by K. J. McPike
“Where is she?” I asked, hardly recognizing my own voice.
“At the house,” Kai said softly.
I sucked in a breath. “You left her? You left her with those monsters?”
“I didn’t want you to see her like that. And I took all the Astralii out of there.”
“I don’t care! She needs to be with the rest of us.”
“Lali—”
“Bring her here,” I pleaded. “She needs to be here.”
Kai hesitated, glancing at Kala.
“She needs to be here!” I pounded my fist into the sand. “We can’t leave her alone!”
“Okay.” Kai held up his hands. “Okay.”
Finally, he disappeared, and I clutched the sides of my head. Salaxia was fine. She had to be fine. Once the tranquilizer wore off, everyone would see.
Kai appeared again a few minutes later. Keeping his back to me, he knelt to the ground. Just beyond his right bicep, Salaxia’s tiny feet showed as he lowered her body into the sand.
I rushed over and he moved out of the way. Salaxia lay on her back, her eyes frozen open in terror. An arrow protruded from her chest, surrounded by a crimson circle that stained the yellow tulips on her shirt.
A guttural scream forced its way out of my throat. My legs gave out before I reached her, and the beach came up to meet me. A broken shell scraped my knee, but that bite of pain was nothing compared to whatever was squeezing my chest, tightening and tightening until there was no place for my heart to beat.
Everything spun around me. My stomach heaved, and I knew I was going to be sick. Unable to stop it, I spun around and let it come up.
Coughs and sobs racked my body, but I managed to crawl the rest of the way to Salaxia. “No,” I moaned, cupping her face in my hands. Her lifeless eyes stared back at me, frightened and begging me to save her. But I’d failed. I was supposed to protect her, and I’d failed.
“No,” I wailed again. “No, no, no.” My head fell onto Salaxia’s chest, the rough wood of the arrow scratching the tip of my nose. Tears streamed down my face and into the corner of my mouth, the salt stinging my tongue.
How could I have let this happen? I was so stupid. I should have remembered about the trackers. I should have realized the Astralii were planning to attack. I should have known better than to pull my family into helping Kai. Why did I let him into my life again? All he ever brought was pain.
“Lali, I’m so sorry.” Kai touched my shoulder, and my head snapped up. Rage boiled in my gut, bubbling so hot I thought I might burst.
“Sorry? You’re sorry?” I shoved his hand away. “Why did you take me out before her? You should have saved her first! You should have gotten her—” I choked on my words, suddenly unable to breathe.
Kai moved to comfort me, but I pulled back. “Stay away from me! I knew we shouldn’t have helped you!”
His red-rimmed eyes rounded. “Lali—”
Kala moved to stand beside her brother. “Why are you shouting?” she asked without a trace of compassion.
Crimson crept up along the edges of my vision. This was her fault. She was the one with the stupid tracker. She was the one who’d caused all of this, and none of us were safe as long as she was around.
“Get her away from my family,” I snarled.
Kai blinked at me. “What?”
“Get her away! Her stupid tracker is the reason they attacked!” My voice was becoming more hysterical with every word, but I didn’t care. I needed Kala gone.
“Alright.” Kai reached for his sister. “I’ll take her somewhere else.” The next second, the two of them disappeared.
As soon as they were gone, a ragged scream burned its way out of my throat. Then another and another until it even hurt to breathe.
“I’m sorry, Sal.” I took her hand and hugged it to my chest. Her skin already felt cold. “I’m so, so sorry. I should’ve known better. I should’ve—” An invisible force hit me in the stomach, stealing the rest of my words.
I looked at Oxanna, Dixon, and Ulyxses, the three of them unconscious and oblivious. I envied them. I wanted nothing more than to join them in their blissful unawareness. How was I going to explain when they woke up? How could I tell them we would never see Salaxia again?
“Lali?” Kai’s voice broke through the haze consuming my mind. Still sitting at Salaxia’s side, I blinked up at him, squinting against the sun’s unforgiving rays.
“I just wanted to check on you guys.” He knelt in the sand in front of me. “It’s been almost an hour, and I didn’t want to leave you stranded if you needed something.” An hour? Had it been that long already? “I can take you guys somewhere safe.”
More tears made their way down my cheeks. “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” I moaned.
“I know. I’m—” His voice broke, and he shook his head slowly. “I’m so sorry.”
“What am I going to do?” I felt my shoulders starting to shake again. “I can’t live in a world without Sal.”
Kai’s eyes tightened, and I knew what he was thinking. He’d spent over thirteen years without his little sister. But why did getting his back mean I had to lose mine? Why should Salaxia pay when all she wanted to do was help? I was the bitter one holding grudges. It should have been me who died, not her.
I covered my face with my hands, and when Kai wrapped his arms around me, I broke. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t accept this.
Kai held me, rocking me back and forth as I cried. He didn’t say anything—no useless words of support or promises that everything was going to be okay. Because it wasn’t. It was never going to be okay again.
I didn’t know how long we had been sitting in silence when Kala cleared her throat behind us. I startled, turning to look over my shoulder. I hadn’t even realized she was here. But I shouldn’t have been surprised; Kai wouldn’t leave her alone and risk another attack.
“We should move,” she said. “Somewhere far, in case they have started heading here.”
Kai ran his hands over his face. “Kala’s right. She and I have to keep moving until we figure out a way to deactivate her tracker. But I can take you and your family somewhere safe for now.”
“Where?” I asked.
“Delta’s house.” Seeing my mouth fall open, he quickly added, “It was the only place I could think of. And it’s just until we figure out something better.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t even have the energy to argue. Delta was one of the human test subjects at the lab in Alea, and she’d later become a member of XODUS. She was the one who had awakened my brothers’ and sisters’ abilities early using her knowledge of astral energy manipulation through crystals. Normally, semmies didn’t get their powers until they turned sixteen.
Even though she’d had a significant impact on our lives, I’d hardly interacted with Delta at all before she was killed the night we undid the energy sink. The thought of going to her house felt wrong after she’d died because of a situation I indirectly helped to put her in, but we couldn’t stay on the beach forever. The air was getting hotter as the sun rose higher into the sky, and we had already been out here a long time.
I glanced over at Oxanna, Dixon, and Ulyxses. They still hadn’t stirred.
“Do you want to wake them up first?” Kai asked.
“No.” I didn’t even hesitate. “If it were me, I wouldn’t want to be rushed into reality. Not now that—” I took a deep breath. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell them. Or my par—oh crap, my parents! They don’t know about the attack. What if they go home? What if—”
“I already texted them,” Kai interrupted. “And left a voicemail.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I went back to your house and found your phone so I could warn them not to go home.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out my flip phone and handed it to me. “I projected the Astralii out of there, but I don’t know if they’ll come to your house again, so I wanted to give your parents a warning.”
Sniff
ling, I flipped open my phone and studied the screen. Mom and Dad hadn’t responded yet. “Thank you,” I said, closing it again.
“No problem.”
“We have to go,” Kala urged, glancing over her shoulder as if someone might come running out of the line of palm trees behind us. For all we knew, that was a possibility, especially if she was here.
I looked back at Salaxia, and my lower lip trembled. I couldn’t leave her.
“I’ll take all of you,” Kai offered, as if reading my worry.
I nodded weakly. “Thanks.”
He reached out to squeeze my hand. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for anything to happen to her. If I could take everything back, I swear I would. All of it.”
His words made my heart stutter. “Kai,” I gasped. “Do you think we could?”
He frowned. “Could what?”
“Go back and change it.” My mind raced as I considered the possibility. “Dixon can project to the past. If he takes us back in time, maybe we could find a way to communicate with our past-selves and warn them about the attack.”
Kai stared at me. “I’m not following.”
I clambered to my feet, thoughts bombarding me like a hailstorm. “If we find a way to prevent the attack at our house, then Salaxia will never have been killed. We could prevent everything.”
“You cannot toy with time.” Kala’s ponytail swished back and forth as she looked between us. “That is both dangerous and wrong.”
“You projected to the past with Dixon before,” I reminded her. Not that I cared what she said. She was the reason I’d lost my sister. I wasn’t about to let her stop me from getting her back.
“I traveled through time only to watch, not to change anything.” She wrapped her arms around her long torso. “That cannot be safe.”
“Neither was going after you,” I snapped.
Kala bristled, and Kai sucked in a breath. “Hey,” he intervened. “Let’s not turn on each other now.”
“There has to be something we can do.” I wiped my cheeks, feeling the grains of sand on my skin as I looked to where Dixon lay unconscious on the beach with Oxanna and Ulyxses. “With all of our abilities, we can find a way.”
“You do not know the repercussions,” Kala protested.
I glared at her. “I don’t care about repercussions.”
“That is because you are in denial.”
My chest heaved. How could she be so callous?
“Listen.” Kai stepped between us before I could fire back. “Let me get you all somewhere safe so you can rest. Then we can talk about this some more when the others wake up.”
I sniffled. “Fine.” Oxanna and my brothers would be on my side, anyway. And we didn’t need anyone’s approval. If there was a way to save my baby sister, nothing was going to stop me.
“I’ll take you guys to Delta’s.” Kai’s eyes flicked to Salaxia. “All of you,” he clarified. “Kala and I will keep moving so they can’t track us, but you can call me whenever you need me, okay?”
“Can you take them first?” I asked, gesturing to Oxanna, Dixon, and Ulyxses.
“Of course.” Offering me an understanding look, Kai walked over to where my three siblings lay.
Kala glanced at me with something like disdain before trotting after her brother. But I didn’t care what she thought. I wasn’t giving up. I was going to figure out a way to undo this.
Taking a deep breath, I turned to Salaxia. The sight of her lifeless body hit me all over again, forcing the air out of my lungs. I couldn’t accept that she was gone. Whatever it took, I would figure out how to save her. With all the abilities we had on our side, there had to be a way.
“Don’t worry, Sal,” I whispered, running a hand along her dark hair. “We’re going to fix it. We’re going to get you back.”
Chapter 8
Hope
Oxanna was the first to stir. She sat up slowly on Delta’s rose-print sofa, and when her puffy eyes found mine, my mind went blank. Though I’d been sitting on the carpet for the last half hour thinking about what I would say to her and my brothers, now that the moment was here, I had no idea where to start.
“Lali?” Her voice came out like sandpaper against rock. Brushing her knotted hair out of her face, she squinted at me.
“Hey, Oxie.”
She looked around the living room, frowning when she saw Dixon on the love seat across from her and Ulyxses on the nearby chair. “Where are we? Where’s Sal?”
My mind flashed to Salaxia’s lifeless form lying in the back bedroom, and I bit down on the tip of my tongue to fight the wave of emotion that threatened to take me under again. I had to stay strong. “We’re somewhere safe,” I said, purposely avoiding her second question. “Kai brought us to Delta’s house for now, until we figure out what to do.”
“What to do about what?”
Pushing up to my feet, I glanced at Dixon and Ulyxses, both still sleeping off the tranquilizers. I didn’t want to tell them one at a time. I couldn’t take saying the words more than once—if I could even manage to say them at all.
I moved to sit next to my sister, and the sofa creaked under my weight. The flattened rose-print cushion hardly offered any padding between me and the wires beneath it. “What’s the last thing you remember?” I hedged.
“Um…Kai brought Kala to the house to—” She gasped. “They attacked our house!”
Fighting the onslaught of images from the ambush, I nodded. “They used a tranquilizer on you guys, but Kai got us out of there.” Almost all of us. The thought made my shoulders sag, but I straightened them before Oxanna noticed.
“How did they find us?”
Biting back the bitter taste in my mouth, I forced out the words, “Kala had a tracker.”
Two creases appeared across the length of Oxanna’s forehead. “She set us up?”
Though everything in me wanted to blame Kala for what had happened, especially after she’d been so callous about Salaxia, I shook my head. I knew in my gut that Kala hadn’t known anything about Solstice’s plan—even if she was the catalyst to set it in motion.
“The attack was a surprise to all of us,” I said.
Oxanna started to speak, but Ulyxses cried out and sat bolt upright. “No!” he shouted, startling Dixon out of sleep, too. Soon both of my brothers were up and looking around the space with their identical faces showing the same shock.
“It’s okay,” I called out to them. “You’re safe. We’re all safe.” Except Salaxia. Despite my best effort to push back the thought, I couldn’t fight off the image of her terrified face or my own mental berating because I didn’t protect her. But no matter what it took, I wouldn’t give up on making it right.
“Where are we?” Dixon asked.
“Delta’s.” I quickly went through the same explanation I had just given Oxanna about what happened at our house.
“Wait, is Kala here now?” Ulyxses got to his feet, though he still looked shaky. “They’ll find us again.”
“She and Kai aren’t here,” I told him. “They’re staying on the move until they can figure out how to get her tracker out.” I patted the cushion next to me, the knowledge of what I had to tell them weighing me down like a lead vest. “Come sit with us. Both of you. I need to talk to you.”
“Oh, no.” Dixon gulped. “What’s going on?”
Oxanna scooted toward the arm of the couch and turned to give me a fearful look. “Lali, you never answered my question. Where’s Sal?” I took a deep breath, and her features fell.
“What is it?” Ulyxses asked. “What happened?”
“Just come sit down,” I said.
My brothers exchanged a look, and Ulyxses took the cushion to my right without a word.
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Dixon sat on the arm of the sofa, his mouth turned down at the ends. Just seeing his scared expression made my chin tremble. I didn’t know if I’d be able to get the words out at all.
“We’re going to fix it,” I promised.
“Just tell us where she is.” Oxanna’s eyes were already filling with tears. “If she’s hurt, she’ll want to see us.”
I tried to speak, but nothing came out.
“Is she—” Ulyxses stopped himself, but his expression asked the question for him. My eyes must have answered, because the color drained from his face.
Oxanna’s hand flew up to her mouth, and she grabbed my arm with the other. Her sob made my heart twist, but I couldn’t break down in front of them. I needed them to believe that we would find a way to get Salaxia back. If I fell apart now, they would lose hope, and I couldn’t let that happen.
Dixon’s mouth moved, but it took him a few seconds to get out, “How?”
“They tried to shoot Kai, and they…they hit Sal.” I had to pause to breathe. “But we’re going to fix it.”
“How can we fix it?” Oxanna wailed. “Sal is—is—” She covered her face with her hands, her whole body shaking as I put my arm around her to pull her into a hug.
“We just have to figure out how to use our abilities to avoid the attack.” I looked at my brothers. “Dix, maybe you can project Oxie’s astral form to the past. She can manipulate objects in astral form, so maybe she can write a note to warn our past-selves.”
Oxanna wiped her face with her sleeve. “Will that work?”
I fought the doubt that tried to drag me back into despair. I knew what I was suggesting wasn’t a guaranteed solution, but it was worth a try. And if we couldn’t find a way ourselves, we would find some other semmies who could help. Mom had told us about an underground society she’d been a part of in San Francisco that housed semmies and runaway Astralii. The Eyes and Ears raided it years ago—that was the attack that left Kai’s parents dead and Kala kidnapped—but there was still a chance that some escaped and fled.
Whatever it took, I wasn’t giving up.
“We have to try.” I gave each of them my best confident expression, but Ulyxses avoided my eyes. He stayed quiet as he searched the beige carpet, and I reached out to squeeze his hand. “We’ll find a way,” I insisted.