The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3) (25 page)

“
Candy? I’ll take it if you don’t want it.” Jake snatched the gold-wrapped chocolate roguishly out of her hands, but suddenly paused, seemed to think better of it, and gave the candy back to her. “Sorry. There I go again. You can have it.”

Dani
narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. This was very un-Jake-like behavior. But she ate the candy and savored it.

She moved on, going up the forest path ahead of him, hunting idly for candy coins again
, really just because it was fun to find things. Poor Mrs. Harris had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to make a party her daughter would love, only to be rejected.

Sad, Dani thought. That harpy should be glad she even had a mother.
After all, not everybody did.

She eyed Jake over her shoulder. He was frowning at the ground, hands in pockets, brooding again.

“What the heck is wrong with you today?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing.”

“Pfft,” Dani said.

“Well.” He let out a hug
e sigh. “A lot of stuff.” He hesitated. “Actually…I’ve been meaning to say I’m sorry for barking at you at the school the other day.”

She turned to him in shock.

“And also to tell you it was actually kind of a lovely thing you did, cheering up those kids by showing them the Illuminium.”

Dani was astonished. “I thought you were mad a
t me for that.”

“I was.” He shrugged. “But then I realized it’s really no big thing.”

“It’s not?”

“No. I overreacted. I should’ve trusted your judgment. It was nice, like I said.”

“But I broke the rules—about keeping magic secret.”

“Eh, rules. I was
never really big on those. Don’t worry. I took care of it.”

Dani frowned. “
The forgetfulness spell?”

“Nah,
I didn’t have the heart. Lied to ’em.”

“Well,
sorry you had to lie,” she said awkwardly, quite astonished at how civilized he was acting.

Maybe Archie had been a good influence on him these past few months.

Jake kicked a clod of dirt in the path. “I’m sorry I was mean.”

“It’s all right.” Dani gazed up
in thought at the scarlet lattice of leaves above her. “I give you a lot of leeway, Jake, because I know you’ve had a hard time.”

“Yes, but how much longer can I really use that as an excu
se?” He stared at her. “I’m luckier than most, when you come down to it.” He dropped his gaze again, looking a little embarrassed by this heartfelt conversation. “Mainly I just wanted you to know that nobody’s ever sending you back to the rookery. Not me, not ever. I give you my word.”

She absorbed this news like a thirsty houseplant soaking up some water. “You mean it?”

“Aye, no matter what,” he said.

She believed him.

She hadn’t realized until that very moment that, deep down, she had still feared being sent back to the harsh, dirty, dangerous neighborhood that she came from. “Thanks, Jake.”

He nodded.

Feeling awkward, she turned around and continued her treasure hunt for the pretend pirate’s candy gold, but her search was halfhearted now with the weight of all the things Jake had not yet told her.

She could feel them pressing down on him like a dark, invisible weight.

“So, the wedding’s off between you and Petunia, eh?” she teased.

“Ugh, that girl
’s worse than me.” He plucked a long piece of grass beside the path and stuck it in his teeth like a farmer as he sauntered along after her. “I wish she’d leave me alone. I don’t have time for her nonsense. There’s work to be done.”

“What kind of wor
k?” she asked in surprise, for Jake had never been fond of chores.

“Lightrider stuff.”

“Ohhh.” Dani spotted a glint of gold tucked in a woodpecker hole on the trunk of a dead tree nearby. She walked up the angle of a fallen log to reach it.

Jake frowned and took his hands out of his pockets, as though ready to catch her by telekinesis if she fell.

“Don’t tell Miss Helena I’m climbing trees. It isn’t ladylike.”

“Just don’t break your neck.”

“Got it!” She seized her prize and held it up with a grin. “You can have this one.” She tossed the coin down to Jake.

He caught it out of the air. “Are you sure you can get down from there?”

“Of course. I’m not some dimwit debutante.” She jumped down, dusting off her hands as she landed back on the path. “So, are you going to tell me what happened at the séance last night? You haven’t uttered one word about it to anyone.”

He paused in unwrapping the candy and sent her a wary glance. “I met Garnock.
At least, I’m pretty sure it was him.”

“
What?
Garnock the Sorcerer? From the story Emrys told us?”

Jake nodded grimly. “If I’m right, then h
e’s the black fog. And he’s horrible. Way worse than I thought.”

Dani sat down on the log she had just climbed while Jake propped his foot up on it and told her the whole, harrowing story of what
had happened at the séance.

She could not fathom how
the dark spirit could “kill” ghosts, who were already dead to begin with.

B
ut she soon learned that what really had Jake so shaken up was the vision Garnock had implanted in his mind, of himself as the future leader of the Dark Druids.

It took her a long moment to find her voice again after he described it.

She swallowed hard. “Anything else that happened?” she asked, trying to sound calm.

He shook his head, staring at her with dread in his blue eyes. “Afterwards, I got out of there as fast as possible. Madam Sylvia wanted to talk to me, but I couldn’t. I just left.”

Dani clenched her fists by her sides. “One of us should have gone with you. Derek or Miss Helena or me—”

“He would have only fed on you, too, if you had. Besides, it wouldn’t have made a difference. There was nothing anyone else could’ve done.” He paused. “I just wish I knew if that vision was a picture of my fate, or if it was just him trying to torment me.”

“Obviously the latter.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Jake, you’d never join the Dark Druids.”

“What if they trick me somehow? Maybe by using dark magic?”

“Hold on, now. Slow down. What makes you think this was Garnock in the first place?”

“Who else would know how to use magic to paralyze people
, using nothing but raw fear, mere pictures in their minds? This is the master of the original Dark Druids we’re dealing with. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

“But how could he bring himself back to life?”

Jake shrugged. “I wouldn’t call him entirely ‘alive’ quite yet. I think that’s why he’s going around sucking the life out of people. It seems to be what makes him stronger.”

“Well, what are we going to do?”

“I’ll have to ask Aunt Ramona. She hasn’t even answered my first message yet. But to be honest, my bigger worry at the moment is myself. I mean, after a vision like that, how can I even trust myself to try to stand against him? Maybe I’m the wrong person to try to deal with this. You saw how rotten I was in the vault. Selfish, spoiled. Even worse than Petunia.”

“Oh, Jake.”

“Honestly, Dani. I’m worse than you know.” He looked lost as he gazed at her in dismay. “What if the evil thing the unicorns were sensing out in the woods that night…was me?”

“Now you’re talking crazy.”

“Am I?”

“Yes, and that’s enough
of that,” she said firmly.

He fell silent for a moment. “
Dani, I want you to make me a promise.”

He knew she’d do just about
anything for him, but she didn’t like the sound of this at all. “What sort of promise?”

“Like I said, I trust your judgment. You know me better than anyone.
So, I want you to promise me that if you ever see me turning evil, you’ll buy some rat poison from an apothecary and slip it in my tea.”

“What?”

He stared at her, somber and unblinking as an owl.

“You want me to
kill you? Murder you?” She jumped to her feet in exasperation. “I’m not doing that, you bloomin’ lunatic.”

“You have to! Dani, I don’t know if what I saw was my own wors
t fears or a vision of my future! I’d rather be dead than turned into a supernatural monster of a man.”

“You’re out of your head! What a horrible, horrible thing to ask of a friend.”

“Dani, you know what I can do. You know how much damage I could do to the world and other people. If the Dark Druids ever manage to turn me somehow, you know very well I’ll have to be stopped.”

“Then ask Isabelle
to do it, not me. She’s your kin. If it’s a matter of good and evil, she’s the one who’ll be able to sense it—”

“She’s too te
nder-hearted. She always believes the best of people. She’d make excuses, probably cover up for me. She’d never be able to do it.”

“And you think I c
ould? Jake, the answer’s no. I am not going to kill you.”

“Well then, promise me you’ll tell Derek Stone
, if it ever comes down to it. He’ll know what to do.”

“You’re daft if you thin
k Derek would ever agree to hurt you, either. He’s sworn to protect you, and he loves you like you’re his own little brother or something.”

“He’s also a warrior and a true knight of the Order. My parents were his best friends. He’d never let me betray the
ir memory. If I ever need to be killed, he’s the one to do it. But you’re the one who’s got to make that call, Dani. Will you at least agree to that much?”

“Not me, ask Isabelle!” she pleaded.
“She can sense what’s in a person’s heart, and she’s as close to pure good as anyone I’ve ever seen. I’m just a regular person.”

“Y
ou’re the one the angel came to rescue, remember?” Jake pointed out. “Please? I’m counting on you, Dani. Promise me!”

“Fine. I’ll say it if it makes you feel better, but I don’t mean it.” She held up her crossed fingers to show him she was lying. “I
promise
I’ll tell Derek to kill you if you ever turn evil. Happy now?”

“Yes. Thank you. It helps more than you know,” he muttered.

She shook her head at him. “You really are an absolute loon-bat.”

At that moment
, a chestnut fell out of the tree above them and bounced off Jake’s head, hitting Dani in the nose before falling to the leafy ground.

“Hey!” they cried in unison.

With Jake holding his head, and Dani cupping her nose, they both looked up indignantly at the oak tree, only to gasp in astonishment.

The slender branch above them was covered with a row of tiny people
—
spying
on them!

They could not be fairies. T
hey had no wings, nor sparkle-trails, but carried tiny spears or bows and arrows. They wore bits of brown leather sewn with twine and colored autumn leaves for their finery.

They shrieked as soon as they were spotted and immediately scattered, fleeing higher up the trunk, somersaulting into the canopy of the leaves,
or pole-vaulting on their twig-spears onto other branches to escape.