by Holly Hook
A great Tempest High Leader she was, sleeping while this was going on. If Elise were still here, she'd be chastised for not posting an extra guard or two outside of the camper Kenna was to share with Sophia. If she couldn't even keep a prisoner from escaping--a willing prisoner--then there was no way she could handle the rest. Andrina would take her to her side in no time, provided she could get to Paul or some other Outbreaker with his ability. And if Hyrokkin managed to find her--and she was sure that was why she'd made a break for it--she would happily tell her biological mother the location of their camp in exchange for being released.
She could only hope that the storm goddess was somewhere on the other side of the world. Andrina had a whole country to search, unless the news of the library freezing got onto national television. Leslie would have told her about that since she'd been forced to watch TV all day at the hospital with Paul. But she hadn't, so maybe they were okay.
Leslie shifted foot to foot, studying her shoes. "Hyrokkin escaped. She completely took over Sophia. Kenna tried to go after her to stop her, but the lake froze and--" she coughed, as if she were choking on her own words. "--and when Kenna tried to go over the ice after her, it cracked."
Janelle nodded, numb. It seemed Hyrokkin wasn't as weak to Kenna as she'd hoped. She straightened up, trying to project confidence that she didn't have. She could at least do that, right? "How did she get out of the camper in the first place?"
Callie crossed her legs. "Sophia was having a nightmare. She said she saw Hyrokkin ending the world in a huge blizzard. She was really upset when she woke, and ran to the showers before Kenna could catch her. Then she turned all the water on so Kenna couldn't go in after her."
On the ground, Kenna nodded and hugged the blanket closer to her. Parts were dark with moisture now as it soaked up the numbing water from her skin.
"While she knew that Kenna was the only thing that could help her?" Janelle asked. All of a sudden, she wanted to slap Sophia. It was a dumb move. But then again, she'd made some dumb moves before, too. Fear could do that to you, and she understood that one all too well. "Okay. Your story's a bit jumbled up. Why did you guys end up on the lake? I think that freezing it was a little unnecessary."
"It was to catch Leslie's notebook," Kenna piped in. There was still a shudder to her voice, as if the lake had crept inside her. "Leslie wrote something down about Andrina in it and that demon wanted to have a look. Leslie tried to throw it in the lake so she couldn't, but it didn't work."
Leslie shifted again, quiet. Something was wrong. Janelle faced her, hoping that her look was question enough. It didn't seem to be, because she coughed again but said nothing.
"What did you write?" she asked at last.
Her lips pursed together like they were fighting Leslie's ability to speak. "Mmmph," she managed at last, fists tightening into balls. Her friend's jaw trembled harder and harder until at last she unhinged it. "I can't say!"
"Can't say? It's okay. You can tell us whatever was on it." Janelle couldn't imagine anything that Leslie wouldn't want to tell them. Her first Outbreak, maybe, but it was impossible that she'd even had one yet.
But still she didn't. Leslie shook her head, staring down at the ground. Janelle didn't miss the reddening of her eyes or the shine starting to fill them.
Janelle wrapped her in a hug as the others backed away. Leslie returned it, trembling. She could feel the frustration running through her best friend, a monster wanting to be let out.
Something was very, very wrong here.
Especially if Leslie wanted to speak, but couldn't.
"Kenna, do you know what's going on?" she asked over Leslie's shoulder.
She shook her head, standing and shaking like someone who had just thrown away their wheelchair for the first time.
"Come on," Janelle said, leading her back to the camper. "We'll try to figure this out."
At last, Leslie sniffed and loosened her embrace. "Thank you," she said, the noose gone from her words. "Also, we need to get up to the hospital and see Paul as soon as we can."
Chapter Thirteen
Trees slapped at Sophia as Hyrokkin continued to pump her legs. She barely felt anything though the cocoon of cold that still surrounded her. The demon had never held on for this long before, especially after discharging her power like she had back in the shower and worse, out by the lake. The notebook still stayed crushed between her arm and her T-shirt.
Let me go, Sophia begged.
I will when I am released.
No, you won’t. You don't care if it kills me.
You won't die. I promise. You'll be a normal girl when I leave. All I want is my freedom. The voice was, for once, soothing. Sophia wanted to surrender and let it pull her in. Wanted to believe it would solve all her problems at last. She could have her friends back. Her grandmother. Get a better guy, a guy way hotter than Shane that she could stroll down the hall with in front of him.
A life.
You can have all of that. And more. Didn't I already tell you that?
But it was just too good to be true, like those diet pill commercials that always turned her grandmother's head. Her nightmare visit had proven that already. Hyrokkin also hadn't had a problem sending Kenna down to the bottom of the lake. Could goddesses die? She hoped not, and she wanted to scream with the worry of it. Kenna seemed nice enough, even if she did have a bit of an attitude about having to babysit her. But even if the demon let her go, she couldn't go back. Not now. Not after the attack she had pulled but not pulled.
Especially after Callie had seen it. The whole campsite would probably know by now.
Her lungs ached as she sucked in another breath, and broke onto the edge of the expressway.
Thankfully, Hyrokkin stopped her legs in time to keep her from going out onto the stretch of death. Nearby, a crushed possum lay on the edge of the rumble strip.
Sophia glanced behind her. Holiday Fields--the Tempest refugee camp--was barely visible through the trees about half a mile from where she stood. The foliage practically had a green glow now, hiding it from the freeway. Spring was well into middle age.
Humph, the winter demon thought inside of her.
"I'm not going to let you end the world," Sophia said. They were the first words she'd been allowed to speak on her own since she'd run to the bathrooms half an hour ago, and never before had they felt so weak, like a mouse in front of a steamroller.
It's for the best. They've done nothing but wrong us both. The world is too sick to live, and I know Andrina feels the same.
"You, you mean." A giggle crept up her throat. If someone came along, they'd find her here, staring at the farm fields across the highway and talking to nobody. "The world wronged you. And it sounds like you deserved it."
Sophia could feel Hyrokkin's anger rising in her as icicles seemed to stab through her chest. She winced, but it wasn't painful, and she knew that the monster wouldn't make her throw herself onto the expressway. Hyrokkin's curse meant she needed a vessel. For now, anyway. The fact that she wasn't getting crushed under the wheels of a semi truck right now proved it.
But the ice spread to her arm, and Sophia found herself raising her arm. And then her thumb at the passing cars.
"What are we--" she started.
Hitchhiking. I'll protect you.
She imagined climbing into a truck with some creepy middle aged man in sunglasses, and then frost spreading over the dash as Hyrokkin decided to freeze him to death. Paul had barely survived her attack in a big library. No one would be able to handle one in an enclosed vehicle. "No. Let's walk."
Where?
Hyrokkin had a point. Nothing but open fields and woods surrounded them on all sides. She could spot the green of an exit sign if she squinted, but the pavement of the ramp curved away into nothing.
For a second, she wanted to turn and run back to the campsite.
It's too late for that. You know it.
Sophia nodded, the tears welling up and preventing her voice box
from working quite right. She'd blown it there. There was only one way to go now. It sure wasn't back. Unless Hyrokkin found a way to leave without Andrina's help, that was.
Even if she did try to go back, the Other wouldn't let her.
"Goodbye, Callie," she muttered. She had still lost her best friend after all.
Tires squeaked. A car was rolling to a stop, the outline of an older woman leaning over to get a better look at her.
The demon let Sophia drop her arm back down to the side. She moved her legs--without any help now--towards the car. Please, don't hurt anyone. Promise me that.
A second passed before the grudging reply. All right.
Where to?
The next populated exit. We have some reading to do.
* * * * *
"Okay," Janelle said, sitting opposite Leslie on her bunk. "I get that something's keeping you from telling me something that you really want to tell me. The last time I saw you like this, it was when you had the flu and lost your voice, and you were trying to spill that Trent asked you out."
Leslie nodded and managed a smile. Maybe there was a way to get somewhere after all. Only it was more serious and frustrating than that. Leslie hadn't nearly been in tears at the time, and things were different now. Normal had died for both of them.
"Whatever she wrote was about Andrina. That's all I caught. Her name." Kenna said, opening the door to let Gary in. It was about time he got here. "I would have read more, but I got distracted." She turned to Leslie. "You wanted me to see it, right? But something made you grab it and run away."
"Yes," Leslie said, speaking for the first time in minutes. "I did. And you're right. At least I can say that."
Her best friend's shoulders fell and relaxed as Gary came over and planted a short kiss on Janelle's cheek. A strand of his hair tickled her skin, which made her tingle as if there was a current running through it. They had taken a baby step forward in this. Now, she had to ask the dreaded question. "Did this happen to do with my moth--I mean, Andrina?"
Gary's gaze snapped to her. Leslie's eyes widened a bit, showing the brown irises and the black flecks within. Even Kenna shifted, making the floor of the camper groan.
Janelle resisted the urge to bring her hand to her mouth. She had never even come close to calling Andrina her mother before, not even in her head, safe from everyone else's ears. The monster didn't care one bit about her, except as an asset. A weapon. Something to be used.
But she had been upset the time Yellowstone had almost blown and destroyed them both. Enough to hug her from the side, even--
"Leslie, you're not saying anything. Can you nod or shake your head?"
Again, nothing. Just a blank stare and a scared, desperate gleam in her eyes.
But it was good enough for an answer.
If Andrina had nothing to do with this, Leslie would be able to say something. Anything.
"Great," Janelle said, letting her face drop to her hand.
The mood in the room dropped from tense to desperate. This meant that Andrina might at least be in the area, or that she had someone here working for her. Either could be very bad. But there hadn't been any storms going through in the past week or so, so it didn't make sense. Well, it had rained just a little last night, a little before Mel had gone to pick Leslie up from the hospital.
But it still didn’t explain why Leslie couldn't speak. Andrina could make Tempests and Outbreakers freeze when she was around, though. Back in Mobley, she'd even commanded one of the police officers to walk towards her to be 'released,' and he'd been an Outbreaker. Could she do something to them all to keep them from talking about her? It might be possible.
Janelle felt oddly like her father as she looked back up and asked the next question. "Did you see her? Or did she see you?"
Again, silence. That could mean anything.
"Are you able to tell us anything else?"
Leslie shook her head. "No. I can't. At least, I don't think I can. Janelle, we should get back to the hospital. Paul might be able to say something, but I'm not sure."
Janelle rose and brushed dried mud off her pants. This was hopeless unless they tried something different, and Sophia was still out there, held hostage by a winter goddess that wanted to end the world, if Kenna and Callie were right. "Okay. Let me change. We'll go. First, I need to get some people together to go out and find Sophia. Maybe Hyrokkin will let her go by time they get to her." A bad feeling in her gut told her it might not be a good idea, but they had no other choices. If Hyrokkin found Andrina--and it seemed very possible if she might be around here--the two of them would be unstoppable. "Kenna has to lead the search. It's the only way."
Kenna peeled herself from the wall. "I guess you're right," she said. "There's still the possibility of running into Andrina, though."
"Then you're the best person to deal with it. You'll be the only one who won't be paralyzed if she shows up, for one. Just don't find yourself going into any more lakes."
Kenna nodded. She couldn't quite conceal her smile. At last, she might have a chance to get back at the woman who had lied to her and led her out to Yellowstone. She might be weak to water, but she was better off than any of them were.
"I'm staying with you," Gary said, hugging her from the side.
Janelle hugged him back. "That's the way I want it."
* * * * *
The car ride with the older woman seemed to last an hour, but in reality it was fifteen minutes at the most. Sophia made up some story about getting back to her mother's house in Flint as she sat in the car and stared at the dash, keeping the woman in the corner of her vision in case she tried anything suspicious. The whole time, Hyrokkin sat waiting to pounce at the edge of her mind, like a Siberian tiger crouching in a snow bank.
The woman didn't look dangerous with her gaudy earrings, or sound dangerous with the light rock coming out of the radio. Some replays of songs she'd heard a million times on the school bus that normally drove Sophia insane. But now those songs made her feel like she'd fallen back into normality, whatever that was.
But it would only be for a few minutes.
"Are you sure you're going back to see your mother?" the woman asked, glancing at her from the corner of her eye.
"Do you think I'm a runaway?" Sophia asked, pointing to her lack of luggage. She felt sorry that she sounded a little snotty and toned her voice down a bit. She smiled, hoping that she sounded like she was just kidding around. "If that was the case, I think I would have brought more with me. Another change of clothes, at least."
"I suppose you have a point," the woman said. She focused more on the road, pleased with her explanation. That, or she didn't want to know the truth. Either was good with her. In a few minutes, she'd leave her company and never see her again.
Sophia chose a random exit that apparently led to an airport. She'd seen airplanes going over the campsite for the past couple of days, close enough to the ground to hear, so there must be one very close by. If she could get Hyrokkin to behave, she could call her grandmother from there and have her send some money to go back home. Right now, she didn't want to see anyone else. Sophia suddenly realized how much she missed the smell of her vanilla candles burning, and the low drone of the always-on television. Her grandmother's crackling laugh, and even the way she lit her cigarettes in the laundry room. Everything about home, even if it wouldn't include Callie.
The tiger stood inside her, growling.
You can go back to her when I'm released. Only then. I will make sure she is not harmed.
No.
You want this as much as I do.
Sophia didn't have an answer for that one. It was true. She did want to be rid of Hyrokkin more than anything, to have her life to herself for the first time in six years.
But it would mean stealing the lives of so many others. Once again, she imagined all the campers of the refugee site buried, Janelle and Gary and Leslie all trapped inside. Callie, even. That was, if Andrina didn't get to them all first to r
elease them.
"Where would you like to be dropped off?" the woman asked.
Only then did Sophia realize they'd pulled off the exit. "At the airport. She's waiting for me there."
A minute later, her driver pulled into the front of the airport. "You sure you're meeting your mother?" she asked again.
Sophia nodded and left the car. Maybe this was too obvious a place to have come, but there weren't many options in a city she didn't know. "Thank you."
Inside, people milled around. She searched for a pay phone, but Hyrokkin took over in an instant. Sit. Over there.
It wouldn't do any good to fight her here. Not with all these vulnerable people around, anyway. In order to make sure they stayed safe, she had to stay calm and do what the hostage taker inside her demanded.
Sophia found a couch near a window and sat. Footsteps and talking washed over her, along with the noise of squeaky luggage. It was early morning still, and the first orange beams started to form on the carpet. Back at the campsite, Leslie and Callie might still be trying to pull Kenna out of the water. Janelle might be setting up a search party for her or getting everyone ready to leave the area. Either way, Sophia would never see any of them again. It was for the best. Dropping a goddess into a lake was one thing. Potentially hurting Callie was another. That was something she could never live with.
Open the notebook.
Sophia obeyed and paged through Literature assignments. They matched those she'd done earlier that year, the ones that Callie had groaned over the entire time in class. At last, at the back, she found Leslie's neat, but hurried, writing.
Dear Journal.
That's it, Hyrokkin said. That's what we need to read. Now let's see where Andrina might be.
Sophia remembered with a skip in her heartbeat.
Letting this monster know Andrina's location was the one thing she couldn't do.