“Pretend you’re stopping me from going through the Door,” I said quickly. She nodded immediate understanding. Positioning ourselves, we got ready to lie.
But we didn’t have to. It was Novi with Worm.
He was hugging himself, as if to hide that he wore what amounted to not much more than a Tarzan loincloth. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be here—that knowledge was written all over his face. Maybe he’d be able to be himself on Earth, or maybe it would be even worse for him. I couldn’t promise him better. Just different.
“The Reckoning isn’t even over,” Novi was saying to him. “They haven’t released the results. You could have improved!”
He was staring at the Door as if it were food.He wants to come,I thought. I’d been right to ask him. “She’s offering me a new life, Novi.”
“But you could die!” She was fighting tears.
Worm refused to look at her. His lower lip was stuck out, his chin wrinkled, the exact same stubborn expression that I’ve seen on Charles’s face when he’s convinced he’s in the right. I almost felt guilty for breaking them apart. He was her family, and hadn’t I just been thinking that family should stick together? “I can fight a fire beast,” he insisted. Turning to me, he asked, “What do you need me to do?”
“Fire. Lots of it, as hot as you can make it. When we go through, if it’s anything like coming this direction, you’ll be disoriented and in pain. You’ll need to shoot fire anyway. Just aim up, so you don’t hit us. Can you do that?”
“Yeah.” And he smiled, looking happier than I’d ever seen him. Giddy, even. Beside him, Novi was staring at her brother as if she’d never seen him before. I could tell she wanted to say more. I could also tell that he wasn’t going to listen. She seemed to have guessed that too.
“Once the fire beast is disabled, you’ll need to burn out the security cameras,” I said.
Mom chimed in. “Opening the vault door will automatically shut off the laser motion sensors and pressure plates, but we’ll have to cope with the wyvern detection spell somehow. We don’t have a human with us to block it—”
“Fine, but then what?” Novi interrupted, and nowshereminded me of Charles, with that I’m-older-so-I-know-best tone of voice. “Say you defeat this fire beast. Say you find a way past…all that. Then what? You’ll be in a strange world, without your family—”
“I’ll be happy,” he interrupted. “Do you care about that?”
“Of course I want you to be happy!” Novi cried.
Footsteps, coming toward the cave.
“And so do Mom and Dad.”
Worm yelped. “Novi, what did you do?”
A man and a woman burst into the cave. “Benden, what are you doing?”
These were their parents? Also, his name was Benden? Not Worm? I wasn’t sure what was worse: the idea that he’d been named Worm at birth, or the idea he’d been nicknamed Worm and accepted it. Iwassure that the arrival of his parents wasnota good development.
Worm and Novi’s parents were clearly high-level wyverns, higher ranked than anyone I’d seen up close. Both wore rich gowns embroidered with gold and tied around their waists with belts made of gold discs. Their mother’s hair was slicked into a triple bun on the top of her head, and their father’s beard was expertly trimmed. “Your sister tells us you plan to go through the Door. Everyone who has gone through in the last decade has been sent back dead,” Worm’s father said. “This is a foolish risk!”
I raised my hand as if I were in school. “I do have a plan.”
“It’s an excellent plan,” Mom said supportively.
I shot her an appreciative look. It was nice of her to say, especially since I knew she didn’t consider it so excellent.
“What sort of plan?” Worm’s father demanded.
“Me,” Worm said. He stepped out from behind Mom. “I can fight the fire beast. I’m strong enough. You know that. I’m stronger than—”
Worm’s mother gasped. “It’s suicide! Haven’t you brought enough shame to us? We cannot allow this to happen!”
Mom spoke. “We’re going through, and then we’re going to find a way to open up travel between Earth and Home. Families will be reunited. You’ll be able to choose where your home is.” She was walking slowly in a semicircle, and it was only when she stopped that I realized what she was doing—placing herself between the two wyverns and the jewel. It gave Worm and me direct access.
I calculated the distance: three steps.
Mom was still talking: “As soon as we have the Door safe in a new, secure location, we will come back, and anyone who chooses can cross.”
“You’re talking about taking our son to certain death,” the father said.
