Sleight of Hand: The Final Card

Chapter 26

"We have to help them!" Tom exclaimed, bouncing anxiously on the sofa in front of the Super­humans staring out the window with varying degrees of shock and alarm.

"We will," Mac assured, but he wasn't sure how. Plus, he wasn't keen on attacking without a plan like last time.

Last time, it had gotten someone killed.

"I'm not sure you all are ready to face them yet. Your bodies are still getting used to the abundance of power," Althea explained, looking worried.

"Well, we can wait here until we feel better," Elyk suggested, meeting Mac's eyes. "How do you feel, Bro? You were the first one to get your power back."

"I still feel... weird," Mac confessed. "But I can feel my power slowly settling into place." It was true, as the minutes passed, he felt more like himself than he had in the past month.

"We can't just leave the others out there with Hali," Enaj asserted, crossing her arms and cocking her hip sassily.

"Actually, I think they'll be okay," Ammee said. Mac wasn't the only one to give her an incredulous look.

"They're bait," she explained simply in her quiet voice. "Hali won't do anything to them until the rest of us are there, too."

Arries gasped, making everyone whirl toward her. She straightened until she was rigid. Her wide eyes glowed extremely bright—the whites of her eyes couldn't be seen. Mac felt his jaw slacken when the magenta glow from her eyes seemed to extract from her sockets and formed a floating orb of light in front of her face. As it did, she fell limp, and Alyakim lunged to catch her sister.

"Arries!" Alyakim cried, shaking her unconscious form. Mac felt the blood drain from his face. Studying Arries, he got a sense of déjà vu. Arries's dark skin was ashen and dull, and her black hair had lost its kinks and luster. The worst thing, though, was that her subtle light that outlined all Superhumans was gone.

Just like Bacon.

"What... was that...?" Tom asked, his voice unusually quiet. He was observing Arries with fear that spread to the others' faces. Mac caught a glimpse of Sierra, and she shared the same terrified look as her brother, her mother cradling her close.

"It was... Arries's power," Elyk gulped, sky-blue eyes wide. They watched as the small orb of pink drifted through the glass of the window and out to the knoll where Hali was waiting.

"That's Hali's power," Lassos explained. "She can temporarily take another Superhumans' power and use it as her own."

"So why did she take Arries's of all people?" Enaj asked.

"Because she can control minds," Alyakim snapped. She knelt on the floor, holding her sister. Her stormy eyes were rimmed with tears, and they smoldered with hatred. Enaj pressed her lips together grimly.

"We'd better get ready, then," she said darkly, return­ing her attention to the window. "And hope that Aivilo and Trebor and Rae are, too."

Not much happened in the next few minutes, which only left them more high-strung with tension.

"Uh-oh," Elyk said, diverting Mac's attention to him. Elyk was watching Lassos, who seemed to be zon­ing out. As they watched, his eyes turned glassy, and then they lit up with purple light. He sluggishly turned and headed for the door. Elyk reached out toward Lassos, but before he could do anything, his hand dropped and he, too, started shuffling after Lassos like a zombie. His eyes were also glassy and purple.

"What...?" Alyakim gasped. "Arries was only ever to control one person at a time before she was exhausted. There's no way Hali could do that to multiple people!"