Speed of Light (45 page)

Meridian, who was out there among the worst of darkness, battling for people she would never know and who, if she succeeded, would never know exactly what could have happened. She who searched for me and never gave up, even when I most wanted her to.

Bales, whose devotion to Nelli cost him his life. Who gave me lavender and his grandmother’s recipe for shortbread because he heard I liked food. The way he gazed at Nelli when she wasn’t looking was the expression I hoped someday was turned in my direction by a man even half as steady and good.

I felt Fara’s hand in mine and glanced over at her. With eyes closed, fervently calling for Light and Good, she looked like the heroines in action films Tens made me watch as part of my education about the real world. With her funky hair, metal, leather, and affinity for black anything, I knew the heart under that kick-ass shell would always have my back, whether I liked it or not.

I thought of Faye and Gus, who gave love, before and after life, faces to see and hands to hold.
How much love can two people share in one lifetime, in a single exchange of powerful words?
Immeasurable.

I turned back to the stands, thinking only of the joy of life and love and light. I sang my mother’s song low and under my breath, but I watched the crowds of people stand. As if with the engines shutting down, the noises
dropping away, the solemnity of the day changed. Black, yellow, and red flags were flown from the tower over the finish line.

I felt them begin to pray, to who or what I didn’t know, didn’t care. I knew they wished for hope that Smith would walk out of the fire alive and well.

I kept singing and calling for Light, along with Fara, as a geyser rocketed into the sky.

B
ehind us, the Nocti leader shouted, “Where is my successor? We’re running out of time! He should be here by now.”

Tens grabbed Sergio and knocked his feet out from under him. For a second I almost felt sorry for the little boy behind his eyes.

“Get out of here,” Sergio gasped.

Tens dragged him back between truck tires. “Keep focused, Merry.”

I could hear them struggle behind me.

My attention was completely fixated on the stream of water flowing out of the pipe. I knew if Rumi was right,
then there was pressure forcing the water to the surface, lots of untapped energy.
If I can call it, maybe it’ll short out the electrical system, the generators
.

“They’re emptying the stands and evacuating people. It’s too late,” Tens said.

“You don’t have time to beat me up. Get out of here,” Sergio pleaded. “I can’t stop it. I’m dead anyway.”

I saw yellow shirts and uniformed policemen moving among the crowds, which slowly began to disperse.
Are there Woodsmen up there holding vigil too?

The water’s steady trickle flowed like an open faucet. The brick wall around the pipe cracked, water finding weaknesses and flowing through.

Call the elements and the energy
. I repeated Auntie’s declaration over and over again.

I asked the water to surface. The level of the lake rose dramatically, as if filling from underneath as well.

Tens swore, but I didn’t break my concentration. “What’s the plan?” Tens growled.

“I don’t know. I swear. I think that dude is retiring,” Sergio muttered.

“You don’t know much, do you?”

Sergio sniveled, “I just wanted to find my brother, I swear. Not kill people. Here, take my computer. There’s a backup, but take it.”

I saw a knife flash in the sunlight and worried until I realized Tens wielded it.

I asked the water to keep coming.

A golf cart sped toward us. The man driving seemed possessed and determined. I froze for a moment before I recognized Timothy in the seat next to him, holding on as they bumped and swerved as fast as they could.

I shivered. The heat of the sun seemed to turn on inside me. My fingertips burned and itched.

The driver strode off the cart before it was even stopped. He didn’t say anything but waded into Tens and Sergio, backhanding the younger man with the strength of ten men. I heard the reverberation and the smack. He kept walking toward the Nocti in the trailer.

“You!” the leader called to him.

Tens grabbed the computer, tossed it into the lake, then scooted back to me. “Who’s that?”

“No idea,” I muttered as the water pushed over the banks. It lapped at the computer and the tires of the trucks parked at the edge, waving over the cords and reels of wire along the ground connecting the trailers.

Sergio slunk away out of my sight. “Tens—”

“Let him go. I’ll find him later,” Tens answered me. “What do you want me to do?”

Timothy motioned to us. I squinted at the well. I pictured a great gush of water surfacing. Carrying the Nocti away, shorting out their equipment, washing this place free of their poison.

“Enough!” the driver shouted, raising his hands, light already flowing from his fingertips.

“He’s one of us,” Tens said. “Don’t stop.” He picked me up and carried me to the golf cart.

Water, pour forth, out of the dark and into the light
.

“That’s our friend Argy,” Timothy informed us.

“Juliet’s father?” Tens put the pieces together immediately.

I swallowed back questions, my eyes never leaving the lake, which was now twice its size and growing fast.

I saw the brick wall crumble completely, the pipe became a projectile, and an explosion of water filled the air as a blinding light told me Argy enlightened the Nocti near him. Saturated, Tens drove near Argy, who jumped onto the side of the cart and we dodged fleeing spectators and sympathizers ahead of the massive wave.

Behind us water poured up, pushed up hundreds of feet into the air; it fell like a heavy rain. Trucks began to float; circuits shorted out. The electricity everywhere at the track blacked out. The screams we heard weren’t of fear but of frustration, of thwarted evil.

We drove onto the track, through turn four and toward the tunnel that would lead us to the outside. I saw the finish line, the line of bricks the winners kiss, and knew that today we’d won. The war wasn’t over, but this victory belonged to us.

I
t seemed as if the water was the last bit of excitement officials needed before they hurried to get people away from the track. People threw around the words
terrorism
and
terrorist
as they joined the throngs. They passed along pieces of gossip in loud voices, faster than the speed of light.

“We have to find my dad,” I urged Fara as we were swallowed into the hordes of exiting people.

“He knows where to find you. He’s fine. I’m sure of it.” Fara tugged me along, and even though I knew she
was right, I hated leaving before we knew everyone was safe.

“I don’t remember where we parked,” I said.

“Doesn’t matter. Argy has the keys. We’ll hitch.”

“We’ll what?” I asked as she started to jog. We dodged around people, who stumbled, shocked and shaken, into the neighborhoods around the track, as we headed toward the massive parking lots in the distance.

I stopped questioning Fara as she got us from place to place and finally into a cab that could take us home. “Wait.” I didn’t want to go back to the condo. “Let’s go see Faye.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, Gus’ll know what’s going on and I think it’s time.”

Fara changed her instructions and chatted with the cabbie, who’d listened to everything until the radio signals failed. She acted like this was a normal day.

I hope this isn’t our normal. I don’t have the stamina for it
. I yawned, closing my eyes in the sway of the car and adrenaline crash.

“Juliet? Wake up.” Fara shook me.

“I slept?” I asked.
No nightmares? No tornadoes? No Kirian pleading with me?
I felt rested for the first time in, well, ever.

“Yes, can you handle souls or should we wait?” she asked.

“I’m okay.” I meant it.

We walked into the hospice, and several nurses smiled
at us, but it was Delia who exclaimed and ran over. “You two look terrible. Are you okay?”

I smiled. “We’re good.”

She lowered her voice. “The track still standing? Gus told me to pray all day and I have been. My whole prayer chain.”

“Thanks. The track is there but we don’t know how many casualties there are yet.”

Her face closed. “I’m sure there are less than there would have been. You did your best, right? We haven’t had any deaths here today, so no souls to worry about.” She opened a door. “This is the staff locker room. Clean scrubs are in the cabinets—use anything in my cubby and get cleaned up. Faye and Gus need you.”

I cleared my throat. “Thank you, Delia.”

She nodded and left. It wasn’t until I saw our skin scrubbed clean that I realized how filthy we were.

By the time we walked into Faye’s room, Gus and Rumi were there, as were Meridian and Tens.

I hugged Meridian as if I hadn’t seen her in lifetimes. It felt as if we hugged for the first time. I finally understood so many of the conversations she’d tried to have with me, so many opportunities she presented that I shied away from. “Were you behind the geyser?” I asked.

She nodded. “You helped, though. If you hadn’t figured out how to move energy through you, I never would have even known to try.”

I grinned.

“Your dad showed up and killed the Nocti leader.”

She turned to Rumi. “I’m sorry, Rumi. I don’t know how to tell you this, but you were right about your uncle.”

Even though Meridian’s tone was soft and apologetic, I watched Rumi crumble under her words.

She continued. “But without your help, we never would have known to look for the well or how to use it. And the Woodsmen used the Spirit Stones to spot the Nocti.” She embraced him. “You have nothing to be ashamed about.”

“Ah, lass, you’re kind, but my heart aches nonetheless.”

Gus reached out and touched Rumi’s back. To me he said, “Tony called from the hospital in Crawfordsville. He’s going to be fine and they’ve recovered the remains as well. A friend was headed over to pick him up; he’ll be here soon.”

“You found your mom?” Meridian asked. “You have to tell us everything. Your father is debriefing the Woodsmen and coming to your condo as soon as he can.”

Fara collapsed onto the couch and said, “Is anyone else hungry?”

Tens high-fived her, while Meridian and I shook our heads in laughter. Over pizza and warm cookies, we traded stories.

It wasn’t until Meridian began talking about what they saw when leaving the track and the amount of water flooding the area that I realized Faye and I sat listening to Meridian at my kitchen table.

On the other side of the window was a working farm
at the height of summer. Corn grew taller than Rumi. Animals fragrantly and loudly lived near the big farmhouse. Out in front was a picnic table covered with a whole roast pig, piles of sweet white corn, green tomatoes, and hunks of watermelon.

“Hello, Juliet,” Faye said. “You’ve had quite the full week, haven’t you?”

Among the guests gathering were my mother and Kirian. They waved to us. I barely recognized my mother; she was young, beautiful, and voluptuous like a healthy girl my age should be.

“It’s a lot,” I said, waving back to them.

In a role reversal, Faye bent down and kissed my cheek, much like the many times I’d kissed hers these last weeks of her illness. “What shall I tell your mother? Anything?”

I stuttered. So many things sped through my mind. “Please tell her she’ll be buried soon. As soon as I can, so she can move on.” I paused. “And I love her.”

“Let me tell you something from a mother’s perspective.” Faye stepped closer to the window. “We always watch over the children we love. Buried or not, we never leave them. Never worry that she wants to be anywhere else.”

I nodded.

“And you, tell Gus to live long and happily and that his wife will greet him?” Faye asked me.

“Yes, of course.”

She slipped into the cornfield and ran toward her
home, the screen door banging open as crowds flew down the porch steps, running toward her.

My mother waved again, took Kirian’s hand, and they headed toward a glorious sunset on the horizon. Their forms faded until all I saw were the myriad colors of perfect light.

I closed my eyes.

A
s hard as it was to admit, Faye’s transition to the Light was a relief for everyone.
Her most of all
. Gus kicked us out late, told us to go home and sleep for a week. I didn’t have the energy to argue with him. Too much.

Freshly showered, with aloe caking my blistered sunburn, I lay in our bed pestering Tens telepathically.

“Say something else. Say something else.”

“Can we stop now?”
Tens answered me.

“Are you annoyed?”

Speaking out loud, he said, “How can you tell?” He groaned, rolling toward me. He pulled me close, snuggling a thigh between my legs and my head onto his chest.

I sighed.
I love this man more each day. How is that possible?

“Because it’s true,” Tens answered.

I gasped. “That wasn’t for you to hear.”

“Then don’t say it.” He chuckled. “It’s not like I listen in on purpose.”

“What? So now we have to practice not hearing each other?”

“Tomorrow. Please tomorrow. Or the next day, or next year.” Tens rubbed my arms with his palms.

“What if it goes away?”
I asked.

“It’s not going to.”

The clock flipped to three a.m. but I was too jazzed to sleep.
We did it. Spanked Nocti ass
.

Eddie Smith died in the crash with the bunny. There were rumors of bribes, pills, and gambling, but I guessed we’d never really know why he’d agreed. Race officials vowed to have all the water damage cleaned up in time for the next race. The race results were frozen with the last yellow flag. People grumbled about it ending under caution, but it was the best-case scenario I knew.

Tens and I hadn’t yet talked about the other sidelight of our telepathy. I hadn’t told him yet—was waiting for the right time, if ever there was one to tell him—that while we were able to communicate without words, I also saw his whole life as if it were my own. The parts he didn’t want me to know—the ugly pieces of surviving and living on the streets—until he got to Revelation. I knew he’d
rather those memories stayed hidden for all time. “I know about your life,” I said.