The hood fell off the Massa’s head. A cascade of light-brown hair fell out.
My legs locked in place. For a moment I couldn’t breathe. The woman’s features were lean and sharp, the face of an athlete, a person who was prepared for anything and never took no for an answer. Her eyes, a deep blue-green that pierced through the darkness, seemed to dance in her head, and as she smiled tiny wrinkles spread on either side of her face.
“Hello, Jack,” said my mom.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
MOM
“M—!” I BLURTED out, but her hand was over my mouth before I could finish the word.
Mom.
In that fraction of a second, I wished that Nostalgikos had stolen away my memory. Because if it had, I could have faced her like this and not cared that she was alive and warm and beautiful. I wouldn’t have wanted to wrap my arms around her and breathe the scent of her neck. It wouldn’t have occurred to me that this closeness, in this moment, could bring back six whole lost years.
All I would have known was that I was looking into the face of a killer.
And that would have been so much easier.
I was trembling as she carefully put her finger to her mouth.
I shook my head, not to disagree but because I didn’t know what else to do.
Her eyes were darting over my shoulder, to the noise down the street. “I am Sister Nancy,” she said.
“No!” I said. “You’re not! You’re—”
“Come!” She pulled my hand and began running away from the sound, toward Columbus Avenue. Cass and Aly were already ahead of us.
“Hurry!” Cass shouted.
I looked over my shoulder. Niko, Yiorgos, and Stavros were stumbling toward us, their limbs flailing. Marco was spin-kicking and punching into the thin air. It looked like some strange ritual martial arts dance.
Before I could react, I felt a bony hand around my neck. And another. I grabbed onto them and tried to pull them off. The dense blackness shifted and thickened before me. Eyes materialized out of the air, a jaw, teeth, cheekbones. Now I saw a ragged, grinning face of ripped flesh and empty eyes.
Shadows.
They take on a more diaphanous appearance when they wander the upper realms . . .
Queen Artemisia’s army was here, in the living world. Howling, grunting, spitting, materializing, and vanishing like the flicker of a black mist. Sucking the darkness as they floated in a current of nonlight, both solid and smoke.
How did they get here?
“Let . . . me . . . gggghhhh . . .” I rasped. The zombie’s grip was tight.
A foot lashed out of the darkness, landing a sharp kick on the Shadow’s jaw. With a muffled, gurgling squeak, the zombie fell away.
“Are you all right?” Mom said, pulling me down the street at a run, her arm around my waist. “I—I don’t know what’s happening.”
We were running across Columbus Avenue now. On the opposite side was a busy restaurant, but no one seemed to notice us.
As we pounded down the next block, I saw Aly’s feet leave the ground. Then Cass’s. I heard them scream with surprise. Mom, too. We were caught up in the flow of Shadows now, surging under and around us, lifting us upward. I saw a grimace here, a skin-shredded skull there, and I prepared for another battle.
But their eyes, at least the ones I saw, were looking upward. Over the roof of a nearby brownstone apartment building. I followed their glances, but I saw nothing.
Until the sky shimmered.
I almost missed it. But the atmosphere was gathering up there, too, this time not into black clouds but an oval of dim blue light. It came toward us like a comet in slo-mo, growing larger, rustling the leaves of a scrawny street tree. It was expanding and contracting, forming arms, legs, a head. As it leveled out above the car roofs, it was the shape of a barefoot woman in a torn dress.
“Skilaki . . .” I said.
She scanned the street, scowling at the unseeable undead. Her face seemed to have lost some of its skin, and in her mouth were only two teeth. When she spoke, her voice seemed to enter my brain directly, bypassing my ears. “Whoever harms the Select,” she announced, “shall receive Artemisia’s wrath!”
Below us came an excited flurry of grunts and snorts.
“Bring them quickly,” she continued, her bony finger pointing farther up the street, “and bring them alive, if you will please the queen.”
We were borne higher and higher, flowing down the street on a river of invisible hands. The amber windows around us, the homes of brick and stone, jittered in and out of sight in the shifting blackness. I glanced around for Cass and Aly and saw them floating far ahead, almost to the next avenue. “Do you know who this creature is?” my mother asked, her voice more awed than scared.
Her calmness surprised me. My entire body was shaking. “An ex-sibyl,” I said. “She works for . . .”
No. Keep it tight. Keep it a secret.
“Works for who?” Mom asked.
Could I tell her the truth? Could I ever trust her with anything again?
We were moving faster now, across one brightly lit avenue and then another. Churches, shops, castlelike apartment houses sped by like phantoms, until the light dimmed and the smell of exhaust gave way to grass and soil. We veered right, following the wide band of a moonlit river.
Riverside Park.
Now we were catching up to Cass and Aly. They looked as petrified as I felt. Aly glanced at my mom and did a double take. “Mom?” she mouthed.
I nodded. I could see her whispering to Cass.
“Where are you taking us, Skilaki?” I yelled.
The ex-sibyl turned in midair. “As you may surmise, things have not been so jolly in Bo’gloo since you left. And I had every reason to think they would get worse. So I suppose I should thank you.”
“Thank us for what?” Aly shouted.
“For opening the portals of the dead, of course,” Skilaki said, “so that the dead themselves may pass through.”
“We—we didn’t do that!” I protested.
Skilaki zoomed closer so quickly I thought I’d lurch clear out of the zombie cloud. She tapped my backpack with her bony, clattering fingers. “Yes, you did. By finding and activating this wayward gift of Massarym, you unsealed a breach that had been closed for a very long time. Ironic, isn’t it?” Skilaki threw her head back into a hissing laugh. “The bauble that heals bodies is the one that gives access to the dead.”
“Massarym?” My mother gasped.
My heart sank like a stone. The secret was out now.
I could hear Shadows nodding and snuffling, until Skilaki held up a rigid right arm. “Silence, you nincompoops!”
“Poops,” one of them repeated, making a squeaky choking sound that I took to be a laugh.
Skilaki raised a bony finger toward the giggling zombie and I saw a wash of black careening upward. A moment later I heard a sickening smack against a tree.
“I will return Queen Artemisia’s gift to its rightful place,” Skilaki continued, “and, as she has been in a bit of a snit over your rude and rather destructive departure, she will be especially pleased to finish some business with you.”
Aly and Cass gave me a panicked look. We were moving fast now. The wind was battering my face.
“Did she say Artemisia?” my mother said.
She knew. The Massa knew where we’d been. And they knew what we’d found.
Until today the Loculus of Healing had been lying in storage, nothing but a stone, a decoration, a sale from a crooked art dealer.
Waiting for a Select to come and activate it.
Where the lame walk, the sick rise, the dead live forever.
The Shadows were slowing now. Their voices became frenzied, excited. In the distance I saw a monument with a great dome.
“Skilaki,” I said, “where are you taking us?”
As she turned, her smile ripped a gash in what was left of her face.
“Sightseeing,” she said.
&n
bsp; CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
ARTEMISIA AWAITS
AS WE SET down on the ground, the Shadows dissipated like wind across a burned field. Before us was a columned monument, glowing a pale greenish white in the moonlight. The steps were nearly obliterated by the cloud of Shadows. We were at the top of a hill. To our left, a walkway led to a fenced overlook, and beyond that the hill sloped to the river. At the bottom were train tracks that emerged from a tunnel, leading north.
“Skilaki,” Cass said. He was staring at the monument, his voice shaky. “On that map of Bo’gloo you showed us? There were portals. At first we didn’t know where they were—or where they led. But then Jack and I found one.”
“We traveled from the underworld directly into modern-day London,” I added. “Through a replica of the Mausoleum . . .”
“Aren’t they clever children,” Skilaki said.
I turned my eyes to the monument. The top was a dome, which wasn’t exactly right, and the columns didn’t surround the whole structure, but the influence was pretty obvious—the classic details, the same squarish shape. “Grant’s Tomb,” Cass said. “I knew it was here. But I never made the connection.”
Behind us I could hear a confused rush of oaths and shouts as Marco and the other Massa landed on the grass.
Skilaki smiled. “You know, there’s an old joke. It goes like this. Question: Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb? Answer: Grant. And his wife. And Bo’gloo.”
“That’s not even a little bit funny,” Aly said.
“It kills them in the underworld,” Skilaki said. “Minions, bring these children and their magic backpack to the entrance, so we may begin our adventure.”
I could hear Shadows hooting with excitement. Out of the black cloud came a Shadow shape that seized me, turned me around, and reached into my pack.
“No!” Mom, Cass, Aly, and Marco cried out in unison, running toward me.
Skilaki sent them flying with a wave of her arm.
The Shadow took out the Loculus of Healing. His face was a rigid, skeletal mask, but the shreds of remaining muscle were working hard to pull his lips into a greedy smile.
I grabbed on to the Loculus, and the Shadow jolted involuntarily. The orb began to glow, its golden surface to move. As the zombie let out a surprised grunt, his hand began to radiate light. Tiny waves of crisscrossing movement passed across it, like microscopic silkworms leaving thin trails. Its parchmentlike skin was gaining color and thickness.
The Loculus of Healing was repairing the zombie’s hand slowly.
“Hmrph?” it said, gazing at me.
“Don’t ask me,” I replied. As I snatched the Loculus away, putting it back into my pack, he held his hand up in the moonlight, examining it.
I took a deep breath. “Skilaki,” I said, “we can’t let you have this.”
Skilaki stood by the entrance to Grant’s Tomb. “You have no choice, my little chicken. But by all means, carry it yourself if you wish!” she called out. “Come, Queen Artemisia is waiting.”
I looked at my two friends. “We got out once before,” I said softly.
“We’re in this together,” Aly said.
“We have all three Loculi,” Cass added. “That means we still have hope. Professor Bhegad would be proud of us. Let’s roll.”
Holding the Loculus, I walked up the steps. Aly took my other hand and Cass’s, too.
Mom ran up the steps in front of us. She stared at Skilaki, her face resolute. “No. Take your Loculus but spare them.”
“She means take them but spare the Loculus!” Yiorgos bellowed.
“Silence, Yiorgos, we have plans for them,” Mom said. “Banishment to the underworld is not in our best interest.”
“Dudes,” Marco shouted. “What about me?”
Skilaki rose above the ground again. She pointed her arm in Marco’s direction and he froze in his tracks. “You would like to join them?” she said. She turned to Yiorgos and then Stavros. “How about you? And you?”
“No!” Yiorgos bellowed as he was lifted off the ground. Mom let out a gasp as she rose, too.
Cass, Aly, and I turned. “I thought you just wanted us!” I shouted.
“Well, we are in the business of souls, child,” Skilaki said. “And it appears we have volunteers. My queen will be overjoyed with this abundance!”
Now a gray mist was seeping out around the edges of the tomb’s front door. The door shook, at first gently and then violently. With a deep, loud crack it flew open, spewing wood splinters and paint shards in all directions.
I leaped to the side, nearly falling down the hill. Cass and Aly huddled near. Above us, Brother Yiorgos and Brother Stavros began screaming. With guttural snickers, Shadows began pushing them in the air, sliding them toward the door’s gaping black hole. “No-o-o-o!” Yiorgos shouted, bracing his arms on either side of the doorjamb.
The Shadow grabbed his shoulders and threw him into the blackness. His frightened wail diminished into silence as two Shadows jumped in gleefully after him.
Mom’s face was rigid with fear. The Shadows were toying with Brother Stavros now. After him they would come for Marco, and then Mom. Marco was dancing and shuffling like a boxer, daring them to come closer. Of all of them, he was the only one who had a hope of making it back out again. The only Select.
I felt a rumble that shook the ground. A muffled whistle.
The train.
I looked down the hill. From under the park, I could hear the squeaking of brakes, the slow chug of an engine. The northbound train would be emerging from the tunnel soon. When?
“Jack, look!” Aly shouted.
I turned. Mom was floating toward the Tomb, her arms locked by her side. Her face was shrouded by the moving black mist, but I could see her eyes looking at me, full of tears. And I could make out the movement of her lips forming words: I love you.
She was next.
CHAPTER FIFTY
A RUSH OF AIR
THE TRAIN’S MUFFLED blast belched up from the bottom of the hill. Its wheels thumped slowly on unseen tracks. I couldn’t tell exactly where it was. All I knew was that it was closer. And it would soon emerge, heading north.
I looked back upward for Mom. She was putting up a good fight. Even though her arms were locked, she was managing to spin in the air, kicking at zombies only she could see. Skilaki laughed as she watched.
No one was paying any attention to me.
Move. Now.
I squeezed Aly’s hand. She turned to look at me. So did Cass. Sweat beaded my forehead.
HOOOOO . . .
I let go of Aly, ran down the walkway to the left of the tomb, hopped the fence, and sprinted down the hill. The incline was steep and my knees buckled.
“Hurry, Jack!” Aly cried out.
She and Cass were behind me. I knew Skilaki would see us. I expected to feel her power lifting us from the ground, boomeranging us back to her.
There. A tugging at my limbs. A force that was pulling me backward. I could see Cass stumbling beside me. I grabbed one arm, Aly the other. “Keep going!” I shouted.
“The farther we get . . .” Aly said, “the weaker her power!”
With each inch we were gaining strength. I guess even an ex-sibyl’s power isn’t infinite. “Keep it up,” I said. “This is distracting her from Mom!”
Soon we were running free down the grassy surface toward a highway ramp. Just beyond it were the tracks.
We hopped a barrier and sprinted across the ramp. I could hear the approaching train clear and close. The only thing separating us from the tracks was a tall chain-link fence.
“What are we doing?” Cass asked.
I whipped off my backpack and held up the glowing orb. “Destroying this,” I said.
Cass’s jaw dropped. “It’s a Loculus, Jack! You destroy that, we die!”
“If I don’t destroy it, my mom dies!” I shouted. “The portal remains open. The Shadows can come and go. They can suck souls from innocent people whenever they want. Are
our lives worth that?”
I dropped the Loculus back into the pack, ran to the fence, and hopped as high as I could. Clutching onto the links, I climbed upward. Fast.
Cass and Aly were scrambling on to the fence to my left, yelling words I couldn’t hear. As I hopped down the other side, I could see another silhouette racing down the hill from the Tomb.
Marco.
The locomotive burst out of the tunnel with a sound like a bomb blast. I dropped the pack, took out the orb, and reared back with my arm. No chance to second-guess. No matter what Cass and Aly said. All that was in my mind were Professor Bhegad’s final words to my dad.
I am always willing to do what’s right.
I threw the Loculus as hard as I could, spiking it directly down at the track. Toward the train that was now inches away.
“He diiiives for the block!”
Marco’s voice startled me. He was over my head, leaping from the top of the fence, flying over my head at impossible speed.
“Marco, don’t!” I grabbed for his shirt in midair but he was already by me. He slapped the Loculus off course to the left. It thudded to the ground and rolled away from the track.
“Have you lost your mind, Brother Jack?” he yelled.
I ran for the golden orb, but it was no contest. Marco’s G7W skill put him light-years ahead of me. So I did the only thing I could. I rammed into his side, hard. It didn’t do much, just slightly threw him off balance. But it bought me a fraction of a second. Just enough to grab his shirt.
I hooked my leg around his, and we both fell to the ground.
Marco swatted me aside with his palm. “Sorry, Brother,” he said, leaping away toward the Loculus.
The train was coming closer, moving slowly. The Loculus had stopped rolling now, about three feet from the track. I scrambled to my feet, but Marco had gotten a big head start.
On me. But not on Cass. He had run ahead while we were scuffling.
He scooped the Loculus off the ground as Marco leaped high, ready to swat aside Cass’s throw. Instead, Cass underhanded the orb toward me. It spun in the air. I dived for it. Aly was running toward me, too. Behind her, a Shadow was scaling the fence.