Alight The Peril (21 page)

Her eyes glinted. “Clever, my dear. If you can draw her out, I think the four of you have an excellent chance of overpowering her.”

I let out a whoosh of breath. With both Zane and Aunt Dorothy’s stamp of approval, the plan had to be a winner.

I chewed at my thumbnail for a moment. “Why does the convergence change with the solstice, anyway?”

“It’s an ancient relationship, as far as I understand.” Aunt Dorothy frowned. “You know there are other convergences.” I nodded. Her frown deepened for a moment. “The others are much, much older than ours. And there were still others that no longer exist.”

“They just disappeared?” I said.

“More like faded away. Just as the configuration of the earth changes over time—continents shift, mountain ranges rise and fall—the configuration of this world in relation to the hypercosmic realm also shifts.”

“So, someday the Tapestry Lake convergence will be gone, too,” I said. What earthly or cosmic shifts would that require? Thoughts of Zane’s prophecy flashed through my mind, and I shook my head. “But what’s the relationship with the solstice?”

“Sunlight fuels the plant life that grows in our meadow. But it’s not just about plants, as you know. The botanicals are merely one physical manifestation of the source of the pyramidal union and all that goes with it. The convergences are actually the remnants of a civilization that faded away long ago.”

“What, like, aliens or something?” My eyes grew wide.

“No, no. They’re sometimes called the People of Peace. Or People of the Other Realm.” She paused, and her mouth quirked in a ghost of a grin. “Some call them fairies.”

I stared at her, not even trying to hide my incredulity. “You have
got
to be kidding me.” Then something seriously disturbing occurred to me. “Aunt Dorothy, if you say that I’m part fairy or something, I’m telling you right now, I’m going to lose it.”

The sound of her laugh rang through the kitchen. “Oh, my dear, no. That civilization died out centuries ago.”

I let out a huge breath, and then chuckled. “Thank you. There’s only so much I can handle.”

“Only one of their kind remains,” she said. “I met him once.”

This conversation was turning into a surreal roller coaster of revelations. I waited for her to continue.

“He comes here to record the names on the scroll,” she said.

“That piece of paper in the
pyxis
?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“So he’s the one who brought the
pyxis
to Tapestry in the first place,” I said. “Wait, there’s a name missing, though. Sophie’s wasn’t filled in.”

“I expect he’ll return soon to complete the scroll,” Aunt Dorothy said.

* * *

Later, I borrowed Aunt Dorothy’s Buick so I could run a couple of errands for her, and I stopped by Angeline’s house. We sat on the floor of her loft bedroom with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and glasses of milk. The loft took up practically half the second floor of the house. She had a corner of it set up with a sofa and a TV, a secondhand desk she’d painted and made into a vanity next to her dresser, two closets, a mini fridge with sodas in it, and still plenty of space to spare. I’d always envied Ang’s room.

“Did you seriously think she’d say you were a descendant of ancient fairy folk?” Ang fell over on her side, dissolving into a fit of giggles.

“What?” I tried to give her a dirty look, but started cracking up. “Can you really blame me after everything else that’s happened?”

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Ang said. She pulled a straight face that lasted about two seconds before she snorted out another laugh.

“Anyway, moving on.” I gave her a pointed look until she stopped snickering. “Actually, there’s something else I have to tell you. About Zane.” I took a huge bite of gooey cookie.

“Did you see him again? Well, not ‘see’ exactly. I mean . . . you know what I mean.”

I nodded and swallowed. “Yeah, we kind of met up. I wanted his help with something. And then he told me that he sometimes gets visions of the future. He had one about me.”

Ang’s eyes widened.

I cleared my throat and swallowed. “He said that he and I are destined to be together.”

“Like,
together
together?”

“I guess so,” I said. I looked down into the bit of milk remaining in my glass, and swirled it around in the glass. “Apparently his visions always come true.”

“Wow.” Ang gaped at me, and then frowned. “But what about Mason?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say when or how or anything. But I’m thinking, how’s that going to work? He’s part of the Perth pyramidal union; I’m part of ours here. It’s not like we’re free to just pick up and move. I mean, even when I’m, like, thirty, I’m still going to be tied to this place.”

Ang bit her lips and a look of worry clouded her face. “Yeah. It seems pretty far-fetched. You know he’s able to link with you, but it’s not like he’s going to take Mason’s place here or anything. Would he?”

“I can’t imagine why that would happen.”

Ang shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you think Zane is lying?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think so. I don’t know why he’d do that. I just don’t know if. . . .”

Ang waited for me to finish.

“Do you think I should tell Mason about it?”

“Yeah, you should. But wait until after the solstice, when things have calmed down. We don’t know what the prophecy really means, or even if it’s real. I think it would be bad to do anything to upset our union right now, you know?”

“You’re probably right.” I sighed. “We don’t need that. The four of us are just barely starting to come together. I guess I should try to stop thinking about the prophecy. I have plenty of other things on my mind, you know?”

“True. Worrying isn’t going to change anything.” She gave me a sympathetic look.

We chatted for a few more minutes, and then I left for Aunt Dorothy’s. Despite saying that I wasn’t going to worry about it, I couldn’t stop thinking about Zane’s prophecy. And Zane. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that it meant something bad for Mason.

That night, I went to bed early, exhausted from absorbing so much new information.

Sometime in the night, I smelled the sweet aroma of fresh cinnamon rolls. I opened my eyes and found myself facing my grandmother in her kitchen.

“Grandma Doris, is this . . . I mean, are you. . . ?”

She beamed at me, and I knew she’d brought me here, to the hypercosmic realm. “How are you, dear?” she said, her voice a softer version of Aunt Dorothy’s.

“I’m . . . I don’t even know where to begin.” My voice faltered as tears filled my eyes. “I wish you were home with us.”

“I know you do, dear.” She reached across the table and patted my hand. I wiped my sleeve across my face.

“Bradley is sick. So are a bunch of other kids,” I said. “I’m trying to cure them. I don’t know if it’s working.”

“Your tincture should help. It takes time, but it’s the safest way.” She gave me a solemn look, and a stone seemed to sink down through my chest. “Corinne, there’s something you need to know.”

“Is it about Quicksilver?” I said. “Aunt Dorothy just told me about him, how he’s going to return at the winter solstice.”

“He won’t be alone,” she said. “He’s building a shadow army.”

“A . . . what?”

“It’s difficult to describe, but we believe he’s forming beings from the fog, as you call it. And then he’ll animate them using the threads of subconscious in the hypercosmic realm.”

“Is that even possible?” Who could she mean when she said “we?” Maybe the people—ghosts?—with the gift of foresight Aunt Dorothy had told me about.

“We do not know for sure, but if there’s even a chance . . . ” My grandmother raised her eyes, as if she saw something in the distance behind me. “It would be our worst nightmares brought to life.”

I twisted my fingers together in my lap. “Does Aunt Dorothy know about this?” I asked.

“She knows. But she believes it is rumor at most. And she wants to protect you from rumors and the often needless worry they cause.”

“I knew it,” I said. “I bet there are all kinds of things she’s not telling me. But . . . what am I going to do, Grandma Doris?” I tried to sound brave.

“I do not know, child,” she said. I reveled in the kind smile I hadn’t seen for ages. “But I’m working on it.”

I opened my eyes and stared at the small, kidney-shaped water stain on the ceiling of my bedroom. I’d post something on the website about my grandmother’s message as soon as I got up. The prospect of an army of shadow men left my chest tight with dread. I set my jaw and took a deep breath. I could only deal with one thing at a time. And right now, I had a plan for dealing with Harriet. But I’d need the rest of my union.

|| 24 ||

MASON, ANGELINE, AND SOPHIE lay in a row on my bedroom floor.

“Aw, this is hopeless,” Sophie moaned, and her eyes popped open.

“Seriously, Corinne,” Ang said. “Isn’t there anything else you can tell us about how to do this?”

“I’m sorry. I wish there was some easy way to explain it.” I tapped my finger against my cheek. “Let’s try this. You and Sophie relax and even go to sleep if you can, and Mason and I will go over there and try to, like, summon you or something.”

“Okay,” Ang said, doubt in her voice.

I stretched out on my bed and closed my eyes. I’d been practicing popping over the hypercosmic realm, and now I could go from wide awake to the hypercosmic realm in only a few seconds. I didn’t even need to be fully asleep; I could transport myself just by relaxing and spacing out a little, and focusing on the cove. Mason discovered how to do it, too, though he wasn’t as fast as me. I thought that had something to do with my powers strengthening as we approached the solstice.

My mind drifted, and my pulse began to slow. I inhaled deeply and let the breath out to a measured count of ten. By the time I finished counting, I stood on the cool sand near the water’s edge. As always, the darkness of night shrouded the cove here.

A minute or two later, muffled footfalls approached from my right.

“Ha, beat you,” I said to Mason.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said with a wry smile. “You really think we’re going to be able to pull them over here with us? I wasn’t sure what you meant by that.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that makes two of us. I don’t have a clue how to get them here. I guess I was thinking of that time you pulled me into your, um, dream. You know, when it was really cold?”

Mason stuffed his hands in his pockets and snubbed the toe of his sneaker through the sand. “I’m not sure I could do it again. I mean, I don’t even think that was voluntary.”

“Well, we have to figure out something.” I sighed. “We can’t do this without them.”

We walked, side by side, to one of the picnic tables and sat down. Mason leaned back, resting his elbows on the table behind us, and stared up at the stars. Could he produce some twilight rainbows for a little entertainment? Maybe that was possible only when we were in a dream he’d created.

“What exactly do you want us to do?” Mason asked.

“I want to lure Harriet here. Then I want Sophie and Ang to weave a net around her. Zane said that the Guardian nets have physical, tensile strength here.” I glanced at Mason to gauge his reaction.

His eyes hardened and he frowned, and panic gripped my heart. Had I accidentally revealed something about Zane’s prophecy? But then Mason looked at me, troubled but not angry. “Really? That’s kind of counterintuitive, since the nets are more energetic than physical in the waking world.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m not sure how to explain it, but things that are kind of invisible in that world are often more tangible here. Like the threads of subconscious, I guess.”

“Huh, interesting. So Sophie and Angeline tie her up, and then what?”

“I’ll pummel her with influences, and I hope the net will kind of like seal them in and make their effect last longer. I want to trap Harriet here.”

He grew thoughtful. “And what will I be doing while you guys net and influence the crap out of her?”

I grinned and bumped him with my shoulder, and he gave me a half smile. “Basically, I just want you to stand watch, in case we have any surprise visitors,” I said. “You might even be able to help incapacitate her.”

“Nice.” Mason nodded. I could almost hear the gears turning in his head as he worked through the scenario. He loved analyzing all angles of a problem. “But what happens to her physical body once you’ve done all that?”

“She’ll look as if she’s in a coma back in the waking world. We’ll have to tip off someone so an ambulance gets called. When they can’t wake her up, they’ll transport her to a hospital and hook her up to water and feeding tubes or whatever, and take care of her.”

“Risky, but considering what’s at stake, that seems about as humane as we can be,” Mason said.

“Yeah, I don’t want any real harm to come to her,” I said. “I mean, I’m hoping that once the danger passes, I’ll be able to release her from the influence, and maybe she’ll return to her old self.”

“Okay, I approve.” He winked at me and slipped his arm around my back, squeezing my shoulder.

“Whew.” I wiped my brow with mock relief, and shifted a little, leaning into him.

“So you think she’s been infected by the fog? That what we’re seeing is not the real Harriet Jensen?” he asked.

“I like to think so.” I shrugged and scooted my feet back and forth in the sand, making a little pit. “I guess if I’m wrong, we’ll just have to continue to keep her under control or something. I haven’t really gotten that far.”

Mason looked up at the stars for a moment. “Should we try to pull in Ang and Sophie now?” he asked.

“Might as well. I’m going to focus on Ang, and try to reach out to her through the link. Maybe you could try with Sophie whatever you did with me that one time?” A blush heated my cheeks. “Well, not
exactly
what you did with me.”

Mason chuckled. “Sure.”

He removed his arm from my shoulders, turned and swung his legs under the table, and he folded his arms on top of it. He closed his eyes and bowed his head in concentration. I imitated his posture.