Invisible

by Alycia Linwood

  “Did we get them all?” I asked, a bit breathless.

  Jaiden peeked into the room. “Yes,” he said confidently.

  “How do you know?” I frowned.

  “I did three on the left and you did three on the right. That’s everyone I can see.”

  We hurried through the room, and everyone actually looked up, but their expressions were blank, and they immediately returned to their jobs, conveniently forgetting they’d seen us, just as we’d ordered them.

  “What if they remember our order somehow and fail to see us when they’re supposed to see us?” I said as we got into the hall that led toward Lily’s office.

  “You didn’t capture that many brain signals, did you?” He arched his eyebrows.

  “Nope, I don’t think so.”

  “Good,” he said. “Then it’s a one time only thing.”

  “Sometimes I feel like I don’t know what I’m really doing.” I sighed.

  He shrugged. “I guess none of us do.”

  “Then we’re lucky it works out.”

  “That we are.”

  We stopped when we were just one corner away from Lily’s office. Jaiden lifted his hand and indicated which guard he’d focus on. I tried to reach the mind of the guard on the left, but my element got cut off in the middle. Jaiden placed his hand on my back, looking at me and waiting. I took a deep breath and pushed my element out again, and this time I reached the guard’s mind.

  I nodded at Jaiden, focusing on the order in my mind. If Lily weren’t in the office, they’d just walk away and think they were at their posts all the time. We’d given ourselves fifteen minutes. As the guards walked past us, their eyes not registering what was going on, we ran for the office. I slowly opened the door, wondering if there was an additional alarm system, but nothing happened. I assumed Lily didn’t have time to install any alarms because this room was never supposed to be an office.

  The room was tiny and didn’t have any windows. The only source of light was the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. Lily’s desk was overflowing with papers, and it was surrounded by boxes. There was room on the desk only for a computer, which was turned off.

  “She seems like a collector,” Jaiden said, opening one of the boxes and revealing a stack of papers. He picked one up, frowning. “It’s some strange magic disease business.”

  I went to the table, flipping through papers, careful not to disturb anything too much, although I doubted Lily would remember where every single paper had been in that mess. “Can you see any cameras?”

  Jaiden surveyed the room. “Nope. This place isn’t really a security fort. Are you sure you’ll find what you’re looking for here?”

  “No. Of course I’m not sure!” I scowled. “Keep looking for anything that mentions our bracelets.”

  One of the papers flew off the desk and I caught it, but as I was returning it to its place, I noticed a paper with a sketch of something that looked a lot like a bracelet. I dug out the paper and studied it. “I think I found something.”

  Jaiden came to stand behind my back, looking at the paper over my shoulder. “They’re planning to take control over Elemontera’s bracelets.” He frowned. “Our bracelets.”

  “Yeah.” The plan was to include a computer virus in the bracelet’s chip so that it would infect Elemontera’s systems and steal their data. Apparently, this was some high tech idea that could give Lily’s team control over us but make it seem as if Elemontera was the one in control. The signal they planned to use to do that and track the bracelets would be very hard to detect and identify, so even if discovered, no one could connect it to Lily. “I thought they were going to free us of the bracelets. This looks...”

  “Like they’re planning to have full access to the bracelets, even the kill chips, and increase the control the bracelet has over an elemental.” A hint of anger was in Jaiden’s voice. “They’re planning to send you back to Elemontera as their puppet, aren’t they?”

  “No, they gave me a choice. My parents will never agree to this.”

  “Are you sure?” He eyed me carefully. “If this is true, they could force you to work for them, just like Elemontera.”

  “Would this virus give them access to bracelets of other agents in Elemontera, too?” I said, staring at the paper.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “Then why is she saying I have a freaking choice if she’s planning to force me anyway?” I gritted my teeth, the paper shaking in my hand, so I had to put it down.

  “They’d rather you choose to work for them on your own. Willing agents have better chances for success.” He flashed me a smile.

  I glanced at the clock on the wall. Our time was up. “Let’s go. We found what I was looking for,” I said, trying to curb my anger. Maybe the bracelets were weaker because Lily’s techs were already tinkering with them without our knowledge. Wait, did that mean they could already track us through the bracelets? Because if they could, then Lily would find out Jaiden and I had been in her office. But wouldn’t the person who was tracking us immediately alert someone? Surely, Lily would want to stop us from coming in here. Maybe they were still working on the bracelets.

  “What are you going to do now?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” We left the office and carefully closed the door, but as we reached the end of the hall, we nearly bumped into my mom, whose hand flew to her mouth as she saw Jaiden.

  “Honey, what’s going on?” she asked. “I got worried when I couldn’t find you.”

  “It’s okay, Mom. Jaiden...” I didn’t know what to say, so I glanced at Jaiden, who just stood there, watching me, his face expressionless, which wasn’t helpful at all. I didn’t really have a good explanation, but I didn’t want to mind control my mom.

  “Give us a moment,” my mom said to Jaiden, taking hold of my arm and pulling me slightly aside, so we could still see Jaiden but were far enough so we had some privacy.

  “What on earth are you doing with that boy?” my mom hissed. “Why is he free? I thought Lily deemed him too dangerous to walk around and locked him up.”

  “I thought you didn’t want me to listen to Lily,” I said, and my mom groaned. “I needed Jaiden for something. That’s all. He won’t escape or anything. Promise.” I doubted Jaiden was crazy enough to try to escape when he didn’t know in which phase of the bracelet’s development Lily’s techs were in. If he ran away and Lily got in control of his bracelet, that would certainly make things complicated for him. We were clueless about the bracelet’s technology and how it worked, so we could only guess what Lily would be able to do to him, even if he was far away from her.

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with Lily’s proposal, does it?” My mom’s eyes filled with concern. “I told you already, honey. You don’t owe Lily or anyone anything.”

  “I know. I was just wondering what’s up with the bracelets. I really want mine to be gone.” I rubbed my wrist to emphasize the point.

  “Your father gave all the files and information he could gather to Lily’s team. They’ll figure it out.”

  “Where can I get those files?” Maybe there was something in them that could help us understand what we were dealing with.

  “Oh, I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Lily, but I really think you should let her handle it. We don’t know anything about these bracelets or that kind of technology,” she said. “We’d only get in the techs’ way and slow them down.”

  “I know, but I have a feeling Lily’s team is more worried about destroying Elemontera than freeing me and my friends.”

  My mom frowned, watching me for a moment, and sighed. “You might be right. I guess I can ask her tomorrow if I could help and see what’s up.” She took my hands in hers and gave me a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry, honey. We’ll figure it out.”

  “Thanks.” The corners of my lips went up. “Just please don’t tell anyone you saw me with Jaiden. I’ll take him back to his cell.”

  She eyed me for a mo
ment and nodded, her shoulders drooping. “Okay, honey. I won’t say anything this time, but I hope you know what you’re doing. That boy is not a good influence on you.”

  “I’m not that easily influenced.” I chuckled. My mom pulled me into a hug, rubbing circles on my back. “Come later to see your dad and me.”

  “I will.” I pulled back, and she walked away. Jaiden came up to me, his lips pressed into a tight line, his eyes slightly teary or maybe it was just an illusion. There was no time to waste, so we mind-controlled the people in the computer room again and hurried past them. No one was anywhere near Jaiden’s cell, so he went inside and I closed the door, which immediately locked in place.

  “You’re not going to run, are you?” I asked, tracing my finger over the bars.

  “I don’t know. Are you going to bail on your promise now that you got what you wanted from me?” He tipped his head back, sighing heavily. Then his eyes met mine again.

  “Of course not.” I winked. I was about to leave, but then I looked back at him. “Are you going to be okay in here?”

  “Yeah,” he said as if he couldn’t quite believe I’d asked. “You can go.”

  “See you later.” I dashed down the hall, wondering how I’d gotten to the point where I trusted Jaiden more than I trusted Lily. I supposed stranger things had happened.

  Chapter 28

  I was talking to my parents and munching on my sandwich, still groggy from sleep, my neck stiff. All of my worries had only increased during the night and I felt as if my body weighed a ton. Suddenly shouts could be heard from outside, and I straightened my back, straining my ears. My mom stopped in the middle of pouring some tea for my dad, and they both looked toward the door.

  “What’s going on now?” my dad asked. I got to my feet, putting down the sandwich, and hurried for the door. Someone was swearing while the others were shouting. Marissa and Ashley were hugging each other, their wails reverberating through the room. Noah jerkily ran a hand through his hair.

  “How could this have happened?” he yelled. As I came closer, I saw Sam sitting on the floor, his face buried in his hands. Nick stood not far from them, his brow furrowed.

  “What happened?” I asked Noah, barely breathing, my heart thudding loudly in my chest. Something must have happened. Something bad.

  “It’s Bailey,” Noah said, a single tear escaping down his cheek. “He’s dead.”

  “What?” I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth.

  “He was out and someone... someone killed him,” he said, shaking his head, and started to pace in circles.

  “What do you mean he was out?” My hands shook, my chin trembling. I barely even knew Bailey. We’d still spent a few days together on the island, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what his death meant to the others who’d lived with him for months.

  But another thought was gnawing at me. Was this Lily’s way to persuade me to agree to work for her? Was she following in Elemontera’s steps and planned to threaten me, or was she hoping I’d realize how important it was to stop Elemontera?

  I focused my attention back on Noah. “What was he doing outside?” It didn’t make any sense for Bailey to go out, not when Elemontera was looking for us and when there were so many other threats.

  “We were watching a live stream from the streets,” Noah said, “and we saw another elemental like us, or at least we thought she could be like us. Bailey wanted to bring her in. Said he thought he knew her.”

  “And you let him?” I said, raising my voice.

  “I... I didn’t know he’d go after her! He sneaked out with the guards somehow.” Noah shook his head.

  Lily walked into the room, followed by her guards, her hair disheveled, her eyes a bit too wide. Maybe going after Bailey hadn’t been her idea after all.

  “Send another team out,” Lily yelled. “Make sure no one follows you! And everyone, be ready to move in case we’ve been made.” She turned to Noah and the others. “We’ll find the killer. I promise.”

  “Can I talk to you for a second?” I asked her.

  “Sure. Just make it quick,” she said, and we stepped aside. What I wanted to ask her wasn’t anything strange or suspicious, so this time I dared to force my element through the bracelet and connect gently to her mind, just to push her in the right direction.

  “Is it true what they say? That someone attacked Bailey when he was out, and you and your team didn’t know anything about it?”

  “Yeah, it’s true,” Lily said, her eyes unfocused. “We suspect it’s Elemontera or one of those elementals who want revenge on Elemontera.”

  “Oh.” I let my element slip back into me. “Okay.”

  Lily turned on her heel and strode over to the computers. Noah came to stand beside me.

  “We have to destroy Elemontera. They’ll pay for this!” he yelled and kicked at the empty air. “We can’t let them do this!”

  “This is all we have from the crime scene,” a guy said, and we all rushed to the computers. Camera footage was playing on the screen, showing Bailey as he looked around him. Then a person dressed completely in black, head covered, appeared in front of him and pointed a gun at his head. Marissa and Ashley cried out as the person pulled the trigger, and they both turned away from the screen. I swallowed bile.

  “Do you know who that is?” I asked.

  “No idea. It could be Elemontera, or someone who might have assumed Bailey was working with Elemontera’s agents. It’s possible that the elemental we saw earlier was just a lure,” the guy said.

  “Could our location be compromised?” Lily asked.

  “No. The team is out there to watch for anything suspicious, and we’ll be alerted if anyone comes nearby. The attack happened four blocks away from here, so the chances of someone finding us are low,” the guy said.

  “What are you going to do?” Noah demanded. “We need to hunt down that bastard!”

  “We will,” Lily said, placing her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off.

  Marissa’s eyes were filled with sorrow while Ashley sobbed on her shoulder. Any of us could have been killed, and there was barely anything we could do to stop it from happening again. Someone hugged me from behind, planting a soft kiss on the top of my head. I turned around and faced my mom, tears forming in my eyes.

  “This is why you should never go back to Elemontera. They don’t have mercy or a conscience,” she said. “I don’t want you to end up like that poor boy.”

  I clung to her, aware that an assassin like the one who’d killed Bailey could have been sent after my mom if I hadn’t done what Elemontera had asked me to do. I pushed the thought away and just let myself drown in her arms.

  My parents didn’t complain when I told them I needed some time for myself. After what happened to Bailey, I didn’t feel like doing anything. As I wandered around, I found myself going to Jaiden’s cell. He’d done what I’d asked of him, so it was only fair that I fulfilled my part of the deal. I’d intended to let that wait, but maybe I didn’t want to be alone tonight after all. Mind-controlling the guard to go away was almost instinctive, and Jaiden got up from the bed, his eyebrows raised.

  “Hey,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

  “Well, here I am,” I said, unsure if Jaiden knew about Bailey. His cell was far enough away that he couldn’t have heard the commotion, but Bailey had been part of his little group at the island, so someone should have told him what had happened. Maybe Noah or someone else had done it. I punched in the code and opened the door, stepping aside. “Come with me. I don’t want to be here all night.”

  He slowly came out, eyeing me, but he didn’t ask anything. I wondered if he was thinking it was better not to say anything that could annoy me, at least not until we were far from his prison. “Where are we going?” he finally asked when we reached the end of the hall.

  “To my room.” My voice sounded distant even to me.

  “What about the guard? Won’t someone come back and see me go
ne?”

  “Maybe. I don’t care.” I didn’t really think Lily had time to deal with Jaiden because she was occupied with finding Bailey’s killer. Besides, I totally planned to find her and tell her that I simply needed him with me, but not immediately, or even send her a message through someone else. Maybe that way I’d find out if they could track our bracelets.

  If they could, they’d see Jaiden wasn’t going far anyway and wouldn’t rush to get him. The poor guard would be confused, though, but hopefully wouldn’t notice his mind had been messed with. He’d think he’d fallen asleep or something, and I could always say Jaiden had seen the code when they’d opened the door to bring him food or take him out.

  “Hey!” someone yelled behind us just as we were a couple of feet away from my room. We turned around and saw Noah approaching us, clenching his fists.

  “What are you doing with him?” Noah sneered.

  “None of your business,” I said, taking Jaiden by the arm. “Oh, and Noah, can you please tell Lily that Jaiden is with me?”

  “Yeah, but if he does something or gets away, it will be your fault,” he said, pointing a finger at me.

  “Yeah, yeah. I know.” I tugged at Jaiden’s arm to get him to my room.

  “What’s going on?” he asked as I closed the door and leaned my head on it.

  “I need to tell you something. Sit down.” I turned to face him. He sat on the bed, watching me cautiously. If he knew about Bailey, he would have told me something already, which meant it was on me to explain what had happened.

  I took a deep breath. “Bailey is dead. He went out for a while and someone attacked him.”

  Jaiden’s mouth fell open, and he got up, shaking his head. “No.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know if you two were friends before...” Before he accused you of being a traitor. I licked my dry lips.