by Lora Palmer
“Hey," he said. “Our food’s ready. Police Chief Jacobs left with his take-out, so it’s safe to come down. What happened?”
“In a nutshell, he hates me now because he suspects I’m an alien. What if Mom and Dad feel like that when they find out?" I whispered brokenly.
David shook his head. "Not possible. They love you, and nothing is going to change that."
"I hope you're right," I said, biting my lip.
* * *
Soon, the workday was done, and I had accomplished quite a bit, including getting the twins to stop playing pranks on me for a change. Saying goodbye to Celia and her daughters, I made my way out to a bench overlooking the beach to wait for everyone else.
Kevin showed up first and sat down beside me. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.
"No," I said, shaking my head. "But I have to talk to him. From the sound of it, he and Brian need to talk about this stuff, too. I’m glad you all are going to be there, and you'll all be coming with us to the other world. It means a lot that we're all in this adventure together."
Kevin slung an arm around my shoulder. "We wouldn't have it any other way."
Approaching footsteps let us know the others had arrived. Kara and David were walking together, arms around each other, while Jenny and Brian stood side by side, seeming deep in conversation.
"I'll tell him about my...skills...," Brian was saying, careful to talk without giving anything away to anyone overhearing. "But I don't know how we're going to figure out whose side he's on when we don't even have an idea of the history of this whole thing. Whatever he tells us is going to be one-sided. Now, tell me, why do I get the feeling you know more about it than you want to admit?"
"Obviously there are sides," Jenny retorted. "Does he believe in the cause of the ones who set off the disasters, or not?"
Brian glanced around, checking to make sure nobody outside the group could hear them. "I can’t imagine unleashing disasters capable of killing millions, or even billions of people. Maybe the situation isn’t so simple, but no matter what, that's indefensible. All I know is he'd never be a part of it, and I don't like your suggestion that these people could persuade him to be."
Jenny frowned, giving him a dark look. "I don't think it needs to be made any more complicated than what it is. Anyway, we'll soon find out where his loyalty lies."
"Hey, guys," Kevin said as everyone reached the bench, though he gave Jenny and Brian a quizzical look. "What's going on?" He withdrew his arm from around me and stood, starting in the direction of Brian's house.
Jenny's expression made it clear that she was pretty troubled. "Brian and I have just been discussing the situation," she said.
I stared at her, stunned at the brewing argument.
"Jenny seems to be totally convinced my dad is involved in what's happening," Brian said, still glaring at Jenny and clenching his hands in frustration. "I know it looks bad, but he wouldn't do that. Whatever his involvement is, it's not what you think."
"Why else has he been so secretive about everything?" Jenny asked gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. Her irritation seemed to evaporate, replaced by a look of concern as she looked into his eyes. "Brian, I'm sorry, I don't mean to raise a sore point with you. I know it's hard because you two haven't talked about any of this. It just makes me wonder, you know. And I'm worried for you and Leah, if we can't trust him. Let's just drop it for now and see what he has to say for himself when we meet with him."
Brian nodded. "Fine," he said tersely, but his expression softened somewhat. He gave me a hug. "Sorry about all this. I'm just on edge, you know?"
I returned the hug and gave him a reassuring smile. "I know. Well, let's go see what we can find out."
Chapter 14
"Dad, we're here," Brian called as he led the group through the front door.
"Good, good," Mr. Drake replied, standing up from the oversized living room sofa. He made his way to the foyer and ushered us all inside. "Brian let me know you were coming. Would any of you like anything to drink before we begin?" His gaze rested on me, appearing relieved that I had agreed to have this conversation.
"No, thank you, sir," David replied. The others shook their heads.
"You may call me Caleb. I’d prefer it."
Curious, I glanced around, taking in the ornately carved antique furnishings in each of the rooms that complemented the style of the home. Though sparse and with only a select few personal touches such as photos of Brian and his father, the home seemed remarkably well put together already. I didn't see any moving boxes. Who could unpack so quickly after a move? Brian and his father must not have many belongings.
"All right, then. Everyone, please take your seats."
I stiffened. His tone touched some distant memory, familiar and dangerous. Somehow, I associated it with the vision in my mirror, though I couldn’t say for certain whether this was correct. Brian sent me a quizzical glance. Shaking my head, I followed the others into the living room. We arranged ourselves on the sofa, David sitting to my left and Brian to my right. With a cold, strong grasp, Brian reached over to take my hand. I gave his hand a gentle squeeze in return, barely noticing David and Caleb frown at this interaction. What Brian and I did was our business, not theirs. Caleb cleared his throat.
"Brian, I take it you've told everyone in this little group why we're here? You shouldn’t have, but I understand all of you wanting to support Leah," he said, shifting his gaze to me. "Since it seems everyone is invited, are you sure you don't want to invite your parents?" His tone held a hint of dry humor.
"No," David and I said together.
"I'll tell them what I need to tell them later, not here like this," I added.
"Dad, I don't get why you care about secrecy anymore," Brian said, clutching his hands into fists like he was trying not to freak out. "I mean, you finally admitted the other night that we're not from Earth. We’ll be gone soon, so what’s the point?"
Gone soon.
The words hit me with the force of a tsunami, and now I was about to freak out. "If I leave with you..." My breath caught in my throat, shallow, unsatisfying. "This is a huge thing to ask. I need to know why you want me to —"
"If?" Caleb fixed me with that predatory stare of his, and I had the impression he was rifling through my thoughts, searching out weaknesses to exploit. "Is reuniting with your parents not enough?"
"My parents," I repeated, stunned. He must know them, then. Maybe after all this time, they wanted me back.
Forget that. Maybe all they wanted was for me to save their planet.
No way would I let Caleb think he could manipulate me, or that anything he said could wound me. Why did he come here, anyway? "Oh, you mean the people who abandoned me on a beach. Yeah, they must want to see me."
"They did no such thing!" Ice and fire battled for dominance over the temperature in the room, radiating out from Caleb in waves. Our bodies shivered, and our skin sweated as each wave passed over us in turn.
Yikes! He has powers?
"You disappeared." Pain and rage flashed in his eyes, as if he blamed me for that, or as if he had flashed back to the scene. He paused to regain his composure, his breathing ragged. Finally, after a full minute, the temperature stabilized. "The Prime Minister and First Lady, your parents, sent me to find you. They figured my tracking skills would prove useful, but Earth’s archaic record systems didn’t make it easy, let me tell you. The assignment was never expected to last as long as it has. It took years to search the planet and follow every single lead, every child your age whose parents couldn’t be found."
"And how can you be sure it’s me?"
"First Daughter Leandra, I am sure it is you. You look so much like your mother, and you have a sunburst birthmark on the back of your right shoulder, correct?"
Nervous and excited all at the same time, I nodded, half beginning to believe him and half still in denial. Denial won out. "Yes, me and probably a thousand other people. A birthmark doesn’t prove anythin
g."
"You will come with us, Leah, by force if necessary. I’d hate to have to hurt anyone who stands in my way, so don’t make me do that."
My gaze narrowed, and I would have given anything to be able to pull off that fire and ice trick of his. "So the prime minister is basically your boss, right? I doubt he’d approve of you threatening me or the people I love."
Caleb shrugged. "Whatever it takes to get you to come. I doubt they’d like to hear that I had to resort to such tactics before you’d agree."
Touché. "Fine. Then it’s time for you to tell us everything. For starters, do you — we — come from another time?”
Caleb paused to gaze around at the group for maximum effect. Everyone was listening with rapt attention, Brian and I most of all. “Not another time, no. Before opening the portal to Earth for me, the MirrorMaster who tracked you to this planet said you had not time-travelled to reach here. We come from a world called Jantyr. It is a beautiful world, but torn by politics. There are a few rare people blessed with certain abilities, such as the ability of a MirrorMaster to use mirrors to travel to other places and times. Some have other abilities, like moving things and controlling the flow of matter and energy. Some who have abilities aren't keen on the idea of political power in the hands of those without."
"Well, Dad, Leah and I are both MirrorMasters." Brian dropped this information casually, almost taking pleasure in the stunned expression on his dad's face
"You are?" Caleb said a moment later when he finally found his voice. "I figured Leah was, of course, but I had no idea you had that ability. You've never said anything about it."
"Why are you so surprised I had a major secret, too, when you've told me absolutely nothing I need to know about our family, about our history?"
Caleb sighed. "You're right, Brian, and I am sorry. I should have told you everything much sooner, but keeping our heritage a secret was something I felt had to be done to protect us both. Humans finding out about where we're from isn't a good idea. It could have gotten us killed."
"We're not going to tell anyone about you and Brian," David said, "but you should know that Police Chief Jacobs suspects." He recounted everything the chief of police knew.
Caleb's stunned reaction to the Stanford murders, and their suspected part in it, left me totally confused. I wanted to believe in his innocence, but there were too many questions to ignore. MirrorMasters could travel to other times, not just places. Was Caleb a MirrorMaster? Was Brian involved? If they hadn’t gone into the past after Janice and Lisa Stanford yet, what might happen to cause them to do so? I gave Brian a sidelong glance. No, he could never attack someone. Not willingly. My heart couldn’t be wrong when it told me to trust him.
"I had been monitoring the situation ever since the night we arrived because of the incident at the cemetery. I believe it was the work of a woman named Aedalina, and my brother Erik. They were banished to Earth in spirit as punishment for their crimes on Jantyr. Until that night, I had no idea they could cause any further trouble."
"Wait...you have a brother?" Brian cut in, his jaw clenched. He leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees, and glared at his father. "You never mentioned anything about that, either."
"There’s a reason I never spoke of him, son. He is dead to us.”
So my sister and Caleb’s brother were working together. Caleb’s brother must resemble him, hence why I confused the two.
"Aedalina is my sister," I said, grimacing. "I’ve met her. Are you saying she's responsible for the curse on the cemetery? There has been talk about the curse since what happened to Janice and Lisa Stanford. Wait, that's why she's trapped their souls in the Soul Crystal — so she and your brother could return?"
"It appears so," Caleb answered, his expression thoughtful. "I had not realized Aedalina managed to acquire the Soul Crystal, or that it even existed. It’s said to be highly dangerous. We will deal with this before we leave, stop them before they can harm anyone else."
For all I knew, Caleb could be working with them, too. I wasn’t sure I could trust him.
"Dangerous how?" I stiffened, my insides clenching and twisting at the thought of what it could do to all those trapped souls.
"If you're not careful, you can trap your own soul by wielding it. The danger becomes greater the longer you use it, because the crystal's nature is to seek out the power of souls. It drains them, usually starting right after death. I will have to do some research. Until now, I had believed the Soul Crystal was merely legend. But this explains everything that happened on Jantyr — the disasters, the disappearance of other MirrorMasters," Caleb said, sighing and sitting back in his chair.
"What do you mean your brother is dead to us? And what happened to Mom?"
Caleb shifted his gaze from me to Brian, and his voice became somber. "Brian, your mother was targeted because she was a MirrorMaster, a gifted one. I should have known you would be as well. Over the years, I kept looking for the signs in you, but you hid them well. She was...the light of my life...and he killed her and took her from me. From us. For her power, I think he and Aedalina used the crystal to entrap her spirit." His voice broke as he spoke of his wife.
"What?" Brian appeared stricken, as though he'd been punched in the gut. Doubling over, he glanced toward me as he blinked back the tears threatening to leak out from beneath his lashes. "I knew she was murdered, but this...this is beyond..." The air around him crackled dangerously. Windows rattled. The dining room chandelier creaked and swayed.
Tears shimmered in my eyes, tears I was unafraid to let fall. I placed a hand on Brian's back and said quietly, "I'm so sorry, Brian. We have to free them, and we will, before they're all drained. There isn’t much time left, from what they said last night in my dream." For Caleb's benefit, I added, "Jenny's been trapped as well, because she was a part of that ritual the night you moved here. Do you know any way to free them besides helping them figure out whatever issues are holding them here? Those issues are what allow the orb to trap them, but there must be some other way."
Brian’s breaths came in ragged gasps. He clenched and unclenched his fists until the overpowering jolt of electricity dissipated. If he hadn’t stopped, the chandelier probably would have crashed to the floor and all the glass in the house would have exploded.
"Hey, I'll be fine," Jenny protested.
"Fine? You look exhausted!" Kevin pointed out. "Leah's right. We have to know how to stop this."
"I don't know of another way, but perhaps research will turn something up. Everything I've come across about this crystal indicates that wielding it in its place on Jantyr is the only way to complete what has been done," Caleb said, his brow furrowing. "It activates a device that will stop the impending apocalypse."
"But activating the device would destroy all those souls, including Jenny's, wouldn't it?" I asked, my throat suddenly feeling tight and my mouth going dry. At Caleb's nod, I shook my head. "No! I can't use that crystal until I know everyone's free of it."
"Use the crystal? You can't expect to...Leah, all of this is just legend," Caleb said.
"If these supposedly legendary crystals are real, why couldn’t the device exist, too?" I countered. "It's part of the prophecy. I have to find seven crystals, including the Soul Crystal, and wield them in the right places on Jantyr to stop the disasters. We know Aedalina has at least the Soul Crystal, and I have the Protection crystal." I reached up to pull the pendant from its hiding place beneath my shirt.
Caleb paled. "Some have said this legend of old would be our only hope, that the only way to save Jantyr would be if the ancient technology created to renew the planet were real."
"Technology?" Jenny wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Wouldn’t the device be magic rather than technology?"
"It is said to combine both."
Jenny crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"So you have seen the actual prophecy? The Seer who made the prophecy rarely spoke of it, so little information about it has sur
vived. The prophecy itself disappeared, but there once existed a written record of it. All we currently know of it on Jantyr is that it tells of a lost First Daughter-MirrorMaster, who would return during a time of great disaster to attempt to stop those disasters. She would find a way in the legends of old. There was nothing more specific to go on."
"I have seen it," I admitted, biting my lip. Maybe I had revealed too much.
"Good. It may well be helpful. Well, I am sure you all should be getting home for dinner. But before you go, tell me, Leah, how have you enjoyed your life on Earth?”
Wow. Just wow. The question was probably the last one I would have expected him to ask. Maybe he wasn’t working with his brother or my sister after all. His concern for my welfare seemed genuine enough. "It's been good—great even. I was adopted not long after I ended up here, and my Mom and Dad, and David of course, have been the best. So have all my friends. It'll be so hard to leave…"
"The Prime Minister and First Lady will be pleased to hear you’ve had a happy life here. I will send word to them right away. Would you like to talk to them?"
My heart skipped a beat, and my eyes widened in shock. I was actually going to be able to talk to my birth parents. Stunned, I sought out Kara, who nodded in approval, and then David, who did likewise.
"I...I think that would be wonderful."
Caleb stood. "I have the communication crystal in the study. Excuse me just a moment while I retrieve it. On our world, it allows for instant communication, much like your video and voice chats. Because of the distances involved, it may take several days for them to receive the message. We should hear back from them shortly before we wrap up things here. Shall we plan to leave on Sunday?"
Everyone in the group exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. The others stood as well.
"We're going to get going," Kara said. "Thank you for having us over, Caleb. It was so amazing to hear about your world. We can't wait to go there!" Her blue eyes sparkled as she shook his hand.
