Truths Unspoken

by K. J. McPike

  I gave her a pleading look. “Lali.”

  “Don’t.”

  “You’re mad at me for doing the exact same thing you’re doing now. Don’t you see how irrational that is?”

  “About as irrational as you expecting me to be okay with you kidnapping my mother.” There it was. No matter what I said or did, she’d never be able to get past that, even if she was doing the same thing herself. “Now do you want to undo this stupid energy sink or not?”

  “Fine,” I said, suddenly exhausted. “How does it work? Do I have to hold your hand to project with you?”

  “Yes.” Her voice came out clipped. “But first I want to make sure my siblings are okay.”

  “They’re fine, Lali.”

  “I thought we established that I don’t trust anything you say. Unless I have Salaxia here to read your mind, I’m going to have to see for myself.”

  Pressing my lips together, I inhaled slowly. She was purposely trying to upset me, and I wasn’t going to play her game. When I projected her back to my house, she yanked her hand back and headed straight for the door to the basement. She stopped in front of it and leaned into the stairwell.

  I crossed my arms, watching her impatiently. Was she eavesdropping? On her own family? Nice. And she talked about me and my spying.

  Finally, she turned around and closed the door. Her face had gone slack, like she wasn’t expecting to hear them down there or something. Ridiculous. What did she think I would have done with them? Project them off a cliff?

  “Happy now?” I snapped.

  “Very.”

  I took another deep breath, ready to find Ursula and get this whole thing over with. “Let’s get moving,” I said.

  Lali stuck out her chin. “Fine by me.”

  Chapter 58

  Power

  “She’s running!” Lali screamed, gaping after the red sedan taking off at full speed down the road. “She’s running away!”

  “Yes,” I muttered. “I can see that.” Lali’s masterful plan to do things the nice way had failed miserably. At the mention of undoing the sink, Ursula had slammed the door in our faces. Her car peeled out of the garage a minute later, leaving us standing in the front yard watching taillights disappear.

  Lali pressed her palms to her head. “What do we do?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m not letting her get away.” I offered Lali my hand. “You coming with me?”

  She hesitated but finally slid her fingers into my grip.

  “Sit down,” I instructed, already following my own orders. I’d never projected into a moving vehicle before, but I’d gotten a good enough look at Ursula’s cat-like eyes, round nose, and mocha-colored skin to be able to project after her. As soon as Lali sat down next to me, I previewed Ursula, looked past her to the back seat, and aimed there.

  The next second, Lali and I jostled as the car swerved and then jerked forward as the man driving hit the brakes. Judging from the ring on his left hand, he was Ursula’s husband.

  “What do you want?” he yelled once the car had stopped. He twisted around to shield Ursula from us, his birdlike face bunching into a glare.

  “We want your help,” I said, pinning him with a glare of my own. “And we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to get it.”

  “We don’t want to hurt you,” Lali added. “Just help us. Please.”

  Ursula’s black spiral curls bounced as she shook her head.

  “It’s not an option,” I barked, hoping to salvage some of our intimidation factor after Lali just made us look soft. “We don’t want to hurt you, but that doesn’t mean we won’t.”

  The man twisted further in his seat. “How dare you—”

  I grabbed his wrist and projected us to Lanai before he could finish. I didn’t bother explaining it to him. He was doubled over anyway, and I knew he wouldn’t get far. I showed up in the car again to find Ursula screaming.

  “Hey!” I shouted, snapping her out of her hysteria. “He’s fine. For now. But I’d hate to have to drop him in the middle of the ocean. You get me?” The set of her jaw told me she did.

  “What do I have to do?” she choked out.

  I felt the corner of my mouth twitch. “That’s more like it.”

  I took Lali and Ursula to the transposer house and went back for Ursula’s husband. Projecting him to my living room, I locked him in the basement with Lali’s siblings for safekeeping. Next, I took Xiomara to dig up the crystal she and Delta had buried under the tree back in Muir Woods, right next to where we’d waited for Delta to come for her ceremony for Brendan.

  Back at the transposer house, it didn’t take long to set up the space. I’d already gone to Solstice’s apartment to collect the supplies from the ceremony that awakened Lali’s siblings’ abilities, and we moved some furniture to make room for everyone. Soon the ritual was under way.

  Nothing about the situation felt real. The flickering candles made the home seem eerie, even with its fancy chandeliers and giant windows overlooking the San Francisco Bay. The view of the night sky was too peaceful for what was happening. But most of all, I couldn’t wrap my brain around seeing all the members of XODUS sitting in a circle on the floor, together, after it had taken months to find them. Watching them prick their fingers and repeat chants to undo the sink all but short-circuited my brain. I didn’t even want to blink, for fear they would somehow vanish.

  Cade stood next to where I leaned against the bar counter, his breathing as ragged as my own. He kept his gun visible just in case anyone got any ideas about trying to attack us. That, and because he’d had to threaten to shoot everyone to get Delta to snap out of her muttering and cooperate. If she wasn’t messed up enough before this, she was definitely going to be messed up now.

  I pushed the thought away, turning my focus to the clear stone in her hand. It hadn’t glowed once, though it felt like they’d been at this forever. Was something wrong?

  “It’s not working,” Solstice said, echoing my thought.

  “Well, it won’t work now,” Ori huffed. “You broke the chant.”

  “Are we going to have to start over?” Ursula whined.

  Solstice glared around the room. “Starting over won’t matter. Something is wrong. It shouldn’t take this long.”

  Everyone started talking at the same time, and Cade fired the gun. One of the windows shattered instantly. The rest of us froze as he closed the distance to Xiomara in seconds.

  Lali took off to intercept him, but he spun around. “Stop right there,” he ordered, leveling the gun at her.

  My mouth went dry. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t take my eyes off Lali. The rest of the room faded until all I could see was her terrified face. I was vaguely aware of Xiomara speaking and Cade responding, but I couldn’t hear her over my own thoughts.

  He won’t shoot her. He won’t shoot her. No matter how much I repeated it in my head, my heart wouldn’t stop trying to beat its way out of my chest. I started to inch toward my uncle, to encourage him to calm down. Anything to get the weapon pointed away from Lali.

  “Don’t even think about it, nephew,” he boomed. “If any of you move without my permission, she’s dead.”

  I swallowed hard. He doesn’t mean it. He’s just upset. Still, I wasn’t going to set him off. He said not to move, but if he noticed me disappear, that was just as bad. This was what he’d spent twenty years waiting for, and if he thought it wasn’t going to work, there was no telling what he’d do—especially if he didn’t need Lali for it to work.

  Or did he?

  Delta’s words played through my head: Just trust me. I can connect them to the group and awaken their powers. My gaze shot over to where she sat, her eyes darting around nervously. Was that why the ritual wasn’t working? Had she purposely linked Lali and her siblings to XODUS to mess it up? Delta had been resistant to undoing the sink from the beginning, and I already knew she was good at manipulating the wording of intentions.

  What had the women been chantin
g? Release all the energy trapped inside. The blood of XODUS deems the time is right. If XODUS now included Lali and her brothers and sisters, did we need their blood, too?

  “Cade,” Delta whispered. “Sometimes energy manipulation can’t be undone.”

  Because you don’t want it to be undone. My shoulders tensed. This must’ve been her way of making sure Cade wouldn’t get his ability back. She was pretending she’d tried so he wouldn’t hurt her, but she had sabotaged us on purpose.

  Without warning, Cade fired the gun he still had aimed in Lali’s direction.

  “No!” I yelled over the rest of their screams. All the air seemed to leave the room as I whipped my head toward Lali. She stood with a dazed expression as my eyes flew over her body. She wasn’t hurt, just stunned. My knees started to give out, and I nearly hit the floor. She’s okay.

  “Death can’t be undone, either,” Cade hissed. “So you’d better figure out a way to fix this. Next time I won’t miss.”

  “We need the rest of them,” I blurted out. I wasn’t even sure I was right, but I didn’t care. I just had to make Cade think we needed Lali to undo the sink. It was the only way to make sure she stayed safe. If what I said was true, it was the only way to make sure anyone in this room stayed safe. People snapped when they felt hopeless, and Cade had put everything he had into getting his ability back. If he thought it wouldn’t work…

  “We have everyone,” Ori said.

  I shook my head. “We need Lali’s brothers and sisters. They’re connected to this now.”

  “What are you talking about?” Cade moved his eyes to me.

  “They got their powers after Delta and Solstice programmed a crystal to awaken dormant energy for XODUS,” I explained quickly, hyper-aware that he still had the gun aimed at Lali.

  His scar bunched below his eye as he glared at me. “They programmed a crystal, did they? I see you’ve been doing even more behind my back than I thought.”

  I kept talking, doing all I could to convince my uncle we needed Lali and the others unharmed. “If their astral energy came out with the mention of XODUS, then they’re a part of this now.” I pointed at the clear quartz in the center of the crystal grid. “You need their intention behind releasing the energy inside that stone. You need their blood.”

  “That can’t be true,” Xiomara said, her voice quivering.

  Delta gave me a hard look, as if she were upset I’d revealed everything. “It is true,” she said. All my breath rushed out at her admission. “Kai’s right; awakening their astral energy made them a part of this group—a part of XODUS. We need their intention to undo the sink.” She said the last part like it caused her physical pain.

  “Well, what are you waiting for, nephew?” Cade growled. “Bring them here.”

  Chapter 59

  Bullet

  I brought the rest of the kids over, despite Xiomara and Lali begging me not to. There was no other option at this point. It was either bring Lali’s siblings or watch Cade’s sanity slowly crumble from thinking he’d never get his ability back. I was sure Cade wouldn’t hurt anyone we needed to undo the sink, but I couldn’t say I was sure he wouldn’t hurt anyone if he thought things were hopeless. He already seemed to be teetering on the edge of snapping.

  He kept the gun fixed in the direction of where the group of ten scrambled to get into the right positions around the crystal grid, but he and I stayed back by the bar counter. Seeing the crazed look in his eyes, I couldn’t stop thoughts of calling the whole thing off from ricocheting through my mind. Everything about the situation felt wrong, and uneasiness weighed on me like a backpack full of lead. I’d been stupid enough to let Delta trick me into helping her drag Lali’s siblings into this mess, even deeper than I’d anticipated. I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to them because of my gullibility.

  I could project to get the gun away from Cade, and then I wouldn’t have to worry about everyone’s safety. But I knew my uncle. He was passionate and fierce when he needed to be, but deep down he was just desperate. We’d worked too hard and too long to get to this moment for me to screw it up because of a bad feeling. We were doing things his way, which meant we would do things his way to get to Kala. And in the end, it didn’t matter how we did it, as long as we got her back.

  I just had to focus on what was really important here and let go of the nerves knotting inside me. This would all be over soon, and it was going to work. It was going to work, and everything was going to be fine.

  Xiomara kept her composure better than I expected as she and Delta went through the instructions for the ritual. Everyone was in place on the floor, the candles had all been re-lit, and the colorful crystals were lined up in their original pattern. Each kid had paired up with the adult who had the same initial.

  “Everyone listen,” Delta said, her gaze moving to each person in the group individually. “It is imperative that each pair place their blood onto the stone at the same time. And you’ll have to speak the intention together.”

  Xiomara recited the intention from earlier and instructed her kids to repeat it until everyone had the wording and the pacing down. Then she nudged Lali.

  “You and I have to go first,” she said.

  Lali moved her head up and down, but she was trembling so much, the motion hardly resembled a nod. I wanted to run over and comfort her, but I knew anything to do with me would only make things worse. She hated me now, and I was going to have to accept that.

  Starting with Xiomara and Lali, everyone cut their fingers with the dagger and let their blood absorb into the stone with the same sizzling sound I should have been used to by now. I held my breath as they moved through the ritual, my heart slamming into my ribs so hard I was sure it was bruising.

  It’s going to work. It’s going to work.

  Everyone in front of me continued chanting, and wind tore through the room despite all the closed windows. Light shot out of the crystal and flooded everything with such brilliance I had to close my eyes against the glare.

  Then everything went dark. No one spoke at first. No one even seemed to be breathing.

  Finally, Solstice’s voice rang out. “I think it worked.”

  Hearing her snapped me back into the moment. We hadn’t won yet. They still had to test it. Something about that felt even more nerve-racking than the ritual itself. How long would it take them to relearn projecting?

  I staggered over to the light switch and flipped it. “Well, we’re about to find out.” I wasn’t sure if I was answering Solstice or replying to my own question. All I knew was I felt like I was about to hyperventilate.

  Please, let it have worked.

  I moved back over to Cade and took a deep breath to steady myself. “Did you feel anything? Can you—”

  “Give me a minute!” Nerves shook his voice, making him sound more vulnerable than I’d ever heard him. He shut his eyes, his breathing so hard it made his entire upper body jerk.

  A silver outline started to rise from where he stood, and my jaw nearly hit the floor. It worked! Before I could speak, another form flashed across my field of vision. Cade’s astral form vanished as his physical body flew backward and slammed into the bar counter.

  Somewhere in the commotion, something clattered to the floor.

  The gun! He’d dropped it.

  Lali, Solstice, Delta, and Ori seemed to register it an instant before I did. By the time I leapt forward, their bodies had already landed. Limbs were everywhere, grasping blindly, and then the gun went off. Everyone else froze when we saw its new wielder.

  Solstice.

  My body went numb. Of everyone here, I trusted her the least. I heard Lali scream something, but I was too busy running through my options in my head to make sense of it. I had to get the gun away from Solstice. I was right in her line of sight, and if I projected, she could get off a shot before I was able to subdue her.

  I saw Lali dive toward her brothers and sisters, who were huddled in the center of the floor near Ursu
la.

  Solstice followed the motion with the gun. “Don’t you dare move. Any of you.” Her arms twitched to point the weapon at each of us, as if to let us know she could take anyone down she wanted.

  My chest constricted as it dawned on me that she could. There were too many people for me to project out of here. I couldn’t possibly get all of them to safety without risking someone’s life. I’d be lucky if I could save two of them.

  Keeping the gun aimed in our general direction, Solstice moved to where Cade was just starting to sit up. “Are you okay?” she asked, kneeling beside him.

  “Much better knowing you’re the one who got to the gun first,” he said as he slowly got to his feet.

  Solstice cackled. “Mara’s face still reads like a book. I knew she was planning to go after you the second she regained her power.”

  I could only stare. I knew my uncle trusted Solstice, but I wouldn’t put it past her to shoot him at point blank range.

  “Solstice,” Delta whimpered. “What are you doing?”

  “Ensuring the Eyes and Ears welcome me back to Alea with open arms.” Solstice grinned wickedly. “Unlike all of you, I won’t be at the top of their to-kill list.”

  What? I turned to Cade just as he moved behind the bar counter. The sound of a drawer opening and closing came from the other side, and he stepped out holding another gun.

  What the—

  “Nothing would make the Eyes and Ears more eager to welcome us back,” he said, smiling at no one in particular, “than bringing them right to a pack of semmies and runaways.”

  My blood turned to ice. His eyes had lost all their emotion, and his whole demeanor seemed to have changed. Had this been his plan all along? No. It didn’t make sense. There had to be something I was missing.

  “Uncle Cade.” I gaped at him. “What are you doing? You got your power—”

  Solstice whipped her gun at me, and I barely had time to register the explosion before fire ripped through my chest.