Chasing Power

by Sarah Beth Durst

  “Jump us to each of them. Don’t tell me which is which. And then close your eyes. I’ll toss a stone in one at random. That way, neither of us will know where it is and no one can ever get the information out of us.” She hesitated. “Daniel, I’m sorry about—”

  He cut her off. “Forget it. We have work to do.”

  The house flashed around them, and instantly Kayla’s lungs felt squeezed and scorched as if she’d been filleted from the inside out. Smoke clogged the air, and the ground was split with lines of glowing red. He closed his eyes and waited.

  She felt as if they’d stepped back to the dawn of time. Any second, a dinosaur would lumber out onto the bulbous rocks. Above, the sky was streaked with a smattering of stars. The moon had a line of smoke across it. It smelled like sulfur, and the sheer heat burned her tear ducts dry.

  It was incredible.

  “Do it or don’t do it,” Daniel said.

  She took out one of the stones and pretended to throw it so he’d hear and feel the movement, but she didn’t release it. She tucked it back in her pocket. “Next lake.”

  The world flashed.

  The next lava lake glowed an angry red. It swirled deep in the center of a crater, and they were standing on the rim looking down at it. White smoke billowed up from it, and the walls of the crater were black lumps, all ash and volcanic rock. She saw stretches of mirrorlike black stone.

  It was day here, and the blue sky contrasted with the red of the lava lake. The black stone reflected clouds and smoke as they billowed past. Her feet were cold, and the air tasted like ash.

  Again, she pretended to throw. “Next,” she said.

  Third, a bubbling pit of orange and red. It writhed only a few feet from them. This time, she hurled the stone in. It landed silently, as if sucked in by the ooze. And then she guided the lava away, so that the stone would sink farther in and out of sight. It vanished into the orange, eaten by the fire that bubbled and burned. She put her empty hand back in her pocket and thought she should feel something—relief or regret—but instead she only watched the lava pop and writhe and thought, So pretty. “Next.”

  The fourth lava lake looked like a crescent moon set afire, or like an angry wound. It glowed through the rocks, and she thought it was like seeing inside a living body. The blood of the world flowed through these rocks. Here, the ground felt hot, as if the rock wanted to split beneath them and release more of the blood-colored lava. She pretended to throw again. A geyser of red shot up a few feet in front of them, and she stumbled back, holding on to Daniel’s arm. “Next, hurry!”

  And then the final lava lake. The lava oozed over the uneven rocks. It dripped like blood in thick, clogged rivulets. The ground felt warm but not hot under her feet, and a breeze blew over the air, carrying the smoke away. In the distance, she saw the ocean, so blue, so beautiful. They were on a mountainside, and beyond the field of lava were green trees. She heard birds calling to one another. One took flight, its orange feathers spread against the sky. She realized in this instant that she had just seen the world, or at least more of it than she’d ever expected to see.

  “Are you done?” Daniel asked.

  “Almost.” She hesitated, drawing the moment out even longer. Then she put her hand in her empty pocket, drew it out, and pretended to throw. A breeze blew in, and the air tasted like ocean. She wondered if this was Hawaii, and then pushed the idea out of her head. She didn’t want to guess where the stone was. It was better if she never knew. “Done.”

  They snapped back to Daniel’s room.

  “That worked well,” Daniel said.

  “That was incredible!” Kayla leaped into Daniel’s arms and kissed him hard on the lips. He tumbled backward and landed, with her on him, on his bed. He started to laugh. Laughing, she rolled off him and jumped to her feet. She hadn’t heard him laugh often enough. “Ocean next? Can you even do an ocean? It’s not like it has landmarks.”

  He smiled. “That’s the beauty of it. I won’t know which ocean we’re in. I’ll picture waves surrounded by nothing but ocean. Horizon all around.”

  “Sounds beautiful,” she agreed.

  Standing up, he reached for her hands.

  Kayla pulled back. “Wait! I am totally not dressed for being dumped in the middle of the ocean. Or for being eaten by sharks. How about we use a boat?”

  “Please tell me you don’t plan to steal a boat.”

  “Only a raft.”

  “Ahh, okay.”

  “Actually, I was thinking it was time to introduce you to a life in crime. Can you take us to State Street? I know an outdoor-sports store that would be perfect.” She took his hands.

  Without another word, Daniel hopped them to State Street. Kayla smiled at the familiar sight of the brick benches, the palm trees, the smoothie café. They’d appeared on a brick bench, in the midst of a pack of black-clad, heavily pierced teens.

  “Hey,” Daniel said.

  “Hey,” one of the teens replied.

  “Were you here a minute ago?” a girl asked.

  “Yeah,” Daniel said. “Been here a while.”

  “Oh,” the girl said.

  “And now have to go. ‘Bye!” Kayla flashed a smile at the girl, and then pulled Daniel up with her and sauntered toward the outdoor-sports store. She bypassed the clerk and headed for the window display. It had an orange inflatable raft with a mannequin in it in full fishing regalia. She picked up the mannequin and took it out of the raft.

  The clerk bustled over. “Hey, what are you doing?”

  Kayla looked over his shoulder and feigned astonishment. “Oh my goodness, what’s happening to your cash register?” She pressed the Open button with her mind, and the drawer popped out. Cash flew out of the machine. Squawking, the cashier ran back to the counter and began catching the bills that darted over his head like crazed birds.

  “Aren’t you the one always telling me to be more careful?” Daniel asked.

  Kayla shrugged. “Maybe you’re rubbing off on me. Besides, Moonbeam and I will be leaving here, changing our names, and starting new lives soon anyway.”

  “Will you tell me your new name, or will you and your mother just disappear?”

  “I … Let’s finish this first, okay?” She sat down in the raft. Daniel joined her. He gripped her with one hand and the side of the raft with another. A second later, the store disappeared.

  Kayla held on to the raft as wind and water crashed into them. Waves rose and fell. The sky overhead was mottled blue and purple and white. There was no sound other than the waves, water hitting itself. There was no land anywhere to be seen. Just blueness meeting the blue of the horizon in every direction.

  She leaned over the side of the raft. “Ready?”

  He leaned over next to her. The raft tilted. The water was only a few inches below her hands. “What if the current catches it and washes it to shore?” Daniel asked.

  “I can guide it down. Not so different from moving raindrops, so long as I limit my focus to the immediate area around the stone. I think.”

  “Okay. Do it.”

  She opened her hand, and the stone plopped into the water. Concentrating, she shifted the water so that it sank faster, clearing a thin path for it to plummet down, down, down through the ocean.

  She felt shapes in the water: plankton, tiny swift fish, large floating fish, whales. Current pushed against her, and she guided the stone around the flow so that it would keep falling and not be swept away. She concentrated on little bits of water at a time, easing it through the ocean. Spots of white speckled her vision as she reached farther and farther. She’d never done this distance before. Whichever ocean this was, it was damn deep.

  At last the stone hit a cliff. She used the water to tip the stone off, and the stone fell into the abyss. It tumbled into the depths of the ocean, unimaginably deep. She lost all trace of it as it sank.

  Kayla collapsed back into the raft. Stretching out, she lay there for a moment, feeling the sun, feeling the way the
raft rose and fell on the open ocean. Her head ached. “It’s done. Two stones, gone. Only one left. Good enough, right?”

  Daniel stretched out beside her. Their fingers intertwined. On their backs, they stared up at the sky as the ocean rolled under them, lifting them up and sinking them down.

  “Are you really going to run away again?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What about Selena? And your life in Santa Barbara? And me?”

  She dodged the questions. “You don’t live in Santa Barbara.”

  “So you will tell me who and where you are?”

  Moonbeam always said that to truly hide, you have to cut all ties. She hadn’t done that with her friend Evelyn, and look where it had led. Then again, could she really say good-bye to Daniel and Selena and everything she knew? “It would be nice if I had some grand plan to convince Dad and Amanda never to bother us again, but I don’t see it happening.” And Moonbeam would never agree anyway.

  Daniel propped himself up on his elbow. He caressed her cheek as if memorizing the shape of her face. “We could improvise.”

  She blinked up at him. Sunlight was like a halo around his head, so bright that she could barely see his face. “Seriously?”

  “Okay, you’re right—we might want a better plan than that.”

  “How about you kiss me?” she suggested.

  “I think I like that plan,” he said gravely. Then he leaned over her and touched her lips with his. She closed her eyes and let the kiss wash over her. She heard the ocean around her, the only sound. His body was warm against hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back as if she never intended to stop.

  Lying curled against Daniel, Kayla listened to his heartbeat, the slap of the waves on the raft, and the wind. Overhead, the sky was streaked with rose-colored clouds and deep blue clouds that looked like smears of paint. In the west, the sun was sinking, and it looked like lava, melting into the ocean. In the east, the sky had already deepened to a rich blue.

  “I don’t want to go back,” Daniel said.

  “I don’t want to be eaten by sharks, die of exposure, or get sunburned,” Kayla said.

  He was silent, as if considering those options. “Is that in any particular order?”

  She smiled, then her smile faded. “You know they’ll be worrying about us.”

  “Just a few more minutes.”

  They lay for a while as the sky continued to darken. A few stars poked through, then more. Every time she blinked she thought that more appeared, as if they were sneaking out during the instant that her eyes were shut. “What is it that you want to happen when we go back?” Kayla asked.

  “Ideally, or realistically?”

  “Ideally,” she said.

  Silence again. She could almost hear him thinking. She listened to the water hit the sides of the raft. She thought about how many miles of ocean were beneath them. Reaching down with her mind, she felt the water, the life under them. She felt so fragile and yet so eternal above all those little bits of life and away from absolutely anyone else.

  “I want my mom to swear this wasn’t her idea, that she didn’t use me to find her stupid stones, that she didn’t make me worry about her and risk myself and risk you because of her goddamn research. I want her to care about me more than her work. Just once. Ever since my dad died, it’s been her work first, then me. I want her to see me as more than a tool she can use. How about you?”

  Kayla considered it. “Well … For starters, it would be nice if my mom told me the truth, whatever it is. And it would be nice if my sister would stop trying to kill me and my parents. It would be great if we could be some kind of fully functional normal family again like that family in Mexico, but that’s not going to happen, and honestly I’m not sure I’m comfortable having Cheerios in the morning next to two people who may or may not want to kill me or each other at any given moment.” She thought about it longer as she stared up at the stars. “Yeah, I think that’s what I want: I don’t want to be afraid anymore. That’s all.”

  “I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” Daniel said.

  And with those words, she decided that she was in love with him. She smiled up at the sky. “Neither do I.” They fell into silence again.

  More stars. So many more stars than she thought it possible for the sky to hold. At this rate, if more kept appearing, the sky would be as full of white light as the brightest desert noon. The Milky Way was a white cloud-like smudge across the sky. The western horizon continued to glow a deep amber until the dark blue-black spread to it. The ocean around them was black. Kayla stayed entwined with Daniel.

  “How do we make it happen?” Daniel asked.

  “No idea. My father’s probably still determined to rid us and psycho-sister of our magic, so he probably wants the stones back. Our moms have probably escaped Selena and been caught again by Dad, Amanda, Queen Marguerite, or all three. They, plus Selena, are most likely being held hostage in exchange for the two stones that we just tossed away.”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty likely. How about we simply don’t go back?”

  “You mean run away, you and me?” Kayla thought about that, really thought. With their powers, they could go anywhere and do anything. The possibilities were intoxicating. “That would be cowardly and selfish.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  They both fell silent, staring up at the stars.

  “Tempting, though,” Daniel said.

  “Very,” Kayla agreed. “How about we make that plan B if all else fails?”

  She imagined he was smiling in the darkness. She felt him shift beside her, turning to face her. “I like plan B,” he said. “Do we have a plan A?”

  “I think it would be nice if we could get everyone to sit calmly together and discuss everything like rational human beings.”

  “Wave a white flag and ask to talk?” He shook his head. She saw it as a shadow moving in the darkness. His whole face was a blur of shadows. “Never going to happen.”

  “Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of kidnap everyone, tie them up, and not let them out even to pee until they start acting like rational adults rather than four-year-olds throwing tantrums because someone else played with their favorite toy.”

  He laughed and then fell silent.

  She stared up at the stars, trying to drink them in, as if she could absorb them for their strength. “Guess we’ll have to go back and just see what’s happened.” The stars disappeared.

  Chapter 29

  Selena’s basement.

  Hand in hand, Kayla and Daniel surveyed the empty media room. Edamame shells were still strewn over the carpet. The TV was off. “Still outside?” Kayla suggested.

  They jumped to the driveway, where the sledgehammer lay on the cobblestones. Kayla felt her heart beat faster. She’d been right—Evelyn and Moonbeam were gone. They’d escaped, and Moonbeam could now be in even more danger … Kayla barged into the garage.

  And found Evelyn wrapped up in duct tape. She was gagged with a dust cloth. Selena was perched on the hood of the Lamborghini, a wrench in her hands. Moonbeam was standing next to Evelyn with her arms crossed like a disappointed schoolteacher. Kayla skidded to a stop and stared, speechless.

  “Mom!” Daniel cried. He rushed forward.

  Moonbeam held up a hand to stop Daniel. “We can explain.”

  Sliding off the hood of the Lamborghini, Selena rushed to Kayla. “I did it! I really did it. I always thought I’d fall apart when the moment to act came, but I didn’t fall apart. And my parents aren’t due home yet, so double hooray!”

  “She was magnificent,” Moonbeam affirmed.

  Kayla hugged Selena. “I’m proud of you. Not surprised, though. You’re more than you think you are. Stronger than you think you are.”

  Selena rolled her eyes. “You were totally surprised. I saw you.”

  “Slightly surprised,” Kayla admitted. Selena beamed and twirled the wrench in her hand like it was her new f
avorite accessory. “After all, you were sitting on the Lamb. You could have gotten smudges on it.”

  Selena laughed. She was sparkling even more than her sequined shirt. Kayla grinned at her and wondered what had caused this change.

  Daniel was scowling. “This isn’t funny. Why is my mother tied up? What happened?”

  Selena waved the wrench to indicate Evelyn. “She had nefarious plans and was being all nefarious. After the spell wore off, she faked being still asleep. I caught her trying to call Kayla’s sister and father, and I bashed her cell phone with the sledgehammer. She was planning to use Moonbeam to force you two to reveal where you’d hidden the stones.”

  Daniel paled. “Mom?”

  Evelyn shook her head frantically, as if to proclaim her innocence.

  “I’m sorry, Daniel,” Moonbeam said. “But it’s true. Selena and Kayla were right. Evelyn was the one who set this all in motion. She contacted my husband. She used you to involve my Kayla. She thought she could control everything and everyone to win the stones for herself. But she couldn’t.”

  Pushing past Moonbeam, Daniel knelt in front of his mother and pulled off her gag. “Mom, is it true? Are they telling the truth?”

  “Absolutely not,” Evelyn said. “Untie me. There’s been a misunderstanding. These people don’t see the potential in those stones! The historical value is phenomenal. Daniel, you have to—”

  Kayla reached with her mind, lifted the cloth out of Daniel’s hands, and stuffed it back in his mother’s mouth. “She played us all. You know that. Maybe she never meant to use the stones—I can believe that. But she wanted to find them, and she used us to do it.”

  Daniel ran his hands through his hair as if he wanted to tear it out. “But she burned her notebook!”

  “So Jack and Amanda would need her,” Moonbeam said. “I’m sorry, Daniel.”

  “And she let them trash our house!”