Chapter 34: Chapter Thirty-Four

Leaving Bear Mountain was harder the second time. Even with my friends around me, it felt different. Final. Like I was leaving a part of myself behind. I felt like a completely different person to the one I’d been last time I’d made this journey. A smidgen more jaded but a ton more badass. I guess surviving several assassination attempts will do that to a girl.

I watched out the window as we sped past the graveyard where my dad was buried. I felt a pang of grief. I wished I’d had the chance to visit his grave, to do something about him being stuck in Limbo. Even just a chance to speak about it with Grandma. But there hadn’t been time. I’d had to put that stuff to the side. I hoped that summoning the Sirens and stopping Geiser’s ceremony would solve whatever thing that was trapping Dad in Limbo in the first place, but I kinda suspected it wouldn’t. There was more to that particular story and, as agonizing as it was, I had to put it aside for now.

Lucas reached the freeway and gunned the van, as if he were in a race with the rising moon. I was glad now that he’d spent our whole time in Bear Mountain sat on his ass. It meant he could be alert when it mattered most. It also meant the rest of us could nap in the back of the van. Not that my frantic mind was going to let me do that anytime soon.

As I lay back in the darkness, listening to at least three different frequencies of snoring, I felt something soft brush against my arm. Feathers. At first I thought I must’ve touched one of Cora’s wings. But then I realized whatever it was, it was… nestling. Unless a wood pigeon had decided to hitchhike a lift to NYC, it was Nik’s familiar.

I tensed. Things between me and Nik were dire. His attitude since I’d found out he was half Vanpari had pissed me off. We might’ve fought side by side at Heidi’s egg-hatching party, but we’d had our barbs out the whole time we’d been in Bear Mountain. There’d been no chance to talk anything through, let alone attempt to mend it. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. Nik had a total turd streak that I, quite frankly, couldn’t be dealing with right now.

“Theia?” Nik’s voice came from the darkness. “You awake?”

“Uh-huh… ” I said, reticently.

“I want to apologize.”

“What for?”

“For freaking out. About you finding out I was Vanpari. And then how I acted about Gus. I’m really sorry. I was just focused on Elliot.”

I paused for a moment. “Okay,” I said, my voice lacking conviction.

“Okay?” Nik repeated. “That’s it?”

“For now.”

“Oh.” It was his turn to pause. “But before all that stuff happened, I thought you and me were going to—”

“Nik, stop,” I said, firmly. “I don’t want to talk about this. Not here. Not now.” I softened my voice, hearing how sharp my tone had been. “Maybe if we make it out of this thing alive, then we can see what happens.”

“Okay,” he replied in a sad, disappointed voice.

I felt the feathers against my skin move away.

*

As the tip of the Statue of Liberty’s black-flamed torch appeared through the windshield, everyone in the van held their breath. I looked nervously from one face to the next. This was it. Crunch time.

In the sky, helicopters buzzed like bees, a mixture of journalists and cops. The ceremony was probably the biggest thing to happen in the city since the original peace treaty was signed. Every TV channel had turned up for it. Every police helicopter was circling above. And we were about to try and break through the ring of steel. Because of course we were.

We inched closer. Since it was nighttime, the statue’s flame was burning black. If Geiser had his way, it would be for the last time. At midnight, his ceremony would turn it to a yellow flame and it would remain that way forever more. Twenty-four-hour daylight. The sun-class taking over. And all these people milling the streets for the ceremony were for it. The thought made me shudder.

“I won’t be able to get any closer,” Lucas said. “The crowd is too dense.”

We’d made it to the far side of Liberty State Park, but it was obvious there was no way through beyond this point. We’d have to walk the rest of the way to the ocean.

“Let’s ditch the van,” I said. “We’ll get lost in the crowds better this way.” I handed my bow to Aaron. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

He nodded, decisively. Then, right before my eyes, he put up a glimmer and the bow disappeared from sight.

I reached out and touched my fingertips to the invisible place where I knew my bow to be. Even though I could feel it there, I chewed my lip with trepidation. I hated not being attached to my weapon. It made me feel vulnerable. But there was no way I’d make it through the crowd holding a bow and glowing arrow otherwise.

I looked at my friends. “Here goes nothing.”

I pulled my hood up over my head, hoping no one would recognize me from the news reports, then we climbed out the van.

There was a full moon in the sky, crisscrossed by helicopters whose blades threw off an unsettling background hum. The streets were heaving. People chatted loudly and merrily, like this was some kind of a festival. Ew. Just ew.

We began to muscle our way forward. The closer we were to the statue when I fired the arrow the better. But there was still a whole park separating us from the water.

The audience jostled. Despite the large TV screens all over the park beaming a live feed of Geiser’s stupid face, everyone wanted to get a good look at the actual event. People were getting pissy as we pushed ourselves past.

“Hey, watch it!” a Baphomet growled at me as I accidentally jabbed him with my elbow. So I did it again, before quickly losing myself in the crowd.

I pulled the toggles of my hoodie, closing it even more tightly over my face. I was sure it made me look even more shifty, but shifty was better than being recognized for who I really was.

The closer we made it to the ocean, the clearer the view of the stage became. There were camera crews set up. This was like the president’s inauguration or something. Like a moment in history. I could just make out the figures of Conrad, Geiser, Emerald, and Mom as they milled around on the stage, surrounded by security personnel. I couldn’t help but wish Geiser was closer; shooting him in the face might be a better use of my golden arrow.

Finally, the churning ocean came into view. It looked dark and foreboding. I didn’t have much faith in our plan; it was shaky at best, and part of me was certain the whole thing would fail. But I wasn’t the sort of girl to let impossible odds stop me.

We made it all the way to the oceanside. My heart was beating so hard I could hardly breathe. I thought of my bow, infused with the magic of my Elkie ancestors, and mixed now with the magic of my Mage ones. It felt more like mine than ever before, like a friend who’d always have my back. Incidentally, I seemed to have several of those now, too, standing shoulder to shoulder with me. My bow and my friends made me feel even stronger. Bolder. Ready to take on the world. Or, you know, this corner of the world.

Aaron came up to my left shoulder. “The second I let go, the glimmer falls away. You ready?”

I could feel my palms grow sweaty. I looked from Aaron’s face to Cora’s, then from Lucas to Gus and Nik. Finally, my gaze rested on Retta. She gave me a nod of solidarity. One arrow and our fates would be sealed. Once I made this shot, things would never ever be the same again.

“I’m ready,” I said.

My friends shuffled in closer, forming a sort of barricade around me to provide as much privacy as possible. Then Aaron’s glimmer started to falter. All at once, my bow and the glowing arrow appeared before my eyes. Aaron thrust them into my hands.

The second my skin made contact with my weapon, all my anxiety melted away. A surge of rightness and power swept through me. I got this.

My friends stepped back to make a gap and give me a clear shot.

Moving at lightning Elkie speed, I brought my bow up into a shooting stance, pulled back on the bowstring, and released the glowing arrow.

Time seemed to slow down. The arrow soared across the dark ocean swells, leaving a golden arc in its wake, glittering like a shooting star. People in the crowd around me made noises of awe, like they thought it was a firework. Best to keep it that way.

Quickly, I shoved the bow back to Aaron and it disappeared behind his glimmer.

My eyes fixed on the arrow as it zoomed closer and closer to the stage.

Then it hit the water and was swallowed by the darkness.

The audience around us clapped. No one seemed to have realized what I’d just done.

I stared at the water. Nothing happened. No movement. No sound. I may as well have thrown a pebble into the water. It was like the arrow had been consumed.

“It didn’t work,” I murmured.

The spell had failed. Lucas must have fluffed the incantation. It was a stupid idea to have ever relied on that frickin’ pretty boy. Hell, maybe his weed-addled brain had invented the whole concept of a Siren call in the first place?

I looked at my friends, desperately. “That could’ve gone better.”

But at that moment, I noticed Retta’s eyes widen, and in her dark irises was the reflection of golden light.

I turned back to the ocean. At the place where the arrow had hit, golden light was starting to radiate like a pool of oil. It sparkled, spreading across the surface of the water. Holy shit balls. It was working!

The crowd began to murmur again, pointing their fingers at the glittering water.

Then it happened.

A huge gush knocked me off my feet. I slammed back, hitting my tailbone hard on the asphalt. Around me, other people were pushed over by the force, scattering across the ground like skittles.

Water spray covered me. I brought my arm up to protect my face and glanced toward the ocean, to see a huge jet of water bursting into the air like a column.

I gaped, mouth open, as the column grew taller and taller. Ten feet soon became twenty feet. Twenty became thirty. It was astounding.

The audience began to scream. To stagger back. To run. Within seconds, everything descended into pandemonium.

“That’s our cue,” I heard Nik say as he grabbed me by the arm and heaved me up. “Time to make like Elliot.”

I frowned. “And poop?”

“No, dimwit. Run!”

We began to sprint, following the rest of the crowd as they streamed away from the huge column of golden light.

Then, just as quickly as the column had burst out the ocean, the water began to fall back down like a giant fountain. It hit the ocean with a splash, causing an enormous wave to come rushing our way.

“Guys!” I screamed, as the surge of water came our way. “Get your stomp on.”

We picked up the pace, racing back through the park. Water spilled over the sidings and whooshed toward us like a moving wall.

I looked back over my shoulder to see what was happening. Several uber-buff Sirens were standing in the wake of the wave. Several semi-naked uber-buff Sirens, I should add, holding tridents.

Gus, clearly having snuck a peak behind him as well, suddenly grabbed my arm, halting me.

“Whoa mama,” he said, his mouth gaping open. “Look at those abs!”

While the crowds filtered past us, screaming in terror, the seven of us stood like statues watching the scene we’d instigated unfold.

The Sirens looked like warriors as they floated slowly across the water, toward the Statue of Liberty and the stage. All around the empty, flooded park, the live feed of Geiser’s terrified face was projected onto the big screens, repeated over and over, reflected in the puddles of water like a fun-house mirror. He seemed to be cowering. I couldn’t help but feel a smug surge of in-your-face satisfaction.

“Duuude, that’s Uncle Roberto,” Lucas exclaimed.

Something about this ripped half-naked man being Lucas’s uncle tickled me, since my only uncle was a tubby Elkie with a furry beard.

Lucas motioned as if to wave, but Retta grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks. “Not the most sensible idea you’ve ever had, sweetie,” she said.

“Right, right, right,” Lucas said, tapping his nose. “We’re being covert.”

Just then, Geiser’s trembling voice came over the microphone. “What… what… what is the meaning of this?”

Uncle Buff began to speak. His voice sounded like nothing on earth. It was loud enough to boom across the water, echoing all around. He spoke the same language Lucas had when he’d recited the incantation, an undulating song punctuated with clicks and squeaks, like a drunk whale arguing with a dolphin. His booming voice was enough to make my eardrums ache.

“What’s Bob saying?” I asked.

“That someone summoned him,” Lucas explained, nodding along. “Ah. Neat.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Translate!” I exclaimed.

“Right, yeah. So he’s like, totally got the picture of what’s going on, and he’s gonna call for backup.”

Backup?

Uncle Buff bashed his trident into the ocean and another swell of water surged up. This one brought a ton more Sirens with it. They were all gorgeous. Men and women, almost impossibly beautiful, with flowing hair and perfect, radiant skin. They were all naked from the waist up and their tails shimmered in colors like aquamarine, silver, and rose gold.

Gus clutched his chest. “I can’t handle this. I’m going to pass out.”

My own mouth was dry from the sheer sight of all that sexy.

“More relatives of yours?” I managed to ask Lucas.

He squinted. “I see a couple of cousins. Ooh, and Sadie, my first girlfriend. Total babe.”

The little muscle twitch of jealousy in Retta’s eye was unmistakable.

I watched, completely in awe, as the Sirens used their strong, perfectly honed arms to pull themselves up onto the Statue of Liberty. They started draping themselves across every inch of it, lying languorously in a way that reminded me of sea lions. If sea lions were drop-dead gorgeous, of course.

“What are they doing?” Cora asked.

“Hold up…” I said, as I realized what was happening. “Are they doing a sit-down protest?”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Of all the outcomes I’d been expecting, this had not been it. A goddamn sit-down protest, like the one we did at Sunny High that time they threatened to close the library. The Sirens weren’t great warriors or archaic monarchs; they were total hippies!

Cora started flapping her wings with excitement. She and Retta embraced, jumping up and down on the spot with joy. Gus slapped Lucas on the back, his hand lingering on a ripple of muscle.

Soon, the entirety of the statue was covered in draping Sirens.

Uncle Bob spoke, this time, in English. “The Sirens will not allow a second Shadow War.” He had the exact same stoner beach-bum accent as Lucas. I bet he decorated his house with mandala cushions, too.

I watched as he climbed onto the last available space on the Statue of Liberty, right beside her torch. Thanks to Lucas’s bohemian relatives, its flame would turn yellow at dawn, then back to black at dusk, just as it had done for over a century.