Alex Wise vs. the Cosmic Shift, page 1
Praise for
“Never has the apocalypse been so fun! Alex Wise’s breakneck pace, detailed world-building, and deep emotional characterization is the experience of a lifetime. You’ll want to give Alex the biggest hug—and then immediately join him in the battle to save the world.”
—Mark Oshiro, author of The Insiders and coauthor with Rick Riordan of The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure
“Terry J. Benton-Walker weaves a magical and provocative tale of bravery, loss, trauma, and friendship…. I am excited for Black boys to see Alex as the hero they have been waiting for!”
—Jamar J. Perry, author of Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms
“With nonstop action that is always thrilling but never too scary, this fantasy is perfect for…fans of Rick Riordan or Kwame Mbalia.”
—School Library Journal
“An exciting and genre-bending narrative that melds comic-book style adventure, urban fantasy, and romance into a fresh and exhilarating coming-of-age story. [Benton-Walker] invites all readers, especially those who identify as queer, to love themselves first and the world after.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Weaves themes of standing up for oneself in their personal life with high-octane sequences that culminate in a satisfyingly earnest first installment.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Benton-Walker presents Alex’s inner conflicts over being gay and feeling abandoned by people with such understanding, concern, and affirmation that it’s easy to root for him.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Also by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Alex Wise vs. the End of the World
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2024 by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Cover art copyright © 2024 by Eric Wilkerson
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Labyrinth Road, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
Labyrinth Road and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Visit us on the Web! rhcbooks.com
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Benton-Walker, Terry J., author.
Title: Alex Wise vs. the cosmic shift / Terry J. Benton-Walker.
Other titles: Alex Wise versus the cosmic shift
Description: First edition. | New York: Labyrinth Road, 2024. | Series: Alex Wise; book 2 | Summary: Alex and his friends continue their quest to prevent the apocalypse, but with everyone looking to him for answers, Alex is not sure he is cut out to be a superhero.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024012632 (print) | LCCN 2024012633 (ebook) | ISBN 978-0-593-56433-2 (trade) | ISBN 978-0-593-56434-9 (lib. bdg.) | ISBN 978-0-593-56436-3 (ebook)
Subjects: CYAC: End of the world—Fiction. | Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Self-esteem—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Fantasy. | LCGFT: Fantasy fiction. | Novels.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B45535 Ak 2023 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B45535 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
Ebook ISBN 9780593564363
Editors: Liesa Abrams and Emily Shapiro
Designer: Jen Valero, adapted for ebook
Managing Editor: Rebecca Vitkus
Production Manager: Natalia Dextre
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
Penguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.
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Contents
Dedication
A Note from the Author
Part I: Cosmic Shift Countdown
Chapter 1: Hide-and-Seeker
Chapter 2: Exploding Birthday Cakes
Chapter 3: Road Rage
Chapter 4: Sorry, Mrs. Blakewell! (Not Really)
Chapter 5: The Hills Have Eyes
Chapter 6: A Room with a View
Chapter 7: Breakfast at Spade’s
Part II: Cosmic Shift Countdown
Chapter 8: Welcome to Historic Bairdtown
Chapter 9: Dapper Ghost Guy
Chapter 10: Magic Mine
Chapter 11: Nine to Five
Chapter 12: Four Drag Queens of the Apocalypse
Chapter 13: Ain’t No Snakes on My Plane
Chapter 14: Magic Reflux
Chapter 15: Pestilence
Chapter 16: The Wit and Wisdom of Malakai
Chapter 17: The Descent
Part III: Cosmic Shift Countdown
Chapter 18: The Divine Six
Chapter 19: Elevator Journey to the Center of the Earth
Chapter 20: Climate Control Center
Chapter 21: Calamity
Chapter 22: Ezra
Chapter 23: Cosmic Shift
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
_148197864_
To me.
Particularly, twelve-year-old Terry, who was a superhero to everyone but himself for way too long.
And to every Black boy who sees himself in Alex.
A Note from the Author
This is a story about failure. This is also a story about love—specifically, how to love yourself while navigating difficult relationships with those around you. Failure and love are delicately intertwined throughout every era of our lives, no matter how much we may try to untangle them.
Alex’s journey to becoming a superhero is no different. His true challenge lies in his internal quest, which began in Alex Wise vs. the End of the World with Alex learning to love and accept his authentic self to access the full power of Orin’s magical gift. This time around, Alex will need to hold on to that newfound confidence as he discovers that sometimes even superheroes fail—despite how hard they may fight. And what matters most is not that you stumbled or even fell, but that you got back up and were better in spite of it.
Happy reading!
Terry J. Benton-Walker
Cosmic Shift Countdown
370 Days • 6 Hours • 0 Minutes
PART I
Canadian and US governments have both declared states of emergencies on the heels of an unprecedented, multinational weather event after two dozen tornadoes, ranging in scale from EF-1 to EF-5, originated in central Canada, and over a period of several days, razed the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan before heading south and pummeling Tornado Alley and much of the central US, leaving behind thousands of miles of death and destruction across seven states. Meteorologists predict the historic tornado system will cross into Mexico in less than twenty-four hours with no signs of slowing.
—Amari Alexander for Global News Climate Calamity Weather Team
August 3, 2023, 9:33 AM Eastern
Hide-and-Seeker
I’m nobody’s superhero.
At least…I don’t feel like one. Yeah, I might’ve vanquished Death, the leader of the Horsemen, and saved my little sister from his possession at the same time, but our parents couldn’t care less about my alleged “heroics.” Ever since we returned to our safe house in the Hollywood Hills two weeks ago with our parents in tow, they won’t let any of us out of their sights—which makes this whole “superhero” business waaay more complicated than it should be.
And speaking of complicated…
I take a deep breath and knock on the closed bedroom door. The heavy sigh on the other side before the call for me to enter stings, but I push past that familiar pain.
I hate that I’ve gotten so good at that, despite kinda having no choice.
I step inside the room, leaving the door open behind me. My sister sits on the edge of the bed, quietly tying a scarf around her cloud-white cornrows. Mags could never tie her headscarves quite right before, so Mom would always have to help her out. This is the first time I’ve seen her do it on her own—and as good as Mom; better, even.
On the corner of the chest of drawers beside the door is an untouched stack of books I’d borrowed from Mr. Freddie, the kind old Black man who owns the small grocery store on Sunset Boulevard. I met him a few weeks ago when Loren and I saved him from being tortured by the Horsemen’s human minions, better known as Riders. I pick up a copy of The Sun and the Star and flip through the pages bef
“I thought you’d be all over this,” I tell her, turning the cover toward her. “Don’t you like Percy Jackson?”
Mags shrugs and stares down at her feet, which still don’t touch the floor from where she sits. She grabs her purple-framed glasses from on the bed beside her and puts them on.
They’re not even her prescription. They’re just a pair of old reading glasses she found on a carousel in Mr. Freddie’s store. She popped the lenses out and wears the empty frames every day now. The whole nasty ordeal with Death left her with healing abilities, which apparently restored her vision, too. But when I tried to talk to her about why she’s wearing the lensless glasses, I must’ve asked too many questions because she gave that same heavy sigh that I know too well and walked off on me. I’ve been too afraid of upsetting her to ask anything else about it.
Death’s possession changed Mags. No longer is she the chatterbox whose primary objective every day was to annoy me as much as possible. And her brown eyes, which once shone with unbridled life, are now dulled by sadness. I’m terrified they’ll never shine the same way again.
She’s my little sister in so many ways, and yet, in too many others, she’s not anymore.
I set the novel back on top of the stack. “What’s going on with you, Mags?” I ask, staring at the books to avoid making eye contact with her, afraid of what I’ll see in her eyes now. “You used to love reading. I picked all these out just for you…because I thought they might help you feel better…maybe even help you get back to your old self.”
She grimaces at the floor. “I haven’t felt like reading, and you constantly harassing me about it is really starting to make it feel like a chore—”
“Huh?” I hadn’t thought I’d been that pushy about the books…I only wanted to help…. I only ever want to help….
“This is the third time you’ve brought those books up in the past two days,” she tells me. “I wish you’d let it go. In fact, you can return them to Mr. Freddie.” She pauses to chew her lip, her brow furrowing as if she’s internally debating something else. “Stop trying to fix me,” she says after an awkward moment. “It’s annoying. I’m not the same person anymore, and I’m sorry you don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do about that now.”
“What really happened to you during those two weeks?” I say, spreading my hands on either side of me. “What did Death do to you that changed you so much in that short time?”
She looks up at me now, eyes narrowed into a hardened gaze. “It was long enough,” she says, and I’m about to explain that that wasn’t what I meant, when she very curtly tells me, “I don’t want to talk about that right now. Is that what you came in here for?”
I cross my arms over my chest. Her words rolled the stone in my gut, the one that conceals one of my biggest fears: my little sister resents me for not saving her from Death sooner.
She’s never said it, and to be quite honest, I’m not sure she would or ever will, but I can feel it. Though not with my Sense, because she’s immune to my empathic magic.
Whenever I attempt to Sense what she’s feeling, all I get is cold, sterile nothingness. It’s as if the place in her mind where her emotions live was cleared and left standing empty, completely hollowed out. I’m not sure what’s up with that and will probably never know, seeing as how that’s one of the many subjects she refuses to talk about with me.
I’m about to ask another question but decide against it once I remember that I should probably save some of my spoons for the upcoming main event.
“I called a meeting—”
“Another one?” she groans.
It’s my turn to scowl. I’m doing my best, and these critiques from her are starting to feel more pointed—and sharp.
“I’m coming,” she says before I can rebut.
“Aight,” I mumble, and leave without turning back.
As angry and frustrated as I am at the moment, the sound of her footsteps several paces behind me brings a sense of relief that’s as comforting as it is annoying.
But once I step into the living room, my chest constricts with a new twinge of anxiety. Yet again, I’m planning to broach the topic of saving the world with our overbearing, overprotective parents who, if we’re keeping it a buck, have zero ability to protect us if the Horsemen were to attack right this moment.
Sixth grade had nothing on the apocalypse. But even the end of the world pales in comparison to managing the various complex and exasperating personalities of our parents.
This is our third meeting on this topic, and we’re no closer to a solution than we were five days ago when we had our first group discussion. They’ve started to feel like a sadistic version of debate club, kids versus adults, except adults get the power to change the rules willy-nilly.
I stand to one side of the living room with Liam and Loren on either side of me as I launch into pleading my case for saving the world—again.
Mags sits crisscross-applesauce in an armchair next to us, with our stepbrother, Nick, perched silently on the side of the seat.
Dad, my stepmom, Angela (Nick’s mom), and my mom are all seated on the couch facing us.
Loren’s mom, Mrs. Blakewell, a petite, bright, tawny-skinned woman with an iron stare and a will to match, sits in an armchair opposite Mags with her arms folded.
My dad’s been leading the argument against us kids facing the Horsemen again (as if any of us has a real choice in the matter that doesn’t end in a painful and brutal death)—and Mrs. Blakewell has been his staunchest supporter.
Loren’s dad, Mr. Blakewell, a husky man with a gentle face and balding head, leans forward, clutching the back of Mrs. Blakewell’s seat in his large chestnut-brown hands, with a soft, resigned expression that exudes easygoing vibes—the polar opposite of his wife’s.
“We only just got you kids back!” Dad cries. His light-brown skin has flushed red when he looks to both Angela and Nick, who lowers his head as if in time-out, still hovering beside my (technically, our—but only technically) sister.
Mags leans over, resting her shoulder against his side, and he puts an arm around her. It seems like they’re always together these days. I should be used to displays of unconditional sibling love from these two, but it sets my soul on fire every time. I feel silly even thinking like this, but that used to be me comforting Mags. I went through so much over the past month for her.
I’m the big brother who jumped off a cruise ship after her.
And I’m the one who fought Death alone—and defeated him.
Being possessed by Death was traumatic for Mags. And I can’t stop beating myself up, constantly thinking that maybe if I’d rescued her sooner or did things differently that day, the whole situation might not have been so bad for her. And I hate wondering if that’s the reason she’s shutting me out. And no matter how hard I try, I keep asking the wrong questions and doing the wrong things and ultimately pushing the little sister I leapt into an ocean and fought a homicidal ancient god to save farther and farther away from me.
And now Nick appears ready and willing to take my place.
Just like how he did with Dad.
I take a slow, deep breath in and blow it out, rooting myself firmly in the present and considering my reply to Dad before I give it.
This moment has been slowly building for days now, and the tension in the house has been so thick it’s become stifling.
I’m Sensing so much frustration and anxiety from everyone in the room that I’m beginning to drown in emotions. It feels like my body’s filling with ice-cold water, starting at my toes and rising to my stomach, then my chest, and my throat—and if I don’t shut it off soon, I’ll drown.
