Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

T he walls moved.

I realized after a sickening heartbeat that I was wrong. It was the patterns in the stones that undulated, while the sandstone remained still.

Horizontal lines, which represented unimaginable time as layer upon layer had formed this place, began to spin through the walls. Lights flashed, too fast for me to see what emitted them.

Skulled faces appeared in the stone, similar to those on the beings that attacked us in Many Farms. They were images in the stone, like projections on a screen, but at the same they time reached bony fingers from the wall.

A hand snatched at the jacket I'd wrapped around the egg that Carl still held. He jerked back, and I grabbed the egg from him, jacket and all.

"Show me Mick," I shouted. "Or you get nothing."

Another projection appeared beside the Phantomwalkers. A flat and dimensionless dragon glared at me, its eye huge and full of fury .

Was this Mick? Or an illusion? I reached for Mick's aura, finding it dark and smoky with crackles of fire, but I sensed it from far, far away. Either Mick was trapped deep inside this stone, or they were showing me a projection of him from somewhere else.

"Mick," I raised my voice, hoping he could hear me. "Mirror."

Mick snarled, the sound deepening as a streak like lightning crackled across his image. His rage increased, then with a snap, he was gone.

The lightning had been too much like a whiplash for my liking. "You better not have hurt him," I told the Phantomwalker images.

They ignored me.

If Mick could get to the mirror and open a channel, I could try to wrest him free, using my Beneath magic enhanced with the mirror's power. I wasn't certain if they'd taken the mirror from him or destroyed the shard entirely, but even the tiny pieces would be helpful. But only if Mick could get to them.

The Phantomwalkers began to speak in their weird, many-voiced chorus. "If you desire your Firewalker's freedom, you must sacrifice."

"Sacrifice?" I demanded. "Sacrifice what?"

I thought I knew, but I wanted to keep them talking until I figured out a way to safely get Mick out of their clutches.

"Sacrifice only works when it's sincere," Nitis rumbled behind me. I wished he'd become the giant badass crow and attack them, but he stood calmly, keeping to his human form. "Janet is not the egg's mother. The sacrifice would be much greater if she were. "

The Phantomwalkers regarded Nitis with contempt, but I sensed some puzzlement from them. They were single-minded creatures— get the egg and then kill them all . They hadn't expected Nitis to start a debate.

"Cesnia sacrificed herself," I said, turning things over in my head. "You all tried to make the same bargain with her, didn't you? The egg for Cesnia's life. Except, she'd never agree to that. She was his mother . She died so her child could live."

Tears wet my eyes. Cesnia had been amazing, according to the other dragons. Even the council respected her. My heart burned with regret that I'd not been able to meet her, and also that Junior had been deprived of a wonderful mother, who'd committed the ultimate sacrifice to save her child.

I was going to obliterate the Phantomwalkers for that.

"She had a choice," Nitis said quietly to me. "Is that a choice you can make?"

I studied him, this man with enigmatic black eyes. I still didn't know truly who Nitis was. A god, a demon? Why did he have so much power over the Phantomwalkers when dragons did not? Was his magic otherworldly? More like Beneath magic than Grandmother's shaman power?

And why the hell had he let Grandmother follow him? Nitis had implied he couldn't stop her, but yes, he could have, if he'd truly wanted to.

"Grandmother," I said. "Why don't you stand over there with Carl?"

Grandmother sent me a withering glance and stayed where she was. Carl had left his place against the wall when it became full of skull-faced phantoms, but he folded his arms and gazed back at them stubbornly, not about to run .

"Make the sacrifice," the Phantomwalkers intoned.

I had promised many people I'd never allow my Beneath magic to prevail. I understood why they wanted to restrict me—what was inside me was incredibly dangerous. If I let myself, I could unmake a large part of the world.

I had learned, via a long, difficult process, how to tame my powers. I now could ground myself with the Earth magic I'd inherited from Grandmother's family and impede the Beneath magic when it wanted to take over.

There was no storm outside, none near that I could feel. There weren't any close enough that I could bounce through the mirror, as I'd done when we'd fought in the gym at Many Farms. A beautiful, sunny spring day wafted a soft breeze over the lands above.

I turned to Carl and again handed him the jacket-covered egg. He hooked the flashlight onto his belt and took the egg, grim-eyed, holding it close.

Then I silently told the Beneath magic to get ready.

I faced the Phantomwalkers who separated themselves from the wall to hover above me. "I love Mick. I'd do anything for him, even die for him. But you're not getting the egg." I spread my arms. "Free Mick, and take your best shot."

I sensed the Phantomwalker's glee. They'd rid themselves of my threat, I could imagine them thinking, and then destroy everyone else without hindrance.

Except, I had a stinger in my tail.

"No." Grandmother was somehow in front of me, her walking stick raised at the Phantomwalkers. "Don't trust them, Janet."

"The sacrifice is not yours to make," Nitis told me. I sensed a darkness in him, one growing as he advanced on us.

"You asked me if I was willing," I said. "The answer is: Yes, I am."

Nitis regarded me steadily. "But it is false."

I tried to signal him with my glare to shut up and let me do this. Nitis remained stubbornly beside Grandmother, both of them being extremely obtuse all of a sudden.

Nitis was right, of course. I wasn't truly offering myself in exchange for Mick's freedom. I was laying a trap because I was going to eradicate the Phantomwalkers.

Destroying them completely was the only way Mick, the rest of the dragons, and the egg would be safe. I knew Cesnia would have done what I planned if she'd had the benefit of hell-goddess power to aid her.

"Then why were you going on about choice?" I asked Nitis in growing exasperation.

"To make you understand." Nitis's voice expanded to fill the cave. "You do not have the powers you believe you do. You are dangerous, but in the end, you are too nice, Janet."

My brows rose. "Too nice?" I don't think anyone had ever said that about me in my entire life.

"There is not enough evil in your heart," Nitis went on. "If there was, you'd have killed the Phantomwalkers by now, and me as well. You'd have sent Drake away with the egg in the first place, to his death and the egg's. You do not have the malevolence it takes to destroy."

Nitis had grown taller and shadowy-er through this speech. I swallowed, chilled.

"And you do?" I asked.

"Yes." Nitis smiled, all that darkness coalescing into his expression. "Why do you think I have been so successful thus far?"

Shit, shit, shit. Grandmother had let this man into her house, and into my hotel. He could have ripped our wards away by now, leaving my friends and colleagues and everyone I loved sitting ducks.

The question of what Nitis was suddenly didn't matter. It only mattered that I had another enemy to fight.

"Grandmother, get away from him."

Again, Grandmother sent me her obstinate look. "I do not like to be ordered about."

"For your own safety. Carl, help me."

Carl, who understood danger when he saw it, moved to Grandmother. He cradled the egg tightly, keeping a sharp eye on the Phantomwalkers and on Nitis.

Carl wouldn't be able fight them, though I guessed he'd valiantly try. If either Nitis or the Phantomwalkers went after him or Grandmother, I'd make sure the attackers would die instantly. I was evil enough to do that .

As Carl reached for Grandmother's arm, many things happened in rapid succession.

The walls rippled again. This time a string of glowing lights followed the colorful lines of sandstone. It ripped my concentration from the Phantomwalkers, which I thought was what they intended, then I realized they were startled too.

The stone began to shift and melt, and then a ringing sound like the most beautiful music I'd ever heard filled the chamber. Rock groaned, and pebbles broke from the ceiling to ping to the ground.

A finger of sunlight stabbed down from above. The walls were changing, I realized, moving back to their original configuration.

Which meant something had broken the hold the Phantomwalkers had over this place.

Nash came charging around the corner, a pistol in his hands. He had it pointed at the ground, finger off the trigger, but the sight of the gun made me jump.

Gabrielle plunged in from another passage, Colby on her heels. Gabrielle threw a ball of white-hot fire at the Phantomwalkers, yelling at the top of her lungs.

"I don't like being shut in," she shouted as the Phantomwalkers scattered.

"She does not," Colby confirmed in a calmer tone.

Undulating lights flowed through the rocks again, followed by a glowing starburst, like a million glittering fireflies bursting out of the stone.

The mirror in my hand squealed. "I did it!"

Mick's huge dragon head again appeared on the flat face of the rock as if projected there. The dragon body expanded to fill the space, writhing and moving, but still trapped.

Abruptly, Mick's dragon fire exploded out from the tiny piece of the mirror's light. The flames struck the Phantomwalkers, who again scattered in confusion.

The fire didn't hurt the Phantomwalkers, though it disorganized them for a few crucial seconds. In those seconds, I tried to shove Grandmother and Carl into the tunnel that would take them to safety. They wouldn't budge, of course.

I lost track of Nitis, who'd become a crow once more. He flew past me, the rippling lights illuminating his feathers .

Gabrielle blasted the Phantomwalkers again. A few screamed and fell away, but the rest of them regrouped into one giant, skull-faced, tattered-sheet, no-legs entity.

That being let fly a white-hot arrow of crackling power right at Carl, still holding the egg, and Grandmother huddled next to him.

Sacrifice. A real one, not a lie to lure the enemy into a trap.

Yes, I would let myself be killed for the woman who'd given up a good part of her life to raise me. Yes, I'd sacrifice myself for Carl, an innocent human trying to enjoy his remaining years, and yes, I'd sacrifice it for a baby dragon.

I launched myself into Carl and Grandmother. They tumbled out of the way, both objecting, Carl cursing. I landed in the path of the deadly magic that had aimed straight for them.

I expected to frizzle into dust at any moment, too rapidly for any last words. I only hoped that Gabrielle and Nash could get the others out of here and save Mick.

The strike never landed. A massive span of black wings stirred up dust, and a crow with a crown of ebony and white feathers spread himself over me.

The shaft of Phantomwalker magic struck him full force. Feathers exploded as the body of the crow crumpled with the blow. Grandmother screamed.

I waited for Nitis to rise, to laugh in his slow way, and to obliterate the Phantomwalkers.

Instead, he died.

The large black bird fell heavily to the ground. His dark eyes sparkled once, a croak left his throat, then his eyes filmed over, and his head dropped to the dust.

"No! "

The word wrenched itself from Grandmother, a drawn-out wail of grief. She ran at the Phantomwalkers, her walking stick lifted high.

I saw another figure superimposed upon her, a young and stunning woman with long, soot-black hair. Her upright body contained haughty pride, a woman sure of her strength.

Ruby Begay held the cane in strong hands. She threw her head back, keening a song I didn't understand, as she'd done the last time she'd fought the Phantomwalkers. The turquoise in her cane glowed, surrounding her in a blue nimbus.

The lights in the walls responded. They apparently had nothing to do with Mick, who was still struggling to break free, because the glow rippled over him as well.

The collective Phantomwalker drew back from Ruby's song, but they didn't want to touch the illuminated walls either. The wavering lights began to fill every space of sandstone, including the ceiling, meeting the sunbeam that stabbed through it.

Carl had landed heavily, but he'd kept hold of the egg. He stared in wonder at the battle of luminosity above him, while the egg jumped and danced in his arms.

Gabrielle, after an open-mouthed gape at the young Ruby Begay, drew her arm back and threw a basketball-sized flash of Beneath magic at the Phantomwalkers.

It hit them, and they screamed.

"Three pointer," Gabrielle yelled, fists in the air.

I gathered my own magic, ready to end this.

The lights in the rocks swirled together in a riot of blue-white. I paused, my body hot with adrenaline, the Beneath magic poised to explode .

If I destroyed this cave, what would I also kill? Were the lights another manifestation of the Phantomwalkers? Or an ally, who was trying to help us?

"What are you?" I demanded of the swirling radiance.

Laughter shimmered as the glow danced—female laughter. Sacrifice, it whispered.

In the next moment, the glittering lights inside the rock burst outward. Gabrielle yelped and ducked, Colby pulling her to safety. Nash hit the dirt, and Carl crouched down, shielding the egg.

Mick burst from the wall. He launched himself upward, his dragon too huge for the space, and broke open the ceiling. Dust and rock poured down on us, coating the air.

Mick winged for the sky, then he disappeared.

My body sagged with relief, the magic that had been building in me sliding away. I fell against the wall, my knees buckling until I slid to the floor.

Mick was all right. He was free.

He hadn't flown away for good, I knew. Mick would be back, ready to do whatever it took.

The wall behind me was warm. The feminine laughter embraced me, soothing down my crazed Beneath magic.

As good as the contact felt, I struggled. I needed the Beneath magic to destroy the Phantomwalkers. Gabrielle, as strong as she was, couldn't do it by herself.

Through all this, Grandmother continued her song. As long as I'd known her, she'd seemed elderly to me, though I realized she must have been only fifty or so when I'd been born.

Now I saw the young woman that was Ruby—the capable, intense, magical being who would become the matriarch who kept our family safe and together .

I hadn't stood a chance against her.

Nitis remained a clump of black feathers on the ground. All the magic dancing in the air didn't stir him.

The lights whirled around and around the cave. I heard the laughter build, and then the string of luminescence became the outline of a massive dragon.

A white dragon, shot with iridescent blue. She stayed inside the wall, not breaking free as Mick had, because of course, they'd already killed her.

"Wing Dancer," Colby whispered. "I thought they were legends."

Before I could ask what a Wing Dancer was, Carl cried out.

My jacket had fluttered to the dirt, as though wind had blown it. As I watched in astonishment, the egg leapt from Carl's grasp. It launched itself into the air, aiming for the blue-white dragon, but before it could reach her, the egg fell.

The baby inside must be trying to fly to its mother, but trapped inside the egg, its momentum would only take it so far.

The blue of Grandmother's magic snapped off just before the egg plummeted through it. Gabrielle tried to send out a snake of Beneath magic to catch the egg but was too late.

I didn't bother with magic. I hurled myself across the dirt floor and slid like a home-base stealer into the other wall. I opened my arms, and the egg landed straight into them.

"I got you, kid." I held the egg, unbroken, close, breathing hard, the emeralds and gold scratching my skin.

The egg wriggled and wobbled, and I lost my hold. The oval rolled onto the ground at my feet, then it abruptly exploded into a thousand jade, gold, and bejeweled shards.

As I shielded myself from the flying debris, something landed hard on my chest. It said, "Gnahhhh."

Baby dragon fire whooshed out all over my sweatshirt, burning it to cinders.