Jeep wipes the dust from his hat. “Do you know what the message says? Roughly?”
“Of course. Most magical people do.” She throws up some sparkles, and they rain down on her, pulling her hair into her usual perfect hairdo and putting the color back into her face. “They are the guides of humans and protectors of Heaven and Earth. They were created to keep the peace.”
Maël points her staff at the floating pearl. “And that will remind them of their task, their responsibilities.”
Only now do I understand what this could mean for us. “We can use it to get the traitors back on our side. The angels that sided with Lucifer.”
Taylar lets go of Kessley and carefully sits down again. “We’re not sure that those missing angels have defected, are we?”
Jeep places his hat back on his head and nods in the direction of the pearl. “I think we can assume that they have.”
“Yes, this can’t be a coincidence. So, why is it called the Pearl of Arcadia? Is Arcadia a place?”
Mona shakes her head. “Not that I’m aware. Arcadian means ‘idyllically innocent, simple, and untroubled’. I guess it’s a fitting name, since it contains a message from God to the angels.”
While she’s been explaining, the urge to touch the pearl has grown. It wants to be held. So I take a deep breath and reach out to the glowing marble.
“Be careful,” Vicky whispers beside me.
The closer I get to it, the warmer it becomes. It’s like sticking my hand into an oven, but the heat is pleasant.
Everyone in the room holds their breath. I take the pearl between my index finger and my thumb and clench my jaws.
Nothing happens.
Except that the pearl stops glowing and cools down until it reaches body temperature.
I bring it closer to my face and turn it around and around. “How does it work? How do I start it?”
“Maybe it is already playing,” Mona offers. “We won’t know because we’re not angels. Only they can hear it.”
Charlie sits down and opens his packet of crisps. “We can ask Quinn.”
“No, he’s too busy.” I lower myself into my chair too and study the pearl again.
Once everyone is seated again, Vicky speaks up. “I think Quinn would be happy to see what we’ve got here. And maybe it’s him that has to use it, not us. He might know how to reach the rogue angels.”
“Okay…” I lift my eyes to the ceiling and clear my throat. “Quinn? I’m sorry to call you again. If you have the time, could you come over for a minute? We found something that might help take care of your missing angels.”
We wait for Quinn’s bright form to appear, but he doesn’t show.
I sigh. “See, too busy.”
“He’w c’me soonazy can,” Charlie says with his mouth full.
“Okay, so where do I put it in the meantime?”
Vicky points at her butt. “In my endless pocket? Nothing can fall out of that.”
I look at Mona. “Is that safe?”
The fairy godmother scratches her cheek. “I think so. As long as you don’t actually touch it.”
Vicky turns her back to me, and I drop the pearl into her pocket. Then I slam my hands together and make eye-contact with Jeep, Taylar, Kessley and Vicky one by one. “Okay, tell us what you found out about the marodium. Is it enough to form a solid plan?”
They nod in unison. Jeep seems to be the only one with doubts. “It is, but it won’t be easy. These monsters are dangerous. If they get a hold of you…”
He doesn’t finish, but his eyes speak volumes.
“You’re toast,” I summarize.
“I like toast,” Kessley says. “Can we have some?”
Charlie raises his crisps. “I second that idea!”
I hide my face in my hands. “We’re talking about a plan that could kill us, and you two are thinking about food again?”
Charlie shrugs. “We can get killed every day, what else is new? Besides…” he empties the packet into his hand, “some of us need fuel to keep going. Without fuel, we can’t defend ourselves, you know.”
I won’t argue with that. We can discuss our strategies over dinner.
Mona must agree, because she’s turning on the stove.
“So tell us, Mona. How did your meeting with your friends go?” I ask.
“I couldn’t reach them all. But the ones I spoke to are happy to help. They are going to contact the other fairy godmothers they know.” She throws us a small smile over her shoulder. “I think most of them will agree to help.”
“Good.”
Dylan and I put away the peonies, that have folded their petals back in. When Vicky starts to fill us in on what they’ve discovered about the marodium, I see Dylan exchanging a furtive glance with Charlie. I grit my teeth when I realize there’s no doubt about it: they’re hiding something.
After dinner, we finalize our plans for the following day. Afterwards, we do some training in the protective circle, and we go to bed early. I fall asleep before Vicky’s head touches my chest.
I’m standing in the protective circle outside Darkwood Manor. My shield is standing next to me and so are Mom, Mona, Charlie and Gisella. We’ve formed a circle ourselves, our feet touching the border of the space that protects us.
An arm-length away, Lucifer is pacing in front of rows of his servants. Demons, mages, angels and all kinds of other monsters. “I never thought it would come to this.” He waves his hand in my direction. “I mean, sure, I knew we’d come face to face one day, but you never struck me as a coward.” He comes to a halt in front of me and tilts his head to scrutinize me. I glare at him. But the more his head tilts, the harder it gets to keep my eyes on him. “You can’t stay in that circle forever.” His head keeps tilting until it’s in a position that’s way beyond natural.
I swallow and clench my jaws. Instinctively, my hand moves to my pocket.
The corners of Lucifer’s mouth stretch. His head snaps up with a loud crack, and he chuckles. “I get it. You’ve got something up your sleeve.” He opens his arms wide. “Well, show me! I can’t wait to see it.”
He seems so confident, but there’s a hint of fear in his voice, and that gives me the push I need.
Without taking my eyes off him, I reach into my pocket and pull out a small cloth. Satan’s eyes are drawn to it. I can tell he’s getting nervous.
Slowly, I unfold the cloth and hold up the Pearl of Arcadia.
Without looking, I know that Mona, standing between Mom and Taylar on my right, stretches out her arm in my direction. Out of the corner of my peripheral vision, I can see sparks shooting from her fingertips. They whirl around Mom’s head and hit the pearl with a soft crackle.
The pearl rises from the cloth, but I still don’t look at it. My gaze is fixated on Satan. His grin hasn’t wavered, but his hands are trembling slightly.
The pearl starts to turn as if it has gone berserk. The colors inside it become brighter and brighter until they burst out of it and rise to the sky.
I can tell by the look on Satan’s face that he wants to kill the colors. Blow them up or whatever. But he can’t, because the wriggling rainbow lights are hovering above the protective circle.
Meanwhile, my eyes drift to the rogue angels standing behind the Devil. Their faces are filled with shadows, their wings pitch black, and the light that normally shines bright around them is a dull gleam. Although we can’t hear the message coming from the pearl, I know the angels can. I can tell by their changing expressions. Everything except the glowing marble has become a blur to them.
After a couple of seconds, I’m starting to worry that they will not change their minds. Maybe they have been poisoned by Satan. Maybe… The angel in the middle is the first to transform. The gleam lights up from the inside and spreads to the wings, slowly at first but faster and faster. The angel shakes himself, and the shadows fall from his face. His eyes are suddenly a lot lighter too. He spreads his w
ings and pushes off, shooting straight up into the air. With a soft whoosh, he lands behind me. There’s no need to turn around. Even if we hadn’t been standing in a safe zone, I would’ve known he won’t hurt us. I can feel his light touching my back, soothingly, feeding me hope and strength.
Soon, the other six angels follow. The Devil doesn’t even glance over his shoulder. He stands perfectly still, as if this doesn’t bother him at all.
When the seven angels have taken their place behind us, the colors drop down and are absorbed by the pearl. It stops spinning and lowers itself back into the cloth. I wrap it and put it back in my pocket.
When Satan meets my eyes again, I smile as lazily as I can manage while my heart pounds in my chest. Sure, this is a win for us, but the fight hasn’t even started yet. A lot can still go wrong.
When the Devil doesn’t move, I cross my arms over my chest.
His eyes start to twinkle. Fire comes to life within them. “That’s it? Really?” He almost chokes with laughter. The sound rises from the ground and shoots up through his body. For a second, I think I even see the grass vibrate under him. But when I blink, nothing moves.
I try to hide my confusion by giving him my most furious expression. He’s trying to tick me off-balance, I tell myself. He’s still afraid of me. Of us. If he wasn’t, he would’ve used his powers to blow us all out of the circle already.
He waves his finger at me. “Oh, my dear boy. Look at you.” He shakes his head and tuts. “Such a powerful device at your disposal, yet you don’t know what to do with it.” His eyes scan the faces around me. “Well, I was hoping for some more resistance, some good old-fashioned battling, like I did with my brothers when I was kicked out of Heaven. But…” he shrugs, “if this is all you’ve got, it will have to do.”
Suddenly, he grows to twice his size. His skin rips, and underneath it, the real beast becomes visible. Two sharp horns grow out of his head. His hands turn into monstrous claws, and when he throws them forward, the rocks that form the circle go up in dust. Tiny flames rise up from the salt underneath. I try to hold my ground as they reach higher and higher, but the heat scorches the skin under my clothes. I back up one step. The flames follow me, growing into giant claws.
I imagine a layer of ice as a shield around me. Immediately, the heat dies down. I brace myself for impact. Seconds before the flame claws reach my face, they swerve to the side and envelop Mom.
Her scream of pain shatters my self-restraint. The ice around me cracks as I turn to aim my powers at my mother. She crumbles to the ground, engulfed in flames. I conjure a wave of water when I’m hit by something solid. It knocks me over, and the wave making its way to Mom changes into a useless stream that dries in an instant.
While I fight off the demon that has landed on top of me, I keep my eyes on Mom. She’s struggling to escape the flames by using Charlotte’s powers. When she can’t get them to work, she tries to roll away from them. But they cling to her, no matter what she does. Even Charlotte’s powers provide no defense against the hungry, unnatural flames. They burn the skin from her hands and neck. When her face starts to turn black, she closes her eyes.
I reach out for her, screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Moooom!”
CHAPTER 29
My scream echoes through the mansion. Vicky throws her arms around me without hesitation, but I push her away and jump out of bed. I know it was a premonition, but I need to make sure Mom wasn’t harmed in real life, because I can still feel the heat on my skin. I’ve stumbled out of the room and up the stairs to the top floor before Vicky can utter one word.
When I burst into Mom’s room, she’s already sitting up in bed with a startled expression on her face. No burn marks though. No blackened skin.
“Another premonition?” she asks.
I throw my arms around her but hold her at arms’ length a second later.
Worry flickers in her eyes as I scrutinize every inch of her. “Was it that bad?”
I’m still panting from all the screaming I did seconds ago, in the premonition as well as in real life, and from the running. My whole body trembles with fear, and I can almost feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins.
I can hear our friends entering the bedroom, but I don’t look up. I’m afraid to let Mom out of my sight, and for once, I don’t care about all the people staring at me. Even though I should be the strong one here, the leader.
“What did you see?” Vicky asks calmly. “Can we prevent it?”
I gasp for air and squeeze Mom’s arms harder. “I’m not sure. He was so… powerful.”
Mona, Charlie and Gisella file into the bedroom too. No one asks who I’m talking about. They all know who I saw.
“He broke the protective circle as if it was nothing, and… killed you.” I bite my lip to hold back the tears that burn in my eyes. “There was nothing I could do. Charlotte’s powers weren’t strong enough, or maybe you didn’t know how to use them yet. And the others…” I wave my hand at everyone around us, “… nobody intervened. I think he had us all pinned down somehow.” I finally turn my head to face my friends. “We weren’t strong enough.” My voice is shrill.
Maël’s eyes are full of sorrow, but she stands tall as always. Even with her golden cape still a bit wrinkled and the headpiece crooked on her head, she looks mighty. Her lips form a determined line. “Then we will train until we are.”
I shake my head, and Vicky leans against me. The newfound heat of her body gives me a sliver of hope. I swallow the squeak in my voice and suppress the trembling of my hands. “We need more than training.”
Charlie flattens the disheveled mess on his head. “You know, you get those premonitions for a reason. And they’re getting more frequent. There must be something in there we can learn from.”
Mom shakes me off gently and I let her, albeit reluctantly. “Tell us what happened, from the beginning.”
It takes me a bit longer than usual to tell the whole story, since my throat keeps clogging up every time I mention Mom. When I finally finish, she puts her arms around me again.
“Now I understand why you were so upset. It must have been horrible to watch that.”
Vicky kisses me on the cheek and strokes my hair. It’s a little uncomfortable with everyone looking at us, but it’s exactly what I need right now.
“No one blames you for being upset,” she whispers in my ear.
I rest my head against her shoulder in gratitude. “So…” I clear my throat when only a hoarse sound comes out. “The only thing we learned from this, is that we’re still too weak to take on the Devil.”
“No,” D’Maeo interrupts, “we’ve actually learned something else.”
I breathe in Vicky’s sweet smell before looking up at the old ghost. “Which is what?”
“The Pearl of Arcadia can do more than what we thought.”
I go over my premonition again in my mind and nod slowly. “Right… I forgot about that.”
“So did I,” Kessley admits with a shy smile. “The rest of your story was so… overwhelming.”
I wipe the wet trails from my cheeks. “It sure was.”
Kess turns to the other ghosts. “How do we find out what else the pearl can do?” A light bounces around in her eyes. “Are we going back to… you know where?” Her excited smile warms the whole room.
“That’s probably best,” D’Maeo answers. “I don’t think there will be anything about it on the Pentaweb, since this seems to be top secret.”
Mona agrees with a nod. “I’d never heard of an additional function.”
Charlie drops his hand, finally deciding his hair is a lost cause. “I know someone who will be able to answer our questions about the pearl without a doubt.” He raises his eyebrows at me.
“Quinn.” I gesture at the ceiling. “But he didn’t come when I called him earlier. What makes you think that will be different now?”
“You never know. We can always t
ry, right?”
I rub my face. “I don’t know. It feels wrong to ask him for help again while we have done nothing to help Heaven so far.”
“Ahum.” Maël raises her eyebrows high when I meet her eyes. “There is no better way to help Heaven than to prepare for battle, like we have been doing. Quinn will understand this. He knows we cannot do anything without a proper plan and training.”
“Not unless we want to get ourselves killed,” Jeep mumbles. “For real, I mean.”
“Exactly.”
I pull Dad’s notebook from my waistband and clutch the leather cover. “It still doesn’t feel good.”
After a short silence, Charlie groans. “Fine. If you don’t want to call him, I will. You can blame it all on me if we interrupt something important.” He clears his throat and lifts his head to the ceiling. “Quinn? Can you spare a couple of minutes for us?”
With my index finger, I follow the lines of the claw marks on the front of the notebook. I don’t expect Quinn to answer. He’s probably wrapped up in a fight with a bunch of demons or drifting somewhere between Heaven and Hell, searching for the missing angels.
My finger comes to a sudden halt when a bright light nearly blinds me. I press my hand down on the book. Please don’t ask me when we’re going to help Heaven. Please don’t be disappointed.
It’s weird how the bond between Quinn and me has changed. We used to be good friends―and we still are―but now I see him more like some sort of fatherly figure. In his human form―his disguise―he still looks like the friend that I’ve known for years. He’s so much more than that, though. He’s a lot older than one would think, for instance. And he’s not the average guy I took him to be. And with average I mean: regular teenager with regular hobbies and regular worries. But then again, neither am I. I guess we’re all a lot more special than I thought. I just can’t get quite used to the knowledge that Quinn is actually God’s right hand. As in: the most important angel of all.
“You called?” Quinn interrupts my thoughts.
“Yes, we were hoping to get some answers about a certain pearl,” Charlie answers cryptically.
The Eighth Mage Page 21