Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (5 page)

When she came to, Valerie was sitting in
the front passenger seat of the SUV, which was parked in a garage. Thai was
pressing a bottle of water to her lips.

“Sorry,” she said to
him.

He shook his head. “Don’t
try to talk yet. Zaki is still passed out in the back seat—from chloroform, I
think. But once he wakes up, he can get some of those herbs.”

“I shouldn’t have done
that. Stupid.”

“Yeah, it was,” he said.
“But you can’t help yourself; I know that.”

“You get me,” she said
with a smile.

Zaki stirred and
groaned. He sat up, his hand pressed against his head.

“Surely, James Bond
never had to deal with this kind of amateur tomfoolery,” Zaki said indignantly.
His comment had the intended effect, making Thai smile grudgingly. “My bag of
herbs, if you please.”

Thai handed Zaki his pouch,
and he expertly mixed some powders. He put some on his own tongue, and then
gave some to Valerie. They didn’t work as well as they had the day before, but
a measure of energy returned to her.

“Where are we?” she
asked.

“The airport. I didn’t
want to miss meeting up with Chisisi and Henry. And the sooner we get out of
here, the better.”

“Are you sure you
weren’t followed?” Zaki asked.

“I think so. Not that
I’m an expert at eluding people,” Thai replied.

Inside the bustling
airport, Valerie held Thai’s hand tightly as she automatically scanned the
faces of the passersby.

Henry and Chisisi
appeared through one of the sliding doors. Henry was pale with worry, and she
made the effort to smile. When they were close enough, she hugged him.

“It’s okay. We got away.”

“I know. Cy told us
everything. He got a good look at the woman who attacked you, and he and Kanti
are back on the Globe trying to find out more.”

“We must move quickly,”
Chisisi said, hustling them toward a ticket counter.

The rest of the trip was
a blur for Valerie as they bought tickets and boarded the plane to Colorado.
She couldn’t even appreciate her time in the clouds, because she was fast
asleep before they took off and woke up in Thai’s arms, being carried through a
rental car parking lot.

“Put me down,” she said,
embarrassed. He gently set her on her feet.

“You didn’t even wake up
when we landed, and it was really bumpy,” Henry said. His anxiety for her
leaked through their bond.

“It was worth it. I’m much
better,” she said, and it was true. She had barely touched her magic that
afternoon, and if it hadn’t been for her connection with Henry the day before,
she probably would have been fine, she assured herself.

Henry’s face relaxed,
but Thai eyed her skeptically. She hoped she hadn’t drooled on him.

They approached a
nondescript blue van, and Zaki pulled out some keys. “I had originally reserved
something a bit faster and sleeker. Also red. But Chisisi nixed it.”

“This will be much less
memorable for anyone who sees us,” Chisisi said.

“But much less fun,”
Zaki countered, and messed up Chisisi’s hair with his hand.

Valerie was both
startled and amused to see the usually put-together Chisisi rumpled. But by now,
even Chisisi was having trouble fighting a smile. Zaki seemed to have that
effect on everyone.

Less than an hour later,
they had left the city of Denver far behind them and were driving through a
winding, bumpy highway up a mountain.

“Is this place far?”
Thai asked.

“We can only get so close
by car,” Chisisi said. “After that, we must travel on foot. It is not an easy
path. But for tonight, we will stop at a hotel, young ones.”

“It is not Mena House,
but things could be worse,” Zaki assured them.

After another hour, Zaki
turned into a long drive that led up to a small but elegant hotel that was
nestled in the hills. It was like an oasis in the middle of the wilderness, she
thought, seeing the lights beckon them. She couldn’t wait to get into a warm
bed.

“We know there’s no way
we were followed. We’ve been the only car on the road for miles and miles,”
Henry said, and she was happy to hear that the anxiety had finally left his
voice.

The group entered the
cozy hotel, which had a huge fireplace surrounded by comfy leather chairs. They
sat down and waited as Zaki checked them in.

“There is a surprise for
you, Henry,” Chisisi said with a glint in his eyes. “I have arranged—”

“Henry?” a silver-haired
man with sad brown eyes stood up from a wing chair by the fire. “I was afraid
I’d never see you again.”

“Dad!” Henry said, and
gave the man a fierce hug. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Valerie suddenly became
shy. Her brother’s father was much older than she had imagined.

“You must be Valerie,”
he said, and gave her a hug. “I hope you won’t think I’m forward, but I have
thought of you as an adopted daughter since I found out Henry had a sister.”

She was touched, and her
eyes filled with tears. In less than a year, she had doubled the size of her
family. “I’m so honored,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“And I’m Thai. Nice to
meet you, sir.”

“Please call me Joe.”

Chisisi shook his hand. “Good
to meet you in person at last, Mr. Jenkens.”

“I must thank you for
bringing me to my boy one last time.”

“It is our pleasure.”

“The rooms are ready,”
Zaki said.

Zaki handed out the
keys. “Valerie, you are with Henry and his father, and Thai will stay with
Chisisi and me.” Zaki turned to Thai, pressing his lips together to keep from
laughing. “I’m sure you’re honored as well to be bunking with such suave and
skilled men of mystery, instead of Valerie. I heard she snores.”

In the elevator, Joe
rested one hand on her shoulder and the other on Henry’s. “If only your mother
could have met Valerie,” he said.

“I know, Dad. I wish it, too.”

Valerie fell asleep
quickly to the sound of Henry’s and his father’s even breathing, but she woke
up a few hours later, restless. It reminded her of her days in the hospital,
when she had insomnia after being sick and asleep for too long. Quietly, she
left a little note for Henry so he wouldn’t worry if he woke and slipped out of
the room. She wished that she could stop by Thai’s tent like she had for
months, but with Chisisi and Zaki sharing his room, she didn’t dare to even
knock.

Instead, she headed
downstairs and out the back doors of the hotel, breathing a sigh of relief when
she was outside. The crisp mountain air was refreshing, and steam rose off of
the swimming pool, which was gently lit and glowed aquamarine. Without
overthinking it, she kicked off her shoes and jumped in. The water was warm,
and she swam underwater as far as she could until she had to surface for air.

“Hard to believe you
couldn’t swim until a few months ago. You’re a natural.”

“Gideon!” she said with
glee, seeing her mentor standing at the edge of the pool, projecting from the
Globe.

“Cyrus lent me your
charm. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not. Is
everything okay?”

“With Cyrus, yes. He
told us what happened, and he’s working on finding out who came after you. But
something else has happened.”

“Valerie, is this guy
bothering you?” Thai asked, stepping out the back door of the hotel.

“This is Gideon, my
mentor on the Globe and second in command at the Guild of the Knights of Light.
He’s the one who’s training me to perfect my fighting skills—with and without
magic.” She swam to the edge of the pool and rested her arms on the ledge.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’m
glad to meet you.”

“Likewise. I’ve heard
good things about you.”

“If you don’t mind my
asking, what kind of magic do you have?”

“I have chosen not to
develop my magic. But I am skilled at fighting, like Valerie. Without her
gifts, of course.”

“He’s much better than
I’ll ever be,” she said. “But, Gideon, you said something happened.”

Gideon’s relaxed smile
disappeared, and she could see him draw himself up to his full height, which
was over six feet. “It’s Jet. He’s missing, and we are afraid that the Fractus
have taken him.”

“Jet and Chrome are the
wolves who protected me after I’d been attacked by Sanguina,” she explained to
Thai. “They have the ability to follow magic trails.”

“They’re brothers?” Thai
asked.

“Mates for life,” Gideon
replied. “Their connection intensifies their powers, and until recently, they
have never failed to trace magic anywhere it has been used, even after several
days have passed.”

“So can’t Chrome follow
the trail of magic to discover what happened to Jet?” she asked.

“He can sense nothing.
It’s similar to how they couldn’t sense the transparent men who attacked you in
Messina. That’s why we think the Fractus are involved.”

“How can I help?”

“Chrome has specifically
asked if you will join the search party. He’s not sure who we’re going to have
to fight, and he wants you with us. He’s seen you in action and thinks you’re
the best. And right now, he wants the best on his team.”

Valerie’s desire to stay
on Earth with Thai warred with what she knew was right. Everything was just
beginning between them, and the thought of leaving seemed wrong—like she was
torn in two. But there wasn’t really a choice.

“Of course I’ll be on
the team,” she said. “Please tell Chrome how sorry I am that this has happened.”

“I will. It will be good
to have you back, Valerie.” Gideon’s tall form vanished, leaving her alone with
Thai.

“You want to help me out
of here?” Valerie asked, reaching up for Thai’s hand.

“Sure,” he said, but
when he held out his hand, she pulled him into the deep end. He surfaced,
spluttering. “You’re going to pay for that!”

He dunked her, and she
retaliated, splashing him back. He chased her down to the shallow end of the
pool, where she let him catch her.

“I know I have to, but I
don’t want to go. I want to stay with you,” she confessed.

“I couldn’t watch you
here, getting weaker every day. It would kill me. But I do wish I could go with
you. Half of me is going to be ripped away.”

“You have no idea how
much I wanted to hear you say that.”

She was back in his
arms, his lips against hers. The warmth from the first time tingled through
her, but hotter. But suddenly his kiss changed, became harder, and the light
inside her went out. She pulled away quickly.

“Tan?”

He threw back his head
and laughed. “How’d you know it was me?”

“Why did you do that?”
she asked, her hands involuntarily balling into fists.

“Wow, sorry. But surely
you can see the humor in this.”

Rage built in her. She
wanted to smack the smirk of his face. What stopped her was knowing that Thai
would suffer from any damage she did to Tan. She got out of the pool and
squeezed the water out of her long hair. Her clothes were drenched. The night
was ruined, just like her shirt.

Valerie awoke as dawn rose over the
mountains. In spite of the chilly night, she had decided to sleep on a lawn
chair rather than face her brother’s concern. He was sure to sense that
something was wrong, and she couldn’t handle any questions. But she couldn’t
put it off any longer, so she crept back to her room and into her bed without
waking Henry or his dad. Was Thai back in the driver’s seat, or was Tan was
still running the show?

“Val, you awake?” Cyrus
whispered, appearing next to her on her bed. His golden hair was messy and his
clothes were rumpled.

“Did you find out
anything about the woman who attacked Zaki?”

He shook his head. “I’m
not here about that. Something horrible has happened. It’s Kanti.”

Henry sat up in bed. “What
is it?”

“We don’t know,” Cyrus
said miserably. “We were going through picture after picture of Conjurors who
had a history of working with the Fractus, and we both fell asleep. When I woke
up, she was surrounded by this mist of sticky threads, like she was inside a
cocoon.”

“Is she—alive?” Henry
whispered.

“Yes, her heart is
beating. But we don’t know what to do—we can’t cut through the threads with any
tool on the Globe. Her parents came and took her back to their castle in
Elsinore. They’re going to bring in the best doctors to check on her.”

“I can’t believe this,”
Valerie said.

“It has to be the
Fractus,” Henry said, and he set his jaw. Instead of falling apart, as she
expected, his eyes turned steely. “I’m going to find whoever did this to her
and make them reverse it.”

She nodded. Any shred of
doubt she had about leaving was gone.

“Please tell us if you
hear anything more,” she said to Cyrus, who nodded.

“I’ll see what I can
find out and will let you both know.”

A knock on the door woke
up Joe, and Cyrus disappeared. Zaki and Chisisi were waiting for them, so Valerie
and Henry quickly showered and changed.

In the hotel’s
restaurant, they discussed their plans over breakfast. Thai was nowhere to be
seen. It troubled her that she hadn’t been able to talk to him again after Tan
had taken over—to make sure he was okay.

“It’s a long hike. We
will need to travel quickly all day to make it there by nightfall,” Zaki said.

“When the sun sets and
rises, the bonds holding the magic on Earth are the weakest, so we must depart
immediately to make it on time,” Chisisi explained.

“And spending the night
in the wilderness is not as romantic as it seems. Especially for a modern man
like myself who values a flushing toilet,” Zaki added.

“It goes without saying
that I’m coming with you,” Joe said to Henry, and Valerie could see the quiet
strength behind his tired eyes.

“What about Thai?”
Valerie asked nervously. “We can’t leave without him.”

“We don’t have to,”
Chisisi said, nodding toward the window.

Thai walked out of the
woods and toward the hotel. He held his hand to his temples, and in that
gesture she guessed how weary he was. Regaining control must have been a
struggle.

After checking out of
the hotel, the group headed into the woods. Zaki walked confidently, without
once checking a compass. At first, she couldn’t understand how he could be so
certain about the way, but then she sensed it. Power hummed around her, and the
pull of magic drawing drew her northeast.

Henry and his dad hung a
little behind, murmuring to each other. She gave them some time to talk alone,
and caught up to Thai, who was walking with Chisisi.

“Rough night?” she
asked.

“What do you think?” he
snapped, and sped up to walk beside Zaki.

“Your young man aches to
accompany you,” Chisisi said. “It will be doubly painful for him to watch you
go this second time. I remember his grief when you left last time.”

“But we were just
friends then.”

He raised his eyebrows,
but said no more. Around noon, the group stopped for lunch, which Zaki and
Chisisi pulled out of their hiking packs. Valerie forced herself to eat her
sandwich, but her stomach was churning.

She figured that she was
probably anxious about Kanti, or Jet, or Thai, but none of those reasons seemed
right. It was as if there was an itch she couldn’t scratch, but she tried to shrug
it off. Maybe it was a result of her exhaustion. The hike would be difficult
even if she was well, but as weak as she was now, her feet had begun feeling like
they were filled with lead miles ago.

“You doing okay?” Thai
asked as they packed up the remains of their lunch and resumed their walk.

“A little tired, but
I’ll be fine soon.”

“I’m sorry about before.
It was hard to have Tan take over last night. If he wasn’t a part of me, I
would have hit him.”

She smiled. “I was
tempted to do that myself. But I didn’t think you’d appreciate the black eye
the next day.”

“I don’t know what’s
wrong with him. Before Venu, he was always so happy, like a little kid. Now,
there’s this darkness, and it scares me. Because if he’s capable of all this
rage and hate, then maybe I am, too, you know?”

“No, Thai. I know you
both, and as much as I care about Tan, at some point, you turned into very
different people.”

He grabbed her hand. She
squeezed it, and the thrill of the contact gave her a jolt of energy.

“I can’t believe that I
won’t be able to touch you after today,” he said, his intense gaze making her
feel like they were the only two people on the planet. “At least until I’m on
the Globe by your side.”

Cyrus cleared his
throat, and Thai dropped her hand. She turned around and saw him staring at
them.

“Everything okay?” she
asked.

“How’s Kanti?” Henry
interrupted.

Cyrus gave himself a
little shake. “She’s better, I guess. The doctors say that she’s breathing and
her heart rate is normal. They’re bringing healers from around the Globe to see
what they can do to help her.”

“I have to see her,”
Henry said, and he started to walk faster.

Ahead, Zaki and Chisisi
had stopped. When the group caught up to them, Valerie saw that they had
reached a deep crack in the earth. Chisisi explained, “We’ll need to rappel down
the cliff wall of this ravine. Our hike is going to be much more difficult from
here on out.”

Quickly and efficiently,
Zaki uncoiled a long rope and anchored it on a nearby tree. He set up the
harness and demonstrated to everyone how to rappel. Valerie’s hands started to
sweat.

Her brother squeezed her
arm. “It’ll be fun. This is a minor adventure compared to the Devil’s Pool,
right? And I’ll be waiting for you at the bottom.”

She nodded, and then
watched first Joe, then Henry, quickly rappel down the wall and out of sight.
Thai gave her a hug. “Your turn. I’ll be watching from the top, too.”

Zaki hooked her into the
harness, and she began to descend as he had shown her. At first, she only let
herself move slowly, but as she gained confidence, she let herself fall faster,
enjoying the wind rushing past her face.

Thai, Chisisi, and Zaki
joined them at the bottom of the ravine. It was shadowed in the narrow crevice,
and a river ran through the middle. It was tame where they were now, but she
could see down a ways that the water was white with little waves.

“We’re not going to have
to swim in this river, are we?” she asked apprehensively.

“No, we’ll use climbing
gear where we must so that we don’t fall in the water. These rapids would be
dangerous for even the strongest swimmer,” Zaki said, more serious now than
she’d seen him before.

The group was much
quieter as they walked through the ravine. It was cool and damp, and the
familiar squeezing sensation that gripped her whenever she was in a tight space
returned. It reminded her of walking through the tunnel that led to the launch
chamber inside the Great Pyramid, and of the foster home where she had been
locked in a cabinet under the sink whenever she was bad. She shuddered at the
memory.

Thai reached for her
hand again, and the tension in her muscles relaxed a little. After all, she
wasn’t alone down here. Some of the people she trusted most in the universe
were by her side.

A mile or so later, the
river widened, leaving only a narrow patch of land on one side of the ravine.
Zaki put a harness on and grabbed a rope.

“I will test the route
and set an anchor rope up there,” he said, pointing to a ledge a hundred meters
down and a good ways up the wall of the ravine.

They waited, watching
silently as Zaki made his way up. At one point, he nearly slipped, and she let
out a quiet breath of relief as he regained his footing.

“This is a tough climb,”
Henry said. “But Zaki knows what he’s doing.” But he was absently chewing his
thumbnail again.

The rest of Zaki’s climb
went smoothly, and he made it to the ledge and set up the anchor.

“You’re shaking,” Thai
said quietly to her.

“I thought he might
slip. I’m just relieved.”

“I will go next and mark
where you should place your hands and feet,” Chisisi said.

Chisisi used chalk to
mark his hand and footholds, and she was relieved that she wouldn’t have to
grope for the best spot like Zaki had.

“It will be much less
dangerous for the rest of us now that the rope is in place and the best
handholds are marked,” Joe assured her. “Henry and I will go ahead of you to
test the route.”

She watched closely as
they went across, noticing the spots that seemed slippery or hard to hold.
Father and son made it across safely, and she let out a breath that she didn’t
know she’d been holding.

“I’ll be right behind
you,” Thai whispered in her ear, sending a pleasant shiver down her neck.

Carefully, Valerie began
her climb. She tested each spot before she put her weight on it, as she had
seen the others do, forcing herself to ignore her trembling muscles. It was
frustrating to be so weak.

She was more than
halfway there when her foot slipped and she fell toward the water. Abruptly the
rope went taut and pulled her back against the wall of the ravine. She crashed
into it, hitting the side of her face. The spray from the rushing water hit her
shins. Adrenaline shot through her body, and she was grateful for it. It gave
her the burst of energy she badly needed to make it back up.

She scrabbled against
the slippery rock wall, grasping for handholds. She heard voices calling down
to her, but she couldn’t make out the words over the crash of the water against
the rocks. Chisisi’s chalk marks were several meters above her, useless down where
she was. At last, she found a good hold for first her right hand, then her
left. Carefully, she pulled her way up, forcing herself to breathe slowly. She
imagined that this was one of Gideon’s exercises for her, to test her courage
and strength without using her magic.

She focused on finding
the next handhold, to the exclusion of everything else. After a few tense
minutes, she reached the first of Chisisi’s chalk marks. Slowly, she inched up
to the ledge, and when she was close enough, Chisisi pulled her up the rest of
the way.

As her adrenaline
subsided, her old exhaustion pulled at her consciousness. But she forced
herself to stay alert as Thai made the climb. He was quick, and soon, he was by
her side.

“You almost gave me a
heart attack,” he said, wiping some blood off of her face from the small cuts
on her forehead and cheek.

“Don’t be such a drama
queen,” she teased him.

“Please tell me we’re
close,” Henry said, putting a protective hand on her back. She couldn’t help
the exhaustion that seemed to be coming off of her in waves.

“We are. The most
difficult part is past,” Chisisi assured them.

“How do you figure?” she
asked. The ledge they were standing on seemed disconnected from everything—a
long climb up or down, depending on where they were going.

A strange beating sound
echoed faintly down the ravine, and a familiar tingle made the hair on her arms
stand on end—danger.

“We’re being followed,”
she said.

Zaki and Chisisi glanced
down the ravine, but no one was visible yet.

“The door to the chamber
is here,” Zaki said, running his hand over the bumpy rock wall. “But you won’t
be able to travel from here for another hour, at sunset.”

“So we’ll be standing
here exposed until then?” Thai asked.

“Not exactly,” Zaki
said. “Henry, Valerie, press your hands here.” He pointed to an indentation in
the wall, and they did as they were told.

A crack in the rock
flashed blue, and they could see the outline of a door. Together they pushed,
and the rock slid back to reveal a dark cave. She shuddered, dreading the walk
through the close darkness.

“Now this is a little
more worthy of the kind of adventure taken by such brave souls as ourselves,”
Zaki said, making Valerie smile in spite of herself.