Radiant, p.2
Radiant, page 2
The cafeteria seems eerie now that the lights are off and the people are gone. This used to be a spot students gathered to unwind after classes. A place to laugh and socialize. But everything at Prism has been altered in my eyes. Colored ugly with secrets and deception. Now, it feels more like a haunted house with the potential of a new horror hiding in every shadow. Except anyone that finds us in this haunted house could actually do us harm.
We listen to the bouncing echo of our footsteps as we make our way to the back of the room, where large double doors lead to the storage area. The doors screech like crows as we open them, and we collectively wince at the sound. Fortunately the area is empty, dinner preparation having ended hours ago.
“Probably okay to turn invisibility off,” Blake says. “We should save it in case we need it to get away.”
I don’t fully trust my Mentalist abilities enough to recharge my locket on command yet, so I go visible along with everyone else. Now is not the time to be overconfident.
Blanca quickly identifies large sacks of dried essentials—beans, rice, and lentils—stacked against one of the walls. She hefts two of them on her back and one in each of her arms, using a strengthening spell to help with the weight. “These should last us awhile.”
We stuff our duffel bags with anything that looks like it could feed a large group without spoiling: pasta, dried fruit, oatmeal, flour. My mouth waters at the sight of a crate full of fresh strawberries, but we need things we can store at length.
Blanca and I are burdened by our bags while Blake uses a spell to float his. I frown, noting Blanca carries a much heavier load than me, with two bags of grain on her back in addition to the duffel bags.
I could carry more. I should carry more. “You guys go ahead.”
“What’s wrong?” Blake asks.
“I want to go back for a couple more things. I can lift more, and we should get as much as we can while we’re here.”
“We’ll all go,” Blanca says, taking a step that way, but I quickly stop her.
“No, we risk drawing more attention if we all go. I’ll just be a minute.”
I return with haste and sling a few more bags on my back. I test the weight. Still doing fine. This is probably enough.
By the time I hear the noise, it’s already too late.
Someone moves in front of me, blocking my exit. In the dim light my eyes register a long dark braid and glasses. Dr. Iris? I step to the side to try and dodge around her, but she moves with me. Drat! I never reactivated my invisibility. How could I make such a careless mistake? A sharp pain slashes across my left upper arm, and I gasp. Everything I’m carrying falls to the ground as blood rushes from the wound.
What? Dr. Iris knows the body tearing spell? How can someone who spent her whole life healing others—including me—use a spell that can do so much damage? Dr. Iris, who showed me such kindness on so many occasions, especially when Selene took my magic.
She moves close to me as blood continues gushing from my arm. As I strengthen myself in preparation to fight, she presses her hand into the injury. Hard. I scream, and my spell cuts off as I lose focus.
“I’m sorry,” she says. I feel a flash of heat through my arm, and she retreats, the double doors flapping from her rapid exit.
I lay stunned for a moment on the ground. She healed my arm. What just happened? Did she have an immediate change of heart when she hurt me? I shake away my muddled thoughts and quickly load up the supplies again, turn invisible, and move as fast as I can back to our meeting spot.
The alarms are sounding.
2
When I enter the hallway, it’s immediately obvious what gave us away: giant sacks of floating food. We may be invisible, but anything we aren’t touching isn’t. Blake may not even realize it.
Blanca must have escaped, because I don’t see her, but Blake is surrounded with Benefactors darting wildly about to try and find the invisible intruders. A few of the Shaper Benefactors use their powers to send chains through the air, ready to wrap around anything in their path. It’s only a matter of time before one of them finds their mark.
“Leave the food!” I scream.
Blake turns and sees me, relief in his eyes, but Benefactors are running toward us, eyes fierce and feet flying. Blake sends sacks of food plowing into them, and I force my way past. Even using a strengthening spell, I can’t move easily under the burden of what I’m carrying. Reluctantly I fling another bag into an oncoming Benefactor to lighten my load.
Blake looks over his shoulder as we run. “I could probably carry—”
“Forget it!” I breathe quickly. “We just need to get out.”
We retreat back to Kaito’s mentor’s office. The bookshelf has already been moved to uncover the hole in the wall, which I hope means our friends are there. I shove my remaining duffel bags through and hoist myself in after. Blake follows.
Once in the room, my heart stops. Blanca’s sacks of food are there, but no Blanca.
“Do you think she got out?” Blake asks.
“I don’t know. I don’t know!” My frustration spills over. In spite of telling everyone else to go ahead no matter what, it feels impossible to leave her behind. But there’s no way of knowing if she’s even still in the school.
“We can’t let the Benefactors find this spot,” Blake reminds me.
I know he’s right. Everyone who came knew this was a risk. If our entrance is discovered, we lose our most accessible way into Prism, not to mention the danger we could be in if discovered. We’ll lose a lot more people than Blanca. I know she would hate me for that.
“Close it off,” I relent.
Blake uses a movement spell to slide the bookcase into its original place, and we scramble back up the tunnel of the tree. Blake is cursing softly, and angry tears sting my eyes.
Our one saving grace is that there are fewer Benefactors in the woods outside the school now since many of them went toward Prism when the alarms sounded. Blake uses a spell to take on one of my bags since he had to abandon his. We then run wildly.
We make it hardly a hundred yards into the forest when I feel warm arms enclose me. In the height of fearful adrenaline, I almost shove them away, but when I catch the familiar scent, I lean into the embrace.
“Thank goodness you’re alright,” Elm says.
“Keep moving, please!” Blake growls. “Some of us have to worry about our visibility.”
Elm grabs my free hand as we hurry on.
“I told you not to come this close to the school,” I scold, panting from constant running. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
I see the twinkle in his sideways glance. “Apparently you don’t know me very well, Miss Ava.”
“Have you seen anyone else?” Blake asks him.
“Kaito, Jazz, and his sister passed me.”
“And Blanca? Sarah?” I think I already know the answer, but I have to ask anyway.
Elm slows his pace for a split second. “I haven’t seen them.”
We run in silence the rest of the way.
Blake and I exhale as we let our stash of food fall to the ground. The sound of the bags hitting unforgiving stone echoes through the cave.
“You should have let me take one,” Elm chides.
I heave in a few breaths of cool air before responding. “You know it’s easier for me.”
“Could have used Shaper abilities, though, right?” Blake says. “Oh wait,” he holds up a hand, “I forgot. You don’t know how yet.”
The hand suddenly raises higher and flicks Blake on the nose. “Ow!”
“Whoopsie,” Elm says. I glare at him, and his smug look dissolves. “Apologies, Miss Ava.”
“Don’t apologize to me.”
He gives a dramatic eye roll. “My apologies, Blake, that you lack the power to resist my control.”
Elm is spared from Blake’s retort by a relieved shout.
“You made it back!” Nikki rushes toward us, accompanied by Kaito. “I’m so glad you’re safe.” She hugs me, then glances at Blake, who shrinks a bit under her pretty smile. “Thanks for looking out for her.”
Nikki and I had bonded quickly, largely due to the fact that she’s the vivacious type who makes friends easily. I’m still trying to take her lead on forming friendships, though I’m not sure I’ll ever reach her level.
Kaito scans the space behind Elm, Blake, and me. His face falls as the realization hits. “Blanca and Sarah weren’t with you?”
Well, there goes the shred of hope I had that they somehow got back unseen before us. “I really hoped they would be with you.” My voice cracks. I shouldn’t have left. I should have sent Blake back here and stayed at the oak until I knew everyone had made it.
“I’m going back.” Kaito pushes past us, but Blake grabs his arm. Kaito shoves him away and stares at him, challenging. He’s two years younger than Blake and not usually hot-headed, so this has us all staring.
“I get how you feel,” Blake says, remaining calm. “But we can’t just charge right in without a plan. We didn’t expect so many Benefactors this time, and there are probably even more after what we just did. We can’t lose anyone else.”
Kaito tightens his fists. “Who knows what could happen to them while we wait.”
“Probably nothing, because those Benefactors are nitwits.”
We whirl toward the voice. A smug-faced Blanca and a sheepish-looking Sarah enter the cave.
“What happened?” I ask after we happily greet each other. “We saw you left your food bundles behind but couldn’t find you.”
Blanca tips her head toward Sarah with a grin. “That’s because she had an idea for something even better.”
Blanca and Sarah step aside, and I notice for the first time an object on the ground behind them: Prism’s copy machine.
We won’t have to worry about food anymore.
3
The atmosphere in the cave is much lighter with Sarah and Blanca’s return, or perhaps it’s just that my own mind is now at ease. As we head deeper into the cave to find Jazz, we listen as the pair (well, mostly Blanca) recounts their tale of going back for the copy machine.
“Sarah was waiting in the tree room when I got there. I was pretty proud of the food I had secured, but thinking of all the people we needed to feed, it suddenly didn’t feel like enough. The alarms were going off, and it was kind of chaotic.”
Sarah nods. “I thought since they already knew we were here, we might as well make the most out of the visit. It made more sense to get something we could create more food with so we wouldn’t have to keep putting ourselves in danger.”
“So then,” Blanca says, “Sarah made a bunch of noise down one hallway while I busted into the supply room to grab the copier. She freaked me out, though, getting back to the room almost five minutes later than I did. I almost had to book it.”
“Navigating the hall with all those Benefactors was a lot harder than I expected,” Sarah admits with a short laugh.
We approach the small group gathered around Brie and Jazz. It’s easy to pick Jazz’s sister out of the bunch. She and Jazz share the exact same shade of dark-brown skin and black hair. However, whereas Jazz’s eyes are gray and thoughtful, Brie’s brown eyes are bright and full of mischief.
Jazz’s face washes with relief as he sees us nearing. “You made it! I was starting to worry.”
“And we’re glad you made it here together.” I share in his relief and smile at his sister. “Nice to finally meet you, Brie. Your big brother obviously loves you.”
“Hey, why isn’t she in quarantine yet?” Blanca interrupts before Brie replies.
“I was just getting to that.” Jazz’s discomfort is obvious, and I wonder if he’s concerned about how his sister will respond.
When someone new comes to the cave, we take them to one of the caverns. There, they remain under round-the-clock surveillance for 72 hours to make sure the effects of the Benefactor’s mind control have worn completely off. We can’t risk bringing someone here only to have them turn on us.
“We do it to everyone,” Jazz tells Brie. “It’s for the good of—”
“I get it,” Brie stops him, rolling her eyes. “It’s no big deal. Let’s just get this isolation stuff over with.”
She and Jazz are definitely different from each other, I think, bemused.
The isolation chamber is a pit about fifteen feet deep into the floor of the cave. It’s not meant to be a prison, so we’ve done what we could to make it more tolerable. Furniture, courtesy of Elm, books for entertainment, and of course, one of Elm’s light spheres. Already waiting is Garren, who will be taking first watch. Garren is only a first-year student, but he’s massive. His size combined with his Augmentor capabilities make him a natural choice for guard work, although his mellow personality makes me think he’d rather make friends than be a watchdog.
He brushes his mop of blond hair out of his eyes, then extends a mighty hand to Brie as we approach. “I’m Garren. I’ll be looking after you for now.”
“Cool. Thanks, Garren.”
Jazz looks first at Brie, then down into the pit. “Does she really have to go in there?”
“You know she does. It’s only three days. She’ll be safe, I promise. And it’s not like you won’t be able to see her. You can come and talk to her as often as you want.”
“Can’t I just go with her?”
“No, because if I’m corrupted, I might hurt you.” Brie rolls her eyes. “What are you thinking? It’s all right.”
We unroll the rope ladder that’s secured at the top of the pit and throw it down. If I’m being honest, it does feel wrong putting people there, but fortunately everyone understands the reasons for it. Nobody wants to put our little pack in jeopardy.
“See you in three days!” Brie gives a jaunty salute and climbs down the ladder, the rope swinging with her weight. She immediately checks out her new surroundings and sorts through the books, examining the covers with curious interest. I know she’s going to be fine.
“What a day,” I sigh, picking up a watering can to help Elm with his garden. After all the fuss, all I want now is to relax, but my mind can’t stop spinning. “So we’ll need to find a place for Brie. I guess that won’t be hard because she’ll want to be with Jazz. But we’ll need you to make another bed for her. I hope that’s okay. I feel bad that you’re the only one who can—”
Elm clasps his hands over mine and gently tilts the watering can up so I won’t drown the carrots. “Breathe.”
I inhale. Exhale. Then I turn around to face him.
He smiles and runs his fingertips up my shoulders and neck until he holds my face in his hands. “I am so glad you made it back safely, Miss Ava.”
“Me too.” My cheeks warm against his touch, and I lean into his hands, inhaling his familiar cedarwood and orange-blossom scent. A heaviness descends on my mood. Some of us almost didn’t make it back today. And I still haven’t mentioned my odd encounter with Dr. Iris.
I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him. He seems surprised at first, but quickly reciprocates. A sudden sense of urgency sets in—how much time do any of us really have? What if I didn’t make it back? What if something happened to Elm while he came to look for me? We were safe today, but what happens tomorrow?
I pull away and stare into Elm’s eyes, a question breaking free from my lips before I can stop it. “Do you love me?”
He furrows his brow. “What is this about all of a sudden?”
“Do you?”
“I would have thought the answer to that was obvious . . .”
“I just need to hear it.”
He opens his mouth but then stops himself. He’s choosing his next words carefully. “I think perhaps . . . now isn’t the best time for this. When emotions are so high.”
I gaze at him, perplexed. “Did . . . did I do something wrong?”
“Oh, no.” He smiles warmly. “You do everything exceptionally well, Miss Ava.”
“Then why are you . . . rejecting me?” I blurt, suddenly embarrassed.
He shakes his head. “Not rejecting. I simply think this specific moment is likely not the best time for . . . well, it’s complicated, I suppose.”
I set the watering can down, not looking him in the eye. “Oh. Well, goodnight, then.” I hurry away from the garden, a jumble of emotions. Mortified. Hurt. A little angry. Back in the chamber I share with Nikki, I’m grateful she hasn’t yet returned for the evening. I inhale the cool, damp cavern air, but it doesn’t clear my mind the way it usually does. The stony cave walls seem especially frigid and the drip, drip, drip of water in one corner of the room grates against my ears like the buzz of an insect.
Why did he have to put me off like that? How hard is it to just say, “I love you”? I know he does. The things he’s risked for me . . . who does that if they don’t care about someone?
So then why do I need him to say it? Why are the actual words so important?
They’re not, are they?
Demanding that he say it, when he’s demonstrated it so fully must have been . . . insulting. And besides, I haven’t said it to him yet either. So what right do I have to be mad?
Stupid Ava! The anger abates and shame pummels me full force. How could I not even consider how Elm might feel? Flustered, I hide my face in my pillow. I hear Nikki come inside a moment later, and I pretend I’m already asleep.
4
The air is delicious. I never knew anything could feel so wonderful. The first time Elm brought me to this clearing with the horses felt like my first taste of freedom, but somehow this is a thousand times sweeter. The sun cascades over my skin, warming every part of me. The sharp scent of pine trees invites me to take another breath. This is different from lifeless cavern walls. This is refreshing. Renewing.
I know even while I’m invisible it’s dangerous to be out here in the open, but I had to get away. I spent all night stewing in my thoughts and wishing I had played things out differently. What was I thinking trying to force a verbal confession out of him after a dangerous mission in which he was obviously concerned about me?
