Source Fire: A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 5) Read online

  Fifteen minutes ago, I was in romantic bliss with my boyfriend, now I was scrambling to find clothes, and balancing on a knife’s edge of panic.

  “Besides, you kind of distracted me. Which was what I wanted, I just wasn’t expecting to be so well distracted.” I gave a goofy thumbs up, trying to bring some levity to the situation. I was still standing there naked. “So, good job, you.”

  Tomio wasn’t in a joking mood. He tossed me one of his Arcturus training tank tops and shorts from a pile of folded laundry sitting on his desk. “Here.”

  I pulled them on, heart galloping. The shorts sat low on my hips, so I pulled the drawstring tight.

  Tomio grabbed a pair of black climbing pants from the same pile and hopped around, putting them on. He got them into place and made for the door. “Come on, we’d better wake up Basil.”

  13

  Confronted

  We jogged down the hall toward Basil’s suite, passing Ryan’s room on our way. His door stood wide open, and the bed—visible in the corner—was a mess of sheets. We paused.

  “Where’s Ryan?” I asked, my chest pumping air and my heart pumping overheated blood.

  Tomio went into the room, looking around. He checked the bathroom and came out frowning. “Not in the toilet.”

  We looked at each other, eyes filling with dread.

  “Nero got to him?” My whisper was hoarse.

  We bolted.

  If we were right, there wasn’t time to wake Basil. If we were wrong, then we’d know it within minutes.

  We ran through the second-story in the direction opposite Basil’s suite, weaving around landings and passing many closed doors. We zipped through the hall overlooking the lobby, quiet and dark below us as our bare feet pounded on the carpet. Running through the arch leading over the driveway, we took the stairs to the fire-gym’s lobby three at a time.

  Tomio reached the gym doors before me and tugged them open. I followed him through into the dark, cavernous space.

  Ryan was on the other side of the gym, making a beeline for the control panel that would unlock the compartment where we’d secreted the crate. Hearing us, he stopped and turned, eyes wide with surprise. When he saw it was us, he visibly relaxed, but not much.

  He beckoned. “Come on. Help me. I don’t know how much time we have.”

  We caught up and flanked him. I peered up into his face. “Did he get to you through your dreams?”

  Ryan’s irises were black circles in a sea of white. “How did you know?”

  “Because he tried to get to me, too.”

  His expression was lined with tension. “Did you give anything up?”

  I swallowed. “Kind of. Not that we brought her to the academy, but he saw us loading the crate into the van, and…”

  “And?” He bit the word out.

  “And Basil. He saw Basil in my memory, too. But that doesn’t automatically mean he’ll come here.”

  Ryan gave a twisted, humorless smile as he rolled the cover off the control panel. “If he doesn’t come because of what he saw in your memory, he’ll definitely come because of what he saw in mine. When did this happen?”

  We waited as he punched his code into the computer.

  “Less than two hours ago.”

  He gaped at me again, his fingers pausing over the keys. “And you didn’t think to wake me up?”

  “She woke me up,” said Tomio, without giving a hint about what had happened afterward. “She just took a little time to get to the point. We were about to get Basil when we saw you weren’t in your room. Here’s a question. Why didn’t you wake us up? Why try and move her all by yourself?”

  “She’s not that heavy, Nakano,” Ryan snapped. “I just want to get her away from here as soon as possible. Basil said I can borrow his car any time, so right now my plan consists of throwing her in the back and getting her the hell away from the academy.”

  “And go where?” Tomio fired back.

  The panel beeped its confirmation that Ryan had the right to access the gym’s high-tech equipment. All that remained was for him to key in another code and the door hiding the crate would unlock.

  “I was thinking the old mine would be safe. For now.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You really like that place.”

  Ryan paused, his fingers hovering over the keys. “What would be smarter, would be for us to wake Georjie and have her drive away with the crate, somewhere none of us knows.”

  “No way,” Tomio hissed.

  “She’s not getting any more involved than she’s been already,” I added, sending Tomio a look of gratitude.

  “I figured you’d say that.” Ryan finished entering the code. The sound of a bolt whirring back came from the back wall of the gym. He turned away from the panel, looking down at my body, all the way to my feet and back up. “Where are your shoes? And why are you wearing Tomio’s gear?” His gaze flashed to Tomio’s pants and bare chest.

  My face flushed as a look of smug realization came over Ryan’s face. “Oh, I see. I get it now. My brother forgives you for cheating on him, and right away you hop into bed with his best friend. Pardon me, ex best friend.”

  I made a sound of indignation. “That’s not what—”

  Ryan snickered. “Relax, Cagney. I don’t give a crap who’s bed you’ve been in or what you did while you were in it. Learn to take a joke.”

  We were halfway to the hidden compartment, and I was about to tell Ryan where he could shove his jokes when the gym doors squeaked. I expected to see Basil in the open doorway, but the shape standing in the shadows of the fire-gym’s lobby was distinctly female. Whoever she was, she just stood there, watching us from her hidden place in the darkness.

  My first thought was Georjie, which I dismissed in the next instant. This woman was a foot shorter than Georjie. My next instinct was to call Shereen’s name, but this woman had longer hair. Plus, Shereen wasn’t anywhere near the academy, she was in London. There was also something familiar about this woman’s outline.

  There was a flash of bright violet around her head, the kind of corona you see in paintings of angels. It made me gasp and take a step back. The flash was there and gone so quickly I might have thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, except that the boys reacted to it as well. The three of us turned to face the woman full on.

  Ryan swore under his breath. “We’re too late. He’s here.”

  I blinked in confusion. I didn’t see Nero, all I saw was a strange female figure standing in the darkness, one hand holding a door open. She hadn’t yet crossed over the threshold and into the soft moonlight falling in through the skylights.

  “What do you want?” Tomio called, breaking the silence. He sounded so commanding, and not scared at all.

  I, however, was totally creeped out.

  The woman walked forward, passing from gloom into the pale light. The darkness covering her face drew back, and my heart skipped. Ripples of surprise marbled over my calves.

  “Janet!” I made to bolt toward her but Ryan grabbed my arm. I was too confused to yank myself out of his grip. I was relieved to see her alive and in one piece, but what was she doing here?

  Janet didn’t respond when I called her name. Her face was a blank as she walked toward us. She moved like a robot, with perfectly even strides. That violet aura flashed around her head again. Her long braid was gone, her hair cut to a jagged bob and dyed black, or maybe dark brown. The light in the gym threw everything into shades of gray. She wore dark leggings and a plain black sweatshirt with black shoes. Her clothes had the texture of fireproof fabric. My stomach plummeted.

  “Janet.” My whisper was hoarse and plaintive.

  What had he done to her?

  As Janet walked forward a few more steps, another figure appeared in the doorway behind her, one whose hands flashed the same hue of bright violet as the aura around Janet’s head. The purple glow briefly illuminated Nero’s angular face and sharp widows peak, before it disappeared. His hands had flashed in th
e same moment as the aura around Janet’s head, like the lights on the top of skyscrapers, there to warn planes and helicopters how much clearance they had.

  He strolled across the threshold and into the gym, stopping several meters behind Janet.

  It felt like all the oxygen had been sucked from the room. Ryan’s hand still gripped my forearm. I hardly noticed.

  “Nice to see you again, Ryan.” Nero’s words came out almost gentle, and thickly lyrical with a strong Italian accent.

  I shuddered and thought of Dante, who sounded similar.

  Nero’s gaze flicked to Tomio, then to me, but he continued to address Ryan without giving any hint as to what emotional state he was in or what he had planned. “You might have some elevated skills, Wendig, but you need to work on blocking your mind. I cracked you like an egg.”

  Ryan’s fingers tightened so much around my forearm that I winced and finally yanked myself free.

  “Unlike your friend, here.” He gestured to me, an elegant movement that was in sync with another flash of violet. “She figured out pretty quickly what was going on. Though I’m wondering if she’s as strong awake as she is asleep.”

  “What do you want?” Tomio barked.

  Nero’s lips curled. “Not too bright, are you, my boy. I want what’s in the wall behind you. I’m not by nature a violent man. I don’t feel the need to destroy others if it can be avoided. We can do this peacefully.”

  I let out a snort at this outrageous statement.

  Nero’s brows lifted. “Oh, I assure you it’s true. Name one magus who has died as a result of their fire being snuffed. I challenge you.”

  My jaw dropped. “Thousands of magi, maybe even tens of thousands by now, have committed suicide thanks to you! Others have been killed in accidents caused by the shock of losing their fire, and many more are suffering with PTSD. You have a lot to answer for.”

  I felt waves of rage rolling off Ryan, but fear, too. Ryan was powerful, but we all knew who the most powerful mage in the room was. There was no way around that.

  The three of us had had no time to coordinate a defense or even talk about the possibility of having to confront Nero. We stood between him and what he so desperately wanted, with no strategy. Two of us weren’t even wearing shoes.

  Nero waved a hand. “None of that is my fault. Too many of you let the power inside define your identity. When they discover how little value they have without the fire, they crumble. Tsk. So sad.”

  I thought about Ryan’s dad, about my classmates, and all the unknown magi convalescing at the agency and in their homes. Nero felt nothing for what he’d done to them. It was staggering.

  Nero continued, moving a few steps closer. “Ask yourself a simple question. Who am I without my fire? Because one way or another, you will lose it. Better to prepare yourself now. But like I said, I am not unreasonable, and I abhor violence, so I’m prepared to offer a trade.” He gestured to where Janet stood before him, quiet and complacent. There was no sign that she was aware of her surroundings or could even hear this conversation.

  “You take her, and I’ll take the shell. I know it’s in this room. Not just from your memory, Ryan. I’m close enough to feel it now. So, how about we make a simple, peaceful exchange? Which is generous of me, under the circumstances. Decline, and I shall turn her to ash before your eyes, and take the shell anyway.”

  My tongue felt swollen and dry. Give up my fire for Janet’s life? I could do that. I’d been born without it, and while I was attached to my powers now, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let Nero kill Janet just to delay him from taking the shell for a few minutes longer.

  I glanced at Ryan, and Tomio, just beyond him. But would they? Not to mention we would be making this decision for all the magi with a green idle—the fourteen percent of our species left. If we did this, would we be on the run for the rest of our lives from vengeful ex-supernaturals? But no one needed to know. Most magi weren’t involved directly with this pseudo-genocide, most magi didn’t even know who Nero was, or that he was the cause of their loss.

  I closed my eyes and sent Basil a request to wake up, to come to the gym and help us. Fire magi didn’t have telepathy, but there was no harm in trying.

  “Deal,” said Tomio. My eyes flew open and I sent him another grateful look.

  “No deal,” barked Ryan. He put an arm out in front of Tomio’s chest, and said under his breath, “He’s bluffing. He won’t kill her. He loves her, he told me so himself. We can take him, but we have to stand together. Please, trust me.”

  “If you love someone, you don’t keep them in a cage,” I whispered. “He doesn’t give a crap about her.”

  Nero chuckled. The sound made my skin crawl. It was so utterly confident, so self-assured and all-knowing. He’d look like a regular guy if it hadn’t been for the strange alchemy he was using on Janet, but he wasn’t regular. Not anymore.

  “Last chance.” Nero raised a hand, fingers posed as if to snap. His hand flashed bright purple and Janet’s feet came off the floor.

  I gasped a deep inhale, and yelled. “It’s in the wall behind us!”

  Ryan’s hand clamped over my mouth hard, bruising my lips.

  “I already knew that,” Nero replied, as cool as if he were remarking about the weather. “The deal is off. Too late, raggazzi.”

  He snapped his fingers.

  Janet burst into purple flames.

  Ripping Ryan’s hand away from my mouth, I screamed her name, my head pounding with heat and horror. Wanting to look away but unable, I saw her face contort with pain. She threw her head back and opened her mouth wide in a scream, though there was no sound. Her body, her clothes, her hair, turned gray then black as purple sparks seared through her. A pile of purple ash began to rise beneath her feet as her body dried out and crumbled from the bottom up.

  There was a bright flash of orange, red and indigo to my left. There was yelling. Nero was gone, I couldn’t see him anywhere, but I was too shocked to look for him. My eyes were glued to the ash pile that had once been Janet. Landing on my knees on the neoprene floor, I crawled toward the remains of the woman who had given up her new-found freedom so willingly for us.

  Someone was saying my name, but I couldn’t think about who it was or why. Hands gripped my upper arms, lifting me from the floor. Explosions of fiery colors in my periphery accompanied muffled blasts. It was like crawling through no man’s land with a raging firestorm going on all around.

  “Janet,” I sobbed.

  “Saxony!” Tomio’s voice broke through.

  He set me on my feet as I shuddered with grief and horror. His hands on my shoulders, he gripped and turned me forcefully away from the pile of ash. Putting a hand on the side of my face, he shielded my eyes from her, forcing me to look at him.

  His voice sounded far away. “Look at me, Saxony. Sweetheart, focus on my eyes.”

  Shuddering and sucking in breaths, I forced my blurry vision on Tomio’s face.

  “Can you hear me?” he asked.

  I nodded, feeling hot tears pouring from my eyes.

  “Listen,” he enunciated each word. “It was a glamour. Janet is fine. Look again.”

  I could hardly register his words over the sounds of popping, ripping, hissing, and yelling. Then his message penetrated my mind.

  “Look.” Tomio took his hand away from my face.

  I turned my face, hope rising in my chest like a dove ascending.

  Janet was indeed there, on her knees, her arms crossed over her chest, hugging herself. Her eyes were wide as she watched something going on behind me and Tomio, but she was whole. She was fine.

  Relief made me sag against Tomio. He held me up until I could get my legs to flex.

  Tomio said in my ear, “Get her out of here. I have to help Ryan.”

  Everything snapped into focus. The soundscape that had been part of the background came surging into the foreground with a vengeance. Looking over my shoulder, my heart almost stopped.

&nb
sp; Ryan and Nero flew across the fire-gym’s floor in combat, jetting colored flames at each other from afar only to tangle a moment later in a flurry of punches, kicks, and wrestler-like grapples. They moved like comets. The air seethed with chemical smells and smoke, singeing my nostrils.

  In seconds, a pattern emerged in their aggressive exchanges. Nero advanced for the back wall, Ryan cut him off. Nero blasted Ryan with some alchemical-fire, filling the air with a strange hazy smoke. Ryan either absorbed it or deflected it, detonating in his joints to move faster than humanly possible. Nero, too. They moved like stop motion puppets in time-lapse, fast, then still. A blur between photographs. Their bodies became streaks of light as they didn’t bother to internalize. My vision barely recovered from the resulting black spots before more colored blooms appear in front of my eyes, half blinding me.

  “What—” I turned to Tomio, but he was gone. He swept into the rainbow battle and added his own explosive streaks of light, his form swallowed up by the pyrotechnics. I saw his shadow coil and spring, flying into a shape that had to be Nero, though by now he was barely identifiable in the melee.

  All this happened in seconds, leaving me reeling and breathless. Janet was still on the floor. I ran to her and she saw me coming, her face lighting up with many emotions: relief, fear, hope, regret.

  “Sax—” she opened her arms and got to her feet.

  I flew into her embrace. “I’m so sorry. We failed you.”

  She didn’t speak, only squeezed me, her body shaking.

  I pulled her to face me, moving her toward the doors. “Listen carefully, go straight down the hall. Don’t stop until you find the front lobby, it has an antique telephone box. Can you do that?”

  She nodded, her fingers gripping my arm as we passed through the doors.

  I tried not to talk too fast. “When you reach the lobby, take the stairs to the second floor landing. The first door on your left is the headmaster’s office. It won’t be locked. There’s a phone on the desk. Dial one-oh-seven.”