Chapter 45

Kyle

Lum beat me when I got back. He’s a weird little guy; always ready to thrash someone. This time, it was supposedly because I was late. He probably just had too much of the local beer. It wasn’t a huge deal. He’s a foot shorter than me, after all. Right after he finished, I healed myself. In front of him. I can’t tell you how satisfying that was. I’m a god, remember? (I’m getting way too much of a thrill out of that).

But the triumph was a little…I don’t know. Bittersweet, I guess. Or maybe I felt guilty.

There have been so many nights that I’ve lain awake, wanting to heal Krystal. She always has bruises. I just can’t imagine how it was for her. I mean, she didn’t know about her Power, so she just had to live with the pain.

I almost broke my promise to the Leaders and healed her. Twice. But worse things would have happened if I did. For example, our friend the Immaterial Beast.

I’ve been thinking about that. The School has a lot of enemies, so it’s kind of hard to single out one. But who would send a freaking Immaterial Beast after an untrained Energy Manipulator? It’s true, we’re pretty much jacks-of-all-trades. We can twist our Power to do almost everything the other Manipulators can, so we are the most powerful. But still, at the time, Krystal didn’t even know about the School.

I guess the only reason someone would come after her is to use her power. If she didn’t know what side to fight for, she would be easily swayed.

It still doesn’t make sense though. They obviously knew where she was, so it would have been better for them to kidnap her earlier. That is, if that’s what they wanted.

I haven’t eaten enough to be thinking this much. I’m probably missing something really important. This just feels like it should be so easy…Lorik and Mom would be so disappointed.

I’ve got to find a way to get back to the School. I know that that’s what Kelsey would have me do. Especially with the portals all wonky like this. But my Team is out there. I have to find them. If I could get to Krystal and Wynn first, then our combined powers would make finding the rest of the Team easier. And Wynn is really good at remaking portals. If we gave him enough Energy, he might even be able to make a new one.

Not to mention that it’s probably not a good idea to leave Krystal for much longer. I don’t think Wynn could deal with her for very long.

…

Krystal

The flames crackled and slowly died away.

Let’s get away from here, Wynn suggested.

I followed, dumbstruck at what had happened. Since when do I control fire?!

Wynn led us deeper into the vegetation so that we could hide in case more soldiers came. His hands were gentle, but firm, as if he was worried about the state of my sanity. Truth is, I was too.

“We have to leave. Can you sense any portals?” Wynn whispered.

“What? No. I can’t sense portals!” I hissed back. He sighed in exaggerated patience. “Yes you can. They’re woven together with Energy.”

“Oh. I don’t know…I could try.” My body was drained. And I had successfully and officially freaked myself out.

“Yes. Do that,” he said, his patience beginning to run out. He sensed something, and it was making him jumpy.

I had no idea how to sense a portal. My lessons with Lorik hadn’t gone that far. I guessed that the most reasonable thing to do would be to reach out like I was searching for another person’s mind.

I was immediately overwhelmed. The natural energy emissions from the plants, myself, and the remaining waves from the dead soldiers put way too much stress on me. I nearly collapsed, but Wynn was standing close enough to steady me.

“Ouch,” I said weakly.

“Never mind. Can you feed your Energy into me? Maybe I can sense it,” he offered.

“No, let me try again,” I argued. I don’t know how to “feed Energy” into someone, I realized.

This time when I reached out, I ignored the waves from the living things around me. It definitely helped with the stress factor. Once I focused on what I was looking for (Wynn described it as fizzling dark light, whatever that means), I realized that we were standing less than 5 feet from a portal.

“There it is,” I pointed excitedly.

Wynn turned calmly, as if he already knew where it was. “Good. I could feel it, but it’s really worn down. We might end up somewhere more dangerous.” He inclined an eyebrow. I noticed that this is his most common expression. “Do you want to chance it?” I asked.

“Um…do you think we could fix it or something? ‘Cause I don’t feel like getting captured again. Once in a day is enough, don’t you think?” I was not ready to land in some random world, which, with my luck, would be a heck of a lot worse than the one we were in.

Wynn cast his eyes to the ground. “I somehow doubt that you would know what to do,” he said quietly. He wasn’t insulting me, just stating a fact.

We were silent for a minute. Okay, a little more than a minute. More like 10 minutes. It was starting to bother me. Finally, I said something. “Maybe Kyle could help?”

Wynn nodded, and then looked a little concerned. “Will you be able to?” he asked, referring to the trouble I had last time I tried to contact Kyle.

“If I did it once, I’m sure I can do it again,” I said defiantly. Just then my stomach growled.

I hadn’t eaten in at least 2 days.