The Gathering Storm (13 page)

All of Mack's senses were enhanced now. Things appeared brighter and sharper to his fox eyes, and through the drumming of the rain, he could hear so much more: a car engine half a mile away, a light switched on in the house next door. But what Mack would rely on first was his sense of smell. That, he knew, was the fastest way to find Jiichan. In his human form Mack wouldn't have been able to describe Jiichan's smell, but as a
kitsune
, he could: the smell of green tea and silk screens and patience, of wisdom and bamboo and India ink. That was his
jiichan
 . . . and Mack would find him, no matter what.

Mack tracked Jiichan's scent through the broken window, but the trail was fainter outside, mixed with the woodsy scent of trees and the fresh smell of grass. Mack persevered to the edge of the rock garden, where he had his first setback: the trail disappeared in the rain.

Mack shrugged it off. He couldn't afford to get all worked up and disappointed, and he definitely couldn't afford to walk away in defeat. Instead, he started galloping toward the beach as fast as his four strong legs could take him.

They were all there, waiting: the
nahual
and the
impundulu
and the
selkie
, soaked to the skin in the downpour. When they saw Mack in his
kitsune
form, a wild roar arose from them, a sound of celebration like nothing Mack had ever heard before.
Do foxes grin?
he wondered.

This one did.

But only for a second, because Mack—and the others—could feel the danger approaching. Mack got right to the point.

Jiichan's gone,
he said.
Just like Ms. Therian.

And the rest of the First Four, I bet,
said Fiona.

Darren spoke next.
What should we do now?

The plan's ruined,
Fiona said. Her dark seal eyes looked even more serious than usual.
We can't count on the First Four. They're part of Auden Ironbound's army now.

At Mack's frown, Fiona murmured,
Sorry.
But he
could barely hear her. That was his grandfather she was talking about. Mack wouldn't rest until Jiichan was free from Auden's spell.

No,
he said, and there was an unexpected growl in his voice.
The plan's not ruined.
We
are the plan.

Mack's words hung there as the others stared at him.

We're the First Four now,
he continued.
We have to do what they did, a thousand years ago.
We
have to get the horn and break the spell. There's no one else.

Mack waited, barely breathing, for one of his friends to respond. If they didn't agree, or if they refused, would he—
could
he—do it on his own?

Then Fiona bowed her head.
By sea,
she pledged.

By sky,
Darren said.

Mack and Gabriella exchanged a long look.
By land,
they said at the same time.

So, how are we going to do this?
Darren asked.

Mack pointed down the coastline, where the intensity of the hurricane blocked all visibility.
The storm is leaving town,
he said.
We need to catch it.

Hurricanes have an eye,
Fiona spoke up.
Dead center, it's a place of pure stillness and calm.

You think that's where Auden Ironbound is?
asked Mack.

That's where I'd be,
she replied.

So, if Auden Ironbound's in the eye of the hurricane
 . . . , Darren began.

Then the storm surrounding him must be his army of Changers,
Mack finished.

We could break them up,
Gabriella suggested.
You know, distract them. Shatter his defenses.

Divide and conquer,
Darren added.

Exactly,
Gabriella said.
As long as one of us can get the horn . . .

I'll get it,
Mack said.

Everyone turned to him.

I have to,
he continued.
For Jiichan. For everyone.

One by one, the others nodded. Then Gabriella spoke.
Wait,
she said.
I'm sorry . . . about before. The way I acted with Lizbeth. I was awful.

It's—
Fiona began.

Please. I have to say this,
Gabriella interrupted her.
You have to trust me. I'm with you. I'm
one
of you. And I will never treat you like that again, ever. I promise.

Mack took a deep breath.
Okay,
he said.
Let's do this.

Fiona was the first to depart, diving down through the wildly churning waves. Her promise to her father flickered through her mind for a moment before she remembered her strong flippers and her powerful tail. Fiona the girl had no business going into the storm-tossed ocean. . . . But Fiona the
selkie
was made for this.

The water welcomed her, carrying her over the whitecaps into the depths. But the song that she always heard from the sea was different. Right away, Fiona knew she was not alone. There were others in the ocean, others like her; Fiona could
feel
them, even though the
water was so clouded by the surging waves that she couldn't see a thing. And just the way she could feel them, Fiona could also feel that they were part of everything that was happening. Under Auden Ironbound's spell, they were helping the storm rage overhead. It was all connected, Fiona realized; the sea and the sky, the waves and the weather, the tides and the treachery.

I have to stop the waterborne Changers,
she thought.
But how?
They were Changers like her; they were innocent—caught up in an evil spell. Fiona didn't want to harm them. No, there had to be another way.

Fiona didn't know any
selkie
songs. She couldn't work any magic with her voice yet. But she was fast, and she could distract the Changers, draw them away from the storm.

Fiona darted in and out of the lines, tagging Changer dolphins and seals, circling sea otters and sharks. There was a vacant haze covering their glowing red eyes; Fiona knew Auden had them in his grasp.

As the Changers gave chase, Fiona swam farther out into the ocean, jumping in and out of the waves. One by one, Changers began to surface: seals of all colors;
dolphins, too. She was drawing them out, distracting them from their mission. She realized that the water was starting to calm—it was working!

I'll swim until I pass out, if that's what it takes,
Fiona vowed. She breached the water for a deep breath of air and— What was that, over there? The seal with the copper-colored pelt. It was staring at Fiona, but she didn't have time to figure out what it wanted from her.

Fiona dove beneath the waves once more.

Darren was airborne with just two beats of his wings, and in less than a minute, he had flown so far and so high that he could no longer see Mack and Gabriella on the beach below. The wind currents, Darren soon realized, could work with him or against him. He couldn't just fly in a straight line. Instead, Darren had to anticipate each invisible current; where it came from, where it was blowing. Then he had to decide, in a split second, to fly over it, under it, or glide along with it. All the times he'd seen birds in flight, and he'd never once appreciated just how hard it was to fly. Even the clouds were against him, it seemed: dark, dense, and opaque, they obscured just
about everything, including the other flying Changers. The higher Darren flew, the darker the sky, until he could barely see anything.

Whoosh!

Darren veered off to the side, nearly missing a collision with some winged creature careening through the growing darkness. His heart was thundering; it wouldn't have been good, he knew, to crash in midair. Darren pictured his wings crumpled, crushed, feathers fluttering through the sky as he plunged to the ground. No, it wouldn't have been good at all.

He still didn't know how, exactly, he was going to help, but one thing was obvious: he needed to
see
if he was going to survive flying through this storm. Just the thought of a midair collision made him so panicked that his talons crackled with anxious sparks.

Sparks.

Of course,
Darren thought.
I have lightning on my side.

He'd never thrown a lightning bolt deliberately, but maybe it was time he tried.

With his wings still beating, Darren turned the rest of his energy to his talons. They were still sparking, and
he felt something like an electrical charge building in his neck. The charge gathered strength and intensity and then rolled through his body until—

Crack!

The most brilliant lightning bolt, blue-white with a deep orange aura around it, burst from his talons. It sliced through the clouds, illuminating them and leaving an emptiness in their wake where Darren could see clear down to the beach below.

Darren blinked. That hole in the clouds . . . He wasn't imagining it. Somehow his lightning had actually
broken
the cloud into two.

I can destroy the storm,
Darren realized. And that was all he needed to send more lightning zinging through the hurricane. Massive bolts whizzed their way through the darkness, leaving streaks of light in their wake. There was still hope.

After Darren and Fiona left, Gabriella felt, suddenly, very small on the vast beach. She was grateful to have Mack with her. It would be easier to face whatever was to come with him by her side.

Let's do it,
she said, sounding braver than she felt. Mack nodded, and then they were off, leaving two sets of tracks in the wet sand. Gabriella glanced behind only once, but it was enough to see the smoke unfurling from Mack's paw prints.
So cool,
she marveled before pushing the thought from her mind. Gabriella knew she couldn't afford to get distracted.

After running for several minutes, they were still alone on the beach. With their extreme Changer speed, that didn't make sense to Gabriella.
Where is Auden Ironbound's army?
she wondered as the storm grew more ferocious.

Gabriella cocked her head and listened carefully. There was something under the silence, like the memory of a sound . . . or a vibration . . .

Was it real, or was she just unaccustomed to having supersensitive jaguar hearing? Gabriella wasn't sure. But from the way Mack's fur was standing on end, she had a feeling that he could hear it—or at least sense it—too. And he seemed just as discomfited as she was.

What
is
that?
Gabriella finally asked.

I don't like it,
replied Mack.
It's creepy.