FORT WATCHED HELPLESSLY, KNOWING he couldn’t attack the Old Ones, as they could take over his mind, steal his spirit, or even destroy him. And he couldn’t just pull Gabriel away, not when Gabriel was so close to getting his brother back.
But the other boy had betrayed them all and freed the Old Ones, not to mention revealing to them wherever the last dragon was. And if dragons really did come from magic, then the whole world truly could be doomed.
But why did the Old Ones seem so confident that Gabriel’s brother, Michael, wouldn’t choose to return home? All Fort knew about Michael was what he’d seen in Sierra’s memories, back when she and Damian were still asleep beneath the Oppenheimer School. He’d seemed like a goofy kid, and Sierra had liked him. Michael had studied Destruction magic, and if Fort remembered right, had set his room on fire.
So, pretty normal all around. But then why would they take the chance? Had they used Spirit magic on him? That seemed pretty likely, but didn’t really fit with giving him the option to make a choice.
Maybe whatever had happened to Michael had been done to Fort’s father, too, and that explained why his dad hadn’t woken up? But Michael hadn’t been turned into a Dracsi, so that didn’t seem too probable.
Either way, they’d have to be ready to run at a moment’s notice, so Fort inched closer to Gabriel. From this distance he could see into the circle, but whatever lay beyond—Fort assumed it was the home of the Old Ones—was almost incomprehensible to his mind.
There was nothing solid there, just… madness. Shapes dissolved into sounds, and colors became ideas. Everything felt… sharp, like it could cut your mind the way a fever dream feels. Fort took a step toward the circle, drawn either by some sort of insane gravity, or through the horrible appeal of madness. He forced himself to look away.
Fortunately a figure appeared on the other side, blocking out the insanity. “Michael?” Gabriel said, his voice cracking as the boy from Sierra’s memories stepped through the teleportation circle, which quickly closed behind him.
This Michael had the same red hair, the same face, but somehow his body seemed to be constantly changing, at times almost fluid like a liquid, only to quickly shift to nearly diamondlike density. His whole body faded away until it was close to transparent, like a cloud, then caught fire like D’vale, and then back again. And his eyes…
Fort turned away, unable to even look at them further. Michael’s eyes looked just like what had lain beyond the teleportation circle—lunacy personified.
“HELLO, GABRIEL,” Michael said, waving his hand and leaving a trail of mist behind it. “IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME. HOW ARE YOU?”
“Mike,” Gabriel said, tears streaming down his face. “What… what did they do to you?”
“THEY OPENED MY EYES, GABRIEL,” Michael said, and Fort flinched at their mention. “OUR BODIES ARE MADE OF STAR MATTER. WE ARE ONE WITH THE UNIVERSE, AND MORE! EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED, AND I CONTROL IT ALL.”
“Mike, they’re going to let you come home with me,” Gabriel said, stepping closer to his brother and slowly holding out a hand. “Do you understand what I’m saying? You can come back to Earth, with me and mom, even with the colonel. We’re your family. That’s where you belong.”
“EARTH?” Michael tilted his head, as if he was confused. “NO, I DON’T BELIEVE I WILL. NOT YET. I HAVE TOO MUCH TO LEARN HERE. THE OLD ONES ARE GOOD TEACHERS, GABRIEL. IF YOU LET THEM, THEY CAN OPEN YOUR MIND TOO, AND YOU CAN SEE THE TRUTH OF WHO WE ARE, AND WHAT THIS REALITY TRULY IS. THEN YOU AND I WILL BRING THEM BACK HOME AND HELP ALL OF HUMANITY TO SEE, JUST LIKE WE DO.”
Fort swallowed hard, readying a teleportation circle. That was it. The Old Ones had given Michael the choice, and he’d chosen to stay with them. And that meant—
“Mike, no,” Gabriel said, stumbling toward his brother. “Please, you have to come back. They’re letting you decide! Are they making you say these things? If the real you, the Michael I remember, is in there somewhere… just say the word, and I’ll help you. I’ll fight them and bring you back no matter what! I don’t care if I have to burn down the universe to do it.”
“OH, GABRIEL,” Michael said, putting a hand on his brother’s cheek. “THEY ARE NOT MAKING ME SAY ANYTHING. I’VE LEFT YOU AND DAD BEHIND NOW. BUT IT’S NOT TOO LATE. COME WITH ME, AND YOU’LL SEE WHAT I HAVE. LET ME PROTECT YOU FOR ONCE, GABRIEL.”
Gabriel looked up at his brother and raised a hand toward him. Was he going to leave with Michael, go back with the Old Ones? He couldn’t… could he?
“Mike, I—”
THE CHOICE HAS BEEN MADE, Ketas declared, and Fort felt the Old One’s presence push into his mind, infecting him with its incomprehensible horror. Gabriel also stiffened as a yellow glow appeared over his head, the same thing likely happening to him. HOWEVER, OUR APPRENTICE HAS MADE YOU AN OFFER, AND YOU MAY ACCEPT. BEFORE YOU DO, LET US MAKE SURE THAT YOUR INFORMATION WAS TRUE.
The cavern around them disappeared, replaced by a mental image of a human woman standing before two children, both tied up and looking completely out of it. Lost in his own mind, Fort screamed noiselessly as he recognized first Sierra, then Damian, with Agent Cole standing over them.
“This will all go much easier on you if you reveal where the stolen books went,” Agent Cole said, leaning in toward Sierra, whose head lolled to one side.
WE HAVE INDEED FOUND THE LAST DRAGON, Ketas said in their heads. PERHAPS WE WILL SHOW YOU HIS TRUE POWER NOW?
Even through the dimensional distance, the Old One lifted a hand, and Damian straightened in his seat, whatever sedative they’d given him overwhelmed by the presence of Ketas. His eyes went wide, and he began to struggle against his bonds, an inhuman growl coming from his throat.
“What… what is this?” Agent Cole said, stepping backward, holding up her weapon, and lifting a phone to her mouth. “This is Cole, get in here! We’ve got a—”
Damian’s bindings ripped in half, and he leaped for her as his body began to morph, wings growing out of his back and his mouth filling with rows of razor-sharp teeth. He lifted Agent Cole with a now-massive hand and flung her against the wall, then roared so loudly the room shook.
THE LAST OF ITS KIND, Ketas told them. MADE FROM MAGIC AND ABLE TO ACCESS ITS EVERY POWER. AND HE IS OURS ONCE AGAIN!
Damian was the last dragon?! With everything happening at once, Fort almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But Ketas couldn’t have used Corporeal magic to change him… it was something inside himself. And that would explain why he wouldn’t talk about where he’d come from before the school, and why he could learn magic so quickly.
Damian in dragon form turned toward Sierra with a low growl and opened his mouth to unleash a fiery death sentence. NO! Fort tried to shout, but Ketas had him under his control, and there was nothing he could do but watch—
“MY CHILD!” came a roar from above, and a second dragon dove directly through Damian and Sierra to slam into Ketas. The image of the interrogation room faded instantly, and Fort felt his mind clear as the cavern returned, revealing the father of the dragons raking at his brother’s crystalline armor with his claws.
“Fort!” someone yelled, and he glanced up to find Rachel floating down on a platform of rocks, while a sea of dwarves rappelled the wall behind her, using lightning as ropes, controlling it with just their bare hands. “Go, get out of here while they’re distracted!”
SAVE ME! Ketas shrieked at his siblings, but it was Michael that moved first. He raised a hand toward the dragon, and the Old One roared as the elements making up his body all pulled apart at once, only to smash back together, crashing to the ground.
“CHILD, LOOK TO OUR FORMER BROTHER TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO DISOBEY,” Q’baos said to Michael. She raised her hand, and the dragon went still, then stood up, bowing toward its family.
“Heads up!” Rachel yelled, and Fort looked up just in time to catch a heavy silver staff that she threw. She nodded at the dragon. “Do it!”
Without a second thought, Fort leaped forward and slammed the staff against the dragon’s scales.
Blue Healing light filled the creature, and he shrieked again, then turned back to Ketas. “YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” he roared, his hands glowing bright blue. Ketas put up his tentacles to stop him, but it was too late.
The Old One’s tentacles pulled up into his body while he screamed in pain and anger. His crystalline armor cracked and fell away as the Old One rapidly increased in size, rising high into the air, his skin growing black, shiny scales. The skull helmet he wore exploded off of a head that now began to resemble something even more monstrous than the tentacles he’d previously had.
“STOP HIM!” D’vale shouted, but both Q’baos and Michael were transfixed, watching Ketas’s evolution into a Dracsi. “THEN I WILL DO IT MYSELF,” D’vale finished, and turned on the dragon.
The blue light disappeared as the Old One of Corporeal magic abruptly dissolved, each mineral and element in his body releasing from each other at the same time.
“Fort!” Rachel shouted. “We have to get out of here now!”
“Go!” he shouted to her. “I’m right behind you!”
She growled in frustration but took off toward the ceiling and the portal home.
The dwarves reached the ground and came running, all wielding axes and other weapons, but now that Ketas’s transformation had stopped, Q’baos raised a hand, and the dwarves all skidded to a stop, falling to their knees in worship. They began to chant words of praise toward the Old One, and from off in the distance, Fort could hear more dwarves doing the same, the noise shaking the rock all around him.
“PLEASE, GABRIEL,” Michael told him, extending his hand to Gabriel… and also Fort. “COME. I DO NOT WISH TO SEE YOU PERISH LIKE MY MASTERS’ FORMER BROTHER.”
Gabriel looked down at the spot where the dragon had been destroyed, then slowly took a step toward Michael…
Only to step through a teleportation circle, with Fort just behind him.