Into the Gray

by Geanna Culbertson

“Crisa, here!” Chance signaled me. He held his sword in one hand while his other remained open.

  Blue was fighting off the flying soldier while Alex tried to free Daniel from the wall; this hall’s thicker liquid seemed to be latching onto my friend like gum. Arian drew his sword. I doubted my genie cuffs would save me from that. I threw Chance the sack.

  Arian changed focus and went after him. Chance was about to catch the bag when Blue and her combatant abruptly rammed into him. Chance was knocked back, and the sack fell to the floor with a splash.

  My heart stopped.

  No!

  I raced for the sack. Arian did too. He was about to snatch it when Alex rushed in and punched my enemy so hard in the head that he was knocked out of the air. Arian landed face down in the water and didn’t move. A second later Daniel—sword drawn—took out the soldier Blue had been fighting with a kill shot.

  My brother recovered the sword Arian had dropped and stood over the unconscious villain for a moment. Alex didn’t kill him, though he could have. A part of me was tempted to ask him to, just like a part of me wanted to take that weapon away from him. However, I had more important things to focus on right now. I picked the sack out of the water. The bottom was soaked with black liquid.

  “Is the sand inside okay?” Blue asked worriedly.

  “I don’t know.” I opened the sack and looked inside. The top portion was gold and glittering, but I didn’t know about underneath.

  “Daniel took that sack with him in the Lake of Misery,” Chance said. “That didn’t affect it. And it was okay after we went through the black gurgling drain and came out of the walls. Maybe it’s fine.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Alex said. “When we came out of the Lake of Misery, I wasn’t wet. Same with the walls. But I’ve gotten wet touching the floors. The magic here makes things uncertain.” “We’ll have to hope it’s fine,” I said. “Come on, hurry.”

  We continued down the hallway until our Dream Compasses freaked out when we reached a door with light seeping out beneath it. Footsteps got louder in the distance. I had no doubt Tara was on her way up to our level. I heard her shouting; she was trying to call the other two soldiers to her. No time to waste.

  My friends and I burst into the desired room. It was as large as Mauvrey’s and had dripping walls and floor-to-ceiling windows that gave view to the Shadow storm, but beyond that, the decor was much simpler. No swirling death pond, no ice floor—just a normal stone-floored room with a black marble block at the center . . . and our friend lying on top of it.

  Finally we’d found Mark.

  I didn’t know why his room was so much simpler than Mauvrey’s. Maybe it was a length of residency thing. Like somehow the captive’s room got more complex the longer a victim was trapped in Nightmare?

  Never mind; that didn’t matter. I was just so relieved to be here. Our friend—who’d been trapped in a curse for nearly a year—lay in front of us. We could save him. We could finally get him back.

  My friends and I rushed to Mark’s side. The handsome, dark-skinned prince slept peacefully. He wore a black suit. The sides of the marble he rested on were coated with frost that pulsed steadily with light. It was like the glowing ice we’d seen in the halls coating the ceiling.

  “So this is him,” Daniel said.

  I nodded.

  Mark had been a footnote in the story since our adventures began this year, but he was so much more than that. He was a friend, a roommate, a protagonist, and according to my vision, the key to helping us find Natalie Poole and thus stopping the antagonists for good. All we had to do was wake him.

  I held up the sack of sand. Understandable fear quaked inside me as I observed the black coating on the bottom. My friends’ faces reflected equal concern.

  “You better hope this still works,” Daniel said to Chance.

  I moved to stand behind Mark’s head, checking my Dream Compass for good measure. “Two nights left until Book’s full moon. One way or another, our story here is about to end.”

  I opened the sack and emptied out everything I could over Mark, shaking the sack heartily. The shiny particles glimmered brightly when they made contact with the prince’s skin, and dark smoke started to come off him like it had Mauvrey. Equally reassuring was Mark’s eyes snapping open and revealing blackness.

  “It’s working,” I said.

  I backed away with my friends as the vapor started to heat up and transform into flames. The hissing, screaming sounds came next. Then the flames attempted to form a large black mass over Mark—the Shadow. That’s where the process stopped. Larger bursts of dark energy ejected from the flames, amassed together, but then were pulled back into the flames again. The Shadow wasn’t coming out.

  I looked inside the sack then reached in. My face sunk. “There’s more in here.” I pulled my hand out and my fingertips were coated with damp particles of blackened sand. I tried to scrape off the moist particles and sprinkle them onto Mark, but they evaporated on him without any further effect.

  “Arian!”

  We all heard Tara’s shout from down the hall. They’d be on us soon.

  “Quick, shut the door!” I said. “We need a minute to think.”

  “What’s to think about?” Alex said as Chance and Daniel went to hold the door shut. “Your plan didn’t work. This kid’s not waking up. The only thing we need to do is get out of here.”

  “Shut up, Alex,” I said. “We are not leaving Mark here. There has to be another way.” I looked over Mark and thought aloud. “Sandman said that the only other way to get a Shadow out of someone in Dreamland is if another person absorbs it.”

  A large thud hit the door from the other side, and Daniel and Chance had to use all their strength to keep it from opening. Blue ran over to the door and added her body weight to the effort.

  I whipped my head toward my brother. “How did you know?” I asked tersely.

  “Know what?”

  “That you were compatible as a Shadow Guardian. You wouldn’t have made the trek to Nightmare without being sure. No antagonist would. So how did you know you were half light and half dark?”

  “It’s simple, but not obvious,” Alex said. “When you sleep, you don’t project a Shadow.”

  “Well that doesn’t help,” I said. “We can’t take a nap right now. Anything else?”

  “Crisa, I know where you’re going with this, and no one here is going to like the answer.”

  “Alex.”

  The thudding on the door continued and it looked like the flames around Mark were fading. The Shadow was sinking back into his body.

  “You owe me,” I said. “Not just for saving you today, but for everything. Tell me.”

  Alex sighed remorsefully. “People who fit the bill don’t project Shadows in Dreamland either. At all.” He looked down. I followed his gaze. Only then did I notice that Alex wasn’t projecting a shadow. And neither was I.

  “I don’t have one either,” Blue called.

  We turned. Sure enough, while shadows stretched across the floor from Chance and Daniel, nothing extended from Blue’s feet. She, Alex, and I were compatible. We were exactly half light and half dark.

  “Have your brother take the Shadow!” Blue called, heaving her shoulder against the door.

  I ground my teeth. “He can’t. Former Guardians can’t be repossessed.”

  That only left Blue and me. I reached my hand toward the flames.

  “Crisa, don’t!” Blue shouted. “I’ll do it!” She took a step away from the door, but our enemies on the outside hit it at that exact moment. It opened about a foot until Blue slammed herself back against it.

  Alex looked at me seriously. “The Shadow will bring out your worst qualities,” he warned. “Not at first, but over time. These creatures consume your soul when they possess you—not destroying it quickly, but wearing it down bit by bit until there’s nothing left. If you fight back to remember who you are this can be delayed, but it’s not easy. You’re not com
pletely yourself anymore. You’ll be more susceptible to dark influences, Crisa.”

  “All the more reason to let me do this,” Blue pleaded. “Just come take my place!”

  “No,” I said firmly. “For a dozen good reasons, but two at the heart. I’m used to living in the gray, Blue. My magic has forced me to learn the balance between dark and light, so I’ve had practice. Who knows how dealing with that all of a sudden will affect you. And second . . . you’re my friend. I have to protect you.”

  “Knight—” Daniel protested.

  But it was too late. I reached my hand into the flames and did as Alex said earlier—I concentrated on calling the Shadow to me. I was surprised how quickly it responded.

  All the black smoke and flames around Mark surged from his body and shot into my hand and up my arm, swirling like a cyclone of dark electricity. It was fast and it was painful. I shouted and skidded back. Then, as fast as the power surge began, it was over. A black aura glowed over my entire body for a moment and I felt a deep chill in my veins as a new weight settled into me.

  I gasped for breath and staggered, adjusting to the weird feeling inside. I calmed down when I saw Mark’s form glow with light. His body grew hazier until it disappeared altogether just like Mauvrey’s. He was awake. It had worked.

  Suddenly my friends were thrust across the room as the door exploded open. Arian, Tara, and a posse of Shadows flooded in. Arian raised his hand and the Shadows charged at us.

  I rushed in front of my friends and raised my own hand. It proved to be a good instinct. Now that I was a Shadow Guardian, these things obeyed me too. It was like my hand projected an invisible ward that caused the Shadows to swerve away from us.

  Okay, to what extent can I work this?

  Arian snarled, drew his sword, and came at me.

  “Blue!” I shouted.

  She fired a succession of throwing knives, causing Arian to duck and change course, running along the side of the room instead of straight for us. I focused on the Shadows I’d diverted; they now hovered by the ceiling. Tara charged with one of her metallic gloves lifted. I commanded the Shadows to cut her off before she could use it. The creatures swarmed her with the same kind of cyclone my friends and I had been victim to earlier, trapping her.

  Arian continued to avoid Blue’s blades. What he didn’t realize was that she’d been corralling him toward Daniel and Chance. Just as Blue launched her last knife, as a team the boys sprang on our enemy and shoved him against the oozing wall. As noted, the walls in this wing of the palace were substantially gummier so our enemy was stuck. Though past experience told me he wouldn’t be for long. My friends and I took the exit opportunity. Boy did we run fast.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Blue snapped at me as we ran.

  “It’s fine,” I replied. “When we get back home I’ll take the Shadow out, either with more sand from Sandman or the exorcism method I used on Alex.”

  “I wouldn’t recommend the latter if you can avoid it,” Alex said.

  When we reached the grand staircase, we spotted Jason, Girtha, and Kai waiting anxiously in the foyer by the magic gemstone podium.

  “Did you save Mark?” Jason called.

  “Yup!” I shouted as we cantered down the stairs. “We’ll explain later. Right now we’ve gotta go. Arian’s trapped, but he’ll get free. And there are two Shadow Guardian soldiers left.”

  “Then let’s make sure none of them can follow us,” Girtha responded. She reached for the powerful purple gem on the podium beside her.

  My eyes widened. “NO, DON’T!”

  But Girtha had already lifted the melon-sized jewel. The entire palace trembled violently. My crew and I stumbled down the remaining couple of stairs and fell to the floor. Alex got up immediately and grabbed me by the arm, desperation in his eyes.

  “RUN.”

  He launched me to my feet, and he and I took off straight past Girtha and the others. They followed us, but definitely didn’t understand the heightened urgency, which I couldn’t stop to explain. Alex and I raced into the open. Outside the palace a sparkling violet dome like an In and Out Spell was descending from the heavens. To get outside its umbrella a few hundred feet away before it touched the ground would require serious speed.

  I clambered down the rocky hillside with complete abandon and hit a dead sprint within two strides on even ground. The fear I felt watching the barrier lower was ineffable, pushing me to move faster and faster. Maybe I could make it. I’d passed Alex and was zooming at twice my normal speed. I glanced down. Hold on, my feet weren’t even touching the ground—I was flying, thanks to my Shadow!

  I kept moving, my heart burning with hope. Closer and closer and closer. The barrier was feet from touching the ground. I willed the Shadow within me to give everything it had, aiming to skid my body beneath the dome before it shut me out. I skated over the dirt like a bird over water and then—

  CRASH.

  I collided with the dome in a gush of angry electricity that ricocheted me into the dirt. I rolled roughly to a stop on my back and glanced past my shoulder. The barrier emitted a great boom of finalizing light. It was sealed.

  I lay next to the magic dome for a moment—shining lightly, but visibly—and didn’t move as the pain dissipated. When I finally felt okay to sit up, my friends had caught up with me. I didn’t look them in the eyes. I sat on the ground and checked my Dream Compass.

  We’d reached the final phase; Book’s full moon would open in one night, which barely meant any time at all here. As a result, a new glowing reading appeared on the surface of my device: a fifteen-minute countdown. I figured that’s how much Dreamland time we had until the full moon began. We had to get out of Nightmare so we could summon a portal home with our moonstones when that happened. My Dream Compass pointed ahead, trying to take me to a door out of this realm. But I couldn’t leave.

  “What was that?” Jason asked, offering me a hand up.

  I waved away his help and stood on my own. Slowly I approached the dome. With care, I held my palm up to the barrier, hovering just a hair apart from it. Summoning a little nerve, I dared to touch the dome. There was no electrocution this time. Instead, the thing felt solid like thick glass. But unlike glass, I knew I could not break through.

  Girtha raised her hand next to mine. When she touched the barrier, she went straight through it. “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “We lost some of the sand we were going to use to get the Shadow out of Mark,” Chance told the others, face flat and serious. “The only way to wake him was for someone else to absorb the Shadow. Crisa did. She’s a Shadow Guardian now. That’s why she can’t get through the barrier.”

  Girtha’s face fell. Her mouth twisted into the most pained grimace. “I— I didn’t know. Crisa . . . Are you saying I trapped you here?”

  “At least until the barrier lifts.” I gazed at the dome sadly and swallowed hard. “But we don’t know when that’ll be so you guys have to go now.”

  “You must be out of your mind,” Daniel said.

  “I’m not,” I replied, putting on a brave face. “You all need to get out of here. If you don’t leave this realm in fifteen minutes, you’ll be stuck in Nightmare when it’s sealed and you won’t be able to summon a portal out for the full moon like me. We can’t all be missing from our realm for the whole summer. Mauvrey and Mark are awake now. They will need all the help they can get.”

  “Crisa,” Jason said gravely. “We can’t just leave you here.”

  “You have to.”

  I was trying to exert as much confidence as I could muster, but I wished they would just go already. If they didn’t leave soon, I would lose my courage to ask them to.

  “You should have let me take the Shadow,” Blue said, frowning.

  “Now I’m even gladder I didn’t,” I said. “Arian and Tara are committed to not killing me. Nadia wants me alive so I’ll turn dark. With you, they wouldn’t hesitate.”

  Chance sighed. “Crisa—�
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  “I’ll be okay,” I interrupted. “I’m a Shadow Guardian now, so I can use this power to help me avoid Arian and the others until the barrier goes away. When it does, I’ll get out of Nightmare, lose them in one of the other realms, and bide my time until the next full moon.”

  “And what if you can’t avoid them until the barrier goes away?” Blue asked.

  I paused. Then I reached into my boot and took out my wand. I looked at it thoughtfully before presenting it to her. “Just in case,” I said. “I don’t want the antagonists to have it. I’ve seen what they can do with Fairy Godmother wands. I’d transform it into something more user friendly like a knife, but without Book magic, it’s stuck like this.”

  Blue didn’t take the wand. She glared at it.

  “Blue, I didn’t know I would get trapped here,” I said apologetically. “But you understand why I took the Shadow, don’t you? I had to—”

  “Be the savior, be the hero, be a martyr?” Blue threw her hands up.

  “Being those things is about self-sacrifice in favor of other people and the greater good,” I replied, surprised by her anger. “You don’t think that’s good?”

  “Being a martyr isn’t that redeeming if you screw over others in the process.”

  “Blue, I took the Shadow to save you,” I argued. “How is that screwing you over?

  “Because now you’re stuck here and we have to deal with the fallout. I have to deal with the fact that my best friend is trapped in a living Nightmare because she didn’t think I was strong enough to take on the same risk she was willing to.”

  I paused. My face saddened. “You know that’s not why I did it.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that those are the consequences.”

  Our friends stared at our tense exchange, not moving or even seeming to breathe. Blue eventually sighed, frustrated but not as angry. “Crisa . . .” She looked at me seriously. “Just because you’re powerful and righteous doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. Don’t you trust us—trust me?

  “Of course I do! It’s just—”

  Chance put a hand on my arm. “Crisa, it’s okay. I get it. If the situation was different and I could have taken the Shadow to protect you, I would have. Everyone here is noble enough to sacrifice themselves for the people they care for. We know that’s why you did it.”