by Jo Schneider
Mr. Mason put the van into drive. “Hold on everyone.”
Chapter 28
“You’d better put your seat belt on,” the woman next to Lys said.
Lys’s fingers fumbled with the pieces, trying to connect the metal end into the receiver. If she hadn’t performed the action thousands of times, she never would have been able to do it.
Four magic users jogged in front of the van. Lys thought they would all be touch users, but when the low hum began she changed her mind. She recognized that hum—Kamau had made the same noise in Las Vegas. Were all the people in front of them sound users?
Underneath the van, directly in front of the sound users, the earth lay still. However, a wave of trembling, jumping earth fanned out to the sides. Cracks formed around them, but never in the road. Lys heard a crackling sound and saw the side window across from her break, spider-webbing.
One of the figures waved as they scattered, and Mr. Mason stomped on the gas. The van jumped forward like those roller coasters that shot you from the platform. There must be a touch user or two behind them.
The small, winding, dirt road that they’d driven in on lay before them. Lys glanced out the back windows of the van and saw several members of the New running after them. She shifted her gaze out the front windshield. The dirt road ran straight for maybe twenty yards before making a turn so tight that if they tried it they would surely fly right off the mountain side. Could touch users fly?
Special effects had nothing on what she saw next. In front of them, just before the wheels rolled over it, the headlights illuminated a new road—dirt and gravel solidified into smooth rock before her eyes.
Mr. Mason didn’t take the corner. Instead, he drove forward, the road forming in front of him. The nose of the van angled forward, and they started down the mountain side.
The lap belt held Lys hanging with her back at least six inches away from the seat. Her feet and hands dangled free as the belt dug into her stomach.
In front of them, the road continued to form. The curious side of Lys wanted to know what was happening behind them, but she couldn’t look back. The van began to drift to the left, and the road went with it, keeping them from tumbling down the hill.
A loud thump hit the back of the van, pushing the front wheels off the formed road. The hood of the van dropped down, the axle hitting the rock with a squeal. A huge crater caved in the roof, forcing people to duck. Lys stifled a scream.
“Hold on,” someone said.
Sure, Lys thought, I’ll do that.
The van literally flew off the end of the road, scraping the entire undercarriage as it did so. Another loud thump sounded from the back. A barrage of voices filled the air.
“Hook us!”
“Get them off there!”
“Keep the door open!”
“Do it now!”
Those were the last words Lys heard, and at that particular moment, she decided that sitting near the front sucked. The bottom of the cliff grew steadily closer. They continued to fly away from the mountain side. The world slowed to a crawl, and Lys could see the ground coming, getting brighter in the headlights. Her heartbeat thump-thumped in her ears, the tang of mountain air and old leather seats filled her nostrils. The voices behind her started to sound like the teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons.
The van stopped.
If she thought the seat belt had hurt before, now it was an ax, chopping her at the waist, attempting to sever her in half. This time she couldn’t scream. As a matter of fact she couldn’t breathe at all. Time sped up again, and Lys struggled to inhale. People around her were hollering, but the blood pounding in her ears overpowered them. Darkness began to gather at the edges of her vision. The pressure on her abdomen did not ease. Lys couldn’t breathe. She clawed at the seat belt, trying to give herself some room. It was too tight; her fingers couldn’t get in there. They stopped working. Her vision fuzzed, went gray, and then started to tunnel.
Someone cut her loose. She fell forward, face planting into the back of the driver’s seat.
“Get out!” a voice said as someone pushed her out the door. The ground lay fifteen feet below, and Lys wondered how bad it would hurt to hit, but a woman caught her and set her gently on her feet.
The roar in her ears abated, but now she could hear another roar. A helicopter hovered overhead.
“Bring it down!” Mr. Mason ordered.
Lys looked up. The van dangled headlights first ten feet off the ground. An overhang of rock held the back of the van.
Above that a helicopter hovered, with members of the New hanging out each side. Nets flew at magic users, but a blast of wind buffeted them away. The helicopter bucked, and the pilot had to back off.
“Why don’t you come over here? In a second there will be a lot of falling debris,” Ayden said, taking her by the elbow.
Ayden wasn’t kidding. She watched in fascination as a couple of magic users started tossing giant chunks of the ground at the helicopter. A sound user climbed on top of the van and sang a note that vibrated everything down to her teeth. Within seconds, the helicopter fell to pieces around them.
A figure in black crashed into the cliff side, rolling down like a barrel.
Lys looked away. Bile rose from her stomach. People were dead. That guy would not be getting up and walking it off. Cody, along with who knows how many other magic users—all dead. The New killed people; Mr. Mason killed people. Lys didn’t know how she should feel about any of it.
Kamau’s face swam before her eyes, and Lys gritted her teeth together. He betrayed her! He betrayed them. If not for him, no one would have died today. If not for him, the New would never have found them.
A poking memory reminded Lys that if not for Kamau she might be dead or crazy already, but she thrust it out. He used her to get Mr. Mason’s plan. That thought brought enough anger to snap her out of it.
“Our ride will be here in two minutes,” someone reported.
“Is everyone okay?”
Then a voice Lys recognized. “Did we lose any neutrals?” Mr. Mason.
“No, we’re all here.” Ayden put a hand on Lys’s shoulder. “You still with us?”
Lys nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak. She still couldn’t breathe very well—it felt like she had a five gallon water cooler sitting on her chest. She wanted to sit down, but Ayden kept her upright.
“Anything broken?” Ayden asked.
Lys considered this. Her hands responded when she moved them, so did her legs and arms. The muscles in her neck throbbed, but nothing felt broken. She shook her head.
“Good.” Ayden glanced up at the van. “We should probably move.”
Behind her, Lys could hear crackling and the groaning of metal. She managed to turn her head—not a pleasant experience she decided at once—so she could see what Ayden was looking at.
The van dangled above them, windows smashed and wheels mostly gone.
“Come on,” Ayden said, taking her by the elbow. “It’s not going anywhere.” He paused. “Probably.”
Lys followed. She flinched as she tried to take a deep breath. The people from the van, including Mr. Mason, were all looking back up the hill.
“Are they coming after us?” Lys asked.
A few of the people laughed. Genni, who Lys had not noticed before, shook her head. “Not for a while.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Lys saw lights. She turned her head and spotted a vehicle coming toward them.
“Uh,” she said.
“Not to worry, that’s our ride,” Mr. Mason said.
Lys decided she must be in shock. Everything felt surreal, like she was watching a home movie. Her body must be really beaten up, but Lys didn’t mind. She felt . . . good.
Wait. Lys narrowed her eyes and tried to think. What senses were there? Touch—she’d seen what that could do. Sight—she hadn’t been able to influence people’s emotions. Kamau did with sound, so it could be that. But what had Mark said? Taste dealt more
with physical appetites and smell dealt with the emotional? She glanced at Ayden—a smell user.
The group gathered loosely. One girl stood apart from everyone. She was young, not very tall and extremely slender. Lys couldn’t see her face because she had a hijab wrapped around her head and pulled down to cover everything but her eyes. The girl never looked at anyone else. She kept away from the group, gazing back up the hill.
Gravel crunched as two off-roading SUVs pulled up. The drivers unrolled their windows and greeted Mr. Mason. Lys didn’t bother to listen, lost in her own thoughts.
Kamau. His face, his smile, his hands, his lips . . . could it all be a lie? Did he use her? Was he really working for the New? She’d seen the evidence with her own eyes. Heard it as they were talking. All for his sister? Did Mr. Mason have his sister? Did the New? Was she already dead?
Lys felt tears forming in her eyes. She brushed them away—no time for crying now. She followed the smaller girl’s gaze back up the hill. What happened to the others? Did Mr. Mason get them out?
“Come on,” Ayden said, squeezing her shoulder. “We’ll go in this one.”
“But what about everyone else?” she asked in a small voice.
“Don’t worry. They’ll be okay.”
Lys allowed Ayden to steer her to the second vehicle. A short man crawled in the very back while Lys, Ayden, and Genni took the middle seat.
They would be okay? Lys thought with one last glance up the hill. No, Lys didn’t think so. And as the SUV started to move, the cliff side grew farther and farther away, and so did the chances of Lys ever seeing her friends again.
“How do you think they found us?” the driver asked. Lys could see his square jaw and his golden eyes in the rear-view mirror. Deep lines etched his cheeks, making him the oldest person Lys had seen with Mr. Mason.
“They must have followed someone,” the passenger said—a woman with long red hair and blue eyes.
“Inside job,” the guy from the back said.
Lys’s heart dropped into her stomach. Kamau—she couldn’t deny it.
“You saw?” Ayden asked, watching her.
Lys nodded.
“Saw what?” Genni asked.
“Kamau,” Lys said. “He’s with the New.”
“Who?” the driver asked.
“One of the kids that came in with Lys. They were with Mark at the hospital when the New caught them,” Ayden said.
The New had caught them. Could the whole thing have been a set up? Mark told them that the New usually killed magic users. Even he had been baffled that they were all still alive at the New’s headquarters. Did Kamau have something to do with that? Did he have everything to do with it?
“He was with you the whole time?” Genni asked.
“The whole time,” Lys said numbly. How could Kamau be a traitor? He’d helped them get away from the New. He’d saved her life. He’d kissed her. Was it all a lie? The question would not stop plaguing her, and even though she thought she knew the answers, Lys didn’t want to believe it.
“You think he led them to us?” Genni asked.
Ayden shrugged. “Probably. I mean, everyone else had been there for days. This group comes in and a few hours later we’re on the run again? Too convenient.”
Genni nodded. She leaned around Ayden to speak directly to Lys. “Did he say anything to make you think that he was with them?”
“No,” Lys shook her head. Kamau had said plenty of things, but nothing to indicate that he supported the New.
“You guys were all together right before the New attacked. What were you talking about?” Genni asked. She said the words kindly—it didn’t quite feel like an interrogation.
“I, uh . . .” she trailed off. Did everyone here know about Mr. Mason’s plan? He hadn’t indicated that she should go telling everyone about it.
“Did you tell him what you and Mason talked about?” Genni asked.
Lys nodded.
“Lys is a neutral. Mason asked her for help with the outlets,” Ayden said to the others.
So they did know.
Ayden looked hard at her. “Did you tell Kamau about that?”
She wanted to lie. No one would ever be able to prove otherwise, but she didn’t think that would be right.
She nodded. “I told Kamau about it.” Her purpose had been for him to him help make sense of it all. She wanted him to tell her that it was okay that she didn’t want to use her magic anymore. All she wanted was a friend—someone to talk to. “I told him everything Mr. Mason told me.” She looked up at Ayden. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
He waved a hand. “They’ve suspected what we’re up to for months. It won’t come as a big surprise.”
“But now they know for sure,” Genni pointed out.
“That’s probably why we’re headed for Utah.”
“What’s in Utah?” the woman in the passenger seat asked.
“The nearest outlet. Did you see it on the map?” Ayden asked Lys.
“We’re going there?” Lys asked.
“That’s the direction we’re headed. Mr. Mason’s orders. From what I understand, we’ve got a time limit,” the driver said.
Ayden pulled his hand up and pushed the light button on his watch. “What’s today?” he asked himself, bobbing his head up and down. “Yeah, if Mr. Mason wants to hit this window, we’ll have to do it by tomorrow night.”
“That’s a tight schedule,” Genni said. “We don’t even have supplies, and it’s a long hike.”
“I’m sure Mason’s got that taken care of,” Ayden said, lowering his arm. Lys noticed Genni’s hand reach out to take his before their arms disappeared between them.
Lys’s thoughts were immediately taken back to Kamau. He must have led the New to the hospital in the first place. And when he didn’t know much Kamau probably told them that Mr. Mason wanted Lys, but he didn’t know why. That had to be the only reason they got away from the New. Sure, Brady, Mark, and Kamau had been amazing, but seriously, the six of them against a dozen or more people in black body armor? Why hadn’t she seen it earlier?
Another part of her mind still protested. Kamau had been so kind to her. She liked him, and she thought he liked her. Why else would he do all those things? To find his sister? He would surely do almost anything to get her back. Did that make him bad?
Kamau had done horrible things to try to get his sister back. People were dead—he’d led them to Mr. Mason, and people like Cody were gone, forever. How many more people would die if they couldn’t beat the New?
“Have you ever fought the New before?” Lys asked.
Ayden shrugged. “Sure, but it’s been a while. They’ve never found us before. The only other time I fought the New was when we jumped them.”
“I’ve taken them on a few times,” the driver said.
“Neil has been around for a while,” Genni said with a smile.
“Age before beauty,” he said with dignity.
Lys cleared her throat. “Uh, have you ever beat them?”
“The New don’t go down easy,” the man from the back said. “We’ve won some battles, but never the war.”
“Do they really kill magic users?” Lys asked. “I mean, if they find them?”
Ayden nodded gravely. “They do.”
The tone of his words indicated to Lys that she’d hit a nerve.
“Would they have killed me?”
Ayden regarded her. “Your parents let Mason take you from the hospital just in time. Doyle arrived the next morning. The week before, Mason missed a girl in Oregon by mere hours. The New made it look like a drug overdose.”
Lys swallowed, suddenly not feeling well. “What will they do to the others?” Brady’s easy grin filled her mind, along with the way he looked at Inez like she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She wondered if Mark’s leg would be okay.
Kamau’s dark eyes tried to invade her thoughts, but Lys refused to let them. He’d thrown himself in with people who wo
uld kill her if they caught her. She didn’t understand exactly why he did it, but Kamau was on the other side. The wrong side.
Even the questions that Mr. Doyle had asked her made sense. Had he been trying to turn her so she would rat out Mr. Mason? Sow discord to make it possible for them to get Mr. Mason’s plan from her? And she’d given it to them without even knowing! Because of her, the plan got handed to the New on a silver platter. How many more people would die because of the New, because of her?
The SUV finally found a paved road, and the driver hit the gas, accelerating fast. She could practically smell the burning rubber from the tires.
“How can we beat them?” she asked.
Chapter 29
Neil, the driver, snorted. “Only one way.”
“More magic,” the man in the back said.
“More magic?” Lys asked.
Ayden spoke. “Mason is convinced that if the magic portals are unplugged, magic users would be more powerful. And not only that, but there would be more of us.”
“Would everyone know about magic?” Lys asked. She’d never considered the possibility that her parents would know about her magic, and that the neighbor down the street could be a taste user or a guy at school could be a sound user. Would the government have to make special laws against magic? Would they use touch users for war? Lys had just seen how effective they could be.
“So you’re a neutral sight user?” Genni asked.
“Yes,” Lys said, nodding.
“You’re the first one we’ve ever found,” the man in the back said.
“So Mr. Mason told me,” Lys said, her mouth going dry.
“How’s that for timing?” Genni said with a smile.
“Yeah,” Lys managed. Great timing. And she might ruin the whole thing because she feared magic almost as much as she feared the Need.
Lys glanced over and caught Genni giving Ayden a smile. Love glittered in her eyes. Ayden grinned back. Lys tried not to think about Kamau, but she couldn’t help it. She still felt the warmth of his arms around her, and she could smell the slightly wild scent that always accompanied him. What would he do in her place? Would he sacrifice everything to help these people? To help her?