Death's Academy (24 page)

“Night! They’re coming up!”

The gear becomes a blur. They’ll be here any second. I lift the Scythe over my head and swing it down with all of my might. It collides with the gear, and there’s a terrible explosion. I’m thrown backward
like I’ve been shot off a trampoline. I fly over the elevator shafts and land in a heap on the other side.

The massive gear splinters and shatters. Shards of the gear shoot out in every direction. Mal dives forward and throws herself on top of me. Pieces of debris land all around us.

A hazy smoke and the smell of burned rubber fill the cavern. Mal looks down at me.

“You okay?”

“I think so.”

I get to my feet, and the smoke gradually clears. The Scythe is lying on the cavern floor a few feet from me. I pick it up and turn it a couple of times in my hands. There isn’t a notch or mark on it.

“I’m surprised,” Mal says, her mouth arched in a partial smile.

“About what?”

“That your plan worked.”

I let out a long sigh. “Me too.”

Suddenly there’s a terrible quake, and both Mal and I fall to the floor. The sound of distant explosions echoes up through the elevator shafts.

I get to my feet and peer down one of them. “What was that?”

“That,” a voice calls out and a claw appears over the top of one of the other elevator shafts, “is my city being destroyed.”

Mal and I scurry backward. Another claw catches hold of the ledge and a blood-splattered unicorn head inches above the ground. Raindrop’s one good eye finds us and his mane bristles. His glare is filled with pure hatred.

“Run!” I scream, and Mal and I bolt down the path.

We weave back and forth between the stalagmites. The Scythe’s weight and clumsy size make it difficult for me to navigate through the narrow pathway. Raindrop’s stuttered running pursues me.

Clop, drag. Clop, drag.

The pounding of the waterfall grows louder, and the rocks begin to glisten from the mist. I glance through an opening in the stalagmites and see Lightcrest hurrying into the tunnel that pops out on the other side of the waterfall.

“I’m going to rip your limbs off one by one, hoodie!” Raindrop screams behind us.

We breach the mouth of the tunnel and sprint down its corridor. I peek over my shoulder. Raindrop is almost on top of us. His eye blazes red. I look forward and make the horrific realization that he’ll catch us before we reach the end.

“Go, Mal, go!” I yell and slide to a stop on the slick floor. I spin around and raise the Scythe up threateningly.

Raindrop clatters to a stop. His chest is heaving and steam is shooting from his snout. He eyes the Scythe and takes a cautious step forward.

I raise it up higher.

“Stay where you are!” I yell over the crashing waterfall.

He smirks and shakes his head. Blood and water spray off his mane onto the tunnel walls. I scurry backward a few feet.

“You’ll never escape, little hoodie. I’ll decorate
my house with your skull and bones,” he says, taking another step forward.

“You mean your house that just blew up?” I ask.

He grits his teeth.

“You’ll pay for what you’ve done, hoodie. You’ll wish you were never born.”

I slide backward, my eyes fixated on him. He follows after me, keeping the same distance between us.

“You unicorns already made me wish I hadn’t been born before. That’s old news for me,” I say.

Raindrop squints and gazes at my face. “Who are you?”

“You don’t know me, but you knew my dad.”

A quizzical look crosses his face and then it slowly transforms into comprehension.

“You’re the son of that hoodie who got blamed for the
Queen Suzanne
,” Raindrop says and lets out a shrill laugh. He takes a couple of scurried steps toward me, and I nearly trip backward.

“Stay back!” I say and brandish the Scythe.

His smile droops, and he wipes some blood from his mouth. His face screws up once again in confusion. “You’ve come all this way with the halo that framed your father?”

I whip my head over my shoulder. The exit is only another twenty yards. I can see the churning water and the first steel lily pad.

“We didn’t come with Lightcrest. He showed up after. I didn’t know what happened with my dad until today,” I say and inch backward.

He lets out another laugh. “He never told you? He
tried to stop us. Fought off quite a few before we overpowered him. We tied him up and stowed him away. Lightcrest knew no one would believe him. He was the perfect scapegoat.”

“Did my dad know you were helping Lightcrest?” I ask, still taking every chance to creep toward the tunnel’s exit.

“No. For all he knew, Lightcrest showed up to stop the unauthorized killing of all the humans on the cruise ship. Your father had no clue that Lightcrest was the mastermind behind it all,” he says, spitting on the ground. “He ruined your life, didn’t he, little hoodie?”

My eyes drop to the cavern floor and my fingers slacken around the Scythe. The countless times I have been thrown out of stores and shunned by my friends’ parents flashes before me. My mouth goes dry. I nod.

“You want to know a little secret, hoodie?”

My eyes flicker up to Raindrop. His mouth is arched in a smirk. “The secret is that Lightcrest never meant to—”

Boom!

A huge explosion rocks the entire mountainside, throwing both of us to the ground. My ears are ringing and my head feels like it has just been dribbled down a staircase. I shake my head and glance over Raindrop’s shoulder. A gurgling wall of smoke and fire rolls toward us like an ocean swell. I scramble to my feet, and Raindrop pounces forward, his teeth and claws bared.

I stumble backward, and my arms, acting by their own will, as if a puppet master is directing them where
to go, jerk the Scythe to the side. The Scythe’s blade strikes the tunnel wall. It tears through the stone like scissors through cloth. Water crashes through the gap in the tunnel wall. The force of it slams into Raindrop and then me, lifting us from our feet and churning us down the tunnel. We are shot out the end and into the swelling river.

My back slams into one of the steel lily pads, and I let out a groan. I grasp the Scythe with all my might, but it’s pulling me down. I topple end over end by the rampaging water and can feel my world starting to go black. The Scythe starts to slip from my hand when two arms grab me in a bear hug. I’m pulled backward and heaved to the surface.

Mal tugs me to the bank, and Lightcrest catches her hand. He pulls us both from the water. I lie facedown on the bank, spluttering and coughing, trying to catch my breath. I push myself onto my knees and peer toward the tunnel opening. The fire and smoke spewing out of the opening sizzle and pop. Raindrop is nowhere to be found.

“Can you see him? Can you see the unicorn?”

Lightcrest shakes his head. “No. He went under and disappeared. They can’t swim … He must have drowned.”

I let out a long sigh and flop down onto my backside.

“So you survived, huh?” a weak voice calls out.

“Good job, you dumb hoodie,” Brilliance says, her smile widening.

“You okay?” I ask.

“I’ve been better,” she says and beckons me forward.

I crawl over to her. She leans forward and kisses my cheek. My entire face feels like it has been dipped into a pot of boiling water. It takes every ounce of my willpower to prevent my eyes from crossing.

“Thank you for saving my daddy. He means everything to me,” she says and closes her eyes. She leans back against the tree and groans. “I just don’t want to move a muscle again for a few months.”

I turn to Mal, her hair matted against her face and a scowl slapped across her face.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

She folds her arms and storms away. I chase after her and catch her by the shoulder.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she spits out.

We stand there for several moments not speaking.

“Thanks for … you know … saving my life in there,” I say, gesturing to the river.

She rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”

I frown but walk over and hug her. She stiffens at first, but then hugs me back. For some reason my face starts to get really hot again. She lets me go, and her face is red too. We share an uncomfortable moment, and I try to break the awkwardness.

“How are we going to get out of here?”

“I’ve called for some bald eagles and falcons to carry us back home,” Lightcrest says.

“We can use my blanket again. It’s in the clearing over that way,” Mal adds.

Lightcrest carries Brilliance to the meadow, and we find Mal’s pink polka-dotted blanket. I’m so exhausted I don’t care that it is the girliest blanket ever created. I fall onto it. The eagles and falcons arrive, and they lift us into the sky. We soar so high, the tall pines and aspen melt together like a patchwork quilt. I lay the Scythe over my chest.

My world dissolves like a drop of paint in the ocean. A rolling fog seeps toward me. An ancient ship with tall masts and wide sails breaks through the mist.
A wave lifts me onto its deck. The deck has form, but it isn’t solid. It’s more like a cloud. I don’t sink through it, but my body seems to become a hazy ghost that hovers over it.

A single flickering torch hangs above a doorway to the captain’s quarters. The door swings open, and an imposing man takes three loping strides toward me. I feel like I should be terrified, but a calmness expands inside of me like a flowering potion that starts in my chest and reaches to the tips of my fingers and toes. He stops just in front of me and his features congeal and take form. He has a grandfatherly face and a silver beard. His long hair is raven black with glints of fading grey.

He stares at me for a few moments and smiles.

“Hello, Midnight,” he says in a soft but commanding voice.

“Hello,” I peep.

“You saved my Scythe for me. I’m deeply grateful to you and to your friends.”

“Your … your Scythe?” I say and lay my hand on my chest where I had laid it before falling asleep. I can still feel its weight pressing against me, but it isn’t there with me on the ship.

“You have begun something, Midnight, something that will change your world forever.”

“What? What’s going to change?”

“Your friends will always be there for you; if you don’t turn your back on them, it will save your life one day.”

I open my mouth to speak, but he lifts his hand,
motioning for me to stay silent. “Take every opportunity to prepare yourself for the challenges that lie ahead, for if you are not equal to the future, it will consume you.” As he says the last words, his form starts to drift like smoke in the wind.

“Wait! Wait!” I yell. My eyes pop open. Cloudless blue stares down at me. I blink a couple of times and clear my head. I roll over and push myself up to my knees. Mal is sitting cross-legged on the edge of the blanket, watching the trees and mountains whip below us. Lightcrest is brushing locks of hair out Brilliance’s sleeping face. I watch her, my mind racing about what to do.

I scoot over to Mal and give her a nudge.

She smiles.

“Aren’t you tired?” I ask.

“More than tired, but every time I close my eyes I see unicorns,” Mal says.

I put my arm around her shoulder. “I don’t think we’ll ever see a unicorn again, Mal.”

She nods. “You’re probably right.”

I glance over at Lightcrest and Brilliance and sigh. “I need to tell you something, Mal,” I whisper.

I tell her the whole story of what happened when we split up just outside of the unicorn city. I tell her what I learned about the deal between Lightcrest and the unicorns and what really happened with the
Queen Suzanne
.

When I finish, I wait for her to answer, but she only mumbles a couple of times under her breath.

“Pretty crazy, huh?” I say.

She bites her lip. “He’s right.”

“Huh?”

“Lightcrest. He’s right. If the halos learn about his deal with the unicorns, he’ll be kicked out of the order and so will his whole family.”

“How do you know?”

“I read about a halo who got involved with something a lot smaller than this, and even his greatgrandkids couldn’t be halos. Brilliance won’t be able to go to school to become a halo. No more skull ball … nothing. She’ll be an outcast.”

I stare at Mal and peer over at Brilliance and Lightcrest.

“You mean like me,” I say.

Mal goes silent and fidgets with a piece of the blanket’s thread.

“It will be worse … You can still go to Death’s Academy and be a hoodie,” Mal says.

I cross my arms and scowl. “So you think I should just not tell anyone and let everyone go on thinking my dad is a screwup?”

Mal draws her knees into her chest and rests her chin on them.

“I don’t know, Night. I don’t know … But Brilliance saved our lives. It doesn’t seem right for …” Mal doesn’t finish her sentence, but swallows up her last thought.

I let go of her shoulder and scoot over a few polka dots away. I turn my back to her, fold my arms, and lay on my side. My head is spinning.