Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2)

by Kristen Pham

  “There’s no reasoning with Kellen, and the Knights have sworn loyalty to him. We will have to amass what Knights we can to help us in our cause without his knowledge,” Gideon explained.

  Valerie shut her eyes in relief that her mentor hadn’t abandoned her. “Does Chrome know that Jet is gone?”

  Gideon’s face was still. “Yes. He felt their connection sever.”

  A burst of grief escaped her box, and she let out a gasp of pain. “Can I see him?”

  Gideon laid a hand on her shoulder, and she saw that he had tears in his eyes. “He doesn’t blame you—only the Fractus. You will see him soon, but for now he must grieve alone.”

  Valerie tightened the hatches on her box of pain. “What do we do next? Any ideas on how to break Sanguina out of jail?”

  Gideon smiled grimly. “First, you need to rest. You will need all your resources for the trip ahead. Preparations will not happen in a day.”

  “What are you saying? Every second we wait could be the one that kills Darling or Oberon!”

  “If we go forward with half a plan, they will die. If we go forward quickly but with all the resources at our disposal, they may still die. But this way, they have a chance.”

  Valerie wanted to argue with him, but a sudden, bone-deep weariness that she couldn’t deny overcame her. The emotional, mental, and physical toll of the day was wearing on her.

  “Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll meet you at the Guild at dawn.”

  The vow she had made with her friends was on her mind as she got ready for bed that night. Didn’t she owe Thai as much? She had to try to see him and tell him everything.

  At least, that’s what she told herself. The truth was that she wanted to see his face, hear his voice. It had been the worst day of her life, and he was the only person who could make it a little bit better.

  She gripped the charm around her neck, and it brought her to Thai’s family’s dining table. She had seen it once before when she had visited Thai during her first time on the Globe. He had six siblings—seven if you counted Tan.

  His eyes flashed with a strange emotion—dread? He put his finger to his lips, and she knew that he didn’t want her to reveal herself to his family yet. He probably wanted to introduce her properly.

  Thai excused himself and stepped outside. Once he was alone, Valerie wished with all her heart that she could throw her arms around him. It had been too long since they’d talked, never mind touched.

  “I’ve missed you!” she said, not realizing the depth of her longing until she spoke the words.

  Thai cleared his throat and rubbed his neck awkwardly. “Yeah, me too, of course.”

  “Did you tell your family everything? I see they’ve met Tan.”

  A true smile crossed his face. “Yes, it was a huge relief to tell them what’s happened. They weren’t mad or even that freaked out about it. Midnight came and talked to them as well, and they know I’m in good hands.”

  “Did you tell them about me? Can I meet them?”

  Thai reddened. “About that. I’m not sure it’s the best idea.”

  She couldn’t ignore the strange tone in his voice any longer. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I’m considering my options. My parents insist that I finish college before I go to the Globe. It would give me time to decide if that’s what I really want. And a scholarship like this, to an American college, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was chosen from a pool of thousands of other students.”

  Thai’s words sounded like gibberish as Valerie struggled to wrap her mind around what he was saying. It was like her brain was trying to protect her from the truth. The pain robbed her of her breath, and she struggled to hide it from him.

  “Of course. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to leave your family behind. You should absolutely make sure that coming to the Globe is the right decision for you.”

  “Valerie…”

  “I’m surprised, that’s all. You never talked like you were considering staying, so I didn’t know that was an option. But all I want for you is to be happy.”

  “Nothing’s decided yet,” Thai said, and his forehead creased as if he were concentrating very hard on something.

  Valerie took a deep breath and tried to release her pain. It was a little conceited to think that Thai would want to leave his whole life behind for her. He had a family who loved him and a bright future. It was good that he was taking the time to make sure of his decision now, rather than regretting it later when it was too late to change his mind. He’d only resent her for it.

  “Take as long as you need. I can wait,” she said.

  He seemed to be fighting an inner battle, but tenderness won out. “I don’t deserve you,” he said.

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “It isn’t. Now what did you have to tell me?”

  “Nothing that can’t wait,” she said. She didn’t want to bias his decision by making him fear for her safety. And she also wasn’t sure that she could handle being in his presence any longer without showing him how shattered she was.

  “I’ll visit soon. Give my love to Tan,” Valerie said quickly.

  “I will,” Thai replied, his voice sounding a little rough.

  She shut her eyes and opened them back on the Globe. This time she refused to give in to any tears.

  Chapter 32

  Valerie and Gideon agreed that the first thing they needed to do was to recruit the Knights that they wanted to bring on their mission to Dunsinane. They carefully laid out the plan of how to retrieve Sanguina and quickly get to Dunsinane. It would mean relying on the powers of Valerie’s friends as well as her own, which made her nervous. If anyone was hurt in the process, it would be because of a hole in her plan, and she would have to carry her failure on her conscience forever.

  Once Sanguina was broken out of prison, Kellen would soon be aware that something was wrong. They had to be long gone from Arden by the time that happened.

  “A covert op,” Cyrus said that night at dinner, where he ate with Valerie, Henry, and Kanti. “Finally, something interesting is happening.”

  In spite of the stress, it was impossible not to enjoy Cyrus’s childlike glee in the situation.

  “Gideon managed to have a conversation with Sanguina in prison, and she said there will likely be Fractus with three types of abilities guarding the Black Castle. First are those invisible guys we fought a few times,” Valerie told her friends.

  “But stronger now, right?” Henry reminded her.

  She nodded. “Yeah, they’re totally invisible now. Then, of course, there’s Zunya and his gang who can steal our powers, and last are these guys who control electricity.”

  Kanti crinkled her brow. “I’ve never heard of that one before.”

  Henry hung his head. “I think those electricity guys are my fault, too, like the invisible Fractus.”

  “You know that’s not your fault. You didn’t know you were capable of giving the Fractus new powers. You didn’t even believe magic was real then!” Kanti said, squeezing his hand.

  “What are they capable of?” Valerie asked curiously.

  “Throwing lightning is their only weapon on the Globe, I think,” said Henry. “But on Earth, they could do much more damage. There are so many more machines running on electricity instead of magic or solar power.”

  Valerie shuddered. “Let’s hope they never make it to Earth, then.”

  “Throwing lightning is kind of a big deal without the rest,” Cyrus said.

  “There’s one other thing,” Valerie added. “I’m going to have to convince Kellen to return my sword to me. We’re not going to make it out of there alive without it.”

  “Bring us with you when you confront him,” Henry said.

  “That might make things worse. And I don’t want to bring Gideon into this and raise Kellen’s suspicions. I’ve got to do it alone.”

  Timidly this time, Valerie knocked on Kellen’s door. Her heart sped up as she
waited for him to answer. What was she going to do if he refused her? She wasn’t confident that she could win in a fight, but she’d have to try.

  There was no answer, and gently she jiggled the handle of the door. It was locked, but she tapped into her magic and forced the handle. It gave way easily under pressure and she shook her head. No office on Earth would have such a flimsy lock, but she supposed on the Globe, the real threats were magical ones.

  Sure enough, as the door swung open, she was blasted by a wave of magic that must have been designed to incapacitate intruders. She threw up her lunch and fell to the ground on her hands and knees. Her puke vanished the moment it hit the ground—Kellen probably didn’t want to deal with the mess that his magical burglar alarm caused—but the smell hung in the air, making her gag. Her body was wracked with waves of nausea and she groaned.

  It had to be in her head. This time, Valerie wasn’t going to let that stop her. She clenched her fists, focusing on the pain of her fingernails digging into her palms, and forced herself to remember why she was here—to recover her sword. The office was empty, and the sunshine streaming in didn’t reveal anything that she hadn’t noticed before. Pathos was nowhere to be seen.

  Even if she had to crawl, she decided to search for it. If it wasn’t in his office, then it had to be in the armory with the other weapons, in which case it would be easy to recover. But Kellen wouldn’t leave such a powerful weapon unguarded.

  His desk was much too small to hold her sword, so she searched the walls and floor, looking for trapdoors or nooks where he could have tucked it away. But his office was scrupulously neat, without much clutter to sift through. As long as she was searching and her mind remained focused, the nausea wasn’t completely crippling. But when she ran out of places to check, it returned with force, and she curled into a ball, not sure if she could take any more.

  She was ready to give up and hope that Pathos was in the armory after all when a pulse of magic reached out to her like a finger tapping her on the shoulder. Pathos. Strange how her weapon almost seemed like a person to her, a friend whose voice she could recognize. It was in this room.

  Kellen’s desk gleamed in the sunlight, and she dragged herself back to it. It was sized to fit the fairy, and she had to use a fingernail to open the drawers. One by one, she checked them all, but found only papers and tiny objects that she couldn’t make sense of.

  A light glowed from the cracks around the left leg of the desk, and she opened the bottom drawer again. Nothing but files. The drawer hummed, almost rattling with power. She ran her index finger along the smooth panels, and finally she touched a small bump on the side of the drawer.

  Valerie pressed it and the room vanished before her eyes, her nausea disappearing with it. She was standing in an enormous vault filled to the rafters with strange objects. The only light came from torches lining the walls. She saw glittering wings in glass jars, a bookshelf filled with carefully labeled locks of hair, and an entire case of weapons, with everything from an ax to a machete to a gun. She stepped closer to the hair and her flesh crawled. He had the hair of every Knight in the Guild, and locks from many Conjurors she had never heard of. Even her own hair was there, dark brown strands tied with a white ribbon.

  She was tempted to take it—who knew what horrible purpose he would use it for? But it seemed wrong to save her own hair and leave everyone else’s behind. She also didn’t know if she would trigger another alarm, one that she wasn’t able to fight this time.

  Valerie had come for one thing, and that was all she’d take—this time. Pathos was mounted on the wall like a trophy. She guessed that Kellen had polished the handle and the blade, because they gleamed. She had to pull over a wobbly table to climb up and reach her sword. Relief coursed through her body as she returned it to its sheath.

  She knew that she would never again voluntarily surrender her weapon. Whatever fate had in store for her, she and Pathos were inextricably linked. She wouldn’t survive without it.

  Her relief was short-lived. How would she return to Kellen’s office and sneak out unnoticed? But before her worry could morph into panic, the vault disappeared and she was back in Kellen’s neat office.

  It was the same as when she left it, except for one thing. Her nausea was gone. She sprinted to the door and left, shutting it quietly behind her.

  In the hallway, she scrutinized the face of every Knight she passed for signs of suspicion. The arches at the entrance of the Guild were in sight when she slammed into Juniper.

  “You’re back! All’s forgiven?” he asked brightly.

  “We should talk,” she muttered. “But let’s get out of here first.”

  Outside, they hurried through The Horseshoe. She wanted to put some distance between herself and Kellen’s office. He’d know soon enough that she had taken her sword back.

  “Where’s the fire?” Juniper asked as she finally slowed her pace.

  “I stole my sword back,” she said, her gut telling her that she could trust him. “Kellen’s going to kill me when he finds out.”

  His eyes went wide. “You couldn’t wait twenty-four hours?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Knight’s law—a weapon can only be taken for twenty-four hours unless a Knight is tried and found guilty of a high crime, like torture or murder or treason.”

  “He never said anything about that. It’s been more than twenty-four hours since he took it, and I don’t think he had any intention of giving it back.”

  “He can’t do that—even if he is the Grand Master. He’s our leader, not a dictator,” Juniper said.

  “I’m glad you said that. I have to ask you a huge favor. And I’m kind of hoping you say no, because it’s really dangerous.”

  His eyes lit up. “Count me in!”

  “You don’t even know what I’m going to ask yet.”

  “Doesn’t matter, but I assume we’re storming the Black Castle?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Then I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Juniper wasn’t the only one eager to join their team. Cyrus recruited Ceru, Henry brought a couple of Empath journeymen, and Gideon talked to seven Knights that he trusted for the mission. Even Cara showed up for dinner one night to volunteer her help, but Cyrus wouldn’t hear of it.

  “I can make my own decisions,” Cara argued.

  “No way,” Cyrus said flatly. “You’re still my kid sister. And I may have already left home at your age, but I wasn’t fighting battles.”

  “You have equally important work to do here,” Ceru said with a significant nod to Cara. His comment seemed to be the one that convinced her.

  “We’ve got one more addition to our team,” Kanti said. “Peach is coming early tomorrow.” Valerie knew that the shocked look on her face must have mirrored Cyrus’s and Henry’s, because Kanti grinned a little. “Who knew my Barbie doll of a sister would want to get her hands dirty?”

  “I’m in, too, of course,” Dulcea chimed in.

  The last thing Valerie wanted to do was hurt Dulcea, but she wasn’t sure that her friend’s magical ability to make sweet treats would protect her on the battlefield. “I wanted to ask if you would stay here. I don’t want to leave Jack all alone for however long we’re gone. He was hurt because of me, and now Nightingale barely lets me visit him. You have a way about you, and maybe you can win him over.”

  Dulcea nodded thoughtfully, but Valerie saw the gleam of knowledge in her eyes. She read between the lines. “Of course, if this is where I’m needed, this is where I’ll be.”

  Valerie’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Why don’t we go over to the Healers’ Guild now? Dasan visited him again today, so maybe he’ll be a little more lucid.”

  For the first time, Nightingale wasn’t guarding the door to Jack’s ward, so Valerie and Dulcea had a little privacy for the introduction. He was reading a book as they approached his bed, but it dropped out of his hands when he saw Dulcea. A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes that was the f
irst sign Valerie had seen that he was returning to his old self.

  “I know our Val here was feeling guilty about me getting hurt, but she’s forgiven now that she’s brought you here to nurse me back to health. What’s your name, gorgeous?”

  Dulcea rolled her eyes, but she didn’t successfully hide her smile. “Dulcea. Valerie said you were sick, but you look okay to me.”

  “Just okay? I must be losing my touch.”

  Dulcea and Valerie laughed. “Glad to see you’re doing better. Remember anything new?”

  Jack shook his head. “When are you going to bust me out of here?”

  “What does Nightingale say?” Dulcea asked.

  “That old grump? He’d keep me here for the rest of my life if I let him. But I overheard that no one can be kept here against their will once they’re not in a life-threatening situation.”

  “Give it a little longer,” Valerie pleaded. “You’ve still got way too many bruises.”

  “I’ve had worse,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

  Jack had to spend too many years with people who didn’t want him, something that she knew a thing or two about. “I don’t want to be here. Living with all these other kids, being poked and prodded…”

  Dulcea was biting her lip, but she seemed to empathize with Jack as well. Like Valerie, Dulcea had been orphaned when her parents died years ago. “There’s a bed waiting for you at the Imaginary Friends’ Guild whenever you want it.”

  A grin spread across Jack’s face, and he was kind of hot, Valerie noticed with surprise. “I’ll come first thing tomorrow. Knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me, baby. Few can.”

  “Yeah, yeah. No stirring up trouble, though,” Dulcea said firmly.

  “Trouble? Me? Never.”

  Valerie’s next task weighed even heavier on her heart. For the past two nights, she’d heard a howling in the distance that was filled with heartbreak. She had to find Chrome—she owed it to him to tell him about Jet’s final moments.

  She found Henry in the garden behind the Empathy Collective talking to the two Empaths he had recruited to the team.