Chapter Ten

On The Tightrope

I HIT MY stride, finally.

“Honestly,” Amanda said two weeks later, “you’re ready for the swim competition coming up. Swim daily, but you’ve got this in the bag.”

Julio said the same thing. “Your running is excelente, wey,” he said. “You’re ready.”

I passed repeated super quizzes in aca-deca with flying colors.

“I’m so proud of you, Eli,” Austin said. “You know biology better than me!”

“No shit.”

“Yeah, weird, I know, but yes, you’re going to ace it!”

Everything was coming together. I was confident. I had my first, second, and then third kill as a Coaugelo. And I was able to conjure and summon small things regularly: a soda, a candy bar, and the smallest rain cloud to float over Austin and sprinkle him with a few raindrops when he was in one of his moods and acting like a blockhead.

My body continued to struggle to keep up with my mind, my will and determination. I slept less and less at night. I kept pushing myself. Only a few more weeks to go, and then I could savor sweet victory!

One night, I sat in the window seat in my room, watching the rain falling outside my window, when I heard a cry for help.

“Someone help me!”

I glanced at the clock: 3:00 AM. I padded to the door, peering outside to the long hallway stretching from Aunt Christine’s suite on one end to Mom’s on the other. The darkness was punctuated every few feet from the dim chandeliers overhead. Silence. The house and everyone in it were asleep except me. I returned to the window.

“Help!” a voice shouted, weaker this time.

“Shit,” I complained. I returned to my room, walked over to the closet, then jammed my feet in my running shoes and headed downstairs. I grabbed my raincoat from the front hall closet and stepped outside.

Where was security? They usually patrolled the grounds at night. Maybe there was a shift change. Rain thundered down on the roof of the veranda and on the brick walkway winding down the front lawn to the main gates. I stepped onto the stairs and into the rain. I hurried to the wrought iron fence separating our property from the street. I paused, noticing a strange pink light illuminating the jacaranda trees lining the street. I turned to see where it was coming from. I gasped. The house glowed with a fluorescent pink light from the runes Mom had recently cast over the house in the Jotomoarlo Sangrancto. The ancient characters appeared as if projected on the house moving up along the façade and disappearing on the mansard roof.

“Please, help little old me!” a voice called. I looked back at the house. The house was actively fighting some evil force itself. I turned and made my way to the empty street. A half block away, I spotted a figure, shrouded in shadows between the streetlights, waving to me.

“Help! Monsters!”

“I can help you!” I called, patting my pajama pockets for my PlasmX. Puxhàredo! I left it on the dresser in my closet. I stretched out my arm and raised my hand on the off chance my PlasmX would levitate out of my room and into my hands. Nothing happened. Crap. Máurso had drilled it in my head to never be without my PlasmX. And I had forgotten that rule already. I grumbled. Okay, I would just use my fists and body to battle any monster. My Xem Sen Ou improved every week. I was a walking weapon, I told myself.

I closed in on the figure.

“Come and help me.”

The stench of ashes and sulfur wafted into my nose. I gagged. Okay, a chain smoker needed my help. Mom had drilled it into my head to never smoke.

“You want yellow teeth? Wrinkles when you’re eighteen? Smell like cigarettes?”

“No?”

“Good, don’t smoke, ever!”

I could do this. I paused in front of a shadowy figure.

“Elijah Delomary, Bane of the Gloom, here to help..uh..ma’am, sir, they?”

The figure reached up to their hood with their hands, only the skin was blistered and black and oozing. My eyes widened, seeing rotting flesh on their arms. I stopped in my tracks. I began to back away.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you remember me?” A raspy voice called as the hood fell off the head of the figure. The face of an old woman with wrinkled skin and washed-out blue eyes peered at me. Fungus crusted half the woman’s face.

“Come here, honey. It’s me, your great-great aunt Mady!”

I turned and began to run. That couldn’t be Aunt Mady. She had died when I was eight years old at the ripe old age of 102. My foot hit a rut in the sidewalk, sending me tumbling forward. I crashed onto the lawn of my friend Letitia’s house. I sprawled on my back, rain beating down on my face. My heart lodged in my throat. I wanted to cry out for help. I wanted to run, but for some reason, every muscle in my body was paralyzed. I heard the sound of Aunt Mady’s walker clacking on the sidewalk.

“Come and give me a hug, honey!”

I closed my eyes. I should have woken Barn, called Sunny. Security. No, I— Stop, Elijah. You didn’t know any better. You meant well. The path to hell is lined with good intentions. No, stop. Stop. Stop beating yourself up.

The clacking stopped. Aunt Mady, or whoever she was, stood over me. I was helpless. Thunder rumbled. Our twelfth atmospheric river of the rainy season. The vernal equinox passed weeks ago. Springtime. It never rained this much in Southern California. Something was wrong, someone was trying to drown the land of milk and honey. Drown La La Land and wash California into the sea.

Wheezing filled the air. I pressed my eyes closed as a hand reached for me. A vision bloomed in my head. Two pinpoints of red light that grew and grew and grew filled my mind.

“You proved yourself quite capable,” the voice said. “I was hoping you’d run yourself ragged, trying to prove to yourself you’re not some piece of crap like your father. I hoped to watch you collapse and die. You didn’t. Then I was sure you would give up. You surprised me. So now I am here to destroy you, so Devlina is weakened, and I can grow stronger!”

I heard a snap followed by a crack. A screech and howl. My muscles twitched. I opened my eyes. The figure was gone.

The sun blazed high overhead set against a vibrant blue sky. I sat up, facing Mom and Aunt Christine on the sidewalk. They glowed with a golden light; Mom’s arms and hands released a dazzling light. I squinted, watching a half circle ray blaze from Mom’s hands. A burst of luminescence fanned out in all directions, illuminating the houses, trees, and the desolate street.

Another inhuman, bloodcurdling screech filled the air, then silence. The light faded, and the sun melted away. The sky turned dark. Rain began to fall again.

“Let’s get you inside, darling,” Mom said, leaning down to help me to my feet. As we approached the house, I noticed the pink light surrounding the contours of the old mansion. The runes held strong, ensuring our safety.

Inside, Christine embraced me and Mom, and slipped upstairs to her suite. In my room, I kicked off my shoes and hung my wet coat on a hook in the bathroom.

Mom sat on my bed, awash in the soft yellow light from my lamp.

“Am I in trouble?”

Mom’s shook her head. “No, why?”

“I should have known better.” Mom’s favorite line.

“No, darling.”

“Come again?” Had she forgotten her favorite line?

“You’re okay, hon.”

I sat in the wing chair by the fire.

“That figure was Aunt Mady! She was calling for help.”

“That wasn’t Aunt Mady,” Mom said.

“Mom, I was sure I was going to die.”

“Yes, that creature had powerful magic.”

“I think it was Zid’dra.”

“One of his minions, like the blob at Sean’s house.”

“Oh, I thought that was Zid’dra.”

“He has an army of monsters.”

“Are you sure we’re safe?”

“Of course, darling.” Mom sounded confident, but why did her face show concern?

“That light thing. How…? I mean, what was that?”

“A Luminabo Immenso.”

“Wow, that’s a powerful incantation! You turned the night to day.”

“The only thing that would purify and destroy that creature.”

“That was pretty cool.” I laughed.

“You know, I’m spending more time practicing magic. I forgot how fun it is.” She stopped herself, then looked at me. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I grinned. “I’ve had three kills as a Coaugelo.”

“Oh, wow.”

“Yeah, I’m feeling really good these days.”

“That’s great,” Mom said, but a look of concern crossed her face. “Elijah, what were you doing up so late?”

“I told you. I heard a scream.”

“You look very, very tired. Do you want to stay home tomorrow? Take a mental health day? Maybe we can go to the spa?”

“No, I’m fine, Mom.”

“We can see a movie!”

“Naw,” I said. “I got this, Mom.”

Mom opened her mouth but then stopped herself. “Okay, darling, you’re the boss.” She stood. “Get some rest.” She walked to the door. “The rain will end, you know? Seems like it might not, but it will. And the sun will shine again, and it’ll be hot, and we’ll complain that it’s too uncomfortable.”

“Thanks for the reminder, Mom.”

“Night, darling.”

*

I WALKED THROUGH heavy, black smoke, hands out, trying to find my way. My eyes stung, my lungs heavy from smoke. Bright orange flames erupted in front of me. A shadow appeared as the thick, black clouds retreated: a tall woman wearing black stilettos and a black miniskirt and bodice with black hair framing her face.

She had this very large armedellae, a plasma weapon that monsters were fond of using against Magicals.

“Devlina?”

Devlina glanced over her left shoulder at me. I gasped. Half her face had melted off, revealing the muscles and veins in her face, her left eyeball hanging from the socket.

“Elijah? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I was battling a monster near my house and almost died.”

“Yeah?” she said, preoccupied. She lifted her armedellae and began firing rounds up in the air.

Black, flaming objects fell all around me. I squinted through the heavy smoke, trying to figure out what she was battling. I looked down at the ground, smoke stinging my eyes. The objects were dead black crows, flames licking over their lifeless bodies.

Corbenstae as they were called in the Dark Language or Corbenmala in the Old Language, Zid’dra’s feared legion of attack birds.

“Why are you shooting down Corbenmalas?”

“I’m a little busy right now, Elijah,” she said, pumping the weapon, shaped sort of like a plastic super soaker, up into the darkness all around us. The red light from the plasma blazed into the sky, momentarily revealed thousands of Corbenmalas swarming overhead cawing and crying out. One grabbed her eyeball with its beak.

Devlina pumped the armedellae, and red plasma hit the bird. It burst into flames, falling at my feet.

“Your face is half melted off!”

“Yeah, well, you know that Zid’dra tried to compel me to reunite with him—force me to submit to him like I am a beta. Beta! Can you imagine me a beta?” She laughed, and her eyeball shuddered. “You saved me. Strange how that keeps happening.” She winked at me.

I grumbled, “We’re not friends, Devlina.”

“Sure,” Devlina said. “Anyway, after I woke from the trance Ziddy cast on me, I stomped over to him, and well, I took him to task!”

“Watch out!” I cried as a Corbenmala darted out of the thick black clouds over head, claws out lunging for Devlina’s face. Devlina lifted her weapon, spun around, and toasted the bird.

“Zid’dra had a temper tantrum. No surprise there. Anyway, he told his second wife, Máu Rabetica, to deal with me.”

“No, shit.”

“Yeah, that heifer set fire to my mansion in Beverly Hills while I was taking my nightly beauty nap on my bed of nails. I was burned alive.”

“Oh, crap. Are you okay?”

“Never better,” she said, pumping rounds directly into the smoke in front of her. “I forgot how invigorating it is to be burned alive. Happened to me several times in Europe . I really freaked out those uptight witch haters when I’d twerk as I was roasting.”

“That didn’t happen.”

“It did!” Devlina said. “Then I smote the fanaticals who hunted down witches and cursed them with little—um, well, you know.”

Devlina spun around firing her weapon at the birds. Flashes of red and orange and blue.

Devlina paused to wave her hands over her armedellae. “Reloading,” she said. “Anyway, now I have progressed in my war with Ziddy. The War of the Roses has nothing on us, y’know?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. First, I wiped out many of his legions of hellions, and now I’m moving on to destroy the other Máus. The wicked wives of Ziddy. I will win. And then Ziddy will have a reckoning coming. Can I get an amen?”

“Amen?”

Devlina noticed I was gawping at her face. She snapped a finger. Her face bubbled back into place, and her eye returned to its socket.

“Better?”

“Uh, yeah.”

She fired some more rounds above.

More Corbenmalas fell around me, melting into the black obsidian floor peeking out through the smoke. “Devlina, I was attacked by my great Aunt Mady just now.”

Devlina paused, turning to look at me. “Nothing more fun than a battle with family! Did she kill you? Is this the new and improved, reincarnated Elijah?”

“No, I didn’t die,” I explained.

“Too bad,” she said. “I’ve been tortured, burned alive, drawn-and-quartered and murdered and generally killed multiple times and always come back better than ever. I highly recommend it.”

“You don’t understand,” I said. “Aunt Mady is dead.”

“Shit, well, that’s gothic.”

“Yeah, terrifying.”

Devlina gritted her teeth, pumping red plasma into the sky. She said, “You know that Ziddy likes to play mind games like that.”

“Mom said it was a minion of Zid’dra”

“Probably, but hey, at least you're popular.

“With the wrong people.”

“There’s no bad attention.”

“I almost died?”

Devlina said, “Shit, I’m sorry Elijah. I’m sorry you’re involved.”

“Not entirely your fault.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“Well, I’m a Coaugelo now. And I can use magic! Here, I can summon another weapon for you.”

Devlina paused as a black, three-headed pterodactyl-like creature circled overhead.

I wiggled my nose. A puff of smoke rose from my hand. As it cleared, a cupcake appeared.

“Um, well, thanks for the thought.”

“Shit, it’s not working too well.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Devlina said. “You need to celebrate you!”

A three-headed Corbenmala swooped down at Devlina pecking her forehead before she aimed her armedellae and turned it into a smoldering mass of flaming feathers.

“Look at how far my boy has come. From the sniveling mess at the lake at summer camp after being kissed by a boy to a Coaugelo.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Don’t diminish yourself,” Devlina said. “You’re like me now. A survivor. They tried to defeat you, break you but you rose like a phoenix from the ashes…”

Devlina lifted her right arm and pushed her armedellae sideways, pumping the trigger. A flash of red light filled the semi-darkness around us before the sound of shrieking and smell of burned feathers.

“I’m a survivor,” I repeated.

“And just like Ziddy can’t keep me down, you need to believe in yourself. Remember his first rule. He can’t destroy you, Elijah. You are getting stronger and stronger.”

“You’re right!”

“Of course, I am,” Devlina said, then added loudly, “I am the Queen of the Gloom!” The earth shook; lightning flashed in the clouds.

“Now are you going to allow yourself to love Austin?”

“Wait, what?”

Smoke swirled around me. My eyes teared up profusely. I coughed. More Corbenmalas dropped around me and melted into the gr0und.

“I get you because we are linked, boy-o. You fear giving your heart to Austin because of insecurities. But stop being afraid and just love him.”

A black creature, spewing flames from its nostrils, swooped down from the sky, claws out, heading straight for me. I opened my mouth to scream.

My alarm clock buzzed, 5:00 AM. I sat up in bed, body aching, head spinning. Where was I? Home. I glanced out the windows. Drizzle. Had that all been a nightmare?

I padded to the bathroom, turned on the water in the shower and stripped off my pajamas. I coughed. Black smoke curled out of my mouth. My eyes darted to the mirror. I gawked at a black feather stuck in my hair.