Nina was the one at home when I got off the school bus because my mom had to work long hours. She thought everything was better with a plate of warm chocolate-chip cookies. And she said, "thank heavens!" all the time in this way that made you think she had some personal angel up there, hammering it all out for her.
Nina was my dad"s mom, but she treated my mom like her own blood. My mom and I hadn"t had a normal conversation without Nina in the room in four years. After my dad disappeared, my mom hardened, like she was clanking around in a suit of armor. In fact, my mom didn"t say he "disappeared." She never said otherwise, but I suspected Mom thought Daddy left us when things got tough.
But Nina believed differently. Nina had tethered Mom and me to earth after Daddy"s accident, rather than allowing us to drift up and away.
And now Mom was leaving? Leaving the hospital? That woman wasn"t my mom. My throat squeezed shut.
I"d thought having a too-tough mom was such a horrible thing. But a quitter mom? No. She was the only parent I had left. She can"t just check out. Not now. Not on what might be Nina"s last night on earth!
"I have to go to the hospital," I whispered. I cleared my throat. "I have to be with Nina. She can"t die-I mean, she can"t be alone."
Ellie laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. "But the hospital rules say-"
"Oh, forget the hospital rules, Ellie!" Once I said it-forget the rules!-I felt my new fire inside kick off a few sizzling sparks. Felt the sparks lift me higher. The hospital let me in when I was their patient, for heaven"s sake. They"ll let me in now. Forget the rules! Forget them! "I"m going."
Gemini nodded. "Yes. You should get going. And I"m coming with you."
I narrowed my eyes at this twisted lady. "No, thanks."
Gemini grabbed the front of my T-shirt and twisted it, slammed me against a wall, lifted me off the floor. I gagged, the cords in my neck straining, my feet dangling. "You don"t understand," she growled. "You can"t do this alone."
Do I knee her or calm her down? I wanted to knee her, but she had an obvious physical advantage.
"Easy, lady," I said. My brain churned. "You don"t want to hurt me. I"m the one who has to find Ophiuchus, remember?"
Believe it or not, that craziness worked. She nodded and set me down, adjusting her toga with sharp tugs and tucks.
I bit my lip, partly to keep it from quivering, partly to hold back a stream of cuss words. No way was this lady coming with me to see my Nina. We"d have to ditch her-and soon.
I turned to Brennan. "Can you-"
He already had his keys out. "Of course." He crossed to the front door and opened it for me. Brennan. Offering to drive and opening doors. I shivered at the creepiness of it.
Brennan handed The Keypers of the Zodiack to Ellie, who hesitantly took it. She tucked it into her messenger bag. We walked into the night and saw a stout guy peering into Brennan"s truck. His hands were cupped around his eyes, pressed against the gla.s.s.
"Truck"s not for sale, bub," Brennan called to him.
The man turned, his jowls jiggling, and flashed a brilliant smile. His tailored suit was sharp as paper. "What makes you think I"d buy that heap of junk, anyway?"
Gemini turned to Ellie. "Let me see the book." Ellie took a step back.
Gemini harrumphed, waggled her fingers. Ellie swallowed and handed over The Keypers of the Zodiack. Gemini flipped through the pages until she found the one she was looking for, then thrust the open book at me. "Read that."
I read it out loud.
""Taurus, the bull. May 14June 19. Taurus, thou dost not possess an easy mind to alter. Stubborn and willful art thou. Despite thine obstinate nature, thou art quite incapable of deceit. Too, thou art careful, reliable, trustworthy-a steady and staid friend. No one knows how to enjoy life more than a Taurus, nor cannot a soul be better at leisure-thou art the Master of Leisure. Be warned: Greed has steeped into thy very bones. With thy creativity and well-laid plans, thou can risest to the top, where thou feelest thou rightfully belong. Just be sure thou dost not climb so high thou losest sight of those beneath thee, Taurus. Strong blows can come from below.""
I blinked, unsure of what it meant. "Okay. Sure. Thanks." This lady was really creeping me out.
The gentleman tugged at his jacket lapels, the silk hanky in his breast pocket gleaming. "Jalen?" he asked. "Oh, my! You"re a child!" He tossed his head back and laughed a booming laugh. He straightened, suddenly, and sucked his teeth with his tongue.
How did this guy know my name, too? Oh, no, I thought. They"re a team! My heart raced. I wasn"t sure the three of us could take the two of them, but I"d sure as heck give it a shot.
"But honestly, Jalen," he said. "You couldn"t have called me to New Orleans during Mardi Gras? Now that"s my kind of indulgence."
His beady eyes whipped toward Gemini. She extended her hand as she had before, her wrist arched like a cat"s back. He planted a wet kiss on her creamy flesh.
"And you," he murmured, glaring up at her. His stare was filled with pa.s.sion, but I couldn"t tell if that pa.s.sion was made of love or hate. "Always a pleasure, but my, my, my, what a surprise."
Gemini swallowed and wiped the back of her s...o...b..ry hand across her toga.
I looked at Gemini. "Who is he?"
The gentleman"s laughter increased. His diamond-stud earring flashed under the streetlamp. "Oh, the naivete is such a nice touch!" He collected himself and clenched his fist, showcasing a thick, domed cla.s.s ring. I got the message: That ring would hurt in a punch. My eyes flitted around for the closest thing that could be used as a weapon.
"This your house?" the man asked, jerking his meaty head at my home. His neck wobbled. Based on the way his lip snarled, I could tell he thought it was beneath him to live in such a dump.
My anger burned. "This house is preCivil War, buddy. Much older than you are." Listen to me! I"ve never talked to adults that way. I"ve never talked to anyone that way.
"Is that so?" The gentleman hooted with laughter. "Oh, you really know how to play up the whole kid angle, don"t you? Priceless." He snapped out of his joviality again. "But it won"t make me take it any easier on you."
And then he collapsed. His body disappeared into a low cloud of mist, as if melting into fog. The mist stunk, just like the mist that rose off the paper earlier this evening. Smelly, like rotten eggs.
Ellie screamed. Somewhere in the dark night a dog barked. The mist curled and rose and out of it came a form, a shape, gnarled and hurling, growing ever bigger, ever larger, until it reached its full height-six feet or so. It snorted, hooves clicking on the street"s pavement, and stepped under the streetlamp.
Ma.s.sive pointed horns. Thick skull. Shoulders like a brick wall. Trim waist. And an enormous gold ring, now in its nose.
A bull.
A bull rose from the mist.
Under the giant creaking oaks, under the dangling Spanish moss, I locked eyes with the bull that stood between us and Brennan"s truck. I was frozen with disbelief. I tried refocusing my eyes. Still a bull. No longer a man.
Ellie turned to run back into the house, but with one mighty leap, the bull was over and around us, blocking us from my home.
"The truck bed!" Brennan yelled. The three of us scrambled into the back of the pickup truck, while Gemini stood in the middle of the yard, where we"d originally stopped.
"Lady, come on!" I yelled to Gemini, but she didn"t budge. I didn"t have much time to consider it. The bull was readying himself for attack.
From the dim lights on the front porch, I could see the bull"s flanks twitch, signaling his preparation. He snorted. Puffs of air shot from his black-pit nostrils in the cool night. The bull scratched his hind legs, lowered his thick skull, and charged.
The bull battered the side of Brennan"s truck with his mighty horns. My head snapped back. It felt like the punch he"d promised earlier. Metal groaned, crunched.
The bull twisted free from the steel. He began bucking and writhing, attacking the truck with swift kicks and long horns. Brennan"s truck was crushed like a tin can under the impact. We three lurched backward.
The bull backed up, never removing his black eyes from us. He scratched the ground with his left front hoof, pointed his horns at us, and charged again. Metal creaked and gla.s.s shattered as the bull bashed the truck with twice the impact of the previous blow. The hit sent us flailing. Brennan stumbled over the side of the truck bed. His T-shirt snagged on a tool hook, leaving him dangling a foot above the ground. Totally vulnerable to attack.
The bull must"ve sensed this vulnerability, because he circled the truck, snorting and snarling. He saw Brennan on the opposite side from where he"d been focusing his attack. The bull twitched his ears and adjusted his left horn, its point focused on Brennan like a laser. He made a guttural noise, the sound of fury, and charged.
Ellie and I grabbed Brennan. We managed to haul him back into the truck before the bull struck his mighty blow. I fell on top of a pile of sharp tools, and pain shot up my arm. The bull must"ve pierced the gas tank on that charge, because the scent of gasoline burned my throat.
The bull yanked and pulled, his long left horn trapped. Each yank was a jarring jerk forward. I thought he might be stuck, that we might be able to make a run for it. But with a ferocious snort, he freed himself from the tangle of metal and rust.
And now, he was really mad.
The bull"s black eyes flashed, and in a heartbeat, he bounded on top of the cab of the truck. He crushed the roof with his ma.s.sive hooves, shattered the windows with his bulking weight. I turned my head to protect my eyes from flying shards of gla.s.s when I saw them.
The bolt cutters. Brennan had brought them after all.
The bull towered above us, him on the truck cab, us in the truck bed. He marched and crushed and finally aimed his left horn at us again, readying himself for the final blow. He snorted hot breath so close I could feel its steaminess. His tail snapped like a flag. He leaped.
I swooped down, s.n.a.t.c.hed up the bolt cutters. I lifted them over my head, shouting to boost my strength. I"d never killed anything before-an ant, sure, and some spiders-but this? I reminded myself that this was no ordinary bull; this bull had once been a man. This bull had risen from mist.
Strong blows can come from below. I hoped Taurus"s horoscope was accurate.
I screamed my throat raw as I stabbed the bull in the neck. I prepared myself for the shower of warm blood, the collapsing of the ma.s.sive beast on top of me.
But instead of crushing us, the beast dissolved. He burst into a trail of light that shot into the sky like a firework. It was blinding and brilliant and bewildering. He snorted and bucked into the skies in the shape of a bull.
Plunk. Next to my foot, a smooth, flat stone dropped. It was about the size of a billiard ball, and it was deep green. A brilliant emerald.
Ellie crouched behind me, her arms over her head. She peeked an eye open. "What happened?"
"I"m not sure." I tapped the stone with the toe of my sneaker. My foot snapped back, like I expected the stone to morph into something dangerous and snorting, too.
"Hey! What are you kids doing to that truck?" a voice yelled.
Brennan, Ellie, and I whipped around to see a shiny black car-a fancy, old-people car, like a Lincoln or something-in the road next to us. The two men inside glared at us through the open driver"s window. I realized what the driver saw: three kids standing in a destroyed truck, one-me-holding bolt cutters.
Gemini was suddenly beside the truck. "Tell him you found it this way," she instructed. If what I thought was true, then these men couldn"t see or hear her, not unless they touched the book.
I dropped the bolt cutters with a thunk. "We found it this way." I choked out the lie like it tasted awful. I"d never had a problem with half truths before, but even this small lie hurt.
The driver reached down inside his car, picked up a cell phone, and started dialing.
Gemini was now in the truck with us, holding the mysterious emerald stone out toward me. "Take it-quickly!"
I shook my head, but she thrust it at me. "Take it!" she hissed. I did. "Lift it to the sky," she said. I lifted the stone; it had the heft of a billiard ball, too. I wondered if the men in the car could see the stone, if they wondered why I lifted my hands to the stars.
"Say this: "Sic itur ad astra,"" Gemini said.
""Sic itur ad astra,"" I repeated.
The stone dissolved in my hands. It felt like Pop Rocks on my skin, fizzling and bubbly. It shot into the sky, just as the bull had, trailing behind it a fantastic, fiery tail.
We were all so dazzled by the display that we almost forgot about the men in the car next to us. But Gemini brought us back down to earth, back to the bashed, rusting truck, to the police that were likely on the way.
"To the bus stop," she instructed. "Run!"
We jumped out of the twisted metal heap that was once a truck and ran.
As we did, a single zip sliced the air just next to my ear. A stick arced ahead of me and lodged in the dirt. It was so fast-a blur, really-that it was only after I saw the stiff feathers on the tail of the thing that I felt hot pain on the side of my head.
My ear had been sliced. Bright red blood poured out, matting my hair, staining my T-shirt. My heart pounded in my throat, pumped spurts of blood from the cut in my ear.
Those men had shot an arrow?
Ellie, Brennan, and I ran through several backyards to the bus stop. And the best luck we"d had yet fell on us. The men in the car didn"t seem to follow. Then again, neither did Gemini.
The bus wasn"t at the stop yet, so we hurried under the clear-plastic shelter, pockmarked with posters announcing jazz festivals and dog grooming. None of us spoke. I think we were in shock. And we must"ve looked as bad as we felt, because a guy with long blond hair sitting on the bench wrinkled his brow at us. "You guys alright? That cut of yours looks nasty."
I reached up to touch my ear and wished I hadn"t, the way the pain sliced through me. My T-shirt was a mess. I"d have to find a new one.
We nodded. "Yes, sir," Brennan said.
The guy glared at us, and my skin p.r.i.c.kled. But a grin smeared across his face. "Dude," he said. "Do not call me sir. Makes me feel old." He began tapping out a drumbeat on his knees. A tuba case rested by his feet, covered with stickers from all the local dives he"d played. A musician headed into the city tonight for a gig.
I lifted the corner of my mouth, giving him as much of a smile as I could muster. "You got it."
Brennan turned back to us, now that our silence had been broken. "Um-what was that?" he whispered sharply into our huddle.
I sucked in a wavery breath, not sure myself. A tear slid down Ellie"s cheek. Her pocket buzzed, and she looked at the text on her cell. "It"s Mom. She wants to know where we are. I think we should go home, B. Jalen, come with us."
Ellie"s mom, sending a where-are-you text? Never happens. I shook my head. I didn"t like the sound of it, of Ellie and Brennan now having the protective parents.
Gemini was suddenly beside me in our huddle. I jumped.
"Where have you been? And what was that-that bull?" I demanded. I looked over Gemini"s shoulder to make sure the musician couldn"t hear us. No point in making him think we were totally nutty.
Gemini eyed my b.l.o.o.d.y ear and handed me some gauze from her pouch. Then she whisked out her metal nail file and began sawing away. I wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h the stupid thing and sling it into the sewer grate.
Gemini must"ve sensed my fire. She cleared her throat, tucked away her nail file, and began twisting her manicured fingers in her glossy black hair. For a moment, I missed that I used to do that, too. My jittery fingers took to dabbing at my ear instead. Pain shot through me to my toes.
"When Jalen called Ophiuchus, she called all the Keepers of the Zodiac," Gemini whispered. I wondered why, since that musician obviously couldn"t hear her. "Every horoscope sign. Their job is not only to guide decisions and shape personalities. They have sworn to protect and hide Ophiuchus."
"Why?" Brennan asked. Yes, why. Like why are we here, why the zodiac signs, why us?
Gemini paused, like she was trying to figure out what exactly to tell us. I felt my eyes narrow at her.
"Ophiuchus has great power," she said. "The power to heal. Power that humans seek and will abuse if discovered. Power to...alter humanity. The other twelve Keepers? Nothing but mere sky matter without their loyal humans. They-we-have sworn to battle anyone who unlocks Ophiuchus. Anyone who knows how to awaken Ophiuchus is seen by the other twelve as a threat to the order of the universe."
"Jalen," Ellie whispered.
"Jalen," Gemini agreed.
Hearing my name mentioned in whispers like that, just like my dad"s name had been mentioned in whispers for months after he had disappeared, made a little of the light inside me die.
"Jalen will have to defeat each Keeper, just as Hercules did in the Twelve Labours," Gemini continued. "It is their goal to eliminate you, Jalen. You are the Challenger. Only once you are eliminated do they feel they can rest, only then do they believe that the universe is safe. You must battle them if you, ahem..." She paused.