Chapter Sixteen
Instead of getting the sleep we all needed, we stayed awake catching up.
Turns out that the whole Luminaries takeover was actually second place among world problems in recent years.
Apparently, a lack of toilet paper had been the top priority at one point.
Chris was right—I knew nothing about this decade’s challenges.
But if we could all come together and fight for change, then that’s what we’d do.
If the world needed us, we’d show up.
Since everything was monitored these days, the others went back to their routines to avoid raising any suspicion.
In the meantime, we were left to catch up on current events.
The news was the same narrative on all channels.
Movies and TV shows had their own agenda—Park-approved, of course.
And the internet was pretty much spying on us.
All in all, the advancement in technology wasn’t surprising. The problem was how Park used the data gained from it to enforce her version of order.
I could see she meant well, but the hate in her heart with the all-or-nothing of her vision, combined with the way she went about enforcing her way was just not okay.
I especially hated how she used the power of a Luminary to torture people.
It wasn’t meant for that. It was meant to be a symbol of hope and kindness. A symbol of humanity.
I had always been so proud of being a Luminary, but right now the world feared us, and that was heartbreaking. The feeling was worse than being unable to use my powers.
Since we were told to hang tight in the Hamptons until they found us a place somewhere closer to home, we figured we’d dive straight into the nightlife.
It seemed like the perfect way to start getting a feel for this new world .
. . and it was summer after all. There were plenty of restaurants, bars, and parties to attend. Some things just didn’t change.
Anali, Jay, Antonio, Kevin, and I got dressed up and went out.
The first night, we observed and tried to figure out the new slang and lingo.
There were many people meeting for a quick drink, going on first dates, or swiping each potential hookup left or right.
And they did it on their phones, like going through a fast-food menu. It was wild.
The second night we went out, we tried to be more social and involved in the games and dancing with strangers. Antonio was looking to meet a lady, but quickly ran away when he found out that giving a compliment could be offensive if not worded correctly.
“Dude, she thought I was objectifying her. Since when is telling someone they look nice offensive?”
Jay laughed. “I guess you tread carefully with how you say things, and don’t do anything without their consent.”
“You’d think that would be common sense,” Ana said, winking at me.
“No, we’re respectful! It’s a different kind of flirting now.” Antonio stood up. “I just don’t wanna make anyone uncomfortable. Let’s grab more beer?”
“Yeah,” Jay said. “Let’s get the girls some refills, too.”
Ana and I clinked our glasses and watched as the guys maneuvered around, trying not to even glance at anyone. They were scared of being offensive, and it was hilarious. The sense of normalcy at the moment, on the other hand, was incredibly welcome.
“I’ll be right back. I bet the boys need help.” Ana looked at Kevin, who was moving his chair closer to me. “Ask her!”
“Ask me what?”
Kevin leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out tomorrow with me alone? We can go on a proper date.”
“A date? A real date?” I looked around the bar, trying to think of the best way to handle this situation. Obviously, I wanted to. And also, very obviously, I wasn’t sure it was the right time. We have, like, too much going on, don’t we?
I caught Anali’s eye as she grinned, giving me two thumbs up. “Oh gosh, you planned this with them?”
“Don’t worry about that.” His fingers brushed my cheek, and he turned my head until I was looking at him instead of Ana. “But what do you say? Yes, no, maybe?”
“With everything we’re going through, you think we should try this now? We still have to save our friends and possibly the entire world.” I let my shoulders slump. “You know. No big deal or anything.”
“That’s why now is the time. If not now, when? Plus, what else are we doing? We still have a few more days here. There’s only so much combat training we can do, and we can’t power-train until we’re closer to David’s lab.”
“We’ll have to ask Gabby if we can actually train our powers while she has the pocket open. We don’t want to be in the way.”
“Well, I can’t imagine they’d say no.” Kevin tilted his head, studying me. “If the room and her force field pocket are big enough, it should be fine.”
“I can amplify her to make the pocket bigger.”
“Yes, but stop trying to change the subject. Tomorrow night? You and me?” He grabbed my hand and rested his cheek on it as he stared into my eyes. “Date night?”
I smiled. “Fine. I guess we can do that.”
“Sheesh! Please contain your excitement. I beg you.”
“I am excited.” I laughed. “I’m just very nervous, too.”
“What’s there to be nervous about?”
“What if it’s a disaster? What if we find out that we’re better off as just friends and then we mess up our friendship for nothing? How do we come back from that?”
He moved my hand from his face and placed it on his chest. “Oh, Ry, Ry. There’s nothing that will ruin our friendship. We’ve come back from worse.”
“Yeah, but this is different. It’s a little more personal.”
“I’d say it’s all been personal. But trying something different for love? I can absolutely live with that. Can’t you?”
Well, I guess I’m about to find out.
I’d been on edge all day, anxiously waiting for the afternoon so I could start getting ready for my date. Luckily, Kevin went back to Queens with the guys to meet up with Chris and Robert. With him gone, I could at least avoid the awkwardness of us both hanging around, drowning in anticipation.
At the moment, all I could do was train with Anali, but she kept catching me off guard.
Especially since I was experiencing soreness in a way I’d never felt before.
After I was struck in the rib for the second time, I had to step back and figure out why I wasn’t at my peak performance.
This was supposed to be second nature to me, after all.
“Maybe it was your powers that kept you from being sore in the past. Like, could you’ve been constantly replenishing your own energy?” Anali asked.
“Probably.” I shrugged. “For all I know, my healing abilities could’ve been working in the background without me even realizing it.”
“You’re not sure?”
“I never did it consciously. But I guess it’s possible I healed myself back then, like I did with the burn.”
“It just seems like this is new to you,” she said, wiping sweat off her face.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I know I’ve felt soreness from working out after a long break, but this feels like it’s my bones more than my muscles.”
“Let’s stop for now and stretch. You could also be anxious about tonight.”
I felt my ears burning hot. “Yeah, most likely.”
“Aww! Don’t be nervous. You’ve known Kevin forever.”
“I know, but it’s so different now. Plus, I’m frustrated.”
“Frustrated? Why?”
“Because!” I threw my hands up. “Because I’m letting myself be so focused on this date when I should be concentrating on freeing our friends instead.”
“But that’s why we’re training! So we can free them.”
“Is it? I thought we were helping you to get better at fighting, since you’re in charge of protecting our most precious cargo.”
Jay, who’d skipped the trip to Queens, walked in. “I can stay back and help protect them if you guys need me to, Ryan.”
“No, we need you with us. Ana will be fine with Antonio.”
“Antonio keeps saying he wants to go with you guys,” she said.
“No, we’re better off with both of you watching Jack. In case you have to time-jump again to save him.”
“I hope it doesn’t get to that.” Ana shook her head. “Look how badly we miscalculated this last round. We were off by years.”
“I know, but it’s our best shot. Everyone will be prepared. At least one of us has to survive, right? We’ll just figure out where to plant messages for each other through time, like we did at the campground.”
She nodded. “It won’t come to that.”
I jolted awake, feeling disoriented from my nap. I scrambled to figure out how much time had passed since I’d slammed off my alarm. With one eye still half-closed, I stared at the clock and, in my hurry, fell off the bed while trying to stand and walk at the same time.
I’d overslept and now had barely an hour to get ready.
My hair was a disaster from falling asleep with it wet, but thank goodness straightening it went surprisingly fast—turns out, keeping it half shaved had its benefits.
Once my head was presentable, though, my stomach took over.
I was starving, so I was glad I didn’t have to eat a salad and pretend I ate like a bird.
Kevin knew exactly how much I was capable of eating in one sitting. In fact, he usually joined right in.
At least I didn’t have to worry about rummaging through a closet. First dates were nerve-wracking enough on their own. My clothing options were limited, so I grabbed the black dress I’d worn the first night out. But when I went downstairs to meet him, I found that they hadn’t returned yet.
I felt a little angry, remembering all the times he’d left me hanging back when he was dating Gabby. However much time had actually gone by, for us it had been less than a year. The wounds were still a bit fresh, and I couldn’t help it . . . my heart sank.
Him being late again triggered the worst pain. I clenched my fists, trying to keep it all inside. “Are they still coming back today?”
“Yes, Nick called,” Annie said. “They’re on their way, but they hit traffic. He had to stop Kevin from teleporting so he would be on time for your date.”
“He’d better not. I’ll kill him.” Not that I hadn’t been ready to kill him for being late a second ago.
She laughed. “Don’t worry, he can be reasoned with. He’s not going to risk a power spike and compromise our location.”
“I know, I know. It’s just been hard for me not to use my own powers. I can only imagine how much he wants to.”
“Tell me about it,” Annie said. “Hey! Why you frowning, Ry?”
“It just has me wondering something. How do they know when powers are being used? Like, how can they tell that someone, anyone, used their powers anywhere in the world?”
“Robert said they started doing it with a Luminary who can control and communicate with electronic equipment.” She shrugged. “Now, they’ve developed something similar to satellite radar, and it works much like how weather patterns are monitored.”
“Annie, but that can’t be a hundred percent true, right? They’re also Luminaries, and they use their powers all the time. So how do they control that without setting off the alarms?”
Jay stood up. “It probably does set it off. Which means . . . Oh, my God! We can actually get close enough to them and use our powers. They wouldn’t even know who’s doing it.”
I stared at him, wide-eyed. “You’re saying we’d be untraceable?”
“Exactly,” he said. “They won’t be monitoring for spikes at their own site. Why would they?”
“We might actually pull off a smooth rescue!” I jumped with excitement, then immediately kicked off my high heels. I still had time before dinner, so I followed them into the kitchen for a snack.
“But we’re assuming a lot.” Jay leaned forward. “We need to find out for sure. Maybe Robert can help with that.”
“If you’re right,” Anali said, “then Gabby doesn’t have to go. She can stay back with the kids, and Chris can finally stop worrying.”
I grabbed some pretzels, looking up at her. “No, she’ll need to be with us, just in case.”
“But Jay can do it.”
Annie shook her head. “We don’t want to put her in danger or keep her away from the kids. But having both of them with us is our safest bet.”
“I know. You’re right. I just feel like we’ve put them through enough with the jump going wrong.” She sighed. “I’m gonna go make some brownies.”
“If I ever go out to dinner, I better find a piece waiting for me when I get back.”
“And if you don’t go out to dinner?” Jay asked.
“Then good luck even getting a bite.”
“I’ll make sure to hide a piece for you as soon as it’s out of the oven,” Anali said, winking.
“That’s my girl.” I smiled.
At that point, the guys walked in, and I almost choked on my pretzel. I could’ve sworn a buzzing pain shot through me for a split second. I must’ve stood up too fast again.
“I know we’re late, sorry, sorry . . . Wow! You look . . . perfect,” Kevin said, staring at me.
And alongside the nervousness, a sudden heat crept up my cheeks. It really was ridiculous to feel this way when I’d known him for so long.
“Okay, okay, go shower and get ready. You have Ryan starving here,” Annie said, pushing him toward the stairs.
“Is she, though?” he asked. “She has a bowl of pretzels on her lap.”
“Yeah, because I was starving, so it proves the point, Kevin.”
He smiled and left. We then took the opportunity to fill in Nick on our theory of the Luminaries’ power alert system.
“I think that makes sense. Robert is going to dig as much as he can. He doesn’t think he’s really on their radar anymore. At least not on his immediate boss’s, so I’ll ask him to check this out, too.”
“How is he?” I asked.
“Older!” Nick said. “It’s strange seeing everyone looking so different.”
“I bet.” Jay looked at him. “Did you find us a place to stay?”
“Gabby is working on that. I didn’t see her, though.”
“The guys kept you that busy, huh?” I asked.
“Yes and no. I was just driving around, getting used to the changes. You won’t believe it, but everything is smart now. Like TVs, watches, lights, doors, even the car! You just have to tell it what to do, and it does it. Apparently, you don’t even need a key to get into your house.”
Annie smiled. “You seem in awe of today’s technology.”
“Oh yeah, I’m impressed,” he said. “But I’m also scared of what it means for the future. Or rather, how Park could use any invention against everyone. She’s already so out of hand.”
“Especially with a techie Luminary at her disposal,” Annie said. “I’m afraid to even think about the possibilities.”
I left them to continue discussing Park and whatever evil she was up to, slipping away to brush my teeth again and retouch my makeup.
I had so much to say about that woman and her stupid tactics, but I couldn’t concentrate.
The rest of their words were completely lost to the loud, frantic thumping of my heart.
Rash smiled. So they knew about him.
But they hadn’t done a thing to block him. No jammers, no safe rooms, nothing. It was actually kind of a bummer. For a group with their history, they should’ve known better. Now he just had to figure out how to use that to his advantage.