Believe

by Katie Holland

  Lee called his workers to come back to the factory. An hour later, the first contacts were ready to be tested. Having worn contacts before Ruth was the first one to test them out. She went to the closest bathroom to put them in. While she was gone, all the Nykara in the building cloaked and stood in random places for Ruth to find them. It was fun to watch her reaction when she saw someone that had been cloaked.

  “I think it’s safe to say that these work,” Ruth said, a few minutes later. “This is going to be a huge help to every Nykara assigned to find the Grynn.”

  Ruth and Lee discussed getting the contacts to as many of the Nykara around the world as they could. The factory would be working overtime to make as many contacts as they needed. Ruth also called the other members of the Council to update them about the contacts and distributing them as quickly as they could.

  When all of that was done, they got back in the van and started to head back to the safe house. About halfway there Alix got one of her feelings.

  “We need to head north,” she told Ruth.

  “Why?”

  “I’m not sure,” Alix admitted. “But I just know that we need to.”

  Ruth took a minute to think about it then directed the driver to start heading north.

  “We’re going to need more than just a direction Alix,” Ruth said.

  “I know, but for now, we just head that direction. Is there a map in here of what could be in that direction?”

  Ben laughed at her. “Alix, you’re probably the only teenager to think of a map before your phone.”

  Alix just shrugged because he was right. She watched as Ben pulled up his map app and looked at what was around Beijing.

  “There are lots of things north of here, but I bet the biggest is the Great Wall of China. That’s the most likely destination,” Ben said.

  “I agree,” Ruth said. “Let’s head there and see what happens.”

  ****

  Over an hour of driving later, and one stop for something to eat, they were at the Great Wall of China. It was something Alix had wanted to see all of her life. She was having trouble containing her excitement. Even though they could only see part of it the size was still incredible.

  “So, why are we here Alix?” Kris said.

  Alix hadn’t gotten any more really strong feelings, but she knew they were in the right place.

  “Give me a minute.”

  She went over to the wall itself and put her hand on the stone. At first, it just felt like regular stone but then she pushed a little bit of magic into it and felt the slightest hint of Grynn magic.

  “Everyone put on your contacts,” Alix said. “There’s some Grynn magic around here.”

  A few of them had trouble putting them in as they’d never worn them before, but Ruth was there to help everyone who needed it. Now that they were ready, they started walking on the Wall. They were trying to look like tourists but made sure they were keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

  Alix knew it was impossible to cover the entire thing, but she also knew she was drawn to this specific place for a reason. She was in awe of the Wall. From where they were the Wall seemed to go on for as far as she could see.

  As they were walking, Alix noticed something out of the corner of her eye. It was a tiny pink spot. She stopped and casually got everyone’s attention.

  “Can you guys see that?” Alix asked, pointing at what she had noticed.

  The rest of the group looked towards the area she was pointing to and everyone nodded.

  “What do you think it means?” Logan asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Alix said, “But I’m going to scan it with my energy.”

  She put her hand over the pink spot and felt it out with her magic. It was definitely Grynn in origin, but it felt like it had been there for a long time. She couldn’t sense what it was there for, so she decided to let it be for now.

  They continued to explore the wall the best they could with the other people there. Ben checked the time and knew that the Wall would be closed to tourists soon. The plan was to cloak and stay at the Wall after everyone had left. Alix’s feelings hadn’t been wrong yet so all she had to do now was to figure out what the reason was.

  With the last of the tourists gone, their group cloaked and split up to further explore the Wall. Since they all had the contacts in it was much easier to keep track of everyone without having to touch each other. The Warriors had their communication devices on so the two groups could keep in contact.

  About an hour later, they spotted a group of cloaked figures emerging from a hidden door on one of the parts of the Wall that housed a small tower. They all quickly moved to the side of the wall and shielded. Alix watched five people walk by them and head in the direction the other group had gone. They waited until the cloaked people were far enough ahead of them that they wouldn’t be heard, and then started following them.

  After about fifteen minutes, one of the cloaked figures bent down and Alix saw a hole open up in the middle of the section of the Wall they were walking on. When the last one of the five descended into the hole it closed back up. The Warrior with Alix’s group contacted the other group and let them know what they’d seem. The second group had seen nothing out of the ordinary and were going to make their way to group one’s position.

  “What do you think we should do?” Ben asked Alix.

  “I think we need to know what’s down that hole and who these people are. We’re assuming they’re Grynn, but we know better than to assume anything here. But I don’t know how we’re going to do that.”

  “Before we do anything, we need to wait for the others to meet us here. There’s only four of us here and five of them, that we saw,” Kris said. “We have no idea what’s down there so it’s best to be cautious.”

  They all agreed so they waited for the other half of their group. The longer they waited the more uneasy Alix felt. She didn’t know if it was just facing the unknown or if it was something else. When the rest of their group was in sight Alix felt a little better, but something was still bothering her.

  “I can feel you all fidgety inside Alix,” Ben said. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know. The longer we’ve been here the worse the feeling has gotten. I think it has something to do with whatever is going on below us.”

  Suddenly, the ground started shaking violently. Then it seemed like there was an explosion without the noise. It was hard enough that all of them were knocked down. When the shaking stopped Alix was shocked at what she saw. There was a huge hole in the Great Wall of China. It looked like it had been blown up with explosives but there had been no loud boom to accompany that. But it was what else she saw that was the real problem, they were surrounded by Grynn.

  Chapter 26

  Alix looked around at the situation. It appeared that she was the only one still cloaked. She guessed that the strange explosion had knocked everyone down so hard, they couldn’t maintain their camouflage. The Grynn were carrying guns and looked very much like soldiers. They were also yelling at everyone to get up.

  Alix stayed where she was as she watched her friends get to their feet at gunpoint. She was hoping if she could stay hidden that she might be able to help them. Everyone seemed so shocked at what was happening that no one said a word.

  “There’s one missing,” one of the Grynn said. “That’s the one we need.”

  “Where is the other girl?” another Grynn said to the group.

  “Maybe she fell over the edge during the explosion?” Ben said.

  “You,” the Grynn said to one of the other ones, “go down and check.” Then he addressed the Nykara again. “If she’s not down there then we’ll be looking to you for answers.”

  Alix was under the impression that the Grynn would hurt them on their way to the answer they wanted. She wasn’t going to just sit there and let her friends get hurt, but the fact that the Grynn knew how many of them were there worried her. Not to mention, they said she was the one the
y were looking for. Her biggest fear was getting captured by the Grynn and being used against her friends and family.

  Since it was obvious that the Grynn didn’t know where she was, she thought about disguising herself and allowing the Grynn to see her. She had no idea if what she was considering was going to work but she was willing to try anything to keep from being recognized as the Chosen One.

  The first thing she thought about was changing her hair color. Closing her eyes, she pictured herself with red hair like one of the girls she went to school with. In her mind she saw it slowly changing from brown to red. When she opened her eyes, she undid her ponytail and looked at her hair. It had worked, it was now a beautiful shade of red. Thinking that the same thing might work on other parts of her she tried it on her eyes, going from blue to brown and she attempted to make her skin fair with freckles on her nose. She hoped it worked because she didn’t have a mirror to see if it actually did.

  Now she had to figure out how to make herself known to the Grynn without giving away who she was. Using her magic, she made some more of the wall fall down into the space where the rest had fallen. Just as she hoped several of the Grynn went with the one that had gone down to look for her. That was the best distraction she was going to get so as quietly as she could she crawled as far away as she thought was necessary to make it look like she’d been thrown back by the silent explosion. Then she let go of her cloaking, but maintained her shield and waited until they saw her.

  Eventually, the Grynn who was sent down to look for her returned empty handed. She was hoping they would have noticed her by now, but they were too focused on watching the rest of her group.

  “Where is she?” the Grynn who seemed to be in charge said.

  No one said a word. That’s when he started to point a gun in Logan’s direction. Not wanting anyone to get hurt Alix started making moaning noises like she was just waking up and everything hurt. A flashlight was pointed in her direction and two Grynn were sent to investigate. She lifted her shield enough that they could grab her. She didn’t want to give anything away. The two Grynn pulled her to her feet and half dragged her to where everyone else was.

  She could see the shocked looks on her friend’s faces and she hoped they didn’t say a word and give her away.

  “What is your name?” the one in charge said, while shining a flashlight in her face.

  “Jennifer,” Alix answered. “What’s going on?”

  “That’s none of your business,” the Grynn said, dismissing her and turning to speak to the other Grynn. “Spread out and look around. She has to be here somewhere.”

  “Can I go sit with my brother?” Alix asked.

  “Whatever, just don’t try anything stupid,” he said and shoved her in the direction of the others.

  “Are you okay?” Ben whispered, when she got to his side.

  “Yeah, you?”

  “So far, we’re all okay. You are brilliant by the way, Jennifer. I hardly recognized you.”

  “That was the plan,” Alix said, happy that she had been able to change her looks enough that she didn’t look like herself. “What do you think they want?”

  “Unfortunately, I think they want you,” Ben whispered.

  “I thought the same thing, that’s why the change.”

  “Did you even know you could do that?”

  Alix shook her head. “No, but I was desperate and lucky for me I came up with a desperate idea.”

  They stopped whispering when one of the guards looked their way. It was probably best to keep as quiet as they could and not draw the attention of the Grynn.

  What seemed like a long time later the Grynn who’d been searching returned.

  “There’s no sign of anyone else,” one of them said. “We were told there were eight of them and there’s eight here. And none of them match the description we were given. Looks like we got some bad intel.”

  “So, what are we going to do with them?” one of the other Grynn said.

  It looked like the leader was thinking. He was pacing back and forth. Alix didn’t like the look on his face, so with very small movements she reached her hand into the pocket that held the Power Stone. She managed to get it out of the small bag and into the palm of her hand. As was now normal, the instant it touched her tattoo, she felt the tremendous increase in energy.

  “What was that?” one of their guards asked.

  Alix made sure to calm her energy and contain it all within her shield. She didn’t want any suspicion directed her way.

  “I didn’t hear anything,” another one said.

  “It wasn’t a sound, I felt something.”

  “Do you feel it now?”

  “No,” he answered.

  “Then shut up and let the Captain think.”

  The Grynn mumbled something but was quiet after that. Alix watched as the Captain thought about what to do with them. She was ready to take them out if needed, but didn’t really want to have to do that. None of her group had been harmed and she was willing to do the same for the Grynn. But if they even thought about hurting any of them, she was prepared to take action.

  Finally, the Captain stopped pacing and turned to one of his men. “Get rid of them all. We can’t afford to have them tell anyone what they’ve seen.”

  Alix knew it was time to act. She spread her shield around her fellow Nykara and made it strong enough that nothing was getting through. She didn’t know exactly what the Grynn were going to do but knew having them all in one place was going to be her best option. That meant she needed a way to make that happen. She thought for a minute and had an idea. She formed a small light ball and had it rise up in the air above everyone. Gradually it got bigger and brighter.

  Just as she hoped it got the attention of the Grynn. When they were all close enough for Alix to see she sent out her magic and stopped all of them were they stood. It wasn’t like when she stopped time but more like binding them in place.

  “It’s safe to move now,” she told everyone. “They won’t be going anywhere.”

  “What are we going to do now?” Ben asked.

  “Ruth, I think that’s up to you,” Alix said.

  “I would like to take them in for questioning, but we don’t have room for all of them. So, let’s take the Captain with us and we’ll wipe the memories of the rest. Alix, can you take care of that part?”

  “Sure.”

  “We’ll also need to fix the wall so that there’s no evidence that anything happened here. Kris, you’re in charge of that.”

  Everyone got up and started helping. Ben went with Alix and watched her back as she erased the memories of the Grynn. Ruth and one of the Warriors secured the Captain. Within the hour they’d accomplished all the goals and were on the way back to their van.

  “Hey Alix,” Ben said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think you can change back to normal? I miss my Alix.”

  “Oh, I forgot I looked different. Sure.” Alix concentrated on her normal appearance and a few seconds later she was back to her old self.

  “That was really cool, but I’m glad to have you back,” he said smiling.

  “Thanks. I’ll have to remember how to do that in case I need to disguise myself again.”

  They were back in the van and headed to the safe house. There would be no stopping this time as they needed to get their prisoner to the holding cell.

  When Alix was back at Fox Hollow, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. She still wasn’t sure what the point of her being drawn to the Great Wall of China was and she never liked having to deal with the Grynn.

  “I don’t get it,” she said, as she and Ben walked up the stairs to their rooms.

  “Get what?”

  “What was the point of going to the Wall? I mean, sure we captured a Grynn but why was I drawn there?”

  “I think it was a trap,” Ben said. “I think that the Grynn knew you were in Beijing and put out enough magic to lure you there. They seem to be doing everyth
ing they can to capture you again.”

  Alix stopped walking and thought about what Ben had just said. One of her priorities was to never be held by the Grynn again. She knew she wouldn’t get out alive if they ever managed to get their hands on her again.

  “I’m not going to stop trying to end them, but how can I know I’ll be safe?” she said, more to herself than Ben.

  “First, you never go anywhere alone. Second, always be prepared for an attack. Third, the disguise thing worked really well. I think you should practice different looks.”

  “That’s very good advice and I’ll do my best to follow it,” Alix smiled at Ben.

  “What am I going to do with you my stubborn girl?” Ben said, smiling back.

  “Give me a hug and let me take a shower.”

  “That sounds like a great idea. See you after your shower.” Ben gave her a kiss and they went to their separate rooms.

  When Alix left her room after her shower she felt like a new person. The action and time zone hopping had made her tired, but she was also starving so she headed to the kitchen instead of her bed.

  “You’re just in time for dinner,” Merideth said.

  “Good. Whatever you’re cooking smells great,” Alix told her.

  “Go have a seat in the dining room. I’ll be right in,” Merideth said.

  Alix went to the dining room and saw everyone there but Ruth and Kris. She guessed they were still with the Grynn prisoner. When Shay saw Alix, she ran over to her and hugged her.

  “I told you to stop scaring me to death,” Shay said, scolding Alix.

  “So, I take it that means you already heard what happened at the Great Wall of China?”

  “Yes,” Shay said. “I can’t leave you alone at all can I? Always getting yourself in trouble when I’m not around.”

  “In my defense, I seem to get in a fair share of trouble when you are around. I think it just follows me everywhere,” Alix said.

  “You’re probably right about that,” Shay said smiling. “Come on, sit down and tell me all about China.”

  Alix smiled at her friend and was really grateful she was there with her.