by Jo Schneider
He stopped short when he saw the serious looks on their faces.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You two have a lovers’ quarrel?”
Lys shook her head. “Where’s Mark? We’ve got problems.”
Brady led them back into the main ballroom where Mark and Peter sat in a set of old chairs, playing a card game on a rickety, wooden table. Mark looked up as they entered.
“Found her?” Mark asked.
“We have news,” Kamau said.
“Bad news,” Lys added.
Mark put his cards down. “What?”
They all walked to the table, and Kamau told Mark what they’d seen and what had happened. He left out the part about the guys in the alley. And the kissing. When he finished, Mark’s lips were turned down in a frown, his eyebrows knit together in a scowl.
“On the news?” Mark asked.
“An Amber Alert,” Lys said, “which means it’s going all over the country.” She paused. “And how is Doyle at my house? Is he FBI?”
“I doubt it. He’s probably got connections in all of those agencies, but I don’t think he’s employed by any of them.” Mark shook his head. “Doyle is working pretty hard for this one. I wonder what he thinks he’ll find.”
“He wants to find her.” Inez’s voice filled the large room with disdain. She walked across the floor, came to the table, folded her arms across her chest, and glared at Lys. “Why don’t we give her to him?”
“Inez!” Peter and Brady protested together.
Peter persisted. “Why would you say that? You know what those guys do to people!”
Inez nodded. “Yeah, I know what they do.” Her eyes swiveled to Peter. “And I know that they don’t ever stop looking.”
The younger boy shrunk back a little, but didn’t lower his eyes. “But they can help us.” Peter’s head jerked at Mark.
“Right,” Inez said, her gaze darting at Mark before once again settling on Lys. “Like she helped us?”
Lys, still riding the emotional roller coaster of almost being attacked by a gang of thugs, to being rescued, to seeing her face on the news, to the warm feeling of Kamau’s lips on hers, Lys’s filter didn’t engage before she spoke. “Me? What did I do?”
“You just leave?” Inez said, pointing back down the hall. “Without explanation and without telling anyone?”
“I didn’t know you cared,” Lys said. Her mind wailed at her to stop talking, but her emotions kept her mouth moving.
“I don’t. Not about you.” Inez took a step toward Lys. “Apparently the only thing you care about is yourself. Spoiled little rich girl.” Inez practically spat the last words out, throwing them to the floor like the proverbial gauntlet.
“What?” Lys asked, taking a step of her own.
Inez glared. “If anyone else’s picture had come up on that screen, would you have come back?”
“Would you have even told anyone about it if you knew?” Lys demanded. Anger filled her, and Lys saw only one outlet for the moment. “No, I doubt it. You probably would have turned me in for a ten dollar reward so you could get your next fix of whatever it is you do.” The harsh words felt foreign coming from her lips. They also felt good.
“Well at least I work for what I get.”
“You’d probably sell him out if it gave you what you wanted.” Lys pointed at Peter.
Inez reeled back as if she’d been physically assaulted. “You bitch!” she shrieked. Lunging forward, Inez reached for Lys, but in a flash, Peter, Mark, Brady, and Kamau all stood between them. Kamau planted right in front of Lys, his hands on her shoulders so she couldn’t move. It took Lys a second to realize that her fingernails were gouging into her palms. Her throat felt dryer than the desert.
Inez yelled at Peter and Brady to move.
Lys shook her head. “What’s wrong with me?” she whispered, feeling the anger drain away. Why did she want to annoy Inez? Sure, she didn’t much like the other girl, but Inez and Peter had helped them—were still helping them—and she’d just purposely provoked Inez.
“Get her out of here!” Inez bellowed. “Get that little bitch out of our home.”
“Inez!” Peter said, trying to overcome her volume. “Calm down. You know what it’s like.”
“I don’t care what it’s like!”
“Inez.” This time Brady spoke. “Give her a break. She just found out that those New guys are at her parent’s house. That means her whole family is in danger.”
“She’s put us all in danger,” Inez said through gritted teeth.
“How many times have I put us in danger?” Peter asked. Lys thought he sounded a lot more mature than his eleven or twelve years.
Inez said nothing, and a tangible wall of anger floated between members of the group.
Mark broke the silence. “I think that maybe I should try to show you guys a control technique for magic.”
The announcement brought everyone’s eyes to Mark, who stood in the middle of the two groups, watching the exchange of verbal gunfire.
“A control technique?” Brady asked.
Kamau stepped out of Lys’s way. Inez glared at her.
Mark nodded. “Yeah, it’s the only one I know that works for every sense.”
“You’re going to teach us to use our magic?” Peter asked, stepping forward.
“No.” Mark shook his head. “I’m going to teach you all to channel your magic in the right direction. Once you can do that, it’s easier to actually use your magic.” He stopped and looked from Inez to Lys and then back again. “Plus, it minimizes the effects of using.”
“I haven’t been using,” Inez said.
Mark didn’t answer, he just stared her down until she lowered her eyes. Then he slowly looked around the room at them all. When his gaze met Lys’s (which she kept to a fraction of a blink), she saw that he looked tired. Tired, sick, and injured.
“Are you mates willing to listen to me before someone really freaks out?”
Lys nodded. Everyone nodded, although Inez did so reluctantly.
“Great, have a seat.”
Brady went to sit on a chair, but Mark waved a hand at him. “On the floor everyone. Make a big circle over here. Give yourself plenty of space.”
Kamau and Lys went to the far side of the space Mark indicated. They left enough space between them that their fingers couldn’t touch if they both stretched out their arms. Inez ended up right across from Lys. The other girl continued to glare, and for once Lys didn’t lower her gaze. She felt the Need growl, and much to her shame she almost urged the monster on.
Mark stepped between them, breaking the moment. “First off, let me make sure I know what I’m dealing with.” He looked at Brady. “Chaos, touch.” Brady grinned. Mark moved on to Kamau. “Ancient, what?”
“Sound,” Kamau said.
“Sound.” Mark nodded and turned to Lys. “Neutral, what?”
“Uh.” Lys didn’t want to say it. Saying it made it real. However, hiding from it wouldn’t make it any less real. “Sight,” she said. “I think.”
“Okay,” Mark said, looking at her as if he were sizing her up for the first time.
“Peter,” Mark said, pointing at the younger boy.
“Well, my eyes go red.”
“So Adolescence.” Mark nodded.
“And it has to be smell.”
“Smell?” Brady blurted out. “What good is that?”
Peter scowled. “I can track any person within a hundred miles. And I got us through the tunnels didn’t I?”
Brady held up his hands. “Sorry, all this hocus pocus stuff is new to me. I didn’t know.” He turned to Mark. “Can’t we rename the levels? Something cool, like maybe the planets?” His eyes lit up. “You know, Mars for the red eyes, Venus for the silver eyes, and maybe Saturn for Lys’s gold eyes. Although I’d like Saturn for chaos because I like the rings.”
“Really?” Inez asked, throwing a hand up into the air.
“Yeah,” Brady said. “It would
be like your horoscope. Mars, uh . . .” He trailed off. “What’s your sense?”
Mark turned to her. “I’ve been wondering that myself.”
Inez didn’t meet anyone’s eyes. Instead she glanced at Mark’s feet. “I’m not really sure.”
Mark nodded. “That’s okay,” he said kindly. “What happens to people when you use your magic on someone?”
“I, uh.” She cleared her throat. “People usually do things that they wouldn’t normally do.”
“Like what?” Mark prompted.
“Like falling all over themselves to help me when I want them to,” Inez said.
Brady snorted. “Pretty sure you don’t need your magic for that.”
Inez shot him an annoyed look.
He held up his hands. “I’m just sayin’.”
“She makes me think of food all the time,” Peter said.
Mark nodded. “Ah, so you’re a taste user.”
“Taste?” Inez asked, her eyebrows knitting together again.
Brady made a face. “Is that any better than smell?”
“Shut up!” Peter said. Brady laughed.
Mark held up a hand. “It’s different. Taste doesn’t just deal with food, but with people’s appetites.” He turned his attention back to Inez. “So things like greed, lust, and anger are probably pretty easy for you to bring out in people.”
Inez nodded.
“Okay,” Mark said, “So no one here is the same sense as anyone else but Brady and me. That will make things more difficult, but we’ll give it a try.”
He sat down at the head of the circle. Lys noticed that he moved slowly, and she remembered the bruises on his stomach. How badly had the New injured him?
“Everyone close your eyes.” Mark waited a few moments before speaking again. “Take a deep breath.”
Lys did so, and she could hear the others doing the same.
“Make sure to breathe from your stomach and not just your chest. Fill your lungs to capacity, hold it for three seconds, and then let it out—slow, like air coming out of a balloon through a pin hole. Keep going.”
From her stomach? Lys took another breath and found that only her chest moved when she breathed. She let the air out and tried again. Starting from her navel, Lys slowly drew air into her lungs, amazed as the bottom of her lungs filled before the air topped off in her chest. Three seconds of holding the air in made her mind scream in protest. Then she slowly let it out, imagining it as a thin wire of air coming from her nostrils, hitting her legs, and curling back up around her like smoke. She’d taken a self-defense class for a while, and she’d never quite got the hang of meditation.
“Use your mouth to breathe out if it helps,” Mark said after a few seconds. She tried it and found that although it was louder, it seemed easier to control coming from her mouth.
In her mind, Lys started to count the number of breaths she took. When she reached twenty-three Mark spoke again.
“Good. Now keep breathing. As you exhale, try to rid yourself of excess thoughts and worries.”
Lys tried not to shake her head. Excess thoughts and worries? That’s all she had!
“Keep breathing,” Mark said. “If you can’t empty your mind, imagine a blackboard. Toss everything you’ve got at it. Take a look at each item—problems, worries, distractions, everything—and erase them one by one as you exhale. If it won’t go on the first try, do it again. Keep it up until there is nothing left but a blank board in front of you.”
“Do we use an eraser, or what?” Brady asked.
“It’s your subconscious,” Mark said. “Do whatever comes to your mind. If the blackboard analogy doesn’t work for you, think of something else. Some people use sitting on the bottom of a pool as their meditation platform.”
Lys tried to come up with her blackboard, but got caught up in what it should look like. Did it have to be black, or could it be a white board? Could she use different colored markers to write with? And was it okay that she wanted to wipe the items off with her hands and then clean her hands on a pair of old jeans that she loved?
“Try not to get too caught up in the details,” Mark said. “Just let your subconscious take you where it wants to go.”
How did he know? Was he listening to her thoughts?
Finally Lys had her board; about a million problems covered it, leaving hardly any of the white showing. With an internal sigh, Lys started to wipe them off, letting them go. Sometimes it worked, other times it just made her think of three more things she needed up there, and any space she’d cleared filled with new concerns.
“Does everyone have a clear mind yet?” Mark asked.
Lys didn’t say no out loud. She’d just gotten to Kamau’s name, and a whole new world of issues popped up. However, she kept listening to Mark.
“Now open up a hole in the middle of your board. Let it represent magic. It’s not an outside problem, it’s something that comes from inside of you, therefore, you can control it.”
After a moment of satisfaction when she allowed herself to think of Kamau’s strong hand around hers, she exhaled and blew all of the remaining words off the board. It stood white and clean, ready for use.
Imagining the center of the surface, Lys placed a hole the size of a pin. Golden light surged from it, reminding Lys of the end of a firecracker as it lifted into the air.
“Is there energy coming out of the hole?” Mark asked.
Lys nodded. Did everyone else?
“Good.” Mark seemed pleased. “Now, put your hand on the board, and move in front of the energy.”
Lys’s ethereal body placed both hands on the board before she moved her face in front of the beam of energy. It tossed her hair back and tickled her cheeks. She took a breath before scooting over until one of her eyes looked directly into the beam.
A surge of pleasure filled her. The golden energy connected with her eye and Lys felt the Need cringe back. The beam was light and the Need was dark. They couldn’t be in the same place at the same time.
“Everyone there?” Mark asked. Lys didn’t hear anyone answer—she nodded again.
“Good, now let the energy go through you. It’s very important that you don’t let it fill you because if that happens, you’ll have to break all over again.” Mark paused only for a second. “Find it an outlet. Use the end of your finger or your eyes or your hair or whatever.”
Once Mark warned her not to let the energy fill her, Lys noticed that this is exactly what it was trying to do. She looked down and saw her hands first. She imagined them filling with the energy, and as she did so they started to glow. Turning them to the sides, Lys shot the energy away from her, just like she saw super heroes do in the movies.
Lys stood there, eyes taking in the beam of energy and channeling it out through her hands, for what felt like an hour. However, with each passing second, Lys found a better balance than she’d had before. The energy began to leave a song in her head—a buzzing of unfamiliar but not discomforting tunes that she almost recognized.
“Once you think you’ve got that,” Mark said, “try to use your magic.”
Chapter 18
Use her magic? How exactly did he expect her to do that?
At first nothing came to her, but then she remembered what happened when she broke, and all those times she thought she’d been hallucinating. Seeing through other people’s eyes.
She didn’t want to end up seeing through a million eyes at once again, so Lys concentrated on one person. And since the only person in the room that might have their eyes open was Mark, she tried to find him.
At first nothing happened. The light continued to go through her, and Lys did her best not to panic. She told herself to concentrate—focus.
Once again she tried to find Mark. The magic curled around her, vulturing, looking for a path. She thought about Mark’s dark eyes and the magic shot to her right. Lys let her mind follow it, and a moment later a gray haze—like back at the hospital—surrounded her. It lifted almost as
fast as it came, leaving Lys with a clear view of the ballroom with Inez and Peter sitting on the floor. Lys grinned.
Peter sat taking deep breaths and Inez’s scowl had almost disappeared. Almost. Her perspective turned, following Mark’s gaze, and moved past Kamau until it settled on her. She laughed when she saw her own, smiling face.
“What’s funny?” Mark asked.
“I can see myself.” Okay, seeing herself talk but not looking in a mirror had to rank up with the strangest things she’d ever done.
“You can?” Mark looked around.
“Well, not when you move your head.”
“What do you mean?” Mark turned his attention back to Lys.
“I can see through your eyes.”
Mark blinked. “Through my eyes?”
“Yeah.” Lys suddenly felt like she’d done something wrong, and tried to pull out. Nothing happened. She saw her own face go from laughing to scared.
“What’s wrong?” Mark asked.
“How do I get out of it?” She felt her breath catch as she tried to push herself away from the energy coming from the hole. “I can’t get out of it!”
“Don’t panic,” Mark said, standing and taking a few steps toward her. “If you can’t get yourself out, I can do it. But first, try this. Let more out than you’re taking in.”
More of the energy? Lys tried to concentrate on the beam, but couldn’t with Mark looking down at her grimace.
“Close your eyes,” she said.
Mark did, and she was able to once again focus on the hole. With all of her might, she pushed the magic out of her. Unfortunately it felt like trying to shove a watermelon through a smoking pipe. Nothing happened, so she pushed harder, using every ounce of willpower she could find. Still nothing.
“It’s not working,” she said, panic rising in her voice.
“Keep trying.”
Lys pushed, she pulled, she fought—all to no avail. The balance she had so carefully constructed began to break down, and the energy filled her.
“It’s really not working,” she said, this time through gritted teeth. The view through Mark’s eyes opened again, as did about fifty others. Most showed only black or shadows, but plenty of others filled her mind. Lys saw herself flinch back.