Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4) (8 page)

Ming bounded over to
her, and Valerie met her halfway.

“Your mom finally
let you come!” Valerie said. “I can’t wait to show you everything. You’ve got to
see the Guild of The Society of Imaginary Friends.”

“Not to be a party
pooper, but I’m under strict instructions that Ming’s first visit here be a
short one,” Dr. Freeman said. “And we’re actually here for another reason. Long
before I knew magic existed, I noticed certain similarities between you and
Ming. She would also get weak and her blood pressure would drop for no reason.
It wasn’t as severe as yours, but it was compounded by her cancer.”

“Wait. Are you
saying that
Ming
is one of the children you identified who might be
suffering from having too much magic?”

Valerie wondered if
her smile was as big as the one on Ming’s face right now.

“That’s what we’re
here to confirm,” Dr. Freeman said.

“Azra? Is it true?”
Valerie said, turning to her friend.

Dr. Freeman and Ming
wore identical expressions of reverence as Azra and her foal approached,
reminding Valerie of the first time she’d met the unicorn. It was a sacred
experience.

I no longer have any
magical gifts. They have been passed to my foal.

Clarabelle
approached Ming, who gently touched the little unicorn’s iridescent mane as if
she were in a trance.

Clarabelle’s tiny
sounds of pleasure were pure bliss in Valerie’s mind. Without using words,
Clarabelle communicated her own feeling—certainty. Ming was bursting with
magical potential.

“You were right,”
Valerie said to Dr. Freeman, and he nodded.

“I have magic inside
me, like you, Valerie?” Ming asked.

“You do,” Valerie
said, laughing as Ming twirled in a circle, her arms open wide.

“If only travel between
our worlds could stay open forever, Ming could live on the Globe part time and
still go home to her family,” Dr. Freeman said.

“But as long as
there are those with magic and those without it, there is the potential for
power to be abused,” Gideon said, speaking up for the first time. “We must
remove the Fractus from Earth and close travel between the worlds again.”

Ming looked up at
Valerie with her huge eyes. “It’s okay. It’s enough to know I’m magical.”

“And a princess,
don’t forget,” Valerie said, to make Ming smile, though her own heart squeezed.

As long
as this divide between worlds existed, there would always be those who had to
live where they didn’t quite belong. And from experience, Valerie knew that
wasn’t a solution at all.

After Ming had left
and Azra and Clarabelle retreated into the forest, Valerie made the walk to the
spot in the forest where she could access the gardens of Babylon, which were
still locked away from the rest of the world by the spell her father had cast.

It was where she went
when she wanted to grieve for him in private. Over the past months since he’d
been gone, she’d mostly gone to sob where no one would hear her, but today, she
went for another reason.

She stepped through
the screen of vines into the garden and was overpowered by the sense that in
this place, she wasn’t an orphan. She wasn’t surprised to see a familiar figure
at the top of the tiers of flowers.

She hiked up to join
Henry, who was staring at the lake on the other side. He came here a lot
because it was the one place no one could find him except her.

“I couldn’t help
thinking about this place—and dad—today,” Valerie said. “He locked Babylon away
from the rest of the world to make it his special place with Mom. Even though
that’s romantic, it also robbed all the other Conjurors on the Globe of the
opportunity to enjoy its beauty.”

“Yeah, he was a
piece of work,” Henry said, but without the bitterness that had laced his words
when Oberon was alive.

“Isn’t that also
what we’re doing with the Globe? Keeping it from humans who belong here, who
have every right to be here? How do we stop the Fractus from abusing regular
humans without keeping all of the best parts of magic to ourselves?”

“I don’t think I’m
the right person to talk to about avoiding selfish decisions,” Henry said. “But
don’t stop asking these questions, Val. It’s gonna be you who finally finds a
better answer. I really believe that.”

“Every time I come
here, it’s like a piece of him is alive, you know?”

Henry regarded her.
“I never loved him like you did, but I’m less alone when I come here.”

“It’s like, if I
listen hard enough, I might finally hear him give me the answers I’m looking
for.”

Henry squeezed her
arm, and they listened for a long time. But as always, there was nothing but
silence.

The clashes between
the Fractus and humans returned with a new ferocity. For weeks, Valerie’s
existence was consumed with fight after fight. As soon as her vivicus power had
recharged after tapping it to save a life, she’d use it again. Valerie had lost
count of the lives, but she never forgot the faces. She became increasingly
forgetful, and headaches followed her even into her dreams.

More than once,
Chisisi had already identified the next place she was needed by the time she’d returned
from her last encounter with the Fractus.

Between keeping the
Fractus at bay—barely—on Earth and doing the minimal chores she had to attend
to personally to keep the Fist organized on the Globe, Valerie had almost no
time to sleep and eat. Sometimes, Henry, Thai, or even Cyrus joined her when
she fought the Fractus, but there wasn’t time to talk to her friends about
anything other than the war.

So it was a bit of a
shock to check in with Chisisi and find that he didn’t have an assignment for
her that day.

“Nowhere you want me
to check out?” she asked.

Sanguina and Chrome
were both in attendance, and Sanguina spoke up.

“Even the leader of
the Fist needs to take the occasional day of rest,” Sanguina said.

Chrome flashed an
image in her mind of himself, sleeping in the sun, and then rising up with his
teeth bared. He’d had enough of wandering around out of the thick of the
fighting. He wanted to be a part of the action.

Chrome had followed
the magic trail the People of the Woods had found from Armenia all the way to
the ocean, where even he couldn’t continue to follow it.

“Chrome and I can
take on any Fractus who attack humans today,” Sanguina said.

“Your friends’ offer
is a good one, young miss. You would be wise to heed their advice,” Chisisi
added.

Valerie decided not
to argue, for once. She gave them a grateful nod and returned to her home on
the Globe.

Her first thought
was to go straight to bed. Only pure adrenaline kept her moving most days, and
without an immediate threat, her whole body seemed slow and clumsy.

Not the state that
she needed to be in when a flickering movement in the trees set off her sixth
sense for danger. She raced out of her garden and heard the sound of hooves
stomping on the ground.

She passed into the
woods and saw Summer up on her hind legs, batting at something in the air
before her hooves pounded into the soft dirt. The ancient centaur’s teeth were
bared.

Valerie followed her
gaze and saw Kellen zipping through the trees, his wings fluttering madly.

“Don’t let his dust
touch you!” Valerie said, which drew the fairy’s attention away from Summer, as
she’d hoped.

She registered a
tiny movement in the bramble behind Summer. Clarabelle was hiding in there with
Azra, Valerie knew. Did Kellen notice, too?

“You’re here to
fight me, so let’s do this,” Valerie said, hoping she could keep his attention
so that Summer could sneak the unicorns away.

“You’ve grown
self-important in addition to being generally useless,” Kellen sneered. “I’m
here for Clarabelle, not you. She has real power.”

Kellen flew closer,
black dust falling from his wings. Valerie ducked and rolled, and it didn’t
touch her. He scrabbled at her mind, trying to control her like he’d done many
times before, but that tactic wasn’t as effective for him as it had been in the
past.

Valerie kept her
locus firmly in her mind, her love for her friends, and swatting away Kellen’s
attempts to wriggle inside was nothing more than an annoyance.

If the fairy was
surprised, he didn’t show it. He was moving so fast that it was impossible to
keep track of him, never mind knock him out of the air.

Little rainbows
danced on the ground. Kellen wasn’t alone. He’d brought a dozen or more
invisible Fractus with him.

“Summer, behind
you!” Valerie shouted, and the centaur kicked out with her hind leg, connecting
with a breakable Fractus with a loud crunch.

The next few minutes
were a blur as four transparent Fractus attacked her at once. But her skills
had never been more honed after all of the fighting she’d been doing on Earth.
She managed to disable them while still noticing that Kellen was zipping
through the trees, looking for Clarabelle.

Clarabelle is
shielding our location with her mind.
Azra’s words rang in Valerie’s mind.
I don’t know how she is
doing it, but somehow, she has created a circle of purity that no one may enter
in anger or hate. Kellen cannot find us as long as his intentions are evil. We
are invisible to him.

Valerie let out a
relieved breath, punching one of the breakables in the face and then
jump-kicking to knock another in the area she guessed was his jaw.

One of the invisible
Fractus had leaped on Summer, who bucked, trying to shake him off. Before
Valerie could move to assist the centaur, Summer slammed him against a tree,
and she heard a yelp of pain.

Kellen flew past
Valerie, and she leaped into the air and crashed into him. As they fell, she
maneuvered his tiny body so that it was trapped beneath hers.

The energy in the
little glade where they fought changed. The air crackled with electricity, and
Valerie’s fearlessness vanished. The Laurel Circle on her thumb turned to ice
when she saw Reaper standing on the other side of a portal he’d created in the
air.

Through the opening,
she saw him make a strange gesture with his hand, and her world turned on its
axis. She lost her balance, falling to the ground and losing her grip on
Kellen.

“Get out of there,
now,” Reaper commanded Kellen.

“Not yet! I’ve got
her now. She’s as good as dusted,” Kellen said.

“Don’t be too sure,”
Valerie said, gritting her teeth and making another grab for the fairy. She
missed by a millimeter.

“I didn’t send you
to fight the vivicus. She’s easy enough to kill when I decide it’s time. I sent
you for the baby unicorn,” Reaper said.

“She’s here. I’ll
find her,” Kellen said, sounding almost possessed.

“She’s nowhere
close. I can’t sense her presence at all. Your informant must have been wrong,”
Reaper said, dismissing the fairy.

Valerie was still
struggling to find her center. She stilled, gripping Pathos and letting her
magic guide her.

But before she could
strike out at Kellen again, the fairy screamed, a sound so filled with pain
that Valerie wanted to block her ears.

“You will do as I
say,” Reaper said, his annoyance darkening into something much more dangerous.

Kellen continued to
moan.

“Stop! I’m coming,
please, no more,” Kellen begged.

“You’re growing ever
more useless,” Reaper said, as the fairy flew haphazardly into his portal.

Before
it snapped closed, Valerie saw the crazed anguish in Kellen’s eyes. It reminded
her of someone, and it tickled the back of her brain until she remembered.
She’d seen the same look in Rastelli’s eyes after Reaper had destroyed his
brain and turned him into a single-minded killer.

After making sure
that Azra and Clarabelle were safely tucked away, Valerie returned home to
relay her news to Gideon.

“Why would they want
Clarabelle?” Valerie asked, as much to herself as her mentor.

She paced the
kitchen restlessly as she tried to guess Reaper’s strategy. It was like playing
chess with a master, when she barely understood the game.

“Consider what we
know. Clarabelle is the first unicorn born in centuries. Unicorns arguably have
more magic than anyone in the universe,” Gideon said.

“Including Reaper
himself. Do you think he wants to kill her?” Valerie asked, and the thought
alone made her sick.

Gideon shook his
head. “Not before he would see if he could use that power to his own ends.”

“But if he can’t,
then he might consider her his greatest threat. Azra’s successor, with more
magic than even he possesses. Someone who would set us on a path of peace, not
war.”

Gideon’s mouth was
set in a grim line. “Though I know she craves your presence, Clarabelle must
hide. There is nowhere in Arden safe enough for her right now.”

“Maybe nowhere on the
Globe, even,” Valerie said thoughtfully.

Gideon raised his
eyebrows. “A brilliant idea or a terrible one, but which it is, I cannot say.”

“It’s not for us to
decide,” Valerie said, releasing a breath. “Azra will know what to do.”

A knock on the door interrupted
their conversation, and Valerie answered it to find Thai waiting for her. He
looked especially good in his nicest jeans and a new shirt. She must have been
staring a few seconds too long, because Thai started grinning.

“Hey,” she said,
embarrassed at how tongue-tied she was.

“Hey,” he teased,
imitating her shy tone, and she laughed. “I came to invite you to my apprentice
ceremony. We’re allowed to bring one guest, and you’re my first choice. I know
it’s a long shot, and if you’re off saving lives, I understand, but if you’re
free and you could come, it would mean a lot to me and…”

Now it was Thai who
was nervous, and it was so endearing that it was all she could do not to pull
him into her arms.

Behind her, Gideon
stood in the hallway.

“Go,” Gideon said,
his eyes warm as he watched them.

“As luck would have
it, this is a free day. And there’s no one I’d rather spend it with,” she said,
tickled by the excitement on Thai’s face.

After changing into
a dress that somehow still looked decent with a sword strapped to her, she
joined Thai in the garden. This time he was the one who was staring. It was the
first time he’d seen her in a dress, but after this reaction, she would have to
think about wearing them more often.

“I’m embarrassed. I
don’t even know what guild you’re apprenticing to,” Valerie said as they
started the trek to The Horseshoe. “I’ve been in this time warp, fighting enemy
after enemy, and have completely missed out on your life.”

“You’re fighting the
battles that no one else can. Don’t apologize for that,” Thai said. “I’m
apprenticing to the Healers’ Guild.”

Valerie tried to
hide her surprise. The Grand Master of the Guild, Nightingale, was a Fractus
sympathizer.

“Do they know you
fight with the Fist?” Valerie asked.

“Yes. The Guild is
supposed to help all Conjurors who need healing, without prejudice. They’ve
strayed from that now, healing only the Fractus, but I hope to bring them back
to the right path.”

“Be careful. It
could be a trap,” Valerie said, trying to swallow her sudden fear.

“Maybe, but I don’t
think so. Many Healers in the Guild are angry about the decision not to remain
neutral in the war. If Nightingale doesn’t make a change, they may elect a new
Grand Master. I’m hoping I can tip the scales for Nightingale and convince him to
come back to our guild’s mission.”

“You will,” Valerie
said. There was no task she could imagine that Thai wouldn’t do well if he put
his mind to it.

“If I really believe
those values, which I do, it means I’ll heal Fractus as well as our own army,”
Thai said.

Valerie stopped and
turned to him. “Of course. Do you think I’d ever want you to do anything else?”

Thai touched her
cheek briefly, and the contact made her blush. “Your heart is what I love most
about you. It’s why you are the only one who can end this struggle with the
Fractus for good.”

Thai pushed the
doors of the Healers’ Guild open. The entryway was filled with Conjurors.
Despite the crowd, the noise was a low hum. Even during one of their biggest
ceremonies, it seemed the Healers didn’t want to disturb the patients.

Nightingale was hard
to miss as he moved through the crowd, shaking hands. He saw Valerie, and she
braced herself to be kicked out. But instead, he nodded to her, and she nodded
back.

“Nightingale keeps
looking at you, then looking down, like he’s feeling guilty about something,”
Thai said.

“He refused to heal
me once, even though I could have died.”

Thai’s hands balled
into fists. “That will never happen again. I’ll kick him out of his own guild
first.”

“It’s okay, Thai.
It’s war. People do awful things that they wouldn’t do otherwise. I’d rather
have Nightingale as an ally than drive him away because he denied me care
once.”

“That’s the smart
choice, but I’d rather give him one good punch first,” Thai said, but without
heat.

“I think your
ceremony is about to start,” Valerie said, glad of the distraction.

The apprentices
gathered around an etching of an enormous tree in the far wall.

“Today, we welcome
our novices, who come to us to devote body and spirit to the art of healing,” Nightingale
said. “We dedicate our lives to easing suffering and saving lives. There is no
nobler calling. Novices, join hands and let your magic well within you.”