Mystics #1: The Seventh Sense (10 page)

Zoey couldn’t hide her satisfaction as she
bagged
her fairies. When she was finished, she had twenty-one of them in her bag.
Maybe she’d break Tristan’s record tonight.

 
“Think that no one can top
that?”

Stuart strolled towards them with a beautiful girl with long,
flowing brown hair. She looked like a model. Zoey felt instantly self-conscious,
and she was glad the gloom around them hid her burning face. The model was
accompanied by another boy who looked like a gorilla in jeans and a T-shirt. They
all wore the same ruby rings on their fingers.

“I’ve got thirty already, and the night’s only just beginning,” said
Stuart. “
I’m
getting the record this
time.”

“Go away,
Stuwie
,” said Simon lazily. “We
don’t care how many your
friends
bagged for you. Don’t you have an appointment for a pedicure or something? Your
cuticles are like
way
too big.”

“Shut up, frog—no one’s talking to you,” snapped Stuart.

Simon laughed softly. “I’ve been called many things, but never a
frog. Is that supposed to be insulting?”

Stuart gave Simon a dirty look and turned to Zoey. “You want to
prove that you’re one of us?” he dared

Zoey looked into his face. There was an unsettling coldness in his
faded blue eyes.

“What’s on your mind?” She knew he was up to something.

Stuart smiled and pointed down the field. “See that big rock down
there? Well, there are at least forty fairies behind it, waiting to be sprayed.
Think you can handle that? Or are you scared?”

Zoey followed his gaze. She could see the rock, but it was too far
and dark to see any fairies.

“I don’t get it—why don’t
you
go?” she said. “You want the record? Why are you telling me this?”

“See? I told you she wouldn’t do it,” said the girl, batting her
long eyelashes at Tristan. “She’s not one of us. She’s scared. Why don’t you go
back home and cry to your mama, oh wait—I forgot—you don’t
have
a mother.” She and the boy gorilla laughed.

“Shut up, Claudia,” said Tristan. “You don’t even know her. She’s
the bravest person I know. She’s not scared of anything.”

Zoey felt the blood rush to her face.

Claudia’s cheeks blushed. “So why does she need
you
to defend her?” teased the girl. “Are you her boyfriend or
something? I would have thought you’d have better taste than that, Tristan. She’s
not even pretty.”

Zoey glared at the girl with what she hoped was her best crazy impersonation.

“Beauty isn’t everything,
stick
.
At least I like to eat.”

Before Claudia could counter, Zoey turned to Stuart. “I’m not scared.
I just figured everyone wanted the prize, including you.”

Stuart smiled. “Since you’re not scared, let’s see how well you do
against forty,” he taunted.

 
“If you’re truly one of us,
then it shouldn’t be a problem. Fighting mystics should be in your blood.”

His face was stone cold. “You say you’re one of us. Then prove it.”

Zoey didn’t know what to say. He made her blood boil and her skin
crawl all at the same time. She hated how he made her feel so useless and
unworthy. Would he and his friends accept her if she bagged all those fairies?
She doubted it.

She charged down towards the big rock without saying a word. She
knew Stuart couldn’t be trusted. She hated him more than anyone she’d ever
known, but he wasn’t going to ruin everything for her.

“Zoey!” Tristan ran up beside her. “Wait! Something’s off—it must be
a trap. You can’t trust Stuart! Everything out of his mouth’s a lie.”

“He’s right,” said Simon as he jogged alongside them. “Never trust a
King. I’d rather dig my own kidneys out with a spoon than trust a King.”

“He dared me, so I’m going.”

Zoey wanted nothing more than to prove to everyone that she belonged.
She’d get all those fairies, if it were the last thing she did. She could do
this.

Zoey turned around and raised her hands. “You guys have to stay here.
I have to do this alone.” She wouldn’t give Stuart a chance to say that they had
helped her in some way.

“Something’s off, I can feel it,” said Tristan, “Stuart’s bad, Zoey.
You don’t know him like we do. He wouldn’t just give you an opportunity likes
this. He’s planning something.”

“I think he was born evil,” agreed Simon.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Zoey. “If you don’t let me do this alone,
I’ll never hear the end of it. Besides, it can’t be that bad, just a few more fairies.
Trust me, I can do this.”

Zoey marched towards the large rock, brandishing her spray can
before her like a gun. She tossed her bag on the ground—she was going to need
all of her limbs.

The rock was about the size of a large shed, and above it, forty
fairies sat on a long strip of wires gnawing away at the power lines like
famished rats. They ignored Zoey completely. She needed to get their attention
somehow.

“Hey, you there! Hey, fairies!” she called. But it was as though the
fairies couldn’t even hear her. They just kept eating without even a glance in
her direction.

“Hey, ugly little critters!” she tried again louder, and waved her
arms.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you!
Wanna
come down
here and play? Hey, fairies!”

But it was as though she didn’t even exist. The fairies kept
feasting, swaying back and forth on the power lines in a drunken stupor.

So much for that
, Zoey said to herself. Frustrated, she searched the ground for
something to throw at them.

And then something happened that she hadn’t expected.

The big rock moved and opened its eyes.

Z
oey shrank back, transfixed.

Under a patch of moonlight was a giant beast. The creature turned
slowly towards her, raising itself on two massive legs the size of tree trunks.
Its skin was gray and hairless, coarse like stone. It unfolded a pair of giant
veiny wings. It was a twelve-foot tall
dino
-sized fairy,
with talons like machetes. Sparks of blue electricity coiled around its body,
and, even from where she stood, Zoey could smell a mixture of rotten eggs and
pig manure. Its eyes were not yellow but blue, and they watched her with a
mixture of hatred and wanting. It emitted a low grunt and looked at the spray can
she held in her hand. Then it snarled from a mouth full of razor-sharp yellow teeth.

Zoey held her breath.

It lunged.

She whipped out her spray can, but the
dino
-fairy
knocked it out of her hand with a powerful blow that threw her into the air and
landed her on the ground with a painful crunch. She managed to push herself up
and turn around just in time to see a giant fist smash the ground where she had
stood a second ago. She scrambled further away and turned. The
dino
-fairy’s eyes glowed blue as if there were flame inside.
Then it stretched and grew another five feet in diameter. It smiled at the
shock on Zoey’s face.

“That’s
so
not fair,” said
Zoey, “that’s like
cheating
!”

She searched the ground for a weapon, remembering something she had
read earlier at the academy about fairies. What was it again—something about how
to protect oneself—but what was it? She yelled out in frustration. She couldn’t
remember. Fear of the
dino
-fairy was clogging her
memories.

“
Ich
gruthic
se
matvis
,
homen
,” said the fairy,
in a guttural voice. It pointed to Zoey with its massive hand and then gave her
a toothy grin.

“I don’t speak Fairy,” said Zoey, wishing that she could understand
it so that she could talk it out of killing her. “Do you speak English? Does
the fact that you’re not answering mean no? If we could just have a normal
conversation, I’m sure we would all laugh about this later.”

The
dino
-fairy kept grinning. And then she
thought of something and raised her hands.

“I won’t harm you, I promise. How about we call this quits, and you
can join your furry friends. Truce?”

She was hoping it was a stupid mystic, and that it hadn’t noticed that
her bag was full of its frozen kin.

The fairy frowned and made a fist with its massive hand and then
pointed to her bag. “
Ich
tactuc
se
vitan
,
homen
!” growled
the creature.

Zoey swallowed back her fear.

“Okay, so you saw the bag. Guess you’re not as stupid as you look.
Now what?”

She didn’t have to understand its language to know that it meant to
kill her. Just one blow from the
dino
-fairy’s
powerful fists, and she would be nothing more than a pile of red jelly. She
watched the large fairy carefully.

“And now you’re
drooling
. Well,
that’s just great. You want to eat me too.
Before
or
after
you kill me?”

With a beat of its wings, the
dino
-fairy crouched
down, and using its weight as momentum it pushed itself in the air, hovered for
a moment, beating its wings furiously—and then fell back down.

It was too heavy to fly.

“Guess you should have stayed on that diet, huh?” said Zoey, and
then regretted saying it as soon as the words escaped her mouth.

The
dino
-fairy beat the air in a rage.

“
Toi
homen
!” it said,
and then the ground shook as the fairy charged at her like a mad rhinoceros.

Knowing the odds were against her, Zoey stood still until the very last
second—and faked to the left. The
dino
-fairy stormed
past her, too heavy, and with too much momentum to stop suddenly. Zoey ran in
the opposite direction. She raced across the field and prayed that she wouldn’t
trip in the semi-darkness. The
dino
-fairy galloped
behind her like an earthquake. She could almost feel the beast’s warm, rancid
breath on the back of her neck.

Something pulled at the back of her shirt. Her feet left the ground,
and she soared through the air and crashed into a wood fence. She gasped for
air as she struggled to get on her feet, but she tripped over her own legs and fell
flat on her face in the mud. Her legs were tangled in wires from the fence.
They wrapped around her legs like metal cobwebs. She was trapped.

“
Ich
tactuc
se
vitan
,
homen
!”

Zoey turned her head.

The
dino
-fairy stood in front of her with
its fists clenched, and an ugly satisfied smile on its face.

Zoey held its gaze without blinking. She wasn’t about to let herself
become a fairy’s midnight snack. She struggled with the wires around her wet
muddy legs.

Green drool dripped from the corners of the
dino
-fairy’s
mouth like melted cheese. It was only two feet away from her now, and its warm,
rancid breath was choking her, like hands wrapped tightly around her neck.

A wet laugh escaped from its throat—it was going to enjoy ripping
her to shreds.

Tristan and Simon called out to her, but she couldn’t see them. They
were too far away. It was too late. They would never reach her in time.

The giant fairy reached out and grabbed Zoey by the throat. It
lifted her so savagely that the force ripped away the tangled wires around her
legs, cutting through her skin like hot knives. The searing pain blinded her
for a moment. She felt blood seeping down her legs, but she couldn’t even cry
out—she couldn’t breathe. Then the creature’s grip around her throat lessened,
and it threw her down against the ground.

 
Zoey took dry grasps of air
into her lungs, coughing as the tears rolled down her face. The blood pounded
in her ears, and her heart hammered in her chest as though she had just run a
marathon. Her lips quivered as she took another shaky breath. She had almost
died.

The fairy smiled and laughed at her broken frame, its eyes full of
hatred and excitement. It wanted to play with her before the kill, like cats
did with mice.

She realized that her jeans were soaking wet with water, not with
blood. She had stumbled into a stream. And then it hit her. Water was a
protective agent against fairies.

She remembered—she remembered it all.

She gathered what strength she had left, picked herself up on shaky
legs, and faced the giant beast.

“You want me troll-breath?” she taunted, the words burning her
throat. “Then come and get me.”

With an adrenaline rush, Zoey turned and ran towards the water in a
desperate last attempt to save her life. She plunged into the stream.

She heard a loud splash behind her and turned around.

The
dino
-fairy was charging at her like a
bull through the water.

Why hadn’t the water worked? Had she remembered it wrong? The blood
drained from her face—her plan had failed. The last of her strength escaped her
and she halted.

There was no point in running anymore. She stood her ground. She
would fight until the end.

Suddenly, the
dino
-fairy staggered, and its
expression changed to confusion and fear. It turned and tried to run, but some
invisible force deep in the water caught its legs, as if it were in a bog. It howled
in excruciating pain. Blue vapors steamed around its body as the water burned its
skin like acid. It thrashed and wailed as its skin peeled off like thick orange
rinds and exposed the pink tissue underneath.

With a series of
pops
and
zaps
, the
dino
-fairy
began to shrink in a haze of blue steam. The stream boiled and sizzled like a
pot full of oil. And then there was nothing left of the giant creature but a
little blue bubble that popped and dissipated in the stream.

“Now that’s what I call
deep-fried
fairy
.”

Simon stood at the edge of the stream with his cell phone aimed at
the remains of the
dino
-fairy. “Got it all on film,”
he said proudly.

“Too bad I can’t put this on the net, it would have gone viral in
seconds—I would have been famous.”

“Zoey! Are you all right?” Tristan jumped into the water and lifted
her up as though she weighed no more than a feather.

“You’re bleeding—and it did a real number on your throat. You’re
lucky to be alive you know. I’m going to
kill
Stuart.”

Zoey coughed when she tried to speak. Finally, she was able to
mutter. “No. Don’t. Not worth it.” Her throat was raw, like she had just
swallowed a handful of razors.

“This isn’t over, Zoey.” Tristan’s expression darkened. “I’ve always
said there was something
off
about
him, but I never imagined that he would stoop this low.”

The other operatives were all standing at the edge of the stream
now, looking bewildered. All but one. Stuart looked like he had bitten into
something sour. Even in the dark, Zoey could see he was flustered and
frustrated. Zoey smiled—his plan to kill her hadn’t worked after all.

Agent Vargas came thrashing into the stream. He looked so angry that
Zoey thought she could see steam rolling off the top of his head. He stood
looking at the spot where the
dino
-fairy had melted
and then gave Stuart a piercing look.

“Why wasn’t I notified of the Nitro-fairy?” he asked furiously. “You
were working the west side of the lines, Stuart. You
must
have seen it. Why didn’t you tell me?”

 
“I’m sorry Agent Vargas, but I
didn’t see anything, honest,” said Stuart innocently. “It’s dark; I must have
missed it. My eyesight’s not the best at night—”

“Liar!” shouted Tristan. “You knew it was there, and you dared Zoey
to go—to prove that she was one of us. You tried to get her killed!”

Stuart gave Tristan a blank expression. “It was an honest mistake. I
didn’t see it. Promise.”

“I’m disappointed in you, Stuart King,” said Agent Vargas. “It’s not
like you to
miss
something this big.”

He stared at Stuart for a moment before turning to Zoey.

“Well, she surely has proven herself as a
very
capable operative today, if I do say so.” He gave her a smile.

“The more electricity fairies feed on, the more powerful they become,
and the
bigger
they grow. Once they
reach the Nitro size, it’s very hard to contain them. The fellow you
obliterated
had probably been feeding
for days before the others arrived here. He would have been a mighty opponent
for an experienced agent. You’re lucky you weren’t killed. It takes a great agent
to battle a Nitro-fairy, especially one that size.”

“Guess I was lucky,” said Zoey, although she winced with the pain of
her injuries.

Agent Vargas beamed. “Agent Barnes told me you had what it takes—that
you had mastered skills beyond your years. Now I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
Good work, Zoey St. John.”

“Thank you.” Zoey pressed her lips tightly together as she tried to
reduce the giant smile that threatened to take over her face.

“Everyone,” called Agent Vargas, “bag the rest of the fairies. We’re
moving out.”

As Tristan helped Zoey out of the stream, she stood back and watched
as all the remaining fairies were sprayed and bagged until not one was left on
the ripped and torn power lines. With their bags over their shoulders, the operatives
circled around Agent Vargas.

“Apart from a
minor
disruption, we managed to stay on target and on time,” said the agent. “Get
your DSM’s out! Let’s leave the great outback.” He pulled out his
double-sided-mirror and flipped it open with a flick of his wrist.

Zoey was nervous about the voyage home. Would she throw up again on
the other side? She pulled out her silver compact and popped it open with her
finger. Even in the moonlight she could see her reflection stare back at her
anxiously.

She wondered if the stolen interloper was also a mirrored device. It
would make sense if it were, since it was also used for teleportation. But
maybe it was something entirely different.

“On my mark!” announced Agent Vargas. “DSM’s ready! Into positions,
nobody move. Let’s go!”

Zoey watched as the operatives stood still, looking into their DSM’s.
The operatives’ bodies started to shimmer like ghosts in a breeze until they
were no more than wraithlike silhouettes. With a small
pop
, they disappeared one by one, like dominos. Tristan smiled at
her before he disappeared.

“Yah,
hoo
!” said Simon, and his ghost body
rippled and was gone.

Zoey readied herself for her turn. She tipped her DSM slightly to
get all her reflection inside the mirror first. Holding her breath, she stood
as still as she could.

She didn’t see the cold blue eyes or the arm that reached out and
pushed her until it was too late.

Her reflection shifted, and she vanished.