The Power of Six

“I’ve never called myself a genius,” Sam says, picking up the tablet I dropped, brushing dirt from it. Six keeps walking. “And, Six, I had no choice. Seriously. I tried as hard as I could to get John to go back and look for you and help.”

“He did,” I mutter, standing. “Don’t blame Sam.”

“Well, John, while you two lovebirds were hugging and kissing, I was getting my ass kicked doing you a favor. I would have died if Bernie Kosar didn’t grow into this giant elephant-bear animal and help. They have your Chest. And I’m sure by this point it’s sitting right next to mine in the cave in West Virginia.”

“Then that’s where I’m going,” I say.

“No, we’re going to Spain. Today.”

“No, we’re not!” I shout, brushing off my sleeves. “Not until I have my Chest back.”

“Well, I’m going to Spain,” she says.

“Why now?” Sam asks.

Our SUV comes into view. “I was just online. It’s serious over there. Somebody burned a huge symbol into the mountainside over Santa Teresa and it looks exactly like the brands around our ankles. Someone needs our help and I’m going.”

We hop in the car and Six drives slowly down the road, and Sam and I hide in the footwells of the backseat. Bernie Kosar barks from the passenger seat, happy to be riding shotgun for a change.

Sam and I pass the laptop back and forth, both of us reading the article about Santa Teresa twice, three times. The burning symbol on the mountain is no doubt Loric. “What if it’s a trap?” I ask. “My Chest is more important right now.” It might be selfish, but before I leave the continent, I want my Inheritance. The possibility that the Mogs might open my Chest is just as urgent to me as whatever is going on in Spain.

“I need to know how to get to the cave,” I say.

“John! Get real. You’re really not going to come with me to Spain?” Six asks. “After reading all that, you’re going to let me and Sam go alone?”

“Guys, get this. Also out of Santa Teresa, there’s a woman reported to have been cured, out of the blue, of an incurable degenerative disease. Santa Teresa is, like, an epicenter of activity right now. I bet every member of the Garde are on their way,” Sam says.

“If that’s the case,” I say, “then I’m definitely not going. I’m getting my Chest back.”

“That’s insane,” Six says.

I scramble over the passenger seat and open the glove compartment. My fingers find the stone I’m looking for, and I drop it in Six’s lap before hiding in the footwell again.

She lifts the pale yellow stone above the wheel, turning it over in the sunlight, and laughs. “You had the Xitharis out?”

“I figured it might come in handy,” I say.

“These don’t last long, remember,” she says.

“How long?”

“An hour, maybe a little more.”

The news is discouraging, but it could still give me the advantage I need. “Can you charge it, please?”

When Six holds the Xitharis to her temple, I know she’s agreed to let me go after the Chests while she heads to Spain.

Chapter Twenty-Six

I DO IT WITHOUT EVEN THINKING. THE SECOND the man points at me from the edge of the hole in the roof, I send two metal bed frames rocketing towards him. The second one is a direct hit. He falls forward and into the sleeping quarters; and when he hits the stone floor, to my amazement, he turns into a pile of dirt or ash.

“Run!” Adelina screams.

We crash into the hallway, pushing against the flow of the other girls and Sisters heading to the south wing for safety. I take hold of Adelina’s hand and guide us to the nave and down the center aisle.

“Where are we going?” Adelina yells.

“We’re not leaving without the Chest!”

Another explosion rocks the foundation of the orphanage and my hip crashes into a pew.

“I’ll be right back,” I whisper, releasing her hand, floating towards the nook.

Six tells us we’re close to Washington, DC, and that makes sense. I am considered an armed and dangerous terrorist; no wonder I was taken to the nation’s capital for questioning.

“There’s a flight leaving Dulles International in less than an hour,” she says, turning the wheel. “I’m getting on that plane. Sam, are you with me or are you with John?”

Sam places his forehead on the backseat and closes his eyes.

“Sam?” Six asks.

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking,” he says. After a minute, he raises his head and looks right at me. “I’m going with John.”

I mouth Thank you.

“It’ll be easier for me to get there alone, anyway,” Six says, but she sounds hurt.

“You’ll be fighting with more experienced Garde members,” I reassure her. “Plus, it’s probably going to take two of us to get both of our Chests out of there.”

Bernie Kosar barks from the front seat.

“Yeah, buddy,” I say. “You’re a part of this team, too.”

The Chest is gone. My entire body sweats with panic. I almost vomit. Did the Mogadorians know it was up here the whole time? Why didn’t they trap me in here when they had the chance? I float back onto the nave floor.

“It’s gone, Adelina,” I whisper.

“The Chest?”

“It’s gone.” I hug her and bury my face in her shoulder. She pulls something up over her head. It’s a pale blue, almost transparent amulet attached to a beige cord. She carefully slips it over my hair until the amulet touches my neck. It’s both cold and warm at the same time against my skin, and then it glows brightly. My breath is taken away.

“What is it?” I ask, covering the glow with my hands.

“Loralite, the most powerful gem on Lorien, found only at its core,” she whispers. “I’ve hidden it this whole time. It’s yours, and there’s no use in hiding it any longer. They know who you are, with or without the amulet. I’ll never forgive myself for not training you properly. Never. I’m sorry, Marina.”

“It’s okay,” I say, feeling tears well up behind my eyes. All these years, this was all I had wanted from her. Understanding. Companionship. The acknowledgment of shared secrets.

We get closer to the airport, and the fear of splitting up weighs heavily on us. Sam tries to distract himself by studying the papers Six took from his dad’s office. “I wish I could spread these out in some library’s reference section.”

“After West Virginia,” I say. “I promise.”

Six gives me and Sam careful instructions on how to find the map that’ll take us to the cave. The rest of the trip passes in silence. We pull into a McDonald’s parking lot a mile from Dulles.

“There are three things you guys have to know.”

I sigh. “Why do I have the feeling that none of these things are going to be good?”

She ignores me and writes something on the back of a receipt. “First, here’s the address that I’ll be at in exactly two weeks at five p.m. Meet me there. If I’m not there, or, if for some reason you aren’t, then return in another week and I’ll do the same. If one of us doesn’t make it after the second week, then I think we can assume the other isn’t coming.” She hands it to Sam, who reads it and shoves it into his jeans pocket.

“Two weeks, five p.m.,” I say. “Got it. The second thing?”

“Bernie Kosar can’t go into the cave with you.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’ll kill him. I don’t understand it completely, but the Mogadorians control their beasts by filtering some sort of gas throughout the cave that only affects animals. If one leaves its designated place, it drops dead. When I finally got out, there was a heap of dead animals right at the cave’s entrance. Animals that had gotten too close.”

“Gross,” Sam says.

“And the last thing?”

“Their cave is equipped with every detection device you can think of. Cameras, motion detectors, body temperature gauges, infrared. Everything. The Xitharis will allow you to get past everything; but once it’s out of juice, look out, because they’re going to find you.”

“Where do we go?” I ask Adelina. Now that the Chest is gone, I feel directionless. Even with the amulet around my neck.

“We go to the belfry, and you use your telekinesis to get us into the yard. Then we run.”

I take her hand and start running when a ball of fire suddenly roars from the back of the nave. The fire takes hold of the back pews and rages towards the high ceiling. The nave is now brighter than it is during Sunday Mass. A man in a trench coat with long blond hair walks confidently out of the northern hallway, our path to freedom, and every muscle in my body seems to come unwound at the same time; every inch of skin breaks out with goose bumps.

He stands watching us, the flames attacking several more rows of pews, and then a sneer slowly breaks across his face. From the corner of my eye, I can see Adelina reach into her dress and remove something, but I can’t tell what it is. She stands beside me, her eyes aimed at the back of the nave. And then, ever so gently, she reaches up and pushes me behind her.

“I can’t make up for lost time, or for the wrongs that I’ve done,” she says. “But I’m certainly going to try. Don’t let them catch you.”

Just then the Mogadorian comes charging towards us, right down the center aisle. He’s far larger than he looked from a distance, and he lifts a long sword that glows a fluorescent green color.

“Get as far from here as you can,” Adelina says without turning. “Be brave, Marina.”

Six places the Xitharis into the console’s cupholder and then slides out of the SUV. “I’m running late,” she says as she closes her door.

Sam and I both exit the vehicle after carefully studying the parking lot, the other cars, the people milling about.

I round the front of the hood and watch as Six hugs Sam.

“Kick some ass over there,” he says.

They separate and she says, “Sam, thank you for helping us even when you don’t have to. Thank you for being so amazing.”

“You’re amazing,” he whispers. “Thanks for letting me tag along.”

To my surprise and Sam’s, Six steps forward and kisses him on the cheek. They smile at each other, and once Sam sees me over Six’s shoulder, he blushes, opens the driver’s door, and climbs inside.

I don’t want her to go. As much as it pains me to admit it, I know I might never see her again. She looks at me with a certain tenderness that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen from her before.

“I like you, John. For the past few weeks, I’ve tried convincing myself that I don’t, especially because of Sarah and how much of an idiot you can be . . . but I do. I do like you.”

The words knock me over. I hesitate, then say “I like you, too.”

“Do you still love Sarah?” she asks.

I nod. She deserves the truth. “I do, but it’s all really confusing. She may have turned me in, and she may never want to see me again because I told her I thought you were pretty. But Henri once said that the Loric fall in love once in their life. And so that means I will always love Sarah.”