Page 22

TWENTY-TWO

Lee

Our allied Air Elemental carries us far from Catalina’s cottage and the forces intent on doing us harm. I don’t like being held like a child, clutching on to the Elemental’s cloak for fear of plummeting to my death, but flying is a level of exhilaration I never thought I’d experience.

When we’re far enough away from the fight, Viento descends back into the forest and sets Wren and me on the ground.

“What are you doing?” I hear Lily before I see the moth slip in between the trees to drop her and Ruby next to us. “We can’t stay here! We have to go after Luke and Catalina.” Lily’s eyes are red rimmed and her freckled face is blotchy from crying, but her tears no longer fall. The sharp crease between her brows, the determined set of her jaw, and her hands balled into fists at her sides would scare the most seasoned Scorpio warrior.

Ruby wraps their arm around Lily’s waist and pulls her in close. “We’ll get them back, Luke and Catalina. We have to.”

“How?” Lily asks, stacking her fists on her hips.

I might not have been able to help back at Catalina’s house, but I can help now. “We do what Luke said. We’ve already saved the maiden.” I adjust Wren’s backpack on my shoulders and motion down to her. “Next, we return to the Academia and save Luke and the elder. Rottingham doesn’t know it, but he’s actually helped us get the mother and the elder together.”

“Add me,” Wren says with a nod, “and the liquid moonlight and we complete the ritual.”

Lily cocks a brow, her expression hardening even further as she stares daggers at us. “Is no one but me remembering that Celeste conjured a barrier dome over the school? How do you suggest we get past that?”

“Your brother,” I say firmly. “That’s what Luke was talking about when he said he’ll send a sign. I’ll recognize whatever it is, and it’ll show us a way to get through the dome.”

Wren tilts her chin and looks up at me. “But how is he going to actually get us in?”

“And how do you know you’ll recognize his signal?” Ruby adds.

I hook my thumbs around the backpack straps and let out a sigh. “If you repeat this to him, I’ll deny ever saying it, but sometimes Luke and I share a brain. Plus, I know he has access to powerful spell work. Now it’s up to him to get it and use it to help us.”

“Our mom!” Lily seems to deflate with relief, sagging against Ruby. “Our mom is right up there with your family, Lee. She’s a massively strong Moonstruck practitioner, and she’d bend over backward to help my brother. Not to mention the fact that, when Luke actually wants something, he’ll do anything he needs to in order to get it.”

“Won’t they be watching him along with the elder?” Ruby asks. “Isn’t he in danger like the rest of us?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so. He’s already told me Rottingham believes he’s on their side. And you know Luke. He’ll make up a line that’ll get him out of trouble.”

“He’s definitely good at talking his way out of things.” Lily’s eyes brighten. “He’ll probably blame you, Lee.”

Ruby smiles. “He’ll definitely blame Lee.”

“Yep,” Wren sighs, burrowing closer to me. “You’re the fall guy.”

It doesn’t matter whether or not I’m the fall guy. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this great, and I can’t help but puff out my chest. “Good thing I’m built like the ye olde dukes in shows instead of the dukes in real life so I can handle carrying the weight of being the bad guy.”

Next to Wren, Viento moves, and I swear he’s laughing at me.

My lightheartedness sobers when I take a minute to actually fully think out this plan. “Lily, Luke offered to contact your mom before when I was looking for a way out of the dome, but he said that she’s out campaigning and it would take too long to get a call back. We need to move faster than that, so there’s a huge chance this won’t work.”

Lily blinks at me like my face is covered in food. “All he has to do is call her private number, and she’ll either pick up immediately or call him back within five minutes. It’s some kind of unwritten family rule. That woman could be on Mars and she’d still figure out a way to be in our business.”

I open my mouth to respond, but the only thing I can think to say is, “That’s weird.”

“Unless you consider the fact that calling their mom would be, like, a covert op.” Wren combs her fingers through her newly darkened hair, brushing her sugar cookie scent up to meet my nose. “He couldn’t do it from the school phone. Someone would definitely overhear.”

Lily’s expression contorts, and the freckled bridge of her nose creases. “He probably doesn’t want you to know how good he is at ‘ borrowing ’”—Lily air quotes the word—“other people’s property. He’ll snag a phone from a professor and get to Mom within minutes.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Ruby mumbles.

Lily bumps them with her shoulder. “Hey, admit it, Luke grew on you.”

“Like a tumor,” Ruby grumbles. “Although I admit it was an honorable thing he did—sacrificing himself to save us.”

I smile at Ruby. “I told you, he’s not so bad once you get to know him.”

They frown and stuff their hands into the pocket of their red hoodie. “We can all tell Luke we consider him to be less terrible now than he was at the beginning of the summer after he gets us through the dome.”

As if echoing Ruby’s sentiment, Viento opens his cloak and whisks Wren and me back up into the night.

The dome encasing the Academia emerges from the darkness, pearlescent and glistening in the moonlight. As Viento carries us closer to our destination and the luna moth trills beneath us, carrying Ruby and Lily on her back, the weight of what’s to come tightens my throat and forms a knot in my chest. There are so many variables, so many what-ifs and maybes, so much riding on pure hope, that I want to tell Wren that we should fly back to Fern Valley and forget the Academia.

But Wren won’t be safe until this is settled.

“Luke said you’d know the sign!” Wren shouts through the whoosh of wind as Viento circles high above the dome. “Do you see it?”

I stare down through the wall of fog that rolled in behind us and now hangs above the protective barrier along with the rest of us.

“Did Viento do this?” I ask Wren, motioning at the dense gray surrounding us.

She looks up at our allied Elemental and nods before looking back at me. “No, he didn’t call this fog, but that doesn’t mean another Elemental isn’t responsible.”

An explosion of light splits the sky above Taurus Hall, crashing against the skin of the dome like splatters of paint. Fireworks boom and crackle in bright flashes of red, white, and blue.

“That’s it!” I point at Luke’s signal, bright and bold against the night, and Viento swoops down to hover above the blasts. I have to squint to peer through our camouflage and down to the students and faculty racing to see what’s happening.

I spot Luke, the only person running away from the blasts, arms overhead, waving up at us like he’s on fire. He descends into the shadows at the edge of the forest that borders Moon Hall, and Viento swoops around to meet him, followed by the luna moth.

Returning to my own two feet next to Wren and Lily and Ruby and within touching distance of campus hits me hard. I haven’t been gone long, but the Academia has changed. Actually, I’ve changed. Yeah, I stepped into a realm I didn’t know existed and learned facts I had no idea were true, but that’s not really what changed me. I’m capable of greatness. And not the greatness my father or Celeste said was possible. This greatness comes from trusting my chosen family and my instinct.

As soon as Ruby helps Lily off the moth, she runs to the dome and presses both hands to the protective skin. She opens her mouth to speak, but a sob breaks out instead. “I am so frickin’ mad at you,” she manages to choke out.

Luke presses his palms to hers. I know they can’t feel it through the dome, but it soothes her nonetheless.

“But did you see how badass I looked jumping off that moth?”

They both laugh as Ruby steps up to the dome. “You came through with the signal, but do you have the magick to open this?” they ask with a flick of the dome.

“Ask, believe, receive, baby.” Luke backs away from the dome and with his typical brand of confidence he weaves his hands through the air.

The dome shimmers and parts, offering us enough space to squeeze through its defenses. Lily squeezes through first and charges her brother, wrapping him in a hug that nearly knocks them both to the ground.

The opening glitches, sealing back together but leaving a crack like broken glass.

“Lily, I’m doing magick,” Luke says, shaking free of his sister before returning his focus back to the spell. He works with a level of intention and seriousness I didn’t know he was capable of as he reopens the tear. I motion for Wren to go through and glance over my shoulder at Ruby, warily eyeing the pitch-black forest beyond.

“Ruby, it’s your turn.”

“I’ll go through last. I want to be out here with the luna moth in case some wicked Elementals show,” they say, never taking their narrowed gaze from the tree line.

As soon as I pass through the tear in the dome, Luke lifts his chin at me and smirks. “I told you I have connections. I just needed the right motivation.”

As Viento and Ruby step through the opening, Luke, his thumb and index finger pinched together, weaves invisible stitches against the torn skin of the dome. It seals behind us, leaving no evidence that any of us came through.

Fireworks still bursting overhead, I look out at Moon Hall, highlighted in sparkling flashes of color. I am so different from how I was at the beginning of the summer, it would scare me if it didn’t feel like destiny.

I take Wren’s hand in mine. “You ready?”

She looks up at me, those same wildflower-blue eyes but pressed into a face that wears the changes we’ve been through like direct proof of our evolution. This isn’t just about rescuing friends or avenging deaths. We’re saving the very soul of Moon Isle, of all Moonstruck.

“I’ve been ready.”

With that, the six of us slip into the shadows of the Academia de la Luna, determined to restore light to a world on the brink.