Wish (17 page)

      I sucked in my breath. The skin under my necklace
danced. My shoulder throbbed.

“She’s here,” I whispered to Keith.

My newfound bravado disappeared.

I wanted to sit down and take some time to think all this new
information through. I hadn’t seen my mom in over a year. That’s a lot of days
of anger. And now, not only was she not crazy like I’d thought, she was a
witch. A witch who apparently did not have powers because my dad stole them
from her. I was a witch who did have powers and now he wanted mine. How
hilarious was that?

“You know, I never even wanted to meet my stupid father,” I
grumbled to Keith. “Nope. Not me. I kind of figured he was dead. Or if he
wasn’t dead, then I didn’t want him to come back and mess things up. I liked
having Mom and Nana around, both of them living with us. I certainly didn’t ask
to meet my Dad as a freak hiding inside Jenny Truman’s body.”

Keith grabbed my shoulder and squeezed hard. His hand on the
tattoo almost seemed to burn my skin. I tried to pull back, to break contact,
but he held on, squeezing tighter.

“Ow. Keith, stop it.”

He didn’t answer. He kept squeezing, increasing the pressure
as if he were trying to take the tattoo right off my skin. I got dizzy, almost
nauseous with pain.

      His round eyes seemed hypnotized and he stared down at
my necklace. When he looked at me his eyes blazed. Almost with hatred. He titled
his head as if he were listening to someone speak. I tried to hear, but there
was no sound.

      “Keith?”

      He pulled away quickly, dropping his hand and shaking
his head. His eyes cleared up but he seemed afraid.

“Go,” he said. “Go inside. Quickly. Your mom’s in there. I
can’t come any further. You have to go alone.”

He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. It was slick
with sweat. 

      “Are you crazy,” I asked him. “I’m not going alone.
That’s not the deal. You promised you’d stay with me.” I wanted to stamp my
feet up and down. To heck with it. I did. I raised a foot and stomped it down
on the musky ground as hard as I could. Of course, it made no noise. Apparently
if a girl stomps her foot in the forest, no one hears. Great. 

“I’m not going without you. That was not our deal. You said
you’d be with me. You promised.”

      “Go, Sydney. Hurry.” Keith zipped his head, ducking.
“They’re trying to get to me. I can’t hold them off. They’re too powerful.” He
closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, pawing at his temples with his fingers.

      I blinked and searched for “they” but I didn’t see
anything. I reached out to touch him and instantly pulled back. The hair on my
arms stood straight up. The air whispered. Voices chanted from within Keith. I
knew they weren’t on my side.

      I took a step away from him and gnarled branches in
front of me parted. An old stone building became visible in the clearing, like
an old castle from Scotland. Ancient, but not in ruins. There were no windows
on the brick just a huge door, almost like a moat with stones piled on top of
each other very high. 

      I felt like Dorothy again, standing at the entrance to
Oz. The huge front door creaked open from the side instead of the top. I half
expected to see the Wizard with a turban on his head pop out to greet me.

      “Follow the Yellow Brick Road,” I mumbled.

      Keith glanced at me, his eyes clearing again, looking
annoyed.

      “What?” I asked.

      “You have to take this seriously,” he snapped in a
deeper voice.

I glanced at him. “Uh. Yeah. I kind of got that back when my
Dad was impersonating a girl.” The door opened a little wider and a shadow
passed by the door.

      Keith pushed me. “Hurry up. Go in, go inside. Now,” he
yelled. “I can’t hold them off much longer.”

      I shuffled from foot to foot. “I don’t’ want to go in
without you.”

      “I can’t, Sydney, I can’t come in.” His voice sounded
strangled, he clawed at his ears.

      “Then I won’t either.”

      Keith held onto the side of his head. “Oh God. They’re
right inside my head, Sydney. They want your powers.” He groaned. “GO NOW.”

Keith’s scream was louder than I’d heard him say anything in
his life. It freaked me out so completely I rushed forward to get away from him
and zoomed right into the castle door. The heavy old door swung close behind
me.

“Sydney,” a voice called.

It wasn’t whom I’d expected. 

She walked around the corner.

I laughed with relief.

      “Oh my God. Nana!”

      “Sydney,” she rushed forward and hugged me. “Thank God
you choose to come in. I’ve been standing here, waiting. I couldn’t come get
you. You had to come on your own.”

      “Why?” I said, holding her without plans to ever let
go.

      She squeezed back hard. “Rules. There are rules. So
many you don’t know.”

      I pulled away from her arms. “Of course,” I replied,
abruptly. “Let me guess. Witch Rules? Because, oh yes, you and Mom didn’t tell
me about any of this stuff.”

      She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t avoid my
hostile glare either. I blinked. She wore a long grey cloak with a huge hood.
With her tiny body, she swam in it, like a kid dressing up for Halloween in her
big sisters outfit. Nana’s gray eyes sparkled and with her white hair poking
out of the hood she looked like an eerie Halloween witch.

Hey, nice outfit,” I noted with as much sarcasm as I could
muster. “It’s very slimming.”

      She tsked me. “There’s no time for jokes. And the rules
are sacred, in place for a reason. Remember that. They may not make sense right
away, but they have a purpose. Now. Come on. Let’s move. We need you to get
your mother out of here. We don’t have a lot of time. They’re getting
stronger.”

      Nana reached for my hand. I pulled back.

      “Keith is outside. I’m worried about him. He wouldn’t
come in. Something’s after him.”

      “If he can’t come in, that’s a good thing. Believe me.”
Her expression changed. “He’s in trouble I’m afraid. I just hope he’s strong
enough…”

      “In trouble from who?”

      She glanced towards the door. “The SHIELDERS.”

      I frowned, remembering the passage in the book. “And
the SHEILDERS are?”

      She glanced around the hallway. “I’ll explain in
private. Come on. We have to move. We have to get your Mom out before it’s too
late.” She started scurrying down the hallway and I had no choice but to
follow. 

“Too late for what. You know. I am really trying here Nana,
but everyone seems to know things I don’t. And why didn’t you just get her out
of here on your own? Why me?”

She reached down and pulled me close, still moving us along.
“We have so much to explain.”

I frowned. “What about Keith? Is he going to be okay?”

“I hope so. I hope so,” she muttered, grabbing my hand with
more force, and yanking me around a corner. She glanced back as she tugged,
keeping her eye on where we left. It wasn’t exactly the kind of reassurance I’d
been hoping for.

“Only you can get her out now. Things changed once your
powers found you. This is The Institute, Sydney. And if a witch is found by the
SHEILDERS, only a stronger witch can set her free. Otherwise she must stay
within the walls. For the rest of her days. It’s for protection.”

“Protection from what?”

“Later, Sydney. We’ll talk about this later.”

“Later? Like when?”

“When we’re home. Come on, sweetie. You’re stalling. We have
to get to your mother.” She strung me along behind her. My heart thudded in my
chest and my eyes opened wider as she hauled me through the old castle hallway.
The majestic stones in the walls were wide but nothing decorated them. They
were bare, piled high on top of each other. The stonewalls seemed muted and
cold. The ceiling barely visible, the lighting dim. The stones vibrated with loss.

“Why is this place so sad?” I asked.

“This is not a place most witches want to come to.” She
glanced at me. “Wait a minute. Do you feel the stones already? That’s crazy.
How many powers do you have?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled. I thought about her question. I
could make wishes come true. Well. Sometimes. I could see things when I touched
people. Sometimes without even touching them. Cody heard my thoughts and spouted
weird things at me. I’d made my dad evacuate Jenny Truman’s body and then parted
trees using my mind.

What else could I do?

“I did wish myself a smart phone. It’s has a pink cover and
it’s bedazzled. But it kind freaked me out and I left it at the house. Hey. If
I get used to it, can I keep it?”

“If we all get out of here you can have as many phones as you
want.”

Man. She was worried. I held on to Nana’s side tight as we
scurried along, tempted to wish she’d never let me go, but I’d seen the trouble
my wishes caused. Going through the rest of my life with Nana stuck to my side
wouldn’t win me any popularity contests. If we got out of this mess.

“You said you were bringing Mom home,” I pouted

She stopped for a moment, taking my face in her hands. “I was
trying to. But I couldn’t. The SHEILDERS found her. You. You’re the one who has
to set her free. I know you’re scared, Sweetie. But you can do this.”

“I’m not strong, not really,” I confided. She wrapped me
inside her arms again and I inhaled her cloak’s scent. It smelled suspiciously
like all her clothes. Most unwitch-like.

“You are,” she said. “You’ve come this far already.”

I held on tight. “Only with Keith’s help,” I told her cloak.
“I couldn’t have done this alone.”

Nana pried me off of her and started moving again. The
hallway seemed to be an optical illusion. It went on and on without an ending.

“Trust me,” Nana said. “It would have been easier if you’d
come alone. You would have come on your own. We didn’t even call for you yet.”

I didn’t try to understand what that meant. “Don’t be so
sure,” I told her.

She didn’t answer me. I tried to drag my feet on the concrete
floor, but Nana was determined and kept pulling. “Where are we going?” I
glanced ahead, but all I saw was the long, narrow hallway.

“This way.” Nana pushed me in down a smaller hallway that
materialized from nowhere. “Keep moving. We’re almost there.”

She pressed me along for several feet, then stopped in front
of a wall exactly the same as the rest of the hallway, closed her eyes and
mumbled a chant under her breath.

“What are you doing?”

She sighed and opened her eyes.

“Powers? You’re a witch too?” How could Nana who couldn’t
even bake a decent birthday cake, be a witch?

I stared at her. Worried. This Magic stuff scared me.

She smiled slightly, waving her hand in the air. Just like a
witch would. Just like I’d done in the forest. A stone door appeared and slowly
swung open. 

“How come you never told me you were a witch? Don’t you think
that would have helped? Why didn’t you get Mom out?” I spit out my questions
out without taking a breath. “I’ve never seen you use your magical powers
before. You could have told me.”

“Your mother never let me use powers around you. And I
thought about telling you, Sweetie, but I decided to wait until you got more
familiar with everything. Besides, I didn’t want to scare you and I’d promised
your mom.” She tilted her head. “I didn’t know this would explode as quickly as
it did. I should have expected it. The SHEILDERS are stronger than ever.”

“The SHEILDERS again.”

She put her hand on the small of my back and pushed.

“Go inside, Sydney. We’ll explain more inside.”

I stiffened.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “Go.”

I did what she said, because that’s what I always did.
“Anyhow,” she bent forward and spoke in my ear. “I’ve been hiding my powers so
long it becomes habit. Your Mom’s fault. I’m rusty. And old.”

I stepped through the doorway.

The dingy vibes of the hallway vanished. The sudden assault
of vivid color and bright light hurt my eyes. There were no windows in the
room, but it glowed with natural light. The walls were lavender. My mother’s
favorite color. Framed pictures of Lilies hung on the wall. There was a large
black and white photo of Cody and me taken not very long ago on the wall. I
didn’t remember posing for the photo.