He snapped back to attention. “Right. While I’ve got the magic boost, I’ll work my Beast King mojo. It should be able to control the dogs—maybe the gigan too. You grab Hydra’s head and run.”
I really hoped he knew what he was doing. Hydra’s gypsy head was still where the sprite had tossed her. I checked back on Kato to see how he was doing. The puppies had stopped their approach and stood still. The Tinman, on the other hand, kept moving. His armor had lots of little rust spots on it though.
The spring water. Wherever it touched the metal, rust holes formed. But not enough of it was falling to make him stop his advance on Kato.
With a deep breath, I told myself, I can control the fire. The fire doesn’t control me. I let the emerald flames leap into my hands. I forced my arms outward and threw the flames at the Tinman. He barely paused from their impact. I, however, swayed from the amount of effort it took out of me.
“Hey, you big tin can,” I panted. “Come and get it.” I visualized reaching inside myself and pulling out every last bit of heat I had, then pushing it toward the gigan. The result was a continuous stream of emerald fire that burned through his armor right where his heart would be if he had one. Looking down at the hole in his chest, he staggered backward. Stepping on Hydra’s wandering body, he lost his balance, falling into the spring. The Tinman’s flailing arm took out the three remaining puppies.
The very definition of a happy accident.
That was the last normal thought I had before my vision clouded with green and the curse took over. I could feel the Tinman like we were connected—feel him rusting from the bottom and melting from my flame on the top. Through the haze of green, I saw something floating toward me. When it hit, my weakness faded. The gigan’s strength and life force filled me.
More. You could be so much more.
The voice was right. I could feel the Tinman’s power feeding me, making me grow. If I ate more, I would grow stronger. Nothing would be able to take me down. I planted my hands into the ground and searched, using the power. In my mind, I saw the life force of everything around me—the trees, the grass, the boy…everything.
The boy glows with life and power. Take it.
I wanted it. No, I needed it. Without it, I couldn’t win. But if I took it, I had a feeling I would lose far more. Inside me with the heat, a cold shell tried to form around my heart. I focused in on the glowing power of the human boy. He was talking to me. He had a name and importance beyond a power source. If I could remember it…
“Kato,” I muttered and mentally shoved the power back, rejecting it and the metallic taste in my mouth. The flames left my hands, and I no longer felt all-powerful; I felt like something the Cheshire cat might throw up.
“Are you all right?” Kato’s cold hands gripped my arms and helped me up. The icy contrast to my heat helped the world come back into Technicolor focus, ditching the green tint.
No. Once again, I’d stolen a life and a power that didn’t belong to me. Good reason or not, I felt a weight from the deaths of Crow, Moony, the puppies, and the Tinman. Thinking about how close I’d been to adding Kato to this list threatened to tip the scales. I’d managed to control the curse, but for how long?
I didn’t want to worry Kato, so I pointed over to Hydra’s flattened body and the rusty pile of scrap that clogged the spring well and lied. “Considering the alternatives, I think I fared pretty well.” Steadying myself, I picked up Hydra’s head. “How ’bout you? Sorry about the body, by the way.”
“Vas time to trade up I am thinkink.”
I cradled her head under my arm and sighed. Too much had happened in the last few minutes to even process. Our foursome had turned to two and a half, and my hopes for a bright, shiny future had been crushed. Literally. “So, now what? How do we stop Griz? We can’t catch up on foot.”
There was the saying, It’s always darkest before the dawn. But the suns always came up.
Didn’t they?
Right now, just to mock me, the third sun, Pathos, was setting.
I looked to the sky and called out, “Okay, whoever’s there, now would be a really good time to send in reinforcements—a flying elephant or deus ex something or other.”
Nothing happened except Kato looking at me like I had burned a few too many brain cells. He didn’t understand, so I tried to explain. “You see, there has to be something. I’ve felt it. I know someone’s up there.” I let go of Kato’s arm and yelled at the suns. The light seemed blurry. “Where are you, Storymakers? Where’s the magic sword in a stone or a lamp to give me new wishes?”
No sparkling dust flew. No sound of wind chimes flitting through the air. No sign at all that anyone cared. I’d been saved so many times, but now at the greatest hour, I’d been abandoned. In my heart I feared I was no longer worthy of saving.