The Power Within (11 page)

She took the stairs two at a time. There was a doorway at the far end of the corridor, and a blinding light spilled from it.

Darren's in there!
Mack thought to them as he charged forward—or tried to charge forward. Before he could go more than a few steps, Mr. Kimura nipped at his neck.

Caution, Makoto,
Mr. Kimura ordered.
We approach as one.

Together, they crept forward in a tight group. Fiona knew it was no coincidence that she and Yara, still in
their human forms, were huddled in the center, surrounded by everyone else for protection.

As they approached the blazing room, Fiona heard a strange creaking, one that filled her with fear. It was the doors; heavy wooden doors that were now splintered and destroyed, swinging from their hinges even though there was no breeze. There was another force moving through the air instead—electricity—invisible, imperceptible, and more dangerous than Fiona could begin to imagine. She mustered all her courage and stepped past the broken doors, shielding her eyes from the glare.

Nothing in the room was as it should be; Fiona could tell right away. A crackling, buzzing spider web of electrical current flickered throughout the room, holding everything within it—books, papers, even people—aloft. Everyone and everything floated on the current, motionless.

Then Fiona saw something that made her heart lurch. “Darren!”

They had found him. Darren was in the center of the room, his blank eyes glowing with white light, and he was emanating electricity from every inch of his body.

A quick flash, and Gabriella transformed into her human self. “Darren!” she screamed. She tried to run toward him, but the First Four wouldn't let her. In an instant they had transformed back too.

“Let me go!” Gabriella cried as she struggled against Mr. Kimura's grasp.

“Gabriella, he's not there,” Mr. Kimura said in a terribly quiet voice.

Gabriella forced herself to take a deep breath. “What do you mean?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Of course he is!”

“We have seen this happen before, when a Changer
is under extreme stress,” Mr. Kimura explained. He kept his hands on her shoulders, though the tightness of his grip loosened when he realized that Gabriella wasn't going to charge forward.

“Darren used all his power in defense against . . . whatever was happening in here,” Ms. Therian said as her eyes glanced at the cracked pedestal. “He is in a . . .” Her voice trailed off as she glanced to Yara for assistance.

“It's more than sleep,” Yara said. “It's like a trance, almost. In a last-ditch effort, Changers of remarkable power can unleash their ability blindly to save themselves—but their senses are muted to the real world. At this moment Darren is only aware of the world within his own mind.”

Sefu shook his head in dismay. “Never,
never
have I seen this happen in one so young,” he said softly.

Something in his voice kindled Gabriella's fear—and her fight. She flexed her fingers and felt the razor-sharp edges of her
nahual
claws brush against the soft skin of her palms. “But there's something we can
do
, right?” she asked. “There has to be something we can do!”

Mr. Kimura looked at her. “There is something
you
can do,” he replied.

“Anything,” Gabriella said at once.

“No, Akira,” Sefu said, speaking right over Gabriella. “She isn't ready. We should summon Rosa—”

Mr. Kimura raised his hand, signaling for calm. “Rosa would never make it in time. Gabriella is his only chance.”

“Whatever it is, I want to help,” Gabriella insisted.

“Listen to me first, and then make your decision,” Mr. Kimura told her. “To save Darren you must spirit-walk, Gabriella—slip into Darren's own unconsciousness—and find a way to bring him back with you to this world. It's an advanced
nahual
technique, one that takes decades to master. Your aunt has only just recently come into this power.”

The only sound in the shattered room—it must have been a library since there were bookshelves everywhere—was the faint buzzing from the electrical currents. Gabriella weighed Mr. Kimura's words. Spirit-walking? She'd heard of it before but never really imagined doing it herself.
I guess there's a first time for everything,
Gabriella thought.

“Gabriella, wait,” Ms. Therian said just as Gabriella
was about to answer. “You barely know what Akira is asking of you—or the risks. Spirit-walking is highly dangerous, even for advanced adult
nahual
s. When you leave your body, you run the risk of forgetting how to return to it—or even forgetting why you'd want to. Then your spirit has no choice but to roam the wide world, forever searching for something that it can no longer find.”

Gabriella swallowed hard, staring uncertainly at Ms. Therian. “But . . . can't you just wake me up?” she asked. “There must be some spell, or something from
The Compendium
—”

Ms. Therian shook her head. “It is not so easy, I'm afraid,” she said. “There is no such thing as a spirit alarm clock. What is done will be done by you alone, on your own terms. If you spirit-walk, we
cannot
help you, even if the worst comes to pass.”

“I don't like this,” Sefu said. “She is but a child, she cannot fully understand . . .”

A strange calmness overcame Gabriella then; her fists relaxed, and her claws retracted. “But I do understand,” she said. “I'm willing to take the risk. Any risk,
if that's what it takes to save Darren. I have to
try
, at least—he would do the same for me. I know it.”

No one spoke, but Gabriella thought she saw a glimmer of respect in Mr. Kimura's eyes. She turned to face him again. “So . . . spirit-walking. How do I do it?”

“I'll use my powers to hypnotize you into a deep sleep,” Yara told her. “You will awaken in a dream. Now, this is very important, Gabriella: you must
remember
that it is a dream. That kind of awareness in a dream-state is what will give you the power to reach Darren.”

“I understand,” Gabriella said again. “So, when I realize I'm dreaming—”

“You must will yourself out of your own dream and into Darren's,” Yara said. “It's hard to explain, but I think you'll understand what to do when it's happening to you. When you find him, Gabriella—listen carefully, this is also important—you must convince him to wake up immediately, for your sake as well as his. If he doesn't wake up, the chance of you finding your body again is very slim.”

Yara paused to gesture toward Darren, whose skin had a sickly gray cast that was highlighted by his vacant
white eyes. “He can't keep this up forever,” Yara continued. “If you don't reach him in time, he will exhaust his powers. And if
that
happens, we will lose him.”

A terrible silence fell over the group. As Gabriella looked at the old woman's face, she understood the stakes all too well.

Gabriella took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said, marveling at how normal she sounded; there wasn't a trace of fear in her voice, though her heart was pounding. “Let's do this.”

“Go ahead and lie down,” Yara said.

Gabriella lay on the floor and stared up into the faces gathered around her, where she saw so much love and encouragement. “You can do it,” Fiona whispered, reaching down to squeeze Gabriella's hand.

“See you when you wake up,” added Mack.

Then everyone took a step back, except for Yara. She ran her hands through the air above Gabriella's body, and even though Yara never touched her, Gabriella felt the sensation of an impossibly heavy blanket covering her.

Wait,
she thought, fighting against her eyes, which were trying to close.
There was something I wanted to ask. . . .

But it was too late. Her eyes closed, anyway.

When she awoke, Gabriella was deeply dreaming. It was a glorious day at the New Brighton Zoo. She grinned as she watched her little sister, Maritza, skip ahead in the sunlight. With Ma on one side and Tía Rosa on the other, Gabriella had never been happier.

Then it was just her and Ma. Where were Maritza and Tía Rosa?

Had they been there at all?

“Beautiful creatures,” Ma said, nodding toward the jaguar enclosure.

“Beautiful,” Gabriella echoed. She stared at the jaguars, sleeping in the sun, and longed to join them.

Her mind was so
fuzzy
.

“Here,
mija
,” Ma was saying. “Have some popcorn before I eat the whole thing.”

“Thanks,” Gabriella tried to say, but she couldn't quite remember how to say the word. She reached out her hand—

“Monster!” Ma screamed, staring at her in horror and backing away.

Gabriella looked down and saw velvety black fur creeping down toward her fingers.
This isn't how I transform,
she thought with confusion as one by one, her claws popped out of her fingertips.
Not in slow-motion; not like this . . .

And then it hit her. She didn't transform like this because
this
wasn't real.
It's just a dream,
Gabriella told herself, and a sense of control surged through her.

She closed her golden cat's eyes.
I am leaving this dream,
she thought, not sure where the words were coming from, but knowing, somehow, that they were the right ones.
I am leaving this dream for Darren's dream.

She began to walk, and with every step, the zoo melted away into a silvery mist. In an instant she was surrounded by energy, the energy that flowed through every living being—and there had never been anything else, ever.

Darren's dream,
Gabriella repeated, trying not to lose focus.
Darren's dream.

The mist swirled—began to take shape, and through it she could see the solid physicality return to everything around her—until Gabriella was back in the hall outside the library. There was Fiona and Mack and Ms. Therian
and Mr. Kimura and Sefu and tiny Yara, bent over—

Gabriella swallowed hard as she stared down at her human self, still and unmoving. Her face was frozen like a mask.
It's like I'm not even there,
she realized.

Because she wasn't.

Gabriella turned away from the eerie sight and looked at Darren. His body seemed stretched to its limits, contorted by the beams of electricity that spangled the room. His head was wobbling in a strange and unsteady way.

Then Gabriella noticed for the first time that the Horn of Power was at his feet.

The tremendous crack that had nearly split the horn in two was almost gone, as if it had been expertly mended. Now it was no wider than a single hairbreadth, and it glowed with golden healing light.

So that's what this is all about,
Gabriella thought as everything began to make sense.

She padded across the room toward Darren, dodging the beams of electricity, and placed her wide, velvety paws on his shoulders. There was a pulling sensation—a rushing sound, a vortex of swirling winds . . .

And just like that, Gabriella disappeared.