by Holly Hook
Janelle took a breath, holding back. If there was anyone you didn't want to make angry, it was a volcano goddess. Kenna hadn't been like this before. Janelle remembered her being sort of timid when they'd met back in Hawaii. Things had changed since then. Since she'd matured, there was definitely more of a sharp edge to her emotions. Maybe she was just having a rough time adjusting. Or she might just want revenge on Andrina for tricking her and winning her trust those months ago. Janelle hoped that was the case. This might also mean her new goddess nature was having an effect on her after all.
Would the same happen to her if she turned?
"You're right," she said, watching Kenna's face relax. "You are the best person here for the job. I'm just worried because Andrina knows your weakness."
A wince came over Kenna's features. "I know," she said at last, remembering. "You don't understand how much she ruined my life. I never even met my birth parents until a few months ago because of her. The fake ones I had treated me like crap." Her words were more for Paul than anyone else. He was the only one not caught up on her history.
So it was the revenge angle.
Only silence responded to her. Gary shifted, resting his head on her shoulder. Paul pulled Leslie closer, snuggling her. Poor Kenna didn't have anyone to share any comfort with. She'd had to leave her human boyfriend, Carlos, back in Hawaii. There was simply no place for him here.
"Andrina ruined all of our lives," Gary said at last.
Janelle saw the truth behind his words as if they'd turned into a sad painting. They sat there together, for the first time ever, like a secret club. Paul, whose dad and uncle were in prison now so that he could escape Andrina and Mobley. Leslie, whose mother had practically disowned her. Kenna, who had endured a crappy childhood with fake parents so Andrina couldn’t find her. Gary, who had been taken from his mother and only reunited with her recently.
And herself. She had it the worst of all, because Andrina was her biological mother.
"I'm sorry," Kenna said at last. "I'm not trying to be mad at you all. I just feel like I'm not using my full potential right now." She grimaced. "Now I sound like my fake dad. Great."
Janelle's phone rang, and she leapt out of her chair to answer it. She found it somewhere in one of her tan pockets, flipped it open, and discovered a North Carolina number glowing on the screen.
Her stomach lurched, making her forget all about the headache.
The Allisters.
They were only supposed to call her during an emergency.
Kenna stood up next to her, ready to move.
Janelle raised the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
Chapter Five
Sophia stiffened as she studied Callie's face for any hint of a joke.
There was none.
Callie's father shouted somewhere, and Sophia could her mother talking quickly on a phone down the hall. She caught only snippets of her panicked conversation: "Andrina…fireplace is lit…Callie. Hurry!"
Andrina? It was the name of that hurricane that had killed eight hundred people several years ago. Was that a Tempest, too?
Yikes.
Sophia backed away towards Callie's mattress, which was bare of all its blankets. Bare of anything they could hide under. If that deadly hurricane was walking around as a Tempest and banging on the front door--
But Callie grabbed her arm before she could finish the thought. "Come on," she breathed, pulling her so fast that Sophia nearly slipped on the hardwood floor.
Callie's mom was shaking as she stood next to the boxes she'd been packing up. Behind her, the fireplace blazed to life. Sophia could smell gas, and the flames were eagerly licking it up and devouring the log inside. Despite the fire curling over the rim of the fireplace and reaching up the brick wall, Callie's mom had ripped the metal grating clean off and thrown it to the floor.
"Why's--" Sophia started, staring at the roaring fire. Callie said they'd never used the fireplace even once. Why now?
Another loud bang came on the door, and an electric sensation filled the air as Sophia slid to a stop. Callie's father had his weight against the door, paling. He faced his wife, ignoring the fact that Sophia was standing there. "Get Callie out of here!"
"Dad!" Callie yelled in a voice that was every pitch of agony.
Mrs. Allister took her daughter's arm, pulling her away. The fire roared higher, then died down to a normal height. For a second, there seemed to be a face inside of it, staring out at Sophia from somewhere far away. It was growing clearer, it seemed. Or maybe it was just her imagination making her see things.
Sophia was trapped in a Circus of Weirdness with no exit.
The door came down with a force that seemed to shake the entire house. Another loud crack of thunder roared overhead, and the figure of a woman stood framed in the doorway, almost a silhouette against the driving rain.
Andrina.
Just knowing who it was sent a paralyzing chill through Sophia without the Other's help.
The rain flew into her face like the storm was roaring right into the room. Sophia raised her hand to shield herself. Her hair whipped back. Callie yelled something at her, but she didn't hear. If the fireplace had been facing the door, it would have been extinguished.
"The Allisters."
Andrina's voice was as sharp as razor blades and about as merciful. Something about it reminded Sophia of the horrible voice inside of her, ready to come forth and hurt those she loved today.
The woman stepped boldly into the house. Despite the fact that she'd knocked down the door and thrown Callie's dad out of the way, she appeared normal.
Almost.
She had short blond hair, dry and shining underneath the lights of the Allisters' hallway. Her gray business suit belonged in a high-class meeting, not in this freak show that had become Sophia's life. Even a pair of high heels hugged her feet so tightly that they had to be cramping by now.
Sophia almost leapt back when she saw the woman's eyes.
They were grayish-blue, churning with the storm outside. Sophia had never seen anything come close, not even Callie's eyes on Shane's video. These ones were somehow scarier, more piercing. If Sophia squinted, she could almost spot some kind of aura around the woman, a rippling of the same color.
If this woman was in fact a Tempest, it wasn't the same kind that Callie and her family were.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," she continued, taking another step closer. Her smile was false, that of a predator waiting to lure them in. She seemed to ignore Sophia as she glanced from Callie's parents and to Callie. None of them were moving. Mr. Allister stood frozen by the door, hand on his arm. Callie's mom still had her daughter's shirt sleeve in her hand as if she'd turned to stone under Medusa's gaze.
Callie shot her a horrified glance. It seemed she could barely turn her head, and her eyes were trying to turn farther than they normally could.
Sophia realized.
Callie and her parents couldn't move. Something this woman was doing was paralyzing them.
Andrina slowly walked in a circle around the room. "I see that the three of you have landed in trouble." Her pitch eased up, but there was still a scary undertone. "It's a shame that Tempests are no longer safe from the world's eyes."
For one wild moment, Sophia thought this woman was going to reassure them that she'd go after Shane. But as much as she hated him now, as much as she wanted to make him feel like the dirt under her feet, she didn't want this creature to go after him. It would make her no better than whatever presence was living inside her skin.
But Andrina didn't mention Shane at all. Instead, she faced Callie's father. "I assure you, I will make sure that your family is safe from any threat like this again."
Callie sucked in deep breath as if it was her last. Was this creature planning to kill them? They'd be safe from any threats then. Andrina was facing away from them, approaching Callie's shuddering father. Maybe she could grab Callie and run out the back door, if she could even get her to move.
Andrina re
ached out and put her palm on Mr. Allister's forehead.
Callie screamed. It was a horrible sound, one that couldn't be more human.
Mr. Allister snapped into gray mist, an outline of his former self for a second, and scattered into the wind blasting in through the open front door.
Sophia blinked. Callie's father was gone, turned into vapor and sucked out into the sky.
She went to seize her best friend's arm, barely hearing the racking sobs through the pulse roaring in her ears.
But the Other seemed to have a different idea.
Sophia's arm stopped midway to Callie's. Winter shot through her veins in only a few heartbeats, freezing her from the inside out as it pushed its way to the surface in record time. This felt different. The Other wasn't using her anger to rush up to the surface this time. It was riding on desperation, as if it were itching to get out of a room filling with water.
Andrina turned to face them just as Sophia felt her lips move against her will.
And the voice of the Other filled the room, reverberating off the walls.
"Goddess," it said, like an ancient prisoner trapped in a cage for a thousand years. "Help me."
The world turned gray around Sophia. She couldn't move on her own. The Other had turned her into a puppet and nothing more. Her legs betrayed her, keeping her there while Andrina stared, her eyes widening in something like surprise.
"Release me," the presence said through Sophia's lips. "Like you did to the man. Do that, and I will help you."
Callie moved next to her, breaking out of her spell and turning to stare. Andrina continued to do the same.
Shut up, Sophia thought, trying to reign the other presence back in. If releasing it was anything like what had happened to Callie's father, she wanted nothing of it. But all control had slipped away. The Other was in charge now, more completely than it ever had been before.
At last Andrina managed to speak. "Who are you?"
Sophia's lips started to move again, but they never got the chance.
A burst of heat filled the room as the fireplace exploded outwards. The cold presence retreated inside of her as if driven away by the heat, and Sophia leapt back from the flames as another figure seemed to materialize inside and step out of them. Neither Callie nor her mother tried to back away.
The figure stepping out of the flames was a girl, with long black hair and a brown face straight out of the Polynesian islands. The flames licked at her, but she wasn't burning. Except for her eyes. They blazed with fire around the pupils.
Callie's mother pointed to her daughter and motioned to the newcomer. "Take her! Now!"
The fire girl nodded, leapt forward, and took Callie's arm. Callie didn't resist. Instead, she faced Sophia and grabbed her shoulder with her free hand. "Hold on!"
By now, the Other had gone completely, hiding deep inside her again with no signs of resurfacing. The girl from the fire looked terrifying in every way possible, but Callie kept a firm grip on her shoulder with her Tempest strength.
"No," Andrina yelled, rushing forward. It was more a command than anything.
But the fire girl wasn't affected by it. Callie's feet scraped against the floor as she pulled the two of them away from her and closer to the roaring flames in the fireplace.
The fire girl was going to pull them both right in.
Sophia managed to dig her feet into the floor, staring at Mrs. Allister for help. But she stood, frozen, back under Andrina's spell as the girl leapt into the flames, dragging Callie with her.
There were no screams. Only the cracking of the fire and the hissing of the flames met Sophia's ears as she got pulled forward into the fireplace, and all she remembered before blacking out was the orange tongues licking around her ears and at her face, warm but not burning, as she fell after her best friend into an endless tunnel of fire deep under the surface of the earth.
Chapter Six
When Sophia woke up, she was surrounded by folding lawn chairs, legs in jean pant legs, stubby grass, and a campfire.
The sun shined overhead, and the long shadows from the small crowd around her indicated that wherever she was, it was late afternoon. Disoriented, Sophia blinked the sun out of her eyes.
"Are you okay?" a girl asked somewhere. There was definite anxiety in that voice.
"Huh?" She followed the voice with her gaze, and remembered everything.
The fire girl stood there over her, features huge with concern. Her eyes had turned into a normal brown, but it was definitely her. Same hair. Same face. The same flat nose, too. Only now, she looked completely normal in her T-shirt and jeans. If Sophia passed her on the street, she wouldn't have given her a second glance.
"I…" she managed.
The fire girl sighed in relief. "That's good. I didn't realize the Allisters' daughter had taken you along. I've never transported two people at a time before. I was scared you'd burn to death in the tunnel."
Tunnel.
The fireplace. The scary goddess, Andrina. The Other taking over and asking for help. She dimly remembered the passage, lined with fire and molten lava. Had she actually been pulled through that to wherever she was now?
She should be dead. Not only that, but crispy as her grandmother's attempt at cinnamon rolls last week. And Callie--
"Callie!"
Sophia managed to sit up. A bunch of people stood around her, all right--all of them teenagers around her age, judging from the holey jeans and the hands stuffed in pockets. Callie sat cross-legged on the opposite side of the campfire, brushing ash off her clothes. She didn't react to Sophia. Instead, she stared into space on the other side of the fire.
Sophia's heart dropped.
Callie's parents weren't here, wherever here was.
Her father--and now probably her mother--were turned to vapor by Andrina back at her house.
As if she'd sensed Sophia's thoughts, her best friend curled into a ball and let her face rest on her ashy knees. She made no sound. The ash under her face would soon turn to mud.
Callie's parents. Gone. Released from their human bodies by a monster. It was what the Other wanted.
Sophia stood, legs shaking like those of a newborn animal. Weakness took over and she nearly fell back down again as her knees failed. The trip here must have sucked out most of her strength and left her with crumbs.
"Steady." A cute guy with hazel eyes and locks of black hair took her arm. He stood very close to a blond girl in a tan business suit. The blond girl seemed familiar somehow, but everything was such a twisting fog at the moment that it was impossible to tell why.
"Thanks," Sophia said, wanting only to get over to Callie. But she didn't dare a step now, in case she tripped and went into the fire. She'd somehow cheated death once. The chances of her getting lucky again were somewhere between Winning the Lottery and Not Getting Homework for Spring Break.
A single sob came from Callie.
Everyone around her shifted. A guy with long hair wearing an Executioner band shirt. A girl with red hair and freckles. The redhead was pale at the moment, making them look like brown dabs of paint on her skin. Both she and the long-haired guy had brown eyes flecked with pure black. They weren't anything like the weirdness she'd seen already today, but they definitely weren't ordinary.
What was Sophia surrounded by?
"I'm Kenna." The fire girl extended her hand. She swallowed nervously and glanced at Callie, which made Sophia feel less intimidated. "Your friend's mom called me in to help."
Just moments ago, this girl had emerged from fire unscathed. Sophia couldn't wrap her head around that fact right now.
Sophia took her hand, steadying herself as the black-haired guy let go of her arm. She glanced around. The sun shined over a campground that she didn't recognize. Between rows of campers and trailers, she could spot a golf course, a lake, and possibly cars zooming down an expressway not too far away. There was no sign of Andrina. Or bad weather, for that matter.
Callie had gone silent again. Sophia s
tarted for her. She could figure all of this out later. "Callie, I'm sor--"
"Leave me alone," Callie begged. "Please. No offense, but I want to be alone right now."
She stood and left the circle, going for a large tree that overlooked a lake.
Sophia watched her go and plop down on the other side of it. She knew better than to follow, as much as she wanted to. Callie needed some quiet time.
Someone sighed. Sophia turned to find Kenna staring at the fire. Her hands rested on her thighs, shaking. "If I could have brought her mom, too, I would have."
It was best to take this one thing at a time. Her asking questions would give Callie some time to calm down. It would distract these strangers from crowding around her and taking away her precious space when she needed it the most. "Who are you?"
"If you're wondering, Kenna's a volcano goddess." The black-haired guy answered her in the plainest, most matter-of-fact voice possible. He might have been talking about the evening news with that tone. "Kenna can fire travel. She can go from one fire to another pretty fast. She pulled you both out of this one." He pointed to the flimsy campfire, keeping that same face. "In case you're wondering, you did travel through a tunnel way under the surface. And you would have burned to death if your friend had let go of you."
"Gary!" The blond girl in the tan suit nudged him and faced her. "Sorry. He only knows how to say things as bluntly as possible."
"Oh," Sophia managed, staring hard at Kenna. She'd landed in a circus, all right. After what she'd seen, she believed Gary. "Um…thank you for getting us away from there?"
Kenna managed a small smile, but something about it didn't seem entirely genuine. "That's what I'm here for." It seemed like she was speaking out of the corner of her mouth, towards the blond girl in the business suit.
"There was no point in not telling you," Gary said. "You've seen her drag you into fire already. And I'm sure you've seen Andrina."
Yes, she had. It was an experience she hoped never to repeat. The Other, however…
She shoved the thought from her mind. Sophia slowly spun in a circle. Everyone seemed to be staring at her, except for Callie. Worse yet was the skeptical look that the blond girl was giving her, like she had barged in on something she wasn't supposed to see, and they were just trying to find a way to deal with it. These people hadn't meant to rescue her. Only Callie. It was by accident she was here in the first place. If she hadn't gone to Callie's house this afternoon, would Kenna have been able to pull Callie's mother through the fireplace instead?