“What did the clue say again?” Chris asked, scanning the statue up and down.
Danielle didn’t unroll the paper, instead reciting the clue from memory. “Travel north to the King of the Sky. He stands amongst the stones of the dead, accessible to the one who can fly high.”
“It’s not a jar this time,” Chris said. “It’s the eagle. The one at the top of Zeus’s scepter.”
“How do you know that?” Kate asked.
“Danielle said the jar was calling to her.” He looked at Danielle, and she nodded in affirmation. “Well, the eagle is glowing, like it has an aura. It’s faint, but it’s definitely there.”
I craned my neck up to look at the eagle at the top of Zeus’s scepter. It wasn’t glowing. But then again, I hadn’t “heard” when the jar called to Danielle either.
Kate studied the statue, her lips pursed. “How do you propose we get up there?” she said.
Chris smiled mischievously and wiggled his eyebrows. “Are you up for some fun?” he asked her.
“It depends on how you define ‘fun,’” she said. “Because if you’re implying that we climb the statue, then I’m going to have to say no. I want to get through this day alive, and falling to my death from sixty feet in the air doesn’t seem like an effective way to do that.”
“I wasn’t implying that we climb.” He laughed and flipped his hair out of his eyes. “I’ll swirl you up in the air like I did with the paper yesterday and you can grab the eagle. It’ll be easy.” He flicked his fingers around in a circle, blowing some leaves off the ground to demonstrate.
“Swirl me in the air?” Kate’s mouth dropped open. “I would rather climb.”
“Come on,” he pleaded. “We need to get up there somehow. And it’ll be fun.”
She crossed her arms and shook her head. “Why are you asking me?” she said. “Can’t someone else do it?”
“I’ll do it,” I offered, cursing myself a second later for volunteering. I hated heights.
“No,” Blake cut in. “You need to rest after using all that energy at the ocean. We need you at full strength in case you need to heal someone again, and you won’t be able to do that if you’re dead.” He paused, his eyes softening as if he realized how harsh that sounded. “If you even can die, which isn’t something we should experiment with right now. Or ever.”
“Right.” I turned away from him to look back at Chris, glad that I wouldn’t have to fly up there. “I guess that leaves Blake, Kate or Danielle.”
“Fine.” Kate huffed and held up a hand. “I’ll do it. I weigh the least, so it makes sense.”
“Awesome!” Chris beamed, rubbing his hands together. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.” She sounded less than enthused. “When I get up there, I’m just supposed to grab the eagle? What if it doesn’t come off?”
“The jar was practically part of a rock,” Danielle jumped in. “But I could pull it right out.”
“Yeah.” Chris pointed his thumb in Danielle’s direction. “What she said.”
“Great.” Kate forced a smile and looked up at the towering statue. “I can do this. I’m ready.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than us.
“All right.” Chris pointed to the ground near Zeus. “Stand there.”
Kate looked at me with bulging eyes, and I smiled in encouragement before she headed over to the spot. If Chris dropped her, at least I would be able to heal her. Well, if the fall didn’t kill her on impact. I didn’t know if my power extended to bringing people back from the dead. If it did … I shivered at the thought. That wasn’t something I wanted to have to find out.
“Here it goes!” Chris narrowed his eyes in concentration as he looked at Kate. He lifted his hand and held it out toward her, his palm facing forward. But he didn’t create a mini-tornado like with the paper at Blake’s house yesterday. Instead the air pushed against the bottoms of Kate’s feet, lifting her up like a hot air balloon. She gave little kicks with her legs as she rose.
“That’s good,” she said, her voice shaky. “Not too fast.”
I half-expected Chris to shoot her ten feet in the air just to be snarky, but he listened, letting her float upward until she arrived at the top of the statue. She reached forward and secured her arms around the eagle. It looked about the same size as the jar Danielle had brought up from the ocean, but standing sixty feet below, I couldn’t be sure.
Kate gave it a tug, but it stayed in place. “It’s too heavy!” she screamed. “There’s no way I can lift it.”
“Try harder!” Chris yelled back up at her. “The eagle’s what we need. I know it.”
She lost her grip after the third yank, her arms flailing back to her sides. “It won’t work.” She looked down at us and shrugged. “This is impossible.”
Chris scrunched his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”
Kate gave the eagle another unsuccessful tug. “Yes.” She placed her hands on her hips, which looked funny while she was floating in the air. “Can you please let me down now?”
“Fine.” He lowered his hands, his brows furrowed as he controlled the air holding Kate up. She floated to the ground and landed as lightly as a feather.
She jogged towards us, pushing her hair behind her ears. “Sorry,” she apologized to Chris. “I tried. I just wasn’t strong enough. That thing wasn’t budging.”
“I don’t understand what went wrong,” he said, studying the eagle perched on the top of Zeus’s scepter. “I know that’s the key to whatever comes next.”
“You should try getting it,” Danielle suggested, pointing at Chris. “Maybe it’s not working for Kate because it’s your clue to uncover. My jar came out just fine.”
“You mean the object only comes loose for the person it’s meant for?” Chris scratched his head. “Like there’s some sort of spell on it?”
“It’s just an idea,” she said. “You should try to fly yourself up there. Worst comes to worst, it doesn’t work.”
“Or I fall and crack my head open,” he muttered.
Kate jerked her head to look at him, her mouth open in a circle of disbelief. “You lifted me up there with no problem,” she said. “Why do you think you can’t do the same for yourself?”
“It just seems impossible.” He glanced at the statue again, doubt crossing over his eyes. “But I’ll try.”
Kate’s lips curved into a small smile. “Good.”
“If you fall, you always have Nicole to fix you up,” Danielle said with a snicker.
“Exactly.” I ignored Danielle’s attitude and smiled at Chris. “You’ll be fine. You’re stronger than you think. And I can heal you if you need it.”
“All right.” He walked to the statue to stand below the scepter, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. “It’s not working!” he said. But then he opened his fists so his palms pointed towards his feet, and he started to rise—faster than Kate had when he’d lifted her. The wind blew his hair in all directions. When he reached the halfway point, he soared upward until he was level with the eagle. “Look at that!” he shouted, lifting his arms in the air and pointing his toes towards the ground. “I’m Superman!”
He did look like he was flying, except it was more like he was standing on a puff of air, his legs wobbling as he tried to stay balanced. He wrapped his hands around the eagle just like Kate had and lifted it off the scepter. He didn’t have to strain at all.
He laughed and looked down at Kate. “You had trouble doing that?” he said, raising the eagle over his head like a trophy. “I must be stronger than I thought!”
“Or Danielle was right and the eagle would only come off for you,” Kate muttered, rolling her eyes. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Chris floated down to the ground and ran toward us. “I got it!” he said again, his arms wrapped around the eagle.
“What do we do with it now?” I asked.
He lowered it to the ground, the muscles in his arms tightening as he placed it down. The eagle wa
s the same height as the jar—it nearly reached my knee—its wings spread out like it was about to take flight. Each feather was meticulously carved to the point where they could have been real, and its eyes were hard and determined, like Zeus’s.
Chris kneeled down to study it, craning his head to look at it from different angles. “There’s a line right here,” he said, pointing to a thin crack that formed a complete circle around the eagle’s neck. “Maybe its head is a lid, like Danielle’s jar.”
He reached forward to lift it off, but Danielle shoved her hand in front of his, stopping him. “Let Kate try,” she said, her eyes hard as she looked at Chris.
He kept his hand poised above the eagle. “Why?” he asked.
“Because then we’ll see if only you can open it, just like only you could lift it off the statue.” She annunciated each word, like Chris was too stupid to understand. “If Kate can’t get it open—or any of us, for that matter—then we know that the only person who can open each object is whoever is ‘supposed’ to.”
While I didn’t want to say it out loud, Danielle did have a good point.
The four of us took turns attempting to get the head off the eagle, each with no success. I saw the line that looked like a lid, but it might as well have been welded shut. That thing was not budging.
“Now it’s your turn.” Danielle motioned for Chris to try.
He rubbed his hands together. “I’ve got the magic touch,” he said, kneeling down and wrapping his fingers around the eagle’s head. It popped right off. He reached inside and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment the same size as the one Danielle had found in her jar.
“What does it say?” I asked, resisting the urge to grab it out of his hands so I could read it myself.
He unrolled the paper and held it in front of him. “Follow the direction of Victory, as she will lead to the fuel that burns the fire. That which causes destruction can also be used for creation.” He shrugged and looked back up. “That’s all I’ve got. And Victory is capitalized.”
“The direction of Victory…” I said, looking up at the goddess in Zeus’s hand. “It could mean Nike. Didn’t Sophie say that Nike meant victory?”
Danielle stood up and wiped some dirt off her jeans. “It’s just another vague clue,” she muttered. “This would be easier if they could give us a map.”
“The fuel that burns the fire,” Blake repeated, looking at Nike. “She’s pointing to the woods.”
I faced the direction of Nike’s finger. “That’s northwest,” I said.
I had no idea how I knew that—but I knew I was right.
“Those are the woods near Darius’s house, right?” Kate asked. “The ones we stood next to on the night of the comet.”
“Clenton Woods,” Chris said, rolling the paper back up. “I live a few houses down from Darius. I used to play in those woods when I was younger.” He placed the paper back in the eagle and shut the lid. “Let’s go check this out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
We drove on Odessa Road until reaching the woods. Once there, Kate parked in Chris’s driveway. The trees here were taller than the ones in Georgia, and they had more branches. In the winter they looked like skeletons, but I imagined they must be pretty in the summer with all of their leaves.
“Where to now?” Danielle asked Blake. “Do you hear something calling to you?”
“Or see something glowing?” Chris added.
“No…” Blake said, looking out into the woods. “Why don’t we walk around and see what we can find?”
“There are a few trails around here.” Chris walked towards the woods and motioned for us to follow. “They shouldn’t be too far. Some friends and I used to go to this abandoned cottage to play around in before my parents found out what we were doing. It had burned down a long time ago, and they said it wasn’t safe. They were afraid we would get hurt.”
“A cottage that burned down?” I repeated, surprised he hadn’t mentioned it earlier. “We should check it out. It works with the whole fire-destruction thing in the clue.”
“The trail should be right around … here.” Chris stopped at a small break in the trees.
It looked like an animal path—barely wide enough for an average-sized person. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it unless Chris had pointed it out. There was just enough room to walk if you ducked under the occasional branch and watched out for tree roots.
I glanced at Danielle to see her reaction to hiking in her stilettos. She had a look of disgust plastered on her face, which amused me. She would jump into a freezing cold ocean, but was horrified at the idea of walking through the woods. I didn’t think I would ever understand her.
Kate glided past us, pushing through a group of branches and walking underneath them. “Come on,” she teased. “The trees aren’t going to hurt you.”
Chris and Blake followed her, leaving Danielle and me standing at the opening. “After you,” I said, motioning for her to go ahead. She jogged to catch up with the others, stumbling over a tree root in the process. I followed as close behind as possible, managing to accumulate a fair share of scratches on my hands from the branches. I contemplated saving my energy and not healing the small cuts, but they stung, so I fixed them anyway. Using a tiny bit of energy wouldn’t make too much of a difference. If anything, it was practice.
“Here it is,” Chris said from up ahead. I followed Danielle, who was stumbling in her stilettos, and we caught up with the group.
We were standing in a small clearing, most of it taken up by the remnants of the deteriorating cottage. It looked like it only had two rooms before it had burned down. The charred wooden planks making up the floor had warped into themselves, and the log walls barely existed anymore. Mounds of stones made up what appeared to have been a fireplace. Nature was reclaiming most of the cottage—moss grew everywhere, and trees were sprouting up on the inside.
I could see why Chris’s parents didn’t want him playing there as a child. The place was just asking for someone to get hurt.
Blake looked at the house, his jaw tense. “Does it feel warmer here than in the rest of the woods?” he asked, studying the center of the warped floor.
A cold breeze passed through the air, the tree branches whistling in the wind. “I wish,” I said, pulling the sleeves of my jacket over my hands.
He walked towards the cottage and stepped over what was left of the wall, his eyes intense as he focused on that same spot in the center of the floor.
“Are you sure that’s safe to walk on?” Danielle asked.
Blake glanced at her over his shoulder and laughed. “Says the girl who jumped in the ocean when it’s below freezing outside.”
“Fair point,” she mumbled, taking a step back.
The wood creaked beneath Blake’s feet, and he was careful not to step on any parts that looked like they were about to cave in. Once at the center, he knelt down and pressed his hand against a plank that looked relatively intact compared to the others surrounding it.
Kate looked at me and tilted her head. I shrugged, having no more of an idea what Blake was doing than anyone else.
“Want to tell us what’s going on?” Danielle yelled, stepping forward and placing her hands on her hips. He didn’t reply, so she jogged towards the ruined cottage and stepped over the edge. She took a few steps, but her stiletto got stuck between the boards and she tumbled to the ground, catching herself with the palms of her hands.
Apparently she wasn’t as graceful on land as she was in the water.
She brushed the dirt off her palms and huffed, not making an effort to stand back up.
Blake looked over at her and smirked. “You know how you didn’t need me to jump in the ocean after you?” he asked, continuing before she could respond. “Well, you don’t have to help me here. I’ve got this covered.”
He turned back around and took out his lighter, flicking it to life. He transferred the flames so they hovered in an orb over his hand. Just as he had on the
playground, he controlled the fire perfectly, lowering it to the floorboards. The burning wood smelled like a campfire, crisp in the brisk winter air.
I wanted to get closer to warm my hands, but Blake had made it clear that he needed to do this on his own. Plus, the floor didn’t look stable. I didn’t want to fall like Danielle, who had rejoined us and was still brushing the dirt off her jeans.
Blake lifted one of the charred floorboards and removed something from under it. His back faced me, so I couldn’t see what he’d found. Finally, he turned around, holding an iron box. It was smaller than the jar and the eagle—it looked about the size of a toolbox. He maneuvered his way out of the remnants of the cottage and dropped the box on the ground near our feet. Dirt poofed up from under it. The box must have been heavier than it looked.
“The clue must be inside.” Kate reached for the lid, but it wouldn’t open for her. “You try,” she told Blake.
When Blake tried, the lid lifted without a fight. He reached inside and pulled out two items—a leather book, and another, smaller box that was also metal.
Danielle kneeled down next to the box. “Where’s the clue?” she asked.
He opened the book, his eyebrows knitting together as he glanced through whatever was in it.
“Well?” she prompted.
“There’s no clue here.” He rubbed the back of his neck and paged through the book again. “All this has are instructions for how to make things.”
I peered over his shoulder to see what he meant. Diagrams were scattered all over the pages—instructions on how to create weapons. I shuddered at the thought. But then I thought about the monster from last night. If we had to face anything like that again, weapons would be useful to have around. I wouldn’t always have metal monkey bars at my disposal.
Chris circled around Blake to get a look. “What kind of things?” he asked.
“Weapons.” Blake lowered the book, his eyes hard. “It’s full of instructions about how to forge weapons with fire.”
Elementals: The Prophecy of Shadows Page 13