Chasing Power

by Sarah Beth Durst

  The rope rose up the shaft. She snaked it up, up, up, until it reached the ledge. Gritting her teeth, she looped it around the stone, then she released her mental grip on it and staggered backward as pain blossomed through her mind. Daniel caught her. His arms were warm and strong around her. She told herself to quit noticing that and get back to work. She shrugged him off and climbed over pottery and other artifacts until she was directly beneath the shaft. Using her hands instead of her mind, Kayla yanked on the rope. It slid to the bottom of the stone. She fixed it in place with her mind as she used her arms to pull the stone forward. It scooted to the edge, tottered, and then fell.

  Hands up, Kayla caught it.

  “You did it,” Daniel said, hushed.

  “Can’t take all the credit. You got us here.” She couldn’t take her eyes off it. The stone was a carved triangle that fit neatly into the palm of Kayla’s hand. It was a luminous black and had one smooth side and two serrated sides, as if it were meant to fit into a puzzle. Holding it up to catch the weak light from the doorway, she saw deep colors dancing within it beneath almost-letters that blurred if you looked directly at them. No question about it: this was it! She handed the stone to Daniel.

  “You just …” He took it, fumbled it, and then clutched it to his chest. “This stone is immensely powerful.” He looked flummoxed, as if he hadn’t expected her to just give him the stone.

  “So what? I don’t want it. It’s yours. You need it.”

  He opened and shut his mouth like he was a speechless fish.

  “Why are you looking at me like that? Did you honestly think I wasn’t going to give it to you?” Oh, fantastic. What did he think of her? “I’m a thief, not a jerk.”

  “There’s something I need to tell you.” He licked his lips as he hesitated. “I haven’t been fully honest with you. But I …” He looked away from her, out the doorway to the white clouds that hung low in the sky, filling the valley between the mountains. “Thank you for this. My mother was right that I couldn’t have done it without you. And I do, really do, think you’re the most amazing girl I’ve ever met.”

  She felt a tightness in her stomach. She didn’t know what was coming next, but she knew it would be bad. “That’s sweet, but what weren’t you honest about?”

  “I’m not going to keep the stone safe,” Daniel said. “I’m going to trade it for my mother.” He said it fast, as if the words were escaping the confines of his throat.

  Her stomach unknotted. That was it? “Good. That’s sensible.”

  He blinked at her. “Really? You think so? But … Invincibility in the hands of unscrupulous people! You don’t know who—”

  “Look, it’s your mom. You have to try to save her, and I don’t think holding on to the stone is going to convince them to free her. Obviously you have to make the trade. All we have to do is figure out how to get the message to them.” She considered it for a moment. In the distance, she heard the thrum of a helicopter, and that gave her an idea. “What about the news crew in Tikal? You could appear there, with the stone, and make the offer publicly … but then how would the kidnapper reply? Also, what if Queen Marguerite finds out you’re offering up the stone? She wouldn’t be happy. Still, I don’t see many other options.”

  The look in his eyes was intense. “You are—”

  “Yes, yes, amazing, I know. How about we leave this tomb? Rather not brainstorm with so many dead bodies around me, even if they’re old and historical and all that.”

  He stepped closer, and she thought he was going to transport them. Instead, he kissed her. She felt her knees weaken as if her body expected to start floating. The kiss buzzed through her head, and every thought scattered as soon as it formed. The warmth of his body against hers, the softness of his lips, the taste of his breath were intoxicating. He kissed her as if this kiss would save him, as if he needed this kiss to live.

  At last, they broke apart.

  Kayla felt breathless. “You realize that relationships formed in reactions to intense situations don’t last.”

  “Says who?” Daniel said.

  “Don’t know. Stole that line from some movie.”

  He smiled. “Thief.”

  She felt herself smiling goofily back at him. Her cheeks were stretched into a grin she couldn’t stop. “Everyone has faults.”

  Before he could reply, a tremor shook the tomb. One of the mummies toppled to the side, and loose rocks rained down. Crack. A split ran down one of the stone walls, and a rock tumbled from the top. Before Kayla could even scream, the rock crashed into the side of Daniel’s head. Shouting his name, Kayla dropped down next to him. “Daniel? Daniel!” There was blood on the side of his head, wetting his hair. “Daniel?” He was breathing. He wasn’t dead. But he didn’t move. “Daniel!”

  The tremor stopped.

  She heard a rustling from the tomb entrance and turned. In a climbing harness, suspended from a rope, was a man in khaki shorts and a crisp white shirt. He wore a tan Indiana Jones hat that shadowed his eyes. Swinging forward, he landed inside the tomb in a crouch.

  Kayla began, “He’s hurt! Please—”

  The man rose to his feet, and the words died in her throat. Kayla felt like she couldn’t breathe. She knew him. It had been eight years, but he’d featured in her nightmares many nights since then.

  He looked older, of course. She should have expected that. Gray speckled his beard, and he had creases around his eyes. But there was no question that he was Kayla’s father.

  Every instinct, every bit of training, screamed at her to run.

  There was nowhere to run.

  She noticed he was carrying her backpack. “That’s mine,” she said. She didn’t know why she said that. Why say that? Of all things, why that? She didn’t want those to be her last words. Who cared about a backpack?

  I’m going to die, she thought.

  She should have stayed with Moonbeam. She should never have lied to her. She should have fled town as soon as Daniel found her. Now, Moonbeam would never know what happened to her. Selena could tell her where she went, but they’d never know why she didn’t return. Kayla wished she could say she was sorry to both of them. She didn’t mean to worry them or scare them or cause them grief.

  She’d never felt fear like this. It clogged her throat. It froze her blood. It locked her muscles. She couldn’t speak or breathe. But inside, every cell was screaming.

  He tossed the backpack to her. As she instinctively caught it, he leaned over and took the stone out of Daniel’s limp hand, and then backed to the ledge. He stepped out into nothingness and was pulled up on the climbing rope, the stone in his hand.

  Chapter 13

  Kayla knelt beside Daniel. Oh, please, please don’t be dead! She was shaking as she felt his head. He’d stopped bleeding. Red speckled the rocks and matted his hair. He groaned as she touched him—which meant he wasn’t dead, didn’t it? “Daniel, are you okay? Please be okay.” She checked his pulse. It took her three tries to steady her fingers enough on his neck to feel anything.

  Reaching up, he wrapped his hand around hers and opened his eyes.

  “You’re alive,” she breathed. She wanted to grab him and hug him and then smack him for scaring the shit out of her, but she was afraid to touch him. Awake didn’t mean well. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”

  He pushed himself up to sitting and then groaned. He lay back down. “What happened?” He looked around the tomb. “Where’s the stone?” His voice rose louder. “Kayla, where is it?”

  “Short version? You were hit on the head with a rock. My father swooped in, stole the stone, and left.” Kayla tried to sound nonchalant, but her voice shook. “And there’s no long version. It happened fast.” So very fast. She felt her lungs constricting again. She sucked in air like a fish on land. He could have killed her. Nearly did kill Daniel. And then left her, stranded, which was not so different from killing her. If Daniel died, she’d die, trapped high on the mountainside, conveniently already in a
tomb. Picturing it, she wanted to curl into a ball, pretend this was some hideous nightmare, and scream until she woke up.

  All the blood seemed to run out of Daniel’s face. He looked as pale as bone. “He was here? He took it?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think fast enough.” In retrospect, she could have thrown dirt in his eyes or used the razor blade to slice his climbing rope. Or … She didn’t know. Her father, here! “I thought …” She’d thought she was going to die. She’d thought Daniel was dying. Kayla swallowed. It was hard to wrap her mind around the idea that her blood was still in her veins and she was still breathing in and out. She’d encountered her father; therefore, according to everything her mother had ever taught her, she should be dead.

  “I’m the one who’s sorry,” Daniel said, his voice drained, beaten. He sank back against the rocks, as if he could fold in on himself. “He caught you by surprise. I should have told you who he was. I’d hoped … I don’t know. I’m so very sorry.”

  Kayla felt herself go very still. The wind outside seemed to die, as if the world were holding its breath. Softly, she said, “You knew?”

  “Your parents and my mother were childhood friends. That’s how I found you. She told me once where you lived. Said I should know, in case of emergencies.”

  “Impossible,” Kayla said. “My mother didn’t keep in touch with anyone she knew before. She severed all ties. We started a new life. She never would have told anyone how to find us.” But he’d known where to find her. And he’d called her Kayla, her new name.

  He didn’t argue with her. “You see why I didn’t trust you at first? You’re his daughter. I didn’t know if you’d help me or side with him. That’s why I didn’t tell you. And later … I didn’t know how to tell you.”

  “I kissed you.” She’d let down her guard. She’d trusted him. She never trusted people. Only Selena. And Moonbeam, who had led this boy to her. And this boy, who had led her father to her. “I trusted you!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She felt as if her blood were burning, like lava about to explode out of her. Pebbles rose into the air around them. They whipped in a tiny cyclone. Other cyclones of dirt, dust, and rocks whirled around the tomb.

  Daniel shot them a look. “Uh, Kayla?”

  She didn’t tamp them down. Instead she sent them shooting out the entrance to the tomb. They dispersed in the air, and debris rained down, far down, on the knotted green of the forest below. “Take me home. Now.”

  Again, he didn’t argue. Reaching out, he laid his hand over hers.

  Gray.

  Black.

  Red.

  She was outside the red garden gate. For an instant, she felt cold as she saw her father’s face flash before her. But no, he wasn’t here. He was thousands of miles away in the mountains of Peru, and she was safe. Kayla snatched her hand away from Daniel and refused to look at him.

  “Kayla … ,” he began.

  “Don’t.”

  “When you’re ready to look for the next stone, call me.”

  “I don’t think it’s overly melodramatic of me to say I never want to see you again.” She pushed the gate open so hard that the wind chimes clanged. If Daniel called after her, she didn’t hear. She strode through the garden, between the bushes and garden gnomes and ceramic fairies, and then into the house. Moonbeam was at the sink. Kayla ran past her. She stuffed the backpack under her futon and threw herself on top.

  She started to wrap herself in the quilt like it was a cocoon. But Moonbeam threw it off her. “Kayla! Kayla!” Moonbeam gathered her up and hugged her close. Kayla wrapped her arms tightly around her mother.

  “Moonbeam,” Kayla said, muffled, into her mother’s scarf. “Mom.” Moonbeam’s many amulets and pendants dug into Kayla’s skin. Kayla felt as if something inside her snapped, and she was suddenly crying, giant ugly sobs into Moonbeam’s shoulder.

  Stroking her hair, Moonbeam rocked and rocked her.

  At last, Kayla calmed. She breathed deep, and Moonbeam breathed with her. Eventually, Moonbeam pulled back and held on to Kayla’s arms. She peered into Kayla’s eyes and then inspected her. “Are you hurt? You’re dirty.” She spotted Kayla’s hands, streaked with Daniel’s blood. “You’re bleeding.”

  Kayla tucked her hands in her armpits. “I’m fine.”

  “You didn’t call. You didn’t answer the phone. I didn’t know if you were dead.” Her voice was gentle.

  Kayla closed her eyes. “Please don’t ask me what happened.”

  “Kayla …”

  “Please. Mom.”

  “Okay.” Moonbeam was silent for a moment, and Kayla curled up on her bed. “Just one thing: Do you need a doctor?”

  “No.”

  “Do you need the police?”

  “No!”

  “Then we’ll talk later,” Moonbeam said, “when you’re ready.”

  Kayla felt her quilt being wrapped around her. Her mother tucked in the edges like she used to when Kayla was a little girl, and Kayla again felt tears spill out of her eyes. She didn’t open her eyes, though. She listened as Moonbeam shuffled across the cottage to the kitchen. She heard the clank of the teakettle being set down on the stove and the click-click of the gas burner lighting. She heard the refrigerator open and close and then the cabinets.

  She waited for the feeling of “home” to wrap around her. She wanted to feel safe. But she kept hearing the rock hit Daniel’s head and seeing her father’s face every time she closed her eyes.

  At last, somehow, she slept.

  When she woke, Selena was seated beside Kayla’s futon on a kitchen stool. She was frowning at her phone and typing as if she were stabbing it with her finger. Kayla sat up and looked around the cottage. The scarf separating her corner was pulled back and she could see the whole room, sunlight filtering through the windows, dust sparkling and spinning in the beams.

  No Moonbeam.

  Kayla tossed off the quilt and jumped to her feet. “Where’s my mother?”

  “No ‘hello’?” Selena tucked her phone into her pocket. “You scared me too, you know.”

  “Sorry.” Darting across the cottage, Kayla leaned over the kitchen sink to look out the window at the garden. There was Moonbeam, weeding. Her back was to the window. She was wearing a ridiculous floppy sun hat that looked more like an umbrella. She was barefoot, and a basket of weeds lay next to her. Kayla felt her rib cage loosen, and she could breathe again.

  Her mother was safe. Dad wasn’t here. He was thousands of miles away. Kayla breathed in and out, trying to calm herself.

  “What happened?” Selena asked, quiet, serious for once.

  Kayla turned. Her friend was standing close, next to her. Selena looked normal and perfect and beautiful as always. Without a word, Kayla hugged her.

  Awkwardly, Selena patted her back. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. Cry it out. No, wait, don’t cry on me. Just tell me what happened. Did you find his mother?”

  Kayla shook her head.

  “Did you find the stone?”

  A nod then a shake.

  “Cryptic much? Okay, where is it? And where is he?”

  “I …” She opened and closed her mouth. “I don’t know.” He’d been hurt. Was he okay? Of course he was. He’d brought her here. But where had he gone after? What if he’d had a concussion? What if he was lying in the gutter with internal bleeding, dying, and she’d just walked away? “I saw my father,” Kayla said in the quietest voice she could. All of it spilled out, everything that had happened, from the kiss to the stone to the sight of her father taking the stone and leaving her stranded but alive.

  “Oh, Kayla.” This time, Selena hugged her back. “No wonder you’re a mess. Did you tell Moonbeam? I’m guessing no. You have to tell her!”

  “She’d freak out,” Kayla said. “And he isn’t here. He doesn’t know where we live.” She had a sudden thought. “I’m not even sure he knows who I am. He didn’t say.” That thought was so glorious that it nearly made her dizzy.r />
  “No ‘Luke, I am your father’ moment? That’s a plus.”

  “Selena, this is serious.” Twisting around, Kayla watched her mother weed. Moonbeam scooted over to the next flower bed. She was clearing space around select herbs. Kayla was sure they were for some kind of protective charm. After what had happened, Kayla wanted to drape herself in charms too. She wished she believed they worked.

  “I know. But it’s not doomsday.”

  “Close enough.” She watched her mother sit back on her heels and wipe her forehead with the back of her gardening glove. Dirt streaked her cheeks. They’d sacrificed so much to stay hidden from Dad, and Kayla had just pranced blindly to him. She’d criticized Daniel for not being careful enough, when all the while, she was the one blind to danger. She should have grilled Daniel on how he’d heard of her, how he knew her name, how he found her. She shouldn’t have trusted him at all.

  “So what was he like? Giant monster with drool and twenty arms?”

  Kayla shot her a glare. “You’re really bad at the sympathy thing. Couldn’t you fake it for a few more minutes?”

  “He didn’t kill you,” Selena pointed out. “Look, I’m just saying, the worst has happened. You saw your dad; he saw you. You’re still here. Let’s move on.”

  “Luck. Sheer luck. If that rock had killed Daniel …” Kayla took in a ragged breath. “He would have killed two of Moonbeam’s daughters.”

  Selena poked her shoulder. “But he didn’t.”

  “I risked too much,” Kayla said. “Moonbeam’s right. I shouldn’t ever leave.”

  “Not leave Santa Barbara or not leave this house? You know, you’d be safest if you tucked yourself under the table. No one would see you. I could pass you food every once in a while, like sneaking scraps to the family dog.”

  “Selena. He killed Amanda. My sister. Can you even imagine—”

  “No,” Selena interrupted. “And neither can you. You’re not Amanda. And you’re not little Katie anymore. You’re all grown up now, and you’re the most powerful, smartest girl I know, and I am not going to let you spend your life cowering in fear. The worst happened, and you survived. Get a grip. You’re here, you’re safe, and he doesn’t know how to find you. He met you in Peru. You can’t get much farther away without involving an ocean. Just don’t visit Peru again. Problem solved.”