"Um, Faelyn, I don't think you should be walking around Seranet looking like that." Edger examined the fae skeleton in front of him.
Faelyn smirked. "Oh, hush, Edger. Mateo won't be able to see me, so no worries. He does not yet have his wings or full powers."
Edger nodded to show he understood. "True, but… no offense… I don't know how much longer I can look at your bony face. Let me give you a little touch-up." He backed away from the undead man. Magic wafted out of his open palms and circled Faelyn. A white light washed over his skinny body. By the time it left, he was no longer a skeleton but the man he used to be before he died at age thirty-seven. He was a life-like ghost.
Mateo and Faelyn were mirror images of each other. Mateo clearly took more after his dad than his mom. Only, because Faelyn was fae, his black hair was long. However, he shared Mateo's tan, soft skin. Unlike him, he did not have a goatee. His face was bare. Faelyn had pointy ears, and his wings were silky and white with a blue-green tint. He was also good-looking.
Faelyn patted down his blue-green vest and tan pants. "How bad is my son's condition?"
Edger cleared his throat. He nervously pulled at the collar of his shirt. "Um… He is definitely in a lot worse shape than his mom."
Faelyn's deep brown eyes widened. He stomped his brown boots on the grass surrounding the waterfall's pool. "Abigail? What happened to her?"
"Oh, so Abigail is her name." Edger had forgotten completely. "Well, let's just say she sacrificed herself to protect Mateo from the basilisk."
"What?" Faelyn clenched his fists. "She's not dead, is she?"
"No. Just unconscious. She's in Paperblank Village's ICU." Edger did not yell. He remained calm because he knew Ms. Brook–no, Abigail Brook–would recover. Mateo, though, was a different story. His outcome was not yet set in stone. Edger sighed. "Mateo is here because the hunter is after both him and Euphorbia."
Faelyn's bushy eyebrows narrowed. "You have not yet answered my question. How bad is my son's condition?"
Edger gulped. There was a moment of silence, and then he said, "Very serious. Nearly critical."
"Take me to him. Por favor," begged Faelyn. He flipped up the sleeves of the long, white shirt he wore under his vest. Then, he started to nervously tug at the red tie around his neck.
Edger shivered. "Okay, but you're not going to like what you see."
"I don't care. Él es mi hijo," Faelyn said.
***
Mateo was getting worse. Krysta had managed to put the mask over his nose and mouth, but he was slipping in and out of consciousness, like before. As a whole, he was lapsing into a coma–which, similar to when victims went brain-dead, was not uncommon for the forest sickness.
Maria could no longer hold back her emotions. Tears poured from her eye sockets and down her cheeks. "Mateo, you can't die!" she yelled. She could not raise a child all by herself.
Mateo did not move or respond to her comment.
Krysta hastily pulled his shirt off his tummy. "Oh my God," she said, at the sight of the worsening injury. "Kid, what on Earth happened to you?" If Mateo's condition did not improve by Sunday, she was going to have to incubate and put him on life support (that would be so hard for the family). Why couldn't Keegan just accept him? He was killing a twenty-one-year-old–someone who had been an adult for merely three years.
Maria placed a wet rag over Mateo's burning forehead. He had a fever of 104°F, and it was still climbing. A few of Maria's tears were in the rag. "Don't die. Please don't die," she begged. "I can't lose you, baby." She knew her child was crying, too.
Krysta treated Mateo's tummy wound. She cleaned it and wrapped a bandage around his abdomen. "Just fight, Anthony. That's all we're asking for," she begged. "If Keegan won't accept you, then we will have to turn to your other uncle."
Krysta's words confused Maria. "'Other uncle'? What are you talking about, Ranger Krysta?" She kissed Mateo's clammy hand. "Mateo does not have another uncle."
Krysta fell silent. She dug deep into her thoughts. Wow, the Brook family really had no idea. She asked herself when was the last time they updated their family tree.
Before Krysta could speak again, an unknown voice–one that Krysta and Maria did not hear–wafted across the room. "What in the name of Seranet happened to my son?"
Faelyn and Edger had returned to the cabin.
***
Evie could not focus on her ranger training that day, no matter how hard she tried. She felt Mateo's weak aura. He was dying, and he was dying fast. She knew the internal injuries were accelerating his condition, as well as his exhaustion. However, she also felt like something else was, too.
Ms. Julie set up a training course for her and her friends outside the village. They were in an open field that was about the size of a football field. Jumps, arches, and different exercise equipment were scattered around it.
Evie held Euphorbia's pebble in her sweaty palms. She tossed it back and forth between them. She did not even want to think about how much it hurt when its magic smacked Mateo. The blunt force trauma was probably the most pain he'd felt in his entire life. Nevertheless, who was the one who got spared? Her. Why? Evie still did not understand that.
She jumped when Ashlynn prodded her. "Come on, Evie. Snap out of it. We still need to train."
In a choked voice, Evie said, "I can't, Ashlynn. Mateo. My aunt."
"They'll be fine," Ashlynn encouraged. That was the wrong thing to say.
Evie glared at her. "Fine? Are you kidding me? Have you seen how bad Mateo's condition is? The forest sickness has reached his lungs, and now Aunt Brook is in the ICU. Not only that, but my good-for-nothing father is killing him! So don't tell me everything is going to be okay!"
Ashlynn shivered, shocked by how angry her friend was.
Ms. Julie soon appeared next to them. "Evie," she said, "I know you're scared, but the best thing we can do for Mateo is keep on training. The sooner we train, the sooner we can put this whole mess behind us."
"What about Sam?" Evie snapped. She clenched her fists. "He has not come back since last night. What if he's hurt, too?"
Ms. Julie slightly chuckled. "Sam is a seventy-one-year-old man stuck in a child's body. I think we can trust him."
There must have been some magic in her words. As soon as she said that, Evie's eyes caught Sam jogging onto the training field. While he looked a little more confident than overnight, there was still at least a little worry in his face, and maybe even just a tiny bit of shock. He gestured for Evie to follow him. "Hi, Evie. Can I borrow you for a little bit?" His eyes moved over to Ms. Julie. "You don't mind, right, Ms. Julie?"
Ms. Julie patted Evie's shoulder. "Not at all. Nice to see you again, Sam."
Sam sensed Evie's fear. He held his hand out to her, smiling friendlily. "It's okay, Evie."
Just looking at his hand, Evie felt something, something strange. There was a fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach, but it did not feel like love from a romantic point of view. Although, there was something about Sam that enthralled her. Was it the two brown tufts that hung in front of his ears, his simple attire, or his mysterious personality? He was no ordinary boy. That was for sure.
Sam wrapped his small fingers around her hand. His soft touch was secure. Evie felt safe just being near him. He dragged her away from her group and towards a cluster of trees a soccer field away.
Behind, Ms. Julie smiled and crossed her arms.
Ashlynn noticed her mischievous look. "Ms. Julie, what are you hiding?" she asked.
***
Sam escorted Evie to a safe part of the Paperblank Forest. The spring was small, but the water was clear like glass. It flowed over a ledge and fed into an even smaller pool. Ferns and flowers decorated it. The sun's rays bounced through the treetops and glittered on the magical water droplets. The spring was a peaceful haven and the perfect place for the weary to clear their mind.
The two tweens sat around the spring's pool. They put their palms under the running water. For a while, they said nothing. Then, Sam broke the silence.
He removed his palms and ran his hand through the pool. "E-Evie?" he said. "Do you remember when Ben told me that I need to remember what I learned the day I disappeared?"
Evie mimicked his hand motion. "But I thought you said you didn't learn anything." She was too shy to look Sam directly in his face.
The little boy gulped. "Well, I actually did learn something. I now know why Autumn gave me the pebble."
Evie shrugged. She carried on with bouncing the stone in between her hands. "She gave it to you just in case Euphorbia took you time traveling." The sweat on her fingers fogged up the pebble's clear surface.
Sam paused for a second. "That's partly true and partly not. Evie, the truth is, not just anyone can handle Euphorbia's pebble and use its magic." He swiped the pebble from Evie's hand.
She did not fight him. Instead, she pulled her knee close to her chest, and she looked her friend straight in his young face. "Sam, what are you saying?"
Sam inhaled. He tried to find his words. The butterflies in his stomach fought one another for the best nectar in the forest. How would Evie react? She would hate him. He knew that much, but he had to try. He tossed a few stones into the spring's pool.
Overhead, birds chirped in the treetops. They spoke encouraging words.
Sam lugged his own knees close to his body. He studied Evie's bewildered face. "Evie, there's a reason why I made friends with Autumn so quickly." He moved his fingers up Evie's leg and carefully grasped her hand. "It's because… Autumn is my sister."
Evie's whole face whitened. "Your what?" she shrieked.
Sam shuddered, but he nodded to both himself and Evie. "Evie… I-I'm your uncle."
Not even ten seconds later, Evie hooted. Spit sprayed all over Sam's white shirt, soaking it with her own diabolical beliefs. Seriously? She thought the idea of her and Mateo being cousins was crazy, but Sam took it to a whole new level–the level of insanity. Sure, of course, the eleven-year-old boy sitting next to her was her uncle. It made total sense.
Sam did not expect her to believe him. He would have been a grandfather, but he never had kids. Heck, he was trapped in time for sixty long years.
Evie argued with him: "But your last name is Aitchison!" She leaped to her feet.
Sam peered up at her. "I was an accident, just like how Mateo and Maria's child is one. My father–yours and Mateo's great-grandfather–gave me up when I was only a few months old. He left me to die in the forest, but then my adoptive parents found me. Their last name was 'Aitchison'."
Evie could not stop the continuous river of tears streaming down her cheeks. "But you're eleven years old!"
Sam nodded. "True, but remember, Evie, Euphorbia trapped me in time for sixty years. I never aged."
Evie's head burned. She reached for it. She glared at her friend–her uncle, or whoever the heck he was. "My cousin is dying, and you're treating it like a joke! I'm tired of all the secrets. I'm tired of all the lies."
Sam rose to his own feet. He brushed the dirt off his pants. "But I'm not lying! Autumn and I were supposed to be the original Pebble Masters, but then the incident with the hunter occurred. It ruined everything. Sixty years ago, Evie, history changed forever."
"Just shut up, Sam!" Evie scooped up a handful of dirt from the forest floor. She chucked it in Sam's face.
Yelling, he reached for his eyes.
Evie shoved him into the spring's pool. Sam almost hit his head on the ledge. That would have not been good if he did.
He pushed himself to his hands and knees. "Evie, wait!"
Evie, though, was already gone. She punched through the spring's plants.
Sam, who still held onto Euphorbia's pebble, brought it to his face. He closed his blue eyes and pressed his forehead against it. "I'm sorry, Autumn. I have failed you."
He thought about the day he vanished: Autumn's kind words and gentle voice. Euphorbia said she got her quiet personality from her mom–no… his mom.
"'Nice to meet you, Sam.'" Autumn had basically said, "I've been waiting eleven years to finally meet you."
Evie was upset, yes, but Sam refused to give up. A Pebble Master never did. She would come around eventually. He did not think Mateo's beat-up body could take any more surprises, so he was going to wait until he was stronger to tell him.
On the bright side, Sam now knew his purpose in the future. He had to help Evie and Mateo fix the problem he caused sixty years ago. The prophecy was never wrong: The Pebble Masters will never shine the same again. Instead, they will regain.
Just before Sam could reach too far into his thoughts, a gust of wind picked up the scream of a little girl. His jaw dropped. "Evie!"
Sam stuffed the pebble into his pocket. He sprinted like a track member, away from the spring and towards the plants she vanished in.
The hunter had given his next orders.