“What does Sir Zachary have to do with it?” A.J. demanded, speaking for the first time since the word California had been mentioned.
00466 was different from most Animalists. Not only could she communicate with any animal, she could also transform into them. All at once, I had an inkling about what Graysen was thinking.
“You should all give yourselves real names,” Desiree said in a loud voice, making it clear her statement trumped all other conversations.
“Desiree’s right,” Graysen said, unoffended by the interruption.
The Animalist looked at the other Super Mags around the table, like she was waiting for permission.
“What name should I pick?” the little girl asked.
“Any name you want,” Kaira said encouragingly.
The Super Mag’s gaze went to the book in Cora’s hands.
“I like Charlotte,” she said shyly.
“That’s a great name,” Kaira said, bending down so she was at the child’s level. As she and Graysen congratulated Charlotte on her choice of a name, I had a startling image of them as parents. They were only a couple of years older than me, but something about them seemed so much more mature.
I guessed it made sense. After everything they’d been through together, and living with the constant fear of being caught and executed, they must have been forced to grow up early.
Their situation was completely different from what I’d gone through with my family five years ago, and yet, the effect had been similar. It felt like I’d transformed from a carefree kid to an adult overnight.
“What do you need help with?” the Animalist—Charlotte—asked. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the other Super Mags, who were buzzing with excitement over their own choice of names.
“Do you think you and Sir Zachary can track someone down for us?” Graysen asked. “We don’t have much to go on, except this.” He handed her the envelope.
Charlotte took the envelope between her delicate fingers. Then, the little girl was gone. The envelope fell onto the table as a rust-colored moth fluttered above it.
The moth’s furry antennae twitched as its little legs settled onto the envelope.
“Why a moth?” Graysen asked no one in particular.
“Silk moths have excellent pheromone receptors,” Smith said, reading off his laptop screen. “And I imagine it was a more practical choice than an African elephant or great white shark, both of which also have great noses.”
“Goodness,” Ma said, pressing a hand to her heart.
“This family just gets weirder and weirder,” Desiree said with a self-sacrificing sigh.
“Normal is overrated.” Kaira leaned her head on Graysen’s shoulder.
I was still trying to decide if the moth was more cute or gross, when the moth transformed into a small, black dog. Yutika jumped when the dog let out a bark that was way too loud for its small frame.
Sir Zachary’s answering bark came a second later. His nails skidded on the tile as he ran into the room.
The two dogs faced each other, whining and wagging their tails. Using the chair as a launching point, Sir Zachary leapt onto the table and sniffed the envelope.
“You get your grimy paws off the tablecloth,” Grandma Tashi ordered the two dogs, who were snuffling at the envelope.
Apparently, Grandma Tashi was as intimidating to dogs as she was to humans. Both dogs let out little whimpers and jumped back to the floor.
More dog talk ensued.
“I wish I had that kind of magic,” A.J. said longingly.
“Being able to move objects with your mind is plenty cool,” I assured him.
Charlotte reappeared as a little girl, crouching on the floor. I didn’t know how it worked, but she was fully clothed, even though her outfit had disappeared when she was in animal form.
“We might be able to track him,” Charlotte said uncertainly, brushing her fingers over the envelope. “The scent is really faint, though.”
Before hopelessness could ensue, an idea struck me.
“One sec,” I said, already running for the stairs.
I found what I was looking for at the top of my waste basket in my bedroom.
Good thing taking out the trash was perpetually at the bottom of my to-do list.
I raced back to the kitchen and handed Charlotte the gum wrapper Cinnamon Guy had left at the grave.
“Could you use this to track him?” I asked the little girl.
She took the wrapper and sniffed it. She wrinkled her nose.
“Whew, that’s strong.”
Charlotte offered the gum wrapper to Sir Zachary, who touched his nose to the paper. He sneezed.
“The man we’re searching for chews this gum,” I said, looking from Charlotte to Sir Zachary, since it seemed wrong to exclude our dog from the conversation. “He smells like it.”
I knew it was a stretch, since Cinnamon Guy couldn’t be the only person in Boston who chewed that gum. Still, it was something.
Dog and girl conferred. Then, Charlotte nodded.
“We’ll do our best.” She turned to one of the other Super Mags at the table. “That is, if it’s okay with you.”
I bristled at the way she was asking a boy for permission.
“00391 is the Super Mags’ new leader, Kaira explained to me in a low voice. “He replaced the Pyro.”
The boy in question was only twelve years old. With his twiggy arms and shaggy hair, he certainly didn’t look like a leader. Then again, as I knew only too well, looks could be deceiving.
I remembered from our previous meetings and the files I’d memorized, that 00391 was a Level 16 Memory Reader and Level 14 Intellect. He acted and spoke more like an adult than a child, thanks to his Intellect magic. He was also on friendly terms with Graysen and trusted us more than the other Super Mags. Since he could see into our memories, 00391 knew how badly we all wanted to help them.
As a general rule, I avoided the kid. As nice as he was, I didn’t like reliving my own memories if I could help it. I certainly didn’t want anyone else mucking around in my mental black hole.
Regardless of whatever else I thought about him, the Memory Reader was a vast improvement over the now-incarcerated Pyro. Maybe if this kid was in charge, Kaira and Graysen would be able to convince the Super Mags to join the Alliance.
As soon as the idealistic hope passed through my mind, I knew it would never work. The Memory Reader might be brilliant and insightful, but that didn’t make him the kind of leader who could wrangle all forty-six of the other Super Mags. I didn’t think any of the kids had that capacity. They were all so young, and they’d barely spent any time in the world outside of MagLab.
“Actually,” the Memory Reader said. “I think I’d like everyone to start calling me Emory.” He flashed us a dimpled grin that made him look even younger. “You know, like Memory…except a real name.”
“Great name, dude,” Yutika said, holding out her palm for him to slap. After a second’s hesitation, he high-fived her.
“And yeah,” Emory told Charlotte. “You can go find this person.” His eyes met mine as he said, “It’s really, really important to her.”
He was talking about me.
“We’ll try hard,” Charlotte promised me. “Between the two scents, we should be able to find him.”
I swallowed and nodded, not really trusting myself to speak.
Charlotte turned back into a moth and perched on Sir Zachary’s head. Our little dog let out a howl, and then he was skidding back across the tiles toward the doggy door Yutika had made for him.
“Thank you,” I called after them.
As soon as I found Cinnamon Guy, I was going to tear him limb from limb until he gave over what he’d taken. The thought soothed the savage anger inside me.
“Okay, everyone,” Ma said, getting up from the table and gathering empty mugs. She gave us one of her mamma bear stare-downs. “If you seven are flying to California tomorrow, then you’re going to sleep. N
ow.”
We all knew better than to argue with Ma.
Before we’d even reached the stairs, Kaira’s work cell phone went off. She looked at the Caller ID, frowned, and beckoned for all of us to detour to her and Graysen’s study.
“Yes?” Kaira said into the phone, as she closed the door behind us.
I looked at A.J., who was shamelessly tilting his ear toward the phone. After a few seconds, he shook his head at me in defeat.
“Are you sure?” Kaira asked the caller.
Her frown deepened.
“Okay. Thanks very much.”
“What was that?” Graysen asked as soon as Kaira disconnected the call.
“The people from the Magical Marking Office,” Kaira said. “They tracked down all the parents of the children on our list.”
“And?” I asked.
Kaira gave me a puzzled look. “Every Mag on that list was a Steel above a Level 6 who was born in the last twenty-five years.”
The information struck me like a physical blow.
Only the people high up in the Magical Marking Office would have noticed all those missing Steels, but only if they’d been looking for a discrepancy. And even if they had noticed, they’d all been working for Edwardian Remwald.
“What?” The word came out as a croak. “Why?”
“Agent S is attracted to Bri’s skin,” Michael said after a long pause. “Maybe there’s something about Steels that make them able to handle it, or something.”
“Or it’s just too poisonous for anyone else to be around,” Yutika said.
“Hold on,” Smith ordered. He closed his eyes.
His laptop was open on the floor, but he wasn’t touching it. The screen flickered as windows opened and closed in rapid succession.
We all waited in tense silence while Smith worked.
“Confirmed,” he said after a few minutes. “There isn’t a single Steel above a Level 6 born in Boston over the last twenty-five years. At least none in Alliance records.”
“That can’t be right,” Graysen said before I could speak. “Bri fits that description, and she was Marked until she was—”
“Eighteen,” I supplied.
“Yeah, about that.” Smith shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “I had the same thought, so I did a little extra digging. And I have a theory.”
Smith tugged on the cord of his hoodie. He flexed his long fingers.
“Out with it, Smith,” Kaira ordered.
Smith looked at me. “You might want to sit down for this.”
I leaned against the desk to appease him. I wasn’t the fainting type. Smith waved his hand, projecting the image on his laptop screen onto the wall.
I stared at the enlarged document. It was my birth certificate.
“What’s the problem?” I asked. I couldn’t say I’d examined many birth certificates, but this one seemed legit enough.
“Look more closely,” Smith said. “Specifically, at your magic designation.
Simultaneous inhales filled the room as we all made the same observation. There, on the dotted line, was a single word.
STEAL.
“Wait.” Yutika held up a finger. “What’s the problem?”
“Didn’t you tell us you won your school’s spelling B?” A.J. replied.
“That was elementary school,” Yutika said. “And so what?”
“S-T-E-E-L.” A.J. spelled out the word while frantically tapping on the rogue ‘A’ on the wall.
“Ohhhh.” Yutika’s furrowed brows smoothed out before scrunching back up again. “Wait, what’s a Steal…with an A?”
“Nothing,” Smith replied. “Unless you’re trying to steal, with an ‘A,’ candy from a baby. I’m guessing it was just a typo that whoever was inputting the information made.”
A typo. I swallowed.
Smith continued, “My guess is that Remwald had some kind of algorithm to alert him whenever a Mag matching his parameters was entered into the system. The algorithm didn’t pick up Bri because of the spelling.”
My mind reeled. I heard the others talking, but their voices sounded garbled and far away.
Lilly was a Steel. And if our intel was right, that was the reason why she’d been taken from our family. It’s what would have happened to me if it hadn’t been for a stupid spelling error.
What if that error had saved me and condemned my niece?
A wounded animal sound came out of my parted lips.
“Honey girl, don’t do that to yourself.” A.J. wrapped an arm around my shoulders, enveloping me in the smell of expensive cologne.
Kaira and Yutika joined us, enclosing me in a tight circle. Graysen, Michael, and Smith stood back. Smith’s expression was shuttered, but I saw open sympathy on Michael and Graysen’s faces.
To my horror, I realized everyone was blurry because I was crying.
I knew my friends were saying all the right things, but I couldn’t make sense of any of their words. Everything was buried under the deafening, unending scream in my own mind.
My brother’s baby daughter had been taken while I had been spared.
CHAPTER 11
After my breakdown in the study, it became apparent to all of us that sleep wasn’t happening. So, we spent the last few hours of darkness getting ready for our trip to California.
My insides felt raw, but I forced my own emotions aside at the thought of what this impending trip would mean for A.J. I wouldn’t be worth my weight as a best friend if I didn’t make sure he was okay with all of this. So, after splashing cold water on my face, I went down to the master suite on the second floor.
A.J.’s door was open, so I let myself inside.
When we’d first moved into the house, there had been only one word to describe the master bedroom: beige. Beige walls, beige floors, beige furniture. That definitely wasn’t the case anymore.
It felt a little like stepping into a different dimension. The textured wallpaper had a different pattern and color on every wall. Yutika and I had helped A.J. paint the ceiling to look like a stormy night sky. With all of the colors, it gave off cozy rather than sinister vibes.
There were racks for A.J.’s suits that didn’t fit into the sizeable walk-in closet, as well as an alarming collection of statues, figurines, and stuffed animals that resembled Sir Zachary.
3D stars hung in thin air. I knew from trying to find their strings that A.J.’s magic held them in place whenever he was home. When he left the mansion, the stars dropped onto the floor.
The bed was canopied with red velvet curtains, like A.J. was some kind of Medieval king. The furniture scattered around the room was eclectic both in colors and style. There were rugs on rugs, as well as a criminal number of pillows.
“A.J.?” I called, moving farther into the room when I didn’t catch sight of him.
A.J. appeared in the doorway that led to the bathroom. I blinked, almost not recognizing him.
His eyes were free of eyeliner. His hair was wet and uncombed. And he was wearing un-tailored jeans and a plain blue button-down.
“A.J.,” I said uncertainly. “You’re scaring me.”
He gave me a tired smile that did nothing to ease my worry.
“It’s all good, baby girl,” he told me.
It clearly wasn’t.
“You can talk to me,” I pressed.
A.J. was always there for the rest of us. I hated the thought of him keeping his pain bottled up.
“I’m fine, precious.” He patted my cheek in a way that could have either been paternal or patronizing…I wasn’t sure which.
I could tell A.J. wasn’t in a talking mood. So, I just said, “Just so you know, if we run into anyone from your past, I’m probably going to hang them by their toes and use them like a piñata.”
I was rewarded with A.J.’s soft chuckle and an arm around my waist as we headed downstairs.
The rest of our friends were gathered on the front lawn. Ma was there, too, stacking up trays of food for us to take with us.
<
br /> “Seriously, Ma?” Kaira said in exasperation as she looked at all the food. “This is enough food for a week. Besides, as bad as California’s gotten, I’m pretty sure they still have restaurants there.”
Ma shot Kaira a look that had my lips twitching in spite of the anxiety churning in my gut.
Kaira then leveled the famous Hansley glare on me. She was still miffed because I’d forbidden her and Graysen from coming to California with the rest of the Seven. The two of them might be in charge of the entire city, but when it came to their safety, I was the boss.
It was hard enough guaranteeing their safety in a civilized city like Boston. From everything I’d heard and read about California, it was one of the last places any right-minded person would go. If I could force all of my friends to stay behind, I would.
“With everything you and Graysen have to deal with,” I told Kaira, “you’ll barely notice we left. It’s going to be fine.”
“I remember the last plane I created,” Yutika was telling Michael as her pen flew over her sketchbook. “I was only ten, and I had the idea that I would surprise my whole family by taking them to Disney World on a plane I’d created.”
“I’m guessing it didn’t work out the way you’d planned?” Michael replied, his adoring gaze fixed on her.
“Nope.” Yutika added a few flourishes to her drawing. “I made the plane in our backyard without thinking about how big it would get, and the wings went through our house and the neighbor’s.” She laughed, shaking her head. “My parents were pissed.”
Michael laughed softly. Yutika stopped drawing long enough to lean over and kiss him. Michael’s cheeks turned pink.
Yutika tore the page out of her sketchbook and let it flutter onto the grass.
I looked around anxiously, measuring the distance to the house and surrounding obstacles in light of Yutika’s recent story. Fortunately, the Directors’ mansion had a really big front yard.
“So, this is the first time you’re making a plane that’s going in the air?” I asked, glancing down at the drawing on the grass. It had started to wiggle.
“Yuppers,” Yutika replied, not seeming in the least bit concerned.
Michael and I exchanged a glance.
Steel for 5 (Mags & Nats Book 3) Page 8