Midnight Law

by Geanna Culbertson

  In the morning, after checking on Mauvrey and ensuring she was okay, Daniel and I borrowed a couple of Pegasi from the stables and headed for Dolohaunty. I guided the way, and we pushed through without breaks until we landed on the bridge Mark had almost jumped off of the night before. Daniel gazed up at the towering structure warily, as if intimidated. Very unlike him. You’d think he’d never seen a castle before.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “What? Yeah, fine. Let’s go meet your friend.”

  The king awaited us in the foyer.

  “Your Majesty,” I said, bowing deeply. Daniel reluctantly followed my lead. He was a polite guy for the most part, but he hadn’t had royal protocol drilled into him for years like I had. Also, I think he naturally had trouble respecting authority and doing anything that displayed a submissive attitude. Two things he and Crisa had in common. They didn’t like to answer to anybody, which was both a powerful and destructive quality.

  The king was intense but usually friendly. Today I only saw the former in his serious expression and tense stature.

  “Mr. Sharp,” the king said. He eyed me, then Daniel. “And friend.”

  “This is Daniel,” I said. “He’s been my roommate since Mark left.”

  “Ah, my son’s replacement. Yes, SJ mentioned you when she visited.”

  “I’m not a replacement, sir,” Daniel replied. “I’m just lucky to have gotten matched with Jason at school. Last year was my first term at Lord Channing’s.”

  “Indeed.” The king nodded. “Young Jason is a great ally. My son is lucky to have him as a friend. Now come. Mark has been under guard in his room since last night. I am sure my numbskull son will be pleased to see some people who are not doctors, soldiers, or his parents.”

  The king marched off and we followed in his huge shadow. I had not been in the palace for years, but I had no trouble recognizing when we reached the corridor that connected to Mark’s room. There were at least a dozen guards stationed throughout the hallway.

  The king stopped in front of a set of doors, which two guards opened. We entered and I spotted my friend in bed with a scowl on his face. His mom was fussing over him and several older men in white lab coats examined notes on clipboards behind her. Everyone froze when the king walked in. It was understandable. He had a kind of be-silent-or-you-will-be-silenced vibe.

  “Son, your friend and his friend are here to see you,” the king said. He turned to the doctors and his wife. “Let’s give the prince a short break.”

  “But—” the queen started.

  “Mom, seriously. I’m okay,” Mark said.

  She shook her head worriedly and left the room, nodding at us politely as she departed, but too distraught to address us further.

  “I want all the guards out of here too,” Mark said, pushing the blankets aside and standing up. “I feel fine. Everyone who’s not a classmate needs to get out.”

  “Really?” The king raised an eyebrow. “You think you’re in a position to give orders after lying to us?”

  “Dad,” Mark pleaded.

  The king’s eyes were severe, but he nodded. “Ten minutes, son. And do not give me that look. You did this to yourself. You should’ve been honest with us from the start. Since you’ve proven that you can’t keep yourself safe, we are now responsible for that.”

  The adults left. Mark cracked his shoulders before pivoting to Daniel.

  “Sorry about that. Mark. Officially. It’s nice to meet you.” He extended his hand and Daniel shook it.

  “Nice to meet you,” Daniel said plainly. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.”

  “Then that makes us uneven. Past the fact that you exist, I don’t know much about you.”

  “You guys can get to know each other later,” I said. “Mark, what’s the deal? Do you know what happened to you last night? I’m not sure if your mom told you, but Mauvrey also almost jumped to her death because of some magic haze. There were no potions at work inside her, so our latest theory is that the antagonists are somehow using your sleeping curses retroactively.”

  “It’s a good theory, but I can’t help you confirm it. The last thing I remember was going to bed,” Mark said.

  “So why are your parents so angry with you?” I asked.

  Mark sighed. “When the guards got me down from the bridge, my parents found this rash on my neck.” He pulled down his shirt collar and showed us a discolored rash on his skin that faintly glowed purple. I raised my eyebrows, shocked.

  “I’m sure SJ told you about my cross-dimensional ventures, but I asked her to keep this part a secret. It’s called Portal Acid, and it’s a fatal disease caused by spending too much time in dimensions that you don’t belong in.”

  I let out a frustrated breath and paced the room. “Seriously, man? Come on. You should have told us that.”

  “It’s not like you guys or those doctors can do anything,” Mark reasoned. “I told SJ and she’s trying to find a way to help me. She’s spending this weekend working with Merlin and Julian for that very reason.”

  “SJ is great, but you still should have told me you’re going to die. You don’t think that’s important information?”

  Mark waved a dismissive hand. “Everyone is going to die at some point, Jason. I still have plenty of time left. This disease isn’t going to take me down for a while and it only progresses faster if I travel to other dimensions. I told my parents that, but it didn’t lessen their worry. Since they’re already freaking out and treating me differently, it’d be great if you and the rest of our friends didn’t. So, can you be cool?”

  Great. Another friend facing a danger I couldn’t protect them from. Another frickin’ obstacle. Did they ever stop coming? Couldn’t we go one week without a twist in this mess of a story that my friends and I were woven into?

  “Fine, Mark,” I said. “I can cut you some slack because you’re my oldest friend and technically dying, but I’m still going to worry about it. Any sane person would.”

  “SJ will find a way to cure me, Jason. You know she will.” Mark turned to Daniel. “Anyway, it looks like you’ll get to keep my cot at Lord Channing’s for another semester. My parents want me to stay here and be homeschooled under heavy guard until my disease is cured, somebody figures out what the heck happened to me and Mauvrey, and we can ensure it won’t happen again.”

  “You’re going to hate me for saying it, but I’m glad your parents are assigning so many guards,” I replied. “The ones at Darling Castle were knocked out last night. But that castle has over a dozen royals to worry about. Since you’re an only-child, your security can protect you round the clock.”

  “If only our Rescuing Damsels professor could see me now,” Mark mused bitterly. “The fragile prince trapped in his own castle because he can’t take care of himself.”

  “That class was dumb.” I put my hand on Mark’s shoulder. “And we talked about this. We’re friends. We take care of each other when we’re feeling strong and when we’re weak.”

  “What did you see last night?” Daniel asked suddenly, changing the subject. “Mauvrey had an intense hallucination. Did you?

  “Uh, yeah,” Mark said, rubbing his chin. “I dreamt I was following a clone of myself. He was calling out to me and I chased him across the mountain while the face of this creepy girl with black hair filled the sky. She said something like daws-vi-danya, then she hummed this creepy tune.” He hummed a few bars and Daniel and I looked at each other.

  “Mauvrey heard the same thing,” Daniel said to Mark. “We need to find out what that word means. And that song. They are our only leads.”

  “We can check the libraries when we’re back at school,” I suggested. “The books in the restricted section were super useful when we were prepping for our journeys through the Wonderland realms last semester. We’ll do it next week. With Crisa.”

  Daniel nodded in agreement. “Our team is solid,” he said to Mark. “We always find answers together. We’ll do the same wh
ere you’re concerned once Knight is back. In the meantime . . . stay put.”

  Mark nodded, eyeing Daniel thoughtfully. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Thanks.”

  “I picked these flowers for Crisa!” Agatha Darling proclaimed, holding up a bunch of daisies in her fist. “Can you give them to her when you see her?”

  The ten-year-old princess offered me the flowers. She stood beside Adiana and Isabelle. The triplets, the king, and the queen had come to see us off as we prepared our carriages to reconnect with Crisa. I couldn’t believe a month had passed. So much had happened.

  Though I was increasingly worried about the new danger Mauvrey and Mark were in, we hadn’t had another incident in the last week. Given that, and the fact that both of them were extremely well protected, we were at a standstill with that situation. The developments our group had undergone recently were related to other areas, and surprisingly all positive.

  Mark had been reviewing his dimensional and wormhole manipulation logs so that once Crisa got back they could more easily combine his knowledge with her foresight to figure out how they could reach Natalie Poole. We’d settled a handful of major issues in the peace talks since putting a pin in protagonist school talk. Mauvrey’s memory continued to return. Nothing about the genies yet, but we’d given the princess a journal so she could keep track of her recollections and better organize her thoughts.

  So, overall, while a lot of crazy and unfortunate things had happened in the last few months, now as the summer wound down, I felt like we were in a pretty good a place. We just needed Crisa.

  It was finally the night of the September full moon, and as luck would have it, the only wormhole set to open was going to appear in Clevaunt at exactly nine minutes past ten o’clock.

  My friends and I loaded into three carriages as we readied to pick up our friend.

  “Wait!” said Adiana. “They need extra sparkle.”

  Adiana snapped her fingers and touched the flowers in Agatha’s hand. They turned to solid gold from the stems to the petals. Like Chance, and several other Darling children, Adiana had gold-related powers courtesy of genetics from their grandfather King Midas.

  “We can wait up for you to get back,” Isabelle told me.

  “Adi,” Chance said. “Why don’t you, Aggie, and Izzy give Crisa the flowers yourselves in the morning? You shouldn’t stay up. I’m pretty sure it’s way past your bedtime.”

  “As am I,” Queen Lydia said, patting her little girls affectionately on their heads. “Be back soon, Chance. I do not care for all of you children being out so late either.”

  “Lydia,” King Dominique said, voice soothing. “Most of these children have braved exotic worlds. I am sure they will manage fine on a short ride to the western part of the kingdom.”

  “I will make sure of it,” Daphne said. She’d volunteered to be the “supervising adult” while Cereus stayed behind to keep an eye on Mauvrey.

  “Shall we go?” Blue asked.

  “We shall,” SJ agreed. The excitement in her eyes matched what I felt in my heart. Our team hadn’t been whole for a while. In an hour, the wound we’d shared since leaving behind Crisa would finally seal and we could move forward and fight bad guys, foil antagonist plots, and save this world together.

  “Good luck!” Adiana called.

  Pietro climbed on the front seat of the first carriage with Evette beside him. Chance drove the second carriage, next to Girtha. Kai had already claimed the seat beside Daniel on the driver’s perch of the third carriage, but then she gave him a kiss on the cheek and dismounted.

  “You don’t want to ride up front?” I asked.

  “He’s in a mood,” she said, gesturing a thumb back at Daniel.

  I had several questions, but there was no further explanation. Daniel had many, quote, “moods.” I hopped onto the front seat next to my enigmatic friend. He had been even more quiet than usual today. I wondered what was going through his mind.

  “Hee-yah!” Pietro commanded.

  Daniel signaled our steeds to take off too. The Pegasi harnessed to our carriages activated their magic, producing shimmering holographic wings of various colors. We flew into the night; the star-drenched sky glittered around us. Our Pegasi’s brilliant wings cut through the darkness as orange and blue smoke exuded from their nostrils.

  We zoomed toward our destination. I didn’t keep time. It would only irritate me—seconds moved slower when speed mattered most. Finally, we made it to the desired spot and parked in a clearing by a large willow tree.

  Pietro dismounted quickly. “Two minutes to go,” he said, checking his Hole Tracker. He offered Evette his hand and helped her off the driver’s perch. It was kind of sweet. On an impulse, I mimicked the gesture and stuck out my hand as Blue disembarked our carriage.

  “Can I help you?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

  I withdrew my hand and she hopped out on her own, striding past me and following Pietro to the willow tree. Javier gave me a pat on the arm. “Good try, man.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Did Javier know I liked Blue? How many people were on that list? Daniel, Crisa, SJ . . . Geez. Was I that obvious? I was literally putting extra effort into not calling attention to my feelings for her. It had been really hard, like ingesting a shot of acid every day for over three weeks.

  “Based on my Hole Tracker,” SJ said. “The wormhole should open at the base of this tree in one minute. Then it will stay open for three minutes.”

  I glanced up. The tree was massive. All fourteen of us gathered around the trunk in a semi-circle. A thin river snaked in front of the tree. Streaks of the full moon reflected in the water’s continual, modest flow.

  I came to wait beside Daniel. “Here we go,” I muttered.

  Daniel didn’t say anything. No one did. We waited. The silence felt heavy. Then a sliver of magic tore through reality and a wormhole spiraled opened. Black yet sparkling, it hovered in front of us like a one-way trip to darkness. Our stillness persisted as the seconds ticked by.

  “Two minutes left,” SJ said, checking her watch after a while.

  Then, what felt like barely a moment later, Blue spoke as she gazed intently at her own Hole Tracker. “One minute left.”

  Now I was starting to get nervous.

  “She’s going to come out, right?” Gordon said.

  “Of course she is,” Chance replied, though his voice sounded tense. “This is the only portal in Book opening to Dreamland tonight. If she doesn’t come out now—”

  “Thirty seconds,” Blue cut in.

  “Should one of us go in after her?” Marie suggested. “Maybe she needs help?”

  “That dimension is four realms deep.” Girtha shook her head. “We’re not losing another person to it.”

  “We haven’t lost one person to it. Not really.” I stared back at the wormhole. “Not yet.”

  “Fifteen seconds,” SJ said. The joy I’d seen in her eyes earlier was gone. Panic creased her face like deep fissures in a cliffside.

  We stood in silence. No one wanted to count the last seconds. No one wanted to watch the clock anymore, let alone voice what we feared. Then, as seamlessly as it had appeared, the black wormhole spiraled shut and the dimensional breach was gone.

  No Crisa.

  “I don’t understand,” Divya whispered.

  “What does this mean?” Evette asked Pietro quietly. He didn’t answer, face pale with disbelief.

  We all looked at each other. Blue gulped. “Do you think she’s—”

  “No,” Daniel said curtly. Kai put her hand on his arm, but he shrugged it off and pivoted toward SJ. “There’s another explanation. Right?”

  “This was the only wormhole from Book to Dreamland, Daniel,” SJ reiterated sadly. “The odds of her coming out after another full moon cycle do not seem . . . optimistic.”

  “Do you think the antagonists . . . got to her?” Gordon asked.

  Chance shook his head. “Something isn’t right. Even if Arian and the antagonists
caught her, they would need to leave Dreamland too. They didn’t come out last month and this was the only exit connecting with Book tonight. So either they are all dead or something else happened.”

  “What else could possibly happen?” Pietro responded snappishly.

  “Pietro—” Daphne started.

  He waved her off and glared at us. “You guys said that full moon black holes were the only ways in and out of that place. You said she would exit through this one.”

  A notion scratched at my brain. I stared off for a second to fully process it. “What if they took a different exit?” I murmured.

  Everyone turned to look at me.

  “What do you mean, a different exit?” Daniel asked. His gaze was the most intense I’d ever seen it.

  I paused another moment to collect my thoughts. “Well, Chance is right. The antagonists would’ve had to leave Dreamland by now. Arian would’ve made sure to find a way out so as not to lose too much time in Book. But if we know for a fact he didn’t exit out of a wormhole that appeared in Book this month or last month, it makes me wonder . . . what if he exited to a different realm?”

  Girtha’s eyes widened. “The moonstones.”

  “Moonstones?” Evette repeated.

  “The guardian of Dreamland gave us each a moonstone when we arrived,” Kai explained. “When a full moon in the realm we came from opened, the stone could be used to create a portal to take us back. That’s how we left Dreamland last month.”

  “We’ve been assuming the antagonists came from Book,” I said slowly. “What if they didn’t?”

  “But the antagonists attacked us when you initially tried to enter Dreamland from Book,” Gordon said.

  “Yes . . .” SJ thought aloud. “However, it is theoretical that this attack was designed to throw us off. We assumed Arian and Tara took the other black hole that opened in Book the same evening. We embedded onto that idea because the other black hole was opening near Alderon, and Crisa had a vision of Arian and Tara heading to Dreamland right around the time the lot of you were preparing to leave as well. But she merely told us that in her dream they entered through a black hole in a forest. Realistically, that could be anywhere.”