Chasing Power (11 page)

In the distance, somewhere below her, she heard a shout. Her name. “Kayla! Kayla, can you hear me?” Daniel? That was Daniel’s voice!

She wanted to cheer and cry at the same time. “Yes! I’m here! I’m up by the entrance! Daniel?” Leaping to her feet, she bumped against a rock. Tears popped into her eyes. Blinking them away, she cradled the back of her head.

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, but the entrance is blocked! Daniel, be careful. I think it was intentional. Someone caused the rocks to fall!” Specifically the man who had followed her down here, cast that spell, and stole her backpack. Oh, God, the parchment! She’d bet large sums of money that the thief was the kidnapper, and
she’d just handed him the only clue to the missing stones. Well, the only clue aside from the photo in her phone.

She had to find that damn phone.

“Stay where you are!” Daniel called. “We’re coming!”

We? She heard other voices, speaking in Spanish. He wasn’t alone. That meant she had to work fast. Kayla concentrated fiercely, running her mind over the rocks in all directions, until her skull felt as if it were squeezing her brain.

“Kayla? Shout so we can find you!”

She ignored him. It had to be here. It could have fallen out of her hands and tumbled down the steps farther than she’d thought.

“Kayla? Are you okay?”

Dammit
. She heard footsteps on the stairs below her. What if they stepped on it? Fiercely, she looked—and she found it. Ten steps down.

“Wait!” she called. “Don’t come closer!” She thought fast. “The rocks are unstable! I’m coming down to you. Don’t move!”

The footsteps didn’t stop. In fact, they came faster.

“Daniel, wait!” She hurried down the steps, holding on to the wall, hitting her toes on the fallen stones. Loose stones tumbled down around her. She slowed. Just a few more steps. She knelt, feeling in front of her. And then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She wrapped her fingers around the phone as everything flashed white then black then green.

Kayla’s garden.

She saw the red hibiscus flowers, the bench tucked against the enthusiastically green hedge, and the row of garden gnomes. From the house, she heard the door swing open.

“Kayla?” Moonbeam called.

Kayla spun toward Daniel, about to order him to take her somewhere else. Moonbeam couldn’t see her like this. And she still had to show him the photo and tell him—

Before she could say anything, he vanished.

She heard Moonbeam’s feet crunch on the walk, and she felt her heart sink into her shoes. Slowly, she turned. “Hey, Moonbeam,” she began to say, and then she coughed. The cough shook her entire body, and she dropped forward onto her hands and knees. As she shook, she thought that this was probably not the best way to prove everything was normal and fine. She should have stayed in that temple.

Moonbeam raced to her side, and Kayla felt hands on her back and forehead, stroking her as if she were a baby waking at night. “Breathe, that’s a girl. Nice and easy. You’re okay. You’re filthy. What happened? Where have you been?”

“Fell in the dirt,” Kayla said.
Dirt … dirt … think, Kayla
. “We were dirt bike riding.” She winced. Who went dirt biking on a date? Not to mention she didn’t even own a bike. Master thief, yes; master liar, not so much.

“You were
what
? You don’t know how to ride a dirt bike. Kayla, you are covered in dirt. What possessed you? Are you all right? Anything broken? Stand up. Let me see you.”

Pushing off her knees, Kayla got to her feet. She turned in a circle, as if for inspection. “I’m fine. See? Just need a shower, and then I’ll be right as rain.”

“What sort of boyfriend drags you through the dirt, endangers your life, and then drops you home without staying to make sure you’re okay? You could be hurt! Broken bones! Internal injuries! Concussion! Let me look at your pupils.”

“I’m fine, I swear.” She realized she was clutching her phone to her chest. She pressed the “on” button. The screen stayed dark. She tried again, holding the button down. She shook it. “My phone is less than fine.” Kayla managed, somehow, to keep her voice steady. But her eyes heated up anyway, betraying her. She’d lost the parchment, nearly been killed, and the one thing she’d been able to salvage was broken.

Moonbeam’s arms wrapped around her and pulled her into a hug. Moonbeam stroked her hair. “As long as you’re okay, that’s what matters. I can’t believe that boy!”

“It wasn’t his fault,” Kayla said, pulling back. At least, not directly. Overall, yes, technically, it was. But she should have paid more attention to the man following her up the pyramid steps. She should have investigated the noises she’d heard. She should have held on to the backpack and not let some parlor trick with bright light distract her. As much as she wanted to blame Daniel, she had to take responsibility for those mistakes. “I wasn’t careful enough.”

“You’re trying to cover for him.” Moonbeam kissed Kayla’s forehead. “Never cover for a boy. If they have faults, face them. Don’t think you can change them or fix them or save them.” Lightly, she brushed Kayla’s hair off her forehead. “Don’t make my mistakes.”

Kayla felt a lump in her throat. What she really wanted to do was break down on Moonbeam’s shoulder and tell her everything, including how terrifying it had been when the rocks came down and she was trapped alone in the dark tomb. But she didn’t. Instead she dredged up a smile from nowhere and said, “I just want to fix my phone. And take a shower. Mind if Selena comes over?”

“She’s always welcome,” Moonbeam said automatically. “But Kayla … about this boy …”

Not waiting for her to finish, Kayla headed for the house. “I’m going to call her.” She heard Moonbeam following her, but she didn’t look back, even to hold the door open for her. Hurrying to the phone in the kitchen, she let the screen slam behind her. With shaking hands, she dialed Selena’s number.

Selena answered. “Sorry, Moonbeam. Kayla isn’t here.”

“Really? You volunteer that right away?” If Selena had been covering for her, she would have instantly failed.

“Kayla! How did Operation Maya go?”

“Badly. And we’re not calling it that.”

“Operation Tikal? The Great Stone Quest?”

“Selena. Stop.” She noticed she was squeezing the phone so hard that her knuckles were white bulges. She loosened her grip and tried to force a smile at Moonbeam, who was waiting between a stack of books and a basket of amulets. She felt as if she were grimacing instead and looked away. With luck, Moonbeam would think she’d merely had a bad date. Without luck … Moonbeam couldn’t guess the truth, could she? She’d known that time when Kayla had sneaked out for a party on the beach. And another time when she’d failed a geography test and tried to hide it. But on the flip side, Moonbeam hadn’t caught on about Kayla’s extracurricular activities with the jewelry stores and ATMs on State Street. “I need you to come over and save my phone. I … sort of dropped it, and it has a photo on it that I really, really want to save.”

“Tell me you didn’t take any naked pictures of anyone.”

“Selena. Please. Remember when you dropped your phone into the ocean and you said you found a miracle-working
phone guy? I need a miracle. Come on, please. Best Friend Code.” She hadn’t said those words since she was about eleven. They’d sworn a blood oath to each other after school one day under Stearns Wharf, to always help when the code was called, not unlike Batman with the Bat Signal. Selena mentioned it all the time, but Kayla quit calling the code pretty much the same time she discovered mascara and hair dye, leaving it behind with other childhood things. Invoking it would get Selena’s attention now.

“Seriously? Fine.”

Kayla heard a sigh, a car door slam, and an engine purr to life, then a
click
as the phone shut off. She put down the house phone and then laid her poor lifeless phone gently on the kitchen counter.

In the middle of the cottage, Moonbeam paced in tight circles. She was working herself up to say something, Kayla could tell. Kayla cast around for an exit strategy. She couldn’t leave; she was stuck here until Selena came. Maybe she could duck into the shower?

Moonbeam stopped and faced her. “Kayla, this boy … If he endangers you, then he’s not serving his purpose. As much as I want to approve—”

“You do?” Kayla blinked at her. She’d thoroughly expected Moonbeam to forbid her seeing him again. She’d been positive that Moonbeam had already started construction on the beachside equivalent of Rapunzel’s tower. It would be guarded by a fleet of garden gnomes.

“Yes, of course. Having a boyfriend will tie you closer to this place. It will help make you part of the community and the scenery, which will make you safer.”

Kayla felt her mouth drop open. She didn’t know what to say. So it wasn’t about whether or not Kayla was happy; it was about hiding from her father. Everything was. “Moonbeam, he didn’t … I don’t … I … I need to shower.”

Scooting into the bathroom, Kayla locked the door. Was there anything in her life untouched by fear of her father? She stripped off her clothes and dropped them to the floor. They set off a plume of dust when they landed. She turned the water on as hot as she could stand and tried to scrub away every speck of dust and every bruise. Not everything was about Dad. She was in the middle of a crisis that was happening right now, not eight years ago, and her life was in enough danger without the presence of an old bogeyman. Those rocks could have crushed her. She could have fallen down the stairs and cracked her head open. And all her “special power” couldn’t have done a damn thing about it. She couldn’t even hang on to one measly backpack.

When she finished, her skin felt tenderized. She’d made about twelve thousand mistakes today. So much for her supposed superhero status. She dried herself and dressed in clean clothes, transferring all the contents of her pockets, except her poor phone, which still lay on the counter. If she couldn’t fix that phone, then she was useless. Worse than useless, because she’d led the enemy right to the parchment. He never would have found it if not for her. Instead of saving the day and Daniel’s mother, she’d made everything worse.

Coming out of the bathroom, she blow-dried her hair by the kitchen sink, keeping the dryer blowing long after her hair was crispy so that she wouldn’t have to talk. Beside her, at the table, Moonbeam organized a stack of coupons for the next
supermarket run, though Kayla thought she wasn’t actually looking at them. She switched off the blow-dryer only when Selena breezed through the door.

“So … how was the date?” Selena asked in her perkiest voice.

“She came home filthy and bruised,” Moonbeam answered for her. “If I were a good mother, I’d forbid her from ever seeing that Daniel again.”

Selena waved her hand in the air dismissively. “If you were a
typical
mother, you would. But since you’re a good mother, you understand that making him forbidden would only increase the odds that Kayla will sneak out and see him for the pleasure of being her own person. As it is, by approving of him, you’ve actually shortened his shelf life.” Sailing across the cottage, Selena scooped up the lifeless phone and pushed the buttons. “Ooh, yep, you broke it.”

“Can your guy fix it?” Kayla asked.

Selena pursed her lips. “Yeah, see, here’s the problem. I kind of alienated him a bit.”

“How do you alienate someone ‘a bit’?” As Selena opened her mouth to reply, Kayla interrupted. “Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t care. I just need it fixed.”

“Got that. You called code. You
never
call code.”

“I saved it for a serious crisis, unlike some people.”

“Hey, shoes are serious.”

“You wanted help with flip-flops!” Kayla said. “Flip-flops barely count as shoes. They’re footprints with straps.” Last summer, Kayla had been in the middle of a complex heist at one of the Montecito mansions, and she’d had to abandon it because of a cryptic text from Selena that called on the code. She hadn’t
let Selena forget it. Kayla jabbed her finger at her phone. “I
need
this.”

Selena sighed, rolled her eyes, and then sighed again. “You have to come with me.”

Both Selena and Kayla turned as one to look at Moonbeam. Moonbeam tossed her hands in the air. “Go on and fix it. And tell him it was malfunctioning before you dropped it or crushed it or whatever you did. The GPS said you were out of range, which never happens in Santa Barbara. Coverage is excellent within a ten-mile radius. I’ve tested it.”

Kayla felt all her muscles clench. She should have known her mother would try to track her. “Hah! Okay, yeah, must fix that.” She tried to read Moonbeam’s face, to see if she was at all suspicious. She couldn’t tell. Hopefully, Moonbeam blamed the broken phone. Grabbing Selena’s arm and the dead phone, Kayla propelled her toward the door.

“And Kayla?” Moonbeam said. “I won’t forbid you from seeing that boy. But please … before every action, ask yourself, ‘Would I rather be home or in the emergency room?’ Your choice, not mine. I trust you to make your own smart choices.”

Kayla wanted to curl up into a ball. Being trusted was almost worse than being grounded. If Moonbeam ever found out what she was doing, flitting around the world, using her power right and left … Moonbeam couldn’t find out. It was that simple. She’d never discovered the thefts; she wouldn’t learn about this. “I’ll try,” Kayla promised.