by Matt Ryan
“We will be judicious in this matter,” Nick said with authority.
“And you think this Quinn guy is going to help out?” I asked.
“If anyone on their side can help, it’s him.”
“Who’s Quinn?” Jackie asked.
“He rules over the alchemists of L.A., including Verity and Axiom. You’ve never heard of him?”
“I have,” Kylie replied.
Jackie shrugged. “I’ve been in a bubble for the last couple of years, and my Alchemist Monthly subscription ran out.”
“He’s the most powerful alchemist of the modern age. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him.” He glanced at Mark. “But he has been helpful in bringing many things to resolution.”
Wendy jumped in. “Yes, but now we have evidence of this Dark Academy. If Verity is running it, we might be able to use that as further proof that Quinn is hiding things from us. I hear he’s getting close—”
“That’s enough, Wendy.” Foster looked sharply at her. “We will not speculate. If this is all true, we’re looking at very dark times ahead,” Foster said. “Our response must be calculated.”
“They took her. We don’t have time for calculations,” I said.
“That is all,” Foster said, raising an eyebrow and looking at Wendy.
Wendy nodded and didn’t say anything else on the matter.
Frustrated and deflated, we left Foster’s office without a solid plan to get Iggy back. If he wasn’t in contact with the Intrepid, then who was? I doubted the conversations and calculated responses would prove fruitful.
Wendy left us in the commons with an order to go back to our domiciles. Nothing felt fair or easy anymore. Maybe I’d taken advantage of my previous life with Janet and Spencer. They had been horrible to me but they still let me live in their house while all other ties had been severed from me to them. I hadn’t thought of them in a while. They didn’t even register on my hate chart anymore.
We crossed the commons with a little less energy than when we’d left. The idea of someone being taken in front of us sank in and made my feet heavy. My whole body felt weighed down, pulling me toward the ground. I wanted to find my bed and try to figure out a way to make things right.
Kylie and her group split off from us and appeared to be having an angry debate near a tree. We stayed on our path toward the housing unit.
“What do you think they’re doing to her?” Jackie asked.
I moved closer to Mark and wrapped my arm around his waist. He took me in under his arm. I didn’t want to even think about what they were doing to poor Iggy. I was sure she had parents or siblings and friends who would be devastated if something happened to her.
“Hopefully they’ll realize she isn’t Allie and give her back,” Mark said.
What reason did they have for wanting me, anyway? Sure, I could make difficult stones, but so could Bridget and probably many others around the world.
“We need to talk with you guys,” Kylie said, hustling to catch up with us. Turning to look back to Foster’s house, she added, “But not here.”
She led us to the edge of the garden where the tomatoes were turning red and about ready to be picked. That seemed strange. Weren’t they just buds a little while ago?
Kylie tugged on her braid. “We don’t want to sit around and wait for diplomacy. We want to get Iggy back.” Tears formed in her eyes, but she kept a steady voice. “We can contact the Intrepid and I bet they could get something done.”
“You’re in contact with them?” My chin dropped. I couldn’t believe these were their contacts inside the Academy, not some teacher or disgruntled janitor, but actual students.
“Yes. Our parents dumped us in here for safety reasons. Same as you, I suppose.” Kylie faced me. “Our moms work together. I heard you mention your mom’s name. Cathy? Cathy Norton, I take it?”
“Yes.” Hearing my mom’s full name fall from her lips sent chills down my arms. I wanted to shake more information from her.
“She basically runs the Intrepid, you know?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t known that. I apparently didn’t know a thing. “How do you contact them?” I asked, stepping closer.
“You heard Foster mention that tunnel, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s just say it isn’t as locked or as hidden as they think,” Kylie said. “I meet with my mom once a week. She sort of makes me.”
Wes stood back, shaking his head.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “She’s just here checking on you?”
“Yeah. After so many kids have been taken over the last few years, most parents are jittery. Why do you think this place is so jammed?”
“When are you meeting with her next?”
“Tomorrow.”
I closed my eyes and turned away. I didn’t know if I could wait another day. This place was already feeling restrictive and small, like the Dark Academy. So much was going on in the world outside and I wanted to be a part of it. With my abilities, I could help. “I’m going with you tomorrow.”
“I don’t know. My mom doesn’t trust strangers. She won’t like you showing up.”
“She will when she hears I’m the daughter of Cathy Norton.”
The hall smelled like an old gym locker and had the dampness to match. The stone walls and cramped ceiling felt similar to the Dark Academy. Kylie wouldn’t allow anybody to go along with me, and Mark protested until I threatened to freeze him.
Kylie stayed a few paces in front, holding a flashlight.
I kept looking past her, trying to get a better look down the hall. “How did you find out about this hall?” I asked.
“My mom told me about it and how we’d meet before I even came to this place,” Kylie said, sounding a bit annoyed. “Did you really go through all that stuff at that other academy?”
“Yes.” I hadn’t even told them everything. I hadn’t mentioned the life stone, or Ira and her pet. Just thinking about it got my blood pumping.
“What a horrible place, making you make those stones like that. All the hate. I don’t think I could ever make stones for people like that.”
“Once you’re there, you don’t really have a choice in the matter. They started with lies and then pitted us against each other to push the anger to the edge.” I felt my wrist, where I’d worn my red swatch.
“Yeah, but why didn’t you all just take the place over? I mean, if President Foster got all weird and started making us hate each other and forcing us to make stones, we’d riot.”
I very much doubted the kids in this place had it in them to riot. “They set it up like a competition and told us the only way to make stones was through hate and anger. Besides, we went in there thinking it was this place. We thought we were going to learn to be alchemists.”
Kylie laughed at that, but I didn’t find it so funny.
“How much farther?” I asked through gritted teeth. Part of me wanted to throw her into the portal room and see how much better she’d fare at the Dark Academy.
“We’re here.” Kylie turned and shone the light in my face.
“Hey.” I raised my hand to cover my eyes and felt a stone strike my palm. My body froze in place and I stared through my fingers, watching a woman approach from behind Kylie.
“Kylie, who’s with you?” she asked.
“You didn’t have to freeze her. Jeesh, Mom.” Kylie pulled on her braid. “Sorry, Allie. My mom is sort of an ‘ask questions later’ kind of person.”
I wanted to slap her face, but my hand wouldn’t move.
“Allie?” her mom asked, stepping closer. Her black hair didn’t reach past her ears and she was holding another stone in her hand as she approached.
“Allie Norton, as in the daughter of Cathy Norton,” Kylie explained.
She covered her mouth and took a step back. “Are you serious?”
“For real. She told us all about another academy, a dark one.”
They were speaking as if I weren�
��t there, and the banter had me enraged. A thin, clear shell confined me, and I tried to break through it; one of my fingers moved.
Kylie’s mom chuckled and stepped closer to me with a wide smile. She dropped the stone into her pocket and brushed back her bangs. “You’re Cathy’s daughter?” She moved to within a foot of my face, squinting. “I see the resemblance, but you look softer. Like a puppy version of your mom.”
Questions bit at the end of my tongue and I groaned out a few incoherent syllables.
“I’m Gwen, and I’m sorry for freezing you, Allie Norton, but I have to protect my daughter. I’m sure you understand.”
My lips moved, but my throat still felt stuck. I shook from the effort to release it from its stupor.
“I’ll tell Cathy you’re here. She’ll be thrilled you’re safe. We’ve heard rumors of the dark hunting a few young ones in L.A.”
“My mom,” I mumbled.
“Don’t worry, she’s fine. But that Academy launched one nasty stone during the last attack. We didn’t even know they had the capability of making such a stone. We lost some good people that day.” Gwen cocked her head sideways and stared at me. “You don’t know who made that stone, do you?”
I wasn’t sure, but I think she meant the stone Deegan used to launch up to the surface while my mom attacked the Academy. Bridget and I both made one of those stones. Hearing that it hurt people made my stomach curl.
“She’s made a few stones here already. She does it with anger.” Kylie raised an eyebrow.
“Take me,” I said.
“No, no. It’s far safer to have you here.”
“Mom?” Kylie shifted her feet. “We’ve been going out at night—”
“What?”
“We didn’t want to keep eating their niceness.”
“Stupid girl. You have no idea what’s going on out there. We’re near war. Things are spilling into the rubes’ world…. Dammit. There’s more, isn’t there?”
“They took Iggy,” Kylie blurted.
“What?”Gwen stomped toward Kylie. “What do you mean, they took Iggy?”
Kylie wiped her eyes and stepped back from her mother. “We were at the store, and then the power went out and we tried to get away, and they grabbed her in the commotion. We tried to go back, but she was gone.” Her voice trembled.
“I need to tell the others.” Gwen looked away from Kylie and back down the hall. “If they’re getting so bold as to snatch a student….” She whipped back around to face us. “I’m not sure how much longer the Academy will be safe for you. However, until we have a proper plan in place, you all need to stay here. We might be able to send a few people to help secure the building. Foster won’t like it, though.”
My fingers moved and my jaw tingled as I thawed. “You need to take me to my mom. We have to free the kids from the other Academy. I made promises.” My body shook with emotion. Thinking of what Bridget and Carly might be going through was unbearable, and the idea that this woman was my best chance of getting to my mom but she wasn’t taking me….
Gwen took a deep breath. “There’s a war coming, and we’re going to need more stone makers like you. Did you tell Foster about the kidnapping?”
“Yeah. He’s going the diplomatic route,” Kylie said. “Talking with some guy named Quinn about it.”
“As if Quinn would take a call from Foster.” Gwen rolled her eyes and shook her head. “We tried reasoning with them, but there are rumors they’re getting close to finding the stone. It’s making everyone crazy, on both sides.”
“The stone?” I asked, and felt my elbow and shoulder joints loosening.
“The philosopher’s stone,” Gwen said, and shook her head. “I’m probably saying too much.”
“No, you haven’t said enough,” I said through a clenched jaw. “How is my mom? Is she close? Has she mentioned me?”
Gwen wouldn’t look at me; she kept glancing down the hall. “Yes. I’m sure she can’t wait to get back together with you. I can’t really say where she is at the moment. Listen, can you guys get back here next week, at the same time? I’ll do what I can to get Iggy back.”
“Okay. Same time next week,” Kylie repeated.
“Oh, Kylie. I’m so sorry you’re in the middle of this. But don’t you dare leave the Academy again unless it’s with me.”
Both of my arms moved now, and my legs were listening to my commands even if they felt like they were moving through peanut butter. I turned to watch Gwen embrace Kylie in a hug. I wouldn’t normally want to ruin a mother-daughter moment, but at this point, it was better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.
I tossed a stone and struck Gwen on the arm. She froze in place. A little bit of her own medicine.
“Mom?” Kylie said, panic setting in as she tried to get out of her mom’s embrace. “What did you do?”
“I’m so sorry, Kylie, but I need to get back to my mom.”
“What are you doing?” she asked as I rummaged through her mom’s pocket.
I pulled out the purple stone I’d been looking for. A perfect-looking portal stone, similar to the one Darius had used on me. It had to be one of the twin stones Wendy had talked about. It should take me right back to where Gwen had come from.
“That’s a portal stone.” Kylie craned her neck to get a view of my hand.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and ran down the hall. It felt terrible to freeze them and steal the stone, but sometimes the reason warranted the crime.
I hobbled as quickly as my bogged-down body would allow, hoping I didn’t trip on an errant crack in the floor. Kylie yelled after me, still stuck in her mom’s embrace. Looking back wasn’t an option. The idea of getting closer to finding my mom consumed me.
At the end of the hall, I ambled up the stairs and cleared the distance across the dark commons of the Academy. If someone saw me, they might have thought I was running for my life. I entered the living quarters and spotted a couple on the couch. It might have been the same couple who’d been on the stone room floor, but I didn’t wait for a visual confirmation. I had to get upstairs and tell Jackie and Mark.
The elevator went nauseatingly slowly and I pumped the button, hoping it would feel my urgency and speed to the sixteenth floor. When the doors finally slid open, I wedged my body through and ran to Mark’s room first.
Fully recovered from the freeze, I hammered my fist against his door.
He opened before my third hit. “You okay?” He lunged out of the room, but I was already making my way to Jackie’s.
By the time I got to her door, she had it open. “What’s going on? Did you speak to her?”
They’d known all about my plan, but none of it had gone down the way we’d discussed. I caught my breath and then unleashed what I had done. “I left them down there, frozen in an embrace. I stole her portal stone and ran. She wasn’t going to take us to my mom.”
Mark raised an eyebrow and inspected the bulge in my pocket. “You have a portal stone?”
“Yeah.” I showed them the purple stone. “This has to be a twin portal stone. It should take us right to wherever my mom is, and we can finally get to doing what we set out to do.”
“Did she say where she came from?” Mark asked.
“Well, no, but she mentioned my mom and said she would tell her where I was.” The idea of the stone not taking me to my mom was inconceivable.
“That thing could take us to the freaking winter wonderland we experienced at the Dark Academy,” Jackie said, eyeing the stone.
“Then I’ll go by myself,” I said, and turned my back to them. I held the stone closer to my face and inspected the yellow streaks on it.
They didn’t get it. I knew for sure that on the other side of this stone I would find my mom. Nothing could stop me from doing what I needed to do. I pulled one of my gloves off and held the stone over my hand.
“Wait,” Mark said with a hint of defeat. “I’m with you, Allie.” He placed his hand next to mine.
Jacki
e huffed and shoved her hand into the mix. “Whatever. Another day of this place is one too many, anyway.”
I felt a cushion of grass under my feet and cool fall air blowing over my face. Even in the darkness, I noticed the trees above had started changing their colors. Golden leaves littered the ground around us.
Maples, maybe?
Where were we?
Mark grazed my hand and nodded to a flickering light bouncing off a distant tree. A campfire?
“Don’t move,” a man’s rough voice said from behind us. “Slowly, and I do mean slowly, raise those hands. You too, handsome.”
The words sucked the wind out of me, and I raised my hands the same as Mark and Jackie. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed a large man wearing thick wool clothing and holding a large gun. Does it have a chamber for stones? It was too dark to tell.
“Keep them up,” he demanded, and I raised my hands farther up. “Where is Gwen?”
I searched for an answer that might not get me shot. “She told me to come in her place. I need to see Cathy Norton.”
“Why wouldn’t she come with you?” he asked.
“She thought it wouldn’t be safe to bring more than three people along.”
Jackie groaned.
“Your story sounds about as straight as a banana. I’d no more take you to Cathy than I would let this young man near my daughter.”
“She’s this Cathy lady’s daughter,” Jackie said, a tad annoyed.
I glared at her, but I don’t think she saw it in the dark, or maybe she chose to ignore it. The fact that I was Cathy’s daughter wasn’t something I wanted to divulge. I glanced back at the guy again and saw him studying me.
“Turn around. Just her.” He pointed to me and I turned around. His inspection moved closer as he took me in. “You do look like her, but she doesn’t have a daughter.”
The statement stung. My mom had never told them who I was, or that I even existed? Maybe he was just a low-level type, not privy to her private information.
“I assure you. She tried to rescue me at the Dark Academy just a few days ago, so I think she knows who I am.”
He looked confused. “Are you talking about the raid on the library?”