“William Kramer was a Vortex who has left this Earth, but you, Jake, are still connected to him. By blood and by power,” Fatima says.

“So will he, like, always know what’s going to happen before it happens now?” says Lindsey, who is sitting on the arm of the couch now because she’s gotten up, walked around, then sat back down about three times since Fatima’s appearance. I don’t know what her problem is, maybe both she and Sasha drank one of those energy drinks, or two or three.

Fatima shakes her head, flaming red hair moving along her shoulders, a huge contrast to her pale skin and white dress.

“William may not have known everything before it happened. But Jake will have some advantage now because William has been through a battle of his own.”

“He fought for the light, didn’t he?” I ask, because thinking that my great-uncle could turn evil has been hard for me to swallow. I wish Pop Pop were still here so I could tell him that Uncle William didn’t choose to go bad.

“William did what he thought was best. Unfortunately, he didn’t have friends with him as you do, Jake. He didn’t know much about the magical world. So when they came for him he couldn’t handle it.”

“But he wasn’t evil. He didn’t choose evil,” I insist. I need to believe this, to believe that someone who shared my blood couldn’t choose to end life instead of preserve it.

Fatima smiled. This was the first time I really saw a reaction in her. Well, at the cemetery she seemed pretty adamant about what I needed to do, but still she’d reminded me of some kind of robot just spouting words. This time, though, her smile looks genuine.

“He was not evil and therefore Charon could not use him. But finding out cost William his life.”

I sink back onto the chair because that’s all I wanted to hear. From her spot on the chair across from me Krystal smiles. I know she probably wanted to hear that, too. The fact that I might have been evil still freaked us both out.

“So what now?” Sasha asks. “We go to Alaska to fight him?”

“Charon is clever,” Fatima speaks. “He was a high-level liege to the Underworld when Styx cursed him.”

“Why did she curse him?” Lindsey asks. “I mean, why not just kill him, drown him in that sick water of her river. Why leave him alive to wreak this kind of havoc on the worlds to come afterward?”

I was with Lindsey. If Charon was so bad and pissed Styx off so much, she should have just toasted his demonic butt and been done with it. If she had we wouldn’t be here right now.

“Because she’s not inherently evil. Styx was given the river to guard, turned into a goddess by Zeus after she helped him win the battle against the Titans.” Fatima moves closer so that she’s now standing in the middle of the room, her feet not even touching the expensive rug on the floor. We’re all sitting around her like pets thirsty for knowledge and possibly a pat on the head for a job well done. Silly, but true.

“Charon wanted more power. He believes it is his destiny to rule a world blanketed in darkness. He has been trying to go against Styx’s curse forever.”

“And he’ll keep on, just like the Devil keeps fighting against God and his angels,” Krystal adds.

Of course she’d think along those lines, and while none of us add any credence to what she’s said, I can’t help but think about the similarities as well.

“In every world there are chosen ones to thwart his efforts. As Jake said, in this world at this time, it is you, the Mystyx.”

“But how do we fight him?” Sasha asks.

“Keep him from gaining power. You’ve done that when you pushed the darkness from that teacher it possessed,” she says looking at Krystal. “When you stood up to his anger and saved Krystal from losing the portals of her soul in that forest.”

I remembered both those times, at the school with Mr. Lyle and in the forest with…Franklin.

“And just a while ago when the Vortex chose to stand with the light.”

All eyes fell on me.

“But he is not finished,” Fatima adds. “He will keep trying.”

“Then whatever we do is for nothing. Why even keep trying?” Lindsey crosses her arms over her chest.

“Because at the designated time, in the designated place, Styx will be there. She will lend her power to yours and Charon will be banished for all remaining times.”

Okay, is it just me or did that just sound like a roundabout answer for she’s still not telling us what we have to do to get rid of this demon?

And of course, Fatima picks that exact moment to have her body sucked into a tiny white light that floats back across the room and through the window that she’d first appeared in.

“Crap!” I stand, yelling. “Still with the half answers. I thought we were finished with this secretive stuff.”

“She answered us this time, Jake,” Krystal says softly. “We’re fighting an ancient battle, the one between good and evil. A battle that may never end, but still needs to be fought.”

“And,” I say, moving my hand like I want her to continue. “How does that help us know what to do to fight it?”

“Maybe we just figure it out as we go along,” Sasha adds.

“Yeah,” Lindsey says nodding. “Maybe we’ll just know what to do when it’s time to do it.”

I fall back into the chair not looking at any of them. “That idea sucks.”