“Yeah? Well, what about you and Jason?” I countered. “How are you ever gonna know what could happen there if you don’t give that a proper chance?”
Blue got all flustered like she always did when I brought up the matter of her and Jason. That was one of the reasons I’d played that card. I wanted her to drop the Chance conversation. Though honestly, I also brought it up because someone needed to.
Blue had been crushing on Jason for a while. It made sense. He was smart, cute, brave, they had tons in common, and he was one of her closest friends. I also discovered recently that he felt the same way about her. But neither had told the other, and they’d individually made me promise not to say anything either. If that wasn’t enough to drive me crazy, through a turn of events in Camelot I’d become aware that Jason was actually prophesized to be Blue’s one true love, something neither of them knew.
This secret was so delicious and terrible to keep, but I had sworn to myself that I’d hold my tongue. It was my duty as their friend to not violate their trust. Additionally, I didn’t want the prophetic knowledge I’d gained in Camelot to influence their free will. I never wanted to be like Liza or Merlin who exerted their power of foresight on others. Blue and Jason needed to find their way to each other on their own.
Still, my friends were stubborn, so I felt like it was also my responsibility to at least keep them from ignoring the subject entirely.
“Jason and I are different,” Blue huffed, indignant. “Chance has officially declared he likes you. Now all you have to do is let the guy in.”
“You and Jason are different,” I replied. “While Chance and I are just getting to know each other, the two of you are already incredibly close. So despite what teenage angst and worry are convincing you of, your friendship would not get screwed up if you told him you liked him. Who knows, maybe he feels the same way?”
Blue blew a blonde wave out of her face. “We’re buddy-buddy. I doubt it.”
“You’re best friends; there’s a distinction.”
Blue harrumphed. The way she scrunched her brow and tightened her mouth, it looked like she was searching for another excuse. “He’s too hot,” she finally said. “He probably doesn’t see me that way. I spend ninety percent of my life in boots and activewear. To him, I probably look like a female version of a boxing dummy—all rugged and sturdy.”
“Now you’re just being ridiculous. Boots are hot and you’re hot, Blue. More importantly, you’re too awesome to be second-guessing yourself like this. You’re the most confident girl I know. You need to figure out why you’re really running from this and do something about it.”
I looked into the distance in the direction of Lord Channing’s. “Trust me. Life is too short to spend time knowing in your heart what you want and doing nothing about it.”
he glorious ocean view, the chairs and round white table with yellowed edges, and the porch they were sitting on all had one thing in common. I’d seen them before.
My dream had transported me to the seaside home of Ashlyn, our realm’s “Lost Princess” and the daughter of the king and queen of Adelaide (the latter of whom most people knew as The Little Mermaid).
Ashlyn had disappeared from Book a long time ago. My friends and I discovered her on Earth last semester on an island called Bermuda when we were searching for the Author. Turns out when Ashlyn was younger she had fallen in love with a man from the island, but when Lena Lenore found out she made Ashlyn choose between living in Book with a memory wipe or staying in Bermuda forever. Ashlyn made the difficult choice to remain on Earth where she lived now with her husband and four children.
Occasionally I wondered how Ashlyn and her family were doing. Based on what I was witnessing in my dream, I knew some part of their future was in trouble.
Someone screamed. My dream consciousness darted through Ashlyn’s home. More screams. The scuffle of fighting. Pots and pans clanged in commotion. I was about to turn into the kitchen when my dream changed.
Suddenly I was in an ice cream shop looking into a glass case filled with a dozen flavors. I saw my reflection in the glass; then I saw Chance’s.
Again, the vision changed, this time to a forest coated in snow. Guards in black gear patrolled a multistoried log cabin. Thin silver railings lined the roof like a wraparound balcony and metal ducts ran along the outside of the compound. I’d dreamed of this place before. Each guard had a weapon called a machine gun, which I’d learned about on Earth from watching movies on Ashlyn’s TV. Then I heard it. A scream. My scream. The noise pierced the air and my core.
On that haunting noise, my vision shifted to another time and world—Earth again, based on a familiar character. Natalie Poole was one of the people I’d dreamed about the most over the years. It was foretold that she had the potential to open the Eternity Gate—a legendary otherworldly connector that became unsealed when any world’s dark magic outweighed its good magic. The antagonists had a long-term plan to trigger Natalie’s prophesized Gate opening by her twenty-first birthday.
Opening the Eternity Gate would cause normal magic across all realms to shut down, including In and Out Spells and Fairy Godmother magic. Pure Magic wouldn’t be affected, so all the wicked carriers who’d succumbed to their disease and been locked in Alderon would retain their powers.
In other words, if the Eternity Gate opened, all villains and monsters could leave Alderon and wreak havoc without the Godmothers to stop them.
It wouldn’t take long for the realm to fall after that. I would’ve been impressed by the antagonists’ plan if the theoretical outcome weren’t so doomsday chilling.
Natalie sat outdoors in my present dream. She had curly maple hair, brown eyes, and a confident smile. All around her kids in their late teens to early twenties hung out at tables eating and talking. Others milled about carrying backpacks and tote bags. To her left by a fountain stemmed a grand staircase that connected to the second floor of a building.
“You ready for your surprise?”
Natalie turned to find her boyfriend Ryan Jackson—a handsome boy with dark hair and gray-blue eyes—standing beside her. She took his hand and the two proceeded to the staircase and started to climb. As they ascended, my dream consciousness noted that five stairs had words printed on them: Ambitious, Courageous, Skillful, Scholarly, and Faithful.
It hurt me, even in this dream state, to see Ryan and Natalie like this—so happy and unaware of what was coming for them. After years of building up to it with tailored torment, the antagonists intended to finally break Natalie’s spirit—and thus open the Eternity Gate—by killing Ryan because he was her one true love.
When Natalie and Ryan arrived at the top of the steps, to their right was an entrance to a place called “Lemonade.” Natalie started to head in that direction, but Ryan took her hand and pulled her the other way.
He led her down an open outdoor corridor, which was rimmed by pocket intervals that housed tables under arches. Ryan stopped at a table where a beautiful lunch was set up. A boy—one of Ryan’s friends based on the high five—waited there and bowed dramatically as they approached.
“Madame,” he said to Natalie, gesturing for her to sit.
Natalie sat, speechless. The boy took a fancy cloche off the not-fancy plastic trays in front of them, uncovering a meal.
“Thank you, Robin. You didn’t have to do this,” she said to the boy. “And you . . .” she pivoted toward Ryan as he sat down across from her. “You definitely didn’t have to do this. You know how I feel about my birthday since my mom . . .” She swallowed. “And anyway, with Crisa’s warning, we shouldn’t be acting so casually.”
My attention perked up.
I’d had a dream once where Natalie and Ryan saw Daniel and me. Between that and this, I hoped we would eventually meet, but I didn’t know how or when.
One of the reasons I had pushed myself so hard to increase my magical powers originally was because people with advanced Pure Magic could communicate via dream with those they envis
ioned frequently. Liza and Merlin had both used that as a means to talk to me in the past, and I wanted to do the same with Natalie. I wanted to warn her about the antagonists before their plan unfolded too far.
I always worried that I may not reach her before it did. Earth time ran twenty times faster than Book time, and I’d dreamed about Natalie at a lot of different ages. In my first successful dream communication with Natalie, she’d been a young child and, though she’d heard my voice briefly, I couldn’t get much of a message across.
The fact that she was talking to Ryan about me now, and they both looked around twenty years old, filled me with renewed faith. Somehow, someway, I was going to get to her in time. Which meant that maybe I could save her, and by extension save our realm from the antagonists’ plot. Assuming I didn’t turn evil or get sentenced to Alderon before then.
“I have one more gift for you,” Ryan said, handing Natalie an envelope he pulled from his pocket.
Natalie raised her eyebrows at him like a teacher would to a relentless child, but smiled and took the envelope. She opened it and pulled out paper rectangles that looked like tickets. Her grin expanded. “You remembered!”
A flash consumed my vision and I was in a white void.
Oh, great. Merlin.
The famous wizard of Camelot was in the middle of the void. He sat on one of two wooden stools beside a black rectangular desk from my potions classroom, which was surrounded by uneven walls of hay bales that reminded me of ruins.
The wizard wore dark green robes. At his waist resided his usual utility belt. Various leather pouches attached to it; each held a different kind of potion sand—crystalized potion fragments of Merlin’s own invention.
Like a reflex, I rolled my eyes on seeing him.
“Crisanta, please sit,” he said, gesturing to the stool next to him.
“I love how you always phrase things like I have a choice,” I replied, strutting over to the stool.
“You always have a choice.”
“You’re right,” I replied. “You just like manipulating me into making the ‘right’ ones,” I said using air quotes.
Merlin and I had a colorful history. He had frequent dreams of me in the same way I had frequent dreams of Natalie. However, the mid-sixties wielder of Pure Magic had decades of experience on me and thus had the advantage of much clearer, more frequent visions and superior proficiency for how to use them to his advantage. This is where our conflict stemmed.
I didn’t view Merlin as a bad guy. He was an ally. We’d fought together to achieve the same goals and continued to share similar goals now. Other than Liza, he was the only person I knew who’d avoided the corrupting powers of Pure Magic Disease, so he was kind of a role model for me. Plenty of people I trusted also trusted him profoundly. And at the end of the day, I knew he only acted for the greater good, using his visions, mastery of potions, and Pure Magic power of invisibility to protect Arthur, the king’s family, and Camelot as well as other lands.
We were alike in that way. We wanted to use our magic to defend good against evil and do right by the world. What I didn’t appreciate about Merlin was the way he used me as a means to an end. He liked to employ my abilities as another tool in his arsenal, regardless of whether I was okay with it or not. Usually he only told me what was needed to push me in a certain direction. He could be cold, willing to sacrifice people if it meant achieving a greater mission. And he didn’t trust me. Like others, he worried that I might not be strong enough to fight off my Pure Magic Disease. However, he also expressed concerned that I might be too powerful for my own good.
Given that succumbing to my Pure Magic Disease would trigger the unsavory side of my prophecy, leading me to help the antagonists succeed rather than stop them, I knew Merlin was watching me closely. We were on the same side for now, but unlike the average people in Book who could only hurt me with gossip, or the higher-ups who threatened my banishment to Alderon, I was very aware that Merlin was the person I should be most careful around. He was cunning, clever, powerful, and I couldn’t even hide from him in sleep.
“What do you want, Merlin?” I asked, crossing my arms over my jacket.
My dream form wore what I’d had on earlier today—boots, leggings, t-shirt, and my Seven Suns jacket. I perched a boot on the footrest of a stool and eyed him. Merlin’s irises shone with mystery and intelligence. His beard was tightly trimmed and sleek.
“To share some news,” Merlin replied.
My hostility faded and hope excited me. “Did you find a way to break the curse?”
Merlin gave me a pitying but regretful look. “I am sorry, Crisanta. I have not.”
“You agreed to help.”
“And I am living up to that agreement,” the wizard replied. “I have been searching for any means to break Sir Balin’s curse. I have gone through texts and consulted several magical allies, but so far no trace of a solution has presented itself.”
I slammed my hand against the desk and pivoted away from him. I paced a few steps, then paused to simmer on my frustration.
Remember when I mentioned how hard I’d worked to live up to my promise to Daniel to keep Kai safe? Remember how I said there was something else working against us?
Despite my best efforts to save Kai and prevent the unfavorable interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy, I had still managed to screw them both. On my group’s recent quest to Camelot, the guardian of Avalon, the Lady of the Lake, warned me not to let Daniel continue with us or an unfavorable twist would fall upon his fate. I’d felt confident that I could help him surpass whatever challenge this was, so I ignored the warning because our team needed him.
Now I hated myself for the choice.
My reasoning at the time had been sound; we probably would have been toast without Daniel. But I’d inadvertently condemned my friend as a result. Having lost his weapon in battle, Daniel went on to pull another sword from a stone on Avalon. Last week I learned from Merlin that this sword was a cursed blade, formerly belonging to Camelot’s infamous Sir Balin. The enchanted weapon increased the strength and combative skill of its owner. Unfortunately, whoever pulled it from its resting place would be fated to use it to kill the person they loved most.
Reliving the moment when Merlin told me the truth made me want to bang my head against this dream desk. Kai was doomed. Daniel was cursed to kill her with the very sword he carried around in his sheath and it was more or less my fault, just like Daniel’s prophecy said it could be.
I tempered my temper but kept the intensity in my tone. “Keep looking,” I said to Merlin. “Please keep looking.”
“I will, Crisanta,” Merlin agreed. “I know how much he means to you.”
“This is about both of them, Merlin. Kai and Daniel.”
“Sure it is,” Merlin replied. He waved his hand dismissively like he was wiping our conversational slate clean. “Putting that on hold for the moment, since you never call on your Mark Two, I thought I’d summon you like this. I need you to return to Camelot this week. Come after you visit Dorothy in Neverland.”
“Merlin, you know that wormholes don’t appear often in most parts of Book. I’ve been checking my Hole Tracker, but a Portalscape Portal didn’t open all of last week. I don’t even know when I’ll be able to get to Dorothy to fulfill my promise to her, let alone reach you for whatever errand you have in mind.”
“I’ve had visions, Crisanta. You’ll have no trouble traveling this week. Trust me. There’s a Portalscape Portal opening on Friday evening in Adelaide. Take it. Bring an umbrella, a handful of sugar cubes, and Blue.”
My brain fizzed a bit as it processed. “Why?”
“You’ll see. Just make sure it’s not brown sugar.”
“No, I mean why are Blue and I coming to meet you? Can’t you just talk to me now? Or give me a call on the Mark Two once I wake up to provide the details?”
“No, Crisanta. It’s vital that you both come in person. Now, enjoy the rest of your sleep. I told SJ I’d only be
gone half an hour and I feel as though I have been napping longer than that. Farewell.”
“Merlin, wh—”
But it was too late. He clapped his hands together twice—golden energy whirred around him—and he vanished from my subconscious. I was left alone in my creepy dreamscape. The void could give you a headache if you stared too long into its boundless emptiness. I wished I could clap my hands together and leave. I tried, but that seemed to be a Merlin thing.
The powerful jackwagon.
Instead, I tried something that had worked once or twice in the past. I closed my eyes. That seemed to do it; I was shaken loose from the dreamscape’s hold and I tumbled through a myriad of quick flashes, the mental equivalent of falling down a rabbit hole.
A giant, illuminated cavern modeled like a beehive with hundreds of people inside. A little necklace with a pendant that looked like a tiny genie bottle swinging from someone’s hand. A snow globe featuring snow-covered mountains and the words “Big Bear” sitting on a shelf. Then I woke up.
My room was filled with morning glow. I sat up gradually and stretched in bed. Kai and Blue were both still asleep. Streams of light glinted off the gold edging of the wall closest to the balcony doors. I carefully got out of bed and followed the sun.
Our balcony doors were always kept open a crack so the birds that woke us up in the morning could get through. Glancing at the clock on Blue’s desk, I noticed they should be here in twenty minutes. I was getting an early start to the day.
I slipped out onto the balcony. I loved watching the morning’s first light glisten over the trees. It filled me with a kind of life energy different from what my powers provided. This was more like energy for the spirit versus the physical body. I needed that, particularly as of late. Of all the doozies weighing on me, Daniel and Kai’s fate panged my heart with the most persistence.
I’d already considered a couple of ideas on my own for how to stop the curse. To start with, I’d investigated what would happen if I just took the sword from Daniel and got it as far away from him as possible. Alas, that was a no go.
Into the Gray Page 5