“Why? You’re destined to die, Montana. Why would anyone fight for a leader who’s willing to give up and be a sacrifice?”
“I’m not willing!” I charged him, ready to fight him and anyone else who thought that. “I will never give up. I will never stop fighting.”
“You sure about that?”
“I will never stop,” I repeated with more conviction than I’d ever felt in my life. I would never give up. Never.
Clay’s grin baffled me. Why the hell was he smiling? “There she is. Thought we lost you there for a minute.”
“You’re an asshole.” I laughed when he laughed. He was right. I couldn’t get lost in the noise. Maybe I’d die. Maybe I’d live. I refused to accept the fact my death was the only way the rest of the world could live. If it happened, it happened, but I couldn’t let fear stop me.
“Leo, you and Rob head to the mountains. Get the snow ghosts on our side. Bryan and I are going on the hunt for Bigfoot.” That sentence still sounded ridiculous.
“And I get to stay here.” Clay pretended to wave a flag. “Yay, me.”
“Katy!” Someone yelled from the ground. I rushed to the opening to see several people gathering, Serenity at the front. “You’d better get down here. We’ve got new members.”
“A lot of new members,” the alchemist to her left added.
I descended and joined them, the guys by my side. Although I tried to greet every new member and thank them for joining Sentry, I couldn’t greet them all. It was weird for Serenity to call me down to do that very thing. She’d never done that before. What made these new members so special? “Where are they?”
“Hi, Katy!”
No. It couldn’t be. Recognizing that overly enthused greeting, I whipped around to see little Trevor Carson bolting toward me, his giant owlish glasses crooked as they slid down the bridge of his nose. He didn’t slow until he crashed into me, embracing me so tight, it knocked the wind out of me.
What was he doing here?
“Trevor?” I finally got out after pulling in some air. “How did you get here?”
“I brought him.” Lulu, the mother hen of the academy who’d left after the battle that’d divided our world and resulted in the death of the dean, walked up looking as eccentric as ever. She had on an orange velvet muumuu, iridescent sandals, and a hat topped by a mini replica of her shoes, iridescence and all. Her frizzy scarlet hair seemed brighter than the last time I’d seen her. Then again, she’d been forced into an elemutus and incarcerated for months for speaking out against the Council the last time I’d seen her.
“Lulu!” I threw out my aversion to being touched and pulled her into a giant bear hug. “I thought you were in Nevada with your sister. How’d you find us?”
“Someone calling themselves the custodian gave Trevor the coordinates and told him to reach out to me. He told me what was happening at Clearwater, how those magically enhanced were forced to wait on the others. Is it really true that Virgil Graves put Alec von Leer in charge? That leechers have taken over the academy?”
“I wish it weren’t.”
“I knew that place would fall apart without me.” She waved for me to follow. “Come. There’s someone I’d like for you to meet.” I followed her over to a fallen tree I didn’t remember seeing before. As soon as I spotted the two-foot-tall yellowish-green pixie with translucent wings directing the flurry of pixies on how to hollow out the log, I skidded to a stop. “Katy Reed, I’d like you to meet Xye.”
“We’ve met.” I continued to study the head pixie until Xye acknowledged me with a slow nod. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m unsure how to answer that.”
“You said you wouldn’t help, that this wasn’t your battle.”
“I consulted with my brethren. While the snow ghosts were hesitant to join the fight, the yetis and lava snakes were both eager to restore balance to our world.”
Our world. Xye had said our world. Progress. “You mean you recruited them for me?”
“For our world,” Xye corrected, blinking those enormous eyes.
“Thank you.” I bowed, grateful to have not only the pixies but all the legends on our side. This tipped the scale in our favor.
“Know this, prophecy. The elements are restless, unstable as we draw closer to our pivotal battle. Assure them of your intent and assure your victory. Forcing them to obey your calls will only anger them. They do not like to be used as weapons.”
That much I’d already figured out, and thanked them every chance I got when I needed to call on them to help me. “Understood. Thank you, Xye. I truly appreciate what you’ve done for our world.”
Xye nodded in return. “I’ve done my part. Now, prophecy, you must do yours.”
Please don’t let that be me winding up as the next resident of the elemental morgue.
“Katy!” Trevor’s overly exuberant shout pulled my attention. “My mom said she wants to meet you.”
“Your mom is here?” I thought she was a Nelem. Why would she be here in the grove?
“Mom! Mom!”
At least my name wasn’t the only one he shouted.
A thin woman with a mess of blonde hair and giant owlish glasses stilled as we approached. Trevor grabbed my hand and dragged me with him, pushing me in front of the woman. “Katy Reed, this is Margo Carson. She’s my mom.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” I offered my hand.
She looked at it and didn’t offer hers in return. Instead, she eyed it as if it were covered in boils or something equally as gross. “You are Katy Reed?”
“I am.” And I didn’t appreciate her cold reception thus far. I lowered my hand. “Trevor said you wanted to meet me.”
She regarded me as she spoke to her son.
