Kei

  By the pricking of my thumbs,

  Something wicked this way comes.

  --William Shakespeare

  “All,” Haley repeats, “of it.” She stares at Tam, giving off enough big-sister energy to power a blast furnace, and pouring all of that into her ‘stay out of my room’ look. Dead into her little sister’s eyes.

  Tam quails before the silent onslaught.

  “Look,” she says, “I was just out here on my own when you guys caught up, and I didn’t want to seem like I was listening in. Which I knew you’d think if you noticed me sneaking away. And then I realized what you were talking about, and wondered if we were in danger. And then you, um…” Tam rubs the back of her head.

  “Hit you,” Haley finished, in a ‘Job Well Done Then’ tone of voice. She’s idly bouncing one of her remaining acorns on her palm.

  Tam glances at the acorn, then gulps. “Please, I didn’t mean to learn all of that. I just froze, and didn’t want to get anyone upset before the party today.” She looks back and forth between me and Haley.

  She’s got a lot riding on this. So does Joey.

  I sigh. “Haley, Tam, it’s okay.” Tam gives me a slightly wild-eyed yet grateful look, but Haley raises one eyebrow and gives me a diamond-hard ‘Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Missy’ big-sister look.

  “Okay?” Haley asks, disbelief filling every syllable. Of which, needless to say, there were only two, but who’s counting? Other than me?

  “Tam,” I continue, ignoring both looks, “we don’t want to ruin your big day. Or Joey’s,” I add to a still-on-edge Haley. “Can you just keep all of this a secret for a while? We don’t want anyone to get hurt unnecessarily.”

  Tam gulps and nods. I realize that last sentence could have been misinterpreted.

  “Great!” I say. “Then…” And something stops me.

  From somewhere behind me, back towards the town, I feel the strangest double pulse of power.

  I whirl and instantly try to lock on, my own Gift flaring within in me, almost in response. The strange power seems to vibrate me as it flows past us, especially the core my own power emanates from.

  I have the strangest sense I’ve just discovered what it feels like to get a full-intensity burst of my own Gift at close range. But I ignore the karmic comeuppance and focus on the source.

  Or rather, sources. With my Gift roaring awake, I’m not only smarter, I’m more perceptive.

  And my perceptions are making an educated guess as to where these are coming from.

  One is in the Celestine Library complex.

  The other, in the heart of the Maze.

  “Funny,” I mutter. “I thought the Maze was for tourists.” Well, score one for pretentious tourist traps. I’ll reexamine my own prejudices against tacky offenses to tasteful landscaping later. Crisis, you know.

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  “What about the Maze?” Haley asks behind me. I glance back at them. She’s let go of Tam, who looks simultaneously eager to run and too scared to do so.

  “Something’s stirring there,” I tell her. “There, and in the campus library. We should check it out. At least one of them.”

  “Check it out?” Tam asks nervously.

  “Not you,” Haley tells her. “You’re going home right now.”

  I nod. “I’m going to scout ahead. The Maze is between us and the campus library, so I’ll see how it looks from the outside.”

  “Splitting up to search for the monster?” Haley asks dryly.

  “I may have to draw things out using my Gift,” I explain. “It’s just as well if you’re not at ground zero when I try that.”

  Haley opens her mouth to object.

  I wave at Tam. “Make sure she’s on her way home. I don’t want her to get sucked into the vortex if I go full out.”

  Haley pauses, then nods sharply. “Come on,” she snaps at Tam, before herding her back towards the Donovan residence.

  I turn in the opposite direction and start with a steady jog. One that goes faster and faster. A cold flower blossoms in my heart.

  I haven’t gone far when I hear voices up ahead. I slow, moving more stealthily as I approach.

  “You think this book’ll do it?” a voice – Christopher’s – asks. “I’m sure he’ll get the data for us.”

  “Let’s hope so. Quentin’s notes may be our last chance. There are clearly gaps in our memories. Even Kei and Dante don’t remember us at all.” Andrea seems preoccupied.

  Wait. Did she just mention Dante?

  “So much for exposure triggering recall,” Anton remarked. “Instead the amnesia’s catching.” He has a huge military-surplus backpack fully stuffed and bouncing on one shoulder. From the clink of metal and straining fabric, it’s packed beyond its maximum capacity, but he moves as easily as carrying nothing at all.

  Andrea taps the screen with a stylus. “No damage. No natural amnesia. Even the AIs aren’t finding a trace. But something is wrong.” She pauses. “With all of us.”

  “And with our op,” Chris mutters. I can see him through the trees, checking a smartwatch. “Battle stations, everybody. The AIs are detecting Circle activity near the library.”

  They exchange a glance and start running. I trot after them, wondering if I should try to catch up.

  “Tell Dante,” Anton says to Andrea, but she’s already talking fast into her phone in low, intense tones. “Your gear’s in the car?” he asks Chris.

  Chris gives a quick nod and pours on the speed. So do Anton and Andrea. And so do I, for that matter.

  Andrea hears me first. “Kei?”

  My cheeks flush, but my heart is cold as I catch up. “Need any help?” I ask.

  Yes, I know using my full abilities isn’t so much asking for trouble as demanding it, but I know I have to do more than simply let someone else handle it. Just the fact that I could feel… whatever it is means there’s a connection. Something connected to me, or something I’m uniquely equipped to handle.

  Assuming I can do that without leveling a few city blocks, of course. Come to think of it, maybe I should be running in the opposite direction.

  “Help?” Andrea echoes me. She exchanges an uncertain look with the others as we all rush into a small parking lot beside the park, coming to a halt beside a gorgeous silver Corvette.

  “We could,” Anton admits.

  Andrea gives him a look. She beeps the Corvette with her remote, unlocking it, and opens the driver’s side door. She slides in. Her cousins also hop into the vehicle.

  “If we’re going to risk it, there’s no better time,” Chris interrupts. “I’m getting hits showing units everywhere. The Circle’s got a small army over there.”

  “She could draw them off,” Anton points out. “Even Hammersmith can’t do that.”

  “And they’re already in the library,” Andrea nods. She turns to me as she turns on the car. “Very well, then…”

  A sharp, desperate scream echoes from the direction of the Maze, still at least a mile away, and Andrea and I both hear it.

  I vault the car and start running again. “I’ll catch up!” I shout over my shoulder.

  That scream sounds familiar.

  As I realize who it might be, coldfire burns its way out of my heart and fills my racing limbs.

  I blur my way down another park path in a cloud of dust, hit a sidewalk, and keep sprinting until she comes into sight.

  A wild-eyed Emily is running down the street when I see her, drawing startled glances from passersby who haven’t gotten the memo on whatever’s terrified her. Given her laidback nature over the last few weeks, though, I’m betting whatever’s panicked her is a lot more than ‘just nerves.’

  She sees me and begins waving desperately for me to go in the opposite direction. And her eyes have something unique about them. Something I’ve seen before, on the Island.

  Now that my Gift is surging through me, I can see the faintest touch of ghostly light in her gaze. As I watch that transparent hint of blue seems to flow from her eyes like supernatural mist.

  I reach her and say the obvious. “You can see into the Astrum.”

  Now a hint of pale silver light wisps from Emily’s eyes.

  She gulps and stars at me as if seeing me, for all her gifts, for the first time. “You can see it, too.” Her words aren’t so much a question as a statement of the impossible.

  I fight the urge to shrug. Technically I can, dimly, when my Gift runs this far out of control. These weird, random upgrades are probably the least nightmarish side effect.

  This might be the most boring thing in the world to me, but I know what it’s like to think you’re all alone, only to find out the world is much larger than you ever imagined.

  Some things need to be taken step by step, even if you’re angry enough to jump the whole staircase.

  Emily looked stunned enough to tumble straight to the bottom of those stairs. I’d have been more concerned, if she’d actually taken a single step up in the first place.

  And then I hear a distant howl, and wonder if the Astrum was what she was talking about, when she mentioned seeing ‘it.’

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