Authors: Fabio Bueno
Connor arrives first
at her room
and swings the door open.
Jane’s gone.
I thought my brain would be murky, numbed by Mona’s disappearance. Instead, what I get is a
clear mind. I turn to the nurse
who came complaining after us.
“You’ve got two patients
missing! Do something! Lock down the hospital
.”
The nurse
is as shocked as we are and mumbles, “
I’m not sure we can—
”
“Do it! Now!” I yell at her. Nurses have always been scary to me. Not anymore. She must have seen something in my eyes, because she goes running
back to
her
station.
I point to Connor. “You, make sure they close the hospital.”
To Skye, I say, “Call 911, and then search this floor. Maybe they’re still around.
”
They say something back, but I’m too busy running
to the stairs.
I rush
down, reach the garage, and
frantically look
around.
The traffic in the garage is heavy; many people
are
coming in
with earthquake-related injuries. I run to the main exit and
walk
backwards from there
, scanning cars and faces
.
The sounds I’m expecting
don’t come
. Where are the sirens, the clang of heavy steel doors closing? Why is it taking so long?
After a few minutes, I see my search is fruitless. And they still are letting everybody come and go! I rush back up to the ER.
As soon as I open the stairwell’s door I see Connor at the station, talking to the
nurse. “Why aren’t we in lock
down?” I yell at him. I
couldn’t care less about the shushing sounds from staff.
He comes to me. “They can’t do it. Because of the earthquake.
Too many people need access to the hospital.
Besides, they close it
only
if a baby
is
missing, or a
nutter
is
on the loose
.”
“Jane qualifies!” I say.
He shakes his head.
“Not to them, she doesn’t.
They told me t
hey lock it down if there’s a shooting, or an escaped convict
or something like that.
But they sent some staff to look around. They
are
concerned patients might be missing.
But they think they’re just misplaced. It’s been a busy day.
”
Skye comes to us
.
“Didn’t find them,” she says out of breath. “911 took my call, but the woman said they have their hands full now, and we’re low priority.”
“She’s a
kid
! Missing!” I
say. I don’t know what to do. M
y finger
s
go through my hair repeatedly. This is not happening.
“The police said they might be in the hospital, somewhere, lost in the chaos.”
I look around the waiting room, and I see many other desperate faces.
I’m not the only one concerned about a loved one tonight.
“Okay,” I say, trying to compose myself. “The three of us
know
Jane took Mona. Right?” I
glare
at Connor, challenging him to contradict me, but he just nods. “Let the staff look for them here at the hospital. But Jane took Mona
somewhere
.”
“Her house
?” Skye asks.
Connor says, “You mean
her condo? In Fremont?
”
Skye and I exchange glances. “She’s got another pl
ace,” I say. “Connor, go to this
Fremont
condo
. Skye and I will go back to Greenwood. That way we have witch radars on both places.”
Connor looks at me
sternly
, but says nothing.
We spend a few minutes exchanging phone numbers
with
the hospital staff.
“Are you calling your father?” Skye asks.
Dad! What
am I
going to tell Dad?
“Not now,” I say. He can’t do anything right now.
Drake is driving like a madman, daring any police officer to stop us.
“Do you trust Connor?” he asks. “He’ll help us, right?”
I don’t understand. “He
is
helping us.”
“I mean,
doesn’t
he have a hidden agenda?
H
e won’t make a deal with Jane or something like that
, right?
” Drake takes his eyes off the road for a second. “Do you trust him?”
I remember Connor’s second Charm is Trust. People tend to believe him. Drake asking me this means he doesn’t trust Connor—at all.
My answer is not direct. “He’ll do the right thing.” He will, because the most important thing to him is finding the Singularity.
Drake keeps silent while overtaking two cars using the right lane.
He looks at me twice. “Your looks are coming back,” he says with a frown.
“What?” I look
for
the vanity mirror. He’s right. My
old face i
s
returning.
“Was it temporary, then?” Drake asks.
This is weird. Okay, I think I got it. “It seems Jane can absorb magical energy, including Charms. But it’s temporary unless she absorbs the magical energy leaving the body of a Sister.”
“Leaving the body?”
“When a Sister dies,
” I say.
I explain to him that’s probably what Jane tried to do to me at the pool.
“I get why Jane fled the hospital,” I add. “All Sister
s
felt the energy during the earthquake, and Jane might think she has a chance of
identifying the Singularity.”
“Really? Even if you didn’t?”
“Maybe Jane was close to the
Singularity when the quake hit.
”
“
But why would
she take Mona? Does she want to get back at me?” he asks me.
“It can’t be just that. It woul
d accomplish nothing.”
Something is nagging me, and I can’t put my finger on it. It’s an idea bouncing inside my head.
“Mona is a tough
cookie,” Drake s
ays. “When
she
awake
n
s
, she’ll fight back. She may escape from Jane.”
I think Drake is just giving himself a pep talk, but I humor him. “Yeah. She might do that. Where would she go then? Who’d she call?”
“I don’t know. Me, I hope. Or Pain.”
Here comes that idea again. And again
it
flutters away.
Drake
stops
the car in front of Jane’s
house
. All the lights are out. The whole street looks dark.
“Do you feel anything?” Drake asks.
I shake my head. “What now?”
“Call Connor,” Drake says.
I’ve never seen him so serious
.
While I call him, I look at the abandoned house. I shiver when I recall the violence there. What if those two guys are waiting fo
r us again? Jane must be weak
after the injury. She probably knows we are
coming. She must become stronger
.
“Unless Jane wants to get
more
energy
,”
I say, my words forming almost at the same time as my thoughts.
“What?” Drake asks.
But Connor picks up. “Hey, Skye. No luck. Jane’s not here. I’ve talked to a neighbor who said she hasn’t seen anyone today. What
about you?”
“Same here,” I say, hurried. I put him on the speaker so Drake can hear him too.
“Listen, do you know where Jane had the accident?”
“Yeah, they gave me the address; her bike is still there. Do you think she might go back to get the bike?”
“Just give me the address!”
I say.
“Hold on,” he says. I imagine he’s
searching
his pockets. “Corner of
45
th
St and Queen Anne Ave.”
I look at
Drake.
He says, “Connor. Can you think of any other place Jane might take Mona?”
“No,” comes the answer. “I’m drawing a blank.”
Drake says in a nice way, “Please go back to the hospital then. Help them search. Can you do that?”
Connor sounds puzzled.
“Really? Don’t you want me—”
“Thanks, man,” Drake says, turning off the cell.
“What was that
about
?” I ask.
“T
he address. T
hat’s like two blocks from Pain’s,”
Drake
says.
The realization hits me. “Jane was there. Or close to them.”
I turn to him.
“Why did you hang up?”
His face is inscrutable. “Still don’t trust him.”
“What happened at Pain’s? I mean, don’t you think it’s odd, the two of them unconscious with no visible wounds? And how did Jane
get
knocked out?”
Drake looks rattled.
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it! Three of them
passed
out with no injuries!”
He mumbles,
“Jane had injuries
…
”
“She got hurt falling from the bike, and the rest was my doing the other day. Actually, Jane
probably fell down
when she felt the energy.
She
must have
been close to the source.”
Suddenly Drake’s eyes bulge, and his face goes livid.
“Mona!” he says. “She was looking fantastic when I saw her at the hospital.”
“And?
” I can’t see why this is relevant.
Drake i
s frantic. “Skye, she was looking
magically
fantastic.
” He points at me.
“
Like you.”
In my head, all the puzzle pieces fall into place. “Allure,” I say.
“Mona has Allure.
Mona is a Sister.
”
W
e went through
an ea
rthquake and
a kidnapping
today
, but this one revelation
is what
shocks me the most.
“How
?
How can Mona be a witch?” I ask.
I can’t even comprehend the words I’m speaking.
“She could be,
” Skye says. She’s thinking hard, putting things together. Good, because I’m in no condition to do that. “It’s not
hereditary—not necessarily.
Yo
ur mother could even be a Sister.”
I really don’t need more information; I
can’t handle it. My head is
spilling facts and conjecture. “Let’s focus on Mona right now,” I say, almost pleading. “Can she be the one you are looking for?”
She nods. “Whoev
er the Singularity is, I’m pretty sure she created the earthquake. It’s too much of a coincidence
with
the quake and the re
lease of magical energy happening
at the same time. If Mona is a Sister, she would be releasing a signature—unless she is the Singularity.”
“This is not happening…”
“And even if Mona isn’t the Singularity,
even if she’s a regular Sister,
Jane prob
ably wants to get Mona’s energy.
” She utters the last few words in an increasingly low voice, looking at me expectantly and putting a hand on my shoulder.
I make an effort to hide my anger and focus on the practical side. “Where are they? Can you turn on your radar or something?”
She shakes her head. “We’d be wasting time if we just rode around hoping
to catch Jane’s signature. Where
else could Jane go and have
some privacy?”
“
Brianna
’s!” I say.
“Good!”
Skye
says. “Let’s go!”