Page 13

THIRTEEN

Lee

I need a way out of the dome. I need to find Wren.

I loop my thumbs around the straps of Maya’s backpack, the safe space for the shard of liquid moonlight I have to get to my girlfriend. I don’t know who the maiden is, but I do know that the Air Elemental, the same one that whisked Wren away, called her Elegida—the Conduit—and that there can be only one.

I smooth my hand along my pocket. Tucked inside is Maya’s folded checklist, and it crinkles under my fingertips. It felt so good to cross off the next item on her list. I only wish she were here to see her plan in action.

I’ve been looking for Luke for over an hour. There are only so many places a person can hide on campus, but without my phone, I’ve had to hoof it to each of them.

Moon Hall is up ahead gleaming and gray as a tombstone. I slip inside the front door and weave around clumps of students whose voices hush when I approach. I’m not sure if it’s me they don’t trust or the people in charge. Either way, I represent both.

I take the rear door out to the courtyard beyond. I haven’t looked behind Moon Hall yet. Maybe he’s back there drilling with some Scorpio moons. I’m making my way to the rear exit when the hidden door to the spiral staircase—the only one that leads up to Celeste’s Conduit Chamber—opens and Luke bursts out. He sees me and for a moment his eyes narrow, like he’s annoyed. Then his expression shifts into his familiar snarky grin.

“Hey, bro!”

“Were you with Celeste?”

Luke shakes his head, his mop of red hair dusting his ears. “I was up there helping repair the damage. Been sweeping forever, but there’s still glass everywhere.”

I catch the door to the stairwell before it closes all the way and motion for him to follow me.

“What kind of meetup is this?” he says with a waggle of his eyebrows. “I need to know if I should put on ChapStick.”

“You wish.” I roll my eyes. I’m not in the mood for his jokes. “I need to get outside the dome. There has to be a spell or something that can get me through.”

“You planning some elaborate rescue mission for Wren?”

“No,” I say a little too quickly. “Well, not in the way you’re thinking.”

He leans against the railing and crosses his arms over his chest. “So, you’re not going to take off into the woods crawling with wild Elementals?”

“No, I’m not.” I adjust my grip on the backpack and stare back at him, silently daring him to challenge me.

Luke either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. “Then what are you planning?”

“You my babysitter now?” With a sigh of exasperation, I run my fingers over my cornrows. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Of course I’m going to help.” He pushes away from the railing and drapes his arm over my shoulders. “And it’s called being a friend, ass. But don’t get too excited. I’m not going to make us friendship bracelets or anything.”

“Good, because I only need magick. Magick that will open the protective barrier around campus.”

He heads to the stairwell exit and stops before opening the door. “Where do you think we’re going to find that kind of magick? I mean, my mom knows some wicked spells, but she’s campaigning and it’ll take her years to get back to me. Plus, I talked with Rottingham and Celeste. We decided not to let my parents know about what’s going on here. Actually, they’ve decided to keep a lid on everything.” He starts to open the door and leans over to me, whispering, “What happens on Moon Isle stays on Moon Isle.”

I stiffen. “So, you did talk to Celeste?”

Luke pushes open the door and curious gazes dart to us. I want to pull Luke back inside the quiet isolation of the stairwell, but that would lead to too many questions.

“She was in the room and really only spoke to Rottingham,” he continues. “But I’m giving myself the win and saying that yeah, we had a full and complete conversation.”

This time, I lean into him as I say, “Did you notice she looks—”

“Older?” He nods. “Not saying that women can’t age, but it happened quick, right?”

An image of Wren fleeing the Conduit Chamber flashes from my memory. Her hair had changed color, but that hadn’t been the only change. Wren had looked older. Not like Celeste—like someone’s middle-aged mom. Wren had looked mature . A young woman who’d come into her power.

“Hey, Earth to Lee. Where’s your head, dude?” I come back to the present and realize what Luke was saying before I started interrogating him about Celeste. “Wait, do you mean your mom knows some spells that might be able to help us?”

“Sure. I mean, maybe , but I couldn’t get ahold of her even if I wanted to.”

“My father,” I say, stopping in front of Moon Hall’s back exit. “If your mom has access to higher-level spells, my father does, too.”

“Did I just solve another problem? Man, I am a genius.”

I frown. “When you start solving more problems than you create, come find me.”

“Me, create problems? Nah. Have you seen this face?” He points to his cheeks, round with a cheesy grin.

“You might have helped, but the jury’s still out,” I tell him. “Come on. Let’s find Tyrell Young.”

Luke and I left Moon Hall only to end up back here again. Although it shouldn’t surprise me that my father’s taken over an office on the second floor strictly reserved for visiting VIPs. It’s predictably decorated with mahogany furniture, including a massive desk that gleams in the light from the huge beveled windows that, like Rottingham’s, face the ocean.

My father meets my request with his usual response—a frown and a question. “What purpose do you have outside the dome?”

I force myself not to get angry. I need to be calm, to reason with him. Better yet, I need to think like he does. “Wren, Lily, and Ruby are out there.”

“And that’s being handled.” He lifts a shoulder and drops it nonchalantly.

Silent until then, Luke takes a step forward, face flushed. “Handled? What does that even mean?”

“It means that you’ll be informed of what’s taking place if and when it applies to you. Until then, it ceases to matter.”

Luke opens his mouth to say something I’m sure we’ll both regret when I step in front of him. “You’re right. None of that matters. What does is finding them, and I assume that since they haven’t been brought back, no one knows exactly where they are.”

My father sets down his pen and folds his arms over his chest, a sure sign that I’m on the right track.

“If I could talk to Wren, I could get her to tell me where they are,” I say.

He raises one brow, more than mildly interested. “What does that have to do with going outside the dome?”

Luke scoffs and then says, “How’s he supposed to get a message to her from inside it? Nothing can get through.”

“That’s not necessarily true. If you have the experience and know the right spell work, you can make anything happen,” I say, trying to appeal to his ego.

My father doesn’t look convinced. Instead, he takes a deep breath and reaches for his pen. Once he gets back into work, I will have lost my chance.

“Look,” I say, bracing my hands on his borrowed desk and lowering my voice so Luke can’t hear. “I’m man enough to know when I’ve let my emotions get the best of me. And you’re right. Maya would be disappointed. I’m done with that. I’ve put it all behind me. I’m ready to be the person my family needs and deserves.”

“A Young.” My father takes a moment to consider this before he slides his chair back and stands, offering me his hand to shake. “I’m glad to see it.”

I take his hand. Goose bumps rise along my arms as I shake it, feeling like I’ve made a deal with the devil himself.

From behind me, Luke claps and rubs his hands together. “I know what that means. We got a deal.”

“I will help my son. You can stay and watch. Maybe you’ll even learn something.”

Luke shrugs. “Wouldn’t get my hopes up, Mr. Young.”

“Sit down, Lee,” my father says as he opens a drawer to the ornate desk, picks his way through it, and then pulls out one piece of unlined white paper. “I’m going to cast a complex communication spell.” He glances up at Luke as I sit in one of the two chairs that face the desk. “And you, Luke Weatherford, need to keep your mouth shut while I set my intention.”

Luke makes a ridiculous zip my lips motion as he plops into the chair next to mine. My father frowns and shakes his head, and then he smooths the paper on the desk, closes his eyes, and begins tracing incredibly intricate patterns in the air over the paper. I watch him closely, trying to memorize what he’s doing, but it’s impossible. He’s moving too quickly, and his whispers are so low that the only words I can make out are “air,” “communicate,” my name, and Wren’s.

This isn’t how I pictured this going. I wanted him to give me the spell so I could cast it in privacy. There’s so much I need to say to Wren, to ask her, but I’m not going to be able to say any of it with my father in the room.

The energy within the forest-green walls builds to a level that crackles along my skin. Beside me Luke whistles low and mutters, “That power is amazing.”

Just when I think the energy surging around us will swallow us whole, my father opens his eyes. He stares at me, and when he speaks it’s in short bursts, like the words have to fight through the energy to reach me.

“Sit there. Do not move. Get ready. I’m sending you to her.”

Before I can ask any questions, his attention and all the power in the room focus on the flat, white paper.

Slowly, intently, he folds the page in half. “Into this paper, I fold Air energy, gifted from the moon, borrowed by me.” The paper begins to glow, shifting from milky white to the textured, glistening white of fresh snow under a full moon.

Next, he takes the upper left corner of the paper and folds it back to meet the crease he just made, saying, “I fold the magick of words into this paper—invisible, but more powerful than the sword.”

My father turns the paper over and repeats the action, smoothing the right corner down to meet the central crease. “I fold the magick of communication into this paper—invisible, but more important than the temporary structures of mankind.”

The paper glitters silver-white. It’s so bright I have to squint to see the shape he’s created. Through the beaming glow I make it out—a paper airplane.

Staring at me, he picks it up, holding it like he’s a kid getting ready to fling it into the sky. “Picture Wren,” he says. “Concentrate on her. Now!”

It’s not hard to do as he commands and picture Wren’s head on my shoulder, her fitting perfectly against me, feel her warmth and her lips pressed to mine.

As magick radiates from the glowing paper airplane, my father pulls his arm back and says, “Through the power gifted me by our Lady Moon and folded by me into this vehicle, grant this communication spell reach from Lee Young to Wren Nightingale—smoothly, quickly, and once only.”

He hurls the plane directly at me. Like a glowing moon-silvered arrow, it strikes the center of my forehead. It doesn’t hit me hard. How could it? It’s just a paper plane. But I feel the strike like electricity zapping through my body. My vision starts to swim as the airplane makes a loop around the room before jetting straight to the beveled-glass window. It passes right through the glass and soars up. It’s a tiny silver speck when it pierces the protective dome, and without even slowing, it flies off toward the forest.

And just like that, my eyes roll back, and my body goes limp. Pockets of light and shadowed shapes speed by a sheet of white, a sheet of—

Paper. I’m the paper .

“Dude, you okay?” Luke shakes my shoulder. I feel it like he’s pressing against me through a hundred down-filled coats. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, I can hear you.” I try to adjust my body as I start to slide down the chair, but my movements are muted, slow and syrupy. “Can you hear me ?”

“Don’t let him fall out of the chair!” my father snaps, and Luke’s arms are under one of mine, and my father’s are under the other. Luke lets out a low grunt as they help me sit back up.

“Father, Luke, can you hear me ?” My pulse hammers fast and panic grips my lungs while I await my father’s reply, Luke’s reply. Anyone’s reply! What if they can’t hear me? What if I’m stuck between worlds, in this spell that has me in two places at once?

“We hear you,” my father says gruffly.

Luke sighs. “Yeah, dude. We can hear you. You’re way heavier than you look.”

“Maybe you’re just weaker than you look,” I say.

“Most definitely,” my father retorts. I hear him walk by and hear the small creak of his desk chair as he returns to his seat behind the desk.

“Ha, ha, very funny. Both Youngs have jokes.”

Even though I can’t see him, I know Luke’s staring down at his flexed biceps. “Want to stop checking yourself out long enough for me to tell you what’s going on my end?”

He makes a clicking sound that lets me know I was right before laughing it off. “Yeah, what do you got?”

“I was seeing shapes and getting bits and pieces of conversation, but now it’s just dark and quiet. It… it sounds like wind.”

“It is wind,” my father says. “This spell travels fast. You’re already past the dome.”

“Will Wren be able to see me and hear me? Will I be able to see her?”

“Listen and learn, Leland. I won’t tell you everything.”

“Yeah, Lee, take a page out of my book, because I’m definitely listening and learning,” Luke says.

“Quiet, Luke!” my father and I say together, which almost makes me laugh.

Seconds tick by, and my stomach churns as the communication spell blasts through the forest. I’m starting to become used to the speed and can look around as the plane and I soar through the night. The forest falls away, changing to cliffs and canyons below me. I get a glimpse of a long suspension bridge over a gorge, and then my stomach is in my throat and we dive fast . The deep blue night bleeds into the warm yellow of firelight as the plane comes to an abrupt halt. My vision is blurry, like an unfocused camera, and when it finally clears all I can see is Wren’s face, lit by firelight. Her head’s bowed and she’s looking at something on a piece of paper, but I can’t tell what it is because I’m so focused on Wren.

I’ve gone longer than this without seeing her, but I feel like a man lost at sea who’s finally found land. I want to wrap my arms around her, drop anchor, and never leave.

Wren looks up from the paper, her brow creased as she stares at the me that is a magickal paper plane. “What the…?”

“It’s me,” I blurt. “It’s Lee.”

“You’re literally a paper airplane.” She peers at me, a giggle rising in her throat. “What kind of magick is this?”

I can’t maintain my calm. Instead, I fire questions at her, throwing up my feelings in the form of an interrogation. “Are you safe? It’s so good to see your face. Where are you? Are you lost? Do you know how to get back to the Academia?”

“If you let me get a word in, I’ll tell you.” Her smile is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Her laugh is rich and deep, and if I closed my eyes I could get buried in it—a seed nestled in wet earth. “Lee, I missed you!” Her squeal of excitement does nothing to loosen the knot of worry tied around my chest. “How did you do this? How are we even talking right now?” She moves, and all I see are her feet and the ground. “Are you inside this paper?”

“Now who’s asking all the questions?” I say.

“Is Lily with her? Can you see my sister?” Luke’s shaking my shoulder, and I feel like I’m being pushed through molasses.

“I can’t see anyone else,” I tell him. “Only Wren.” And that’s enough for me.

“Lily and Ruby are here with me,” she offers, pointing over her shoulder.

Luke’s voice is closer, like he’s crouching down next to me. “Tell Wren to tell Lily that I said—”

“I don’t know how long this spell will last.” I still move slowly, but even at a sloth’s pace, jabbing my elbow into Luke lets him know I’m in no mood to be his secretary. “I’ve been worried about you,” I say, my attention once again completely on Wren. “I’m still worried about you. We all are.”

Her smile falters, her expression morphing into an unreadable mask.

There’s so much I want to say, but I know my father is hanging on my every word. There’s no way I can tell her about Maya’s list or the liquid moonlight or that coming back now, without real answers, might put her in danger. My only option is to move forward with the plan I brought to my father. “Tell me where you are. Tell me how I can find you.”

She tilts her head like she’s listening to someone, but she’s the only person I can see or hear.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I mean, I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure.” She listens for a moment longer before her brow pinches and she sucks in a pained breath.

Adrenaline surges hot in my veins as she lets out a hiss of discomfort and rubs her temple. If my muscles weren’t bags of molasses, I’d be on my feet, ready for a fight.

“Get answers, Leland,” my father growls, but I can’t focus on that when Wren is in pain.

“Who’s there? Who’s hurting you? Is it that Elemental? The one from campus?” I know I’m firing off too many questions too quickly just like before, but I can’t help it. Our minutes together are numbered, and I have to get as much information as possible. Plus, every emotion I’ve buried in fear of being called out by my father has clawed its way back up.

“Did it tell her to stab Celeste?” My father’s shout breaks through my panic, and the only thing I can think to do is repeat his question.

“Did it tell you to stab Celeste?” I want to crawl through this spell and give her a sign that I don’t doubt her. I never will again. But all I have are limbs like cooked noodles and a father who will interpret my hesitation as treason.

“I didn’t stab Celeste! She stabbed herself.” Her gaze narrows, her jaw set.

I’m losing her. If I haven’t lost her already.

My anger and fear emerge from their graves and wrap rotting limbs around my throat. “Tell me where you are. I can help you. I can—”

“ Help me? How?” Her voice is tight and cold as ice. “By handing me over to Celeste and Rottingham? They want me dead.”

I’m spiraling. I can’t be honest, but I don’t want to shut her out and have her think she can’t trust me. “Wren, you lost someone close to you. Just because it’s happened before doesn’t make it any easier. You need time to heal. We can figure this out together. Tell me where you are.”

“No, Lee, we won’t figure this out together. I’m going to use what I have and finish what should have been done hundreds of years ago. Then you’ll see.”

“You’re not making any sense. This whole thing doesn’t make any sense.” Even though neither of us sees it, I gesture to the room around me, the movement as slow as walking underwater.

“If you’d stop listening to everyone around you and get out of your own way for five seconds, it would all make perfect sense,” she grinds out. “You, more than anyone, understand what happens when someone has a chance at absolute power.”

The sound of ripping paper echoes between my ears. Wren is gone, and I’m fully back in the office. I rub my hands on my thighs and stand up. I feel lightning fast, but it’s only a sensation—the difference between being in two places at once versus being 100 percent in my body.

“Sooo…” Luke stretches the word, staring at me expectantly.

“She’s not coming back. None of them are.” I can’t bring myself to look at my father as I start pacing back and forth between the leather chairs and the desk. I’ve always thought better on my feet.

“Yeah.” Luke runs his hand through his red hair. “I got that from everything you said.”

“Then why’d you ask?” I fire the words like arrows.

Luke takes a step back, his palms out in front of his chest. “Lee, relax. I just want to help.”

“I know.” I drag my hand down my stubbled cheek. The spell may have worked, but I wasn’t able to tell Wren anything or ask her the questions I really want answers to. Worse than that, I think she doubts I’m on her side.

“Leland—” Before my father can launch whatever assault he has planned, there’s a knock at the door.

Rottingham crashes into the room like a storm, his presence alone thickening the air around us. He’s flanked by a professor I recognize as one who’s been running drills with the other students. The Scorpio professor’s hazel gaze cuts through the mounting tension in my father’s rented office like a blade.

“We’re going off campus,” Rottingham declares, his voice booming with authority. “Lee and Luke, I need you to stay here and continue to keep your peers calm. This disturbance is almost at an end.” His words are supposed to comfort, to assure, but they feel more like chains, binding me to a role I refuse to play.

“You’re going after Wren, aren’t you?” Before he can answer, I catch Luke’s eye. Without a word, we understand each other perfectly.

My nerves are on fire, every one of them screaming for a fight. “There’s no way you’re going without us.” The words erupt from me with a force I didn’t know I possessed.

“Sorry, Dean, we’re coming, too.” Luke nods his agreement, and I’ve never been happier to have a true friend by my side.

My father rises from his chair, his calmness a stark contrast to my swirling emotions. “Go ahead, Rottingham; take the boys,” he suggests. “They’ll be able to handle those girls, no problem. After all, you don’t want them to feel like they’re being forced back to campus when we all know you’re doing this for their benefit.” His chest swells and an elusive grin twitches against the corners of his mouth. “I’ll be here to support the students and Celeste in your absence.

My father might not be on my side in the same way Luke is, but I appreciate that, for once, we’re both after the same end result.

The room goes silent as Rottingham and the Scorpio professor consider Tyrell’s suggestion. I can almost see the gears turning in Rottingham’s head as he weighs his options.

Finally, he nods. It’s a small victory, but it’s significant nonetheless. Outside the dome is my best chance to talk to Wren freely and honestly.

“Prepare yourselves,” the Scorpio professor barks, her voice deep and worn around the edges. “We don’t know what we’ll find when we get to the Realm of the Elementals.”

Realm of the Elementals? Luke mouths as we rush to join the dean and the professor.

I shrug, as familiar with the realm the Scorpio professor just mentioned as I am with Michael Jordan’s Bulls losing in the finals.

On my way out, I can’t resist glancing back at my father. He doesn’t notice me. Instead, he’s grinning to himself and staring out the window at the campus stretched out in front of Moon Hall. My spine stiffens, and I suppress a shudder. I can’t stay here trying to balance sneaking around while I make sure he’s not up to something. I have to get to Wren. But she was right—absolute power corrupts absolutely.