by K. J. McPike
Success
I woke to the sound of my phone shrieking. Using my hand to feel for it, I hit the button to silence the piercing noise and forced my eyes open.
It was Cade calling.
I let out a groan and tossed the phone onto my comforter beside me. I still hadn’t figured out how I was going to convince him to help, and I was still mad about him throwing me under the bus in front of Lali. I dropped my arm over my face, blocking out the sunlight that snuck in through the crack in my curtains. I needed a minute to wake up before I could deal with him.
The phone dinged again, this time with a text. With a sigh, I peeled my eyes open and read the message on the screen.
Are you going to leave me at Delta’s forever?
My brow bunched. He was the one who insisted on staying at that house all day, every day. Now he was complaining about it?
I kneaded my forehead. It was probably his way of forcing me to talk to him. I was sure he’d try to convince me that what he’d done yesterday was for my benefit, but there was nothing he could say to justify his attempt to scare away the only friend I had. I wanted to say as much to his face, but I still needed him to tell me where the alternate transposers were. For now, I would have to seethe in silence.
Tossing aside my blanket, I forced myself out of bed to throw on a shirt and shorts. I projected to Delta’s house and found Cade pacing the flower-smothered living room. He stopped short when he saw me.
“Nephew,” he said, throwing me with his pleading expression. “Listen to me.”
Seeing his face only increased my urge to shout at him. I inhaled slowly before speaking. “Listen to what?”
“I only did what I did because I want you to stay focused. I told you from the beginning that girl would be a distraction, and now you want to run off on a dangerous mission with her and get yourself killed. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Then why can’t you come with us? Or tell us where to find another transposer so—”
“Will you just try trusting me for once?” He threw his arms out behind him, nearly knocking the lamp off one of the end tables. “We both know I can’t trust you.”
I blinked twice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I know about Delta.” The room seemed to shrink. How long had he known? “Solstice told me everything. Apparently, she is the only one I can count on to be honest.”
Well, that was rich. After she’d lied to Lali and me about the portal, now she had my uncle convinced she was the trustworthy one. Was that why Cade outed me? Because he was angry I’d lied to him?
“All I’m asking is that you let me keep you safe,” he said. “I didn’t spend years trying to find you just to lose you.” His statement took me back to my first week living with him.
“I didn’t spend years trying to find you just to lose you.” My uncle’s hand is heavy on my shoulder as he whispers to me. But he isn’t looking at me. His eyes are on the old lady at the gas pump across from us. “If you don’t do this, I can’t afford to keep you.”
My legs are fidgety, ready to carry me in the opposite direction. “But what if I get caught?” I ask.
“You won’t.” His voice is stern. “I told you, you’re not doing anything wrong. You just have to run to the other side of that gas pump and pretend to hurt yourself. But not until I say go. We have to wait until just before she puts her credit card in the machine.”
I feel like I’m at the top of a roller coaster about to go pummeling toward the ground far below. I don’t want to steal, but I don’t want to go to a foster home, either. Cade says everything will be okay if we can just get this lady’s credit card. He says he’ll always do whatever he has to do to take care of me, and I know he means it. He doesn’t really want to steal, either, but it’s the only way he can keep taking care of me. So when he says go, I run as fast as I can toward the gas pump.
“Will you just take me back home?” Cade asked, jarring me back to the present. “I’m exhausted, and I want to be in my own house. All these flowers have given me a constant migraine.”
I studied him, upset with myself for letting this whole screwed up situation hurt our relationship. Even if we didn’t agree about the best approach to get to Alea, I knew he was only trying to protect me. He was always trying to protect me. Maybe if I let him know that I understood that, we could come up with a safer approach together.
Wiping my palms on my shorts, I nodded and took his wrist. When we appeared back at the house, he started toward the kitchen.
“Uncle Cade.” He stopped walking and turned to face me again. “I get that you don’t want me to get hurt,” I said, leaning on the glass table between us. “And I appreciate that. Really. But Lali said the guards asked her for her name and took her straight to the lab, so we know they won’t just open fire on you. And your name would still be in their database, right? You can tell them what happened. They can’t hold it against you.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not discussing this anymore. I told you, it’s too dangerous.”
“Not if you come with me. Just give them your name and start talking. I can grab one of their necklaces while they’re distracted. It’ll only take a second.”
“Think about what you’re saying. How would they recognize me? I’ve been in this realm for two decades. I’ve aged. They probably won’t even believe I’m an Astralis, and I’d have no way to prove it.”
“Then I’ll get you out of there if it goes badly,” I promised.
“I’m not going to risk our lives when I know the odds of us both making it are terrible.”
“So what then?” I huffed. “You want to waste more time trying to find Ori and Ursula? How long’s it going to take for you to realize we’re never going to find them?”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Cade pointed his index finger at me. “Last night Solstice told me Delta admitted she knows where to find Ori.”
I had to fight to keep from losing my temper. “And you believe her? After she lied to Lali about where to find the portal?” Since he seemed to know about everything else, I assumed he knew about that, too.
Cade snorted. “She only did that because she’s the only one who seems to understand that going back to Alea without our powers is senseless.”
Of course. Now that my uncle was Team Solstice, he was going to justify everything she did. But even if Solstice was telling the truth and we found Ori today, I didn’t want to spend another round of forever going on more wild goose chases to try and find Ursula, too. Especially not when we had a much faster option right at our fingertips.
I took a deep breath. “But Uncle Cade, even if we find Ori, we’re still short one. And we have another way to get to Kala.” Why didn’t he want to admit that my approach was the fastest way to get my sister back? I couldn’t stop the suspicion from creeping in that all he’d truly wanted was to restore his ability. I tried to force it away, but it lingered like hot oil in my stomach.
“Please, just try it this way,” I urged. The blank look in his eyes told me I wasn’t making any headway. I had to say something to get him to consider it at least. Since he was so big on alternating our efforts between his way and my way, I decided to offer another compromise. “If I can’t get one of the necklaces, I’ll go back to doing things your way.”
His face didn’t even twitch. “I’m not going to agree to something I know could very well get us both killed.”
Fire ripped through me. Why was he the only one who was allowed to suggest switching between approaches? I was begging here, and he wasn’t even trying to work with me.
“Fine,” I snapped. “We’ll do it on our own then.” I closed my eyes and pictured Lali.
“Would you listen—”
I projected away before he could finish his sentence. If he wasn’t going to cooperate, I wasn’t going to waste my time.
I appeared in Lali’s room, telling myself she’d have positive news even though she hadn’t called.
With any luck, her siblings had developed their abilities and would be able to help us.
“Have you checked the transposer?” I asked by way of greeting.
She crossed her arms and leaned back against the headboard of her bed. “Yes. It’s surrounded.”
I cursed under my breath. How could we have been so close just to have it ripped away? Was there no justice? “Cade still won’t help us,” I grumbled. “He won’t tell me where the other transposers are, and he won’t agree to come with me to Alea.”
I briefly considered dragging him along against his will, but it wouldn’t work if he refused to go along with the plan. If he didn’t tell them his name, he’d really get us killed.
“So what now?” Lali asked.
We hope your siblings can help us somehow. I knew Lali would have mentioned it if she had found out about their powers manifesting. They must not have said anything to her yet. Then again, I doubted Lali would be okay with bringing them into this. Maybe if I told her I was considering going along with Cade’s plan, she’d be more willing to lean on her brothers and sisters for help.
“You’re not going to like it,” I said, watching her closely. “But we might be able to find the other two we need to undo the energy sink.” Sure enough, Lali went rigid. “I don’t want to do it that way,” I added quickly. “But it might be our only chance.”
“No, it’s your only chance. If Cade gets his power back, he’ll help you find Kala, but what about my mom? Do you really think he’s going to help me find her?”
I frowned. I hadn’t expected that objection. “I told you, I’m going to help you find her.”
“Yeah, well you told me a lot of things.”
Ouch. And Xiomara thought Lali would forgive me if I told her the truth about kidnapping her mom? Please.
I started to apologize again, but a high voice called Lali’s name through the door. A second later, the knob was turning.
Of course. I disappeared before anyone else could see me. Instead of going home, I showed up in Lanai. I didn’t feel like arguing with Cade—at least not yet. He would need time to cool off before we could have a rational conversation.
Collapsing into the sand, I ran through my limited options in my head. I could see about going after Ori. If by some miracle she was still in touch with Ursula, then we really could go through with Cade’s plan. But after the rest of the members of XODUS had cut off contact with each other, it seemed like the odds of Ori leading us to Ursula were worse than my chances of getting Lali to forgive me if she ever found out the truth. Maybe I’d just wait it out to see how Lali’s brothers’ and sisters’ abilities turned out.
Unless the crystal didn’t work. No. It had to work. Delta was an expert, after all. Granted, she didn’t have her ability to project her intention into crystals anymore, but she’d said it should work with the intentions from both her and Solstice.
I gazed up at the sky, searching for answers in the orange haze of sunrise. I had so many doors open, but none of them would lead me to Kala yet. I should have paid closer attention when I’d rescued Lali. Then I could have gotten to Alea by myself.
Closing my eyes, I tried to remember any detail of what I’d seen in the few seconds it took for me to tackle the white-haired guy in a lab coat behind her. I’d hardly glimpsed him or anything else, but I still tried to project to what little I could picture in my mind.
And tried and tried.
When my phone rang, I had no idea how much time had passed. Seeing it was Lali, I accepted the call, praying she would tell me the guards had finally left the transposer. Before I could say hello, her voice came through the phone. “I need you to come over. Now.”
I showed up in her room the next second. “Is the transposer clear?” I asked.
“No.” She tossed her phone on the bed and turned back to look at me with panic all over her face. “My brothers and sisters got their powers early.”
Chapter 51
Backfire
“What?” My voice came out unnaturally high in my effort play dumb. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Lali glanced at the dresser behind me like it might pipe up and explain. “But they can do things—projecting things.”
“Are you sure?” I kept my eyes wide, faking surprise.
“Yes! Right after you left, Oxanna disappeared out of my room. She just vanished, the same way you do.” Oxanna. That was the older of Lali’s two younger sisters. For both of our sakes, I hoped her ability wasn’t just like mine. It seemed unlikely that our projecting styles would turn out to be exactly the same; Cade said there were countless ways semmies’ projection abilities could develop. Then again, it would be just my luck if all Delta’s little ceremony did was duplicate the powers we were already working with.
“I think they all got their abilities early because of that crystal ritual Solstice and Delta did,” Lali went on, talking a mile a minute. “Because they used our initials. Why were they using our initials?”
Damn, she saw that, too? How often did she spy on me? “Whoa,” I said. “Calm down. What initials?”
She grumbled under her breath. “Never mind. I need you to show them what you can do. They don’t believe me, and we have to make sure they understand that they can’t tell anyone.”
As much as I wanted to make sure her brothers and sisters didn’t draw attention to themselves, I wasn’t sure it was a great idea to freak them out by tossing me into the mix so soon. They were probably overwhelmed enough, and they needed to keep level heads to figure out how to control their abilities. “Lali—”
“Don’t Lali me. You owe me. Besides, they might be able to help us get one of those necklaces.”
My heart skipped. So she was willing to let them help us if they could. Before I could react, she yanked me by the arm and tugged me down the hall.
We turned into the girliest bedroom I’d ever seen. It was practically swimming in pink and posters of baby animals. Lali’s four younger siblings were perched around the room, two girls and twin boys. They all had gray eyes and dark hair, just like Lali, and all of them were looking at me like I had an extra head.
“Who’s that?” Salaxia asked from a giant circular chair in the corner. She had a haircut like Mowgli from The Jungle Book, and though Lali had told me she was nine, to me the girl barely looked old enough to be in second grade.
“This is Kai.” Lali made a quick gesture in my direction. After I’d helped awaken Salaxia’s ability and nearly kidnapped her, it felt ridiculous going through an introduction. Still, I forced a smile. “He’s the one who explained all of this to me,” Lali told the group. “He’s going to prove to you that everything I said is true.”
Still standing in the doorway, I felt my face grow hot from all of their gazes on me. For some reason, I felt pressure to make a good impression on them, like maybe it would help their big sister think better of me after our fight. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t help it.
I shifted my weight. “Lali, I don’t want to freak them out.”
“They’re already freaked out,” she insisted. “Please, just show them.”
I looked around at their expectant faces, the resemblance between all of them making my throat tighten. I wondered if Kala looked like me at all, if we made any of the same facial expressions the way these kids did.
You’ll never know if you don’t find a way to Alea. Swallowing hard, I focused on what I needed to do to get the ball rolling with my new potential helpers. If a quick projection show was the way to find out what Lali’s brothers and sisters could do, then so be it.
“Okay,” I said. “Brace yourselves.” I projected myself into the hall so fast I heard the tail end of a high-pitched scream. Giving my disappearance an extra bit of time to sink in, I appeared back in the room a couple seconds later. Salaxia had moved out of her chair and was clinging to the twin with the buzz cut and button-up sitting on the bed.
The other twin with shaggy hair and a Green Day t-shirt started toward me.
“What the heck is going on?” he demanded. “What are you?”
So much for making a good impression.
“He’s like us, Dix,” Lali told him. “He can project too.”
Dix. If this one was Dixon, that meant the shorter-haired twin sitting on the bed was Ulyxses. I wondered if they purposely made themselves look as different as possible so people could tell them apart.
“That didn’t look like astral projecting,” Ulyxses mumbled.
“I know.” Lali looked exasperated already. “It works differently for us. We don’t have time to get into that now. I just need to know how your powers work. You might be able to help find Mom.”
“Find Mom?” Oxanna gasped, her wavy hair falling around her shoulders. “How?”
“Is she in trouble?” Ulyxses asked. “Does this have something to do with why she left?”
Lali sighed. “That’s what Kai and I have been trying to figure out.”
My face burned with shame at their eager stares. I was surrounded by innocent kids I had turned into collateral damage, and all of them thought I was the solution to the problems I’d created. How much more screwed up could I be?
“Wait, where did he come from?” Oxanna asked, throwing an arm in my direction. “How does he know about Mom?”
“I’ll explain all that later.” Lali looked up at me. “Everyone’s power manifested differently. Oxanna’s power is kind of like yours. She can appear and disappear. Dixon can project through time.”
Project through time? Could he project me back in time to save Kala from being kidnapped in the first place? Would that even be possible?
“Salaxia can see thoughts,” Lali concluded, bringing my excitement to a screeching halt.
“She can see thoughts?” I could have sworn my heart stopped. I’d just thought about the fact that I’d kidnapped their mom.
You just thought about it again!
I felt my temples throb. I had to get out of here before Salaxia figured out the truth. Lali turned to ask Ulyxses something, and my brain started going through a Rolodex of things to say in order to duck out without making anyone suspicious. My eyes shot to Salaxia, my new biggest threat. How could someone so small harness such a disastrous ability?
