“Don't ask questions you have no business asking,” It hissed. “I'll tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it.”
The pain eased, but Gina wondered if perhaps It didn't know the answer to her question. The anger she'd felt was tinged with something she was pretty sure was frustration.
She didn't dare voice her opinion, however, and forced herself to think of other things as she got to her feet. If she focused, she could hide her thoughts to a degree, and she didn't need It knowing about her doubts.
They didn't matter anyway. Nothing mattered but the end goal. The power. The control.
“Of course,” she said instead. “I'll do whatever you ask. You know that.”
“Then get back to town,” It said. “Time is short and I need to feed.”
Gina smiled and got into the car. The cloak and dagger stuff was boring, but the feeding part? That was kind of fun.
She put the car in gear and sped off down the driveway, heedless of the dust and gravel she sprayed in her wake.
The next morning, the entire group gathered at the Victorian. Maia wasn't entirely sure what it all was about. She'd fallen asleep before Miranda had come home the night before, and in the morning, she'd simply said they were having a group meeting. She'd actually called it an Assembly of The Order but Maia wasn't quite to the point where she felt comfortable using archaic titles of mystical unknown origins.
Chloe, ever the gracious host, handed out cups of coffee before settling down on the floor in front of Ethan, who sat in the armchair. Maia, Beck, and Wren took the couch, and Miranda pulled in a chair from the dining table, but didn't bother sitting, instead pacing back and forth, nervous energy almost palpable in the room.
“Are you going to tell us what this is all about?” Maia finally asked her.
Miranda let the drama build for a moment, then, with a flourish, dropped a book onto the center of the table.
Chloe popped up on her knees. “Is that . . .” She snatched the book, instantly recognizing the cover. “Where did you get this?”
“I went to see Professor Kennedy last night. Turns out, I'm the newest Scribe.”
“Wait, what?” Wren asked. “What's a Scribe? What are you talking about?”
Miranda explained about their visit the day before, about the journal and Seers and Scribes and The Order, or what they knew of it now. And how the professor’s brother was the previous Scribe.
“And get this,” she said, focused on Chloe. “The previous Seer was named Therese.”
Chloe's breath caught. “My mom?” Everyone was quiet, watching as she absorbed that information.
“But wait . . .” she said, standing up to lean forward on the table. “Aunt Cara said my mom had . . . feelings . . . you know, like me. But she never said anything about a chest or The Order or anything like that.”
“Maybe your mom didn't see that it would be an issue,” Miranda replied. “Or maybe she would have explained it when you were older and she just . . . didn't get a chance.”
Chloe swallowed and nodded, a flash of sadness crossing her features.
Miranda cleared her throat and turned to pace across the room and back. “According to the journal, the number of people in The Order fluctuates in proportion to the upcoming threat. At the time your mom was the Seer, it was only her and Liam, the Scribe. No major threat. Their job was to keep an eye on things, just in case.”
“So, if there was no threat, there was no reason to think the rest of The Order would be called in, or whatever,” Ethan said.
“Right.” Miranda walked back to the table and placed her hands on her hips. “In fact, it's rare for there to be more than two or three members at any given time. Only twice in the history of The Order, from what I’ve found from reading the journal, has there ever been a group larger than five.”
“There are five of us already,” Wren pointed out.
“And more on the way,” Chloe said. “At least two, that I've seen, although I have no idea who they are or even what they look like. I've only seen them from a distance.”
Maia cleared her throat. “And if the size of The Order is proportionate to the size of the threat . . .”
“That's a pretty big threat,” Beck said.
Maia threw up her hands. “But we don't even know what it is we're fighting! How in the world do you defeat a pillar of body snatching black smoke?”
“We know more about it than we think,” Beck said quietly. “It's been inside me. I know it pretty intimately.”
“Right.” Miranda jabbed a finger at him and sat back down. “That's an advantage. Beck was able to fight it off. We can use that.”
“This is insane,” Maia exclaimed. “How are we supposed to fight some ancient evil?”
Miranda counted off on her fingers. “You train. You plan. You work together. And you rely on Chloe's visions to guide you.”
Everyone sat back down, silence settling in the room.
“So, where do we train?” Wren asked. “I don't think the back yard here is big enough, and the park's too out in the open.”
Ethan hummed. “The school? There's swim practice in the morning, but other than that, nothing much is happening over break. The stadium won't work, but the practice field is surrounded by trees and out of sight from the main roads.”
Chloe nodded slowly. “It'd have to be after dark. Maybe eight?”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Beck, slapping a hand on the table as he got to his feet. “Now, how about breakfast? We can't save the world on an empty stomach.”
Late that night, Chloe made a call.
“Hello?”
“Aunt Cara?”
“Chloe?” Her aunt's voice went from sleepy to alert in one word. “What is it? What's wrong? Are you okay?”
“I'm fine.” She glanced at her clock with a wince. “Sorry it's so late.”
Aunt Cara muffled a yawn. “Don't be ridiculous. You can call me anytime. How's school?”
“Fine. Good.”
“Miranda?”
“She's good,” Chloe replied. “We have a new roommate, too. Maia. She's a grad student.”
“Oh, that's nice.”
The silence hung on for a moment. “Chloe, what's going on?”
She sighed. “I have to ask you something.”
“All right.”
“Did my mom—” Chloe tried to organize her thoughts. “Tell me about my mom.”
“What . . . what do you want to know?”
“She had—feelings—like me.”
“Yes,” Aunt Cara replied slowly. “Her intuition was unusually strong. Like yours. We've talked about this before.”
“I know, but—” Chloe chewed on her lip. “What kinds of things did she do, or know, or whatever?”
“Well, let's see.” She could hear a rustling sound, like her aunt was getting comfortable. “Most of it was just little stuff—grabbing an umbrella when there were clear skies because she had a feeling it was going to rain, that kind of thing.”
“And she was right?”
Aunt Cara laughed. “Yeah, yeah she usually was.”
“Did she—Did she ever have visions?”
The line was quiet, and Chloe could hear her aunt's quiet breaths.
“Aunt Cara?”
“I'm here. Sorry.” She sighed. “Therese—She told me you'd ask this someday.”
Chloe froze, her stomach swooping. “She did?”
“I can't tell you much,” Aunt Cara said. “Therese didn't tell me much. She said it was for my own protection, whatever that means. But she did say that one day you'd ask about visions, and she made me memorize what to tell you when you did.”
Chloe swallowed, her throat thick. “And what is that?”
“The Order is real,” she replied. “You are the Seer. Trust your instincts and rely on your friends. It's the only way to defeat the darkness.”
A chill ran over Chloe's skin. “Is that it?”
“That's it,” Aunt Cara sai
d, and Chloe could hear the worry in her voice. “Do you know what it means?”
“I think so.”
“Chloe, I don't like this. What darkness? What's going on?”
Chloe let out a heavy breath. “I'm not completely sure, just yet. But I'm okay. I promise.”
“Maybe I should come out there—”
“You have to trust me,” Chloe said, almost desperately. She couldn't do what she needed to do and worry about protecting Aunt Cara at the same time. “I'm okay. I'm safe.”
“Are you sure?”
“I'm fine,” Chloe said, willing her aunt to believe her. “Mom wouldn't have given you the message if she thought I couldn't handle things, right?”
Aunt Cara hesitated, but finally said, “I suppose. I still don't like it.”
Chloe couldn't blame her.
“Promise me, if you need help you'll call,” her aunt demanded.
“I promise.”
“Chloe—”
“I promise.” It wasn't really a lie. Her aunt couldn't offer the kind of help Chloe needed anyway. “And I'll see you at Christmas.”
“You're bringing Miranda?”
“Of course, and her mom,” Chloe replied. “And maybe Maia, too, if she doesn't have other plans.”
“The more the merrier.” Aunt Cara yawned again. “Love you, girl.”
“Love you, too.”
She hung up, knowing neither one of them would get much sleep that night, her mother's words repeating over and over again in her mind as she lay there in the dark.
“That's so freaky. Doesn't matter how many times I see it,” Miranda said, eyes darting from Maia's invisible hands to the stopwatch in her own. “Five minutes. That's the longest yet.”
Maia nodded and relaxed, her hands appearing almost instantly. They'd been at it for over an hour and she'd gone from going totally invisible to practicing with different parts of her body.
“I still don't know what good it is,” she said, sitting next to Miranda on her bed. “I mean, what use are invisible hands when fighting a . . . whatever it is we're fighting.”
Miranda frowned and leaned back on her hands. “Maybe you should try making something else disappear.”
“Something else?”
Miranda shrugged. “Wren brought Beck into her time-freeze by touching him. Maybe you can do something similar.”
Maia stood up and walked slowly around the room before picking up a pen off the desk. “This maybe?”
She nodded. “Probably good to start small.”
Maia hefted the pen in her flattened palm, then gripped it tightly, and opened her hand again. “Any idea how I should go about doing this?”
Miranda huffed out a laugh. “Like I should know?” She sat up and clicked the button on the stopwatch a few times as she thought. “You said you could feel your gift, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And you can direct it to various parts of your body now, so you know what it feels like to control it.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“So then, you just let it . . . go, maybe?”
“Let it go,” Maia said with a doubtful glance at the pen.
“Hey, if you've got a better idea . . .” She tossed the watch on the bed.
Maia sighed. “I don't. Here goes nothing.”
“That's the spirit!” Miranda grinned.
Maia shot her a halfhearted glare, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the electric hum deep inside her, like she'd been taught. She could hear Miranda's sharp intake of breath and knew that she'd vanished, but instead of opening her eyes, she did what Miranda had suggested—envisioned the power flowing through her limbs and out her fingertips. Felt it running through her nerve endings, rippling along her skin, and out into the world.
“Maia—”
The pen clutched tightly in her fist, it became almost a part of her. In fact, everything seemed to be part of her—a chain of links from Maia to the pen to the room to the—where did it stop? Instead of growing weaker, the longer she let her gift flow, the stronger it seemed to get. On and on . . . until the ripples became rushing waters and then a surging, raging tide.
“Maia!”
Her eyes flew open and she was met by Miranda's shocked gaze.
“What?” she asked.
“What?” Miranda's mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “What? she says. Look!” She pointed to the mirror and it took a moment for Maia to understand what she was seeing.
She was gone. So was the pen. And so was half the room.
Maia could see through the walls to her own bedroom behind her and off to her right, the wall had vanished, revealing the yard and the neighbor's house beyond. The floor was gone in a jagged hole under her feet—empty space through the first floor and at least a yard below that where dirt and rocks formed the edge of her influence.
“Whoa.”
“Yeah, whoa,” Miranda said with a snort. “Um, can you bring back the room, please?”
Maia hadn't even realized the power was still pulsing through her. She pulled it back, breathing steadily and watching in the mirror as the walls and floor reappeared, then her body shimmered into existence, the pen still gripped in her hand.
“Well, that was interesting,” Maia said.
“Interesting, shminteresting,” Miranda said, getting up from the bed. “Take my hand and make me disappear.”
Maia pulled back. “What? I don't know—”
“Oh, come on. You can do it.”
“But with a person?” Maia stepped back again and bumped into the wall. “What if I can't bring you back?”
“Maia. Stop.” Miranda grabbed her shoulders. “It's just like the pen. Come on, you made half the room disappear. You can handle lil ol' me.”
Maia let out a heavy breath and took Miranda's hand.
It was easier than she'd thought it would be.
A few minutes later, Chloe appeared in the doorway and knocked on the frame, gasping at what she saw—or, actually, didn't see—in the room.
“Hello?” she called out, unwilling to walk in over the invisible floor.
Maia pulled back her power, and the room reappeared, followed by Miranda and herself, her cousin gripping her hand tightly.
“That's—” Chloe was at a loss for words.
“Amazing!” Miranda finished, twirling around before she collapsed on the bed. “Amazing is what it is. I mean, it's so weird being on that side, you know? Because I could see me—and you—” she pointed to Maia. “—but you couldn't see us!” She pointed at Chloe. “What a cool power. I'm totally jealous.”
Chloe entered the room, placing each foot gingerly on the floor like she half expected it to disappear before her eyes. “You seem to have gotten the hang of it quickly,” she told Maia.
She shrugged. “Once I figured out what it felt like, it was pretty easy.”
Chloe nodded. “Right.”
“Something wrong?” Miranda asked, propping her head on her fist. “You seem weird.”
“I called Aunt Cara last night,” she replied. “Asked her about my mom.”
“About her being the Seer?” Miranda sat up, her attention captured. “What did she say?”
Chloe relayed the message her mother had sent from beyond the grave.
“Wow,” Maia said, dropping into Miranda's desk chair. “So it's all true.”
“It seems so,” Chloe replied.
“And that's all she said?” Miranda asked. “The Order is real. You're the Seer . . . blah blah blah. Not very useful, is it?” She winced at her own tone. “Sorry.”
Chloe shrugged. “I can't say I hadn't hoped for something a little more helpful,” she admitted. “But all I can assume is that she told me what she could. What she believed I needed to hear to go forward.”
Miranda reached out and squeezed her hand. “She was right,” she said. “You know now that it's true. That you're the Seer. So, we know we can trust your visions and what's in the journal.”
“And now we can make a plan,” Maia added. “Train and prepare, just like we said.”
Chloe nodded. “Right,” she said, her own confidence boosted by that of her friends. “Exactly. Now, we move forward and we do what needs to be done.”
The three of them exchanged a look.
“Which is what, exactly?” Miranda asked.
Chloe sighed. “I have no idea.”
It only took a few moments for them all to burst into laughter, breaking the tension.
“Guess we'll figure it out as we go along,” Maia said.
By the time eight o'clock rolled around, Maia wasn't sure if there was anything she couldn't make disappear. After she'd blinked Miranda out of sight and back a half dozen times, she'd practiced with additional items: the desk and chair, the bed, the couch in the living room. Pretty soon, she could control other things as easily as her own body. And she didn't even have to touch them—at least not with a hand. As far as she could tell, anything that was in contact with her body—via the floor, the wall, the air—she could affect, although she wasn't certain just how far she could reach with her power.
It was something she was looking forward to trying at the practice field where she'd be less limited in what she could make disappear.
She was pretty sure if the whole house vanished, the neighbors might take notice.
But the field was relatively isolated, tucked behind the college campus and surrounded on three sides by trees. As long as nobody took a late night trip out to take a jog around the field, the group should have no problems training undisturbed.
It was fully dark by the time they arrived, but the security lights had kicked on, providing enough visibility for them to work without drawing attention.
When Maia and Miranda arrived, Chloe and Ethan were standing in the middle of the field, talking quietly. They didn't notice them at first, and Ethan reached up and stroked her cheek, kissing her softly. Maia felt uncomfortable trespassing on such an intimate moment, but Miranda had no such qualms.
She cleared her throat loudly. “Hey, get a room!”
Super Powers: The New Super Humans, Book Two Page 12
