by Jo Schneider
“I did tell him,” Lys said. “Right after I talked to Mason. Right before we found you.”
“Doyle told everyone Mason’s plan. He explained that opening the outlets would cause an imbalance, or something. He asked for volunteers to go and stop Mason.” She grinned for a second. “Naturally I said I would help.”
“How did you convince Mark to come?”
“He decided to come on his own,” Inez said. “Six or seven users came with us.”
Lys tried to digest this. “But don’t the New kill magic users?”
“They do.” Inez shrugged. “But you know, the enemy of my enemy and all that. At least they didn’t kill Peter.”
“I’m glad he’s okay.” Lys smiled. She could feel Inez’s pain and joy through her words.
“Me, too.”
A rustling from outside startled Lys. “You girls up? Why don’t you come out and help us with breakfast? Everyone else is awake.” Ayden’s voice came through the tent, his usual joviality gone, replaced by a beaten down tone that made Lys sad.
Lys looked at Inez and they pulled themselves out of their sleeping bags. Their boots sat near the door, and Lys took her time lacing hers up. Inez sighed and Lys unzipped the door. Crisp, morning air greeted them, and after Inez helped her out of the tent, they both stood with their arms wrapped around their stomachs, teeth chattering.
“Here.” Ayden handed them each a hooded jacket. “These were in the van.”
“Thanks.” Lys took the jacket and pulled it on over her clothes.
“Kamau is working on a fire. Come help us cook.”
She didn’t really cook, but it might be good to have something to do. Something to keep her mind off of Brady, magic, and death.
A handful of people from the cabin stood a little way from the fire, talking to Mark in low voices. Kamau and his sister coaxed a blaze from the fire pit just as Lys and Inez walked over.
A dull gray hovered in the air, waiting for the sunrise to burn it away. They were still in the desert surrounded by the Needles. Each step she took on the rocks sounded like a stampede. The silence made Lys believe that they could be the last people left in the world.
Kamau stood as they approached. He had a bucket in each hand. “We need some more water for breakfast.” He met Lys’s eyes. “Would you like to help me?”
Not the smoothest get away line in the world, but it would have to do. Lys took one of the buckets. “Sure.”
They walked down a path lined with stones on each side. Kamau waited to speak until they were a good distance away.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he said, glancing over.
“I’m sorry I stomped on your foot.” Not the best way to begin, but at least she started.
“I deserved it.”
“Yeah.”
Their feet crunched on the path. Lys had a thousand questions, but she didn’t trust her voice.
“You probably hate me.”
“No!” Lys said, turning her head to meet his eyes. “I mean—” She looked away. “It would be easier if I could hate you.”
They arrived at the water spigot and Kamau turned it on, watching as his bucket filled.
“My sister disappeared three months ago.” His eyes continued to watch the water. “My parents asked me to find her.”
Lys didn’t have any siblings. She didn’t even have many cousins, but she could feel the despair in his voice. Now that she’d lost Brady, Lys understood. “How did you find her?”
“It is a long story.” He moved his bucket and held out his hand for Lys’s. She gave it to him, their fingers brushing.
Kamau went on. “At first I didn’t find Mason, I found Doyle and the New.”
“Did they try to kill you?” Lys asked, glancing around as if expecting the New to appear.
“They did,” Kamau said, his mouth tugging into a small smile. “When they failed at that, and I convinced them that I wasn’t with Mason, we struck a deal. They got me to Mason in exchange for me finding out what Mason’s plan was.”
“Which I handed over on a silver platter,” Lys grumbled.
“Doyle knew that Mason wanted you specifically, so he told me to stick close to you.”
“Which you did,” Lys said, hitting him with a flat stare. It hurt more coming from his lips.
“I couldn’t help myself,” he said, holding her gaze.
Okay, Lys had to admit that was good. “And?”
“And I wanted to tell you a thousand times, but Mason had my sister. When you found me in the hospital basement, I was looking for her.”
That, at least, finally made some sense.
“Until you and Brady came along, I didn’t know what Mason expected of a magic user—the breaking. So I’d been stuck in my room for a few days.”
“And the New? Did they follow you?”
Kamau’s dark eyes went cold. “They weren’t supposed to attack, but someone got antsy and nabbed us. In their hide out, I told Doyle he had to let us go because I still didn’t know anything.”
“So they let us go?” Lys asked.
“No,” Kamau shook his head. “Doyle wanted us around for another day so he could try to convince you to trust him and not Mason. Mark and Brady broke us out unexpectedly.”
Water sloshed to the top of the bucket, and Lys watched it slowly settle. Finally the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The New followed Kamau from Vegas, maybe using Peter to help them. Having Mason so close turned out to be more tempting than they could handle, so they attacked in force. Hurting people. Trying to hurt her. And Brady.
Lys swallowed, blinking away a tear. She steered her thoughts in a different direction. “How is your sister?” Lys asked, picking up her bucket.
“She is well, and she is safe.” Kamau’s eyes searched hers. Lys wondered what he found there.
“I’m glad,” she said, turning away.
“Wait,” Kamau said, reaching out to put his hand on her arm. “I am sorry I didn’t tell you.”
Lys felt more tears coming. “I’m sorry, too,” she said, stepping away. He had used her, misled her. Was everything a lie? She wanted to ask, but couldn’t find the words, and part of her didn’t want the wrong answer from him.
“How are you?” he asked.
Curse him, why did he always have to be so concerned? “How am I supposed to be?” she asked, her voice cracking. “Brady’s gone, I’m addicted to magic, I’ve got a need to rip people’s eyes from their sockets, the man who said he could cure me lied and then left, and you—” She swallowed. “You’re gone, too.”
“I’m not gone,” he said, stepping around in front of her.
Lys shook her head; she couldn’t handle this right now. “You said it was all a lie.”
He put a hand under her chin, tilting her eyes up to meet his. “I didn’t say it was all a lie. I never lied about you, or the way I feel about you.”
She wanted to believe him. Wanted it so bad that her body ached for it to be true. But she didn’t want to let him in. Not again. Not now.
His eyes searched hers. “You’re like no one I’ve ever met before.”
“What, you’ve never had to seduce a girl before?” The remark slipped out. She wanted him to feel as bad as she did.
Kamau smiled. “I’d have to say that you seduced me.”
“What?” Lys asked, jerking her chin from his hand. “What are you talking about?”
“I guess I have a soft spot in my heart for girls who try to get me killed.”
Lys looked away. “Yeah, well I don’t have any place in my heart for guys who pretend to like me in order to use me.”
Kamau reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek. “What about a guy who is sorry he used you, and now he can’t stop thinking about you?”
More emotions. More tears. Lys blinked and stepped away. “I’ll have to think about it.” She turned, walking back down the trail. Kamau moved up beside her, and she didn’t shift away when he walked so close that their a
rms bumped.
“G’day,” Mark said when they approached.
Lys moved to the fire and set the bucket down next to a table made of rocks and a plank of wood.
“Let’s eat,” Mark said.
They cooked pancakes and hash browns on a griddle over the fire. Lys almost let the hash browns burn, but Damisi saved them. Peter took up a spot next to Inez—he smiled at Lys but didn’t say anything. His eyes kept wandering to Damisi.
Lys tried not to think about how good it would feel if Kamau put his arm around her as they sat next to one another. A gap stood between them, something far worse than a physical obstacle. And Lys knew that she needed to make the next move.
She turned her attention to the far side of the circle and saw Mark wince as he sat down on the ground to eat.
“How is your leg?” Lys asked him, remembering that he’d been injured just a few days before.
“Sore, but good,” he said. “Thanks to Brady.” Mark didn’t hesitate to mention Brady’s name. Lys found that comforting.
The four users that Lys didn’t know sat down as well. They served breakfast on tin plates and ate in silence until Ayden cleared his throat.
“I think we should all go through what’s happened. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“And you’ve got some explaining to do,” one of the magic users said.
Ayden nodded. “Why don’t we start with Lys? Will you tell us what Mason told you at the house?”
Lys did so, repeating again about the book, the magic being bottled, the outlets, and Mason’s plan to let the magic back into the world. “He didn’t mention anything about destroying everything.”
“What happened at the arch before we got there?” Kamau asked.
She told them, weariness tugging her emotions down to despair.
Damisi spoke for the first time. The girl looked even smaller with an over-sized hoodie on that went almost to her knees. Her slender figure belied her strength. “Will you tell us what you saw?” she asked Lys. “The future, I mean.”
“It was terrible.” Lys took a breath—everyone leaned forward, listening. “I was jumping around from person to person. I saw a man in Japan tear his little boy in half while he was breaking. I saw volcanoes erupting because of touch users.” Lys went on, repeating everything she could remember. “And at the end, I saw Mason. He was happy that the world was wrong.” Lys glanced at Ayden. “I’m sorry.”
Ayden shrugged. “I guess you all know by now that Mason is my father.” He looked around. “It wasn’t a big secret or anything, we just kept the relationship quiet. We both liked it better that way.”
“Did you know what his plan was?” Kamau asked.
“I knew about the magic. He told a lot of people about that, but he needed me specifically because I’m a neutral smell user. He also told me about Lys when he found her. Almost everything at the hospital was aimed at forcing her to break so Mason could identify her power level.”
“Did he know what would happen if we unstopped the magic?” Damisi asked, bringing them around to their original subject.
“I don’t know. He hardly talked with me about it, and I never got to read his books. He kept them under lock and key. I don’t even think he showed the one he showed to Lys to more than a dozen people.”
“He showed me,” Damisi said.
“Because he needed you. He’s good at using people.” Bitterness filled the words.
Ayden turned to look at Kamau. “You have some explaining to do as well. How did you get to the hospital?”
Kamau retold his story about meeting Doyle and their bargain.
“So you staged everything?” Mark asked.
“Yes,” Kamau nodded. “I faked that my magic was emerging so Mason would come for me.”
“You’ve been using your magic since you arrived at the hospital?” Mark asked.
Kamau shook his head. “No, I’ve been using magic, although that is not what we call it, since I was a child.”
“How did you manage that?”
“There are legends in our tribe, legends about what you call sound users. My father is not a wielder, but my grandmother was. She passed her talents onto my sister and me, although Damisi is more powerful than I am.” He smiled at her.
Lys’s heart practically wrenched itself from her chest. The love in his eyes convinced her that Kamau would do anything for his sister. Could he think of her the same way? He said he did. Could she believe him?
“Did you know about the other senses? Or the power levels?” Ayden asked.
Kamau shook his head. “We thought the different eye colors were due to gender or family relations, and we have no other senses mentioned in our heritage songs. Ancestors of my family have been wielders for more generations than anyone can remember.”
Ayden exchanged a glance with Mark. “So magic in the world isn’t quite as dead as my father thought.”
Mark sniffed. “Do the New know about all that?”
“No.” Kamau shook his head. “I convinced them that only Damisi and I knew about the magic.”
“So, what do we do now?” Lys asked, glancing around the circle. “Do you think they’ll come back for us?”
“The BG’s?” Mark asked.
Lys smiled. “Yeah, them.”
“The BG’s?” Ayden asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Brady’s name for them. Bad guys,” Lys explained. “Do you think they’ll stop hunting magic users?”
“They won’t,” Kamau said. Lys turned to look at him and found his eyes on her. “When I was with them, I saw how much they hated magic users. They think of themselves as heroes—saving the world from the evil of magic. Even if Doyle has had a change of heart, which is doubtful, he is only one in a chain of people. People who hate magic users will do anything to eradicate them from the earth.”
Peter spoke for the first time. “Who will help the new users?” He glanced at Inez. “We did it together, but it wasn’t fun. We almost died like twice a month.”
“I don’t have a good answer for that,” Ayden said, sharing a look with Mark. “But it’s not my plan to abandon everyone.”
“We can’t leave the other users out there to go through this alone,” Inez said.
Ayden raised an eyebrow. “Are you with us then?”
Inez sent him a scathing glare. “Brady just died to save us. What do you want me to do, go back to my life and forget anyone ever loved me enough to die for me?”
Ayden studied her for a moment. “No.”
“I’m in,” Peter said. “Brady was my friend, too. And I’d like to help other kids.”
Damisi’s small, clear voice came from her lips. “Our tribe deals with the magic quite differently than Mr. Mason did.” She glanced at Kamau. “Perhaps we can help figure out a way to control it.”
“Yes, I’ve been thinking the same thing.” Kamau looked around the circle. “Our wielders use their gifts on one another. A combination of that and some mental exercises keep the addictive side of magic at bay.” He met Lys’s eyes again. “I don’t know if it will work for the other senses, but I’m sure we can provide some insight.”
“Magic doesn’t have to be addictive?” Ayden asked.
“The pull is always there,” Kamau said, “but there are a number of ways to control it. I’d never had a problem until I came here, away from our tribe and their lands.”
“You’re really in a tribe?” Peter asked. A spark of enthusiasm shot from his eyes, and Lys smiled, feeling yet another round of tears. Brady had said the same thing.
“It’s a secret tribe,” Damisi said, wiggling her eyebrows.
Lys looked at Kamau. “A secret tribe?”
He shrugged. “Yes.”
“Do you have to kill us now that you told us about it?” Peter asked, looking at Damisi.
“We’ll see.”
Lys caught the hint of a smile on Inez’s face. Inez saw her looking and scowled. Her eyes went from Lys to Kamau and back again. Pai
n replaced the momentary amusement, and Inez lowered her gaze.
For a moment Lys didn’t understand. Did Inez not trust Kamau? Was she angry that Kamau lived and Brady didn’t? But as she watched Inez, the true meaning hit her. Lys had another chance with Kamau. Inez would never see Brady again.
Lys slid her hand across the gap between her and Kamau. She slipped her hand on to his, hoping he really had feelings for her. His eyes fell on their hands, and he looked up. Lys managed a small smile, and she tried to fill it with hope. Turning his hand, Kamau opened his palm and intertwined his fingers with hers.
The others were talking about who to contact. Lys ignored them. She watched Kamau as he pulled the back of her hand to his lips and gently kissed it. A butterfly stirred in her stomach. She smiled—this time without hesitation.
“We should probably contact every user we know,” Mark said. “See who’s still loyal to Mason, and who would be willing to help us.”
Ayden nodded and turned to look at each of them in turn. “None of you have to stick around.”
“Where else would we go?” Lys asked. She glanced at Mark and Ayden and saw teachers, she looked at Inez and saw a friend, in Peter she saw a little brother. She didn’t know what Kamau meant to her yet, but she didn’t want to do this without him.
Magic. It had ripped her world right out from underneath her, replacing it with horrors and wonders she had never imagined. But Lys couldn’t go back. Not now. Not after everything that had happened. She nodded at the others and her eyes fell on Kamau. She’d stick around.
Jo Schneider lives in Bountiful, Utah, but she has spent countless hours traveling all over the world. Her goal is to visit all seven continents, and she’s nearly finished. Being a geek at heart, Jo has always been drawn to science fiction and fantasy; she writes both. Based on her travels and her experience obtaining a black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate, Jo’s works feature authentic, impressive settings and extraordinary action sequences.
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