Five: Out of the Dark (36 page)

reathe deeply, in and out, in and out,” Joe instructed as he herded us beneath the overhang of a nearby building. “Get that junk out of your systems. Keep breathing.” His voice had a calming influence and I found myself absorbed in his soft-spoken words instead of the horrors of the drug-induced hallucinations that threatened to start.

The terror in Chari’s eyes slowly faded, and a semblance of sanity returned to her face as she turned her gaze to mine.

Alec bent over, hands on knees, breathing too fast.

“Slow down, Alec, you’re going to hyperventilate,” I said.

He raised his head to meet my gaze. He was really pale; his pupils were constricted with fear. He winced, closed his eyes, and appeared to listen to Joe’s voice as his breathing slowed.

Johnathan leaned against the building, seemingly unaffected by the drug. He was worried, but his worry was for the rest of us; his gaze swept from one to the other of us as we battled our own demons.

My mind was clearing quicker than I thought it would. For that, I was thankful.

“Okay, guys. We need to get off the street and out of sight. Are you all able to move now?” Joe asked.

I nodded. Seth started to reply but all that came out of his mouth was a strangled sound followed by an enormous amount of projectile vomit. It splashed on the sidewalk and up onto our feet and jeans. Disgusting—I really didn’t need to see what he’d eaten for breakfast.

“Sorry … I do feel better now, though.” Seth spit a few times then wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

Joe looked at the mess on his shoes—his nose wrinkled in disgust—then up at each of us in turn. “Ready to move?”

Everyone nodded this time.

“Let’s go then, down to the Underground. Johnathan, you lead the way.”

Johnathan pushed himself off the wall and started down the dark stairs.

“Isn’t this place condemned?” Brendon asked, his voice shaky.

“Yep,” Johnathan answered.

Brendon shrugged and entered behind Johnathan, whose channeling rod was now glowing with blue
luminosity
. Brendon shook his head in disbelief.

All we heard as we progressed to our home were the sounds of our weary footsteps. I had a million questions floating around in my head, as I’m sure we all did … except maybe Joe … he seemed to know what was going on. He’d sure fooled us with the whole
I’m-so-scared-of-the-Goblin-attack-that-I-can’t-ever-talk-about-it
act. And Halli? He’d come with her, faster than she would have been able to walk by herself, for certain—she’d known about him and hadn’t told us. I was sure.

We reached our warded stairway beneath the crumbling room that had been recently destroyed even further by the giant Ogre. Johnathan paused and looked at me first and then the others.

“We’ve never let anyone else into our home. Do we trust these three with our secret?”

“I already know about your secret, Johnathan,” Joe said in a soothing voice. “And, I don’t think you need to worry about these two kids talking about it. We can always do a
mind-sweep
before we take them home … if you’re worried.”

Johnathan’s eyes narrowed and flickered yellow a couple of times before he gained control. “If it’s okay with my companions …” he looked at each of us before continuing. “We’ll go down. And,
you
will answer some questions, Joseph
.
”

Joe nodded. There was no irritation in his actions, only concern.

“Guys? What do you all say?” Johnathan asked.

“Trust them,” I said.

“Let them go in,” Seth agreed.

“It’s fine,” Alec added.

“We can trust Joe,” Halli chimed in. “I don’t know your friends, but I feel like they can be trusted, too.”

Johnathan turned to the trap door and cleared the rubbish away before removing the wards we’d placed there that morning. We followed him down the stairs and into our home. Brendon and Chari remained shell-shocked and quiet.

Johnathan dropped his channeling rod on the nearest table. “Everyone sit down … please.”

We pulled two tables together since our numbers had grown from five to eight.

I started the conversation by saying, “Brendon and Chari … I’m so sorry you two got dragged into this mess. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay … I think,” Brendon answered. He reached for Chari’s hand resting on the table. “How about you, Char? You okay?”

She looked down at their hands. “I think I am. My face is a little burned. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sleep again … but, I think I’m okay.”

“What
are
you guys?” Brendon asked.

None of us jumped to answer. After several seconds of silence, Halli looked at Joe.

“We aren’t sure …” she said. “None of
us
really knows. But, I think Joe knows what we are, don’t you, Joe?”

All eyes turned to him. He cleared his throat and appeared to be weighing his words before he spoke. “I can see that you’re upset”—he looked at Johnathan—“I’m assuming that’s because you feel deceived by me—and I have been a bit deceiving —but only because I had to be.”

“Tell us what we
are
and then you can pander for our forgiveness,” Johnathan stated.

“You are the
Quinae Praesidia—
roughly translated, it means Five Protectors. There are only five of you on earth at any given time. Your job while you’re here is to protect Earth—and the humans that inhabit it—from beings that would destroy humankind and have this earthly realm for themselves. Your existence is all that stops them.”

“Wait, so there are only five?” Seth asked. “Mr. Jorgensen said he’d found other kids that had magical abilities. What does that make
them
?”

“There are some with an inclination toward the magical arts—but they must be taught to use their abilities—and they must rely mostly on Dark Magic to perform. It’s always best, for them and those around them, that they never learn of their abilities.”

“So, what’s different about us?” I questioned. “We’ve had to learn—to teach ourselves—how to use our magic; how do we know we aren’t tapping into Dark Magic?”

“My dear Paige, some very evil devices must be utilized when invoking Dark Magic—things like blood sacrifices, calling upon Demons,
pairing
with Demons and Dark Fae. You haven’t used these types of practices while teaching yourselves, have you?” His gaze stopped on me for a split second before turning to the others.

Does he know about the
Summoning?
How could he know? Quit being so paranoid.

“Of course we haven’t, Joe. What kind of people do you think we are?” Johnathan said.

I avoided Halli’s gaze. She knew my secret shame—shame I would endure again in a heartbeat if it meant saving Johnathan.

“Okay, so we’re
Quinae Praesidia
and we’re here to protect. What does that really mean?” Alec asked.

Halli asked no questions—I had a feeling she’d already heard most of this.

“Like I said, there are only five of you on Earth at one time—there is one exception to that, though. When only one is left, he or she becomes the trainer of the next Five. So, I guess, officially, there are six here right now, but the
trainer
’s abilities diminish as the Five grow stronger. That’s a blessing and a curse. A curse because … well … because magic is cool, obviously, but a blessing because when you’re no longer a threat, the monsters stop coming for you, and you can live out the rest of your life in relative peace.”

“What do you mean,
when only one of you is left
?” Johnathan asked.

Joe sighed. Sadness filled his green eyes. “It’s a dangerous calling, Johnathan. More so now than ever before.”

We sat in silence for several minutes; lost in our own imaginings of losing our friends … of being the last one left.

“Joe, I may be stating the obvious here, but, you’re the last one—the trainer—aren’t you?” I asked.

He nodded. “The last of my quintet died around the time Halli was born.”

“Why did you wait to tell us? You’ve known about us for months,” Johnathan said.

“I waited to make sure—and to watch you. As you may have already figured out, the Goblins in my store were a test. You passed. Since then, I’ve been watching you, waiting for your talents to grow, watching to see how you handled yourselves.”

“It was Joe that was outside the night of the Ogre attack,” Halli offered.

“Yes, I was here. You all handled that situation quite well. Johnathan’s injury was unfortunate, and I apologize for putting you in that kind of danger. I had to know if you were ready.”

“
You’re
the reason the Ogre came for us? How it knew where to find us? The reason Johnathan almost
died
?” I stood and placed my shaking hands on the table.

“Yes.”

“That’s all you have to say?
‘Yes’
? Johnathan almost died!” I shouted.

Halli touched my arm. “Paige, John’s fine, though. That’s what we need to remember.”

I shook my head at her, incredulous. “He almost
died
, Hal.” I sat, exhausted, and rubbed my hands over my face, trying to erase the memory of Johnathan lying pale and breathless.

“Sasha, why does everyone keep calling you Paige?” Brendon asked.

“Well, my name is really Paige. I had to use Seth’s sister’s school records to sign up for school … and her name is Sasha.”

“You guys came to Edwards on purpose, then. Why? If you knew what was going on … why?” Brendon asked.

“Because that’s what we do,” I answered. “We help people when they can’t help themselves—when they have no idea what they’re up against. We read an article in the newspaper—well, Seth read it—about all the suicides happening at your school and we knew something wasn’t right. So we put ourselves in a position to help.”

“This is
exactly
why I know you’re ready to officially train. You’re already doing the work you were meant to do—and doing an amazing job of it for as little as you know. You need training now so you won’t put yourselves in such danger next time, though,” Joe said.

We were silent once more. This was a lot to take in for five teenagers that had been on their own for so long; learning as much as we could from a single book and trial and error. It was a lot to take in for two normal teenagers who’d discovered the world they live in is much more dangerous than they’d ever imagined.

“So … what now?” Surprisingly, it was Brendon who asked.

“Well, young man, we need to get you and your girlfriend home. After all the chaos erupting at the school today, I’m sure your parents are frantic,” Joe answered.

“Well, yeah, but what about these guys?”

“These guys are in great danger and we have much to talk about. How about we get you two home and out of danger, then the six of us will make some plans,” Joe said.

“What if we want to help?” Chari stared at her hands atop the table.

“The best way for you to help is to stay safe—and to keep this secret to your graves.”

“No worries about that,” Brendon said. “It’s not like anyone would believe us anyway.”

After Brendon and Chari got their stories straight—what they were going to tell their parents about their disappearance from school—Joe escorted them to their homes. They both protested and begged us to keep them in the loop. We promised we would—knowing full well it was a promise we’d break. Their lives would be much safer without us in them.

While Joe was gone, we had a lengthy discussion. “How long have you known about Joe?” I asked Halli.

“Not long,” she said. “I started going to his store the last couple of weeks while you guys were at school—I was bored and trying to stay out of trouble.”

“I understand why you went there, Hal. I just don’t know why you didn’t tell us as soon as you found out who he was—what he was. And what we are.” I said.

She shrugged. “He asked me not to.” From anyone else, that might have come across as indifferent. Coming from Halli, I knew it came from her innate goodness and trust in people. It wasn’t even a question for her—she trusted Joe, so she did as he asked.

“He didn’t tell me everything, anyway. He figured out there was something bad going down at the school as soon as you guys asked for his help getting signed up. He asked me to let him know when the real fight started. He told me he had ways to get us—him and me—there quickly, so as soon as you contacted me he portalled us to the football field. He couldn’t portal us right into where you were because it wasn’t somewhere he’d been before. We followed your trail from there.”