by K. J. McPike
“Then I’ll have to pay your brothers and sisters another visit,” I snarled. “I can’t promise they’ll all be there when you agree to go back.” There. If she wanted to turn this into a power battle, I could play her game. She needed to remember that I still had the upper hand.
Lali shoved past her mom to stand right in front of me. “Why are you doing this? You’re making us into enemies when we could help you. We don’t even fully understand how my brothers’ and sisters’ powers work. What if one of them can help you find Kala?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Mind reading and body doubling isn’t exactly what I need to find my sister.”
“Your siblings developed their powers?” Xiomara gaped at Lali. “When?”
“I-I don’t know,” Lali stammered. “Today? Maybe last night. Delta and Solstice did some kind of crystal energy manipulation and—”
“Last chance to come with me,” I snapped. I didn’t have time for Lali to recap the day. I needed to check back on Ori and see what Cade and Solstice had come up with to get her to talk. “Or I go by myself, and it won’t be pretty.”
Lali looked back and forth between her mother and me, clearly debating which choice was safer. After everything we’d been through together, was it really that easy for her to believe I’d hurt her brothers and sisters? That ate away at me more than anything she’d ever said to me.
“Kai.” She choked out my name like it hurt. “Let us help you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right.”
“You still need to find one more person before you can undo the energy sink, don’t you?” Lali pressed. I couldn’t help but lift my gaze at her words. “I know how to find her.”
Chapter 56
Trade
I felt my jaw unhinge. How could Lali know where to find Ursula? It didn’t make any sense. But she said it with such conviction—the kind I knew she could never muster when she was lying. I’d seen her fail at being deceitful enough times by now.
“Xitlali!” Xiomara grabbed her daughter’s arm, but Lali shook her off.
“Mom, it’s the only way.”
“And what way is that?” I asked, still suspicious.
“Let’s just say it’s my turn to offer you a trade.”
What? Did Lali mean what I thought she meant? After she’d given me so much crap for everything I’d done, she was suddenly okay with trading people to get what she wanted?
Maybe there’s hope for her to forgive you after all. The thought set off flutters in my stomach. If Lali felt desperate enough to toss her morality out the window for the sake of her family, she would have to understand why I did the same thing.
“I mean it,” Lali said. “You know me well enough to know I’m telling the truth.” Well, she was right about that.
Xiomara spun her daughter around by the shoulders. “Stop this right now. You have no idea how dangerous—”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked, cutting Xiomara off.
Lali glanced back at me, overlooking her mother’s objections, too. “If you want to know, you’re going to have to do things my way.”
“Xitlali!” Xiomara shouted.
I ignored her again and focused on Lali. “What does that mean? What do you want?”
“Bring my brothers and sisters here. They deserve to know our mother is okay. And that I’m okay. They’re probably panicked after you hijacked me out of there.” She hesitated a moment before adding, “But take me with you.”
“Over my dead body.” Xiomara pulled Lali close. “He’s not taking you anywhere.”
So much for her sappy I know you have a heart in there speech. Clearly that was her attempt to manipulate me into bringing her back to her family. I couldn’t believe I’d trusted her.
“I’ll be right back,” Lali assured Xiomara. “I just want to let them know what’s going on so they don’t freak out.” She stepped away from her mother and took ahold of my hand. Feeling the warmth of her skin only made the situation sting that much more.
“We have to go upstairs,” I told her. “The crystals are lining the basement.”
“If you hurt any of them…” Xiomara shot me a poisonous look. The threat in her eyes told me it was just as I suspected: she never thought I had any good in me—not if she so easily believed I’d hurt her kids after I’d left them alone this whole time. I’d been stupid enough to believe her act before, but not anymore.
Biting back all the profanities I wanted to shout, I turned to head upstairs. Even if Xiomara thought I was a monster, I couldn’t give up on Lali—not when she was willing to help me find Ursula. I didn’t know how she was planning to do it, but if she felt desperate enough to offer, I was sure she would understand that desperation had dictated my behavior, too.
As soon as we made it up the stairs, I closed the door behind us and turned to face Lali.
I could barely manage to whisper her name. “You know I never wanted it to be this way,” I managed.
Her glare could’ve stopped a charging rhino. “Then you shouldn’t have made it this way.”
“Come on. You don’t see the parallels here? You’re doing exactly what I did—whatever it takes to get back someone you care about.”
“This is not the same.”
“It’s exactly the same.” How could she not see it?
“No,” she snarled. “I’m going to ask for someone’s help, not use threats and violence to force her into it. Now let’s go.” The venom in her voice nearly killed my budding hope of forgiveness, but I couldn’t give up when it was so clear that we were doing the same thing here.
“You—”
“Do you want to find your sister?” Lali interrupted, looking at me like she wanted to throw me off a cliff.
I inhaled as deeply as I could and held my breath. She had to see that I was right; she was just being stubborn. But we could fight about it later—after we got everything sorted out with undoing the sink.
Taking her hand, I projected us to her living room. Gottfried saw us immediately and howled so loud I was sure they could hear him all the way in Alea.
“Lali!” Salaxia’s stick-figure form followed the dog down the stairs, trailed by the others.
“Get away from my sister!” Dixon shouted from the middle of the pack.
I could only handle hatred from so many people at once. “Call me when you calm down the mob,” I muttered to Lali, disappearing before her brothers and sisters pounced on me.
As tempting as it was to go to Lanai, there was no time. I needed to tell Cade that we had a way to Ursula, and I still had to see if I could get Ori yet.
I appeared in Solstice’s apartment, and she and my uncle eyed me suspiciously. Delta sat rocking back and forth in the corner muttering to herself, seemingly oblivious to us.
“Where have you been?” Cade asked.
I straightened up. “Finding a way to Ursula.” One of his eyebrows quirked, and Solstice gaped at me. “Lali knows how to find her, so we don’t have to worry about getting Ori to talk.”
“No!” Delta shouted, apparently aware of what we were saying after all. “No, no, no!”
A low rumble came from Cade’s chest. “Take us home. I can’t deal with Delta anymore. Let her fall apart in the basement with Xiomara while we round up the others.” It was harsh, but I didn’t want to have Delta interrupting us, either—not when we were finally so close to rounding up everyone in XODUS.
I moved toward Delta as if she were a skittish cat, but she didn’t resist as I projected her to my house and led her to the basement. She just sat at the top of the stairs while I closed the door against her back and locked it.
Don’t feel bad. Do not feel bad. Gritting my teeth, I went back for Cade and Solstice. Just to be sure Delta didn’t try to make a break for it, I brought them into the living room to explain Lali’s offer to find Ursula.
When I’d finished, my uncle looked skeptical. “You expect us to believe that she wants to do things our way now?” he asked. “What’s the c
atch?”
I glared at him for a long moment. “There’s no catch,” I said, not sure why I was defending Lali when she couldn’t even admit she was doing the same thing I’d been doing all along. “She’s just trying to get her mom back.”
“See? Even your morally superior little girlfriend can be brought over to the dark side,” Solstice muttered, flipping her hair. I inhaled slowly, feeling strangely vindicated that someone could see what I’d been trying to explain to Lali—even if that someone was Solstice.
Cade met me with a knowing expression. “It’s just like I always told you: no one wants to help anyone unless they have something on the line. But if the girl really can lead us to Ursula, then we should be setting up the crystals in the transposer house.”
“Why?” I asked. What did that matter?
“Because I haven’t projected in twenty years,” he replied. “I won’t have enough strength to travel all the way to the portal from here.”
“Okay.” I didn’t want to argue. He’d been right about everything so far, anyway. When all this was said and done, I owed my uncle a huge apology. “If Lali finds Ursula, we’ll set everything up over there,” I said.
Cade and Solstice exchanged a long look.
“But we still need to get Ori first,” I reminded them.
Solstice clapped once, a loud, jarring sound. “Sounds like a plan to me. I’m ready to get this show on the road.”
I couldn’t agree more. I needed to keep my mind occupied, if for no other reason than getting Lali’s betrayed expression out of my head.
Chapter 57
Grudge
Not half an hour later, I found Ori at her house. All it took was a threat to abduct her infant son to get her to come along without making a fuss. She left the baby with her teenage step-daughter, who remained unaware of my presence while I waited outside. I took Ori and Cade to the transposer house at the same time, just to be sure Ori wouldn’t try to escape. Delta was still sitting where I’d left her at the top of the basement stairs, and I took her and Solstice over next. Unfortunately, that left me with Xiomara one on one, and nothing sounded less appealing.
Bracing myself, I called down to her. She came up to the living room wearing the same disgusted expression Lali had given me earlier. It was like they had mother-daughter training sessions specifically for making guys feel like scum.
“Where’s Lali?” she asked, her voice quivering on the name.
“She’s off doing exactly what I’ve been doing—hunting down someone she needs to get her family back. But somehow, it’s okay when she does it, right? Because she’s the good kid, and I’m just the evil orphan.”
Xiomara sighed. “Kai—”
“Forget it.”
“No. Listen to me. It’s not okay for either of you. And I don’t think you’re evil. Cade has brainwashed you to act this way.”
I scoffed. “Cade is the only one who understands me. You and your perfect little family will never understand what it’s like to be in our shoes. You refuse to see it, even when your daughter is doing the exact same thing.”
Xiomara opened her mouth to argue but came up short. There was nothing she could say to negate it anyway. Cade had loved me unconditionally. He understood that I did what I had to do and never judged me for it. Lali was too judgmental to care about me unconditionally. She would only care when I lived up to her expectations.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I turned my back to Xiomara before answering it. Lali’s voice came through loud and clear. “We’re ready.”
I hung up without a word. “Looks like your daughter is ready to give up Ursula,” I said, turning to give Xiomara a smug look. “Even though Cade hasn’t brainwashed her.”
Xiomara’s stunned expression gave me some satisfaction. That’s what she got for patronizing me.
Once Xiomara was locked back in the basement, I appeared in Lali’s room. Silence hung between us like a thick fog as we headed down the creaky wooden stairs to where her brothers and sisters were waiting in the living room. They all looked ready to string me up by the ankles. I’d barely hit the last step when Dixon started for me, his mane of dark hair flopping wildly.
“Dix!” Lali caught his arm. “We’re never going to get Mom back if you kill the only person who can take us to her.”
“Where’s our mom?” he yelled.
I inhaled slowly, doing all I could to stay calm. “She’s fine. She has been this whole time.”
“Maybe you should’ve told us that three months ago,” Oxanna piped up. “You’re one twisted—”
“Can we just get this over with?” I snapped.
Lali’s face turned to ice. “Not until you give me your word that once this is all over, you will bring our mom back unharmed, and you and your uncle will leave us alone. Forever.”
That last bit stung more than I wanted to admit. “Lali, you know I never had any intention of hurting your mom,” I said, fighting to keep my tone even. “Neither did Cade.”
“Yeah, well I don’t exactly have a lot of faith in anything that comes out of your mouth.” Lali waved her littlest sister over. “Sal, I’m going to need your help, okay?”
“Really?” Salaxia bounded toward us like an overeager puppy. “With what?”
Lali pulled her sister close. “I need you to read Kai’s thoughts. That’s the only way I can be sure he’s telling the truth.”
I knew she was just trying to irritate me, but it was working. “Seriously?” I muttered.
“Yes.” Was she sneering? “Now repeat after me: Once Cade has his powers back, I swear to leave the Yavari family alone.”
I shook off the bite of her words. If that was what she wanted, fine. I didn’t need her. It wasn’t like I was in love with her.
Are you sure about that?
I tensed. I was not in love with her. And it didn’t matter, anyway. She clearly loathed me.
Realizing Lali was still looking at me expectantly, I rolled my eyes. I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere until I went along with her stupid little demand. Annoyed, I recited her words back to her. It was ridiculous that she even thought I’d keep bothering her family. I had no reason to involve them in anything else.
Salaxia nodded. “He’s telling the truth.”
Her statement jarred me. I’d almost forgotten she was standing there trying to read my mind like a creepy little cartoon character.
“Do you swear you won’t hurt Ursula or any of the others?” Lali demanded.
I didn’t let my face betray my disappointment that she felt she had to ask. “Of course.”
“That’s true, too,” Salaxia squeaked, making me cringe again.
Lali sent her unsettling little sister away to sit with the other three, who were all glaring at me from the couch like I was on trial for murder.
“Okay,” I said, ready to get away from their accusing stares. “How do I get to Ursula?”
Lali met my eyes, but instead of the white-hot hatred from before, she almost looked ashamed. “I want to go with you.” Swallowing hard, she reached into her pocket. “It will probably be less terrifying for her if I come along.”
There was no point arguing about that. If Lali wanted to come with me, fine. It would be good for her to get a taste of what I’d been forced to do for the last few months.
She held out a scrap of paper, and I frowned. I didn’t know what she’d been planning, but I was expecting a picture or something more significant. Taking the paper from her, I skimmed the scribbles across it. A name and an address in somewhere called Lincoln Park, New Jersey. I’d never even heard of it.
I didn’t want to waste time trying to find a landmark, and then searching for a way to get there from that point. It had taken forever with Delta’s house, and that was in a major city. Plus, there was no guarantee Ursula would even be home. I needed something faster, more concrete. Everyone was already waiting at the transposer house.
I told Lali I couldn’t use an address in hopes that she had a b
etter option. Her brothers suggested I look it up online, but I shot them down. We didn’t have time for that.
“What if I project you with me?” Lali offered. I stared at her. What was she talking about? “I can take you with me so you can see her face. I just did the same thing with Dixon a bit ago.”
“You can bring people with you?” I felt my blood pressure rise. “Why didn’t you tell me that after you saw Kala?” This changed everything. If we could find a way to get the stone on Lali’s astral form, then she could project me with her to the lab. I could see Kala for myself, and then take matters into my own hands.
“I just found out today,” Lali insisted. “Besides, it wouldn’t have made a difference. We still can’t break through the block.”
I balled my fists so tight they started to shake. Another lie had blown up in my face. I couldn’t tell her that I’d faked hitting a block. Now that I had her cooperating, I wasn’t going to screw it up. We finally had access to all five members of XODUS, and I might as well get them to undo the sink. Then Cade could help me get to Kala, and I wouldn’t have to deal with Lali or her family anymore. That was what she wanted anyway.
“Let’s just get this over with.” I made a point to avoid looking at her siblings even though I could still feel their eyes burning into the side of my face.
“Gladly,” she said. “But the deal was you take them to see our mom first.” She gestured to her brothers and sisters as they inched toward us. “They’re going to have to sit around and wait for us anyway, and they deserve to see her, too.”
I bit back my protest. “Fine.” There was no point in arguing it now. “But I can only take two at a time.”
Salaxia and Ulyxses came with me first, followed by Oxanna and Dixon. Standing at the top of the stairs, I heard their delighted shrieks as they reunited with their mom. Each served as a painful reminder of what I’d never get with my parents.
Once the four of them were all in the basement with their mom, I went back for Lali. Even after I’d just done what she’d asked, her face was still a firestorm.