Picking up the key, for the first time I felt its substantial weight in my hands. For some reason, it seemed heavier than the package had. I slid a finger over the gems, trying to determine if they were real. “No, of course they’re not,” I chuckled to myself. “A homeless guy wouldn’t be likely to go handing teenagers precious gems. If they were real, the key would have to be worth thousands of dollars…and I don’t think Charlie’s exactly wealthy.”
So where had it come from, exactly? Was it some carnival prize? A novelty paperweight from the office supply store over on Victoria?
For a moment I contemplated going back to ask Charlie who’d put him up to this stunt. Was it something my brother Will had set up? It had to be some sort of elaborate hoax. But why would he give me a key, especially one like this? Maybe it was a skeleton key, the sort that would open an ancient treasure chest or some forbidden room in a gothic mansion.
As I was trying to figure out what to do, I noticed a piece of paper tucked inside the box, under the bottom fold of the gold cloth. My fingers shaking, I reached in and drew it out.
The handwriting was elegant, the words written in a scrolling calligraphy. I had no idea who could possibly have managed to write so tidily on such a small scrap of paper. Then again, that seemed like the least of today’s mysteries.
The words on the paper were even more bizarre than the penmanship:
Vega,
This key will open many doors. Some friendly, some deadly.
You are a Seeker.
Prove yourself worthy, and you may just save the world.
The Woman
For what felt like several minutes of profound confusion, my eyes moved back and forth between the ornate key and the note as my brain tried in vain to process the dream-like weirdness of everything that had happened since I’d woken up this morning. The odd gift and message from my Nana. Charlie and Rufus’s glowing eyes. The frozen moment in time. The key. And now the note, which, oddly enough, was the most puzzling element of them all.
“I’m being filmed,” I muttered, looking around at the assorted people and passersby in the park. “I know I’m being filmed.”
To test out my theory, I jumped up and waved my hand in the air at what I was sure must be a park full of cleverly hidden cameras. But other than startling a passing jogger who hopped to the side and gave me the stink-eye as he passed, I got no reaction.
Still on the lookout for the host of a reality show to come bursting out of the bushes, I tucked the key into the pocket of my hoodie and zipped it up. I began to walk in the direction of home, my eyes still fixed on the note in my right hand.
I’d gone about twenty feet when I nearly collided with someone.
“Watch where you’re going!” a shrill feminine voice snarled.
I pulled my eyes up to see a tall, elegant woman with bobbed, white-blond hair staring down at me. Her blue eyes were icy, the color of the sky on a cold winter’s day, and as she glared, her thin, shapely eyebrows met in a fierce expression of disgust. A coat of dark red lipstick accentuated the angry sneer on her lips.
“Sorry,” I muttered, folding up the note and jamming it into my bag.
“What’s that you have there?” she asked, eyeing the satchel strapped over my shoulder.
“What?”
“In your bag.”
“Why? Are you mugging me or something?”
The woman pulled her eyes to mine once again. Now, they no longer looked entirely blue. Instead, they seemed to have begun dancing with other colors: Gold. Red. Silver. I stared at them, mesmerized for a moment. Was it a trick of the light? Shadows dancing over her face from the tree limbs above us?
“Of course I wasn’t going to mug you,” she said, her voice taking on a smooth, charming edge as her eyes settled into a deep blue once again. “I’m so pleased to have found you, daughter of Viviane.”
“Um, yeah, I think you’ve got the wrong person,” I stammered. “My mother’s name is…Sarah.” I deliberately avoided telling her I had no mother. I could just see the psycho following me home once she figured out I was living on my own.
Shooting her as menacing a sneer as I could manage, I started to walk again, my knees trembling as I waited for her to pounce on me from behind. I’d had enough of freaky eyes and weird talk for one morning. All I wanted was to get home, shut the door, and spend the rest of my birthday quietly pretending none of this happened. But before I’d taken three steps, the woman reached out and grabbed my forearm, gripping hard enough to make me wince.
I twisted around to confront her, my jaw tensing with a sudden shot of fear.
Someone help me, I thought desperately. Anyone, please. I need help.
It was a strange impulse for me to ask for rescue, even tacitly. I’d grown so used to fending for myself and looking after my own needs that the very idea of leaning on anyone else was foreign to me. But right now, all I wanted was for someone to swoop in and save me from this menacing weirdo.
“Let go of me!” I shouted. I tried to rip my arm away, but the woman was oddly strong, her knuckles white as her grip tightened.
“I can’t do that,” she said, shaking her head, a disconcerting smile on her lips. “You’re the one we came to find. They say you’re the one who will—”
She stopped talking, slamming her mouth shut.
“Get off of me!” I hissed, my fear turning quickly to rage.
The woman, who had apparently lost her train of thought, released my arm and backed away, her eyes brimming with terror. For a second, I felt triumphant, like I’d scared her into submission with my commanding voice and expression of pure ire.
It only took a moment to realize that it wasn’t me who’d caused her to freeze, but something behind me.
Horrified that a new threat was approaching, I spun around to see a fuzzy blur sprinting in our direction at lightning speed, accelerating as it approached.
Before I could process what was happening, Rufus had leapt up and thrown all his weight at the terrified woman, slamming her backwards onto the ground. I backed away, my eyes locked on the dog, who was alternating between growling at her and staring up at me, tongue out, as though he was looking for approval. His eyes had gone gold again, an inexplicable light shining from inside him.
As I stared at him, a voice rumbled its way through my mind. I had no idea where it was coming from, but the words felt like they were spoken by someone so close I could feel them vibrating through my bones. Low and deep, the voice didn’t sound quite human…although I couldn’t say what it did sound like.
I opened my mouth to ask Rufus if he was the one speaking to me. But no, of course he wasn’t. That would have been completely off the rails.
“Get away, Vega,” the voice said. “Get far away from the woman right now. Don’t offer it to her, whatever you do. Protect it with your life.”
“Protect what? What’s going on?” I asked the air, my head twisting around to identify the speaker’s location.
The woman on the ground tried to say something, but Rufus shoved his muzzle in her face and let out a low growl, forcing her to slam her mouth shut.
“Go, Vega!” the voice repeated, this time more urgently. “Before she gets her hands on you again.”