The Secret (11 page)

Karen shifted on the couch, looking troubled. “They weren’t accidents.”

Mr. Drake frowned. “There was a spell—a way to gain their powers once they died. He couldn’t unlock it. He asked me for help—but—”

“You left.” Jake shook his head in annoyance. “You ran.”

His eyes looked sad and apologetic. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Karen didn’t look at him. “Will you help us now?”

Mr. Drake started shaking his head. “I have a family to protect.”

My heart was thudding rapidly inside of me. “Why didn’t you fight him?”

Reed gave me an incredulous look, cocking his eyebrow. “Coz he was afraid, Lanie. He was a
coward
.” 

Guilt formed in the pit of my stomach and I looked away from him.

Reed turned back to Mr. Drake and his voice boomed. “Where are our powers?”

Mr. Drake shrugged. “You still have them. They are still inside of you.”

Reed’s eyes flashed with venom. “Don’t mess with me.”

“I can tell that they are still inside of you—I can
feel
it.” For a brief moment his face flashed with remorse. He turned away and cleared his throat. “That’s all I know.”

And then it dawned on me. “You
do
know where the book is.”

His head started twitching back and forth. “No…”

In one leap, Reed was across the room, pushing Mr. Drake against the wall.

Marsha moved beside him and stomped on Mr. Drake’s foot. “Tell us, ‘cause I swear those cheap, knock-off shoes of yours won’t hold up against my designer heel.”

Mr. Drake started making gagging noises from the pressure Reed was putting on his throat.

Jake was soon next to them, looking angry and puzzled. “Ease up, Reed.”

Finally, Reed let him go.

Mr. Drake slumped to the floor. “I had it. When I left ten years ago—it was the only thing I could do to protect everyone from him. But—” He let his breath out and touched his throat. “But today—I went to get it…and it was gone. I don’t know where it’s at.”

The hair on the back of my neck rose and I knew. I knew why he hadn’t come home sooner. “The Flatirons. That’s where you’ve been today—isn’t it? And that’s why my father came here. He knew you had the book.”

Episode 12: Freedom

“You know the Equinox is starting?” Rob sat in the chair next to my mom’s bed. His face was pastier than usual and he had a defeated look on his face. “And we’re no closer to finding out
anything
—where the book is, who’s trying to kill them, how to get rid of your powers.”

I waved him away. “Go home, take a shower. You’ve been locked up in this room for the past forty-eight hours. There’s nothing we can do, Rob.”

His eyes grew serious. “I just don’t want us to miss our chance to free you—and help them. If Dad was the only other person that knew about the book, then he must have told Mom.”

I touched Mom’s soft hand. “Do you think he told Luth?”

Rob began to circle the room, touching the tuft of hair on his chin in thought. “No, but who knows.”

I looked out of the window. “Mom must have told someone.”

Rob’s phone buzzed and he answered it. “Stewart—hey. Yeah, I’m still here. We’re just waiting for her to wake up.”

Rob smiled and I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him do that. “Oh.” He covered the phone with his hand. “He’s getting off his plane right now.”

I thought of Stewart with his neatly trimmed beard and soft brown eyes. My father’s oldest friend. The only one we could trust. The only one from before The Foundation. My dad had always kept a picture of them together, standing in their military garb with a plane behind them. I felt myself relax. Stewart had offered to come help us figure this out. “The cavalry’s coming.”

Rob nodded, relief filling his face. “Okay—great, see you in a little bit.” Ending the call, he pulled his laptop bag over his shoulder. “Karen told me Reed is obsessed with finding something in the cave—are they going back there tonight? It creeps me out—that sketch of them dead. Plus, the Equinox starting.”

I sighed. “Yeah. I told Jake that it was pointless—we’ve scoured the cave a dozen times. The book is gone. But they were all going to head up there.”

Rob searched my eyes. “How serious is this thing…with you and Jake?”

I felt myself blush. “I don’t know.” I thought of earlier that day when I was getting ready to leave for the Facility. The way Jake’s arms had held me to him…I’d felt safe.

Rob squinted at me. “I’m worried.”

Cameron, one of the nurses, walked into the room. His six foot frame towered over us. The blonde wig and fake eyelashes made him less intimidating. “Yo, Rob and Lanie, what’s up?”

Rob’s eyes went wide at Cameron’s appearance and then he laughed. “Nice.”

Cameron touched his wig. “Hey—don’t knock it ‘til you try it. They love it around here—don’t you, Mrs. Hart?” He looked at Mom and then went for her chart, starting on her vitals check.

Gratitude warmed me. “Thanks for being so good to her.”

Turning back to us, he pulled an envelope out of his pocket. “The front desk wanted me to bring this down. It’s addressed to your mom.”

Ripping it open, I pulled out a yellow sticky note. The words were smudged.

Rob pulled it to him. “Is that blood?”

I started blinking. Two words were scrawled: The Gathering.

My hand started shaking. “Luth’s here, Rob!” I pointed to the words. “The Gathering. We have to go to the cave!”

We walked through the opening of the cave together, Rob invisible beside me. The smell of sulphur permeated my nostrils and the heat from the raging bonfire scalded my cold skin. Luth’s silver hair shone brightly against the fire. He was wearing a white, fancy top that made him look like an old, rich baron. On the other side of the fire sat Jake, Reed, Marsha, and Karen. They were tied up with gags in their mouths.

My breath caught in my throat and panic knotted in my stomach. Calm. Control. Rob and I had talked about this on the way up. We needed to remain calm.

“Lanie, so nice of you to join us.” Dr. Luth raised a glass of wine over the raging fire with one hand and pointed a gun at me with the other. “When your friends called and told me to meet them here, tonight, I have to confess I wasn’t convinced you’d be here. But I’m proud of them.”

Confusion ran through me. They called Luth?

“Don’t worry.” His eyes were bright. “You’re going to get what you want, Lanie.”

Everything felt like it was in slow motion. “What?”

“To get rid of your powers—to be
normal
.” He spit the words out and tucked the gun behind his back. “Jake told me that’s what you wanted.”

My heart stopped at the mention of Jake’s name. It was true—they’d betrayed me—
he’d
betrayed me.

I looked over the fire and met Jake’s eyes. His jaw was tight and he shook his head back and forth. Scanning the faces of the others, I felt myself calm. Luth was lying.

Luth followed my gaze. “Well, that’s an interesting development. You made friends with them. Isn’t that sweet?”

Calm. Control. I turned back to him. “What do you want, Luth?”

“To celebrate, of course. I’m getting what I want—everyone’s powers. And you’re getting what you want—to be normal.” He gave the others a patronizing look. “Yes, it
is
tragic that you’ve had your powers this whole time. I couldn’t take chances after you saw Lanie at the Foundation that night. I couldn’t have you poking around and asking questions. Plus, it was good for you to think you were without them for a while…and I needed time.” He put his hands in the air and looked around the cave. “But Nicholi could only do a simple block on them. We had to wait—for tonight.”

My heart raced. “Somehow giving up my powers to you doesn’t feel quite right—does it?” I kept my voice steady and I tried to smile sinisterly back at him. “Maybe I should have stayed after you killed my father. We could have
celebrated
then.”

His lip turned up. “Sorry to disappoint you, Lanie. I know your father’s death is something you’ve used to turn this gift of yours into a cross, but it wasn’t me.”

Anger swept over me. “I was
there
.”

Pointing at me, he held his glass mid-air. “No—
you
blacked out.”

I glared at him, disgust and anger raging through me.

“Don’t look at me like that, Lanie. I, personally, thought it was bad form. I thought we could use you—your powers are special.” Thoughtfully, he raised his finger. “And I couldn’t block yours, like I could your father’s—” He stopped at once, turning away from me.

The block…the puzzle started clicking together; my father had been controlled by Nicholi. It all started to make sense now. “My father had been coming for us. And Nicholi killed him. Didn’t he?”

Luth threw his hands up in the air. “Look, he’s the boss. It’s basic—sometimes a few have to be sacrificed for the greater good.”

My hands started to shake. “And what good is that, Luth? What
good
is worth the lives of my parents?” I looked at the others. “And their parents?”

Turning his head sharply, Luth walked over to Jake. “I didn’t kill your mother, Jake. She—she was precious to me. You have to know that. She worked with me. She helped me. I never wanted to see her dead.”

Jake glared up at him and I saw him pulling on the ropes that bound his hands.

Luth pulled away from Jake, gripping his glass and throwing it into the fire. “Astra inclinant sed non obligant.” He cackled like a crazy man. “It’s absurd. They thought it was about this noble thing…to make the world better. They thought they could change the world with their powers—with all of your powers.” He scanned the others. “What did they think they were—gods? That they could control everything? They were such naïve idiots.” He shook his head. “But not Nicholi. He sees the true potential of that power.” He turned back to Jake. “We’ll get your mom back, Jake. We will.”

Sweat started streaming down my forehead. “What do you mean, Luth?”

His eyes smoldered and his voice went low. “We all want to bring back those we love the most—and then to live with them—forever. Don’t we?”

My heart started thumping in my chest. The portrait of the young girl came into my mind. That was why he needed my power. To bring her back. “It doesn’t work, Luth.”

Luth smiled. “Oh, it will. Funny thing is—it might take more time now. But, since we have the book, it doesn’t matter. Nicholi is working on more spells. And, once we have that—we won’t need the Equinox.” He looked at Marsha. “Your sister just started exhibiting signs of her power. Yes, she will be very useful to us.”

Marsha started flailing and grunting.

Luth laughed. “I’ll put you all out of your misery in a moment.”

My heart was pounding. It would not happen—not tonight. I started to draw a gun in the air—but, before I could finish, Luth’s eyes bulged and he grabbed his neck.

Rob turned visible behind him with a chokehold around Luth’s neck. “I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time, Luth.”

Shock crossed Luth’s face. He bent forward—throwing Rob over his back and into the flames of the fire.

“Rob!” Rushing forward, I put my hand up and pictured Rob out of the fire.

Instantly Rob’s body flew out of the flames and onto the ground at Luth’s feet, unscathed.

Rubbing his neck, Luth’s eyes widened and he turned to me. “Your power has grown.”

Blinking in amazement, I looked at my hand.

“I guess we’ll start with you.” Luth closed his eyes and words that sounded like gibberish came out of his mouth.

Cracking pain ripped through me. I clutched my left ear. It was the mark—the pain was coming from the mark.

Luth continued, his words coming faster now—the sound of them started to rip through my whole body.

“No!” The scream tore out of my throat.

“Lanie!”  Rob tried to stand, but Luth kicked him in the head.

Tornado-funneling winds surrounded Luth and me. I tried to focus—but the pain started pulling me to the ground.