Chapter 9: Chapter Nine

The alarm drilled into my brain. It was so shrill, it made me wince. Even dialing down my hearing as low as it could go didn’t help. The noise was piercing.

“Let’s go!” Retta cried, jamming her fingers in her ears. She ran for the door.

Quickly, I turned back to the cabinet. I’d come this far—there was no way I was leaving without my bow.

I yanked the cabinet door all the way open and shoved the staffs, scepters, swords (and an actual Grim Reaper-style scythe) out of my way. Then I wrenched out my bow.

The second my hand tightened around it, a feeling of rightness spread through my body.

“Theia! Come on!” Retta hissed from the door, beckoning me emphatically.

I rummaged around for the quiver and my arrows. They were wedged right at the back. I grabbed the strap and pulled as hard as I could. The quiver popped out, sending an ornamental dagger and a scimitar clattering to the floor.

“Okay, coming!” I cried, hurrying toward Retta.

Her eyes were round with frustration as I reached her.

We peered round the door. The lights in the corridor had changed, dimming to a dark-yellow hue. I tightened my clasp on my bow, ready to spring into action should any guards come round the corner. Not that I’d shoot them, of course. I’d just catch them by surprise and cause a distraction.

No one came. The coast was clear. The alarm didn’t appear to be rousing any security personnel at all.

I frowned, confused.

“Is it one of those alarms that calls the cops directly?” I asked Retta.

Getting arrested by the NYPD would be a fittingly crappy way to end my day. And my reputation.

“Let’s not risk finding out,” she replied.

We bolted.

I ran down the staircase, two steps at a time, my heightened Elkie proprioception helping me execute the feat with precision. Retta flew along beside me, her wings beating as fast as a dragonfly.

We’d just reached the landing when the color of the walls began to change. Like paint being poured over a canvas, a dark-blue color had started seeping down the wall, covering up the lurid white.

That’s when it dawned on me what was happening. The school was undergoing its transformation into Eclipse. That’s what the alarm was for.

“The school is switching,” I panted, just as the marble beneath my feet began to turn black. “We didn’t set off the alarm because we stole the bow. It’s some kind of alarm because the school is transforming.”

Retta’s eyes went round with dread. “Oh crap.”

No sooner had she said it, the floor began to shake.

We shot each other panicked expressions.

It made sense. For the school to undergo its transformation into Eclipse, some serious magic had to be involved. The alarm was there to tell anyone around to get the hell out of the way. Getting caught up in the process was evidently dangerous.

Panic gripped me.

“Go!” I cried.

We dashed through the shaking corridors. They were now dark blue, the marble floors black. Even the smell of lilies had disappeared. As we ran past the reception desk, I saw that the glass vases on top were now filled with black and red roses.

Finally, the glass exit doors appeared ahead of us. But they, too, were transforming. Cast-iron vines began to snake across the surface of the glass, which was turning into wood before our eyes.

We reached the doors and slammed against them. Retta groped around, searching for the emergency lever she’d used before.

“It’s gone,” she said. “We’re trapped.”

The shaking intensified. My teeth started chattering in my skull.

I wasn’t about to give up. With the alarm blaring painfully in my ears, I honed in to my powers. Not my Elkie ones, but my Mage ones.

It was the first time I’d ever tried to reach inside of myself for my Mage magic. To my surprise, I found it quickly. That tingly, prickly feeling started to radiate from my stomach and into my arms. Then two white orbs blasted out my hands and into the door.

With a huge bang, the doors burst open. Retta and I were sucked outside by the force, as if a vacuum pack had been opened. The doors slammed shut behind us.

I landed on my backside in the parking lot.

Silence settled around me. My ears stung from the shrill alarm.

As I started to collect my senses, I was surprised to see that the sky was still light. Twilight had barely even started.

I looked over my shoulder at the school. An ivy plant was rapidly growing across it, vines racing across the bricks like snakes. The golden sun statue in the bell tower creaked and groaned as it slowly spun on its axis, revealing the platinum moon on the other side.

“They’re switching early,” Retta said, standing up and rubbing her ass. She offered her hand down to me and pulled me up. “Unless they split the school equally. Zenith from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Eclipse from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM.” She shrugged nonchalantly like it didn’t really matter.

The petulant part of me wanted to point out that her misinformation had quite possibly almost gotten us flayed and turned inside out, but my gaze fell to my bow on the ground and I held my tongue. We’d done what we’d come here to do, even if it had almost gone tits-up. An adrenaline-fueled grin danced across my lips. That had been one hell of a rush.

Just then, a car turned into the parking lot. A harried Daimon teacher got out, precariously balancing a stack of exercise books and a thermos flask between her long, pointed chin and scaly arms.

“Let’s vamoose,” I said.

We hurried off the lot, heads bowed, and away from our school, that wasn’t even our school anymore.

“Thank you,” I said to Retta as we walked. It felt so good to be reunited with my weapon, and I kept petting it affectionately. “For helping me get my bow back. And for, you know, making my first day as a senior not a total disaster.”

“It was fun,” she told me. Then, without missing a beat, she added, “Wanna go clubbing?”

My eyebrows rose to my hairline. I was on a high. And on the lookout for a new crush, now that Nik had turned out to be such a letdown. But then I remembered Emerald’s warning about Geiser and shook my head. “I need to get home. If I’m not back by dark my new stepdad-to-be will send out a search party. I’ve had enough of people in uniforms for one day.”

Retta pouted.

“Friday?” I offered. “Or the weekend. I just need to check when my curfew is.”

“Says the girl who just broke into her principal’s office…”

Good point. But it had been quite the day already. I was drained.

“Even rebels need their beauty sleep,” I said.

We walked along, watching the city wake up for the night dwellers. The big twenty-four-hour stores only had to switch their signs around, and there was an even split of the ones using twilight as the end of their light shift, and the ones using it as the beginning of their night shift. The independent businesses, the family-owned restaurants, the mom-and-pop shops, the ones that operated for only half the day, they were all open. For a street where a bunch of stores were usually shut, having every single one open was exciting. The atmosphere buzzed like a festival. All types of music came from the stores—the bright, sunny pop music favored by the sun-class mixing with the heavier rock and indie of the moons; traditional Celestial choral folk music mixing with the traditional Gregorian chants of the Vanpari. It was a hodgepodge of everything.

The streets were also filling up with moons: Daimons and Vanpari, and Mages in stylish attire of black, steel, and chrome colors instead of the paler versions their sun counterparts wore. But there were still plenty of suns, like Retta and I. Everyone was mingling, getting along, enjoying the brief few hours of time when their sleep–wake cycles collided. Crazy to think that every single one of them was technically breaking the law.

I felt the lure right in my bones.

I’d grown up in a forest town that went to sleep as soon as the daylight faded. Being somewhere with a thriving twilight scene was thrilling.

And there was still an hour until total darkness.

I turned to Retta. “On second thoughts, let’s get a coffee.”

She grinned from ear to ear.

We found a super-stylish coffee shop with exposed red-brick walls and huge, weathered leather couches. Retta ordered us drinks and we took a seat by the window so we could watch the transformation.

Twilight looked a million times more fun than daytime. It was a shame the leaders who’d negotiated the 1885 peace treaty had gone for segregation over integration. The ability of the sun- and moon-classes to coexist peacefully was evident, right here in front of my eyes.

“This is what your mom’s campaign is about, right?” I asked Retta over a steaming mug of coffee. “Scrapping the Twilight Curfew.”

Retta nodded. “And Geiser wants the opposite. Guess who’s leading by a mile in the polls?”

My shoulders slumped. According to all the polls, Geiser was going to win the election. That would mean reinforcing the curfew. Stopping all of this.

“He’s basically the fun police,” I murmured.

How I wished my mom wasn’t marrying him.

As my gaze roved back through the window to the streets outside, something caught my eye. It looked like a fight was erupting across the street. A Celestial guy in Zenith uniform was bustling someone out the door of a store. He had a huge, muscular physique and dark brown-and-black wings.

“Is that Trevor?” I said.

I was up on my feet in a second. Retta stood too, following my gaze.

Outside, a crowd was forming. They were cheering Trevor on.

Finally, I saw the object of his aggression. It was a Vanpari boy. He was wearing an Eclipse uniform and couldn’t have been older than a freshman. He was probably on his way to his first day of high school.

“He’s beating up a kid,” I cried.

I abandoned my coffee and ran for the door. Retta was right on my tail. She grabbed my arm, halting me at the edge of the sidewalk.

“Theia, don’t get involved,” she said. “This isn’t your fight.”

“I can’t stand by and watch Trevor beat an innocent Vanpari to a pulp.”

I swung my bow from my shoulder and yanked an arrow from my quiver. I took up a shooting stance and sighted my arrow on my target.

“Theia!” Retta cried, just as I let go.

My arrow whizzed through the air—soaring directly over a passing taxi cab—then smashed right into the flashing neon sign an inch above Trevor’s head. The light zapped out. Trevor ducked as glass rained down on his head.

“Jesus,” Retta said, putting a hand on her heart. “I thought you were about to murder him!”

“Nah. Just get him to piss his pants.”

I lowered my bow and ran across the road. The Vanpari was in a crumpled heap on the ground, blood gushing from his nose. I heaved him up, shoving him behind me to form a blockade. Retta moved shoulder to shoulder with me. Together, we squared off against Trevor.

The Celestial was creased forward, clearly still stunned by my arrow. He shook his huge wings, making glass shards fall onto the sidewalk, then drew his body up to its full height.

I raised my bow again and readied an arrow, pointing it right between his eyes.

“Leave this kid alone,” I said through clenched teeth.

Trevor glowered at me, his gray eyes piercing. A hint of recognition flashed in them.

“I know you. You’re that Elkie chick from Battle Class.”

His glower disappeared, and was replaced by a cordial smile. The sudden personality switch took me off guard. But I kept my arrow pointed right at the center of his forehead.

“And you’re that sexist jerk from Battle Class,” I replied. “What are you doing beating up Vanpari kids half your size?”

Trevor flapped his huge brown-and-black wings, letting out a nasty bark of a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those Vanpari-lovers? Why is it that all the hot chicks fall for weedy losers?”

He held my gaze for a moment, a mean sneer on his lips. Then, in one sudden motion, he flapped his huge wings. A jet of wind blasted me in the face as he soared into the sky. He was briefly silhouetted against the moon before he disappeared from sight.

All the tension seeped out of me, and I let my bow drop to my side. I turned to see if the kid was okay. The Vanpari boy had already fled.