Kilenya Series Books One, Two, and Three (79 page)

Jacob started. “Mom, I have to—things are getting out of hand.”

“I agree with the child,” Aldo said. “If he doesn’t learn to control the hallucinations, they’ll control him.”

The Fat Lady nodded. “And it might help in our fight against the Lorkon.”

Jacob slowly sat up. “Exactly. It’s time for me to know more about this skill. And they’re not night terrors. How long was I out of it?”

“Only about two or three minutes,” Mom said. “Which was way too long. You really, really had us worried!”

“Three minutes? There’s no way! It felt like fifteen, at least!”

Dad shook his head. “Mom’s right. We’d barely come through the doors when you stopped shaking.”

Jacob got to his feet, brushing himself off. “This is so weird. I don’t know what to think.”

“Don’t stress over it,” Ebony said.

The Fat Lady smirked, her eyes sparkling. “But figure it out, just the same.”

Matt snorted. “He’s going to freak out over it—that’s how Jacob is. If he doesn’t know what’s going on, he focuses on it until he does.”

With a sinking feeling, Jacob remembered that Kevin had witnessed the entire thing. He turned to see how the basketball player was reacting. He looked like he was trying not to run away.

“Sorry you had to see that,” Jacob said.

“Nah, it’s cool.” The color around Kevin’s face told Jacob it was anything
but
cool.

Jacob laughed. Then a thought hit him really hard. He looked at Aloren. “How much does Kevin know?”

The colors that made up the emotion of guilt flowed through the air around her. “Well . . . he knows I’m not from Earth.”

Jacob’s mouth popped open. “So, you
did
tell him. Why?”

If the murmurs around Jacob didn’t show the surprise of the adults present, the colors emanating from their faces definitely did. Most of them were shocked. The rest were upset. Really upset. Jacob understood—he was upset, too—but he couldn’t figure out why they felt so strongly. Hadn’t they gotten over it earlier, when Aloren and Kevin first showed up? Was it possible they’d hoped Aloren hadn’t said something to him?

Aloren rushed to explain herself. “I’d made way too many mistakes. Things didn’t add up—he asked me all sorts of questions I couldn’t possibly answer. Like, where my parents were, who I’d grown up with, my favorite things to do, favorite foods, who’s my best friend. How could I tell him that Hazel is only two inches tall? And then he saw her! I tried to cover it—”

“She doesn’t need to explain herself,” Kevin said. “I believe her, and I won’t spill what’s going on and where she’s from.” The expression on his face, not to mention the colors, showed he was serious.

Jacob’s parents looked at their son for confirmation. “He’s telling the truth,” Jacob said. “Or, at least, he thinks he is.”

“When did you find out?” Ebony asked Kevin.

“This morning, when she invited me to come.” He laughed. “She’d told me I was going to meet some pretty interesting people.” He put his arm around her. “After the things she’d said, and after seeing Hazel, I knew she was being honest.”

Matt snickered. “Yeah, well, did she tell you that none of our family, except for Amberly, are from Earth? Not even our parents.”

Kevin’s jaw dropped. “What? Are you serious?”

“And what’s more,” Matt said, ignoring his parents’ facial expressions, “my parents are royalty. My dad is the king of Gevkan, where Aloren is from, and my mom is the queen there. Oh, and Jacob and I aren’t brothers. And Jacob has magical—”

“That’s enough,” Mom said. “You’re saying way more than you’ve been given permission to tell.”

Matt blushed slightly. “Sorry.”

Kevin’s mouth hadn’t shut yet, and the bright yellow around his face showed he might not recover from his surprise for a long time. “I . . . I . . .” He looked at Jacob.

Jacob laughed. “Yeah, it came as a complete shock to me, too. I’ve only known about all of this for a few months.”

Kevin shook his head. He chuckled, apparently putting his disbelief away for the time being. “Clark, I always knew there was something wrong with you.”

Jacob laced his fingers behind his neck. “You have no idea.” It felt weird joking with the guy.

Kevin laughed, then kissed Aloren on the forehead, and Jacob turned away to find his basketball.

“Okay, enough serious stuff,” Mom said. “Time for dinner!”

Everyone cheered and returned to their seats to get their plates.

Chapter 8. Sonda Lake Tunnels

A
fter dinner, Mom ushered everyone except the kids—who went to Amberly’s room to play—into the large family room. Dad had insisted on adding it to the house several years back, wanting the extra space for watching movies and basketball games. It made Jacob smile now to think of how exciting America would have been to someone like Dad, who’d never seen an NBA game.

The movie started. After nearly ten minutes of blankly staring at the TV screen, the only thing Jacob knew was that it was an action film of some sort, shot in New York City.

He couldn’t stop thinking about his “episode.” Why hallucinations? Or were they closer to visions? Obviously, they weren’t night terrors, as his mom had originally believed. And the fact that he’d seen his family in the
past
had to mean something.

He thought back on all the times he could remember it happening—whatever
it
was. The first instance had been while playing basketball in the orange gym. What had been unique about that situation? He remembered being tired—not having gotten much sleep the night before. Then there was the time when he’d woken up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water—maybe the episodes had something to do with sleep. Maybe his body was kicking him into a freakish sort of REM cycle.

But what about in the tunnel, when he was fighting the Ember Gods? He hadn’t been sleepy then. Exhausted, yes, but not sleepy. And playing basketball earlier—he’d had plenty of rest the night before.

Jacob thought everything over. Was it the time of day? His temperature? Was he sick?

What if it had to do with the amount of danger he was in? Or, more concisely, the intensity of the moment? Fighting the Ember Gods was pretty freaky. And he was always super focused while playing basketball. But no—that time when he’d seen the Indians, he was staring out the window, and it didn’t fit.

It wasn’t due to location, or what he was wearing, or who he was with. Every episode was different from the others. Jacob sighed in frustration.

Then he decided to single in on the exact moment when the episodes started. Was there something smaller—much smaller—triggering them? He started with earlier that day, while playing basketball in the driveway with everyone. He’d had sweat in his eyes. He’d blinked to clear them, but couldn’t, so he’d just squinted through the haze.

Jacob sat up in his chair, feeling like he’d just hit on something important. Was it possible? The episodes had something to do with his eyes? With squinting? Before the first hallucination, he’d been tired—tired eyes don’t operate normally. And while in the tunnel with the Ember Gods, he’d been surrounded by fire and smoke, along with having sweat in his eyes. He had squinted in all of those situations. Then . . . while at the window. No squinting. But his eyes had been out of—

Jacob jumped from the couch when it hit him. His eyes had been out of focus! He’d been staring through the window, not really seeing what was out there, thinking about something else.

“Hey! Sit down!”

He didn’t know who’d said it, but he popped back onto the couch, elation pouring over him. That had to be the trigger! Squinting was only a symptom, or a side effect of trying to get his eyes to focus. He’d figured it out.
Yes
!

He took several deep breaths, clearing his mind so he could put the theory to the test, then unfocused his eyes, gazing blankly at the TV.
Hallucinate
, he thought to himself.

Nothing happened.

Something wasn’t right. What, though?

Jacob chuckled and nearly smacked himself on the forehead when he realized what it was. They weren’t hallucinations, and his body wasn’t going to obey an order it didn’t understand.

He stared at the TV again, recognizing that the main characters were still in New York City, and unfocused his eyes, this time picturing the location where the movie had been filmed.

Suddenly he stood on that exact same street. The sun was down already, but the road was still full of people. Everyone was wearing coats, but he didn’t feel the cold.

“Yeah, I heard,” said a sleek-looking woman with tall boots as she walked past Jacob.

A plump woman nodded emphatically. “And she’s suing him!”

The two didn’t even notice him.

Jacob felt a tight pain in his chest and he gasped, losing concentration. The pain dissipated and the scene changed back to the family room.

It worked! He’d done it!

He jumped to his feet. “I’ve figured it out! Turn off the movie! I gotta tell everyone something!”

Mom switched the lights on, and Jacob felt himself flushing when every eye turned to him. He put his embarrassment aside.

“What is it, son?” Dad asked after he’d paused the show.

“I’m not hallucinating! I’m seeing other places and people! They’re real, living people! I was sitting here, on the couch, practicing, and I ended up on that street in New York City!” He pointed at the TV.

Mom raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure, honey?”

“Of course! Here, let me tell you what’s going on.” He proceeded to explain his theories, along with the questions he’d considered, finally telling them about putting it to the test.

“Wow,” the Fat Lady said. She turned to Aldo, who was sitting next to her on the last row of couches. “I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised.”

Aldo shook his head. “No, but I am, just the same.”

“What are you talking about?” Jacob asked.

“What you’ve experienced is Time-Seeing,” the Fat Lady said. “And it’s incredibly rare for humans, which is probably why none of us considered it.”

Dad nodded, putting his cup down. He was sitting in his usual spot—center row, center of the room. “And this is yet another reason you need to work with the Shiengols as soon as possible. They’re also Time-Seers.”

Jacob grinned. “Great! I can’t wait!”

“Okay, so now that you’ve got this really super-freakin’ cool ability,” Matt said, “why don’t you do something awesome with it?”

“Like what?” Jacob asked.

“Go see the pyramids!”

A few heads in the room nodded, and he was surprised to see that even the adults looked interested in hearing the outcome.

“Okay, I can try.” He cleared his thoughts and took a deep breath, then pictured Egypt in his mind. He looked ahead, unfocused his eyes, and concentrated specifically on the Great Pyramid.

The family room disappeared, replaced by a night-time glimpse of the pyramids. The scene was brief, and just as fast as it had come, left. Jacob found himself slumped on the couch.

“Dude, you totally fell.”

“I know. That didn’t last long. Let me go again.”

He stood, trying to focus harder. This time he felt like he was actually standing there, in front of the huge pyramid. Wow. The pain in his chest returned, he lost concentration, and zipped back home, falling down again.

“I’m not very good at it.”

“That’s fine,” Aldo said. “You’ll have plenty of time to practice.”

“No, he won’t,” Gallus said from the couch on the left side of the room. “This new ability is an extremely powerful one.” He leaned forward. “Don’t you all see? He could use it to spy on the Lorkon to figure out what their next plan will be. He needs to gain control of it, and fast.”

Jacob glanced at his mom. How would she respond to that? She bit her lip, grimacing, then took a deep breath. “He’s right.” She pressed her hands against her cheeks, glancing apologetically at Jacob. “Honey, don’t stress yourself, but continue practicing.”

Jacob nodded, trying to keep from smiling. He couldn’t believe Mom had actually agreed—she was always so overprotective! Being something more than an errand boy with a magical key was going to be great. Not only that, but this ability really did have some cool advantages—if he could figure out how to use them.

He glanced at Kevin and Aloren. He’d nearly forgotten they were there, sitting next to Aldo and the Fat Lady on the last row. Aloren was leaning back in her chair, hands behind her head. She gave Jacob an encouraging smile. Kevin gawked at him as if he’d turned into a new video game—awe, excitement, and a little nervousness flowing in the air around him. Jacob couldn’t help but chuckle, wondering how long it would take for Kevin to adjust to this new knowledge.

Long after everyone had left, Jacob stayed in the family room, trying to Time-See. The best he did was to get brief glimpses at places around the world, but he had a lot of fun doing even just that. He could travel without going anywhere! It didn’t take long for him to discover, though, that he felt sick if he didn’t wait at least two minutes between tries. He took advantage of that extra time by pulling out some old encyclopedias and reading up on the places he was visiting.

During one of his breaks, a question popped into his mind. Before he’d known what this ability was, his body had sent him to some really random places. Why? And what had chosen those locations? Maybe nerve firings in his brain? The tunnel while fighting the Ember Gods had been really hot, and he’d gone to a snowy mountainside—perhaps to cool off? ‘Course, that didn’t really explain all the other places he’d been, but there might not be an answer for those occurrences.

Around one in the morning, his mom came downstairs and told him to get to bed. “You won’t improve if you over-tire yourself.”

“That might actually make it easier—”

Mom shook her head and pointed at the door. She waited for him to leave the room first before turning off the light and shutting the door behind them.

Jacob pulled himself up the stairs to his room. He’d been so excited to practice that he’d ignored his body, and he was surprised to find that he really
was
tired. As he fell asleep, he smiled to himself. Today, he’d seen some of the coolest places in the world. Turkey, the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, the Mediterranean, Hawaii, and he’d even visited ruins from the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayas. It was like using the Key to get anywhere, only this wasn’t illegal or off-limits.