Buried Page 14

  “That child is you. I am surprised you knew nothing of this. You have lived for long enough, surely you would have discovered the truth before now. Your human and elemental sides are closely entwined, but still separate, after all.”

  The spirit finishes. Jen and I stare at each other. My mind releases my hold on the spirit in my shock, and the brown strands shrink with haste into the wristband.

  “I guess that explains a few things,” I say in a hoarse voice. “I’m not totally human. That legend about my father being a demon? Looks like it’s not far from the truth.”

  Jen shakes her head, back and forth, expressing her confusion.

  “That’s insane.” She rubs her face. “But what do we do now?”

  That’s right. Minnie still waits for us. With all the revelations, I didn’t force the spirit to release her, or give us the location. But I’m armed with new knowledge.

  “We go find Minnie, even if I have to take down every last one of those sorry-excuse-for-a-human Potestas members.” I wince at the mention of “human.” What am I? “This is not over.”

  Jen doesn’t say anything in reply, only holds the door open for me.

  When we enter my apartment, Liam calls out.

  “Where have you two been? I got into Esme Rotari’s email. Genius, right? And guess what? I know where the ceremony is!”

  CHAPTER XXI

  We’re quiet in the car. Jen sits in the passenger seat, clearly unwilling to leave me alone after the spirit’s revelations. I drive automatically, with my mind far away, traveling down centuries of questions and seeking and wondering.

  I’m not human. Or, at least, not entirely. My father was an elemental, who somehow managed to create a child with my mother. I don’t begin to understand how that might work, yet it must have, because here I am. My lauvan float in front of me and the two different types of strands stand out clearly, now that I know what I’m looking at. My own solid, human strands are more substantial than the fine elemental threads, although precisely the same color.

  “Merry?” Jen says with hesitation. “Are you okay?”

  “No,” I answer. “I’m not. My whole understanding of myself and my place in the world has been turned upside-down, and I have no idea how to right it. I don’t know what I am. But it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters right now is that Minnie is scared and alone, with would-be murderers surrounding her. We’re all that can stand between her and death, and I don’t care how many barriers Arnold constructs, nothing will stop me from being by her side.”

  Jen nods with moist eyes.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I get that.” She sniffs. “We’ll bring her home. We’ll figure it out. And you’re not alone, Merry. We’re all going to be there, doing whatever we can. Alejandro will be there, of course. Wayne, Liam. I told Cecil what was happening, and he insisted on meeting us there.”

  “Cecil? He’s always the surprise.” I glance sidelong at Jen. “He and Alejandro must be having a cozy tête-à-tête right now.”

  Jen flushes but ignores my last comment.

  “I think your neighbor Gary came too.”

  “What? Why?”

  “He wanted to help? I don’t know, Alejandro just texted me that, I didn’t ask further.”

  I sigh explosively.

  “I hope he’s up for it. I don’t want to have to take care of anybody. I have Minnie to save. You lot will have to take care of yourselves.”

  “We’re not here to be a burden,” Jen says with frustration, then her voice softens. “We’re only here to help, and we’ll stay out of your way when you need us to.”

  I nod tightly. I hope she’s right.

  “What do you want to tell the others about―you know, your spirit-ness?”

  “I can’t see how it’s relevant right now. We have more important things to do than sit and chat about my heritage.”

  “Okay, got it.” Jen pauses. “Do you want to talk about it now?”

  “I need to think and plan, Jen. A few minutes of peace, please.”

  ***

  The parking lot is half-full when we arrive, but our group is easy to spot. I pull into a nearby space and Jen and I hop out. The stench of low tide hits me in the face like a blade of rotting kelp.

  “Are you all sure you want to do this?” I say without preamble. “This may get messy. I can’t guarantee anyone’s safety, and I can’t promise to protect you. My primary goal is to get Minnie out of there.”

  “We know, Merlo,” Alejandro says. “We are here to help. Just lead the way.”

  I nod, then scan the parking lot. There are two trails down to the shoreline, but only one with copious amounts of lauvan swirling between the barricades. The Potestas members were clearly excited by the upcoming ceremony. One navy-blue strand floats past my face and I swallow hard. My fingers brush against it and I sense Minnie’s distress and confusion.

  “This way, everyone.” I point at the trail. “I’ll go first. Alejandro, walk with me.”

  Alejandro jumps to my side and we lead the line of my friends in a swift hike down a gravel path beside a crumbling cliff of loose rock.

  “What is Gary doing here? Did you tell him about me? I don’t want him freezing because he can’t handle lauvan, spirits, all that.”

  “He overheard us in the hallway and wanted to help. He’s pretty spry for an old guy, I think he’ll be fine.” Alejandro glances back at Gary, who gamely pushes on with the others, a baseball bat resting on his shoulder. “I told him about your powers, and what Potestas might be able to do, and he was fine with it. He has an open mind.”

  I scrub my face but keep walking.

  “Someone else added to the initiate list. Don’t misunderstand, not having to hide from those I care about is liberating, but one day someone won’t react positively, and I’ll have to leave.” I look into his eyes for emphasis. “Please don’t forget that.”

  Alejandro looks contrite.

  “I’ll remember.”

  The shoreline is expansive, a far cry from the usual crashing waves against the cliff. Muddy silt sticks to our shoes as we pick our way between decomposing sea stars and heaps of drying seaweed. Tremors occasionally shake the ground beneath our feet, but the ground shivers only enough to convince me that I have mild vertigo. We walk for ten minutes, the gleaming multicolored strands growing more frequent, until we turn a corner around the cliff. Scrubby grasses hang over our heads, and the highway noise drifts down from far above. Someone waits for us beside a large boulder.

  “He’s here,” a shaven-headed man in a blue polo shirt says into his walkie-talkie. “With others. Back-up needed immediately.”

  “My reputation precedes me,” I say lightly. “Then you’ll know that I’m going through you, regardless of your back-up. Stand aside.”

  “I can’t do that.” The man pulls a handgun out of his holster. “Put your hands―”

  I don’t let him finish. His nervous neon-green threads spark out from his body in spasms, and I yank at the nearest one. He bends double in pain and his gun drops to the ground. I run forward and kick it away with a spray of muck in its wake.

  “That’s enough of that,” I say. A quick squeeze of his center renders him unconscious, but a yell from behind me makes me whirl around.

  Three more polo shirts have emerged from behind the boulder. Wayne grapples with one, Alejandro and Liam take another, and the others run toward the third. Cecil dives for the gun of the guard before he can draw it, and it falls to the silt. Gary punches him in the stomach, and he doubles over, wheezing. Jen hovers with her pepper spray, but when the guard is incapacitated, she runs to Wayne. He and his guard punch each other with fierce blows, but when Wayne breaks away for a moment, Jen sprays the guard’s face. He screams.

  Alejandro and Liam scuffle with their guard for a few moments more, but the guard is overwhelmed by the numbers and they soon have his arms behind his back. Jen takes a good look at him then gasps.

  “Barty? Is that you?”

&nbs
p; The guard peers into her face.

  “Jennifer Chan? What are you doing here?” His expression is bewildered.

  “Was the security company bought by March Feynman?”

  “Yes, yes it was. What, who…” He looks around at us. “What are you doing with them?”

  “Long story,” Jen says. “Do you know what you’re protecting today?”

  “Information is on a need-to-know basis with Ms. Feynman,” he says with a hint of resentment. “We’re supposed to stop this man.” He points at me. “And anyone else who is with him.”

  “March is going to kill someone,” Jen says. “You’re protecting murderers. We’re here to stop them.”

  Barty stares at Jen for a moment with confusion in his eyes. Sucking noises announce the arrival of more guards tromping through the mud.

  “I know that’s not you,” Jen says quickly. “You used to give me candy as a kid. You’re better than this. March Feynman is doing terrible things. You don’t want that on your conscience.”

  More guards burst out from behind the boulder with guns drawn.

  “Stand down!” Barty yells. “Stand down. There’s been a misunderstanding.” He looks at Jen with indecision. “We should come with you.”

  His strands twist with discomfort and uncertainty. I shake my head.

  “Thanks for the offer, Barty, but we have it covered. Don’t dig yourself in deeper than you need to.”

  Barty glances between me and Jen, but when Jen nods encouragingly, his lauvan relax.

  “Everyone back to the parking lot,” he says to the other guards. “This job is over.”

  “We’re on the clock for another two hours,” one guard says.

  “Look, it’s on my head, okay? I’ll sort it out with management. Back to the van, now.”

  Alejandro and Cecil release their guards, and the pepper-sprayed guard is helped to his feet by his fellow, who hauls him up gingerly and tries to avoid the liberal mud smeared across the guard’s back. Barty stops in front of Jen.

  “I hope you’re right about this,” he says to her. “I’ll be likely demoted, if not fired.”

  “It was the right thing,” Jen says. “An innocent woman’s life will be spared.” She wraps her arms around him in a swift hug. “Thanks, Barty. And good luck.”

  “You too.” He looks around at us all. “You too.”

  CHAPTER XXII

  Barty and his guards walk up the beach without looking back. I turn the other way and squelch around the boulder. The shoreline continues, jagged and with plenty of places to hide. There’s no time to waste in talking or pondering other people’s actions and reactions. There’s only Minnie, waiting. Waiting to die, waiting to be saved. I walk faster.

  The sloughed strands grow ever thicker, until I am nearly wading through them. There are many different colors, and my heart sinks. How many people will I have to move out of my way before I can get to Minnie? I don’t care about harming them, not after they aligned themselves with a murder plot, but the more I must mow down, the slower I will be. March only needs Minnie and her volunteers to complete the ceremony, after all.

  “Merl―Merry,” Jen stumbles on my name. “Sorry. That was weird. Do you know where you’re going, still?”

  “The trail is thick with lauvan,” I say without breaking stride. “It’s not difficult to follow.”

  “Good.” Jen looks ahead then gasps. “Who’s that?”

  A figure leans against a sheer rockface, entirely at her ease. Short, spiky orange hair frames a sharp face with an upturned nose above a smug smile. Her arms are crossed over her chest, and a ring on one finger dances with fiery orange strands. My own mouth sets in a grim line.

  “A Potestas member. She’s enhanced with a fire spirit. Watch out.”

  Her smile only widens as we approach. Her face is shaded from arbutus trees that cling tenaciously to the cliff above her. From behind another rock, Ben appears. A cuff of leather wraps around his wrist, barely visible below swirling brown threads. His eyebrows lift.

  “Merry. They said you might be coming, but I could hardly believe it. I thought for sure you were on board, after volunteering to get the grail.” He rubs his chin. “Is it because you have your own powers, that you don’t want the spirit ones? Because I got to tell you, they are pretty amazing. You should probably reconsider.”

  He and the woman chuckle.

  “I would be less concerned about you and your fellow egomaniacs gaining powers if you hadn’t kidnapped the woman I love,” I growl. “But since you have, I might as well kill two birds with one stone, as it were. Rescue her and get rid of the lot of you.”

  Jen glances at me but says nothing.

  “You should stop,” Ben says. “We’re too powerful. It’s futile to try.”

  “Tell that to Drew Mordecai,” I say. Ben looks discomposed. The woman laughs.

  “Let him come. I’ve been dying to give my spirit free rein. I want to see what happens.” She puts a finger on her jawline in question. “But why did you help get the grail if you want to stop the ceremony?” I don’t answer, and her face clears in understanding. “You were trying to steal it, weren’t you? Gotcha. Too bad March is too clever for you. How did you find us here, anyway?”

  I glance at the ground behind them, where the path of strands gleams like a rainbow.

  “I have my ways.”

  Neither of them reacts to this, although the spirit strands on their amulets give a jolt at my words.

  Jen and others cluster close to me and I whisper instructions under my breath.

  “The woman has a fire spirit and the man has an earth spirit. Split into pairs and disperse so they can’t target all of us at once. I will engage them, the rest of you act as back-up.”

  Jen grips her pepper spray tightly and nods when I make eye contact. The rest look nervous but prepared. Even Gary has changed from a genial old man to an energized, grizzled soldier. His shoulders are straight, and his gaze is clear.

  I turn and pace forward with deliberate steps. Behind me, the sucking noises of feet walking through mud indicate that my instructions are being followed. Ben and the woman straighten and plant their feet firmly. Fire lauvan blossom from the woman’s ring and entwine around her arm and neck. With her orange hair, she looks like she is aflame. Earth strands plunge from Ben’s cuff down his legs and connect to the ground he stands on.

  I take a deep breath. Can I use the new-found knowledge of my heritage to my advantage? I haven’t had long enough to fully ponder the extent of its usefulness. I’ll have to fight how I normally fight and hope that it will be enough. Perhaps an idea will come to me in the heat of the moment. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

  My thoughts are interrupted by a trembling in the Earth below my feet. I stumble then look at Ben, whose concentrating face holds a smile of satisfaction. I keep my balance with difficulty and follow his gaze to Liam, who edges sideways with Alejandro, hoping to avoid detection. A great groaning noise emerges from the ground, and pools of water envelop Liam’s feet.

  “Liam, watch out!” I shout, but my warning comes too late. The Earth yawns beneath him in a slimy hole, and he drops with a yell.

  “Liam!” Alejandro falls to his stomach and slides forward to look into the hole, but I have no more attention to spare the two. A crackling sound makes me whirl around.

  An arbutus tree that clings to the cliff above me is aflame, its branches lit with an unnaturally quick-spreading fire. The whole thing is lit like a torch, and the sudden heat is intense. A larger crack alerts me to danger, and I leap out of the way of a falling limb. Its blazing length crashes to the beach in an explosion of sparks and burning debris.

  Another branch falls. Wayne shouts, and Cecil dives to Gary to pull him out of harm’s way. Gary brushes sparks off his clothes with quick motions.

  I use the mayhem to take a few steps closer to our two enemies, but the woman laughs.

  “Nice try,” she says. She raises her arms and fire lauva
n dance off them as if she is a human bonfire. Another tree on the cliff whooshes alight, then the first tree groans. Ben stares at its base, and the earth trembles enough to topple the tree. With a screech and a crack, the whole gnarled mass roars down to the ground. Wayne and Gary are directly in its path.

  “Move!” I scream. Wayne and Gary’s wide eyes track the tree, then they both dive to the side. The tree thunders to the beach and lands with a tremendous crash. The impact shudders the mud beneath my feet.

  I turn back to my foes, who both watch me with complacent smiles. They don’t notice Jen, who was not idle while the tree fell. She is almost upon them both and holds her pepper spray up with a steady arm. She narrows her eyes in concentration.

  Ben tracks my gaze and whirls around. Before Jen can react, he stamps his foot in a petulant manner. If I’d wanted to laugh at the gesture, it would have died in my throat. Quicker than thought, the mud rolls under Jen’s feet as if she rides on ocean waves. The pepper spray flies out of her hand and she falls. The silty waves roll her farther and farther away until she is covered in muck and hidden behind new hills in the otherwise flat beachscape.

  “Jen!” I yell, but there is no answer. I lift my hands in readiness and start toward the pair again. Before I can reach them, Wayne comes barreling out of nowhere and throws a mean punch to Ben’s face, who only just manages to dodge it.

  The woman points her arms straight up, and from the overcast sky above shoots a bolt of lightning. I am blinded by an intense light, and my ears are deafened by a tremendous crack that reverberates through my body. My ears ring in the aftermath of the bolt, and when my eyes can see once more, Wayne appears unscathed although clearly shocked. There is a patch of blackened soil beside him.

  Ben’s face is red with rage.