Chapters (34)
“So what do you think?” Frankie asked, her voice pitched low. Ms. Taylor carried on about the three-act structure in storytelling. She was saying something about setup, confrontation, and resolution. If I had to plop our lives into the three-act structure, I’d guess we were nearing the confrontation act if we couldn’t figure out how to stop the Lord of Shadows.
“Huh?” I hadn’t been entirely paying attention to either Frankie or Ms. Taylor.
“Going back to Azur.” Frankie frowned. “I think we’ll get more information about the people in the photo with my mom if we start there.”
“I think it’s a good idea,” I said. Technically we could go during lunch. Time worked differently on Azur. We could be there for hours and only a few minutes would’ve passed on earth.
A crash rang out in the hallway outside of our classroom. “What the heck?”
Frankie glanced over my shoulder. “Oh no.”
Zeran pushed back his chair so hard that the legs scraped across the floor. Ms. Taylor was standing still with one hand gesturing to the chalkboard. A cloud had fallen across the window, and the lights flickered overhead. All around us, our human classmates had frozen in place. Some were in the middle of passing notes, some listening to Ms. Taylor with glazed-over expressions, some looking sleepy eyed. But I hadn’t gotten that usual tingling across my forearms when there was a tear in the veil.
“What did you do now, little Maya?” Winston spat. “I’m sure this is your fault.”
Ignoring him, I jumped to my feet along with the rest of the godlings. “Darkbringers?”
Zeran morphed into his true form: winged, blue, horned. Someone squealed in delight at the back of the room, and I cringed. He nodded somberly. “Yup.”
Sparks of energy crackled on Frankie’s fingertips. Blue flames flickered on Winston’s arms. Candace grew to twice her size, the chess book forgotten. Wind whipped through the room as another godling changed into something otherworldly. She floated in an aura of purple mist, and her skin had become almost translucent, her braids glimmering.
I slipped off my ring, and it turned back into a staff. “We have to protect the school.”
Winston stormed to the door. “Maybe you got lucky in the Dark, but this is my neighborhood. Nobody’s going to come in here and start something.”
As soon as Winston stepped into the hallway, a black tentacle latched itself around his waist. “What the . . .” he growled as he hit the floor hard on his back. Tay and Candace were stunned as I pushed past them, but it was already too late. The tentacle dragged Winston, screaming, into the chaos.
The hall was swarming with darkbringers. Godlings were trying to fight them off and losing.
Ten
