The Zodiac Collector (32 page)

“Dude.” Evan's eyes widen.

Mary tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear and pats Evan's chest. “We'll find a way out.”

William stuffs his hands in his front pockets. “With our memories intact.”

“We have a plan—” I start.

Evan interrupts, “What do I have to do?”

“When we invoke our signs here, they…” I pause and glance at Mary.

“They possess us,” she finishes.

“Let's do it.” Evan gives a single nod.

His sign, the Ram, materializes as soon as we say the invocation chant (it's the same one we used for Libra, but we substitute in the Ram for Aries). He smiles, flexing his arms when the power of his sign is given to him. “I feel like I can do anything!”

I put my hands up to calm him. Fire symbols are so… fiery. “Easy. I know it's super cool, but we need to get Capricorn and Cancer on board next, okay?”

William nods and slaps Evan's shoulder. “Yeah, dude, chill out.”

Evan relaxes, and the flames behind his eyes simmer down. The Scales must have had an effect. Even so, he still has an edge. “How come I was able to shoot fire from my hands before being possessed by the Ram's power?”

I shrug. “Dunno. We'd invoked your sign at Gamma's. That could have something to do with it.”

Evan puffs his chest. “I want to test my power. See if it's different.”

William's brow shoots toward his hairline.

Mary cuffs Evan's wrist with her fingers. “Be careful.”

Evan grins. He twists his hand around so he's holding Mary's and draws her hand to his lips. “Don't worry.” He lets her go.

She snatches his collar and plants a solid kiss on his mouth.

William covers his mouth with a fist and coughs. He spins on his toes, turning his back to them, then wags his eyebrows at me.

I sigh. Geez, I need to take some lessons from Mary. I'd never be brave enough to kiss William, slam, bam, just like Spam.

Like before, Evan points his hands to the sky. He stands there for a long time, not moving, like a praying Bible-thumper caught in the bliss of faith.

“Nothing's happening. Why isn't anything happening?” Mary tugs on my sleeve.

An evil cackle floods around us. Mary, William, and Evan huddle near me.

“Keep your backs to me and call your signs.” We stand back to back to back to back so Zeena can't sneak up behind us. “Castor!”

Mary yells, “Pollux!”

William barks, “Libra!”

Evan rounds us out. “Aries!”

A dark figure emerges from the fog directly in front of me. I stumble into the backs of my sister, boyfriend, and friend. They turn to face Zeena. William to my left and Mary to my right with Evan on the other side of her. A united line of Zodiac powers.

Zeena tucks her hands into the sleeves of her cloak. “It's amazing how you refuse to give up, Anne Devans. I've collected all the signs. I've defeated you.”

“You haven't won yet. We're still able to fight,” I counter.

“You're as stubborn as my sister.” Zeena swills something in her mouth and spits it on the ground. It sizzles and eats into the marble ground.

Ew.

“Who's your sister, the Wicked Witch of the West?”

“Anne,” Mary elbows me in the side. “Don't provoke her.”

Zeena smiles, but narrows her eyes. “You should listen to Mary. She's more level-headed than you. Edith is like that too. Thought she could talk me out of collecting the signs. She knew nothing.”

Edith
. For the first time since I'd arrived in this alternate plane, the air leaves my lungs. “Gamma?”

Mary grips my hand. “She's lying. Don't listen to her.”

“Nice try, little girl.” Zeena digs into a deep fold of her cloak. She draws out a photo. It's curling and one edge is torn. “Take a look.”

The photo levitates above her palm and coasts toward me on a subtle air current. I pluck it from the mini-breeze and hold it for Mary and me to see. The image is blurred, in black and white. Two women sit on a sofa-sized rock. They're wearing matching sundresses and sandals. Broad smiles brighten their faces. Crowns of daisies adorn their heads.

Mary points at the lady on the left. “Grandmother.”

Thick-rimmed, cat's-eye-shaped glasses. Strong arch to the eyebrows. A bangle bracelet on each arm. It
is
her.

“And me.” Zeena snaps her fingers and the picture flies from my hand to hers. With it, my confidence in Gamma flutters away, tattered by the breeze of doubt. She must know about Zeena…Eneaz…her sister. Didn't she think she should tell us? The ache of her secret burrows into my chest, cinches around my heart, and cuts off my circulation.

“You're Eneaz. Gamma never said what happened to you,” I confess.

“That's Great Aunt Eneaz to you,” she corrects. “I'm not surprised she didn't tell you about me. We haven't really kept in touch.” She shrugs. “Now that the family reunion is over, let's get down to business.”

I shake my head, clearing out the lightheadedness from Zeena's “hey, we're family” atom bomb. “What's so important about collecting the signs? You're stealing people, ripping them from their lives, their families, and their friends.”

“You've felt the power of an invoked sign. Imagine having all twelve of them coursing through you.” She closes her eyes and sways left to right. A contented smile lifts the corners of her lips. Then the smile fades and she sets her cold gaze on me. “I won't let Edith's hot-headed, strong-willed granddaughter steal it away from me.”

“Then let us go. And we'll stop fighting you.”

“The signs will never grant your freedom. They do as I say.
I
rule them. Me. No one else!” she screams.

“Then how was it that we were able to invoke the twins? And Libra? And Aries? The signs may not want you to be their boss,” I hiss.

“They're mine! They'll never listen to you!” Zeena's cry shakes the earth, echoes in the sky, and tremors its way down my spine.

“Uh, guys. Get ready.” Mary's voice wobbles.

I clasp hands with William.

Zeena steeples her hands and begins chanting.

“We need to get to Cancer. Concentrate on the Crab,” William says.

A swirl of red and yellow pours from our bodies, circles us in a tornado of wind and fire, and whisks us away from Zeena. Heat buffets me, but doesn't burn. Wind slaps my face, but doesn't suffocate me.

William and Mary's hands tighten around mine. We anchor each other. It's the only thing keeping us together.

Evan yelps, “Wahoo!”

At least someone's enjoying himself.

Just when a scream builds up enough pressure in my chest to bust free, we're abruptly plopped onto solid ground. The shock of it reverberates in my legs and my knees buckle. I drag everyone down with me.

I untangle my fingers from William and Mary and push up on my hands and knees.

Standing a few feet away, hands splayed in our direction, is a red-haired, sour-faced kid. Freckles crowd his cheeks and forehead. His clothes are dirty and torn. Steam escapes off his fingers. The last thing I need is a geyser lobbed at me.

“Easy, guy, we're here to help. I'm Anne. This is Mary, Evan, and William. Cancer is your sign, right?” I talk fast.

“Did you make that red and yellow cyclone?” His dark gaze volleys between us.

“Zee—”

I clamp a hand over William's mouth. “Don't say her name.”

He says, “Okay,” but it's muffled by my hand.

I let go.

William stands slowly and positions himself between Cancer Kid and the rest of us. “We were attacked and needed a fast getaway.”

Cancer Kid frowns. “Who's Zee?”

I give a short description. “The old witch. Black cloak, yellow teeth, ugly face.”

Recognition lights his face. “I met her at a Renaissance Faire. Her shoppe was in the woods. She asked me about my birthday, if I believed in magick. I laughed, but then she started talking about the constellations and I got totally sucked in. Stupid me for liking astronomy.” He pauses to take a couple quick breaths. “She had me repeat a poem with her about my Zodiac sign and before I knew it, she was talking really fast and then this flash of light blinded me and… Man, it hurt really bad, like all my bones were breaking.”

“She was sending you here.”

“Where are we?” He looks around. “All this fog. I can't see anything. Every time I leave, these blue streaks surround me and push me back here.”

Mary and I lock gazes.

“I keep hearing all this yelling and screaming. The ground shakes.” His face grows red. “I just want to go home.”

The unsteadiness of his voice tears at me. “We all do.”

“I'm Libra. The girls are Gemini, and Evan is Aries. If we pool our signs' powers together, we might be able to beat the witch and get out of here.” The scales appear behind William and a calming energy floats around us. He touches Cancer Kid's shoulder.

“What if it doesn't work?” The kid asks.

“What other choice do we have?” William replies.

He nods. “All I want is to get out of here. I'm Trevor, by the way.”

William shakes the kid's hand. “Nice to meet you, Trevor. Welcome to the team.”

Trevor smiles. “Good team to be on, if it gets us home.” I let out a pent-up breath.

He snorts. “I didn't think she could do real magick. I mean, who would? I should've listened to my sister, but I thought it was all a joke.”

I wish I'd listened to my sister too. “Z's powerful. It's not your fault.”

He wipes his hands on his brightly colored Bermuda shorts. “So what do I have to do?”

I smile. “Hold my hand.”

I help him chant to invoke his power. A blue Crab forms over his head, then streams into his mouth.

He drops to his knees, panting. “Whoa. That was weird…but cool.”

William grins. “One more Cardinal sign, and we're done.”

“Then we get the heck out of here,” I say. Should be easy as riding a tornado.

Chapter Twenty-Six

W
e crash-land in a heap on Capricorn's territory.

“Whoa! That's wild!” Trevor exclaims. I have to agree. Adding his power made traveling by whirlwind all the more frenzied.

The tri-color swirls dissipate. We haul each other upright and search for Capricorn, the goat, an earth sign.

“Over there,” Mary gestures to a tower of vines piled next to the sign's arch.

A girl, younger than the rest of us, huddles behind the mass of leaves. Her golden hair is soaked, and bits of mud cling to her blue wrap dress and pale limbs. She is shaking. “P-please don't hurt me!”

Mary approaches her slowly, but steadily. “We're here to help. We need the power of your sign to help us escape. Will you join us?”

“How do I know this isn't a trick?” She nestles herself deeper in the foliage.

“Trust me, it's not.” William edges closer to her.

I lean toward Evan. “We should keep an eye out for Z.”

He nods and promptly pins his back to mine. Trevor does the same, so we form a triangle with a 360-degree view of the swirling fog.

As soon as William touches the girl, her shoulders relax and a grin spreads across her face. “I tried to get one of the other kids to help me, but he threw a fireball and ran.”

William hooks an arm around her shoulder in his easy way and guides her over to us. Mary flanks her other side.

She extends a shaky hand to me. “I'm Callie.”

I take her hand. “I'm Anne.”

“How do you guys know each other? I mean, I can tell you and Mary are twins, but…” her voice trails off.

“We just met Trevor. William and Evan are our friends.” Friends?
Friends
. I said William and I are friends. I watch his face for any signs of happiness, disappointment, anxiety, or anything.

He plays it cool, keeping an encouraging smile on his face for Callie. Dang levelheaded Libra.

“You have some good friends,” Callie says.

She couldn't be more right.

With Callie on board, we've collected all the Cardinal signs. We walk through the arch, like the cast of a TV legal drama struts down the courthouse's hallway. Except for the slow-motion part.

The mist grows thinner the farther we go. Soon, it's completely gone. We pause.

Giant puddles of water pool in holes blasted out of the marble flooring. Jagged slabs of earth dot across the arena. Smoldering bits of ash fizzle and smoke here and there. Intermittent bursts of wind whack us.

“It's a war zone,” I grumble.

One kid darts from behind a mound of dirt and bellyflops to slide behind another. A fireball collides with the spot he just vacated. Another kid yells and shoots a geyser back.

“Now what?” William yells into my ear.

I hesitate, uncertain. “How do you call a cease-fire?”

Mary tugs on a curl. “We need to combine our signs and do something drastic.”

“That's a great idea!” Trevor holds up his hand to high-five her.

She obliges him, then grins at Evan.

“Awesome idea.” He wraps his arms around her and pecks her on the cheek.

She blushes.

“Did you have something in mind?” I ask.

“Z said the signs would never listen to us. But if enough of us are working together, maybe they will. Plus, we've got the Cardinal signs. The others will have to listen, right?”

“She did say that!”

Evan scratches his chin. “Bet she didn't mean to tell us that, too.”

“I bet not.” Mary tangles her fingers with his. “Once they're listening, we can ask them to let us out.”

“It has to work.” I close my eyes and open them again to take in all the people who've helped me. My sister, my best friend, a new friend, and new acquaintances.

Mary brushes my hair with her fingers. “What's wrong?”