Read Chasing Power for Free Online Page B

word—”
    Daniel vanished. One second he was standing in front of the bench, and the next it was as if he’d been deleted. A second later, he stood between Kayla and Selena, and they both jumped backward. “Stop. Just stop. Please. My mother has been kidnapped. I don’t know how long I have before she’s killed. This isn’t a game to me. Or to her.” The cockiness was gone. The casual attitude, gone. He looked scared and alone and desperate.
    Around Daniel, Kayla met Selena’s eyes. She’d known Selena since her first day in Santa Barbara, her first real day of school since Amanda died. She and her mother had been on the run for half a year, never staying more than a few days in any place, when her mother chose California, picked this cottage, changed their names, and inserted them into life here. Kayla had walked into school in the middle of third grade, targeted the girl who seemed the opposite of her in every way, and informed her that they were going to be best friends. Selena had laughed in her face. But Kayla had shrugged and said, “You’ll see.” Later, when Kayla used her power to remove the shoelaces from the sneakers of the worst bully in class (from several rows away and without anyone knowing how she did it), Selena had been sufficiently impressed to invite Kayla over to play. Eight years later, the two knew everything it was possible to know about another person. So they didn’t have to discuss anything to know they agreed.
    “She’ll help you,” Selena said. “But you have to tell us everything.”

    Inside, Kayla served oatmeal raisin cookies that she was pretty sure did not have pot in them. The brownies were iffy. Sometimes Moonbeam made them with the “special ingredient” as part of her persona—no one would think the hippie chick who made pot brownies knew anything about real magic—and Kayla was always careful not to eat them. As she’d explained to Selena once, no one with mental powers has any business eating or drinking or inhaling any substance that messes with the mind. Besides, Moonbeam would have killed her. Or worse, cried. So Kayla served the store-bought cookies with Selena’s ice cream and pretended that this was a normal conversation and she had everything completely under control. Selena and Daniel sat on the stools at the table. Kayla perched on the counter next to the sink and bit into her cookie. She could have been eating cardboard for all she tasted it.
    Daniel didn’t eat at all. “My mom’s an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, one year away from tenure. She’s an expert in comparative anthropology, specializing in rituals and ritualistic items. In lay terms—”
    “She studies magic,” Selena finished.
    “Yeah. Exactly.” He sounded surprised.
    “Being Californian doesn’t mean being stupid,” Selena said.
    “I didn’t say—”
    Kayla shot Selena a look. “Can we not get sidetracked?” They didn’t have forever before Moonbeam came home from work, and she’d rather finish this conversation before then. “The false eyelashes
do
make you look dumber.”
    “Crap. Really?”
    Kayla handed her a mirror that was embedded in the belly of a Buddha. Selena held it close to her nose and frowned at herself while Daniel continued. “For years, she’s been working on whatshe calls her secret project. She’s never applied for a grant for it. Never published a single paper or given a talk about it. She kept every scrap of research in a single notebook, handwritten, no digital record anywhere. I always figured she was saving up for a big reveal that would shock all her colleagues and guarantee her tenure—she started late on the academic track and constantly talks about how much she has to prove because of it—but then the other night, I found her burning the notebook in the fireplace.”
    Out of the corner of her eye, Kayla saw Selena lower the mirror to stare at Daniel. Daniel took a sip of water. His eyes were misty,