Author's Preface
They stuck around in Cold Creek for the last night of the full moon so that Sebastian could make sure no remaining wolves killed anyone. He told the three the next morning that the night had been completely quiet.
Felix was grateful to hear that. But it didn’t change the fact that he’d spent the night reliving the same nightmarish scenario over and over: one by one, the Supermoon Wolves killed everyone in Cold Creek, and he was powerless to stop them.
Sebastian also told the three not to tell another soul about the spies in the Brightlands. “We don’t need anyone thinking we’re onto them,” he’d said. “It will only make them harder to identify.”
By the time they returned to the Brightlands Monday afternoon, Sebastian was back to his usual cheery self. “You know what makes field trips better than missions?” he asked as they climbed the hill to the castle. “You three don’t have to fill out mission reports.”
“We also don’t get credit for killing all those wolves,” Arisa complained.
Getting credit for that nightmare was the last thing on Felix’s mind. “All I care about right now is sleeping.”
Mason split off from the group. He caught up to them at the entrance, brushing dirt off the wand he’d buried somewhere on castle property.
“Does it work?” Sebastian asked.
Mason lifted the wand. “Light,” he said. A small orb of purple light appeared at the tip. A smile touched his lips.
“You just say words in English and it responds?” Felix asked. “I was expecting, I dunno, Latin?”
“For basic spells, it’s not about the language, it’s about intent,” Mason replied. “Technically, you don’t need to say anything at all, but verbal cues are helpful when adjusting to a new wand.” Gaze darkening, he added, “Ernest seems to have gotten the hang of it. I didn’t see his mouth move when he used the Ironwood Wand.”
Sebastian gave them the next two days off of training in exchange for taking their weekend. Felix spent most of the first day in bed healing up from the fight. The morning after, Mason texted him and Arisa and asked them to meet in the library. And to bring their weapons. Now that his wand was ready, he could add extra sigils to their blades.
Felix found the way Mason carved sigils into the metal impressive, but Mason kept muttering about how slow his progress was as he got used to his new wand. He had to carve out each symbol with the tip of the wand, occasionally whispering words under his breath. Simple surgical gloves protected his hands from the sigils already in the metal.
“You’re still doing it faster than we could,” Arisa informed him after another complaint. “That wand works way better than traditional etching tools. The only one who could beat you would be a Guardian with a metal ability.”
Mason grunted. Then, he changed the subject. “This spy stuff is all the more reason to break into Ernest’s house as soon as possible,” he said quietly as he looked over the work he’d done on Helena’s sword. “On top of stealing back the wand he’s using to hurt Guardians, we might be able to find out who else in this castle is reporting the Moonlit Army. Especially with Felix’s psychometry.”
“But how are we supposed to keep him from knowing we’re in his house?” Felix asked.
“I know I can figure out the masking spell.” Mason glanced at the stack of books next to him. “I’ll need a few things, though.”
“Okay, hold on,” Arisa said. “I’m all for this—”
“You are?” Felix asked.
“Yes. But we still don’t know where he lives.”
“No, but Sebastian and the other Guardians do.” Mason stared off into the distance. “There has to be some way to get that information.”
Felix glanced at Arisa. “Okay, Mason wants the wand and revenge on the guy who killed his parents. And Ernest is working with the people responsible for my family’s deaths, too,” he said. “I’m willing to risk going after him. But, Arisa, are you sure you want to do this? You have the least to gain.” And the most to lose.
“Yeah, Felix and I are new here,” Mason said. “If the council turns on us and we lose our place, it won’t be nearly as bad as you losing your home.”
“That’s exactly why I have to do this,” Arisa replied. “I’ve spent my whole life here. I’m not going to let it fall into the hands of this Mira lady and her army.” She lifted her chin. “Plus, Ernest robbed my friend and killed his parents, and Gideon killed my other friend’s family. I’m not letting them get away with it.”
The light glinted off something in the air in front of Felix. He reached out and swatted the thread of spider silk away from his face. “I know Hana would probably disapprove of us doing this, but do you think there’s any chance she’d be willing to help?”
“I wouldn’t risk asking,” Arisa said. “Even if we convinced her that Ernest needs to be dealt with, she’d want us to stay out of it.”
Felix nodded slowly. “Mason, you mentioned needing things for the spell?”
“My wand isn’t anywhere near as powerful as the Ironwood Wand,” Mason said. “If I want to hide all three of us, I’ll need a few other things to boost the spell. A couple of crystals, ash, and bone shards from an animal. Only certain animals will work, and the ash has to have been formed by burning wood in a ritual.” A faraway look entered his gaze. “We’ll need to go to a witch shop to get those.”
“Are witch shops common?” Arisa asked.
“Common enough. I know where a few are near Seattle, and I know how to find them anywhere else,” Mason replied. “There’s just one problem. Witch shops are warded. Now that I’m a demon, I won’t be able to go inside. You two will need to pick up what I need.”
“Will we need to sneak out?” Felix asked. “To go to a witch shop?”
“I don’t think that will be hard.” Arisa absentmindedly fiddled with one of her bracelets. “Most of the castle security is focused on keeping enemies out.”
“Then how would we get back in?” Mason asked. “If a Guardian doesn’t accompany me through the wards, I won’t be able to get through.”
“Then you could stay, and Felix and I will go.”
“What if we waited for another field trip?” Felix suggested. He feared that if they screwed up trying to sneak out for witch supplies, they’d be so intensely supervised afterward that they wouldn’t have a prayer of getting to Earnest’s. “I bet we could convince Sebastian to let us stop for souvenirs somewhere.”
“That might work,” Arisa said. “Or I could come up with an excuse to get Hana to take me into town.”
Mason leaned back in his chair. “Even if we get the supplies I need, we still need to find a way out of the castle and to Ernest’s house.”
Arisa pursed her lips. “Allegedly, there are secret tunnels that lead out of the castle underground. I think they connect to the interior passages somewhere.” She sighed. “But they’re probably guarded.”
Interest flickered across Mason’s face. “It could be worth taking a look, though.”
“True.” Arisa grinned. “It’s been too long since I went exploring, anyway.”
With most of the castle occupied with training and classes, and plenty of Guardians out on missions, they decided that now was as good a time as any to see if the tunnels offered any way out of the Brightlands. Arisa led them to a kitchen tucked away in the northeast corner of the first floor and through a false wall at the back of the pantry.
“How do you know about all of these secret doors?” Felix asked.
“I spent a lot of time exploring as a kid.”
The tunnel they entered led them in a circle around the outer edge of the castle. Every door they passed led either up or deeper toward the center of the castle. Other than that, the place was all dust and cobwebs.
After their third loop through the tunnel, Arisa kicked the wall in frustration. “This is ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “I know I read somewhere that there’s another layer of tunnels below us.”
“Maybe they can only be accessed through the basement,” Felix suggested.
Arisa shook her head. “I’ve searched the basement before. There’s not much in there. I thought this tunnel would be the best place to search for a connection, but—”
“There’s something below us,” Mason interrupted.
“Huh?”
Mason pointed to the ground. “There’s a faint level of magical energy coming from below.” He walked past Felix and Arisa and continued down the tunnel. After exchanging confused glances, they followed him.
He stopped in the corner where the hallway they stood in met the next. “It’s stronger here,” he said. “There might be an opening nearby.”
The three ran their hands along the walls and floor. After a couple minutes of searching, Felix found a loose piece of stone in the floor. “Here!” he called. Mason and Arisa moved to stand over him as he pulled at it. Nothing happened.
“Move back,” Mason said. He pulled his wand from the pocket of his sweatshirt and pointed it at the stone. “Lift.”
The stone lifted two inches before stopping with a click. A gap opened in the floor nearby, stretching from wall to wall. Arisa knelt next to it and pressed her hands to the edge of the rift. The section of floor slid forward with surprising ease, revealing a set of stairs that led down into darkness.
Mason illuminated the way with a purple glow at the tip of his wand. When the three stepped off the stairs into another hallway, the light reflected off something thin hanging from the ceiling. Felix frowned as they reached it.
“Is it string?” Arisa asked.
Felix tapped it. It was hard to pull his finger off. “It’s sticky.” As he stepped back, he realized he’d backed into more threads crisscrossing through the hallway. Where had those come from?
“Don’t touch it, genius,” Mason said. “It might be some kind of trap—”
Too late. Something invisible wrapped around Felix, pinning his arms to the side of his body. As he struggled against it, he realized it wasn’t invisible at all. More threads wrapped around him. “I’m stuck,” he said, panic creeping into his voice.
“Me too!” Arisa tried to yank her arm away from the web of strings she’d backed into, but it was no use. They thickened around her. Next to her, Mason faced a similar fate. One by one, they were all plucked off the ground and left hanging from the ceiling.
“We’re going to die,” Arisa groaned.
Mason rolled his eyes. “No, we’re not.”
Felix spun slowly, turning away from the others. “I can feel my blood draining into my head,” he said.
“You’re not even upside down!” Mason exclaimed.
“I’m sideways!”
“That’s not the same!”
“No, he’s right,” Arisa said. “I feel it too. We’re going to pass out, and then we’re going to die.”
“Do you think the spiders will eat us?” Felix asked as a black one crawled up the wall in front of him. Maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he swore it was at least the size of a rat.
“Spiders don’t eat people, right?” Arisa asked.
“I don’t know, this one’s really big.”
Arisa’s voice rose with alarm. “There’s one here?”
“Would you two please calm down?” Hellfire engulfed Mason’s body, burning away the threads. He dropped to the ground. “I swear, it’s like you two share the same brain cell.”
A woman’s voice rang out farther down the corridor. “What are you three doing down here?” She spoke the words with a French accent.
Felix twisted his body in the air, trying to rotate himself so that he could see the source of the voice. Footsteps echoed through the tunnel as the woman approached.
She stopped just inside his field of view. She wore a black Guardian uniform with the jacket zipped all the way up to the high collar. Straight, dark red hair fell to her waist. She folded her arms and sized the three up.
“Who are you?” Mason asked.
Two more arms emerged from behind the woman’s back. They weren’t covered by sleeves, but she did wear black fingerless gloves on her second set of hands. She gestured with them as she spoke. “I’m Adrienne. Head of security. I’m responsible for everything that comes in and out of Bright Castle, so I’ll ask you again: What are you three doing down here?”
“Uh, exploring?” Felix tried. He still couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
“Yeah,” Arisa said. “That.”
They both looked at Mason, who shrugged. “I was looking for a bathroom.”
Adrienne’s second set of arms rested on her hips. “You three are the kids on probation, aren’t you?”
“You know, we didn’t technically do anything wrong,” Felix said. “They should come up with a better word to use.”
“Why did you come down here?” Adrienne pressed. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll have no choice but to hand you over to the council.”
“Seriously,” Arisa said, her voice panicky again. “We were just exploring. No need to get the council involved.”
“Real answer, please.” One of Adrienne’s hands moved to her pocket to pull out a phone. “The king always answers when I call.” Her thumb hovered over the screen.
“We know that one of the Bright Guardians is secretly working for the Uprising,” Felix blurted.
“Felix!” Mason hissed.
“Look, if we don’t tell her, we’re definitely screwed,” Felix shot back. “If we do, we have like a fifty-fifty chance at getting out of this. Maybe.”
“Your friend is right,” Adrienne said.
“She is head of security,” Arisa added reluctantly. “I think we can trust her.”
Hopefully. Felix continued. “Ernest Abernathy is helping the Uprising, and he stole a powerful witch’s wand. We have a plan to steal it back. We were looking for a way to sneak out of the castle when the time comes.”
“And what was your plan from there?” Adrienne asked, gesturing with her phone. “You thought you’d be able to walk into a Guardian’s house, steal a powerful artifact, and walk out?”
“It’s a work in progress,” Arisa said.
Adrienne’s brow furrowed. “And you’re certain he’s with the Uprising?”
“Yeah,” Felix replied. “He pretty much told us himself.”
“And I have to get that wand back,” Mason added. “It belonged to my parents. Ernest killed them for it!”
Adrienne’s first set of arms unfolded. The webbing clinging to Felix released its grip. He dropped to the ground, and Arisa landed next to him.
The second set of arms disappeared as Adrienne turned around to face the opposite wall. An opening in the back of her jacket stretched from just below the collar to midway down her back, but there was no sign of the extra arms after they vanished.
“This is concerning,” Adrienne said. “You haven’t told anyone else?”
Felix brushed some stray pieces of webbing off his jacket. “We…were told not to.”
“By your teacher, I assume? Armitage?” Adrienne glanced back over her shoulder.
“Everyone always guesses him,” Felix muttered. “But yeah, he said if we went around talking about it, it could be harder to figure out who else is a spy.”
“He is right about that.” Adrienne paused. “Do you trust him?”
Felix thought back to the fight with the werewolves. To Sebastian, injured and bleeding, tearing them apart to save his students. “I trust him to keep us safe.”
“And the other Guardians you’ve worked with?”
“I’m…not sure.” Felix glanced at the others. Mason shrugged. Arisa looked lost in thought. “I want to,” he said.
Adrienne turned back around. A thread of webbing descended from the ceiling, lowering a white mug into the air next to her. She grabbed the handle and took a sip. “Would any of you like tea?”
“I’m good,” Felix said.
“I’ll pass,” Mason added.
Arisa shook her head. “No thank you.”
Adrienne took another sip. “I follow most of what happens in the council. You don’t see me at meetings, but I watch every one. If there are spies, they’ve been very good at conducting their business somewhere I don’t have eyes.” As if on cue, a large silver tarantula crawled onto her shoulder.
Felix restrained a shudder. “Are your abilities like Kendra’s, but with spiders?” he asked.
“Kendra Ford?” Adrienne shrugged. “Sort of. We have parallel abilities. Like Sebastian and Hana Tamura. Or the members of your family who wield elements.”
“So, you can do the same things with your power?”
“Parallel abilities can be shaped in wildly different ways. It all depends on the magician,” Adrienne explained. “Sebastian and Hana fight with completely different techniques. The amount of power you build up as you grow and train also affects what you can do.”
Mason cleared his throat. “Adrienne, if you care so much about castle security, you should let us go to Ernest’s house,” he said. “We have a plan. I’m working on a spell to mask our magical energy, and—”
“But you still don’t know his location,” Adrienne cut him off. “Or anything about his security. I imagine he’ll have wards to prevent demons from setting foot on his property, let alone getting inside.”
“There are ways to destroy wards. I’m a witch, too.”
“Will you be able to do that without drawing attention to yourself?”
Mason’s lack of response answered for him.
A third arm appeared and pressed its closed hand to Adrienne’s chin. She thought for a moment. “I think we all assumed that everyone who wanted to overthrow King Atticus left with the Uprising. If he and his council believe otherwise, they’ve kept quiet about it.”
“Did you really think everyone in the castle was an ally this entire time?” Mason asked.
“I can’t say I put my blind trust in everyone,” Adrienne replied. “But I have yet to see anything that leads me to be suspicious of any particular person.”
Felix frowned. “But if you have eyes and ears everywhere, wouldn’t you have overheard something between spies at some point?”
“They would undoubtedly be smart enough not to conduct that kind of business here at the castle. Most Guardians know what I’m capable of.”
“Ernest has cousins on the council, doesn’t he?” Mason asked. “Do you think they could be with the Uprising, too?”
“I’ve always been under the impression he values them more for their status, not out of deep love for his own family,” Adrienne said. “There’s no reason to assume the bond between them is strong. If he turns on the king, it’s not a stretch to believe he’d turn on them, too.” She shook her head. “This isn’t something you kids should be concerning yourself with. There’s nothing you can do.”
“There has to be,” Mason protested. “Ernest tried to kill us!”
“You’ll be safe as long as you’re in the castle. I’ll keep an eye on you when you’re not in your rooms, and I’ll keep an eye out for any information on the Uprising.” Adrienne dismissed them with a wave of her hand. “Now, get back to the surface, where you belong.”
“Are you going to tell someone we were down here?” Felix asked.
“As long as you stay out of trouble, this will stay between us. For now.”
Felix, Mason, and Arisa reluctantly trudged back up to the main halls of the castle. Mason’s tail had appeared at some point, and it twitched behind him as he walked. Arisa jumped at every sound and distant voice.
“Now what?” Felix finally asked.
“I don’t know,” Arisa said. “But we’d better hope no one comes to drag us in front of the council.”
“Adrienne said she wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“Sebastian told us not to tell anyone about Ernest for a reason. If she’s actually on the Uprising’s side, we could have just signed our own death sentences.”
“If we hadn’t, we’d be in trouble with the council right now, anyway.”
“I don’t think she’s with the Uprising,” Mason said confidently. He blew out a harsh breath of air. “But she’s still an obstacle between us and getting to Ernest.”
“Dude, one of her spiders might be listening right now,” Felix reminded him.
“I’m not saying I’m going to try to sneak past her,” Mason said, shooting him a glance. “I’m just saying that I’m getting real tired of people telling us not to worry about the guy who killed my parents!”
Felix winced. Was he supposed to be as angry about Gideon as Mason was with Ernest? To be fair, Gideon was dead—sort of—so Felix couldn’t do much on that front.
But his leader was still out there, somewhere. And Felix had agreed to sit around and train to fight random monsters instead of going after her.