We Three Heroes

by Lynette Noni

  Bear struggled in his grip, grunting and pushing back with all his might, making headway until a blade was pressed up against his throat.

  “Stop,” Marcus commanded.

  The position of the weapon gave Bear little choice if he wanted to survive their encounter, so he did as he was told, panting and biding his time for the right moment to act.

  “There are three things you need to know,” Marcus hissed into Bear’s ear. “Firstly, I am not Claimed, and you should be thankful for that, boy, since it means Aven won’t know about this meeting unless I choose to tell him. Which leads to my second point, something you’ll want to hear given the panic you just displayed.”

  He pressed the blade deeper, a hair’s-breadth away from piercing Bear’s skin.

  “Listen and listen well, boy. I serve Aven Dalmarta for the advantages that come with his favour. Since it would offer little benefit to me, I have no reason to tell him that Alexandra travelled through time. If that changes—if I discover some reward in sharing that knowledge with him—then I may amend my decision. But for now, your secrets—her secrets—are safe with me.”

  Bear knew he couldn’t place any hope in what Marcus was saying. His breathing was shallow, his pulse pounding in his ears. He wondered how long it would take his friends to question why he’d been gone so long, for Shirez or one of the other Shadow Walkers to come looking for him. If they arrived in time, they could help him—

  “Lastly,” Marcus hissed, “and most importantly, there’s something you need to know about me, Barnold.”

  In one quick move, Marcus loosened his hold on the knife enough to spin Bear around to face him, the blade returning to Bear’s neck before he could gather his wits enough to try and shove the man away.

  “I am not a mind reader,” Marcus stated.

  With how close the weapon was to his jugular, Bear didn’t speak—couldn’t speak—even if so far the other man had been careful not to actually draw blood. But despite that, Bear still slitted his gaze enough to show he knew Marcus was lying.

  “I can read minds,” Marcus admitted, “but not because I’m a mind reader. It’s merely part of my gift—a gift that allows me to modify short-term memories. Even erase them completely.” A pause. “Memories like this pleasant moment we’re both sharing right now.”

  Bear felt the blood drain from his face and, heedless of the knife at his throat, he began struggling anew. “Don’t—You can’t—”

  “I can, I will, I must,” Marcus spoke over the top of Bear’s protests. “It wouldn’t do for anyone to know I’m here before I’m ready to announce myself, would it?”

  And then suddenly Bear’s mind was on fire, a haze of pain searing from the inside out. It was as if there were a thousand pins stabbing into his brain, over and over again.

  “My son is lucky to have you, Barnold Ronnigan. Take care of him.”

  Bear struggled to make out the whispered words through the agony he felt, but then the sensation slowly faded until his mind blanked—completely. A dizzy feeling overcame him enough that he gasped and had to double over against a surge of nausea. Blackness crept into his vision, and when it disappeared, he found Shirez standing in front of him at the base of the stairs, tapping her foot and snapping her mottled-grey fingers under his nose.

  “What is wrong with you, human?” Shirez said. “Are you ill?”

  Bear blinked at her, then blinked again as he straightened. He looked around, wondering why he’d stopped at the narrow staircase, but then he shook his head, frowning only slightly as he said, “No, I’m good.”

  Something about his answer didn’t sit right with him, but all he’d done since leaving his friends was visit the bathroom and then walk along the dark corridor until meeting up with Shirez. The Shadow Walker had asked if he was ill—he wasn’t. There was nothing at all wrong with him, aside from a desire to leave the eerie hallway and return to his friends.

  “Then come along,” Shirez said, wrapping her fingers around Bear’s arm once more. “It is unsafe to linger in the depths of the Obscuria. You never know who—or what—you may happen across.”

  Bear shuddered as the shadows rose to whisk them back to the balcony, relieved, at least, that he’d been spared from any unwanted encounters, and cursing Jordan for the apple juice that had led to his having to leave his friends in the first place.

  Seven

  “They said no.”

  Bear looked at Alex, struggling to process the first words she’d uttered since they’d all arrived back at the academy from Graevale and retreated to his and Jordan’s dorm room.

  “What do you mean, they said no?” D.C. asked, her voice pitched high.

  “I mean exactly that,” Alex said, tugging her hair with her uninjured hand. For some reason, she was looking at everyone but Jordan as she continued, “The elders don’t believe they’re in any danger. They think they’re safe from Aven, that he has no desire to target their race.”

  “Are they insane?” Jordan cried. “How can they think that?”

  Still not looking his way, Alex said, “Because that’s what they were told.”

  Bear’s forehead crinkled. “Told? By who? Not Aven, surely.”

  “No, not Aven,” Alex said, now avoiding everyone’s eyes. “But… someone close to him made promises on his behalf.”

  His body tensing as if preparing for a blow, Bear waited with Jordan and D.C. to hear more.

  But Alex didn’t continue, not until Jordan asked, in a brittle voice, “Who, Alex?”

  Only then did her eyes rise to meet his, her dark gaze brimming with emotion—anger, pain, sorrow. In a whisper, she answered, “It was your dad, Jordan. Marcus was there as an emissary for Aven, guaranteeing protection to the Shadow Walkers.”

  Bear jolted with surprise and he glanced over at Jordan, noting his friend’s lips pressing into a thin line as his face drained of colour.

  Slumping down onto his bed, Jordan cradled his head in his hands and stared daggers at the carpet. “Son of a—”

  “He arrived while the elders were considering what I’d shared,” Alex interrupted quietly. “I don’t know exactly what he said to them, but whatever it was meant they weren’t willing to listen to any of my objections. Not even when I said he was probably Claimed and would say whatever Aven wanted him to say.”

  “He’s not Claimed.”

  All eyes turned to Bear, and he jolted again, as shocked as they were by the words that had fallen from his lips.

  “Sorry,” he said, shaking his head to clear his mind and wincing when he felt the sharp jab of a headache before it disappeared again. “I have no idea why I said that.”

  The others all frowned at him—or, Alex and D.C. did. Jordan was still glaring at the carpet, his anger towards his father palpable. No doubt he felt some responsibility for Marcus’s interference, and Bear knew that nothing any of them said would convince him otherwise.

  “Whether he’s Claimed or not doesn’t matter,” D.C. said carefully, sitting beside Jordan and placing a comforting hand on his knee. “What’s done is done. We have to look ahead and figure out what to do next.”

  “What to do next?” A bitter laugh left Alex. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m all out of ideas. Everything I’ve come up with has failed—spectacularly.”

  “We can’t give up,” D.C. said. “We have to—”

  “Have to what, Dix?” Alex said, her voice rising. “Have to figure out how to save the world? Newsflash: it’s not looking real good from where I’m standing.”

  “That doesn’t mean—”

  “And as if things weren’t bad enough,” Alex interrupted, “Marcus heard me tell the elders about the prophecy—which means Aven will know about it soon enough, too. And I thought things couldn’t get any worse.” Another bitter laugh. “Stupid me.”

  Jordan’s head snapped up. “What prophecy?”

  Bear was wondering the same thing. D.C., too, judging by her expression.

  Alex blinked a
t them all, then scrubbed a hand down her face, sighing. She sat on Bear’s bed, picking at the dried blood on her jeans as she quietly recited, “When Day and Night combine and fight against one Enemy, then Dark and Light shall meet mid-strike and set the Captives free.”

  “Where did you hear that?” D.C. breathed.

  “Lady Mystique shared it with me after—after everything that happened at Raelia.” Alex bit her lip and added, “I didn’t keep it secret deliberately. I just… I was trying not to think about it.”

  Bear didn’t know what to do with the new information. He could only think one thing. “This is good news.”

  Alex raised questioning eyebrows his way. As did D.C. and Jordan.

  “If the prophecy is to be believed, then the ‘Captives’—presumably those Claimed by Aven—can be set free. There is hope here, guys. Something to work with.”

  Alex, however, was shaking her head. “Not if the Shadow Walkers refuse to join us. Because without them, that means no Dayriders. And the prophecy says both ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ have to join the fight.”

  “It also says ‘when’,” Bear replied.

  Alex just looked at him.

  “You said, ‘When Day and Night combine and fight…’” Bear recited. “‘When’ implies that it’s going to happen. Maybe not today, but sometime in the future. All isn’t yet lost.”

  “That’s a stretch,” Alex said, but Bear could see a flicker of hope in her eyes.

  “Maybe,” he admitted. “But a stretch is better than nothing.”

  “It won’t matter,” came Jordan’s hoarse voice. “My dad will make sure Aven knows. They’ll make it so the Shadow Walkers and Dayriders never join us now.”

  The hope that had lit Alex’s eyes vanished in an instant.

  “Never say never,” D.C. said—whether for Jordan’s benefit or Alex’s, Bear wasn’t sure. They both seemed to be beating themselves up right now, and Bear had no idea how to help either of them.

  As if she couldn’t take any more, Alex stood to her feet, waving her injured hand in the air. “I need to go get this treated. Then I need to check in with Kyia and Zain and let them know… what happened today.”

  There was no denying the misery in her tone. Bear felt an echo of her disappointment and hurt, but he knew he had to stay strong for his friends. They would get through this, they would find another way. They always did.

  “It’ll be okay, Alex,” Bear told her quietly as she passed him. “Once you’re back from Draekora and have a good night’s sleep, you’ll feel better in the morning and we can start planning again. Things will work out—you’ll see. Together we can make it through anything.”

  Tears shone in her eyes before she blinked them away.

  “I hope you’re right, Bear,” she whispered back. “But I can’t help fearing you’re wrong.”

  And before he could come up with a response, she was gone.

  Bear sighed loudly and turned to D.C. and Jordan. The latter looked like he wanted to throw something, and only the calming hands of his girlfriend seemed to be keeping him from storming off to Chateau Shondelle to have it out with his father. That wouldn’t help any of them—for so many reasons—so Bear decided to leave D.C. to work her magic, excusing himself and saying he’d be back again shortly.

  With so many hours having passed while they’d waited for the elders to make their decision, it was well after dark by the time Bear and his friends had arrived back at the academy. Now, after learning about Alex’s conversation with the Shadow Walkers, it was nearing nine o’clock, and despite the turbulent emotions Bear was feeling, he was also hungry.

  Knowing that the food court would be closed, he headed down to the Rec Room in search of a snack. He returned the greetings of his classmates as he passed them, politely declining their invitations for him to join them—something that became more difficult when Blink threw an arm around his neck and dragged him over to a table where he, Pipsqueak, Connor and Mel were playing a game of Dagger Snatcher.

  Despite Bear’s gurgling stomach, his days of late had been mostly devoted to Alex, Jordan and D.C., so he figured it might be good for him to spend some time with his classmates—with the added bonus that it would keep him from dwelling on today’s newest concerns.

  Blink, Pip and the O’Malley cousins were the perfect distraction for his worried mind, and he spent the next hour being thoroughly defeated.

  “Take that!” Pipsqueak cried, pumping her hands in the air as she pilfered yet another dagger and added it to her impressive pile.

  Had the weapons been real—and life-size—they would have been flooding off the table by now. Instead, the inch-long holographic daggers were neatly stacked on her side of the hovering holo-board, a safe distance from where all their chosen characters were fighting.

  The animated figures were ruthless in carrying out the attack sequences their players commanded—a normally impressive sight. But Bear found that after having watched the speed and skill Alex had displayed earlier that day, the game’s combatants weren’t as inspiring as he’d once considered them.

  That, however, didn’t mean he wasn’t enjoying himself—even if he was close to being defeated. With only two daggers left to his name—after having started with twenty—he was very nearly done for the night. Connor, too, had only one left, while Mel had five. Blink was already out of the game and cheering them on from the sidelines.

  “I think it’s safe to say Pip is gonna win,” Connor said dryly.

  “Don’t give up, bro,” Blink encouraged. “You can still make a comeback. I believe in you.”

  Mel snorted. “He has no chance.”

  And then, as if to prove her words true, she commanded her character to perform a particularly tricky move that disarmed Connor’s figure of his final dagger. Having lost, the animated warrior hung his head and walked off the side of the holo-board, falling over the edge and vanishing from sight.

  “And I’m done,” Connor said, just as Pip’s character stole another of Bear’s daggers.

  Swearing, Bear tried to put up a fight when Mel’s character engaged his as well, but his head wasn’t really in the game. With both Pip and Mel attacking at once, it took only seconds before he lost his final dagger. His character had a little more personality than Bear normally allowed, and the warrior woman offered a rude gesture to her two combatants—and then to Bear—before she strode from the board with her head held high, disappearing once she crossed the edge.

  “You put up a good fight, my man,” Blink said, clapping Bear on the shoulder.

  “Want to continue?” Pipsqueak asked Mel, a challenging look in her eyes.

  Mel laughed. “No, thanks. I already know how this’ll end. I’d rather go out with some dignity.”

  Bear grinned and Connor rolled his eyes, both of them acknowledging the pointed insult. Blink remained oblivious, telling Mel she couldn’t give up yet when she was ‘so close’ to winning.

  At ninety-four daggers to six, Mel knew the odds weren’t in her favour, and she stuck by her original declaration.

  “I’m done.”

  With her words, her figure vanished, and Pipsqueak’s warrior raised his hands in triumph. He then bowed to Pip before disappearing from sight, the board wiping clear.

  “Good game, you guys,” Pipsqueak said, a wide grin on her face.

  “Rematch!” Blink cried. “Right here, right now. Let’s do this.”

  Bear was trying to come up with an excuse when Mel said, “You’re crazy, Blink. It’s already after ten. I’m heading to bed.”

  Connor and Pip both nodded their agreement, and Blink pouted but finally sighed with acceptance.

  “Another time, dudes,” he said. “Then you’ll see that I was only warming up.”

  Connor grinned. “Pretty sure that’s what you said last time.”

  “And the time before that,” Mel added.

  “And before that,” Pip said.

  Unashamed, Blink said, “Warming up takes time.”
>
  Bear wasn’t the only one to chuckle, and he did so while standing and stretching. While they’d been playing, the Rec Room had mostly cleared of people, with only a few stragglers left behind. Curfew had passed, but as long as students were inside the dormitory building, they could do as they wished. Even so, everyone was smart enough to keep a good sleeping schedule, given their exhaustive class timetables.

  “I’m heading in,” Connor said, and the others nodded their agreement, all of them moving off towards the exit where the staircase was, leading up to the ground floor and beyond to their dormitories.

  Bear didn’t follow, and Pipsqueak paused to ask, “You’re not coming?”

  “Grabbing a snack first,” he said. “I skipped dinner.”

  “Want some company?”

  Since her offer was made around a yawn, Bear smiled and said, “Thanks, but I’m good. See you tomorrow.”

  She nodded and took off with the rest, while Bear moved to the small dining area and grabbed a menu. Unlike in the food court, the Rec Room had a much more limited selection, and since he was hungry enough not to be fussy, he touched on the first thing that caught his fancy. Seconds later a plate of cheese, crackers and grapes arrived, and he moved to take a seat in front of the roaring fireplace, content to watch the flames while he ate his supper.

  Within seconds of being alone, his thoughts darkened as fear began to take hold. Despite the comfort he’d tried to offer Alex earlier, he had no idea what they were going to do now. They’d needed the Shadow Walkers to come on board in order to sway the rest of the mortal races to their cause. Without the might of Graevale backing them, they were undoubtedly—

  “You look like you’ve been kicked in the stomach,” came Declan’s voice as he sunk into the armchair beside Bear, reaching over to steal a grape. “What’s up?”

  “Just a bad day,” Bear replied.

  “Want to tell me about it?” Declan asked, stealing a cracker this time.

  Bear raised a pointed eyebrow. “Want to get your own food?”