I flicked my eyes to the orbs. “What was in Merlin’s dream?”
SJ swallowed. You’d think she’d just choked down the world’s thickest, nastiest cough syrup. “Without getting into specifics . . . Arian is not only forcing the magic out of Crisa by getting her to resurrect others. He is forcing her to resurrect herself. He is killing her. Again and again. She is powerful, so thus far she has been able to regenerate every time. But with Earth’s natural rejection of otherworldly magic . . . Merlin does not know if she will be able to survive much longer.”
“How do you know she’s not already dead?” Blue asked darkly. We turned and stared at her in horror. “What?” she said seriously though sadly. “We have to account for all the possibilities here, especially if Daniel is thinking about doing something so crazy.”
“She’s not dead,” I asserted. I turned to SJ. “You said you saw her. That the potion you invented was working.”
SJ nodded. “But I do not know what portion of the future it is reflecting. The dream occurred two days ago in Camelot. With the realm-to-realm time differences, we have no way of telling what that equates to.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Jason said, addressing Blue. “And we don’t have to consider all the possibilities. Just one. We’re going to find her.”
I looked at SJ again. “Show it to us.”
“Daniel . . .” she started carefully, her gray eyes full of sadness.
“It would be better if I just told you what he saw. Seeing it firsthand for yourself would just—”
“SJ. Show it to us.” I looked at her intensely. “Merlin wanted us to see it, didn’t he?”
“Merlin is not as compassionate as I am,” SJ responded. She was reluctant, but finally gave in to our stares and nodded. “Do not say I failed to warn you.”
She pocketed one orb back inside her sack then stood at the head of the table and crushed the second orb against it. The winds swirled and the gray cloud formed as before. Arian’s face and voice filled the vision.
“You don’t even know him. He’s a random antagonist. You destroy antagonists all the time—it’s as much your responsibility as it is a hobby you’ve come to enjoy. Kill him, Crisa. And we won’t have to resort to punishment today.”
The scene widened to show Knight in the same stone room, chained to the wall with only a few feet of slack—not enough to reach Arian, but enough to reach the prisoner lying before her. The man had a black sack over his head and squirmed on the ground unsettlingly. Knight looked from him to Arian, concern and hatred alternating in her features. A slight golden aura began to appear around her fingers.
“Crisanta, give in to it,” Arian urged. “You’re strong enough.”
The glow of her fingertips brightened. Then all of a sudden Knight grunted and shook her head, reining in the hungry power inside her. The light extinguished completely.
“Fine then,” Arian said. “Here we go again.”
He raised the remote in his hand and the chains attached to Knight’s shackles tightened to pin her against the stone wall—arms raised above her head without a centimeter of slack. Fear shone in her eyes as Arian drew his sword and approached her, but she stayed silent. She was not the type to beg for mercy, no matter how bad the situation.
“I’m going to break you, Crisanta Knight,” Arian said, stepping around the prisoner’s body like it was a piece of trash on the ground. “That’s not an opinion; it’s a fact. I am going to make you suffer until that famous strength that has kept you fighting until now crumbles and you give in. Eventually you will either succumb to that power inside you like Nadia wants, or these exercises will become too much for you and you’ll die permanently. Even you only get so many do-overs.”
Knight looked him in the eye, fear becoming faith. “My friends will come for me.”
“I don’t doubt it. But you and I both know there’s a good chance you’ll have been forced down a path by then—magic corruption or death. I know Nadia wants to achieve the former, but personally, I’m kind of hoping for the latter. And on that note.” Arian drove his blade toward her. The vision cloud broke apart just before he plunged the sword through our friend, but Knight’s screams filled the entire room anyway.
I hadn’t felt so carved out since . . . since my family was killed.
SJ sniffled, then wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye with the side of a finger. “So you see . . .” she remarked carefully. “Blue’s thinking is not out of line. If Arian is killing Crisa periodically as part of Nadia’s sick plan to force her to give in to Pure Magic’s control, with the dimensional time difference she may legitimately die before we reach her. She could already be dead now. And if that is the case, if you enact Midnight Law tonight, then you and Chance will doom yourselves to an unnecessary fate as stone statutes.”
Jason looked from me to SJ. “Are you sure, SJ? Lenore didn’t—”
SJ held up a hand, cutting him off. “I asked the Godmother Supreme about it. Just as Midnight Law does not show mercy if one of your flames gets extinguished, if the person a hero is chasing dies then the hero cannot save her and as such he will not be able to save himself.”
We sat in the darkened library, absorbing it all.
“I dreamed about her again tonight.” My voice sounded odd, fragile. “She was trying to warn me and mentioned her body not being able to last. I didn’t understand what she meant . . . until now.”
“Does this give you second thoughts?” Jason asked.
My eyes fell to the table. When you grew up on the streets and then in your late teens got sent to a preppy boarding school full of princes and guys training to be “heroes,” you tended to stick out. But the criticism of snootier Lord Channing’s classmates and staff never gutted me. I knew who I was for the most part. Hero was the only thing people ever called me that got under my skin because I didn’t know if I deserved that title. I was trying to earn it. My friends and I got into so much trouble that I had to earn it. They were brave, kind, strong people who deserved to only hang out with the best, and I had to do my part to keep them safe.
And yet, despite fighting my hardest, one friend, the one I had grown closest too, slipped through the cracks. Now that friend needed me to take a chance and risk it all; she needed me to be the hero that I doubted I could be, but had to grow into if I was going to fulfill my purpose for being here.
The probability that I could die in my pursuit or that she could be dead before I reached her didn’t matter; they were just obstacles. I could beat obstacles. I was less afraid of them than I was of being a coward, and of losing her. That last part is what it came down to at the end of the day. Going on this quest wasn’t solely about being a hero or doing the right thing. If Midnight Law was my best shot at bringing Knight home, I would follow the enchantment to the ends of the Earth, and wherever else it took me.
“I don’t have any second thoughts,” I said. “Maybe Chance will once he finds out what’s at stake. But like SJ said, the four of us have a stronger connection to Knight than the others. I know each one of you would risk it all to save her too. In the year we’ve known each other, you’ve inspired me to be that strong. I’m not going to back down, or let you or Crisa down. At midnight tonight, I’m enacting Midnight Law. Nothing is going to stop me.”
SJ’s Mark Two went off in her pocket.
Did any of my friends sleep?
SJ answered the call.
“Princess Kaplan,” an unfamiliar male voice said on the other end of the compact.
SJ glanced up at us. “It is a guard from Lady Agnue’s.” She redirected her focus to the compact, face creased with new worry as we gathered around. “What is it? Is something wrong with Mauvrey?”
“We heard a crash inside your room two minutes ago,” the guard reported. “We rushed in and discovered Princess Mauvrey with a leg over the balcony railing, surrounded by white smoke. We have her now, and she is stable, but you should come quickly.”
SJ nodded then snapped the
compact close. “Why can we not have one minute when the world is not falling apart!”
We rarely saw SJ lose her cool. It was jarring. The four of us made our way through the secret tunnel, across campus, through the forest, and into the girls’ school. As we hustled up the fuchsia-carpeted stairs, I realized I’d never been in this part of the building before. When my classmates and I attended Lady Agnue’s monthly balls we stuck to the main floor. We were now walking through the private quarters, the inner sanctums where girls did girl things. I felt like a deer wandering into unfamiliar terrain with unknown predators.
Blue in the lead, we reached the sixth floor. Several guards stood outside a room, which I assumed belonged to my friends. They held the door open to let us pass. Inside, the scene consisted of a half dozen guards, a pale Mauvrey surrounded by the rest of our female friends, and a ton of glass. A wooden nightstand lay on its side out on the balcony—the glass doors that led to it had been shattered.
Mauvrey sat on the bedroom floor clutching a glass of water, her feet cut and bloody. Kai, Girtha, Divya, and Marie were at her side. One guard knelt next to Mauvrey and examined her dilated pupils with a flashlight while Marie bound the girl’s wounded feet.
“Where did you all come from?” Kai asked me, confused. I opened my mouth to respond, but Blue waved her hand to cut me off.
“That doesn’t matter right now. What happened here?”
“The princess seems to have thrown the nightstand through the locked balcony doors in order to get out,” said the guard with the flashlight, concluding his exam. “The sound alerted us, and when she did not respond to our calls at the door, we entered. Ghostly energy was radiating off of her like mist, and we barely reached her before she threw herself over the railing.”
“Mauvrey?” Jason said.
“I do not remember anything. Again,” she replied sadly. “I am sorry. One moment I was sitting here reading and the next I was being shaken awake by the guards and feeling intense pain in my feet. The only thing I can tell you is that I had a vision of the woman with black hair in the sky again, speaking the same strange word and humming the same melody.”
“I better call Mark,” Jason said. “Odds are he just went through something like this too.” He stepped out of the room into the hall.
“Can we have a minute?” I said to the guards in the room.
“With all due respect,” one of the guards said. “Boys from Lord Channing’s are not permitted on these floors. Now that you know the princess is alive, you and your friend should probably leave altogether.”
“With all due respect, you can choke on those warnings,” I retorted. “This isn’t a boy-girl situation; this is a friends situation, and one of our friends almost died. We need to make sure she’s okay. So please give us a minute.”
“But—”
“Just go!” SJ snapped.
Twice in one night? Geez. The pressure must really be getting to her. Lenore would definitely not approve. Then again, these bursts of temper were intimidating, and that was the Godmother Supreme’s brand.
“We shall ensure the boys leave campus when we are done here,” SJ said. “You all should inform Lady Agnue what happened. Tell her I will follow up with her later this morning.”
The guards nodded and saluted, then hastened away. As they filed out, I knelt to be at eye level with Mauvrey. An idea had come to me that I might regret, but my gut told me it was the best play. “Are you ready to stop being a damsel?”
She blinked at me. Then she nodded.
“Come with me on my Midnight Law quest.” Her eyes widened and her head started to shake in denial, but I pushed the idea. “You’ll be more protected with us than staying here alone during the day while the rest of our friends are at the peace talks. I think you joining one of our teams is the best way to keep you safe. This quest will be challenging, but we’ll stay together and be on the move—whatever is coming after you will likely not be able to keep up. You’ll have to do your part along the way though, and fight back against any obstacles we encounter. Can you do that?”
Mauvrey hesitated a moment, then nodded again. “I can.”
“No hand holding. No liabilities,” Blue said, squatting down next to me and looking earnestly at Mauvrey. “You’re an important character in this story, Mauvrey, but saving Crisa is more important than saving you right now. So seriously, there will be no more babysitting. Be a part of our team. A real part.”
I nodded. “We’ll keep each other safe, and then figure out what’s happening to you and solve it together. Okay?”
She gulped, looked between me and Blue, then swallowed. “Okay.”
Jason came back into the room. “The same thing happened to Mark. He got possessed and threw his desk chair through his bedroom window then tried to throw himself out. Thankfully, his security detail got to him before he could. He’s fine. I told the queen we’d help figure out what’s wrong with him after we deal with a time-sensitive issue over the next couple of days.”
“Speaking of which, you should go back to bed, Daniel,” Marie said. “What were the four of you doing together at this hour?”
“It’s a long story,” Jason said. “SJ has some news from Merlin. She’ll explain in the morning.”
“It’s already morning,” Divya said with a yawn, which set us all to yawning.
“Then she’ll explain over breakfast,” Blue replied. “It’s been a long night. I think we could all use a few more hours of rest before the final countdown to Midnight Law begins.”
If we could’ve enacted Midnight Law at breakfast, I would’ve done so.
Unfortunately, we had to wait until midnight, which led to a day of what Jason would call “brooding.” I roamed the Lord Channing’s forest alone—my friends either at the peace talks or somewhere else on campus sorting out their feelings.
We’d parted ways somberly after SJ showed the others Merlin’s most recent dream. It was as painful to watch the second time as it had been the first. I had to dart my eyes away at the end, but the image was tattooed on my brain regardless.
I was hiking through Lord Channing’s forest headed for my favorite outdoor combat training area when my Mark Two went off.
Now what?
I answered and my heart stopped.
What in the sh—
“Hello, Daniel,” Arian said.
“What do you want?” I glowered at him.
“To talk. Is that so shocking?”
“You haven’t made any friends in your villain club? No one in the same dimension you can chat with at the water cooler in between plotting and torturing Knight?” My hand squeezed the compact so hard that I was surprised it didn’t crack.
Arian smiled that stupid, cruel, patronizing smile of his. “So you know.”
“Oh, I know. And I’m coming for her. Then I’m coming for you.”
“I wouldn’t advise that, Daniel. In fact, I’m calling to offer you a sound warning. Don’t enact Midnight Law. It will only end badly for you.”
I paused. “So you know.”
“I always know. Nadia assumed the lot of you would try something like this. I have to say, I kind of hoped you of all people would be eligible. It makes it more fun considering the players in this game. But in consideration of those same players, I am offering you this genuine counsel. Crisanta is mine now; her fate belongs to me and Nadia one way or the other, so stand down and don’t bother coming after her.”
“That’s not going to happen. I’ll save her and then I will find you and kill you by the time this is over.”
Arian huffed. “I feel sorry for you, Daniel. The fact that you actually believe that is pathetic. Anyway, she can’t say I didn’t try to talk you down. I’ll enjoy visiting your statue when you fail.”
He hung up. I scowled and threw my compact to the side.
“Yikes!”
I whirled around. Kai stood between two large trees, my compact on the ground next to her. She picked it up gingerly. “Geez, I ho
pe you didn’t do this with the carrier pigeons we used to employ to write letters to each other.”
“Sorry,” I said, walking over to her. She handed me the compact. Amazingly, it wasn’t broken. These things were built tough.
“How did you find me?”
“Isn’t your favorite combat area somewhere out here?” she said. “Anyway, that’s not important. Why are you so upset?”
“Arian called me.” I pocketed my compact.
Kai’s eyes bugged. “Seriously? What’d he say? Are you okay?”
“He was trying to convince me to back out of Midnight Law.”
“Why would he do that? Not get you to back out—he obviously wouldn’t want you to save Crisa. I mean, why would he call you to say that?”
“Probably to mess with my head. Get me more on edge. Not that that’s possible.”
Kai looked at the grass. “Did he?” she said quietly. “Convince you?”
“What? No. I just—” I sat down on the elevated root of the tree beside us, feeling drained. “I don’t know. This whole thing with Knight is easier to digest when we talk about it factually, but seeing her in those visions, talking to Arian directly, it makes it more real than I want it to be.” I bowed my head, hating but needing to be vulnerable. “And it breaks my heart.”
Kai sat down beside me and linked her arm through mine, then placed her hand over mine. “Then that breaks my heart.”
We sat in silence for a while. She leaned her head against my shoulder. I inhaled the familiar smell of vanilla that came from her hair, which had a way of calming me. Eventually, she sat up and adjusted so that she held my left hand within both of hers, balancing it on my leg.
“You know that I would follow you anywhere, Dani, that I would do anything for you and protect you against all threats because you’re what matters most to me?”
I met her eyes. “I do. Just like I would do the same for you because you’re what matters most to me.”
Kai squeezed my hand. “I am glad to hear you say that because honestly . . . Sometimes I’m not sure that’s true anymore.” Her gaze was level. “Even if you don’t realize it.”
Midnight Law Page 25