I pulled Sam down behind the Lightning Gate. He gripped the bag that was his one hope.
It had grown too murky now to see well enough to throw the orb, and I could barely make out Leandro’s cloak. Vape smoke surged with the mist like steam from an angry brew. The king fired his vape at his own soldiers, now loyal to Hekate.
Bo Chez raised up his arms and threw them out with a grand sweep. A gray ball burst from his hands. It exploded over Hekate and her men, trapping them in a giant storm. Bo Chez then raced on his horse around the massive ball tethered to him, dragging it along. The dust had cleared enough to see the soldiers inside. They smashed into the walls of the storm ball to bust through it, their horses dashing about in panic, but none could break free.
“To The Great Beyond!” Bo Chez yelled, and took off into the woods.
“Wait, Bo Chez!” Don’t leave me again! I want to go with you!
But he was gone and the ball he dragged rolled around the trees, stretching like a slingshot between the narrow spaces and then forming a ball again in the open. It soon disappeared into the woods. Leandro turned back toward us, the enemy gone, when Hekate and the Child Collector appeared behind him through the trees. They had broken free somehow from Bo Chez’s storm! And what had happened to King Apollo?
“Leandro, watch out,” Sam and I yelled at the same time. Hekate and the Child Collector bashed into Leandro’s horse. He almost fell, but gained his balance and turned on them, just missing Hekate’s fire power. He aimed his vape at the Child Collector, who scowled at him and raised his vape, too. Zap. Zap. They missed each other!
The Child Collector saw me hiding behind the gate and turned his horse my way, his red face forever scorched in my mind. I swore he would never hurt anyone again.
He galloped faster, and as he raced closer, it felt like Hekate’s entire cavalry of horses thundered through my chest. My legs shook, but I willed them steady.
Yeah, just you and me.
The trees around the field waved their arms, and the mist swirled faster as if they both urged me to take down this monster.
“You and your grandfather stole my rightful life,” the Child Collector shouted at me. “You’re going down, Reeker. Payback!”
Power surged through me.
Time to stop the Child Collector before he killed again.
This monster had killed my mother, stolen Finn, then me, and profited from our enslavement. If it weren’t for him, I would have known my mother.
He would not take Leandro too.
I didn’t understand all that had happened, but Leandro had sacrificed himself to save us—and he was doing so again.
This would end here and now.
Closer and closer the Child Collector got. His horse snorted as he kicked it on.
His one eye burned bright from his scarred flesh. He rushed at me, pulling his horse up fast.
I stepped out from behind the Lightning Gate and flung the orb with all my might as he leapt for me.
The Child Collector’s mouth hung open, and it was the last I saw of his frightening face before the orb entered his mouth. Boom! He disappeared in a flash, except for his cloak, which floated to the ground. His horse ran off. The orb landed back in my hand. Dizziness flooded me. I swayed and let out a huge breath.
Payback.
“No!” Hekate’s wail echoed around the battle zone. Sam and I backed up as she galloped toward us, but it was her brother’s cloak she headed for, nearly falling off her horse to pick it up. She rubbed it across her cheek, her shoulders shaking. “Cronag, my Cronag.” Her tears wet the only thing left of him. “You’ll never get that new body now.”
Stunned at her sudden show of emotion, Sam and I were frozen, but Leandro wasn’t. He’d reached her, firing his vape at the witch. She stumbled twice, a blast nicking her side, then hauled herself up on her horse, cloak in hand. She and Leandro circled one another like boxers in a ring as their horses tore up the ground, their breaths beating the air in angry chuffs.
Leandro shot at her again. This time her horse sprung away just in time. Then, in a split second, she threw her hand up in the air. Blue light from her fingertips struck Leandro in the chest. He fell off his horse and was still.
So still.
Leandro, get up, please. But he didn’t.
Hekate reeled her horse around and headed to the Lightning Gate.
Sam pulled me back as Hekate grew closer, and her hair whipped through the air like angry snakes. My orb was ready in hand. Could I hit her or would she grab the orb again, unhurt?
And still Leandro didn’t get up.
Sam pushed my hand down and stepped forward.
“Traitorous Prince!” Tears streaked her pale face in blotchy patches. She raised her hand at me as she closed the gap between us. “And you, Oracle or not, you’re dead. You killed my family. Now I’ll kill you!”
Sam quickly stepped to Hekate’s other side as she reached us and grabbed the reins of her horse. “You won’t kill my friend.” And he flung the open bag. A white cloud poofed in the air, then fell on her.
And he said, in a voice louder, stronger, and more confident than I’d ever heard him use, “Ashes to dust, is what’s left of me. Unless, to live, I pass this to thee. Then ashes to dust now you will be.”
A terrible screech exploded from Hekate. Her horse stopped in its tracks and through the air she sailed. She landed face down, clutching her brother’s cloak, as still as Leandro.
Sam and I crept up on the fallen witch. Her green robe and hair fanned out over the ground. A faint groan grew deep inside her into a rumbling bawl. She pushed herself up, thrashing her head about, her hands and face as shriveled as Sam’s had been. Only then did I think to check out Sam. He was a kid again! He looked at his hands and arms in amazement.
The curse had passed.
“Cronag, I’ll find a way. Bring you back,” she croaked as she transformed into an ancient hag. Wrinkles crisscrossed her face. She pulled at her hair and it fell out in white clumps. Sam and I stepped back as Hekate clawed her face. “My beauty,” she hissed, pointing at us, but her gnarled fingertips no longer sparked. A cloud burst from her mouth, and her sickening rose scent wafted over me, then disappeared. She moaned and sank into her quilted grave.
“No one owns me. Can you hear me? Can you?” Sam shouted at the wadded up pile of green shuddering on the ground.
“I’ll. Be. Back,” the lump whispered, and then was still.