Page 24 of The Knights of Gaia

I watched the Cursed Ones. All this hysteria had made the inhuman beasts totally crazy. Thankfully, it had also made them too distracted to focus on any one person for more than a few seconds; they kept changing targets. They hadn’t managed to bite anyone. Yet. But I knew our luck wouldn’t hold for long.

There had to be a way to stop the Cursed Ones. I looked around, trying to come up with some clever trick, but the only spells I could do were pretty useless. I needed real magic.

Magic. No sooner had the word entered my mind than I saw a Cursed One being flung off its feet by invisible forces. It smashed into the hood of the SUV with a thundering crash. And for one wonderful, impossible moment, I believed my fantasy had become a reality. That I’d suddenly learned telekinesis.

Those happy, wishful thoughts came crashing down as surely as the Cursed One’s body hit the SUV. A Knight in shining white armor strode toward the Cursed One, his gloved hand lifted in the air in front of him.

I hadn’t tossed the Cursed One aside. That Knight had.

A glowing halo of magic swirled around him like dozens of moons orbiting a planet. The White Knight pivoted toward a second Cursed One. As he moved, his sword turned into a long staff. The Knight tapped a finger to his helmet, speaking a few quiet words. Suddenly, the Cursed One pulled off its pursuit of the people; it dropped to all fours and charged at another Cursed One instead, all the while snarling in protest.

The Knight was controlling its body.

He said a few more words, waving his staff. The Cursed One he was piloting grabbed another Cursed One and hurled it at the SUV. The tossed Cursed One crashed into the one still lying on the hood of the vehicle.

The Knight’s staff turned into a small metal disc. In one smooth, swift movement, he inserted it into an open slot in his gauntlet. Then he grabbed the Cursed One he’d been controlling, lifting it over his head like it weighed nothing. He tossed it onto the SUV too. There were now three of them lying there, unable to move.

The fourth Cursed One was running at the Knight, trying to get the jump on him from behind. I rushed in, sticking out my foot. The Cursed One tripped over it and fell to the ground right in front of the SUV. The Knight helped it along with a solid shove.

Then he spun around to face me. “I’ve never seen anyone trip a Cursed One.” His words echoed a little inside his full-head helmet, making his voice sound really deep.

“I got the idea from some mean Apprentices who tried to trip me today,” I blurted out.

The Knight didn’t answer. I guess he wasn’t impressed by my stupid response.

The many rows of medals on the Knight’s breastplate clinked as he turned away from me—and toward the SUV. The Cursed Ones were glued to the hood like it was covered in a really sticky paste. But it must have been some invisible magical force holding them there because I didn’t see anything on the hood besides the struggling Cursed Ones and the SUV’s normal black paint.

The whole vehicle began to shine. It purred like a humming bird. The Knight waved his hands, weaving them through the air, glowing brighter with every flick of his fingers, with every twist of his wrists.

A pulse of blinding blue light flashed out from his hands.

Then, suddenly, the whole Garden was silent. No screaming. No footsteps. Nothing. The final, flourishing clap of the Knight’s hands cut through the vacuum of sound.

And then the SUV—and the three Cursed Ones stuck to it—dissolved into a cloud of blue dust. The fourth one on the ground was quivering, like it knew it was about to be next.

It leapt off the ground and slammed into me. Then it grabbed my arm and dragged me into the magic light after it.

CHAPTER4

SHADOW FALL

Apparently, my ability to repel the Cursed Ones wasn’t foolproof. Maybe that was because I had no idea how it worked—and no clue how to control it.

And now I was stuck here in this…actually, I had no idea what this place was.

All I knew was it was foggy. Really, really foggy. The white fog floated and billowed in a slow, graceful, dreamlike rhythm. I couldn’t see anything beyond that dreamy fog.

Maybe there wasn’t anything beyond the fog.

Maybe I was dead.

I nearly choked on the thought.

“You’re not dead, Savannah,” I told myself.

I pressed my right hand against my sore ribcage. That’s where the Cursed One had slammed into me. It felt like I’d slammed into a wall. Dead people didn’t feel pain, right?

I wasn’t dead. I was just lost. Magic had brought me here—whereverherewas. So magic must be the key to getting me out.

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