but someone grabbed me. By the fire threaded through the white magic; it was Eshu, the god of balance. “I have you, young guardian,” he said, his voice gentle.
He set me down on the barrier—where the cranky twins, who’d appeared out of nowhere, had taken Papa. I stumbled to where he lay, unmoving. I dropped to his side. Tears blurred my vision. “Papa,” I said, pressing my head to his chest. His heartbeat was faint.
I looked up, squinting against the sun at Eshu. “Can you help him?”
Eshu shook his head, his eyes sad. “He’s in a deep sleep, Maya. He will not wake until he gets his soul back.”
THIRTEEN
The great escape
“We’ll take him home,” Miss Lucille said, as she knelt on one side of Papa. Miss Ida sat on the other side. Blue ribbons of light wrapped him in a blanket and lifted him from the ground. I clung to him until Eshu pulled me away.
I swiped angrily at the tears stinging my eyes. I couldn’t stand that Miss Lucille was so calm, like everything would blow over and be okay. Nothing was okay. Papa was in a coma. Eshu hadn’t outright said it, but that was what he meant.
“Why can’t we take him through a gateway?” I asked. “It’ll be fast.”
“Faster, yes,” Eshu said, “but less safe.”
“I can make a safe gateway!” I argued, annoyed that he didn’t trust me to get Papa back.
“It’s not your abilities that are of concern,” Eshu explained. “Your father is very sick right now. We need to be extra careful with him.”
I couldn’t stop crying and shaking. Frankie and Eli stood close to me, looking miserable, too. The Johnston twins floated into the sky with Papa. The light from the setting sun shifted around them until they disappeared.
“Maya,” Eshu said in his tempered voice. “I won’t lie to you. Elegguá is very weak, but he’s still fighting, or else he wouldn’t be able to keep his human form.”
I glared at him, anger burning through my chest. “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d voted for us to go into the Dark. You’re supposed to be his friend.”
Eshu flinched like my words had been a punch to the gut. “I’ve known your father my entire life. We fought wars together, saw the rise and fall of civilizations.” The fire in Eshu’s eyes changed from bright red to a cool blue. “You and your mother are everything to him. You cannot know what it was like when he lost Lutanga and their children. He doesn’t want to lose you, too.”
I turned my back to Eshu before I said something that would get me in trouble. It was easy for the orisha council to make calls on our lives from their celestial thrones. Meanwhile, the whole world was falling apart.
“I agree with the young guardian,” Ogun said.
“As do I,” Shangó added.
Eshu glanced up at the god of war and the god of lightning. “Yet you are bound by the council rules the same as I.”
Ogun and Shangó had a darkbringer chained between the two of them floating in the air. He was short—at least half the celestials’ height—with pale blue skin and white wings that fanned out behind him. His long black hair fell in waves across his shoulders. He wrenched his arms, straining against the glowing celestial chains, but to no avail. I glanced around, confused. I had seen dozens of darkbringers. “Did the others get away?”
“There were never any others,” Ogun said. “This one can create illusions.”
The darkbringer laughed, and it sounded like glass shattering. “Enjoy the little time you have left.”
“We know what happened eons ago,” Eli yelled with his hands cupped around his mouth. “We’re sorry that people died, but that wasn’t our fault. Everything was fine until you started coming to our world looking for a fight.”
“How arrogant of you to think that everything was fine,” the darkbringer spat.
Ogun raised his hand, and a small white blob slapped the darkbringer across his mouth. “You’ll have plenty of time to talk when we interrogate you later.”
Shangó and Ogun haule
d off their prisoner, leaving Frankie, Eli, Eshu, and me standing in the middle of the ocean. A flock of seagulls flew overhead, and a whale breached the water. It was almost as if the animals knew the danger had passed for now.
“I thought powerful darkbringers couldn’t get through the veil?” Frankie asked, crossing her arms.
Eshu didn’t answer, which was an answer in itself. I turned my attention to the veil, letting my magic sense it. “He got through the tear because the veil had completely failed here.” I glanced up at the sky. “There was no barrier at all for a little while.”
“So, we’re doomed?” Eli said, rocking on his heels.
“No, not yet.” Eshu cleared his throat. “Our young guardian has strengthened the veil with her magic for now, but it won’t last forever.”
“We’re not giving up,” I said to Eli. “I’ll protect the veil as long as Papa is sick.” I wasn’t completely honest in front of Eshu, but Eli nodded, and I knew he got what I was saying. Operation Go Dark was still a go.
I peeled off the wings, and they changed back into my staff. I lifted my hand to build another gateway, feeling my magic itching to do something. The sparks flickered in the air—this time easier. I didn’t need the staff, although it was comforting to have it. I looked back at Eshu, but he had disappeared.
“I can’t believe the orishas are still willing to sit on their hands with everything that’s happened now,” Eli said.
“Should we go to the Da—” Frankie started to ask.
“I know it’s time to go to school,” I said, making sure to sound extra annoyed. It wasn’t safe to discuss our plans out in the open like this. “We don’t have to talk about that right now, do we?”
Frankie winked at me. “Oh, well, everyone knows how much I love school.”
Eli rolled his eyes. Even I had to admit that she was horrible at pretending. Once we stepped into the bridge of spinning god symbols, I closed the gateway behind us.
“We’ll go during the field trip,” I said now that I was sure no one could overhear our plan.
