Five: Out of the Dark (37 page)

“I’m starving.” Alec rubbed his stomach. “We should eat while we discuss.”

None of us could stay mad at Halli, if we’d even been mad to begin with. We fixed and ate lunch. Joe returned just as we were cleaning up.

“Gather around, Five. We have some things to discuss,” he said.

That didn’t go over so well.

“Don’t think you can just come in here and start ordering us around, Joe. We need your help to learn, I get that. But don’t try to boss us,” Johnathan snapped. “We’ve done fine on our own so far and we can do fine without your help if we have to.”

“I apologize for sounding bossy. We have much to cover and no time to waste. You can’t even begin to understand the amount of information you don’t yet know. You’ve been surviving without training, but by no means have you been thriving. Without me, you could all very well be dead now, with no hope for the future of mankind. Your purpose is more important than you as individuals—the sooner you understand that, the better this will go. I will ‘boss’ you, Johnathan, because I have to. And, you will listen to me, because the world is counting on you. Now, please, sit down so we can talk.”

“We will not—”

“Yes, we will. Just sit down, John. He’s right, we do need his help and he did save our butts today.” I averted my eyes from his so as not to see his anger.

He sat. So did the rest of us.

“First thing I want to put out there is that we can’t just assume Brone is dead. In fact, chances are he’s not. He may have been severely injured—most likely he was—but you can never count a Warlock with
his
strength out. We have to prepare for the likelihood that he’ll be back. Now that he knows the Five are back, he will not rest until you’re all dead … or he is,” explained Joe.

“I have a question. What, exactly, is a Warlock?” Alec asked.

“We really do need to start with the basics, here, I guess. A Warlock is also known as an ‘oath breaker’. He is one who once belonged to a coven of wizards—or minor mages. These wizards aren’t nearly as strong as the Five or most of the Fae. They’re the soothsayers, potion masters, those who can commune with the dead. They almost always have just one of the powers but they know about the others. They stay as far away from the Fae as they can and don’t involve themselves in anything un-human.”

I thought of Madame La Forte.

“So, a Warlock is a former member of a coven, who broke his oaths with them—usually by betraying the trust of the coven. Warlocks turn to Demons to call up dark power; they reject the reverence of Mother Nature; they fight against humankind in their lust for more power. Warlocks usually work alone, but have been known to form Dark Covens to increase their power. Brone is a very old Warlock with a huge desire for power. It’s like a drug to him. The more he gets, the more he wants.

“I’ve thought him dead before. In fact, before today, I was sure he was dead. I saw him die with my own eyes … by my own hand.”

“How will we know if he survived?” I asked.

“He’ll come for you.”

That silenced our questions for a minute.

Joe went on to explain how Brone could easily track us by our magical spells—which leave a trail of sorts.

“Let him track us down. We defeated him today, we can do it again.” Alec sat up straighter.

“Don’t underestimate his power. He didn’t know he was dealing with the powers of the Five and he was caught off guard. That won’t happen again. We need to prepare to leave at a moment’s notice; you aren’t ready to fight him by a long shot.”

“We’re just going to let him scare us away from our home? That’s your plan?” Johnathan asked, disgusted.

“That is the plan if you want to live to fight another day. Prepare your belongings, only those things that can fit in your backpacks. Keep them near at hand at all times. I don’t plan on moving you out just yet; you’re as safe here as anywhere else in the city. Let’s prepare to set up some stronger wards. Training begins now.”

I glared at Johnathan with narrowed eyes, willing him to keep his mouth shut and do as he was asked. He squirmed under the intense gaze I’d learned so well from my mom. He clamped his mouth shut and ground his teeth until I thought they’d break. But, he stayed quiet.

I fell into my bed well after midnight. We were exhausted. Joe had not only started right in on teaching us the
proper
way to cast spells, but he also started teaching us physical combat. He was surprised at how much we’d learned from Halli. His observation of her skills brought the first genuine smile to his face I’d seen all through the rigorous day.

We were all awakened a short two hours after we’d been dismissed.

“Five! To me … assemble!” Joe said. At first I thought he’d said it out loud but then I realized the words were inside my head. I’ll admit—it freaked me out a little.

Halli and I jumped up at the same time—I was glad to see she’d heard Joe, too. It was a relief that it wasn’t just more insanity taking over my brain; I’d had enough of that lately.

We grabbed our backpacks, threw on our shoes, and sprinted to the main room. Joe had instructed us to sleep fully clothed in case we needed to make a quick exit. The boys were already there, since it’s where they slept anyway.

We stood in front of Joe.

“That was a practice run. Next time will be the real deal. Good job. Now go back to bed,” he said.

He didn’t have to tell me twice; my pillow was calling me. As we turned to go I heard Alec mutter, “
Seriously?
”

I looked back at Joe. He was standing closer to Alec than I was, so I know he heard him. I was relieved that he chose to ignore it. He turned and walked to a table on the far side of the room, slumped down into a chair and laid his weary head on his arms.

“Five! To me … assemble!”

De’ja vu.

I awoke to Joe’s voice in my head again a few hours later.

I started to put my shoes on a little sluggishly, and then remembered what he’d said.
Next time will be the real deal.
That put more speed into my shoe application process. Halli and I were up and out the door, backpacks in tow, shoes and gear belts on, faster than the first time by a hair.

“This better be the real thing,” Alec wiped the sleep from his eyes.

As if in answer to his comment, the trap door at the top of the stairs exploded up into the room above us as the wards were set to do when they were tampered with. Joe stood in front of us and commanded, “Hold hands!”

We scrambled to find and grasp each other’s hands. It seemed to take endless seconds as Joe made sure we were all connected. Looking at the stairs, a wave of fear and revulsion coursed down my spine.

“Brone,” I gasped.

The Warlock nearly fell in his rush to get to us. He wore the same clothes he’d been wearing in his lair and at school earlier that day—only they were burned to his charred skin. The whole left side of his face was a mixture of open wounds, dripping with pus, and blackened flesh that looked like it would turn to ash if touched. His eyeball on that side was nothing but a shriveled raisin hanging from a thin strip of ligament. His injuries were a grotesque representation of what happens when a ball of flame erupts in your face. It was definitely something I could have gone without seeing in my lifetime—something I could never erase from my memory.

He leaped from the top of the stairs to the bottom.

My grip on Johnathan and Halli’s hands tightened with anxiety. I felt the tug of the portal Joe created and my last glimpse before being swept away was of the grotesque Brone, lunging toward us, his deformed mouth forming around a scream of rage.

he landing this time was way more disorienting than last time. Probably because it was still dark, the sun was not yet peaking over the western horizon, and because I had no idea where we were. If I had to guess from the looming shapes and lack of trees around us, I would have guessed the surface of Mars.

As it turns out, I was several hundred million miles off on my guess.

Alec created a
star-bright
in his hand, illuminating a dreary landscape of mostly rocks and sagebrush. We were in a shallow canyon, with walls of rock on each side, twenty yards or so apart from what I could tell in the dim blue light.

“Where are we?” Alec pulled his jacket closed around him.

“This is Cowiche Canyon, just outside Yakima,” Joe answered.

“Yakima? You portalled us all the way to Yakima?” Seth’s mouth hung open in shock.

“Yes, and it wasn’t easy. I’m afraid it sapped what little was left of my strength.”

“Well, it’s freezing out here and I don’t see much in the way of shelter, so what now?” Johnathan said.

“We should be close to some shelter. Find a rock formation next to the trail that looks kinda like the Easter Island statues. Let me know when you find it. I’m going to sit here and rest up a little,” Joe slumped to the hard, cold ground.

We each lit up our channeling rods and spread out to search the canyon walls. It didn’t take long.

“Found it,” Seth yelled from a short distance away.

I was closest to Joe so I jogged back to him and helped him up. He tottered a bit as he stood; I steadied him with an arm around the waist and a grip on his arm. He shuffle-stepped to where the others were gathered in front of a large rock that truly resembled the faces at Easter Island.

“Now what? There’s no shelter here, either.” Johnathan hadn’t let go of his attitude yet.

“What is visible with your eyes isn’t always the true picture,” Joe said. “Look with your
sight
open.”

I concentrated on opening my
sight
. I drew in a sharp breath as the true picture presented itself before me—the rock wall that seemed, a second before, to butt up next to the Easter Island rock was actually a few feet to the side and rear of it. I let go of Joe and stepped into the space that hadn’t been there a moment before.

A short and narrow entrance opened up into a large cavern after several yards. I was busy inspecting the apparent caches of supplies there when Halli came through.

Alec and Seth were next, followed by Johnathan, who helped Joe amble in.

“Whoa, this is awesome,” Alec said. “Paige, it was so cool when you went through, I didn’t have my
sight
open yet—you’re incredibly fast at that, you know—and it looked like you just sort of
melted
into the rock wall. Freaky cool.”