Life Reader

by Shea, K. M.

  “Oh, burn!” Asher hooted.

  “You’re not going without me, and that’s final,” Nate ordered.

  Asher leaned forward and tapped Nate on the shoulder. “Hey, Ray’s protective big brother. Ray is right. Aron and I should go with her.”

  Nate opened his mouth to give an emphatic reply, but Aron spoke over him. “Asher and I will be able to better defend her than you. Not only are there two of us, but we’re twins.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Nate snarled.

  “They share magic,” Raven said as the twins nodded in the backseat.

  “We can swap magic back and forth, building on it. Together we’re far more useful than a single person,” Asher said.

  “And together we’ll be far more useful than you and one of us would be,” Aron added. “We could totally kick your a—,”

  “So it would be best if they came with me,” Raven said.

  Nate tightened his lips and glanced in the rearview mirror. “Fine. Then the twins and I will go to the meeting, and you can stay with the car, Ray.”

  “ARRRRGGG, Adam that defeats the whole point! You staying with the car is our only option, face it!’ Raven groaned before pulling on her hair to keep herself from throttling her older sibling.

  “Next right,” Aron chimed.

  “Oooh too late. Make a U turn,” Asher instructed as they flew past the turn.

  Raven twisted in her seat to shoot the twins a look—which they could not see in the darkness of the car. “You guys are not a GPS unit. Be quiet,” she said as Nate slowed down and turned the car around, back tracking to the correct street, which he turned down.

  “I say when he stops we bolt for it. Sounds like that might be the only way,” Aron whispered to Raven.

  Raven sank lower in her seat.

  “Okay, stop here. Parking for Darkmoor is actually at the far end of the park, but there aren’t any cars around here, so this should be a safe place,” Asher said.

  “Plus, if we get chased they’ll have to follow us down this end and then run back to get their cars,” Aron brilliantly added as they rolled beneath a street light.

  Nate slammed on the brakes and turned to glare at Aron, his eye brows ticking in anger.

  “Um, which will never happen, of course. Not while we’re in charge of your precious little sister. I mean, um, bye!” Asher said, ripping his seat belt off before throwing himself out of the car.

  “What he said!” Aron said, bailing out the other side.

  The twins shut the car doors and scampered to the curb while Nate parked in a dim spot between two street lights.

  Raven calmly unbuckled her seat belt and began to open her door.

  “Raven,” Nate said.

  “Yes?” Raven asked, turning to look at her older brother.

  He held out a book, it was a compilation of traditional Robin Hood ballads.

  Raven reached out to take it before forcibly stopping herself. “What good is a book going to do? Illusions won’t fool the Errësi if we get in trouble.”

  Nate ignored her comment. “The purple bookmark is where Robin fights Tuck and calls out a ton of Merry Men to help. The white bookmark is where King Richard rides with a large company of knights,” he said, pressing the book into Raven’s hands. “Take it.”

  “Adam—,”

  “Use your magic if you have to, Raven.”

  Raven’s mouth went dry and she stared at her brother. Nate kept his eyes on the telephone pole further down the street.

  He knew.

  That was the only explanation. Why else would he make her carry a book into a potentially dangerous situation?

  Her voice gone, rendering her incapable of voicing further objections, Raven wordlessly slipped out of the car, shutting the door behind her.

  “You ready?” Asher asked, bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet.

  “Yeah,” Raven croaked, gripping the book tighter as she hugged her fleece lined jacket closer to her.

  Aron threw an arm over her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze before pulling away. “Then let’s go,” he said as Raven tucked the book in a jacket pocket.

  The twins, being familiar with the park, led the way.

  The three didn’t dare ignite their rings for fear of being spotted. Instead they crept through the darkness, traveling just off a jogging path that circled the park.

  “I don’t see anything,” Aron whispered, his voice hushed as they passed the dog run and a baseball diamond.

  “Maybe they changed the meeting’s time or location,” Asher said, doing a 360 inspection.

  Raven squinted, peering through the dimly lit park. “Is there something over there by the playground?”

  Aron squinted as well. “Can’t tell. Come on, the path turns up there. We can deviate from it and duck into the bushes that surround the playground equipment.”

  Raven and the twins jogged across the grassy lawn, Asher grunting with irritation when Raven tripped in her dress buckle shoes.

  They followed the shrubbery wall—which thankfully was taller than Raven and just a little shorter than the twins, allowing them to sneak at a quick paced trot.

  Asher stopped the procession while they were still a good distance away from the playground and crouched down, motioning at Aron. The younger Montamos brother nodded and pulled out a bottle of Lucky Brewster’s Magic Enhancement Pills from seemingly nowhere. Aron dispensed the pills, squinting in what little light leaked over the shrub wall.

  Raven tried to decipher what color pill she received before popping it in her mouth. The dry, chalky pill exploded with the sugary flavor of watermelon in Raven’s mouth.

  Aron made a face as he chewed and Asher choked. He covered his mouth to smother the gagging sound and swallowed his pill. “Beets,” he whispered.

  Raven grimaced in sympathy.

  Together, the trio murmured “Disappear.”

  “I’m going to lose sight of you two if I can’t see you,” Raven whispered as they waited for the spell to kick in.

  “We’ll hold hands,” Aron winked before taking one of Raven’s hands and playfully swinging it. “Asher, grab her other hand.”

  Asher scrunched up his face and stared at Raven’s proffered hand.

  Raven tapped her foot in impatience. “What, are you five? I don’t have cooties. Come on, the spell is kicking in,” Raven said as her hand started to grow transparent.

  Asher grumbled but snatched up Raven’s hand.

  A few seconds later and they were invisible.

  Asher pulled on Raven’s arm as he moved forward, blindly dragging Raven with. They crept along the shrub before pausing at a dark corner. Asher’s hand tugged Raven down, and Raven sank into a sitting position.

  There was a moment’s hesitation before Asher abruptly pressed his shoulder against Raven’s, Aron doing the same on her other side.

  The twins removed their hands from Raven’s grasp and carefully parted bush branches, half crawling into the greenery. Raven followed the nudges, hiding herself in the thick brush, her shoulders still brushing the twins.

  They peered through the leaves—which were withering in the cool fall air.

  “That is a freakin’ huge crow,” Aron breathed.

  Raven squinted, trying to look for the bird. She finally caught sight of it. It was perched on the top of a plastic slide, its beady eyes barely lit in the light. It was the largest bird Raven had ever seen.

  The crow cawed and shook out its wings. Raven blinked and several beings stood in the playground, all predictably clothed in black.

  “There’s Fox,” Raven whispered in a barely audible voice.

  The red eyed youth walked out of the shadows cast from a wooden tower. His smoldering eyes flicked around the playground, watching his comrades emerge as he adjusted a glove.

  The crow cawed again, and a figure leaped from the slide, landing with a quiet thump on the mulched ground.

  “Report,” the figure—swall
owed in a black cloak—uttered.

  “Serpent, present,” hissed a tall man who sat on a slowly rotating merry-go-round.

  “Maggot’s here!” a little figure that couldn’t have been over four feet girlishly giggled.

  One by one the figures called out, repeating their names.

  “Kraken.”

  “Wolf, here,”

  “Spider, present.”

  “Fox, reporting in.”

  “Several of the members are absent due to their missions,” the first man, Serpent, said.

  “Fox, report the progress with locating the cauldron,” ordered the leader of the magic abusers, the black cloaked creature.

  “I have confirmed that Rachel McCellen is indeed Raven Wishmore. The Wishmore family has been relocated to Bakertown. It is assumable that Raven is searching for the cauldron under the EC’s direction,” Fox said, addressing his company.

  Beneath the bushes Raven’s heart thumped in her chest. If he spoke a word, one word about her special magic…what would she do?

  “We knew as much already. Roc previously shared that information,” Serpent hissed.

  “What of the cauldron?” the leader impatiently asked as the crow beat its wings on top of the slide.

  “I have confirmed its presence at Saint Cloud.”

  “Indeed, it appears you have done little besides confirm what we already know,” Spider, a women clothed in a trench coat, sneered.

  Fox turned on his heels to address the glowering female. “I thought it would be easiest to let the stupid page turners to find it first and then take it from them,” he said, audibly grinding his teeth.

  “Explain Halloween’s failure,” the leader ordered in a hollow voice. “By all means you should have defeated the page turners.”

  Fox swallowed and addressed his leader with much more respect than he used to speak to his comrade. “I beg your pardon, but the failure was not mine,” he said, casting a glance at one of the other magic abusers. “Kraken’s decayors fell apart, and I was hardly a match for the defenders.”

  “A few measly page turners could defeat you? Really Fox, are you that bad at magic?” the little figure snickered.

  “No, I found myself facing not one, but two Eastgates. Additionally a pair of twins who work at the library appeared to share magic, and all the page turners present at the moment had quite strong elemental magic, with the exception of Raven Wishmore,” Fox coldly replied.

  Raven winced, positive the twins were taking special note of her real name, but the thought fluttered on her mind for the merest moment. Mostly she burned to know why Fox hadn’t blabbed about her magic already!

  “They easily dispatched Kraken’s decayors, I could hardly fight them myself,” Fox reasoned.

  There were several moments of silence before the leader spoke. “You will pay for your gross incompetence, but the next time you launch an attack against Saint Cloud Kraken will go with you.”

  “Roc is already in place to take out the Wishmore girl, should it be necessary,” Spider carelessly noted, twitching her trench coat.

  “You have failed me twice now, Fox,” the leader said in subzero fury. “Do not fail me a third time. Remember, you are a pawn: expendable and meaningless. I will not hesitate to erase you if you fail to be useful again.”

  “Yes Korbin,” Fox said, bowing. Although he appeared to be calm Raven was certain she saw his shoulders tighten with strain.

  Raven, on the other hand, felt greatly relieved as the meeting moved on. As the spider lady began to report her mission, Raven’s joy abounded. Fox had not mentioned her magic! Additionally, none of the other members must know about her magic, or they wouldn’t have judged his so called failure so harshly. (Raven wasn’t entirely sure Fox had failed, she still nursed a large grudge over the destruction the decayors wreaked on the library.)

  The only thing that unsettled her was this “Roc” everyone mentioned. Apparently he was the EC mole. Roc was unfailingly and obviously close to Rocky’s name… but would the leak use such a blatant code name? But it wasn’t like Rocky gave Raven warm bubbly feelings. If anyone was a spy she bet it would be him.

  Raven frowned and felt for the dog tags that hung from her neck. The spider chick mentioned “Roc” would easily be able to bump Raven off. If the spy was Rocky, Raven was in trouble. After all, how easy would it be to kill someone when you knew where they were located at all times?

  As the spider lady scraped and bowed at the leader, carrying on about her assignment, Aron poked Raven in her ribcage. Raven glanced at the twin, who did nothing besides blink at her, before she returned her gaze to the magic abusers. It took several seconds for Raven to realize that she could see Aron again. The magic had worn off. Raven snapped her eyes back to Aron.

  The younger twin held a finger to his lips as he started to crawl backwards, out of the shrub.

  Raven slowly followed him, her heart thundering as Asher held back branches for her. All three of them froze when Raven shifted wrong and snapped a twig, but the meeting continued without a pause.

  Raven breathed a quiet breath of relief and worked her way out of the bushy wall. Raven pulled leaves out of her hair and hunched against the shrub with Aron as Asher shimmied out as well. Asher soundlessly disentangled himself from the last branch before motioning for Aron to lead the way back.

  They crept across the grassy park, bent over as they followed the shrub wall. Raven smiled as they neared the jogging path. She couldn’t have asked for a better meeting. They were able to successfully spy on the Errësi, Fox hadn’t blabbed about her magic yet, and so far they were able to escape notice.

  Asher and Aron, obviously thinking along the same lines, released whooshes of air as they straightened up and started following the jogging path.

  Then the crow cawed.

  Asher glanced back at the playground and uttered a creative string of curses before hissing, “Run!”

  Raven risked a glance over her shoulder, and her heart leaped into her throat.

  Four of the magic abusers, Fox among them, leaped off the playground equipment and began to chase Raven and the twins.

  Adrenaline flooded Raven’s system as she ran, her heart pounding so loud she feared it might explode.

  The magic abusers gained on them. They didn’t shout for Raven and the boys to stop, they talked to each other with hushed voices as they hunted them.

  The noisy crow cawed again as it soared over Raven, flapping its giant wings. Raven suspected the bird was actually half vulture.

  “Stupid crow!’ Aron hissed, flinging two fingers in its direction. A fireball streaked past it, scorching the bird’s feathers.

  The crow squawked, banked, and disappeared into the night.

  “Keep running Ray,” Asher ordered, firmly pushing Raven ahead with a hand between her shoulder blades.

  Raven kept running, but glanced over her shoulder as the twins spun around and erected an impressively large firewall behind them.

  The twins hurried after Raven as soon as their magic was complete, catching up to her in seconds.

  “No!” Asher shouted before cursing again. “Get ready for a fight. One of them got in front of us,” he said.

  Raven squinted, trying to keep her gaze steady as she thumped through the darkness. Ahead of them, sprinting through the dark in the direction of Nate’s car, was a tall, lanky figure. “That’s no magic abuser,” Raven darkly uttered, she would have gnashed her teeth in anger if she weren’t so sure she would accidentally bite her tongue.

  “Asher, again,” Aron said, inclining his head.

  “Keep going Ray,” Asher repeated.

  The twins again ground to a halt to raise another wall of fire. This one was so hot Raven could feel the heat licking at her back and suspected the tips of her hair might be singed.

  Raven breathed deeply, intent on catching up with the running figure ahead of her. A loud explosion rocked the ground, sending waves of heat into Raven’s back. Raven pitched forward befo
re catching herself. She continued to run, her shoes occasionally slipping on the dew covered grass.

  “What was that?” Raven asked the twins, her breath coming in great gulps when they caught up to her again.

  “One of them was stupid enough to hold up a grenade or something to throw at us,” Asher puffed.

  “Guess he didn’t know we were such good shots with our fireballs,” Aron said as they came to the end of the park, the figure still ran in front of them. “Wait, is that—,”

  “Yes,” Raven grimly said. She risked a glance over her shoulder, Fox was the only still chasing them, the rest must have returned to far end of the park to get better means of transportation. Good. Fox already knew all her secrets. “NATE, YOU IDIOT!” Raven shouted as her brother skid onto the road and threw himself into his Volvo. “I TOLD YOU TO WAIT IN THE CAR!”

  “What are you waiting for? Start it!” Asher shouted as he, Aron, and Raven clattered up to the car.

  “I’m trying!” Nate hissed, turning the key in the ignition. Nothing.

  “I told you this thing was a heap of junk,” Raven said, ripping the door open before throwing herself inside.

  “Don’t even start,” Nate growled, ripping the keys out of the ignition before pushing them back in and twisting again.

  Still nothing.

  “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh! You brought a broken car AS A GET AWAY VEHICLE!” Aron shouted, experiencing a mixture of hysterics as he crawled in the car and slammed the door.

  “Fox is almost here! GO!” Asher shouted.

  Asher and Aron squirreled around in the backseat, making the car rock as Nate coached his car. “Come on baby, come on! You can do this!”

  “WAAAAAAAAAHH!” Aron shrieked in a deceivingly high pitched squeal as Fox skid to a stop outside the car.

  “Come oooon!” Nate said, twisting the keys again before plucking them from the ignition.

  “Lock the doors!” Asher shouted, manually pushing the lock in place.

  “AAHHHHHHH!” Aron shouted as chains of fire started to roll around the car. “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!” he said, kicking the back of Nate’s seat.

  Raven cursed and dug out the Robin Hood book, preparing to read. Before she could start, the engine sputtered to life.