Chasing Power (8 page)

Taking out her phone, she texted Selena,
Here
.

She waited for a response, a hint as to Moonbeam’s mood or the lie that Selena had told, and she paced outside the red gate.
A few cars drove up and down the street. A neighbor dragged trash cans to the curb and waved at Kayla. Pasting a fake smile on her face, Kayla waved back. Selena still hadn’t replied.

Stupid to just wait here
, Kayla thought. She stuffed the phone back in her pocket. Shaking out her arms and rolling her neck, she took a deep breath. She could do this. She’d weathered Moonbeam’s disapproval before. It wouldn’t kill her.

She pinched her cheeks, then slapped them so they’d look pink, as if she’d been running. She opened the garden gate and dashed across the lawn, leaping over a bush and throwing herself into the house as she cried, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I tried to call. My phone died. I’m here! I’m fine!”

Moonbeam and Selena were perched on stools, seated at the kitchen table. Both of them twisted around to look at her in surprise. Skidding to a stop, Kayla looked at Moonbeam, then Selena, then back.

Please, say something
, Kayla thought at her mother.
Scream. Yell. Anything. Just get this over with
.

Rising, Moonbeam crossed to Kayla and kissed her on the cheek. “Just tell me you didn’t have unprotected sex, and I will forgive you for not answering your phone.”

Kayla felt her cheeks flush even redder. Her mouth opened and then shut. She looked at Selena for help.

“None of these charms work against pregnancy or STDs,” Moonbeam continued. “Plus you’re much, much too young anyway. Wait until you’re thirty. Thirty-five. Then you’ll have something to look forward to, after the novelty of voting and alcohol wears off.”

Selena smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. Had to tell her about your
date. How was that café? Did you get the calamari like I told you to?”

Kayla felt limp. A plausible lie! “Had the shrimp soup. It was delicious.” She decided that Selena should be nominated for knighthood, and she took back every bad thing she’d thought about Selena’s ability to lie. Clearly, she’d been practicing.

Moonbeam held Kayla’s shoulders. “I want you to know you can tell me anything. Really, I’d prefer everything, but I’ll settle for anything. You don’t have to hide your love life from me. You’re supposed to have a love life. Without sex.”

“It was a first date! I didn’t sleep with him. And I can guarantee I won’t.” She couldn’t ever be attracted to a guy whose idea of asking for a favor equaled blackmail. But she supposed she couldn’t say that if she wanted to keep the lie going … Oh, God, this meant she was going to keep the lie going. She had no easy excuse to tell Daniel.

Moonbeam broke into a smile. “Then you may have a cookie.” She put her arm around Kayla and guided her to the table. “Milk or iced tea?” Kayla noticed that there was a spread of food out: cucumber sandwiches, cookies, milk, and iced tea, as if Moonbeam and Selena had been having a full-out British tea party while Kayla was off cleaning a voodoo shop in New Orleans.

“So, details, please!” Selena said. “Did you kick him to the curb? Swear to never see him again? Strike his name from your heart with a felt-tip marker?”

“I … may have another date tomorrow. Early.” A tiny part of her wished she
had
been caught. She was about to get even more involved. And if she failed and the spell was cast, someone would die. Swallowing, she forced a smile.

Moonbeam poured a glass of milk and set it on the table for Kayla. “Uh-huh, and what is this mystery boy’s name?”

“Daniel.”

“Last name?”

“Mmm, I don’t know.”

“You might want to bring that one up in conversation before you get too far into the smoochy-smoochy.” Selena puckered up her lips for extra effect. “Just a suggestion.”

Moonbeam managed to look both disapproving and amused at the same time. “When do I get to meet this Daniel-without-a-last-name?”

Never
popped into Kayla’s mind. “Not yet,” Selena answered for Kayla. “Introducing a guy to Mom is a big deal. Has to fit into the strategy just right. Do it too early, and he’ll think you’re too serious. Do it too late, and he’ll think you’re not serious enough. Maybe after the fifth date. Unless you have my parents; then all bets are off. But for you, fifth date.”

“Oh, no, I’ve seen sitcoms.” Moonbeam offered Kayla a cucumber sandwich. “I get to grill him and embarrass Kayla from the moment he drives up. Does he have his own car? Please tell me he doesn’t ride a motorcycle. I think my heart will stop if you’re on a motorcycle.”

“No motorcycle.” Kayla nibbled at the sandwich. Now that she was sure Moonbeam wasn’t furious, she was hungry. “He’s mostly on foot.”

“Bet he has nice feet,” Selena said dreamily.

Kayla shot her a look, then devoured the rest of the sandwich.

“What? Everything else looked nice, and feet are deserving of admiration too. Don’t worry. I’ll look and not touch. He’s not my type. I like nonbroody.” Selena hopped off the stool. “But
speaking of feet, there are shoes that need purchasing. Moonbeam, can I steal Kayla for an hour or two, if she’s not grounded?”

Moonbeam frowned. “Parenting teenagers should come with a manual. She
should
be grounded, but I want her to know she can trust me with the truth.”

“Manual says let her go with a stern but loving warning,” Selena suggested. Kayla found it disconcerting to be discussed in the third person when she was right there, but then again, Selena seemed to have the situation in hand. She owed her for this.

Moonbeam laughed. “Your friend is incorrigible.”

“That’s why I like her,” Kayla said.

Moonbeam wagged her finger at Kayla. “I want you home and asleep by ten o’clock, especially if you have an early morning date tomorrow.”

“Come on, Kayla, those shoes won’t walk themselves onto my feet.” Selena hooked her arm through Kayla’s. Kayla waved over her shoulder at her mother and headed out the door with Selena at a brisk walk. Arm in arm, they crossed the yard and pushed through the garden gate. “Okay, all the details,” Selena said.

“Need beach privacy.”

“Really? That serious?”

“Seriously serious.”

They got into Selena’s car, and Selena shot down the street. She parked at the beach, took off her shirt and shorts so she was only in a bikini, and fetched two beach towels and her beach bag—designer brand, of course. Kayla left her chiffon shirt in the car so she was just in shorts and her bikini top—the picture of two girls with nothing serious on their minds. Pretending to laugh, the two of them sauntered down toward the waves as if they were just hanging out, enjoying the end of the day. They
spread their towels a few feet from the wettest sand, away from everyone else. In the distance, the sky was turning a rosy pink as the sun teased the horizon.

“I owe you,” Kayla told Selena when they’d finished setting up their tableau. “I thought I was dead for sure. You were brilliant in there.”

“Clearly. I’m a genius with every mother but my own. But we aren’t here to talk about me. Now spill.”

Kayla told her every detail, from the state of the shop to the story of Fire Is Born to the queen’s vanishing trick at the end. She concluded, “So, it’s not over.”

“Of course it’s not over. Don’t you know how these things work? The wise old woman gave you cryptic advice to start you on your quest. Now the trusty sidekick, who is far smarter than the heroine, finds the pertinent information our beloved lead needs. Or she at least checks Wikipedia.” Selena pulled her tablet out of her beach bag and flipped the cover open. “So we know Fire Is Born had all three stones in Tikal in … AD 378. Hey, he was a real person! Siyaj K’ak’, Fire Is Born, formerly nicknamed Smoking Frog, which is pretty much the least sexy nickname ever. Heartily approve the change. He conquered Tikal on January 16, 378. Wow, that’s specific. Oh, it’s the day the old king died. Or was killed. Also, it’s the same year the Roman Empire fell, and probably lots of other stuff happened that didn’t make it into Wikipedia.”

“Any mention of the stones?”

“Nope. But maybe we can find you a treasure map or a video that depicts them being hidden.” Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. “Just for the record, I’m kidding. Seriously, Her Majesty couldn’t give you any more specific info?”

“I think she thought she was being helpful enough.”

Selena snorted and continued to type. She squinted at her screen, tilting it to avoid the glare of the sunset. Across the ocean, the sun dyed the clouds a burnt orange. It deepened to molten gold as it touched the water. Its reflection stretched like a path of gold coins on the blue-black surface. Kayla thought it was appropriately dramatic for a conversation about ancient death magic. “No record of his death,” Selena reported. “Ooh, maybe he didn’t die. That would be übercreepy. But she said invincibility, not immortality, right? So never mind. You won’t have to face a millennium-old Maya. Hello, silver lining!”

She appreciated that Selena was trying to cheer her up, but Kayla didn’t feel like smiling. She thought of the disaster zone in Queen Marguerite’s shop. If their enemies were so strong that the voodoo queen’s magic couldn’t stop them, what was Kayla doing wrapped up in this? She was a pickpocket with a few fancy tricks, not a fighter. “I shouldn’t be facing any of this. She said someone would die.”

“
If
they use the stones, which you’re going to prevent. Come on, Kayla, you have never wimped out of a challenge in your life. And this is way bigger than shoplifting a few blingy trinkets. You have the chance to save a life, stop evil, and be a superhero without Spandex.” She paused. “Seriously, don’t wear Spandex.”

Kayla hugged her knees to her chest. Everything about this felt out of her control. She didn’t have nearly enough information. And she was dealing with a boy who had trust issues. “This is too much. Too serious. I should tell Moonbeam, and we should run. He can’t teleport to someplace he doesn’t know. He’d never find us.”

“And I’d never see you again! No. No. Absolutely no.”

The sun spread into the horizon as if it were melting into the water, an act that, while poetic, would not have been appreciated by the fish. “How do we even know he’s telling the truth? Maybe his mother wasn’t kidnapped, and he wants the stones for himself so he can become invincible and conquer the world.” She felt guilty even saying it. She’d seen that lost look in his eyes and heard the desperation in his voice, even though he’d tried to hide it. Also, the very premise was absurd. Who even wanted to conquer the world? The world was way too messy.

“Then let’s spy on him!”

“You can’t spy on a guy who can teleport.”

“Virtually spy.” Selena typed quickly. “University of Chicago, right? Anthropology professor. Missing.” She hit Enter with a flourish. Wordlessly, she pointed at the screen. There were local Chicago news articles, dated less than a week ago, about an anthropology professor who was reported missing by her son. Her name was Dr. Evelyn Sanders. There was a quote from a colleague talking about how she was on the verge of a breakthrough and how everyone expected great things from her, and so forth, so this was a double tragedy, for her family and for academia. “Come on, Kayla, do this. It’s the decent thing to do. Plus it means I can live vicariously through you. Quit it with the reluctant hero crap.”

Kayla sighed. She hated being maneuvered into things. She’d rather be the one doing the maneuvering, preferably from a nice distance. But Selena was, as always, right. Kayla couldn’t walk away from this. Daniel and his intense, wounded-puppy eyes would haunt her. “Fine. But I still want more info. Search her name and the Maya.”

The result was instantaneous. Dr. Sanders had written
several papers on the Maya, both ancient and contemporary. It took more searching to find accessible versions, and Kayla and Selena spent the next hour huddled together on a beach towel, reading through them, as the sky darkened and the stars poked through. Most of the papers detailed Maya rituals, comparing them to similar rituals in other cultures. They referenced various stellae and murals from sites in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. But one discussed unsolved ritualistic glyphs and was, unlike the others, dedicated to her son, Daniel. None of the other papers were dedicated to anyone. One paragraph in particular caught Kayla’s eye. “Wait. There.” She pointed at the screen and read.

Inside the Temple of the Great Jaguar in Tikal, there were several tiny glyphs carved high up in a shaft within the inner tombs, completely inaccessible to archaeologists. They’d only been viewed remotely by camera, and translation was near impossible due to the layers of dust on the stones. Because of the shape of the tunnels, no one had been able to maneuver a tall-enough ladder to examine them closely in person, but a few archaeologists believed the glyphs marked the location of a small hole, perhaps with valuables inside. One of the minor mysteries of Tikal was why and especially
how
they were put there. The only consensus was that they were installed when the pyramid was built, around AD 700. Kayla tapped the laptop screen. “That’s it. The stones are there, behind the glyphs.”

“Seriously? Centuries-old mystery, and you read a few papers and solve it? Way to take the wind out of my sails.”

“You shouldn’t feel bad. It’s not obvious, unless you’re me.” She felt a bubble of excitement inside her. She was sure this was it.

Selena frowned as she reread the paragraph. “Yeah, I still don’t see it.”

“Someone like me put them there.” A telekinetic could have carved those glyphs or placed them in the shaft. No ladder necessary. “Queen Marguerite said the stones were hidden by Fire Is Born’s descendants. A royal tomb could have seemed a pretty good hiding place. Slightly more permanent than under your mattress.”

Selena pursed her lips into an O. “You might be right. At the very least, I think you should go there and check it out. He needs images, right? I’ll send some to your phone. Just … be careful, okay?” For an instant, there was a flash of worry in Selena’s eyes, but it faded before Kayla could answer. “Bring me back a souvenir.”