Page 24

TWENTY-FOUR

Wren

Rottingham lunges. He hurls his body between the flying dagger and me. It impales him in his chest and he goes down hard.

I stagger to the dean. Lee is at my side. Ruby runs past us to Catalina. I hear her helping the elder to her feet and the click of the pocketknife she flips open to cut the zip ties around her wrists, but I cannot stop staring at Rottingham. He’s on his back with the dagger’s hilt protruding from his chest and a pool of scarlet spreading around him.

The dean meets my gaze, blood frothing his lips. “I tried to stop her. After she commanded Maya killed. Tried. Couldn’t… Too powerful… Couldn’t keep her from killing Sam.”

“Don’t talk! Let me help you.” Lee’s on his knees at Rottingham’s side. His hands weave patterns in the air and I feel the power of his healing magick building. He lifts his hand toward me. “Wren! Boost me!”

Power heats within me, but before I can take Lee’s hand Rottingham sputters, “Forgive me.…” He coughs and blood spews from his mouth. His eyes roll back, showing their whites as he releases his last shaky breath.

Luke starts toward Rottingham, but Lily steps between her brother and the dean. Her voice is ice. “No. Stay away from him. At least he tried to make things right.”

“Rottingham was weak! A traitor to the Moonstruck!” Celeste shouts.

We all turn to her. Like the first night I confronted her in the Conduit Chamber, Celeste has levitated several feet from the floor and is surrounded by silver threads. Her hands weave through them, forming a shield-like shape. The pull of those threads hits me again. This time I don’t fight it. I start forward, but Catalina is closer. She and Ruby reach Celeste before me. They stop directly beneath her.

Catalina smiles serenely at Ruby. “Child, be a dear and pull her down from there.” The elder takes Ruby’s hand. Power builds between them so fast and so strong that I stagger.

Ruby’s grin is more a baring of teeth than a smile. Filled with the boosting power of the elder, they leap up, wrap their hands around Celeste’s ankles, and as she screams her rage Ruby pulls her to the floor. Celeste crumples and the threads fall to the floor beside her.

“Hold her there!” I tell Ruby. “Lee, I need my backpack!”

Lee’s eyes widen with understanding. As he continues to kneel beside Rottingham’s body, he slides the backpack from his shoulders and tosses it to me. I catch it and pull out the shard of liquid moonlight.

“No!” Celeste shrieks, and thrashes against Ruby’s hold.

Simply and easily, Catalina moves to Ruby’s side and places her hand on their shoulder. Again, I feel an incredible swell of power and Ruby’s hold on Celeste becomes viselike. The corrupt leader of the Lunar Council gasps and sputters, but she cannot escape the boosted Scorpio moon.

Luke tries to get to Celeste, but Lily and then Viento block his way. “Stay out of it,” Lily tells him. She looks up at Viento. “Can you watch him? I can’t stand being this close to the liar.”

Viento nods and Lily goes to Lee. Knowing we won’t be interrupted again, I focus my full attention on Celeste and Catalina.

“Come, child. Let us end this.” The elder beckons for me.

I move to the center of the chamber. Moonlight reflects off the suspended mirrors and washes over us like a spotlight. I hold out the liquid moonlight.

“No!” Celeste tries to struggle, but Ruby is filled with power, and it’s like fighting a stone wall.

“Where do you want her?” Ruby asks.

“Stand her up, child,” Catalina says. “All we need is her hand to grasp the shard. The moon, the maiden, and I shall do the rest.”

“Catalina! Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing,” Celeste rails desperately at Catalina as Ruby forces her to stand.

“Selene, I would pity you had you not caused so much pain over so many years. And you are wrong. Again. I know exactly what I’m doing. I have planned this for two hundred and fifty years. You stopped the ritual because of your obsession with power. That obsession has corrupted you, and now the maiden and I are going to right that wrong,” the elder says calmly.

Holding the shard in the middle, I join Catalina. She puts her hand just below mine. The shard warms. Catalina still has one hand on Ruby, boosting her power.

“Ruby, it is time. Make the mother grasp the liquid moonlight.”

Ruby stands behind Celeste. They hold Celeste’s left arm down and firmly, harmlessly, against her body. Ruby glides her right hand along Celeste’s right arm, like they’re a tennis pro attempting to teach a novice how to swing a racket. They cover Celeste’s hand and guide it to the shard, pry it open, and force it to close around the glowing sliver of moonlight.

“Ruby, I shall speak the ritual words next, and as I do, brace yourself. You must hold her in place until moon magick has been released, but that release of power will be explosive.”

“W-will Ruby b-be okay?” I tremble violently, barely able to form the words as the shard radiates heat that fills my body.

Catalina’s gaze never leaves Ruby’s as she answers, “I hope so. I would not ask you to place yourself in harm’s way if I didn’t have to.”

“I understand and willingly help you.” Ruby bows their head to the elder.

Catalina squeezes their shoulder. “I’m proud of you, child.” Her gaze goes to me. “Ready yourself.”

“I’m r-ready,” I stutter through my chattering teeth.

Catalina draws in a deep breath. As she speaks her voice swells with power.

“Lady Moon, Who reigns eternal Queen of the Night,

we three—maiden, mother, elder—come to Thee.”

The heat radiating from the shard fills me. It’s almost unbearable. Catalina’s body glows. My gaze moves to Celeste; she, too, glows. I look down at myself. I blaze along with them—a single part of three who, when joined, become the Conduit for magick. Catalina’s voice, so filled with power, echoes from the walls of the chamber:

“We hold the sign gifted us by elements four—Air, Water, Earth, and Fire—bound by trust and love and more.

Let humanity be Moonstruck and know Thy silver power.

We shall revere You, Silver Lady, and keep Your Elementals safe from this very hour.

So are we bound, eternally. It shall be as You and we will it to be!”

Moonlight pours through the dome and into the shard. The liquid moonlight is on fire with the moon’s silver glow. It builds and builds, so bright that I have to look away.

WHOOSH!

The shard explodes!

Moon magick hits us. The force of it lifts Ruby from their feet and throws them back against the wall. Vaguely, I’m aware that only Catalina, Celeste, and I remain standing—that everyone else, even Viento, has been hurled away from us. But we three are at the mercy of the moon. Together, we move like dancers. We face one another. Our arms open, lift, and spread wide above us until our splayed fingers touch. Our heads tilt back. Together, we draw in one deep breath and, as one, we release it. Silver glitter moonlight pours from our open mouths. It lifts and swirls in the air above us, searching for something. And then it gathers together in a sparkling phalanx and shoots past us, blasting through the door as it pours from the past out into the present.

My arms drop. My body shudders. I’m disoriented. Flashes of the wild Elementals play behind my eyes as their island cage is shattered. Other scenes flicker through my mind of Mundanes being filled with Her power—being Moonstruck.

“Ruby!”

Lily’s cry brings me back to the present. I blink bright spots from my vision to see Ruby, motionless where she’s fallen near the far wall to my right. Lily kneels beside them, calling their name over and over, trying to wake them.

Frantically, I look around for Lee and am washed with relief when I see him struggling to his feet. “Lily, I’m coming!”

I move to help Lee and Lily, but Catalina’s voice stops me.

“Child,” she gasps from where she has crumpled to the floor beside me. “It would be a mistake to let Selene escape.” The old woman lifts one trembling hand and points across the room.

Celeste is at the wall to my left. Luke is on his knees leaning against that wall, shaking his head like he’s trying to clear it. She’s gathered the silver threads again and holds them before her, weaving them into a huge silver shield.

“Hell no!” I sprint toward Celeste.

Her head swivels to me. She snarls. Her hands glow, and with an enraged shriek she throws a ball of moon magick at me.

Viento drops down in front of me, absorbing the blast. It lifts him up and back, throwing him into the wall behind me, not far from Ruby.

I’m so angry my hands tingle. Celeste took Maya from Lee, and Sam from me. She’s not taking anyone else from us ever again. I look down at my prickling hands. They glow with the same silver power Celeste just threw at me.

I can also wield moon magick!

As if I’ve done it every day of my life, I gather power between my hands until it’s a beaming ball. I lift my gaze to Celeste. Her back is to me, but the silver shield she wove hovers in front of her. I throw the moon magick, but the shield takes the blast, absorbing it completely.

As I stalk toward her, Celeste pinches the wall between her fingers and peels it back. Like she’s skinning it, night is visible beyond the opening, glistening strangely, as if I’m looking at it through a whirling kaleidoscope.

I reach the shield, raise my hands, and press them against it, trying to use my power to break through it. Celeste doesn’t so much as look at me. Instead, she turns to Luke, cowering behind the safety of the shield.

“Come with me or remain here, in servitude to them.” Celeste fires her words at Luke. “Choose!”

Luke’s gaze, so much like his sister’s, goes to me.

“You’ve already chosen,” I tell him.

His expression hardens, and using the wall, he pulls himself to his feet and limps to Celeste.

My fists burn as I pull power from all around me and beat at the threads of the shield. It’s weakening, but not fast enough. Holding the skin of the wall open, Celeste finally looks at me.

“You have made a grave mistake. You will be sorry.”

“Sorry that we made you keep the bargain you broke two hundred and fifty years ago? Sorry we gave the Elementals freedom and released moon magick? Not very damn likely.” I hit the shield again, and this time it shatters.

Celeste cackles as she shoves Luke through the tear in the wall, and then jumps through after him.

I burst through the broken shield, smacking against the textured surface of the wall just as the skin of the opening knits itself shut. There’s nothing left of Celeste except the echo of her laughter.