The large cat roared. Georgia Anne squealed, and we both covered our ears. It was much louder from a foot away than hearing it in the distance.
In her leopard form, Sabra paced in a circle, finally settling down and licking her side. I stood and stepped back to give her room, while Georgia Anne stayed sitting on the ground with her legs out in front of her.
Several minutes went by as we watched and waited to see if Sabra would heal. I scanned the courtyard, but saw no signs that anyone remained, nor did it appear there had been any demon activity. At least, nothing was broken or seemed as though there’d been a battle. It was all as it was last I’d seen it.
I returned my focus to Sabra as she shifted into her human form again.
“It hurts, but I’ll be fine. Let’s go find your boyfriend.”
“He’s not—”
“Whatever, you can keep your pretense, let’s just get out of here,” she said with a grin.
Georgia Anne chuckled as she rose from the ground.
I huffed and strode away, ignoring them both.
We made it through the corridors without seeing anyone, but when we were at the hallway where we needed to turn left for Gus, I stopped. Turning right would take us to the workshop where I’d found Carlos and Donovan.
“After we get Sabra some herbs, and confirm that Gus is glamoured, we need to go down that way. There’s something I need to check on.”
Both girls nodded without asking any questions.
I wasn’t sure how I’d know if Gus was glamoured. I’d seen a shimmer when I’d created one before, but not when Sabra had. If anything, she’d be able to tell better than me.
The handle of the door to Gus’s room was cool under my fingers. After waiting a couple heartbeats to steel my reserve, I threw open the door.
The bed appeared empty, and my heart skipped a beat—at first, in relief that Aurora or Danú, or maybe both, had kept their word . . . then because I wasn’t sure if he was really there, or if they’d sent him away instead of protecting him. A fleeting thought of demons attacking him tried to surface that I crushed. I would not accept that.
I needed to know.
“Sabra, can you tell if there’s a glamour in place?”
“Let me through so I can be closer.” Sabra peered all around the door. She raised her hand and moved it slowly into the room. “There isn’t anything blocking the entrance.”
I followed her further into the space. Staring at the bed, I willed myself to see what might or might not be in front of me, but to no avail. Sabra brushed her fingers along the edge of the table next to the bed. She moved closer and smiled.
“There you are,” she whispered. “It’s so subtle, I almost couldn’t catch it. That’s impressive. There’s a shield in place, covering the bed like an invisible dome.” She turned to me with a soft smile. “He’s there, and still asleep.”
The tension melted out of me so quickly, my knees buckled. I was grateful for the chair against the wall so I could sit.
They didn’t lie to me after all.
Whichever one of the druids had followed through, it didn’t matter. They had kept their word. Part of the anger I’d been holding onto broke, and I covered my face with my hands.
“He’s safe, Niasa, just like they said he’d be,” Georgia Anne assured me.
I let out a big exhale. “Where’d everyone else go? We need to make sure they’re safe now, too.”
“What was it you wanted to check on down that corridor? Would it help us to know if Breasal is safe enough to let others know to return?” Sabra met my eyes with intensity, but not a challenge.
I’d spent so much time competing with everyone around me, I realized that I was always looking for how they were trying to best me. She wanted to help the others as much as I did. There wasn’t any competition in that.
“Carlos is a mage. I found he and Donovan working on something in a lab down that way not too long ago. I was almost caught, but Orsika helped me.”
“That rat!” Sabra spat out. “He’s probably the one who forced me to shift when you and I were sparring.” She twisted her face as if she’d eaten something terrible, and paced across the room.
“I thought you and Donovan were friends?” Georgia Anne asked. “I’ve seen you two together a few times, and he looked at you like he was an uncle or something. Why would you spy on him?”
“I met Donovan in my travels as a Valkyrie. Both times I ran into him, my assignments didn’t go well. He says that he was there checking on me because the High Council thought I was helping the Legion. After he realized I wasn’t, he said he tried to help me. But it’s never sat well. What he told me could be true, but there are too many parts of the story that don’t add up. And I’ve always had a bad feeling about him.”
“Why would someone from Breasal be concerned with a Valkyrie? I thought the realms on the Vergence stayed to themselves?” Sabra asked.
“That’s just it, they usually do. I had to go through the Gap that separates the realms to get here. I’m not sure how Donovan did it. Then there’s this, too.” I pulled the medallion out from under my tunic. “Odin told me that someone from the Legion created this, and my mother stole it to keep it away from them.”
I was getting dangerously close to exposing my secret. What would they say if they found out I’d been the cause of the quake that had exposed Breasal to the demons?
Maybe I shouldn’t say anything more.
I stared at Georgia Anne and then Sabra. Both were leaned over, studying my medallion as it rested in my palm. My friends. I’d always skirted around friendship because I was afraid to trust. Since arriving in Breasal, I’d had many chances to realize that I could trust others. The two women in front of me had proven that multiple times. It was time to open myself up and be a real friend. One that didn’t hide the truth.
“There’s more, and I hope you won’t hate me when you hear it.”
They both snapped back to standing, and stared at me. Suddenly, all words stuck in my throat and I couldn’t continue.
“The best way to confess is just to get on with it, and don’t stop until ya get it all out,” Georgia Anne said in her southern wisdom. “We can’t tell ya that we won’t be upset until after you’ve said what it is. But I can say that, whatever it is, there’s probably something we can help with. Ya don’t have to keep it all bottled up to yourself.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from losing my nerve while I slipped the medallion back over my head. Then I spilled everything I knew about the Legion, my medallion, the quake, my experience with Donovan, the ripples, all of it. Even the quartz, that I brought out of my pocket to show them.
Georgia Anne had pulled a second chair to the center of the room, and sat in silence as she listened. Sabra had moved over to the wall and leaned against it. Both wore expressions I couldn’t read when I finally finished my story. Georgia Anne was the first to respond.
“Well, that’s somethin’ alright. I think if I could go to other times, I might not be able to keep from wantin’ to change things. It would be interestin’, though.”
I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until I released it. With it came a flood of tears. I’d felt alone for so long, it was overwhelming that she hadn’t rejected me outright. While I cried into my lap, I felt someone crouch down in front of me and take my hands.
Through my blurry vision, I was shocked to find Sabra when I looked up.
“We all have secrets in our past,” she said quietly. “There are things we’ve been through that we struggle to believe anyone else would understand. It’s alright to share those things with people who care about you. We’ll help you through this.”
“What about those who don’t care about me? How are they going to feel when they find out I’m the cause of the quake and sending them through the portal?”
“We don’t know for sure it was you. You said Donovan gave you the quartz?” Georgia Anne asked.
“Yes, and I’ve tri
ed to figure out how it could be related, but I don’t know. When I touch both the quartz and the medallion, though, strange things happen. I’m afraid to do it again.”
“Don’t. Let’s just try to figure this out first.” Sabra stood and scratched behind her ear.
“I say we go check out that room ya saw Carlos and Donovan in. Just ‘cuz he’s a master, don’t mean he’s not up to no good.”
“Sounds like a good place to start. Gus is safe, all tucked in and sleeping,” Sabra smiled and glanced over at Gus. Her eyes narrowed, and she stared just a little longer than necessary before turning back to me.
“What? What did you see?” I stood up and tried to pierce through the glamour. If there was something wrong, I wanted to know.
“It’s nothing, I just thought he’d moved since I last looked, but he didn’t.”
“Is he waking up? We should stay and make sure,” I said.
If Gus woke inside the glamour, would it stay around him if he sat up or moved? I doubted we’d know—only Danú or Aurora would.
“He’ll be fine. Let’s go to that room now, and then we’ll stop by here again after.” Sabra turned to Georgia Anne and rolled her eyes in an extra dramatic fashion.
“What was that?”
“What girlfriends do when they care about each other,” Georgia Anne said with a hint of laughter in her voice.
She put her arm around my waist and directed me out the door. I heard Sabra click it closed as we all headed down the corridor toward the workroom.
28
When we arrived at the top of the stairs, behind the hidden door, I hesitated. Double-checking with the others and getting their encouragement, I started down the staircase, stopping every other step to listen. We made it halfway before I heard a noise.
I held up my hand to the others. There was definitely movement in the room below. I didn’t see the orange glow that had flickered in the stairwell the first time I’d come this way, but someone—or something—was down there.
We hugged the wall that would be out of view the longest and made our way as quietly as possible. I stopped at the last step before we’d be in full view of the room. Georgia Anne was behind me and tapped on my shoulder. She pointed to herself and then left, then back at Sabra and right, then finally at me and made a motion of going straight.
I admired her ability to navigate so easily outside the classroom. When this was all over, I was going to speak to Professor Liber and make a case for her to pass level ones without a written exam.
I faced forward and charged into the room. The others followed behind and spread out as planned.
We all halted when we saw Carlos standing across the room. Except he wasn’t the boy we’d known. A black mist swirled around him, and he was taller than before. His body was bigger, and his hair blew in long wisps with the motion of the mist.
Carlos was a demon.
How is that possible? He didn’t have the hideous features of the other demon I’d met, but there was no doubt that’s what he was.
He spun around and faced us. Only the brazier in the center of the room formed a barrier between us. A grin split his face, and his eyes glittered with a predatory shine.
“Hello, Niasa. What brings you here today? I thought you and your friends had found somewhere better to hide?”
“Who are you?”
“Carlos is a fine name, is it not? At least, it had been for the boy who was using it when I took over his body. He was brave, too. I liked that about him, thought it suited me.”
“What are ya doin’? And how did ya get here? Other than descecratin’ some poor boy. His soul will rest when we destroy you.” Georgia Anne stepped closer to him.
What’s making her so brave all of a sudden?
“Stay back, Georgia Anne. He’s not some deer in the woods you can charm until someone shoots it,” Sabra said.
She sounded like she might have experience with hunters, but I dismissed the thought as soon as it arrived. There was a demon in front of us in a small enclosed space. We needed every bit of our wits.
Carlos raised his eyes over my head, and I spun to find Donovan standing directly behind me on the last step.
“What are you doing in this room? Did you bring him here?” The pitch in my voice rose higher than I intended as my heart raced.
“I’d planned on showing all of this to you when the time was right. I didn’t want to frighten you. It’s not what you think. Carlos and I have been friends for a long time. The stories you’ve been told are full of falsehoods that make the demons out to be irredeemable, which is simply not true. We are working together to bring our people to a place of understanding.”
He sounded just like Jemma. She’d claimed the giants weren’t our enemy, before she’d shown herself to be working with the Legion.
Donovan stepped into the room and came closer to me. I saw both Georgia Anne and Sabra glance between the two men.
I was thankful they stayed put. This situation was larger than the three of us would be able to handle. The best I could do was get my friends out of the room and to safety.
“Now that you’re here, though,” Donovan continued, “you might as well see some of what we’ve got planned. It will help you understand what we’re trying to accomplish.” He skirted around me and sauntered to the table behind Carlos. He picked up something out of a bowl and showed it to me.
I gasped. It was a blue quartz just like the one still in my pocket.
“You recognize this, don’t you? Do you still have the one I gave you? I checked your room, and it wasn’t there, so I assume you took it with you when you went through that portal. I can see the leather cord of the medallion, so I know it’s still around your neck.”
I resisted the urge to raise my hand to it.
“What is that?” I asked instead, lifting my arm from my side slightly to gesture at the stone he held, making sure that I didn’t accidentally touch the matching quartz in my possession.
“This is a conduit. I’ve not perfected it yet, as you discovered when you tried to use it. It did make a doorway for a short time, but it wasn’t stable. You did something later, though. The effect wasn’t as intense as when the whole island nearly shook apart, but we all felt it. I’m curious to know what you did. You remember when I’m talking about, don’t you? When you had that nice little chat with Danú in Gus’s room. She felt it too. I managed to get a few of the Legion through the doorway before she got it closed.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
My stomach did a flip as I tried to keep my face calm and expressionless. That was the moment I’d had the vision of the demons coming into the courtyard.
“Do you know how the Tuatha came to live on Breasal?” he asked.
“Why are you stalling, and what is he doing?” Sabra asked him, startling me.
What does she mean?
Then I noticed that Carlos had started working on something while Donovan blocked my view.
We needed to leave. There was too much power between the group of us, and I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen if we all stayed in such confined quarters.
“He is no concern of yours. In fact, I don’t think getting cat hair into my work is a good idea.”
With a flick of his wrist, Sabra was lifted off the ground. As if she had a string around her waist, she was ripped out of the room and up the stairs.
Georgia Anne screamed. “How did you do that?” she demanded.
Donovan peered at her and cocked his head. “How is that possible?” he muttered.
“Georgia Anne, you should go check on Sabra. I’ll be fine.”
“Not a chance. She can take care of herself, I’m not leavin’ you alone here.”
Donovan stepped closer to Georgia Anne, and I jumped between them. “You were telling me a story,” I reminded him firmly.
One side of his mouth curled upward, and he tilted his chin.
“Long ago, when the Shadow King established his throne in Apo
llyon, he tried to work with the Tuatha de Danaan on a treaty of sorts. He would rule part of humanity, and they could have the other part. Negotiations got heated, and led to a civil war.”
“I know all of this.”
I got chills all over my body. This was similar to the conversation I’d had with Aurora. But Donovan called Carlos a friend. He was a demon, which had to mean Donovan worked for the Shadow King. I’d come to Breasal to fight the Legion and failed.
“You seem pale. Are you feeling well? This shouldn’t bother you, it all works out.” Donovan shook his head with disgust.
I shifted slightly closer to Georgia Anne.
“The Milesians—my people—disagreed with such idiotic plans that the truce required. They blended in with humanity, and continued to fight for the king.”
My stomach was in knots. I couldn’t breathe as memories swirled through my mind. I’d been such a pawn in his game. Yet I’d led myself right to his door. He might have been a monster, but I’d been right there with him. The quartz had been a ploy and I’d helped the demons arrive in Breasal.
Donovan raised his arms to his sides and tipped his chin to the ceiling. A flash of light blinded me, and I turned away for a split second until it was gone. When I faced him again, his appearance had changed. He no longer looked human.
Long, pointed ears jutted high, his green eyes sparkled with an unnatural light, and his dark hair had grown long and straight. While his skin stayed dark, it had the same radiant appearance as all the other Tuatha I’d met.
Donovan inhaled deeply and settled his gaze on me.
There was no way Georgia Anne and I had the skills to battle the kind of power in front of us.
29
My stomach threatened to heave, and I wrapped one arm around my middle. I still had no idea how, or why, any of this involved me, but I needed to get Georgia Anne out. She was only there because of me. I was positive now that I’d tainted that portal, and she’d have gone safely with the others.
Time Academy Page 17