Eddies of dust whirled around them as the chopper kicked up loose grit. Robyn shielded her eyes and Lenti squinted to watch the metal beast fall from the sky. Behind them, Brock and Miranda stood guard by a stack of reinforced metal crates. As the chopper landed, the pulse of Eli’s energy tether against her ribcage grew stronger.
The chopper had barely kissed the ground when Eli swung open the heavy door and leapt to the stone below. Robyn barely recognised the tall, muscular teen dressed in armour, but with Una attached to a padded strap on his shoulder, it could be no-one but Eli. He ran to Robyn and she pulled him into a hug, ignoring the reinforced chest plates digging into her ribs. This close, his energy tether almost overwhelmed her.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Eli said, when they finally parted. He searched her face. “You’re different.”
Incredulous, Robyn stared back at the air walker. “Says you!”
Eli smiled and bowed to Lenti. “It is good to see you again, old friend.”
Lenti returned the bow then reached out to fist bump the air walker. “I’m sorry it’s not under better circumstances.”
Eli’s energy tether faltered. Robyn felt cold tendrils of fear and uncertainty displace the air walker’s excitement. She grasped his forearm. “I never meant to leave you. I never knew that entering the spirit world on the mid-year solstice would lead me here.”
Eli smiled at her. “It doesn’t matter. You’re here now.” He looked over to where Brock and Miranda supervised a group of scientists loading the crates onto the chopper. “But it’s time to get back to the others.”
They waited for the rest of the metal crates to be loaded then, pulling on her backpack, Robyn followed Eli to the chopper, ducking low against the swirling blades. Lenti scrambled in behind them. Robyn scanned the cramped confines. This is what it came down to – the contents of her backpack, her mind and a few crates of MRI prototypes. It was all they had to defeat an ancient spirit and a madman bent on global domination. Was it enough? Only time would tell. She waved farewell to Brock and Miranda until the door slid shut and the chopper’s blades whined.
Once they were airborne, Robyn perched on a crate opposite Eli. The air walker leaned forward and handed her and Lenti a slim earbud. Motioning her thanks, Robyn slipped hers on and Lenti followed suit. Una fidgeted, hopping from one crate to another trying to find a comfortable perch. For a creature built for flight, the osprey hated helicopters. Maybe it was a control thing.
“How’s Ariana bearing up?” Robyn said, adjusting her earbud.
Eli shook his head. “She refused to leave Fletcher. Not now Nyx has him in her grasp.” The air walker stared out the window at the blur of trees far below them.
Robyn felt Eli’s tension rippling through his energy tether. She wanted to hug him but, under the circumstances, it seemed like a pretty futile gesture.
“Everything is happening so fast,” Eli said. “I thought we had more time. What if it is impossible?”
Lenti helped Robyn carefully shrug off her backpack. She unzipped it and gently removed an insulated container. Eli watched her, head cocked to one side, just like his osprey. When she opened it, liquid nitrogen spilled over the sides. “I have been working on an inhibitor, a way to temporarily stop the induced convergence Vulcan is using in his armies.”
Eli snapped to attention. “Really?”
Lenti grinned, holding up the Styrofoam container like it was a sacred offering.
Robyn’s heart leapt. Seeing the air walker’s eyes alight with hope made the past weeks of toil in the lab worth it. “Don’t get too excited. It works on lab blood samples. I haven’t tested it on an actual human-animal pair.”
Una shrieked and spread her wings, startling poor Lenti who almost dropped the Styrofoam box. Oblivious, the osprey stretched, refolded her wings and preened her breast.
Robyn patted the boy monk’s shoulder to reassure him. “It doesn’t affect the walkers. I tested the MRI’s blood samples from you and Ariana. The walker sequence is too complex for the inhibitor.”
Eli turned and scrutinised the crates they sat on. “So if you’re carrying the inhibitor, what the heck are in these?”
Robyn smiled. “A gift from the MRI.”
Ariana heard the whir of blades and sprinted toward the barn. The helicopter touched down and soon after, Robyn ducked low and scrambled into clear space, a boy racing in her shadow. Ariana skidded to a stop on the slick grass and waved. Eli supervised the unloading of a stack of metal crates, pausing only long enough to wave back before manoeuvring another crate onto the pallets set up in the field.
Ariana walked over to where Robyn stood counting the crates. Her face lit up the moment she noticed Ariana. Robyn pulled Ariana close and enveloped her in a hug. “It’s so good to see you, sea walker. My God, what are they feeding you? You’ve both grown so much!” Robyn chuckled, but as she looked to the farmhouse, her smile fell away. “Where’s Fletcher?”
Ariana pulled free, the flicker of hope waning. “He’s inside. The twins are watching him.” Since the night they tried opening the boundary between the physical and the spirit worlds, they’d kept Fletcher under house arrest. Whenever she tried talking to him, Fletcher would withdraw into himself, eyes blazing, like a sulking child. Ariana wished she could tell him how much she hated seeing him bound to the physical world by the quartz collar, shackled like a dog. Wished she could tell him that she understood – how it reminded her of the MRI’s monitoring wristband, the chip in her neck. Ariana knew Fletcher found their mistrust humiliating, but it was necessary. Even so, this constant internal war had left her drained and edgy; she didn’t want Robyn to see her like this.
Robyn pressed a hand to her chest. She didn’t need words to understand how Ariana felt – they were bound by the energy tether. “You know it’s unavoidable.”
All Ariana’s emotions bubbled to the surface. Energy skittered across her skin, leaving behind a glimmer of blue light. “Nyx could have infected me or Eli just as easily. Fletcher was only trying to make it right.”
“Hey,” Robyn murmured, pulling her close again. “I promise I will do everything I can to save him. To save all of us.”
Ariana shrugged off Robyn’s embrace, fighting the despair rising readily in her gut. “You weren’t here. You haven’t seen how hard it’s been. The whole world is falling apart and everything is on Eli and me.”
Through the sea walker’s energy tether, Robyn felt the crushing weight that Ariana bore. No sixteen-year-old should have to face such terror, such horror. First the loss of her brother, Terence, and now Fletcher. Robyn pointed to the teams of convergers training in the barn. “None of these people would be safe without you and Eli. It makes me proud seeing how strong you are, Ariana.”
With a shaky sigh, Ariana straightened, blue light shimmering on her skin once more. “Thank you. But Fletcher?”
Robyn focused on her breathing, concentrating on the walkers’ tethers until she felt the dull, dark energy linking her to the earth walker. “Take me to him.”
Robyn left Ariana downstairs. Something told her it was best she confronted Fletcher alone. When she reached Ariana’s bedroom, Robyn stopped in shock. The old wood-panelled door had been replaced by a thick sheet of reinforced steel. Opening it, she found Fletcher sitting cross-legged on the floor in a patch of pale sunlight. The bars on the window cast a striped pattern across the floorboards. Behind him Eva sat in silence, her mournful expression matching Fletcher’s own. Robyn faltered – Eva’s blood had run across Robyn’s hands. She’d seen the bear die.
Fletcher’s energy tether flickered against her chest like the tongue of a lazy serpent. The connection felt weaker, as if Fletcher was deliberately closing himself off. Robyn sensed a dull, lingering anger. She walked into the room and chose to sit on the bed so she could gauge Fletcher’s reactions. Eva shifted on her haunches so she sat square to Robyn. Goosebumps flared across Robyn’s arms and she suppressed a shiver. The wrongness of this bear being here made Robyn want to flee. Tamping down her unease, Robyn focused on the dull energy linking her to the earth walker. He still hadn’t even looked at her. His head was bowed as if whatever was on the floor was far more interesting than the appearance of the guide.
Robyn took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever the earth walker might reveal. “Fletcher, it’s me, Robyn.”
Fletcher raised his head. His hair stuck out wildly from his scalp and his shirt was stained. When he looked at her, Robyn gasped. His eyes were no longer hazel; instead they were dark, bottomless pools.
The earth walker clawed at his throat. Beneath the collar, he had rubbed the skin raw. “You did this to me.”
Robyn swallowed. This wasn’t the Fletcher she remembered. “I’m sorry. It’s for your own protection.”
“My protection? I don’t think so. You need all three walkers to open the portal.” He hooked his fingers under the collar and yanked it hard. “This is a mistake.”
His frustration surged against her ribcage. “I know you’re upset,” she said. “I’m going to find a way to fix this.”
“I already have a way. Take this thing off me, and let me do what I’m meant to do.”
“You know we can’t do that, Fletcher.” Robyn remembered the boy she’d met a year ago, frightened by his newfound powers, in awe of his connection to the animals that walked the earth, the trees that grew from it. Not this feral creature. “You tried to kill Eli and Ariana. That’s not you, Fletcher.”
All at once Fletcher transformed, shedding the snarling boy like a skin. He brought his knees to his chest, his eyes hazel and brimming with tears. “Please help me. I don’t understand why I’m locked up in here. What have I done wrong?”
Fletcher’s energy tether pulsed against her ribcage, transmitting vulnerability and fear. The force of it made Robyn reel, but her hopes soared. No matter how deep Nyx had sunk in her claws, Fletcher was still in there. Robyn rushed to embrace this fragile boy, ignoring the flicker of warning pulsing through Ariana’s energy tether. Her fingers grazed Fletcher’s. At first, all she registered was the churning mass of energy in his system. Then icy pinpricks exploded up her arm, tore across her chest, forcing the air from her lungs. Pressure crushed her chest. She could barely breathe.
Far away, Ariana screamed.
Robyn fought through the haze of pain and stumbled backwards onto the bed, taking huge gulps of air. As her breath slowed to normal, she looked over at Fletcher. His eyes were dark. Behind him, Eva growled, low and menacing.
Ariana bounded up the stairs and burst into the room. Fletcher shook his head. His eyes flickering from hazel to blackness to hazel again. His gaze jerked between Ariana and Robyn’s horrified faces. “What? What is it?” Without warning, he scrambled to his feet, arms raised defending his head from some unseen battering.
Nyx, Robyn realised. Fletcher was fighting the dark spirit within him.
Ariana grabbed Robyn’s hand and pulled her toward the door just as Fletcher slumped to the floor. He buried his head in his hands. “You shouldn’t be this close to me. I’m dangerous.”
The earth walker’s energy tether fluttered in Robyn’s chest followed by dark energy oozing into every recess. “Fletcher …” Robyn began.
“Get out!” he shouted before sinking down onto the floor and curling into a ball. “I’m trying to fight Nyx, but it’s hard,” he whispered, “so very hard.”
“I have a plan.” Robyn swallowed back her own fears. “Hang in there, Fletcher.” She’d give anything to make this right. To save Fletcher, to save Catherine, to destroy the MRI. She just hoped she could pull it off.