Page 21

TWENTY-ONE

Wren

“So, I know we said the Realm of Elementals is like the Tardis, but I didn’t expect it to bring us to the Shire,” Ruby says.

“Hey, I get that reference!” Luke grins down at Ruby. “The Shire, like where Hobbits live in Lord of the Rings .”

“Don’t think that just because you read a book I won’t be watching you closely.” Ruby shakes their head at Luke.

“He didn’t read Tolkien’s trilogy.” Lily grins at Ruby. “He likes the movies.”

“What? They’re classics,” Luke protests.

“It’s beautiful,” I say as we all peer across the clearing that looks like someone took a giant scoop out of the forest and filled it in with grass and flowers and an amazing little home carved into the far side of the slope that rises to meet more dense forest. The fireflies are strands of living lights draped around the entrance to the home, hanging from trees and illuminating a scene of perfect tranquility. The river flows around the rear of the hobbit-like dwelling, disappearing into the forest. “Well, I think it’s a good sign that it’s so pretty. Whatever is down there is what we need to complete the ritual. Maybe this will be the one easy part of this quest.”

Viento’s sardonic snort echoes through my mind.

Lee takes out the note Maya left behind and his finger trails along the checklist. “According to Maya and the book, there’s really only one option of who’s behind that door.”

“No matter who it is, we should get down there before the Scorpios ruin the easy part of this,” says Lily.

We make our way down the gentle slope and across the verdant valley carpeted in wildflowers and clover. As we get closer to the little home, elaborate gardens become visible in the soft yellow light of the fireflies. Even in the dimness I see that the plants in the gardens are laden with ripe vegetables. Framing the gardens are trees filled with fruit that perfumes the gentle night breeze. Ropes of fireflies illuminate a pretty picnic table that rests near the front of the house. We’re not quite at the door to the home when it opens and an elderly woman steps out. Her hair is the color of moonlight. It cascades freely in a wave down to her waist. Her eyes are expressive and as dark as the deep forest. Her face is lined heavily, though the remnants of beauty hover around her cheekbones and eyes, and in the long sweep of her neck.

We stop as she strides from the doorway directly to me. I’m only five feet nothing, but she’s tiny—not even five feet tall. She looks up at me and her smile lights up her face like a grandma greeting her favorite grandchild.

“Oh! It’s taken you so long. I have called and called, and waited and waited. So long, so very long. But you are finally here, Doncella, and it makes my heart glad.” The old woman’s voice is as vibrant and youthful as her smile. She shifts her attention from me to Viento, who hovers just above and to my left. Her smile fades as she sniffs the air. “I can smell Selene’s magick on you.”

Viento bows his head. Please tell the Anciana why I stink of Selene’s magick.

“Anciana? Is that your name?” I ask the old woman.

“It is my title, Elder, just as Doncella is yours, though not your name, child.”

“My name is Wren, and this is my Air Elemental friend, Viento. He wants you to know that he smells like Selene’s magick because of the spell she placed on him many years ago,” I explain.

She studies Viento and then nods. “I see. He is the Elemental friend from the Academia de la Luna the Wild Ones have told me about.” Her gaze touches each person in our group as she continues. “I am Catalina the Elder, and I welcome those who have been approved by the Elementals to my home.”

I feel a jolt of shock at her introduction. “Catalina, that’s the name of the original elder,” I say quickly, wonderingly. “The one who survived the shipwreck with Selene the maiden and Isabel the mother.”

“Yes, child. That is me.”

“You look really good for two hundred and fifty years old,” Lily says with a smile.

Catalina turns her smile on Lily. “Actually, I was fifty years old when we came to this isle, which makes me three hundred. Time has certainly gone by quickly.”

“How is it possible?” Ruby asks. “We know Selene, who calls herself Celeste in our lifetime, is also hundreds of years old, but what we don’t know is how.”

“I live almost completely unchanged for all these years because the Wild Ones share their immortality with me,” Catalina explains as she motions for us to follow her to the picnic bench arranged welcomingly under a strand of glittering fireflies hanging from the entrance of the home to the forest of the fruit trees. As we sit, the old woman weaves elaborate spell-work movements with her hands, so quickly and intricately that even Lee stares in wonder. Suddenly wooden plates laden with succulent fruits and fresh, ripe vegetables appear on the table. “Please, refresh yourselves. I know your journey here was long and arduous.” Then she continues. “Selene, who is your Celeste, is sustained through the magick of Mother Moon. It has kept her the maiden for generations.”

“She’s not a maiden anymore,” says Lee. “She looks older. More like a mom.”

Catalina nods and her gaze goes to me. “She wasn’t able to kill you or force you to reject your magick and leave the isle.”

“She tried to kill me, but with the help of my friends I escaped,” I say.

“I have never before been this close to the completion of the ritual. I thought if a maiden lived that Selene would be forced into the role of the mother. It appears I was correct.”

“But how can we understand you?” Lee asks. “You don’t even have an accent.”

“Thank the Elementals,” says Catalina. “Their magick not only sustains me but allows you to hear me in your language, and me to hear you in mine.”

“My head feels like it’s going to explode,” Luke mutters.

Ruby shrugs. “Don’t let us stop you.”

The old woman’s laughter is deep and infectious. “I see not all of you are easy allies.”

“No, which is why we have to hurry.” I point to each of my friends as I make quick introductions. “Ruby and Lily and Viento helped me escape the Academia. Lee and Luke followed us after they got away from the trackers from the Academia who are after us. If they catch us before the ritual is completed they’ll drag us back to school, and Celeste will kill us—well, she’ll kill me for sure.”

“She’ll kill us all,” Lee adds. “She’ll make it look like a tragic accident to our parents, but we know the truth. No way Celeste will let us live.”

“So, we don’t have much time.” I put my backpack on the table and take out the shard of liquid moonlight. When I hold it up it glows in the soft light of the fireflies. “We need to complete the ritual now. It’ll free the Elementals and moon magick, and there will be nothing Celeste can do about it afterward. The world will have changed, but we’ll be safe from Celeste.”

Catalina touches the glowing shard gently, reverently. “Liquid moonlight. I’m so glad you were able to read my book and understand we must have it to complete the ritual.”

“You wrote that book?” Lee asks.

Catalina smiles at him. “I like your eyes, young man. They are deep and emotional. Do not let the world harden you.” She reaches across the table and pats Lee’s hand before continuing. “I did write the book. I also bespelled it to draw to it the maiden and her allies. I cloaked it in moonlight so that it isn’t easily deciphered. And then I waited for a maiden canny enough to defeat Selene’s trap and the tests of the Wild Ones, who have ever protected me—and here you are!”

“This is so awesome!” Lily gushes. “What do you and Wren need to do to finish the ritual? Can we help set up something? Do we need to call the wild Elementals?”

“Oh, child.” Catalina’s smile dims. “The ritual can only be completed when each of the three, maiden, mother, and elder, grasp liquid moonlight and finish drawing down the power of the moon so that it and the Elementals are released into the world.”

“You mean we need Selene/Celeste to complete the ritual?” I ask miserably as my stomach lurches.

“Yes. There is only one way to complete the ritual, to free Her light and the Elementals, and that is the joining of the three.” She caresses the glowing shard again. “As we touch liquid moonlight.”

“So that’s it,” Luke says. “All this is for nothing. The ritual can’t be completed.”

“She didn’t say that,” Ruby snaps at Luke. “Seems to me all we’re lacking is one part of a four-part spell, and we know where we can find that one part.”

At the Academia. A place Selene hasn’t left for two hundred and fifty years. Viento’s voice rings in my mind, boosting my confidence as surely as I can boost the power of the Moonstruck.

“Then we get Celeste.” I turn to Catalina. “If the three of us are together and you and I force Celeste to touch the liquid moonlight with us, will that complete the spell?”

“It will if one of us knows the words to draw down the moon and will speak them.” The old woman’s eyes crinkle with permanent smile lines. “I know the words. I will willingly speak them.”

“So, we need to get Wren and Catalina to Celeste.” Ruby picks up a plump blueberry from the pile of untouched fruit heaped on the table. “That doesn’t sound as hard as passing the tests of the four Elementals and getting here in one piece.” They pop the blueberry in their mouth and suddenly small luna moths are everywhere, chattering frantically and swarming all around us.

“Danger is here!” Catalina shouts as her hands deftly trace magickal patterns. “Reveal it!”

The fireflies illuminating the picnic bench and Catalina’s home explode into action. They break into clumps of light that zip across the clearing to hover above the five Scorpio moons, the Academia’s Water Elemental, and Dean Rottingham racing out of the forest to descend upon us.

“We have to get out of here!” Ruby is already helping Luke to his feet. Lily is at their side as Ruby supports Luke and they move close to Catalina. “We need to lose the trackers and then regroup and figure out how to breach the dome and grab Selene.”

Lee stuffs his empty backpack into mine and throws it over his shoulders before joining Viento to stand in front of me, ready to take on the Scorpios sprinting across the clearing at us. But Ruby is right. This isn’t a battle we can win. Even if I boost Ruby (and how the hell am I supposed to do that while she’s fighting?) she can’t defeat five mature Scorpios and a Water Elemental.

We’re out of time.

“Luna moth! I need you! Please help!”

The small moths that warned us come together and with a blaze of light they form the beautiful, car-sized luna moth. She trills nervously and moves close beside Ruby, Lily, and Luke.

“I shall slow them.” Catalina walks briskly to the only strand of fireflies left illuminating her house. “Wild Ones, my children, show them if they bring violence to my home they will be met with violence.”

The small, softly lit fireflies instantly change into the swarm that almost burned us alive during the fire test. Fist-sized bugs made of flame fly across the clearing to join the fireflies that continue to illuminate the Scorpios and Rottingham, forcing them to slow and defend themselves. At Rottingham’s shrieks of pain, the Water Elemental leaves the front of the pack to turn back to the dean.

Viento draws in a deep breath and when he releases it fog billows from him. It spreads quickly around us, making soup out of night and mixing the cries of pain from the dean and the Scorpios with a familiar sizzle I recognize as fireflies being doused with water.

“The fireflies won’t hold them long,” I tell Viento.

The fog will cover us as we flee. We must lose the Scorpios. Viento opens his cloak, beckoning to Lee and me. Tell the fierce one to get the others on the moth. You and Lee will come with me. The moth will follow.

Quickly, I repeat Viento’s words, and Ruby wastes no time. “Lily, get on the moth!” They practically carry Luke to the luna moth, who Lily is already climbing aboard. With an incredible display of strength, Ruby picks Luke up and tosses him at Lily, who grabs his shirt and pulls him the rest of the way onto the Elemental.

“Catalina! Where are you?” Ruby’s turning in a circle as they call into the fog that is so thick it seems to have swallowed the elder.

Viento fans his hand and around us the fog dissipates enough to reveal Catalina.

“Oh, there you are, child.” The old woman is still standing by the front of her little house. She smiles as she begins to hurry back to us. “The fog confused me, but now—”

Out of the fog, two singed Scorpio moons appear. One grabs her. “Cover her mouth!” the other shouts at his companion. “Keep her from calling more of the wild Elementals!”

“No!” I scream, and try to step out of Viento’s protective embrace.

“Wren!” Lee moves to stop me, but Viento is quicker. He pulls me back to him and lifts us off the ground.

Ruby sprints to Catalina, grabbing one of the wooden platters from the table as they race past. They hold the platter like a shield as they barrel into the first Scorpio moon, smacking him hard enough that he grunts as air whooshes out of him.

Ruby is part dancer, part assassin, as they spin gracefully around. Changing their grip on the platter, they leap several feet off the ground and bring the dish down on the side of the second Scorpio’s head. He staggers backward and Catalina stumbles away from him.

Ruby catches the elder before she falls. Above them, Luke shouts, “Look up, Ruby! We’re coming!”

The huge moth descends from the sky not far from them.

“Get the elder to me! Lily and I will grab her!” Luke calls to Ruby.

Ruby picks up Catalina as if she weighs nothing. Cradling her like a child, Ruby sprints toward the moth and the twins.

“More Scorpios! Look out!” Lee yells.

“We’ve gotta help Ruby!” I tell Viento.

If I get closer we could all be caught.

“Lily! Luke! Be Leos! Confuse the Scorpios!” I call to them.

Lily gets it right away. She begins forming magickal patterns in the air and I feel her power building. “Viento, can you get me to Lily so I can boost her?”

The big moth darts up and down, trying to get into position to receive Ruby and Catalina, but the Water Elemental has appeared and is stalking her—keeping the moth from lowering to the ground.

She’s moving too fast. I would be in the way. But I can get rid of that Elemental. Viento curls his long fingers through the foggy air, gathering the power of his element to him. He throws air at the Water Elemental, hitting him in his chest and knocking him into the mist.

“Ruby, now!” Luke faces the rear of the moth, his arm extended, as Lily continues to weave moon magick.

Ruby races toward the moth, carrying Catalina effortlessly. The two Scorpios have started after her, joined by two more. They all sprint after Ruby, though they’re not moving with her speed. They stagger like they’re drunk and shake their heads.

“Good job, Lily!” I shout. “Keep it up!”

Ruby reaches the moth, who lowers just enough for them to lift Catalina up to Luke. He pulls the old woman onto the back of the moth. Ruby leaps, grabs Luke’s hand, and yells to the moth, “Get us out of here!”

The beautiful Elemental flaps her mighty wings once, twice, lifting into the air as the fog swirls around her.

Her upward momentum abruptly stops.

The moth shrieks.

“Her leg!” I call to Ruby. “A Scorpio!”

Ruby is on her belly in an instant, peering over the side of the moth as she shrieks in pain and struggles to fly while a Scorpio warrior clings to one of her legs. His hands are bleeding from the moth’s thornlike leg spikes, but his grip does not loosen.

Ruby tries to strike him—tries to reach him. But he’s too far away. Ruby is fierce, but she is also petite. Her arms aren’t long enough. Slowly, painfully, the moth is forced down.

With a flash of blue, the Water Elemental reappears. He throws himself at the moth. Enveloping Catalina in his cloak, he plucks her from the moth’s back and races into the mist as the elder cries, “No!”

The Scorpio continues to pull the moth down where there are four other Scorpios and Dean Rottingham, waiting to capture them.

“We have to do something!” I shout at Viento.

Luke looks up, and his green gaze locks onto mine. “Save the maiden. I’ll go with the elder. Look for my sign. Lee will know.” Ruby hangs over the side of the moth, still struggling to reach the Scorpio moon who’s forcing them down when Luke grabs the back of their shirt and yanks them back.

“What the—” Ruby begins.

“Take care of my sister!” Luke aims his feet at the Scorpio moon and uses the moth’s wing like a slide. He smashes into the warrior, breaking his grip on the moth. He and Luke tumble down together, crashing into the other Scorpio moons and Rottingham like Luke’s a human bowling ball.

The racing wind whines past us as Viento soars up into the dark, soupy sky. Finally freed, the moth follows as Lily’s tortured cry for her brother echoes around us.