by Matt Ryan
Quinn cleared his throat. “Very well then.” He was lightning quick and had thrown a stone above us before I even reacted.
Jackie had hers out quick as well. Throwing her stone, she yelled, “Duck!”
I fell to the ground and felt Mark covering my body, when a bright white flash blasted over us; bright enough for me to see it through my eyelids. A crackling sound echoed around the alley and I smelled burnt hair.
Another stone rolled toward us, but at the same time, Jackie hurled a stone at the building near Quinn. It struck the stone structure and exploded. A section of the wall collapsed into the alley, causing a massive cloud of dust and smoke, which effectively blocked Quinn from us.
The stone that was rolling toward us stopped and broke in half. Before I could stop him, Mark ran at the stone pieces as they begun to spew a white cloud. He threw the pieces on top of the building, leaving a trail of smoke.
Falling to his knees, he coughed and grabbed at his throat.
The collapsed wall dissolved in the background, melting into the ground. It created a pool of liquid that went into the storm drain like hot wax from a candle.
Wind blew the dust and smoke away, revealing Quinn, still standing there with his stupid grin.
“What do we do?” Jin asked.
I stood and reached into my pocket, grabbing the deadliest stone I’d ever touched.
I threw the stone as hard as I could at Quinn. He didn’t so much as flinch. The stone flew by his face, missing him by a few inches.
“No, look out!” I screamed as I watched the stone fly past Quinn and strike a man walking down the sidewalk. The man heard me because at the last second, he stopped and turned to look right at me. The stone struck his hand.
I screamed again as the man incinerated right there, in the middle of the sidewalk. The breeze picked up his ashes and carried them off down the street, as if no one had ever been there.
I’d just killed an innocent man.
“Nice throw,” Quinn said, looking impressed. “Our little Allie is growing up. Look at that. Killing innocents!”
Mark counted down with Jackie and when they reached zero, the two threw stones in conjunction with each other. They sailed up above and struck each other at the same moment, swirling together as they merged.
Two stones created a giant molten red blob that dropped right towards Quinn. Quinn disappeared right before the molten ball struck him.
“Coward,” Jackie yelled.
The red liquid splashed against the ground. The heat radiated toward me and I raised my hand, trying to block it from burning my face. Mark fell to his knees again, all his energy going towards coughing. Then he was on his side, grabbing at his throat.
“I need help,” I said as I ran to Mark. “Jin, you have healing stones. Help him!”
He rushed over and knelt next to Mark. Scooping up his hand, Jin held it in his. I saw a stone dissolving between their two hands. Mark’s cough lessened and he took a deep breath. He blinked and looked around.
“Did we make it?” he asked.
“He’s gone for now,” I said, looking at the end of the alley where he’d been.
Then, as quickly as Quinn disappeared, he reappeared, right in front of me.
Jackie was the first to react, but Quinn picked up Jin and threw him with superhuman strength, directly into Jackie.
With his next motion, he knelt over Mark and held a kill stone above his face.
I waved my arms out, panicked. “Don’t anybody do anything!” Looking Quinn in the eye, I said, “If you want the stone, you can have it. But you have to leave Mark and the rest of us alone.”
“Was that so hard? Just give me the damned stone and I’ll be on my way,” Quinn said. Then he leaned over Mark, the death stone hovering precariously close to his face. “Feels good to be this close to you again, Allie.”
I’d never hated somebody so much. His stupid face, smirking at me. I wished I could just get my hands around his neck and choke him to death.
Taking my time, I reached into Mark’s pockets and plucked out one of the white stones. Quinn’s eyes widened as he gazed upon it.
“I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but this is a difficult stone to make.” He extended his free hand.
Before dropping it into his awaiting palm, I made a last demand. “We want master portal stones, so we can leave this area.”
“Done.” Quinn used his free hand to produce two master portal stones. Once he set them on the ground, next to the top of Mark’s head, I extended the Lotus stone to him, and dropped it in his hand.
Quinn examined the stone, then stuffed it in his pocket and disappeared.
A terrible guilt washed over me. I felt as if I’d given a stone away that wasn’t mine. I had counted on giving the second stone to Manny and his town. Now, Quinn had it and was one step closer to creating the breaker stone.
“You okay?” I asked Mark as we helped him to his feet.
“Yeah,” Mark said holding onto the two portal stones. “We better get out of here before he comes back.”
“Where are we going now?” I asked.
Jin moved closer to us, while he kept glancing down the alley. “We need to go to Cairo.”
Chapter Ten
Fortunately for us, Jackie and Jin both knew of a location near Cairo, so the jump was smooth. I wanted to ask Jackie when the hell she’d been to Cairo, but she’d just respond with, “I’ve been everywhere.”
“Wow,” Leo said.
I followed his gaze over the valley, across the Nile and to the pyramids of Giza. They were shadows in the night, but I could see the scale of them, and all the pictures and videos I’d seen did little to incite the feeling of seeing them with my own eyes.
“Are you telling me we need to go in one of those?” I asked.
“Yes,” Jin said. “The ancient Egyptians knew the power of them and while we don’t totally understand what they were used for, we know what’s in them.”
“What’s in them?” I asked.
“There’s a door only alchemists can open, if you know how,” Jin said.
“A stone-locked door . . . in the pyramid?” Leo asked. “You’ve got to be joking.”
It was strange seeing what the memory stone had done to Leo; what a different person he’d become in those four and a half years. Gone were the deep lines of hatred etched in his face, or his arrogant walk. Now, he had almost a youthful appearance in his eyes, filled with the wonder before him, and the optimism that things were going to be all right. He and Jackie kept grabbing at each other as well, as if they couldn’t wait to be alone. Seeing her happy made me happy.
I felt the same with Mark, but I wondered if I shouldn’t have made two stones, one for each of them. She still held those hard lines of worry on her face. I’m sure Leo saw them as well. In his memory, he only knew her for the wild, fun leader of the Reds who he’d grown to love. This Jackie had changed over the years, and although she was hiding it well, I saw it in her more and more.
Mark reached for my hand and moved closer to me. This place should’ve been a vacation for us. Cairo is a once in a lifetime kind of destination, and getting to share it with Mark made me happy, but I knew we were here on business, not some honeymoon trip.
“The city looks so quiet,” he said.
A few lights were on throughout the city, and some cars traveled down the roads, but it did seem quiet and peaceful in a way.
“So, are we just going to walk up and into the pyramids?” I asked.
“I wish,” Jin said. “That place is crawling with guards. It’d be best if we take the tour in the morning, when they open them back up.” He looked at his phone. “In about seven hours.”
“Seven hours,” Jackie said, looking Leo up and down. “Well, I know what I’m going to do in the meantime.”
“We need stones,” I reminded her, causing Jackie to pout. “I’m sure we can find a store open where we can buy supplies.”
“Great idea,” Jin sa
id.
“And you’ve still got a lot of explaining to do,” Leo said to Jackie. “I’m trying to keep up, but I’m struggling with all of this.”
“Ugh, fine, we can walk and talk, okay?” Jackie said. “I just got to text the Mini’s really quick.”
“The who?” Leo said. “No, don’t text them.”
“Why?” Jackie said.
“I don’t know.” He touched his head. “Something tells me you shouldn’t. It’s dangerous.”
“Fine.” She stuffed her phone back in her pocket.
We walked down the dirt hill and toward the city. Jackie and Leo talked, and I tried to listen in. Jackie spelled out most of it to Leo, but I could tell she was holding back a lot of the parts where Leo was the finger of the queen.
It was nice to hear more about the last four years though. I felt like a caveman being unfrozen, waking in this new world. I didn’t even know who the president was anymore, for Christ’s sake.
“Nothing’s open that I can tell, besides a gas station,” Jin said while looking at his phone. He pointed to the city streets, and sure enough, there was a well-lit gas station about two blocks ahead.
“I’m sure we can find something in there,” Jackie said.
“Oil and kerosene,” Leo said. “Dude, Jackie, you remember when we pranked Ned? He was a Blue who tried to do this power run against me, and Jackie here set up an oil bomb on him. It ended up covering him in oil, then a flour stone exploded and he came out looking like a ghost.”
“Yes, but it was talcum powder,” Jackie said and they both laughed.
I loved hearing Jackie laugh again. I had barely seen a smile on her face since I’d awakened.
We walked down the street and passed a few empty-looking buildings. There were no lights on, but the smell of fire hung in the air, like people were using their fireplaces. There was also a wet smell that seemed to be coming off the streets. Had it just rained?
We approached the gas station that looked like the ones I was used to. One car was parked at the service area, and a man stood next to the pump, holding onto it as we walked by. He looked as if he was going to say something, but when I made eye contact, his eyes narrowed and he looked away.
Jackie and Leo entered first, and the door chimed with a little bell. As Mark and I filed inside, we skimmed the aisles, looking at the various snacks, as Leo and Jackie jumped around, grabbing stuff like kids in a candy shop. Jin went straight for items he thought could be made into stones.
“You doing okay?” Mark asked me.
I laughed. “About as well as I can be, I guess.” I leaned in and whispered, “I feel like a guest in this world. Do you know what I mean?”
“I do, and we are. But we’ll get caught up to speed with time. We’ll make this world ours again.”
“I’d about lose my mind if it wasn’t for you,” I said. He grabbed my hand and I squeezed it. “At least we have Leo in the club now. He seems to know even less than us.”
This time, Mark leaned in. “We’re going to have to ditch them at some point.”
“What? Why?”
“Leo already has bits and pieces of his past flitting in. You hear that comment about no texting the Mini’s? Who knows, he might have total recall at some point, and do we want to be around when that happens?”
I gazed over to Jackie and Leo, laughing as they looked at the display of funnels and oil cans. They were so happy together. Kind of like the couple I caught in the hallway at the academy, but even more so. They were open with their affection now. I wondered if Jackie had put something extra in the stone we’d created. Leo, leader of the Blues, and an asshole by all accounts, seemed like a cool guy who genuinely cared for Jackie. I couldn’t help but warm up to him, yet Mark’s warning rang in my ears.
“Jackie will come with us,” I said.
“She might, but do we want to risk it? And look at Jin. What in the hell is he doing?”
Jin was in the liquor aisle, grabbing tiny shot bottles and cigarettes.
“He’s been there for us so far,” I said, glancing back over at Leo as he laughed at some dolls in the corner of the gas station.
“He’s here for his own end game. I can feel it.”
He might have his own goals, but didn’t we all? I agreed we might have to keep an eye on Leo, but Jin had had their backs in the last couple of fights, not to mention when he freaked out about his dad partnering with Quinn. But he had just lost his father, and I knew what was keeping him from breaking down. Revenge. I felt a kinship with Jin in that. He and I were fueled by the same emotion.
“I vote we stick with them for as long as we can.” I pulled him around to face me. “We need them to make this breaker stone.”
“I don’t know. I have a stone in my pocket that can hide us from them. I say, the next portal stone we get, we bolt. We can make it on our own, just like we always planned.”
“She’ll find us, Mark. Eventually, she will.”
“I’d rather spend the small amount of time I have left with you on a beach somewhere, or in a hotel room.” He winked and I slapped his arm. “Seriously, Allie. I don’t want to spend possibly my last days on Earth in yet another crazy quest around the world. We’ve done this, and made stones for others, and look how it turns out each time. You get hurt.”
He rubbed a thumb over my knuckles and I watched the gesture as I thought about what he’d said. He was right. I’d been hurt by my mother, his mother, Verity, Quinn, and even Jin’s father. They all used me to get what they wanted, no matter who it hurt in the process.
“Let’s talk about this later, okay?”
“Okay, but when it happens, I don’t think we’ll have too much time to—”
“What are you two doing over here, all huddled together?” Jackie said, walking up to us.
“Just plotting your demise,” Mark said.
“I’m sure.” Jackie smiled and looked back at Leo, who was talking with Jin next to the motor oil. “I can’t believe I have him back. It so surreal.” She shook her head and turned to us with a giggle. “He doesn’t even remember we’ve had sex. He thinks he’s still a virgin. How cute is that?”
Mark and I stood quietly, not able to look at each other.
“Oh shit! That’s right, you two have never . . . with anyone?” she asked, looking for us to answer. When we didn’t, she pushed on. “Don’t worry. We’ll remedy that on this trip.” She pulled out her phone and walked away.
“She’s so weird,” Mark said with a smile. “What do you think she’s up to?”
“She’s an enigma. Who knows?”
The clerk behind the counter yelled at us, but I couldn’t understand his language.
I tried to apologize and shrugged my shoulders, trying to show I didn’t understand.
“Americans?” he asked.
“Yes.”
His demeanor changed and he smiled. “Oh, welcome to Egypt, my friends.”
“Thank you. It’s a beautiful city.”
“And you have beautiful friends with you. Like family, I can see it. Nothing is more important than family,” the man said, collecting the different items we put on the counter as we walked up. “You know, if I could spend just one more minute with my mother, I’d give my right arm. So, cherish these days. Cherish those around you.”
“Thank you,” I said. “We will.”
He scanned the rest of the items and bagged them up. “Okay, now you buy.”
“Yes, good sir, now we buy.” Leo pulled out a thin wallet and opened it. “What are these?” he muttered, as a series of pictures in his wallet unfolded. They were all different women, and each one looked scared. But even more creepy, they all looked similar to Jackie.
Leo dropped his wallet to the floor and his face went white. He then ran out of the store and Jackie rushed after him.
Jin quickly stepped up and held out a thin stack of bills.
“I hope your friend is okay,” the man said as Jin gathered up the bags.
I went over and picked up the pictures and Leo’s wallet.
“Is this the kind of person we want sleeping near us?” Mark asked, gesturing to the creep-tastic photos in my hand.
“He’s gone back in time, before my mother got her hands on him. He’s changed, Mark. I believe he can choose another path now,” I said.
“She’s right,” the clerk said. “People can change, if you only give them a chance.”
Mark ignored the clerk and walked with me out of the gas station. “Some say we have but one path in life.”
“I don’t believe that. We make a choice every day, as to the direction we’re going to take. The road has many forks.”
We rushed out to the parking lot where Jackie was holding Leo against her chest, patting his head. “It’s okay, Leo,” she cooed.
“It’s not. Those pictures . . . Why do I have those in my wallet? They looked like you, but they were terrified. Why were they so scared?”
“Just something the queen probably planted on you is all,” Jackie soothed. “That’s why we brought you back to your old self. So you could start over.”
The pity and love in her eyes told me Mark was right. We might have to leave the very person who’d saved us. If Leo continued to be triggered by his past, how long until it became his reality?
“I think we should find a place to work for the night, while we wait for the park to open,” Jin said, looking at his phone with the bags hanging from his elbow. “There’s a motel just down the street.”
We all agreed and walked to the motel. Well, maybe not a motel, but a shack with a bunch of doors. A place that probably hid others who also didn’t want attention. Even the guy at the desk never looked up, until Jin handed him a hundred-dollar bill. After that, he was more than gracious, even though he didn’t speak a word of English.
“This place is disgusting,” Jackie whined as she entered the room.
“Hey, two beds,” I said. “And a TV.” A tube TV, like the kind my old lady neighbor had.
We pulled the end table next to the bed, then set up a mixing station.
Mark and Jackie took lead on creating the stones. I watched from the other side of the table, as each stone came to life in the bowl. The entire process still fascinated me, and I enjoyed watching others do it for a change.
