Chapter 1
MYSTIQUE’S
“You look positively miserable, Savannah.”
Nevada slid me a smile: half-amused, half-sympathetic, all-knowing.
She was the one who’d convinced me to go shopping with her in the Magic Emporium today.
We weren’t alone. It felt like every Apprentice in the Fortress—or at least every female Apprentice in the Fortress—was shopping at Mystique’s at this very moment.
“Oh, right, dresses,” I said.
Before we’d headed off to the Magic Emporium, I’d promised my bestie a fun afternoon. We were an hour into our shopping spree, and thus far, I hadn’t done a very good job of bringing the fun. I was such a terrible shopping partner.
“Show me what you’ve found, and I’ll tell you what I think looks prettiest on you.” I attempted an easy smile.
Nevada’s chuckle told me she wasn’t fooled. “It’s all right, Savannah. I know you have a lot on your mind right now.”
She sat down next to me on the plush sofa. It was as pink as the carpeting and the wallpaper. And it smelled like roses.
“If you want to go home, I totally understand.”
‘Home’ for now meant my cottage in the Apprentice Village.
Just a few weeks ago, home had meant an old furniture warehouse in Bayshore, a town on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
And in just a few days from now, home would mean the Castle, headquarters of the Knights of Gaia.
My life had gone through some pretty big changes lately.
I wondered if it would ever stop changing.
“Oh, no, Nevada, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.” I flashed her a smile. “Show me what you’ve got.”
“Ok, I’ll be right back.”
Nevada got off the sofa, then disappeared through the sea of Apprentices. I tried to keep my mind focused on dresses. That’s why we were here: to pick out dresses for the Masquerade Ball. Not to wallow and worry and obsess over all the problems I couldn’t fix.
Problems like the fact that my friend Kylie and a bunch of other Apprentices were being held prisoner by the Order of Kings.
Problems like finding the traitor inside the Government who was working with the Order of Kings.
Conner thought the General was the traitor, but our clandestine raid on the General’s office inside the Black Obelisk had been a bust. Maybe I should sneak into his office in the Castle to look for clues.
Or use my off time to trail him, waiting for him to do something suspicious.
That might work. Bronte, my former fellow Apprentice, wasn’t around anymore to spy on me and report my movements back to the General.
Bronte. That was another problem I couldn’t fix.
I hadn’t seen her since Ainsley and Jareth had escorted her out of the Castle.
I wondered what she was doing now that her dream of becoming a Knight was over.
I wondered and—admittedly—felt bad for her, even after all that she’d done.
I guess I just didn’t think she was truly evil. Desperate, yes, but not evil.
Speaking of evil…
“Honestly, Georgia, I don’t know why Savannah Winters is bothering to go dress shopping at all. It’s not like she has anyone to dress up for. She doesn’t even have a date for the Ball.”
Zoe didn’t bother to keep her voice down. She wanted me—and everyone here—to know just how big of a loser I really was. I refused to let her get to me. Just because she thought I was a loser, that didn’t make it so. The world did not revolve around Zoe Santos and her weird ideas.
“Did Rhett ask you to the Ball?”
“Of course he did. How could he not?”
Zoe and her trust sidekick Georgia were clearly playing out this conversation for my benefit.
They assumed I cared. Like Zoe and Georgia, Rhett was from a town called Victory.
The kids from Victory were generally not very nice people, and I tried to keep myself and my thoughts far away from them whenever possible.
Unfortunately, hearing Rhett’s name brought me right back to Bronte. Rhett had been the one who’d told me about Bronte’s duplicity, but not because he cared about me. Oh, no, he just wanted to tear Bronte down, so he could rise higher.
Just before Bronte had gone away, I’d asked her about the General.
I’d asked her if he was the bad guy. She didn’t know anything about the missing Apprentices or the General’s role in their disappearances.
Of course, that didn’t mean the General was innocent.
I didn’t trust him. He was putting off all kinds of evil vibes.
One way or the other, whether the General was involved in the kidnappings or not, I had to find proof.
Until the Government traitor was exposed, the kidnappings would continue.
I had to find the traitor and make him lead me to the Order of Kings and the missing Apprentices.
Then I’d rescue the Apprentices, destroy the Order, and we’d all live happily ever after.
At least that was the plan. Reality was a tad more complicated. In order to defeat the Order and their powerful Templars, I had to get a handle on my magic.
And to get a handle on my magic, I had to practice.
“Hey! Where did all my dresses go?”
All six dresses had disappeared from the portable rack Zoe was wheeling around the shop. Not that I had anything to do with that. Oh, no, I most definitely had not sent those dresses to another dimension.
“Maybe they fell down?”
Georgia and Zoe began frantically searching the floor for the missing dresses. A few of the other Apprentices looked on in amusement.
“It’s not funny!” Zoe growled. She was practically frothing at the mouth.
“Hey, the dresses are back! Over there, outside the changing room!”
Zoe’s gaze snapped to the door of one of the changing rooms, and, sure enough, the six dresses were hanging from the hooks on the door. The other Apprentices exploded with laughter.
“Zoe’s lost it!”
“She can’t even remember where she put her things!”
“Just make sure you remember to put a dress on before you go to the Ball, Zoe! It’s not a clothing-optional event!”
Zoe snarled at the laughing Apprentices, grabbed her friend Georgia’s hand, and power-walked across the room. She snatched the dresses so roughly that she nearly tore the hooks out of the wood, then she slammed the changing room door shut.
“You know, you could use your powers for good, not evil.”
But when I met Nevada’s gaze, her eyes were laughing.
“I am using my powers for good,” I said. “I’m using them to fight the forces of evil, aka Zoe. And, at the same time, I’m honing my skills for use against even greater villains.”
“Greater than Zoe?”
“Oh, yes. I know it’s hard to believe anything could be worse than Zoe, but it’s true.”
Nevada and I both laughed.
“Now let’s see those dresses,” I said.
“I found two that I think will look good on you.”
Nevada held up two dresses. One was red, the other navy blue. Both were full-length.
I frowned. “I thought you were looking for a dress for you.”
She simply smiled. “Which one do you like better?”
“Neither?”
Nevada sighed.
“Sorry. It’s just that…” I glanced from one dress to the other. “Are there any dresses here with a bit more…more?” I indicated the sleeveless bodices.
“I’ll go check.” Nevada flitted off, moving with delicate, seamless grace, like a spring breeze kissing a field of blossoms.
My thoughts returned to the General, the missing Apprentices, and the Order of Kings. They were all connected. Somehow. I was missing something. Something important.
Harlyn, one of the Techno Knights who’d tried to kidnap the Apprentices, had told me he’d been hired by the Order of Kings, a mysterious supernatural group that was amassing power all across the Many Realms.
A Fixer named Brett had witnessed mercenaries stealing Government supplies.
Or so he’d thought. Actually, the mercenaries weren’t taking the supplies from the Government.
They were giving the supplies to the Government.
As it turned out, someone in the Government had made a deal with the Order of Kings: supplies in exchange for Apprentices.
The Government traitor gave the Order easy access to the Apprentices, and the Order took them away.
Some of the Apprentices, like my friend Kylie, were still missing.
Bronte had never gotten magic. The General had made her a Knight Apprentice anyway and sent her to the Castle to spy on the Knights and Apprentices.
Apprentices were missing because the Order of Kings wanted them—for whatever reason—and a Government traitor had helped the Order get them.
The General was connected to the Knight Apprentices because he was in command of the Castle and its Knights—or at least he had been up until yesterday.
And the General had used Bronte to spy on the Knights and Apprentices.
The question was why. I had a hard time believing the General would sell out the Apprentices for a few crates of supplies. There had to be more here. He had to want more. What was I missing? How were all of the weird things that had been going on connected?
“Savannah? Oh, Savannah!”
Nevada’s voice called out to me, piercing the miasma of disconnected theories and unpleasant thoughts. I hated not knowing things, particularly when those things were probably right in front of my face.
“I’m here, Nevada.”
She was right. I had to focus on picking out a dress. And on helping my best friend pick out a dress. Those were problems that I could solve. Unlike all of the other problems swirling around the universe.
“Sorry, I was just…”
“Distracted?”
“Sorry,” I said, sheepish. “But I’m here now.”
“Worrying about finding a date for the Masquerade Ball?” she teased me.
“Wait, do I have to take someone?”
“I don’t think you have to. But it might be more fun that way.”
Going through all the drama and embarrassment of finding a date to the Ball sounded like the exact opposite of fun, so I deflected. “Who are you taking?”
“Troy Davenport.”
“He’s one of Orion’s Apprentices, right?” I asked.
“He is.”
“He’s cute.”
Nevada blushed.
“If you’re into the tall, dark, and handsome sort anyway.”
Troy was also one of the guys who thought I was a freak. But I was trying really hard not to hold that against him.
I looked at the dresses hanging from Nevada’s dressing room door. “Troy would like the black one best.”
“How do you know?” she laughed. “You haven’t spoken two words to him since we arrived at the Fortress.”
“I don’t have to. I can tell what he likes.”
Nevada reached for the black dress.
“Troy would like the black one best,” I said again. “But I think the pink one is your style.”
Nevada’s gaze shifted between the dresses. She bit her lip, considering. Finally, she grabbed the pink one. Good for her. She shouldn’t change herself for anyone, no matter how cute he was.
“How about you, Savannah? Do you see anything you like?” Nevada indicated the dresses she’d hung on the neighboring cabin door.
“Do any of them come in fireproof?” I groaned. “Just in case.”
Chuckling, Nevada handed me a dress. “Try this one.”
I held back a sigh that really wanted to come out, then stepped into the cabin, closing the door behind me. I stared at the dress for a few seconds, mentally preparing myself, then I started changing.
“Do you think it would be so bad if I went to the Ball alone?”
Nevada’s teasing response echoed off the walls of the neighboring cabin. “Is the problem that you don’t have enough boys? Or too many?”
“That’s cute, Nevada. Real cute.”
“Sorry, Sav. The Castle’s gossip mill loves to talk about your two boyfriends.”
“They aren’t my boyfriends. They are friends who just happen to be boys.”
“No one says you can’t bring a friend to the ball. In fact, no one says you can’t bring two friends.”
“Bring Kato and Conner? Oh, that would go over well with the General, bringing a Rebel to the ball. Actually, maybe that’s a good reason to do it.”
“The General isn’t in charge of the Castle anymore,” Nevada reminded me.
“Oh, I wouldn’t count him out just yet. I have a feeling that when he’s knocked down, he rises even stronger than before.
And even so, Senator Gaines probably isn’t fond of Rebels either.
No one in the Government is. They also wouldn’t be thrilled if I took Kato to the Ball.
We wouldn’t want to risk any of my anarchy rubbing off on him, now would we? ”
“So where does that leave you?”
“Going to the Ball alone, I guess. Unless I go with Dante. Surely, no one can complain if I go with my own brother.”
Nevada laughed quietly. “No one but a dozen disappointed girls.”
“Yeah, there is that.”
“Dante is very popular with the ladies. I saw three girls ask him out during breakfast. And many more looked like they wanted to.”
Of course they did. Dante was good at everything he did. At some point, ‘everything’ seemed to have expanded to include getting a date.
“Well, then I guess we’re back to plan A: going without a date. Or maybe not going at all. Do you think anyone will notice?”
I stepped out of the dressing room. Nevada looked me up and down, smirking.
“Oh, I think a lot of people will notice, Savannah.”
I looked down. The dress had much higher side slits than I preferred. Those slits showed a lot of leg when I moved.
I tried to duck back into the changing room, but Nevada grabbed my hand, spinning me around. The skirt twirled up, and I had to admit, it was very pretty. But it still made me feel too exposed. I would have preferred armor.
I needed armor.
For some reason, the thought thrust itself into my mind and stuck there. Instinct, I guess. The same instinct that compelled me to throw myself over Nevada, tackling her to the floor. And just in time. Something crashed through the shop’s front window. No, make that someone.
I peeled my gaze off the floor and there he was: a big, hulking figure covered head to toe in a shining suit of techno armor.