Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (32 page)

Valerie closed her eyes.
“As I’ll ever be. Let’s get this over with.”

Kanti worked quickly,
and suddenly Valerie’s head was much lighter and a faint breeze tickled her
neck.

After a few more snips,
the scissors stopped. “Done,” Kanti said.

Valerie opened her eyes
and saw the astonished faces of Peach, Gideon, Sanguina, and Henry.

“What is it?” she asked.
Kanti walked her to the lake. She kneeled down and peered at her reflection. Kanti
had done an incredible job of mimicking Henry’s haircut, and the resemblance
between them was striking. For those who didn’t know them well, she could pass
for her brother.

Now that her hair was
cut short, the silver patch of hair near her neck was clearly visible. She
touched it self-consciously. Maybe she’d dye it dark brown, like Henry had.

“You’ll have to change
your clothes,” Kanti said.

“And bind your…um…chest,”
Cyrus said.

She whirled around, not
realizing he was there. Self-consciously, she touched her shorn hair. “What do
you think?”

Cyrus reached out and
took her hand. “I love it.”

Peach eyed her closely. “She’s
a few inches shorter than Henry. And up close, her face is much more feminine.”

“And beautiful,” Cyrus
added. Valerie blushed. “No offense, Henry.”

“None taken,” Henry
replied, and a small grin briefly replaced the worried expression on his face.

“It’s true, no one would
mistake them for each other if they knew them well,” Gideon said.

“So you think it won’t
work after all?” Valerie asked with trepidation. If this plan was a dud, she
was out of ideas.

“It will work,” Gideon
said. Sanguina nodded slowly as well.

Valerie relaxed and
tried to summon up some confidence for the group that had now gathered around
them. “We will succeed tomorrow.”

It wasn’t Shakespeare,
but her little army still cheered at her words.

The next morning, Valerie was shaken awake
by Henry. She was surprised that she had slept at all, but her body seemed to
sense that she needed to be fully charged for the battle that was coming.

“It’s not too late to change
the plan,” he said. She saw the circles under his eyes. Unlike her, he hadn’t
slept at all.

“Yes it is,” she
replied. “And it’s going to work.”

“Damn straight,” Kanti
agreed. “Now let’s get your costume on.”

The girls walked behind
a tree, and Valerie bound her chest and dressed in her brother’s clothes.

Kanti looked her up and
down and shook her head with a little grin. “You’re even prettier than my
boyfriend,” she said with a smile.

“Thanks. And may I say
you are stunningly beautiful today, as usual,” Valerie shot back.

“Low blow, lady, low
blow,” Kanti said, raising her hands in mock surrender. Then she turned
serious. “You ready?”

Valerie nodded, and
surprisingly, it was the truth. As anxious as she usually was, she noticed that,
in crisis mode, her fear and self-doubt seemed to take a back seat to her focus
on accomplishing her mission. Her power tingled in her fingers, ready to be
unleashed. For the first time, she could see why Gideon thought she had
leadership potential.

Gideon was talking to
the rest of the group, making sure they understood exactly where they were
supposed to be. Everyone was nodding seriously.

“Ready?” Sanguina asked,
appearing at her elbow.

Valerie nodded. “I trust
you.”

Sanguina’s breath caught
in her throat. “I never thought I’d hear you say that. You honor me, and I
won’t disappoint you.”

“I know,” she replied,
glad that Sanguina couldn’t see Henry glaring at his oldest enemy with pure
revulsion in his eyes. She couldn’t blame him, but she also couldn’t help
seeing the good in Sanguina that lived next to the evil.

Valerie turned to the
group. This time she’d thought about what to say, and she spoke carefully. “Yesterday,
we were a group of people with a shared mission. But today, we are a team with
a plan that will work. Things may go wrong, but I have faith in all of you. If
you think that the plan needs to be altered because of a complication, I trust
you to do it without waiting for permission.”

Gideon was thoughtful
after her little speech, but he nodded at her with approval. Kanti gave her a
subtle thumbs up as if she sensed that giving her a hug wouldn’t help her
friend’s commander image. Henry was clearly worried, as if he regretted
agreeing to her plan.

“Let’s do this!” Cyrus shouted, and everyone laughed.
It was the perfect start to the mission.

Sanguina led a disguised
Valerie to the Black Castle shackled in the magical ropes that had bound Sanguina
when she was being taken to the Justice Guild. They no longer worked, but
appeared convincing.

The castle looked
different than Valerie remembered, because the structure was constantly
changing, entire turrets and wings appearing and vanishing, like it couldn’t
decide what it really was. The effect was ghostly and chilling, which was
probably intended. She dreaded returning to the almost complete darkness of
that horrible place.

She wished that she
could grip Pathos’ hilt for reassurance, but it was safely in a callbox where
she could get it when she needed it, and it wouldn’t be taken from her if she were
searched.

The black drawbridge
crashed down as they came closer. A hulking figure stood in the doorway beyond,
and Valerie recognized the strange smell immediately—Venu’s poison.

Her heart beat in
double-time. If they couldn’t make it past the first line of defense, the rest
of the plan would fall apart.

Sanguina had a snarl on
her face. “Let me by. I have a gift for Reaper.”

“What is it?” Venu asked,
sounding bored.

Valerie tried to shrink
deeper into the shadow of Henry’s hoodie as Sanguina stepped forward
threateningly. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I managed to finish the
job you failed. I’ve brought him Henry.”

Venu wasn’t able to hide
his shock and choked on his words. He stepped closer, trying to stare at her, but
Sanguina stood between them.

“I was told you weren’t
to be trusted anymore,” Venu croaked.

Sanguina paused, then
her arm shot forward, choking Venu’s throat. His hands scrabbled against her
arm, covering it with poison, but she didn’t even flinch.

“Your poison can’t touch
me, or didn’t they tell you? Now that I’m human again I’ve regained my power to
repel attacks, and you aren’t even close to strong enough to overcome my magic.
Perhaps they’re not telling you as much as you think they are,” Sanguina said,
her tone cold and commanding.

Venu wasn’t the only one
who was surprised. This was the first Valerie had heard of Sanguina’s power.

He wrenched himself away
from Sanguina and stepped back. “Reaper isn’t here.” Valerie had to physically
stop herself from sighing in profound relief. “But Zunya is.” Her heart
dropped.

Sanguina nodded. “I want
Henry secure in a cell right away. Then I’ll talk to Zunya about what to do
with the little brat. We always work him over together.”

Venu moved aside to let
them past.

“Come along,” Sanguina
snapped, pulling at Valerie’s bound hands.

They walked over the
threshold, and the door slammed shut, leaving them temporarily blinded by the
darkness. More than anything, Valerie wished she could call for Pathos for a
little light, but it wasn’t time yet.

“We’ll take her to the
isolation cell,” Venu said.

“The dungeon will be
adequate,” Sanguina replied.

Valerie’s eyes began to
adjust. There were tiny lights that cast an eerie glow over Venu, and the other
Fractus she could see were guarding the threshold.

“No,” Venu said with
more confidence now that the rest of Reaper’s army safely surrounded him. “There
is no reason to object to extra caution, given how valuable the boy is to our master.”

“Very well,” Sanguina
said in clipped tones, and led Valerie roughly down the hall ahead of Venu.

“Don’t panic. I will
return to release the lock once the guards are taken care of,” Sanguina
whispered urgently.

“Where are you taking me?”
Valerie asked, unable to restrain the fear creeping into her voice and turning
the Laurel Circle cold.

Sanguina didn’t reply.
They had reached a tall door, which Venu shoved open. Inside was nothing but a
trunk. It was too dim to make out much about it other than the huge lock
sealing it shut.

Venu hauled the lid
open. “In you go,” he said. Valerie shook her head, her terror overpowering her
logic.

“Do it or I’ll make you,”
Sanguina said, but gave Valerie’s hand a brief squeeze.

Somehow, Valerie forced herself to put one foot in the
trunk, and then the other. Rough hands forced her to her knees, and the lid
slammed shut. After that, her reason left her and she began to scream.

The memory bubbled up
in her mind, no matter how hard Valerie tried to force it away. Curled up in
this dark, tiny space, her fear was unleashed. She had been nine years old when
the new foster family had taken her in. The first time she had seen her foster
father’s face, with his cruel eyes and calloused hands, she had known that he
enjoyed others’ fear. She made up her mind then never to show him any.

Maybe that had been
the wrong decision, because as soon as he realized that he couldn’t frighten
her, he had been determined to break her. If she spilled her milk or walked too
loudly or for no reason at all, he would lock her in the upstairs closet for
hours—even overnight. There was no light, and sometimes she wondered if she
really existed.

But somehow through
it all, she had held herself together, and he was always infuriated to find her
eyes still defiant after leaving her alone for hours in the darkness. That was
when he rigged up an even smaller space under a sink where she had to curl up
to fit. It was dark and dank and smelled of mold. Her stomach would cramp from
hunger, and her mind would play tricks on her, so she’d see things that weren’t
really there, like cockroaches and snakes that would try to climb in her nose
and ears.

But the torture came to an end when Valerie saw him
planning to put one of the new foster kids, a little boy, into the closet one
day. Something in her snapped, and her magic was unleashed. Even though her
foster father was twice her size, she had beaten him bloody and fled. After
that, she had lived on the streets for months until she was picked up by Child
Services when she was getting food at a shelter.

All of the screams that Valerie
had swallowed all those years ago welled up inside her, ready to choke her to
death. She couldn’t think of anything except getting out of this place, and she
clawed at her cage until blood ran down her hands from her broken fingernails.

The box was filled with
a horrible sound that was coming from her own mouth, but she couldn’t seem to
stop it. She beat her fists against the walls of the trunk, until she finally
collapsed. Her mind was slipping away, ready to release her into sweet
unconsciousness, when her hand brushed an object that must have fallen out of
her pocket—Thai’s charm.

Without meaning to, Valerie
was with him in an instant. He was writing at his desk, concentrating hard and
biting his lip. When he saw her, he leaped out of his chair, which fell to the
ground behind him. He didn’t even notice.

His hands hovered near
her, helpless to touch her or comfort her. She didn’t care about anything he
had done. The sight of his face restored the piece of herself that had been
slipping away, drowned by fear.

“It’s okay. This is part
of the plan,” she said, more as a reminder to herself than as an explanation to
Thai.

“Tell me how I can help
you,” he said gently, though she could see murder in his eyes for whoever had
done this to her. Some part of him still cared.

“Remind me…remind me who
I am,” she said, too distraught to be embarrassed by her words.

“You are Valerie Diaz,
and you are a living, blazing contradiction. A warrior and a giver of life, the
strongest and most vulnerable person I know. But you are unbreakable.”

“Unbreakable…”she echoed
him.

“And you are loved,” he
said, his eyes burning with repressed emotion.

“I am loved,” she said, and she gave him a fierce
smile. “I will survive this.”

She let her mind return
to the Globe, even though she was back in her horrible dark box.

“Pathos,” she whispered,
and her sword was in her hand. It glowed, infused by Cyrus with enough light to
last for years.

She wedged her weapon
into the crack where the trunk was sealed shut and used all her strength to
pull it down. But the power of Pathos and her own magic were not enough. The
trunk remained sealed. To keep herself from slipping back under a tidal wave of
terror, she counted her own heartbeats.

Not too many passed
before she heard soft footsteps enter the room. The lid was wrenched open and
Sanguina pulled her out. “You okay?”

A rush of gratitude and
relief made Valerie’s knees shake as she stood up. She had to fight the urge to
throw her arms around Sanguina, the woman who had once terrorized her and her
brother. She forced herself to take a shuddering breath and let her mind return
to the mission at hand.

“I’m fine,” Valerie
said, but she saw Sanguina notice her fingernails, which were broken and bloody
from trying to claw out of that horrible box. Valerie quickly shoved her hands
in her pockets, glad that no one other than Thai had witnessed her breakdown. “Is
everything going according to plan?”

Sanguina nodded. “So
far, yes. The Empaths’ distraction outside called away several dozen Fractus,
and I was able to sneak back here while they were distracted.”

“Let’s move,” Valerie
said, and sheathed Pathos. The light would attract too much attention if she
held it in front of her as she wanted to, but she also couldn’t bring herself
to send it back to the callbox.

Valerie raced through
the halls toward the throne room, which was where Sanguina guessed that
Darling’s hair and the scrying tool would be kept. Unfortunately, Reaper hadn’t
trusted Sanguina with the exact location.

Inside the room, the sight
of the blood red throne brought back a taste of the panicked adrenaline that
had coursed through her when Valerie fought Sanguina here. She shook off the
memory and began her search.

“There are hidden
cabinets built into the walls,” Sanguina said, pulling a lever next to the
throne that made a stone in the floor swing aside. Valerie knelt beside the
hole and felt around. She pulled out something soft. It was an ancient piece of
cloth with a very old, inaccurate map of Earth on it.

She touched it gently
with her finger and immediately zoomed in on rolling hills. “This must be what
Reaper uses to scry with!”