We landed before the power mill. Its scattered broken windows and sagging roof didn’t intimidate me now. It sat, sad and pathetic, like a homeless person on a bench in the park. Chooga-chooga boomed through the air and tugged on my nerves. The lightning orb pulsed a soft blue between my fingers, beating in sync with my own thumping heart. Leandro aimed his bow at the giant double doors to the power mill.
“Blast it good, Joshua, so we can go home,” Charlie whispered.
The words over the door caught my eye again: Bring light of life upon this land, for death awaits you in the resting. Toil on!
“Yeah, well, death awaits you now,” I muttered. “How about that, Lost Realm?”
I threw the orb at the door. It exploded, and I staggered back as wood nicked my arms and face. Only a jagged hole with flamed edges remained of the door, and the chooga-chooga died as wheels creaked to a stop. Boys stared at us from inside the power mill.
Four guards slowly rose from where they’d been knocked to the floor. Leandro pulled back his bow. One. Two. Three. Four times. The guards collapsed—and this time, they didn’t get up. The lights around the power mill dimmed and smoke chugged slower from its chimney, belching a final spew before disappearing.
All four of us stepped through the shattered doors and over the guards. Their vape spears lay on the floor, hissing. Sam picked them up. He handed us each one. It vibrated in my hand with a hot tingle.
“Point the vape away from you,” Sam said. “Whoever holds a vape commands its powers. Just point it at your target and press this button on top.”
My vape’s tongue flicked in and out. I now commanded the power that had destroyed my mother—and I wanted the chance to use it.
Dozens of eyes fixed on us. None of them Finn’s.
“Are there any other guards here?” Leandro said loudly.
Sweat broke out across my face from the steamy heat inside the power mill. No one spoke for a long moment. Then a skinny boy stepped forward. “Only these four. The others left with Hekate and the Child Collector.”
From the silence burst questions. “Where’d you come from?” “Are we saved?” “Can we go home?”
I held up the vape, its power demanding silence, and the cries faded away. Hundreds of boys stared at me with desperate eyes, their breaths pumping in and out eager for rest and rescue. “You’re all going home. But we haven’t got time.”
I quickly told them our plan to fly them all to the Lightning Gate on kernitians and send them home through the Lightning Road. “Let’s go.”
Cheers rose up through the power mill as kids scrambled down to us. Their sour, hot wind rushed over me. There was Lo Chez! He grinned as he ran past. The curse had ended. And through the craziness, a familiar voice called my name.
“Joshua!”
Finn! Through the grates, he poked his head out from the third floor. He waved to me with both hands. He was the best thing I’d seen in a long, long time. His smiling face shut this world out: the evil Hekate, the disgusting Child Collector, the red-eyed beasts, the sweaty power mill, death in The Great Beyond.
I pushed against the impatient kids going down as a garble of accents raced around me. All I’d been through was for this moment. This place wouldn’t get to keep us. Then Finn was in front of me.
He punched me twice on the arm. “Ham.” That kind of hurt felt good.
“And cheese.” I punched him back.
Other kids hollered at us as they passed, but it was like me and Finn were the only ones there. He grinned so wide his eyes disappeared into tiny slits and his freckles looked like they’d pop. We started talking at once.
“Finn, I thought you were—”
“You came to rescue me?”
“And Bo Chez! He’s from this world too. I was so scared—”
“Bo Chez? No way!”
“—you were dead.” I finished up.
“You saved me, Joshua.”
We punched each other at the same time and laughed, then ran down the steps of the power mill.
Finn pointed to my weapon. “Nice spear.”
“Nice outfit.” I yanked on his purple shirt.
He laughed then grew serious. “Sorry I didn’t recognize you in the castle. I just couldn’t believe you were there. For me!”
“It’s why I came.”
We grinned at each other. “Ready to catch a ride out of here?” I said.
He just nodded. “Come on!”
With a signal from Leandro we walked outside. He had released the other kids from the nearby bunkhouse, and they added to the crowd. I looked up into the gray sky. Earth was out there somewhere, far from Nostos, and we were helping change life for both.
I put an arm around my best friend to introduce him. “Finn.” Sam and Charlie smiled, and Leandro gave me a big nod. Then I called out to my animal friends. Leandro joined me. Together we asked the kernitians to help us once more. Finn stared at me, amazed, but there was no time to explain. Would they come? They certainly didn’t owe us a thing.
Then again, even animals, at times, like to play the hero.
Through the murky haze the kernitians came. The first few landed before us and they kept coming. Enough to carry every last one of us to the Lightning Gate. It was Sam who would take them there.
We showed the scared kids how to mount the flying deer. One boy cried.
“It’ll be okay,” I told him, and helped him up.
When all the kids were loaded, I nudged Finn. It was time to say goodbye again, but this time by choice. “Go with Sam. Get through the Lightning Gate and get home, okay?”
Finn turned to me with wild eyes and pink cheeks. “No way, Joshua. After all this? We stick together.”
“Ham?”
“And cheese.”
My legs felt like jelly as they let go of all the tension I’d been carrying in them, and I leaned my head on his shoulder, then pulled away. “Cool,” was all I could say. We both blew out big breaths at the same time then laughed, the awkward moment gone.
The power mill lights flickered and the smoke from its work slipped away. The bulbs atop the power poles exploded like a string of Christmas lights popping one by one. The light inside the power mill surged, then dimmed again.
Leandro told the kernitians where to go and pulled the Lightning Gate key from his satchel. He hesitated for a moment, then handed it to Sam. “You’ve suffered greatly from the curse,” he said. “I hope your trip to Earth brings you new life.”
Sam nodded solemnly and tucked the flattened box into the top of his pants. He would send this first group through the Lightning Gate while the rest of us rescued the others from the remaining workhouses. He only needed one other thing.
“Here’s the codes.” I handed him the bottle. “And here, take my vape. You may need an extra.”
And I thought of Bo Chez holding off Hekate and her army. What if something happened to him? Could I go home if Bo Chez didn’t survive? The idea seized me like a Child Collector and wouldn’t let go.
“Bo Chez,” was all I managed to say.
“He’ll be all right, Joshua,” Sam said through his wrinkles, cocking his head. “He knows you didn’t mean what you said.”
But there was no way of knowing. “Light of Sol go with you, Sam.”
“You too.” He motioned for the kids to follow him as he rose in the air. His vapes pointed the way. I had to believe I would see him again.
Then Leandro, Charlie, Finn and I took off for the bakehouse, leaving the darkened power mill behind us.