FORT FLOATED IN A SEA of confusion for the next few days, waking to find different people standing over him, only to fall unconscious again. Any amount of time could have passed, and he’d have had no way of knowing. He was vaguely aware of Dr. Ambrose being present, and Jia at times, but other than that, everything was a blur.
And then he awoke to find himself in a blank, unformed place with only the bed beneath him as proof that he wasn’t still asleep.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” a voice said, and Sierra faded into view above him, leaning over his bed. “You had me worried! Are you feeling any better?”
Fort pushed himself to a sitting position, strangely free of all the tubes and wires that he’d felt when he’d woken up the past times. “What happened? Where am I? Is Rachel okay? Are you? What about my father? Did he wake up yet?”
“Okay, settle down,” Sierra said. “You’re still asleep, because you need to heal. If you get too excited, you might wake up. But as far as I’ve seen in Jia’s head, you’re going to be fine. And they found Rachel in Colonel Charles’s house, of all places, so she’s already back.”
Fort frowned. “I need to heal? How badly was I injured?”
Sierra winced. “It wasn’t pretty. You’re lucky Jia was around. She took care of your biggest problems right away, but she had to restore everyone that the Old One morphed, and she’s been working with Dr. Ambrose on your father.” She patted him on the shoulder. “You always get up to such interesting things when I leave you alone, don’t you?”
“My father isn’t awake yet?” Fort tried to push himself out of bed, but somehow found himself right back in it. “Is he okay? What’s going on?!”
“Oh, he’ll be fine,” Sierra said, but she looked away, which made Fort nervous. “Hey, don’t get all anxious on me, you know I can feel what you’re feeling. He just hasn’t come to yet. And Dr. Ambrose doesn’t know why. Though she did see something odd—”
“Odd? What’s odd? Sierra…?”
Sierra sighed. “She wasn’t going to tell you, because she’s not sure what it is. Part of her thinks it’s just that your dad has some odd EEG readings. Don’t ask me what that means, I saw the answer in her head and still can’t remember it, but it’s something they read your electric brain waves with. And before you start panicking again, she just saw something unusual, and she’s figuring it out, okay?”
Fort nodded, then noticed something in her mind. “That’s not all she saw, is it? You’re hiding something.”
“It’s not important. I’d tell you if it was.” He glared at her, and she threw up her hands. “Fine. The weird thing in his brain… it sort of, kind of, only remotely looks a bit like something they saw in my mind, okay? And I’m fine, aren’t I?”
Fort frowned. Something they’d seen in Sierra’s mind? “But you were in a coma. Maybe that’s the similarity?”
“See, that’s smart thinking!” Sierra said, then cringed. “Except she doesn’t think that’s it. But again, let’s remind ourselves that not only am I fine, but I’m actually doing great. And in an effort to change the subject, can we talk about how Damian is actually a dragon, of all things? No wonder he was all mopey. I would be too if I were the last of my species.”
Fort’s eyes widened. “What happened with him?” he asked. “Last I saw, he was about to attack you!”
“I don’t know, I was kind of sedated, but from what he said, the Old One stopped controlling him just before he could,” she said, looking away again. “Here’s the weird thing: I’m not sure we’d have escaped if he hadn’t dragoned out. That Agent Cole lady? I’m not a fan.”
“Me either,” Fort said. “How did she catch you? I thought you were hiding in the airport.”
She made a face. “Remember how she told you that they’d completed their search in terminals four and five of Heathrow Airport? That was a lie. We came out, thinking we were safe, and BAM, they grabbed us.”
Fort’s eyes widened. “She used me to capture you?”
“She’s a tricky one,” Sierra said, sighing as she sat down on the bed next to him. “The only good thing that came of it all was that they brought us to the UK school for interrogation, since it was closer, and they didn’t want to chance bringing us back to the U.S. So at least they saved us some time, having to find it for ourselves!”
“That’s where you are now, the UK school?” Fort asked. “Did you see Cyrus? He and Dr. Opps were heading there…”
She nodded. “Both of them. Dr. Opps came through, trying to convince Agent Cole to release us, but she of course refused. I think she was about to throw him in jail for a while there. But after Damian dragoned out, we freed ourselves, and I decided to remind her of her dream to go to art school instead of staying on as a federal agent.” She grinned widely. “I think she quit and is applying to one as we speak.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Fort said. “I tried reaching you so many times. If I’d known you were captured—”
“You would have tried to come find us, but wouldn’t have known where. That’s one reason they took us to the UK school. No one here other than Dr. Opps or Cyrus knew where it was, so your little teleportation stunt wouldn’t get you there.”
“So do you have the book of Clairvoyance?” Fort asked, trying not to let his concern for his father overwhelm him.
“I told you, don’t worry about him!” Sierra said. “He’ll be fine. And no, we don’t have the book yet. Apparently it went missing when the kids here went a little bit insane after studying it. Maybe one of them stole the book and hid it, because none of the administrators know where it is. And since the students aren’t really thinking clearly, I can’t read their minds to figure out where it is.”
“Wow,” Fort said. “And Cyrus wasn’t any help?”
“Not really,” she said. “He spends most of his time talking to himself at lakes nearby. I’m not really sure what he’s doing.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’m going to try to heal all these kids’ minds, both because it’d be cruel not to, but also so we can figure out where the book is. They got all riled up when Damian turned into a dragon, so we figure we’ll go somewhere a lot less public when we get the book, so Damian can learn Time magic in peace. It’s not easy hiding ourselves here in the middle of the school as it is. Dr. Opps is helping, but still. He’s been pretty anxious too, but he won’t say why. He and Cyrus have been talking a lot, so who knows what prophecies Cyrus has been telling him.”
“You should listen, if Cyrus gives you one,” Fort said, looking away. “He warned me I’d lose someone if I went after my father, but I thought that meant a friend would be left behind, not that Gabriel would turn on everyone.”
“He needs to learn to be more specific,” she told him, scrunching up her nose. “And if it makes you feel better, Gabriel probably would have taken the book if you hadn’t. And this way, you got your father back. Besides, at least you got to visit a different dimension. Look at how boring this school is.” She waved a hand, and the dark area around Fort lit up, showing a pleasant hallway lined with windows that opened on a green countryside. “Almost makes me jealous of that puke-green color there.”
“Stop trying to cheer me up,” Fort said, and she grinned at him.
“Just wanted to keep you from wallowing a bit,” she said, patting his leg. “Anyway, I have to go save all these kids, because I’m amazing. You keep healing, okay?”
Fort nodded. “Say hi to Cyrus for me, will you? And, um, don’t go disappearing on me this time. I might have missed having you around.”
She beamed, then leaped at him for a hug. He yelped when she slammed into him, then realized he wasn’t injured in his mind, and hugged her back. “I missed you too, Fitzgerald,” she said. “But don’t worry. I won’t be gone long this time. If all goes well, we should have the book and be heading to London in an hour or two to get off this island. And then we’re heading for…” She trailed off, then shrugged. “Actually, I have no idea where the sixth book might be. But that’s why we’re getting the Clairvoyant book now, so we can use it to see where we go next!”
Fort laughed. “That doesn’t make sense, you know?”
Sierra winked. “That’s why they call it magic, New Kid.”
And with that, she disappeared, as did the scene in Fort’s head, and everything went dark again.
At some unknown time later, something almost woke him up, a voice that could have been Sierra screaming his name, sounding terrified. But it cut off too quickly, and he fell back into a dreamless sleep, filled with a strange sort of dread that something had gone very, very wrong.