Chapter 2
THE MASKED METAMORPH
It was the exact same armor the kidnappers had worn, a high-tech magical mashup of heavy metals and rune-adorned bling. The warrior who wore the armor was tall and bulky but still light on his feet. A deadly combination.
“Savannah Winters.”
The Templar’s voice, deep and menacing, echoed unnaturally inside his helmet, a helmet that boasted two spires, twin twisting towers at least twenty centimeters tall. They looked like dragon horns, made for impaling prey. Fantastic.
I lifted my fists in front of me and made a valiant effort not to look terrified.
The Templar chuckled. “You’re putting up a fight? Adorable.”
He thundered toward me, sword raised. I hummed.
Glass shards, the remnants of the shattered window, rose from the ground, responding to my song.
I whistled, and the swarm shot toward the Templar.
An eerie magic glow slithered across his armor.
The glass shards dissolved upon impact, every single one of them.
The Templar brushed glass dust off his armor. “Cute.” Then he swung his sword.
I grabbed Nevada by her shoulders and teleported us to the other end of the shop.
I would have teleported us out of there, but there were still people trapped in the shop.
Including a trembling Zoe and a whimpering Georgia.
The Techno Knight was heading right for them.
Damn it. For once, I wished I could act like a villain.
Trying to be a hero was bad for my health.
“Get out of here.” I nudged Nevada toward the gaping hole in the shop where the display window used to be. Then I teleported to Zoe and Georgia, grabbed them, and teleported back to the big hole. “Run.”
They didn’t need to be told twice.
I turned to face the Templar, my head swimming with dizziness. I’d cast too many spells in too short of a time. I needed to pace myself, or I was going to crash out.
Pace myself, right. If only I had a choice. The Templar turned around to face me. I cast another spell, collapsing the ground under his feet. He sank down to his knees, stuck.
Another wave of dizziness rocked me. My vision went a little blurry. Well, that was never a good sign.
I waved my hands in the general direction of the remaining Apprentices. “Go! Run!”
They ran. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite fast enough. The Templar burst out of the ground, sending clothes and accessories flying. He landed between them and the exit. The Apprentices stopped running, stumbling back.
I saw my backpack lying on the floor, not far from me.
Ha! The Templar had given me exactly what I needed to defeat him.
I snatched my bag off the floor, shoved my hand inside, and pulled out the Mirror of Woe.
I’d gotten in the habit of bringing it around with me everywhere.
And now my paranoia was finally paying off.
I showed the Templar the mirror, grinning. “Game over.”
Or maybe not.
Magic ripped across the mirrored glass, but that was it. The armor didn’t peel off the Templar’s body like dried husks from a plant. I looked at the mirror. Looked at the Templar. Looked at the mirror again.
“No. Why? How?” The words felt like marbles in my mouth.
His head canted slightly toward the mirror in my hand. “Pretty.”
They must have made improvements to the armor.
“You’re with the Order of Kings, aren’t you? You’re a Templar, aren’t you?”
I was pretty sure of that, but I needed to be very sure.
He merely chuckled under his helmet. It was a dark, sinister chuckle, and I felt shivers cutting down my spine. My skin was clammy, and my pulse skipped a beat. I knew this feeling well. Dread. Complete and total foreboding.
“The Spirit Trees are being guarded,” I said. “How did you get through? Who on Earth is helping you? Who’s the traitor?”
My questions elicited another round of sinister laughter from the mysterious Templar.
And then he attacked me, moving with the speed of a mountain and the strength of a catapult.
His fist swung toward me. Fighting. I wasn’t very good at fighting.
I was kind of fast, though, and I managed to duck out of the way just in time.
I didn’t know the first thing about throwing a punch, so I threw magic instead. I tightened my telekinetic grip around a bunch of clothing racks and slammed them into the Templar, trying to put some distance between us.
I made a run for the trapped Apprentices, but the Techno Knight was faster. He tossed the clothing racks aside. I sent more at him, all the ones in the shop this time. That slowed him down a bit, but not enough. He still stood between me and the Apprentices, and he wasn’t moving.
Ok, fine. Be that way. Time for Plan B. I teleported to the Apprentices.
“Everyone, grab on to one another,” I instructed them.
As they hurried to do as I said, I tried really hard not to think about the fact that I’d never teleported eight people—plus myself—all at once before. This would work. It had to.
Of course it didn’t. There was only so far stubbornness could get you, and I’d already hit that limit.
When I tried to teleport, I just couldn’t.
I pushed and heaved and grunted, but all that happened was I felt like I was slamming into a wall.
Blood sprinkled the floor. My blood. Oh, splendid. My nose was bleeding.
Ok, so teleporting was too big of a spell for me right now.
I tried something smaller. I cast a stop spell on the Templar, or tried to anyway.
He slowed but didn’t stop. He was still moving toward us.
I frowned. I’d hardly slowed him down at all.
And now blood was dripping from my ears as well as from my nose.
The world flipped, like a boat capsizing, and I fell to the ground.
The Templar’s heavy boots thumped toward me, slow but steady. I was done for.
Then, suddenly, he stopped and turned to look at something I couldn’t see. I was dizzy and my vision wasn’t all that great. I heard noises. It sounded like magic, like a rapid flurry of spells. All sorts of spells from all sorts of supernatural races.
The Techno Knight grunted, staggering back. He tried to fight, but he was off balance. Another blast of magic hit him hard, sending him flying through the broken window.
A hand reached down to me. I looked up and saw Nevada.
She and Sophia and Sophie and Cindy and Tari had positioned themselves in a ring around me.
Magic simmered on their hands and halos.
They’d combined their magic, working together to bombard the Templar with more spells than his armor could handle.
My mouth dropped in shock. “It was you guys? You fought off the Templar?”
Tari’s eyes narrowed into tiny points. “Try not to sound so surprised. You’re not the only Apprentice with magic, Savannah Winters.”
I took Nevada’s hand, allowing her to help me to my feet. “I’m not surprised that you have magic. I’m surprised that you used it to help me.”
“Of course we helped you,” Sophie said. “We’re going to be Knights, so we might as well act like them.”
Sophia nodded in agreement. They all nodded.
“Thanks, girls.”
Laughter sliced through the room like a well-sharpened blade. “How touching.”
The smile died on my lips. That’s what we got for celebrating too soon. The Templar stepped into the shop. He lifted his left hand, casting a spell that threw Sophie, Sophia, and Cindy off their feet.
“How inspiring.”
He lifted his right hand, and Nevada, Tari, and I joined them, six bobbing bobbles floating in the air.
“How useless.”
A gust of wind blasted through the shop, knocking us back, pinning us to the wall like fruit flies caught in a pool of sticky syrup.
“Savannah Winters.”
He strode toward me, his armor ablaze with blood-red magic. I struggled against the spell holding me there. From all the grunting and growling, I knew my fellow Apprentices were struggling too. None of us made any progress.
“This is where your journey ends.”
An arrow whistled through the hole in the shop and sank into the wall between me and Nevada. There was a breaking sound, like glass shattering, then all six Apprentices dropped to the floor. The Templar’s spell was broken.
A man in a dark hood and cloak appeared in the opening.
His face was shroud in shadows, and he wore a mask, but I could make out sharp, humorless lines and even sharper eyes.
They were one hundred percent focused on the Templar.
They didn’t waver, didn’t blink, didn’t flicker in our direction, not even for a second. All he saw was his target.
The masked man shot an arrow into an opening in the Templar’s armor. The Templar retreated back a few steps, clutching his arm.
The masked man fired more arrows. He knew exactly where to aim them. The arrows exploded on impact, blowing off chunks of the Templar’s armor.
“A Metamorph,” I said to myself.
“Savannah?”
I looked at Nevada. “The man in the cloak is a Metamorph.”
“How do you know?”
“His magic. There’s something about it. And that.” I indicated the enormous bow the man carried. “It would take supernatural strength to fire an arrow from that bow. Strength, speed, precision.”
Three more exploding arrows hit the Templar’s armor. There wasn’t much of it left anymore. The Templar must have read the writing on the wall. He dove through the hole in the shop, rolled, and jumped to his feet, taking off running down the street. The Masked Metamorph ran after him.
“Well, that was…weird.” I rubbed my aching arms.
“Who were those people?” Nevada asked.
I bent down and picked up a chunk of armor our assailant had left behind. “I think the first guy was a Templar. As for the second…” I shook my head. “I have no idea.”
Whoever the Masked Metamorph was, he was clearly hunting the Templar.
And he knew how to deal with the techno armor.
Maybe if I talked to the Masked Metamorph, I could convince him to work with me.
And then, maybe, just maybe, I could follow the Templar’s trail back to Kylie and the other missing Apprentices.