“That’s why I need help.”
“You’re not suggesting we steal it, are you? I don’t know Bree—”
“It’s my dad.” Bree dropped next to Evazee’s couch. “He was one of the lab coat people.” She ran fingers through her hair, it straightened for a moment before popping back into tight curls. “Here’s the thing. You and me? We’ve never really had much to do with each other, but I’ve watched you and Elden. I know there’s something going on. Don’t deny it.” She frowned at Evazee’s waving hands. “It’s his dad too. Please. I just need to try the necklace one more time. If I can just get a clue, maybe I can go find him. We can put it back straight after.”
“But Kai said it could be tainted. He can see that kind of thing. How can you be sure that what you’re seeing isn’t a lie?”
“It’s all I’ve got. I’m willing to take that chance. If you won’t do it for me, do it for him.” Bree glanced across to the couch opposite where Elden lay sleeping with his one foot propped up on the backrest, the other poking off the arm of the couch like a flagpole. She leaned in close, her voice dropping to a whisper, “Between you and me, I’m worried about him. I don’t know how deep his connection with the other side goes. Finding his dad…” Bree stopped to take a breath. “That might be the thing that stops us losing him. It could literally save his life. I know you pretend you don’t care for him, but I can see through that.”
Evazee blinked rapidly, scrambling for something to say. Her mouth opened but nothing came out. She shut it and settled for a vague shrug. “OK, fine. What are you thinking?”
~*~
Kai blew into his cupped hands to warm them. He cracked his knuckles and picked up his guitar. A quick glance around the group that sat around him in a rough circle showed him more green than he had energy to deal with. This particular bunch had green flowing through their veins. How would he even begin to fix that?
He put the guitar down, tucked his jacket close around himself, and motioned for them all to follow him. They trailed behind him in single file, dragging their feet across the cold tiled floor. Kai led his group, feeling like a fraud. He had nothing to offer the five of them, yet they followed him without question, without hesitation.
As they drew near to the stairs that led to the rooftop, they passed one of the older girls trying to sweep the floor. Her hair was tucked into a scarf away from her face. She was using a vacuum cleaner pole and brush as a broom, but the dirt on the floor stayed put, and she grew redder in the face and sweatier as she tried harder.
Kai walked over, took the pipe from her hands, plugged the machine in, and hit the button. In seconds, the dirt she’d been sweating over was history.
“I thought it was broken. I didn’t think to try again.” The girl blushed to the roots of her hair. Kai grinned as he handed back the pipe. The poor girl pulled the scarf from her hair and hid behind it.
Kai patted her arm. “Good work.” As he turned back to his group, he heard someone call his name. What now? Evazee and Bree crossed the room, speed walking as if racing each other. Evazee got to him first.
“You’re up. How are you feeling?” Kai studied Evazee closely. A glint of green sparked from her every now and then, but never enough for him to pinpoint its exact location.
“I wanted to ask you about...er, training.” Evazee squeezed her hands. Maybe she was nervous.
Kai waved his group to head upstairs. “Sure. I have a group ready for you to take, but only when you’re ready. “
“Oh? Oh. Really? Why?” Evazee crinkled her nose and leaned on the cold metal balustrade.
“I need you to teach these kids what you know.” Kai was ready to launch into his sales pitch, but Evazee’s eyes rolled back in her head and she fell, slow and graceful.
Kai rushed forward, but his jacket hooked on the balustrade. He shrugged out of it and left it hanging as he bent over Evazee. Her head missed the stairs and landed gently on a cushion of her hair. It was the strangest fall Kai had ever seen. Her head rolled back, and she groaned.
“Evazee! Are you hurt?”
Evazee peered through her lashes, as limp as a ragdoll. Kai was about to call for help, when her eyes flicked open. She sat up, rubbing the back of her head.
“I don’t know what happened.” She shook her head, blinked twice, stretched as if she’d been sleeping for a week, and pushed herself onto her feet. She slowly rolled up and swung gently before steadying. “Sorry about that.”
Bree swooped in from behind. “I think you need some tea. Don’t worry Kai, I’ve got this. You go do your thing.”
“But—”
“That was a good chat, Kai.” Evazee leaned on Bree’s arm, limping a little. “We’ll finish up sometime. I really need that tea.”
The two girls hobbled off, back the way they had come in, shooting little waves at Kai.
He would never figure girls out. Ever. He swung around looking for his jacket, unhooked it, and climbed the stairs to the rooftop. Between vacuum cleaners, his two friends, and all the kids he carried in his heart, he was ready to go back to bed.
~*~
“I’m not leaving you for longer than five minutes.” Evazee had her hands on her hips, glaring at Bree who lay on the floor ready to open the pendant. They’d decided to hide away in the basement for their experiment but now that they were here in between all the stacked boxes, Evazee was getting cold feet. A dull ache lingered at the base of her head from her last pendant visit. It had left a residue of dread hanging over her and her skin felt cold. Her insides were empty and vague nausea sat at the back of her throat.
“Ten. You can’t give me less than ten. I don’t know what I’m looking for. It might take me a while to find these clues.”
“Fine, eight.”
“You’ve been watching too many cheap movies. This bargaining thing is old and tired. We should stop.” Bree rolled on her side and rested her chin in her hands.
“I agree. Five it is.” Evazee smiled sweetly.
Bree smiled back, fake as a plastic rose, then rolled onto her back, tracing the patterns on the pendant. “I could swear there’s a paintbrush carved into this thing. It’s beautiful. I wish I could keep it.”
“Can you hurry up, please?”
“Fine.” She took a deep breath, placed the pendant on her skin, and popped it open. Her finger slipped and touched the inside where there’d usually be an antique portrait of an old forgotten family member.
The image bubble began to grow and Evazee backed away fast to stay out of the story. She checked her watch. Just after 4:00 PM.
Bree twitched and shivered under the onslaught of images.
Evazee checked her watch. Thirty seconds had passed. She tucked her hand behind her back, determined to ignore it. Footsteps tapped across the wooden ceiling of the basement and Evazee felt her pulse double as someone pulled on the trapdoor. She couldn’t let anyone in, not with Bree stuck to the floor like this.
She ran up the stairs two at a time, threw back the trapdoor, and stepped out of the basement to find Elden.
His face lit up as he saw her. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“You found me. What do you want?”
“Just to talk. Where is Bree? Is she OK? You two have been scarce.”
Evazee fidgeted with the trapdoor catch. She had to get rid of Elden. Bree’s time was running out. “Elden, Kai was looking for you. I think he went up to the rooftop.”
“What would he want with me?” Elden drew back as if she’d told him she had a lice problem.
“I don’t know, he didn’t say.” She shifted from one foot to the other.
“Is there something you don’t want me to see down there?”
“Pardon?” Evazee’s eyes grew wide. She blinked and tried to relax her face.
“Come on, Evazee. I’ve been trained to sniff out lies and half-truths.”
“Like one of those dogs at the airport?” She forced a laugh.
“Aah, a joke.” He gave one cold l
augh. “That won’t throw me off. What are you hiding? Move aside.”
“Fine. Bree is down there. But you can’t go down, it’s private. Girl stuff. I need to get back to her, so if you don’t mind moving off, I’d be grateful.”
“You and my sister. That can only be trouble.”
Evazee couldn’t wait any longer. “Stop being a pain. I’m going down and you are staying up. Promise me.”
Before Elden had a chance to respond, Evazee opened the trapdoor as low as she could manage and slipped through the gap. It shut on top of her, banging her head slightly. For some reason, this made her angry at Elden. How could he put her in such a spot? And his sister, too.
She flew down the stairs, throwing herself to the floor at the bottom. She leopard crawled below the vision bubble and reached for the pendant around Bree’s neck. She squeezed the two halves, but it wouldn’t close.
Shivers tore through Bree so hard that her teeth clacked.
Evazee rolled onto her back and tried again, but the angle was awkward. Tears ran down Bree’s face. Should she call Elden?
“What are you two doing?” Elden stood at the foot of the stairs.
Evazee rolled herself out from under the bubble. “I can’t close it. Bree isn’t coping.”
Elden dropped to the floor on his belly and inched like a worm. He reached out and shut the pendant. The moment the vision vanished, he was on his feet in a steaming fury. “What are you girls doing? Evazee, you should know better than this! After what we’d just been through.”
Bree sat up and leaned her forehead on his leg. She shook like a leaf. “Stop yelling. It was my idea.” A shudder passed through her, and she clung to her brother’s leg. “It’s so cold.”
Elden glared down at her, but softened. He took off his hoodie and draped it around her shoulders. “I thought you, at least, would know better.”
Avoiding Elden, Evazee sat on the floor opposite Bree and crossed her legs. “Did you see anything useful?”
“I saw a bridge out of the window that I recognized. It’s a building across town.”
Elden extricated his leg from her grip and sank to the floor. “Wait a moment. What are you girls up to?”
Evazee caught Bree’s eye, and she shrugged. Evazee took the pendant from Bree’s hands. Careful not to touch the cold metal, she slipped it into her pocket.
Elden shifted on his rear. “You two are clearly planning something. You have to tell me.”
Bree pulled his hoodie close and eyed him frankly. “But if we told you, you’d try stop us. I know you.”
Elden’s head hung. “I knew it. Not only are you up to something, but it’s something dangerous. What am I going to do with you two?”
Words fought in Evazee’s head. She had stopped expecting any of them to glow golden and this time was no different. She sighed. “If we tell you, you have to promise not to interfere. We are going to do this whether you like it or not.”
Elden’s hands shot up in mock surrender. “Fine. Lay it on me.”
Bree tucked herself under his arm. “We’re going to find Dad.”
“So you are you going to trust the vision from a pendant that may or may not be accurate. Have you considered that it could be a plant to deceive you?”
Evazee clucked her tongue, “Obviously. What ideas have you got for finding your father?”
Elden stared from one girl to the other. “Maybe I don’t want to find him all that much. I remember more of him than you do, Bree.”
“Thanks for reminding me. It’s not like I had a choice—”
“Hold it, you two.” Evazee inserted herself between them. “Elden, you said you wanted to find him. Don’t deny it now. Guys, this isn’t a big deal. Bree, you said that the lab in the vision could be quite close?”
“Just across town.”
“So why don’t we go check it out. Elden can come with. It won’t take long. Then we’ll know if the pendant is to be trusted or not.”
“It might work. As long as Elden agrees not to go all mother bear on me.”
Evazee put her hand on Elden’s mouth before he could bite back. “Bigger problem: how will we get all the way across town?”
Elden took her hand off his face and held it. “That’s not a big problem. There’s an OS bus in the basement, and I know where they keep the keys.” He hung onto Evazee’s hand as she tried to pull it away and scowled at Bree. “What do you mean, mother bear?”
Evazee sighed. Being a referee in this boxing match was getting old. “Elden, you go get keys. Bree, come with me.”
Elden went off muttering to himself about bears and sisters.
Evazee pulled Bree up off the floor and steadied her as they climbed the stairs.
6
Kai stepped onto the roof into the sunshine. It warmed him through to his bones. He led his small troupe to the middle of the rooftop, and they settled against the sunny side of a square, brick structure jutting up from the floor. Kai could only think it was part of the ventilation system. Right now, it formed a wind break, and that served his purpose.
The five were subdued. Where to begin? “Hey guys, I’m Kai.”
The shortest girl blurted, “We know who you are. You turned the green tubes amber.” A shy smile broke through on her pimply face. “I liked the amber much better.” She probably wasn’t much older than thirteen, swimming in the middle of puberty-induced hormone soup.
One of the two guys in the group slouched against the bricks as if his spine had melted. His black hair ran amok on his head, and his eyes were dark enough to be mistaken for black in the wrong light. He stared down Kai with his hands tucked into his armpits. “Yeah, we know you. You wrecked our training.”
Kai blinked, taken aback. He’d known that some of them may not be happy about being rescued, but staring it in the grumpy face was different. He carefully levelled his voice. “That’s true. What did you like most about getting trained?”
“Power.”
“Do you know what your gift is?”
The black-eyed boy squirmed as if sitting on an ant nest. Kai thought he might be torn between the desire to talk about his gift and the desire to remain the mysterious enigmatic figure that he obviously worked hard to be.
“They identified a few things.” He shrugged and sat quiet.
Kai chose not to play his bluff. “Anyone else?”
The other guy of the group hid behind his mousy brown fringe. He flicked it to the side and Kai saw both his eyes for the first time. “They told me I’m a Breaker, but I was never much good at it. I kept trying to put things back together after I’d broken them. They said that my gifting was flawed, and I had to work on resisting temptation to undo the work I’d completed. I don’t think I’m very gifted. In fact, I think my gift is broken.”
A sharp zing of Affinity sped through Kai, and the guy behind the fringe suddenly flashed a green light that pulsed. He’d been lied to many times, and he’d believed every one. “Wait a moment, you aren’t broken and you aren’t weak. Your gift is like mine. Do things glow green for you when they’re broken?”
Brown-hair nodded, a frown creasing his forehead. “How do you know?”
“It’s the same for me.” He grinned at the guy and left him to process what that meant as he turned to a girl in the middle. Her golden hair was cut short into a tousled cap of messy curls. “How about you?”
She pointed at his guitar. “I like playing. I wasn’t allowed to do that though. They were teaching me to pick pockets instead.”
The black-eyed boy snorted an acid laugh. “They taught us all how to do that. How else would they fund this whole op?”
The golden-haired girl rolled her eyes and shifted her attention back to Kai. “They told me that I would get my guitar back when I was proficient. They even gave me a target that I had to reach. Five-hundred dollars would get me my guitar back.”
Kai reached for his guitar and then held it out. “Do you want to play something?”
She blinked
like an owl, not comprehending what he was saying.
“Take it! Play something for us.”
The girl didn’t move.
“What’s the matter? I want you to play.” He smiled as he offered her the guitar again.
She shook her head. “No, I know this trick. I’ve fallen for it before.”
Kai laid the guitar at her feet and backed away with his hands up. “No tricks.”
The girl looked sad as she tucked her hands into her armpits. He thought he saw moisture glisten in the corner of her eye. She wouldn’t budge. Tau, what do I do? A wave of compassion washed through him, so strong it took his breath away.
~*~
“The bridge is about an hour away.” Elden checked his watch as he climbed in behind the wheel. The van was a beaten-up, old brown thing, with spots of rust growing at the corners of the windows.
The door rattled as Evazee pulled it shut, and she moved to the opposite side of the seat in case it decided to fall off half-way to the bridge.
Bree rode shotgun, sitting cross-legged on the front seat and peering out the window as buildings and trees whizzed past.
As they pulled out of sight from the OS, Evazee's belly flipped. She didn’t like going against the rules at the best of times, to be blatantly leaving without telling Kai sat wrong between her shoulders. But then she didn’t particularly want to be at the OS either. She also wasn’t used to feeling this confused. It was all thoroughly exhausting.
Elden drove fast, weaving in and around the slower cars. The rhythm of it lulled Evazee, and she propped her head up between the safety belt and the headrest, her thoughts slowly grew fuzzy and blurred.
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. We’re here.” Elden prodded her knee and she shoved his hand, wanting the sweet oblivion back, but he just kept on poking her.
“Go away. I’m up.” She slid from the van and hung on to the side of it to stop herself swaying. A cold breeze blew off the river and smacked into her. In an instant, she was properly awake. “Where are we?”
Elden shut her door and locked the van, pocketing the keys. “Not the safest part of town. I have a feeling I know where the lab is. Our old school is just around the corner. The view of the bridge would line up with what Bree saw out the window.”
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