Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass (8 page)

“Yes. But the women on trial were Magickeepers who had come to America. They called them witches, but they were like us.”

“That's not in the history books.”

“Of course not. Only the Magickeepers know—the historians like Theo who want to preserve the past. Mary I of England—she also executed many magicians. For heresy.”

“But our family is from Russia, not England.”

She nodded. “Yes, but we’re all from ancient Egypt, a bloodline of Magickeepers. Eventually, we scattered all over
the globe. Our clan went to Russia and stayed. Others are in England. France. Japan. Nearly every country. But we all went underground when the persecutions became bad.”

“But we’re not exactly hidden. We’ve got snow falling on the casino.”

“When the family bought the casino, they thought hiding ourselves as a magic act was brilliant. We’re here, but we’re hidden in a way. And that's how we protect ourselves from the Shadowkeepers. We’re safe here. Right in the spotlight. No one suspects a thing. Damian loves it. He loves how smart it makes him appear—that he's fooling the entire world. We’re hidden—but right out in the open. Safe as long as we stay right where we are. I’ve never lived anywhere else but in this hotel.”

“But you’ve been other places, right? You’ve seen other places.”

“No.”

“What about a regular school?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Ever been skateboarding?”

“No.”

“Eaten a pizza?”

“No.”

Nick squinted and looked over at her. “But…like…that's not normal, Isabella. That's freaky. Pizza is … you just have
to trust me on this one. You definitely want to eat pizza. Maybe there's a spell to make pizzas materialize.”

Isabella laughed, and they continued to float, when suddenly Sascha stood and started pacing back and forth, her claws making a scraping, tapping sound on the tiles. Isabella and Nick each sat up.

“What's wrong, Sascha?” Isabella asked. Now the three polar bears began acting agitated, low growls rumbling in their throats, sounding like outboard motors.

Nick's heart beat a little faster. Sure, the polar bears seemed tame, but what if whatever magic spell Isabella cast on them stopped working, and he was about to be eaten alive by a very hungry polar bear?

Sascha roared—a full roar, no mere growl—and it echoed off the canyon-like walls of the indoor pool. From beneath the door, fingers of black, inky smoke extended, turning oily as the darkness seeped onto the floor. Sascha reared up on her legs as Nick heard Isabella hyperventilating next to him.

“What is it?”

“It's a Shadowkeeper, Nick. I’ve only seen one in the crystal ball. Never in real life. We’re trapped!”

The oil spread across the entire floor, coating everything in thick, slick grease that Nick thought smelled like death. Not that he had ever smelled death before, but he was certain, if he ever did, it would be just like the overpowering scent filling
the room. Nick's throat went dry. Now he realized it was the same scent on his floor at the Pendragon on the last day of school. It was also the scent from the cafeteria that same day.

The oils started to pool together again in one spot, and rose, forming what looked like a human. Nick gripped his polar bear, who was roaring as loud and bone-chillingly as Sascha.

Nick had never felt so cold and terrified in his life. The creature forming from the oil now sprouted leather-like wings, but its face was haggard and lined. It was human— and yet not. Its nose hooked like a shriveled carrot, and its fingers and toes were long, with nails like talons.

Nick looked over at Isabella. She had slid off her polar bear and was treading water. Her bear now climbed from the water and charged the creature, which emitted a sound like a high-pitched hiss. Isabella's bear rose up and swatted at the creature with its paws. With one flick of its wing, the creature sent the polar bear sailing against the floor with a horrifying cry of pain.

“Isabella? What do we do?” Nick whispered, but the creature looked right at him, its eyes an eerie blue color, like his own eyes, but…icier somehow, like they were dead, belonging to a corpse.

Isabella swam away until she was backed up against the wall of the pool. Nick saw her look desperately at the ladder.
There was no way they could climb out and get across the floor to the door after seeing what this thing had done to the polar bear.

Before he had time to think of a plan, his polar bear wrapped his massive body around him. He felt the muscles in his legs and the sharpness of his claws. The bear enveloped him until he couldn’t even see. Nick let out a scream as the animal dove underwater. He took water into his lungs, and felt an agonizing need for air. He struggled against the beast as he dove deeper to the pool bottom. All Nick could see was water and fur and blackness.

They rose to the surface and he spat out water, choking and coughing before they dove again. He heard a loud sound as the creature plunged into the pool and the bear wrapped tighter around him, like a boa constrictor coiling around its prey.

With his hands, Nick beat against the chest of the bear, fighting for air, feeling the icy water up his nose and in his mouth.

The bear squeezed tighter still.

And then Nick's world went completely and utterly dark.

H
E'S WAKING UP! SLAP HIM ON THE BACK!”

From somewhere, like being down a long tunnel, Nick heard voices. His eyelids fluttered, and he had the sudden urge to throw up. Sputtering and coughing, he felt someone turn him on his side and pound his back. Then he heard Isabella's voice. “It's okay, Nick. You’re safe now.”

He opened his eyes and saw Irina, Theo, and Isabella, as well as other members of the clan, staring down at him.

“Kolya…” Irina reached down and touched his cheek. “Are you all right?”

He nodded. Then shivered. His teeth chattered.

“Blankets!” Theo called out. He knelt down and helped Nick to a sitting position as someone wrapped a thick fur blanket around Nick's shoulders.

“What…happened?” Nick tried to think back, but all he remembered was the bear diving underwater with him.

The indoor pool area was now brightly lit up. Nick saw several men beside two of the bears, which lay sprawled on the tile, near the deep end of the pool. Their plush white fur was tinged pink with blood. The third bear was pacing near them, clearly agitated.

“Are they… ?” He didn’t even want to think it.

“No, they’re not dead. But they are injured. If Sascha hadn’t helped even the odds, I don’t know that any of you would have survived,” Theo said softly. He mussed Nick's wet hair.

Isabella's face was pale, and her lips trembled. “The Shadowkeeper didn’t even look at me, Nick. It went right to you. If Mischa hadn’t protected you like that…” She shuddered.

“So…so the bear wasn’t trying to drown me?”

“Drown
you? No!” Isabella said. “He was trying to
save
you.”

“What were you two doing in here?” Theo demanded.

“It was my idea, Theo,” said Isabella. “I thought Nick would like swimming with the bears. I’ve gone swimming with them before.”

“But not at night. You cannot be in here alone. It's not safe anymore.”

“I don’t understand. Safe? The Winter Palace has always been safe for us.” Isabella's voice was tremulous, and Nick worried she would start crying. He hated when girls cried.

Theo sighed. “Not anymore. Come on.” Theo offered Nick his hand to help him stand up. “You need to see something.” Leading the way, he and Irina left the pool area. Nick and Isabella followed them, dripping water on the carpet.

“We are in
so
much trouble,” Isabella whispered.

“Yes, you are,” Irina said over her shoulder. “But thank goodness we got there when we did.”

“What happened to the creature?” Nick asked.

“Vanished.”

A rock of dread sank heavy in Nick's gut. He would have felt a lot better if they had captured the creature, whatever it was.

Theo commanded a heavy door at the end of the hallway to open. It swung wide, though it looked like it was made of pure steel. Inside, banks of computers lined the walls along with dozens and dozens of monitors from security cameras. Members of the clan were pointing at different screens. A large tiger stood guard by the door, its eyes fierce. It stared at Nick as he entered.

Someone pointed at a monitor. “There! See him?”

Nick struggled to see, but the adults blocked his view. One or two of the security men turned around and parted for him and Isabella.

“I’m Zoltan,” said the biggest, burliest—and hairiest— of the men. “I’m the Security Chief. We’re like any other casino.” He pressed buttons and close-ups of gambling tables appeared on some of the monitors. Nick saw dealers passing out cards at blackjack tables, and chips on green felt. “We watch for cheaters. Like him,” he pointed at one screen. “He's trying to palm chips. We’ll take care of him. And this one.” He nodded toward a monitor where a woman in an evening gown played blackjack. “She's a card counter.”

Nick stepped closer to the monitors.

“And here…the Shadowkeepers.”

Nick felt his throat go dry—which was beyond strange, since he felt so waterlogged that he wondered if he’d ever feel dry and warm again. On the screen, he saw black shadows, like the creature with leatherlike wings, slipping between people unnoticed, as if the shadows were invisible.

“How are they not seeing those things?” he asked incredulously. They were right there.

“Humans, Nicholai,” Zoltan said, “see what they want to see. They would rather be afraid of the stock market falling, of not getting the job they want, of silly horror movies than really open their eyes. Plus,” he cleared his throat, “the Shadowkeepers have powerful magic.”

“As powerful as ours?”

The adults exchanged glances, which Nick knew meant they just didn’t want to tell him the bad news.

“Well,” Zoltan said. “The balance between good and evil—”

Theo interrupted. “They are powerful, yes, Kolya. And they know you are here. They have never, since we immigrated to America, been this bold.”

“That's not true,” Irina said. Then she bit her lip.

Theo glared at her.

“They know
I’m
here? What do I have to do with anything?”

The room fell silent.

“Come on,” Irina said. “It's time to get you two up to bed. It's late.”

Nick started to ask Irina something, but he could see tears in her eyes, so he changed his mind. He was in enough trouble. He followed down the hall dejectedly, the blanket dragging behind him. Irina kept rubbing at her eyes. He wanted to know what was wrong, but he was tired. And now that he had time to think about it, his ribs hurt.

Irina opened the door to Isabella's room with a command. She said a few more words in Russian and the light switched on, the bedspread folded down, a drawer opened, and pajamas floated to the bed like clothes hanging on a clothesline on a breezy summer day.

“Take a shower, and then get some sleep,” Irina said, hugging Isabella and giving her a peck on each cheek.

“What about Sascha?”

“We’re bandaging her injured paw, but then she’ll sleep here to keep an eye on you.”

Isabella gave Nick a halfhearted wave good night. Down the hall, Nick opened his room. Irina swept in and checked in the closets and under the bed. He was going to tell her he hadn’t checked under the bed since he was seven. But then again, after seeing that thing in the pool, maybe checking under the bed was a good idea.

When Irina was sure there was no one in the room, he expected her to say good night. Instead, she faced him.

“Your mother left the clan because she thought she would be safer without us. She thought if she was on her own, she could hide. I cried for months, every night, missing her. We had been girlhood best friends. We told each other all the secrets in our hearts. But she was convinced that away from us, they wouldn’t find you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Shadowkeepers live for one purpose. To destroy us. If they can capture our magic, it will make them more powerful. Our line is the most pure, the most powerful—and they know it. They want more of our power.”

“How can they capture it?” Nick looked over at the empty cage where his hedgehog was
supposed
to be. If magic was so easy to capture, he’d be able to do it.

“When our clan left Russia, it was a time of panic and confusion. The communists were destroying
everything.
Libraries and art museums. Palaces. Buildings. They murdered many, many people. So our ancestors left—in a hurry, like everyone else. Like all refugees. Alone, cold, forgotten. And along the way, through sorcery and trickery, through thievery and
murder
, we lost some of our relics. Magic talismans that bring power to those who possess them. We’ve been battling to recover them ever since.”

“So what does that have to do with me?”

“When your grandfather took you to Madame B.'s, it confirmed something.”

“You knew I went there?”

She nodded. “You are a Gazer. You have the ability to see the past, to see the present, and to see the future. That gift comes along rarely. Your mother's side was powerful. The Shadowkeepers believe you must have the talismans. That your mother gave them to you, or at least that she left you something that points the way to them.”