Grasping at Eternity (The Kindrily) (7 page)

“You should be a tour guide,” I said. “Are you a history buff or something?”

“I had this friend who taught me that the best parts of a story are the history and secrets buried inside.” She sipped her smoothie while kicking a stone along our path.

“You said ‘had’. What happened to her?”

“She just sort of disappeared. No one really knows why.” Faith sat by a fountain and patted the concrete beside her. Krista and I sat on either side of her.

“Losing someone like that takes its toll,” Krista said.

“It’s been extremely hard on all of us.” Faith ran her hand through the fountain. Water dripped from her sparkly painted fingernails. “But I have faith she’ll be back one day.”

“Faith has faith,” I joked.

“I do.” She raised her sunglasses and leaned close to me. “But ultimately
she
has to make the decision to come back. And when she does, I’ll do everything I can to help her.”

Tires squealing caused all of us to look at the parking lot. A dark gray Jaguar screeched to a halt diagonally, taking up two parking spots. A guy our age climbed out of it. His forearms were covered with black tattoos, and more peeked out from the collar of his t-shirt. His jet-black fauxhawk and leather wristbands matched the interior of his Jaguar. I’d never seen anyone resemble their car, but he definitely did. What kind of jobs did his parents have that made him privileged enough to drive a new Jaguar?

“Must be nice,” I said to Faith.

“Ugh.” She lowered her sunglasses and sucked on her straw. By her flaring nostrils, I could tell she wasn’t impressed.

When I looked up, he was slinking toward us. The guy even moved as sleek as a jaguar.

“What’s going on, shorty?” he asked Faith.

“You’re looking at it,” Faith answered in a monotone voice.

He said hi to Krista then he looked me up and down. “Sorry, didn’t catch your name during Faith’s non-existent intro.”

“Uh, Maryah,” I muttered pathetically.

“Okay, Uh Maryah, I’m River.” He smiled, revealing perfect, straight teeth. “You girls coming to my show?”

I glanced at Faith, but she was ignoring him.

“Show?” Krista asked.

“My band, The Rebel Junkies, we’re playing here tonight.”

“No,” Faith chimed in. “We have other plans.”

“Too bad. I’m singing a rad new song. Shame you’ll miss it.”

“Cataclysmic shame.” Faith’s straw made a gurgling sound as she sucked the last bit of smoothie out of her cup. “You should probably go practice.”

“I don’t practice. Don’t need to.”

He did have a nice voice, raspy and confident.

Faith snickered before standing and grabbing my hand. “We were just leaving.”

“See ya, Krista.” He flashed me another perfect smile. “Bye, Melissa.”

I didn’t bother correcting him. “Bye.”

Once we were in the car and out of earshot, I asked Faith about her apparent dislike of River. “What’d he do to get on your bad side?”

“He’s just full of himself. He’s as shallow as a kiddie pool.”

With the push of a button, Faith lowered the top of her convertible. She lifted her face to the sky and inhaled. “I love how August sunshine smells!”

I laughed. “Because July sunshine smells so different?”

“July is okay. January snow, however, yuck! Smells and tastes like licorice.”

I looked back at Krista to make sure she didn’t miss the moment of weirdness, but she had her head back and eyes closed like she was enjoying the sunshine just as much as Faith.

“Months have a smell,” I grumbled. “Interesting.”

“And taste. So many fantastic details exist in this world that most people never notice.” Faith squeezed my knee. “You should pay more attention.”

Krista leaned between the seats to turn up the radio. “Ooooh! This is my favorite song.”

“Yes!” Faith bounced in her seat. “I adore this band.”

They both sang
Déjà vu of You
at the top of their lungs while my phone chimed with a text message from my aunt.
Hope ur okay. Call if u need us. Love you
.

My heart sank. I missed her and my uncle. I missed all of my family. Part of me felt guilty for not being sad all day. Did that make me a horrible daughter and sister because I hadn’t thought about my parents or Mikey for the past few hours?

I missed my old life, but there was something peaceful about Sedona. I wasn’t constantly looking over my shoulder for two men the police couldn’t find. For the first time in months, I felt safe, or hopeful, or something besides sad and scared. It was refreshing to be in a town where I wasn’t constantly reminded of everything I had loved and lost.

Nathaniel

Being that it was only eight o’clock, I didn’t want to risk traversing without proper clearance.

Carson answered his phone on the second ring. “I’m at the house, and no, Maryah isn’t here.”

“Right. See you in a second.”

I didn’t focus on a specific room. I focused on reappearing eye to eye with Carson. I traversed and resurfaced standing on the kitchen island—in the dark. Carson’s hands were stretched above his head fiddling with a light fixture.

“This is a first,” I said.

Louise stood below us with a flashlight aimed at Carson’s hands. “One of Harmony’s ghosts got angry and blew out all the lights.”

Carson finished spinning a bulb into place. “Hit the switch, Dakota.”

Light flooded the room and Carson and I hopped down off the counter.

I peered down the dark hallway. “It blew out all the lights?”

“Yes indeedy,” Dakota answered. “I could only find one flashlight, so Shiloh’s running around fixing the rest.”

“Must have been one powerful spirit.”

Louise cringed. “His aura was brown and thick as mud—so much hostility and unresolved anger. He also broke a couple dishes. Harmony has her hands full with that one.”

“Is she still here?”

“No.” Dakota pushed his haphazard waves of blond hair from his eyes. “She didn’t want him doing any more damage to the house.”

Dakota wasn’t a member of our kindrily, but he was a member of our family. To Harmony and Faith, he was related by blood. The rest of us became connected to him by heart, which in many cases is as strong as blood or soul ties.

He grabbed a rag and scrubbed at wet spots on the Element logo of his t-shirt. “I tried a Repelling Evil spell on him, but the poltergeist prick exploded a can of soda on me.”

I grinned. Dakota had never successfully cast a spell. “Trying to protect your sister again?”

“Some spirits just don’t know when to let up,” he spat. “In my next life I’m going to be a Ghostbuster.”

Louise and I laughed. Carson rolled his eyes.

At age thirteen, Dakota’s harness malfunctioned during a rock-climbing adventure and he nearly fell to his death. Carson and I reacted instinctively. Dakota witnessed me safely anchored to the rocks above him one second, and below him on the ground the next. In actuality, Carson saved his life. My intention was only to break his fall, but Carson grabbed him mid-plummet, and Dakota halted within inches of my arms. He refused to believe the explanations we constructed, so the kindrily entrusted Dakota with our basic secret of abilities. Over the years he attained further knowledge about us, and it strengthened his desire to be an Element.

“Anyway,” Carson said, as the hallway light flickered on. “Shiloh had me text you.”

Shiloh spun out of the hallway into the kitchen, singing a chimerical song about lights and ghosts. A head full of braids had replaced the thick unkempt hair I’d seen him with a few days earlier. “Natty bro!”

“Carson said you had him text me. Why didn’t you just call me?”

“Left my phone at the dance studio.” He dumped an armful of bulbs into the trashcan. “All the lights are fixed, Louise.”

Louise patted his back. “What would I do without you, Shiloh?”

“You’d use a flashlight.”

She playfully shoved him, and in true Shiloh style he dramatically fell against the refrigerator. “Maybe so, but none of us have the ability to know what you told us earlier. Hurry up and tell Nathan.”

“Tell me what?”

“Let’s go outside,” Shiloh said. “I’d rather show you.”

∞

We walked to the far end of the deck where the spiral staircase led to the rooftop. I traversed to the top and waited for him.

When he reached the top stair, I asked, “Why are we up here?”

“The closer the better.”

“Closer to what?”

He pointed upward.

I glanced at the sky. “Beg your pardon.”

“This might sound crazy, but keep in mind I see differently than the rest of you. Just like you see colors and I can’t, I can see things that you can’t.” He rubbed his hands together. “Promise you won’t push me off the roof when I tell you this.”

“I’ll do my best to refrain.”

He sucked air through his teeth and blew out a long breath. “Okay, last night, I thought I saw something in the sky, but I dismissed it due to Faith’s contagious optimism. Tonight though, it’s a tad brighter. I can’t deny it’s there.”

“Deny what’s there?”

He stepped past me so he wasn’t near the roof’s edge. “Maryah’s star.”

My eyes darted upward, searching for the celestial light that used to shine beside mine. I saw only darkness. The empty grave in the sky matched the black hole inside me. I lowered my chin and glared at Shiloh.

“Dang. You don’t see it either. I’m telling you, where her star used to be is a pulsing spec of mist that’s halfway between gray and silver of my color spectrum.”

“Her star burned out almost two decades ago. Once a star falls it doesn’t rise again.”

“I discussed that with Faith and Louise. Maybe it never fell. What if it just faded like her memory, and now it’s slowly being rekindled?”

 
“The star that represented her has burned out. The heavens are through weeping for her, and so am I.”

“Do you really expect me to believe you’re not going to fight to bring her memory back?” I stared at him, unblinking. “You aren’t yourself anymore, bro. We miss the old Nathaniel, the believer of love and miracles. I swear, Nate, there is a trace of light up there.”

I shook my head. “Impossible.”

“We’ll see about that.” Shiloh sat down, dangling his legs over the side of the roof. “Carson thinks I can see it because of my ability to see in the dark. He’s hoping to reproduce my gift by designing special hi-tech glasses. If he pulls it off, I’ll prove you wrong.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

He reclined back with his hands behind his head and smiled. “We know. That’s why Carson is making the glasses.”

Maryah

After an all day tour of Sedona, and lots of Faith singing, we pulled into the Lunas’ driveway. That’s when I saw it: a white Mustang.

She did it. Faith’s scary sister convinced the Lunas to give Carson his car months before his birthday. He wasn’t even sixteen yet! It’s not like he’d be able to drive it. How could Harmony talk Anthony and Louise into breaking their family tradition?

Maybe they feared Evil Twin as much as I did.

As we entered the house, Carson’s voice echoed through the foyer. He was discussing nitrous and racing stripes, but the conversation halted when we entered the kitchen. I tried to stay behind Krista, using her as a shield from Carson’s dirty looks.

“See my new ride?” Carson asked, grinning smugly.

Faith fist bumped him. “Very swank. Congrats.” She punched a blonde boy’s shoulder when he was in mid-sip of his drink. Soda spilled down the front of him and onto the kitchen counter. “This is my little brother, Dakota.”

“Seriously? I just cleaned this shirt!” Dakota rubbed his arm where Faith hit him. “Hi, Maryah. Hi, Krista.”

Krista spoke for both of us. “Nice to meet you.”

Dakota was shorter and smaller than Carson. His scabbed elbows and wrist brace made him look breakable and corruptible. Carson would probably turn him against me—if he hadn’t already.
 

“Shiloh will be in in a sec,” Faith said after glancing at her phone. As if Krista and I knew who Shiloh was. She poured herself a drink. “We’re going to hang out here and watch a movie. You boys want to join us?”

Carson flipped through the pages of a car magazine. “Sure. What are you guys watching?”

Wow. Carson agreed to an activity that involved my company? Guess the excitement of getting a car curbed his bad attitude toward me. I didn’t want to hang out with Carson, but I also didn’t want to look like an anti-social brat by hiding out in my room all night.

 
“No chick flicks,” Dakota moaned.

“I second that!” A guy with braids and caramel skin came through the kitchen door. “Hey, Maryah, I’m Shiloh. Faith’s other half. It’s awesome to see you.”

“Thanks. You, too.” I’d learned from meeting so many people in the last twenty-four hours that people in Arizona didn’t say it was nice to
meet
you, they said it was nice to see you. No use fighting their system.

His smile gleamed. “Hello, Krista.”

“Love your bandana,” she said.

“Much thanks. One of my dance students gave it to me as a gift.” He wasn’t much taller than Faith, but he looked pretty buff under his baggy black t-shirt and white basketball shorts. His day-glo sneakers coordinated with Faith’s hair and bright outfit.

“You’re a dancer?” I asked.

“Shiloh’s parents own a studio,” Faith explained. “His mom is from Jamaica and his dad is from Asia. They do everything from Salsa to African. It’s where my Jamasian gets his talent from. They’re the coolest people in the world—well, besides us.” She playfully elbowed me. She obviously had no idea how
uncool
I was.

Shiloh demonstrated a fancy foot-work spin, then dipped Faith and kissed her.

I smiled at how cute and in-sync they were. “How long have you two been together?”

Faith giggled. “A looong time.”

“What flick are we watching?” Shiloh asked.

Carson glared at me through his parted curtain of bangs and stepped way too close to me—way too quickly. “Have you seen
Jumper?
”