I don’t ever want to stop kissing Nolan. I don’t want to stop saying good-bye, because then he’ll be gone. But I have to get Nolan out of here.
So I pull away and start dragging my friend to the door. Maybe I can call him my boyfriend now, even if it’s just in my head. I glance at Helena; her head is still in her hands, but her body reacts to every step we take, ready to spring. Nolan and I are holding hands as we slide past Victoria, who’s hovering by the entrance to the living room.
“Just run outside with me. We’re almost at the door.” Nolan tightens his grip on my hand as if to say I’m dragging you out there with me whether you want to go or not.
The electric hum sparks again, making me jump. Helena isn’t going to let me go anywhere.
I still feel the shadow of Nolan’s lips against mine. I don’t try to twist my hand from his grip. I let him think that I’ll run with him. He doesn’t know how strong I’ve become over the past couple of months. But before I can force Nolan to leave, the door swings open from the other side.
Aidan and Lucio burst into the room, blocking the way out.
Helena is on her feet, with wide open eyes at lightning speed. Lucio doesn’t stop at the door.
“Sunshine! You’re alive!” Lucio throws his strong arms around me and buries his head in my neck. I feel his breath against my skin, fast and desperate, like he sprinted all the way here from Mexico. Nolan’s eyes widen with surprise. I’m sure mine do too.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Too Late
“I thought we’d be too late!” Lucio exclaims, swallowing hard.
I step back from Lucio, taking Nolan’s hand. Lucio’s eyes dart between Nolan and me, trying to understand what he’s seeing. Maybe I should have told Lucio about Nolan.
“You are too late.” It sounds like the kind of thing you’d hear from the villain in a movie, but in a movie Helena would be brandishing some kind of a weapon: a gun, a grenade, maybe even a sword or a crossbow. In real life her bare hands are clenched at her side, ready to call spirits to her bidding.
She sounds almost sad as she directs her attention toward Aidan and continues. “My compatriots and I have done all we could to bridge the gap, but our numbers are dwindling—luiseach live long lives, but we don’t live forever. Without enough luiseach to counterbalance the spirits in the world, darkness is inevitable. We must eliminate the girl while there’s still time.”
“There’s still time.” Aidan’s teeth are clenched.
Helena shakes her head. “What about the fire demon that tormented Lado Selva?” Aidan looks surprised. “Oh yes, I know all about Michael Weir, the spirit who escaped your lab and turned dark even in the warmest of places.”
“An anomaly,” Aidan counters.
“No, dearest.” She makes the pet name sound like a curse. “It’s becoming all too commonplace.”
Understanding hits me like a bolt of lightning. Helena isn’t the enemy. She never was. The darkness is. Images flash across my mind. The man watching us at the airport, the man in the fishing village who hid in the shadows. Somehow he has everything to do with the darkness. He’s the face of the darkness! A face I can see, even if the rest of them can’t. I should’ve told Aidan about him ages ago! I’m about to explain everything when Helena speaks, her voice cold as ice.
“The girl came to me willingly. The world can’t wait for your science to catch up with it.”
“But I’ve made so much progress!” Aidan insists. “Let me show you.”
Suddenly the temperature drops as Anna’s spirit fills the room. Nolan looks at me questioningly. I stand on my tiptoes to whisper a single word in his ear. “Anna.”
“Do you feel that girl?” Aidan shouts. “Our daughter saved her spirit on New Year’s Eve, and in the months that have passed, she has not turned dark. She is half-luiseach, half-human—Victoria’s daughter,” he adds, gesturing to my old visual arts teacher. “And her spirit is strong.”
I blink, remembering what Lucio told me that day in the desert. Aidan had theories that spirits might be able to linger without going dark. Is Anna what he was talking about?
Helena turns furiously to Victoria. “You were lying all along,” she shouts. “I should have trusted my instincts.”
“I had to protect the girl,” Victoria explains.
“What is she talking about?” I shout, more confused than ever.
Much to my surprise, it’s Helena who answers. “Your lovely teacher was a double agent. She was working for Aidan all along. My dear husband planted her here, to watch me. To keep me distracted. I’d have been better off waiting for you to emerge at the borders of Llevar la Luz.”
Another spark, but this time it’s different. This is more like a spark that never ends, a bolt of lightning that brightens the sky forever.
Now Anna’s spirit isn’t the only one here. Lucio watches as I move closer to Nolan. His body is something of a buffer, and at first, none of the spirits can touch me, but even the strongest protector is no match for this many spirits. Helena lifts her arms as Lucio and Aidan get to work, but for every spirit they help move on, two more come to take its place.
“She must be drawing spirits from across the country to this house,” I manage to whisper to Nolan, who looks stricken.
“I’m so sorry, Sunshine,” he replies. “I told her that multiple spirits made you weak. I didn’t know . . .”
“It’s not your fault.” I squeeze his hand in mine.
Spirits criss-cross the room with the force of a tornado. Spirits who want to move on and spirits who wish to stay behind.
The sensation is overwhelming.
Helena stretches her arms out wide like she is inviting all the spirits in the world to join us. Her face is white as paper, but she isn’t even out of breath.
The temperature drops even further. I’ve never been so cold in my entire life. There isn’t room for a single coherent thought in my brain. I can’t focus on one spirit at a time. There is only life after life and death after death—car accidents, cancer, old age, heart attacks, gunshot wounds—crashing over me like waves. My teeth chatter so hard that I can’t even muster the words I promise out loud.
Helena’s voice rises above the din, her gaze fixed on Aidan. “You abandoned our mission to protect the life of one girl.” Her voice sounds like she hasn’t had a drop to drink for days. “You put the entire balance at risk for the sake of your precious progress.”
Aidan shakes his head. “No,” he insists. “I’ve never lost sight of our mission. All along it’s been at the heart of everything I’ve tried to do.”
“Even hiding this girl?” Helena’s fingers wrap around my arms as she pulls me away from Nolan. Nolan tries to keep his hold on my hand, but Helena sends a spirit crashing his way, shoving him aside.
“Especially hiding her!” Aidan counters. His voice is louder and more full of emotion than I’ve ever heard it before. “She is able to do things no luiseach ever has. And now we’ve had a breakthrough, Helena.” He lowers his voice when he says her name. “We’ve had a breakthrough,” Aidan repeats, holding up his hands as Helena drags me across the room. “Because of our daughter—”
“Our daughter is to blame!”
“No!” Aidan counters. “She is the key. Yesterday, just before she left our campus, more than a dozen spirits moved on by themselves. Without my help. Without Lucio’s. Only with hers.”
My heart’s pounding so fast that I can barely catch my breath.
“Helena,” Aidan says solemnly, “they moved on by themselves.” I have to concentrate to hear him.
“Impossible!” Helena’s fingers twist through my hair, and I feel the warmth of her flesh against my back. Despite myself, I lean into her, desperate for her warmth.
“Possible,” Aidan counters.
“Let’s see a demonstration, then,” Helena says. “Work your magic, Sunshine.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I manage to say. “I just said . . .” I pause, remembering th
e words I thought before I left Llevar la Luz: I’m so sorry that you’re trapped in there. Do you know what happens to spirits who spend too much time on Earth? Even the kindest of them turns into something unrecognizable. You’re not meant to stay here so long.
I wish you could feel the peace that comes with letting go of your ties here on Earth.
I know how you felt in life. How you feel now, in death. I can feel it too.
I’m limp in Helena’s arms.
“You expect me to believe this girl is capable of all that?” Helena shouts. “That this girl, who can’t even open her eyes in the presence of a few dozen spirits”—I didn’t realize my eyes were closed—“could change the world?”
“Yes,” Aidan answers calmly, his voice a million miles away.
“Well, I don’t. These are just more of your lies to protect the girl who will ultimately be the cause of our demise!” Helena says, and she tightens her grip on me, bringing her hands up around my neck. The spirits have weakened me enough that I can’t fight back, but she can’t count on them to finish the job.
I am a luiseach after all. Spirits can’t kill me, so Helena begins to squeeze.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
The Awakening
I wake up on the front porch, my teeth still chattering. What just happened? How did I end up out here? Am I dead—is this just my spirit escaping all that chaos?
I look down at my body. It’s still there. I rub my hands together, still cold. I exhale, and vapor floats out of my mouth. I feel my heartbeat, faster than it should be, but at least it doesn’t feel like my heart is about to explode anymore.
I’m still inside my body. I’m still alive.
“Sunshine?” I look up. Lucio is crouched beside me. Nolan stands over him. “Are you okay?”
There’s no way to answer that question, so I counter with one of my own: “What happened?”
Lucio looks up at Nolan like he’s asking a question. Nolan nods. “Helena couldn’t go through with it,” Lucio says finally.
“Couldn’t go through with it?” I echo.
“She couldn’t kill you,” Nolan answers. As always, he provides the information I need to complete the picture. Helena couldn’t kill her own daughter—the girl who shares her hair and her mouth, the girl who is exactly her height.
“Let’s get out of here,” Nolan says, reaching down and pulling me up to stand. I immediately feel queasy. Guess our kiss couldn’t break the spell completely.
“We wouldn’t get much farther than the edge of Victoria’s front yard.” Lucio nods toward the street in front of us.
Nolan can’t feel it, but Lucio and I can. Helena arranged all the spirits that were criss-crossing Victoria’s living room into a ring around the house. They’re lined up around Victoria’s house like a fence.
“We never covered this particular trick in my lessons,” I say to Lucio.
“I don’t think Aidan actually knows how to do this.”
“I guess he wasn’t the only one who spent the past sixteen years doing research.”
“Guess not,” Lucio agrees.
“Will someone please tell me what the heck is going on here?” Nolan can’t see or feel the spirits. He might even be able to walk right through them if he wanted to. I explain that we’re surrounded. “Helena is holding us prisoner,” I finish.
In unison we look back at the house. The front door is open wide. We can hear Aidan and Helena shouting at each other.
“Now we know why he made Anna my test.” I don’t know why I’m speaking so softly; it’s not like they’d be able to hear me over the sound of their own voices. “He needed her spirit to be part of this.” Lucio and Nolan both nod.
“I’ve never heard him yell like that,” Lucio says softly. “Not even at you,” he adds with a smile. Nolan doesn’t seem pleased with Lucio’s inside joke.
“The darkness is growing stronger,” Helena shouts. “There isn’t a moment to waste.”
“Then why didn’t you eliminate her when you had the chance? You must still believe—”
“Belief has nothing to do with it.”
Aidan doesn’t respond. Helena’s voice is calm, even when she says, “There’s no one left on your side but a powerless woman and an orphan boy.” Lucio flinches. I place a hand on his forearm.
“There may be fewer of us, but that doesn’t make us wrong,” Aidan counters.
“They could go on like this all night,” I whisper breathlessly.
“All night?” Lucio laughs, but there’s no joy in it. “They could go on like this forever.”
I glance at Nolan, pressing my hands to my lips. Blood still drips from the wound on his right temple, and even though I can’t see them, I know his arms are bruised beneath his jacket. This isn’t the first time he’s been hurt because of me. The shouting inside the house grows louder.
I might be able to put an end to all of this. Repair the rift, protect Nolan, protect Kat, protect the entire human race. I shiver, shoving my hands in my pockets to keep warm, wrapping my fingers around what’s inside.
“Nolan, I have something for you.” I slide a wrinkled piece of paper from my back pocket.
“That’s Aidan’s map!” Lucio exclaims, recognizing it at once.
“I thought Nolan might be able to make some sense out of it.”
Nolan immediately starts scanning it with his eyes. “Four places, four dates?” he murmurs thoughtfully.
“Those are the four dates and places across the globe where one luiseach has died suddenly.” Lucio hesitates before adding, “One luiseach every four years since Sunshine was born.”
I gasp. Nolan’s face looks grave, but he keeps his eyes focused on the map in his hands. Just as I thought, Nolan will make sense of the map. And now that he and Lucio are both distracted, it’s time for me to act.
I take a step backward, away from my friends.
Did the spirits in Aidan’s lab really move on without help after I left? Or was Helena right when she accused Aidan of lying? I shake my head. After what happened inside Victoria’s house, I know that it doesn’t matter whether or not Aidan was lying.
I’m not strong enough to help all the spirits in the world.
Aidan was wrong. I’m not the luiseach to end all luiseach.
And if he’s wrong, then isn’t the next logical conclusion that Helena is right? That just by existing, I’m preventing the birth of more luiseach? And one thing is certain: the world needs more luiseach. Since my birth our numbers have diminished even further. No births, and now—thanks to the map—I know that there have also been deaths.
It only stands to reason that if I weren’t here, luiseach would have a better chance of survival. Nolan and Lucio are too busy poring over the map to notice I’m walking away from them.
Suddenly the sound of screeching brakes pulls me from my thoughts. Ashley’s car squeals to a stop across the street. She hasn’t even turned off the engine when Mom comes bolting out of the passenger side.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Falling
Mom freezes halfway across the street. For a second I think that the spirit force field has stopped her somehow, but then I see the look on her face. She’s staring at me, and she doesn’t like what she sees. She can tell that her daughter nearly had the life squeezed out of her.
Just by looking at me, Mom can see that everything is wrong.
“What’s going on?” she shouts furiously. She sent me away with Aidan so I could get stronger, and here I am, looking (I assume, as I can’t see myself) every bit as bad as I did that day in the hospital parking lot. Worse, probably.
“Where is he?” Mom shouts. “I’m going to give him—” I shake my head before she can say a piece of my mind. There was a time when all I wanted was to give Aidan a piece of my mind, back when he was just my nameless, faceless mentor. That was before I realized how horribly spooky that expression is. And before Aidan was an actual person with a name and a personality and an inexorable link to me
.
“Sunshine!” Mom gasps, still frozen in place. “I don’t understand any of this, but I—”
“I love you too,” I call out before she can finish. My second time saying those words today. They’re so small—just one syllable each—but they sound enormous to me.
Mom is the first person I ever loved, but she’s not the last. I love Nolan, and I love Ashley. I love Victoria and Anna, and given time, I think I might have loved Aidan and Lucio and even Helena too. At least now I know that some part of her loved me. The part that couldn’t kill me.
I step onto the lawn, then turn to glance back at the Victorian house behind me. Lucio stands on the front porch, shivering not just because spirits are near but because of the Ridgemont chill. Maybe he’s never seen snow, just like the tall man from Lado Selva.
Nolan tears the map in half and flips one side to the other, rearranging the order of countries from left to right. He starts tracing invisible lines with his fingers from one red circle to another, his brain working to connect the mysterious luiseach deaths as Lucio watches over, answering any of Nolan’s questions that he can.
Through the front door I see Aidan’s profile. His face is contorted painfully, and his perfect hair has fallen across his forehead, but he’s too distracted to push it back in place. He looks like he’s fighting for his life. Actually, I guess he’s fighting for mine. Everything he’s done for the past sixteen years—all that research, allowing himself to become completely isolated—has been to save my life. With every failure he was reminded that I might have to die.
I turn around. Mom seems to have regained the ability to move because she’s finally stepping across the invisible—and, to her, imperceptible—spirit fence and onto Victoria’s front lawn. Just a few more steps and she’ll be next to me, putting her arms around me and whispering that everything’s going to be all right.
The Awakening of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl) Page 23