“I still don’t think I’m fully getting this,” Cali says.
I know she is, but I’ll tell her again anyway. I squeeze her hand a couple of times and wait until she looks me in the eye again before I speak.
“It means that if you are my Extensios, and I have to leave here, you would come with me and leave everything behind. The apartment, your clothes, your friends, Matt.... and Mickey.”
Cali’s face shows betrayal. I just became the bad guy. I knew this would be her reaction. Even though I tried to prepare myself for it, it doesn’t change the spear of pain that goes through my chest. Her eyes are wet and unfocused, she’s looking through me, not at me.
“Cali, look at me please,” I say. Her gaze recenters on mine.
“This is why I can’t ask you to do this. Why I won’t let you do this. You and Mickey are made for each other, you’re soulmates. And I can’t ask you to leave her. I won’t.”
I wait for my roommate to say something. I’m expecting her to say she’s sorry but she can’t, how dare I make her choose me over Mickey, that I can just get out right now. I see her mouth begin to open, I steel myself anticipating the worst.
We’re both startled when my phone rings before Cali can say anything. I take it off of my nightstand and see Matt’s face lighting up the screen. I turn it so Cali can see and she gives me a signal to answer it. I swipe the screen and tap on it to turn on speaker phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hey, what are you up to?” I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face at hearing his voice, the warmth that fills my chest.
“I’m running some errands, and I was thinking of you. I had a really great time yesterday.”
“Yeah, me too.” I feel heat rush to my cheeks as I flush remembering my night with Matt. I bite my lip to stop my smile from getting bigger. I’m conscious of Cali sitting next to me and the conversation we were just having.
“So, um, I was thinking maybe tomorrow after work we could get some dinner? Are you free?”
I look at my roommate and don’t know what to say. We had just been talking about her possibly having to leave her girlfriend, and her best friend calls to ask me out again.
“Lex? You there?”
“Yeah, yes I’m here. Actually, tomorrow I was going to hang out with Cali.” I look at my roommate with purpose and mouth, “What do I do?”
“Yeah, Moose,” Cali chimes in saving me. “And right now you are interrupting our roommate day. Rude.”
“Begging your pardon, Captain Squirrel,” Matt deadpans. “I forgot about that sorry, sir. Um, permission to request a call back at a later time. Sir!”
“Granted, Major Moose. At ease, ten-four. Over and out.”
Matt laughs, “Aye-aye Captain. Call me later, Lex. Bye guys.”
“Bye,” we both say before Cali ends the call.
She stands to put the phone back on my nightstand and begins pacing at the foot of my bed. She runs her hands through her auburn hair again. The atmosphere in the room immediately changes from the light-hearted banter between friends back to the serious, life-altering one from before.
“Can I see the box again?” Cali asks.
I take the key from around my neck, unlock the box, replace the key under my shirt and hand the open box to Cali. She takes out the money and puts it on the bed. Then she takes the letter from my mother and places it next to the stack of bills. Next, she takes out and lines up my previous identities: Janice Laurels from Cincinnati, Ohio; Christie Fields from Mesa, Arizona; and, Frankie Rolland from Boise, Idaho. She puts each ID on the bed spaced out evenly.
Thankfully, she doesn’t realize that there is a false bottom to the box. I’m still hiding things from her, and I don’t know if she would view that as another betrayal or another bombshell she has to try and wrap her head around. I don’t even know if I’m willing to find out the answer to that just yet.
“Okay, let’s do this bit by bit,” she says.
“Okay.”
“What is the money for?”
“Every time I go to the ATM, I take out another twenty or forty bucks and put it in the box. Or I’ll throw in the change from a trip to Roast. It’s my “just in case money.” If I have to take off quickly, it’s so that I would have at least some cash with me.
“Last time I went to the ATM though, I took out almost all of what’s in my account because I know Darius is closer to finding me than ever before. I don’t know when he’ll get here, but it’ll be soon. And if I can’t beat him this time, I’m going to have to leave again or else risk putting everyone I care about in danger.”
“Okay, that I understand.” Cali takes the money and puts all of it back in the box. She points now to the fake IDs.
“Why so many?”
I take a deep breath before I answer her, “For the last five years, Milo and I have traveled the country searching for the right place, for the location of The Book. I’ve used different identities in each place. I rotated those three for a long time and only started using the Alexa identity when I got here.
“As soon as I got here and I saw the library, I knew this was the place that my mother was talking about in her letter. She had to be both detailed and vague in case it was stolen or somehow ended up in Darius’s hands. But I knew.”
“So the fake identities were so that Darius wouldn’t know where you were or when that was?”
“Right.”
“But you said you and him are connected.”
“We are, but only when I actively use my powers. Before I turned eighteen, my powers were bound, hidden by a potion and spell. Since then I’ve had to use every ounce of self-control to make sure I don’t accidentally use my powers.”
Cali looks at me unsure.
“I guess I’m not explaining it right. It’s like a signal flare. Whenever I use my powers, we connect and he knows where I am, and I know where he is. Like for example, my transport power. If I held your hand and Milo’s collar and transported us to a certain place, he’d get a blip like on a radar map of where I left from and where I showed up. The connection is lost once either of us goes dark, or stops using our powers.”
“So when you “power down,” so to speak, neither of you can sense each other. But when you’re both active, you can?”
“Basically. I mean, I think so. I’ve only ever used my powers twice in my life, so this is all still new to me too.”
Cali puts the IDs back in the box and gently places my mother’s letter on top. She closes the box and runs her fingers over the inscription.
“Hope will heal the world,” she says again. Her face brightens as if a light bulb just turned on in her brain. Instead of addressing her possible realization, she hands me back the box and says, “Let’s talk some more about Extensios.”
Cali resumes her pacing as I lock the box and tuck the key under my shirt. I don’t know exactly what my roommate is going to say, so I wait and let her take the lead.
“So if I go with you, it would really be only until Darius is dead, right?”
“Uhh, yeah,” I say before quietly mumbling, “or I’m dead.”
“That’s not going to happen, Lex. If I go with you, I’d do everything I could so that he wouldn’t win.”
“But Cali, it could be weeks, months, or even years that you’d be away. You don—”
“I could help you save the world.”
I stop and watch her as she grasps what she just said.
“People do things every day that they hope will save the world. They recycle, they ride a bike or take public transit instead of driving, they sponsor charities that provide clean drinking water, whatever. How many times does someone actually get to do something that they know will save the world?”
“Not that often, I guess,” I shrug trying not to influence Cali’s decision. I am not Darius, I will not force her.
“But, just because Darius, his Victus, and demons would be gone from the earth, it doesn
’t mean that bad things would just stop happening. Cali, people did bad things long before Darius got here, and they’ve done bad things while he’s been here without an ounce of his influence.”
I’m literally playing devil’s advocate right now, I think.
“Saving the world from Darius doesn’t just fix everything that’s going wrong right now, Cal. It gives everyone else the chance to.”
● 49 ●
Our back and forth about Cali becoming an Extensios is interrupted again by a phone ringing. This time it’s Mickey checking in with Cali in between sessions. My roommate steps into the hall to talk privately with her girlfriend. I catch snippets of the conversation, but I do hear her ask if the tall brunette would be staying over tonight.
“Good, then I’ll see you later baby. I love you,” Cali says coming back into my bedroom. She ends the call and tucks the phone into the waistband of her sweats.
“She’ll be done in about three hours. She said she’s going to stop at her place and then come here.”
I’m sitting on my bed. Cali comes over and steps right up to me. Her green eyes bore into my own hazel ones. She puts her hands on my shoulders.
“Lex,” she says purposely. “I want to help you. Let me help you. I understand what I’m saying and what it means, but I can’t let you do this alone. We’re in this together.”
“Cali, how can I let you do this though? You could die. And it would be my fault. I couldn’t live with that.”
She spins away frustrated.
“Ugh! Everyone is going to die someday, Lex! And if I do, it’ll be no one’s fault other than that fucking demon!”
She lets out a deep exhale and comes back to put her hands back on my shoulders. When she speaks, her voice is calmer, almost pleading.
“I understand the desire you have to try and keep me safe, to keep everyone safe. I really do. You said you’ve been doing it every day for the last five years. But I respectfully decline your protection and request to be right there beside you kicking some major magical ass!”
I don’t know what to say. I know that I can’t do this alone. But allowing Cali to put herself in danger like this goes against every rule I’ve put in place for the people I love. My mind is warring with itself. I put my head in my hands and try to massage the tension out of my temples.
“Are you sure? Like really sure that you’re okay with what it means to be my Extensios and everything it entails?”
“Yes, I am. But I have two conditions.”
Crap. I was worried about something like this. That I might be viewed like a genie and can give Cali the permanent ability to fly or something.
“Okaaay....” I say hesitantly. “What are they?”
“You have to tell Moose.”
That’s not what I was expecting. “What?”
“He has to know. You guys are starting a relationship, he’s head over heels for you, Lex. He deserves to know. Especially if you think we’ll have to leave here soon.”
“He’s head over heels? Really?”
“Oh my god, yes. And obviously, you are too. So you have to tell him.”
“Okay.” I bookmark the fact that Matt is falling for me to think about later.
“The other condition is I have to tell Mickey.” I open my mouth ready to protest but Cali holds her hand up stopping me. “That is non-negotiable. I’m not saying I have to tell her right now, but just like Moose, she deserves to know.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” I stand up and start to pace around my room. “This is getting complicated.”
“I know. So. When are we gonna do this?”
“Do what?”
Cali looks at me like I’m an idiot.
“Umm, what we’ve just been talking about for the last few hours?”
“I don’t know. Tomorrow? I work until eight tomorrow night, so maybe we can sneak back in and go to the climate-controlled storage after the library closes? I want to have The Book right in front of me so I don’t accidentally turn you into a lizard or something.”
“Yeah, please don’t turn me into a lizard,” she deadpans. “I mean, if you’re going to turn me into anything, make it an elephant or a honey badger, you know? Something formidable.”
It’s not that funny of a joke, but Cali’s delivery is the levity that the moment needs.
“Tomorrow,” Cali says. “Okay. Personally, I think you should make Moose into an Extensios too, but that’s up to him. He should at least be there with us tomorrow night.”
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The most important thing we have to remember is this: as soon as I use my powers, Darius will know exactly where we are. Like latitude and longitude GPS coordinates exactly.”
“Right, but at that point, you’ll know exactly where he is too. Right?”
“As long as everything I’ve been told proves true, yes.”
Cali picks up the pages I ripped from Sam’s notepad. She reads the Extensios columns through start to finish. She puts the pages back down on the bed then walks out of my bedroom.
“Where are you going?” I call after her.
“I need more room,” she answers.
Milo and I leave my bedroom to find Cali in the living room pushing the couch and coffee table from the middle of the room up against a wall. She goes into her bedroom and comes out a moment later. In her hands are a plastic case and giant pad of sketch paper that would look more at home on a kindergarten teacher’s easel. She plops the pad down, tosses me the case, and goes into my room to get my notebook and papers.
I open the plastic case and it is full of oversized permanent markers. Cali crouches on the floor and opens to a fresh page on the oversized pad.
“Red,” she says looking down at the paper and holding one hand in the air. I search through the markers and hand her the red one. When she uncaps it, I expect the telltale pungent smell of permanent ink but am met with a pleasant synthetic strawberry smell instead.
“Scented?” I ask as I sit down facing my roommate, a few feet between us. I hold up a blue which I hope is blueberry.
Cali mindlessly, “Mm-hms” as she writes something on the pad. She turns the pad around and has written DARIUS in all capital letters at the top and underlined it. She tears off the sheet and puts it in front of her on the left.
“Green,” she says, hand out again. Mint. I hand her the green marker. She turns the pad around and writes ALEXA at the top, underlines it and tears off the page putting it on the right.
“Yellow.” Lemon. A sheet with EXTENSIOS written across it lands in front of me.
“Black.” Licorice.
The pad flops to the floor in front of Cali, blank. The uncapped black marker in her left hand perched above it ready to go.
“Actually we don’t need this yet.” Cali covers the marker and tosses it back to me. She puts the ALEXA paper on top on the pad and grabs the green marker from the floor.
“Okay. We have a couple of hours until Mickey gets here. Let’s spell everything out and make a plan for tomorrow. Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, tell me your powers.”
I tell Cali and she writes all seven of them down with bullet points. She switches out the sheets and places down DARIUS, exchanges the green marker for the red.
“His powers?”
“That’s where it gets a little murky. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have projection or super senses, and I know he doesn’t have transport. But other than that I don’t know.”
Cali writes all of that down. She tosses it on top of my sheet. Next up is EXTENSIOS in yellow.
“Now, we’ll do all of this in English, just to be safe,” Cali smirks at me. I roll my eyes in response.
“So what do you do to make me an Extensios?”
“I close my eyes and chant three times ‘By choice, my power I gift to thee.’ Then I say something about what powers I’m giving you. After that I reach out and touch your head, and say again ‘I gift to thee,’ Y
our body will glow... I think.”
She glances up from the paper to give me an incredulous look. I throw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know! I’ve never done it before!”
“Okay, take a breath. So... I glow, then what?”
“Then I let go of you,” I shrug. “And when you stop glowing, you’re an Extensios.”
“And I’ll be able to move things with my mind?”
“Telekinesis, yeah.”
My Name Is Not Alexa Pearce Page 28
