"Crap," Elyssa said through her teeth.
"If this things runs out, will we be dead in the water?"
She shook her head. "The engine runs on gasoline, but levitation and super boost rely on aether." She glanced at the GPS in the center of the dash. "We need to find cover. Look for a route with trees."
I flicked my fingers across the screen. Georgia had no shortage of roads with trees, and we were close to the northern lakes. "Take the next exit," I said. "Then turn left."
She swung across the lane, rode the shoulder, and steered up the exit ramp. Elyssa ran the red light, and narrowly missed colliding with two cars. We crossed an overpass. The road dipped and rose, crossing a lake.
I directed her through several more turns. "Into the park," I said, pointing out a state park entrance.
We zoomed past a parking permit booth and down a road covered by trees. We followed the winding asphalt for a distance. I heard the choppers thundering behind. The thrum of rotors abruptly stopped.
"They're running silent," Elyssa said.
Tension built in my chest. "They could be anywhere."
She pulled off the road and into a picnic area shaded by trees. Turned off the engine. Crickets chirped. A bird twittered nearby, and squirrels rustled in the leaves. I heard a whoosh of air as something swooped past overhead.
"They're here," she whispered.
"How do you charge the batteries on this thing?" I asked.
"We have aether stations for it," she said. "But an Arcane could do it, given enough time."
"How? Where?"
She popped the hood. We got out, and she pointed to a chunk of glowing crystal. "There."
I closed my eyes and flicked into incubus mode. When I opened them, I saw aether pulsing through tiny ley lines in the ground, and puffs of it floating in the air. I extended a tendril and, with a deep breath, drew it in. I touched the tendril to the crystal and willed it to push energy inside. Nothing seemed to happen. I heard the sound of feet crushing leaves nearby. The rustling seemed to come from several directions at once.
"Tracking this way," someone whispered from somewhere down the road.
Fill it up! A slight tug pulled at my insides. The crystal glowed a little brighter. Faster! I willed it with all my might. It didn't seem to help. In frustration, I pressed my bare hand to the crystal.
Charge!
I felt energy flow through my hand in a hot rush. The crystal flared bright as a star. I heard the console inside ding. Elyssa ducked into the car.
"It's full," she said, eyes glowing with pride. "You're a rock star, baby."
Two men in the black robes of the brotherhood appeared at the side of the road.
Elyssa shut her door as pulses of light splashed against it. I jumped in. Elyssa started the car, revved the engine, and peeled out, charging straight at the men. They leapt aside at the last minute.
Another group appeared ahead. She swung down a small dirt road. Ahead, I saw nothing but water.
"Hang on," Elyssa said as we hit the end of the road.
The car dropped like a rock. Just before we plunged into the lake, Elyssa flicked a switch. The vehicle lurched upward and glided just over the water, spraying a plume behind us. She hit the red button, and the car roared forward. We shot beneath a bridge. Following the bend of the lake, she threaded between two boats with startled fishermen, hooked a right, and shot up a boat ramp. The car dropped to the road, tires chirping. A squirrel racing across the road froze in our path.
"Ahh!" Elyssa shouted, hitting the levitation switch again.
I looked behind us to see the frightened rodent dash back into the woods.
"Stupid squirrels," Elyssa grumbled.
"It was just a squirrel," I said.
Leaving the levitation on, Elyssa activated camouflage. The hood of the car flickered, matching with the surrounding terrain. She pulled the steering wheel toward her chest like the control in an airplane; the car flew higher, narrowly clearing trees, and zooming over the green canopy of pine trees. I looked back and saw the choppers hovering over the bridge, but not moving to pursue.
"When I was first learning to drive, I took my brother Jack for a ride," Elyssa said. "I was so proud of myself. And then just when I was pulling into the driveway at the ranch, a squirrel ran across my path. I couldn't stop in time and hit it." She sighed. "I just sat there and cried while Jack tried to console me."
I touched her arm. "You're a ninja with a soft heart," I said.
She smiled. "I'm such a dork sometimes. I knew so many ways to hurt or even kill someone by the time I learned to drive, and yet, I cried over a squirrel."
"I love my beautiful dork," I said, and pecked her on the cheek.
She giggled.
We sped south toward the city with no signs of pursuit. Thirty minutes later, Elyssa landed on an empty stretch of road near the Templar compound as the console dinged with another low battery warning.
"Camouflage drains aether fast," she explained, steering down the long drive to the compound, her gaze sweeping the environs, presumably for squirrels. At the end of the driveway, she turned toward a large red barn. She drove through an illusionary stack of hay bales in the back and down the hidden ramp to a large underground garage. Rows of Custodian sedans like the one we rode in lined parking slots. Chopper-shaped sliders sat atop circular landing zones beneath large doors sliding doors allowing for quick deployment.
Ahead, I saw Shelton and the others waiting around the semi-trailer we'd liberated. I leapt from the car, ignoring the celebratory cheers, and ran to it. I pressed an ear to the side. "Mom? Are you in there?"
"We couldn't open it," Shelton said.
I pounded on the side. "Mom?"
I heard a faint voice. "Justin?"
Hot tears sprang into my eyes. She was in there. We'd done it. "We're going to get you out," I said.
Somehow, I would find a way.
Chapter 27
"Justin, do you know the man whose blood sealed me in here?" Mom said.
"Maulin Kassus," I said, my voice low and angry. She remained silent for a moment, and I wondered if she was still ok.
"Don't go after him, Justin." She sounded so tired and weary. "He's too dangerous."
"Dangerous?" I heard myself laugh. "I've encountered nothing but danger since you left. Do you have any idea what we went through to get you here?"
"You've done too much already," she said. "Now that he knows you have me, it will be even harder."
For some reason, I felt annoyed and even angry at her warnings. "Too much?" I said in a scoffing tone. "Maybe if you hadn't abandoned me without explanation, or maybe if you'd informed me about your grand scheme, or maybe, just maybe, if you'd trusted me with the truth, you wouldn't be in this mess right now!" The last sentence came out in an angry yell.
Elyssa placed a hand on my shoulder. "You can't change the past, Justin."
"No, he's right," Mom said, her voice sounding hollow from within the container. "In the beginning, when I thought you had a chance at a normal life, it felt like the right decision. But once you came into your own powers, David and I should have told you more. There was a lot we couldn't tell you because the information was too important to fall into the wrong hands. We had nightmares about our enemies kidnapping and torturing you for information. When your father decided to return to House Slade, we thought you'd go with him."
"He's marrying another woman, Mom!" I took a deep breath to calm myself.
"Are you with people you can trust?" she said. "People who can know the truth?"
I looked around at the faces of people who'd been with me since the beginning, and those I'd accumulated along the way—Shelton, Bella, Adam, Meghan, Stacey, Ryland—I trusted each and every one with my life. "I'm with my family," I said, gripping Elyssa's hand. "Because, unlike my parents, they've stayed by my side."
I heard a faint sobbing noise from within. "I understand," Mom said. "I won't make excuses for myself or your father."
"Tell me the truth," I said. "No more vague evasions."
"Very well," she said. "My name is Alysea, and I was the first Seraphim to step foot on your world."
"I know," I said, the impact of hearing it from her own lips making my knees go weak. A part of me still couldn't believe the truth.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"It's not important," I said. "Are you one of the originals who ravaged our world?"
"No," she said. "But I am directly responsible, because I showed my best friend the way."
All of a sudden, I wasn't sure I wanted to hear the truth.
"The arches on our world had long been a mystery," Mom said. "Like this realm, we also have Obsidian Arches, and started using them even before I was born. But the Alabaster Arches were decreed too dangerous to use by our governing council." She paused. "I broke the decree and studied the Grand Nexus in secrecy. After decades, I discovered something quite startling. The Grand Nexus is like a tuning fork, Justin. If you adjust the pitch, it alters the destination."
"How long ago was this?" I asked, grasping at a timeline.
"Thousands of years ago."
I shivered at the thought. "Tell me more."
"The Cyrinthian Rune tunes the nexus, but it requires the user to attune the rune to themself. Previous attempts to use the nexus had nearly loosed horrific creatures from other realms on our world. But I had an edge others did not."
I held back a smart remark. "And that is?"
"I was a musical prodigy. I can hear perfect pitch. For some reason, this enabled me to feel the tuning of the Cyrinthian Rune. It allowed me to sense what lay on the other side of the portal if I allowed it to open. That was how I discovered the mortal realm."
I saw wonder on the faces of my companions, and felt it spread across my own as well. My mom had discovered the way to this realm. It sounded as if there were many more realms than the ones I'd heard about. "So, what happened?"