Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FRANKIE
My muscles burned. It felt amazing. The knots of tension in my bones were gone. Tenn was officially my favorite sparring partner. We were already planning future sessions, some with weapons and some with magic. We were still laughing as we bounded up the steps onto the front porch as Tenn re-enacted some kids’ reactions to seeing him crash into them bowling ball style. I laughed so hard it sent me into a coughing fit.
Tenn threw the front door open with a wide grin. It crashed into the wall so loud I watched everyone at the table jump. Tenn barked another laugh. “Lancaster, you should spar with her tomorrow.”
I giggled as I closed the door behind us.
Jackson’s eyes widened. “Frankie, you’ve been sparring with him for two hours and you’re alive? I’m impressed.”
I shrugged and waddled my way to the table to sit down in the closest seat possible because my legs were ready to give out. “I mean, he was holding back and distracted, but I will take my minor victory in merely surviving it. Though my body may disagree tomorrow.”
“You’ve got some moves, Cousin. Few damn good shots in there.” Tenn chuckled and rolled his shoulders. “You’ll enjoy sparring with Lancaster more. You two are pretty evenly matched. You’ve just got that crazy in you, but he’s used to sparring with Hope. She is just as crazy as us. I’m going to check on Tegan.”
Then he was gone.
Easton whistled. “That’s high fightin’ praise from the boss.”
I felt my cheeks turn hot, so I knew I blushed. “It’s easy to fight him because I can just throw whatever I’ve got, magic and all, knowing he can not only take it but kick my ass with his eyes closed.”
“Right. Bloody easy to fight him.” Jackson twirled spaghetti around his fork. “Well, tomorrow do me a favor and remember that this bloke ain’t him.”
“You’ve got it.” I took a deep breath. “Now, before he gets back, can someone cut me a plate of food because I’m not sure my arms work just yet and I don’t want him to know that or he’ll never let me spar with him again.”
The entire table cackled and teased me, but within seconds there was a massive glass of ice-cold coke in front of me with a straw and a delicious-looking plate of spaghetti. Also, three garlic rolls that I lunged for immediately. As I chewed, I leaned forward and inhaled the scent of food.
Mei-Ling walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate of food and sat down next to me. She glanced to my plate, then slid it over in front of her and began cutting. “Nah, nah, she’s too impatient for the swirling. She choked on a spaghetti noodle when we were like eight, remember? I’m scarred for life. We cut your food toddler-style.”
“I detect no lies.” I snort-laughed. “Sorry we’re late for dinner?—”
“You’re not.” Tim winked to me. “We’re all very grateful you volunteered to be the punching bag he needed today.”
“Not sure I’d call that volunteering, big guy. But I enjoyed it, so I’ll give it to you.”
He laughed. “We also just sat down so no one has really started yet.”
“Cool. Smells amazing. Emersyn, you cook again?”
She looked up from her plate and grinned, her golden eyes sparkling. “Dad and I did.”
“The garlic rolls were fun to make.” Hunter grinned down at his daughter beside him. “That lasagna we planned would’ve been too if we hadn’t spent too much time perfecting the rolls.”
Half the table made sound effects about how good the garlic rolls were, which made the father and daughter duo beam with smiles. It made me happy to see that. Both of their soulmates were clinging to life, but they managed to find a moment of stolen peace.
I ate in silence for a few minutes, listening to the others talk and laugh about stuff while I let my body rest from the beating it just took. They may have appeared to be in good moods, but I knew better. I saw the tension wrinkles around their eyes and between their brows. I saw the bags under their eyes from lack of sleep. I saw the twitches, leg bounces, and finger-tapping. They were restless, exhausted, and worried, but they were keeping their sinking ship afloat any way they could.
This brought my thoughts back to our task at hand. Or tasks plural. We knew the end goal was to block the Unseelie out of Earth permanently, and to do so we had to use the tome that the now deceased Seelie King used to do this exact same thing. We had the tome and the key to unlock it, so now we needed the missing page. I was too tired to even ask how they knew we were missing a page when we couldn’t open the book without summoning the Unseelie—but I kind of figured that question was above my pay grade, and besides, the how that Tegan knew wasn’t really that important. By now, I trusted that girl point-blank.
The missing page was a concern, but Valathame and Leyka had hinted that I’d be going on a quest to find that page—and that hint was not so subtle. I was trying not to worry about that . I’d cross that bridge when I got to it. There was also this little waving red flag in my mind telling me we were going to have to do something in order to be able to open the book at all. Oh shit, and the cipher. Fuck, we have to decode the damned thing. My stomach turned. Our checklist was growing bigger.
Leyka’s note burned a hole in my pocket, figuratively speaking. I’d read it many times now and taken a picture of it that I’d sent to Tegan and Tenn for backup. That was the task that really weighed on me because it was first. Leyka even said so. I had to make these potions for everyone first. The idea that Tegan becoming conscious again was dependent on me made my skin crawl. I had no idea where to begin or what it would entail. Thus far, creating potions had been the same as being thrown into chummed shark-infested waters. And it wasn’t like I had all the time in the world and zero other stress to deal with while figuring this out. The Unseelie and fallen angels weren’t just going to sit back and wait for us to catch up. Not to mention the vampires. We had to handle them, too. Part of me wondered why we didn’t just peel the roof off that castle and let the sun take them.
“You okay over there, Frankie?”
I looked up to the table and frowned.
Easton grinned and pointed to his face. “Your face is alarming, which is not something I’ve ever said to a woman.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.” Cooper shook his head. “But that is quite a face you’re making.”
I sighed. “My face has subtitles again.”
Mei-Ling chuckled beside me.
“Your face looks like you’re in pain . . . or confused.” Savannah narrowed her eyes. “Though those are similar faces.”
Thiago picked up a garlic roll. “For shits and giggles, what were you just thinking about?”
“Lots of things. All the things. But specifically, my last train of thought was what’s stopping us from peeling the roof off Sweyn’s castle and letting the sun bake ‘em all?”
Silence.
Warner cursed and dropped his fork. “Why don’t we do that?”
“Tegan has that as one of our plans.” Bentley strolled into the living room, then practically dove for a garlic roll. “I asked why it wasn’t first and she said we have innocents in that castle and she refuses to have them be casualties of war, and that we’re not at that level yet.”
Constance smiled. “I’m happy with that answer.”
“I’m not,” Cooper grumbled. “Let’s just get the innocents out, then give them the sun.”
Everyone looked to Lily.
She threw her one good arm up. “I only give it to one person now.”
Easton pursed his lips. “I’ve been known to enjoy group activity in the past.”
Lily looked him straight in the eye, then squeezed her own shoulder, the one that Easton had injured in the Land of the Lore.
He hissed and flinched, then rolled that shoulder. “That’s cold, baby. Do it again.”
“Hey wait!” I glanced around. “Where’s my puzzle pig?”
Tai sat up straight and I realized he’d been hidden behind Kessler. “I have it. Again. We’re enemies now.”
Mei-Ling sighed. “I grabbed it while you were sparring with Tennessee to try and work on it. Then when I tapped out again, I handed it over to your Coven-mates, and one by one that pig has moved down the table. We’re all failures so far.”
Tai grunted and held it to the side. “Here you go, Star Boy. Your turn.”
Cooper took the puzzle pig and held it between himself and Savannah. The two of them immediately went to work on it.
Tenn re-emerged from downstairs, his mood significantly more sour than it was a few minutes ago. He sat in his seat at the far end of the table. Plates of food were immediately shoved in front of him. He grumbled and stabbed his pasta with his fork like he was punishing it. But after a few moments, he spotted the puzzle pig in Cooper’s hands. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s a puzzle pig. We have to open it.” Savannah held it out to him. “Wanna try?”
“It looks like Leyka. That’s not a coincidence, is it?” Tenn scowled and cocked his head to the side as he took the puzzle pig from Savannah. “Wait, Frankie, you sent me a picture of a note from Leyka. Shit, I thought that was a dream.”
“‘Twas not a dream, Cousin. More like a proper nightmare.”
Tenn grumbled the angel’s name as he went to work on the puzzle pig, but after about thirty seconds he shoved it back into Savannah’s hands. “I’m far too impatient.”
Willow sighed wistfully. “Tegan or Bettina would have that open already. Dammit.”
Jackson gave a half-smirk. “Bettina would create a spell to force it open.”
Tenn grinned at him. “Tegan would smash it to pieces.”
Everyone chuckled.
I shrugged as I glared at the puzzle pig just as Cooper handed it over to Hunter. “I’ve thought about smashing it but . . .”
Constance grimaced. “I don’t know if I would break something an angel gave me.”
“I know.” I scrubbed my face with my hands.
“Where are we at with everything else?” Tenn shoved a huge mouthful of spaghetti into his mouth. “Tim . . . Constance?”
“Kenneth is helping Koth get the shifters evacuated to Issale for the time being,” Tim answered.
Tenn nodded. “Good call. Do we have news from Heather on new SOMA locations?”
Em perked up, her golden eyes sparkling. “Yes. I forwarded her email to Tim, Constance, Daniel, and Kenneth, but I probably should’ve sent to you?—”
“No. no, no.” Tenn waved his forkful of spaghetti in her direction. “I’ve barely attended a school, let alone run one.”
That got a bunch of laughs.
Constance took a sip of her drink, then sat it down. “Daniel and I are on top of that and moving forward with getting locations at least up and running physically so that we can use them as evacuation zones, even if school isn’t open for business. We’re hoping to have campus locations open for evacuations with all the protection spells within a few days.”
Timothy ripped a garlic roll in half. “From what I’m told, Heather and Claudia had New York’s glam ready in like two days, so I have no reason to suspect otherwise here. Especially since they know what we need now.”
Tenn pursed his lips and nodded. “I’m so glad Tegan put y’all in charge.”
Tim shook his head. “Temporarily.”
“Of course.” Tenn smirked and winked at him. “Wait a damn second, an angel gave you that pig? Why? What’s in it? What is it? What did I miss? Hold on, where’s my phone. I don’t think I actually read the note.”
Kessler rolled his eyes but was smiling as he quickly filled Tenn in while Tenn pulled up the picture I’d sent him on his phone. The actual note itself I’d given to Bentley for safekeeping. Tenn’s mismatched eyes read the angel’s note quickly, then he growled a little grumble and dropped his phone to the table. He clearly had a lot of thoughts and opinions on the matter, but he just snarled and shoved more pasta in his mouth.
Constance leaned forward to meet my eyes. “I’ll bring you to Edenburg to meet Professor Rigdon. She’s a potions instructor, and I’ve already chatted with her about you. She’ll have tips on where to start. I’m sure Mona, Lennox, and Seamus would be great help for you, but let’s start at the school.”
I took a deep breath and let that little bit of relief fill me. It was a task. It was at least something to do to get me on the right track. My gut told me I was going to need something from the school for this task, and clearly Constance felt the same thing.
“ UNSEELIE! ” Sam’s voice screamed into my mind. “ ORLANDO. NOW. GO. GO. GO! ”
I gasped and jumped up so fast my chair flew back and hit the floor. Everyone else jumped to their feet with me, their weapons in hand.
My heart pounded in my chest. “Sam just spoke to me. UNSEELIE. ORLANDO. NOW. GO. GO. GO! ”
Tenn cursed and raced out the front door, shouting, “TYCE! DACE!”
I’d just made it out the front door to follow in time to watch the two brown-haired nearly identical twins shift into their dragon forms. One was charcoal gray that I realized I’d seen before blending in with the night sky. He had green scales while the other had blue eyes with ivory-colored scales that almost looked soft like silk. I still had no idea which was which but that was a revelation for another moment.
Climbing onto a dragon was a strange concept, but Kessler grabbed me by the back of my black sweater and carried me like a mamma animal carrying her child by the scruff. He hurried up the ivory dragon’s wing after our Coven-mates and sat me between two spikes. Within seconds we were all loaded up and shooting straight into the night sky. I gasped and gripped the spike hard. It was like the best roller coaster ever. After a moment, he leveled out so we weren’t at an incline, but I knew we were flying fast because within minutes I saw the coastline. I’d recognize the Gulf of Mexico coastline anywhere, just like anyone who watched a lot of the Weather Channel hurricane coverage would. I leaned down ever so slightly to run my fingers over his scales—and smiled. They did feel like silk. Incredible.
And then we took a nosedive.
My stomach flipped but I had to fight the urge to giggle. This wasn’t a roller coaster. We weren’t at a theme park. This was flying into a potentially fatal battle. The second we sliced through some clouds, my heart sank. All my enjoyment of riding a dragon was gone.
Beneath us, the Unseelie were attacking the people in Universal’s CityWalk. It was just like at the lake in Tampa. They swooped down and plucked people off the sidewalks. Tenn leapt off the charcoal-gray dragon beside us and took off like a rocket, looking more like a blazing comet as he flew right for them. The gray dragon dove for the ground and rolled without stopping, yet my Coven-mates expertly landed like they’d done that a million times—except for one person.
Lily sat behind the dragon’s front spike and pointed to the night sky. “GET ME UP THERE!”
Our dragon slowed to a stop on the sidewalk just beside the giant Earth sculpture in front of Universal Studios. We all scrambled off and charged for the fight. The lake was on my right, with both theme parks on my right side and CityWalk on my left. They weren’t attacking the people on the theme park side, which I definitely didn’t understand . . . unless they just enjoyed the chaos happening in one spot. Because it was chaos. It was a Saturday night during one of the busiest times of the year: spring break and the park’s Mardi Gras celebrations. There had to be a thousand people screaming and running toward the parking garage up ahead. These people were ripe for the picking. There was no coverage, no trees to shield them. Just open air.
“ THIAGO! ” I screamed and threw my hands up. I had no idea where he was, so I shot my magic into the sky. It slammed into an Unseelie’s face right above me. I hadn’t seen it at all. Purple blood splashed onto my hands. I cursed. “THIAGO, COVER US!”
“ON IT!” he yelled back.
A split second later, dark shadows lingered in the air above our heads and near every structure or tree. Streaks of light shot across the sky, so I glanced up and wanted to cheer at the sight of Lily blasting Unseelies with pure sunshine from the back of a dragon that blended in with the night sky. An Unseelie swooped down a few feet in front of me, so I blasted him just as he reached for two teenage boys— and then the boys were gone. I blinked and everyone within twenty feet of me had vanished.
Willow. I glanced around until I spotted her hiding behind a kiosk that sold hats. But that Unseelie I’d just hit saw her too. We raced for her, but he had wings, so I was losing. I fired my magic at him, neon-blue flames coiling around his body, yet that barely slowed him down. He was closing in on Willow and I was still ten feet away. She hadn’t noticed him, her back was to us as she worked her magic. I screamed. She didn’t even turn. There was too much screaming at this point to discern one from another. Wait. She’s deaf now. SHIT! The Unseelie landed a few feet behind her and pulled a gnarly curved sword off his back.
And then I felt Willow’s presence to my right. I gasped and raced for that familiar aura around the back of a hot pretzel stand and found the real Willow hiding beside a garbage can. Her brown eyes widened when I slid to a stop in front of her, but then we both turned to watch the Unseelie spear the fake-Willow through the back.
I grabbed real-Willow’s arm and made the slicing motion across my throat. ‘ DEAD!’ I mouthed.
She nodded and flicked her wrist, making the illusion of herself scream and drop to the ground in a puddle of her own blood. My stomach turned. It looked so real I almost believed it. If I hadn’t been holding on to the real Willow, I would have. The Unseelie nodded in approval of his own work, then shot into the sky. Every part of me wanted to race after him and avenge her, to fight this fight, but the real Willow couldn’t hear a damned thing. I had no idea how her other senses were handling this, but in this fight, someone had to have her back.
I shoved her back against the pretzel stand, then crouched in front of her. Looking over my shoulder to meet her eyes, I held my hands up and mouthed, ‘K eep going. I got you.’ Her eyes filled with tears as she nodded, but this girl was a trained warrior because she was flicking those hands left and right. Blue magic sparkled between her fingers and that was the only way I knew she was doing her thing. It was incredible. I heard the screams of fleeing tourists, heard people’s names being shouted left and right, yet I barely saw them.
But I felt them. I felt their terrified energy like needles pricking my skin. Golden magic sprinkled through the air, bringing that panic down a few octaves but not gone. Bright orange flames lit up the night sky from the other side of the lake by the entrance to Islands of Adventure theme park. That was Emersyn, it had to be, yet I couldn’t see her. I stayed crouched, firing my blue and pink magic into the sky every time I felt something near because it was growing harder to differentiate between them and the night sky.
“ Attention Universal’s CityWalk patrons, ” Tennessee’s voice rumbled through my mind with a calm, deep voice that did not portray the panic of the scene. “ A tornado warning is in effect for this area right now. Seek shelter immediately. Large hail, strong wind gusts, and lightning to be expected. I repeat, please seek shelter immediately.”
I gasped. That was brilliant.
“ Thiago, drop the air shield!” Tenn yelled into our minds. “ Willow, block the civilians!”
I blinked and the sky was clear again. Sure, there were thick gray clouds, but I could actually see them now. And I could see the Unseelie. We weren’t supposed to be trying new tricks, but we hadn’t exactly had a team meeting on what we could do. Yet I was fairly certain dying wasn’t on that list, so I had no choice but to fire neon-pink laser darts into the Unseelies’ wings as they flew by.
And then all of a sudden, the Unseelies stopped and fled.
They took off in the opposite direction all at once.
I blinked and they were gone.
I stood up straight but held my hand out to stop Willow from moving just in case. Except when I glanced around, I saw only my Coven-mates and they were all wide-eyed with jaws slacking, staring at the sky with only twinkling stars peeking through the clouds to look at. I sighed and helped Willow to her feet. Together we walked over to our group.
Tim glanced to us and nodded twice, like he’d been counting. “You two okay?”
“Yeah.” I pointed up. “What the hell was that?”
“My sentiments exactly?”
“Bentley?” Tenn grumbled so low it was basically a growl.
Bentley shook his head and gripped his locket. “I don’t like it.”
Tenn cursed and chased after them until he, too, was gone.
“They took off,” Tim yelled, his gaze locked on something behind me. When I glanced back, I saw a group of warriors rushing toward us dressed in all black and strapped with weapons. Tim sighed. “Knights, thanks for coming. They took off. But be on guard. In the meantime, let’s secure the perimeter. We need to get the area evacuated and memories altered. You know the drill.”
“Yes, sir,” the knight at the front of the group said with a grim voice and a nod. “Constance ordered all Knight squadrons to include a few pages, so we’ll make sure this is clean and covered.”
“Thanks.” Tim smiled. “Let us know if you need us.”
Just as they took off toward the civilian crowds, both dragons swooped down low. The Ivory one had Emersyn on its back. She leaned over and smiled. “Meet us behind those trees!”
Tim nodded. “Tyce, you and Lily chase after Tenn and get him back here.”
The charcoal-colored dragon made a sharp turn and sped off in the direction Tenn had gone. Ah, so that’s Tyce. Which means the silky ivory one is Dace. Noted. The rest of my Coven-mates hurried after Dace and Emersyn toward the cluster of trees just beyond the entrance to the theme park. I knew I needed to follow, and to probably hurry, but there was an odd sense of panic in the air. I frowned and moved toward the feeling until I spotted a girl wearing a University of Central Florida sweatshirt standing at the edge of the nearest store. She was staring at her phone like she was waiting for it to transform into an Autobot.
I cleared my throat and hurried toward her. She was a civilian human. I knew that the moment I got within a few feet of her. “Hey, you okay?”
She looked up at me with fearful blue eyes. “I can’t find my boyfriend.”
“Oh, you got separated when the storm rolled in?”
She nodded, tears brimming her eyes. “One second he was there, the next . . . gone. Have you seen him? This is him.” She held her phone out to show a guy wearing a football uniform for their school with the number eleven on it. He had blue hair which I thought was cool.
“I’m sorry, no.” I cringed and pointed to where I’d watched the Knights run off to. “There’s a group of people dressed in all black. They’re emergency services. Tell them you can’t find him, and they’ll help you.”
She nodded and raced off.
My stomach sank. “This isn’t right,” I mumbled to myself.
Everest would know. Part of me considered sending him a text message, but I knew that was crazy dangerous for him. For us. But he’d warned me to be wary of the Unseelie, so I knew something was definitely not right about this attack.