Timespell (19 page)

The magic sprang abruptly back to life. Angie sensed their invisibility before the transparency took over her body. She glanced behind her, fearful that people might have noticed they were suddenly gone, but everyone remained transfixed by the sight of Marie Antoinette. No one noticed that they had vanished.

Kaitlyn, why did you make us invisible?
It was Julia’s voice in Angie’s mind—in all their minds.

No, this is good,
Angie said.
We should have done this before we froze time.

Kaitlyn’s cool voice inserted itself into their thoughts.
How long have you two known we could talk telepathically?

Since forever,
Julia said.
Oh, gee, did we forget to mention that?

Stop,
Angie said, watching the ripple in the air.
The creature
used a glamour, but it’s escaping. We have to follow it to find the portal.

What about Ethan?
Julia asked.

What about him?
Kaitlyn snapped.
Just summon him once we’re out of here.

Hurry,
Angie cried.
Journey after the creature! We have to find the portal.

Where do I go?
Julia asked.

The crowd pushed in on either side of them. Angie could hardly hold on anymore.
The smudge in the air is darker. Use your magic. Feel him!

Angie allowed her magic to pour into Julia. The world went dark. Their bodies became empty. Julia could take them anywhere now. Images flashed—the crowd of people far below them, the river, a large field. Julia’s power came in spurts, as if she didn’t know how much to use. The minotaur’s trail became faint, a barely perceptible blur of darkness.

Don’t lose him,
Angie cried, sending Julia the magic in great, forceful gushes, but she sensed her friend’s confusion, the back-and-forth pull of her energy.

The trail’s gone,
Julia said.

No. It couldn’t be. Angie reached out, searching for the darkness that would lead them to the creature.

I have to land us somewhere,
Julia said.
I can’t keep going.

The trail of darkness was gone, and wherever that portal was, they wouldn’t find it now. Not without another creature.

Angie smothered the disappointment rising in her chest as she sensed Julia’s power growing weaker. Julia still needed to master her power. It wasn’t her fault.
It’s okay. Land in that field. Just beyond the river.

Are you mental?
Kaitlyn asked.
Not a river!

I won’t make us land in the river, jerk.

You did last time! Oh, God, we ’re doing it again. We ’re heading right for the water!

“Stop it,” Julia muttered out loud.

Don’t make us fall!

“Just shut it.”

Angie felt the magic sputtering out. Their bodies became solid and she braced herself, but it wasn’t enough to prepare her for the fall as they tumbled onto the field, rolling over and over with the residual force of Julia’s magic.

“Damn it,” Kaitlyn lashed out. “You are getting worse and worse at that.”

“I was doing fine until you freaked out about the river. You completely broke my concentration.”

It was strange listening to an argument between two invisible people. Strange, but no less irritating.

“I don’t give a crap about your concentration. In fact, this whole task is stupid. I want to go home.”

Angie dusted off her gown and stood up. “If it’s all right with you two, could we please be visible again?”

“No,” Kaitlyn snapped. “Not until we go home.”

“That’s out of our control,” Angie said. “We have to complete the task.”

“We protected the future queen. The creatures can’t touch them,” Kaitlyn said, a faint, glass-like outline of her body the only evidence of her presence. “That’s good enough for now. Let’s go back.”

“No,” Angie said. “We must seal the portal.”

“I don’t care about the portal.” Kaitlyn left the grass imprinted with her pacing. “Remember what Ethan said? We have to go back and freeze time first.”

“It
is
getting way late,” Julia said. “My mom is probably freaking out.”

Angie gripped the skirts of her gown. With the different time zones, it should be near dawn back in Long Beach. They
could
go back, settle things with their families, freeze time, and then return after that. But what would happen to the past while they were away? Would they be able to return to this exact point in time and prevent any damage to history?

“I’m exhausted. And starving,” Kaitlyn said. “I need to go home.”

“All right, we’ll go back,” Angie said, taking their hands.

“Let’s get rid of the invisibility,” Julia said. “Please.”

“Fine,” Kaitlyn muttered. The three of them shimmered for an instant and then reappeared.

“That’s much better,” Julia said. “There’s something kind of empty about being invisible.”

Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes at Julia. “Are you saying something about my magic?”

Angie shook her head. “Please, no more arguing. Show me the threads of time so I can find the one that takes us home.”

Kaitlyn lowered her dark lashes, drawing in magic as she did. Golden threads appeared before them, each a path to a possible future. There were hundreds of choices. Angie sifted through them, looking for the one devoid of color, the one that would allow them to retrace their steps back to where they had left their lives.

But as she reached for it, another thread caught her eye. She followed it with her mind, oddly curious about seeing herself in a possible future. She was at UC Santa Barbara, where she had gone to cheerleading camp last summer. This could be one of her potential futures. She concentrated on it, watching herself studying on a grassy hill. In front of her was a wide view of nothing but ocean. There was no sound, no smell, but she could see the breeze ruffling the edges of her papers. David approached her. A shy smile curved up on one side of his lips as he joined her. Something important was about to happen. Something big ....

“Oh this is disgusting,” Kaitlyn said. “It isn’t David daydreaming time. Send us home already!”

“I have to check the threads,” Angie said, feeling heat blaze across her cheeks. “Some of these don’t lead far enough ahead. Some of them are only possibilities. We need the one where we started out from, the one that shows the present without us in it.”

“Then do it,” Kaitlyn snapped.

Angie flinched at her tone. She focused on the flow of magic pumping through her veins, thick and sweet. Along with it came the usual mixture of emotions from Kaitlyn and Julia. An intense rush of jealousy arose from Kaitlyn. Jealousy for Julia’s power, for her easy smile, and for Ethan’s kiss. The jealousy tore at Angie, clawing until her soul felt raw.

She lifted her eyes to watch Kaitlyn in the midst of whirling images. Wars battled around them, festivals were celebrated, people struggled and thrived. She could see even further back into history if she tried. Knights in shining armor, Roman soldiers.

Kaitlyn’s eyes almost glowed in the maelstrom of time, vivid and sharp, her gaze fixed on Julia.

Angie pushed the image from her mind. She latched on to a thread that blazed with light but was devoid of color. It showed prom, people dancing and laughing, taking pictures and hugging. David stood alone, holding her purse and staring out at the black ocean.

“This is it,” she said. “I need magic. Lots of it.”

Julia
squeezed her eyes shut. Time travel was the hardest power to get used to. Heat filled her chest as Angie worked the threads of time. She remembered a weekend up in Big Bear. She and her mom made snowmen and snow angels and stomped around until Julia’s toes ached from the cold. After her mom peeled off her wet things, Julia sat in a steaming bath, shivering as her frozen body prickled with painful heat, as if it were waking up. The magic hurt in that same, good way, reaching deep parts of her that had gone numb.

All of a sudden, it stopped and she opened her eyes.

Metal bars crisscrossed above her, intertwined so tightly she couldn’t see the sky above.

Where had Angie taken them?

The network of metal overhead formed four archways all around them. Beyond each archway stretched a lawn, like some kind of a park. Modern day people wearing jeans and ball caps and other regular clothing were everywhere. Julia stood up too quickly, swaying on her feet. People raised cell phones and
cameras, wearing the kinds of excited smiles she had only seen when there was about to be a fight at school.

“Kaitlyn!” Angie yelled. “Quick, make us invisible!”

“Oh, suddenly I’m valuable,” she muttered, taking their hands. Julia was too weak to care how much magic Kaitlyn took from her, too confused to do anything but stare out at the crowd.

“Hurry,” Angie said.

“I’m trying! Stop distracting me!”

Someone blew a whistle. Men ran toward them, dressed in dark blue and wearing round, flat-topped hats. They skidded to a stop, their faces twisting in horror just as a gasp came from the crowd.

“There,” Kaitlyn said. “Invisible.”

Julia looked down at herself. As always, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach at the sight of her emptiness. This was her least favorite of their powers. She could see her outline, like the smudged edges of a piece of glass, but it didn’t make her feel much better.

“Come on,” Angie said, pulling them forward and through one of the massive archways of metal. Everyone with their cameras and cell phones, even the police, kept staring at the spot where they had been.

“Where are we?” Julia asked.

“Still in Paris,” Angie said. “I Voyaged us to the present. Look.”

Julia turned around. The crisscross pattern of metal they had been under was the base of the Eiffel Tower. “I don’t get it.”

“There was no Eiffel Tower until 1889,” Angie said. “That field we were in before—the one where we time traveled from— it’s what this place looked like in the time of Marie Antoinette.”

“Great,” Kaitlyn said. “We’re in the right time but in the wrong place. Time to ask the all-powerful Julia to Journey us home.”

“Julia isn’t strong enough to Journey us right now,” Angie said.

The outline of two slim arms rose to Kaitlyn’s hips. “She can try.”

“That’s not a good idea. We don’t understand these powers well enough to know our limitations, and we’re all still weak from time traveling. If Julia’s magic gives out halfway across the Atlantic ....”

Julia shuddered. She remembered plummeting into the river near Tuileries Palace. “No, not yet,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“We’ll have to wait a bit,” Angie said. “Until then, let’s find a place to become visible again.”

The place turned out to be a row of hedges, and Kaitlyn was quick with her power this time. They shimmered back to normal and Julia took a good look at them. Angie looked dainty in her Marie Antoinette clothes, even with her corset slashed open. By contrast, Kaitlyn’s cleavage spilled out of her dress like some exotic courtesan. Julia looked down at herself, feeling frumpy.

“We need clothes,” Angie said, her brow crumpling. “I wish there was a way to call our families.”

“Why don’t we?” Julia asked.

Kaitlyn laughed. “Great idea. What are you going to say? ‘Hi, mommy. Sorry I’m late, I got stuck in Paris fighting demons in the past.’”

Julia was about to tell Kaitlyn to lay off when a voice called out in her mind.

Julia!

Ethan. Damn it, she kept leaving him everywhere!

Answer me! Where are you?

She closed her eyes.
I’m so sorry, Ethan! Hold on a sec.

“Julia? What are you doing?” Kaitlyn asked.

She needed someplace to bring him over where it wouldn’t make the evening news. The bushes weren’t tall enough to hide behind if she stood. Did she have to be standing to summon him?

Angie grabbed her by the arm. “Where are you going?”

“Ethan,” she said.

Angie’s eyes grew sympathetic.

“No way,” Kaitlyn said. “You have to save your power to Journey us back home. You can’t just waste it.”

“No!” Julia said. Her body went rigid. Ethan was out there. He needed her. She ducked behind a bush and closed her eyes. Where was he? The image of him formed in her mind. He was still standing in the middle of that cheering crowd at Marie Antoinette’s palace, and he seemed to be listening for something. Waiting. Julia held out her hands.

“Hold on,” Angie said, taking Julia’s outstretched hand before she could say the words.

“No,” Julia said. “You don’t understand!”

“I understand,” she said. “Just, freeze time first, okay? That way you can take as long as you need to build up your magic, and our parents won’t have to worry while we wait.”

Julia glanced up at Kaitlyn. “That works for me,” she said.

Julia took the girls’ hands. Behind her closed eyes she saw the sun and moon, locked in place. It was as simple as that. “There,” she said. She got up from behind the bush, not caring about the sudden silence or the park filled with frozen tourists. She only cared about one thing. “Find me, Wanderer,” she whispered, her hands outstretched. “Find me.”

The cold, swirling mists appeared. Like every time before, Ethan’s hands came first, flowing out toward his chest, and last came his face, tight with pain or panic. Julia wondered, not for the first time, what it must be like to be pulled through space and time like that.

His eyes found hers. He pulled her roughly against his body, his voice muffled against her hair. “Don’t ever leave.”

Julia pulled back. “I won’t,” she said. She couldn’t leave him behind. Trapped. She couldn’t.

Ethan’s face changed subtly. “We’ll see.”

T
hey left time frozen and sat on the grass while Julia stared at the sky and waited to get her strength back. Angie grew more and more fidgety until Julia thought if she saw her fingers tap along her dress one more time, she would explode.