The Rift (9 page)

“
Anyways,” Vero said. “Neil spent
half the night talking about video games. Even Pieter couldn’t
salvage it.”

A brief grimace flashed over Kristin’s face,
not the first time she’d showed annoyance that Vero had scored
Pieter. Kristin’s parents had old money; their daughter was aware
of the fact and seemed to see herself as some kind of social
monarch. A girl like that wanted someone high visibility like
Pieter.

Kristin’s interest made Vero nervous. But
Kristin helped Vero’s social standing. So did Pieter. Between the
two, she’d gone from ignored to popular during the first month of
her senior year, so she could put up with any interest Kristin
might show toward Pieter. By reputation, Pieter had dated half the
school, but he never cheated once committed. Few agonies exceeded
being cheated on.

Kristin lowered her voice and said, “I just
remembered. She’s a foster kid. She got taken from her parents
because of drugs or something ten years ago. She’s all kinds of
screwed up.”

“
What?” Carrie asked. “Go
on.”

“
I think she got arrested
once…”

And so they continued. Normally, learning a
classmate’s secret history would fascinate Vero. But Gloria? They’d
shared such a strangely intimate experience that hearing all her
garbage, true or false, felt ugly. And foster care? Vero knew what
it was like to lose a parent—to have one leave and never return at
least. But losing both?

Gloria, chin on top of her desk, looked like
she needed a hug. But in the atmosphere of a classroom, Vero
laughed at the right moments.

Vero watched the hills leisurely pass as
Pieter’s car struggled up to freeway speeds while carrying four
people. In his trunk, he had some firewood, lighter fluid,
obligatory s’more materials (Pieter’s idea), and magic weapons from
another world.

“
We headed to Pismo Beach?” she
asked.

“
Nah, they don’t allow fires,” Neil
said. “You haven’t lived here long, have you?”

She glanced back at him in the rearview mirror.
“Six months. My oldest sister married a guy here, and we moved.
We’d been dying to get out of Bakersfield forever.”

“
You’re from Bake-O?” Neil said.
“I’m sorry.”

Pieter reached back and slapped him on the side
of the leg. “This is why you don’t have a girlfriend.”

The sun drifted below the line of hills, and
the sky above captured the last of its golden rays. The road curved
left, they crested a hill, and a sparkling expanse of ocean greeted
them. Peace knocked a little stress out of Vero’s chest.

“
I don’t miss the Central Valley,”
she said.

“
What about you?” Neil asked,
turning to Gloria. “You lived here your whole life?”

“
N-No, we moved here when I was
five.”

She seemed nervous. Neil pressed on. “What
brought you here?”

“
Mom’s job.”

“
Yeah? What’s she do?”

“
She died ten years
ago.”

“
Oh, I’m… umm…”

Pieter slapped Neil on the knee again; the car
went silent.

Vero wore her band. She’d gotten into the habit
after Sunday, at least when her clothing allowed. It stayed in her
purse or backpack otherwise. After what happened at Carlos’s place,
having it felt safe. The axe now spent most of its time in Pieter’s
trunk. It was already Saturday. Between school and Gloria’s job,
this was the first time they’d been able to get
together.

They passed through a toll gate and drove out
onto Grover Beach, following a vehicle pathway made out of pressed
sand between enormous sand dunes and the icy waters of the
Pacific.

“
Jed and Dek were spotted, again,”
Neil said. “Somebody dubbed them the Medieval Burglars.”

Vero’s pulse quickened. “Did they hit up more
shops?”

“
No, witnesses say they were
sitting on top of one of the downtown buildings, just watching
people go by. They were gone by the time the cops showed
up.”

The car bumped up and down over the
sand.

“
Watching for us,” Neil
said.

“
Yeah,” Pieter said. “We kinda
figured that out.”

Pieter pulled his car off to face the ocean.
Amid the sound of crashing waves, the boys stacked the wood from
the trunk into a log cabin and doused the structure in lighter
fluid. Vero and Gloria watched them from seats in the fine-grained
sand, which still held the sun’s heat. Gloria, in a sweater,
crossed her arms and looked out at the surf. Vero scooted over to
her.

“
Cold?” Vero asked.

“
Just thinking.”

Pieter ducked and held a lighter to the logs.
The fuel caught, and a wave of heat washed over Vero. Above, the
first stars appeared. Everything seemed like four friends having an
ordinary bonfire on a Saturday night.

Vero held her hand toward the fire’s warmth.
“I’ve been wanting to try something.”

“
What?” asked Gloria.

Vero stood up and focused on her soul armor.
Inside Pieter’s trunk, the axe was close enough that the armor
didn’t whine of incompletion like it had at Carlos’s apartment.
Heat danced inside. Heat was her friend. But how much of a friend?
She held a hand over the dancing flames.

“
Careful, pretty girl,” Pieter
said.

Her inner fire connected with the bonfire. She
reached into the flames. No pain, no burns, only strength. Even the
smoke didn’t send her eyes watering, though the smell was
strong.

“
That doesn’t hurt?” Pieter
asked.

“
No, feels great,” she replied. She
knelt and lay on her stomach on top of the logs. Sparks popped and
burst out as the fire readjusted itself. “I’m Diotein, the fire,
right?”

Something wet hit her back. She craned her
neck; Pieter held the lighter fluid. He opened his mouth in feigned
surprise. “Oops.”

She laughed, the added flames giving strength.
“Cut… cut that out!” She waved her hand playfully, which sprayed
flaming droplets in his direction. Pieter dove into the
sand.

“
Remarkably, your clothing isn’t
catching either,” Neil said. “It’s also protected. As I suspected,
we have a lot to learn about these things.”

“
I could sit here all night,” Vero
replied.

She felt a little pulse—not a physical feeling,
more of something inside. The belt around Neil’s waist glowed
silvery. He reached his hand over the flames. “Uncomfortably warm
for me. Better than third-degree burns, but not the sort of thing
I’d like to take a nap in, like Vero there.”

She closed her eyes and soaked in the wonderful
heat, like a hot bath after a day playing in the snow.

Neil droned on. “But anyways, this goes to show
that there’s more to these artifacts than hacking and slashing and
jumping really high. For example, when James pulled them out of the
bag, they were collapsed on themselves or folded up somehow. Not
sure about you guys, but I haven’t been able to replicate that:
Reitach is completely solid, no hint of a joint or telescoping
parts. Seems like it was some part of the magic we haven’t figured
out. Also, James said something about sight. I think we’re getting
the beginnings of that, right now. Check this out.”

Vero opened her eyes. Neil stepped outside the
firelight. “I have activated my soul armor, so you see light
emanating from it, right? However, look at the sand around me. Does
it appear illuminated?”

“
No…” Pieter said.

“
The light from my armor isn’t
reflecting off the sand. It’s not light. You’re seeing something
else, perhaps something from elsewhere in the electromagnetic
spectrum…”

Vero lost track of Neil’s words. Pieter’s voice
broke her out of the daze. “Vero, you’re smothering the
fire.”

Vero pulled herself away from the flames and
sat next to Pieter. “Not so close,” he said, squirming
away.

Her heart dropped. “What, why?”

He pulled a marshmallow out of their bag and
held it next to Vero’s cheek. It began to turn a golden brown.
“Because I can make s’mores on you.”

“
You always said she’s the hottest
girl in school,” Neil said.

“
That joke is now officially
banned,” Pieter replied. He smeared the marshmallow onto her
cheek.

Vero pulled it away; a string of melted sugar
trailed behind. She sat in the cool sand by herself.

“
So, uh, looks like we’ve started
the team meeting,” Pieter said.

The fire crackled.

“
Team meeting” sounded like a
school project. Vero pictured James again. She heard the glass
shattering at Carlos’s shop. Whatever comfort she’d gained from the
fire faded.

Neil removed a laptop from the backseat of
Pieter’s car and opened it. Under the twilight, the screen made his
face a ghostly white. “Yes, I was wondering when we’d begin. Thanks
for coming out. I thought that a bonfire would afford us the most
privacy.” Other than passing cars, the only other people on the
beach were marked by a few scattered fires. “I have a list of
things to discuss. Item one, team name. I’m now accepting
nominations.”

“
Team name?” Vero said. “That’s
item one? And who put you in charge?”

“
Well, I’m the best strategist,”
Neil replied. “I’m raid leader for the Army of Pwn, after all.
Anyways, I have seven suggestions. One, The Rebel Alliance. Two,
The Avengers. Three, The Fellowship. Four…”

“
Rebel Alliance? What are we
rebelling against?” Gloria asked.

“
It’s a…” Neil began.

Pieter interrupted him. “Stop, just stop, Neil.
Are all those movie and comic book references?”

“
One’s from a video
game…”

“
All right, let’s skip the team
name and get to something more important,” Pieter said.

“
A name’s important.”

“
How about, ‘What in the world are
we doing?’” Vero shouted.

“
Keep your voice down,” Neil
said.

“
Say something useful.” Vero glared
at him over the flames.

“
Oookay, how about we start this
over,” Pieter said. “Neil, close the laptop. We’ll get to your
to-do list later. Gloria, you’ve been quiet. What do you want to
talk about?”

“
That’s okay. I don’t have
much…”

“
No,” Pieter said. “We’ve been
talking to each other all week about this. I haven’t heard from
you… outside algebra, that is.”

“
Well, I want to know… how are all
of you doing?” Gloria asked.

“
I’m good,” Neil said. “Though we
should totally figure out the scope of what exactly—”

“
I’ve had worse weeks,” Pieter
said. “Homework load not too bad. Family drama manageable. I’ve got
a pretty girl in my life. And, you know, superpowers cancel out the
threat of murder in my book. You, Vero?”

Oh, Pieter. He made life light, bearable. Even
the hard parts. Though sometimes, Vero wondered how he really felt
under all the humor. She scooted over and laid her head in the
comfort of his lap.

“
I…” The words caught.

“
It’s okay,” he said.

Where to start? Frustration at their ignorance,
anger at the guys who were ruining the life she was building here
in SLO, including James for starting this whole thing. And,
constantly in the background, fear and stress. “A lot’s happened. I
just want to know what we do.”

Pieter turned toward Neil and nodded. “Neil,
why don’t you tell them your scenarios?”

Vero rested against Pieter and looked up as the
first stars emerged from the darkness.

“
All right, scenario
one—”

“
And keep it brief,” Pieter
said.

“
Right,” Neil said. “Well, we don’t
know much. We don’t know if Rolland is an evil overlord or a
benevolent monarch. We don’t know if Terian is coming to conquer
Earth or protect us from his father. Plus, despite James seeming so
convinced, who says they even have a big enough population or
advanced enough weapons to do any damage? He was dying when he came
to us, and it sounds like nobody from his world has ever been here.
How they know anything about our society is just another one of
those big questions.”

Neil tossed another log on the fire, sending up
sparks, and continued. “Knowing that little, I, for one, don’t want
to join James’s little guerilla army just yet.”

“
Really, dumping all this on us was
a pretty douche move,” Pieter said. “We don’t owe it to
him.”

“
Douche or desperate,” Neil said.
“Anyways, do any of you actually want to try and harry the
movements of EP’s army?”

“
EP?” Gloria asked.

“
Sorry, Evil Prince. Terian, that
is.”

“
Though he might not be evil,”
Pieter said.