Nicole woke to the dark interior of the Makalo container. She knew where she was immediately. What surprised her was that she remembered what she’d been through, and it hadn’t been pleasant.
She stretched out, loving the sensation of wholeness, of wellness, and especially enjoying the fact that it didn’t bring her any pain. Thank goodness for Makalos, Minyas, and Kaede sap! She reached up and pushed the lid open, squinting against the sudden light.
“She’s awake!” Austin called out. “Akeno, would you enlarge her?”
“Austin?” Nicole asked, her heart warming.
He turned to her. “You’re in the castle in Maivoryl City. Jacob and Akeno brought you here while you were sleeping.”
Akeno enlarged her, and she ran straight to Austin, who was just getting to his feet, the Minya container still in his hands. She held him tightly, so grateful to see him again. “You saved me,” she whispered. “You and Lizzie and Coolidge.”
“Technically, Jacob and Akeno saved you, but I’ll take some of the credit.”
Nicole giggled, leaning her forehead against his chest. She was so relieved to see him again, so relieved to be out of pain. It made her giddy. She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll explain later. How did Akeno get there?”
“Sweet Pea made him little here so Early could carry him. The library is big enough that he was able to get far enough away from you to successfully shrink you, even while shrunken himself.” He kissed her forehead, tucking her hair behind her ear. “You were so tiny, Nicole. Akeno was only four inches tall, and you were a quarter of an inch.”
She gasped. “Wow. Did you see me that size?”
He shook his head. “We didn’t want to open the container once you were in it. But Akeno showed us how big you were compared to him, and we figured it out.” He showed her the container. “When he got back here, after you’d spent several hours in this already, he made it normal sized so he wouldn’t lose you.”
Nicole leaned against Austin’s chest again, so grateful to be in his arms. “I appreciate that.”
Austin made a rumbling noise. “Do you realize we missed both our birthdays while we were on the other planet?”
“Happy birthday,” Nicole said, still unable to believe that February, and three other months, had come and gone during the four days they’d been away.
“I’ll make it up to you.”
“Are you hungry?” Queen Arien called from across the throne room.
Nicole glanced over. The regular table was packed with people, and Jacob was just shutting a link to what looked like Coolidge’s house. The professor was making his way to the table where Dmitri, Arien, Aldo, Lizzie, Azuriah, the Fat Lady, and Akeno were already sitting.
“I’m starving,” Nicole said.
Arien motioned for her to come. “We’ve got a feast for you.”
Austin led Nicole to their usual places, and Lizzie put her arms around her best friend. “Jacob told us you’d been burned. Like, really, really badly.”
Nicole nodded. “I don’t know how I got out alive. I shouldn’t have.” She looked at her friends. “It was thinking about each of you—needing to say goodbye, to warn you, to be with you—that saved me.”
“Warn us?” Aldo asked.
“About the person in the forest,” Nicole said after taking a drink of orange juice. “I think Onyev knew what was going to happen. He made an off-hand comment about things getting interesting and difficult, but he wouldn’t say how.”
At the queen’s insistence, she pulled a large breakfast casserole toward herself and piled a huge serving on her plate, then passed the casserole to Austin. As she and the others ate, she explained what had happened. It took an hour to get through her meal, but she didn’t mind—the information she shared was more important.
“Tell me more about this woman you saw in the forest,” Dmitri said, leaning forward, hands clasped.
Nicole shrugged. “Well, she had some sort of bombs. At least, that’s what it seemed like. Huge blasts of fire exploded outward from her after a sort of ticking or popping sound.”
“It has to be a Fire Pulser,” Dmitri said, looking at Aldo.
Aldo nodded. “It would seem so.”
“What’s a Fire Pulser?” Lizzie asked.
“A non-human creature that, well, pulses fire from every pore,” Aldo said. “On our world, they’re regarded as dragons. They can’t fly and they look more like humans than traditional dragons, but their mastery of fire is unmatched.”
“If Shonlin has been taken over, can we even use it anymore?” Jacob asked.
Nicole cringed inwardly. She hadn’t allowed herself to follow that train of thought. She had so many questions. “I don’t know, but how did the Fire Pulser get access to that part of the library? And how was she there without the lantern? And why have I never seen her before? Not only that . . . but what am I going to do?” She leaned forward, putting her head in her hands. She was a guardian of Shonlin, but she never wanted to go back again. Would it be bad if she didn’t?
The answer sprang into her mind immediately. All those magical items—they couldn’t be left unguarded. Sure, there was someone there now, but he could only do so much without the help of a living guardian.
And what about the forest itself? The Fire Pulser would eventually destroy it. Could Nicole live with herself if she allowed that to happen?
She didn’t want to look inside too deeply at the moment. The memory of her pain was still too fresh. “I need to talk to Onyev,” she finally said.
Jacob frowned, shaking his head. “Yeah, well, I have my own information to report.” He thumped a fist on the table, his eyebrows drawn in frustration. “I’ve been so stupid. So dumb. Keitus had me on repeat—the same scene was playing over and over again.”
“Repeat?” Austin asked. “Wouldn’t you have noticed a pattern if that were the case?”
Jacob moaned. “Yes, if I’d been paying closer attention.” He sighed, looking at the others. “The loop was two full months long. The only thing that clued me in was a book on the corner of Keitus’s desk that flicked quickly between two locations after two months of staying in the same place. It took me forever to figure it out—fast forwarding, rewinding, fast forwarding, rewinding through everything Keitus had given me to see. And yup . . . it was a loop. I’ve watched it five times now to be sure.”
“What does this mean?” Arien asked. “How do we proceed?”
Dmitri got to his feet and started pacing. “With Keitus completely gone and Jacob unable to find him, we’re going to have to start investigating the old-fashioned way.” He pointed at Coolidge, Austin, Nicole, and Azuriah. “You four will leave immediately. Go to Keitus’s dimension and see what you can find out.”
“Don’t you want me to talk to Onyev first?” Nicole asked.
Dmitri shook his head. “No. I’m not sure if Jacob has told you this already, but time passes the same when you’re in the past as it does when you’re here, and I don’t want to wait even a moment longer—not when we have no idea what’s going on with Keitus. At this point, information from Onyev will merely satisfy our curiosity. Knowing what Keitus is doing is far more imperative. Hopefully, he’s there still, just hiding from Jacob’s sight.”
Dmitri looked at his son with an expression of pride. “I know you’ve been stressed about this, but we really love and appreciate you. Thank you for everything you’ve done to help us find Keitus.”
Azuriah grunted. “It’s not just Jacob who’s been trying to find him. He’s hiding from my sight too.”
“Wait,” Nicole said. “You can Time-See too?”
Azuriah stared at her, his lip slightly curled. “Really? Think, Nicole, think. Did you even consider where Jacob got the ability from? It certainly wasn’t from his human father.” His gaze flitted to the king. “No offense, of course.”
A smile played at the corner of Dmitri’s face. “None taken.”
“Hold on,” Nicole said, straightening in her chair. “What do you mean, where Jacob got it from?”
Azuriah rolled his eyes. “Are you so dense? How could a human have such remarkable abilities?”
Nicole shrugged. “I wondered, of course, but figured Jacob would tell me if it ever came up.”
“Well, it’s coming up now,” Azuriah said.
Jacob glanced at Nicole, a flush on his face. “I was going to tell you guys, I promise. I . . . uh . . . I wanted to wait until you and Azuriah got along better first.”
“That won’t ever happen,” Nicole said, not looking at the Shiengol. She didn’t need to see his face to know he agreed.
“Well, Azuriah is my great uncle—he’s my mom’s uncle. I’m part Shiengol.”
Azuriah didn’t look old enough to be anyone’s great anything. Nicole blinked. “Hold on. So you’re not fully human?”
He shook his head. “Hope that doesn’t disappoint you. Azuriah is right—humans in my dimension of earth don’t have magical abilities.”
Nicole finally noticed Austin’s expression. He was grinning. She stared at him. “Why are you so happy about this?”
He shrugged. “I was right. I knew there had to be a reason why Azuriah was so involved when none of the other Shiengols seem to care. Besides,” he continued, “haven’t you noticed that he and Jacob look alike?”
Nicole scoffed. “No, they don’t. Jacob is very human. Azuriah is . . . well . . .” How could she say “long, angular, pinched, and scrawny” without coming across as rude? Or making Azuriah more mad at her than he always was?
“Incredibly attractive,” Azuriah said.
“Not the words I was looking for.” She didn’t dare supply her own.
Austin linked his hands behind his head, a pleased expression on his face. “Look at them. Jacob has Azuriah’s hair color and eye shape. Plus, he’s got very, very light blue eyes—like Azuriah’s would probably be if he were human. I don’t usually pay attention to these sorts of things, but it’s pretty obvious when you’re looking at the two of them that they’re related.”
Nicole snorted. “Speak for yourself.” It was hard to feign irritation with her boyfriend, though. She loved that he’d noticed something like that before she did. “So, Jacob. Which of your abilities did you inherit from your uncle?”
He shrugged. “All of the ones dealing with time, plus a lot of my fighting skills and my ability to see emotions.” He glanced at Akeno. “Others I got when Keitus tried to turn me into a Lorkon and the Makalos had to save me.” He took a breath. “I’m still upset with myself. And my dad is right—you all need to visit Keitus’s place as soon as possible.”
“You’re not coming too?” Nicole asked.
Jacob shook his head. “I’ve grounded myself until I can see if there’s a glitch in what Keitus is showing me. If I go back far enough, I should catch something. I need to figure out how he’s stopping me from Seeing so I can get around it.” He rushed to continue. “Don’t worry, I’ll be keying you guys to and from the dimension. But other than that, my help isn’t going to be available.”
After Dmitri agreed to Jacob’s plan, he made sure everyone had what they needed, then excused them. The exploratory group would be leaving immediately.
Nicole was eager to get on the move, especially after all the time they’d spent trying to find the fake talismans. She hoped it would be a quick trip, though—she couldn’t wait to talk to Onyev. She and the others accepted backpacks of food from Arien.
“They have everything you may need in case you get stranded,” Arien said.
Nicole shouldered her bag. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”
Arien gave her a hug. “Yes, let’s.”
Jacob opened a link to the same place in Keitus’s dimension as he had eight months earlier. Nicole grimaced when she took her first step onto the brittle bones that covered the entire place. She so hadn’t ever wanted to come here again.
The group was silent the entire walk to Keitus’s hideout. The bones crunched and shifted under their feet, and a slight stench of decay wafted around them—not strong enough to bother Nicole, but strong enough for her not to forget where they were.
They knew as soon as they saw it that the building had been empty for a while. It had a sense of vacancy to it that places get after enough time passes. A sort of deadness. Coolidge led the way inside, his magic curled tightly around him. Azuriah’s eyes lightened the room. No one was there.
“How far ahead of us is Keitus really?” Nicole asked.
Azuriah stared at her, nearly blinding her in the darkened interior. “Let’s hope—”
“He’s years ahead of you,” a man with a gravelly voice said from the porch. His arms were resting on the frame on either side of him, exposing dark, yellowed armpits in his off-white button-up shirt. He poked his white-haired head inside, a smile on his face.
Everyone lifted their weapons—guns and knives. Nicole sensed the Aretes shift their already-gathered powers.
“Who are you?” Coolidge asked.
The man entered and lit a lantern, casting long shadows across the room. A slight pot belly hung over his brown cotton pants. He glanced at Nicole. “We’ve never talked face-to-face.”
Nicole frowned. “Who are you?”
The old man shrugged, turning his attention to the group. “Keitus is nearing his prize. You won’t be able to stop him now.” He put a hand over his heart. “You shouldn’t want to—our lives will be infinitely better when he’s ruling us. It’ll be glorious.”
Nicole frowned. “I recognize your voice . . . I think. I don’t know.”
He looked at her. “I can promise you right now that we’ve never been in the same place before. Are you quite sure you know my voice?”
Nicole hesitated, swallowed. “Yes.”
Coolidge pointed his .38 Smith & Wesson Special at the man’s face. “What do you know?”
The man shook his head. “Nothing. After getting what he needed from me, Keitus deemed me useless and tossed me aside.” His gaze drifted to Nicole’s. “I advise you to let him accomplish his desires. He’s powerful—far more powerful than you could ever imagine.”
The man returned to the door. “Now please leave. As you can see, the place is empty, and my last duty has been accomplished.” A sad expression crossed his face. “I have someone waiting to see me. Someone a great distance from me.” He growled, turning on Nicole and her friends. “And if you stop Keitus, I’ll never see her again.” He leveled his glare at them. “I may not be able to do anything to stop you, but trust me when I say that Keitus and his minions are powerful—far more powerful than your little group.”
He jabbed a finger toward the door, his meaning obvious—go.
“Are you sure you don’t have more information?” Nicole asked. She looked at her companions, wondering if they should resort to more . . . indelicate measures.
“He doesn’t,” Azuriah said, whisking past the old man. “Our trip was pointless.”
“Not pointless,” Coolidge said, following. “We know for sure that Keitus is gone.”
“We could have explored the cabin,” Austin said. “Found out what was stopping Jacob’s visions.”
Azuriah shook his head. “The thing isn’t there anymore. That’s one of the reasons why Jacob realized Keitus was missing.”
Nicole linked hands with Austin, sensing his impatience. She felt it too. “Why couldn’t the old man give us more info?” she asked.
Azuriah glanced at her. “He was telling the truth—Keitus stopped including him in his plans when he wasn’t needed anymore. He doesn’t know what’s going on now.”
Nicole grumbled to herself. “Ridiculous.”
The trip back was as silent as the trip there had been, but this time, Nicole didn’t feel right—something was off. Not in the atmosphere around her, but in her mind. A sort of dread blossomed from her stomach, reaching outward, grasping her heart. She needed to return to Shonlin. She—
Nicole gasped. “Oh, my gosh, I just remembered something.” She stopped, staring at her companions. “Keitus has the first three talismans, right? Well, I saw the fourth one in a vision when the Fire Pulser got close to me. He or someone else—one of his minions—is heading to it. From the looks of it, it’ll be a huge trip. Mountains, rivers, lakes, and at least one ocean.”
“There are ways to make the distance shorter,” Azuriah said.
Nicole shook her head. “No. The feeling I got in Shonlin was that the trip itself is part of finding the talisman. Every single foot of it has to be traveled to get there. No planes, trains, or cars. No horses, either.”
Azuriah raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure of this? What if Keitus is feeding it to you?”
She frowned. Was that possible? “I don’t know.” Then she remembered what Onyev had told her. Trust her instincts. “No, I do know. My gut tells me we have a few months before he reaches that last talisman. And we need to make them count.”