The Changer War

  Prologue

  Fiona Murphy had just returned home from a long, exhausting day in New York City. Perhaps the average girl would have been excited to visit New York City, but Fiona was hardly the “average girl.”

  Fiona was a selkie, a magical shape-shifting Changer. Up until her first day of seventh grade at Willow Cove Middle School, Fiona thought selkies were simply mythological creatures. Then everything changed. She learned that she was a member of a small and very secret tribe of selkies, and with the help of her selkie cloak, she could transform into a seal and rule the ocean.

  Fiona often felt like she had two lives—one on land, one at sea.

  As she often did, Fiona looked over the cliff’s edge toward the ocean. It was a view she never tired of. Tonight the sun was a fiery ball reflecting on the waves, ranging from a deep crimson to a coppery red.

  It’s been too long since I’ve been in those waves, Fiona thought. But after all she’d just been through in New York City, when would she have time to go for a swim again?

  Just as Fiona was thinking this, she caught sight of something familiar—a tuft of red hair, just over by the sea. A passerby might have missed it, but not Fiona.

  “Mom,” Fiona said breathlessly.

  A year ago Fiona would have never believed that her mom would be waiting for her by the sea cliffs. For a long time Fiona had believed her mother was dead. But her mother was, in fact, not dead. She was Queen Leana of the selkies. She had to live away from her daughter until Fiona was old enough to know the truth.

  Fiona’s mother sauntered up to her and embraced her daughter in a warm hug.

  “Fiona,” her mother said. Her voice was calm and relaxed, but Fiona could detect a slight panic in her mother’s eyes. “Thank moonlight you are all right. So much has happened.”

  Fiona started to feel guilty. She’d only gone to New York to help a friend; she hadn’t meant to worry her mother. She bit her lip.

  “I’m sorry—” she started to say.

  But it seemed Fiona’s mother was worried about something else entirely.

  “I’m afraid I have some troubling news,” her mother said. “The selkies have learned that you’ve been foretold as one of the new First Four.”

  Fiona gasped. Her mind whirled with what-ifs. Through her mother, Fiona was selkie royalty. But the selkies’ discovery of her role in the larger Changer world could spell disaster.

  Fiona, along with her three friends—Mack Kimura, Darren Smith, and Gabriella Rivera—were foretold by an ancient prophecy to be the next leaders of the Changer world, the next First Four. Darren was an impundulu, a fearsome bird from southern Africa that could shoot lightning bolts from his razor-sharp talons and create violent storms. Gabriella was a nahual, a jaguar with yellow eyes, sleek jet-black fur, and the ability to spirit-walk in other people’s minds. And Makoto—Mack—was a kitsune, a powerful white fox with paws that blazed with fire. He had the ability to fly and to borrow other Changers’ powers, just like his kitsune grandfather, who helped train them.

  In their training, Fiona had learned that long ago, Changers lived openly alongside humans. In fact, Changers did their best to protect humans from the world’s dark forces. But the concept of real magic was too much for human brains to grasp. Thousands of years ago humans came to believe that Changers wanted to destroy them.

  Fear is a strange thing. And fear—as fear does—made the humans act in strange, desperate ways. The Changers were forced to create a hidden world. They were still devoted to protecting humans from evil, but now they did so in secret—and from a distance.

  Fiona, Darren, Mack, and Gabriella learned all of this in their training at the hands of the First Four, the current leaders of all Changer-kind.

  Akira Kimura, Mack’s grandfather, steered Fiona and her friends in the discovery and control of their new powers. Dorina Therian, a werewolf, was the kids’ primary coach in their secretly enchanted gym at Willow Cove Middle School. Yara Moreno (an encantado, or dolphin Changer) and Sefu Badawi (a bultungin, or hyena Changer) stepped in to help every now and then.

  From the moment Fiona first put on her selkie cloak and dove into the ocean waves, she felt more like herself than ever before. The rhythm and pulse of the tides were as natural to her as breathing. It was almost like . . . almost like she was complete.

  But it was a world of deep divisions. The selkie faction, for instance, had a long-standing mistrust of the Changer nation. Fiona often felt torn between two more worlds, in addition to her human one—her mother’s selkie world and that of the Changer nation. Especially because, thanks to the prophecy and her lineage, Fiona was due to inherit both.

  Bringing those two worlds together became even trickier when a new dark force came into play. An evil kitsune named Sakura Hiyamoto, or the Shadow Fox, had built an army to rise against the Changer nation. Sakura wanted control of everything—the magical and the nonmagical—and she was ready to go to war to get it.

  What’s more, the Shadow Fox was a memory eater. She could consume whatever memories she wanted, insert false memories, and absorb that Changer’s powers. A former student of Mr. Kimura’s, she had left him so that she could delve into dark magic. Then Sakura turned on her former master, though Fiona didn’t know why.

  Sakura had long been underground, watching and waiting to take her revenge. But recently she had come out of hiding to amass her army—and her first target was Mack.

  Mack—Fiona’s friend. Mack—who was supposed to join them as the new First Four. Mack—who enjoyed making goofy faces and reading comic books.

  Sakura had poisoned good, kind Mack’s mind with dark magic and lured him in with promises of power. She replaced his memories of happiness and hope with those of anger and despair. Once that was complete, Mack was her pawn. He turned his back on the Changer nation and joined Sakura’s dark forces.

  But before they could rescue Mack, the First Four had to make sure Fiona, Gabriella, and Darren were safe; they knew the three younglings would be the next targets. Sakura would want the complete set. She was a collector, of sorts—of powerful Changers and their abilities—and wanted them in her army. Thankfully, Fiona was protected from Sakura’s mind control with her powerful selkie Queen’s Song, and Gabriella was protected by ancient Aztec magic in the form of the Ring of Tezcatlipoca. But Darren had no such shield. That’s why the group had traveled to New York City: to lift an ancient curse and to find protection for him.

  Before they could do that, however, Sakura’s army had mounted a surprise attack. Many had been injured, but in the end the First Four and their followers prevailed—and one very good thing had come out of the battle. Gabriella had spirit-walked into Mack’s mind and healed the pain that Sakura had inflicted. Their friend was himself again.

  Gabriella had wanted Mack to come back home to Willow Cove with them, but Mack made a brave sacrifice instead. He chose to stay with Sakura as an agent for the First Four. Mack had mastered illusion magic and believed he could mask his true self from the evil master. His plan was to feed crucial inside information to the First Four, which could be the key to victory. Fiona worried about him but knew she had to focus on her own mission too.

  With war looming, Fiona and her mother had hoped the selkies would support the First Four. But it was a matter that required a gentle touch. Gaining that support required delicate and ongoing negotiations. Mother and daughter—queen and princess—had agreed that delicacy was only possible if Fiona’s role as a member of the next First Four remain undisclosed.

  But now those careful efforts had been ruined by the revelation of Fiona’s secret.

  Fiona was very right to be alarmed.

  “The selkies are deeply divided about how to proceed,” Fiona’s mother said. “Many refuse
to trust my leadership on this issue.”

  “How did they find out?” Fiona asked. “We’ve been so careful.”

  “I don’t know,” her mother answered. “There are some selkies who are sympathetic to Sakura’s cause.”

  This made Fiona’s stomach turn.

  “Are any selkies on our side?” she asked.

  “Some are,” her mother answered. “There are those who feel comforted by the idea of a selkie as part of the next First Four, that leadership of the Changers will be returned to the selkies at last.”

  “But?” Fiona asked.

  “But there is another selkie group, one that is actively undermining that belief. They’re even calling into question my right to rule. They say that because I’ve known about the prophecy and kept it secret, that you and I are puppets of the First Four.”

  “But that’s not true,” Fiona said, her voice fading into a whisper. The word “puppet” felt like a wound to her heart. She had worked so hard to straddle those two realms, to learn everything she could about both the selkies and the larger Changer world. She had fought battles against evil forces and tried to get to know the needs of the various factions around her. She was good. She knew that. Why were people against her, still?

  I’m exhausted, she thought. All that effort, and now it’s being met with lies and mistrust. It’s not fair!

  “Of course it isn’t true,” her mother said. “You’re nobody’s puppet, nor am I. But this group is using that fear to try to convince the selkies that you’re not really one of us—and that I’m not either.”

  Fiona took a deep breath and shook off her despair. I’ve worked too hard to give up now, she thought. Then she thought of Mack, who was behind enemy lines. Surely Mack had the hardest job of all. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so bad for herself.

  “What should we do?” she asked. “How can we make things better?”

  “We must heal this division within the selkie faction before things get any worse. We don’t need two wars on our hands,” her mother said.

  Fiona gasped. “Two wars? Do you mean the selkies would go to war with each other? A civil war?”

  “I hope it won’t go that far, but we must be sure it doesn’t,” her mother said. “So I’ve come up with a plan. You need to be more visible on the selkie isles. We’ll move all your lessons there so the selkies learn you are loyal to our kind.”

  Fiona was about to object. The selkies’ territory was a half day’s swim from Willow Cove. What if I’m needed in a battle with Sakura? she worried.

  “I know you want to stick close to the First Four,” her mother said, as if reading her mind. “But your distance from the selkie isles is one of the biggest reasons why the selkies question your loyalty. You must strike up a friendship with some of the other youngling selkies and attend the next few council meetings. Let our people see that you’re interested and trustworthy. It’ll make all the difference. We’re just a proud group—we don’t want to be run by outsiders. I know they will come to love you as I love you.”

  Fiona bit her lip, not sure how to respond. Darren, Gabriella, and Mack needed her. And what would her father do? He could barely boil pasta for himself! She knew her mother wouldn’t ask her lightly to leave everyone, but so far her relationship with the other selkies hadn’t exactly been rosy. Some selkies had actually made fun of her in a council meeting; others ignored her entirely.

  But then another thought occurred to her. If I really am going to be a leader one day, then I must try to unite the selkies with one another and perhaps with the Changer nation, too.

  Fiona was about to agree to the journey when her mother added a condition.

  “As you can understand, this situation is delicate and dire,” her mother said. “The selkies need to trust you completely. As it is such, you cannot share where you’re going with your friends or with the First Four.”

  More secrets?

  Fiona was apt to protest—surely she had to tell the First Four where she was going. Yes, she’d be with her mother, but—but—

  Fiona lost track of her thoughts. Out of the corner of her eye, way into town, she spotted a massive lightning storm forming in the distance. A loud crack could be heard from overhead. Fiona looked out. Her jaw dropped. This wasn’t normal, everyday lightning. This was magic lightning. And she knew where that lightning was coming from, too—it was in the direction of Darren’s house.

  Something’s wrong, Fiona thought. Darren wouldn’t create a storm like that. Not unless he was in danger . . .

  “Fiona?” Queen Leana asked, staring at her daughter. “Fiona, do you understand me?”

  Fiona took another glance at the lightning storm. It was growing stronger and stronger. She had no choice.

  “I’m sorry, Mom, I really am,” she said. “But I—I have to go.”

  Chapter 1

  The Lightning

  Darren stood in the entrance to his family room, watching lightning zigzag up and down his older brother Ray’s arms. It was impossible, almost, that his brother could suddenly wield lightning—Darren had thought he was the only impundulu in the family—but it was happening nonetheless.

  “Darren, stay back!” Ray yelled.

  Darren could see the fear in his brother’s eyes. The same fear Darren had experienced when he first came into his powers. He had no idea what was happening and, like Ray, had no control over this bizarre new power.

  Darren drew his hands together and called on his own powers to create a ball of counterelectricity. Then he moved his hands apart to make a circle, forming a protective force field around the two of them. It was a success! Even though lightning still emanated from Ray’s fingertips, he could no longer damage anything—or, more importantly, anyone.

  Could it be? Darren thought. His mind was racing. Was the curse he’d meant to break in New York City lifted? If his brother suddenly had lightning powers, surely that meant the curse was lifted, that Darren’s Changer bloodline was coming into their powers again, that Ray was an impundulu too—

  And if Ray was an impundulu, the curse had to have been lifted. The Spider’s Curse—which Darren had recently learned was pressed upon his family generations ago—made sure that no impundulus in their bloodline came to power. Somehow, Darren’s powers managed to emerge, anyway.

  In ancient times a bitter conflict had erupted between the spider Changers, the anansi, and the impundulus for control of a strategic region in Southwest Africa. During the conflict the anansi had cursed many impundulus with a powerful poison contained in their bite. The curse was passed down from generation to generation and prevented all but the most powerful impundulus from being able to transform and discover their Changer gifts.

  Darren was one of those powerful impundulus, but he had no other family members who were Changers. No one to help guide him in those difficult and confusing early days.

  Even worse, because of that ancient curse, Darren was also unable to benefit from a protection spell that would keep him safe from Sakura’s mind control. So he and the others had flown to New York City by tengu, a bird that commanded the wind and could transport anyone anywhere in the blink of an eye, to meet the descendant of the anansi who had cursed his ancestor. If the anansi agreed to forgive his bloodline, Darren had believed he could be protected from Sakura and her forces with an ancient spell.

  Unfortunately, although Esi Akosua, the young anansi in question, was willing to forgive Darren, she didn’t believe that would change anything for him. She had offered forgiveness to other impundulus her ancestors had bitten, yet the curse had remained in place.

  Darren tried to think back. Had Esi forgiven him in some different way? Perhaps the fact that they hid from Sakura together made her really mean the forgiveness. That could certainly explain everything!

  While things were coming clear for Darren, Ray was still mystified.

  Ray stared at his little brother openmouthed. Darren was wielding the same kind of electrical power that was exploding from his own
fingertips, and doing a much better job of it.

  “You—you can—what?” Ray stammered.

  “Er, you might want to calm down,” Darren said. But Ray didn’t calm down. The lightning in Ray’s palms became more unstable. “Ray, you have to calm down or it won’t stop.”

  “ ‘Calm down’?” Ray yelled. “What do you mean calm down? There’s lightning running up and down my arms. I can’t calm down! What’s happening?”

  How many times had Darren imagined this conversation? Wished that his older brother were an impundulu too? That he had someone to share this new and exciting power with? But in every one of those scenarios, Ray was helping him out, not the other way around. Darren wasn’t sure what to say. He took a deep breath.

  “You’re an impundulu—a magical shape-shifting bird—and so am I.”

  Ray shook his head. “You’re hallucinating. We must both be hallucinating.”

  “No, we’re Changers,” Darren said. He started to ramble. “I found out on the first day of school. It runs in families, and I thought I was the only one in our family, but then I found out there was a curse that blocked your powers, I guess, and Esi said it wouldn’t work, but it did, and now you’re one of us, and . . .”

  Darren stopped and took a deep breath, but Ray didn’t look any less scared and confused than he had a minute ago. There were still sparks crackling from the tips of his fingers.

  “What’s an Esi? What are you talking about?” Ray demanded.

  I’m no good at explaining this, Darren thought. He had so longed to share this new world with a family member, especially Ray. He had just never thought about having to be the one to explain it all.

  I need to get in touch with Ms. Therian. If anyone knows how to explain this—and how to keep Ray in check—it’s her, he thought.

  Darren was about to call Ms. Therian when the front door slammed open.

  Please don’t be Mom, he thought over and over again. He didn’t want to explain to his mom why her kids were suddenly enveloped in a lightning storm.

  “Darren? Darren?” came a voice.