“Who’s that?” Madison began, but when she saw Seph’s face, the words died away. She looked over her shoulder, at Hays and Hanlon, and back at Seph.
“We thought you’d never leave your little nest,” Barber said. There must have been an unspoken question on Seph’s face, because he added, “I used a different kind of web this time. Something to let you out, but tie a line to you. Something that made you easy to track.”
Seph brushed at himself as if trying to dislodge the invisible tether.
Barber flexed his fingers, readying them for use. “We’ve come to take you back, Joseph,” he said. “It hasn’t been the same since you left.”
Seph spoke to Maddie without taking his eyes off Barber, acutely aware of the wizards behind him. “It’s okay. I went to school with these people. Go on back to the truck.”
“What’s going on?” Madison looked over her shoulder. Hays and Hanlon had stopped a short distance away, as if waiting for a signal.
“Just go. If I’m not there in half an hour, go on without me.” When she didn’t move, he pushed her hard, and she stumbled a few steps forward. She looked back at him, her face still full of questions. Then she turned and walked away from him, up the riverbed, her fists clenched at her sides. But as she tried to slip past Barber and King, King reached out a long arm and caught her by the hair, pulling her to him and wrapping one arm around her. She struggled for a moment, all knees and elbows, then stood still, eyes wide with surprise and fright.
“Let her go,” Seph said, trying to keep his voice calm and even. “She’s not involved in this.”
Barber smiled. “But you’re involved with her, right? You wouldn’t run off and leave her with the likes of us, would you? Just cooperate and maybe we’ll let her go.”
Seph knew that his primary advantage was surprise and the overconfidence of the alumni. If not for that, he would have been immobilized already. If he didn’t do something soon, he wouldn’t get the chance.
But Madison took that issue out of his hands. She twisted like an eel and kneed King in the groin. He screeched and doubled over. He must have released power into her, because after a few seconds he went down like he’d been clubbed in the head.
Seph pointed at Barber and cast an immobilization charm. He spun around and launched charms at the other two wizards, but they were already throwing up shields and muttering counters. Barber stood frozen, an incredulous look on his face.
“Go! Now!” Seph shouted to Madison, who had extricated herself from King’s grip. “Get out of here!”
“But I can help you!”
“I don’t want your help!” Seph said, keeping his eyes on the three wizards. He didn’t want anything from the Havens to contaminate Maddie Moss. Didn’t want Warren bloody Barber asking questions about her.
Didn’t want her to get hurt.
She turned and splashed up the riverbed, in the direction of the parking lot, leaping over obstacles like a deer. She’d lost her hat, and it floated down the river toward them, spinning in the current.
Then Hays disabled the immobilization charm Seph had used on Warren Barber. That was the problem. Unless Seph could take down all three at once, they would help each other.
“What’s this?” Barber said, looking more amused than worried. “I believe the boy’s been studying out of school.” He looked after Madison, as if debating whether to go after her, then shrugged. “Pity,” he said. “I was taking a liking to her.” He nudged King with his foot, frowning. “What’s up, Ken? You going to be singing soprano from now on?” King lay on his back, still stunned.
Barber signaled to the others, and the remaining wizards separated, advancing toward Seph from three different directions.
Seph climbed partway up the side of the rocky gorge and turned to face them. The way to the parking lot was blocked, and he had no hope of climbing the rest of the way without being overtaken or disabled.
It was eerily silent in the gorge. The birds were quiet, and he couldn’t even hear the sound of water cascading over the rocks. All he could hear was the harsh breathing of the three wizards as they advanced on him.
“You may think you’re a wizard now, Joseph,” Warren said. “But we think you have a lot to learn. And we can teach you, back at school.” His voice turned sooth-ing. “Tell you what. You won’t have to mingle with the other students anymore. We’ll let you stay in the Alumni House. We’ll be best friends.”
Seph extended his hands. “Back off. I don’t want to hurt you, but I won’t let you take me.”
“Please don’t hurt us, Joseph,” Barber mocked. As he spoke, he gestured and a lattice of shadows slid over Seph. He looked up to see the net descending on him and threw up his hands, speaking the countercharm. He had been spending considerable time on Weirweb counters. The net dissolved into gleaming shards of silver that fell harmlessly about his shoulders. Then he swept his arm out in a broad arc, sending a wall of blue fame roaring downhill. The alumni threw themselves on their faces in the river as the flames raked over them.
Seph teased earth out of the side of the hill, releasing a landslide of boulders, then drove a flash flood of water down the gorge. He was desperately flinging charms he’d never tried before. Some worked and some didn’t. He had to keep the alumni busy. If he took even one hit, he was done.
His only advantage was that Leicester wanted him alive. He was under no such restriction, although he really had no desire to harm them. They were victims as much as he was.
Except for Warren Barber. Seph was beginning to think Barber was bad to the bone. Should’ve killed you when I had the chance, he thought.
Seph inched up the riverbed toward the parking lot, fighting the alumni for every foot of ground. He sensed rather than heard the subduen charm Barber cast, and threw back the countercharm. Warren spun out more spider cords from his hands—looping, iridescent cords that threatened to ensnare Seph—but they dissolved under the same counter he’d used on the web.
They pressed against the barricades he put up, seeking weaknesses, and toppled small trees on the slope above, sending branches crashing down around him. They sent clouds of vapors toward him, and birds tumbled out of the sky, stupefied. He was already getting tired. He wondered how long it would take them to devise something he’d never heard of, or to simply overwhelm him.
The wizards were soaked, plastered with mud, and bleeding. They’d obviously expected an easy catch.
“Does Dr. Leicester mind if he’s damaged or broken?” Hanlon gasped.
“I think we might have to damage him. I think it might be unavoidable.” As if to reinforce his words, Barber swung his fist, sweeping stones from the river bed into a deadly cloud that flew at Seph. Seph fashioned a shield and managed to deflect most of them, but a fist-size stone struck him above the right eyebrow, stunning him momentarily, almost knocking him from his feet. He staggered backward but managed to stay upright.
Barber said something to the other two, and the three came forward, pointing at him and firing charms, one after another. Seph struggled to keep up, knowing that if he lost focus for a moment, it would be over. He fingered the dyrne sefa and thought about disappearing, but it would do no good if he couldn’t keep up with the spell-casting. He might end up immobile and unnoticeable, lost in the Vermilion River Gorge forever.
Suddenly he saw movement just beyond the alumni in the ravine, a flash of light off metal, and a familiar figure, moving fast. The three wizards were so focused on their intended victim that they didn’t realize their peril until it was too late.
Ellen Stephenson swung her blazing sword in a powerful two-handed sweep that sliced through Aaron Hanlon’s ribcage all the way to the spine, nearly cutting him in half. Hanlon screamed and toppled facedown in the river. He lay still, his blood clouding the water. She swung again, metal singing, slicing through Warren Barber’s shoulder. A little different angle, and she’d have taken his arm off. He spun away, cursing, clutching at the wound with one hand.
S
eph scrambled down the slope to join her, feet sliding in the loose shale. Ellen was breathing hard, but she was grinning, triumphant. Now it was suddenly two against two, and one wounded on the other side.
“You okay, Seph?” She kept her sword up, her eyes on the two wizards.
“Ellen, I am so glad to see you,” Seph said. He was appreciating the benefits of having a warrior on his side.
Seph sent a volley of immobilization charms raining down on the two remaining wizards. Ellen spiraled flames toward them, spinning off the tip of her sword and advancing on them with grim determination. Warren Barber staggered backward, feeling the effects of his wound. Now the alumni were the ones on the defensive.
Seph knew they’d better make the most of their temporary advantage. There might be more alumni waiting in the wings.
“Ellen!” He moved in close so he could speak quietly. “I’m going to make you invisible.” He lifted the dyrne sefa from around his neck and hung it around hers. Then he gripped her arm and spoke the unnoticeable charm. “Don’t let me lose hold of you. Now let’s move!” he hissed, pulling her down off the slope and across the water to the other side.
The two remaining wizards swiveled about, splattering flames at random, muttering curses, scanning the sides of the canyon and the underbrush at the river edge. Frustrated, they closed in on the spot where Seph was last seen, raking it with wizard fire. Smoke filled the gorge as grass and brush began to smolder. Barber sent another hail of stones swirling down the gorge and Ellen hissed in pain as several hit home.
“McCauley!” Barber shouted, his face purple with rage. “We know where you live! We’ve been on fricking Jefferson Street. We’ll find Linda Downey and her sister, Rebecca. We’ll find your girl. We’ll find your warrior friend. And in the end, we’ll find you.”
The alumni charged down the river at a dead run, convinced their quarry was getting away. Seph and Ellen splashed up the river in the opposite direction, toward the parking lot. They scrambled desperately through the gorge, slashed by briars and branches, water and mud sucking at Seph’s flip-flops, Ellen’s sword catching in the underbrush. He could hear no sounds of pursuit behind them, only their labored breathing and the racket they made as they forced their way through the trees.
They burst through the last of the brush into the parking lot. Madison was standing by the car, frantically punching numbers into a cell phone, when Seph and Ellen materialized out of the air, Ellen carrying her bloody sword.
Madison looked up and saw them. “You found him!” She shoved her cell phone into her purse. “Thank God! Are you okay?” She gripped Seph’s elbows, peering anxiously into his face, touching his forehead where the rock had hit him. Then she looked over his shoulder at Ellen and said fiercely, “I hope you chopped them into little bits.”
“Do you two know each other?” Seph asked, looking from Madison to Ellen.
Ellen was in a ready stance, facing the trailhead, watching for signs of pursuit. “Let’s get out of here. We can chitchat later.”
There were two more cars parked in the lot than when Seph and Madison had arrived. One was the old Jeep that Will and Ellen shared. The other one was unfamiliar, a black minivan with a rent-a-car sticker. It must belong to the alumni, Seph thought. At least he hoped so, because he melted all four tires.
Seph rode with Madison in the pickup. Ellen followed behind in the Jeep. Madison seemed accustomed to negotiating country roads; she drove fast, scarcely slowing for the curves and corners.
What a disaster. He’d been a fool to take a chance with Madison. If not for her odd resistance to wizards, she would have been killed, hurt, or kidnapped.
If Ellen hadn’t shown up, he might be on his way back to the Havens by now. Which reminded him. “You didn’t seem surprised to see Ellen. And her sword.”
Madison glanced at him, then back at the road. “Is that her name? I was on my way to the parking lot when she stepped out of the trees with that thing and demanded to know where you were. I thought she was standing watch for those creeps. She thought I’d led you into some kind of trap. It took us a while to sort it out. Then she went tearing down the trail after you and I went to the car to call 911. Only, I couldn’t get my cell phone to work. It’s like, fried.”
She swerved around a slow-moving van. “What the hell happened back there, anyway? Does this kind of thing happen to you all the time?”
Seph was scratched and scraped and bruised and his head was throbbing. He rested it back against the seat and closed his eyes. “Not too often. Let’s just say I made a mistake.”
“Those men were all witches.”
“Wizards.”
“Whatever. So. Are you in some kind of magical gang war?”
He eyed her glumly, wishing she were susceptible to wizardry so he could just wipe her mind clean. “I used to go to school with them. Now they’re after me. I don’t know why.” He hoped they hadn’t noticed anything special about Maddie. He hoped they wouldn’t think about her at all.
“You want to go straight to the police station? Or we could look for a pay phone . . .”
He shook his head, staring straight ahead. “The police can’t help.” She opened her mouth to speak, and he held up his hand. “What am I going to tell the cops? I was attacked by wizards who tried to snare me in a spider web? And then that nice Ellen Stephenson, who plays forward on the girls’ soccer team, cut two of them to pieces with her magical sword?” He thought of Ross Childers and imagined his reaction. Not pretty. “Just take me home.”
“Do you think they’ll give up, after today?”
“No.”
“Well, you can’t just wait for them to try again.”
“I don’t intend to.” He had no real choice. He’d known that all along. He could remain a prisoner in the Sanctuary, waiting for Leicester to target someone he cared about, or he could act.
She put her hand on his arm. “I’m worried about you.”
“You should be worried about yourself. People who get involved with me tend to get hurt.”
“Maybe I can help you.”
He couldn’t believe it. They’d only just met, and they’d just had the date from hell, and she was still on his side. “It’s not up to you.”
By now, they’d passed the city limits, the classy stone gateway for Trinity College and the sign that said TRINITY HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION III STATE SOCCER CHAMPIONS. Seph wondered if the soft barrier worked both ways, if the alumni knew he’d returned to the Sanctuary. Maybe they could track his movements all the time. The back of his neck prickled.
Madison swerved into Seph’s driveway. Ellen pulled up behind them, but made no move to get out, giving them a moment of privacy.
Madison helped unload the picnic gear onto the side-walk. “Here, I’ll help you carry it inside.”
“That’s all right. I’ll get it.”
Madison leaned against her truck, twisting one of her tiny braids between her fingers. “I have to say, that was my most eventful picnic in a long time.”
Seph looked away and swallowed. “No doubt.”
She gripped his hands and looked up into his face. “But I had a good time before . . . ah . . . before the mayhem.”
Seph shook his head, bewildered. “I don’t get it. I had to practically bribe you to get you to go out with me in the first place.”
“Who says we’re going out?” She pulled back her hair, and the beads clattered softly together. “For one thing, my drawing’s not done. I need you to sit some more.” She touched his face gently, as if mapping the bone structure underneath. “Plus, I think we could maybe be friends. You’re not nearly as arrogant as I thought you were at first.” She grinned. “You better call me, Witch Boy, or I’ll come find you, now that I know where you live.” She climbed up into the seat.
Seph stood watching until the pickup disappeared around the corner at the end of the street.
Ellen vaulted over the side of the Jeep. “Need some help?” She shouldered one of the coo
lers and stuffed the quilt under her arm. They managed to carry everything into the kitchen in one trip. No one was around, but based on the debris left behind, Jack and his friends had passed through. Ellen drained two bottles of water while Seph put the food away.
Ellen was a mess. She was muddy and her clothes were torn. She had a nasty cut over one eye and her cheekbone was turning purple from the rockfall. She also looked positively elated. Seph was beginning to realize that Ellen liked nothing better than a good fight, well concluded. He brought the first-aid kit from the downstairs bathroom, and they sat at the table, methodically treating each other’s wounds.
“You were really good today,” Ellen said, lifting the dyrne sefa from around her neck and handing it to Seph. “I couldn’t keep track of all the charms flying around. Those guys definitely got the worst of it. Too bad we had to split, because I think we could have taken them.”
“Yeah.” Seph swept back Ellen’s chin-length brown hair and dabbed at her bloody ear. “Not that I’m not grateful, but . . . why were you at the park?” Seph asked.
“I was—you know—out hiking.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Ellen opened the freezer, scooped up a handful of ice, dropped it into a plastic bag, and handed it to Seph. “Put that on your head,” she suggested.
He pressed it against the knot on his forehead. “So?”
Ellen licked her finger and rubbed at a splatter of blood on her arm. “It was my day to watch you, okay?”
“What?”
“We trade off. Jack and Nick and Linda and me. Today, Jack was playing soccer, Linda was out buying a house, Nick had just been on duty two days in a row and . . .” her voice trailed off.
“You’re saying you’ve been following me around all summer?”
Ellen cleared her throat. “Linda was afraid something like this would happen, or they’d find a way to scare you enough to make you bolt. So . . .” She shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t believe this.”