The unhappy illusionist played along. “Yes, empaths! Remain bedazzled by the gifts of a diadem.”
Isabella froze. Did he know what she had done? He was a diadem, too, though. Maybe he'd been speaking of himself.
Keep it together!, she commanded of herself. Her head was all over the place, but she had things to do and a society to save. She pressed onward through the crowd toward Celluloid Alley.
She couldn't help but look at the faces of the people passing her by. They looked colder than they had just days ago during the solstice celebration. It wasn't as if the happiness had disappeared from them: Plenty of people wore smirks of pleasure or had laughter in their eyes. But there was something missing. It frightened her. She needed to find her friends. They would be there, frantic with worry at being separated from her, wouldn’t they?
Water sprayed up from the ground as the denizens cheered for some other random spectacle. An older woman stumbled off the curb as a man turned to look at her but didn't help. A Shadow patrolman led her back to the sidewalk, hardly looking her in the eye. Something was not right.
Isabella spotted Micah's back at the opening of Celluloid Alley across the road. Then a shadow filled the false sky. A star cascaded to the ground. How could that be? Was that planned? They were underground: Those weren't real stars, were they?
Her question was answered immediately. The fallen star materialized into Satrina; she wore a billowing black dress, her long hair flowing behind her. She crooked her finger at Isabella, eyes fastened on hers. Isabella gasped. She feverishly sought the spot where she'd last seen Micah. Then another star fell toward her. She dashed in the direction of Celluloid Alley but the star-turned-man stopped her. It was Key. She went left and ran smack into Cast.
She was surrounded by all three of them. “Micah! Seth! Colin!” she cried. In less than a second, Seth appeared followed by Micah. They rushed toward her as Cast grabbed Isabella's arm, pulled out a violet stone, and chanted a few unintelligible words, causing mist to emanate from the gem.
“We have someone who'd like to speak with you, girl.”
Seth had nearly reached her when a gray catbird swooped in to attack Cast. Key lunged for her coat sleeve. Isabella lurched away from both of them. She kept them at bay with swift kicks but wished she knew how to use her powers better. She tried channeling the fire she'd just summoned, but nothing came. She was frightened, out of focus. Then Seth appeared with Colin and Franklin. Each of them wildly threw punches. Isabella fell to the ground. Before she could blink again, Cleo, Micah, and Xander surrounded her, lifted her to her feet, and pulled her toward the alley. She looked up and saw a little bird fluttering away.
“Thanks, Mimi!” Isabella shouted as she and the others made it to the opening of Celluloid Alley. They looked back at Seth and Colin, who were still fighting off Key, Cast, and Satrina. Franklin was no longer in sight. Isabella looked everywhere but could not see him.
“Where did Franklin go?” she asked the others.
“He was just there,” said Cleo.
Colin turned to shout at Isabella. “Go!”
Isabella did not want to leave either him or Seth, but before she could argue, Jack's minions dissolved nearly as quickly as they'd appeared.
“Let's go,” she said, feeling a surge of authority flood her. “They'll be right behind us.” She, Micah, Cleo, and Xander ran to the elevator beneath the building marked Shutter and Closet 6. She remembered it from the map she had in her pocket. They held the door for Seth and Colin, who got in, heaving for air, sweating; still no sign of Franklin. “Thank you, guys.”
Neither man answered but smiled a little at each other, as if proud of their teamwork. Colin clapped Seth on the back. “You're a natural guardian, kid.”
The elevator looped down in a spiral. Isabella shut her eyes. She did not like this one bit.
“Colin,” she asked her brother, “where's Franklin?”
“I lost sight of him. But he'll be all right. He always is.”
Before she knew it, the elevator doors opened, and they tumbled out. Everything was dark for a moment then, with a flash, a violet and gold room shone before them. Colin took her hands and studied them to make sure she had no injuries. Isabella looked beyond her brother at her cohort's backs; they were surrounding her in a circle. Did they have their weapons? Where had they gotten them? As the brightness of the room faded, she could see Neeta standing beyond her friends.
“I can't trust you not to kill yourselves with these, so please do not use them unless necessary. Try trusting your instincts. You have powers that are much stronger than mere objects. You can access them only through sheer will and concentration.”
Neeta stepped through the group and opened a satchel. From it, she presented Isabella with her orb. Isabella slipped it into her pocket. “Thank you,” she said, expecting similar rules and warnings from Colin's sidekick.
Instead, Neeta only offered her a small smile of assurance and said, “We're ready.”
“Wait. Where is Theophilus?” asked Isabella. “Wasn't he supposed to meet us here?”
“I'm here.” His voice peeled from deep in the dark cavern the elevator had taken them to. “Just waiting for the pomp and ceremony to cease so we can move forward.”
“I told you I didn't want them to have those just yet, Neeta,” Colin complained.
“I'm sorry, but I thought it was a good idea. We don't know what we're up against.”
Colin set his jaw without looking at Neeta and addressed the others. “Let's move.”
The group dipped into the vast recesses of a dark, stinky cave.
“We go left then right,” said Theophilus with authority, illuminating the map with the light of his crystal. The images on it seemed to come to life one by one. “Isabella, keep your eyes on the map. I don't have the best memory.” Up to then, he had been so sure; she wondered why they’d even needed the map, but Theophilus had said it was necessary in order to open the vault. Maybe Renee had used it to protect the vault, she speculated.
After feeling their way through the tunnels for quite some time, they came to an intersection where several pathways met just as they all heard a shuffling sound in the shadows. Suddenly, a puff of smoke forced them to close their eyes. When Isabella could slit hers open again, she saw that she and her friends were face to face with Key, Cast, and Satrina. This time, they were trapped.
Satrina’s long hair curtained her face as she stepped closer. “So there you are,” she said coldly. “This could have been so much easier if you’d just trusted us back in the Valley.” Seth was the first to move in front of her. “Oh, look at that. The little pup is gonna protect his master.”
Micah, Xander, and Cleo stood beside her, somewhat forming a shield to block the evil coming to snuff out her light. Colin, Neeta, and Theophilus held up their hands, as though ready to release their power.
Satrina laughed when an unseen force pushed Colin, Neeta, and Theophilus off-balance. With a sharp rumble and crash, two man-sized stones broke off the cave wall and slammed to the ground in front of Colin, Neeta, and Theophilus.
“No!” Isabella cried. Her heart burned. She jumped toward the rocks, Seth at her side, and punched at them. “What did you do? What did you do? Colin! Theophilus!”
Satrina chuckled calmly. “See how easily we can kill even the most powerful among you? Too bad Jack wants you alive—all of you. For now, anyway.” She pressed her red lips into a line, and her eyes grew darker.
Seth turned and lunged at Satrina. She shrieked. Key and Cast grabbed the twins.
Micah had coiled the whip at his side and violently slapped it across Key's back. Key cried out and released Cleo as Micah lashed it at Cast. Cast reacted angrily and threw a bolt of violet light at him.
“No!” cried Satrina. “We must not harm The Five.”
“The Five?” Isabella asked. Of course there were five of them, but why was she putting it in such a way?
“You, diadem queen, and your royal pa
irs,” Satrina sneered. “You will come to our master tonight.”
“We're not going anywhere with you.” Isabella wiped hot tears from her face. She had to focus. They couldn't be dead. Not so easily, not without warning like that. She focused on their presences. She could hear Colin in her mind. It's okay, he was telling her. We're just behind the rocks. We're all right.
Satrina laughed. “Then we'll just accompany you to wherever it is that you were going. Where was that again?”
Micah laughed and said, to Isabella's surprise, “Like we'd ever tell you.”
“Oh, you will tell us, young master. You will.” Her laughter filled the cave and iced Isabella’s core.
Isabella wouldn't tell, either. Never. But she had to get to Colin and Theophilus. She couldn't lose them—they were her family. She wanted to scream and cry, but she wouldn't. Not then. She had to find a way to stop Jack instead.
Get to the vault and then restore the Fire. She could do it with her friends. All she had to do was shake Jack's motley crew.
She stopped short. No. She needed Colin to open the vault. Wasn't that the whole point? He was the lost heir, but now she couldn't get to him. She had no idea what to do next.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The Foxworthy Vault
Isabella wasn't sure her idea would work, but she thought it might give them a fighting chance. She reached for the orb in her pocket as Satrina glided to within inches of her. She decided to use her fallback plan: the sweeping capoeira kick to try and trip Satrina. Unfortunately, Satrina only grunted and then grabbed Isabella’s foot and yanked it forward. The orb slipped out of Isabella's hand and tumbled toward the ground. Fully concentrating on a desire to slow time, she snatched hold of her necklace and yelled, “STOP!” She hoped like hell it would work.
The air started to thin between the walls of the cave, which hadn’t happened before. Satrina’s grip loosened, allowing Isabella to wiggle out of her grasp and dive for the orb. She noticed that her friends were moving normally, while Satrina, Key, and Cast looked like they were swimming in syrup.
As she was getting up, she shouted to her cohort, “Time is slowed down for them—let’s run! Now!”
Seth had been blocking an attack from Key with Xander at his side while Micah and Cleo were attacking Cast. He looked at her quizzically but followed her order.
They hustled around the corner of the tunnel where Isabella stopped and turned back to face their attackers.
She closed her eyes and wrapped her hands around the orb. “Cover your eyes!” she shouted to the others as the orb blasted an enormous flood of bright light to blind Jack’s minions just as time for them returned to normal. ”Let’s go!”
They tore off down the tunnel in the direction of the Foxworthy vault, running until their legs were tired. They stopped briefly for Isabella to study the map again.
“We must have run a mile,” complained Cleo, panting, her hands on her knees. “I’m not used to all this.”
“We go right,” Isabella said, already ready to go again. Seth stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“What was that back there?” he asked. "You can stop time now?"
Instead of answering, she took out the orb and held it face up in her palm. It brightened slowly before them, and then its faint violet light climbed up her arm and shoulders. Seth stepped forward as if he thought it might be hurting her, but she held up her other hand to stop him. The light spread until it consumed her entire body. She stared at Seth, whose jaw had fallen open. The others looked at her, not blinking. “It becomes a part of me almost, but this is the first time it’s actually…”
“Made you glow,” finished Seth.
Isabella nodded once.
“Was the orb what made you slow time?”
“No. I did that before I had this,” she said, putting it back in her pocket. She stopped glowing at once. “I think it’s just something that I can do.”
Xander spoke up. “I think it’s because the Foxworthy family is kinda connected to the dude who created the world under here. So he let them have some kinda control over time here and even, I think, up in the hotel.” They all turned to him. “I asked the sages information about the Foxworthy family and the Empath Society. You know, for movie history?”
Isabella took her necklace again and rubbed it gently as she looked at Xander. “Did they explain more about how it stops for everyone up in sky-side, but down here it just makes everyone go slow? And what about the connection with the cohort?”
“Sorry, Izzy,” Xander replied. “That's all I got.”
Seth came between her and Micah. She felt a sense of reassurance from him course through her body.
Cleo cuffed her chin with her dagger in the other hand, swinging like a pendulum. “Okay, we get that we can share some of Izzy's power and her time slowing doesn't affect us. But why are those weirdos still after you, Izzy? I mean, they have Colin, but they keep wanting only you.”
“Let’s ask questions after we get out of here. They’re still chasing us,” Seth reminded them. They started back toward the vault.
“But what about Colin and the others?” asked Cleo as they started to run again.
“I don’t know,” Isabella mumbled. She wanted to go back to make sure Colin and Theophilus were still all right, but she couldn’t. Right now, she had to focus on the vault. Not only that, they’d been attacked twice in one night, and they’d only had a little training. Isabella was scared the others would get hurt, too, and it would be all her fault.
They ran along in silence until Micah spoke while huffing. “I think in a few more turns we will have a good lead on them. Xander, do you think you can use the illusionist power you learned in training to make them think we are still here, just to stall for time?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“My little brother, the genius,” said Seth. Isabella heard the sarcasm in his voice, but she could also hear the truth behind his words. He was impressed with Micah’s suggestion.
“At the next turn, we’ll wait for them. I’ll slow time again. Then you try to project an image of us running down the wrong tunnel as soon as you hear them approaching,” said Isabella.
“I don’t know how long I can keep the illusion going. I haven’t worked at it for very long.”
“What was the longest time?” asked Isabella.
“I think I got to…”
“He got to one minute and forty-three seconds during practice,” said Micah.
“That’s plenty. You just have to get them to go the wrong way,” said Isabella. “Okay. The vault should be just down this path, and then we turn left then quickly right.”
“This is too dangerous,” said Cleo as they slowed down again. “We should just keep going.”
Isabella sensed a presence of some kind, but it wasn’t Satrina. It was a voice. Theophilus said they are okay. Meet them at the vault. I’m not down there, if that’s what you think. I’m not crazy. Don’t get yourself killed.
Isabella's grin widened. Thanks, Mimi, she said and relayed the message to her cohort.
They were a few hundred feet away from the vault. When they heard purposeful footsteps marching toward them, they crouched down into position. “Here they come,” said Isabella, putting her hand on her necklace as Jack’s dark allies came into view.
“STOP!” Isabella shouted, slowing time. “Okay. Make it look like we got up and ran down that corridor over there. Hurry. The slowing doesn’t last long.”
Xander took a deep breath and curled up his gloved hands before holding them out in front of himself, eyes pinched shut. Nothing happened. “I can’t. It’s too hot in here. I can’t.”
“He’s under too much pressure,” said Cleo. “Let’s just leave.”
“No. I can do this.”
He kept his eyes shut as images of them separated from their bodies and stood before them, facing Satrina and the others.
“Let’s go,” Seth said, pulling Isabella after him. The time sl
ide—that’s what Pythian called it—was coming to an end. She could feel it this time. She looked over her shoulder and saw Xander’s illusions running in the opposite direction as they continued toward the vault.
As they turned the corner to where the vault was, Isabella bumped into a tall lanky form so hard that the person had to grab her shoulders to keep her from bouncing back to the floor.
“Get off her!” she heard Seth cry.
She looked up to see Franklin staring down into her eyes. She looked away, but he had not let go. She felt heat from both Franklin’s body and Seth’s harsh glare.
“You guys are all right?” He smiled at them, finally stepping back from Isabella.
“We were until you showed up,” said Seth curtly.
Franklin took his communicator out of his coat pocket and punched a few words into it.
“Colin and everyone are on their way. Come on.”
“How did you find the vault without Theophilus?” asked Cleo.
“Come on. We've wasted enough time,” Seth said, taking the map from Isabella and leading the way to the vault.
They rounded the corner and saw three familiar figures placing their hands onto large copper doors. Isabella smiled as she drew closer to them. The three stood in front of a large metal vault in the wall before them. It seemed like they were looking for the key to the entrance.
“Colin!” She beamed and went to embrace her brother. He winced in a little pain but wore a genuine smile. Part of his shirt was torn, and there were scratches and bruises on his arm. “You okay?” she asked with a worried tone as she let him go.
“Don't worry about me.” He smiled at her and then gave a nod toward Theophilus, who cleared his throat.
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