by Holly Hook
Kenna stood, facing the oven she had just come out of. First things first.
Andrina had to pay.
All that mattered was the blood rushing through her veins.
She rushed past Janelle, who clawed at her jeans near the oven. Kenna dove for the orange glow inside, ready to go burn the whole camper down and make Andrina feel every tongue of those flames…
"Kenna!"
Janelle's strong, sudden grip on her arm made her stop.
"Let me go," Kenna said. She yanked, but Janelle's hand stayed tight around her arm. Her brain seemed to be shutting down.
Janelle shut the oven door with her free hand, wincing in the heat that was belching out. "No. I can tell by looking at your face. She got Mel. There's nothing we can do now. Not a thing you can do will actually stop her."
"Let me go."
"No."
Kenna let out a breath and looked at Janelle's hand, still holding her in place. The image of Andrina screaming inside the flames died away. Janelle was a lot stronger here. They must be very close to the ocean. They must be very close to the ocean. Next door, even. The thought killed the rest of the inferno inside.
Kenna and water did not mix.
"Fine," she said, staring down at the floor. Her knees trembled like they might wither and turn to dust. "I'm sorry. I couldn't get him. He wanted everyone else to go first. I tried."
Gary sighed. Next to him, Sophia shifted foot to foot. Paul and Leslie hugged, breathing heavily. Janelle blinked, but not fast enough to hide a tear in the corner of her eye, glistening under the florescent lights.
Kenna took a deep breath. It took every ounce of her restraint to not open that oven door and travel back to Arizona. She couldn't let that anger take over and blind her again. It was getting worse all the time.
She wouldn't let herself turn into her mother. How would she keep her friends then?
"Come on," Janelle said, releasing Kenna's arm. "Let's get out of this kitchen and figure out where we are."
* * * * *
Kenna had landed them in a fancy hotel.
"Cancun," Kenna said as they stepped outside from the lobby. "I think I did it. It was the first place that came to mind when I dragged Janelle through the tunnel. I'm not an expert on Mexico."
Nobody complained. Everyone stood in the sun for a moment, surveying the scene.
It was hot. Bright. Humid with the smell of salt and water blowing into Kenna's face. Between high-rise hotels, the ocean sparkled and stretched out into forever. Beaches stretched out along the coast, dotted with bodies that looked like ants from here. Palm trees twitched and swayed in the breeze. Kenna had to hold back a wince as the memory of falling into the lake at the campsite washed over her again. Falling into darkness, paralyzed, unable to struggle or cry out as the water closed over her head…
Why had she chosen Cancun? She should have remembered it was next to the ocean. She resisted the urge to slap herself on the forehead.
The earth's fire is always with you, Kenna. Her mother's words echoed in her head. Never forget that, no matter where you are.
Her mother had never come to Cancun, obviously. Or fallen into an icy lake. That was a lot different than the lava flows of Hawaii.
"I'm guessing this is called the Oceanside Hotel," Janelle said, studying the bright pink letters above the glass doors of the place. She twisted to study the rows of windows on the white building. "That's what my Spanish lessons tell me. At least you picked us out a good place to land, Kenna."
Janelle smiled, but she had strain lines forming at the corners of her eye, like she had aged two decades in the past twenty minutes. Mel's loss weighed heavy on all of them. It was all they could do to keep going now.
A small line of cabs gathered on the curb. Kenna watched them with interest, willing the queasiness in her stomach to calm down. It refused to let go. She scanned the sky instead, watching for any walls of dust coming to consume them. A few puffy cumulus clouds drifted overhead.
But things could change quickly, if Andrina had any idea where they were going.
"You're right," Janelle said, breaking the silence. "It's Cancun, all right. My dad and I stayed in that hotel over there a few months ago." She pointed to the tallest one across the street, a bright tower of paint and glass. "It wasn't for fun, though. I was here with the Elder Council to meet up with the publisher of the Tempest newsletter here. Stupid stuff, really. Well, compared to what we're going through now."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss even those days," Gary said.
"I don't," Janelle said. "I miss the days before my dad moved me to Florida and I found out about all this Tempest stuff." She paused as a look of hurt came over Gary's features. "Except for you, of course." Janelle punctuated her sentence with a kiss on Gary's lips, which made the hurt disappear.
Why couldn't Carlos be here? Kenna could go for kissing him right about now. He always had a way of joking around and making her feel better. But this was big now. Carlos had no place in this. He was probably wondering why she hadn't called in about a week.
"Now what do we do?" she asked no one in particular.
Sophia wandered over to the fountain and studied the water bubbling around the mini waterfall. Paul and Leslie stepped aside to let a young couple into the hotel. They were speaking some language Kenna didn't recognize. Chinese or Korean, maybe.
"Not sure," Janelle said. "Well, we can always get some rooms while we think about it. There's no sense in standing here in the middle of this plaza out in the open."
Gary's eyes bugged out. "But did you bring your money?"
Paul stepped forward before she could even reach in her pockets. "I think this is it," he said, handing her a black wallet. Mel's wallet. Kenna had seen it last when they'd stopped at a fast food joint that morning.
Janelle reached out and took it, silent. She let her arm flop down to her side, wallet in hand. She stared down at the concrete as if she wanted to let it fall back into the lava tunnel and let in sink to the center of the earth.
* * * * *
Janelle couldn't believe it, and yet she could.
Mel. Gone, ripped out of his human form forever. Just like Elise and the Callie girl's parents.
His wallet felt heavy and sad in her pocket.
She sat in the Oceanside Hotel lobby for a long time, staring at the plant in the corner while Gary shared her moment of silence with her. Paul and Leslie stayed outside, huddled close in the sun. Sophia and Kenna stood a few feet from each other near the plant, staring at the traffic outside.
Mel's calming presence. Gone.
Janelle missed him already. If he were here, he'd recommend that they all get rooms and get some rest. He'd pay for it all without breaking a sweat, then join them and make suggestions on what they could do next. He'd know what to do, because she sure didn't.
Mel was the closest thing to a grandfather Janelle ever had.
The wallet slipped around in her pocket, begging her to open it. Mel's bank card would be inside with its pin on a piece of paper. In case of an emergency, he always said. Mel must have given it to Paul before Kenna pulled him through Lava Express.
He'd known he wasn't going to make it.
"Hey," Gary said, rubbing his hand down her back. "Be glad you didn't bring your dad along. He would've stayed with Mel."
"Yes. He would have." She thought about him. He'd be sick with worry right now, wherever he was. Did he have any clue about where they were headed? Probably not. Still, she resisted the urge to pull out her phone. There would be a million messages on it now, and not only from her father. The Elder Council would be going crazy that their leader was missing.
But if she worked this right, she might be free.
They might all be.
She might not even have to be a Tempest High Leader anymore if she could convince Huracan to take his duties back. No one would have to endure being a Tempest or an Outbreaker. It was a curse no one deserved. Leslie had gotten off light
in Flint by not killing anyone, but it could have been much worse if Andrina had planned things even a little differently. She and Paul were both in danger still. They looked so fragile standing out in the sun in each others' arms, not at all like they both left their bodies during storms and took the form of tornadoes. One day, one of them would kill by mistake.
Like Janelle had.
Paul and Leslie were simply too powerful.
And if Huracan decided to take his job back and make all the Tempests and Outbreakers human, Andrina couldn't possibly make her a goddess. She couldn't force Leslie to give her breath to her.
If.
That was the word. It was a pretty big word, too.
There was another if hanging over her head, too: could they even find him?
The Mayans had built a lot of their cities in the Yucatan. That's where they were right now. Kenna might not know much about Mexico, but she'd landed them at a good starting point.
"Maybe we should get a room here," Gary said. "Take a day or two to figure things out. I'm sure Andrina doesn't know where we are."
"Yet."
"Exactly."
Janelle stared at the tourists wandering by, rolling cases of luggage and pushing buttons on phones. These people were lucky they weren't tainted by the power of Huracan or any other deity.
"I think we should. Sophia's going to need some time to let Hyrokkin feel around the area," she said, letting her head fall on his shoulder. "At least money isn't an issue."
Money was the only thing that wasn't a problem.
* * * * *
After a lot of asking around and fumbling with her bank account, Janelle managed to secure them two suites for the next couple of days. That would leave them time to figure out everything else. She would have gotten a couple more if she had the patience, just to have one with Gary and no one else, but there were more pressing matters. So for now, it would have to be three to a room.
It was clear that Gary was disappointed about that as they crammed into the elevator. It was clear by the way his shoulders hung low. Janelle didn't admit it with so many others around her, but she was, too.
Their room, which they were sharing with Kenna, was on the fifth floor and offered a spectacular view of the beach below and the ocean waves lapping against the shore. Cabs came and went down on the street. If they weren't facing east, they'd have a great view of the sunset in a few hours.
Kenna sat on the bed on the other side of the room, facing away from the window. She leaned forward, hugging her knees. Janelle's stomach lurched. Water and heights.
"Kenna, I forgot," she said, tensing for the blowup. "I know this isn't a great place for you."
The volcano goddess took a deep breath. She was struggling to keep her temper reigned in. How much longer would it be before she went off on them all? The fire inside her grew every day.
"That's fine," she said at last, looking up but keeping her gaze on the wall. "I'm the one who brought us here. I should have remembered that Cancun was on the coast. Not a great place for you, either, is it?"
Janelle relaxed. "No. It isn't. It kind of sucks when you can't go down to the beach and get in the water, doesn't it?"
Kenna turned and smiled, staying in place. "I can't do that, either. Though that's for a different reason as we all know."
Janelle sighed. At least Kenna wouldn't turn into a force of destruction and kill if she dove into the ocean. Would the Tempest transformation even still work now that Andrina was all storm goddess?
"Well, Leslie and Paul could go for a swim. Maybe Sophia, too. Lucky them." Gary put his hand on the glass like he wanted it to melt away. "Looks like all three of us are in the same boat, doesn't it? I know. Bad joke."
"And cliché," Janelle said, hugging him and planting a kiss on his cheek. She could sense Kenna shifting on the other side of the room as she did so, but she didn't care. "Now hopefully Sophia will be able to talk to Hyrokkin and figure out where we need to go next."
"If that demon's even going to cooperate," Gary muttered. He took some time watching a bus roll past below and disappear between two high-rise hotels. "That's why we had you stay in here with us, Kenna. We can't have you and Sophia in the same room unless we want to wait the rest of our lives here."
"That wouldn't be so bad," Janelle admitted. "I'll tell you what, though. If Huracan decides to take away our curse and make us human, one of the first things I'm doing is going down into that water and taking a swim."
* * * * *
Exhaustion crept through Leslie's muscles, worming its way into her eyelids. She felt her body sink into the bed as she listened to Janelle, Gary, and Kenna's footsteps squeak in the room next door. Beside her, Paul breathed heavily as he closed his eyes and tried to relax. Sophia did same on the other bed. The gentle sounds of breathing lulled her closer and closer to sleep.
"I'm sorry about your Netbook and all your stuff," she said as she snuggled closer to Paul. He smelled like a field in the summer, an expanse of rolling grass with puffy clouds drifting overhead. It didn't surprise her that he had that scent. The Midwest was where he'd spent his whole life, traveling state to state with his father.
It was where they would have to go when all of this was over. Only there would they have enough room to avoid killing when they had Outbreaks.
Probably.
"Not a big deal. I could've lost my body." Or you, the silence afterwards told her. "I think that would have trumped losing my stuff, hands down."
"Agreed."
"And besides," Paul said, running his hand through her hair. "There's a couple of bad memories attached to it, anyway."
He didn't need to say what. Paul had grown up knowing that he would leave his body and take the form of the tornado during storms one day. But he hadn't truly known how bad that was until a few weeks ago.
Leslie never had that shield. When she'd made Paul give her his breath and turn her, she'd understood exactly what she was getting into. If she hadn't done it, Paul would have had an Outbreak and killed hundreds, maybe thousands.
But now she was--
Leslie opened her eyes and sat up. "Paul, I can't sleep."
He was right beside her a second later. "Leslie, you didn't kill anyone when your Outbreak happened. We're not lying about that."
That wasn’t what was bothering her. She believed him. Gary would have told her the truth if she'd killed. He never lied no matter how bad it was.
It was the fact that Andrina had orchestrated it all, fact that she'd just been a pawn. She would have killed Sophia if Kenna and Callie hadn't been there to protect her.
Sophia sat up on the bed next to them. Her gaze made the back of Leslie's neck prickle.
Paul understood. He wrapped his arms around her, squeezing around her navel. It spoke more volumes than any words would have.
"Do you think Janelle's going to convince Huracan to turn us back?" she asked.
"I was born an Outbreaker. There's nothing I can get turned back into. I'm not sure how that's going to help me."
"You know what I mean," she said. "If the stories are right, he turned your ancestors into Outbreakers at the same time he went around turning people into Tempests. Then he went somewhere to hibernate."
Paul sighed. "I guess if I was a god and everyone was forgetting about me, I'd probably want to hibernate, too."
"True," Sophia broke in. For a second, Leslie had forgotten she was sitting on the other bed. "They do feel left out. I'd know."
Leslie didn't say anything. Neither did Paul. If anyone knew that for a fact, it was Sophia.
"Has Hyrokkin given you any ideas where we need to go next?" she asked, tensing.
"I haven't had much of a chance to talk to her," Sophia said. She motioned to the tropical paradise outside and at the smooth ocean sparkling in the sun. "This isn't the best environment for that. It weakens her some. I might have to try getting someplace colder."
"Not to mention we have Kenna in the next room." Paul's tone was wary and
protective. Leslie didn't blame him. Hyrokkin had nearly frozen him to death last week.
But Paul wasn't the grudge-holding type. Having Sophia stay in here was his idea. It was necessary to keep her and Kenna apart if they were to have any chance of locating Huracan.
"Maybe you can try to sneak into one of the freezers in the kitchen," Leslie said, one part of her wishing that she would just go and do it right now.
But Sophia didn't. She lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
Leslie closed her eyes and felt Paul breathe behind her. Even if Huracan did cure them, what would happen to Kenna and Sophia? If they managed to get rid of Andrina, Hyrokkin could turn on them all over again.
Chapter Four
Sophia had to wait until much later to even try anything.
Hyrokkin had stayed effectively blocked all afternoon. She'd complained enough about the Arizona desert. Now that they were even farther south, she'd almost vanished completely. The tropical heat was simply too much for her.
She'd hated listening to that hag's voice all her adolescent life. Now she almost missed it.
But now that Paul and Leslie were both snoring and the sounds of the hotel had died down, it was time to move. The kitchen would probably lock up if she waited too long to get to the freezer, and even the thought of sneaking around and potentially getting kicked out of the hotel was making her stomach roll. Going through Shane's laptop had been one thing. That was an emergency. Well, this was, too. But these were people she didn't know who didn't even speak her language.
The hallway was empty except for a couple practically staggering towards their room. The bitter smell of alcohol trailed behind them. Yes, it was late. The bar would probably be the only thing left open. The kitchen might already be locked, and without Hyrokkin she might not have a way to break in. That left one option: bringing along backup.