The driver started the bus and ground the gears in a panic.

“Thank you.” Dai She smiled. The spiders and snake disappeared and his eyes returned to normal. It felt good to be evil, to intimidate the clueless and the helpless.

It had been a rough journey, and it wasn’t over. But he was beginning to have some fun.

High overhead, a lone bird of prey soared in wide, lazy circles, a mere pinpoint of movement against a pale blue sky. Even if he had not possessed the keen eyesight of a falcon, Randall would have been able to follow the plume of dust that trailed behind the bus from miles away.

It had taken a bit of an adjustment to slow down into a gliding pattern. As a rule, falcons prefer speed. But stealth was much more essential to this mission.

He wondered if Coralis had any idea what was going on. As much as he wanted to return to his mentor and fill him in, he couldn’t let Dai She out of his sight—not until he knew what the evil snake was up to. He watched as a pair of pale hands reached out of the bus to take the vulture inside.

Casting aside pangs of hunger and thirst, he continued his lonely vigil.

Chapter Fifteen

Henry had finally fallen asleep. Coralis watched him curled up in the corner of Molly’s basement on a makeshift bed. The blanket moved slightly as Brianna shuffled into a more comfortable position.

The procedure had been painful for the boy. His aura was strong and protective—Coralis had rarely seen the potential for such power in one so young. But it also meant that a higher concentration of energy was needed to extract the moonbeam. Stubborn tendrils of light had held on to Henry like a desperate man clinging by his fingertips to the edge of a cliff. Despite Coralis’s efforts to lessen the pain, Henry had cried out. He said it felt like pliers pinching and pulling at his skin. When the angry moonbeam had finally snapped free, Coralis had trapped it within a rutilated quartz ring he wore on his left hand—a gift from a Mayan high priest.

He held the ring up to examine it once more. Light pulsed briefly, almost in contempt over its imprisonment. A bad sign.

Normal moonbeams are docile, eager to be absorbed and easily acclimated to their new environment. The moonbeam Henry had absorbed was something else entirely. And if it was any indication of what was in store for them, then Coralis had every right to be concerned.

Randall and Bella were right after all: A bad moon was on the rise.

And it had nearly claimed its first victim. Given enough time, the moonbeam might have completely overtaken Henry’s aura. It would not have been the first time a promising young apprentice had been lost to the elements of evil.