New Sight (18 page)

“You ladies alright in there?” Brady asked. “We’re getting worried.”

Inez sighed and said, “Give us a minute!”

“Okay, just making sure, sheesh. Just trying to be a gentleman and all that.”

Lys laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” Inez asked, some of her usual fire returning.

“Oh, I just think it’s funny how much he likes you.” The topic may not have been entirely appropriate, but Lys brought it up anyway. Mostly because she did think it was pretty cute.

“Likes me?” Inez asked.

“Yeah, he’s got a mad crush on you.”

“Mad crush?” Inez asked, sampling the words like a new flavor.

Lys shook her head. “He’s been trying to get your attention since the first second he saw you. How could you not notice?”

“I’ve got bigger things to worry about,” Inez grumbled.

Lys shrugged, conceding the point. “Come on, we should get back.”

Inez didn’t move. “Do you think Mason will do anything against the guys that got Peter?”

“I don’t know, it sounds like he’s tangled with them before.” No other insights came to her mind. The pain returned to Inez’s face. Maybe bugging her about Brady hadn’t been the best thing to do. Inez didn’t need anything else to worry about right now.

The answer seemed to satisfy Inez. She grabbed the first-aid kit with her good arm and pushed out the door. Lys followed, limping slightly and wishing she could restart this whole day—week—all of it.

Kamau and Brady stood outside, not far away.

“Finally! We thought you might have crawled out the window and ran,” Brady said, grinning.

“Tempting,” Inez said.

Brady took the first-aid kit from her. “You’d regret it.”

Inez snorted.

Kamau walked next to Lys. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Lys wished he’d put his arm around her even though it threw yet another spin on the direction her life was going.

“I’m okay,” she said, walking forward. Her leg throbbed, so she went slow, not wanting to provoke it into bleeding everywhere.

Inez and Brady moved faster, leaving them with a little space and time alone. Sort of alone.

Lys swallowed, and found her throat dry as the desert around them. “Is there a drinking fountain around here?” Lys asked.

“On the other side of the building,” Kamau said, jerking his head.

“I’m thirsty,” Lys said. She changed direction. “Do you think we have time?”

Kamau looked back toward the van. “Mark and Ayden are having a fairly serious discussion. They won’t notice.”

“You can hear them from here?” Lys asked.

“Yes.”

“Are you listening to everything they say?”

“Would it bother you if I was?” Kamau asked, looking down at her.

She caught herself staring into his dark eyes and pulled her gaze away. The Need had been silent since she’d attacked Jed, but she knew it wasn’t gone. “I, I don’t know. Maybe. Did you listen to me and Inez?”

Kamau managed to look a little ashamed. He put a hand on her arm. “Yes. I admit I was worried when she offered to go with you. So I thought I would, uh, just make sure everything was okay.”

Lys felt her good knee go weak. Seriously, this guy was unbelievable. And all in a good way. “I admit that I was worried, too. Thanks.” She smiled.

They’d reached the drinking fountain. It took everything she had to turn away from Kamau and lean down to get a drink. Her mouth had gone even drier than before, and even after several good gulps of water, she didn’t feel satisfied. As she stood back up, the world tilted and she staggered.

Kamau reached out to steady her.

“Easy,” Kamau said, keeping her upright and moving in front of her. “I thought you said you were okay.” He had a hand on each of her shoulders.

Lys rubbed her face with a hand. “I was. Am.” She closed her eyes. “Just dizzy.”

“Do you need to sit down?”

The world continued to spin, and she reached out to put a hand on Kamau’s chest. She didn’t mean to, but he was the only steady thing around. “Maybe. Maybe we should get back to the van.”

“Okay.” Kamau sounded worried. He put his arm around her shoulders and she wrapped an arm around his waist. They walked slowly, and every step made the world tilt back and forth like a seesaw.

By the time they got to the van, Brady, Inez, and Mark were sitting in the back. Ayden climbed into the driver’s seat.

Jodi narrowed her eyes at Lys. “Are you okay?”

“Just dizzy,” she said, glad that Kamau still had his arm around her.

“You lost a lot of blood,” Jodi said. “You should probably get some sleep.”

“I doubt that will be a problem,” Lys said as Kamau helped her climb into the van. She took the spot right behind the driver.

Kamau sat at the other end of the bench. “You should put your leg up,” he said, patting the seat between them.

At the moment she didn’t care much about her leg being up—she’d rather be snuggled up with her head on Kamau’s shoulder. But maybe he didn’t feel the same way. Or maybe he didn’t want to lead her on, or maybe he didn’t want to show too much in front of the others. Lys shook her head and ordered herself to stop reading into it. She put her seat belt on and swung her legs up, propping her back against the wall and the window.

Her legs were just long enough that by stretching them out, her feet would be on Kamau. Even after sort of washing them off in the bathroom Lys didn’t want her feet on anyone. She kept her legs bent so she wouldn’t bug him.

The van started backing out. Kamau reached over and gently lifted her feet, setting them on his leg. His warm hands rested on her ankles and his fingers squeezed. “Get some sleep,” he said.

Chapter 21

L
ys dozed.
Her head lolled against the seat as her mind wandered through nightmares. Peter disappeared again and again. Her parents started coming into her dreams as members of the New, with guns, trying to kill her. Darkness kept swarming her, and the Need battled with a desire to use magic that she couldn’t control. She let the magic out, and it consumed her. Of course she could see through everyone’s eyes, and the sheer volume of input scared her. Pleasure swept through her—exhilarating. Then came a sharp pain, and the magic cut off so fast it felt like she had been thrown off a cliff onto sharp rocks below.

She jerked awake, gasping for breath, her whole body screaming in agony. Bringing her legs to her chest, she curled up into a ball, buried her face in her knees. She tried not to cry.

Lys felt someone move next to her. Kamau’s arm went around her shoulders.

“It’s okay,” he whispered in her ear as he rubbed her back.

Lys didn’t believe him. Which meant at least he wasn’t using magic on her. However, none of that helped the way she felt—like she’d just lost the whole world and all of her emotions had been replaced by a black void.

“She probably crashed,” Ayden said.

A crash? Lys tried to use the problem to bring her mind back into focus. Kamau continued to rub her back, and she leaned in to him, needing to feel someone near her. He pulled her closer and held her tight.

“What do you mean by crash?” Kamau asked.

“How much did Mark tell you about the magic?”

Kamau’s rumbling voice reverberated through Lys as she listened, her head still down and her eyes squeezed shut. “He told us about the power levels and the different senses. He explained a little bit about the New and then showed us a control technique.”

“He didn’t explain about the addiction?”

The word made Lys’s head shoot up. Addiction?

Kamau shook his head. “He and the others said something about magic having a price, and about it feeling good to use it, but nothing specifically about addiction.”

Lys glanced in the back seat and found everyone there asleep. Mark’s head rested on a jacket wadded up against the window. Inez leaned against the other window while Brady’s head lolled on her shoulder. The still-lucid part of Lys smiled. Inez would be mad when she woke up—Brady would be in heaven.

“Magic does have a price,” Ayden said. “For some people it’s much worse than others.”

“What do you mean?” Lys asked, finding her voice trembling almost as much as her insides.

“Have you used your magic enough to get how good it feels?” Ayden asked. He waited and Lys shrugged while Kamau shook his head. “Then maybe you haven’t noticed, but the more you use, the more you’ll want to use.”

“Like drugs?” Lys asked.

This time Jodi spoke. She turned around. “For some people. Drugs are a good analogy. Only once you start, you can’t stop using.”

“What do you mean?” Lys asked.

This time Ayden took the question. “Once you break into your magic it becomes a part of you. The power will slowly fill you, and if you don’t use it, letting some of it out, it will overwhelm you.”

Lys thought about the exercise Mark had taught them. He said to keep a balance, letting as much in as you were letting out. Did the magic fill her even when she hadn’t opened up to it?

“What will happen when the magic overwhelms you?” Kamau asked.

“At the very least you’ll lose control with your magic, like Brady did back there,” Jodi said. “At the most you’ll go completely crazy and then lose control.”

“How do you stop it?” Kamau asked.

Ayden shrugged. “Training.”

“Mason’s got a few tonics that help until someone can get themselves under control,” Jodi said.

Lys listened, anger growing inside of her. The fact that a cure didn’t exist made her grind her teeth together and wish to be obliterated from off the face of the earth. The Need wiggled.

“What did you mean by crash?” she asked.

“If we stick to the drug analogy then it’s easier to understand,” Ayden said. “Drugs make people high and when the substance wears off people crash. Magic is like that, too. You use it and it feels good—stop using and you’ll feel like the world just got yanked out from underneath you. More than a few people have committed suicide because of it.”

Lys found Ayden looking in the rear view mirror at the three in the backseat. “I’m surprised that Inez and Peter lasted this long. They’ve probably been self-medicating with either drugs or alcohol.”

“Or both,” Jodi said.

The mention of Peter’s name added a whole new dimension to her despair. She shuddered.

“Looks like you’re crashing right now,” Ayden said.

Lys shrugged. She didn’t want to talk about it.

“Well, whatever you do, don’t start using.” Ayden shared a glance with Jodi. “Wait until we get to Mason. He’s got a few things to help, and there are some people who can give you advice on crashes.”

The nonchalant way they spoke about the whole situation made Lys wonder if either of them had ever crashed. It should make her feel better, knowing that they weren’t all that concerned, but it didn’t. Instead, as she caught the two of them sharing a worried glance, she wondered if she should be afraid.

“Do you have a lot of people who don’t crash?” Kamau asked. He moved his hand to the back of Lys’s neck and ran his fingers through her hair.

“Everyone crashes to some extent,” Jodi said. She turned to look at Lys again. “Just ride it out. Think happy thoughts and stay away from your magic.”

“Won’t it fill me until I go crazy?” she asked, biting out the words. Hot anger was swelling within her, and it kept getting worse and worse.

“What if someone else uses their magic on you?” Kamau asked, reaching out to take Lys’s hand with his free one. She let him intertwine his fingers with hers, and then hung on for dear life. Her emotions continued to plunge into anger and darkness, and she wanted nothing more than to scream.

“What do you mean?” Ayden asked.

Kamau shrugged. “Well, Mark used his magic on Lys and Brady when they could not get out of it. Does someone else using magic on you help at all?”

Ayden shook his head. “Not that I know about. Mark’s little talent is good for disrupting the flow of magic through a person. It works the best on breakers.”

“I wonder if it goes through those suits,” Jodi asked, changing the subject.

“Good question. We’ll have to try it out when we get back.”

“Try what out?” Kamau asked.

Jodi smiled. “We caught a couple of the New in their suits at the hospital. We’ve got them at the cabin. Mark would be a good test for those suits. We’re trying to figure out how much magic they can take.”

Lys had tried to get through the helmets, but with no luck. How could the New be so powerful? It didn’t seem fair that they could do or go wherever they wanted.

Lys’s mind raged, and her emotions barreled down into a dark abyss. She spoke only so she could think about something besides wanting to let the Need loose and hurting everyone around her. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“Mason’s got a couple of retreats. We’re headed for one of them.” Ayden glanced down at the clock on the dashboard. “Should be there in about an hour.”

An hour? Lys didn’t think she could wait that long.

Ayden and Jodi started talking about the black armor suit again, and Lys reburied her face in her knees.

“Have you tried meditation?” Kamau asked, his lips so close to her ear that she felt his breath move her hair, tickling her neck.

Lys shook her head.

“It might help.”

His voice alone helped, but he could be using magic on her. Part of her didn’t care.

“Take a deep breath,” Kamau said, rubbing her back.

Lys tried, but being curled into a ball didn’t make it easy.

“Again,” he said when she exhaled. “Close your eyes and let your emotions drain away, just like Mark said.”

That wasn’t going to happen, not with Peter’s smiling face looking at her and the memory of her attacking Inez so fresh. Did happiness still exist?

“Come on,” Kamau said, “you have to relax.”

Lys snorted. “Sure, right.”

“Try.” The word bore through her, knocking away a few layers of darkness.

She nodded, taking another breath. A small layer of tension eroded.

“Good,” Kamau said. “Keep going.”

Lys did. She exhaled and tried to let go of everything. Faces of people she cared for swam before her, and the darkness kept blotting them out. She grabbed the light and pressed it forward, crowding the black back into a corner of her mind. Each breath helped, and Lys clung to the light and the feel of Kamau’s hand in hers.

Kamau continued to whisper encouragement
in her ear, and Lys followed the words back into the real world. After what felt like an hour, Lys opened her eyes and raised her head, the anger now confined to a small corner of her mind. The Need occupied another corner.

“Better?” Kamau asked.

Lys nodded. She felt even more tired now than she had since this whole thing had started. Exhaustion made her eyelids droop, and her legs were so heavy that they slid off the seat and onto the floor.

“Come on,” Kamau said, “you look spent. Try to get some sleep.”

She didn’t resist as he gathered her in his arms, resting her head against his chest. The thump-thump of his heart filled her ears, and Lys closed her eyes, drifting off into oblivion. The sensation of Kamau kissing her lightly on the top of the head might have been her imagination, but she hoped not.

The rocking of a bump
pulled Lys from sleep. She closed her eyes again, not ready to face reality, but another jolt jerked her awake. For a moment she couldn’t figure out where all of her appendages were, then she remembered Kamau and found one of her hands in his and the other wrapped around his waist. His cheek pressed lightly on the top of her head, and she could tell by the depth of his breathing that even after the bumps, he was still sound asleep.

The van bounced and Lys barely managed to keep her head from colliding with Kamau’s chin. She extracted herself and put Kamau’s head on her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t wake him.

Everyone in the back seat still slept, although now Inez’s head rested on top of Brady’s, which lay on her shoulder. She’d love to see the look on Inez’s face when she woke up.

Ayden’s eyes regarded her in the rear view mirror. “Feeling better?” he asked.

“A little,” Lys said.

Ayden had pulled the van off the main road, and they were winding up a steep mountain trail. Now might not be a good time to mention that she got car sick. Lys leaned over and could see the edge of the road mere inches from the tires. Below her, the hill fell away like a steep ski slope full of rocks.

“We’re almost there; it’s just around this next bend.”

The “next bend” turned out to be a slight understatement. The road continued to wind in and out of trees, just avoiding the edge of the drop off. Ayden took the van around a sharp curve, and Lys’s view of the road ahead disappeared for a few seconds.

When it came back into view, she gasped.

Two figures stood in the middle of the dirt road. They were both dressed in black body armor, and they were both pointing guns at the van.