The Power of Six

of a choice now.”

Chapter Nineteen

I WAKE WITH CLENCHED TEETH, A SOUR TASTE IN my mouth. I tossed and turned all night, not only because the Chest is finally in my possession and I’m anxious to try to talk Adelina into opening it with me this morning, but also because I revealed too much to too many people. I put my Legacies on full display. How much would they all remember? Will I be exposed before breakfast? I sit up and see Ella in her bed. Everyone is still asleep in the room, except for Gabby, La Gorda, Delfina, and Bonita. Their beds are empty.

My feet are about to touch the ground when Sister Lucia appears in the doorway, her hands on her hips, her mouth twisted into a frown. We make eye contact and I lose my breath. But then she takes a couple steps backwards and allows the four girls from the nave to wobble into the room, dazed and bruised, their clothes ripped and dirty. Gabby stumbles to her bed and falls face-first onto it, the pillow enveloping her head. La Gorda rubs her double chin and lies back onto her bed with a grunt, and Bonita and Delfina slowly crawl under their covers. As soon as all four girls are motionless, Sister Lucia yells that it’s time to get up. “And that means everyone!”

As I try to pass by Gabby on the way to the bathroom, she flinches.

La Gorda stands at the mirror inspecting the discoloration of her skin. When she sees my reflection over her shoulder, she immediately turns on the faucet and tries to focus on washing her hands. I can get used to this. I don’t really want to intimidate people, but I like the idea I might be left alone.

Ella skips out of one of the bathroom stalls and waits her turn at the sinks to wash up. I worry that she’s going to be scared of me because of what I did in the nave, but the moment she sees me Ella dramatically flexes her right hand over her head. I lean into her ear. “So you’re okay?”

“Thanks to you,” she says loudly.

I catch La Gorda’s eyes in the mirror. “Hey,” I whisper. “Last night is our little secret. Everything that happened last night is our secret, okay? Don’t tell anyone.”

She puts her finger to her closed lips and I feel better, but there is something about the way La Gorda looked at me that doesn’t sit well.

I’m so preoccupied by what might be in the Chest that I forego my morning internet search for news on John and Henri Smith. I don’t have the patience to wait for morning Mass to see Adelina so I walk from room to room looking for her, but she’s nowhere to be found. The first bell rings for morning Mass.

I shuffle in beside Ella in one of the last rows and wink at her. I locate Adelina in the front row. Halfway through Mass, Adelina looks over her shoulder and makes eye contact with me. When she does, I point up to the nave’s nook where she hid the Chest so many years ago. Her eyebrows raise.

“I couldn’t understand what you were saying,” Adelina says after Mass. The two of us stand under a stained glass window of Saint Joseph on the left side of the nave, and we’re bathed in a patchwork of muted yellows, browns, and reds. Her eyes match the seriousness of her posture.

“I found the Chest.”

“Where?”

I nod my head up and to the right.

“I am the one who was supposed to decide when you’re ready, and you are not ready. Not even close,” she says angrily.

I pull my shoulders back and set my jaw. “I was never going to be ready in your eyes because you stopped believing, Emmalina.”

The name catches her off guard. She opens her mouth and stops before letting loose whatever tirade is on her tongue.

“You have no idea what I’m going through in here with these other girls. While you’re walking around holding onto your Bible and praying and counting the beads on your rosary, you don’t care at all that I’m getting bullied, that I have just one friend, that all the Sisters hate me, and that there’s a whole world out there that I’m supposed to be defending! Two worlds, actually! Lorien and Earth need me and they need you, and I’m holed up in here like an animal in the zoo and you don’t even care.”

“Of course I care.”

I start to cry. “No you don’t! No you don’t! Maybe you cared back when you were Odetta and maybe a little when you were Emmalina; but ever since you’ve been Adelina and I’ve been Marina, you haven’t cared about me or the other eight or what we’re supposed to be doing here. I’m sorry, but I can’t stand you talking to me about salvation when that’s all I’m trying to achieve. I’m trying to protect us. I’m trying to do so much good, and you act as if I’m evil or something!”

Adelina takes a step forward, her arms open for a hug, but something causes her to retreat and take a step back. Her shoulders bounce as she starts to cry. My arms immediately wrap around her and we embrace.

“What’s wrong? Why isn’t Marina in the cafeteria?”

We turn to see Sister Dora with her arms crossed over her chest. A copper crucifix hangs over her wrists.

“Go,” Adelina whispers. “We’ll talk about this later.”

I wipe my face and rush past Sister Dora. As I leave the nave I can hear snippets of a heated argument brewing between Sister Dora and Adelina, their voices echoing off the vaulted ceiling, and I run my hands through my hair in hope.

Before sneaking back into the sleeping quarters last night, I floated the Chest down the narrow dark hallway to the left of the nave, past the ancient statues cut into the rock wall. It now sits hidden atop the narrow tower of the north belfry, secure behind the padlocked oak door. It’s safe there for the moment; but if I can’t convince Adelina to open it with me soon, I’ll have to find another location.

Ella is nowhere to be found in the cafeteria, and I worry that my Legacy has somehow backfired and she’s at the hospital.

“She’s in Sister Lucia’s office,” a girl says when I ask the girls at the table nearest the door. “There was a married couple with her. I think they’re going to adopt her or something.” She pours a spoonful of soggy eggs onto her plate. “So lucky.”

My knees buckle, and I catch myself from falling to the ground by gripping the edge of the table. I have no right to be so upset at the thought of Ella leaving the orphanage, but she’s my one friend. Of course I knew she would be on the Sisters’ short list of adoptable girls; Ella is seven and sweet and cute and wonderful to be around. I truly hope she finds a home, especially after losing her parents; but I’m not ready to let her go, regardless of how selfish it is.

It was determined when Adelina and I arrived that I’d never be adopted, but I sit there now wondering if it might have been better if I was eligible. Maybe someone would have fallen in love with me.

I realize that even if Ella is adopted today, it’ll take some time for all the paperwork to be reviewed and accepted, which means she’ll be here a week, maybe two, maybe three. But it still breaks my heart, and makes me even more determined to leave this place as soon as I get the Chest opened.

I slump out of the cafeteria and find my coat, then sneak through the double doors and march down the hill, not caring that I’m skipping school. I keep an eye out for the man with the Pittacus book, staying on the sidewalk behind the vendors on Calle Principal, bouncing from shadow to shadow.

As I walk past El Pescador, the village restaurant, I look down the cobblestone alley and see the lid of a trash can teeter and then crash to the ground. The trash can itself begins to quake and wobble, and I hear something scraping at its insides. A pair of black-and-white paws curl over the lip of the can. It’s a cat, and when he struggles over the edge and lands on the alley floor, I see a long gash running along his right side. An eye is swollen shut. It looks as though he is about to fall over from exhaustion or starvation, and he just lies in a pile of trash as if he’s given up.

“You poor thing,” I say. I know I’m going to heal him before I take my first step down the alley. He purrs when I kneel down next to him, and when I place my hand on his fur there isn’t resistance. The iciness flows quickly from me to the cat, quicker than it did to Ella or my own cheek, and I don’t know if the Legacy is getting stronger