Page 107 of The Tree of Spirits
“A psychic blast,” Conner said.
Kato tackled us to the ground, out of the spell’s path. The purple wave shot past us, toward the Spirit Tree, where the Apprentices had just managed to wrestle free of their restraints.
“Asher!” Kylie screamed as the psychic blast flashed toward him. She jumped into its path.
The blast hit Kylie with aboom!, slamming her to the ground. The spell was so powerful, however, that even that didn’t stop it. It kept going, though it was a duller purple now. Kylie must have taken most of the damage.
“Kylie!” Asher shouted back to her as the spell knocked him into the Spirit Tree’s open trunk. He disappeared in an instant, transported to some other realm.
The tree stopped glowing, and darkness returned to the picnic area.
“The gateway is closed,” Kato said.
I hardly heard him. I was running toward Kylie. She lay on the ground, motionless.
“Kylie?” I shook her gently, and then, when she didn’t wake up, harder. “Kylie!”
I felt for her pulse, but I didn’t find one.
“She has no pulse!” I shouted to the boys. “And she’s not breathing!”
Conner hurried over to us.
“You can save her, right?” I asked as his glowing hands waved over her. “You healed Marlow! You can heal Kylie too!”
“Red…” His hands stopped glowing.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, grabbing his hands, shaking them, trying to make them start glowing again. “Save her! Please!”
“It’s too late.” He shook his head slowly. “I can’t bring people back from the dead.”
Dead.
The word grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.
Dead.
Kylie was dead.
And that Polymage Templar had killed her.
I rose from the ground, my hot anger hardening into cold fury as I faced the fiend who’d killed my friend. I was going to make her pay for this.
“Guys, we have a problem.”
I hardly heard Kato through my rage.
“What are they doing here?”
Conner’s voice was just as distant, just as unreal. The only real thing was the evil Templar in front of me.
“Snap out of it, Seven!”
I pivoted toward Kato, annoyed and angry, but the growl died on my lips when I saw them. Someone in a long, brown robe marched into the picnic area, closely followed by four Techno Knights. It had stopped raining. Moonlight shone down on their black armor, lighting them up with a silver halo.
“The Brotherhood of Earth?” I frowned, my anger fading to confusion.
“Stand aside,” the cloaked figure told us. “We are not here for you. We are here for them.” She pointed at the Templars.
