Chasing Power

by Sarah Beth Durst

  Evelyn squawked, her eyes wide.

  “Maybe she didn’t let them,” Kayla guessed. “Maybe they did it because she wasn’t cooperating. She’s said over and over that she didn’t want them to cast the spell.”

  Moonbeam nodded. “She didn’t want to use the stones. After all, if they did, you’d lose your power and she’d risk death. She just wanted to have them. So she hid the knife, thinking that would stop Jack from casting the spell.”

  He took the gag out of his mother’s mouth again. “Yes, the knife!” Evelyn said. “I gave it to you to keep it safe! I knew Jack wouldn’t want to do the spell without the knife. He wanted to re-create everything about the original spell, so that meant the three original casters and the original knife. I thought if I hid it, it would keep him from casting the spell!”

  Daniel studied her. “Then you admit you were planning this.” His voice was even, emotionless, but Kayla saw the hurt in his eyes.

  His mother must have seen it too. “I … I wasn’t … Daniel, the stones would have guaranteed tenure. We’d have been permanently secure. That kind of security … You don’t know what it was like, growing up like I did. Never knowing when you’d be hungry. Or hurt. Or alone. I didn’t want that for you, for us.”

  “But you didn’t have to do this!”

  “After your father died … it was up to me. You, your future, it was all up to me. So I went back to what I knew. I figured the stones had done so much damage to your life that maybe I could use them to do some good. I was going to publish papers on them. Maybe write a book. Donate them to a museum so they’d be safe forever.”

  “She thought she could use Jack and Amanda. She underestimated them.” Moonbeam looked sadly at Daniel. “Thankfully, she underestimated you too.”

  Daniel was silent.

  “How about you take her home?” Kayla suggested. “You can have that conversation you’ve been wanting to have. And she’ll be two thousand miles away from here.”

  He shook his head. “You might need me. Your father and sister are still out there.”

  “In Louisiana. Not here.” Kayla took Daniel’s hands and stepped between him and his mother so he’d have to look in her eyes and see that she meant it. “You wanted to save your mother. This is your chance. Take her home. Let her see what her so-called allies did to her house while she thought she controlled them. And tell her the truth about where the stones are. They’re beyond anyone’s reach now.” Kayla thought that Evelyn might already know about the house, despite her surprised reaction. She could have staged it for Daniel’s benefit, to keep him searching for the stones, to give him hope that it wasn’t over. She could have even left the photo album untouched on purpose. Kayla didn’t voice that suspicion out loud.

  Leaning forward, Daniel kissed her. Kayla heard either Evelyn or Moonbeam gasp—she wasn’t sure which it was. Maybe both. Self-conscious, she pulled away from the kiss.

  “You’re certain you’ll be okay?” Daniel asked.

  “I’ll be fine. You take care of your family. I’ll take care of mine.”

  “But I’ll see you again, right? I can jump to wherever you go. Call you whatever new name you want. All I need is a picture, and I can find you.”

  Kayla smiled. “I’ll send you a postcard.” This time, she kissed him, and she ignored the others. She wove her hands together around his neck. His hands spread across her back. She drank in the taste of his lips, and she tried to memorize this feeling.

  When they broke apart, he turned to Selena. “Thanks for everything. Sorry about nearly getting you in trouble, with the church thing.”

  Selena waved her hand as if dismissing him. “We’re even. You did me a favor.” She smiled brightly at him. “At least now I know I don’t have the worst mother in the world.”

  Daniel winced. He then put his hand on his mother’s shoulder, and with one last look at Kayla, he vanished. Kayla exhaled. She hoped sending him away was the smart choice. It did take care of Evelyn. Kayla trusted that he’d be able to keep her from contacting Dad and Amanda, at least until she and Moonbeam could flee.

  It was time now to leave Santa Barbara, leave their lives, and start over again, before Dad and Amanda tracked them down. She opened her mouth to say this, but Moonbeam spoke first. “It’s time for us to go home,” Moonbeam said. “We have a lot to talk about as well.”

  “I don’t think we can go home,” Kayla said. “Home has Queen Marguerite, and I don’t know if she’s on our side or not. I think we have to run.” Her heart twisted as she said it. She didn’t want to start over, to be someone new, to hide again and fear again. But she didn’t see any other option.

  Moonbeam shook her head. “We don’t need to run from Marguerite.”

  “We don’t? But—”

  Turning to Selena, Moonbeam asked, “One last favor? Can you take us home?”

  “Gladly.” Selena led the way to her car and jumped in. Moonbeam climbed into the front seat. Selena turned the car on, and the music blared.

  “Do we have a plan?” Kayla called over the music.

  “Yes!” Moonbeam shouted back.

  Kayla hurriedly squeezed herself into the backseat. She strapped on the seat belt and leaned forward so Moonbeam could hear her. “What is it?”

  “I’m going to give her what she wants!”

  “She says she wants the stones so she can hide them! But I don’t believe her. I think she wants to use them herself!”

  “That’s not what she really wants!” Moonbeam called back. And then Selena peeled out of the garage, and it was impossible to hear what else Moonbeam said.

  As they careened down the twisting driveway, the wind whipped into their faces. Kayla’s hair battered her cheeks. It smelled as salty as the ocean, and in the distance, she saw the waves crash in sweeping lines of white foam. Beachgoers sunned and played and walked on the sand, and Kayla felt so distant from all of them.

  She’d planned to spend her summer as one of them, lazing in the sun with Selena, maybe shoplifting here and there to hone her skills, not doing anything important or real or meaningful.

  She kind of missed that summer that would never be. Thinking of the photos of her parents, she wondered if they missed their summers. She thought of her sister and wondered what kind of childhood she’d had. She imagined what her own childhood would have been like if Moonbeam had stayed, if she’d grown up with Dad and Amanda. And she was very, very grateful for Moonbeam.

  Selena slid into a parking spot across from Kayla and Moonbeam’s cottage. “Do you need me?” she asked. “Because I’m feeling heroically brave today.”

  “You’ve been wonderful, Selena,” Moonbeam said, “but we’ll take it from here.”

  Selena raised her eyebrows at Kayla, and Kayla nodded in agreement. “You are going to keep in touch with me, right?” Selena asked. “You’ve known me a lot longer than lover-boy.”

  Kayla hesitated. It would give her father a way to track them, if he suspected. Look how much trouble had come from Moonbeam keeping in touch with Evelyn. On the other hand, Dad didn’t know Selena. “This isn’t good-bye,” she said firmly. She’d find a way to make it work, somehow. “Are you going to be okay? I mean, with your parents?”

  She smiled, and Kayla saw tears in her eyes. “Actually, for once, yes.” Pulling out her sunglasses, Selena put them on. “I think I’m going to visit a boy I know.”

  “Glad to hear it. And, Selena … You’re the best friend anyone could have.”

  “I am the best. But no worries. You’re the penultimate.”

  Waving, Selena drove away, and Kayla had the unsettling feeling that she wasn’t ever going to see her again. Despite what she’d said, it had felt like a good-bye. Moonbeam put her hand lightly on Kayla’s shoulder, as if she didn’t know whether to comfort Kayla or not.

  Together they crossed the street. Moonbeam moved to push the gate open, but Kayla caught her arm. “Are you sure about this?” Kayla asked.

  To Kayla’s surprise, Moo
nbeam smiled. “More sure than I’ve ever been about anything.”

  Chapter 30

  Side by side, they pushed through the gate and went into the garden. The garden was still a mess. A gnome had been knocked over. Its base was broken, revealing its hollow inside. It looked like a war victim. Clippings from the hack job that Kayla had done on the hedge still littered the lawn. The flowers had been half trampled. As Kayla and Moonbeam walked through the verdant wreckage, Kayla felt her palms sweat and her heart hammer in her chest.

  Reaching with her mind, Kayla “felt” inside the house. There was a figure, about the size of the voodoo queen, within. “She’s there,” Kayla said softly.

  “Alone?”

  “I think so.” Creeping up to the window, Kayla peered through into the kitchen. She reached with her mind to touch the scarves, sewing needles, and herbs, ready in case she needed them.

  Seated at the kitchen table, Queen Marguerite shook a handful of bones. She spilled them on the table, squinted at them, and then scooped them up again. “I know you’re there, fixer girl,” she said without looking up. “You may as well come in and tell Queen Marguerite what happened.”

  Behind her, Moonbeam said in a trembling voice, “Marguerite?”

  Dropping the bones, Queen Marguerite rushed out of the house. “Lorelei? Lorelei, you’re alive!” She scooped up her skirts to run faster, and Moonbeam ran toward her.

  Kayla stepped out of the way as the two women crashed into an embrace in the middle of the garden. Laughing, Marguerite pressed her cheek to Moonbeam’s. Tears were pouring down their faces, and Moonbeam was laughing too.

  “Um, okay, guess I’ll just … Yeah.” Kayla released her hold on the scarves and other items inside the house. It looked like she wouldn’t be needing them. “So, I take it she’s not an enemy?”

  Marguerite stroked Moonbeam’s cheeks and her hair. “Lorelei, oh, Lorelei, are you well? The spell … Did it complete? Tell me what happened.”

  Moonbeam smiled through her tears. “My Kayla saved me.”

  Queen Marguerite beckoned to Kayla. “Come here, child.”

  Kayla inched closer to them, and Queen Marguerite snaked out an arm and pulled Kayla into an embrace too. “What one destroys, the other heals,” Marguerite said. “I knew it! Our little fixer!” She then pushed Kayla back at arm’s length and studied her. Her other arm remained firmly around Moonbeam’s shoulders. Clucking her tongue, she said, “You don’t have the stones.”

  “Two of them are gone,” Kayla said.

  “Jack and Amanda have the third,” Moonbeam said. “We left them back in Louisiana. Daniel has taken Evelyn home to Chicago. Oh, Marguerite, she was responsible for it all! She contacted Jack. She led him to you. She set Daniel and Kayla on their path … She wanted the stones for herself. She was so blind to everything else that she even let slip to Jack where to find me, though she claimed it was an accident. Fact is, she betrayed me. And you.”

  Queen Marguerite comforted her, then turned to Kayla. “Exactly what do you mean ‘two of them are gone’?” Her voice was casual but her eyes were intense.

  Kayla described how she and Daniel hid the stones in a way that neither would know where they were. “They’re beyond anyone’s reach. Even yours.”

  Queen Marguerite stared at her for a long moment, and Kayla tensed, prepared to defend herself if she had to, then the queen tilted her head back and laughed loud and long. “Well played, my dear. Well played. Aren’t you the clever one? Lorelei, you did something right here.”

  Kayla gaped at her. So she’d been telling the truth? All along, she really wanted the stones gone? She wondered if she should apologize for misjudging her.

  “But not with my other daughter.” Sighing, Moonbeam sank onto the bench. She knocked the broken gnome out of the way with her foot. “I did something very wrong there.”

  Sitting beside her, Marguerite patted Moonbeam’s shoulder. “You did nothing wrong. You were faced with an impossible situation, and you did the best you could.”

  “I should have found a way to take her with me. Or I should have stayed, fought Jack—”

  “At what cost?”

  “Who’s to say it wouldn’t have been better than this cost? You didn’t see her, Marguerite. She’s damaged … and it’s my fault.”

  “You saved yourself and Kayla.”

  “I should have come to you. But I thought more magic …”

  “You were afraid. There’s no shame in that. But you don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

  Moonbeam leaned her head against Queen Marguerite’s shoulder. Softly, Marguerite murmured to her as she stroked her hair, as if she were a child who had woken from a nightmare.

  While they were preoccupied with each other, Kayla ducked into the house and grabbed her emergency backpack. She emerged and cleared her throat. “Moonbeam? I’m ready to leave whenever you are.”

  Moonbeam shook her head. “Not this time. No more hiding.”

  “Are you sure, Lorelei?” Marguerite asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure.” She smiled at the voodoo queen.

  Kayla felt her jaw drop open. She thought about shaking her head to clear her ears, but she didn’t doubt that she’d heard Moonbeam say those words. She just didn’t understand what they meant. They sounded like nonsense syllables. “We aren’t?”

  “I abandoned my daughter once; I won’t do it again.”

  “You didn’t abandon me … Oh, you mean Amanda. Um, she tried to shoot me. You remember that part, right? And Dad. She fired several times.”

  “She needs help,” Moonbeam said.

  “Um, I don’t think she wants it. Especially from you. No offense meant.”

  Moonbeam sat up straighter, as if good posture would give her courage. “I won’t pretend it will be easy. But it’s time to face my responsibilities.”

  “She’s dangerous and unstable,” Kayla pointed out. “You saw her. It’s not like you can give her a hug and make everything okay.”

  Queen Marguerite hugged Moonbeam’s shoulders. “She might just need a little motherly love. Problem is, right now she won’t listen to her mama. And she has the power to keep from having to listen.”

  Moonbeam nodded. “That’s what I think. And that’s why I need your help.” She faced Queen Marguerite. “Old friend, will you help me?”

  Kayla looked from Moonbeam to the queen and back again. The way they acted, the way they talked, had the weight of years behind it. She wondered what she didn’t know about their past. Queen Marguerite had claimed they were friends, and Moonbeam had been so certain that she could appease the voodoo queen. Maybe they truly had been close.

  “You know my help always comes with a price. Even for you, my dear,” Queen Marguerite cautioned. “What do you have that I want?”

  “Me,” Moonbeam said simply.

  Queen Marguerite seemed to freeze. She didn’t speak. She didn’t breathe.

  “You want to pass your legacy on to someone. You haven’t taken on an apprentice. You don’t have an heir. Help me help my daughter Amanda, and I will come with you to New Orleans and be your legacy.”

  “Mom?” Kayla’s voice came out as a squeak. She couldn’t believe she was hearing this. “Do you know what you’re saying? You hate magic! Why on earth would you volunteer to be the next voodoo queen?”

  Moonbeam put her hand on Marguerite’s hand. “Because I’m done with hiding. Because magic is what I am meant to do. Look around you. I didn’t give it up. I demanded that you do without it, but then I steeped us in tons of my magic. I couldn’t even cut my ties to Evelyn, even though that endangered you. I’ve been lying to myself. I am what I am, and this is my fate. Isn’t it, Your Majesty?”

  There were tears again in Queen Marguerite’s eyes.

  “Will you help me heal my daughter?” Moonbeam asked her.

  Speechless, Marguerite nodded.

  Moonbeam threw her arms around the voodoo queen, and Marguerite hugged her back. They stayed that way for a l
ong while. At last, Marguerite pulled back. She was smiling the most real smile that Kayla had ever seen on her face. She touched Moonbeam’s cheek softly, tenderly. “At my age, I expected to be finishing journeys, not beginning them. Tell me where to find your wayward girl.”

  Moonbeam was smiling and crying too. Tears had smeared the makeup under her eyes. “You know that old swimming hole on the Beaumont land?”

  “Of course. Used to skinny-dip there myself back in the day.”

  “That’s where we did the spell.”

  Queen Marguerite laughed. “Two miles from my home. Right under my nose. Very well. I’ll be back, with company. Be ready.” And then she vanished, leaving Kayla and Moonbeam alone.

  Kayla moved toward her. “Moonbeam …”

  “Don’t try to talk me out of this, Kayla.”

  “Actually, I was going to ask if you can use that sleeping spell on Amanda. It might be a nicer solution than just bashing her on the head, albeit less satisfying.”

  Moonbeam looked relieved. “I want to talk to her first, without her father’s influence. I might be able to reach her, at least enough to convince her to try …”

  “And if you can’t? Sleeping spell, yes?”

  “The spell will need to be stronger. If I only use words, it lasts a few minutes at best. But with herbs …” Jumping to her feet, Moonbeam scurried inside the house. Kayla trailed after her. Moonbeam beelined to her shelves and pulled out several kinds of herbs. She began to mix them, crushing them with a pestle. She then poured them into a shallow bowl and added oil. “The smoke from this will make her sleep until we’re ready to wake her.” She set a wick in it as if it were ordinary incense oil. Moonbeam lit a nearby candle. Her hands were shaking. She murmured words over it. “The wick will need to be lit. I don’t know if—”

  “I can do it,” Kayla said.

  “She has to inhale the smoke.”

  “I can make her do that,” Kayla said.

  Her mother studied her for a long moment. “Kayla … I don’t know how to apologize for failing you so very badly.”

  “You didn’t fail me,” Kayla said automatically. Once the words were out of her mouth, she wasn’t sure they were true. Moonbeam had lied for years.