I hopped out of bed and changed into jeans and a T-shirt in record time. I could still feel the gaping hole in the veil as I tied my sneakers. My hands trembled so badly that my laces ended up in two messy knots. This was our chance. I had to make sure Papa was okay first, and when the tear was almost closed, we could slip into the Dark. I sent my magic down the staff to make a three-way call to Eli and Frankie. It was quicker to reach my friends with magic than go downstairs to the phone.
“I knew something was going on,” Eli answered before I could say anything. “Nana woke me up about an hour ago and asked me to watch Jayla until Auntie Bae got here. Then she did her celestial thing and poof . . . disappeared.”
“Um, guys, look outside,” Frankie said, coming on the line.
I jetted to the window and drew back the curtains. Flashes of white light streaked across the sky as black ink bled from the shadows. It crept across the streetlights, cars, trees, like a black blob, consuming everything. “It’s a distraction.” I hadn’t forgotten what Papa said. Never underestimate the Lord of Shadows. “There’s a bigger tear in the veil someplace far.”
“Can you get us there?” Frankie asked as I drew a circle with the staff and the first spark of magic grew.
“Yeah,” I said, a second before I stepped onto the walkway of spinning god symbols and landed in her room. “Are you ready?”
Frankie startled at the window and whirled around to face me. “That was quick.”
She was already dressed and slipped into her sneakers. I opened another gateway to Eli’s room, which was a complete mess. He had clothes everywhere.
“Auntie Bae’s watching TV,” he said, pressing a finger to his lips. “Let’s go before she hears your roaring portal or you wake up Jayla.”
“It’s not a portal,” I groaned. “A portal is like bending a sheet of paper in half to connect two points. I’m building a bridge that’ll allow us to travel at the speed of light—that’s a gateway.”
“Ohhh-okay,” Eli said, squinting at me like the difference didn’t matter. He couldn’t have been more wrong. I’d seen Papa make countless portals this summer, and they were much faster than building a gateway when traveling greater distances.
“Eli, I know you’re not up there playing music, boy,” his aunt called from downstairs. “Go . . . to . . . bed!”
He cringed, then yelled back, “Sorry, Auntie. I’ll turn it off.”
God symbols shimmered in golden light inside my head as I adjusted the gateway to seek out the tear in the veil. I was still so much slower than Papa at it. This new tear was far—much farther than the one in California. The farther apart two points, the harder to build a connection. That was why opening a gateway into the Dark took the most time and concentration. I shuffled the god symbols around to build a new walkway.
When I finished, the wind shifted from cool to warm. It smelled . . . salty. We ran through the gateway, our legs pumping hard. We were breathing fast, but not out of breath. Thousands of god symbols spun around us—stars, moons, animals, plants, geometric shapes, and symbols that defied logic.
“All those kickball games this summer paid off,” Eli said, practically patting himself on the back for suggesting that we start playing. “This is like a walk in the park.”
I was about to agree with him, but we took one step out of the other end of the gateway and dropped. “Oh, crap,” I screamed, tumbling in a heap of orange and blue everything with no ground in sight. A flock of seagulls squawked as we busted up their formation. Wings slapped me across the face, and I spat out feathers. I’d opened the gateway over an ocean. Well, that explained the smell.
The staff ripped from my hand and sprouted wings. I almost got my hopes up, but then it flew away and left us in the dust. “Hey, come back!”
I reached for the god symbols again, snatching them out of thin air with my thoughts. They spun around us like disco lights, pulsing, and slowed down our fall.
“I’ve got this,” Frankie hollered over the roaring wind. She stretched her arms toward the ocean and let out a blast of energy. Waves sprayed everywhere. In a split second, a crystal blossomed on the surface. We hit the barrier hard. It knocked the wind out of me, but it held.
Eli sat up, rubbing his head. “Is that what it’s like to skydive without a parachute?”
I climbed to my feet with my attention to the sky. High above the ocean a few yards away, shadows poured out from tear in the veil. A white light teetered below the hole, in the shape of a man. Papa! He glowed bright, and his light stretched out far and wide, pushing back the shadows. Farther down, Ogun sat astride a mega-size General, who roared, all six of his eyes glowing. Shangó wielded his double axes, chopping up the writhing shadows that slipped past Papa.
“Is it me, or is the hole getting bigger?” Frankie said, pointing up.
It had grown in a matter of moments. More shadows crawled along the edges of the tear. Some shot out for Papa and pierced through his celestial form. He faltered, falling back. Shangó and Ogun surged forward, cutting and slicing their way to him.
“Papa, no,” I screamed. He should’ve been safe at home, resting.
I reached for my staff until I remembered that it flew away. I balled my hands into fists. I had to help Papa. Magic flared inside me. It buzzed in my ears like it was itching to burst free. Something fluttered across my vision, and I gasped as a pair of wings with a harness flew right into my chest. I stumbled back as I caught hold of them. Up close, I saw the same god symbols from my staff. Among the symbols were a sun, a leopard with raised paws, and a river.
I am the guardian of the veil.
I fumbled with the straps that got tangled in my clumsy hands. “Help me.”
“On it,” Frankie said as she and Eli both sprang to action. They wrestled with the black wings that beat around frantically.
“Oh, fun,” Eli exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “Now I have magical feathers in my mouth.”
I slipped my arm into the side of the harness he’d wrangled into submission. “Sorry! I can’t seem to get my magic under control.”
“Incoming!” he shouted, pushing Frankie and me aside. Darkbringers filled the sky, but they weren’t coming from the tear in the veil. They were coming from behind us. Too many to count.
“We’ll hold them off,” Frankie said, her magic dancing on her fingertips like sparks of lightning.
“I’ve got your back.” Eli pivoted so that he was next to Frankie and raised his fists before he went full ghost mode. “Maya, go!”
Ogun and Shangó broke off from helping Papa to meet the enemy in battle. Lightning cut across the sky around Shangó as he swung his axes left and right. Ogun and General tore through the darkbringers. But whenever Shangó or Ogun hit one of them, the darkbringer disappeared. Poof.
I flexed the muscles in my shoulders and found that the wings responded. Soon I was fumbling through the air, climbing up, even if it was the rockiest flight in history.
I’d made it halfway to Papa when darkness exploded from the tear, and too many things happened at once. It bled across the sky, blocking out the sun completely. Papa looked like a lone beacon on a lighthouse, shining into a storm. I pumped my wings harder. Everything was pitch-black except where Papa’s light pushed back a small pocket in the dark.
“I’m here, Papa!” I screamed as I flew toward him. Wading through the dark felt like I was neck-deep in icy mud.
“Am I glad to hear your voice, baby girl,” Papa grumbled. He sounded like he was being crushed under the shadows. “Help me push them back . . . Use your inner light like you did with the Lord of Shadows.”
Ice crystals crawled across my hands and up my arms, and they burned like nothing I’d ever felt before. When I reached Papa, he shifted his shape to his human form, but his light still poured out. His skin was ashy gray, and I looked down at myself, too. My hands and arms were the same. The Lord of Shadows was draining the brilliant colors from our world and . . . us.
I concentrated on the energy building inside me. The color came back into my skin, and the ice crystals melted. The heavy feeling of walking through mud went away. Patches of blue sky broke through the darkness.
“Give me your hand, baby girl,” Papa said, grimacing. His locs blew behind him in the wind, and even they had turned gray. He looked so tired. “We’ll give one big push together to close the tear.”
I squared my shoulders as I took his ice-cold hand. This was my chance to prove that I could be a good guardian of the veil.
“On the count of three,” Papa said. “One, two, three . . .”
I let go of the energy that had built inside me. Light poured out of my chest, my eyes, even my fingertips. Our combined magic hit the tear, striking against the darkness.
“It’s working!” I cheered as the writhing shadows hissed and drew back. The hole started to shrink.
Sweat poured down my forehead and stung my eyes, but I didn’t stop until the tear had completely closed. We’d done it—Papa and me. I squeezed his hand, but it’d gone slack. I turned to see his grim face. His eyes fluttered closed, and he fell from the sky.
“No,” I whispered. All the strength fled from my body, and I collapsed. I was falling too, but someone grabbed me. By the fire threaded through the white magic; it was Eshu, the god of balance. “I have you, young guardian,” he said, his voice gentle.
He set me down on the barrier—where the cranky twins, who’d appeared out of nowhere, had taken Papa. I stumbled to where he lay, unmoving. I dropped to his side. Tears blurred my vision. “Papa,” I said, pressing my head to his chest. His heartbeat was faint.
I looked up, squinting against the sun at Eshu. “Can you help him?”
Eshu shook his head, his eyes sad. “He’s in a deep sleep, Maya. He will not wake until he gets his soul back.”