Little Spark

37 - Mirror Mirror

The meeting about Luca's predicament is brief, but exhausting. I'm forced to share what Reign told me—which, even though I don't have to mention his name, involves admitting I've been keeping company with an enemy—with Luca, Apollo, Luca's parents, Apollo's parents, and Mr. Casey, and after Luca tells her parents her clairvoyant little secret, and Mr. Casey explains how very dangerous the danger is, it's decided that she will "run away", and her parents will report her missing. Since we know the Shadows will be tracking her movements, waiting for an opportunity to grab her, my job is to convince my "Shadow contact" to shift Luca from her bedroom closet to the store room at Common Grounds within the next couple of days so we can get her down into Corndog Mumson without her being followed. I initially suggested we try blazing her there, but since the distance is really far and no one's ever tried it before—who knows whether or not she'd implode from the pressure or be ripped to pieces—we figure shifting is our only hope.

Oh, and we can't tell Candis because the Shadows may question her, and it's best she think Luca really is on the run.

Glorious.

The prevailing hope is that I'll be done with the quest soon, all our Shadow troubles will be put to rest, Luca can come out of hiding with no threat of being kidnapped, tortured, and who knows what else, and we'll all live happily ever after.

No pressure, of course.

That night, I have a dream that I'm standing in the woods looking out at a dead-end street. The guardrail that marks the end of the street is severely dented like something smashed into it. I'm looking around, trying to figure out where I am, when I hear Reign's voice; he has appeared on the street with a pretty blonde girl in tow. "It happened right here," he says, pointing to the rail.

The girl begins to cry, and Reign pulls her into his arms to console her. "I'm so sorry, Reign," she says pulling back to look up into his face.

Reign smiles at her, and I watch in horror as he takes her face in his hands and leans down to kiss her.

I squeeze my eyes shut, and everything goes silent. When I open them, I find myself in a pitch-black room. Even though there's no light and I can't see, I know the walls are covered with photos, newspaper clippings, and papers full of personal information, with pushpins and strings connecting different people and papers like I've seen in psycho-killer movies.

Pitches begin to close in on me, and I hear the screams of the people I love inside my head. I need to start a fire in here, but I can't seem to heat up. I fall to my knees with my hands squeezed over my ears as my loved ones—Ruby, Gigi, Aunt Lil, Candis, Apollo, Von, Luca, Mr. Casey—cry out to me, begging me to help them, pleading with me to stop the Shadows.

But I can't.

I wake with a jolt. My tears sizzle as they run down my hot face, but knowing I still have my powers is a relief.

I go to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face and regroup; I don't know what that dream was all about, but hearing those cries and not being able to do anything about it was sobering.

I have to complete this quest.

********************

When I wake up the following morning, Reign's gift is sitting on my nightstand. He must've been here within the past few hours because it took me forever to fall back asleep last night. As I run my fingers over the thin plastic of the grocery-style black bag, a burning ache settles deep into my bones. The crinkling sound the bag makes when I pick it up reminds me of the wind blowing through the treetops while I stood in the woods watching him walk away after he willfully betrayed his cohorts.