Conjured

Chapter Twenty-Seven

As the courtroom erupted again in shouting, I wanted to fly away as fast as I could … or transform into a knot in the wood and hide … or change into a beetle and scurry away. I’d only have one chance—

Electricity shot in an upward lightning strike toward the fluorescent lights. It hit three, and they exploded in a shower of glass and sparks. All the other lights flickered off, and people screamed.

I hadn’t done it.

I looked to where I knew the Magician was, though I couldn’t see him in the sudden, complete blackness. He couldn’t have done it either, I thought. He had no magic of his own, and he hadn’t drawn from me in days.

Emergency lights snapped on, shedding weak, stark light on the courtroom. Agents aimed their guns in every direction. I was looking directly at the Magician, so I saw the snake a second before they did. Coiling on the table in front of him, the snake reared back and sank her fangs into his neck. His face paled, then reddened, then purpled. His neck swelled. His eyes bulged and then bled, red tears streaking his purple-veined cheeks. He toppled forward onto the desk, and the snake slid back to the floor and disappeared beneath the benches.

I felt as if the venom were seeping into me too. I couldn’t move. He was dead. Dead! The man that haunted my dreams, filled my memories … fathered me, in his own way.

A hand squeezed my shoulder. Jerking back, I turned. Aidan smiled at me, his usual dazzling smile, and he tightened his grip. The courtroom vanished.

I reappeared with him inside the agency elevator.

Topher was there, finger poised over the buttons. “Which floor?”

Unable to think, I stared at him.

“Which floor has the portal, Green Eyes?” Aidan asked.

Slowly, my brain chugged forward. I remembered that Aidan had said he couldn’t teleport somewhere he hadn’t seen. He’d been blindfolded when he’d arrived, he’d once said. They must have blindfolded him again when he went through to find the carnival. “Fifth.”

Topher pushed the button to the fifth floor.

“Victoria?” Topher asked Aidan.

Aidan vanished.

The tinny elevator music played. Side by side, Topher and I watched the numbers click up. I clutched the stuffed monkey to my chest.

A second later, Aidan reappeared, a snake wrapped around his arms. The snake slithered to the ground, and Victoria rose from the floor. “Justice has been served, and my sister is avenged,” she announced.

“Good,” Topher said. “I can’t believe the stupid sheep thought they could keep a psychopath like that alive. Even without his tools, such a man is too dangerous.”

“All’s well that end’s well,” Victoria said. “I see you succeeded too.” Victoria’s eyes swept over me, as if appraising my worth. She wasn’t speaking to me. I thought of Aidan saying I was the treasure he sought and the prize he was destined to win, and I wished I were anywhere but here—the house, the pizza parlor, the carnival. “Delightful.”

Looking at each of them, I realized I’d traded one trap for another, except instead of wanting to kill me, my new jailors wanted me to kill. I wished I could run, fly away, fade into the wallpaper …

At level five, the elevator lurched to a halt. “Ready yourselves,” Aidan said. Topher tossed sparks between his hands. Aidan gripped my arm, ready to vanish or to keep me from vanishing. Victoria dropped back into her snake form.

The elevator door opened.

Malcolm and Aunt Nicki waited for us. Side by side, they blocked the corridor. His eyes were glued on mine. Slowly, he and Aunt Nicki raised their hands as if in surrender.

“That’s right,” Aidan said. “You don’t want to fight us.”

Topher tossed a fireball from hand to hand. Flames licked his fingers, and sparks sprayed onto the floor. Smiling, he strolled out of the elevator with Aidan. I followed behind. Victoria slithered in front of us, hissing.

“So, how about you step aside?” Topher said. “Shame if someone got hurt.”

Eyes full of compassion, Malcolm asked, “Eve? Do you want to go with them?”

I opened my mouth and then shut it. If I said no … Aidan, Topher, and Victoria were poised to hurt them, badly. But if I said yes … they wanted me as a weapon. I would face a lifetime of hurting people.

“She’s coming with us,” Aidan said.

“If she wants to go with you, then she goes with my blessing,” Malcolm said. “If not …”

Aunt Nicki grinned. “If not, things might get messy.”

“I need her.” Aidan vanished and then reappeared next to Aunt Nicki, too close to her. He put his hand on her throat.

Aunt Nicki didn’t move. Her expression didn’t change either. “It’s Eve’s choice.”

“Just tell the truth,” a voice said softly in my ear. “Yes or no?”

Zach.

I turned. He must have been waiting, tucked into the corner beside the elevator, against the wall. With Malcolm and Aunt Nicki in front of us, we hadn’t seen him. Now he was close, his face only inches away from mine. He breathed in my breath, my magic. “No,” I said. And the hallway erupted in chaos.

Zach pointed at the snake Victoria, and she flew backward into the elevator and hit the back wall. She collapsed onto the floor. Topher hurled the fireball, and Malcolm lunged and rolled. It slammed into the door behind him, and the carpet ignited. Drawing his gun as he jumped to his feet, Malcolm squeezed the trigger. A needle embedded in Topher’s neck. He clutched at it, took a step forward, and then slumped to the floor. Aidan vanished and then reappeared behind me, hands on my shoulders, as Zach pressed his lips against mine again.

I felt Aidan’s hands harden.

The hallway fell silent.

Slowly, I turned. Aidan’s face was porcelain, and his body was cloth. I lifted his porcelain hands from my shoulders, and he crumpled to the ground.

Grabbing a fire extinguisher from the wall, Aunt Nicki sprayed the flames with white foam. The fire died, and the foam soaked into the carpet.

“Is he …,” I began.

“I don’t know,” Zach said.

Both Malcolm and Aunt Nicki approached. They stood over the doll Aidan, tranquilizer guns aimed at him. “Turn him back, and we’ll see,” Aunt Nicki said.

Zach took another breath from my lips, and Aidan’s porcelain face and hands softened. His cloth skin smoothed into human skin. His chest shuddered, and he began to breathe.

Malcolm shot him with a tranquilizer dart.

“Bet that felt good,” Aunt Nicki said to Malcolm.

“Reasonably satisfying,” Malcolm agreed. The two of them dragged Topher and Aidan into the elevator with the still-unconscious snake Victoria. Aunt Nicki stabbed the close button and then stepped back out into the corridor. The doors slid shut.

I realized I was still clutching the stuffed monkey.

“You’ll need to be quick,” Aunt Nicki said to me. “And random. Don’t go places you’ve been before. Stay away from anything familiar.”

I gawked at her.

Her mouth quirked. “That’s the Eve I know and love. Always quick with the thank-you. Don’t overflow with emotions. I don’t want to get weepy.”

“I don’t understand.” Were they truly going to let me go? Even Aunt Nicki? Sure, she’d said it was my choice, but their job … the agency … the trial … Lou …

She rolled her eyes. “At least you’re consistent.”

Malcolm holstered the tranquilizer gun and wrapped me in a bear hug. I leaned against his chest, letting his arms fold around me. “Be careful.”

My eyes felt hot, and it was hard to swallow. “I’ll … miss you.”

“Me too,” he said softly, barely loud enough for me to hear, and then he released me and shoved me toward Zach. “Kiss the boy and go.”

I turned to Zach. “How did—”

“I told them the truth.” Zach took my hand and brought it to his lips. His eyes were bright. “You’re real. Turns out, though, they’d already decided that. The two of them have been planning this since the trial began.”

“Yeah, this is all very nice, but you need to leave now.” Aunt Nicki made shooing motions with her hands. “Kiss the boy and knock us out.”

“What?” I asked.

“Make it look like we tried to stop you,” Aunt Nicki said. “I’m not going down for you if I don’t have to. You’re Malcolm’s case, not mine. And he deserves a better fate than the agency’s censure. If you care about either of us, then kick our asses. We’ll take care of explaining Aidan, Victoria, and Topher.”

I kissed Zach, and then he flicked his hand. Both of them flew backward across the hall. Aunt Nicki hit the door, and then slumped onto the floor. I didn’t know if she was feigning unconsciousness or if she truly was. Malcolm grunted but stood.

“Try again,” I told Zach.

Zach caused vines to burst out of the wall and wrap around him.

We kissed again. And then we ran through the wall. Guards were on the other side. We changed our shape. Two times, three times, as we plunged through the second and third doors. Wolves. Birds. Mice. And then dragonflies. We flew into the ventilation system, careened through the air-conditioning ducts, and then shot into the silver room.

Inside the room, we changed into ourselves.

Hand in hand, we walked through the silver walls.

And I am, for the first time, free.