Chasing Power

by Sarah Beth Durst

  Selena nodded. “I’m really sorry.”

  “Thanks anyway.” Kayla heard herself say the words, but her voice felt distant. She swallowed hard. “You’d better get back to your mother. She’s going to wonder where you are.”

  “Kayla …”

  “It’s okay. We’ll think of something. Go.”

  Selena threw her arms around Kayla’s neck, hugged her, and ran toward the house.

  Kayla felt as if she’d been stabbed through the gut. The stone was gone. They’d failed. Daniel didn’t say anything, but his hand brushed against hers. She seized his hand and held it tight.

  “It was all for nothing,” Daniel said quietly. “The stone isn’t there and hasn’t been for centuries.”

  Kayla grasped for some shred of hope. “But it could have been there at some point. That explorer guy …” She tried to remember his name and failed. “Not Cortez but like Cortez. Casa? Cosa? Whatever his name. He could have picked that church site for a reason. Maybe there was a Maya temple there, or another ancient tomb thing. Maybe he found the stone.”

  “And then tossed it aside, used it to build the church, buried it, or gave it to someone. We have to face facts. Anything could have happened to it. Only plus is that if we can’t find it, neither can your father.”

  Kayla had a thought. It wasn’t very likely but maybe. “Unless your mom …”

  “Unless my mom what?” There was a hard edge to his voice.

  She plunged on. “Unless she knows what happened to it. From her research. Maybe we can look through her notes and—”

  “She burned her notebook.”

  “Maybe she kept something. It was her obsession, right? Supposed to be her big break?” She wondered again about his mother’s history with the stones and how much she knew about them. Did his mother know the church in Mexico was a dead end?

  He nodded.

  “This is not over,” Kayla told him. She looked up at Selena’s house. “Can’t be. Come on, Daniel, take us to your house.”

  He laid his hand on her shoulder, and once again the world flashed.

  Daniel’s house was full of shadows. Silence had settled throughout. Kayla felt as though she should whisper. “Does your mom have an office?”

  “Upstairs,” he whispered back.

  He headed for the stairs—and then suddenly switched directions and strode toward an open doorway. Kayla hurried after him. “Daniel, what’s wrong—oh.” Inside the dining room, the china cabinet door hung open. Plates and vases were shattered within the cabinet and across the wood floor. The centerpiece of dried flowers was strewn over the table. Curtains were torn down, and an oil painting lay smashed over the back of one of the chairs. Several African masks lay trampled on the ground. Hooks were empty on the walls. Pivoting, Daniel pushed past Kayla and ran to the kitchen. She followed.

  In the kitchen, it was worse. Every drawer had been yanked out. Utensils and pots and broken dishes littered the floor. Boxes of cereal had been upended. The trash was knocked over as if a raccoon had pawed through it. He surveyed it all, jaw clenched, and then jogged toward the stairs.

  “Wait, Daniel.” She caught his arm. “Whoever did this could still be here.”

  He stopped. “Can you tell?”

  “Maybe.” She’d sensed the jaguar in the jungle and the stone in the fissure. She should be able to sense a person. Kayla sent her mind racing through the house. She felt the mess—the overturned furniture, the emptied bookshelves, the broken knickknacks. She reached upstairs. Clothes had been strewn on the floor. Beds had been sliced open. In the bathroom, the medicine cabinet had been ransacked. Bottles lay in the sink and on the floor. She stretched herself to touch Daniel’s bedroom. Papers were on the floor. Oh, no, his maps! “Daniel …”

  “Sense anyone?”

  “Not yet, but—”

  He charged up the stairs. Yanking open a door, he plunged into an office. Kayla lagged behind. His mother’s office had been trashed as thoroughly as the kitchen, as badly as Queen Marguerite’s store. Every book had been knocked off the shelves. Every desk drawer had been pulled out. The file cabinet lay on its side, its contents spilling out like guts from a stomach wound.

  “Who did this?” Kayla asked.

  He shot her a look.

  “But why? And why now?” His mother had been kidnapped a while ago. Why not search the place immediately? Maybe his mother had been cooperating, then stopped. Maybe … Kayla didn’t complete that thought. His mother was fine. She had to be.

  Daniel pushed past her out of the office and charged into his bedroom. She followed him. In his room, the maps had been torn from the walls. The photos had been shredded. Kneeling next to one, he picked up the pieces. He made a half-hearted attempt to fit a few pieces together, and then he let them flutter through his fingers like snowflakes.

  Trying to sound positive, Kayla said, “You know, this is actually a good sign. It means my father hasn’t found the last stone yet.”

  Daniel shook his head. “But if my mother had it, why send me—”

  “Maybe he thought she was lying to him. Or maybe he thought she’d left a clue, like we did. Maybe he didn’t know she’d burned her notebook. I don’t know.” Kayla sank down on the bed. She felt an object under her and pulled it out. It was the photo album, the one she’d found the picture of her parents in. She hugged it to her chest. It wasn’t damaged, probably because she’d left it here, tangled in sheets. Or maybe because Daddy Dearest didn’t want to destroy photos of himself. “He’s always one step ahead of us, isn’t he?”

  Daniel didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to.

  She surveyed the wall. It looked as though it had been savaged by a mountain lion. Sheer destruction. Something had clearly changed for him to trash the place now and not earlier. “Do you think this was vengeance, like with Queen Marguerite—maybe your mother said something he didn’t like?” As soon as she asked the question, she wished she could suck it back in. She didn’t want to imply his mother was in more danger. Still, it was obvious something had changed. Maybe Dad had discovered the dead end at the church too and he’d come here for more clues, like they had. “Or maybe he was looking for something? Are you hiding anything?”

  Daniel crossed to his dresser. His clothes had been rifled through. He went to one of the drawers and began looking through it. “It’s gone.”

  “What is?”

  “My knife.”

  “You keep weapons in your room? Exactly what kind of childhood did you have?”

  He shook his head. “It was an artifact—she told me it was valuable and to keep it out of sight. It was actually one of the last things we argued about. She’s always been lousy at present giving. I told her that’s the kind of present you give to someone when you don’t know what to give them, when you haven’t bothered to know them well enough to know what they want.”

  “Ironic if that’s the one thing my father wanted.”

  He searched the floor of his room and didn’t find the knife. Finishing, he strode out. Still hugging the photo album, Kayla trailed after him as he looked through each room. At last, he ended up in the kitchen. He kicked a cereal box.

  “Daniel … ,” Kayla said quietly, not wanting to intrude.

  “Maybe they took it. Maybe they took other things too. I can’t tell! Why take a stupid knife? Unless … Do you think my mother took it, when they weren’t looking, as a message to me?” His face lit up. “Maybe she was trying to apologize. It would be like her. Fix the symptom, not the cause.”

  “Or she took it as a weapon, to try to escape on her own.” She didn’t think that was very likely, but he clearly needed some explanation to cling to. He was as much of a mess as his house.

  “Yes!” He spun around, as if looking for answers in the wrecked kitchen.

  “Daniel, come home with me.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wondered if it was a terrible mistake. She plowed forward anyway. “You can’t stay here. Come with me. Meet Moonbeam.
Maybe she can help. I think … this is over our heads now.”

  He shook his head and kept looking through the mess.

  “Sure, she’ll hate you for a while. But she’ll get over it.”

  Stopping, he looked directly at Kayla. “Did you?”

  “Did I what?”

  “Get over hating me?”

  She opened her mouth to snap out an answer and then stopped. “Yes,” she said more slowly. “You’re still an asshole, of course, but I guess I am too. Especially to Moonbeam.”

  Stepping over the pots and plates, he crossed to her. She wrapped her arms around his waist. He kissed her, softly and gently, as if she were something precious that he didn’t want to break. “I don’t want to be the cause of more problems in your life.” He caressed her cheek. “I’ll take you home, then I’ll go to Queen Marguerite, try to get some sleep, and try to figure out what to do next.”

  “Do you trust her?” Kayla asked.

  “She wants what we want,” Daniel said. “Why? Don’t you trust her?”

  “She can teleport, and now she’s seen where I live. That makes me nervous.” She thought about all the protective stones she’d dug up. She didn’t know if Moonbeam had noticed yet and fixed them, or if they even made a difference. Kayla fingered the eye amulet around her neck. “But you’re right—so long as she wants what we want, I think we can trust her. Daniel, let’s go. There’s nothing for us here.”

  He didn’t argue, merely took her hand, and in a flash, they were standing in front of the red gate. “Come back tomorrow,” Kayla said. “By then, we’ll have a new plan.” Stepping toward him, she kissed him again. She felt as if she were melting into him.

  When she stepped away, he was smiling, albeit sadly. She smiled back. “You’re amazing, Kayla. Nothing can defeat you.” And then he disappeared.

  In his wake, her smile faded. “I wish you were right,” she said to no one. They’d followed all three trails. All three had failed. She had no idea what to do next. She had no more backup plans. And so she walked through the garden gate to wait for a brilliant idea. Or simply for tomorrow.

  Chapter 20

  Moonbeam wasn’t home yet. Kayla checked the work schedule on the refrigerator—she was due home in a few minutes. On the plus side, at least that meant Moonbeam wouldn’t know she’d broken the spell and left. On the negative side … everything else was on the negative side. She crossed to her corner of the cottage and tucked the photo album under her pillow. Flopping onto her futon, Kayla stared at the ceiling, at the mobiles and prayer flags and dreamcatchers.

  Could this really be it?

  Rolling onto her stomach, she took out her phone and tried to call Selena. It rang. And rang. And rang until voice mail picked up. “Selena, hope everything went okay. Things are …” She debated how much to say. “… bad. Please call me.” She hung up, rolled onto her back, and stared at the ceiling again.

  Kayla had no idea what they were going to do next, but she still had to try. Even if she didn’t know what to try. Her father was still out there, he still had Daniel’s mother, and as far as she knew, he didn’t have the third stone yet.

  She heard the door fly open. “Kayla?” Moonbeam called.

  Kayla sat up. “Hi, Moonbeam. How was work?”

  “You’re here.” Moonbeam smiled sunnily. “I was half afraid you’d broken the spell, hopped on a bus, and traveled halfway across the country by now.”

  Trying not to flinch at that, Kayla faked a smile. “Still here.”

  Moonbeam dropped her purse on the kitchen table and crossed the cottage. She sat on the edge of Kayla’s bed. “Kayla … I’ve been thinking … Maybe we’ve stayed here too long. I never meant for this to be permanent. It may be time we move someplace else.”

  Kayla jumped to her feet. “What? No!”

  “You said you wanted to travel. You choose the place. Anywhere in the world.”

  She did want to travel. But not like this. And not now. “Not yet! I can’t … We have lives here. Friends. You have your job.”

  Rising, Moonbeam picked up a plastic replica of the dolphin fountain from Stearns Wharf. She put it down, then touched a blue frame made of sea glass with a picture of Moonbeam and Kayla, then a clay vase with flowers from the garden. “Sometimes I’m tired of hiding too. Always living a lie. Never being myself.”

  “Starting new fake lives somewhere else won’t fix that.”

  “At least it would be a different set of lies.” Moonbeam smiled again, a sad half smile. “We pack only things that can’t be traced to a location. Generic clothes that could come from a mall anywhere. Toiletries, again only generic. Make sure there are no price tags or store tags or anything that could be traced. When we’re ready, I’ll close our bank account. Take only cash.”

  “But … why? Is this because of me? To punish me?”

  Returning to the bed, Moonbeam clasped Kayla’s hands. “No. Sweetheart, no, not to punish you. To keep you safe. Everything I’ve ever done has been to keep you safe.”

  For an instant, Kayla wanted to tell her the truth, all of it, but then the chimes over the garden gate rang. She fixed them, Kayla thought. And then she thought, Maybe it’s Daniel. She rushed to the window. Between the dreamcatchers and crystals, she caught a glimpse of a boy with surfer-blond hair, coming through the red gate. Crowding at the window to see who it was, Moonbeam nudged her aside. “Who’s that?”

  “Sam.” What was he doing here?

  “Selena’s boy?”

  Kayla looked at her. “How do you know about him?”

  “You were out, remember? We talked.”

  “I’ll be right back. This conversation isn’t over.” Kayla crossed to the door.

  Moonbeam followed. “Don’t let him know we’re thinking about leaving.”

  “Moonbeam—”

  “This is serious, Kayla.”

  “Believe me, I know.” Flinging open the door, Kayla sprinted outside. She wished she could run out the gate and keep running until she’d left everything that had gone wrong far behind her. But running away was what Moonbeam did. Kayla was supposed to be the fixer.

  Seeing her, Sam stopped walking near the garden gnomes. “Hey. Nice gnomes.”

  Kayla skidded to a halt. “Hi, Sam. Thanks.”

  “Hi, Kayla’s mom!” he called.

  Glancing over her shoulder, Kayla saw Moonbeam pick up her gardening tools. Smiling broadly, Moonbeam waved at Sam and then began weeding enthusiastically in one of the flower beds, close enough to listen to every word they said. Kayla wondered if it was curiosity, or if Moonbeam truly didn’t trust her anymore.

  Sam looked like he’d come straight from the beach. He wore an orange bathing suit and a loose tank top with a palm tree printed on it. Sunglasses hung from his tank top. His feet were bare. “Sam, what are you doing here?” Kayla asked. “Did Selena send you?”

  “Yep. Called me and … Well, she began to invite me over, told me she wanted to try again with her parents, but then her mother walked in, said phone time was over, and Selena switched midsentence to ask for another favor for you. I should have said no and insisted we finish the first conversation, but I can’t say no to her. She has that way, you know?” He looked at the yard, at the flowers, at the bench, at the ragged hole in the hedge. “What happened there?”

  “Badgers. What favor?”

  He whistled low. “Seriously?”

  “No.”

  “Huh. So what’s your secret?”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kayla saw Moonbeam quit weeding. She was watching Kayla intently. “My secret?” What had Selena told him? Kayla faked a chuckle. “I don’t have any secrets. Open book here. What you see is what you get.”

  He blinked and then shook off his confusion. “Your secret to reaching Selena. Look, I like her, and I think we’d be good together. I think she agrees, but those parents of hers … Ugh. Jailers are more lenient.”

  “They have high expectations, and Selena wants to please them.�
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  “But—”

  “Sam, what was the favor? Why did she send you here?”

  “Oh. Yeah, she wanted me to tell you … Hang on, I wrote his name down.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his swimsuit pocket. “Juan Rodriguez de la Cosa. She said to tell you he’s buried in Seville, Spain, in a church called Iglesias de Santa Maria, along with a bunch of stuff he found in Mexico. Mean anything to you?”

  Kayla felt her heart beat so hard in her chest that it was difficult to think. She sneaked a glance over at Moonbeam, who continued to yank out weeds, occasionally pulling out flowers too. “I’m helping her with her project. You know, for those extra classes she’s planning to take at UCSB this summer. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Sure, no problem. You think her mom is keeping her from calling me again?”

  “Definitely. When her parents say ‘no phone time,’ they confiscate her phone. Listen, it’s possible there’s another reason she sent you here. She knows me, and she knows I’d tell you not to give up on her, despite her parents. Selena likes you. And she doesn’t like many people.”

  He broke into a smile. “Then I’m the one who should be saying thank you.”

  “Just be patient. Selena likes being the apple of her parents’ eyes. Going against them isn’t in her nature. It’s going to take … Well, I don’t know what it will take.”

  “I’ll wait,” he promised.

  She watched him saunter out the garden gate. Standing, Moonbeam dusted off her knees and crossed to Kayla. “What was that all about? You’re helping Selena?”

  “Her parents don’t want her to date. I’m helping with her social life, under the guise of helping with her classes.” At least that wasn’t a lie. “Moonbeam … can we wait before we move? Just a few days. I want to make sure Selena’s okay.” Only sort of a lie.

  Moonbeam’s face softened. “You’re a good girl, Kayla. A good friend and a good daughter, despite … lately.”

  “Mind if I call her? Privately?”

  “Of course. Just don’t—”

  “I won’t tell her anything.”

  As Moonbeam returned to the house, Kayla pulled out her phone. She tried Daniel’s number first. No answer. Glancing back at the house, she dialed Queen Marguerite’s shop. After two rings, the voodoo queen answered: “Voodoo Spells and—”