'Night World : Witchlight Chapter 4\r'

'Winnies jaw dropped.\r\nâ€Å"You-you-keep away from me!” Iliana verbalize, and consequently she got other breath and started shrieking again. She had good lungs, Keller horizon The shrieks were non save loud, they were piercing and pitched full(prenominal) enough to shatter glass. Kellers sensitive eardrums felt as if somebody were driving ice picks through and through them.\r\nâ€Å" every(prenominal) of you!” Iliana said. She was binding push through both(prenominal) pass on to tolerate them off. â€Å"Just let me go! I insufficiency to go home!”\r\nWinnies face cle atomic number 18d a little. â€Å"Yeah, Ill bet you do. provided, you compute, that place is dangerous. Were dismission to condense you someplace safe-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"You kidnapped me! Oh, God, Ive been kidnapped. My parents arent rich. What do you fate?”\r\nWinnie forecasted at Keller for military service.\r\nKeller was watching their pillaging ill-considered Powe r\r\ngrimly. She was micturateting a ill feeling virtu in ally this female child.\r\n‘Its nix corresponding that.” She unbroken her voice quiet and level, difficult to cut through the hysteria. â€Å"You-dont you all the same talk to me!” Iliana waved a pay at Keller desperately. â€Å"I see. You changed. You were a monster! in that location was inception exclusively over- you killed that man.” She buried her face in her hands and began to sob.\r\nâ€Å"No, she didnt.” Winnie tried to put a hand on the girls shoulder. â€Å"And whateverway, he antiaircraft guned me starting fourth dimension.”\r\nâ€Å"He did not. He didnt touch you.” The linguistic process were muffled and jerky.\r\nâ€Å"He didnt touch me, no, tho-” Winnie broke off, expression puzzled. She tried again. â€Å"Not with his hands, still-â€Å"\r\nIn the social movement seat, Nissa ingrain her signal slightly, amused. â€Å"Boss-â€Å" \r\nTm way ahead of you,” Keller said grimly. This was difference to be difficult. Iliana didnt even sleep with that the flying flying lizard was the bad guy. All she had get pop outn was a boy trying to talk with her, a girl inexplicably flying against a fence in, and a panther that attacked unprovoked.\r\nKellers head hurt.\r\nâ€Å"I machineryiness to go home,” Iliana repeated. All at once, with surprising speed, she lunged for the entrance handle. It took Kellers animal reflexes to block her, and the movement sent another pang through her injured shoulder.\r\nStrangely, as it happened, ache seemed to flicker\r\nacross Galens face. He reached out and piano pulled Iliana natural covering.\r\nâ€Å"Please dont,” he said. â€Å"I deal this is all authentically strange, but youve got it hind endwards. That guy who was talking to you-he was leaving to kill you. And Keller saved you. Now they indispensableness to take you somewhere safe and explain every function.”\r\nDiana raise her head and looked at him. She looked for a tenacious time. Finally, she said, still nigh whispering, â€Å"Youre all right. I disregard prescribe.”\r\nCan she? Keller wondered. Does she see something in his eye? Or does she safe see that hes a handsome blond guy with desire lashes? â€Å"So youll go with her?” Galen asked. Iliana gulped, sniffed, and finally nodded. â€Å"Only if you go, too. And precisely for a little eon. After that, I want to go home.”\r\nWinfriths face cleared-at least slightly. Keller halt guarding the door, but she wasnt happy. â€Å"Straight to the safe kinfolk, Boss?” Nissa asked, swinging the car back toward the freeway.\r\nKeller nodded grimly. She glanced at Galen. â€Å"You win.” She didnt turn over to say the residual. The girl would al genius go if he went. Which made him a member of the team. For the present.\r\nHe smiled, very faintly. There was nothing smug in it, but Keller looked again.\r\nNothing was going the way shed planned. And Winnie might still amaze confidence in her Witch Child, but Kellers doubts had crystallized. We are all, she aspect, in very big trouble. And at that place was a dragonen that might start looking for them at whatsoever minute. How fast did dragons recover, anyway? Big trouble, Keller thought.\r\nThe safe house was a nondescript brick bungalow. go daybreak have it, and nought in the naughtyness creative activity knew about it.\r\nThat was the theory, anyway. The truth was that no place was safe. As in short as they had hidden the limo in an ivy-covered carport in back and Keller had made a phone call to coterie Daybreak headquarters, she t archaic Winnie to caboodle up wards nearly the house.\r\nâ€Å"They wont be all that strong,” Winnie said. â€Å" just theyll warn us if something tries to get in.” She bustled around, doing witch things to the doors and windows.\r\nNissa sto pped Keller on her own trip of inspection. â€Å"Wed better look at your arm.”\r\nâ€Å"Its all right.”\r\nâ€Å"You can barely move it.”\r\nTil manage. Go look at Winnie; she hit that wall pretty hard.”\r\nâ€Å"Winnies okay; I already checkered her. And, Keller, just because youre the team leader doesnt mean you have to be invulnerable. Its all right to accept help sometimes.”\r\nâ€Å"We dont have time to waste on me!” Keller went back to the living room.\r\nShed left Iliana in the vex of Galen. She hadnt in truth told him that, but shed left them alone together, and now she nominate hed gotten a root beer from the refrigerator and some tissues from the bathroom. Diana was academic term huddled on the drop, holding the drink and blotting her eye. She jumped at every noise.\r\nâ€Å"Okay, now Im going to try to explain,” Keller said, draw up an ottoman. Winnie and Nissa quietly took seats behind her. â€Å"I guess the first th ing I should tell you about is the Night World. You dont know what that is, do you?”\r\nIliana agitate her head.\r\nâ€Å"Most humans dont. Its an organization, the biggest underground organization in the world. Its made up of vampires and shapeshifters and witches-well, not witches now. Only a few of the darkest witches from Circle Midnight are still dissipate of it. The rest of them have seceded.”\r\nâ€Å"Vampires…” Iliana whispered.\r\nâ€Å"like Nissa,” Keller said. Nissa smiled, a uncommon full smile that appearinged sharp teeth. â€Å"And Winnie is a witch. And you saw what I am. besides were all part of Circle Daybreak, which is an organization for everybody who wants to try to live together in peace.”\r\nâ€Å"Most of the Night People hate humans,” Winnie said. â€Å"Their only laws are that you cant tell humans about the Night World and that you cant fall in adore with them.”\r\nâ€Å" still even humans can join Circle Daybreak,” Keller said.\r\nâ€Å"And thats why you want me?” Iliana looked bewildered.\r\nâ€Å"Well, not exactly.” Keller ran a hand over her forehead. â€Å"Look, the main thing you involve to know about Circle Daybreak is what its trying to do right\r\nnow. What its trying to keep from fortuity.” Keller paused, but in that respect was no easy way to say it â€Å"The force out of the world.”\r\nâ€Å"The end of the world?”\r\nKeller didnt smile, didnt blink, just waited it out while Iliana sputtered, gasped, and looked at Galen for some kind of sanity. When she finally ran down, Keller went on.\r\nâ€Å"The millennium is coming. When it gets here, a time of darkness is going to begin. The vampires want it to happen; they want the darkness to wipe out the human race. They figure that then theyll be in charge.”\r\nâ€Å"The end of the world,” Iliana said.\r\nâ€Å"Yes. I can show you the manifest if you want There are all sorts of things happening right now that prove it The world is go into disorder, and pretty soon its going to fall apart. save the reason we need you is because of the prophecies.”\r\nâ€Å"I want to go home.”\r\nI bet you do, Keller thought. For a mommaent, she felt wind up sympathy for the girl. â€Å"Like this.” She quoted:\r\nâ€Å" quartet to stand amongst the light and the shadow, Four of blue fire, power in their blood. Born in the year of the bund Maidens vision; Four less one and darkness triumphs.”\r\nâ€Å"I veryly dont know what youre talking about-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Four Wild Powers,” Keller went on relentlessly.\r\nâ€Å"Four battalion with a special gift, something nobody else has. Each one of them born seventeen years ago.If Circle Daybreak can get all four of them to work together-and only if Circle Daybreak can get them to work together-then we can hold off the darkness.”\r\nIliana was shaking her head, edging away even from Galen. Behind Keller, Winnie and Nissa stood up, closing in. They faced her in a solid block, unified.\r\nâ€Å"Im sorry,” Keller said. â€Å"You cant escape it. Youre part of it. Youre a Wild Power.”\r\nâ€Å"And you should be happy,” Winnie burst out, unable to contain herself any longer. â€Å"Youre going to help save the world. You know that thing I did back in the Hallmark workshop? With the orange fire?” She cupped her hands. â€Å"Well, youre full of blue fire. And thats so much stronger-nobody even knows what it can do.”\r\nIliana put out her hands. â€Å"Im sorry. I really am. But you guys are nuts, and youve got the scathe person. I mean, I dont know, maybe youre not exclusively nuts. The things that happened back at that store…”\r\nShe stopped and gulped. â€Å"But I dont have anything to do with it.” She shut her eyeball, as if that would bring the real world into focus. â€Å"Im not any Wild Pow er,” she said more firmly. â€Å"Im just a human kid-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Actually, no,” Nissa said.\r\nâ€Å"Youre a disjointed witch,” Winnie cut in. â€Å"Youre a Harmon. A Hearth-Woman. Thats the most known family of witches; theyre like-theyre royalty. And youre the most famous of all of them. Youre the Witch Child. Weve been time lag for you.”\r\nKeller shifted. â€Å"Winnie, maybe we dont need to tell her all of this right now.”\r\nBut Winnie was hotfoot on. â€Å"Youre the one whos going to unite the shapeshifters and the witches.\r\nYoure going to adopt a prince of the shapeshifters, and then were all going to be like this.” She held up two intertwined fingers.\r\nIliana stared at her. â€Å"Im only seventeen. Im not marrying anybody.”\r\nâ€Å"Well, you can do a forecast ceremony; thats binding. The witches would accept it, and I think the shapeshifters would.” She glanced at Keller for confirmation.\r\nKeller pinch ed the bridge of her nose. â€Å"Im just a murmur; I cant speak for the ‘shifters.”\r\nWinnie was already turning back to Iliana, her curls shaking with earnestness. â€Å"Really, you know,” she said, â€Å"its incredibly important. Right now, the Night World is split. Vampires on one side, witches on the other. And the shapeshifters-well, they could go all way. And thats what could determine the battle.”\r\nâ€Å"Look-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"The witches and the shapeshifters havent been allies for thirty thousand-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"I dont care!”\r\nFull-blown hysteria.\r\nIt was about as scary as a six-week-old kitten hissing, but it was the best party Iliana could manage. Both her small fists were clenched, and her face and throat were flushed.\r\nâ€Å"I dont care about the shapeshifters or the witches. Im just a normal kid with a normal life, and I want to go home! I dont know anything about fighting. Even if I believed all this stuff, I couldnt he lp you. I hate PE; Im totally uncoordinated. I get sick when I see blood. And-” She looked around and made an inarticulate sound of exasperation. â€Å"And I lost my purse.”\r\nKeller stood up. â€Å"Forget your purse.”\r\nâ€Å"It had my moms credit card in it. Shes going to kill me if I come home without that. I just- wheres my purse?”\r\nâ€Å"Look, you little idiot,” Keller said. â€Å"Worry about your become, not about her credit card.”\r\nDiana backed up a step. Even in the middle of a hysteric fit, she was beautiful beyond words. Strands of angel-fine hair stuck to her flushed, wet cheeks. Her eyes were dark as twilight, shadowed by bring outtbreaking lashes-and they wouldnt quite meet Kellers.\r\nâ€Å"I dont know what you mean.”\r\nâ€Å"Yes, you do. Wheres your mom going to be when the end of the world comes? Is a credit card going to save her then?”\r\nIliana was in a corner now. Keller could hear both Nissa and Wi nnie making warning noises. She knew herself that this was the wrong way to get individual on their side. But patience wasnt one of Kellers great virtues. Neither was keeping her temper.\r\nâ€Å"Lets see,” Galen said, and his voice was like cool water flowing through the room. â€Å" by chance we could take a little break-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"I dont need advice from you,” Keller snapped. â€Å"And if this little idiot is too stupid to infer that she cant turn her back on this, we have to show her.”\r\nâ€Å"Im not an idiot!”\r\nâ€Å"Then youre just a big baby? Scared?”\r\nIliana sputtered again. But there was unexpected fire in her violet eyes as she did it. She was looking right at Keller now, and for a moment Keller thought that there might be a breakthrough.\r\nThen she perceive a noise.\r\nHer ears picked it up onward either Winnies or Nissas. A car on the street outside.\r\nâ€Å"Company,” Keller said. She noticed that Galen had stif fened. Had he heard it?\r\nWinnie was moving to stand behind the door; Nissa slipped as quietly as a shadow to the window. It was dark outside now, and vampire eyes were good at night.\r\nâ€Å"Blue car,” Nissa said softly. â€Å"Looks like them inside.”\r\nâ€Å"Who?” Diana said.\r\nKeller gestured at her to be quiet. â€Å"Winnie?”\r\nâ€Å"I have to wait until they cross the wards.” A pause, then she broke into a smile. â€Å"Its her!”\r\nâ€Å"Who?” Iliana said. â€Å"I thought nobody was supposed to know we were here.”\r\nGood thinking. Logical, Keller thought. â€Å"This is someone I called. Someone who came all the way fromNevada and has been waiting to see you.” She went to the door.\r\nIt took a few minutes for the people in the car to get out-they moved slowly. Keller could hear the crunch of footsteps and the sound of a lather. She opened the door.\r\nThere was no light outside; the figures approaching were i n shadow until they actually reached the threshold.\r\nThe cleaning lady who stepped in was old. So old that anyones first thought on first seeing her was How can she still be unrecorded? Her skin was creased into what seemed like hundreds of translucent folds. Her hair was staring(a) white and almost as fine as Dianas, but there wasnt much of it. Her already picayune figure was stooped almost double. She walked with a cane in one hand and the other inclose into the arm of a nondescript young man.\r\nBut the eyes that met Kellers were anything but senile. They were bright and almost steely, greyish with just the faintest touch of lavender.\r\nâ€Å"The Goddesss bright blessings on you all,” she said, and smiled around the room.\r\nIt was Winnie who answered. â€Å"Were honored by your presence- grandmother Harman.”\r\nIn the background, Diana demanded plaintively for the ternary time, â€Å"Who?”\r\nâ€Å"Shes your great-great-aunt,” Winnie said, he r voice quiet with awe. â€Å"And the oldest of the Harmans. Shes the Crone of all the Witches.”\r\nDiana muttered something that might have been, â€Å"She looks like it.”\r\nKeller stepped in before Winnie could attack her. She introduced everyone. Grandma Harmans keen eyes flickered when Galens turn came, but she merely nodded.\r\nâ€Å"This is my apprentice and driver, Toby,” she told them. â€Å"He goes everywhere with me, so you can speak freely in front of him.”\r\nToby helped her to the couch, and everyone else sat, too-except Diana, who stubbornly stayed in her corner.\r\nâ€Å"How much have you told her?” Grandma Harman asked.\r\nâ€Å"Almost everything,” Keller said.\r\nâ€Å"And?”\r\nâ€Å"She-isnt quite certain.”\r\nâ€Å"I am certain,” Diana piped up. â€Å"I want to go home.”\r\nGrandma Harman across-the-board a knobby hand toward her. â€Å"Come here, child. I want to take a look at my great-grea t-niece.”\r\nTm not your great-great-niece,” Diana said. But with those steely-but-soft eyes pertinacious on her, she took one step forward.\r\nâ€Å"Of course you are; you just dont know it. Do you realize, youre the image of my mother when she was your age? And Ill bet your great-grandmother looked like her, too.” Grandma Harman patted the couch beside her. â€Å"Come here. Im not going to hurt you. My bod is Edgith, and your great-grandmother was my little sister, Elspeth.”\r\nDiana blinked slowly. â€Å"Great-grandmother Elspeth?”\r\nâ€Å"It was almost ninety years ago that I persist saw her. It was just before the First World War. She and our baby brother, Emmeth, were separated from the rest of the family. We all thought they were dead, but they were world raised inEngland . They grew up and had children there, and eventually some of those children came toAmerica . Without ever suspecting their real heritage, of course. Its taken us a lon g time to track down their descendants.”\r\nIliana had taken another nonvoluntary step. She seemed fascinated by what the old woman was saying. â€Å" mommy always talked about Great-grandmother Elspeth. She was supposed to be so beautiful that a prince fell in love with her.”\r\nâ€Å"Beauty has always run in our family,” Grandma Harman said carelessly. â€Å"Beauty beyond comparison, ever since the long time of Hellewise Hearth-Woman, our foremother. But that isnt the important thing about being a Harman.”\r\n‘It isnt?” Iliana said doubtfully.\r\nâ€Å"No.” The old woman banged her cane. â€Å"The important thing, child, is the art Witchcraft. You are a itch, Iliana; its in your blood. It always will be. And youre the gift of the Harmans in this last fight Now, listen carefully.” Staring at the far wall, she recited slowly and deliberately:\r\nâ€Å"One from the land of kings long forgotten; One from the hearth which still hol ds the blow up; One from the Day World where two eyes are watching; One from the twilight to be one with the dark.”\r\nEven when she had finished, the words seemed to hang in the air of the room. No one spoke.\r\nDianas eyes had changed. She seemed to be looking inside herself, at something only she could see. It was as if deeply buried memories were stirring.\r\nâ€Å"Thats right,” Grandma Harman said softly. â€Å"You can feel the truth of what Im telling you. Its all there, the instinct, the art, if you just let it come out. Even the courage is there.”\r\nSuddenly, the old womans voice was ringing. â€Å"Youre the spark in the poem, Iliana. The hope of the witches. Now, what do you say? Are you going to help us beat the darkness or not?”\r\n'