And, as if to highlight his point at just that moment, the world around Liv started to shake. Malquin lifted his arms above his head, as if he were an orchestra conductor leading the earthquake. He closed his eyes, almost serene, and smiled.
THE DEPARTED
Shannon woke up, again, to an earthquake.
She really should’ve been used to them at this point, but still—it’s not easy to train your mind to stay unconscious while the whole world thrashes around it. She pulled herself over to the doorway with a yawn and waited for the shaking to subside. That’s when she noticed the other small bed in the room was empty. Crap. She’d fallen asleep, and Liv was—where was she?
“Liv?”
The only response was the shaking of the walls, the rattling of the windows. Liv and the others had long taken down the knickknacks and breakables that might crash to the floor in an earthquake.
“Liv?”
A crashing sound from down the hall. Shannon turned her head just as the shaking began to die down. The crashing hadn’t been something falling over—it’d been a person barreling down the hallway, thudding on the wood floors. Cedric.
He skidded to a stop in front of Shannon, shirtless and out of breath.
“Is she here?”
“I’m also okay; thanks for asking—”
“Is she here?”
“Geez, no. She must be in the kitchen or something.”
Cedric looked toward the kitchen, his eyes full of concern. “When I fell asleep, she was with me, and then—”
“Wait. Liv was with you? In your room?” Shannon’s mouth split into a wide grin, which only got bigger as Cedric’s face began to turn several different shades of red.
“That is not—she—I have to find her.”
“Mm-hmm. I bet you do.”
Cedric looked too flustered to reply, but was saved when Merek sauntered down the hallway, yawning.
“These earthquakes are hell on one’s ability to get a good night’s rest,” he said.
Cedric whipped around to face Merek. “Have you seen Liv tonight at all? Did she go by your room?”
Merek raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Jealousy this early in your courtship does not bode well for you.”
Cedric just shook his head, pushing past both Merek and Shannon. “Never mind. I will find her myself.”
“I’m telling you, check the kitchen—Liv loves late-night snacks,” Shannon called after him.
Merek leaned back against the opposite wall, looking at Shannon.
“It’s gonna be hard to get back to sleep now,” Shannon said.
“The earth should not shake again for a few hours, at least.”
“You’ve really gotten used to this place, huh?”
“It has its charms.”
He kept his eyes focused on her, and Shannon felt her face growing hot. Sarcastic flirting was one thing, but somehow, at some point, she’d started to think about him in a different way. When she’d been bored in Utah, she’d find herself imagining the snarky comments Merek would have made—about the bland food, her parents’ rules. It helped keep her a little sane when she felt suffocated by boredom and worry. But she had no idea if he’d spent any of those weeks thinking about her. She only had one clue—
“Liv told me that you hunted down that Knight, the one who knocked me over,” Shannon said, gently touching her recently healed wrist. “Even though I specifically remember telling you not to.”
Merek cocked his head, smiling. “Did you? I do not recall . . .”
“Liar,” Shannon said. But she was smiling, too. “So . . . why go through all that trouble?”
Merek’s eyes burned into hers. “Some trouble is worth it.”
Shannon opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment, Cedric came running back past them. “I cannot find her anywhere.”
Shannon stood up straight, snapped out of the moment. Wisps of worry stirred in her stomach as she tore her eyes away from Merek toward Cedric.
“We’ll look outside. She’s gotta be here somewhere.”
Except she wasn’t.
They searched every room in the house, waking up Peter to help, but Liv was missing. And so was Joe. And so was the Jeep.
“What could possibly make them both take off like that?” Shannon asked as they all stood in the living room a few minutes later. “I mean, let alone making us worry—and not even leaving a freaking note—what could they possibly be after at four in the morning? What, did they go on a late-night Fatburger run? In the next county? Without even having the decency to wake us up and see if we wanted anything too?”
The others just stared at her.
“I think we all know where Joe might have gone,” Cedric said, his voice ridiculously sure for someone who’d been running around the house barefoot in a panic just minutes before.
“We do?” Peter asked.
“He wanted to find Malquin. And now he’s gone in the middle of the night . . . he would only do that if he did not want us to try and talk him out of it again.”
“But what about Liv?”
“Maybe she went with him. Alone. Even though she promised—” Cedric cut himself off, shaking his head. Shannon wanted to stand up for her friend, but honestly, she was kind of ticked, too. Why would Liv leave without saying anything to her? If only she hadn’t fallen asleep . . .
“But how would they even know where to go?” Peter interrupted. Everyone stared at him—it was a good question.
“Maybe Joe figured it out,” Shannon put in.
“Well, if he can, so can we,” Peter said.
Merek crossed his arms. “So we plan to go after them, then.”
“Obviously,” Shannon said.
“I only mean, if they had wanted our help, they would have woken us up to go with them. Or better still, they would have waited until morning.”
Cedric bit his lip, as if considering Merek’s words. Shannon thought she recognized hurt in his eyes. Then he shook his head. “It does not matter why they left alone. We have no idea how many wraths they will face or what will happen to them if . . . we have no choice. We have to find them.”
“Agreed,” Shannon said, cutting a sharp look at Merek. He just shrugged in response.
“Right,” Peter said, sitting down on a nearby chair and stretching out his still-healing leg. “So we’re going. We still have the main problem of how to find them. Cedric, didn’t Liv say something about a castle last night? That the wraths were taking her there?”
“Yes,” Cedric responded, furrowing his eyebrows. “But the only castle I know is back in Caelum.”
“And why would Malquin take her to our world, if he no longer has any hold there?” Merek said. “It makes no sense.”
“There are castles here, too,” Shannon piped up. “Like, at Disney in Anaheim, or the Magic Castle in Hollywood. They do magic there. Not like, the-sky-is-turning-orange magic, but with cards and rabbits and stuff.”
“Rabbits?” Cedric asked.
“I mean, I’ve heard,” Shannon said with a shrug.
“Maybe,” Peter said. “But we have to narrow it down. Cedric, is there anything else you can remember? At all? What about the van the wraths put Liv in—did you see the license plate?”
Cedric shook his head, but then straightened suddenly. “It had lettering on its side, though. It was, ah . . . um . . .” He made a motion with his hand like writing.
Shannon ran and got a pen and paper from the kitchen counter and handed it to him. “Here, try to get it down.”
Cedric bent over the paper, his hand curling around the pen. “I do not know the word, but there was a P first . . . and then . . .” He looked up into the distance, as if remembering. “Another word . . . study . . . studo . . .”
“Studio?” Peter asked.
“Yes!”
“P Studio, P Studio . . .” Peter trailed off. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. “Oh, of course!”
“What is it?” Shannon asked, trying to keep the irri
tation from her voice.
“The fake weapons. The van . . . it belongs to a studio. Like, a movie studio. And what’s the only movie studio that starts with a P?”
“Paramount?” She almost clapped.
Cedric nodded eagerly. “That’s it—the word on the van.”
“I know where that is, too. It’s not that far from our high school,” Shannon said.
Peter grinned, while Merek and Cedric still looked confused. “But what is a studio?” Cedric asked. “Do they have castles there?”
“Maybe. They have lots of sets there,” Shannon said.
“So we know where we are going,” Merek said. “But we have to assume we will be outnumbered on unfamiliar ground. So what are we going to do once we get there?”
Peter tilted his head, considering. “You’re right. We should probably plan for the worst-case scenario.”
“Considering the best-case scenario is two fighters and a handful of weapons against what very well may be an army, I would hate to see what the worst-case scenario is,” Merek said. “How are we supposed to fight them all?”
“Any way we can,” Cedric said, his jaw tight.
“Or . . . maybe we don’t,” Peter replied, pushing his glasses up his nose, “Maybe the way to get Liv back isn’t by fighting off the wraths. Assuming the worst—that they have her and Joe—maybe we just need a way to distract them so they can get away themselves.”
“What kind of distraction?” Cedric asked.
Peter thought about it for a few moments, and then his eyes lit up behind the frames of his glasses. He stood up straighter. “The wraths aren’t from this world, right? So there’s a lot about this world that they don’t know. A lot of things that wouldn’t faze a regular person would really freak out a black-eyed monster who’s only playing at being human.”
“What things?” Shannon asked.
Peter grinned. “Exploding things.”
Shannon leaned forward, eager to hear more. But at that moment, there was a sharp rapping sound on the door. Everyone jumped and exchanged quick glances.
“Could that be . . . ?” Shannon started, making her way toward the noise.
But Cedric was quicker. He flung the door open in one movement. Two figures stood in the dim orange glow—one male and one female.
“Liv?”
“Sorry to disappoint,” the girl said, stepping into the foyer.
“Kat?” Cedric choked out.
Kat strode gracefully into the room, wearing not the Salvation Army T-shirt and jeans Shannon had seen her in last, but instead loose trousers and knee-high boots. And a tight-fitting leather vest, of course. She had a sword at her side, and her dark hair was pulled back into a braid. Basically, she looked like some bad-ass elf who crawled her way out of a video game, ditched the giant ears, and set about conquering the world.
Shannon unconsciously stood up a little straighter.
Someone else walked in behind Kat, tall, handsome, and in similarly ridiculous clothing. He looked around the living room with wide eyes.
“R-Rafe?” Merek spit out. His voice sounded scratchy and unsure—very un-Merek-like.
The tall guy walked over to Merek and clapped him hard on the back. “Hello, little brother. I had heard you were in dire straits, but you seem in fine health to me.”
Merek’s mouth opened like a fish and snapped closed again.
Before Shannon had time to truly reflect on that development, Kat was addressing Cedric.
“You were expecting Liv?”
“We were just formulating a rescue plan,” Cedric responded, looking a bit sheepish. “She has . . . ah . . . gone missing.”
“Of course she has.”
“What are you doing here?” Cedric asked, still thrown. “Is everything all right in Caelum? Emme? My mother?”
“Your family is fine,” Kat said, her voice taking on the gentle note she really only used with Cedric. “But Caelum . . .”
“What is it?”
Kat sighed heavily. “You were right about the woods. I am sorry I did not believe you, but that ridiculous woman you brought to the castle kept pestering me, so I went to investigate myself, and it is undeniable. The trees are dying at an alarming rate. Caelum is in danger.”
Cedric just nodded, urging Kat to continue.
“If the only way to fix things is from this world, then I need to help. So I found the portal in the woods that we came through with Liv. I knew it would lead to this beach, and I hoped you might still be at this house.”
“That explains the earthquake,” Shannon muttered.
“Oh, and Rafe wanted to come as well.” Kat said, almost as an afterthought.
“I could not miss the chance to see this,” Rafe said, turning in a slow circle around the room and taking it all in. He walked across the room, tapping his finger against the flat-screen TV in the corner.
“We cannot linger for long,” Kat said. “We need to fix what was broken and return to Caelum as soon as possible. Rafe still has an army to rebuild, and we need to regrow crops, feed the hungry, rebuild the wall . . . there is still work to do. For all of us.”
Kat might have been talking to all of them, but her eyes were focused only on Cedric. A heavy tension filled the room. Peter quietly slipped out into the hallway, and Shannon sidled over to Merek.
“Maybe Peter’s got the right idea . . . should we give these two a minute?”
But Merek’s eyes were glued to his brother, trailing him as he moved around the living room.
“What?” he asked, clearly distracted.
“Are you okay? Aren’t you glad to see your brother again?”
“Of course I am,” Merek responded, still not looking at her. But it was clear, no matter what he said, that he wasn’t okay. He wasn’t smirking or scowling or saying much of anything. As he watched his brother, Merek seemed to almost shrink in on himself.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Cedric and Kat were still fighting without actually fighting.
“I am here for the same reason you are,” Cedric said, his voice steadily rising. “To fix things in both our worlds.”
“So long as you do not forget which world you belong in,” Kat responded.
Cedric shook his head. “We do not have time for this argument now. We need to form a plan.”
“Right. To rescue Liv. Again.”
“Yeah, about that . . .” All heads swiveled to see Peter, who had reentered the room. This time, he carried a giant cardboard box that was looking a little worse for wear. The top edges were ripped and bent, and the bottom bowed out as though it were going to spill its contents any moment.
“We found this in the garage a while ago when we were looking for supplies,” Peter continued. “They weren’t useful. Until now.”
Peter set the box on the floor and gently tipped it over. Out spilled a wide assortment of canisters of all shapes and sizes. Some were cardboard, some were plastic. They were bright yellow and orange and green, with polka dots and stripes and exclamation points. Lots and lots of exclamation points.
“Fireworks?” Shannon asked.
The others all looked confused as they examined the canisters on the floor. Peter pushed his glasses up his nose and grinned.
“Figured they’d make a pretty good distraction.”
THE AVENGERS
In what felt like no time at all, they were pulling up to the front gates of Paramount Studios in Shannon’s minivan with a solid plan in place.
Well, mostly solid.
Shannon’s stomach flipped as she considered all the things that could go wrong. She couldn’t stop touching her still-sensitive wrist, remembering how it had felt to hear those bones snap. But she’d already had this argument with herself, again and again. She knew the risks of coming back to LA to help her friends, and that was the choice she’d made. It was too late to back out now.
Plus, she didn’t want to give any of these professional fighters the satisfaction of seeing her afraid.
Now they were splitting the fireworks into five bags, some backpacks from the house and some canvas grocery bags they’d managed to find in the kitchen. Cedric and Kat walked through the studio’s front gate first, weapons out.
“Keep your eyes out for guards,” Rafe said from his position in the middle of the group. “And, Merek, do not forget to watch the rear.”
Shannon waited for the smart-ass comeback from Merek, but instead he just nodded.
As they walked deeper into the lot, no guards appeared.
“Do you think we might have been wrong?” Shannon asked. “Or maybe we’re right, but Malquin didn’t expect us to find him?”
“Or maybe he already knows we are coming,” Cedric said darkly.
The lot was huge, spanning out from them in all directions. They decided to walk straight. At the end of one giant parking lot was a large rectangle; it looked like a movie screen, although it was several times the size of any screen Shannon had ever seen. It was painted to look like the backdrop of a beautiful blue sky, meant to represent a regular, sunny Los Angeles day. But now, it stood out against the angry colors of the actual sky. When Shannon looked at the backdrop, she got the disconcerting sense that it was real, and the world behind it was the painted, unnatural one.
“This place is . . . odd,” Rafe said, staring at the blue backdrop.
“Shh,” Cedric said. “We might be upon them any minute.”
But they wandered for several more minutes, past giant, empty buildings and even a few abandoned catering trucks.
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