by Diana Paz
The trail’s gone, Julia said.
No. It couldn’t be. Angie reached out, searching for the darkness that would lead them to the creature.
I have to land us somewhere, Julia said. I can’t keep going.
The trail of darkness was gone, and wherever that portal was, they wouldn’t find it now. Not without another creature.
Angie smothered the disappointment rising in her chest as she sensed Julia’s power growing weaker. Julia still needed to master her power. It wasn’t her fault. It’s okay. Land in that field. Just beyond the river.
Are you mental? Kaitlyn asked. Not a river!
I won’t make us land in the river, jerk.
You did last time! Oh, God, we ’re doing it again. We ’re heading right for the water!
“Stop it,” Julia muttered out loud.
Don’t make us fall!
“Just shut it.”
Angie felt the magic sputtering out. Their bodies became solid and she braced herself, but it wasn’t enough to prepare her for the fall as they tumbled onto the field, rolling over and over with the residual force of Julia’s magic.
“Damn it,” Kaitlyn lashed out. “You are getting worse and worse at that.”
“I was doing fine until you freaked out about the river. You completely broke my concentration.”
It was strange listening to an argument between two invisible people. Strange, but no less irritating.
“I don’t give a crap about your concentration. In fact, this whole task is stupid. I want to go home.”
Angie dusted off her gown and stood up. “If it’s all right with you two, could we please be visible again?”
“No,” Kaitlyn snapped. “Not until we go home.”
“That’s out of our control,” Angie said. “We have to complete the task.”
“We protected the future queen. The creatures can’t touch them,” Kaitlyn said, a faint, glass-like outline of her body the only evidence of her presence. “That’s good enough for now. Let’s go back.”
“No,” Angie said. “We must seal the portal.”
“I don’t care about the portal.” Kaitlyn left the grass imprinted with her pacing. “Remember what Ethan said? We have to go back and freeze time first.”
“It is getting way late,” Julia said. “My mom is probably freaking out.”
Angie gripped the skirts of her gown. With the different time zones, it should be near dawn back in Long Beach. They could go back, settle things with their families, freeze time, and then return after that. But what would happen to the past while they were away? Would they be able to return to this exact point in time and prevent any damage to history?
“I’m exhausted. And starving,” Kaitlyn said. “I need to go home.”
“All right, we’ll go back,” Angie said, taking their hands.
“Let’s get rid of the invisibility,” Julia said. “Please.”
“Fine,” Kaitlyn muttered. The three of them shimmered for an instant and then reappeared.
“That’s much better,” Julia said. “There’s something kind of empty about being invisible.”
Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes at Julia. “Are you saying something about my magic?”
Angie shook her head. “Please, no more arguing. Show me the threads of time so I can find the one that takes us home.”
Kaitlyn lowered her dark lashes, drawing in magic as she did. Golden threads appeared before them, each a path to a possible future. There were hundreds of choices. Angie sifted through them, looking for the one devoid of color, the one that would allow them to retrace their steps back to where they had left their lives.
But as she reached for it, another thread caught her eye. She followed it with her mind, oddly curious about seeing herself in a possible future. She was at UC Santa Barbara, where she had gone to cheerleading camp last summer. This could be one of her potential futures. She concentrated on it, watching herself studying on a grassy hill. In front of her was a wide view of nothing but ocean. There was no sound, no smell, but she could see the breeze ruffling the edges of her papers. David approached her. A shy smile curved up on one side of his lips as he joined her. Something important was about to happen. Something big ....
“Oh this is disgusting,” Kaitlyn said. “It isn’t David daydreaming time. Send us home already!”
“I have to check the threads,” Angie said, feeling heat blaze across her cheeks. “Some of these don’t lead far enough ahead. Some of them are only possibilities. We need the one where we started out from, the one that shows the present without us in it.”
“Then do it,” Kaitlyn snapped.
Angie flinched at her tone. She focused on the flow of magic pumping through her veins, thick and sweet. Along with it came the usual mixture of emotions from Kaitlyn and Julia. An intense rush of jealousy arose from Kaitlyn. Jealousy for Julia’s power, for her easy smile, and for Ethan’s kiss. The jealousy tore at Angie, clawing until her soul felt raw.
She lifted her eyes to watch Kaitlyn in the midst of whirling images. Wars battled around them, festivals were celebrated, people struggled and thrived. She could see even further back into history if she tried. Knights in shining armor, Roman soldiers.
Kaitlyn’s eyes almost glowed in the maelstrom of time, vivid and sharp, her gaze fixed on Julia.
Angie pushed the image from her mind. She latched on to a thread that blazed with light but was devoid of color. It showed prom, people dancing and laughing, taking pictures and hugging. David stood alone, holding her purse and staring out at the black ocean.
“This is it,” she said. “I need magic. Lots of it.”
Chapter 18
Julia
Julia squeezed her eyes shut. Time travel was the hardest power to get used to. Heat filled her chest as Angie worked the threads of time. She remembered a weekend up in Big Bear. She and her mom made snowmen and snow angels and stomped around until Julia’s toes ached from the cold. After her mom peeled off her wet things, Julia sat in a steaming bath, shivering as her frozen body prickled with painful heat, as if it were waking up. The magic hurt in that same, good way, reaching deep parts of her that had gone numb.
All of a sudden, it stopped and she opened her eyes.
Metal bars crisscrossed above her, intertwined so tightly she couldn’t see the sky above.
Where had Angie taken them?
The network of metal overhead formed four archways all around them. Beyond each archway stretched a lawn, like some kind of a park. Modern day people wearing jeans and ball caps and other regular clothing were everywhere. Julia stood up too quickly, swaying on her feet. People raised cell phones and cameras, wearing the kinds of excited smiles she had only seen when there was about to be a fight at school.
“Kaitlyn!” Angie yelled. “Quick, make us invisible!”
“Oh, suddenly I’m valuable,” she muttered, taking their hands. Julia was too weak to care how much magic Kaitlyn took from her, too confused to do anything but stare out at the crowd.
“Hurry,” Angie said.
“I’m trying! Stop distracting me!”
Someone blew a whistle. Men ran toward them, dressed in dark blue and wearing round, flat-topped hats. They skidded to a stop, their faces twisting in horror just as a gasp came from the crowd.
“There,” Kaitlyn said. “Invisible.”
Julia looked down at herself. As always, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach at the sight of her emptiness. This was her least favorite of their powers. She could see her outline, like the smudged edges of a piece of glass, but it didn’t make her feel much better.
“Come on,” Angie said, pulling them forward and through one of the massive archways of metal. Everyone with their cameras and cell phones, even the police, kept staring at the spot where they had been.
“Where are we?” Julia asked.
“Still in Paris,” Angie said. “I Voyaged us to the present. Look.”
Julia turned around. The crisscross pattern of m
etal they had been under was the base of the Eiffel Tower. “I don’t get it.”
“There was no Eiffel Tower until 1889,” Angie said. “That field we were in before—the one where we time traveled from— it’s what this place looked like in the time of Marie Antoinette.”
“Great,” Kaitlyn said. “We’re in the right time but in the wrong place. Time to ask the all-powerful Julia to Journey us home.”
“Julia isn’t strong enough to Journey us right now,” Angie said.
The outline of two slim arms rose to Kaitlyn’s hips. “She can try.”
“That’s not a good idea. We don’t understand these powers well enough to know our limitations, and we’re all still weak from time traveling. If Julia’s magic gives out halfway across the Atlantic ....”
Julia shuddered. She remembered plummeting into the river near Tuileries Palace. “No, not yet,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“We’ll have to wait a bit,” Angie said. “Until then, let’s find a place to become visible again.”
The place turned out to be a row of hedges, and Kaitlyn was quick with her power this time. They shimmered back to normal and Julia took a good look at them. Angie looked dainty in her Marie Antoinette clothes, even with her corset slashed open. By contrast, Kaitlyn’s cleavage spilled out of her dress like some exotic courtesan. Julia looked down at herself, feeling frumpy.
“We need clothes,” Angie said, her brow crumpling. “I wish there was a way to call our families.”
“Why don’t we?” Julia asked.
Kaitlyn laughed. “Great idea. What are you going to say? ‘Hi, mommy. Sorry I’m late, I got stuck in Paris fighting demons in the past.’”
Julia was about to tell Kaitlyn to lay off when a voice called out in her mind.
Julia!
Ethan. Damn it, she kept leaving him everywhere!
Answer me! Where are you?
She closed her eyes. I’m so sorry, Ethan! Hold on a sec.
“Julia? What are you doing?” Kaitlyn asked.
She needed someplace to bring him over where it wouldn’t make the evening news. The bushes weren’t tall enough to hide behind if she stood. Did she have to be standing to summon him?
Angie grabbed her by the arm. “Where are you going?”
“Ethan,” she said.
Angie’s eyes grew sympathetic.
“No way,” Kaitlyn said. “You have to save your power to Journey us back home. You can’t just waste it.”
“No!” Julia said. Her body went rigid. Ethan was out there. He needed her. She ducked behind a bush and closed her eyes. Where was he? The image of him formed in her mind. He was still standing in the middle of that cheering crowd at Marie Antoinette’s palace, and he seemed to be listening for something. Waiting. Julia held out her hands.
“Hold on,” Angie said, taking Julia’s outstretched hand before she could say the words.
“No,” Julia said. “You don’t understand!”
“I understand,” she said. “Just, freeze time first, okay? That way you can take as long as you need to build up your magic, and our parents won’t have to worry while we wait.”
Julia glanced up at Kaitlyn. “That works for me,” she said.
Julia took the girls’ hands. Behind her closed eyes she saw the sun and moon, locked in place. It was as simple as that. “There,” she said. She got up from behind the bush, not caring about the sudden silence or the park filled with frozen tourists. She only cared about one thing. “Find me, Wanderer,” she whispered, her hands outstretched. “Find me.”
The cold, swirling mists appeared. Like every time before, Ethan’s hands came first, flowing out toward his chest, and last came his face, tight with pain or panic. Julia wondered, not for the first time, what it must be like to be pulled through space and time like that.
His eyes found hers. He pulled her roughly against his body, his voice muffled against her hair. “Don’t ever leave.”
Julia pulled back. “I won’t,” she said. She couldn’t leave him behind. Trapped. She couldn’t.
Ethan’s face changed subtly. “We’ll see.”
They left time frozen and sat on the grass while Julia stared at the sky and waited to get her strength back. Angie grew more and more fidgety until Julia thought if she saw her fingers tap along her dress one more time, she would explode.
For the umpteenth time, Angie sat down beside her. “I think it’s time to try.”
Sure, that was easy for Angie to say. She wasn’t the one who could plummet them into the freezing Atlantic Ocean if she screwed up. Julia rolled over on the grass, her eyes resting on where Ethan sat. She hadn’t followed him when he had walked off. She really didn’t get what his problem was. One second he acted like he wanted to kiss her, the next he looked at her like he never wanted to see her again.
She sat up, noticing how her grassy imprint didn’t bounce back to normal. It left a Julia-sized shape in the lawn. When time was frozen they could move things around, but those things couldn’t move back.
“It’s been hours,” Angie said, placing a hand on her arm. “We can’t wait forever.”
Ethan faced them from across the park. Julia kept her voice down and said, “Can’t we just ... I don’t know, sneak on an airplane or something? Kaitlyn could make us invisible. We zoom in, land safe at LAX, and I can Journey us home from there.”
“Julia can’t do it,” Kaitlyn said from where she reclined on the grass. Her eyes glittered like cold gems. “She knows she’ll kill us if she tries.”
“I can do it,” Julia said, more from the habit of contradicting Kaitlyn than from really believing she could. “I just think it wouldn’t be fair to Ethan. He’d have to stay here until we Journeyed, and if I don’t ... if something happens to us—”
“You’ll do it,” Angie said. “I know you will.”
Julia’s throat tightened up. “Let me just tell Ethan so he isn’t blindsided like last time.”
She walked to where Ethan sat. For a second she thought he would dismiss her, but the conflicting light in his eyes became resigned. “What is it?” he asked flatly.
“I’m ready. I’m Journeying us back home.”
“Leaving me behind, I assume?”
“Is there a way to take you with us?”
He studied her a moment. “No,” he said. “Not all the way back home.”
“But ... there is a way to share our powers with you?” she asked. “Talk like a normal person, Ethan. Just tell me what to do.”
He pushed his black curls off his forehead. “No, there’s no sharing any powers. When you become invisible or Journey or Voyage to past or present, you bring things with you. The clothes you wear, things in your pockets or in your hands, small stuff like that. It might be possible for the three of you to carry a whole person with you a short distance, but not all the way across an ocean.” He stared off into the distance, his eyes unfocused. “Try not to take too long, okay?”
“Okay, but Ethan?” she said, her cheeks flooding with heat. She managed to keep eye contact, but her voice became a ragged rasp. “What if I can’t do it?”
The mask of callousness dropped from his face as he rose to his feet. “Of course you can do it.”
She remained fixed under his silvery gaze. “But if I don’t?”
“You will,” he said. He brought his hand to her cheek and stopped short, his eyes closing. “Go, Daughter of Present.” His voice became deep and gravelly. “You’re supposed to go.”
Of course, he was right. Their families were definitely worried about why they hadn’t come home from prom. Julia rejoined Angie and Kaitlyn, wondering if Ethan had a family and how he had become bound to the magic in the first place.
“Ready?” Angie asked.
Julia nodded, taking the other girls’ hands. The magic formed, quick and hot. She waited for it to fill her as completely as it could, until she couldn’t stand it a moment more. Then she saw the entire world waiting for her. Where would she go? Ho
me, she thought, using the other girls’ emotions to find a single place to focus on. She visualized the Santa Monica pier with its Ferris wheel and carnival rides until it was so clear she could almost reach out and touch it. Then she released.
The world dropped out from under them with sickening speed. They passed over the ocean, and Julia forced every ounce of power she had until she saw the endless white coast ahead. Onward she pushed, flying over mountains and cities and massive stretches of nothing but grass. She let her eyes close, staying focused on the image of the Santa Monica pier in her mind. She would not let go of the magic until she reached their home, no matter what.
Julia, we did it! Open your eyes!
She couldn’t tell whose voice it was, but she didn’t care. The carousel house and the Ferris wheel and the whole Santa Monica pier was spread out before them, bathed in the white and deep blues of predawn. They were home.
But the magic pumped strong in her veins, too strong to control. They flew right by the pier and over the shore.
Stop, Julia! Stop the magic!
Her heart hammered in her chest. She had to land them, but she had so much magic. They were going so fast! She released some of it, unfreezing time, but that hardly used up anything. They passed the Venice Beach boardwalk and the wide strip of sand beyond until nothing was left in front of them except the dark blue waves of the Pacific Ocean.
“Stop!” Angie screamed. “Stop!”
She could break their connection. She let go of the other girls’ hands, stopping the flow of magic with a rush of pain that tore a scream from her throat. They became solid, and a moment later plummeted into the ocean. The water hit her body like a vicious, icy slap. The burn of it in her throat and nostrils shocked her. Everything became dark. No, not again! She kicked and thrashed against her heavy skirts. They were so close to shore. She tore at ribbons and fastenings, her lungs screaming with the need for oxygen. She broke through the surface, choking on salt water and unable to take in enough air. Why couldn’t she breathe? She gasped as waves swelled, rushing her forward and dragging her back down into the sea.
She couldn’t win against the weight of all these clothes or the force of the churning ocean, but something inside her made her try anyway. She kicked for all she was worth, but the sea tumbled her like a clump of seaweed. Water and sand rushed up her nose as she somersaulted in the crashing surf until the waves spewed her limp body onto the shore.