“Oh, calm down. As long as we don’t run into Uxa, we’ll be fine.” Suddenly, Paley started flipping her hair, as if hair tossing were an event in the Jaychund Games.
“What is wrong with you?” Van glanced in the direction of Paley’s interest. A tall boy about their age, with sunflower-blond hair and a cute button nose, leaned against a wall. When Van’s eyes locked with his royal-blue ones, she felt a jolt, as if her heart had been restarted after a long sleep. His thick lips curved upward into a crooked smile. He had mistaken Van’s ogling as a cue to come over, and Van couldn’t help but stare as he made his way across the crowded eatery.
His lean build was accentuated by his tailor-fit, brown and tan tunic-style clothing. He had innocent, boyish looks but moved with the sleekness and majesty of a lion, as if he knew the lay of the land. Which meant he knew she and Paley weren’t supposed to be there. Oh, this isn’t good, thought Van.
Her eyes remained locked on the boy’s, until her line of vision was eclipsed by a bursting corset. Plexa plunked their Sassys on the table, then went off to serve other thirsty patrons, clearing Van’s line of vision.
Standing at their table was the handsome, button-nosed stranger.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Day 1: 4:26 p.m., Living World
“Haven’t seen you girls around here before,” said the boy. “Need any help deciphering that crazy menu?”
Van suddenly hated everything about him. His arrogance, his smug tone of voice, his stupid blue eyes.
“Sure,” Paley cooed.
“No, thanks,” Van said.
“You sure? Because that drink is—”
“We’re fine,” Van said, ignoring Paley’s angry stare. Van snatched the tall, cool glass in front of her, took a defiant sip, and nearly choked to death.
Van, along with Paley, had sneaked tastes of liquor from her parents’ cupboards in the past, but she had never tasted anything this strong.
“Sassys are made with Gabba Grain, grain alcohol. Very potent.” His eyes twinkled, as Van used her fingertips to wipe her watering eyes. “There’s no drinking age here.”
“Yay!” Paley yelped, then took a hearty sip from her drink.
“What do you mean by here?” Van asked, over Paley’s grain alcohol–induced gasps. “You make it sound like we’re supposed to be someplace else.” Van hoped he hadn’t implied that he knew they’d come from the Earth World.
“That’s not it at all,” he said with a lopsided grin. “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be here, all right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Van snapped.
He looked flustered for a second and then collected himself. “If you weren’t here, then how would I have met you?”
His words rang insincere to Van, though she supposed most girls would find him charming. Case in point, Paley audibly sighed, causing him to turn her way.
“Nice eyes.”
“Thanks,” Paley said, as she strained over the table, trying to wriggle a bit closer to him.
Van fidgeted over his comment. Most new people commented on Van’s beautiful blue eyes, not on Paley’s obvious colored contacts. Paley giggled for no reason and managed to bat her “nice” eyes at him, although they still watered from the harshness of her drink.
He made Van uneasy, and she wanted him to leave. She worried that Paley’s flirting would keep him at their table, and she was right. He pulled out a chair and sat himself down as if he’d been invited.
“My name’s Brux.” He held out his hand to Paley. “Brux Lake.”
Paley’s hand zipped out in a flash. “Paley.” She shook his hand, holding it for an inappropriate amount of time before setting it free.
Brux stretched out his hand to Van. His lack of boundaries made her want to punch him in his button nose. But manners overrode her annoyance, and Van gave his hand an obligatory shake. “Vanessa—Van.” His touch made her skin tingle with exhilaration, which infuriated her.
“Hang on a sec,” he said, slipping a small gadget out of his pocket.
Van’s father used a similar type of device for work, although this one reminded Van more of the smartphones she saw visitors to the island carrying around, trying to get reception—which, of course, they couldn’t get.
“What’s that thing?” Paley said, lifting her drink for a careful sip.
Van winced. If Brux hadn’t already figured out they were outsiders, he would now.
“It’s one of the new MTs—Multi-Tracs.” He held the device in his hands and used his thumbs to type a message.
Van relaxed a bit. She had expected Brux to stand up, point at them, and scream at the top of his lungs, “Intruders!”
“I’m telling my friend I met some great girls and to come meet us,” Brux said. He laid the MT on the table in front of him and looked at Van. “If that’s okay with you.”
“Too late now, isn’t it?”
“It’s okay, for sure,” Paley said with an affable grin.
“Seems like someone could use another swig of her Sassy,” he said to Paley, nodding toward Van.
Van fumed, as Paley snickered and took another sip of her drink.
The glassy panel on his MT flashed. Brux picked it up and read the incoming message. “A better idea. How about we go meet my friend? It’ll be fun. Trust me.”
“Sure,” Paley said. “Let’s make like trees and leave.” She giggled and took another sip of her Sassy.
Brux rewarded Paley with a wide smile. “Excellent.”
Van squirmed in her seat. “I don’t—”
“It’s settled then. We go!” Brux stood up and tossed some bronze coins onto the table.
If Van’s head felt a bit fuzzy from one sip of her Sassy, then Paley must be on her way to oblivion. “Okay, let’s go,” Van said. She couldn’t help smirking at their stunned expressions. Little did they know, she planned on ditching Brux, grabbing Paley, and getting them both back home where they belonged.
The trio left the eatery. Brux and Paley chattered nonstop, as he led them away from the village center and down a winding cobblestone street that eventually turned into a dirt road. Van didn’t have a moment’s silence to think of a way to get her and Paley away from Brux and back to Lodestar. If she didn’t get back in time to meet Fynn, she would be in big trouble with Uxa, which would definitely affect her placement and reflect poorly on her family.
“Are we almost there?” Van asked.
“Almost.”
The road got darker, with fewer houses and more trees. Van tried to keep all of the twists and turns in her memory but couldn’t. At this point, she wouldn’t be able to find her way back without Brux. Having to depend on this immature stranger for their survival triggered a massive fit of anxiety.
Van said, “I have to be back home by six—”
“It’s right here,” Brux said.
A house came into view, the likes of which Van had never seen before—it was a cottage integrated into a tree! Red slat shutters framed arched windows, tangles of ivy grew along the outer bark walls, and it had a red wooden door with a silver half-moon knocker.
Paley’s forehead crinkled. “This is a strange place for a tavern.”
“I never said we were going to a tavern.” Brux rapped on the door. “This is my friend’s house.”
“I thought we were going to a public place,” Van said, prepared to grab Paley and run at the first sign of trouble.
The red door swung open. Van gaped.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Uxa said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Day 1: 5:56 p.m., Living World
“Right time, wrong place, Vanessa,” Uxa said, as she led Van, Paley, and Brux into the living room of the tree-cottage.
Uxa had dressed in her usual tunic-style clothing, although this outfit appeared less formal, giving Van the impression of a casual-wear uniform. Normally, Van would find this funny, but she was too furious at Brux.
“You set us up?” accused Van. �
�You lied to us?”
“Technically, I didn’t lie,” Brux said. “I told you we were going to meet my friend. Uxa’s my friend.”
“You said it would be fun,” Paley said, pouting.
“Oh, it is fun. For me.” Brux sniggered.
“I . . . you . . . ” Van could feel her cheeks redden.
Before Van could find her words, Uxa barked, “Enough! Brux—go to your assigned quarters. You two, follow me.”
The cottage, much bigger on the inside than it initially seemed, had several split levels. It was circular, confirming that the whole house had been hollowed out of a tree trunk. The decor appeared fittingly rustic with handsome oak furniture and gorgeous hand-woven rugs that accentuated the solid-wood floors. The room was inviting and, at the same time, neat and orderly. Van suspected she wouldn’t find a speck of dust anywhere.
Uxa led them into a nearby room she used as a study. For someone with such a tidy home, her office-away-from-the-office was downright cluttered. Mounds of papers, made mostly from parchment, covered her enormous hardwood desk. Ancient-looking maps and strange instruments lay scattered here and there. Timeworn hardcover books had been stuffed into wall-size oak bookcases or strewn about the room, open and dog-eared, on various pieces of furniture. The room reminded Van of her father’s study, prompting an unexpected pang of homesickness.
Uxa took a seat behind her desk and motioned for Van and Paley to sit in the two worn leather high-backed chairs, facing her. They slipped off their backpacks, dropped them onto the floor, and slunk into the chairs.
Van felt ashamed for getting caught breaking the rules but held her head high, ready to defend herself.
Uxa rested her elbows on the desk, touched the tips of her sturdy fingers together to form a pyramid, and silently glowered at them.
Paley, unable to control herself, burst out, “I’m so sorry, we were only—”
Uxa held up her hand for Paley to stop.
The silence stretched to an eternity, intensified by soft, rhythmic ticking. The sound came from a grandfather clock lodged between two bookcases. The clock’s face had an outer and inner circle with roman numerals, strange symbols, and four hands. At first, Van couldn’t tell what time it was, but after a few seconds, the numbers, the hands, and the symbols started to make sense. The hand in the inner circle of the clock’s face indicated day 1 of thirty. The two largest hands on the outer circle showed the 702nd hour, the 47th minute. The third hand moved counterclockwise, like a stopwatch, and when it ticked to the top, the minute hand clicked to number 46. The thirty-day clock counted down backward to zero. Van shuddered and shifted her attention back to Uxa.
“Time is of the essence!” Uxa said, slapping her palm on the desk and startling the girls. “I have decided not to waste it by lecturing the two of you on not only breaking the rules but also endangering both of your lives. Am I correct to assume you used the Twin Gemstones to travel here?”
They both nodded glumly.
“Miss Nutting, I presume?”
It wasn’t a far leap for Uxa to pinpoint Miss Nutting. Paley worked at the Naked Ape, and it was Van’s favorite salon.
“Leave her alone,” Van said. “She was only trying to help.”
“The Gemstones can be removed from the statue of Orgone only by a Grigori,” Uxa said. “Which one helped you?”
“No one did,” Van answered. “I took them.”
Van could’ve sworn Uxa’s lips turned slightly upward. As if she were proud, rather than mad.
“And I’m not staying here without Paley.” Van felt so tired, she half-hoped that keeping Paley here would be a deal breaker, and Uxa would send them both home.
“There is no time to send her back,” Uxa said. “You would have to go, too, Van, because of the Gemstones.”
“Good, I don’t want to go back,” Paley said. “I want to stay and help.”
Uxa gave a curt nod. “I’m sure Miss Nutting told you, but I want to reiterate—you must keep the Gemstones on you. If you separate from each other in this world, the Gemstones won’t work. How far of a separation depends on the strength of Van’s energy draw. If you exceed the distance, Paley will be expelled back to the Earth World, weakened, perhaps permanently damaged. Van, you will die a painful death from energy depletion.”
They faced each other with guilty looks of terror. Miss Nutting had never told them any such thing.
“You weren’t thinking of separating, were you?” Uxa asked, alarmed. “Van, were you planning on keeping your appointment with Fynn and leaving Paley here?”
They both lied, giving Uxa a wide-eyed, innocent shake of their heads.
Van cringed at what might have happened if Brux hadn’t found them and they had separated as planned. She wasn’t quite so mad at him anymore but quickly noted he was still a jerk.
“How did you know where to find us?” Van asked.
“The portal recorded your transport, and a couple of my associates reported running into two oddly dressed teenage girls in the village.”
Harrus and Fiona! thought Van.
“I figured you’d stay there,” Uxa said, “and I sent Brux to discreetly find you.”
Van curled her lip. “Why him?”
“Who better to find two teenage girls than a teenage boy?”
Paley piped up. “So, I get to work on the project with Van?”
“You will go on the mission with Van and her team.”
“Yay!” Paley said, clapping her hands. “Ohhh, mission! So exciting!”
“You will meet the others at dinner tonight, and then you will be briefed,” Uxa said, without any of Paley’s enthusiasm. “Fynn will take you to your quarters.”
“Ladies,” said a voice from behind. Fynn had entered the study without a sound. “This way, if you will.”
Fynn led them back into the living room. None of the three spoke as they walked up an open, curved staircase spanning the wall of the circular room. On the second floor, they went down a semicircular hallway that conformed to the shape of the tree trunk. Fynn dropped them off in a room with two twin beds and small matching desks. The room appeared cozy, until Van realized it had no windows. Then her chest tightened, and she found it hard to breathe.
“Dinner bell will ring at seven-thirty, sharp,” Fynn informed them. “Don’t be late.”
With a click, the door closed behind him.
Van’s claustrophobia flared at the sound of the click. Did he lock us in?
“This is so cool!” Paley chucked her backpack onto one of the desks. “We both get to stay!”
“Great,” Van said, trying to sound enthusiastic. She always felt calmer being closest to the exit. Nevertheless, she forced each of her leaden feet, one after the other, away from the door and deeper into the room.
“Do you think we can explore?” Paley said.
“Uxa’s house?” Van asked, wishing they weren’t sequestered. “I don’t think so, Paley. It would be rude.”
Van tossed her backpack onto the desk’s chair and threw herself down on the bed farthest from the only escape route. She tried to unwind but found the low-thread-count sheets intolerable. Her attention kept drifting across the room to the closed door. Was it locked? Why would Fynn lock it?
After a few minutes, Paley became uncharacteristically quiet. She lay curled up with a pillow and, to Van’s annoyance, had fallen asleep. Van wished she were calm enough to nap. Instead, she sprang off the bed and began pacing the room, which felt smaller and smaller by the second. Finally, she worked up the courage and marched to the door. The instant the door opened, every muscle in her body relaxed. She breathed deeply and went back to her bed. She’d rested for what seemed like a minute, before a chime sounded from a wall speaker. It was seven-thirty.
“It must be the dinner bell.” Paley groggily stretched her arms.
“We’re late,” Van said, as they both scrambled to freshen up.
“Then Uxa should have set the bell to ring earlier,” Paley said, washi
ng her face.
They left their quarters and rushed downstairs. Fynn had never told them the location of the dining room, but as soon as they hit the bottom of the stairway, they heard voices coming from a room off the living room. They followed the voices and timidly entered the dining area.
A boisterous group sat around a wide, rectangular butcher-block table in an undecorated room with no windows. Some of them glanced over, but, for the most part, no one acknowledged their entrance. They were the last to arrive, which made Van feel as if she’d already failed her first assignment. The only empty chairs remaining, besides those at the head and the foot of the table, were on the far end, facing the entrance.
Van took a seat next to a thin girl with droopy white-blonde hair that fell to her waist. Van counted nine others besides her and Paley, and she tried not to be intimidated by the motley crew around the table. They all looked like brutes, except for one wimpy guy and the girl next to Van.
Van preferred the companionship of friends she had grown up with and people she knew from the island. All of these people seemed strange to her. How would she ever relate to this crew? She didn’t look forward to spending twenty-nine days working with them.
“Is Uxa going to show up?” asked the wisp of a girl next to Van. “Do you know?”
Appalled at how the girl sat wilted in her chair, Van wondered, Doesn’t she realize that manners reflect your upbringing? Her slouching at the dinner table is an insult to her family.
“Don’t know,” Van said. “Sorry.” She begrudgingly admired the girl’s wide, pale-blue eyes and her pure, simple beauty. Still, Van felt too tired to hold a conversation with someone she didn’t know and hoped the girl wouldn’t talk to her again. She envied Paley, getting to sit next to an empty chair.
“Hi.” Paley bent forward and reached across Van, extending her hand to the girl. “I’m Paley.”
“Daisy Lake.” The girl reached over and shook Paley’s hand. Van feared Paley might break a bone if she squeezed too hard.
Now that Paley had displayed proper etiquette, Van felt obligated to offer an introduction. “Van.” Daisy’s hand rested in Van’s as delicately as a flower petal. Having someone this lame in the group meant there was no way Uxa would send them to do anything dangerous. Daisy looked as if a strong wind would blow her away.
Shock of Fate: A Young Adult Fantasy Adventure (Anchoress Series Book 1) Page 9
