Chapter 23

Chapter

Twenty-Three

Z ane’s father smiles and nods. “Look at them. If anyone has a chance of fixing this, of putting an end to the issue, it’s them.”

Dad nods.

There’s always a voice of dissent. Today, it’s Maura Steros. “One of these children is going to…” She pauses, not wanting to speak of what I have to do. “ Handle Elizabeth?”

Zane moves forward. “Not one of us. All of us.”

“What does it look like in action?” My dad looks at Zane, questioning with curiosity, not doubt.

“It’s a team working together. All of us with the same goal, the same purpose. Not our own gains in mind.” He shakes his head. “It looks like us coming together to handle a threat to all of us.”

My dad nods, looks at the others. “I guess we’d better get to work, then.”

I glance at him. “What does that look like in action?”

He chuckles but doesn’t answer. The men in the room are very busy moving my mother’s dining room table to the corner of the room and stacking the chairs on top. And then they stand in a circle, their hands clasped.

For a few seconds nothing happens. Part of me wonders if anything is going to. But the air swirls the fan blades overhead and it starts spinning and everyone’s hair is blowing back—mine, Aimee’s, Mom’s, everyone’s.

It is like a tornado inside the house and I can’t keep my eyes open, so I don’t see the exact minute the wands appeared. When I open my eyes, I see the jewels inside them glitter in the light. There are seven blue sapphires and two rubies. My father and Zane’s father hold the rubies.

I glance at Zane and Aimee. This is like nothing I’d ever seen. My mother is holding a staff. It is gold and about as long as my mother’s arm, made of thin, twisted metal. I don’t think it is real gold, not solid anyway, but what do I know. I’d never seen anything so shiny and beautiful.

Mom moves to the center of the circle and holds out the staff. The wands, which are semi-long, with the stones bent at an angle on a skinny, gold, thinner piece of metal, don’t look as if they will fit the twisted staff, but where there’s magic, there’s a way.

One by one, the wands are added to the staff and twist onto the top so the jewels make a pointed tip. For it being a weapon, it looks delicate, as though a strong wind could splinter it back to its separate composite of parts.

I don’t see how this thing is a weapon against the syphoner. She had magical cords that extended from her body and attached to Aimee and Rowen and Zane and Ariya. They Glowed. Sparked. This thing looks like a children’s toys. I’m skeptical, but my mother turns to me, eyes red, mouth tight. Her magic is fused to the staff. All of them have magic fused to it.

She turns back to the center of their circle as they chant. I should’ve paid attention in Latin class. “What are they saying?” I whisper to Zane because he’s the kind of guy who pays attention in every class even though he doesn’t have to.

“Sapphire beam, ruby blood.” He says it again, then a couple more times. And then he whispers, “ Trabem sapphiri, ruby sanguinis.”

I watch them all, waiting for their sapphire beam to come for my ruby blood, for one of them to know it’s me and turn their magic scepter on me. The fear is so powerful I tremble.

Aimee clings to me on one side and Zane holds my hand on the other. I don’t know if they were before or if they only started now, but I’m comforted when I realize they are there.

The staff is a scepter now, and the wind has died, the fan is still. Aside from the table being in the corner of the room, everything has returned to normal. I can’t stop looking at the scepter though.

Even when everyone is talking among themselves and the scepter is ignored on the table, I’m drawn to it, walk toward it like it’s calling me.

The sensation is odd. Before I can reach for it, Dad intercepts me and steers me into the kitchen. I look over my shoulder at it as he pulls me toward the sink. “RJ!” His voice is sharp. I glance at him, then back at the scepter. The magic inside of it is meant for me, and I want to hold it in my hands, feel it coursing inside of me. The hunger is real. The need is strong.

“RJ!” This time it’s my mother calling me, and I look at her. She’s regal and tall, and I can almost see her power. “RJ!” I’ve disappointed her. I don’t know how, neither do I care .

I can’t stop looking at the scepter, can’t stop wanting it, needing it with such intensity my body trembles. I need it and I’ve never experienced longing so powerful. Not even Zane brings this kind of hunger.

“Fight, RJ. It’s calling to you because it knows what you are.” My mother takes me by the shoulders and forces me to look at her, then gives me a shake when I try to turn away. “Fight. You have to be stronger than the scepter or you will lose yourself, do you understand?”

I do. I very much understand that the scepter is powerful. The power is a siren calling to me. And I want it. I want it now.

“You command the scepter RJ, not the other way around.” Her voice is strong and I can feel it in my stomach. More than a flutter, less than an ache. “Can you do this, RJ? Can you be strong enough to save your sister, command the scepter?” She keeps saying my name and it’s purposeful, reminds me who I am. It grounds me.

“Command?” I can’t imagine being in charge of the power instead of taking it for myself.

Mom nods, looks at me, and gives me another shake. “Command.”

“How?” I can’t figure how to make it work because the call of the power in the scepter and the temptation to grasp it is too loud.

My mother stares at me, her gaze piecing, her eyes dark with magic. “Fight for control of the power, RJ. It’s the only way to command the scepter.”

I look at the scepter then close my eyes, but the power continues to call to me. I open my eyes and shake my head. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Try harder.” She jerks my shoulders again. “You are the only one who can save your sister’s power, who can save your friend Zane, Rowen, and Ariya.”

She’s right and I know it, but I’m being provoked by the strength of the magic. It surges when I look away, drawing me back in, making me want.

“Take it away, Mom, please.” If she doesn’t, I won’t be able to think or breathe. “Take it away,” I tell her again because the urge to push past her and take it is strong, too strong. I need to get ahandle on myself, but I won’t ask her again.

She looks at me. “No.” When she shakes her head, it is with confidence and determination. “You’re going to do this, RJ. You’re going to do it for Aimee and for the rest of your friends.”

Aimee and Zane are nearby, the others watching me fall to the pull of the scepter. “You have to want to save them.”

“I do want to.” And I don’t like the suggestion that she thinks I don’t. But as angry as I am at her, I want the scepter’s power more. I don’t want to want the magic, but the surges are intoxicating.

“All right, then you have to pay attention.” I nod but the scepter is close and now she’s holding it. “Do you see it, RJ? It’s nothing without the person who wields it. It’s just metal and stones.” She twists it this way and that and the light sparkles off the stones and the metal.

She’s wrong, underplaying it, and we both know it, but I’m waiting for her to hand it to me. I don’t want to do anything, not move too quickly and take it from her, to act too anxious, to beg to hold it.

She waves it closer to me. “Mom.” I can’t help it. I need to hold it.

I curl my fingers around it. The power is an electric bolt. My eyes close and my head falls back, a soft sigh escaping my lips.

“Mom?” I look at her. I can’t do this, the power is too much. It’s too strong to resist. I glance at Aimee. She looks hopeful, has faith in me that I am going to be able to return her power to her. “Show me how to use this thing.”