Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (27 page)

“No one will blame you, Sarah,” Allie said softly. “But we have to try.”

Sarah nodded. What Allie said was true. They needed protection and sometimes one had to come up with a solution on the fly. Sarah waited a moment until the group settled down and everyone made a pile of hands. She held the symbol above their unified fists and gave Allie a little nod. Slowly Allie’s blue-white static charge covered their hands and then began to swirl out from the center of the dwennimmen, spiraling around each girl.

“I humbly call the angels of protection,” Sarah murmured as each girl closed her eyes. She could see the white light circling her body and felt the slight crackling charge envelop her like a warm blanket. “Please allow only things that are good and from the Light to help us, to be around us, and to protect us. Keep us safe in all dimensions of time and space in which we exist. If anyone tries to do us harm, let only good come from it.”

“Amen to that,” Tami muttered, and got a swift kick from Hyacinth. “Ow.”

Sarah cleared her throat, frowned, and pressed on. “We ask that the angels hear our prayer. We also pray for those students who weren’t so lucky, who have gone missing or worse. We are all Light.
Ashe
.”

Sarah opened her eyes, and her friends slowly opened theirs, waiting until the static charge around them withdrew before letting go. For the moment, Sarah felt empowered. They had done something proactive, but that certainly didn’t mean the threat had passed. It was simply dormant, crouching and latent in the shadows.

“You think it’ll work?” Allie asked quietly.

Sarah let out a weary sigh. “I guess only time will tell.”

Thankfully, the rest of the school day was relatively peaceful. The girls’ gym teacher, Ms. Akoben, hadn’t even been there. An Upper Sphere student had taken roll and shown the girls the basic drills they’d do, but since no one had brought their sweat pants, sneakers or t-shirts to class, the Upper had only walked them around the equipment, telling them what to expect tomorrow. It was a wasted class period that the students had most likely spent gabbing.

The Upper Sphere girl had just shaken her head and fought a smile when Sarah explained about why they hadn’t been in class. To Sarah’s surprise, the older girl had a heart and simply placed four check marks on the clipboard next to their names and said sarcastically, “You owe me, kid.”

Then Sarah braced herself as she saw her brother headed her way. Al was coming from the boys’ gym class, and it would be impossible to avoid him. She was ready for an argument, but when his expression gentled and he touched her arm, she didn’t know what to think.

“You guys okay?” he asked quietly, looking at Allie and Hyacinth. “I heard what happened. That was foul.”

“We’re okay,” Allie said in a soft voice. “Just more humiliated than anything else.”

Al shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair, seeming torn. “I heard ‘Cinth got tripped a few times, too.”

“I’ll live,” Hyacinth said, and cast her gaze down to the floor.

Al ignored Tami’s crossed arms and hard glare, and looked at Sarah. “Sis, seriously… I know we don’t always get along, but blood is thicker than water.”

“Thanks,” Sarah said, really needing to hear that from him. “It’s nothing we can’t handle, but watch your back Al, okay? Some people around here aren’t what they’re pretending to be.”

She noticed that the other guys from the compound were hanging back, waiting for Al, but also giving him some space to talk to the girls alone.

“So did you already get what you wanted from that skank, Melissa? Is that why you’re back here trying to act like you’re with us? Or did you finally remember who your real friends are?” Tami said, clearly unconvinced that Al was being genuine.

“You’re one to talk,” he shot back, his tone hardening. “I’m not the one slobbering over that spooky kid—Stefan’s a nice weirdo addition to your trophy case, Tamara.”

Caught between her brother and her best friend, for a moment Sarah didn’t know what to do. Truthfully, all she wanted was peace. “Al…”

“I’m out, Sarah,” he said, glaring at Tami before turning back to her. “You be careful, too, okay?”

Sarah watched her brother walk off and merge with the other students milling in the hallway between classes. Part of her had wanted to say the same things Tami had, to get back at him for initially siding with Melissa over them, but another part of her totally understood where Al was coming from. How did one control a crush? Truthfully, they were all guilty of having one. In that moment, she wished that Tami could have kept her big mouth shut and just allowed Al’s rare display of niceness to shine through.

“Good riddance,” Tami muttered, and began to walk toward the Blends lecture.

“That’s still her brother… our compound brother,” Allie said, staring up at Tami.

“Yeah, and he did come back to us and really wasn’t cool with what Melissa did to us. That counts for something,” Hyacinth said, siding with Allie.

“C’mon, Tam… I know my brother can be a jerk sometimes, but ease up on him. We just did that prayer, and he came back to us acting nice. Like… just for once, let the grudge stuff go.”

“Whatever.” Tami hiked her backpack up higher on her shoulder, clearly ready to take on any challengers.

“I’ve got library orientation after Blends. I need to run over there and find out what I have to bring to that,” Sarah said in a weary tone. She was glad to have an excuse to get away from all of them. “I’ll catch you later.”

For the first time since she’d arrived at school, she wanted—no, correction, needed—to get away from her closest friends. The bickering was wearing her out, and the constant obsessing about Melissa was getting old. She just hoped that with everybody so freaked out, Ayana’s unity of strength ward would actually hold.

Plus, the more she thought about it, she really hated how Tami had embarrassed Al at lunch. If it had just been between the family, that would be one thing—but T had punked Al in front of some older guy, and a creep to boot. That was so not cool. But, of course, there was no way to say that to Tami without her blowing up. Right now Sarah just wanted a few hours where she could focus on anything but conflict.

Heading toward the sanctuary of the library, Sarah walked so quickly that she was almost running. When she rounded the corner, she skidded to a halt and her breath hitched. Wil was headed in her direction with a drop-dead gorgeous smile on his face.

“You got a minute?” he asked.

Sarah blinked and just stared at him for a second. Was he asking her if she had time to hang with him? “I’ve got Blends lecture—but not for fifteen minutes, so…I guess so. Why?”

“I was just wondering if we could talk. I heard what happened today… are you all right?”

“Yeah.” A plume of butterflies took flight in her belly all at once, and she tried to keep her expression as neutral as possible.

“So can we just talk?”

“Sure.”

“Cool,” he said, opening the library door for her. “Let’s go in here where it’s quiet, and then we can run to talents. Afterward… maybe…”

“I, uhm… I have library orientation, but after that…”

“Cool. Well, I can come back after talents and track practice, and hang out at the library. I just wanna tell you something—it won’t take long, if you’ve got a minute now, though?”

“Okay.”

She wanted to kick herself. What was with the one word answers? But for the life of her, she couldn’t think of anything witty or sophisticated to say to him. Keeping her responses aloof and simple seemed like the best option as she followed him to a table on the far side of the room, where nobody else was sitting.

She sat down, expecting him to take the seat across from her, only to be surprised when he actually sat down right next to her. Thoughts crashed inside her mind like a multi-car collision, and the first thing out of the pile-up and her mouth was everything she’d wanted to know about his relationship with Melissa.

“So what is the long story with you, Patty and Melissa?” She stared at him, waiting for some explanation that made sense.

Wil smiled, not seeming at all surprised that she’d gone there. “I knew you’d wanna know… especially after what happened earlier today. Listen, I heard all about it, and for the record, I’m not on their side. I really feel bad about the way Melissa is treating you and your friends. She can be a little over the top sometimes, if you know what I mean.”

Sarah shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know how you could even be involved with them. You seem so nice, and I don’t know about Patty, but I sure know Melissa’s not.”

“Patty is different from her sister,” he said with a long sigh, and then he dropped his gaze as though studying the fine grain of the gleaming walnut table. “It’s all so complicated. We grew up in the same compound for a while… my dad had met my Mom in Italy when he was on a campaign there. My Mom got pregnant, had me, and I grew up in what was then Italy till I was three. It was a long time till he could come back and get me. He did when he heard she’d died. Took me to his compound back in old Boston and from age three until I was thirteen, I stayed there. Then he sent me to Italy for two years to get to know some of my mother’s people and to train…. Boston was under siege, and I think he wanted me out of harm’s way. Last summer, they needed everybody’s help. I came back—all the kids who were my age and older had to come back from wherever their parents had sent them to hide. But finally Boston fell, like a lot of the compounds on the East Coast. Things happened—Patty and I got together, even though she’s a couple years older than me… wartime crisis can bring people together who normally might not even look at each other, but it didn’t last. It was sort of a summer thing when I turned fifteen. She and I were, and still are, two very different people, but it’s amazing what location, limited choices and hormones will do. So when my dad went back to Italy, I went with him.”

“Oh…”

Wil looked up. “It’s over, Sarah. We’re just friends.”

She didn’t know what else to say. Part of her believed him, the part that was gazing into his magnificent sea-green eyes. But there was a part of her that felt cheated by not having known him first.

“Sarah… it was pretty rough back there in Boston,” Wil said quietly. “Martial law, the whole area was flooded… food was scarce, and all up in the Salem region, Beantown, New Hampshire—the whole area—there are a bunch of really old covens that have made some serious pacts with the dark side.” He let out a long breath and took one of her hands. “I’m not making excuses for Melissa’s behavior, I’m just saying that her past might have something to do with it. There were months without fresh produce, people scavenged whatever meat they could from city wildlife.”

“City wildlife?” Sarah leaned forward, thoroughly involved in what he was revealing to her.

“Strays,” Wil said, looking down.

Sarah’s stomach lurched, but she remained very, very still, listening and feeling his pain down into the marrow of her bones.

“Vermin,” he pressed on, seeing that her eyes contained no judgment or laughter. He looked down again, speaking in a quiet confession. “Pigeons. Stealing canned goods from government checkpoint-controlled food outlets. Living wet, never being able to fully dry out. Mildew… I hate it to this day. Ragged clothes… man… and water was scarce, so you didn’t waste it bathing.” He looked up and sat straighter. “My Mom died keeping walkers away from our compound in Italy. The cities were overrun. Zaphon’s agents of evil, his minions’, goal was to starve out all resistance fighters, and he almost did. Trust me, he might have been driven back to the Dark Realms and injured during the Armageddon, but he’s still got plenty who serve him and the Dark Lord. I was lucky… my dad called me back to Boston. That’s why my dad is so into material things, because for a long time we didn’t have them. It doesn’t make it right, just explains why he is like he is. Patty and Melissa got sent here earlier, as little kids, for partial semesters when their parents needed to stash them somewhere safe. Finally when it all came apart, they got to come here when our compound completely fell and the team scattered. I don’t even know what happened to their mom and dad.”

Sarah gazed at him, trying to see past his irises and into his heart. Empathy washed over her. They’d never missed a meal in her compound, and neither she nor any of the kids she’d grown up with could fathom what losing a parent was like. All she could think of was the safe, warm beds they’d slept in and the luscious meals prepared by Aunt Inez’s loving hands. She almost felt ashamed for hating Melissa.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, squeezing his warm hand.

“I was lucky. I got out,” he replied with a slight smile. “But it wasn’t all bad. I learned a lot. It made me stronger.”

“It made you a Shadow,” Sarah said, unable to hide her awe.

Wil looked away, seeming pleased by her compliment, and his bashful response only endeared him to her more. “You’ve gotta be on your toes in an environment like that. Anybody could have done it.”

“No,” she said in a gentle tone that brought his gaze back to hers. “A lot of other kids grew up there, but they didn’t make Shadows. You should be really proud.”

“If you met our Professor, you wouldn’t think I’m lucky,” Wil said, trying to lighten the mood.

“What’s it like in Shadows?” she asked eagerly, scooting over closer to him.

“Aw, man… it’s crazy. The Prof is a true hard ass. But I can tell you all that junk later. What about you? What was it like growing up in the Neteru Compound? Your Mom and Dad are like living legends. It must have been outrageous.”

Shame singed her. and she bit her lip as she watched the fire of excitement dance in Wil’s eyes. Her life had been bland, boring and uneventful. Her parents were the ones who went out on patrols and saved the world, not her and Alejandro. Hearing just a tiny bit about Wil’s life made her understand her brother a little more. Alejandro was looking for street cred, something he’d never get until he’d actually survived an adventure and had his own stories to tell.

Sarah looked down, not knowing where to start. How did she begin to explain to Wil that, comparatively speaking, she’d grown up in the lap of luxury, that her only true complaint was her dad’s uneven treatment of her and her brother—and she really couldn’t call that a hardship, since it was his over-protectiveness that kept all evil at bay and food on the table.