My stomach flipped. Flint had told me many times that he loved me but never quite like that. Never so definite. “You’re the only one I could ever love too. I could never be with anyone else.”
He pulled me to him, and his lips found mine.
CHAPTER TEN
19 years old
Flint and I sat on the porch, the summertime sun shining down. He leaned closer to me. “Try harder, babe. You can do this.”
Switching my vision, Flint’s cloud appeared. The single orange color danced around his shoulders, but that was it. Nothing else.
“Keep trying . . . tell me when you see them.” His voice sounded distant even though he sat right beside me.
I concentrated harder, willing my vision to expand, to see more.
Sweat popped on my brow after a few minutes. A trickle slid past my ear.
“Keep trying . . .” He sounded yards away now.
Slowly, they came into focus.
Clouds appeared around all of the plants and animals, like fuzzy white cotton balls. “I can see them!”
I’d only recently been able to master the skill of seeing plant and animal clouds. Father had been working with me for the last two years on my more elusive abilities.
Concentrating, I tried to pull the clouds together from the small creatures and trees within the forest, but it was too much. The power was too great. Shifting my vision to the side, I focused on the small clouds around a patch of wildflowers. Carefully, I lifted that aura and joined it with the cloud from a single sapling.
Together, the wildflowers and sapling auras formed a small ball of energy. Sweat beaded along my upper lip as I carefully maneuvered the ball. Bringing it behind the rock that sat on the porch beside Flint and me, I pushed the energy ball into the rock with everything I had.
The rock skittered from the porch into the yard.
My breath rushed out of me. I snapped my vision back to normal. The clouds disappeared. “I did it!”
Flint grinned. “I knew you could do it. We should get something bigger, or see if you can—” His voice stopped when the screen door banged behind us.
Amber stepped onto the porch. “Do you smell that?”
“Smell what?” The glow from my victory still flowed through me. I practically bounced in excitement.
Amber jogged down the steps. She closed her eyes and inched toward the trees. A second later, her eyes flashed open. “The forest is on fire.”
My eyes widened. All thoughts of working on my energy balls disappeared. “What?”
Her brow furrowed. “I thought I smelled something this morning but wasn’t sure, but it’s grown stronger.”
Flint and I pushed to standing.
I put my hands on my hips. “What do you mean you smelled something but didn’t say anything?”
She shrugged guiltily, her large doe eyes wide. “I didn’t think anything of it.”
I softened my tone. “Amber . . . fires are serious. Where do you think it is?”
She nodded in the direction she’d been walking. “That way, but the wind changes sometimes, so it comes and goes. It’s still far away. Sorry, I should have said something.”
I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay. Now we know.”
Flint’s expression conveyed nothing, but I was so in tune with him, I noticed the slightest tightening of his jaw. “Where exactly do you think it is?”
“That way.” Amber pointed.
In a flash, Flint leaped from the steps to the porch’s roof. Another jump and he was on top of the cabin. I scrambled out to the yard, trying to get a better view of him as he surveyed above the trees. “Do you see anything?”
Flint frowned, shielding his eyes from the sun. “It would help if Mica got up here, but I think I see a very faint haze on the horizon. If that’s smoke, then the forest is definitely on fire, but it’s still miles from us. We should still tell Conroy.”
I gulped. In the fifteen years we’d lived in the cabin, we’d managed to survive the forest fires that had broken out in Colorado, but I knew we weren’t immune to them. It was our biggest vulnerability.
“I’ll get Mica first.” I dashed into the house and up the ladder.
Mica lay on her bottom bunk, legs bent. A half-read book sat propped in front of her. She glanced up when I walked into our room and did a double take when she saw my expression. “Everything okay?”
“Amber thinks there’s a fire, and Flint’s on the roof. He wants you to come up and tell him what you see.”
She dropped her book and sprang out of bed. We raced outside. Jacinda and everyone else were already standing outside when we returned, probably alerted that something was up from my panicked race into the house. Only Di and Father were missing.
“Has anyone told Father?” I asked.
“I’ll find him!” Amber rushed inside.
I hurried into the yard as Flint jumped back to the ground. He landed as gracefully as a cat, springing back up as if his joints were indestructible hinges.
He turned to Mica. “I need you on the roof. I’ll have to jump you up there.”
The grin on Mica’s face said exactly how she felt about that.
Flint reached down and picked her up. “Hold on.”
With a bend of his knees and a few quick jumps, the two of them stood on top of the cabin. Flint set Mica down and held onto her until she steadied.
“What do you see?” His voice carried down to us.
She turned toward the horizon, her gaze narrowing. Mica’s sight had improved considerably in the past few years. While Father had worked with me on gathering clouds and controlling that energy, he had worked with Mica on changing her eyes to mimic others. He’d also helped her improve her vision to allow it to zoom in and out when needed. My guess was that she had switched her vision to its highest zoom. Sometimes, on a clear day, she could see small objects over a mile away.
“Definitely a fire,” Mica said. “Looks to be burning over ten acres right now. It’s still small.”
“Do you think it’s moving toward us or away from us?” I called.
Mica shrugged. “Hard to say. If Flint and I check again tomorrow, I’ll have a better idea.”
A few hops later, she and Flint were back on the ground. Mica’s cheeks flushed pink. Excitement danced in her eyes.
I glanced at Jasper. He was glowering at Flint. Smiling, I tossed an arm around Mica’s shoulders. “Can be jarring, can’t it?”
She grinned. “I think my head’s still spinning, but that was fun. I wouldn’t mind doing it again!”
THAT EVENING, EVERYONE was pacing or standing at the windows with furrowed brows. Father was particularly quiet. He kept checking his computer. The internet didn’t have much coverage on the fire. It was still too small, but rangers thought it began from some hikers who’d illegally started a camp fire. They were still looking for suspects and had asked the public for tips.
It got worse over the next few days.
Each day, the fire grew. Despite fire crew’s attempts to contain it, it was coming our way. Father barely slept. At night, I heard him pacing the halls. Several times, when I got up to use the bathroom, the light was on in his study. Twice, I’d caught the sound of him on his phone, something he rarely used out here. Even though it communicated with the cell-phone system via satellite, it could still be traced.
On the fifth day, Father sat us down at the kitchen table. Exhaustion shone in his eyes.
“We may have to evacuate.”
The fire had grown within ten miles of us. Heavy smoke was now something we smelled daily. My heart clenched every time I thought about losing our home. I had no idea where we would live. It didn’t seem returning to society was an option. Father drummed into us on a regular basis that his outside contacts continually confirmed that O’Brien Pharmaceuticals was still looking for us.
Father finished by saying, “If things don’t turn around by tomorrow, we’ll be leaving. I’ve arranged for the chopper to arrive a
t eleven tomorrow night. Half of you will go in the first run, the other half in the second. We’ll all be evacuated by midnight.”
“Where will we go?” I asked.
“To one of my homes in Montana.”
“But surely we can do something!” Di said. “To put out the fire?”
“Like what?” Jet said. “Huff and puff until we blow it out? How the hell can we stop a forest fire?”
“What about the chickens?” Anxiety laced Amber’s words. Our chickens, which lived in the barn behind the house, depended on us.
Father frowned. “I’m sorry, but we’ll have to leave them behind. We’ll turn them loose, but they’ll be on their own to escape the fire.”
A horrified squeak escaped her.
Jacinda put an arm around Amber’s shoulders, drawing her close.
“How long will we stay there?” I asked. “In Montana?”
“Until I can arrange a new location for us to live. I’m not sure how long that will take.”
A noisy murmur erupted around the table. Some of us appeared scared, others stunned. The twins, however, looked excited. Throughout it all, Flint sat as still as stone, his face expressionless.
I had no idea how long it took Father to build this cabin, furnish the laboratory, build the barn, and transfer all of the supplies and furniture that adorned our home, but I imagined it took a while. Months maybe or years. And as much as I wanted to venture somewhere else in the world and experience a new way of life, I didn’t want it this way. Not with our home destroyed, our way of life gone, never to return to again.
Hot tears pricked my eyes. No, not like this.
SUPPER THAT NIGHT was subdued. It was hard to look at our food supplies and not mourn how everything would be lost. Later, we all drifted off to sleep with scents of dinner and distant smoke in the air. It wasn’t until early in the morning that I woke to a tapping sound on the window. At first, I didn’t recognize it.
The tapping grew louder. I blinked my eyes open. It wasn’t until I sat up and looked around that I realized the others had done the same.
“Is that what I think it is?” Mica asked.
Jacinda turned on the light. The soft wattage bathed our room in gold. “It’s exactly what you think it is.” She grinned.
We all jumped out of bed and raced to the window. I grinned as the wind picked up and the rain fell faster. It beat against the window, soaking the pane and everything else it touched. Tiny rivers trailed down the mountain when lightning flashed, illuminating the yard. I’d never been happier to see anything in my life.
“Do you think this will put out the fire?” Amber practically jumped with glee.
“It’s hard to say,” Di said, “but it’ll definitely help.”
Amber clapped. “So we won’t have to leave the chickens behind!”
None of us could sleep after that.
We skipped down the hall to get Father, Flint and the twins. Father hooked up the computer to the modem which bounced signals to a satellite via the dish. It kept losing connection, as it always did in bad weather, but after many attempts, we all grinned when we saw the forecast.
Rain, rain and more rain.
AT THE END of the week, with the fire crews still working and nature helping, the fire was completely extinguished. A week after that, Flint and I ventured to our cave.
The charred forest could be seen in the distance, swathed in the moonlight as we sat at the entrance. I knew in a few years it would be green again. For now, I was thankful we still had our home. I leaned against his shoulder and enjoyed the fresh air once again.
Flint put his arm around me. “Do you wish we could have left? That Conroy would have been forced to move us somewhere new?”
I took a moment to respond. “No. I want to leave this place someday and actually live in the real world but not like that. It would break my heart if our home was destroyed.”
He nodded although the slight tensing of his shoulders told me he wasn’t entirely happy with my answer.
It was no secret, my desire to leave the cabin, to make my own life. Jacinda and Mica felt the same, as did the twins. Amber was quickly following suit. Di and Flint were the only ones content to stay in the secluded life Father had created.
I knew it wore on Father, how most of us wanted to leave. Father was still convinced it wasn’t safe. He told us his outside contacts continually reported that O’Brien still had eyes all over the country—people paid to report if they ever spotted us.
But it didn’t feel real. We’d never seen those men. We’d never experienced anyone pursuing us. I didn’t want to consider that Father may be making those sinister claims up, but I didn’t know. Maybe he simply wanted us to live with him forever, and he used O’Brien as an excuse to keep us hidden.
The others had similar doubts about the gravity of our situation. Twice, the twins had left the cabin and hiked the two-day distance to Little Raven, the nearest town. The first time, they’d been gone for over a week. The second time, two weeks. Father had been worried sick the entire time, and despite his many attempts, he hadn’t been able to find them.
However, Jet and Jasper both returned when the money they’d stolen from Father ran out. An excited light had shone in their eyes, though. Amber, Jacinda, Mica and I had listened eagerly to what they’d done.
Di and Flint hadn’t.
Sometimes, I wondered if the twins would have returned if they had enough money to stay living on their own. The one time I’d asked Jet that, he’d shrugged, his face serious. “I’d miss you guys,” was his only response.
I took heart in that. Come what may, we were a family, and family stuck together.
Flint made a disgruntled noise.
I peered up at him, but he seemed lost in thought. Laying my head back against his shoulder, I stared off into the distance. Within a hundred miles there were cities, movie theaters, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, shops. A real life lived by real people. It was all so close, yet so far away.
Maybe, just maybe, we could find a way to get there.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
20 years old
Father was spending a lot of time in the lab, more so than usual. Ever since the fire, he’d changed.
None of us knew what was bothering him. Flint thought he was simply shaken, that the close call was too concerning so Father immersed himself in work for distraction. The twins joked he was working for that place again, manufacturing new drugs to be used on children. Nobody found those jokes funny. Jacinda brushed it all off, saying we were overreacting.
As usual, Di kept her lips sealed about whatever she and Father were doing in the lab. Amber and I both tried to sneak down there on several occasions to see what they were up to but quickly discovered, in no uncertain terms, that we were not allowed in the lab for the next several months. The lab door was continually locked.
I groaned every time I thought about it. What are they doing down there?
Thanksgiving came and went and Mica turned twenty-one. In December, Flint turned twenty-four and Di turned twenty-three. We kept getting older. With our increasing ages came a restlessness that had been growing steadily in me for the past year. I was twenty years old yet I’d done nothing with my life. I still lived at home. I still lived hidden from society, and no end of any of it was in sight.
Some days it seemed the only way to change that was to take matters into my own hands. To do what the twins had done—leave the mountain and set out on my own.
My heart sank. But I could never leave Flint. It was why I’d never done it.
Despite Christmas, my favorite holiday looming, my restlessness hadn’t abated. When I was younger, Christmas felt like a different world and always made me happy. Father worked hard to transform our home into a festive abode, but this year, I just couldn’t get into it. It didn’t help that Di and Father were so distracted that they were late for our Christmas tree cutting.
“What are they doing down there?” I paced outside the base
ment door.
Flint merely grunted.
He sat on a chair, scooted under a small table by the window. The laptop lay open in front of him. An online tutor Father had set up could be heard through the audio. I had no idea what they were talking about. It sounded like a bunch of computer mumbo jumbo.
Flint’s education had taken a more sinister turn during the past two years. Whereas Father worked with me on harnessing energy, he set up tutors to teach Flint, Di and Jasper about computer hacking, lock picking and other nefarious endeavors. As for why Father thought those skills may be needed only made me shudder.
I tried to tune out the tutor as I started pacing again. Sounds from outside permeated into the living room. The twins were sharpening the saw we would use to cut down the tree. Jacinda and Amber were gathering rope and the sled to pull the tree. Mica’s laughter carried through the yard.
It was all so normal.
I wrung my hands as my frustration turned into something else. As much as I tried, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was coming.
Mica’s heavy stomps sounded in the entryway. The porch door banged closed. A moment later, she appeared in the living room. She wore a thick sweater, jeans and still had her hat on. “Where are Di and Father? I thought we were getting the tree today?”
I joined her when she wandered into the kitchen. “I’m sure you can guess where Di and Father are.”
“The lab?” She rolled her eyes. “Jeez, they’re in there every day now. Without any breaks too. Weren’t they down there until after midnight last night?”
“Yep.”
She opened the fridge and took out some cold cuts and cheese that Father had brought back on his last supply run. Tossing her hat on the counter, she grabbed the bread. “I’m starving, want a sandwich?”
“No, I’m good.” I made myself stop pacing and sit at the table.
“What do you think they’re doing down there?” Mica asked after taking a huge bite.
I sighed and cupped my chin in my hand. “I wish I knew. I wonder that every day.”
The Complete Lost Children Series Page 35