Anarchy (The Stone Legacy Series Book 4) (6 page)

Chapter Nine

Jayden had searched the hotel from top to bottom, in every room, on every staircase. No annoying little girl. He even stopped by the room full of computer parts where she spent most of her time. Nothing.

He stood in the center of the lobby, arms crossed, leaning against the dry stone fountain. “Hey.” Hawa walked toward him with a mop and broom in one hand, and a half-filled bucket of water in the other. “We need to do chores.”

“Oh.” He stood up straight. “Really?” He eyed a puddle on the floor nearby collecting drops from a leak in the roof. “This place needs serious work, and then maybe a deep cleaning.”

She set down the supplies. “Yes, I see that. But I can’t turn back time and keep this place from falling apart, so cleaning is the best we can do.” She handed him the mop. “I’ll sweep, you follow with the mop.”

Jayden stood in silence, watching Hawa gather dust and dirt into a pile while the walls around her were bowed, the floors were splintered, and the ceiling was probably a few years away from caving in.

“You’re kidding, right?”

She responded by pushing a pile of dirt into a dustpan and emptying it into a plastic bag. “Are you going to help or just stand there?” She hadn’t made eye contact with him since she came downstairs, and her posture was stiff. “We have to get this done before we can have anything to eat. Those are the rules.” When he didn’t reply, she stopped sweeping and finally looked at him. “
What
?”

He leaned on the mop. “So…is this going to be weird now?” When she didn’t respond, he frowned. “Hawa.”

She pursed her lips. “It won’t get weird if you don’t make it weird. So just…don’t, okay?” She returned to sweeping. “We both needed something. We gave it to each other. That’s it.”

Just a few hours ago, she’d been someone completely different. Her eyes warm, her lips soft against his. Her touch was gentle, and he could have sworn she felt something. That she wanted to be with him. It was the first time in months he’d had a connection with anyone…or so he’d thought.

He dipped the mop in a bucket of water and slopped it over the floor, following where she had swept. And that was it. Sweep and mop. Sweep and mop. More awkward silence.

About a half hour later, Jayden dropped the mop in the bucket and sloshed it around, watching Hawa collect the last of the dirt pile.
I never knew you had a domestic streak in you,
he said with his mind.

“I don’t.” She glanced back at him. “Now shut up before—”

“Hey!” A girl’s voice called from above them.

Jayden stopped and peered up to the second floor. Modem stood with her hands on her hips, staring down at him. “You gonna make me wait all day?”

Hawa turned toward him. “What is she talking about?”

Jayden shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Why does she want to talk to you?”

He rested the mop against the wall and walked toward the staircase. “Don’t know,” he lied. “I’ll go see.” He scaled the stairs to where Modem waited, her four-foot-two frame standing way taller in attitude than someone her age should be allowed.

“Like I said. Dense.” Modem turned and waved Jayden forward. “Come on. We need to talk.”

Jayden followed her into an empty room, where she shut and locked the door before climbing out the only window, onto a fire escape. She bent over, peering back into the room at him. “You coming or what?” A warm breeze swept into the room, blowing strands of her curly black hair around her face.

He glanced over his shoulder. Hawa could be on her way up. Better to talk to the brat without her around, which meant getting out of the hotel. Even if he wasn’t totally fond of heights.

He threw one leg out the window, and then the other. The rusted steel of the fire escape groaned under his weight. Modem was already halfway down the ladder leading to a narrow street. He grabbed hold of the railing and peered over the edge. “Is this really necessary?”

Modem stopped and looked up.
You want Brisa to follow us? Because she will if she knows we went out the main entrance.

Jayden’s lips parted. Hot shit. She did it too—the whole mind-talking thing.

Who was this girl?

“Okay, then,” he mumbled before following her down. The sounds of the city filled his ears—honking horns, the rush of cars zooming by, and the low, steady murmur of people talking on their cellphones as they walked down the sidewalks.

“Where are we going?” He strode beside Modem, and she kicked a pebble along the way, watching it bounce until it came to a stop. “Hey. Why didn’t you tell me you were like us?”

Modem shrugged. “’Cause.” She stole a glance at him, and then rolled her eyes. “Brisa would have freaked out if she found out, okay?”

“She doesn’t know?”

“Nope. And I’m not going to tell her, either. Not yet, anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s overprotective and crazy.”

Jayden grinned. The girl was growing on him. “What were you doing in my dream last night?”

“In your dreams?” She kicked the pebble again. This time it flew into the bushes. “You some kinda perv or something?”

His eyes widened. “What? No, I didn’t—”

She laughed. “I’m just messing with you.” She turned a corner, leading him down a thin walkway to what looked like a park set in the center of the city. Towering trees gave shade to kids on swings and a few women sitting at a picnic table.

Modem twirled a few strands of hair around her finger. “What are you doing here, really?”

Jayden shrugged. “I don’t know. Hawa brought us here. What are
you
doing here? You’re not like the other kids.”

“Clearly. And I knew you were like Brisa the second I saw you. That you guys were the same—had some kind of ability, like me.” She slowed beside a low rock wall and hopped onto the edge, dangling her feet off the side.

Jayden plopped beside her. “So…you’re Riyata, too?”

Modem blinked at him. “Is that what you call it?” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I always felt like a total freak until Hawa came along. When I found out what she could do, I didn’t feel so weird.”

“Why didn’t you say anything when we got here?”

“I guess ’cause I don’t trust you. Maybe I wasn’t sure.” She fidgeted with one of her necklaces.

“Fair enough.” Neither of them spoke while they watched the people in the park. They were all so carefree, laughing and playing in the late-afternoon heat.

“Why do you keep looking for that woman?”

Jayden shook his head. “I’m a seeker, it’s kind of what I do. But I don’t seek her. Not on purpose, anyway. My ability has been kind of schizo lately.” He tapped his temple with his finger. “It’s all messed up. I can’t control it.”

“Oh. Well, that makes sense. I wondered if you had some kind of death wish or something.” Modem shook her head, her tiny features carrying more concern than most kids would understand. “That lady is bad news. I can feel it.”

“Yeah. I know.” He plucked a yellow weed out of the grass and spun it between his fingers. “So, what do you do, anyway? Read minds?”

“I’m a hacker. The best hacker—”

“Between here and Fifty-Fourth Street. Yeah, I remember.”

“Right. I hack into dreams, thoughts, and memories.”

“Reminds me of this creepy girl from back where I stayed before this.” Freaking
Children-of-the-Corn
Marzena and her mind powers. Could Modem be a dreamwalker? It explained why Modem liked computers so much. Dreamwalkers preferred to be alone. Hacking computer systems was a one-person job, and she spent a ton of time fiddling around with all of the flashing lights, alone in her room tucked in a quiet corner of the hotel.

“Hey. How old are you?”

Model eyed him. “Twelve. Why?”

“Twelve, twelve? Or fourteen hundred, twelve?”

She furrowed her brow. “Are you on drugs?”

He scratched his head. “You should probably talk to Hawa when we get back.” Apparently, Modem didn’t know what the whole dreamwalker thing consisted of. The poor kid still didn’t know she wouldn’t age much more, no matter how old she was. Of course nobody had really confirmed it yet, but from what he had seen, his theory was pretty solid.

“Okay.” She stretched out the word. “Anyway, where were you before you came here?”

“Doesn’t matter.” His thoughts flashed to Zanya. “Not anymore.” He tossed the weed to the ground, determined to stop doing that—stop thinking about her at random times, when he wasn’t prepared and it hurt him the most. “So,” he continued. “You hacked into my dream and blocked Contessa from seeing me?”

“Pretty much. Who is she?”

“A witch. She’s powerful, and she’s using that book to do something
really
not good.” The image of hands reaching up through the soil flashed through his mind.

“So the book is important?”

Jayden nodded. “It has a bunch of Mayan history in it and is loaded with important stuff that needs to be kept safe.”

Over the next hour, he tried to explain everything to the girl with as much honesty as he could, while not making it sound too scary. There was no telling how much she could handle. But the fact was, it was a matter of life or death. Contessa wouldn’t waste her time on small stuff. If she succeeded at whatever she was up to, it would be bad news for everyone. Including the kid.

“Then I guess we don’t have a choice,” Modem said. “I’ll help you get it back.” She hopped off the ledge and walked back toward the hotel.

“Wait. What?” He followed her down the walkway. “No way. It would be too dangerous.”

She blew out a puff of air. “Yeah, ’cause you did a peachy job keeping yourself out of trouble last time, didn’t’cha? Face it. You need me. If you wanna get that book, you need me to hack into your seeker-vision-thing and keep her from knowing you’re snooping around. Then you can get close enough to snatch the book.”

He had to admit, the kid had a good idea. He pressed his lips into a tight line. “Hawa would kill me.”

“She doesn’t have to know. Not unless you tell her.”

Jayden walked in silence, considering her proposition. She could come in handy. Then again, she could get herself killed.

“What’s up with you and Brisa, anyway? You guys dating?”

Jayden shrugged. “No.” He paused. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

She snorted. “Doesn’t sound like you are if you don’t know.”

“It’s complicated. What’s going on between her and Blade?”

Modem crinkled her nose. “She didn’t tell you?”

“It’s obvious they were a thing, but past that, I didn’t ask.”

“I’ll tell you, but only if you swear not to tell her I told you, ’cause she’d be really mad.”

“Okay, sure.”

“Seriously. I don’t trust you. If you want me to, you have to earn it.”

He drew an X over his chest and lifted two fingers. “Boy Scout’s honor.”

Modem rolled her eyes. “It’s three fingers, genius.” She chuckled. “Anyway, so yeah, they used to be a thing.
The
thing, actually. It was a lot better back then. The hotel was kept in pretty good shape thanks to Brisa being on top of everything. She looked after the kids—like, really looked after them. She cared about what they ate and found a way to get them to the public clinic if they were sick. It was like having a big sister who was a local badass. But she was
always
by Blade’s side, no matter what. The rules were enforced, but not with fear, like they are now. And nobody ever went missing or got kicked out.” Her eyes saddened. “Not like now. Her and Blade ran the place together. After Brisa lost the baby, he never forgave her, and she took off.”

Jayden stopped mid-stride. “Baby?” he said softly.

Modem’s face drained of color. “You didn’t know that either?”

He shook his head.

She clapped her hand over her mouth.

“Hawa was pregnant?”

Model let her hand fall to her side. “Please don’t tell her I told you. Since you guys are dating—maybe—I figured you knew.”

“I won’t tell her, but…” Fuck. How did he even respond to that?

“Listen.” She shifted toward him. “It wasn’t her fault. They were both shocked when she found out she was pregnant. Blade was happy. Hawa, not so much. When she lost it, he blamed her. He said she never wanted it in the first place. But she didn’t do what he thinks she did.” The girl balled her fists. “He never should have shoved her that hard.” Her eyes darkened. “She broke right through the railing.”

A spike of rage tore through Jayden’s gut. “What?” He worked his jaw. “He hit her?”

Modem looked away. “More than that.” She swallowed. “It was bad.” She crossed her arms, seeming more like a little girl in that moment. “After she got out of the hospital, Brisa left, and we didn’t hear from her again, until she came back with you.”