J fiddled with her slingshot, Jason tapped his foot anxiously, and Daniel stood by the window.
In a moment of lapsed judgment, he reached inside his pocket and checked his mysterious golden pocket watch. I guess he thought we were all too distracted to notice the slight glance he stole at its contents. But he was wrong. As he took his hand from his pocket, he saw me looking at him.
A weird moment passed between us. He didn’t avert his eyes quickly like someone ashamed. I didn’t look away like someone embarrassed. We just held each other’s gaze for a long, hard beat.
The train sped on. Eventually Daniel’s attention moved away from me and back toward the window. I stayed focused on him, though.
I had a lot of enemies on this train—Arian, antagonist soldiers, a whole slew of magic hunters. But I knew what each of them wanted from me. All were direct in their intentions. Not knowing Daniel’s made me wonder if the enemy I should really be worried about was standing right across from me.
I tore a piece of fabric from my dress and used it as a makeshift bandage to wrap my injured left hand. By wrapping the cloth tightly around my wrist and in between my thumb and pointer fingers, it soothed some of the pain and immobilized the joint to give it a bit of support. This wasn’t a permanent fix, but I figured it would do for now.
The lights in our cabin began to dim. It was time.
We filed into the hallway as everything went black. Daniel was ahead of me and behind SJ. He was close enough that I was able to make out his shadow. But anything outside a one-foot radius was a total blob of ink. Swiftly but carefully, we moved from one car to the next, the train’s wheels rumbling beneath us.
Soon enough the lights came back on and the three of us sat down in available seats before anyone could notice our presence. It was a general seating area. SJ ducked into a chair in the third row. Daniel and I slid into a pair of seats on the aisle of the fifth.
As we waited I wondered if Jason had found Blue yet. I wondered when SJ had developed such stealth. And I wondered how long my injured hand would tolerate being ignored. Then I stopped wondering and leaned out from my chair to take a look at the aisle ahead.
Just like ones we’d come down, this one was also clear. Unlike the first time I crossed the train, all the luggage was now either fully stashed beneath seats or strapped firmly in the above-head compartments.
My attention came back to Daniel. I eyed the pocket where he kept his watch, then the sheath strapped to his back.
If I could just get him to be honest with me about something . . .
“Daniel?” I asked, quietly so as not to call attention to our conversation.
He met my gaze. The lanterns of the train car defined his bone structure in sharp shadows. Meanwhile his dark brown eyes had deepened to an almost beastly color.
“When we were about to break out of the Therewolf camp, why did you ask me to make sure I brought back your sheath?” I gestured to the plain, unremarkable thing that held his weapon. “You were adamant about it. Why was it so important?”
“Does it matter?”
“Would it make a difference if I said it did?”
Daniel adjusted the strap of his sheath, but I think it was more of a reflex than a conscious decision. I waited with bated breath, realizing only then how much his secrets deprived me of air.
“I appreciate you getting it for me, Knight,” Daniel said slowly. “But just let it go, okay. I’d rather not talk about it.”
“So the usual answer then.” I sighed—not frustrated, just sad. The lights in the train began to dim and Daniel, SJ, and I rose as darkness settled.
We continued to advance from one car to the next until we entered the last passenger compartment before the luggage cars. I made my way forward, but after a few steps I suddenly tripped over something that protruded into the aisle. In an attempt to not draw attention to myself, I stifled my natural “Eep!” as I toppled over. The sound of me landing on the roughly carpeted floor was concealed by the train turbulence.
Ugh, what the heck? All this stuff is supposed to be stored.
And why had I been the only one to trip? SJ and Daniel were ahead of me. Shouldn’t they have fallen over the suitcase too?
Obviously they hadn’t. Nor had they noticed my fall since they appeared to be moving on without me. I perceived the sound of the door opening ahead, followed by the subsequent noise of their feet moving across the bridge that connected this compartment to the luggage cars.
Just as I got to my feet, someone’s hand covered my mouth and yanked me back.
Immediately other hands began to grab my arms. I struggled and thrashed violently as I tried to get away or get out a sound.
It was far too dark for anyone to see I was in trouble. But in my peripheral vision, I noticed a light. It was like a tiny spark, and it was running down the aisle as if being conducted by a thin metal wire. As my eyes followed its route I realized this wasn’t just a spark. It was a small flame. And it was making its way in the direction of SJ and Daniel like a . . . fuse.
Oh no.
I side-kicked, rear-elbowed, and backwards head-butted at my unseen assailants. Somehow I managed to break free. I raced forward in a feeble attempt to outrun the fuse rapidly burning its way down the line.
I didn’t make it in time.
A couple of yards before I reached the door, an explosion went off. I was thrown back into the car—landing in a pile of other passengers who’d also been tossed to the ground. When my eyes finally blinked open, I discovered that the lights of the compartment had come back on, but a large haze of orange and purple smoke still hindered my vision.
I scrambled to my feet and bolted to the rear doorway. When I got there I found myself facing empty track.
Smoke rushed past me as we sped away from the tunnel. The explosion had detached the luggage cars from the rest of the train, severing the bridge that once connected us. I was barely able to see the disconnected cars roll to a stop as my own compartment raced on with the rest of the locomotive.
I looked down and saw that the steel, which had formerly linked to the bridge, had been completely burned through. On closer inspection, I discovered that the metallic edges were singed with the glittering magic dust that powered the train. There also appeared to be bits of torched purple lanyard crusted onto the area where the explosion had erupted.
I heard movement in the compartment behind me and turned to face what was coming.
The car was littered with luggage and frazzled people who were struggling to get to their feet. Directly behind them were Arian and several of his men. When he saw me looking at him he began to push even harder to get through the swarm of passengers.
I whirled back around and leaned out over the open space where the door had been. Unlike some of the others, this car did not have a ladder attached to it.
The lights started to dim again. I took the remaining few seconds to scan the layout from here to the other side of the compartment. Arian and I locked eyes just as the last lantern fluttered into blackness.
As the train plunged through the next tunnel I hurriedly maneuvered my way back across the chaotic car. I couldn’t see a thing, but worked from memory as best I could to hurtle myself over the fallen people and luggage then crawl beneath the rows of chairs and seated passengers.
General commotion echoed everywhere, allowing me to elude Arian’s capture. I eventually slipped out the other door into the next compartment. Once I had, I got to my feet and made a full on break for it.
With little to no regard for the luxury of keeping a low profile, I sped through the cars. The lights came back at some point. From then on I kept my eyes peeled for Blue and Jason. They had to be around here somewhere. And I needed to find them ASAP so we could figure out a way to get off this train and reconnect with the others.
As I continued I noticed that the rest of the passengers seemed oblivious to the explosion that had happened at the rear of the transport. It was pretty far back, and with all the lapses of darkness and mountain turbulence, they must’ve either not sensed it or chalked it up to a particularly bumpy ride.
I shoved my way past a haughty waiter as I burst through the dining car. Bobbing and weaving around one obstacle after the next, I proceeded through the kitchen and the various refrigeration compartments that followed.
With all my strength I soon heaved open the hefty door to the meat locker. The engine room wasn’t too far ahead now. When I arrived there I would tell the conductors to stop the train, and hopefully I would find Blue and Jason too.
The door suction-slammed behind me. I crisscrossed through the various hunks of hanging protein until—
BAM!
I thought I’d run into a really thick cut of beef, but then I looked up and saw the fedora-wearing magic hunter.
I reached my left hand into my satchel for my wand, but all I had time to grasp was one of those matchbooks I’d taken from the dining car. Two seconds after I bounced off his chest the hunter grabbed me. Yanking me by the wrist, he pulled me in close with one hand while he drew his dagger from its sheath with the other. He moved so fast I didn’t even have time to blink. The dagger was at my throat before I could finish a heartbeat. I would have been impressed had it not been for the sharp, cold blade I now had pressed against my neck.
Behind the hunter, two of his equally sketchy companions appeared. They entered through the other door, carrying several massive sacks of the magic dust that powered the train. When they saw our strange confrontation, they set their sacks down.
“Parker,” a hunter wearing a black tweed jacket said. “Come on. The others have secured the engine room. We need to help them prep the bridge for the explosion.”
“Hold on,” Parker said as he studied me.
He pulled me in even closer. I resisted, but not enough to prevent him from taking a long, deep sniff of my left arm. His nose twitched and his eyes sparked with recognition.
“This is the girl from the platform,” he said. “I was right. She’s a carrier.”
“Why didn’t we sense her on the train then?” another magic hunter wearing a green scarf asked.
The one called Parker noticed the empty orb on my lanyard. He twisted my injured hand, causing me to wince. Then he lifted up the lanyard with the tip of his dagger and brought its dangling orb close to his face.
“Not if she was blending in,” he said, comprehending what I’d done. He turned to look back at me. “Thought you were pretty clever, didn’t you?”
My eyes narrowed. “I have my moments.”
The other hunters came to join Parker in the overcrowding of my personal space. As they did, the train shook with an abrupt jolt of turbulence that caused one of the hunters to knock over his sack of magic dust.
My eyes widened as the sparkly powder fell to the ground a few feet from the back door. It spilled in a crescent shape around the exit, managing to coat several links of sausages.
“You idiot. Look what you did,” the hunter in the black tweed jacket said.
He reached down and picked up a fistful of magic dust and chucked it at his clumsier, green scarf-wearing accomplice.
Green Scarf dodged, causing the splash of dust to stick to a large chunk of beef hanging between them. In retaliation, Green Scarf grasped two handfuls of magic dust and chucked it at Tweed Jacket.
Tweed Jacket rapidly moved out of the way. Most of the dust got on an adjacent dangling cut of pork, but some still managed to stick to his sleeves, and Parker’s too.
Parker cleared his throat and clutched my injured wrist tighter, making me wince again. The other hunters refocused. Green Scarf ripped the lanyard from my neck. Then he and Tweed Jacket compared it to the ones around their own necks and took in my scent.
“I don’t believe it. She smells like Fairy Godmother magic,” Tweed Jacket said.
“Yeah, but stronger somehow,” Green Scarf added. “More powerful than any Godmother scent I’ve ever been around. What do you think, Parker?”
Parker’s dry, cracked lips formed into a small, malicious grin. “I think there’s only one way to find out. Hold her down.”
Oh, I don’t think so, you—
The steel door I’d entered through abruptly slid open. Facing us now was Arian and a posse of five sword-wielding companions. They barged into the frosty place and rushed through the meat maze to the center of the compartment.
Parker hurled his dagger at Arian’s head. The aim was perfect, but regrettably so were Arian’s reflexes. He dodged the blade with ease. The same could not be said for the guy who’d been standing directly behind him.
Hmm. I guess that makes it four sword-wielding henchmen.
Arian didn’t even blink as his fallen attendant collapsed to the ground. He simply continued to approach us.
Parker yanked me back a couple feet in response. I swallowed hard at the burst of pain in my hand, squeezing the matchbook I had concealed within my fist.
“Stand down,” Arian said as he drew his sword. “I don’t know what your business is here, hunters, but the girl is mine.”
“I don’t think so, Jack,” Tweed Jacket countered as he whipped out a rather rusty looking knife in retaliation.
He and Green Scarf stepped forward, meeting the opposing forces in the middle of the compartment and blocking Arian from coming anywhere near me. This would’ve been great had it not been for Crusty the Magic Hunter (i.e., Parker) still latched onto my arm.
I glanced over Parker’s shoulder. The exit was barely five feet away.
“We found the kid first,” Tweed Jacket continued. “Her magic’s ours.”
“Her magic . . .” Arian raised his eyebrows, finally understanding why I could work my Fairy Godmother wand.
After a pause he shouldered the realization and readdressed the hunters. “Look, you can have her magic,” he told them. “I just want her head when you’re done. Deal?”
The boys on both sides of the standoff exchanged looks; silently deciding whether or not the terms were acceptable. Their macho staring match was so intense that they didn’t notice the lanterns inside the compartment were beginning to flicker.
“Works for me,” Parker finally replied.
The light dimmed more and more with each passing second.
“Actually,” I interrupted, raising my free, non-injured hand as if to ask a question. “If I could interject . . .”
In the next instant everything went black. The moment it did I curled my raised hand into a fist and punched Parker directly in the throat. He released me and I reached out for where his lanyard had been, purposefully entangling my hand within it.
I tightened my grip around Parker’s necklace and pulled back—strangling him with the lanyard while my other hand grabbed his arm. He was my human shield as I swiftly backed up through the darkness.
When I felt myself touching the steel of the door I kneed Parker in the back, released my grip, and shoved his body forward—knocking over the hunters who’d tried to come after us.
In sync with the thud of the impact I lit a match from the matchbook clenched in my fist and threw it on the ground. It immediately caught onto the littered magic dust.
An immense semicircle of brilliant, orange and purple flames blazed in a protective barrier around me. Just as quickly as it grew, it began to set off a series of subsequent smaller explosions as the sausage links that had been coated by the fallen powder ignited.
The sausage links spread the fire throughout the entire compartment. As the meat products erupted, I escaped through the door.
Rocky edges of tunnel whizzed by. I couldn’t see them terribly well, but I could feel their proximity in the same way a claustrophobic person could detect walls even if their eyes were shut.
The bridge connecting to the next car, on the other hand, was all but lost to me in the dark space. I could hear it rattling—metal jolting and bouncing around with the tracks’ turbulence—but I might as well have been wearing a blindfold.
I’d already considered the bridge fairly unstable when we’d been parked at the station. Now it rocked back and forth so threateningly you would have thought it was trying to break free. Still, it wasn’t like I could afford to be choosy about my means for escape.
As I crossed it, I knew the train was going uphill so I hung on to the railings as I pulled myself forward. I made it about halfway before the screeches started.
The vampire bats.
Beastly screams filled the tunnel, getting louder and louder until the creatures rushed into view. While everything else about the tunnel was a study in darkness, the vampire bats were a pop of unwelcome color. Each of their bodies was a bright, glowing shade of cobalt blue that filled me with dread. Hundreds of them were coming toward me, swirling in a condensed swarm.
I crouched down, keeping my eyes shut as I stayed as low and close to the railing as possible. The roof of the bridge created an overhead barrier, but I was still exposed from the sides. I felt the whoosh of the bats zooming in and out of the bridge’s railings. Their screeches were deafening. Their leathery wings lapped against my face. I periodically felt the scraping of tiny claws against my back and arms as the bats chaotically thrashed about in the darkness.
I tried to remain calm. I tried not to freak out. All the while I fought the instinct to pull out my wand and hide behind its protective shield form.
If I so much as let it peek out of my bag, the situation would get far more dangerous. There was, after all, a reason that the train extinguished all unnatural light when we passed through these tunnels.
Thankfully, a loud boom from within the meat locker suddenly scared off the bats, freeing me from their assault.
When the creatures’ high-pitched wails dissipated, I opened my eyes and saw that the meat compartment fire had grown. It was now noticeably visible through the window of the steel door. I guessed the explosion I’d just heard had been the result of one of the fires finally catching onto the slabs of meat that Tweed Jacket and Green Scarf had doused with magic dust.
Not wanting to risk another run-in with the vampire bats—I bolted across the rest of the bridge as fast as possible. When I’d traversed the clanging deathtrap, my hand grasped for the door. I slid it open, ducking inside the car’s equally dark, but infinitely more promising innards.
Phew! Ok, maybe here I would be—
The lights flickered back on just in time for me to see some guy flying in my direction. I dove out of the way to avoid getting body-slammed.
“Crisa, hey!”
I whipped up my head to see Blue. She leapt forward and punched the aforementioned guy in the face. He was knocked out cold, but she didn’t stop to admire her good work. Instead she spun back around to readdress the rest of the chaos in the room.
There were eight other men in the formerly quiet compartment—all dressed in similarly grungy earth tones, which made me believe they were more magic hunters. Parker’s other friends no doubt.
Presently, four of them were knocked out like the one Blue had just face-smashed. The others were still very much awake.
“What are you doing here?” Blue asked as she threw a rather impressive roundhouse kick at one of the attackers.
“What am I doing here?” I grabbed my wand from my satchel and hopped to my feet.
Spear.
“What are you doing here?”
“We’re trying to save the train,” Jason said as he ducked the swooping strike of a taller hunter. He rammed the blunt end of his axe into the hunter’s lower back then turned to elbow another assailant in the jaw.
“Well . . .” I blocked with my spear then slammed the staff into one of the hunter’s foreheads. “I’m trying not to die on it.”
Blue sucker-punched the last of the standing magic hunters. He dropped to the floor. “How’s that working out for you?” she asked.
I glanced back in the direction of the meat locker. It was far off, but I could still see the bright orange and purple blaze caressing the compartment window.
“Um, let’s see. There was an explosion at the back of the train. The luggage cars with our Pegasi were separated from the rest of the transport along with SJ and Daniel. Arian and his lackeys found me and are hot on my tail. Oh, and the magic hunters are now actively trying to kill me. So overall, I definitely think it could be going better.”
I made for one of the unconscious hunters, removed the lanyard from around his neck, and began tying his hands behind his back with the rope-like necklace.
“What about you guys,” I asked. “What happened here?”
Blue and Jason followed my lead and began to tie up the other incapacitated men.
“Well, I came in here to find Blue,” Jason began. “But she was hiding in one of the overhead bed nooks. She’d heard the magic hunters coming and hid in order to get the drop on them when she had the chance. They were trying to steal all the magic dust and then cause an explosion to separate themselves from the rest of the train so they could get away.”
“They sieged the engine room during the first blackout,” Blue cut in as she finished tying up her third man. “And since there were too many of them for me to take on by myself directly, I waited to catch them off guard. Jason showed up during one of the intervals of light and hid with me. When they came out of the engine room and the train went through the next tunnel, we took them by surprise together.”
“What about the train employees in the engine room?” I asked as I finished binding the last man. “We should go see if they’re okay.”
“Agreed,” Blue nodded.
The three of us quickly made our way to the engine room. When we opened the door we discovered the conductor and several other workers tied up on the floor, presided over by two more hunters.
Blue and Jason stepped forward. In perfect sync they punched the hunters in their faces—knocking both out simultaneously.
Blue, Jason, and I freed the bound workers then tied up the magic hunters. The freed workers immediately went back to shoveling dunes of magic dust into the fire. The conductor, meanwhile, dusted off his pleated pants and composed himself.
The man had a very large, moist forehead with age lines across it like creases in a cliffside. His brown mustache was thin, but the goatee it curved into was bushy. And he had the most delicate, almost pixie-like eyes I’d ever seen on a grown man.
He enthusiastically slapped Jason on the back. “Thank you so much, children!” he bellowed. “That was quite the jigg-pokery we were in, wasn’t it?”
“Um, yeah. You’re welcome,” Blue said. “But listen, you still have to stop the train. Like, now. There was an explosion by the luggage cars, these magic hunters need to be taken into custody, and, well, we really have to get off.”
“An explosion you say! Good heavens! Was anyone injured?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “But you’ve got to stop the train before it’s too late.”
At that, the lights went off and we plunged into the fifth, and second-to-last tunnel in the series. This time, however, we could still see. The blaze of the train’s firebox roared with life and filled the engine room with warm streaks of light. The conductor took out a damp handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed nervously at the sweat on his forehead.
“I wish I could,” he said. “But we’ve already begun our ascent of the last mountain. If I should stop the transport now, it would only roll backwards and plummet down the tracks until we came to a stop. Or, more likely at this speed and incline, crash to a stop. We must keep going until we level out and reach a safe unloading zone, which will be just a few minutes after we’ve exited the final tunnel and crossed the bridge that connects Daulgrin Lake and Britner Canyon. Once we pass the canyon, we’ll arrive at the next station. Before that, children, I’m afraid my hands are tied.”
“Ugh, what are we supposed to do until then?” Blue huffed.
“For starters, this,” I said.
I locked the door to the engine room. Then I grabbed a couple spare shovels used to scoop magic dust and shoved them in between the pipes around the doorframe—creating an extra barrier to reinforce the door.
The train lights came back on and I paused to glance out the porthole in the door. The adjacent compartment was still empty. Arian and the magic hunters had not made it out of the meat locker yet. As time passed, this made me more concerned than thankful. I may have made it difficult for them to follow me, but they definitely should’ve made it out by now.
“Something’s not right,” I declared to my friends. “I don’t think we should just be waiting here. When the magic hunters and Arian’s men do eventually come, this door isn’t going to hold forever. When it gives way Arian and his lackeys will have me trapped and once the hunters have taken the magic from me, they’ll have nothing stopping them from gaining control of the train. They’ll overtake the engine room again, blow the bridge, and speed to victory while the rest of the transport plummets back into the mountain until it crashes.”
“All right then. What would you suggest?” Blue asked.
I glanced around the room and spotted a ladder that led to a hatch in the ceiling. I walked over to the thing and inspected it. “We go up. Or rather, I go up.”
“Lay that on me one more time?” Jason said.
“The magic hunters are after me now,” I explained. “They’ll probably want to finish that mission before they go back to stealing the magic dust. It’s not exactly every day that someone with actual Fairy Godmother magic walks into the room. Fairy Godmothers never leave the safety of their floating headquarters unless it’s for a Godkid. For a hunter, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. So I figure I can distract them—lead them away from the engine room and keep them occupied until we reach the next station—while you guys stay here.”
Blue scoffed. “What? No way!”
“Guys, the only person that can make this distraction work is me. Both of you need to stay here and protect the engine room in case any of the hunters catch on to what I’m doing and turn back, or don’t bite at all and go on with their original plan.”
Plus, if this doesn’t work there is no way I’m letting you get hurt because of me.
It’s just not happening.
The bright glow of the zealous fuel fire—flickering in shades of tangerine and mauve—accentuated the expressions on my friends’ faces. They looked at me like I was crazy.
“Crisa,” Blue began, “I don’t usually argue with your plans. But making yourself human bait? I mean it sounds kind of—”
“Stupid? Dangerous? Self-destructive? Yeah, I get that. But if it keeps those magic hunters out of here and the rest of the train safe, then it’s our best option. It’ll only be for a short time anyways. We only have one tunnel left before we reach that bridge and make it to the next station.”
“What about Arian and his buddies?” Jason said. “They’ll be right behind you too. You realize that?”
“Yeah, I know. But trust me, I can handle them on my own.”
I noticed a collection of the train’s special lanyard necklaces hanging from a hook in the corner—orbs plump full of magic dust. I snagged a handful and held them up to the conductor. “Can I have these?”
He blinked in surprise. “Of course, but whatever for?”
“I have an idea.” I hung the six extra lanyards around my neck then turned to readdress my friends. “I’ll wait for the hunters to get here before I go. They have to see me head for the roof otherwise they won’t know to follow. And remember, no matter what happens, do not come after me. I can take care of myself and you’re needed here.”
I stashed my wand into my boot and clenched the dining car matchbook in my fist. Then I handed Blue my satchel. For what I had to do, I needed as little weighing me down as possible.
It was at that point that Jason waved for our attention. “Guys, they’re here.”
Blue and I rushed to the window. Sure enough, Parker and the two other magic hunters from the meat locker were storming the compartment. When they saw my face they began to race toward us in eager, angry pursuit. I made for the ladder.
“Crisa,” Blue said suddenly.
“Yeah?”
“Just tell me you’ve thought this through and I’ll believe you, okay? I just need to hear you say it—you know what you’re doing, right?”
I met her gaze with confidence as I grasped the metallic handles. “Definitely.”
And by “definitely” I mean “not really.” But that’s neither here nor there since I am doing this one way or the other.
The magic hunters’ faces were at the window then. I winked at Parker and propelled myself up the ladder. Throwing open the hatch in the ceiling, I crawled out of the train.
Finding my balance was tricky once I got up there. The combination of high winds and the uphill trajectory did not make for the most stable footing. But I didn’t wait to ease myself into being more comfortable. I had to make it over the bridge. I dashed in its direction, the train’s souvenir necklaces bouncing against my chest.
When Arian and his friends caught up with me in the meat locker I’d realized that none of them were wearing their necklaces, despite the fact that I’d seen them wearing the bobbles on the platform earlier.
This led me to believe that they had been the ones that engineered the explosion at the back of the train; not the hunters. The metal clasps formerly connecting the cars had singes of magic dust and purple lanyard clinging to them. Arian and his boys must’ve figured out these little orbs could double as small explosives and decided to use them to cause the accident.
While entangling quite a few had caused a big bang, I reasoned that the explosive qualities of the lanyards could still be useful on their own. And it appeared the opportunity to test that theory had arrived. When I was ten feet from the bridge Parker’s head came into view, poking out through the ladder hatch at the tail end of the car.
“There she is!”
He tried to finish scaling the ladder, but before he could fully ascend I removed one of the necklaces, struck a match, lit the part of the lanyard just above the orb, and hurled it at his head.
He ducked out of instinct and the janky accessory fell into the hatch. A second later a moderate burst of orange and purple fire spurted out, the flame having worked its way down the remaining bit of lanyard and reached the orb.
Colorful smoke gushed from the area. I jumped across the opening and raced down the roof of the bridge. The unstable, metallic structure vibrated under the force of my footsteps.
A quick look back confirmed that Parker had cleared the combustion. He was on the roof and he wasn’t alone. Not only were Green Scarf and Tweed Jacket with him, so were three of the magic hunters that Blue, Jason, and I had tied up in the locker room car.
Contrary to what you might think, this didn’t concern me much. I’d managed to put a decent amount of distance between us, and I was ready for what came next.
I hit the deck—dropping flat on my stomach and grabbing hold of the creased edges of the roof for dear life.
Parker and his friends glanced at one another before realizing why I’d suddenly pancaked myself. At that moment the train was abruptly sucked into the sixth and final tunnel. My pursuers barely had time to take cover before we were consumed by the hole in the mountainside.
I heard a scream or two and the thump of a body against metal. I kept my head down and concentrated on the sounds of the wheels plowing over the tracks beneath us. Oh, and once again I tried not to freak the geek out when the vampire bats came.
I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to scream as I felt the surge of their vicious wailing. Unfortunately, that’s when a set of claws got caught in my hair and violently yanked me sideways. I rolled onto my back and accidentally opened my eyes.
All around me was a tidal wave of small, contorted blue bodies. The roof of the cavern was only about three and a half feet above me. As a result, the surging creatures were close enough that I could see their tiny eyes as they whizzed by. They were red and twinkling, like bloody, faraway stars.
I was grateful that they didn’t seem interested in me, but soon the vampire bats’ presence caused me greater difficulty nonetheless.
Up ’til that point the creatures’ wails had been awful enough. But at that moment something changed. When the bat flipped me over, the movement caused the end of my wand to poke out of my boot. It started to emit the silvery glow it always gave off when in dark spaces.
This did not go well.
In response to my wand’s unnatural silver illumination, the bats began to wail ten times louder. The sound didn’t just pierce my eardrums; it shook the cavern. Pulses like sonar began to emit from their mouths, causing the tunnel to quiver and rocks to fall.
In tune with the violent change, the creatures’ bodies turned from bright blue to bright red, matching their eyes.
I rolled back onto my stomach as chunk after chunk of mountain stone rained down. Sharp, jagged wings flapped everywhere as the high-pitched screams echoed at an unheard of frequency. It was all so visceral I wasn’t sure what would break me first—the rocks, or the screeching wails that made my brain feel like it was about to implode.
After a minute that seemed like an eternity the train emerged on the other side of the mountain—freeing me from the nightmare.
When the transport exited the tunnel the bats followed, ejecting into the night sky. As the echo of their cries filled the air, their wings spread out and turned blue again, calming down in the presence of the moon’s natural glow.
I immediately jumped up. The three remaining hunters were already on their feet. Repeating my earlier trick, I lit and launched another lanyard fuse. The small fireball erupted in front of them, knocking one hunter off his feet. I fired a second lanyard, then a third.
By then all three magic hunters had been thrown back against the roof and I was free to hurry down the line.
The entire train had made it out of the mountain and was leveling out as it began to cross Daulgrin Lake. The metal bridge we zipped over was hundreds of feet in the air. The looming, nearly full moon cast its white light onto the navy waters below.
I continued to run—the heat in my cheeks making up for the bitter cold of the air. But then I started to get this weird pang in my gut. Something was wrong. I yanked my wand from my boot. Its silvery luminescence ignited like a reflex.
This is too easy, I thought as the train made it to the lake’s halfway point. Things were never this easy. The lanyard thing was a good idea, and it was working to keep the magic hunters at bay. But they weren’t the only ones after me.
Where was Arian? And where were his men?
As I hopped from car to car, putting more space between me and the hunters, my questions were soon answered. I was in mid jump when one of Arian’s men took me down.
It occurred terribly fast, but somehow still felt like slow motion. I was leaping over the ladder hatch of another bridge when he reached up and grabbed hold of my ankle.
He didn’t get enough of a grip to pull me down, but I still plowed into the roof of the bridge, crashing forearms-first. The impact knocked my wand out of my grip. I desperately reached out to grab it, but it was too late. My beloved weapon rolled over the side of the train.
I scrambled to my feet to look over the edge, but Arian and the man who’d just attacked me were suddenly on the roof, having risen from the hatch.
The lackey reached me first. I blocked his right punch and struck him in the chest. He staggered back a step—enough room for me to get in a roundhouse kick that sent him flying off the roof and to the waters below.
Arian came at me then. His fist drove straight toward me, but I slammed it down, blocking and parrying with a punch to his face. He took a swing at me. I ducked beneath it and spun around his side. I hit him in the ribs and blocked another one of his strikes. But a second later he managed to nail me in the stomach with a right hook then rapidly thrust his hand up to my neck.
He had me by the throat. Instead of lifting me off the ground, he swept my leg out from under me and slammed me down against the roof. I grunted as the stars in the sky blurred and dream déjà vu pulsed through my veins.
Arian continued to pin my larynx against the roof with one hand while he reached for a knife on his belt with the other. Before he could grab it, I jabbed my forefingers into the soft part of his throat just above the clavicle, kicked his knee outwards, and grabbed him by the side of the face—swinging him down and smashing his head into the roof beside me.
He released my throat and I grasped the very knife he’d meant to use on me. I leapt to my feet. As I rose, three more of Arian’s men came at my rear.
The first swung his sword and I was barely able to keep from getting chopped. Alas, when the second and third slashed at me I was forced to dive out of the way and roll so close to the edge of the train that I almost fell off.
“What does it take with you?”
I looked up to see a disgruntled Arian getting to his feet, clutching his head where I’d slammed it against the roof.
“I was about to ask you the same question,” I replied.
He and his men were coming closer. They thought they had me. They thought I was without plan and without weapon. Unfortunately for them, neither was true. I dropped down, stabbed Arian’s knife into the roof with one hand and grasped onto a railing on the side of the train with the other.
Having been on this route before, I knew that when we came to the edge of the lake the bridge abruptly plummeted into a steep slope before evening out over Britner Canyon. Arian and his men clearly had no idea. When the train dove into this very incline, while I was safe, they flew forward. Arian and one of his guards did manage to grab hold of the railings, but the other two were thrown off.
The moment the locomotive leveled out I jumped up and fired a lanyard at the last guard. He was only beginning to get back up, so he was off-balance enough for the eruption to blast him a solid ways back. He landed with a thud on the roof, hitting his head so hard he was knocked out. We zoomed into Britner Canyon and I set my sights on Arian—fully intent on knocking him out as well. But then something glinting in the moon’s glow caught my eye and distracted me.
Holy bananas, is that . . .
It was. It was the magic mirror from the Treasure Archives.
Having fallen out of wherever Arian had been keeping it, it was sitting on the train roof two feet from where Arian was standing—its reflective glass glaring moonlight at me.
Suddenly I understood. That was the object Arian had been talking about in my dreams—the tool he’d been using to track me. The little witch in the Forbidden Forest had said she could get a hefty price for it and that she knew people in Alderon. She must’ve sold it to Arian at some point when we were imprisoned in the Therewolf camp. He, in turn, had been using it to find me in the same way I’d originally used it to locate Emma. All he had to do was utter my name into the looking glass and its magic would give him a real time view of me, sound and all. It was so easy it was sickening.
Arian saw the combination of shock and recognition on my face as he picked up the mirror and returned it to the leather holster he had beside his scabbard.
“That’s how you’ve been doing it,” I thought aloud. “That’s how you’ve been one step ahead of us. You were cheating.”
“My mission is to kill you. Did you think I was going to play fair?” Arian asked as he stood upright. “I should thank you, though. This stupid mirror isn’t always the most helpful if the places in the background are too general. But you, Crisanta Knight, are always so admirably thorough with your plans. All we had to do was watch and listen as you explained every one of your next moves to your friends, then beat you to the punch when you tried to make them.”
“So the explosion . . .”
“We figured it would be simpler to take you if you were on your own. So we readied the lanyards at the rear of the train, planted the fuse during the first blackout, and waited to trip you so that you’d fall behind and be separated from your little group.”
Arian drew his sword. Behind him the three magic hunters I’d left in my dust earlier were about to catch up with us. I fired my last necklace bomb at them. They were not close enough for the blast to blow them off the train, but it forced them to temporarily drop to the roof.
I spun on my heels and ran in the other direction. I made it to the next car, but was cut off when another pair of Arian’s guards rose from the ladder hatch on the next bridge. The first wielded a sword, the second a crossbow. Further down the line two more men climbed up and started heading toward me.
I skidded to a stop and whirled around to see Arian moving in closer with a smug look on his face. The magic hunters I’d just downed were getting up, fully intent on joining him.
Arian sighed in an exasperated sort of way. “You made our jobs easy, Knight. Once we’d gotten past your meat fire, all we had to do was take out the mirror and listen. When you were in the engine room you explained your plans so nicely. We had the hunters here follow you with the intention of chasing you far enough away from your friends that you’d be unable to call for help. Then the rest of us spaced ourselves throughout the train. That way no matter how much ground you covered while you were up here, you’d eventually get cut off and be trapped on both sides.”
“Great exposition-packed diatribe, Arian,” I said as I backed up. “If your obsession with offing me and that lovely scar on your face weren’t enough, I’m now totally convinced that you have all the makings of an excellent antagonist.”
“And if your damsel in distress proclivities weren’t enough, the weakness that got you into this situation has convinced me that you have all the makings of an excellent princess,” Arian returned in snide.
And I thought I couldn’t hate him any more than I already did.
With every step my pursuers (eight in total) backed me closer to the edge of the train. I didn’t have my wand or any other kind of weapon to defend myself with as I’d forgotten to pull Arian’s knife from the roof. The odds did not look good.
Arian saw the panic in my face. “It’s over,” he said as he closed in on me. “No one is coming to help you.”
“You might wanna revise that statement!”
A small knife suddenly hurtled into the calf of the guard closest to me. Without hesitating I thrust my foot into his kneecap—dropping him like a sack of potatoes. Blue and Jason swiftly climbed onto the roof and were at my side.
Jason used his axe to deflect the guards’ blades as they came swooshing down on me. Blue balanced out his efforts with her hunting knife.
“I thought I told you guys not to follow me!” I said as I sidestepped the sword of another guard then kicked him into an adjacent attacker.
Blue elbowed a magic hunter so hard in the jaw it knocked a tooth out. “Seriously? That’s the first thing you say?” she asked.
“You said you would protect the engine room.” I trapped one guard’s arm and snapped it.
“You said you could handle this on your own—that you knew what you were doing,” Jason countered, fully engaged in weapon-based combat with Arian.
I snatched the sword from my broken-armed opponent. “I still do. I still can.”
“Not from where I’m standing!” Blue shouted as I barely blocked an incoming strike.
“Then stand—” I turned around to shoot Blue a glare, but my eyes widened with panic when I saw Arian behind her with his sword raised. I tackled her out of the way.
“—somewhere else,” I finished as we both fell out of his range.
It looked like she was about to respond, but I didn’t give her the chance. I saw the guard with the crossbow taking aim. I pushed Blue out of the way just before his arrow stabbed into the roof where we’d landed.
The ricochet caused my body to roll off toward the edge of the train. And of course who was waiting for me when I got there? Arian.
He vehemently kicked me in the ribs before I could defend myself with my sword. Then he kicked me again. And again. And again.
I was in no position to block his foot or make any kind of countermove. To be honest, his kicks were so hard and brutally persistent that I didn’t have time to react in any way at all. Each one crippled me more and sent me closer to the edge. From the look in his eyes, I saw that he didn’t want to just end me anymore. He wanted to savor doing so.
On his fourth kick the sword fell out of my hand and I came to the very rim of the rooftop. I caught a glance at the vast expanse several hundred feet below. We’d crossed into an area of the canyon that was abundant with tall, lean rock formations sticking out of the ground like spokes in a lawn. (If that lawn was a gigantic rocky hole and those spokes were 400-foot shafts, that is.)
I turned my head slightly. Blue and Jason were busy fending off other members of the attack team. They were too distracted to come to my aid. As Arian delivered his fifth and final kick to my diaphragm, Blue finally managed to see me out of the corner of her eye.
“Crisa!” she shouted.
It was too late. I tumbled off the edge.
I reached out and grasped hold of the railing that lined the roof. My body swung against the side of the train, bouncing off it in the same way those lanyard necklaces had bobbed against my chest when I’d been speeding down the line.
Both my hands clung from the railing, but my injured one was in no condition to support my weight for very long. Meanwhile, the way I was outstretched caused my injured ribcage to burn with agony.
Both my hands began to slip from the railing. The wind, the night sky, the feel of the metal against my fingertips—it was all too familiar to bear. My dreams had caught up with me just like Arian had caught up with me. And at that moment I wasn’t sure which of the two was crueler.
Arian stood there for a moment, appreciating the precariousness of my fate. Then he crouched low so as to get a better visual of the anguish on my face. The way he looked down at me, I couldn’t tell if he intended to strike my hands so I would fall immediately, or if he was content to watch me slip off on my own terms. He’d stored his sword in its scabbard, so I assumed it was the latter. This must have been just too good for him to pass up—watching me fall to my demise because of my own weakness.
“I’m not hearing any clever responses or comebacks,” he said. “What’s the matter—no jokes left, princess?”
Honestly, even in this situation I probably would’ve still tried to crack one or two had I not been in so much pain. I had to settle for gritting my teeth and glaring up at him.
Arian raised his sword.
My heart stopped.
Then, suddenly, he was knocked from view. Out of nowhere an arrow had pierced his shoulder. The combination of its force and suddenness caused him to tumble backwards out of sight. I turned my head in the direction the shot had come from.
Daniel.
It had taken me a second to realize it was him, but I recognized his Pegasus instantly. The creature’s body was black, which would have ordinarily blended into the night. However, when in flight, Daniel’s Pegasus had burning, silvery eyes and a pair of matching holographic wings that cut across the darkness.
As the steed rapidly approached, Daniel fired more arrows at targets on the rooftop.
When he drew closer I noticed SJ was a slight distance behind him. She was mounted on Sadie with our third Pegasus (attached to hers via a long rope) following her as they flew across the canyon. While the creature’s brilliantly colored wings—purple and green for Sadie, blue and purple for the other Pegasus—were very eye-catching, SJ’s discomfort was more noticeable. It was clear even from this vantage point that she was steering with great difficulty.
Like most princesses, the girl had learned how to ride horses when she was little. But even though every other kind of animal in the realm had a fondness for SJ, horses had always had a weird disinclination toward her. Between that and her aversion to being this high up, I knew flying a Pegasus was the last thing she ever wanted to do.
I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
Daniel called back to SJ—pointing at me then the other side of the train. I couldn’t discern what he’d said, but in response SJ and her Pegasi broke off and veered right. They disappeared over the train where I could no longer see them. Daniel, meanwhile, kicked his own ride into high gear and sped toward me.
“How’s it goin’?” he shouted as he came closer.
“Uh, you know, hanging in there!”
He fired another arrow then stored the bow he’d been wielding across his shoulder.
“Jump off when I tell you!” he commanded. “I’ll catch you!”
Uh . . . what?
I looked away from him and that’s when I saw it. The bridge crossing the canyon was coming to an end. I could see the track entering the forest ahead and, just beyond that, the next train station poking out through the trees. We were almost there. Which meant that there was no need for me to jump or trust Daniel. I could definitely make it that far without losing my grip and falling. I hadn’t exactly been practicing pull-ups and other forms of upper body strength all these years for nothing, now had I?
“Um, that’s okay. I’m good!” I called back as my fingers grasped the railing tighter.
Daniel followed my line of sight then yelled at me in frustration. “Knight, don’t risk it! Stop being an idiot and for once in your life just let me help you!”
“Daniel—”
“Come on. Just trust me!”
I stared at him for a second.
Trust him? Trust the boy whose motives I don’t know, whose actions I don’t understand, who claims I ruined his life, and who may be looking for a way to get rid of me?
I glanced down at the drop to the canyon below.
It would be so easy for him to miss me if I jumped; so easy for him to let me fall . . .
I shook my head. While Blue and Jason may have felt that they knew who Daniel was in spite of his enigmatic nature, and that he’d proven we could all count on him, I still had very real doubts. And in that moment I refused to take a chance on them or him.
“No!” I responded resolutely. “I can make it on my own!”
“Knight—” Daniel started to argue, but then he was abruptly forced to jolt his reins to the left.
A crossbow had been fired by one of the guards on the rooftop and Daniel barely maneuvered his steed out of the way to avoid being hit. The two of them fell back, and then bobbed and weaved again to evade a second shot. I’d been so distracted watching the scene unfold that I didn’t see what was coming for me in the same instant.
“Argh!”
Something blunt and hard rammed into the fingers of my injured hand, causing me to release my grip on the railing.
My body swung from the one hand that still held on. I looked up and saw Arian. He was crouched above me holding his sword with the handle-side down. Without another word he rammed the base of his weapon into my other hand and my grip gave out completely.
I dropped into the wide-open mouth of the canyon. I didn’t scream. I didn’t shout. The feel of the fall was too consuming. Bitter darkness rushed around me like I was being swallowed.
That’s when I spotted Daniel. His Pegasus flapped its silvery wings and he hovered in the sky for a moment, completely frozen. He didn’t come after me. He didn’t move at all. For a solid beat, he just watched me fall. And then . . .
“Knight!”
Daniel’s voice shot through the darkness with almost as much speed and power as his Pegasus. They plunged into the abyss in rapid pursuit. With a heroic swoop, the pair caught up with me. Daniel grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of my drop. He steered his Pegasus to the closest rock formation and dropped me on the flat surface before landing beside me.
I immediately crumpled to the ground.
While the idea of partaking in such damsel-like behavior in front of Daniel, or anyone, filled me with disgust, I couldn’t help it. I felt broken in more ways than one. Arian had given me a serious beating. Worse still? The people closest to me had witnessed it. I could only imagine what they must think of me now . . .
Shuddering at the thought, I attempted to will my adrenaline to overcome the weakness, the pain, and the shame I felt over both.
As I knelt on the cold, hard stone, I gazed back at the locomotive. I saw SJ riding Sadie, and Jason and Blue riding the third Pegasus. They were circling underneath the bridge and coming to meet us. When Daniel had come after me, SJ had flown to the aid of Blue and Jason so they, too, could escape by means of our winged steeds.
They were approaching us quickly now, and would soon be within landing range. While I was very glad to see they were okay, I instinctively shifted my focus to what lay beyond them—the far away figures of the enemies I’d left behind on the train.
Despite my inability to see things clearly through the combined distance and darkness, I had no doubt that Arian was looking at me. I could feel his penetrating glare across the canyon in those last few seconds before the train sped into the forest.
A shiver passed through me. The physical pain in my body felt insignificant in comparison to the understanding that came with it.
We’d be seeing each other again soon, he and I. With or without my dreams, of that I was certain. Arian had his mission, and like me with mine, he seemed determined to see it through. What’s more, he had the magic mirror. Which meant there was nowhere I could hide that he wouldn’t soon find me.