by Lysa Daley
I’m nervous about Fitz’s reaction when he sees Chad. Everyone else wanted to abandon him because he’s been turned into a Horlock. It must be like being changed into a vampire. Once it’s done, it can’t be undone, except with a wooden stake through the heart.
Watching us approach, Fitz’s eyes go wide. “Is that… “ he hurries closer. “Chad! Get him in the back.”
O’Malley adds, “Sir, he’s a Horlock.”
Fitz’s face twists with emotion, and I see his fists clench. “Those dirty…,” he trails off, getting back on point. “O’Malley, you and your security team stay with him but get him in the truck.”
Hurrying toward the caravan, I cautiously ask Jax, “What will they do with him now.”
“If they’re smart, they’ll kill him.”
“Are you crazy!” I object.
“Actually, it’s not. Don’t you get it? He’s part of one larger hive mind that spends all of their time trying to find you, Calliope and the rest of your sisters so that they can destroy you. But you want to drag one of them back to St. Benedicts?”
“It’s my fault that he’s like this now. It would be wrong to abandon him.”
“You have a good heart, but you can’t save everyone. You can’t fix everyone. It just isn’t possible.” With that, he climbs in the Humvee and closes the door.
Standing outside, my blood boils. No, maybe I can’t save everyone. But, in this case, no one is going to stop me from trying.
Chapter 35
As soon as our convoy pulls into the compound, I’m met by Ruby.
“Is it true?” she asks, her voice filled with hope. “Did you rescue Chad?”
“Rescue might not exactly be the right word,” I reply as we follow the group back to headquarters. “But, yes, we found him. He’s alive.”
“Is he hurt? Are they taking him to the hospital ward?” she asks.
“No.”
“But why?”
I repeat what Fitz told me on the ride back. “He’s been turned into a Horlock. There have been others who have also been changed then rescued, but no one has ever been changed back. Because he’s part of a sort of larger alien hive mind, he has to be kept in a place where the other Horlocks can’t get to him.”
Ruby looks stricken. “And where is that?”
“There’s a cell. Deep in the ground. It’s enclosed with lead and then encased in ten foot thick walls of concrete. They’ll keep him there until they know what to do with him.”
“So he’s a prisoner?” she asks, but it isn’t really a question. “You captured him. You didn’t save him.”
“Do you think this is how I wanted it?” I ask, shocked that she could think that I would want to do anything but help Chad. “I’m trying to help him. Not hurt him. You have to believe that.”
“I don’t know,” she muttered, turning and marching off. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“They all wanted to leave him behind. I had to talk them into just bringing him back here.”
I head over to the debriefing in the Eye in the Sky building. But when I get there, I’m told I can’t go in.
“Why?”
The guard stands firm. “You don’t have clearance.”
Five minutes later, Jax finds me lingering in the hallway. “You look confused.”
“I am,” I confess. “I’m confused by my entire life. My best friend is mad at me. The boy I had a crush on wants to kill me. Fitz suspects my uncle might be working for the Draconians.”
“That’s a lot.”
“What’s happening in there?”
“A lot of arguing. No decisions,” Jax replies. “Hey, have you been to the old library?”
“What?” This seems like a strange question given the current circumstances.
“The library,” he repeats, then speaks like I’m a little slow. “Have… you… been to it?”
“I’ve been to the school library twice already.”
“No, not that library.” He shakes his head. “The St. Benedict’s private library.”
“There’s a private library?” I try to remember if I’ve even seen this. “No, never been there.”
“You need to go,” he replies with wide eyes. “It might help answer a lot of questions for you. And I’m sure Sister Mary Agnes will love you.”
“Sister Mary Agnes? That sounds like a bad character in a sitcom.”
“Sister Mary Agnes is amaz-balls.” He puts a hand on my shoulder and guides me toward the cathedral.
“Amaz-balls?” I can’t help but smile. “Wow, that’s pretty strong praise. Particularly for a nun.”
“She may be the most interesting person I've ever met on this planet. And I've met some pretty interesting people.”
Jax walks me over to the church. But instead of taking the usual route down to the medical ward, he guides me through the open church sanctuary, past the ornate stone altar and the hand-carved cross that hangs from the ceiling.
Behind all of this, an arched cove juts off from a sidewall near the corner of the sanctuary. We enter a narrow hallway lit by old-fashioned gas lamps attached to the wall.
“Watch your head,” he says as we duck to get through the entryway. “The library is the oldest part of this building. It was here a hundred years before the church.”
The windowless passageway curves gently to the right. It’s enough of a curve that you can only see a few feet in front of you as you walk. I realize that the floor also gently slopes like we’re spiraling down the perimeter of a round building.
“How much farther?” I ask, starting to feel a claustrophobic pressure in my chest. It’s like descending into a tomb.
“Just up ahead here,” he replies with perfect calm.
Finally, a warm glow seeps in from around the curve as the ceiling begins to rise and the walls gently widen. The hallway ends at a doorway flanked by a dark wood, ornately carved frame that leads into what could generously be called a small library.
“Wow, this is beautiful. I feel like I’m at Hogwarts.” The size of the small room surprises me because Jax spoke about it with such awe and reverence that I was expecting something grand like the Library of Congress.
The 20 by 20 space is filled with ancient heavy oak bookshelves jam-packed with dusty books of every shape and size.
“Good afternoon, Sister,” Jax warmly greets a tiny nun, dressed in the traditional black and white gown and habit, who slowly shuffles our way. Even though age has hunched her shoulders, her eyes still twinkle and a big smile fills her face.
“Good afternoon to you, Dr. J,” she returns the greeting, then focuses her bright eyes to me. “Young lady, what took you so long! I've been waiting for you to come and see me.”
“Oh.” This is not the greeting I expected. “I'm sorry to say that until 10 minutes ago I didn't even know you existed.”
She waves a wrinkled old hand in the air. “Eventually, everybody figures out that Sister Mary Agnes is down here.”
“I thought maybe you could give Astrid a tour,” Jax says. “She only recently found out about her past and her actual birth planet.”
The sister nods. “I think I have a few resources that might be helpful.”
Jax turns back toward the entrance. “Fantastic. I have a sick three-eyed Centarian Sloth to look after. So if you'll excuse me…”
“But—“ I begin to protest.
“Don’t worry. You’re in good hands. I’ll see you in the gym at 4 . I have a fresh bag of tennis balls with your name on it.” And with that happy thought, he's gone.
“Come in, my dear,” Sister Mary Agnes waves me farther in. “Would you like a cup of mint tea? It’s very relaxing. Helps tame the stresses of the day.”
I'm not really a big fan of tea. I'm more of a coffee girl, vanilla caramel latte to be exact, but I smile and nod, “I would love a cup of mint tea.”
She shuffles over to a small kitchenette behind a desk that looks like it came from Versailles and puts the kettle
on. “I've already taken the liberty of pulling out a few sources for you to look through. I understand that you don't know anything about the history of the Counsel of Light and the Pleiadian Alliance?”
“I know a little bit. But no, not really very much.”
“And, of course, the prophecies.” As she hands me a cup of tea, she adds, “Oh! I have some snickerdoodles too. The brothers at the cafe brought them down.”
This sends a little jolt through me. My uncle makes the best snickerdoodle cookies in the world. “Those are my favorite.”
“So I've heard,” she winks. “I'm sure they're not as good as your Uncle Conrad's, but I was hoping to make you feel at home.”
“How did you—“
“A mutual friend, Señora Mariposa, gave me a heads-up. She's concerned about you.”
Our former landlady, Señora Mariposa owns the Latin deli next to my uncle's karate studio. She also happens to be ancient intergalactic, all-knowing oracle, but that's another story.
When Sister Mary Agnes tries to pick up the heavy tray holding a plate of cookies and the teapot, I intervene. “Let me carry that, sister.”
“Thank you, dear,” she smiles, follow me into the research room.
I trail behind her to the back of the small library where there’s a closed heavy wooded door with a domed top and a thick curved metal handle.
I look down at the tray to see that I’m now carrying three steaming cups of tea. Not two. “Who’s the third cup for?”
At the same moment, Sister Mary Agnes pushes the door open and I see there’s someone already in the research room sitting in a yellow plastic lawn chair with a card table in front of her.
“Señora Mariposa!” I gasp, “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to give you a reading,” she smiles. The hefty woman looks totally out of place in the ancient library. “And to have a nice cup of tea with you and my old friend.”
“Where are your card?” I ask when I realize she doesn’t have her ever-present deck of tarot cards with her.
“We’re not reading tarot today, my dear,” she smiles and reaches for my empty tea cup. She turns it over on the saucer and glowing mint green leaves fan out. “Instead, we’ll take a look at the tea leaves.”
“Are there radioactive or something?” I frown at the weedy sprigs on the saucer. They don’t look like regular tea leaves. Instead, they glow a neon green.
“They are a very rare leaf found only in the highlands of my home planet,” Señora Mariposa explains. “I fly up there myself to select each leaf. They are very good at seeing your future.”
I squint at the seemingly random pattern of tea leaves. “What do you see?”
She leans forward and seems to be concentrating on the soggy mess on my plate. “The leaves say that a true warrior, like good tea, shows its strength in hot water.”
“Oh,” I say, not understanding that at all.
“The tea leaves tend to be very self-involved and give their fortunes revolving around the subject of tea,” she explains. “However, that does not make their predictions any less accurate.”
I smile and nod.
“This is helpful, no?”
“Um… not really, Señora M.”
“Well. Perhaps it will be, in good time” she says holding out her tea cup. “Now, be a dear and fetch an old lady some more mint tea.”
Chapter 36
“Did you know she would be there?” At ten to 4:00, I arrive at the gym, BrightSky in hand, for my second training sessions. Everything Señora Mariposa just said swirls around in my head.
“Who?” Jax asks.
“C’mon. Señora Mariposa?” I reply, standing in the gym with Jax.
“What?” he genuinely seems surprised. “No. She’s here?”
“Are you making fun of me?” I honestly can’t tell.
“Why would I do that?” he frowns. “I mean, it’s remarkably easy to make fun of you, but I’m not. Not right now. Let’s get started.”
I have my second training session at the gym that afternoon. Standing on the platform of the obstacle course, Jax calls up to me from the ground. “Okay, if you can make it through the course without falling, then we’ll skip the five-mile run at the end.”
“What five-mile run?” I react. “I’m not doing that. No way.”
He crosses his arms. “Yes, way.”
“I hate running.”
“Then don’t fall.” He cocks his head and grins. “I’ll even skip the tennis balls for the first run through. And you don’t have to bring your sword.”
“Wow. How generous.” I sigh, leaning the red umbrella against the wall then climbing up to the starting platform.
“Total piece of cake. All easy-peasy now.” Jax readies his stopwatch. “Ready, set, go!”
I start down the course, leaping to the trapeze bar and swinging across a ten-foot expanse, then through the tunnel, along the narrow balance beam, over a foam wall.
So far so good.
More than halfway through the course, I’m feeling strong. Next, I belly crawl under mock-razor wire, then hopscotch across fake rocks until my foot slips, and I wobble. Trying to regain my balance, I adjust too far back the opposite way and instead tumble to the floor.
“That was fantastic!” a female voice says from the end of the course.
I look up from the mat to see Calliope standing back at the starting platform holding my red umbrella. “Thanks,” I reply.
“Mr. Fitzgerald said I should come over here and join your training sessions,” she explains. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jax’s face brighten. “I mean, if that’s okay?”
“Sure! The more the merrier,” Jax replies, waving her over. “Astrid could use a little company. Especially on her five-mile run.”
“Oh! I love running,” Calliope smiles.
Of course, she does.
I feel really uncomfortable seeing her holding BrightSky, even in her cloaked umbrella form. “Hey, um, could I have my umbrella back?”
“This is your’s?”
“Yep.”
She looks at the wooden hooked handle then twirls it around over her head easily transforming BrightSky into the gleaming sword of stardust.
I gasp. Even Jax looks stunned. No one else is supposed to be able to uncloak my sword.
“I like your weapon. Very impressive,” she holds the hilt out for me to take. “Surely, she has served you well.”
“How did you— I mean,” I say, feeling slightly calmer with BrightSky back in my possession. “I was told only I could change her form.”
“Really?” Calliope seems surprised. “I never heard that.”
“Did you bring your weapons,” Jax says to Calliope, who has arrived empty-handed.
She nods. “They are always with me.” She pulls two chignons sticks that hold her bun in place and her silky hair tumbles down around her shoulder. The delicate glossy blacked painted hair accessories, that resemble very ornate chopsticks, are only about six inches long.
Holding one in each hand, she makes an effortless flourish with her wrist and a pair of wicked looking short blades appear.
Her sword isn’t a sword. It’s two swords.
“Whoa! Short blades. Nice!” Jax leans in excited to see them.
“They are named NightShade and DawnsFog,” she tells us holding each up as she names them. Similar to BrightSky, they're forged from a rose-gold metal that sparkles crisply in the light.
“Change of plan. Let’s begin with some sparring exercises.” Jax is eager to see the two of us matched against each other. I’m sure he can’t wait to see her kick my butt.
“Yes, of course.” Calliope nods serenely. “But first, I would like to try your obstacle course. If you don’t mind.”
“Fantastic!” Jax claps. “I’ll make the same deal with you that I made with Astrid. If you make it all the way across without falling, then you don’t have to run at the end of this workout.”
“How many peop
le have made it all the way on their first try?” she asks.
“None,” Jax answers flatly. “But there’s always a first.”
Calliope recloaks her short blades and secures them in her hair as she climbs up on the starting pedestal. At the starting mark, she wrings her hands. “Oh gosh, I’m nervous.”
“Just give it your best,” Jax reassures her. “No pressure.”
Ready, set, go, Calliope begins. She gracefully leaps, grabbing the trapeze bar, looping up and back, then letting go and turning a perfect somersault in the air.
When she sticks the landing, I know I’m in trouble.
With surprising ease and smooth agility, she jumps, climbs, crawls, balances and bounces her way effortlessly across the course.
Timing her progress, Jax keeps looking down at his stopwatch with his mouth hanging open.
“How’s her time?” I ask.
“She’s currently beating the course record held by Tyler the Navy SEAL. He’s also a former four-time international obstacle course champion.”
Watching her only confirms what I know in my heart. I am not the chosen one. Who would want me to save the universe when they could have Calliope?
Normally, this all would make me feel super insecure and worthless. But my star-sister is about to get me out of running five miles. You’ve got to look for the silver lining, right?
But then, the inconceivable happens.
As Calliope comes to the last of the 20 obstacles, she hesitates. It’s an easy climb over a short five-foot high foam mat. She backs up and starts again, but something goes wrong, and she’s falling.
Chapter 37
Calliope has somehow miscalculated the wall and tumbles to the mat.
“Are you okay?” Jax asks, dashing to her side and fawning over her.
“I'm all right,” she sits up smiling and smoothing her hair.
She blew it on one of the easiest parts of the course. She lost it on an obstacle my 60-year-old math teacher could get over.
I’m not buying this. It’s as if she fell on purpose.
“What happened?” Even Jax seems surprised. “You were so close. No one has ever made it that far, that fast, on their first attempt.”