Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (36 page)

“I know that. An Oracle
told me months ago. It doesn’t change anything.”

Chern’s face darkened
with rage, and the air around him began to crackle with electricity. “Then
you’re of no use to me.”

Valerie shut her eyes.
She didn’t want his face to be the last thing she saw. She waited to dissolve
into darkness, but the pain didn’t come.

“What is
he
doing
here?” Oleander asked, and Valerie’s eyes opened.

At the doorway, Oberon glowered
at Chern. “Get the hell away from my daughter.”

Valerie’s mind went blank at Oberon’s
words. When she had realized that Chern was Reaper, it all made sense. But
this…she never imagined the gruff, wild man she had spied on was her father.
Even in the middle of the chaos, pride and joy flashed through her that she was
his daughter, and that he was alive. He had somehow survived Chern in the Black
Castle, and maybe now he’d save them both.

Chern turned his focus to
Oberon, and the hum of his magic rattled in Valerie’s bones. She had just found
her father, and already she was terrified that Chern would make her watch him
die.

Oberon didn’t wait for
Chern to make the first move. Instead, his hands sparked, and he threw two
giant bolts of lightning simultaneously. One hit Oleander in the chest, and she
fell to the ground, unconscious or dead. The second bolt evaporated before it
reached Chern, but Valerie could see that he was red in the face from the
effort.

The force pinning Valerie
to the wall was released, and she dropped to the ground.

“Run,” Oberon commanded,
not breaking eye contact with Chern.

Eye contact…wasn’t he
blind? If he had been, he was no longer.

“I won’t leave you,” she
said. “There’s no way I’m going to find you and lose you in the same hour.”

His eyes met hers, and
she saw pride in them. But that moment was a mistake. The air around Chern
crackled, and Oberon dropped to his knees.

Valerie had never missed
her sword more. She swore to herself that if she lived through this, she would
sleep with it strapped to her side. She had nothing but her fists to fight
with.

They would have to be
enough, she decided, and ran to Chern to tackle him the way she had Oleander. She
had the element of surprise, because his eyes were locked on Oberon’s.

When Valerie hit him, it
was like running into a wall. An electrically charged wall. Pain shot through
her weakened body, and she dropped to the ground.

For all he had told her
about nobly fighting to save humanity, Chern wasn’t above kicking her while she
was down. His boot connected with her head, and she barely held on to her
consciousness.

But seeing his daughter
down seemed to give her father a burst of power, because Oberon stood.
Lightning burst from his hands, and she heard a distant rumble of thunder. This
time, Chern ducked to avoid the blast, but it singed his robe.

He snarled, and Oberon
made a low sound of pain. Through her barely-open eyes, Valerie saw that his
hand appeared blurry, as if it was beginning to dissolve, the way that she had
seen Chern do to Midnight.

But Oberon seemed to
fling off the attack. The room shuddered, and water began leaking in through
tiny cracks in the walls.

“I’ll fill this room
with water in less than a minute, and then I’ll electrocute you,” Oberon said,
his voice low with malice.

“That won’t kill me,”
Chern said, his face an ugly red.

“I know. But it will
incapacitate you temporarily, and others are right behind me. Are you so sure
you can kill us all?”

Chern snarled, but he
quickly created a window to the Black Castle. He yanked Oleander with him as he
passed through, and it winked shut behind him.

Oberon rushed to Valerie’s
side. He cradled her in his arms. “Daughter, you are protected now, and always.
This I swear.”

She let herself black out, knowing she was safer than
she’d ever been in her entire life.

When Valerie opened her
eyes, she was in a room she had never seen before. It was small, with mint
green walls. She was in a bed with a white headboard, and beneath her fingers
was a quilt covered in pictures and symbols.

She slowly sat up.
Sunshine poured through an open window, along with a breeze that smelled like flowers.
Even though she had no idea where she was, she wasn’t afraid. Grief for everyone
she’d lost—Zaki, Jet, and especially Midnight—was still lodged inside her
heart. It was like trying to breathe through a tiny straw.

But beneath the pain was
the knowledge that she could finally open her box of grief and guilt, and deal
with it. Because now that she had her father to protect her, she was safe. Was
this what life was like every day for kids with parents?

Valerie shuffled out of
the room and down a hallway with a door at the end. She opened it to see the
most beautiful garden she had ever laid eyes on, with blooms in color
combinations she didn’t think were possible.

There was a low hum of
power emanating from Oberon—Dad—as he pulled droplets of rain from a small
cloud hovering over his head to water his flowers. He saw her, and smiled so
widely that his face crinkled.

“You’re awake. Henry and
your friends left less than an hour ago. We didn’t want to wake you. How are
you?” Oberon asked.

She shook her head and
dodged his question, not wanting to spoil the mood with the truth. “Where are
we? I thought you lived in an apartment in a tree.”

“This is the house I
lived in with your mother when you were born. After I thought I lost all of
you, I couldn’t bear to live here any longer. But now that my children have
been returned to me, it seems right to come back.”

“That must be why this
feels like home,” Valerie said, as much to herself as to Oberon.

“I know we have a lot to
talk about, and I have so much to explain. But please believe that I didn’t
know you or your brother were alive until Sanguina told me. And even then, I
was so broken and blind, I didn’t think you would ever forgive me for the sins
of my past.”

She had never heard him
speak so many words before. His voice had a slight accent, and everything he
said sounded very formal. She loved it.

“There’s nothing to
forgive,” she said simply. “We can be a family now.”

“Your brother…” Oberon
said hesitantly.

“He’ll come around,” Valerie
said. Then, timidly, she asked the question that still burned inside her. “Is
my mother alive?”

Oberon’s face collapsed,
and she saw a flash of how old he really was. “No. Our plan was for her to take
you and Henry to Earth. We were being hunted by the Fractus, who could not
forgive me for betraying them. We were sure they would never find you there.”

“What happened?”

“All I know is that she
used blood to call blood, and returned to Earth through her connection with her
mother—your grandmother. We were meant to meet afterward, but I never saw her
again. Chern found me and told me that he had seen her killed, along with you
and Henry. He swore he would help me avenge your deaths if I returned to his
side.”

“Did you take him up on
his offer?”

Oberon shook his head. “I
promised your mother I would never help the Fractus again. To break my oath
would have dishonored her. For my refusal he took my sight.”

“Maybe she’s still alive
somewhere, like Henry and I are,” Valerie said, her hope like a stubborn flame
inside her that she couldn’t stamp out.

“Though that is the
dearest wish of my heart, I cannot see how it could be. Nothing would separate
her from her children if she had remained on Earth, and if she were on the
Globe, we would have found each other. I have some minor psychic powers, enough
that I would find her beloved mind if she were on this world. And then there is
the matter of your sword—Pathos,” Oberon said.

Valerie sat down on his
front steps, stunned. “Adelita’s sword…she’s my mom.”

He nodded. “She had
always planned to leave it for you and Henry to find when you came to the
Globe. She left your grandmother with a book that told the tales of King Arthur
so you would recognize what it meant when you drew the sword from the floor of
the Great Pyramid.”

Her breath hitched. “I
had that book my whole life. I didn’t know it was from her.”

“If she made it to the
launch chamber, she must have returned to the Globe. And when she made it here,
someone killed her.” Oberon’s eyes swam with tears, and he sat down next to
her.

Valerie’s little flicker
of hope that she might meet her mother died. It made all of her grief rush back
at once, and her eyes stung with tears. Images of Midnight’s agonizing death
flickered through her mind like a horror movie, and she couldn’t hold herself
together any longer. Her father tentatively put his arm around her shoulders,
and she turned in to him, releasing her sobs into his chest.

There weren’t enough
hours in existence to cry away all her pain, but eventually Valerie ran out of
tears. Her father’s face was streaked with dried tears as well. When his eyes
connected with hers, she knew that he understood loss, maybe even more deeply
than she did.

“How did you get your sight
back?” Valerie asked, her voice hoarse.

Oberon shook his head a
little ruefully. “When I tackled Chern through the window back into the Black
Castle, he was furious. But he still wanted me to lend him my power. When I
promised to consider his offer, he returned my sight. He never intended to let
me escape, but I know his castle almost as well as he does, and was able to
return to Arden. If I had known you were there, fighting, I would have stayed
to protect you,” he said earnestly.

“I know you would.”

She leaned her head on
his shoulder.

“Finding you and your
brother is more than I ever dreamed. Is all this real, or have I descended into
madness?” Oberon asked.

“You’re not crazy, Dad. I’m here to stay.”

The next day, Valerie
left her father’s cottage to see Henry and her friends. It was surreal to walk
back to her old life. In spite of the pain she would always carry with her, she
had something to counterbalance it—love. She had never dreamed such riches
would be hers—friends, a brother, and now a father.

“Val!” Cyrus spotted her
first as she was crossing The Horseshoe. He sat with Henry, Kanti, and Dulcea
on the steps of the Society of Imaginary Friends, sharing some of Dulcea’s
amazing neon pastries.

“You look different,”
Henry said, examining her closely.

“I’m not an orphan
anymore,” she said simply.

“Oberon told us
everything. Chern’s nowhere to be found, but you can bet he’ll be back,” Henry
said.

The fragile peace that Valerie
had achieved after talking to her father wavered. “Let’s worry about that
tomorrow,” she begged. “Besides, we’ll fight him as a family now. And Dad is so
powerful—he’ll stop Reaper in the end.”

Cyrus grabbed her by the
elbow and turned her to face him. “You’re not off the hook, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“
Just because
Oberon’s your father, doesn’t mean he’s taking over
. You’re still going to have to lead the charge when we take out the
Fractus for good.”

“And they’re on Earth
now, too,” Dulcea added.

Valerie took a breath,
trying to repress the panicky urge to run away from the conversation.

“Sheesh, can you let her
enjoy her peace for one freaking minute?” Kanti asked.

Henry gave Kanti’s hand
a squeeze. “Sorry, everybody, she wanted to meet up for lunch instead of
breakfast so she’d be her usual charming self, but I couldn’t wait that long to
catch up.”

Cyrus shook his head. “No,
Kanti’s right. We’re all allowed to relax.”

“And grieve,” Valerie
added softly.

“Sounds like someone’s
in need of a shot of unadulterated hilarity, so here I am,” Jack said, rounding
the corner of the building. He sat down next to Dulcea, who was rolling her
eyes at his comment. “What are you dorks doing here, anyway?”

“Trying to enjoy the
morning,” Dulcea replied, and gave him a shove when he sat too close to her. “No
offense, but you weren’t invited.”

“I’m not here for you,
beautiful. That was a happy accident. I’m meeting the big cheese herself.”

“Who do you mean?”
Valerie asked curiously, happy for the change of subject.

He gestured to the open
area of The Horseshoe, and she saw Azra gliding across the grass, her
iridescent mane fluttering in the wind. She trotted toward their group, her
hooves seeming to leave a trail of glitter behind her. The sight left everyone
silent with awe.

Welcome back,
children. Gideon told me of your adventure, and I have never been prouder. I
only wish I could have seen it for myself.

Valerie rose to stand
next to her, breathing in her aura of peace along with the scent of lilacs.

“Did he tell you
everything? Lives were lost under my direction,” Valerie said quietly.

Many more were saved.
You do not need absolution for your sins, because you have not committed any.

“But Midnight…” Valerie
couldn’t even complete her thought aloud. She’d been too late, too weak, to
save her. And now she had lost her friend, and the Globe had lost one of its
best leaders.

I loved her, too. But
she is part of us all now, in the air we breathe. We will remember her. And we
will avenge her.
Azra tossed her mane
defiantly, and hearing her words strengthened Valerie’s own resolve.
The
Fractus’s reign of terror will end at last. We will do it together.