Author's Preface
In the days leading up to the party, Felix trained as hard as he could, hoping he’d feel more confident when the time came to sneak off to Ernest’s house. His aim with his fire was still far from perfect, but he was hitting more and more of his targets. Attempting to control his water body still felt like a lost cause, though, and he was only halfway decent with Ezra’s plants.
Time ran out, as it tended to all too often for him. He left the last training session of the day—the last one before Ernest’s party—clenching and unclenching his fist, hoping what he did know would be good enough.
“I’ll see you kids tomorrow morning,” Sebastian said as he waved goodbye. “We’ll discuss what I learn at Ernest’s then.”
The three ate dinner quickly. Afterwards, Felix and Mason went to the library to wait for Guardians to begin leaving. Arisa joined them after grabbing her parents’ car keys from their room.
Kendra and Hana were among the first to head out.
“Be safe,” Arisa signed to Hana as she passed. Hana looked a little confused, but she smiled and nodded.
After another ten minutes passed, Mason rose to his feet. “All right, enough waiting. Let’s go.”
Arisa picked up Clementine and placed the bear in her backpack. Felix grabbed Helena’s sword from under the table and double checked that May’s stone was in his pocket.
His heart quickened when they entered the hallway. It wasn’t Guardians that had him anxious, but the dozens of students headed to the ballroom for whatever lame party had been thrown together for them. At least, Felix hoped it was lame. He’d hate to miss out on a fun party. Especially to risk his life.
Jack Caldwell walked by, saying something that made Clara laugh at his side. Noah and Rose were smiling, too, though Noah’s expression fell when he noticed Felix watching.
“I need to talk to Jack,” Felix said.
“Ew, why?” Arisa asked.
Mason shook his head. “We need to go.”
“We still have time.” Felix met Mason’s gaze. “Please. Trust me. I think everything that happened is connected to Ernest. I’m just not entirely sure how.”
“What if it’s not?” Mason asked. “Or what if he won’t talk?”
“I promise we’ll leave in ten minutes, no matter what. Okay?”
Mason sighed and nodded. “Okay.”
Felix turned to Arisa. “You ready?”
“To crash their dumb party?” Arisa grinned. “Always.”
Mason looked down at his sweatshirt, dark jeans, and sneakers. “I’m not changing.”
Felix and Arisa were dressed just as casually. Felix’s green hoodie had a juice stain on the sleeve from breakfast that morning. Arisa’s jeans were full of holes that Felix was pretty sure hadn’t been there when she’d bought them.
“Good,” Arisa said. “I wanna kill their vibes as hard as we can.”
The three followed the crowd to the ballroom. Massive speakers had been dragged in to blast pop music. Strobe lights moved over the room, offering glimpses of white streamers and the disco ball hanging from the ceiling. It was a surprising change of pace from the fantasy aesthetic the ballroom had when it was empty.
Felix scanned the room and quickly realized how pointless searching was. They didn’t have a prayer of finding Jack in this dimly lit party.
“Knowing him, he’ll come right to us if we make ourselves obvious.” Mason nodded toward the dessert table nearby, which was illuminated by a pink spotlight.
They approached the table. Arisa picked up a cupcake. “How long do you think it’ll take him?” she asked before taking a bite.
“Hm.” Felix glanced back at the crowd. “Probably a few minutes.”
Arisa swallowed. “No way,” she shot back. “He’ll be here in a minute, tops.”
Mason wrapped a cookie in a napkin and shoved it into his pocket. “He has to notice us first.”
“Yeah, but I swear he has some kind of radar for us.”
By Felix’s count, it took about seventy-six seconds for Jack to emerge from the crowd and stroll toward them at an uncomfortably fast walking pace. “You guys are here? Why are you dressed like that?” He asked as he looked them over. His gaze darted to Felix. “Is that your sword behind you?”
“We’re stealing your food,” Arisa said through a mouthful of cupcake.
“Uh, we are technically allowed to be here,” Felix added.
Mason added a donut to the growing collection of food in his sweatshirt. “Don’t worry, we won’t be staying long.” He met Felix’s eye and nodded.
Felix returned the nod before turning back to Jack. “I wanted to apologize.”
Arisa choked on the food in her mouth.
“I know how it feels to walk into a trap and get taken by surprise,” Felix continued while Mason grabbed Arisa a glass of punch from the other end of the table. “You must have been terrified when the wraith showed up.”
“I’m not an idiot. I knew the wraith was there!” Jack snapped. His eyes immediately widened. He glanced around, checking if anyone had heard him.
Felix reached out and grabbed Jack’s wrist while he was distracted. “How?”
Jack glared at him. “As if I’d tell you.”
Felix yanked the wooden ring off Jack’s finger before Jack could stop him. “Then I’ll just find the memory myself.”
Jack reached for the ring, but Felix held it back out of reach. “Give that back!” Jack grabbed at it again and missed.
“Watch it.” Arisa pointed her half empty glass of punch toward Jack. “I will spill this all over you,” she warned. “I’m not afraid of getting any on my shirt.”
Jack’s shoulders sagged. He sighed. “I don’t know all the details, okay? My dad just told me that the house would seem empty, but if I went inside, there would be a spirit for me to fight.” He hesitated. “He said something about an energy masking spell.”
“And why did you need to fight a spirit?” Arisa asked. “You’ve been on a ton of successful missions, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, as a student,” Jack replied bitterly. “I haven’t killed much myself. Nothing more powerful than the world’s weakest demon.” He rolled his eyes. “Dad told me if I wanted to move up in the world, I needed to prove I was capable of more. And then he told me he had this—this opportunity for me. And I blew it.”
“Why can’t you just try again?” Felix asked.
“I guess it was hard to set up. The guy who arranged it won’t do it again for us, unless my dad earns another favor from him.”
Mason folded his arms. “Does this guy happen to be Ernest Abernathy?”
Alarm flashed across Jack’s face. “Hey, that wasn’t my fault! I didn’t make those kids summon the poltergeist. They were lying!”
“Poltergeist?” Felix glanced at Arisa. “The one we ran into during my tour of the castle?”
“Yeah. I—I’m the one who told them how to summon it into the castle,” Jack admitted. “They told Archer I forced them to do it, but I didn’t. I just…suggested it.”
“I’m sure you were very polite,” Mason said sarcastically.
“Wait, what does that have to do with Ernest?” Felix asked.
“I knew how to do it because I overheard Ernest telling another Guardian about it,” Jack said. “He said he was concerned about castle security because he knew of this way to summon certain spirits without triggering the wards.”
Felix frowned. “And Ernest was the guy who set up the wraith for you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. My dad never told me.”
“I bet it was,” Mason said. “Ernest isn’t stupid enough to let a random kid eavesdrop on him. You overheard the bit about summoning and convinced some other kids to try it, proving it would work. That was the favor that made Ernest help your dad in return.”
“Mason, you’re a genius!” Felix exclaimed.
“I was…tricked?” Jack asked. The hurt in his expression took Felix by surprise. “But why?”
“Yeah, the poltergeist was easy to banish.” Arisa took a sip of the punch she’d threatened Jack with. “What was the point of summoning it in the first place?
“Maybe it was a test,” Mason suggested. “A way for Ernest to find out whether it would actually work without getting himself in trouble.”
“A test for what?” Felix asked.
“Good question.”
“Can I have my ring back now?” Jack asked.
“Oh. Right.” Felix held it out. Jack snatched it back with a little more aggression than Felix thought necessary and slid it back on his finger.
“Now, are you three morons done crashing our party?” Jack asked.
“Wow. Right back to being an asshole,” Mason muttered.
Arisa snickered. Jack shot her a glare that managed to be even sharper than usual. “What’s so funny?”
“There’s a spider on your shoulder.”
Jack’s gaze flickered to his shoulder. He yelped in surprise and swatted at the spider, but it jumped out of the way first.
The spider landed on the floor and scurried toward Felix. As he took an instinctive step back, a second spider emerged from under the table behind him and joined the first.
“Why are all of these spiders…?” Felix trailed off as he looked up. “Oh my god.”
“What?” Jack asked. His head tipped back, and Felix’s heart skipped a beat.
Thankfully, the spiders spread out before Jack’s eyes found the shape they’d made. “Oh. Gross.” He turned around. “I’m going to go tell someone. Maybe one of the Guardians can torch them.”
Felix lowered his gaze as Jack walked off. “Did you two see what was on the ceiling?”
“The arrow? Yeah, I did.” Mason shoved one more wrapped desert into his hoodie. “Let’s go.”
They left the ballroom and found more spiders waiting on the ceiling outside. The spiders led the three through the castle, forming arrows and dispersing as they moved. The three entered the hidden passages through a door hidden behind a painting and descended to the lower tunnels through a loose grate in the floor.
“Hello? Adrienne?” Felix called as they walked.
No response. Spiders scurried past Felix’s feet and formed a new arrow on the floor. He held back a shudder as he looked to where they were pointing. Adrienne’s mug lay on its side.
“What happened?” Mason asked as Felix moved to pick it up.
Felix’s hand tightened around the handle. A memory pulled at him. He let it take him under.
Adrienne sat cross-legged, perched in the center of a web with the mug in one of her four hands. Threads stretching out in every direction around her, filling the tunnel. She sipped from the mug. A thread to her right trembled.
She downed the last of the tea and crept along the webbing, mug still clutched in her hand. Felix followed her through the memory as she turned a corner. She paused. Waited.
The entire web shook. A new thread pulled Adrienne into the air. As her feet and hands touched the ceiling, an invisible force shredded the web beneath her.
“Show yourself,” Adrienne demanded.
Shrieking laughter echoed around the tunnel.
“Fine.” Adrienne extended one of her free hands. Spiders dropped from the ceiling, carrying extra webbing to her. The white threads wrapped together and took on the shape of a staff. Adrienne jumped to the ground and swung at the air.
The mug slipped from her hand, and the memory ended. Felix snapped back to the present.
“What is it?” Arisa asked. “What did you see?”
“Follow me!” Felix was running before the words finished leaving his mouth.
They raced through the tunnels until Mason slowed, holding up a hand. “I’m sensing energy. Some kind of spirit.”
“Poltergeist,” Arisa said.
Mason’s gaze hardened. “Lots of them.”
“Lots of them?” Felix’s blood went cold.
Arisa snapped her fingers. “We can handle this.” Her backpack unzipped itself. Clementine jumped out, knives at the ready.
“With enough sigils, we could banish them all at once,” Mason said, glancing at Arisa.
“Leave that to me.”
“Guess we’re keeping them busy, then?” Felix asked. He met Mason’s gaze.
Mason nodded. “Yep.”
The three pushed forward and took the next corner at full speed. Adrienne stood in the middle of the next corridor, a white staff in all six of her extended arms. Spirits swooped through the air around her. The tunnel trembled. Lights flickered overhead.
Adrienne swung at a poltergeist as it passed within a few feet of her. It hissed and vanished into thin air as her staff passed through it, only to reappear a moment later. She took a few steps forward to swing again, making it obvious that her right leg was injured.
Mason and Felix raced toward her. Mason hit every poltergeist in their path with hellfire, while Felix blasted others nearby with electricity to keep them from getting closer. Arisa sent paper stars spinning through the air to form a circle of protection around Adrienne. They refolded into planes as the three reached her.
Felix and the others stumbled into the safe circle. Arisa moved to the edge with Clementine on her shoulder, allowing the bear to jump into the air and swipe at passing poltergeists with her knives. Arisa raised out a dagger of her own, ready to strike anything that got too close. Mason walked to the other side and sent fireballs shooting through the air.
“Do those hurt them?” Felix asked Adrienne, nodding at one of the staffs she held out.
“Yes.” Adrienne turned it so that he could see the spider clinging to the side with red sigils marking its back. “I’ve been holding up all right so far,” she said. “But this just a fraction of the ones that were summoned.”
Arisa looked at Adrienne over her shoulder. “Who summoned them? And how?”
“I don’t know about the who, but I found the supplies for a summoning ritual in a nearby tunnel,” Adrienne answered.
“We should check it out. I could see who summoned them—” Felix started.
“We don’t have time for that now,” Mason said, throwing a quick glance back. “I’m guessing you called us down here for a reason?”
“Yes. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight much longer.” Adrienne pressed one of her hands to her side. “I’ve lost a lot of blood, and they’ve kept me too busy to do anything about it.”
“Why call us?” Arisa asked. “Why not other Guardians?”
Adrienne’s expression darkened. “Because you’re the only ones I can trust right now.”
Spiders came scuttling across the floor and made their way up Adrienne’s body. She lowered her arms and allowed the spiders to wrap webbing around the places where her uniform had torn to expose bleeding skin.
Felix tried to hide his instinctive disgust at seeing so many spiders. “Will that heal you?”
“It will help, but it won’t heal me instantly.” Adrienne watched the spiders wrap their silk around her torso. The white turned red in seconds as blood pooled under the webs.
“So, now what?”
“This hallway isn’t it,” Adrienne said. “There are more poltergeists all around the castle perimeter.”
“Why summon them down here instead of inside?” Arisa asked. “We know it’s possible.”
“I don’t know,” Adrienne tipped her head back. Three more eyes opened in her forehead, all entirely the same shade of red as her hair. “But I’ve been monitoring the castle as much as I can. None of the poltergeists have tried to move inside.”
“That’s because they don’t need to go inside,” Mason realized. “I think they’re here to prevent anyone from leaving after the party guests. Once everyone leaves, they’ll move up to the castle yard.”
“Poltergeists don’t have the same intelligence as demons or werewolves,” Arisa said. “I don’t see how someone could be giving them orders.”
“If the summoning ritual was done properly, they could be kept confined to a certain area,” Mason replied. “And time increments could be incorporated. But the how isn’t important. If they’re only here to make sure no one leaves—”
“Then something must be going down at Ernest’s party,” Felix finished.
Arisa’s eyes went wide. “We have to warn them.” She pulled out her phone. “There’s no service down here. Let’s get back upstairs—”
“We don’t know for sure who we can trust,” Mason said. “The last thing we want to do is let Ernest know we’re onto him.”
“We can trust my sister!”
“I’m not saying I don’t believe that. I just don’t know if texting anyone at the party is a good idea.”
“What, you think just showing up would be better?” Felix asked.
“We could assess what’s happening and go from there,” Mason replied, folding his arms.
“He has a point.”
They all turned to stare at Adrienne.
“You agree with me?” Mason asked, surprised.
Adrienne nodded. “Arisa, can you expand the sigil circle?”
“A little, but the barrier will weaken,” Arisa warned. “Some of the stronger ones might be able to get through.”
“I just need another foot of space.”
Arisa nodded. She lifted her chin, and the paper planes widened their perimeter.
“What are you going to do?” Felix asked Adrienne.
Adrienne’s extra eyes closed. She lifted an eyebrow. “You were already planning to go to Ernest’s house tonight, weren’t you?”
“Were you going to stop us?” Mason asked.
“I was, until all of this happened.” Two sets of arms folded into Adrienne’s back, leaving only her original pair. “I would go myself, but I’m too weak to travel that far. I’ll fight my way to the upper passages and keep an eye on things from there. We still can’t be sure the poltergeists won’t move on to attacking people inside.”
Felix’s brow furrowed. “What should we do, then?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that,” Adrienne replied. “I’ve never been one for strategy. My job is to keep things out.”
“How are we supposed to get to Ernest’s house, though?” Mason asked. “Maybe there will still be people leaving that we can follow if we hurry, but—”
“You won’t be going by car,” Adrienne interrupted. “There’s no time for that.”
Arisa frowned. “What’s faster than a car?”
“This.”
More spiders emerged from gaps in the walls and converged on them. Felix, Mason, and Arisa backed to the edges of the sigil circle as the arachnids swarmed the center. Within seconds, they merged together to form one massive black tarantula.
Adrienne patted the spider’s back. “He can cut through forests where there aren’t roads.”
“And he knows the way to Ernest’s house?” Mason asked, unfazed by the eight-legged beast in front of them.
“He knows what I know,” Adrienne replied. “You should arrive in about twenty minutes.”
“We have to spend twenty minutes on the back of a giant spider?” Arisa exclaimed.
“Just close your eyes and pretend it’s a horse.” Mason was already climbing onto the spider’s back.
“Horses are scary, too!”
Felix used his shaking hands to pull himself up onto the spider behind Mason. With a reluctant sigh, Arisa followed. Clementine climbed back into her backpack, and the zipper closed itself up.
“You aren’t responsible for the mistakes of other Guardians.” Adrienne spoke with the sincerest expression Felix had seen on her. “Right now, you may be able to help us. But no one will blame you if you can’t save everyone.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Felix asked.
Adrienne nodded, but her hand was pressed to her side again, and most of the webbing wrapped around her limbs had turned a dark red.
“Go,” Adrienne commanded.
The spider shot forward.