The Rising King

by Shea Berkley

  “Okay.”

  Whatever I say he believes. If this is what friendship is like, then I’m all for it.

  We trot across the road that separates the woods from the house and go through the gate and into the yard. I can see Grandma’s silhouette in the greenhouse. I poke my head in. “Need some help?”

  Startled, she twirls around, spilling water from the watering can onto the slate floor. She smiles when she sees me. “You scared me half to death.”

  “Sorry.” I step in, but Leo stays outside since there isn’t much room for more than two in the greenhouse. As I move forward, I touch the plants and they respond like I expect, growing bigger and heavy with flowers and fruit and vegetables.

  Grandma’s smile grows. “Oh, I do like it when you visit the greenhouse.”

  Now that I’m here, I’m not sure how to approach the subject. “Is everything going okay?”

  She puts the watering can away. “If you’re asking if we’ve had any more nasty things like the ones that attacked you, your dragon seems to have roasted them all.”

  “Good.”

  “How are things in Teag?”

  I was hoping she’d ask. “Not so good. That’s why I’m here.”

  “Oh?” She sweeps a stray lock of hair out of her eyes and stares up at me. A line of worry lodges between her eyes.

  “Faldon gave you something, and I kind of need it.”

  “Faldon?” She frowns, trying to place the name with the face, and then she remembers and frowns even deeper. “You mean that horrible man who tried to kill you? Why would he give me anything?”

  “This is important, Grandma.” My voice gets louder, and I take a deep breath in an effort to calm down. “Really nasty things are happening in Teag and that magic is the only thing that can help us.”

  “Oh.” Her lips thin, and she rubs her hands on the side of her jeans. “I’m not sure…”

  I grab her shoulders in a gentle embrace and look into her blue eyes. I may not like all the aspects of being a first, but I’ve done my homework in the memorization department. Spell casting isn’t easy. That said, it’s the fastest way to get what you want, and I cast a spell of remembrance over her. “Please. I don’t know when he gave it to you, but it’s important you remember.”

  We stare at each other for what feels like forever, and then she nods and slowly strips off her gloves. I back up as she pushes me out of the greenhouse. “You boys thirsty?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Leo says. I throw him a quick look and he shrugs. “Well, I am.”

  We end up sitting at the kitchen table, milk brimming in our glasses as she sits across from us and tucks her hands in her lap.

  “Do you remember?” My fingers are crossed that my spell worked.

  “I think I do.”

  I lean forward, and she closes her eyes. “A long time ago, a man came to the house. I thought he was a salesman, but then he brought out an old foreign-looking coin. He placed it right in my hand and asked me the oddest question. What is the one thing I’ve always wanted, but never had?”

  Her eyes open and she stares at me. “It was such a silly question. I don’t want much in life, but I’ve always wanted a bird. A pretty blue songbird. Before I could blink, that coin turned into exactly what I wanted. I thought I was going crazy. And then he told me he was the father of the boy Addison had been seeing. Like us, he wasn’t pleased they were seeing each other. He told me I could make sure they never saw each other again if I would go with him into the woods and release the bird at a particular spot as I recited a poem.”

  She blushes at the disbelief on my face. I have to call her on it. “You went with a strange man into the woods by yourself?” For a smart woman, she did something completely stupid.

  A weak smile lifts the corners of her lips. “He’d made a bird appear out of thin air.”

  Leo rapped his knuckles on the tabletop and pointed at her. “I gotcha. Something special, out-of-this-world just happened.” He turns a frown on me. “When was the last time you met a murderer who liked magic?”

  “That Gacy dude. Total serial killer.”

  “He was a creepy clown. Not the same.”

  “Clown. Magician. Pretty close.” I return my attention to Grandma. “Why did you go?”

  “I’ve heard stories all my life about magic and mischief and how our woods are special. And honestly, there was something about him I couldn’t resist. It was like I had to do what he asked.”

  Faldon had to have used the same magic Kera used on Mr. Tanner and Wyatt’s dad when they were ready to come to blows earlier this summer. She used suggestion to calm them down. Faldon used his power of suggestion to convince Grandma to go into the woods. “So you went with him and did what he said.”

  “He was very persuasive. Before he left, he had only one request. He said after I did exactly as he instructed, the bird would change back into the coin, and when it did, I should hide it.”

  “You hid it?” Leo looks at me with a big goofy grin on his face. “She hid it. See, bro? Everything is peachy keen.”

  A sinking feeling hits my gut. “What happened when you let the bird go?”

  “I think it sealed the gates so no one could slip between the two worlds again. It’s what he implied.”

  Faldon had exiled both my mom and my dad to a life without their one true love, while trapping the coin in the human realm, out of reach of my power-hungry dad. I don’t know how Lani figured out how to unseal the gate between the worlds, but when the gate was found open and guards were posted, she used her incordium dagger on the barrier, compromising it when she entered the human realm.

  I steady the heavy thud of my heart and ask, “Where did you hide the coin after you used it?”

  “I couldn’t keep it in the house. It made all sorts of trouble. It didn’t like being hidden away, so I did something I regret.”

  Leo leans close. “You threw it in a lake?”

  She blinks. “No.”

  “Tossed it on a passing train?”

  “No.”

  “Buried it?”

  She cocks her head to the side. “Like a buried treasure? That’s a great idea.”

  “Leo.” We don’t have time to play twenty questions. “Will you let her tell us?”

  “I don’t know how to explain it, but the coin demanded human company. I…it sounds odd…I would talk to it every so often, but not often enough. I guess it thought I was ignoring it, and it attracted someone else.” She looks my way. “Your mother.”

  On hearing that, I slump dejectedly in my chair, throw my head back, and close my eyes. I cuss a blue streak. Not out loud. Grandma’s not a woman you swear around and live to tell about it. “This can’t be happening.” Mom has the coin? Talk about a disaster on an epic scale.

  The stress in Grandma’s voice is heartbreaking. “When Addison found it, I didn’t want her to have it, but for some reason, I gave it to her. One moment the coin was there, lying quietly in her palm, and the next moment it was gone.”

  I squeeze my eyes shut tighter. Mom has the magic and just like Grandma, she probably doesn’t know she has it.

  Leo is totally engrossed in her story. “So you don’t know what it turned into?”

  “No, and by that evening, she was gone. A runaway. I didn’t even remember about the coin until you asked. It’s like the whole incident was washed clean from my mind.”

  Magical amnesia. Yep, Mom has no clue.

  “Trippy,” Leo breathes on a note of awe.

  I groan. Why can’t I catch a break? Mom has the magic, has had it this whole time, and I have no idea what it could be. I lived with her for seventeen years. I should at least suspect what it is.

  Leo’s big foot slams into my shin. I only groan louder and ignore him, too busy with my own horrified thoughts. He clears his throat and asks Grandma, “Do you know where your daughter is?”

  “We’ve tried to find her. She’s terrified of her father, especially now.”

  I open
my eyes to see her looking distressed. I straighten in my chair. “Why now?”

  “I didn’t want to tell you, but she stole several thousand dollars from her father’s petty cash when she left you here with us. He was supposed to pay a bill, otherwise there would never have been that much in there.”

  Mom. The lying, sneaking thief. I’m surprised Grandpa trusts me as much as he does. I wouldn’t. My teeth ache from gritting them so hard.

  Leo rubs his thumb along his chin. “She had to have told someone where she is.”

  Grandma shrugs her shoulders, and Leo turns his dark gaze on me, a questioning arch to his eyebrow.

  “Well, she didn’t tell me.” My family isn’t anything like his. Mom never intended to come back. She stole a huge amount of money and probably changed her name. “Why would she? I’m the last person she wants to see.”

  “That’s not true,” Grandma says automatically. She’s too kind to assign such mean behavior, even to her selfish daughter. “Your grandfather is the last person she wants to see. You’re her son. She loves you.”

  “Grandma, that last bit is the biggest story you’ve ever told.”

  “And the truest.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Leo says and stands up. He’s ready to leave. “We’ve got to find her.”

  “How? It’s been a couple of months since she left. Where are we even going to look?”

  Grandma pops to her feet and pulls out a road map from the junk drawer near the den. “Your grandfather tracked her as far as Willow Creek, California.” She thumbs her way to the map of California and points to Willow Creek. Leo takes the map and smiles. “That’s not all that far.”

  Grandma’s eyes shine with unshed tears. “It’s where she was arrested for assault.”

  Mom’s crazy, but she’s never been arrested before. I put my forehead on the table and groan. “This can’t be happening.”

  “She’s in jail?” Leo asks.

  “Released about a week ago.”

  “Released.” Leo slams his big hand on my back. “Cheer up. Your mom’s a free woman.”

  “And most likely not in Willow Creek,” I point out. She wouldn’t stay, even if the cops told her not to go far. She’d run. Run far and run fast.

  “Hey, we’ve got a starting point. That’s encouraging.” Leo isn’t letting me lose hope. I’m beginning to wonder if Faldon knew I would need him along.

  “How are we going to get there?” I ask. “I don’t drive. I longboard everywhere. And unless you have a car I don’t know about…”

  Grandma jumps to her feet again and leaves only to come back and dangle a set of keys in front of us. I raise my head and give her a questioning look. She shrugs. “It’s mine. I never drive it.”

  Leo hesitantly wraps his fingers around the keys. “Are these the keys to your new Wrangler?”

  She nods.

  He clutches the keys to his chest. “I. Love. It. I swear I will keep it in one piece. Not even a dent…no, not a scratch. Hell, I won’t even let a bird poop on it. I swear on all that’s holy—”

  “I trust you, Leo,” she says with a laugh and pats him on the shoulder. “You’re a good boy.” She drops her hand. “Now go find my little girl and bring her home before she gets hurt.”

  Leo jumps up and dashes outside screaming, “Road trip!” Grandma stops me as I head to my room. “Be good to your mother. She’s had it rough, and her life is going nowhere fast. Be sensitive to that.”

  “I’ve been sensitive to her my whole life, Grandma.” And look where that’s gotten me.

  She nods, hearing the sadness I can’t hide, and lets me go. After packing my duffel and snagging a sleeping bag, I head to the porch to wait for Leo. I don’t wait long before he brings around a shiny, muted-green four-door Jeep with tinted windows and a kickin’ sound system that he’s quickly familiarizing himself with. Grandma comes up behind me and gives me a roll of cash. “For gas and expenses.”

  I shouldn’t take it, but she’ll worry if I don’t. “Thanks.”

  “Am I doing the right thing?” Doubt laces her voice.

  I can’t answer that. “Do we have a choice? We need that magic.” I toss my stuff in the back next to Leo’s and turn to her. “What are you going to tell Grandpa?”

  She rubs her hands along the sides of her jeans as though she’s rubbing her guilt away. “I always tell him the truth…when he asks.”

  “He’ll notice the Jeep is gone.”

  “Eventually. He likes to look at it every Sunday after church and complain that I’m ignoring his gift. You have five days until he notices, maybe longer since he’s more concerned about everything that’s pushing through the barrier these days.”

  “We’ll be back way before then.”

  “We will?” Leo grabs the road map and starts calculating how long it’ll take us to get to Willow Creek.

  “We have to be.”

  I press the dog whistle I use to call Blaze in her hand. “Use it if you need to. He knows you now and he’ll help you if you need him.” I kiss Grandma on the cheek and climb in the passenger seat. When we get to the end of the driveway, I look back. She looks so tiny and defenseless. Am I making a mistake by leaving?

  I don’t see any other way. The dream I had about Mom makes sense now. She’s running scared because Grandpa is hunting her down like a bloodhound. Somehow I’m the one who has to convince her to come home and face Grandpa. If that’s not a nightmare, I then have to get her to give me the magic without telling her what it is. I’m totally screwed.

  “This is my dream ride,” Leo says, his voice vibrating with excitement. He points to the gas gauge. “We’ll need gas soon.”

  “When we stop, don’t get out. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Bro, what if I need to pee? I’m not a freakin’ camel.”

  “That’s not the same. Camels can go without water…you know what? Never mind. You can get out, but only to pee.”

  “Sweet.” He doesn’t say anything for a while, then asks, “What are you going to do when we stop, you know, that you don’t want me to see?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  He thinks for a bit and finally asks, “Is it legal?”

  “It’s not illegal,” I hedge.

  He pats the dashboard affectionately. “Just so long as my new baby girl doesn’t get hurt, I don’t want to know.”

  “Good. I’ll make sure I’m the one to take the bullet.”

  “Wait, are you saying I should know? No,” he says and shakes his head. “I don’t. I definitely don’t want to know.” He chews his lip. “Okay, I do. I want to know…maybe.”

  I roll down my window and listen to him yammer between wanting to know and not wanting to know. After a while, I click on the radio and turn the volume up. We can’t get to Willow Creek fast enough.

  On the Hunt

  She didn’t tell Dylan she was leaving. She should feel guilty about that, but she felt relieved. If he didn’t know where she was, he wouldn’t be able to stop her from doing what needed to be done. He had some warped idea he was supposed to protect her from getting so much as a bug bite. It was ludicrous. She wasn’t a porcelain princess.

  While she had Baun’s added power, she intended to use it for good. She would change its purpose, think of it as a great gift, an honor that was bestowed on her. It wanted to control her, but no one had factored in how driven she was by her duty. She would use the dark magic to protect others, making it useful instead of something to fear.

  Right now, Reece, Signe, and Halim didn’t think that highly of her. They would have left without her if she hadn’t found them when she did. They walked more than five paces ahead, whispering among themselves like a trio of bored old women at lunch. She understood their view. She’d gotten a little carried away, but finding the sisters was more than just avenging Wyatt. Everyone’s life depended on her stopping them from joining Teag’s enemies. If she had only stopped Lucinda the moment she brought the Seven Sisters into Teag, n
one of this would have happened. She knew what people said about them, what they were capable of. The rumors were all true.

  “I’m sure,” she heard Halim say, and watched him throw an excited glance toward the trees to their left. “I can draw him out and when he’s not looking, you can football him to the ground like you showed me the other day.”

  “That was a tackle, and you’re not doing anything.” Reece shrugged out of his satchel and handed it to Halim. “I’ll check it out. You all stay here.” He looked at Kera and frowned. “I mean it.” Quickly separating himself from the group, he trotted into the trees.

  Kera reached the pair. “Where’s he going?”

  Halim chewed on his thumbnail and darted a disappointed glance after Reece. “We’re being followed.”

  “Don’t chew on that.” Signe snagged his hand in hers, gathered a large portion of her full skirts in her other hand, and tugged him after her. “We must act natural or whoever it is will become suspicious.”

  They hadn’t gone more than three yards when the bushes rustled, stopping them in their tracks. A long stick flew out of the trees, scaring the trio back a few steps. The stick was quickly followed by a little man who rolled along the ground like a deflated ball, sputtering and hissing his distress. Reece reappeared and grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck. “Recognize this?”

  Halim sighed and tossed his and Reece’s satchels down before he sank to the ground to pout. “It’s nobody.”

  “Bodog?” A little spark of fear centered in Kera’s chest. “Why are you following us? Is something wrong?”

  The stick rolled to Bodog’s feet, and the little man picked it up. The wood shifted and Faldon’s face appeared amid the cracked bark. “Dylan asked us to find you.”

  Reece snorted. “You were sneaking around, which means you didn’t want us to know you were there. Why?” Bodog blinked, but kept his mouth closed. Reece shook him until his teeth chattered, eliciting concern from Kera, and Signe pulled Reece away.

  Kera looked into the little man’s eyes. “Why did Dylan want you to find me?”