Hidden Worlds

by Kristie Cook

  “Meg,” he says gently, “I’m sorry to have to do this again.” And the next thing I know, Alex barely catches her as she slumps to the ground. Kellan gives Lizzie a meaningful look, but she holds out her hands.

  “I’m okay this time. I swear. I can keep it in.”

  He looks doubtful, but leaves her alone.

  “Will the lock hold?” I ask no one in particular.

  “No,” Jonah says. “But it’d be a small roadblock that could give us a few seconds to counter-attack.”

  Feeling utterly useless and helpless, I ask, “What can I do?”

  “Nothing,” he says. “Right now, I just need you to focus on making sure our friends stay safe and comfortable. Trust me and Kellan to take care of the logistics for everything else.”

  I am not a damsel in distress. It goes against me in so many ways to just sit back. “What logistics?”

  He says quietly in my ear, “Do you trust me to deal with this? To keep you safe?”

  He plays dirty. “You know I do.”

  “Jonah,” Kellan says calmly. “They’re here.”

  Jonah’s head cocks to the side. “There are … fifteen, maybe?”

  Kellan nods. “Fifteen severely pissed off Elders. Good times ahead, don’t you think?”

  The screaming begins, the same awful keening that accompanied the other two times I’d been chased by these things. It’s almost deafening, and clearly too much for Lizzie. She hysterically babbles about the end of the world while nearly pulling her hair out. My own nerves go raw.

  Since Jonah is closer, he’s the one to calm Lizzie down. She sinks down next to where Alex is holding Meg. “Alex?” Kellan calls out from across the room. “You okay there?”

  “Somebody has to watch over the girls,” Alex murmurs, his face a weird green shade that might indicate he’s on the verge of puking. I take a gigantic step backwards from where he’s propping up both girls.

  The sound of winds whipping feverishly rises up outside, howling in fury as the building rocks. My ears pop from the pressure. Both Jonah and Kellan are silent, listening from their respective places on opposite sides of the room. “Do you think the building will hold?” I yell at Jonah.

  He yells back, “I’m not sure,” but I’m pretty sure the answer is a resounding no. The Elders were able to attack cars with little to no difficulty. What would stop them from attacking a building?

  I lean against the same wall Jonah is against and I have my answer. Each time the building rocks, it’s because something is hitting it from outside.

  I turn to Jonah, to tell him my fears, but he’s looking at his brother. His forehead is furrowed when he shakes his head very, very softly.

  My eyes track across the room to Kellan, who is rolling his own eyes. He leans his head back against the door and nods. I switch my focus back to Jonah, who is also leaning his head against the door, nodding as well.

  They are communicating. Wordlessly. How in the worlds …?

  Before I can ask about this, the building is rocked hard by another blast. Jonah grabs me to keep me on my feet. The screaming reaches such a fevered pitch that my ears ring painfully. And then the ground groans and rumbles in wide, rippling waves. All of the pictures in the room jump off the walls, shattering down around us. Jonah has to steady me again as I nearly slip on pieces of glass while finding my footing.

  “It’s only Karl,” he tells me, as if this makes things less terrifying. Like strong earthquakes are so much better than buildings being attacked. Then Jonah looks back at his brother and nods. “Can you make us something? Some kind of screen which would let us see and hear what’s going on outside?” he yells, coming up right to my ear.

  Grateful that I’ve finally been asked to do something, even if it’s to make a glorified security camera, I get straight to work. I construct a massive screen out of the plaster on a now pictureless wall, stretching from one side of the room to the other. I don’t bother with volume controls or an on/off button—I simply will the screen to show me what I need and make whatever sound there is loud enough to be heard over the screaming. Large as life, we get a front-row view of what’s going on beyond the walls. The streets below are chaos, with people running every direction. There are three thin twisters in the vicinity, striking out toward the black shape-shifters throwing themselves at the building.

  Zthane is hard at work casting lightning bolts down at the Elders, but they streak in and out of the twisters and bolts, deftly avoiding any strikes. “Karl!” the Goblin yells, his voice echoing off the winds, “I want that hole bigger!”

  Karl is bent to one knee nearby in front of a thick crack running through the street. His fist slams into the pavement fast and hard, making the ground roll so strongly people all around him fall, hands over their heads. The crack widens, groaning so loudly it almost overcomes the screaming.

  Raul steps into view, angling his twisters towards the Elders. Zthane shouts, “Again, Karl! It’s got to be deeper,” shoving two more bolts simultaneously toward the shapes. Karl hammers his fist down again, widening the crack significantly. Most of the people scramble to get away, leaving only the Guard left standing their ground.

  The black shapes shift direction and zero in on Karl. We watch helplessly as they attack him. And, just like with Jonah months before, one twists itself into a whip and lashes out at Karl’s arm. The crunch of bones is sickeningly loud even over the din outside. When Karl roars and falls over, Kellan grabs the doorknob.

  “Not yet!” Jonah barks.

  Now that Karl is down and his fist useless, the Elders turn toward Zthane. Two Blazes are running nearby, shooting fireballs at them, but they are no match for the agile shape shifters. They whiz in and out of the explosions, dart clean by the lightning strikes, and hurl themselves directly at the Goblin. He doesn’t run, though—he keeps reaching up and pulling down more lightning. Benches are destroyed, trees are exploding, and yet nothing seems to connect with the Elders.

  “I slowed them down before!” I yell at Jonah. “I should be out there!”

  But he grabs my arm to stop me from running to the door. “You are not leaving this room unless absolutely necessary, Chloe! They are out there protecting you right now! Don’t make it more difficult on them!”

  I turn back to the screen just in time to see an Elder strike Zthane from behind. He flies forward, slamming his head against a light post.

  It’s Alex’s turn to become hysterical. He’s raving about how we’re screwed, how there’s no way the Elders won’t make it into the building if they keep taking down some of the strongest Guard we have. But Jonah and Kellan are so focused on watching what’s going on outside, they don’t bother sedating him.

  Zthane staggers briefly to his feet, just long enough to drop another round of bolts. Then he slumps back to the ground, bleeding profusely from a gash on his forehead. Kellan turns to Jonah, eyes wide. He no longer looks calm—in fact, he’s vibrating in anger. Jonah is the same, hands gripping in and out of fists.

  Raul races over to Zthane, screaming his name. The Blazes are trying their best to bomb the Elders, but the shifters are still moving too fast to pin down. Raul’s tornadoes are barely faring better; with his attention diverted, they’re doing more damage to the buildings across the street.

  A Tide comes into view, wrenching a tunnel of water out of the crack Karl had been working on. He angles the sharp geyser directly at the Elders, but as with everything else, they evade easily.

  Then an Electric tries his hand, ripping currents from all of the lampposts nearby, exploding the glass shells on top. Crackling bits of blue electricity race directly into the shape shifters—finally, something strong enough that momentarily causes retreat. But just as I’m about to breathe a sigh of relief, a stray Elder appears from behind and slams the Electric to the ground.

  Alex’s ravings finally come to Kellan’s attention. He barely flicks his hand toward my Cousin, but it’s enough to silence him.

  “Will they be safe
, out like this?” I yell.

  “They’re fine,” Jonah assures me. “None of them are targets.”

  I look at the pile of friends in the middle of the room and think of Cora, who is in a hospital nearby due to her proximity to me. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Jonah says. And then all of a sudden, he shoves me toward his brother. Kellan catches me at the same time the entire wall Jonah and I had been standing next to collapses, knocking Jonah to the ground. I attempt to run to his aid, but Kellan’s grip turns vise-like as he hauls me backwards.

  Jonah rolls over and pushes himself up to his knees. Before him, and us, is the bedroom Iolani had been sleeping in. Beyond that is a huge hole leading straight outside.

  And beyond that is a mass of Elders.

  I am nearly overtaken by fear, despite the little voice urging me to remain calm. Jonah takes a huge breath and then staggers to his feet. His eyes connect with mine. “Go with Kellan!”

  Wait. Wait. WAIT.

  Jonah’s hand swings out in an arc. All of the Elders in the hole back up, squealing in agony. “We need to go now, Chloe,” Kellan is saying in my ear, but I am flailing against him, gripping onto a desk as he tries to drag me closer to the door.

  “Jonah!” I scream, hysterical now. “Jonah!”

  Jonah pushes himself off the wall and runs directly toward the hole leading outside. And just when I think he’s going to stop, skid to a halt to oversee what’s outside, his feet move faster to launch his body directly out of what used to be a fourth-story window and out of my view.

  The desk below my hands explodes, nearly knocking me and Kellan down. This cannot be happening! He did not just do that! I squirm enough to face the screen I created, but Jonah is not in its line of view. As if it knew it’d failed me, the screen melts down, popping and hissing. “Get ahold of yourself!” Kellan yells in my ear. “We need to get out of here now!”

  I begin sobbing. “No, Jonah … he … he …”

  “I know exactly what he did! And he specifically requested that you get out of this room, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do right now! Do not make me sedate you, too, Chloe.”

  His words stun me enough that my muscles lock, facilitating Kellan’s attempts at extracting me from the room.

  Once outside the door, though, the hysteria returns. “He jumped out … he just jumped out! Oh my gods, what if … ?”

  Kellan’s grip doesn’t loosen one iota. “Raul caught him.”

  “C-caught him? From four stories up?”

  “With a tornado. Now listen to me—I’ll answer all your questions after we get to safety. But I need you to stop talking and let me get you to the basement.”

  But I can’t do it. All I can think is that Jonah is out there, Jonah—all of seventeen, and not Ascended. Strong Guards have fallen outside. I’ve watched them go down. What’s to stop the Elders from getting to Jonah? Who’s strong enough outside right now to protect him? What if something worse than driving off a cliff happens? What if more than an arm is broken?

  I can’t take the risk. If something were to happen to Jonah now that we’ve finally found our way back to each another, I don’t think I’ll maintain sanity. I need to get out there, find him, and make sure he’s okay. My mini suns could work. They worked before.

  We are in the stairwell of the second floor when another blast rocks the building. It’s strong enough that Kellan finally stumbles, just enough that his grip on me loosens. I wrench myself free and sprint as fast as I can into the hallway, stumbling over chunks of downed walls and plaster, before I reach the stairwell on the opposite side of the building.

  Kellan is behind me; I know any minute he’s going to zap me with something. I don’t put it beyond him for one second to tranquilize me and carry me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes out of here. And normally, I’d be thankful he’d do that for me, that he’d risk my anger just to keep me safe. But not today. Not with Jonah outside for who knows how long now.

  I throw my hand out and the wall before us disappears. I can practically feel Kellan’s fingers ready to scrape at my back, so I pick up speed. I made a life raft on the way down from the Bay Bridge. I can do something like that again, right? I’m just about to jump through the hole I’ve created when Kellan catches me. He rolls to the side just before we tumble out, slamming us against the remaining bits of wall left behind.

  “Are you insane?” he growls in my ear.

  I squirm frantically, trying to break free again, but this time, he’s got a lock on me. The roaring of the winds, the screaming filling the air are too much to bear. Jonah is out there, he’s a target, too, and I’ve got to do something.

  I change tactics and shove my feet against a slab of concrete nearby. I push off, attempting to wrench my arms wide, hoping to confuse him as to which ploy to counter. But it doesn’t work. His arms clamp down harder, his legs twist until they’re around mine.

  “You’re not going to win,” he hisses in my ear. “Because I will do anything to make sure you stay alive today. Including knocking your ass out until I have you hidden.”

  I duck my head and kick again, rolling us over until I’m on my stomach. I manage to pry one arm out long enough to grip the open edge of where wall meets sky. Concrete and stone crumble beneath my fingers, cutting into the soft flesh of my palm, but the pain is irrelevant. I try to dig my fingers in long enough to pull myself, but Kellan is extremely strong. Kicking does no good any longer—and even though my adrenaline is off the charts, I know he won’t give.

  I sob helplessly. “Would everything just stop?”

  “Chloe, I know you’re frustrated—”

  “It just needs to stop,” I cry. “I need it all to just stop.”

  And just like that, everything does.

  chapter 39

  The screaming has stopped. But it’s more than that—there are no roaring winds, no lightning, no smashing against buildings. The air around us is oppressive, so thick, so still it doesn’t feel right. Kellan lets go of me and rolls away; while this is what I’ve been fighting for, I still reach out and grab his arm as he leans toward the ledge. He looks down below and pauses, lips parting in surprise. I scramble forward to see what he sees.

  Nothing is moving. The winds have frozen in the sky, the black shapes dangle like grotesque mobiles over the fallen Guard below, tornadoes hang like pictures in a diorama. Every last person is contorted mid-motion, like statues caught by Medusa’s stare. There is no sound. There is nothing but stillness.

  Kellan rocks back on his heels, stumbling over pieces of concrete. Whereas the rubble had skidded around like marbles ready to cause falls mere minutes ago, now they’re firmly glued in place, refusing to budge even a millimeter. I try to pick up a rock, but nothing gives way.

  I am so taken aback that I nearly fall back over again. My toes slam against a rather large chunk of debris nearby when I try to right myself, but when I open my mouth to yelp, nothing comes out.

  No sound. No movement—nothing but me and Kellan.

  He grabs my arm, steadying me. And then he brings me close—my heart goes berserk being in such proximity—and mouths slowly: Can you make us talk?

  It hits me then: I’ve done this. I made everything still. I’ve created a world where everything has stopped.

  Panic shoots sky high in my chest, but he grips me tighter. Focus, he mouths to me.

  I close my eyes and concentrate. When nothing happens, I put a hand on both of our throats. Talk, I will myself. We can talk. If we can move, we can talk.

  “Okay,” he says, his voice echoing dully in the vacuum, “this is good.” He grabs my face so he can look into my eyes. “Are you okay?”

  My throat feels like it’s been dry and unused for centuries. “I did this.”

  “Why do you sound so surprised?”

  I look around at the world I’ve created and then down at my fingers. They should be shaking, but they’re not. “I guess I never thought I could do this.”

&n
bsp; He lets go of my face. “You’re a Creator. You can do almost anything.” He takes a few steps back toward the ledge and looks out, surveying the scene I’d frozen.

  “If you jump out, I will kill you,” I threaten.

  “That’s rich, coming from you. Weren’t you the one ready to do just the same thing?”

  “It’s different!”

  “How so?”

  “As you said,” I say through my teeth, “I’m a Creator. I would’ve made something to stop my fall. What was your big plan? Hope fuzzy feelings will lessen the impact?”

  Eye rolling proceeds, “I wasn’t going to jump.”

  My silence indicates my disbelief. So he turns around and says evenly, “Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do, Chloe.”

  I join him at the ledge. “Why did your brother jump out of that window?”

  “He was told to.” After I make a few choking sounds, he clarifies, “Well, he wasn’t told to jump out of the window, per se, but he had orders that if the walls were breached, he was to join the fray.”

  I press the palms of my hands against my forehead. “And you?”

  “The same. One of us had to get you to safety first, though. I was closest to the door.”

  Now I’m glaring.

  He turns his focus back below us. “We’re not going to argue about this. Besides, I think this may work to our advantage.”

  I nearly laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “How long can this hold?”

  I hold my hands out and shrug.

  “Do you think you can wake select people up? Allow them to function, like we can function?”

  “I guess.” I stare at the statues below me. “Why?”

  He leads me away from the edge and out of the building. “Because we’re going to go kick some ass, and not even get dirty doing it.”

  Minutes later, I tell him, “I want to find Jonah first.”

  Kellan stops in the middle of the street. “I want to make sure he’s safe, too, but I think—”

  “You want my help? You play by my rules.”

  He sighs, giving me a look I can’t quite decipher. I resist the urge to tell him that if it’d been him out there, I’d have done the same thing to get to him, too.