Wicked Rebellion (Darkwater Reformatory Book 3) Page 16

  We leaned back and hauled her up high enough so she could gain leverage with her other arm. As we inched back to give her room, she joined us on the flat surface.

  She turned and faced the rest of the course. “Ideas?”

  The beasts stepped forward, growling, their fangs dripping saliva. Fear grabbed hold of my bones and shook me. Would they leap on us now?

  “None,” Brodin said.

  “I think…” My gaze met that of the beast in the lead and… Okay, this was weird, but I felt a pull. Did I want to get eaten? I’d be stupid to think I could communicate with this creature. But…

  If I reached out my hand, would it welcome my touch or bite my hand off and devour the rest of me?

  It dipped its head as if it heard my thoughts and nudged its nose forward. Get going, right? With a sigh, I turned back to my friends.

  “You think what?” Brodin asked. They both watched me.

  “Nothin’. Let me move to the front where I can feel what we’re dealing with.”

  We juggled around, Kylie nearly falling off the narrow strip, until I could edge forward. When my hands hit air, I reached out, carefully swinging my arm around, hoping to find the other side of the bridge.

  “Anything?” Brodin asked. He wrapped an arm around my waist as if he worried I’d fall. Not a bad idea, considering what had nearly happened to Kylie.

  “No.” I sat back in his embrace and looked around, hoping something would jump out at me. Not literally, but visually. I saw nothing, and it messed with my mind, telling me it was over. We needed to give up. “Should we go back?”

  One of the beasts growled.

  “I’d say that’s a no,” Brodin said.

  “Forward, then, but how?”

  “There has to be a way,” Kylie said. She peered over her shoulder at the beasts who moved in close. She could reach up and touch one if she chose.

  I gaped as she did it.

  When her fingertip connected with the lead beast’s snout, it shimmered and for a second…

  I shook my head. It wasn’t possible.

  Or was it?

  “Touch it again,” I said, urgency adding energy to my voice.

  “What?” Kylie clutched her hand to her chest as if she placed it in a fire.

  “Touch the beast again. Please.”

  She shot me a frown. “You’re sure? What if I pull back a stump?”

  “I don’t think you will,” I said.

  “What’s up?” Brodin asked.

  “Watch,” I breathed, unable to take my attention away from the creatures. It couldn’t be possible, but I wasn’t able to let go of my suspicion.

  Kylie rose onto her knees and held out both hands.

  When a beast lowered its head, she carefully cupped the sides of its face.

  In a flash, one of the dragons stood in front of her, bigger than before. Stronger and healthy appearing.

  “Whoa,” she said, reeling back. Her hands dropped to her sides. “Did you see that?”

  The creature had returned to the beast form, but yeah, I saw it.

  Brodin and I stood, and we clutched each other while I moved around him. I did the same with Kylie until I could approach the beasts.

  “I think we’ve found our way across the valley,” I said.

  With a jump, I leaped onto the back of the lead beast and fisted the creature’s mane. It shimmered before solidifying into a dragon.

  Wings unfurling, it leaped off the clear bridge.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  We flew across the enormous cavern.

  I hugged my dragon and whispered thanks.

  Tears shimmered in Kylie’s eyes. “They’re okay.” She glanced at Brodin. “When you took them, I thought I’d never see them again.”

  “I took them to…” He shook his head. “This isn’t possible.”

  “Yet it is,” I said.

  When they reached the opposite side of the valley, they landed, and we dropped to the ground. I couldn’t stop touching mine, stroking its scaled face and kissing its chuffing snout. Smoke curled from its nostrils, but I could tell by the way it nudged me, it enjoyed my touch.

  Brodin’s hand dropped onto my shoulder. “We need to go.” He tilted his head toward a trail leading into the woods. Had we completed this test or was there more left to do?

  Only one way to find out.

  “How can they be here?” I asked. Brodin had taken them to the alternate world, the one where my father worked endlessly in the gardens.

  “No idea. There’s something…” He bit down hard on his lower lip. “We need to talk once we’re all together again. Perhaps…” His sigh deflated his chest. “I don’t want to say it. Not here.”

  “Where then? No place is safe.”

  “We’ll find a location where we won’t be overheard.”

  With one last stroke on its face, I left my dragon, and we joined Kylie at the entrance to the trail. As our feet hit the path and we started into the woods, I turned back for one last look.

  The dragons were gone.

  I groaned as sadness hit me. I hadn’t expected them to stay. They came here to help us. Or so I assumed.

  I caught up with my friends, and we walked through a wooded area with birds singing and insects chirping around us. Sunlight filtered through the lush green vegetation overhead, and a light, balmy breeze skipped along the path, cooling my face. Maybe we should stay here instead of continuing.

  “Do we think there’s more to this test?” Kylie asked. “Seems tame when compared to some of the others.”

  “Maybe we weren’t supposed to cross the way we did,” I said softly. Pulling ahead of them, I turned and walked backward. “Where can we talk without being overheard?”

  “I have an idea,” Brodin said. His intent gaze scanned the woods. “Once we find the others, we’ll…”

  I nodded.

  When we hit the end of the trail, we found ourselves on the main path encircling the Reformatory. Shouts behind us sent us spinning, and we found Jacey and Rohnan walking toward us from the same course we finished. We waited for them to catch up.

  “We didn’t find you, so we took the next path,” Jacey said. “Looks like we were right behind you.”

  “You solved it with…” I said.

  “Yeah.” Jacey grinned. “It was great to see them again.”

  “I have an idea about the tests and the Reformatory in general,” I said. I leaned into Brodin’s shoulder. “And Brodin has a hiding place in mind where we can talk.” I looked up at him. “And…?”

  “I’m going to shift. Everyone, grab onto my fur,” he said, stepping backward. He hunched forward and shuddered, and in a blink, he stood with us in his Eerie form.

  I’ll never get over how amazing this was. Envy was only the beginning of the feelings I had for him in this form. He was amazing, scary, and hot, all rolled into one. I couldn’t imagine being able to change into something else and use it to help others.

  We wrapped our hands in his mane, and he closed his eyes. A flash, and we stood in the middle of a wooden gazebo covered with honeysuckle vines. The cloyingly sweet scent drifted through the air from the pale orange trumpet flowers poking through lattice used for the walls of the gazebo.

  We took seats on the rough wooden benches while Brodin seamlessly returned to the boy I was crazy about.

  “Where are we?” Kylie asked, looking around. “Other than in a garden. Is this part of the Reformatory?”

  “I think I know,” I said, looking to Brodin for confirmation. The well-maintained gardens gave the location away. “You brought us to the parallel Reformatory, where I talked to my father.”

  “Yep.” He sat down beside me on the bench and put his arm around my shoulders while I explained about meeting my dad and what we talked about, which wasn’t much.

  “I don’t understand,” Kylie said. Rising, she went to the arched entrance and looked out. In the woods nearby, insects hummed, and birds cried out warning. She turned and
slumped against the side of the opening. “How is this place possible?”

  I shrugged because it was beyond me.

  “Darkwater is part of the fae kingdom,” Brodin said. “You remember there were other worlds we could access while traveling within the catacombs.”

  Her gaze flicked to me. “But that was the catacombs. They can create any world they choose.”

  Could they? Or did Bixby create them all? I still wasn’t sure about that.

  “If there’s an alternate Reformatory, is there also an alternate prison?” Jacey asked. She slouched against Rohnan, and his arm rested comfortably around her shoulders.

  “That’s an interesting idea,” Brodin said. His gaze met mine. “What if that’s true?”

  “You’re suggesting the entire island is split into parallel worlds?” I asked.

  “Wait. This is an even weirder idea.” He raked his hair, making it stand on end. “What if the prison, and the Reformatory where we landed the dragons, is a parallel universe and this and an unknown prison are part of the real world?”

  “Interesting.” Frowning, I tapped my chin. “Are you suggesting Bixby created the ‘bad’ version and she tossed some of us there?”

  “It would explain the catacombs,” Kylie said eagerly.

  “And the test Rohnan and I were dumped into when we arrived at the prison,” Jacey said. She sat forward; her eyes alight. “Maybe, to get out of here, we just have to break whatever the ‘bad’ universe is using to hold us.”

  “Or break Bixby,” Brodin said. He lifted his hands. “Anyone thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Our tennas keep us in the parallel world,” I said.

  “Except they’re not doing it right now,” Kylie said. “So that idea won’t work.”

  “Brodin brought us here in his Eerie form. Each time I’ve come here, it has been with Brodin or because my father brought me here himself. He may have power to circumvent Bixby.”

  “If that’s true,” Rohnan said. “We need to get rid of our magic-restricting tennas.”

  “Then we may be free,” Jacey said, her face alight with joy. “Imagine. Free!”

  “How can we remove them?” My gaze swept across my friends, and each shrugged. My shoulders slumped. “I don’t see how we can do it. We can’t access our magic.”

  “Except, we can,” Jacey whispered. “Or some of us can. You, me, and Rohnan can tap sketar power.”

  “Remember, Bixby was furious when she discovered we’d used it,” I said. “Why didn’t she lock it up with our tennas?”

  Kylie crossed the gazebo to stand in the center. “I don’t think she can.”

  “It’s not bound by the same rules,” Jacey said. “It’s fae, and Bixby…”

  “Must not be fae,” Rohnan said.

  “You mean she came from the same world I did?” I asked.

  Kylie nodded, a grin rising on her face. “It’s an assumption, but the best one we’ve come up with so far.”

  “How can sketar magic help us break the tenna’s hold?” Had the power been with us all along? Free, I could find a way off this island. Then I could reach my sister in time to save her.

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about this,” Jacey said. “Pretty much since we entered the catacombs. And I think sketar magic could be the key.” She gnawed on her lower lip. “The fact that sketar magic slips past the tennas tells me it’s not bound by the same rules.”

  “Maybe we need to think of it that way,” I said. “It’s time to ignore the rules.”

  “Which means?” Rohnan said.

  “I don’t know.” Was this a way or were we only fooling ourselves?

  “Why don’t you try to break the tennas with sketar magic now?” Kylie asked.

  “They’re locked to us,” Rohnan said. “You didn’t hear that at the prison? They not only hold back our magic; they protect us from the creatures on the island.”

  “They’re deadly,” Kylie said, her gaze drifting to the gazebo entrance. “We wouldn’t make it more than a hundred feet before they took us down.”

  Fear ratcheted up my spine. I barely survived the traps I went through after I was dropped off on the island. “This means we need to find a different way off the island.”

  “The dragons come to my mind immediately,” Jacey said.

  Brodin shook his head. “If we reveal them, Bixby might be able to grab them. We can’t take that chance.”

  Good point. “Let’s shelve that part of this for now,” I said. “We can keep thinking, though. Maybe we’ll discover a way around it.”

  “And this was what you wanted to talk about?” Rohnan asked.

  “Mostly,” I said, bracing my arm behind Brodin’s waist. “So far, I haven’t seen Bixby or Duvoe in this alternate Reformatory.”

  Jacey worried her lower lip. “How can we be sure they can’t come here?”

  “I don’t know, but what if there’s a barrier? If they could come here, they would’ve taken back the dragons,” I said. “I wonder if this is why she wants their bones, to boost the magic supporting the alternate world.”

  “It’s all conjecture, but something to think about,” Brodin said.

  I sat forward. “This is why we wanted a private place to talk. We can’t risk being overheard. And all of this leads to the idea I got during the last test. Brodin brought the dragons here, and they helped us during the last challenge. Am I going too far to believe the tests take place here rather than in the “bad” version of the Reformatory? I don’t mean the catacombs. I think they’re part of the “bad” version of the Reformatory and prison, since Bixby chased us through the catacombs.”

  “You could be right,” Jacey said. She looked to Rohnan, who nodded.

  “It makes sense, but we can’t assume anything,” Kylie said. “We can see how things play out and test the theory.”

  “How?” Brodin asked.

  “The easiest way would be during the next test,” I said. A scraping sound made my heart jump and sent me running to the open doorway to the gazebo. My father, his back to us, worked on a flower bed about fifty feet away. Had he overheard our conversation? Short of going over to him and asking, there was no way to know.

  Brodin joined me at the entrance. “I think we’re okay.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What next?” Kylie asked from behind us and we turned.

  I studied my friends, seeing lines of tiredness on their face but with a spark of excitement in their eyes. If we could prove our theories true, we might be able to use this against Bixby.

  “Let’s go on to the third test,” I said. “While we’re there, look for ways of checking our theory about where the trials take place. And maybe we’ll also find a way to break the tenna magic.”

  We left the gazebo and strode across the grass, toward the door I used the last time I left my father here in the garden.

  I broke away from them and tugged on the hem of Brodin’s tee. Tipping my head to my father worked in the gardens, I waved for Brodin to go on with the others. “I have a few last things to say to him.” Who knew if I’d see him again? I wouldn’t seek him out. And if we broke free during the next test and escaped the island, I wouldn’t come back here again. I’d still have to prove I was innocent of Brodin’s mother’s murder, but if I couldn’t find a way, I’d change my name and disappear.

  Because I wasn’t giving Duvoe the dragon’s location in exchange for a clear record.

  Would Brodin come with me if we escaped the island? Maybe. He had his own agenda, and the thought of what he had to do chilled me to my marrow. Was there some way I could help him?

  “I’ll wait for you if you want,” he said.

  “I’ll catch up, but thanks.” I lifted my voice to reach the others. “Hey, go ahead to the third path, but wait there for me?”

  Jacey’s gaze darted to my father. “Sure. Don’t take too long, though.”

  Pulling my timepiece, I was horrified to see another day had passed. Only two left. My fear must
be blazing on my face because Jacey nodded sadly.

  Leaving Brodin, I strode over to my father.

  He dug with a trowel in a bed filled with uniformly arranged green plants about a foot high with pink flowers and, though he had to have heard me speaking to my friends, didn’t look up when I approached.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” he said softly, continuing his work of carefully digging out grass trying to take over the flowerbed and throwing the weed in a red wheelbarrow.

  “I am here, and I’ve been here before. What’s different now?”

  “You came to visit the first time, and it was permitted.” The fear in his voice felt cut through me.

  “Who allowed me to come here?”

  He glanced up, and I noted a shimmer in his eyes. Tears or allergies to something he worked with? “Those who are determined to make sure you never leave.”

  “Bixby.”

  The trowel fell from his hand, clattering on one of the rocks surrounding the garden. “You’ve met her, then.”

  A statement, not a question.

  “Hard not to when she runs this place.” My gaze spanned the gardens and the building. “Or both places.”

  His breath sucked in. “Do not mention this to anyone.”

  “That we’ve figured it out?” I wanted to jump for joy to hear our theory proven true.

  Unless he was lying to me like everyone else.

  “Don’t believe what you see,” he said in a voice so low, I could barely hear him. He gouged into the earth with his trowel, severing the roots of a big clump of crab grass. Hauling it from the ground, he shook off the dirt and threw it into the wheelbarrow.

  “Nothing here is what it appears to be,” I said.

  “You’re right in that. Don’t trust anything because it’s always changing.”

  “Including you?”

  His hands stilled. “Where are you going with that comment?”

  “You tell me, because my spontaneous question seems to have dug beneath your cool, if slightly abrupt, surface.”