Chapter 7
NOTHING NORMAL
Isaid farewell to Capricorn and Scorpio, who were staying behind to help the others come to terms with everything that had happened. The Lost Spirits had decided to make the Monolith their base of operations. I couldn’t decide if they were being pragmatic, ironic, or maybe a bit of both.
Kato, Conner, and I returned to Gaia. I brought the boys straight to the Castle’s infirmary, where Killjoy gave them both a thorough examination.
“Their injuries are minor.”
“As we told you,” Conner said.
I wanted to scream into a bag or something. They were most certainly not ok. There was something wrong with them. I could feel it.
“Please check them again, Killjoy.”
“I already checked them three times. Besides a few cuts and bruises, there’s nothing wrong with them.”
“You missed something. I’m telling you, there’s something wrong with them. This isn’t normal.”
I indicated the boys, who were standing as still as statues—so still that I was watching very, very closely to make sure that they were both still breathing.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Savannah. There’s nothing medically wrong with them.”
“Ok, maybe not medically, but how about magically? The Masked Metamorph could have cursed them or jinxed them or something.”
“If he had, I would see it.” Killjoy tapped the weird, multi-lens goggles he was wearing.
“What about this?” I indicated the glowing ball in Kato’s hand. “What can you tell me about it?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing, as in your goggles can’t see its magic?”
“Nothing, as in there’s no magic to see. Because the ball isn’t magical.”
“It’s all lit up.”
“So are the ceiling lights.” Killjoy pointed up at the electrical lights overhead.
I resisted the urge to growl. It wasn’t Killjoy’s fault that the world had gone wonky. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why would the Masked Metamorph go through all the effort to break into the Monolith, a treasure trove of powerful magical objects, just to steal a mundane ball?”
Killjoy shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea, Savannah.”
Ok, moving on to plan B. Or whatever plan we were on by now. Probably plan X.
I held my hand out to Kato. “Could I borrow that?”
Kato looked at the ball in his hand, then at me. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to give it to you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to give it to you.” Kato clutched the ball harder.
Why me? Seriously, why me? I took a deep breath and counted down from ten. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t help at all.
“I acknowledge that you don’t want to hand me the ball, Kato,” I said. “But sometimes a Knight must make sacrifices for the greater good.”
“And what greater good would that be, Seven? You just want to play with the ball.”
Killjoy chuckled.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Thanks for the assist.”
“I’m not sure how I can assist you, Savannah. If you can’t convince Kato to part with that ball, I fear no one can.”
I took another deep breath, and then, this time when I spoke, instead of soothing, I went for steely. “Hand it over, Kato.”
He didn’t.
So I tried to take it from him. He evaded me easily, then tossed the ball over my head to Conner.
I pivoted and tried to take the ball from him.
Conner tossed it back to Kato. Again and again, back and forth the ball went between Conner and Kato.
They were both in on this together. They were collectively obsessed with holding on to this weird ball, and I hadn’t the faintest idea why.
It would be almost comical if they weren’t acting so strangely.
Growling, I marched up Conner, determined to retrieve the ball this time. Magic flared up around him in a fiery halo. Well, that had certainly escalated fast.
“Sorry, Red. We aren’t giving it up.”
Then he and Kato turned and walked out of the room.
I looked at Killjoy. “The Masked Metamorph clearly did something to them. They aren’t themselves. We need to figure out what he did. We need to fix this.”