by Lora Palmer
"Of course. It’s something I picked up with practice. You’ll be able to do it, too." Brian flashed me a roguish smirk and pulled me down beside him, our shoulders and knees touching. "Yesterday I found a weird gun with glowing green symbols in my dad’s safe. All of this, Leah — the castles, our dream, that weapon — it’s from another world. It’s from our home."
Now it was my turn to stare back, eyes wide. "Madame Helena, who owns the local bookstore, gave me a box with glowing green symbols. I’m sure it’s from there, too. She told us about the prophecy that foretells danger to the entire galaxy. That key, the one Police Chief Jacobs found in the cemetery, was made for my box. I was mirror-gazing last night, and it showed my birth sister trying to steal the key..."
I told him about my birth sister, and what I’d learned last night during mirror-gazing about all Aedalina had done — the disasters she’d helped to unleash, the ritual in the cemetery with the Soul Crystal, and breaking into the lab to try to steal the key.
Brian's eyes widened. "So there's a crystal that drains energy, and it's going to destroy Jenny unless we find a way to stop it?" He looked like he believed me, like he was accustomed to assorted weirdness and dreams that turned out to be real. I wondered what sort of life he’d led.
When I nodded, my expression grim, he ran a hand through his hair. "And if this whole thing isn’t stopped, a galaxy could be destroyed? This just gets better and better."
"Exactly why I went to confront her about it — my first time trying mirror travel, and it actually worked! Anyway, I managed to snag the key, but I couldn't take the crystal from her. She’s too powerful." I sighed heavily and glanced down.
Brian wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into his embrace. When he pulled back, he gently cupped my chin with one hand and tilted my head back so that he could see my eyes again. "Next time we will."
I nodded. "There's more. My sister has help. After the lab, I checked on her again to see if she was coming after me at home, but then she met up with..." Here, I trailed off, gathering my courage to say it. This was probably the hardest truth I’d ever had to tell. "...your dad. He found her out on the street not too far from the lab. At least, I'm almost sure it was him. She called him Lord Drake. He looked like your dad. He was there the night of the ritual, by the forest, too. Unless you have another relative in the area, it was him."
Brian swallowed and stared at me, stunned. "What?"
"Was he at home last night?"
The question gave Brian pause. Slowly, he shook his head, frowning. "No. He said he was out with a client."
"They seemed more than that. They seem to like each other, he and my sister. Brian, I know she was partly responsible for unleashing the disasters on the other world."
"And you think he is, too."
I bit my lip again. "It looks that way. Has he said anything to you about the other world, or what was going on there?"
"Not much, just that it did have three moons like we saw in that dream the other night. I confronted him about the dream — the place seemed so familiar — and about the weapon. It’s the first time he’s admitted we’re from another world. All that moving around we did, he said was to find you. He wants to meet with you, you know, to talk to us both about finally going home."
Home.
I followed his gaze to the image still in the water. Somewhere on that planet, maybe even in the castle, my birth parents lived. Now I could go back to them, get to know them again. If I succeeded in my mission, I could save their lives and the lives of everyone there.
Brian had already started to consider that world home, maybe because he’d moved around so much here he’d never had one before. But to me, Sea Cliff Heights was home. My parents, my brother and my friends, everyone and everything I loved was here.
I blinked and swallowed hard, staring into the fountain as the image of the castle began to fade and the water unfroze. Words lodged in my throat, stuck — I couldn’t bring myself to tell Brian what this was doing to me.
"He does?" My body tensed, poised for flight. The idea of meeting with Brian’s dad made me nervous, but this might be the only way to find out for certain whether he was connected to the disasters. I had to know what he wanted to say. "Okay, I'll meet with him as long as you're there."
"After work today?" I didn’t miss the note of longing, the eagerness in his voice as he said it. In his eyes, I saw worry, too.
"Sure. Hey, are you all right?"
"I don't know, but I don't think we're going to like the answers we're going to get."
"Yeah." I sighed heavily, pulling him into a comforting hug. How I needed to feel his touch, his warmth again. "Whatever happens, it's going to be all right. We’ll deal with it."
"Yeah. We will."
"Together." When we pulled apart, I glanced at my watch. "Oh! We should go meet up with the others. They're probably starving by now."
* * *
"Hey, where have you two been?" Kara asked.
Everyone had been waiting for us at the table. The mischievous glint in her eye betrayed a sense of amusement and approval that we'd taken a little time to ourselves. David, on the other hand, glanced at Brian with narrowed eyes. Kara put a hand on his shoulder and fixed him with a stern look.
"Talking," I said, mostly for David's benefit.
He relaxed somewhat, but still gave Brian a wary look. Brian merely nodded at David in greeting as we sat down. I smirked and shook my head. My smirk faltered as I took note of how tired and pale Jenny appeared. Worried, I glanced over at Brian, who took my hand in reassurance.
A waiter stopped by to take our drink and lunch orders. We girls ordered our usual fruit smoothies — strawberry for me, peach for Kara, and piña colada for Jenny.
"We have a lot to tell you guys," Brian began when the waiter left.
I went on to explain the prophecy, the events of the dream, and my encounter with Aedalina in the lab. Luckily, nobody would be sure the key hadn’t escaped on its own and hidden somewhere, disappearing into nearby metal. Still, my sister’s concerns about being caught weighed heavily on my mind. Though Aedalina would have been kind enough to destroy the video camera footage, what if the police were even now trying to see if they could get any evidence from the video or fingerprints?
Jenny had been listening to all of this impassively, but now her expression betrayed a hint of concern. "Will they find anything?" How like Jenny to place larger concerns above concerns for herself. She hadn’t even expressed worry about her spirit being bound to the Soul Crystal, though her reaction to hearing the dream suggested she already knew it was real.
"They'd better not!" David exclaimed, running a hand through his hair. "This could cause serious trouble if they figure it out."
Things seemed to be rapidly escalating out of control, and my head was spinning. The glare of the sun streaming through the bank of windows shone too bright in my eyes; the earthen patterns in the granite floor became overwhelmingly busy, and even the delicious smell of sizzling fajitas from a neighboring table turned suffocating when I tried to calm my breathing. I sighed, dropping my gaze to the table. Even if the police did figure it out, it wouldn't be in time. The thought gave me at least some comfort. In a few days, I’d be on that other world, on Jantyr, working to solve the prophecy.
"Not as serious as a bunch of spirits and an entire galaxy — maybe our galaxy — being on the verge of destruction. Leah, if you do go to another world, if it exists like Madame Helena said, we want to come with you," Kara declared, eliciting nods from everyone at the table. "The question is, can we get the crystal from this Aedalina person before it drains all the spirits?"
"Hang on — Jenny, you had that dream, too, didn’t you? You weren’t surprised, or even trying to reassure us that it was just a weird nightmare, when Leah told us about it," Kevin said. I could tell by the way he studied Jenny’s face, taking in her too-pale complexion and drained eyes, that he worried, that he had begun to believe. When Jenny nodded, barely m
eeting his eyes, he turned to me. "Then we have to get that crystal!"
My eyes shimmered with tears at the note of distress in his voice. "We will," I replied quietly, my expression determined. Guilt over my failure to get the Soul Crystal last night threatened to consume me. I had to fix this. "Aedalina is my blood sister. I should be able to match her strength. Even if there is no way for me to get through to her because her only goal is to gain power on the other world, I can stop those disasters she unleashed. I promise."
"She could take your powers, bind your soul to that crystal, too. Surely more power is better," Jenny said. At the shocked glances of everyone at the table, she added, "What? I’m just saying what she's probably thinking."
"The thing is, she doesn't need more. And she doesn’t need to do that to get me to stop the disasters. I’ll do whatever it takes, anyway," I protested, meeting Jenny’s eyes. For a moment, I could have sworn I saw that calculating expression on Jenny's face, but it was gone before I could be sure.
"You might be right. And with conviction like that, you might just convince her," Jenny said, relief and gratitude, as well as the dawning of some understanding, reflecting in her eyes.
Everyone relaxed then, our faith restored in the idea that everything would work out.
At that point, our appetizers arrived. "Oh, good, I'm starving!" Kevin said, digging in as soon as a plate was set in front of him. Jenny laughed, while Kara rolled her eyes at this. I just shook my head. David raised an eyebrow and ate a fry from another plate.
"Uh, oh," Kara suddenly said, leaning forward as she stared at the door.
"Don't stare!" Jenny whispered, nudging Kara to get her attention back to the group at the table.
"What?" I asked, a sinking feeling in my stomach. I sat facing the opposite direction and didn't want to risk turning around to see, but I had a bad feeling about whoever was coming in. Already, I could guess who it was by their reaction.
"He's heading this way. Don't look!" David said.
Brian and I shared a worried glance. "Who — Jason, or his dad?" I asked.
"His dad," Jenny answered, tensing.
"Just great," Brian muttered.
"All right, relax. Act like nothing's up, okay?" Kevin directed. He launched into a tale from the day's latest hilarious event to dispel the tension and get the group laughing. "So this guy was trying to hit on some girl in front of all her friends and his. She turns him down, but when he gives her the puppy dog face routine, she agrees to go on a date...if his team beats hers in volleyball. Unfortunately for him, he ended up losing the game on a dive that just didn't work out. The ball hit him in the face instead."
Everybody laughed, and that was all the time we had before Police Chief Jacobs approached us. He stopped and leaned over, resting his hands on our table as he fixed me with his piercing gaze. "Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Leah, strange events certainly seem to be following you around lately. You and Mr. Drake both. If you two would follow me upstairs where we can speak in private, I have a few questions to ask." At this, his gaze shifted to Brian.
I glanced from my friends to the police chief, barely daring to meet his gaze, then trailed behind him as he led the way up to a sitting room at the top of the stairs outside the banquet hall.
"Strange events, sir?" I asked, when Brian and I had seated ourselves together on a couch. The police chief claimed an armchair, opposite us. With trembling fingers, I reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "There was a dangerous party or whatever the other night when Jenny got hurt, but it didn't have anything to do with me."
"Let's not forget — the same day, two new people conveniently moved into town, one of whom has the same distinctive tattoo as a man who killed the Stanford girls over a hundred years ago, based on witness descriptions and artist renderings — a case all of us in the department have studied. Come to think of it, Mr. Drake, you and your father resemble the culprits. A rather interesting coincidence, don’t you think? Our investigation of the Drakes showed no actual records before about fifteen years ago…"
I fought to still my hands, hands that wanted to fidget. The police chief had already started putting everything together. By the glint of triumph in his eyes, I could tell he wanted us to believe he had some sort of proof to back up his hints, like DNA from the historic crime to match with Brian’s or his father’s — proof that couldn’t exist.
"What are you talking about?" Brian asked, brow furrowing in confusion. "So my dad has a borderline-creepy fascination with murder cases and liked the tattoo enough to get one like it. And what do missing records have to do with a horrible tragedy that happened over a hundred years ago? My dad is a private investigator. If he did use his knowledge to break from a past he isn't happy with, so what? Or maybe we’re in the witness protection program, or the records went missing in a fire, a flood, or computer glitch. Instead of going with a rational explanation, you’re saying you actually think my dad and I are, what, aliens? Immortals?"
At this, I let out a snort of laughter to cover how close the police chief had come to guessing the truth. "Oh, I know — vampires! You don’t drink blood, do you, Brian?"
"On occasion," Brian chuckled, then pretended to bare fangs against my neck, making me laugh harder.
Police Chief Jacobs leaned close to Brian, and I had the distinct impression those coldly assessing eyes could read body language, even minute facial expressions, and glean Brian’s every thought, my every thought. "Just observing the strange coincidences. Then there's this odd metal key we found at the cemetery. The key has gone missing at the lab last night in an apparent break-in. Know anything about that, Leah?"
As the police chief continued describing in general terms what he’d found, my heart sank. A witness said a young woman who resembled me entered the building, just by waving her hand to make the door open — though they described the suspect as older, in her mid-twenties. The police took fingerprints and were waiting on the analysis. Video surveillance was damaged, but he had every confidence it would be restored.
Brian cringed. Fortunately, the police chief didn't notice because his attention was still on me, assessing my reaction to his news. I clasped my hands together in my lap and met his gaze, schooling my features to appear calm.
"I'm sure lots of people look like me. Again, how does this key have anything to do with me?"
The police chief again seemed to know too much for comfort. I kept my face a mask of stone as he described the glowing pendant captured in a fragment of video already restored — the same pendant I wore around my neck — and an unusual genetic finding only Melinda could have told him about. Here, he scooted his chair closer, steepling his fingers as his hands rested atop the table. Unnerved by the fact that he'd talked to the social worker, I swallowed. Had my best friends and I been followed there the other day?
"Nobody could trace your origins, Leah, and believe me, they tried searching everywhere. And a complete lack of history wasn’t the only odd thing about you," Police Chief Jacobs replied, leaning forward with a triumphant sneer similar to Jason’s. Like father, like son. The arrogance of both Jacobs men was getting on my nerves. Did he know about the odd genetic marker somehow?
"So now you have some insane theory about me, too?" I scoffed, hoping he couldn’t hear the hammering of my heart. “Yes, the rumors are true. I’m the one who makes the glowing lights in the forest every year. It’s a distress beacon to call my people, you see —"
"A strange pendant, a key made of a metal nobody's seen before on Earth, and a girl who appears out of nowhere…"
I laughed. "Let me guess. You have some sort of conspiracy theory involving, what, aliens?"
"Precisely, Miss Ellis."
"You've been watching too much science fiction," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "Do you expect to be taken seriously, investigating a theory like that? It’s one thing for the kids at school to tease me about it, but for you of all people —"
"The evidence speaks for itself,"
he said, his gaze shifting back to me with suspicion in his eyes.
Normally, I would have shrunk back from that look, but not this time. I had way more important things to worry about. A planet, an entire galaxy even, was in danger! That was my priority.
"Good luck finding anyone to believe you," I said, lifting my chin and laughing defiantly. "And why would you believe it? Sea Cliff Heights has been my home since I was two! You've known me the whole time. You've watched me grow up here. Jason and I used to play soccer together all the time, have dinner at each other's houses practically every week when we were little —"
Officer Jacobs's expression grew cold. "Watch your step, Leah, and don't leave town. I’ll be questioning you soon. The evidence from the lab will prove my theory, and I'm sure the government will be quite interested in all of this."
"Go ahead and give it to them." I laughed again to hide how badly it hurt for him to turn away from me like this. He'd always been so fatherly toward me growing up, yet everything changed overnight. Now I'd never be able to come back here once I left because it would be too dangerous. "You'll be put in a psych ward, or worse, fired for mental instability. And let’s pretend you could convince the government I'm from some other planet. What would you want them to do about it — kidnap and torture me? Your actions make no sense. If you had adopted Jason, and had come to suspect he was from somewhere else, would you be threatening him with this?"
"But it isn't Jason who came from somewhere else, is it? Good day, kids, and Leah, you'd better hope the video surveillance and fingerprint analysis don't reveal what I think they will."
He made no further comment and instead turned and stalked off without another word. Staring after him, I sniffled and blinked back tears once he’d gone. I wanted to weep, knowing that nothing would be the same again, but if I gave into sobs, I'd never get myself together again in time to go back to work. Brian's hand came to rest on my shoulder, a comforting gesture. I leaned back against him. David found us like that a few minutes later.