I sighed, recognizing the need to change tactics if I was going to be sharing this trip with more than my other half and his bipolar sister. I was supposed to be the leader, and fighting with my team members was not setting a great example.
Besides, they were right. We were about to embark on our one chance at severing my tie with Zordon, and we needed all the help we could get. More importantly, I needed Lexi on my side.
I locked eyes with her. “If I can do this, if I can defeat Zordon, then maybe I can find a way to fix all that has happened, Lexi. I want to fix it. You have to trust me. You have to believe that I love you both and that I would never want to hurt either of you.”
After a short moment of staring, she sighed heavily, a certain sadness registering in her eyes. “I know you mean well,” she said quietly before clearing her throat.
And that was it. Like a light bulb, something clicked inside of her to make her see reason. She tucked her hair behind her ears and gave a half-hearted smile. “Let’s go before Astral wakes, which will be soon.” I caught Fenn and Lexi sharing a proud, encouraging smile and couldn’t help but feel hope for the future.
If we could get through everything we had already been through and still find each other and the love we share, then we could get through anything.
“Why does he wake so late in the night?” Adam asked as he sat on the edge of the fountain, staring out into the horizon.
“An Ancient’s schedule,” I said. “They hardly sleep.”
“I’ll get Zane and Soothe,” Lexi said before disappearing into a portal. Fenn grunted at the mention of Zane. I grunted at the mention of taking more people with us.
I turned back into Fenn and rested my head against his sturdy chest, listening to the quiet sounds of his heart. “Soothe and Zane too?”
Even though we knew Zane had been around, we had yet to see him. He was good at avoiding us. Everyone was bothered in some way by the fact that he didn’t show up for the battle. I kept to myself about spotting him only because I wasn’t sure if it was him I saw that day, or my imagination. I didn’t want to explain I was seeing him when he wasn’t there.
It didn’t take Lexi long before she reappeared. Zane appeared next, avoiding Fenn’s gaze. I was almost scared to look at him. I couldn’t believe that he was actually here.
“So…the battle was successful,” he managed to say, barely looking at us. He was chewing on his lip, his face shaded in stubble.
“No thanks to you,” Fenn said harshly, peering down his nose at Zane.
I think I saw Zane wince.
“Where did you go?” Fenn asked, speaking through his teeth. “Because you sure the hell weren’t where you were supposed to be, which was fighting alongside of us. You didn’t even go with Kaede’s men.”
Zane finally turned to look at him, his eyes pressed into slits. “I was there, okay? I just kept low and to myself so neither of you would know. I wasn’t ready to talk.” His words came off as a growl.
So I did see him there. He did pull through. All the disappointment I felt was replaced with pride. “Where’s Soothe?” I asked, intentionally trying to change the subject.
“He’s not coming,” Zane answered blatantly with a bitter tone. His arms were crossed.
I shook my head. “Shocking. Did he mention why?”
“He says we need to do this on our own. And that he wouldn’t be of any use to us,” Zane recited with a shrug.
Adam chuckled.
I shook my head, inhaling and exhaling to refresh my brain. “Okay…so then it’s the five of us. We can manage.” I tried to sound optimistic as I looked around at our small group, a strange feeling arising in my gut.
We were just a bunch of kids in over our heads with trying to save the realms. Trying to be heroes.
“We really should get going,” Lexi said. “Everyone have everything they need?” She waited long enough for us all to nod. Everything we needed could be conjured.
She stuck her hands out and closed her eyes, whispering words I couldn’t understand. Her white light expanded out from her hands, bubbling up around us. I was ready to meet the Priests—I had spent a good part of the morning psyching myself up for that–but I wasn’t prepared for the change of plans Lexi made the moment she transported us.
She took us to the edge of the rift in between realms. The land smoldered from our earlier fight, depriving us of oxygen. It took everything in me not to cough.
A loud noise from the left caught our attention, and we all dropped to the ground. Zordon’s army had broken through the enchantment Kaede had set up to keep them from entering Pyre Island. Zordon must know.
Sayer sat atop a horse in the front of the army, commanding them forward. I had never seen his back so straight before.
Men of every size and stature stomped towards the rift in deadly uniformed rows. Dressed in black robes sporting The Fates’ symbol, they carried staves and swords, with daggers gleaming from the inside of their robes. Cyclopes pulled heavy chains, taking slow laborious steps.
Warlocks, with their tiny demonic minions, twirled conjured elements in their hands, laughing as they stepped out of our realm and into the other. Shadows swept in and around them all, sailing like a dark breeze.
They headed to the place I used to call home. To the place where Mily was.
“You could’ve told us what you were doing first,” Fenn said, gripping Lexi’s shoulders and pulling her down with the rest of us. His ring glowed brightly, alerting us to the dangers surrounding us. I army-crawled towards a rock and shifted behind it, stretching my wings out and then tucking them under.
“Lexi, we need to go to the Amethyst Temple,” I scolded as I crawled back over to them, looking left and then right. The Lyceum was no longer visible, just a plot of scorched land.
When I looked back, Lexi was standing again, unconcerned about the many armored men that passed by her without a second glance. It was as if they couldn’t see us. Lightning struck down in front of the rift, the skies churning with darkness on either side. Thunder barreled off the sides of the island and rumbled through my being.
She walked up to the barrier and touched it, never looking at the army that swept by her. The barrier shimmered, making it look like they were plunging through a waterfall rippling in the air.
“They can’t see us,” she said, her tone detached. “I used my Celestian power to hide us from evil. It’s a perk of being a part of the Army of Light. The effect will wear off in the other realm though.”
“We’re going to the other realm?” Adam questioned. He did not look pleased at this change of plans. “What happened to the Priests?”
She twirled around. “Plans changed. I heard something from the Seers.”
“Wait, you can hear Seers?” Fenn asked, momentarily forgetting about the danger of our surroundings or the fact that we were in the wrong place.
She continued to talk as if she didn’t hear him. “They said daddy dearest is headed for Aurora’s foster mother. I thought that maybe you would like to head him off. I thought it would be more important than the Priests right now.”
The blood drained from my face. Her expression softened enough to tell me that she felt bad about what could happen to Mily, but it didn’t curb the stabbing pain that attacked my nervous system. It didn’t keep my fingers from digging into the flesh of my palms.
He was making this personal because we had made it personal.
“What if this is a trap?” Zane asked from beside me, unaware of my current meltdown.
Lexi smirked and then walked through the barrier without another word.
“I love how she answers questions like Soothe now that she is a Celestian. She must be his minion,” Zane said in his usual sarcastic way. He looked over at me, waiting for me to smile, and then his face morphed
into sympathy. “We can get to her before he does,” he said quickly.
For a moment, I thought he was going to take my hand in his, but then Fenn placed his hands on my shoulders and started rubbing them, subsiding my worry.
“I guess we should go then,” Adam said as he walked up to the barrier. His hands were already on the hilt of his sword. He took a deep breath and stepped through.
Fenn grabbed my hand, and the three of us walked up to the barrier, careful not to bump into Zordon’s army that paraded through next to us, armed and ready.
“Remember what she said. We probably won’t be invisible on the other side,” Zane mentioned, his voice faltering a smidgen.
“Be ready,” I said, and then we all stepped through.
To say the other side was chaotic would be an understatement. It was unimaginable and indescribable.
Fenn yanked me towards Lexi who was huddled behind what was left of the forest near the cave. One smoldering tree stump.
“We have to get inside the cave,” she shouted over the screams of the innocent men and women being assaulted by Zordon’s army. The Shadows took to the skies, heading north.
The four of us grabbed on to Lexi, and she ported us to the inside of the cave. I must have been holding my breath because it whooshed out of me as soon as my feet touched the cool surface of the damp cavern.
“We have to do something,” I said immediately, my mind racing with doubtful thoughts.
“Yeah, but what? There are only five of us. We are so unprepared,” Adam said, cursing under his breath. “We should’ve told Astral and my father what we were planning. We can’t handle this.”
I chewed on my non-existent nails.
“Oh, hush,” Lexi shot out, waving him off with her hand. “The only way to fix this is to end Zordon, and we can’t deal with that unless Aurora is in the right frame of mind and knows that her family is safe. Would you let your father die without trying?”
“This could be a trap,” Adam countered. “I mean, would he really put this out there, knowing that we have Seers on our side that could relay the message?”
“It doesn’t matter to me if it is a trap or not,” I said, my voice shaking with anger and fear.
“Do you know where he is?” Fenn asked me. His eyes searched mine.
I closed my eyes, searching for Zordon’s darkness that was always there, lurking in the shadows of my soul. He was there, but he was far away. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where.
“I don’t know. He’s here, but I don’t know where. We shouldn’t have left her unprotected,” I admitted, trying to calm my racing heart. What if he was already with Mily? What if he took her from me?
Zane silenced the deafening thoughts. “What about your Oraculus?” he asked. He was squatting on the cavern floor, whittling another piece of wood in a hurried fashion. It had become a nervous habit.
I shook my head. “It won’t work. The pull isn’t there anymore. I think it went away when he obtained his.”
Fenn started pacing. “We should take it from him.”
“We will be lucky enough if we can get his blood, Fenn,” I said low enough for only us to hear. “Can you stop pacing? You’re making me even more nervous.”
He paused for a second. “We need to find Mily,” Fenn said, slowing his pace. The panic in his voice rose.
My mind scrambled with multiple possibilities. “Do you think she is still in California?”
“She has to be,” Fenn said, finally standing still.
Lexi looked at both of us for a moment, contemplating, and then shut her eyes. A heavenly white glow surrounded her body like a halo. She was pristinely beautiful, like Iliana.
Her eyes opened. “She is in California. Zordon is close by,” she said, terror replacing her cool composure. She wavered for a moment from the pull of power.
“We have to go now!” Fenn said, keeping me steady with my hand in his. I could feel his hand shaking. Zane was up and ready, his carving disappearing into a wisp of smoke.
“Take my hand,” Lexi said, extending her arms towards me.
“You sure?” I asked, worried about her use of energy.
She nodded so we all linked up. Without a second thought, we were transported. I just hoped that we made it in time. That taking Pyre Island out wasn’t coming back to bite us full force.
Chapter 17
We Meet Again
WHEN WE ARRIVED, MILY WAS on her back on the floor in the middle of a living room, blood draining from her ears and mouth.
In a heartbeat, I was by her side, rolling her over to face me. “Mily? Mily, wake up!” I said, shaking her shoulders. Dust snowed around us, tickling my nose. The roof was gone. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t be dead.
Liquid dread spread through to my limbs, leaving my hands shaking and what was left of my mental clarity crippled. Fenn fell to his knees on the other side of Mily in a state of shock.
I looked up at him, my mouth forming words despite the broken shambles of my mind. “The triplets,” I said, my voice surprisingly calm. He was on his feet and down the hall in the blink of an eye.
Lexi came up behind me and gently rested her hand on Mily’s chest. “She’s alive,” she said. She looked up at Zane and Adam who stood watching us, horror on their faces. “Go help Fenn,” she commanded.
I put my face next to Mily’s, trying to contain the tears that burned in my throat. “Mily?” She stirred, but her eyes remained shut.
I stood, scanning the room for any signs of Zordon’s whereabouts. What had he done to her? Where was he?
“He hasn’t been here yet,” Lexi said. She was right. I couldn’t feel the taint that he always left behind. She had been attacked by something else.
Adam and Zane came around the corner looking frazzled. Catching the end of our conversation, Adam asked, “If he hasn’t been here, then how?”
Zane was all business. “Don’t worry about that. Take Mily back to the other realm before he gets here,” he instructed, bending down to pick Mily up. He carefully placed her in Adam’s arms. Adam exhaled sharply, adjusting his stance to better hold her.
Fenn came running back down the hall. “I can’t find them,” he shrieked, his eyes wild with fear.
“What do you mean?” I asked. His words didn’t register. They had to be here. Where else would they be?
“I can’t find them, Aurora. The other half of this house is completely caved in.” His ring was glowing brighter than ever.
The sound of a house being plowed through assaulted our ears, and we all dropped to the floor. Debris flew all around us, coating us in dust. I rolled over and looked up through the space that had once been a roof. A Cyclops. He had a huge chain with a ball at the end, swinging it through the row of houses next to ours.
My dragon Foresight told me that the chain would strike Mily’s house next. “We need to get out now,” I said calmly and quietly, trying not to rouse the Cyclops’ attention.
But then he turned to cross the street. A small sigh of relief rushed out, but I was left confused. My dragon Foresight had never been wrong before.
I shook my head. There wasn’t any time to worry about that right now.
Fenn crawled over to Adam and took Mily from him. During the exchange, Adam accidentally kicked the top of a coffee table that was lying on its side. I watched in horror as the legs of the table crashed into an old wooden grandfather clock.
At the sound, the Cyclops stopped mid-step, hurling his massive ball and chain behind him. We scrambled to our feet. One giant, brutal step in our direction, and the chain lifted fluidly into the air.
“Lexi!” I shouted in horror, watching Fenn crouch over Mily with his eyes squeezed tight.
Suddenly, the room filled with blinding white light. Lexi wa
s spinning like she had in front of the Orient Lyceum on the day we returned. I watched her spin until the hands on the grandfather clock stopped. Time had stopped.
No one was moving except Lexi and me. I dared to look up. The heavy metal ball was inches away from us. “Grab them,” she said to me, nodding towards Adam, Zane, Fenn, and Mily. “I am going to port us out.” Her spinning had subsided, but her light was still blinding. Like The Fates.
I held on to the other four, and then Lexi touched the top of my head. I looked around. Time had resumed, but Lexi had only moved us across the street. The massive fist of the Cyclops slammed into the house next to Mily’s.
Concrete pieces and shards of glass rained down all around us. We clambered to cover ourselves from the downpour of debris. I felt the blunt force of a large piece of concrete falling on my back, knocking the breath out of me. My hands slipped out from under me, and my face smacked into the dirt.
Fenn reached out to me, wincing as the hot sting of glass sliced through his skin. I watched as he healed only a moment later.
“Lexi, we have to get out of here,” I yelled, watching the last remaining bits of Mily’s house shattering into millions of pieces. The Cyclops continued down the street, taking any hope of finding the triplets with him, swinging his chain through every house along the way.
Lexi was on her hands and knees, dry heaving. I rushed to her side, pulling her hair back. “I’m running low,” she said in between gags.
“The triplets,” Fenn said, falling to his knees and laying Mily on the ground. She stirred, her eyes fluttering open. A hot sting of tears blurred my vision. I quickly wiped them away and looked back down at Mily who watched me, clearly confused.
“Anela?” her hoarse voice croaked.
From the Embers (The Born in Flames Trilogy) Page 20