“You don’t know that. We probably are too late. Because the universe freaking hates me, and the only thing it’s ever done is kick me in the face when I’m down.”
“The universe has nothing to do with this. Those researchers in there picked Vi, Ryn and me because today, you were their target, and since they know you have a connection to the three of us, we’re the ones you’re most likely to trust.”
“How the hell do random people in a research station know who I have connections to?”
Dash sighs. “Because they receive their instructions from Guild Councilors, and there were several of them present on Velazar II when you yelled, ‘They’re my parents.’ Plus they know I’m the one who first brought you to this world.”
I press my lips together before muttering, “I hate the Guild.”
“Yeah, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of the whole guardian system right now either. Just remember it’s only a few of them who are responsible for things like this.” He gestures to the building we’re heading for. Which reminds me that anyone looking out will easily see the two figures in black hurrying toward the station.
Using the deeper, magical version of my voice, I say, “Any surveillance bugs flying around outside Reinhold Research Station can’t see us.”
Dash almost halts beside me, then quickly moves forward again. “Good. Okay.” He sounds somewhat surprised. “Hopefully that worked.”
“It should. It worked at Noxsom. At least, I think it worked there. We were caught, but that’s because they knew we were coming. I think those rooms were set to detect us the moment we walked in, regardless of whether the guards could actually see us.”
“You’ve been inside Noxsom? Sounds like you’ve got a lot to catch me up on once this is over.”
An image of the ruined streets and buildings around Central Park comes to mind. “Yes,” I say grimly. “A lot.”
Unlike The Noxsom Facility, Reinhold isn’t surrounded by a shield. We march right up to the imposing metal door without anything stopping us. Dash raises my stylus. “They’ve probably got a locking enchantment on here, but I can try—”
“Open,” I tell the door. After the sound of three clicks, the door groans quietly as it swings open.
Dash blinks. “Right. I need to remember that you can actually do stuff now.”
“Wait.” I catch his arm before he can walk forward. Then I focus on the building and say, “No surveillance bugs or devices or enchantments inside Reinhold can see or detect us. Oh, and no researchers or guardians or other Guild members inside Reinhold can see or hear us.”
Dash looks at me with a small frown. “Do you have enough power for all these commands you’re throwing around?”
“I have a lot of power, Dash. The things I’m saying aren’t, like, big deal things. I’m sure I have at least half my power left.” I hope, I add silently. Perhaps I need to be more careful.
“Okay, if you’re sure. But I’m still gonna gather some magic for a stunner spell. Just in case.” We step inside and find ourselves in a reception area. White desk, white chairs, a white carpet on the floor. Green plants in green pots in each corner, and pictures of random green scenery on the walls. Fortunately, though, we’re the only people in the room.
“Do you remember any of this?” I ask, hurrying forward and looking down the corridors on either side of the room.
“No. If I was brought in this way, I don’t think I was conscious.”
“Dammit, we don’t have time to go hunting for people,” I mutter, heading straight for the desk. Numerous scrolls and piles of paper cover its surface. I start shuffling through pages and unrolling random scrolls, but it’s pointless, of course. There’s far too much information mixed up here. “Ugh, seriously? What kind of filing system is this?”
“Em, let’s just go and look—”
I smack my palms down on the desk and glare at it. “Show me where the Griffin rebels are!”
From beneath the desk itself—where I never would have looked—a scroll emerges. It comes to rest on top of the desk as it unfurls, revealing a plan of the inside of Reinhold Research Station. Bright gold dots appear inside four rooms next to each other. “There,” I say, pointing at the drawing as my face flushes with the thrill of just how easy that was. “They’re in these rooms.”
Dash holds his stunner magic above hand and grabs the drawing with the other. He turns it, looks both ways, then says, “Left.”
We run as quickly as we can while figuring out which turns to take and which stairs to run up. When we almost crash into a woman dressed in a lab coat, we freeze and barely breathe as we wait. But she shows no sign of having seen us as she strides past. After that, we don’t bother stopping when we see anyone else. We slow down to keep our footsteps quiet, but that’s it.
And then, in almost no time, we’ve reached the first door. “Every door in this corridor is unlocked,” I command, before pushing my way into the first room and looking hurriedly around. Four people, asleep, sitting in partially reclined chairs that make me think for one disorienting moment of the dentist. None of them are Violet or Ryn. Two seem familiar, though, so these must be Griffin rebels.
“Wait, who’s that?” Dash asks, pointing at the woman with deep bronze skin and orange-highlighted black hair. “She isn’t one of the rebels.”
“But she—oh, wait. I think that’s Shyla. I saw a picture in one of the reports Perry found. I can tell her to—No, crap, I have to find Vi and Ryn first!” I spin around without waiting for Dash’s response. I charge into the next room—
—and there they are. Violet and Ryn. Still alive, and still with clouded, unseeing gazes. But something’s changed since they came marching up the hillside for me. They’re lurching aimlessly around the room, bumping into the two reclining chairs, turning, and then bumping into the walls. Even more disturbing, their heads keep twitching. Fear clenches around my heart at the thought that I might be too late to save them. I step into the room and focus on Violet first. “Violet, the nightmare essence is—”
She lunges for me, her hands stretching toward my throat. I’m so startled, I don’t have time to get out of the way. Together, we crash against the door, her fingers squeezing my neck and my hands and elbows trying uselessly to shove her away. I try to gasp a command, but I can’t get any words out. Over Vi’s shoulder, I see Ryn throwing himself after her. He lands across half her body, squashing me even further in the process.
Then above me, I see Dash, his hands wrapping around the stunner magic he’s been gathering and pulling it into two halves. He throws both at the same time, one at Vi and one at Ryn. And they both collapse on top of me.
Dash tugs their stunned bodies off me as I gasp for breath. I push myself up, coughing and clutching my neck. The moment I’m able to speak, I give my command: “Violet and Ryn, there is no more nightmare essence in your body. Shyla is no longer controlling your mind or your actions.” I slump back against the door, sucking in another deep breath as the remainder of my Griffin power leaves my body. The same shiver that passed through Dash’s body earlier ripples through Vi and Ryn.
“Are you okay?” Dash asks, his hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah, I … I’m fine.” I crawl closer to Vi and Ryn. When neither of them move, I carefully lift one of Violet’s eyelids to see if her eyes are still clouded and white. “Normal,” I say when I see part of her purple-blue iris. I check Ryn’s eyes, and he’s normal too. “Dash, why aren’t they waking up? It happened almost instantly with you.”
“I don’t know. Maybe … maybe they’re still stunned? You didn’t say anything about getting rid of the effects of my stunner spell, did you?”
I groan out a “No” as I sit back. “I was so worried about getting the nightmare essence out of them and stopping Shyla’s control, and then my Griffin Ability finished, so it’s not like I could have added anything after that anyway.”
“It’s finished? Are you serious? You’re saying we have to get ten unconscious peop
le out of here without the use of your Griffin Ability?”
I look up at him. “Yes.”
“Freaking fluff hat,” he mutters as I get to my feet. “Okay, we’re going to tie everyone together, get them all into the air, and direct their floating bodies out of here.”
“Can you handle that with normal magic?”
“It’ll be a bit of a strain levitating that many people, but I’m sure I can manage.”
“I can try to help,” I tell him as he crouches down with a piece of sparkling guardian rope in his hands. He ties one end around Vi’s wrist and the other around Ryn’s ankle.
“If you think you can lift them,” Dash says, “then get them into the corridor. I’ll tie up the rest of the rebels from the other three rooms.”
In the time it takes me to magically lift Vi and Ryn’s bodies and direct them through the door and into the corridor, Dash has been into each of the other three rooms and tied the remaining Griffin rebels together. Then he stands back with an expression of fierce concentration, and slowly they all float out to join us in the corridor.
“Shyla as well?” I ask, spotting her vibrant orange and black hair.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure she didn’t ask to be here. She can—” He swings his head around as an echo of hurried footsteps reaches us. “Shoot. I guess someone heard you and Vi crashing around.”
“Crap, and even though they can’t see you and me, they’ll see everyone else floating in the air.”
Dash rushes to tie each of the smaller groups of people together, so that we end up with a single line of eleven floating people. “Can you do shield magic?” he asks.
“What? No!”
“Okay, well can you at least help to keep some of these people in the air? The back three or four? Then I can divert some of my magic into a—shield!” That last word comes out as a startled shout. Magic flashes around us. I run to the end of the corridor where the last person is floating, noticing a slight ripple in the air around me. Dash’s shield, I hope.
By the time I reach the end of the line, the last three levitating bodies have slowly begun to drop. I push my magic out toward them, imagining it forming a layer beneath them so it can hold those three people up.
Sparks ricochet against our shield and off the walls as the line of floating bodies is tugged forward. As we hurry along corridors and down the stairs, several men and women in lab cots chase us, trying with both their magic and their hands to get through our shield. When a few more appear ahead of us, hoping to block our way forward, the shield knocks them aside. Which is fortunate, because if we had to stop, all these unconscious bodies would fly into each other.
I keep wondering why there are no guardians. Surely a place like this requires a little more security than just a locked front door? But we make it to the white and green reception area without encountering a single person with marked wrists and glittering weapons. The front door—which we left unlocked, of course—flies open when a green spark strikes it. Which must mean Dash dropped the shield for a moment. I throw a glance over my shoulder—and suck in a breath at the sight of the rocks hurtling toward me. The air shimmers, the rocks rebound off the shield and strike the walls, and then I’m running outside onto the snow.
“Em!” Dash yells, and I look forward again. “Run ahead of me and open a doorway!”
I abandon the magic I’ve been focusing on and run faster. The last few Griffin rebels immediately start drifting downward. As I pass them, sparks and tiny blades fly overhead. I look back again, and finally, there are those guardians I’ve been expecting. I guess, in a place as uneventful as this, it takes guardians a bit longer to get moving than somewhere like Noxsom.
Though it’s hard work in the snow, I push forward with an extra burst of speed. “Hurry!” Dash shouts. “I’m really … struggling here.” I notice then that it’s not just the last few Griffin rebels descending. The whole line of levitating bodies is slowly heading for the snow. And the shield—
“Aah!” I cry out as something burns the back of my right leg. I tell myself to ignore the pain and RUN! Because clearly Dash’s shield is gone, and if I don’t get in front of all these floating bodies as quickly as possible, those guardians are going to tear through us with their magic.
I finally reach the front of the line. I pass Dash, snatching the stylus from his hand as I go. Run, run, RUN, dammit! And suddenly, I remember Calla’s magic sending us flying several feet across the desert sand and through the oasis dome. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I imagine sending my magic out and pushing it hard against the ground. With my next step, I’m launched into the air.
One, two, three, four—
I land, stumble, and fall onto my knees in the snow. But my shaking hand is already writing across the white, wet substance. A doorway begins to open. “Faster, faster,” I urge. I look back once more, and Dash is barely a second away. “Grab onto someone!” he shouts as he leaps past me and into the darkness of the faerie paths, pulling eleven almost-touching-the-ground people behind him.
Magic, bright and burning, flashes toward me from the guardians who are way too close now. I duck down, almost smacking my face into the snow. Then I shuffle closer to the doorway, and as the rebels are about to disappear, I reach out, grab onto someone’s leg, and let their momentum yank me into the darkness.
Seconds later, I drop out of the paths and land clumsily amid the collection of unconscious bodies. “Flip, that was exhausting,” Dash gasps.
I push myself up and look around, already imagining Aurora’s shocked expression at the sight of all these bodies falling out of the faerie paths. But the image that greets me is nothing like the one in my imagination.
Imperia—motionless on the ground.
Bandit—nowhere to be seen.
Aurora—standing frozen with a dagger against her neck. A dagger held by Ada.
Twenty-Two
“My goodness,” Ada exclaims, her eyes traveling over the unmoving bodies spread across the grass.
“Ada,” I gasp. “Don’t hurt—” One hand whips forward, and that sticky white substance she gagged me with before flies at my face. This time, I manage to duck out of the way. “Ada—”
“Try to use your voice on me,” she hisses, “and I’ll slice through this girl’s throat long before you’ve finished speaking.”
Aurora whimpers and squeezes her eyes shut. I don’t tell Ada she has nothing to worry about. That my Griffin Ability won’t be able to command a single thing for hours still.
“How did you find this spot?” Dash asks. His hands are steady at his sides, but I notice his fingers nudge ever so slightly at the air. No doubt he’s ready to grab guardian weapons the second he gets a chance.
Ada smiles. “No remarkable feat of tracking magic, if that’s what you’re wondering. Servants at the manor house saw a dragon fly past. One of them thought he recognized it as one of the palace dragons. He notified the palace. Prince Roarke received the news not too long after that. Then he contacted me and sent me to retrieve his treasonous sister. So here I am.” She directs her gaze at me and adds, “He didn’t realize you’d be here too. That’s a bonus. Although, at this point, I’m thinking of just getting rid of you. It’s becoming far too much of a pain trying to bring you in.”
“I think we’re going to have a problem then,” Dash says, “since I won’t be letting you kill Em or take—” He breaks off, his head turning to the side as something moves in the air several paces away. A doorway opens, and out step three guardians.
“Are you kidding me?” I mutter, my eyes taking in the woman and two men. It appears we do have a problem, though not the type Dash was referring to.
“Well, isn’t this interesting,” says one of them, a man with flaming ginger hair tempered with a few blond streaks. “It looks exactly like the scene the Seers predicted.”
The Seers. Crap. I’d totally forgotten about them. My hand clenches around the stylus I’m still holding. My gaze swings to Dash, my eyes askin
g, How the hell do we get out of this?
“Well, except for the three dead bodies they Saw,” the ginger guardian adds. “Clearly that hasn’t happened yet.”
My eyes dart away from Dash and across the bodies lying around us. Icy fear wraps around my heart. Which of these people are supposed to die?
“Three bodies?” Ada asks politely. “Looks like you’ve got more than three here.”
“Nah,” he answers casually, looking around. “These aren’t the bodies they Saw. There were definitely weapons and blood involved. These people are just stunned, right? Did you do this?” His tone suggests he’s only mildly interested in the answer, but as he looks at Ada, I notice the hardness in his eyes. I feel the tension underlying this casual exchange. I see the way his hands are poised, just like Dash’s, ready to grab weapons or throw magic. This is the calm before the storm. The final moments before everything goes to hell.
And suddenly it all seems so pointless compared to what’s going on in the rest of this world and the human one. A waste of time, magic, effort. Anger burns abruptly through my fear. After everything we’ve been through—breaking into Noxsom, our narrow escape from Reinhold, the torture these rebels have endured, the constant effort of having to stay one step ahead of the Guild—I want to yell, Don’t we all deserve a freaking break?
“You’re here because some Seers predicted this?” I snap, taking a step forward. Three pairs of glittering weapons point my way a second later, but I don’t even flinch. “Wow. Well-flipping-done. Just imagine what you guys could achieve if your Seers actually Saw something useful. Like, I don’t know, an Unseelie Prince taking over the whole of freaking Central Park!”
The guardian on the left, a white-haired man, advances slowly, his gold arrow trained on me. “Don’t you dare yell about things you don’t understand. You have no idea of the many visions that came just before the prince attacked Haverton Tower, or about the hundreds of guardians who worked tirelessly to put together the pieces of a giant, incomplete puzzle as they tried to figure out exactly where this massive assault was going to take place.”