Blue hills.
“Oh no,” I said, out loud this time.
“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked.
I didn’t answer. I sprinted toward the edge of the cliff with Kai and Daniel following closely behind. My heart felt like there was a cord wrapped around it—tightening and pulling me forward.
When I reached the brink, I gazed down at the drop. It was at least a three-hundred-foot plunge—much higher than the jump we’d taken yesterday to escape the magic hunters. The river dove off into a massive waterfall that pummeled the jagged rocks of the cliffside before dumping into a much fatter river at the bottom.
My eyes followed the river to a spot about a half mile away. It was everything I expected and everything I feared. I could see a battle unfolding. The glint of the rising sun made the knights’ uniforms glisten, even from this distance. There were no fewer than thirty of them, and my friends were caught in the throng. I knew it was them. Small eruptions of fire and lightning detonated in the battle zone. That was signature SJ.
My dream of Jason’s death was about to unfold.
“We have to get down there,” I panted. “It’s Blue, Jason, and SJ. They need our help, right now.”
Daniel and Kai spotted the battle raging below.
“We’ll never make it in time,” Kai said, worry in her voice.
“Shut up,” I snapped. “We have to.” I paced by the edge in a panic, trying to think. The only way down was to go around and find a path through the Shifting Forest. But we could run at light speed and still not make it before the battle was over.
I looked straight below at the waterfall pummeling against the river.
Come on. Think. Think.
Suddenly a sensory charge passed through my system. It was the first wave of magic energy from the oncoming Aurora.
What else could make me feel like this?
A jolt of energy set the hairs on my body erect. I sensed magic in every part of me. It was like an intoxicating gas only I could breathe in. And as I did, I felt like I could do anything. It was caffeine directly to the bloodstream and adrenaline straight to the core.
I didn’t know how long this feeling would last, but I had to take advantage of it.
Get to Jason. Get to Jason.
Enchanting the earth to form a platform didn’t seem like a good idea. It worked in Neverland, but that cliffside was basically pure stone. At the Canyon of Geene, my section of earth had fallen apart. And anyway, we didn’t just need a way down; we needed a giant assault in order to wash away the threat.
Wash away the threat …
An idea popped into my head as I stared at the throbbing river, and then—
“Jason!”
The frightened sound of Blue screaming our friend’s name echoed across the valley.
“Knight!” Daniel grabbed my arm. “You said you had a vision about Jason. What did you see? What’s going on down there?”
My face fell in fear. “Jason’s dead, Daniel.” Then my features hardened. “But not for long. Follow me.”
I sprinted back along the river away from the cliff ’s ledge so the current wouldn’t be so intense. Then I marched into the river. Daniel and Kai pursued me. I could only go about eight feet in; anything deeper and the pull of the current would surely sweep us off our feet. The water rose past my knees. Planting my boots firmly into the murky bottom, this was where I decided to make my stand.
“What are you going to do?” Kai asked.
“Something new,” I replied.
I plunged my hands into the water and concentrated. I let the magic wave in the air rush through my blood as powerfully as the water coursing around my legs. Both were strong and visceral. The power felt both cleansing and corrupting.
I focused harder than I ever had, my mind visualizing what I wanted the water to do. Energy poured from my hands into the river, flooding it with so much golden light it looked like the sun was washing downstream. Then the water started to rise.
“I hope you guys can hold your breath for a while,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Daniel and Kai.
In a sudden burst, walls of water came up around us and began to take shape, resisting the pull of the current and responding to my will instead. The three of us were submerged in a sphere of water, which became the center of the creation I was building. Additional surges of water spun in tight, condensed cyclones and attached to our sphere like limbs, floating us off ground level. Soon we were twenty feet above the river in the belly of the enormous, man-shaped water monster I had brought to life.
I willed my water creature forward. Daniel and Kai were floating right behind me in the center sphere. We reached the edge of the cliff.
Okay. Here we go.
I focused my control then mentally commanded my creation to jump.
WHOA!
We plummeted three hundred feet down the waterfall. My fists tightened as I fought gravity and all the other relevant laws of physics to retain the monster’s form. Sprays of water came off it like sweat, but its overall shape held steady at my will.
Keeping my eyes open in the water was difficult, but that was the least of my worries. We needed to stick the landing. When we were about to reach the river below, I directed my water creature to land in a crouched position on a single knee. It did, and with one of its watery fists slamming into the river. The collision caused a tidal wave to careen downstream. Daniel, Kai, and I felt virtually nothing. The water we floated in cushioned all impact. We bobbed a bit in the sphere, but it was no different than being in a hot tub and feeling the swell when someone bigger jumped in.
It’d been close to twenty seconds since I’d consumed us in water and I knew we couldn’t go much longer without breathing. Plus, retaining this level of power was taxing even with the help of the magic energy in the air, so I mustered all the strength I had on my next command.
Run.
The water creature picked itself up from its crouched position and began to bolt downriver toward the conflict. Each watery footstep sent a carriage-sized splash up the banks. The creature’s limbs sloshed. My friends and I bobbed around from the continuous force of each heavy stride as we rapidly closed in on our destination.
Soon I saw the nearby flash of SJ’s lightning potions; we couldn’t have been more than sixty meters away. Unfortunately, that was as far as I could take us—my lungs were about to burst. Daniel and Kai were likely in the same state. I ordered the creature to let us slip out its back leg in the form of a mini waterslide. Our bodies rushed out in a wave and landed in the river.
SPLASH!
Air poured into my lungs. However, I didn’t let the shock of the oxygen or the drop into the water diminish my focus. I kept all my energy fixated on my creation. I rose in the river and maintained magic control of the water monster as it continued to race forward.
The battle was now in clear view. This was my chance to eliminate the enemy threat and create my opening to save Jason.
My grand monster continued downriver—golden energy surging through its liquid skin and casting the battle ahead in a golden wave of light. Its massive footsteps caused the ground to tremble. I couldn’t see the knights’ expressions from here, but I suspected they were pretty surprised.
I heard yelling. The knights were bracing themselves. I braced myself too, but for another reason. Just as my water creature was thirty feet from the fight, I ordered it out of the river. Then I broke the creature apart. With a final push of magic, I transformed the monster into a colossal wave. I knew Blue and Jason were by the bank and I spotted SJ off to the left, so I aimed the wave directly at the center congregation of knights.
It was the stuff of sailors’ nightmares. The wave careened toward the army and swept two thirds of it away. The knights I’d hit were splattered all over the blue grass like bug carcasses. SJ saw her opening and began firing on the rest; she knew what my energy signature looked like and was ready to jump into action.
I took a second to get my bearings
, but that’s all I could afford. Jason’s window for being saved was going to shut.
“Come on!” I yelled to Daniel and Kai, racing toward Jason and Blue.
Normally I felt drained after using large amounts of magic and needed time to recover. But I didn’t feel that way now. The wave of magic in the atmosphere was so strong, it nourished whatever my body had lost.
I moved so fast that the world blurred. Water, SRB sparks, and my own residual glimmers of golden energy trailed off me. As I closed in, I could see that SJ needed a hand to take out the remaining knights.
“Help SJ!” I called to Daniel and Kai. “I’ve got Jason!”
Daniel and Kai veered off to assist our princess friend while I zeroed in on the riverbank where Jason lay unmoving. Blue was kneeling over him, tears streaming down her face and Jason’s blood all over her hands.
I didn’t know for certain how much time had passed since Jason had been stabbed, but I sensed his window was moments from closing.
“Blue! Move!” I yelled.
She looked up. I skidded to my knees in the sand beside them. Seeing Jason dead in reality was much worse than seeing him dead in my dreams. I could smell the blood coming from the wound that stained his shirt. I could hear Blue convulsing in sobs. I could feel the ice cold of his skin as I touched his face.
“He’s gone,” she said in a whisper.
“No,” I said willfully. “Today is not the day for him to die.”
I’d only ever tried this on a bird. But I felt so sure it was possible that it was like I’d done it a hundred times. My body moved with a kind of magic muscle memory.
“Blue, let go,” I ordered, gesturing for her to release Jason’s hand.
She hesitated.
“Move!” I said. “We don’t have much time!”
She let go and scooched away a couple of inches. I took Jason’s hand in mine and placed my right palm on his stomach where the wound was. He didn’t move. There was no breath or heartbeat inside his body, yet I could still feel life within him. It was hard to explain, but somehow I could sense his energy. It was fading by the second, but I knew it was there.
Life.
I didn’t just concentrate on the word or my ability; I fixed all of myself—my heart, mind, body, and soul—on the spirit behind the word. I closed my eyes and let the emotion flow and intertwine with my focus. I thought of precious memories I shared with Jason. The night we met at our first school ball. The afternoon he taught me how to whistle. That time we broke into Lady Agnue’s old dungeon beneath the kitchens. The day he came to visit me in the infirmary and smuggled in chocolate chip cookies.
Life.
The command reverberated in my skull. I felt a tug at my heart that forced me to open my eyes. When I did, I saw immense golden light flowing out of me into Jason.
Life.
I thought of every laugh and smile and struggle Jason and I had shared. I thought of every moment with him I could remember and concentrated on the elements that made him him—his selflessness, his bravery, his goofiness, his warmth, his protectiveness, his heroism.
My light glowed brighter, but I began to feel weaker. I could sense that the Aurora’s wave of magic energy had finished rolling through the atmosphere. No extra power boost was going to help me now. I had to do this on my own. With one final push, I gave Jason everything I had.
“Life!” I ordered out loud.
An enormous rush of energy zapped out of my hands like an electric shock. It was so powerful it knocked me back.
The energy discharged straight into Jason and my body stopped producing magic altogether. My glow ceased like I had ejected all of it in one burst.
I blinked. There was nothing but stillness for a second then, all of a sudden, the glow came back—not out of me, but out of Jason. Golden energy shot from his wound like a geyser. The veins in his arms glowed too, like mine did after I’d resurrected myself. When the burst from his chest dissipated, Jason’s golden veins began to fade to normal.
I clambered to my knees and leaned over him, waiting in silence. Blue was beside me. I realized SJ, Daniel, and Kai were standing behind me too. Having wrapped up their battle, they were witnesses to the miracle that happened next.
Jason coughed. Then he opened his eyes. They were bright blue with rims of gold around the irises. He looked up at me and managed a small, pained smile.
“What took you so long?”
n the immediate aftermath of Jason’s resurrection, my friends drilled me with questions while he rested. Personally, I could have used a short rest too. The magic wave had made me feel exceptionally powerful but raising that water creature and bringing Jason back to life had taken a lot out of me. And yet, I knew I was still quite strong.
I was definitely a bit tired, but yesterday I’d passed out after bringing a bird back to life. Today, I’d created a super-sized water monster to do my bidding, resurrected one of my best friends, and I was still standing. That was definitely progress. As long as I had a little time to recharge and no one tried to kill me in the next couple of hours, I would be fine.
“So, let me get this straight,” Blue said. “Not only can you pop back up when someone smacks you dead like a human version of whack-a-mole, now you can bring other people back to life too?”
“Yup,” I said. “That’s the short version. I’ll explain more, but can we walk and talk? Half those knights might be encased in SJ’s ice or goo, and the others may have retreated, but we’re still out in the open and need to keep heading toward Avalon.”
“I can’t believe this!” Blue groaned.
I was surprised by her frustration. “Why are you mad? This is a good thing.”
“Agreed,” Jason said. “Being dead is not my favorite state.”
“I’m not mad, I just wish you could have given us some indication that you had this power,” Blue replied. “Do you have any idea what the last couple of days have been like for us, Crisa? We weren’t sure if you were dead or captured or what. We’ve just been heading toward Avalon hoping to the heavens that we would find you and Daniel along the way.”
I softened. I had been worried about SJ, Blue, and Jason, but I hadn’t thought about how they must’ve felt since our separation. They did watch me get shot after all.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Let’s just be grateful that we’re all together now.”
“And that we got a bonus character,” Jason added, starting to get up. Blue and Daniel lunged in quickly to help him. He smiled appreciatively then extended his hand to Kai. “Nice to have you on board.”
“Thanks,” she responded, shaking his hand. “I’m glad you’re okay, Jason.”
“We all are,” Daniel seconded, patting Jason’s shoulder.
SJ cleared her throat. “This is an emotional time for all, and there are still many questions that need answering, but I think Crisa is right. We should walk and talk. Jason, are you well enough to travel?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said. “Crisa may be new at resurrection, but she does fine work. Honestly, I feel great. Like I just had a good night’s sleep.”
As unbelievable as it seemed, it looked to be true. Except for the thinnest of scars, his wound had healed perfectly, like mine had after I’d been shot. Unlike me, however, Jason’s post-resurrection state was free of all the pain and disorientation mine had been filled with. I garnered my reaction was probably a result of the intense strength it took to exert the feat, not the actual feat itself. As proven by both Jason and that bird yesterday, when my magic energy successfully infused into a dead creature during its three-minute window, it revitalized them in every sense of the word. I didn’t get that benefit because I wasn’t just being resurrected, I was doing the resurrecting.
Gazing at Jason’s renewed state, I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t feel proud, and overjoyed, and surprised, and incredibly relieved. Jason was alive and it was because of me. The vision that had been troubling us both for so long didn’t matter anymore. We coul
dn’t talk about this in front of the others, but we exchanged a knowing smile. Jason was going to be okay and I had been able to use my magic to achieve a game-changing result.
Everything would be different now.
My friends and I dove back into the nearby Shifting Forest with Merlin’s magical map navigating us onward. While we maneuvered through dense trees and thicket, Daniel and I caught the others up on what we’d experienced since our group had been separated, including our encounter with Merlin and how Kai had come to join our gang. Daniel did a quick recap of his solo ventures, and then I shared mine. I described the discovery of my new resurrection abilities after I’d been shot; then I had to tell everyone about my escapades at Bluebeard Tower.
“So I sent the chandelier into the water and that was it,” I finished reluctantly.
“That is awful.” SJ shuddered.
“No, that’s brilliant,” Blue countered.
“I’m pretty sure it’s both,” I responded. “Anyway, it was a tough call but I made it. The ghosts needed to be freed and I couldn’t let any more girls get taken. If I left without ensuring that, it would go against everything I stand for, right?”
“That depends,” SJ said. “Is murdering your enemies one of the things you stand for now? Because you seem to be headed down that path.”
“SJ, don’t phrase it like that,” Jason defended. “They were monsters, not people.”
“And we’re back to this debate again,” I huffed. “Look, I’m only going to say this once. I’ve been through a lot these last few days—we all have—but I still don’t completely know how I feel about the morality of taking life. I know you all have different opinions, and your opposing points are valid, but can you stop passing judgment on me until I can decide for myself? This is big. This is character-defining big. And the fact is … it makes me feel small by comparison. So can we drop it? Please?”
My friends nodded. They could tell how much this topic was getting to me. I’d killed a giant and a bunch of Bluebeard monsters and tigermen since we’d arrived in Camelot, but my real enemies were still out there. Sooner or later I would have to face Arian, Mauvrey, Rampart, and even Alex, and if given the opportunity, I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to end them. As I closed the lid on this anxiety for now, I decided that there was only one thing I was sure of. Like in Bluebeard Tower, when the time came, I would have to trust my instincts.
Crisanta Knight: To Death & Back Page 37