by Jo Schneider
“Keep her up,” Mr. Mason said to the others.
Lys hardly heard him. Instead she stood staring down at the plug. Despite the water she’d just drunk, Lys’s mouth went dry, and her heart missed a beat or two.
An eye. The symbol of an eye surrounded by more runes sat carved in the stone at her feet.
What was she supposed to do?
“Lys,” Mr. Mason said, now behind her. “You need to take all the magic from the plug into yourself, then release it. That will break the seal.”
Take it in? Release it? Lys shook her head. This didn’t sound like a good idea.
Without warning, the power started toward her. The magic streams shifted, and the ones coming in her direction got brighter. She watched without breathing as the first wave reached out for her feet.
Lys already felt like a water bottle with a hole in the bottom. The magic she’d been channeling poured through her, and she didn’t think she could handle much more.
“Do not release it,” Mr. Mason said in her ear. “Let it build up inside of you.”
Lys’s throat closed, and she swallowed hard as she looked around. Everyone but the girl beside her was watching her, waiting. The young girl had her head down, and Lys thought she might be crying.
The magic forced her to act before she wanted to. It blasted through her body like a bullet. Out of reflex, she shut down the outlet she’d been holding open. Golden power started to fill her from the soles of her feet, up to her knees, and then her hips. It felt a thousand times stronger than a roaring sugar high. Lys couldn’t stop shaking, and part of her didn’t want to. It felt so good!
There weren’t words or thoughts to describe it. Satisfying the Need—the frog’s eyes—paled in comparison, like the light and warmth of a match versus the blazing sun beating down on you in the desert. Every bit of her body tingled in pleasure and joy. Kamau’s kiss couldn’t ignite one nerve ending like this did. She was on fire, but the burning caused pure ecstasy.
“Keep taking it in,” Mr. Mason’s voice said from about a hundred miles away.
Lys didn’t much care what he said, all she cared about was how she felt. How much power she had! She closed her eyes and reveled in it flowing through her veins alongside her blood, as if it should have been there all along. Mark had said that magic was part of her, and now she believed him.
Up through her chest, then down her arms and to her fingertips, the magic filled her to capacity. Lys felt her skin start to tighten up, like a balloon right before it burst from too much pressure.
“A little more,” Mr. Mason said.
Lys would take all that the magic would give her. Her scalp tingled as the last unoccupied space filled with magic. The world around her sang.
“Now, release it,” Mr. Mason said.
Release it? Lys shook her head.
“Release it before it consumes you,” Mr. Mason said.
Lys didn’t care if the magic consumed her. That sounded like a great idea.
“Do it now,” he said.
The smell of her house filled her nostrils. It got past the song and poked a part of her brain that still cared about something besides magic. Memories of her parents, her friends, and growing up flashed through her mind.
“If you want to see them again, you need to release it.”
Dark thoughts of her parents being hurt or her friends dying—nightmares she’d had as a kid—flew at her, and Lys mentally shook herself, putting some distance between her and the magic.
She could still see through the others’ eyes, and Lys found herself glowing twice as bright as either the taste user or the young girl. More images of fear kept her lucid, and Lys looked for a place to punch a hole in herself.
At first she couldn’t find a spot—her skin providing a barrier stronger than rock or steel. Panic started to set in as her heart throbbed in her chest. Her chest. Lys concentrated on her belly button and wormed her way through until she found a thin spot. With all of her mental might, she threw herself at the weakened bit. The first attempt failed, and she bounced back.
The magic continued to fill her, and Lys could feel her body and spirit becoming overloaded. She tried again, ramming the spot as hard as she could. It cracked, but did not break.
She conjured up a wicked looking knife. It dropped into her hand. She took a proverbial breath and stabbed the spot, ripping through it like a pirate did with a sail. The knife penetrated the wall, and Lys pulled it down, releasing all of the magic she could, straight out her belly button.
The plug burst apart, the remnants rising up and through the top of the arch.
The rune disappeared, as did all sense of sanity.
Lys no longer only saw through the eyes of those close to her; now she could see everything. She didn’t know how, but she knew that’s what it was. The world lay around her, above her, below her, and inside of her. She saw families having picnics at the park, soldiers fighting in the jungle, people working in cities, and farmers tilling their fields.
Magic, the light from the portal, overwhelmed the world. She saw it come from all directions, touching everyone, leaving nothing unaffected in its wake. Lys tried to cry out, to warn them, but she had no voice. Only her eyes. She was forced to watch.
A man in Tokyo fell to his knees, screaming and writhing. The eyes Lys saw through ran toward him. The man looked up, his face contorted in anguish. His eyes swirled black. Lys’s perspective changed. She now watched a little boy running toward his father, who held out his arms to keep the boy away. Magic flamed from his hands, cutting everything they were pointed at in two, including the little boy.
The scene changed. A man with a camera in a helicopter watched as a woman ran up the side of a volcano. Every step she took left behind puddles of molten lava. When she looked up at the camera, Lys saw that her eyes were churning, burning red. The woman tore her gaze from the helicopter and threw herself into the volcano. Before they could get out of the way, a geyser of lava as big as a sky scraper engulfed the helicopter and everyone on board.
Another place. Lys recognized it as the smoldering ruins of Los Angeles. Below her sat a little girl, all alone in the middle of the street. She knew this dream. Only now she understood. This wasn’t a dream. It was real. The little girl looked up, revealing her oily, black eyes.
Touch users. So many broke at once that the world broke, too, leaving nothing but pain and terror behind. Military and governments no longer had power. Now the touch users had control. They fought one another. Some of them tried to help others, but most just wanted more power, more magic. They used until they killed their perceived enemies, then they died. One man was everywhere, his sapphire blue eyes swirling. His influence was that of a god, and he used it to send the world into further chaos. She saw his face and screamed.
The sound jerked Lys back into her own awareness.
“Keep the circle closed,” Mr. Mason’s voice said. “Ayden, this one is yours.”
Lys didn’t want to open her eyes, afraid that she would find the world destroyed.
“Is she going to be okay?” Ayden asked.
“She’s fine,” Mr. Mason said. “We need to finish this.”
Finish it? Lys forced her eyes open and found herself on her knees, still holding onto Ayden’s and the young girl’s hands. It took a moment for the wall of perspectives to resolve into a half dozen or so. Lys was still at the arch. They hadn’t finished the ritual.
They could stop it. They could stop the future that she’d just witnessed.
“Don’t,” she said, the words coming out as a raspy whisper. She looked up at Ayden. “Please, don’t do this.”
A golden glow already surrounded Ayden, but he looked down at her. “What?”
Tears poured from her eyes. “If we finish this, it will destroy the world.”
Ayden narrowed his eyes. Lys could see the elation there from the magic, but somehow he had more control than she did. “What do you mean?” he asked.
Mr. Mason step
ped over Lys and Ayden’s arms, going inside the circle. “She’s crashing,” he said. “We have to finish this now.” He moved between Ayden and the plug. “Do it, now.”
Rage cut through her fog. “I know what I saw.” She clenched her teeth together. “If we do this, the world ends.”
“The world will not end.” Mr. Mason’s eyes went from their brilliant blue to a swirling pool of sapphires. “You will all finish this, now.”
Those eyes! She’d seen those eyes in her vision. Mr. Mason was the man controlling the world.
“It’s you.” Lys said, leaning back. “You’re the one who—”
“Finish it,” Mr. Mason interrupted. The words obliterated Lys’s conviction.
When Lys heard Kamau influence the gas station clerk with his voice, Kamau had been smooth and evocative. Leading, guiding, and suggesting rather than forcing. Lys never considered the possibility that he could impose his will on anyone. Maybe he couldn’t do it with sound.
Apparently Mr. Mason could. Obligation overran Lys’s emotions. More memories of her family and friends surfaced—smells from her house, school, and growing up coming through her nose—but so did the irrational fear that they would all die. She didn’t want to do this, but her emotions had control, and Mason must have control of them, because Lys couldn’t find the courage or energy to resist.
Beside her, Ayden stiffened. He nodded, and Lys felt the power in him gathering. Mr. Mason put a hand on each of Ayden’s shoulders. The power spiked, light spilled out of Ayden’s mouth, but instead of going to the plug and the runes—which cracked but did not break—most of it went into Mr. Mason.
Lys didn’t know what the others could sense, but with sight magic Lys could see the golden power fill Mason. Only he didn’t let it go. Instead, once the transfer was complete, he stumbled back, now glowing like Ayden had been.
The hold Mason had on her mind stuttered, and Lys used every bit of will power she had left to wrench her hand free of Ayden’s.
The young girl next to her jerked her hand out of Lys’s. As she did so, her hijab fell away, revealing who could only be Kamau’s sister underneath. Mason had had her all along.
Ayden fell to his knees, watching Mr. Mason. “What have you done?” Ayden asked, fear in his eyes. “We’re supposed to be freeing the magic.”
Mr. Mason laughed. “That’s right, son. Soon I will have more magic than anyone else has ever had.”
Lys looked between the two men. Son?
More perspectives blossomed in her head, revealing the black-clad figures of the New, a moment before they attacked.
Chapter 33
A dozen of the New along with Mark, Inez, Brady, Peter, Kamau, and a handful of other magic users appeared. Lys could see everything at once. The New, in their black body armor, trying to net the magic users. Mark appeared behind the touch user in the circle. Blue light flashed, and the man fell to the ground. Brady faced off with two of Mason’s users. He started throwing rocks that Peter gave him. Lys could see Inez’s magic—red and jagged—leaving her hands as she pointed at other users. Two of them went immediately to their knees. The others got caught by Brady’s rocks right before he flung them off the cliff using his towel trick. Kamau ran to his sister as Ayden reached out to his father, who now stood in the middle of the cracked runes, bathing in the power.
Faster than Lys could make out, one of the touch users snatched Mason from the bowl and spirited him away.
“Where is he going?” one of the New asked Lys.
“The path,” she said, pointing.
Six users joined Mason. Lys could just make them out through the blinding light coming from the outlet. Mason and the others ran toward the entrance to the path. They were going to get away.
Five members of the New, along with Brady, Peter, and Inez, advanced on them. Mason’s sound user opened his mouth, and two of the touch users held their hands out in front of them. A wave of pain hit Lys like a truck, causing her to double over.
Mason. The man from the end of the world. They couldn’t let him get away.
She scrambled to her hands and knees. To her horror, she saw Mason being tossed into the air like a rag doll. He arched far along the path only to be caught by a touch user. A moment later they were all gone. Several of the magic users, and four of the New, went after them.
Chaos erupted around Lys. The people with the New yelled back and forth, trying to figure out if they could re-plug the outlet. Kamau held his crying sister in his arms. Inez and Peter tried to help a struggling Brady to his feet, but the magic, which had started to latch onto people like clinging rose vines, had him so entwined that he could hardly move. Lys tried to stand but couldn’t. So instead she scooted along the ground until she reached Ayden. He hadn’t moved since Mason had been swept away.
“Ayden?” she asked. He sat staring after the retreating form of his father. “Ayden, we have to plug this back up.”
He slowly shook his head. “We don’t have the right people.” He turned to look at her. “And even if we did, I’m not sure we could do it. Can you do that again?” Pain filled his swirling, golden eyes.
Lys turned to the seal. “We have to try.”
“I can’t even move,” Ayden said.
“That magic is going crazy,” she said. Bits of stone kept breaking off and rising to the top of the arch in the fountain of power.
The crash hit her without warning. She gasped, and the magic pulled her down, hitting the ground with a hollow thump. The abyss within her opened up, dark and inviting. It whispered for her to become one with it. The world was going to end anyway; she didn’t want to be around for that.
Fear dissipated, only to be replaced by defeat. What could she do to help? She only wanted one thing—to be erased from the universe. Maybe if she had never existed, she would be able to stop feeling pain and loss. The darkness began to intertwine with the magic. Part of her burned from heat and the other from cold. Her mouth went dry, and she could taste death. At some point she must have closed her eyes because black engulfed her. Not even overlapping images or the sight of a destroyed world came into her mind. The darkness called to her, enticed her and promised that it would be more kind than the world she would leave behind. She believed it.
“Lysandra.”
The voice came from the darkness. No, it came through the darkness.
“Lysandra, don’t leave us.”
She didn’t recognize the voice; it belonged to a young woman.
But I want to go, Lys said in her mind. I just want to rest.
“We need you,” the voice insisted. “Kamau needs you.”
Kamau? The name hardly meant anything to her. Nothing did.
“I think he likes you,” the voice said. “He’ll be sad if you leave us.”
Likes me? Lys tried to concentrate, no easy task with the darkness blocking out the light. Kamau. A pair of dark eyes appeared, then a smile. She could see him, but he betrayed her.
“Lys,” a deeper voice prompted. “Stay with us.”
The sound brought her back. It cut through the dark like lightning, leaving Lys an escape route. She mentally propelled herself toward the opening, reaching for what lay beyond.
Gasping, Lys opened her eyes. She lay on the hard stone, her head in Kamau’s lap with his sister holding her hand. Cold still filled her, and Lys started to shake.
I told you we could get her back. The words came from Kamau’s sister, only Lys heard them in her mind.
Kamau smiled in relief. “Are you alright?”
Lys sat up, shaking and dizzy. The magic in the rocks beneath her began again to twine up her arms and legs. Before it grabbed her, Lys rose shakily to her feet. The runes, were they gone?
Please don’t let them be gone, Lys thought.
“Lys!” Kamau said, following her. “What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer. She lurched over to the plug, and stopped. More than half of the rune pattern had been blown away. The magic leaked out through t
he missing chunks.
“Lys,” Kamau said again, coming up next to her. “We need to get out of here.” His hand brushed her arm. She wanted to bury her face in his shoulder, but instead she turned away. She couldn’t think about him—about them—now. Her eyes found his sister. Maybe she would understand.
“We can’t leave it like this,” Lys said. “It will destroy everything.”
The girl nodded.
“We don’t have the right people to stop it,” Kamau argued. “And the New can’t do it.” He waved a hand, and Lys saw that the New had retreated, back beyond the arch.
“Kamau.” Lys looked into his eyes. She didn’t know what she felt for him, or which side he worked for, but he was a decent person, and surely he didn’t want the world destroyed. “We have to try.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “Everyone will die if we don’t. I saw the future. If this thing blows, all of the touch users in the world will break at once.”
Kamau frowned down at her.
She’s right. Kamau’s sister’s voice came in her mind again.
“But we don’t have a taste or a touch user.” This was Ayden, who walked over to them.
“I’m a touch user.” They all turned to see Peter and Inez dragging Brady toward them. The magic had Brady encased like a second layer of clothes. “And Inez here is a taste user.”
“But you’re not neutrals,” Ayden insisted.
Brady shrugged. “We could try, or we could leave.” He looked at Lys. “But if what she just said is true, if she saw the future, and all of the touch users break at once, leaving is pointless.”
“You really saw the future?” Inez asked.
Lys nodded.
“Will you help us?” Brady asked Inez. He held her hand.
Inez looked first at the leaking magic—Lys wondered if Inez could even see it—and then at Brady. “Why?”
“Why?” Brady raised his eyebrows. “Because even though this world can be terrible, that doesn’t mean it should end. Not like this.”
Inez gazed at him for a moment before her eyes turned to Peter. A tiny smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Then she looked over at Lys. “You’re going to try?”