Chasing Xaris (18 page)

Nikandros glanced at me but Delphina kept staring ahead.

He cleared his throat. “You did a great service for our people tonight, Chandler. I thank you.”

I nodded, but I had trouble agreeing with him. It was really hitting me how much the Aletheians had lost, even beyond Ari and Prytanis. Their world had irrevocably changed.

“Ari would have loved this, you know,” Delphina said. Her voice trailed off, and her dark eyes met mine. The fire had drained from her face. “He would be planning his trip around the world.”

I nodded again. Words seemed too harsh—my words, anyway. But I wanted to tell Delphina that she was right.

“It’s time you leave,” Delphina repeated.

“Right,” I said. “Goodbye.”

She nodded but didn’t reply. Which I definitely understood.

Winnie climbed into a kayak with Jordan, and I climbed into the other. As I grabbed my paddle, I thought about the last time I’d left Aletheia Island. I had been so sure that I’d never return. I wouldn’t have, either, if Gene hadn’t wanted his stone and Mr. Whit his ship.

“Wait.” I looked over my shoulder at Nikandros and Delphina. “My teacher was looking for this ship called
The Adelle.
It’s not on the island, right? Ari gave me a locket with Adelle Ingram’s picture and initials, so I wondered.”

Nikandros and Delphina exchanged a glance.

“The ship never made it to our island,” Nikandros said, “but Adelle did. She was my great-grandmother.”

“Seriously?” Winnie asked. She turned to face Nikandros. “What about the tropical storm?”

“Adelle survived,” Nikandros said. “My great-grandfather found her on some driftwood and brought her here.”

“What about the guy she was with?” Winnie asked. “Dominic?”

Nikandros shook his head. “Adelle was alone. She chose to stay on the island—our laws were different then—and within a year she’d married my great-grandfather.”

“Oh,” Winnie said, her face falling. “What about the ship? How far had A
delle drifted before your great-grandfather found her?”

“We don’t know.
The Adelle
is still lost.”

I gripped my paddle. I couldn’t stand the thought of that ship lying somewhere undiscovered. Still buried under all that water.

“We should go,” Jordan said, watching me with a frown.

“Yes,” Delphina said. “
Yia sas
.”

“
Yia sas
,” I replied.

We held each other’s gaze, and then she and Nikandros pushed our kayaks into the surf. I paddled forward, looking back only once.
They were walking up the beach together.

I

righted my gaze and focused on paddling. My shoulders stung with each stroke, but I didn’t mind. It felt good to move. Surf sprayed my face, and I savored the salty taste. So familiar and normal. For a second, it felt like maybe I could forget
Aletheia Island and everything that had happened there. But of course I couldn’t. I never would.

Minutes passed, and I kept moving my arms, kept glancing over at Winnie and Jordan.
Winnie was heaving and paddling with all her might.

When we neared the
coast, Jordan led us farther up the shore, where the beach was deserted. People had gathered by the pier, pointing out to sea. I stepped onto the beach and turned to follow their gaze. Thousands of orbs of xaris bobbed away from the island. They looked like a throng of blue stars spilling across the ocean.

A shiver raced down my back.

I knew enough about currents to know that xaris wasn’t drifting normally. It was spreading in every direction and moving crazy fast.

“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” Winnie said.

I agreed. Even the Triada didn’t compare to the sight before me. Xaris bobbed and danced across the dark water—shining all the brighter as it twirled and spread. It looked like a fantastical reflection of the night sky.             

I felt a slight rub against my foot and looked down. Xaris brushed against my flip flops. All along the beach, to the north and south, xaris was washing ashore.

Jordan bent down and grabbed one of the orbs, about the size of a golf ball.

“So what is xaris again?” he asked.

“Light,” I replied, still staring at the blue orb by my feet.

“Where does it come from?” Winnie asked.

“What does it do?” Jordan asked.

I shrugged. I didn’t know. When it came to xaris, there was a ton I didn’t know.

I still didn’t know how I’d gone inside it—or how I’d heard it speak to me. Maybe I should have told the Aletheians about what had happened inside their Triada. With it broken into pieces and dispersed, no one else would get that chance, which seemed unfair.

“It’s so beautiful,” Winnie said. She cupped a piece of xaris in her palm. “What do you think people will do with it?”

“Study it,” Jordan said.

“I bet they’ll make it into jewelry, too,” she said. “It’s stunning.”

I listened without answering, wondering if they were right.

“Look, we should get our stories straight before we head back,” Jordan said. “Chandler, I’m guessing your grandma’s called the police.”

“She definitely has,” I said.

“What about your parents?” Jordan asked Winnie.

“They think I’m staying the night with Chandler,” she replied.

“But I can guarantee Gran has called them,” I said.

Winnie grimaced. “So they’re pretty much freaking out.”

“Pretty much. What about your brother?” I asked Jordan.

“He’s in Jax Beach,” he said. “He might have texted, but there’s no way he’s done anything yet.”

“What are we going to say?” Winnie asked. “What do you think the cops will do? Will we have to go into the station?” Her voice grew higher with each question.

Jordan put a hand on her shoulder. “You haven’t messed up, Winnie. You were the one who was kidnapped.”

“We should tell them that,” Winnie said. “Don’t you think?”

Jordan paused. “I think it would make everything crazy harder, for us and the Aletheians,” he said. “We should just say that the three of us were hanging out, and that we lost track of the time. That’s true, right? Mr. Whit took our phones, so it’s not like we know what time it is.”

“They’ll want to know where we were,” Winnie said.

“Say we went to the beach,” Jordan said. “That’s true.”

Winnie nodded. “That is true,” she said.

He gave her a slow grin and she smiled back. Then he turned to me, his face stiffening.

“What do you think, Miss Bloom?” he asked.

“Sounds good,” I said. If the interrogation with the police went like last time, then we wouldn’t have to answer too many questions. Gran’s interrogation would be way more intense. Plus, a new island had just appeared off the coast—and a new light form. Those little developments were probably distracting everybody.

“We’ll say we went for a walk on the beach and lost track of time,” I said. “And then we saw the blue light and the island, and, you know, we stayed to watch everything.
”

“Okay,” Winnie said. She squeezed her arms across her chest. “I still don’t like this.”

“When everything calms down, you can tell your parents everything,” Jordan said. “How about that?”

“I like that,” Winnie said. She exhaled slowly and glanced down at her shirt. “I’m seriously a mess.”

She tucked the xaris into her pocket and knelt into the surf. With a few splashes, the dried blood came off her face and her black shirt looked decent. Even tidy.

I knelt beside her and rubbed my arms and legs with water. My brown tank top hadn’t gotten too dirty, but I rubbed a few soiled spots out. It amazed me how easily we could wash away the evidence of our night. The duct tape and rope hadn’t left any marks, either. We looked practically normal, even though so much had happened.

Jordan didn’t bother washing his shirt. He just took it off and rubbed his arms and legs clean.

I tried not to stare, but my eyes lingered on his torso. The sight reminded of the last time we’d surfed together. Which made me think of Ari and how I would never see him surf again.

“We should go,” I said.

Jordan righted himself, looking all wet and clean and Jordan-ish.

“Winnie, you can come back with me since your car’s there,” I said.

“I’ll come with you guys,” he said. “My bike’s there.”

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” A shirtless Jordan showing up with me on Gran’s porch after staying out all night was definitely not a good idea.

“Why not?” Jordan asked.

“Gran will think things.”

“What things?”

“About you. And me.”

“Oh.” Jordan shoved his hands deep into his pocket. “Then you can tell her we’re just friends, right?”

“Right,” I said, swallowing.

Jordan shook his head. “You could have just told me, Chandler.”

“Told you what?” I asked.

“That you and Ari were together. I would’ve left you alone.”

“What? Ari and I weren’t together.”

“That’s not what it looks like.”

“What does it look like?”

“Like I’m an idiot.” Jordan rocked back on his feet, and then forward. “Don’t worry about it, Chandler. It’s fine.”

“No. It’s not fine. You think I’m lying?”

“Are you?”

“No,” I said, my voice rising. “Why would you even think that?”

“Because there’s a ton you don’t tell me,” Jordan said.

“Like what?”

“Like going to some island. Or chasing down your parents’ murderers. Don’t you think I could have helped you?” His eyes flashed. “You didn’t tell me a thing.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

I blinked. Why couldn’t I have asked him for help? Why had I kept him in the dark?

“Why?” Jordan repeated.

“Because.” Because he would have seen me, and I didn’t want anyone to see what I’d become. Especially not him.

“I’m not like you, Jordan,” I said, feeling the sharp thud in my
chest. He was all life and breath and warmth. Like summer. And I was winter.

“Chandler,” he said softly, coming closer.

I stiffened. “Don’t.”

His eyes flickered, but he didn’t come any closer. He just snatched more xaris from the water and headed toward the pier without glancing back.

My hands slowly released, and I realized I’d been making fists.

“That boy loves you,” Winnie said quietly.

I didn’t argue. I just kept watching Jordan.

“He tried to go up after you,” she said, “into that storm. We both did, but they wouldn’t let us through.”

I nodded. I could picture the scene so well. It almost felt like I had been there.

“Do you love him?” Winnie asked me.

“Yes,” I replied

Winnie gave a soft laugh. “I was expecting you to deny it.”

I shrugged. What was the point? I’d loved Jordan for years.

But then I pictured Ari’s spear in the grass and everything with Jordan didn’t seem to really matter.

“We should go,” I said.

“Okay,” Winnie said.

She bent down and grabbed another orb of xaris.

I glanced at the xaris still lingering at my feet. It seemed like such a waste to leave it there. So I tucked it into my pocket and then headed after Jordan.

~~~

By the time I trudged into my room later that night—well, morning—every muscle in my body
groaned. It was almost six. The sun would be rising soon. And I was officially exhausted.

Jordan, Winnie, and I had found her parents and both my grandparents waiting for us at their house—and oh, the conversations we had had. I was grounded indefinitely. And that included surfing.

Gran had come home from her gala and found the garage door open, no one home, and our three cell phones on the counter. Grandpa had caught a red-eye flight home from the conference, and Gran had called the cops again.

The inquiries had been way more heated than they were on Saturday night—both with my grandparents and with the police. I had thought everyone would be distracted by the island appearing and the xaris washing ashore, but no. They’d still had plenty of mental space to blast us. We’d been called selfi
sh, thoughtless, irresponsible, rebellious, and lots of other words that had made Winnie’s shoulders droop lower and lower.

It felt weird not telling my grandparents the truth about the kidnapping.
But that might have pushed them over the edge. They’d heard enough for one night.

I’d have to tell them the truth one day, though. They deserved to know about the men who’d killed their daughter. Maybe they’d feel closure. I kept waiting to feel something myself about Mr. Whit and Gene’s deaths—anger, relief, gladness. All I could summon in my extreme state of exhaustion was a dull sense of loss.
             

I kicked off my flip
flops and forced myself to pull back the covers before falling face-first into bed. My sweaty, sandy clothes would have to do for a few hours. As I slid between the sheets, I felt something in my pocket.

I reached into my shorts and pulled out xaris. It illuminated the whole room. Even my ceiling shone, reminding me of the glow-in-the-dark stars I’d had in my room back home. I closed my eyes for a long blink, thinking over what my grandparents had said about it.

Xaris had definitely taken over the internet. Even Grandpa and Gran had known enough to tell me the big stories circulating about xaris—a radioactive spill, alien invasion, energy emission, and anything else you could imagine. People were talking about the island, too, though Gran had insisted there was a geological explanation for that.

I studied the little ball of light in my palm. It shone impossibly bright and blue, proof that everything had really happened. I’d really gone to
Aletheia Island. Twice. The misos stone had really created that twister… and they had really died.

Tears slid down my face, and I swatted them away. I was too tired to cry. Too tired for anything.

I settled deeper in the sheets and brushed a finger over the xaris.

My room instantly grew brighter.

I frowned, studying the ball. A tear had stuck to it and, on that spot, the light glittered even more intensely. I took my thumb to the xaris and rubbed the tear down its smooth side. Sure enough, the light shone brighter in my tear’s trail.

I didn’t get it. And I still didn’t get how I’d dived into xaris. I was holding it in my hand now, squeezing it with my fingers.
But I had walked inside it… I didn’t have the energy to try to figure out xaris. I doubted I could, even if I did.

I leaned back onto my pillow and knew that nightmares would come.
But at least I’d get a break from my chest and all its constant aching.

I
took a deep breath and gazed at the xaris in my hand.

Blue light flowed toward me, shimmering and beautiful, bathing my face in its warmth. Carrying me far away from my bed, from my grandparents’ house, back into the Triada. Blue wrapped all around me. It smelled just like I remembered, like honeysuckle and orange blossom and something completely foreign and wonderful.

Let me lead you.

But who are you?

You know me already.

Memories played across my mind. Me at the park with Mom, sunlight dangling on my bare feet as we swung. My first fishing trip with Dad. The sun had baked my shoulders as I cast my spinning rod. And all those times on my board—sunlight had warmed me during the coldest years.