When Copper Suns Fall (22 page)

“Now, that’s fairly hypocritical,” Faris
said.

“What, do tell, would you be talking about?”
Seth said.

“About crooked Thoughtmasters. Your fake
SOCS. And how I’ve already told you Chela won’t be going anywhere
with you,” Faris said. “Hold on. You aren’t really a Thoughtmaster,
are you?”

Seth cocked his head toward Ashli who
strolled forward. She raised her hands above either side of her
head, palms up as if she were about to make an offering to the
moonlit sky. She tilted her head back, shook bells attached to her
fingers, and spoke a strange phrase in the language I’d heard Seth
speak. SOCS (or the fake ones that only seemed to travel with Seth
and crew) slithered from inside the darkness and toward us. It was
almost as if they’d risen up out of the grime. About ten soldiers
closed in from all directions. Faris’s team was outnumbered.

“First, it’s a party with just you and me,”
Faris said to Seth. He took the schorl from his pouch and pulled me
behind him. The baton extended until it formed the spiked staff
he’d used to challenge me at the evaluation. Although I’d seen him
use it before, it still sent a thrilling chill through me now that
I knew what it was. But how well would it work against Seth’s
disturbing soldiers?

“Crop of the cream. Here for your team. No
parties tonight,” Seth said. “Chela will come with us. Don’t worry.
We only need to borrow her for a short while.”

“The library revoked your borrowing
privileges,” Faris said.

Seth’s smile faded. He clicked his tongue.
“Always eager to settle things the hard way.”

“I learned from the best,” Faris said.

Seth glanced at me and said, “Another time
for sure, Lotus. Luck to you, all.”

“Boy do they need it,” Ashli said. She
motioned to Hagan. He came and lifted Nathan’s body still covered
in the strange cloth.

Seth and his trio backed away until they
disappeared in the shadows over the water. The SOCS surrounded us.
I glanced around for the black blobs as the whispers increased in
my head.

“I can fight. Let me help,” I said to
Faris.

“I doubt that dress was made for kick flips,”
the girl from the Shack said.

“No, stay behind me.” Faris crouched, and
then turned to the girl. “Desi, man the right side. Tobie, take the
left flank. The first three is on me.”

“Come again? Don’t think you get all the
glory on this one.” Tobie grinned and cocked his bow.

SOCS charged. Faris shoved me to the ground
just before he struck the first one across the face. Instead of
blood, something like a black ooze sprayed out of the wound,
covering Faris. Desi hurled two knives through the air, striking
two SOCS that fell and steamed the way they did in the Shack. The
knives reformed, and Desi aimed them at the next soldier. I pinched
myself, making sure I wasn’t in a dream. Tobie’s arrows sailed
through the air, singing flesh with electricity after hitting the
targets. SOCS dropped. New ones stomped on to the scene after those
fell. An endless army for a battle Faris was bound to lose.

I was hypnotized by all of it.

“How are they getting back up?” Desi
said.

Zachary screamed like a wailing baby when he
woke up and scanned the scene. The Hagan boy hadn’t taken him.

I had to help Faris somehow. I was his
co-champion, he was my protector. I was sure it could work both
ways. Faris’s crew fought on in their outnumbered chaos. Soon,
they’d tire out.

Father said you’re special. Now act like it.
They made you a champion. Hop to it and do something heroic.

I closed my eyes, focusing my energy toward
my necklace. I’d no clue about what I was trying to do. A part of
me still felt as if I were just another girl trying to master her
human gift and not some angelic heroine.

“Use your mirrors, Desi,” Faris said.

“They won’t work without electricity,” she
said.

“Don’t you all carry lightning rods?” Tobie
said and grinned just before he shot another soldier.

The honeysuckle wind came next. The smell was
strong like a thousand vines draped across old fences. Faris and
his warriors fought on as the magic flowed through my body.
Excitement over what I was doing consumed my thoughts. Seth said I
needed to find a balance. But do I listen to him? Wasn’t he the one
whose crew just sucked the life out of Nathan? Never listen to the
advice of the bad guy. Or did somebody get that rule in the game
book wrong, too?

The wind increased to storm gusts. I stood.
Micah’s face appeared before me, a sun shining in the night.
Whispers and mandarin drums pounded in my mind. The voices wanted
to become one with me. I understood them clearly now. Whispers
filled my head until the sounds from Faris’s fight drifted
away.

“Look. She’s doing something with the wind,”
Desi said.

Fingers made of wind surged forward as if
they had minds of their own. The power inside me was old and
powerful, and it made my body tingle all over. I pictured the
creatures fading away, imagined the fingers blowing them from
existence bit by bit.

“Blow my wheels off. They’re running away,”
Tobie said.

The SOCS hissed and cawed and made piercing
squeals. I heard Faris’s voice, a calming force, calling me back to
him. I slipped away from the drums. The chants quieted. Turning
away from Micah’s face in my mind, I returned to Faris. I opened my
eyes just before exhaustion washed over me. I fell backward, and
Faris caught me just like I knew he would.

“She’s burned out,” Tobie said. “Nina can
help her.”

“I know,” Faris said, voice laced with worry.
He lifted me up.

“If we take her back, then Seth’s inside boys
will target us,” Desi said. Faris ignored her. “So we just forget
all about reason, and jeopardize the entire mission for this
girl?”

“It’s what Nina wants,” Faris said.

“And it’s all about Nina, right? I think
Faris has a little say-so there too,” Desi said.

What about him?” Tobie said. I remembered
Zachary’s body splayed across the beach. He’d awakened and passed
right back out. In his drunken mind, he probably thought he was
having a bad dream. Kind of like what I was thinking, only I wasn’t
so sure about the dream part.

“You know what to do,” Faris said.

A few feet away, Tobie leaned over Zachary
and said, “Remember nothing of this night when you awaken.”

“Tell him to be a nice guy when he wakes up,”
the girl Desi said to Tobie.

“You mean make him act like a girl?” Tobie
asked.

“Just add the blurb, already,” Desi said.
Tobie scoffed, mumbled under his breath, and obeyed.

“Lucia. We can’t leave her.” Even talking
drained the last bit of strength in my muscles.

“Tobie and Desi are on it,” Faris said. He
moved stray hairs away from my face.

“No more killing, please.” I buried my face
in his ooze-stained shirt. It smelled like iron and moldy rags.

“His mind will be…altered a little,” Faris
said.

“She needs a healing rune like really soon,”
Desi said.

I slipped further away from life, too tired
to ask any more questions. Too confused to think of any even if I
could. Sleep. What did Edgar Allan Poe call it?

Oh yeah, a little slice of death.

Chapter Eighteen – Illusions

The black cloud shading my mind faded. Light
slipped between my fluttering eyelids. Lifting up to my elbows, I
glanced around at the room’s sapphire colored walls. A low blaze
stirred in a fireplace at the foot of the bed, giving the place a
sooty odor. Lying in an antique mahogany bed, I was surrounded by
four posts topped with spires, and a silky black comforter covered
my body. A faint, rosy smell coupled with the scent of roasted soy
meat fired my hunger pangs. Had I been transported into a
dream?

“I see the snoozing hero is awake,” Faris’s
voice said from in the shadows beside the fireplace.

“Faris?”

“Right here.” He stepped into the light. His
presence lit my heart with relief. He reached toward me, moving
stray hairs from my eyes, and studied my head with a puzzled look.
I suddenly remembered my status as queen of bed heads and smirked.
Wonderful. Faris held back a smile. These days the two of us shared
many thoughts, and I was sure he heard my last one.

“Where am I? What happened?” I glanced around
the room, trying to focus my blurred vision.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe. Close your eyes,”
Faris said.

“What?”

“No debates. Just do it,” he said. I did.

After a few moments, he told me to open them.
I gasped at the site before me. The fireplace was gone. In its
place, animated flowers covered green hills and butterflies floated
over golden houses. An amethyst colored sky was filled with blue
particles floating in murky rays of sunlight. Running along the
bottom of the drawing’s walls were children with dark purple skin,
clear wings, and golden hair flowing in the wind. Giggling, they
ran along a grassy hilltop overlooking houses of pure gold. It was
living art, filling me with so much joy I never wanted it to
end.

Reaching a hand out to touch the children, I
stretched my eyes, wanting to see everything at once. Had he taken
me into a dreamscape again? I sat all the way up too fast. The room
tilted a bit as nausea spun in my stomach. I squeezed my eyes shut
to ground the feeling.

“Hold on, will you?” Faris eased me back
down to the mattress. “No quick movements, just yet.”

“But I—did you—are we dreaming again?” I
studied his face, serenely amused.

“Not quite,” he said. Did I see him blush? He
still hadn’t confessed to his part of the dream at the Ruins.

“But—but look behind you.” I peeked around
his head. The gauzy butterflies, oceans, and angels all stared back
from canvases placed around the room, silent in their painted
glory.

“But I just saw—the whole room filled with
kids who had wings and things.”

Faris restrained a laugh while I fought
confusion as usual.

“You did something?” I said.

He raised his hands in mock surrender.
“Guilty. I couldn’t resist.” Folding my arms, I smirked and
pretended to be angry. I wanted to keep this Faris around and tell
the intense one to get lost for a bit. I glanced at the canvases
one more time.

“They’re beautiful. Are they paintings?”

“Somewhat. They’re floating holograms.”

He stood, walked over to the picture filled
with midnight blue lotus all over the ground, and circled the air
around a painted flower. There was a slight stir in my hair. I
reached up and pulled the same flower out of my hair. Lexa would
die to be the lucky girl of this moment.

“How?” I said.

“Do you think my life is all violence? We
need a grounding skill. Desi heals. Tobie meditates.” He circled
his hand over mine. A current grazed at my skin. The flower
evaporated. I glanced at the wall. It was back in its spot on the
canvas. If I were intrigued with him before, I was totally
captivated, now.

“You paint stuff that comes alive?
That’s…different. But in a good way, though.”

“You stopped Seth’s soldiers. The hologram
was the least I could do.” He stared at me with the funny look
again.

Flattered didn’t begin to describe my state
of mind. I needed a good dose of Lexa wit to help name this moment
which made me remember the Eight Hills Gathering again. Bits of
memories flashed through my mind. I recalled a honeysuckle scented
wind with the strength of a hurricane. My wind. No way.

“I did do that, didn’t I?” I rubbed my neck,
stiff from sleeping so long. “Feels like I’ve been asleep for
ages.”

“Not ages. Three days.”

“Three days?” I bolted up again. This time a
dull headache rolled across the back of my head. “Lexa and Jalen
must be crazy worried by now. I’m way past my curfew—”

“Relax. All is under control.”

Had he lost his mind? How could he expect me
to relax? The events flooded back: Eight Hills, Zach’s abuse, Seth
citing me for arrest, Nathan’s capture, Lucia’s kidnapping. The
list was endless, it seemed. I sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Faris said.

I opened my eyes. “Lucia was taken by Seth’s
weird SOCS.”

“I put Tobie on it. We’ll find your
friend.”

“What’s happening? I need to know before I
lose my mind.” I mostly thought of Micah. If I were banned from
Minders now because of my arrest, how was I going to be able to
find out what happened to him? And what will Seth do now that I’ve
jilted him? Faris pulled me into his arms. We huddled together,
shielding each other from the glitches in a formulated world. A
place falsely built to imitate perfection. At what point had this
boy become such a crucial part of my life?

But did he feel the same way about me?

“I hurt those soldiers. I—I blew them away?”
I still couldn’t bring myself to admit what happened.

“It should make you feel better to know
they’re not humans anymore. They’re revenants dressed to blend in
with real SOCS.”

“What are revenants?”

“Death’s copycats. Part of the Tainted’s
twisted plans to take over both our worlds.”

“What? Like zombies?” I said, chill seeping
into me.

He scoffed. “Not quite. Revenants are humans
that die and are brought back. They’re not like the walking dead.
These guys can think, eat, sleep, blend in with your friends.
Things I hope you never have to meet again.”

“That’s going to be kind of hard. I mean the
SOCS patrol Castle Hayne every day. People need to know about
them.”

He stood. “Not all SOCS are revenants, only
the ones running with the Tainted. The big mystery is the way
they’re bringing them back. We figure the girl, Ashli, is somehow
responsible. But we can’t be sure.”

“How
can we spot the good guys
? And what do they want
from me?” I said. He hesitated and stared out the window. “What’s
the big issue with answering my question? If I’m going to be
co-champion, I need to know things. Why tease me with all of this
and clam up when I ask the meaty questions? Why do you have to be
so—so guyish?”