The Society of Imaginary Friends (The Conjurors Series)

by Kristen Pham

  She suppressed her urge to smack him and held on to her good mood. Thai navigated through the airport and expertly led her outside to jump on a bus to London. When they arrived at the downtown bus terminal, they grabbed their bags and began walking.

  Valerie thought she would drown trying to take in all the sights that floated by. Landmarks that she recognized from movies and her history books jumped out at her every time they turned a corner. Big Ben, the Tower of London, she was seeing them in all of their three-dimensional glory.

  “Unbelievable,” Valerie whispered as she and Thai boarded a red, double-decker bus. “Can we sit on top? A bus with two floors!”

  “Sure,” he said, grinning. “Try not to let your eyes pop out of your head or anything.”

  She ignored his snarky comment, to enthralled with the sights. “Can’t you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “The weight of the history in this place. I mean, these buildings have been around since before the United States was even founded. That’s centuries-old dirt on that library! William Shakespeare walked these streets!”

  London even smelled different to her. She never imagined that a country that spoke her language could feel so foreign. All the buildings seemed darker and older than the buildings in California, but their age gave them dignity. The storyteller in her was entranced as she imagined the centuries of drama that had played out in this city. But all too soon, Thai said it was time to get off.

  “Would it kill us to spend one day in London, Thai? There’s so much to see! I wonder if it’s true that the palace guards won’t move, no matter how hard you try to distract them. And the crown jewels, I’d love to—”

  “It wouldn’t kill us, but it might kill you,” he said, not unkindly. “We’re on a quest, and neither of us can rest until we’ve accomplished it.” With that he held out his arm, directing her down some stairs to the underground train, which Thai called the Tube.

  “He’s right, Val,” Cyrus’s voice whispered softly in her mind. She couldn’t see him, but she knew that he’d been watching over her the entire time.

  “Okay, fair enough. So where are we going, exactly?”

  “We’re going to Salisbury, where we’ll camp for the night. At dawn, we’re going to Stonehenge.”

  “Stonehenge? My test is at Stonehenge?!” Valerie’s voice rose an octave in excitement.

  “Keep it down!”

  “Sorry. This is great! I’ll get to see some sights after all! I can’t believe that’s where this magic test happens. How has no one found something out about this? I mean, archeologists are digging up that place all the time. And how will we get in and out without being seen?”

  “Enough with the questions. You’ll see for yourself when we get there,” Thai snapped. She shook her head. He should have slept on the plane ride, like she did. But soon, she was too distracted looking out her window at the English countryside to even think about Thai or his mood.

  “This is our stop,” Thai announced as the train screeched to a halt in Salisbury.

  “Let’s not wait until tomorrow. Let’s go to Stonehenge now. I’m sure it’s not too late to catch an afternoon tour,” Valerie pleaded. It would be nice to see the monument without the pressure of having her magic tested—and the disappointment if she failed.

  “We need to go just before sunrise. No one will be there, and dawn is the time on Earth when the rules binding magic are the weakest.”

  “It can’t hurt to scout the place out before we go tomorrow, to get an understanding of how it’s laid out.”

  “I guess that makes some sense. And you’re going to give me a headache if you don’t take it down a notch. But you do have a point. I’ve never been there before, either.”

  “Look, Thai, there’s a bus leaving for Stonehenge right now. It’s a sign.”

  They jogged over to the bus and boarded it in time. As the bus sputtered along the bumpy road, Valerie strained her eyes to catch her first glimpse of the tall stones. Her heart jumped as Stonehenge appeared in the distance. Even from miles away through a dirty bus window, it was more majestic than she had ever imagined.

  Gigantic rectangular stones stood vertically, roughly in a semicircle. Some of the stones were joined at the top by large slabs that connected the vertical stones. Inside the half circle were more stones, some that were standing and a few that had fallen over. Despite the obvious toll that time had taken on the ancient monument, toppling many of the boulders over, it still possessed a majesty and mystery that took her breath away.

  Valerie almost felt as if she was in a trance as she and Thai paid the entrance fee and walked down the visitors’ path. They could only walk around the perimeter of the ruins, and she had to fight the urge not to break the rules and run inside the ring of stones.

  As she took it all in, a boulder in the distance caught her eye. “Look at that stone all the way over there. Why is it so far away from the rest?”

  “I think that’s the Heel Stone. There used to be a second stone next to it, and the sun would rise and shine right through the two stones and onto the altar stone that stands in the middle of the ring of tall stones, which is called the Trilithon Horseshoe.”

  She looked at him in amazement, and he grinned. “What? I like to read. You think I didn’t research the place where the secret to leaving this planet is? I’m your guardian. I have to know what to expect.”

  “Do people know what this place was built for?”

  “Well, they don’t know about the test, if that’s what you mean. But it wasn’t built only for that reason. People used it to learn about the stars and the seasons, for religious reasons, and for burying important people when they died.”

  “Can you feel the power of this place? It’s humming in the ground.”

  “What?”

  “Be still and feel it.”

  Valerie shut her eyes, and Thai did the same. The hum vibrated in her veins. It was the magic; she knew it. She opened her eyes and saw a look of wonder on Thai’s face.

  “I feel it, too.”

  Then, without warning, her vision went black and she collapsed to her knees.

  Instantly, Valerie was running through a dark wood. Her feet pummeled the ground and her lungs burned. But she knew that no matter how fast or how far she ran, Sanguina would always find her. Find her and mentally torture her until she did what she asked.

  “Stop running, little one.” The whisper came from everywhere, yet nowhere, and Valerie’s fear spiked out of control. She spent so much of her time afraid—she couldn’t take it anymore.

  “You have to leave me alone!” Valerie cried.

  Sanguina stepped out of the shadows and stared at her with such ferocity that Valerie took a step back. “Never. I will never leave you alone. I will always be here. Give me what I want. Tell me about the monster you’ve seen in your dreams. I know there’s a new one.”

  Valerie squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t understand what Sanguina wanted from her, but whatever it was, she would never give it to her. “I’m not telling you anything.”

  “It doesn’t have to be this way. Stop fighting and join me. We will bring the universe to its knees.”

  “No!” she was suffocating from her fear, and her grip on her own sanity started to slip.

  Chapter 8

  “Valerie, wake up!” Thai’s voice cried frantically.

  “Come back to me!” Cyrus shouted.

  Valerie was yanked out of her vision and found herself slumped against Thai’s chest. Part of her half-awake mind registered that he smelled like vanilla and cookies.

  “I’m back; it’s okay,” she said, but her voice was weak. She had never been pulled into a vision like that before, without being weak from a fight.

  Her breathing was shallow, and she knew that if Thai let her go, she wouldn’t be able to stand on her own. Luckily, most of the visitors were gone for the day. The sun was setting, and gray clouds made the light dim.

  Her heart slowed
to a crawl, and instinctively she knew that it would never speed up again. This was the end. This was a dream that she couldn’t recover from. And to think that she had been so close to experiencing magic! Valerie’s eyes fluttered and she was too weak to keep them open. “I’m so sorry, guys.”

  “No, please! Stay with me!” Cyrus begged.

  Thai’s dark, chocolate eyes looked a little misty. “You’re a fighter, I knew it from the first minute I saw you. No way are you going anywhere!”

  Valerie didn’t want to let them down, but she knew that unless a miracle happened, she was going to die. A large drop of rain splashed against her forehead, and in a matter of seconds, water poured from the sky.

  Thai started to lift her. “We’ve got to get her out of this.”

  “No, wait! Look!” Cyrus pointed at the stones, which were being pounded by the rain. As they were drenched, the stones began to glow from within. “Take her inside the circle. I’ve heard that the stones have healing powers. It’s worth trying—there’s nothing any doctor can do to help her now.”

  Thai carried her to the ring of stones, and she knew exactly when he stepped inside the circle. Suddenly, warmth ran through her body, and with the warmth came energy. Her heart beat almost normally again, and strength flowed through her body. “Let me go,” she said to Thai, but he still gripped her tightly. “Let me go, seriously!”

  He set her gently on the ground, and she laughed. She was still weak, but she knew that she had enough strength to go on. She walked over to one of the stones, which wasn’t glowing anymore, and touched it. “Thank you,” she said, not even feeling slightly stupid for talking to a stone.

  She turned to Cyrus and Thai. “I’m going to be okay—at least for a while longer. Maybe I’ll even make it off this planet after all.” A feeling of hope spread through her as she realized that maybe she would pass the test of her magic tomorrow after all.

  Thai slumped against one of the boulders in relief. “Thank God.”

  “I heard that water on the stones can heal, but no one has seen it happen in hundreds and hundreds of years,” Cyrus said.

  “Hey, you kids! Get out of there!” A guard yelled, jogging toward them in the rain.

  “Sorry, sir, only looking,” Thai said.

  “Well, you have to be on a private tour to walk wherever you want. Anyway, we’re closing.”

  Reluctantly, Valerie followed Thai out of Stonehenge. But as she walked toward the bus, she couldn’t help looking back over her shoulder at the stones that had saved her life.

  An hour later, Thai and Valerie arrived at the Stonehenge Touring Park in Orcheston, which was as close to the monument as they could camp. The next day before dawn, they would have to walk the four miles to Stonehenge in the dark, before the buses started bringing visitors to visit the ruins.

  Luckily, the rain stopped by the time they set up their tents. Valerie saw a small bonfire created by some of the other campers flickering in the distance. They decided to bring their cans of beans and stale bread to the fire to warm them up.

  As they approached, she looked over at Thai, who still wore his drenched sweatshirt with the hood up. “Why don’t you take that thing off and let it dry? Besides, you look kind of threatening with it on. You’ll scare people.”

  “That’s the point. It’s better that people keep their distance.”

  “God forbid that we should have any fun tonight,” she muttered.

  But she cheered up as they approached the fire. The chill from the rain finally vanished, and the other campers shared marshmallows for toasting with them. Valerie saw Thai’s eyes start to droop, and he made a small sound, like a child who was trying not to fall asleep. She knew he’d never go to bed without her, so Valerie headed back to her tent.

  Valerie slept lightly that night, excited to get up and go back to those magical stones. At first, she thought she was dreaming again when she heard a noise coming from Thai’s tent. She sat up and listened harder. There it was again.

  She went to Thai’s tent and pulled back the flap. “Thai, are you okay?” In the dim light, it seemed as if he was tossing and turning in his sleeping bag. “Who are you talking to? Is someone in there with you?”

  “Get out of here!” he yelled, enraged, yanking the flap of his tent closed. “Leave me alone!”

  Valerie, fully awake now, stood back, shocked. She couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night and was fully packed and ready to go at three a.m., when the two silently began the hike to Stonehenge.

  After a mile of trudging in silence, she finally said, “Aren’t you going to say anything? It’s not like I meant to invade your privacy.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Then why don’t you explain it to me?”

  “Because it’s none of your business,” he said without emotion as he pulled on his hood and retreated into its depths.

  “Fine.”

  Neither of them said another word until they reached Stonehenge. Valerie could barely make out the giant stones in the light that was starting to creep over the horizon, but her heart leapt at the sight of them anyway.

  “So what’s the test?”

  Cyrus appeared in front of her. “Simple. Show that your magic is too strong for you to survive on Earth.”

  “Obviously the magic inside her is strong enough. It nearly killed her last night!” Thai blurted out. “So tell us where the next clue is!”

  “I don’t even know, dude,” Cyrus said. “But chill out, she’ll be fine.”

  “Both of you, give me some space,” she said firmly, as she saw Thai about to shout at Cyrus again.

  Valerie approached the stones slowly. Magic hummed as she walked around the outside of the ring of stones. Inhaling deeply, she stepped inside, and the humming inside of her grew stronger.

  Gently, she ran her hands over the rough stones, one at a time. At the fifth stone she touched, she stopped, puzzled. There was something different about this one. All of the stones contained power, she could sense that, but this one contained something else as well. It seemed—alive.

  The dim light caressing the stone changed, and she gasped. How could she have missed it? Etched into the stone was a face. Were it not for the angle of light casting shadows on the stone, she would never have been able to see it. The etching had obviously faded over the hundreds of years that the monument stood. In direct sunlight, it would be practically invisible.

  Valerie hesitated before touching the face with her hand, not wanting to offend it. Her fingertips brushed the cheek of the face, and she made a small sound of surprise. Instead of rough stone, it was warm flesh. At her touch, the eyes of the face glowed a gentle blue.

  Her vision blurred, and when she was able to refocus, she was looking out over Stonehenge through those blue, glowing eyes. She could now see the monument as it once was in all its glory, with the stones all standing. At the horizon, the sun was now peeking over the edge. She followed with her eyes the first direct ray of light from the sun as it passed through the two heel stones in the distance and struck a stone in the middle of the circle.

  Suddenly, Valerie was back in her own body, and the stone in the center of the circle, the altar stone, was still glowing. She approached the stone, which was bathed in new morning light. She stepped into the light and a flood of power surged through her. A thousand images of the Great Pyramid in Egypt flashed through her brain, too fast for her to process. But the last image burned into her brain—the great stone Sphinx staring down at her with glowing blue eyes, the expression in them curious.

  She had her clue. What lay beyond the Sphinx’s strange gaze was a mystery, but at least she knew where she had to go next.

  The bright light faded into normal morning sunshine. She was about to shout to Thai and Cyrus when a black shadow flickered in the corner of her vision.

  “Val, look out!” Cyrus shouted, pointing to her right. Thai came running toward her.

  She turned and saw the enormous
man who had frightened her at the Oakland train station a few days ago. Thai was right—he was dangerous. As quick as lightning, the man crouched and then jumped, farther than any human could possibly jump. As he flew through the air, she saw that his palms were covered in yellow, nasty-smelling slime, and he was reaching for her neck.

  Valerie’s body responded, and she was able to dodge his grasping hands, despite his speed. She hit the ground, hard, and it knocked the wind out of her. But she forced herself to her feet. Without knowing what she was doing, she knocked his hand away with the back of her foot with an elegant spin kick. She could feel that her kick packed more power than it should—she was tapping into her magic.

  But for the first time, she had the sense that she was capable of so much more—this bit of strength was only a taste of what she was capable. She strained against the invisible bonds holding her magic at bay.

  With a growl, the man was on his feet again, lunging toward her. By now, Thai had reached the fight, and he kicked the man on his back from behind. The man spun around to face him, and Thai punched him in the face. The man staggered backward, but then leapt forward and slammed into Thai with his entire weight. With a grunt, Thai was thrown backward and his head hit one of the stones.

  At the sight of Thai out of commission, her adrenaline or magic or whatever was inside her spiked. The man approached Thai, and she saw that the slime on his hands also oozed out of his bare feet. Instinctively, she knew that if any of that goo touched Thai, he might not survive. For the first time since the fight started, she was afraid. It made her gut clench. There was no way she would let him hurt Thai. As the man lifted his foot, she tackled him to the ground.

  “Val, get away from him. He’ll kill you!” Cyrus yelled helplessly.

  The man head-butted her, and her vision went black for a split second. Then he was on top of her, his weight pinning her to the ground, his slimy hand raised. Without knowing where the knowledge came from, she wrenched an arm free and brought her fist down hard on a spot between his neck and shoulder.

  The man went limp, unconscious, and she knocked his hand away so it didn’t touch her. As she wriggled out from under his heavy body, she could swear she heard Sanguina’s voice, cursing. But when she looked around, there was no one at the monument other than the four of them.