“Draco’s smart enough to figure out how to do it so they don’t object, or even think anything’s wrong with them,” Elysian further intoned.
The worm-snake laughed. “You’re not as smart as I figured you would be,” he said. “Considering all I know about you from your brother.”
Elysian growled impatiently.
“Wait.” I pulled out my sword. “Release the Soulfire that you’ve stolen,” I ordered.
“I’ll release them,” Mahiem said with an evil grin, “if you can defeat me.”
“What good is the word of a monster like you?” Raiya asked, stringing an arrow in her bow.
When Mahiem only laughed, I took it as a sign that the fight was on.
“Go!” I called, rushing forward, ready to strike.
Mahiem twisted his long body out of my way, recoiling enough that he managed to strike me in turn.
I bucked against the blow, while Raiya hurried forward. Her bow’s sharp edges were out as she swung.
Mahiem ducked and slapped her across the back, her wings catching most of the attack. I felt her pain, but I admired how she shrugged it off, same as she always had.
A whiplash of sparkling energy suddenly hit me hard.
“Ouch!” I grit my teeth together. Elysian wrapped his body around me and sent me a targeted look; I caught the meaning, and tepidly inched forward, out of his protection, but also out of the demon’s sight.
“I’ll catch you yet!” I heard Raiya cry, glancing over Elysian as she unleashed a slew of arrows at once. The arrows flew up, shining brightly, before winding around and binding him to the ground.
As Mahiem squirmed, I jumped forward from behind him; my sword raised high and then went low, cutting through him with quick integrity.
A whirl of energy whipped around, dissolving the demon’s body and sending it into nothingness.
“We did it!” I cheered, watching as the Soulfire he’d consumed trickled back to the people on the deck.
“We’re not finished,” Raiya said. “Watch it.”
“Watch what?” Elysian said. “Is Draco here?”
“No, I mean, watch it, the demon aura.” Raiya pointed. “Mahiem’s gone, but Draco’s power remains.”
I saw at once the ghost of a shimmering shadow, as it fluttered past, speeding away toward the vortex. I watched it as it disappeared under the city skyline. And then I blinked, and it was gone.
“This is disturbing,” Elysian murmured. “He’s using other demons.”
“I wonder why,” Raiya mused.
“You were the one who said he wasn’t up to full power,” I said, looking at Elysian. “Is it possible he’s gathering more energy to refuel?”
“That’s possible,” Elysian said. He turned to Raiya. “What do you think?”
When she said nothing, he further pressed her for answers. “Despite all that you might think, you’re still the one who knows him best.”
“But he lied to me,” she shot back, embarrassment flooding her cheeks.
“He didn’t lie to you about everything,” Elysian argued.
“No, and that makes it worse,” she said. Her gaze lowered to the ground. “I can’t tell you how often I’ve replayed it all over in my mind, trying to figure out what was true and what was a lie, and what could’ve been. It’s horrifying.”
I stepped up beside her. “Starry Knight’s got a point, Elysian,” I said.
“Think about what he told you regarding Alküzor,” Elysian suggested. “He’s unlikely to have lied that much about him, because you would have found out the truth.”
“He said that he was trapped inside the fires of the earth,” she said. “He said he was always trying to break free, but it would require a lot of power to do it. He also said that Alküzor wanted the power to steal this universe away from Time.”
“Thank you,” Elysian said. “I know it’s hard, but we’re going to do much better fighting him if we can anticipate him.”
“We could also be playing with fire,” Raiya replied. “If we focus so much on anticipating him in one regard, we’ll completely miss what he has planned. And Grandpa—I mean, Draco—would jump on that.”
“Maybe we can use that to our advantage,” I suggested. “If we can make him think we’re planning something specific, he’ll think he has the advantage.”
Raiya hesitated. “He might be able to guess that, too. He knows us well.”
“You more than me or Elysian,” I clarified.
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “Elysian’s his brother.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I assured her. “Adam and I are nothing alike.”
“So far as you know,” Raiya countered.
“Exactly my point,” I told her. “I don’t know him well enough to think that he would be like me.”
Her mouth dropped open at my admission, and, I would argue, how I scored that point against her. I felt the rush of triumph, and I completely forgot about our earlier argument at Rachel’s.
Elysian came to her rescue. “You’re not actively trying to destroy your brother.” He snorted. “And as annoying as you are, I doubt Adam feels like trying to do away with you, either.”
“Fine.” I gave up. There’s no use trying to reason with people who refuse to see reason. “Let’s assume he knows everything, then. Everything, every possibility. What would he be doing, using demons to collect power?”
“Power to set Alküzor free, power to regain his strength, power to separate the realm from Time’s power.” Raiya counted on her fingers. “Anything else?”
“Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could just ask me?”
At the sound of his voice, we turned. And there he was—his Santa Claus beard, his black robe, and his blood red eyes. I tightened my fingers around my sword. “Draco.”
☼5☼
Tests
“Draco!” It wasn’t long before Elysian echoed my sentiments on the matter. Elysian hissed and reared back, the horns and spikes down his back shooting up in protest.
Draco only laughed, sounding just like an egomaniac in Grandpa Odd’s voice.
I felt rather than saw Raiya stiffen beside me. She straightened a second later, but from Draco’s glare, I knew he’d seen her reaction.
“No need to fret,” he told Elysian. He raised his hand. Seconds later, lightning flashed from his fist. “Why don’t you lie down and relax for a bit?”
“Augh!” Elysian recoiled, unable to dodge the attack; he bore the brunt of it, until it bowled him over.
Raiya leapt into action, her bow out, and I followed her. We’d double-teamed enough demons in past fights, and practiced our striking points. I knew we could take him.
Boom! We met his power in mid-air, the compelling clash of our juxtaposed power hurting my ears as it sang out over the city.
“Augh!” Raiya and I both hollered as throbbing power charged through us, pushing us backward and forward at the same time, suspending us forcibly in our position.
Draco laughed as he poured out more power, keeping us close enough to provoke and far enough away we couldn’t attack.
And then, all of a sudden, he thrust us back, and we went flying into Elysian.
“Come on,” Elysian grumbled, shaking us off, sending us back up on our feet.
“You foolish children,” Draco said, no doubt deliberately mocking me. “You’re too far out of your league.”
“It won’t stop us!” I yelled.
“Too bad.” He shuffled back, his cloak billowing. “I’ll play the gentleman this time, then.”
“You’re leaving?” Raiya asked, surprised and appalled.
“Of course.” He grinned. “But don’t worry. I’ll be back.”
“Why?” Raiya shouted. “Why keep us in suspense? Why not finish us now?”
“For power, of course.” Draco turned to her. “The Prince believes that power is ideally spread out among different people,” he said. “And I’ll agree with him, especially
in a fallen world, for unity is a rare and dangerous thing.”
“What does that have to do with you?” Raiya asked.
“The Sinisters, and Orpheus, while I am appropriately grateful for their sacrifices for me to recover my body and my power, their powers were too much for their discipline—or rather their lack of it.”
“I’ll say,” I agreed.
“It didn’t help that Time and Memory had managed to place a safeguard on their full power,” Draco added.
“That’s why you need more power?” Raiya continued, inching forward. I saw her plan at once; no doubt, Draco did as well.
“There’s no fun, despite what the movies might say, in telling you what I’m doing,” he said, glancing tauntingly at me. “Even though it would be amusing to see you ask. So I’ll leave you with this for now: When it comes to collecting power and overshadowing lesser demons, you’re completely right about me—and completely wrong.”
And with a swish of his cloak, he disappeared into the wind.
Raiya launched out another arrow, but she was a second too late; she caught only the sound on the air as he disappeared.
We stood around where we were, all of us clearly torn between stunning confusion and harrowing indecision.
The sound of clicking cameras and approaching footsteps jolted us out of it a moment later. A few people called out our names and waved to us.
I waved back, awkwardly, my personality still drawn to appeal to the public good, while Elysian turned his back, and Raiya tightened her grip on her bow.
“I miss Aleia,” I said. “Stopping time just worked so well for us.”
“I wonder what Grandpa meant,” Raiya wondered aloud.
“Draco,” I corrected her. “And he probably just said that to confuse us.”
“He had the upper hand,” Elysian said. “He would tell us a half-truth like that to kick us when we’re down.”
“I don’t think he was lying,” Raiya said. “He didn’t seem like he was lying. And he does enjoy a good riddle.”
“What could he mean then?” I asked, beginning to back up as more people began to move over to where we stood.
“I don’t know.” She grimaced. “That’s the inconvenient part.”
“How can something be completely right and completely wrong at the same time?” I asked.
“True love can be like that,” Raiya murmured softly. I almost didn’t catch her words, and I knew why she’d been less than willing to share. She was no doubt thinking of Rachel when she said that, and that thought made me all the more circumspect.
True to my colors, I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “I doubt that has anything to do with that.”
Raiya said nothing, only sighing as we took off, barely avoiding close encounters with the pedestrian kind.
*☼*
Later that night, as I was back in my room “studying” alone, I realized Draco had a way of frustrating us, even if we were getting better at fighting together as a team.
Maybe it was the situation or just how stressful and tiring it seemed, but there were other things that frustrated me, too.
I had the SATs this weekend. I had to get my homework done. I had to go to work. I had to do all this superhero work, and now, with Aleia back with Alora, the media were adding a lot of social pressure against me. I had my brother to worry about, my parents were increasingly distanced from me, and for the first time in my teenage life, that made me worried.
The pressure was mounting, and all I wanted to do was go running.
The door opened behind me. I was relieved when Elysian saw me at work, and then he merely grumbled and left the room.
I turned my attention to the window beside my desk. Night was coming swiftly, coloring the sky with the sharpness of its darkness. There was a violet overcast to the city lights, making the night seem more dangerous.
Of course, it was still a city, I told myself. There were still criminals, and homeless people, and people who needed help, and people who had plenty. There wasn’t anything special about it, not really. Every day in town, people fell in love, people broke up, people grew apart. Others would learn, make mistakes, and try again. Some would give up. A few might make it big, while others destroyed things.
I thought about Adonaias, about how he seemed so far away and irrelevant to the ordinary person’s suffering, the small voice in my heart asking if that included even my suffering.
I mean, really. How could just “having faith” and “accepting the belief” of who he was really change things?
Life was hard and unfair. That was the way of things. But how could this be the way of things? The angry, cynical part of me said that’s how it was, and that was how it would always be.
But even as I turned my lights off and closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep, I knew I was not being fair. There was a lot to consider, much more—maybe too much more—than I wanted to, and I was tired.
*☼*
I was glad—really, really, really, supremely glad—that in all of Cheryl’s crazy diets, she never failed to give up coffee. And there were some insane diets. Since entering high school alone, I’d had to deal with the vegan diet, the meat diet, the sugarless diet, the builder’s regime, the kidney flush diet, the root diet, and many, many others. Some of them overlapped.
I was in the kitchen, making my own pot, the first time in what seemed like years, when Cheryl bustled into the room. She wearing her work heels, with her hair pulled back in a flawless knot.
Sometimes my mother was a terrifyingly precise woman. If I didn’t know from my own personal experience, I would’ve thought she was a demon, from how perfect she always seemed to look.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, bewildered.
“I live here,” I reminded her bluntly. (Not all of us woke up perfect and perky.)
“I mean, what are you doing here, making coffee?” She tensed, and I could see she was weighing her words carefully. “Don’t you usually go out for coffee this early in the morning?”
“Would you prefer if I left?”
“No. I’m just … surprised.” She glanced over at the coffee machine. “It’ll take less time if you push the start button.”
“Oh.” I pushed it. “Right.”
I leaned back against the counter, while Cheryl stood there, looking at her phone and her watch.
“It’s almost the last day,” she muttered unhappily.
“The last day? Of what?”
“The Flying Angels case.” She frowned, the lines in her face crinkling disapprovingly. “I miss Stefano,” she admitted. “He would have given me more time to get those superheroes in custody.”
“I’m sure,” I agreed, thinking of Stefano’s Sinister-influenced bloodlust. “I suppose Dunbrooke is less lenient?”
“Lenient?” Cheryl scoffed. “Ha! That’s a poor choice of words, even for you, Hamilton.”
“Sorry … ?” I shrugged. “Martha told me that it wasn’t likely that the city would indict them, anyway.”
“It could have made my career,” Cheryl snapped.
“Really?” I felt a rush of anger hit me as the coffee brewed and my mother stewed. “You would’ve wanted to be known as the legal form of a political tool who tried to bring people who were helping the city to so-called justice?”
Cheryl blinked, shocked and angry, blindsided by my words. “What are you saying? You wanted to help with the case.”
“I did,” I agreed, “and having seen it, and its near end, I can say I think it’s terrible. That Dante person is terrible, and Stefano was obsessed about the whole thing. It didn’t help him any, unless it made him look good to voters and his reelection campaign managers.”
“Of course!” Cheryl fumed. “But it opened doors for us. For you, and for me.”
“For what?” I shouted back. “So we could hold our heads up and look down on the crumbling ruins of the city?”
“We could’ve made a name for ourselves.”
“You’ve alr
eady made one,” I assured her. “My friends all know you. This city already knows you. You have a solid reputation.”
“Don’t you want one?”
“Not like this, and not like that,” I said.
She calmed down, straightening her shirt. “I don’t suppose this is because I didn’t stay home with you as you grew up?” she asked. “Because I didn’t mother you as much as you would’ve liked?”
“What? What are you talking about?” I cringed. “No. That has nothing to do with this—and that has nothing to do with anything. This is about right and wrong. The case was wrong from the start. It wasn’t bad just because people don’t want to consider the supernatural.”
“It was bad because it caused a lot of damage to the city. There are still people who are affected by it. Your own friends are in the hospital because of those so-called superheroes.”
“Those so-called superheroes are the only ones who were able to stop the demons from sucking out more souls,” I insisted. “It’s not my fault, or their fault, that any of those people are still in the hospital.”
Cheryl narrowed her gaze. “You didn’t think this before,” she said. “Has it been that girlfriend of yours who’s poisoned your mind against me?”
I didn’t bother to tell her that I had thought it before, I just didn’t tell her. “I’m not arguing against you,” I said, throwing my hands up in exasperation. “I’m arguing against your stance and your underlying perspective.” I almost roared at her, hoping to leave Raiya out of this, that she had nothing to do with this, but I knew that wasn’t entirely true.
“Do you even want to be a lawyer anymore, Hamilton?” Cheryl asked me. “You’re living in a fool’s world. We don’t live in a black and white world, where there’s such thing as ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’”
“Just because a lot of people say there is no ‘right’ answer and no ‘wrong’ answer doesn’t mean that they’re right,” I said. “That’s the majority fallacy. And anyway, as lawyers, we’re only concerned with the law, and the ambiguity between theory and practice.”
She stared at me for a long moment. “If you really believe that,” she said, “you’re going to have a hard time being a lawyer.”