Chapter 22
AFTER THE DOOR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TOWER creaks open, I
hear footsteps. I hear echoed breathing. Whoever it is, it’ll
be impossible to hide a drugged Adelina, a cat, and a
Chest stuffed with alien weapons and artifacts. I slowly set
the branch back into the Chest and close the lid. Legacy
creeps to the edge of the belfry floor and then sits and
stares down into the darkness. We’re all silent, but then
Adelina rolls out a long, droning snore.
The footsteps in the circular stairway speed up. I give
Adelina a few shakes to wake her up. She falls onto her
side.
What do I do? I mouth to Legacy. The cat jumps on top of
the Chest and then jumps back off again only to purr around
my feet. It isn’t an answer, but it does give me an idea. I
lean down and set Legacy on top of the Chest and then
scramble up into one of the two windows where the cool air
penetrates my pajamas and instantly causes my teeth to
chatter. The footsteps are getting closer.
With my mind, I raise the Chest high in the air, and
Legacy’s claws scrape at the lid for a safe footing. I have to
duck as I float the Chest up and over me and out the
window. Immediately after I set the Chest quietly on the
frosty lawn ten stories below, Legacy jumps off and runs
into the darkness. I then float Adelina up and over me, her
nightgown brushing the top of my head, and carefully I set
her down next to the Chest.
The footsteps are loud now. I swing my legs over the
edge of the window. Using whatever concentration I can still
muster, I am able to levitate myself a few centimeters
above the cold stone. I push out into the swirling wind.
Before I lower myself away from the tower, I see the
mustached Mogadorian from the cafe round the last turn of
the stairway and stomp into the belfry.
My concentration buckles and then snaps into a million
little pieces. I go into a wild free-fall until the last moment,
when I press my hands in front of my chest and set my mind
on floating like a feather. My right knee lands a hair from
Adelina’s shivering body.
I panic. I either have to try to get the Chest and Adelina
down into the village for hiding—but it is the middle of the
night and we are in our nightclothes and I can only see a
few lonely windows lit in town—or I have to quickly find a
place to hide us within the orphanage. It will take the
Mogadorian less time to descend the tower than it did for
him to race up it, but he still has a long hallway to travel and
another flight of stairs to run down to make it to the first
floor. I stick my head through the double doors, and once I
see the coast is clear, I drape Adelina over the Chest and
float them into the nave. My strength is waning immensely,
but I am somehow able to summon just enough power to
get the Chest, Adelina and me tucked away up into the
farthest recess of the drafty, cold and damp nook where the
Chest had originally been hidden.
I am beginning to think I led the Mogadorian right to me
by opening the Chest. Perhaps the red pulse of the crystal I
dropped is some kind of transmitter. Adelina will know what
it is, what to do. To combat the fear that an evil alien race is
coming directly for me, to somehow apologize to Adelina
for drugging her, and to gather a little warmth, I rest my
head on Adelina’s chest and wrap my arms around her
waist.
Hours later, I hear Adelina grunt and shuffle her legs
underneath mine.
“Adelina?” I whisper. “Are you awake?”
“Who is that? Marina?”
I whisper, “Adelina, you have to be really, really quiet.”
“Why?” she whispers. “And where are we?”
“We’re in the nave where you hid the Chest. But please
listen to me. They’re here. The Mogadorians came for me
last night after I opened the Chest, and I had to hide us.”
“How did you open up the Chest by yourself? It doesn’t
work that way.”
“You told me how to do it. You were sleep-talking,” I lie. I
could tell her I drugged her, but I’m not ready for that
argument.
Her confusion is evident in her voice. “I don’t
remember… . I, I remember getting out of bed and then … I
guess that’s about it. You opened up the Chest? What was
inside?”
“A lot of things, Adelina. So much. There are all these
stones and all these jewels, and one of them lit up in my
hand and started flashing, and I think that’s why the
Mogadorian showed up.”
“What Mogadorian? What happened?” Adelina tries to
sit up, but I stop her before she hits her head on the low
ceiling.
I whisper, “I saw a man in the cafe a few days ago who
had a book about Pittacus, and he kept staring at me. He
had this hat on and this big mustache, and I could just tell he
was from Mogadore. And then last night after I opened the
Chest in the north belfry, he showed up.”
“How did we escape?”
“I used my telekinesis to float us out the window and into
the yard, and then I used it to get us up here.”
“We have to get out of here,” she whispers. “We have to
leave Santa Teresa immediately.”
My excitement is immediate. I hug her in the dark, and to
my surprise she hugs me back. Adelina crawls to the lip of
the nook and I follow her with the Chest hovering behind
me. When the nave appears empty, Adelina asks me to
lower her to the floor. Then I carefully drop the Chest over
the lip and set it silently next to Adelina’s bare feet. I’m
about to levitate down when Sister Dora appears at the
back of the nave and marches towards Adelina.
“Where have you been?” she barks. “You left your post all
night. How could you do such a thing? And what is this
luggage doing in here?”
“I had to get some fresh air, Sister Dora,” Adelina says
softly. “I’m sorry I left my post.”
I can see Sister Dora’s eyes narrow. “With Marina?”
“What?”
“I had four girls wake me up in the middle of the night
saying that Marina snuck out last night and that you left with
her.”
Adelina starts to speak, but Ella suddenly appears
behind Sister Dora and tugs on her dress.
“Sister Dora? I just saw Marina,” she lies.
“Where?”
“In the bedroom, sleeping.”
Sister Dora bends down and snatches Ella by the arm,
and the terrified look on Ella’s face causes something to
shift inside me. “You’re a little liar! I just came from the
sleeping quarters, and no one is in there. You’re making up
excuses for her.”
“Sister Dora, that’s enough,” Adelina says.
But Sister Dora begins dragging Ella away so forcefully
that her feet hardly touch the ground. “We’re going up to the
office, and you’re going to learn that you don’t lie here.”
Tears stream down Ella’s cheeks. From the nook’s
opening, I stare at Sister Dora’s hand and pry her fingers
away from Ella’s bicep. Sister Dora yells in pain, and then
peers down at Ella with surprise and confusion. She grabs
Ella again.
Adelina jogs over to them, and before I can send Sister
Dora all the way down the main aisle on her back, Adelina
grabs her wrist.
Sister Dora rips her arm away. My heart jumps into my
throat with Adelina’s newfound alliance to me and my
friend.
“Don’t you ever touch me again,” Sister Dora challenges
her. “You don’t even belong here, Adelina. And neither
does that juvenile demon you brought with you.”
Adelina smiles calmly. “You’re right, Sister Dora.
Perhaps Marina and I don’t belong here, and perhaps we
will leave this very morning. But would you please be so
kind as to let go of Ella first?” Her voice, while cordial and
patient, contains a hint of venom.
“How dare you!” Sister Dora scoffs. “Why, you’re no
more than an orphan yourself. We took you in when no one
else wanted you!”
“We’re all the same in the Lord’s eyes. Surely you
acknowledge as much?”
Sister Dora moves to take another step, but Adelina
again grabs her arm. The two women stare into each
other’s eyes.
“I will be talking about this with Sister Lucia. You will be
thrown out of here so fast you won’t have a chance to pray
for forgiveness.”
“I already said I’d be leaving this morning. And I will
always have the chance to pray for forgiveness.” Adelina
reaches her hand out to Ella, and she takes it. Sister Dora
hesitates before reluctantly letting go of Ella’s arm. “I’ll not
only pray that Marina forgives me for being such a terrible
guardian, but I’ll also pray that God forgives you for
forgetting your purpose here.”
They continue to stare into each other’s eyes for a few
more seconds before Sister Dora pivots and huffs out of
the nave. Once she’s out of sight and Ella has her back to
me, I float to the ground.
“Hi, Ella,” I say.
“Marina!” She lets go of Adelina’s hand, runs and hugs
me. “Where were you?”
“Adelina and I had to talk alone,” I say, pulling away from
her. I look up at Adelina. “We had to talk about our future.”
Adelina squints, then looks down at her dirty nightgown
and becomes embarrassed. “Marina, go pack your things
and put that Chest somewhere safe. We’re leaving very
soon.”
When Adelina walks away, Ella grabs my hand and
squeezes it. “The bad men were here last night, Marina.”
“I know, I saw him. That’s why we’re leaving.” As soon as
I say it I know I will ask Adelina if we can take Ella with us.
“I saw all three of them,” Ella whispers.
I gasp. “There’s three of them?”
“They were at the window last night, looking at your bed.”
A shiver runs up my spine. I float the Chest back up into
the nook and run to the sleeping quarters, dodging huddles
of girls in the hallway whispering to each other about
something that happened in the village.
“They were right there,” she says, pointing at the window.
“Three of them, you’re sure?”
She nods her head. “Yes, and they saw me at the window
watching them. Then they ran away.”
“What did they look like?” I ask.
“They were tall and had really long hair. And their jackets
went almost to their shoes,” she says.
“With mustaches, right? They had mustaches?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t remember mustaches,” she says.
I’m confused, but I know I don’t have much time before
Adelina shows up with a bag of the belongings she’s
collected over the past eleven years. I’m about to race into
the shower when Analee, another girl, stops me in my
tracks.
“School is canceled today. That girl Miranda Marquez
was found strangled inside the school this morning.”
I sit down on my bed, shocked. Miranda Marquez is a
dark-haired girl who lives in the village and sits beside me
in Spanish history class. Our teacher, Maestra Munoz, often
confuses us for each other because Miranda is skinny and
tall like me, and her hair is the same length as mine. It takes
me a second to realize that whoever killed Miranda might
have mistaken her for me. Someone might have tried to kill
me last night.
“This is really … this is bad,” I whisper.
Analee says, “Plus, I heard one of the Sisters say that
some villagers saw people flying through the air last night
and now there are all these news vans out there doing a
report on it.”
This is all happening so fast. The Mogadorians have
found me. They found my cave. I was being reckless with
my Legacies and witnesses saw me and Adelina leave the
belfry window. A girl from my school might be dead
because of me, and Adelina and I are leaving the
orphanage in the middle of winter without a place to stay.
I take the fastest hot shower of my life and wait for
Adelina.
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