Page 19

“What happened to ‘rest is the best medicine?’” I wheezed, jogging along the path by the church with Genie at my side. At least, I hoped it looked like jogging. I got the feeling it was more like a lolloping trot, used when pretending to run after a bus that had already closed its doors and was pulling out of the stop.

Genie, taking the exercise in her superhuman stride, flashed me a grin. “So is the great outdoors and fresh air in your lungs.”

“I wouldn’t know about that, since I can’t breathe.” I paused and put my hands on my hips, bending forward to try and make the pain in my chest go away. There had to be easier cardio out there, right? “And this isn’t what I had in mind for an unexpected free period.”

Our usual post-lunch lesson with Naomi had been cancelled due to an explosion in her lab, giving us two hours to use however we liked. Most of our classmates had gone to libraries to study or their rooms for a quick catnap, with a few choosing to catch some daytime TV in the rec room. But Genie had dragged my behind out into the wilds, after I’d asked Victoria for permission, to help boost my stamina. I supposed I’d asked for this by complaining about my fitness levels, but the thought of watching trash TV or taking a couple of hours to add to my sketches would’ve been a much nicer distraction from recent events. On the other hand, between the agony in my shins and the burn of every muscle in my body, I hadn’t thought about my kidnapper once. So, maybe Genie had a point.

“It’s the perfect day for it. Not too hot, not too cold.” Genie lifted her head and closed her eyes, drinking in the atmosphere. “Count yourself lucky I didn’t haul your ass out here yesterday, or you’d be a shriveled raisin right about now.”

A burning sensation seized my throat. “How can this be healthy?” I groaned as I gasped for air. “I feel like I’m dying.”

“It’ll get easier,” she promised.

“But humans must only get a certain amount of breaths per lifetime, right? What if, by running and gasping like a woman in freaking labor, we’re lessening our potential lifespan?” I’d thought about this a lot, mostly to try and get myself out of physical activity.

Genie laughed. “I like to think the overall health factor counteracts that.” Her expression clouded for a moment. “It’s funny, having to think about how short my life might be. When I was born, it was with 500 years ahead of me. Now, I’ll be lucky to get eighty more.”

“Doesn’t that make life seem more precious, though?” I turned to her, my breath returning to some semblance of normality. “With 500 years, you’d have no impetus to do anything in a hurry. Learn a new language? I can just do that in the next century. Learn how to play an instrument? I’ll do that when I’m 300. Fall in love, have kids if you want, read an entire library? Nah, maybe fifty years from now. Everything must’ve moved so slowly down there.”

Genie retied her silver hair, fastening it into a tighter ponytail. “I suppose that’s how we got so backward. There was no reason to change, and Atlantis is still stuck in that mindset, I guess. But it’s weird to think that being twenty here means you’ve potentially lived a fifth, or even a quarter, of your life.”

Two shrill beeps cut our conversation short. Genie reached her phone first, with me still trying to fish mine out of the super-tight pocket down the side of my leggings. Her eyes widened in surprise as she read the message, and I followed suit a moment later. Nathan had good news, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Over the last few days, there’d been no new leads on my kidnapper. I was starting to think no one would ever find him.

“We should go and help him,” Genie said, a beat too quickly.

I smirked. “Any excuse, right?”

“We’re already out and about. We might as well make ourselves useful.” She slid her phone back in her pocket, her cheeks flushed a pale pink. Against the Atlantean porcelain of her skin, any hint of a blush was as blatantly obvious as a flashing beacon. “And I’ve still got a knuckle sandwich waiting for that bastard who took you. It might be a little late for lunch, but I’m ready to deliver anytime, anywhere.”

I chuckled, joining her as she walked toward the coastline. “So, it’s got nothing to do with the fact that you’re totally smitten with our bespectacled friend, and have been looking for a reason to go see him for days?”

“We’ve both been busy,” she mumbled. “And I’m not smitten! I’ve been called a lot of things in my time, but smitten isn’t one of them.”

“Maybe that’s because you’ve never met the right guy,” I offered, knowing full well she was head over heels for Nathan. At the mere mention of his name, she got all jittery and excitable. Just this morning, over breakfast, Colette had said something about getting extra tutoring from Nathan, to help her get ahead in Ingram’s classes, and Genie had almost unleashed a vortex of coffee. It had risen just over the lip of her mug, a few blue sparks glittering out of her, signaling her Water abilities. I’d had to give her a firm nudge, as she had been apparently oblivious to her subconscious reaction.

Genie tucked her hands into the pouch of her hoodie. “He’s nice, right?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s a good one.”

“I know Marius and I used to flirt all the time, but that was just fun banter—a way to pass the time, you know?” Genie stared down at her sneakers as she walked along. “Seeing him never made me feel like… my head was full of bees, and my insides had gone into some kind of meltdown.”

As confessions went, that wasn’t the most romantic image I’d seen painted. “Is that how Nathan makes you feel?”

“Sometimes,” she admitted. “Other times, I find myself just staring at him and not thinking anything at all. Like my brain has emptied out, and there’s just… him. I’ve even started to like tweed and corduroy.” She covered her mouth with her hand, stifling a snort. “It’s like… there’s nothing I want to change. That’s good, isn’t it?”

I shrugged. “You’re asking the wrong love guru. But, yes, I guess you’re not supposed to want to change the person you like, so that’s probably a good sign.” We’d reached the cliff path and turned left toward the lookout spot. “What I want to know is, when are the two of you going to get past the will-they, won’t-they stage? It’s killing me, watching you both being so completely besotted, but neither of you doing anything about it.”

Genie’s cheeks deepened to a curious crimson. “He… may have tried to kiss me.”

“WHAT?!” I yelped so loudly that I frightened a pair of blackbirds, peacefully roosting in a nearby tree. “When? How? And why the heck didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

“After we were going over those books, and I made you go and sleep,” she confessed shyly, ”I may have snuck back to the Repository. We were talking next to the pixies’ orb after giving them some more tonic, and then… we weren’t talking anymore. The air got all still and fizzy, if that makes any sense. He leaned in… and then Boudicca decided to snog the glass, Cynane made some embarrassing smacking sounds, and Spartacus—well, I can’t even repeat what he did. Let’s just say there was a lot of self-fondling. So, the moment kind of came and went, and I haven’t been alone with Nathan since. And I know I should’ve said something, so please don’t be mad. I was just trying to… process it, I guess.”

“This is huge!” I clapped my hands together, thrilled for my best friend.

She side-eyed me. “You’re not pissed?”

“Sure, I wish you’d told me sooner, but why would I be mad? This is amazing!” I suddenly felt grateful that we’d come out on this run. “Finally, some cogs are in motion. Now, all he has to do is ask you the heck out, so I can stop feeling like I want to smack your heads together.”

She smiled, kicking a pebble off the edge of the cliff. “I hope so, too.” As soon as it had appeared, her smile faded. “Although, if my dad found out, I can kiss the Institute goodbye. He’ll have me enrolled in an Atlantean university before I can say, ‘This is my life.’ I guess that’s the benefit of being an ocean away from him.”

“I won’t say a word. I won’t even tell my parents, in case the news leaks out,” I vowed. Genie deserved to be happy, and if Nathan was going to make her happy, then I’d run interference to make sure nothing got in their way. Traditions had their place in the world, but there were some that should be left firmly in the past.

Genie sighed. “Thanks, Pers. It’s easy to forget where we came from when we’re here. It’s easy to fall into the illusion that we’re free and truly independent. But I’d like it to be reality. I’d like to think my life is my own to do what I want with.” Her eyes brightened slightly. “Besides, I’ve only got eighty or so years to make the most of it.”

“You’ll be the most badass old lady ever,” I teased.

“Let’s not forget who’ll be badassing at my side,” she shot back with a wink.

I patted the phone in my pocket. “Nathan, obviously.”

“Pfft, he hasn’t even asked me out yet. You and I are already in this for life, my friend.” She linked her arm with mine. “No man will stand in the way of the future I have planned for us. I’m talking rocking chairs, dressing way too young for our age, rainbow hair, dripping in too many jewels, screeching at kids, and generally causing havoc.”

I laughed. “I like the sound of—” A growl tore through the air, silencing all those good thoughts in a heartbeat.

I’d heard that noise before.

“Nathan…” Genie broke into a sprint, kicking up dust as she powered along the cliff path. I chased after her a split second later, all my aches and pains vanishing as adrenaline took over. To my right, storm clouds drew nearer—a foreboding omen if ever I’d seen one.

As we got closer to the lookout spot, a louder growl, more like a roar, drowned out the whistle of the wind and the panicked thud of my heart. Nathan stood there, putting the lone bench between himself and a writhing mass of shadow and red mist. The Fear Dearg was visible, with the kidnapper concealed somewhere beneath. There was still too much distance between Genie, me, and our friend, though neither Nathan nor the Fear Dearg seemed to have noticed our approach. They were locked in a battle, tendrils of green light slithering out of Nathan’s palms as he conjured Earth to his defense. Vines shot out of the ground, slicing through the misty creature but causing it no harm whatsoever.

Nathan’s mouth moved silently. A sphere of swirling black and purple energy pulsed out of his chest, with golden glints pulsing like fireflies inside. I had no idea what it was, but I guessed that Nathan had gone for slightly bigger guns, using a curse since his Elemental abilities were proving useless. The sphere hurtled toward the Fear Dearg and, for a moment, it looked like it might work. The gaseous purple and black unraveled into strands, which snaked around the Fear Dearg’s hazy form. An earth-shaking howl bellowed from the creature’s throat, as though it were in pain. But then, to my dismay, the Fear Dearg seemed to absorb the curse into itself, sucking the strands into its mist. No sooner had it done so than the red mist turned thicker and brighter, until it looked like the creature was glowing with internal fire.

“Nathan!” Genie cried as she sprinted the rest of the way. Blue sparks began to spin around her body as she called on Water, great pillars of it rising from the nearby sea. Without having to move her hands, she launched the saltwater sentinels at the Fear Dearg. I guessed she thought that, with enough water, she could douse its flames.

But even as I ran to help, I could see the burning eyes pulsating through the torrent of water that crashed down on the Fear Dearg’s head. The water might have delayed it temporarily, but that was all.

Skidding to a halt beside Genie and Nathan, I searched around for something I could use to fight. I spotted a large rock, which I snatched up, aimed, and hurled through the wall of water at the Fear Dearg. The projectile just sailed right through the monster and into the bushes behind.

“What are you doing here?” Nathan rasped, his face pale. “Get back to the Institute, now!”

Genie closed her eyes. “No.” With that simple refusal, more intense blue sparks fired out of her, skidding away toward the rainclouds. As soon as they collided, the heavens opened, cold rain tumbling down from the skies. She sucked in a strained breath and the downpour bent like a charged magnet, pummeling toward the Fear Dearg.

I picked up another rock and waited for the torrent to subside, praying it had subdued the monster. But as I watched, the creature stepped right through the curtain of water. Coming closer with every wispy step, it opened a gaping, shadowy mouth and unleashed an ear-splitting roar that made my every hair stand on end. Still, that wasn’t the worst part. As it roared, a churning, fizzing ball of bronzed light gathered in that cavernous mouth. An unsettling current, like the moments before an electrical storm, throbbed through the atmosphere around us. The Fear Dearg was building its energy…

Its form of attack, when the terror hasn’t worked… The memory exploded in my mind: the one survivor, who’d aged almost sixty years in a single blast and died two years later.

Time seemed to slow as the ensuing events unfurled before my horrified eyes. The Fear Dearg lurched forward and the ball of light fired out of its mouth, heading directly for Nathan. Before I could stop her, Genie leapt in front of him, no doubt believing that her Verso ability could absorb the attack, and she could hurl it right back. I saw my hand reach for her, a gut instinct telling me that she was about to make a terrible mistake, but my fingertips slid off her hoodie sleeve.

The bronzed blast struck her square in the chest. Her eyes widened in surprise and her mouth fell open as if she wanted to scream, but no sound emerged. The blast disappeared inside her, closely followed by an aftershock that pulsed out of her in ring after ring of sparking, red-tinged light. As the ripples hit Nathan and me, that wrenching dread pricked through my veins once more. Only this time, I couldn’t tell if it was the magic of the Fear Dearg or something far, far worse.

“No!” I screamed. Genie’s hands flew upward, clawing her throat frantically, like she could somehow force her airways open. I tried to move the couple of paces toward her, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate. Nothing seemed real. Nathan lunged to catch her, but he was a moment too slow. Her knees gave way and she crashed to the ground, gasping for breath as her skin turned from Atlantean pale to an impossible, terrible gray. The living pink of her lips drained to a deathly purple, and the light went out of her eyes. She fell still, one hand still wrapped around her throat.

My best friend was dead.