The Seventh Crow Read online

“I wish I had the power to fly,” Charlie mumbles.

  Then the ground disappears completely, and we fall into darkness.

  I throw out my arms for support, but there’s nothing.

  “Grab each other’s hands!” I yell, but the words die as soon as they leave my mouth. There’s no response. There’s only emptiness around us. Sounds are muffled in here, which makes it impossible to communicate.

  I reach up and to the sides, but I don’t feel anyone. Did we get split up?

  I grit my teeth. We should’ve taken Vicky’s ominous feelings more seriously.

  I’m still falling and starting to wonder what will happen when I reach the bottom of whatever this is. Will there be a devastating impact with the ground that breaks every bone in my body and pushes the last bit of air from my shattered lungs? I shiver at the thought. Maybe a collision with water will break my bones, causing me to drown? Or I’ll keep falling like this forever, with no knowledge of anything or anyone around me.

  None of those options sound comforting, but I need to know anyway, so I conjure two balls of lightning and shine down.

  Below me, I see Maël and Kessley. Maël with a resigned calmness, and Kess frantically waving her arms and kicking her legs.

  They both look up and blink when they see the lights I created.

  Kessley shoots me a relieved smile when she sees me. She holds out her hand to Maël, who takes it reluctantly.

  “Can you see what’s down there?” I call out, but again, the sound is cut off immediately.

  With a sigh, I look left, right and up. To my left, I see Jeep, clutching his hat in his hands, ready to throw it at whatever enemy we encounter on the way. Above me there are some vague forms, but it’s too dark to make out who is who. At least everyone seems alright. For the time being.

  I turn my gaze back to whatever we’ll find below. Now that Kessley is no longer moving frantically, I can throw my lightning balls past her. I aim carefully and release them.

  Kessley cringes, and I see Maël pulling her closer.

  I watch the descending lights. Around each ball a space of about ten feet is illuminated. There seem to be no walls. No sand and no rocks in sight. Then I see something below.

  A large cube made of glass.

  A second before the lightning dies, I spot the Black Horseman standing next to it.

  So, he wants to trap us. Why doesn’t he just kill us?

  We reach the cube sooner than I’d thought. Taylar and Maël land softly. They move out of the way when I land, and soon the others follow.

  I’m glad to see everyone is in one piece, and that we didn’t lose anyone on the way, but I don’t spend too much time checking them all. I don’t want to let the Horseman out of my sight. He might have more surprises in store for us.

  He waits until we’re all sitting up before speaking. “How nice of you to drop by.” The skin around his mouth moves with every word he utters, as if it can fall off at any second. His leather jacket slides off on one side to reveal a bony shoulder with frayed skin. He opens his arms. “Welcome to your prison.”

  I jump to my feet and walk up to the glass between us. “Why didn’t you just kill us?”

  His body shakes with laughter. “Yes, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  I frown. Why would I like to be killed?

  He shakes his head. “What good would it do me to kill you? You’d come back as ghosts to annoy us some more.”

  Annoy us. As if that’s all we’ve done.

  Vicky puts her hand on my arm.

  “Don’t fall for it,” she whispers. “He’s mocking us.”

  “I know.”

  “Enough talking.” He licks his barely visible lips. “I’ve got work to do.”

  With a twist of his hand, he lowers a glass ceiling on top of the cube. It shuts with a loud click.

  “Don’t worry,” he says. “There’s enough oxygen in there to last a couple of lifetimes, and most of you don’t need it. I’ll make sure you get food and drinks later.”

  “Great,” I mumble.

  With a mocking bow, he says goodbye. He turns and walks away, vanishing into the darkness around us.

  CHAPTER 8

  “What now?” Charlie asks solemnly. “I mean, we can try to shatter the glass with our powers, but I have a feeling that won’t work, you know.”

  I scratch my head. “I agree, but we should try it anyway. He might have underestimated us.”

  Carefully, I place one hand against the cold surface that makes up our prison. I expect electricity to spread through me or an invisible force to throw me back, but nothing happens.

  “Let’s focus all of our powers on this point,” I say.

  We form half a circle, and I count back from three. On one, we release all the power we’ve got. Lightning, grease, blades, hat, sword, time bending, everything hits the glass at the same time.

  The noise is deafening, and for a moment, I think it will work. A sound of cracking glass answers our efforts, and I throw in some ice for good measure. There’s a loud bang, and we’re all blown backwards. I hit the other side of the cube hard and blink several times to clear my blurry vision. Before I even manage to stand up, I know it didn’t work. Despite the noises, there’s not even the slightest crack in the glass.

  It’s only when we all stumble to our feet again when I realize we’re one person short. I scan inside and outside our prison. “Where’s Taylar?”

  Kessley shoots me a radiant smile. “He managed to grab an overhanging branch when the ground opened beneath us.”

  “Wait.” I shake my head in confusion. “What do you mean? I saw him land in here.”

  She shrugs. “When I saw the Black Horseman standing there, I knew I had to convince him we were all here. I think he doesn’t know me yet.”

  I remember Taylar and Maël landing, and realize even I fell for it.

  Charlie slaps her on the back. “Way to go!”

  She blushes and mumbles a thank you.

  A spark of hope ignites in my chest. “So Taylar is at Darkwood Manor with Mona right now, trying to figure out a way to get us back.”

  “That’s what I assumed,” Kessley says.

  Charlie sits down with his back against the glass. “They’ll probably call Quinn. The three of them should be able to think of a way to free us, right?”

  I start pacing. “If they can reach Quinn. He’s really busy, remember? A dead angel is a serious thing.”

  “But even if it’s just Taylar and Mona,” Kessley says hesitantly, “they’ll still be able to think of a solution, right?”

  I take three steps and turn to walk back. When I reach the other side, I turn back. And again. My legs are restless; they want to run, far away from here. “Of course.” Those are the words that escape my mouth. But do I really believe them? Sure, Taylar and Mona are smart and resourceful. But what powers do they have? Mona can heal, she can move from one place to another with her sparks, and she can check in on Mom and me because she’s our fairy godmother, but can she also track people into other worlds? I don’t think so, or she would’ve been able to track Mom to Purgatory or Hell, and me into that world I ended up in with Maël. And Taylar… his power hasn’t even woken up yet, and he doesn’t know much about spells. Neither does Mona. Vicky and I are the experts in that department.

  Still, Taylar and Mona do have a lot of knowledge. They’re both older than you would guess if you saw them. Taylar might look like a fourteen-year-old boy, in reality he’s years older. And Mona isn’t exactly in her thirties anymore either.

  “We have to trust in them,” I say, more to myself than to the others. “But we should also keep the possibility that they won’t be able to reach us in consideration.”

  Vicky places both hands on the glass and stares at the empty world around our cube. “There is always a way out.”

  Kessley steps up next to her. “And we will find it.”

  Vicky loo
ks up. “Hey, maybe we can lift the roof?”

  I shrug. “We can try.”

  She spreads her arms. “Lift me up.”

  Jeep, Charlie and I immediately step over to her.

  “No need,” Gisella calls out while she runs past me.

  She leaps against the wall and pushes off hard. I gasp as she soars to the middle of the ceiling gracefully. She hits it hard, but it doesn’t budge. There’s not even a creak of protest.

  Gisella lands on her feet without trouble. “It’s locked tightly.” She wipes a stray lock of bright red hair from her face. “Let me try something else.”

  She sets off again. Halfway up, her hands change into blades, which she slams into the ceiling. The blades slide into the glass. Cracks run in all directions. Gisella drives her blades in as far as she can.

  Next to me, Kessley is bouncing up and down with wide eyes. “It’s working! It’s working!”

  I yank her out of harm’s way when the werecat places her feet against the ceiling and pushes off. She plummets face-down to the floor, but at the last moment, she manages to turn and land on her feet, like a true cat.

  We all look up hopefully. When nothing happens, Charlie scratches his neck. “I think you need to hit it again.”

  Gisella grins. “No problem.”

  This time, she runs along the other three walls before catapulting herself at the cracked glass. In the air, she turns several times, speeding up like a drill rig, with her feet aimed at the ceiling.

  I hold my breath when her boots connect with the glass.

  A deafening bang splits my ear drums in half and makes the whole cube tremble. Gisella is hurled away by some sort of force field that glows red. She lands on her side with a groan. Charlie kneels down next to her, and I bend over to check on her while I try to ignore the pounding of my head.

  “Are you okay?” I ask and frown when I don’t hear my own words.

  Apparently, Gisella and Charlie don’t hear anything either, because they don’t look up.

  I put my hand on the werecat’s arm and repeat my question.

  She gestures at her ears, and I nod and point at mine too. “I can’t hear a thing!”

  Charlie’s mouth is moving, and he shoots me a concerned look.

  “It will pass in a few seconds,” I try to assure him, but he only gives me a questioning look.

  I turn to Vicky and pretend to write something in thin air. She nods and digs up a pen and a piece of paper from her endless pocket.

  Jeep walks over to Kessley, who’s frantically slamming her hands against her ears, as if that will bring back her hearing. He eases her arms down and turns her toward me.

  Maël is slowly making her way along the walls, calmly sliding her hand across the surface.

  Stay calm, I write. I’m sure it will pass soon.

  I hold it up for everyone to see, and they all nod, although Charlie’s expression tells me he’s not so sure of this.

  Are you okay? I write, and I hold the paper up to Gisella, who’s still sitting on the floor.

  “Fine,” she mouths, and she pushes herself to her feet.

  When I look up at the ceiling again, the cracks are gone. My shoulders sag. We’ll need to think of another way to get out of here.

  Just to be sure, I put my hands around my mouth and yell, “Quinn!”

  My ears pop open, and my voice reverberates around the room.

  “I can hear again!” Kess calls out.

  Jeep massages the unmoving tattoos on his arms. “Let’s not do that again.”

  I gently rub my ears to drive out the painful throbbing that has dropped down from the sides of my head. “I second that idea.”

  Charlie looks up. “No answer from Quinn.”

  “I didn’t expect him to hear me, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.”

  Jeep turns to Maël, who has come to a halt. “Did you find something?”

  She pushes her cape back. “No, but I have an idea.”

  “As long as it doesn’t involve going deaf, I’m all for it,” Kessley jokes.

  “I cannot guarantee anything,” Maël answers.

  After a quick look around to make sure nothing is approaching, I walk over to where the African queen is standing. “What do you have in mind?”

  When her eyes meet mine, I read fear in them. She takes a deep breath. “Do you remember the remnants of the tree from the Shadow World inside me?”

  “Of course.”

  “I think this box is designed to keep benevolent beings trapped. It might let out something malevolent though.”

  I hold up my hand. “No way you’re going to let that evil overtake you.”

  She shoots me a loving smile. “That is not my intention. But I might be able to guide it to my hand to make an opening.”

  “And get stuck halfway? I don’t think so.”

  Vicky joins us. “What about Gisella? She can help, using the shadows. That’s also a malevolent power.”

  I turn to face the werecat-witch. “That’s not a bad idea. You have those shadows under control, right?”

  She wipes some non-existent dust from her red catsuit. “Sure. There’s only one problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  She points at the space around us. “There are no shadows here.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean? Of course there are shadows. There’s light, so there are also shadows. That’s how it works, right?”

  She shrugs. “Not in this world, apparently.”

  I squint at the corners of the cube and groan. She’s right. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that before. And when I look down, my own shadow is missing too.

  Vicky follows my gaze and bites her lip. “They prepared this well.”

  “But they don’t know about the remnant inside Maël, do they?” Charlie asks. “So it might work.”

  They all look at me expectantly. It doesn’t bother me anymore. Although I have no clue how to get us out of here, I know one thing… “I think you’re right, which is exactly why we can’t use the remnant. By giving away the element of surprise, we’ll screw ourselves later.”

  Maël glows with pride.

  “Next time we face the Horsemen, we’ll have no choice but to fight them. We won’t be able to trick them again, which is why we need to keep this a surprise. It might tip the balance in our favor.”

  “I hope you’re not betting everything on that,” Vicky says. “She might not be able to control it at all.”

  I start pacing. “I know. A solid plan would be great. Or a way to get D’Maeo back.”

  Vicky lowers her head. “That would be great.”

  The pain in her voice is obvious, and I squeeze her arm. “Soon.” Soon we’ll free D’Maeo, and Mom too.

  CHAPTER 9

  Vicky flexes her arms. “How about some training? Focusing on a battle tends to clear my head.”

  Gisella throws out her blades again. “I’m always up for a good fight.”

  Jeep’s eyes narrow as he looks through the glass. He folds his fingers around the rim of his hat tightly. “Be careful what you wish for.”

  We whirl around as one, ready to attack. A ball of lightning sparkles in my hand. When I see what’s wriggling closer to our cube, my mouth drops open. “Is that…?”

  Maël steps up next to me, her staff held in front of her. “A chaos residue.”

  “How did it get here?” I back up as the green smoke suddenly speeds up and hits the glass between us.

  It writhes around the corners of the cube, banging against the glass every few seconds.

  Gisella changes her blades back into hands. “Looks like it can’t get in.”

  “Which probably means evil can’t get out either.” I sigh. “Good thing Maël didn’t try. It would’ve been for nothing.”

  Kessley steps closer to the glass and grabs my arm firmly. “Look!”

  At first, I see only the green
smoke. It blocks our view in its attempts to get to us. But then, it slithers to the top of our prison, and I gasp. “There are dozens of them!”

  A cluster of creatures made of smoke soars toward us. Strings of yellow, brown and black pull at each other while a purple sliver dives under the rest and creates a ditch in the ground.

  “How did they all get here?” Vicky wonders aloud. “I though chaos residues came to life in a place of complete disorder? This world looks empty to me.”

  “Maybe it was a world full of chaos, which created all of these mist creatures. They must have killed everything in here, until there was nothing left,” Charlie suggests.

  Maël shakes her head and lowers her staff. “No, I think…” She hesitates. “I think they are imprisoned here, just like we are.”

  Vicky turns to her so fast her hair slaps me in the face. “That means we can send the chaos residue we trapped to this world, right? It won’t be able to escape once it’s here.”

  “I am not a hundred percent sure, but that is what I think.”

  “That’s great!” Vicky beams at me.

  “It would be, if we had the box with D’Maeo and the chaos residue with us.”

  She doesn’t stop smiling. “You can try calling him to you, with the spell to call your Shield.”

  “That would bring Taylar here too.”

  “I’m sure you can change it, so it only applies to D’Maeo.”

  I kiss her on the lips. “You’re brilliant.”

  She grins when I straighten up. “I know.”

  I grab my Book of Spells and turn to the page where I jotted the spell down.

  “This should actually not be too hard.”

  Instead of five, I yank only one hair from my head. Then I take off my right shoe and sock and press my athame against the skin of my big toe until a drop of blood appears. With the wet tip of my weapon, I draw a small circle in front of me and place the hair in the middle. I dip my finger in it and touch the hair, thinking of D’Maeo.

  “Let this subject hear my call.

  Bring him here before I fall.

  Keep him safe through time and space.

  Transport D’Maeo without a trace.”