Chapter 13

KHLOE GILES

I was half way home when vibrations jarred my body, making me jump. I reached into the depths of my pockets and fished out the iPhone, checking the caller ID. Wes Evergreen.

Surprised, my thumb lingers over the name, hesitating before sliding across the green answer button. “Hello?”

“Hey, I didn’t wake you did I?” His voice was thick with exhaustion and something else I couldn’t place. Sadness? Loneliness?

“No, what’s up.?” I asked, making my way home again. There was a pause on the other end, and he sighs.

“I Just wanted to call and see if you need a ride to the Burning tomorrow.”

I caught myself mid-agreement, remembering that Scotty was supposed to pick me up.

“Oh, that’s good.” The disappointment in his voice was obvious when regretfully I relayed the message, and I felt a hint of guilt.

“I’m sorry.”

“No big.”

“Maybe tomorrow we can have lunch after Baulder’s funeral? Are you going?” I regretted the words almost as soon as they come out. Was this a good idea? What if things got awkward? Especially after the way I blew up at him in the hospital. What about Tara? The last thing I needed was a jealous girlfriend.

“Yeah, I’m going. That’d be great.” The disappointment faded to excitement, and I couldn’t help but smile. I hadn’t heard Wes that happy in a while.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Bright and early.” He agreed. We hung up. Maybe it was just his exhaustion speaking, but I was glad he was happy. I slid the phone back into the pocket, still wondering if this was only asking for trouble. My friendship with Wes had been rocky for months now. Did we still have anything in common? Did he still collect comics or only eat the side of the Oreo with cream? Was it still possible to save our friendship? I contemplated the questions until I reached home.

I took the path behind our house that had become so familiar I could walk it in my sleep. I took the long way back to my bedroom window, afraid of waking my parents. My path was blocked my waist high holly bushes with bright red berries hanging off their pointed leaves. By the time I had crawled through them, the scratches I’d received were worth not getting caught. Standing beneath my two-story window, I was almost ready to make the levitating leap. I looked up to gauge the jump and freeze, my entire body going cold again. The familiar sensation of wrongness I’d felt at the club speaking with Jen-Someone washed back over me. The window is closed.

Crap! I didn’t remember closing it. I wouldn’t. I closed my eyes to leap anyway, only to land back on my feet with a grunt.

“Huh?” I closed my eyes again, forcing myself to take deep breaths and focus. I jumped again, landing back on my feet, rocking on my heels until I tottered too far and fall to the ground, hands thrown out to break my fall.

Double crap. This wasn’t good. Where were my powers? Why couldn’t I levitate? Why the hell was my window closed? Right now, my main concern was getting inside. Luckily, a vine bush was growing beneath Sara’s window and the vines were strong enough to hold my weight. I jostled them to make sure and I knew I was right. After struggling a bit, I found my footing and crawled my way up to my sister’s window, tapping twice before a disgruntled Sara stirred.

“It’s almost four am what are you doing up this late?” She asked, sliding the window open and helping pull me through.

“Someone locked my window.” I whispered back, straightening up once inside and brushing myself off.

“You went out again didn’t you?” She asked, pulling a leaf from my hair and tossing it aside, “Despite Abbey’s warning.”

“I had to go into the city and see Keith. I had to tell him about Lil.” I unzipped my hoodie and tossed it over my shoulder, finding my way through the darkness and to my bedroom.

“The familiar? What’s so important about Lil that you had to risk your life?” She followed me.

“She’s going to Burn tomorrow.” I said, flipping a light on and searching my drawers for a pair of pajama’s to change into.

“That’s sad.” Sara crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. I stopped my search and turn to stare at her.

“That’s sad? The one person who has helped us figure this all out and taken care of us without question, the one person who saved your ass and all you’ve got to say is that’s sad?”

“Yes because that’s what it is. Sad and hopeless. Khloe, please tell me you aren’t going to try to rescue her!” Sara frowned at me.

I eyed her. Sara was the middle sister. A bit wild and willful. She was more concerned with boys than magic most days. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her worry before.

“No.” I sigh, “She doesn’t want me to.””

“But you thought about it didn’t you? Oh Khloe. Abbey is not going to be happy when she hears about this.”

I paused at my sister’s words, head suddenly spinning. “What if she already knows?”

Sara stared at me until the words skin in, her face scrunching up in disbelief.

“She wouldn’t. Not a sister!”

“Anything to protect this family.” I quoted my sisters words. I made my way to the window and tugged on the lock. It didn’t move as if it had been stuck in place for ages.

“Locked by magic.” Sara said, expression shocked.

“Resera.” At the incantation, the lock made a soft clicking sound and the window slid open.

“Someone’s been practicing magic.” Sara looked at me, brown eyes wide.

“Against her own rules.” I agreed, feeling an ounce of annoyance that my sister would use magic against me.

“But why would Abbey let you get caught? That would destroy all of us.”

“There’s a traitor in our midst.” Jen-Someone’s words came back to me.

“What?”

“Something Lil said before she was captured.” I explained.

“And you think that the traitor is our sister?” Sara looked at me in disbelief.

“I think she doesn’t realize how many people she would hurt to protect us. Including us, but that isn’t even our biggest problem.”

“No? What’s bigger than your own sister betraying you?” Sara snorted.

“Not having powers?”

“What do you mean not having powers?”

“As in I had to crawl up the wall to get to your room.” I explained, leaning against my dresser.

“That’s just levitating. You can still explode right? That’s like, you’re big kahuna. We need that power.”

“I don’t know.” I turned back to the lock on the window, eying it and focusing. I raised my hand, closing my eyes and flicked. I didn’t even hear the sizzle that normally followed something being magically fried.

“Oh crap.” Sara groaned, falling back on to my bed. “Oh crap, we’re screwed.”

“Point already made, thanks.” I replied, turning back to face my sister.

“What are we going to do? You’re the only one trained enough to use your power.” Sara whined, looking over at me.

“Well, maybe you should’ve thought about that when you were making out with the guys instead of training.” I snapped, glaring at my sister and falling back onto my bed beside her, curling up into the satin sheets. “All I want to do right now is get through tomorrow. Then we can figure out how to stop all of this mess.”

“Stop it?” She asked, laughing. “How can we stop something if we are losing our powers?”

She looked at me, face scrunched in confusion, brows pressed together and mouth tight. “We’re so screwed.”

For some reason that made me laugh and I nodded in agreement, “Yes, yes we are.” Then, I remembered the words of the voice in Lil’s jail cell. I remembered we had the Mother of Magic on our side and that gave me some sort of hope. “But maybe not for long. Maybe after tomorrow we’ll have all the answers we need.”

Sara looked at me with doubt. “I truly hope so.”