Chapter 25
My heart didn't just skip a beat, it actually felt like it stopped working for a second. Jace looked equally shocked.
"Kregor, you were supposed to give us plenty of warning."
"You told me the most important thing was to make sure that nothing happened to him."
Jace didn't look happy, but apparently didn't want to say something that he would regret later. "Fine, please go back and follow Selene's dad the rest of the way in. If I crank us up to forty times normal speed I think we can get Selene to the trailer so she can change before he arrives."
I felt Jace's power reach out for me, and knew I had only a heartbeat in which to stop him. "No, Jace. You'd have to burn a peak memory to make that happen for two of us at the same time—it's not worth it, not just to save me a little bit of embarrassment. I've got my wrap, that will just have to be enough to stop my dad from keeling over. Besides, there are people over by the trailer now."
"Are you sure, Selene? At forty times normal speed we'll be moving fast enough that they probably won't even be able to see us."
"You're right as far as getting across the parking lot goes, but once we got over to the RV you're not going to be able to open the door fast enough for both of us to get inside without ripping it off of its hinges."
I was right and we both knew it. As we got faster and faster it just made it harder to interact with our environment. I'd only ever experienced a few times normal speed, but I'd had plenty of time to think about what it would be like to be moving at forty or fifty times normal speed.
At that velocity, using a key to unlock the door to the RV without snapping it off in the lock would be a challenge, and even if we successfully managed that, the door's natural inertia would make it feel like we were pulling against a one-ton stone slab. It would move, and to anyone watching from outside of our time effect it would move very quickly, but to us it would feel like it was moving with glacial slowness.
Of course Jace could always make himself strong enough to make the door open even faster than that, but the hinges probably wouldn't survive the experience.
There just wasn't a way to move fast enough that nobody saw us and still avoid destroying the RV. Besides, now that we'd stopped training, I could feel the gaping holes in my mind where I'd burned away baseline memories.
Running my mind along my memories and coming to a jagged-edged gap wasn't a pleasant thing. One second I was headed in to talk to my mom and then there was nearly a minute of nothing before my memories picked back up as I headed out of her room and downstairs.
I could tell that Jace was still considering trying to get me to the RV before my dad pulled into sight, but I shook my head at him again as I pulled my gauzy white cover-up on.
"I'm serious, Jace. Now that I've actually experienced memory loss for myself I'm even less willing to let you waste your power on something stupid like this."
Jace stopped me as I bent down to pick up my towel.
"What do you mean? Right now is the time when most people go wild with using their abilities. Memory loss outside of anything other than a big, extended use of our powers is so slow it's almost imperceptible."
"I don't know what you mean, Jace. I can feel where I lost memories for each of the effects I've used so far. So far it's only a few seconds here, a few seconds there, but it's easy to see where one memory disappears and turns into nothing before it starts back up."
Jace sighed and then bent down to pick up his towel and the two towels I'd ruined with my first transmutation.
"That's not normal either, Selene. Our memories are vivid, but for Kat and me it's more like the memories we lose result in our experiences contracting. The narrative just kind of gets choppy. We'll remember being one place and then suddenly the memory jumps forward several minutes and we are somewhere else. It's disorienting when you go back and examine a set of memories, but it's not the kind of thing that jumps out at you."
"So I'm even more of a freak than you originally thought."
"No, you're not a freak, but there is definitely something going on that I don't understand—something that has never happened before, which is saying something for our kind."
Jace looked for a second like he was going to hold my hand to reassure me, but then my dad's old yellow pickup truck pulled into the parking lot. I double-checked to make sure that all of the platinum I'd created was either in my pocket or wrapped up in my towel, and then we headed back across the beach.
My dad met us at the edge of the asphalt. He gave me an appraising look and then pulled me into a hug.
"I'm so glad that you were able to make it, Dad!"
"Hi, sweetie. I almost didn't come—it hardly seemed worth it given the fact that I'll have to leave to go back to work again in just a few hours, but the three of us spend so little time together these days that I just couldn't bear not seeing you and Ari today."
Jace waited until my dad turned towards him and then held out his hand. "Mr. Jenkins, I'm glad you were able to make it as well. Ari and Selene have both told me a lot about you and Kat spoke highly of you after your meeting yesterday. I'm Jace."
Dad shook Jace's hand and gave him a nod. "I appreciate the invitation to come join you and your sister, Jace. Where are Ari and Kat?"
"They are both out on the jet skis right now. I'm afraid that Kat is almost as much of a speed demon as Ari is, so poor Selene hasn't even had a chance to get out on the water yet."
My dad rolled his eyes. "Somehow I'm not surprised. That child has had an unhealthy obsession with all things fast for almost two years now. I'm sorry that she's monopolizing your watercraft."
Jace waved away the apology. "Not at all. I'm just glad to see Kat unwind a little. Did you bring a swimming suit? You're welcome to change in the RV. With any luck Kat and Ari are almost out of fuel again and when they come back, if all three of us work as a team we can probably pry them off of the jet skis so that you and Selene can take them out."
"No, that's okay, I didn't come to deprive you of the use of your jet skis—I just wanted to spend some time with Ari and Selene. You and Kat should go out on them."
"I'm afraid that I actually need to start setting up for lunch, sir. Do hotdogs and hamburgers sound okay?"
I pulled on my dad's hand as he nodded in response to Jace. "Come on, Daddy. You did bring your suit, right?"
"Yes, but…"
Jace smiled again. "I think you should probably just quit while you're ahead, sir. I'm starting to figure out that if Selene really wants something she'll probably get it."
"All right, I'll go get my suit."
"Thanks, Dad."
Normally I would have just walked back to the pickup with my dad, but this time I hurried into the RV to straighten up the bathroom. I came back just as Jace was pulling a grill out of the side of the RV. Jace unobtrusively gestured at Bethany, who was once again buzzing around my head.
"Bethany is visible now. You should ask her to go out and signal Kat down."
"Good idea, the busier we keep my dad the fewer questions he's likely to ask."
"Actually, I was just thinking that your dad needed to unwind. He looks like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. If it helps keep our secrets then that's just a nice bonus."
I wanted to give Jace a kiss on the cheek, but even that felt like too much with my dad headed back in our direction.
"Thanks, Jace. For all of this."
"It's been my pleasure."
I looked up at Bethany, but she just threw me a jaunty little salute. "Aye, aye, captain. I heard Mr. Muscles. Heading off to flag down the dangerous duo now."
A few minutes later Dad had finished changing and Jace was in the middle of mixing ingredients into some kind of thick paste that presumably would go in with the hamburger when he made the patties. Bethany came streaking back a few feet ahead of Kat and Ari, both of who were flushed and laughing.
"Dad, you're here!"
Ari jumped off of the watercra
ft and into Dad's arms before it had even finished moving.
"Yes, I am—what's this I heard about you monopolizing the water toys?"
Kat pulled up and jumped off her jet ski so she could grab Ari's before it started floating off. "She's totally fine, Mr. Jenkins. Please don't let Jace convince you otherwise. He hardly even gets on them anymore. The only person who's been missing out is Selene, and I figured there would be plenty of time for her to play around on the water after lunch."
"You should totally take one out, Dad. Selene too. It's the most fun I've had in months."
Dad looked hesitant, but Kat had just finished muscling the front of both jet skis up onto the beach so they wouldn't float away.
"It's really no imposition, Mr. Jenkins. Ari and I will just go grab some fuel and then you and Selene can go buzz around until lunch is ready."
Ari went splashing along the waterline in the direction of the RV even before the words were out of Kat's mouth, which was odd. All I could figure was that she'd finally realized that I'd had Jace all to myself for several hours already this morning and wanted to get some time in herself.
I only noticed that in passing though because I was much more focused on the transformation that had overcome Kat. She obviously hadn't had a chance to redo her makeup or anything out on the water before coming back, and she was still wearing the same light-blue two-piece, but she no longer looked like a seventeen-year-old.
All I could figure was that it was something about how she was holding herself because she easily looked twenty or twenty-one now. I had to hand it to her, I hadn't even began to worry about the complications of Dad arriving without any notice and seeing her as something other than the mature, responsible adult who had convinced him to let his teenage daughters head off on a water trip without any other adult supervision.
Kat gave my dad a brilliant smile and then followed along behind Ari, but even then she didn't scamper or bound like Ari had, she walked like a woman who knew that everyone would wait for her.
When the two girls returned they not only had a couple of gas cans, they also had two more life jackets so that we wouldn't have to put on the wet ones that Kat and Ari had been wearing. I waited until my dad was busy filling up the gas tank of one of the jet skis before slipping off my wrap and into a life jacket. Less than five minutes later Dad and I were pushing off of the beach and racing across the glassy surface of the lake.
It took a little while for Dad to get comfortable enough to really open up the jet ski, and I never quite got to that point, but I still had a good time and really enjoyed seeing Dad smile without the undertone of stress and worry that had seemed a constant part of our lives ever since Mom had died.
We must have been out there for nearly an hour before I finally saw Bethany come skipping across the surface of the water towards us. I cut the engine and waited for her to get close enough that I would be able to hear her.
"Jace says that the food is ready to go, so you're both wanted back at the RV."
I checked to make sure that Dad was far enough away that he wouldn't be able to hear me and then nodded. "Thanks, Bethany. Have you already eaten?"
"Nope, but Kregor has promised to show me a field of wild flowers that he passed on his way here with your dad."
"Wow, I didn't realize that fairies lived off of flower nectar…"
"Selene, the things you don't know about fairies still would fill libraries. Try not to get into any trouble while I'm gone."
Dad pulled up next to me as she zipped off.
"Everything okay, sweetie?"
"Yeah, Dad. I just thought I could see Jace and Kat waving at us from the shoreline."
Dad squinted back in the direction of the RV. "Wow, maybe it's time for me to finally give in and make a trip to the eye doctor. I don't know how you can make out anything that far away. You're right though, we've been out plenty long enough."
We sped back over to the shore and beached the jet skis less than twenty feet away from the picnic table where Jace had set up the food. It only took one sniff for me to realize that he'd gone all-out on the food again.
I could go back and relive that first ambrosia-smothered hamburger at any point, but I still felt my mouth watering for this burger. I was exceptionally hungry after spending so long trying to throw my heavy jet ski through turns in a vain effort to keep up with my dad, but I was also excited to see what new flavor combination Jace had in store for us. I still didn't recognize half of the toppings he had laid out and waiting, but I was pretty sure a big chunk of them weren't the same as last time.
Ari bounced over and grabbed Dad's arm. I noticed with relief that she'd had the good sense to put a t-shirt on over her tiny red swimsuit. Dad was a lot more likely to let us do this again if he didn't think that we were spending most of our time with Jace and Kat all tarted up.
"Dad, you are in for a rare treat. Kat has told us at least a dozen times how good Jace's cooking is."
I flinched. It was a good thing that Ari was doing most of the talking—I would have said something about how awesome the burgers had been last time, and promptly ended up in a ton of trouble because Dad didn't know that we'd spent Thursday evening at Jace's house.
Kat looked up from a camp chair where she'd sequestered herself with a textbook. "Indeed I have. My opinion, Mr. Jenkins, is that for your first encounter with Jace's cooking you should let him pick out the toppings."
"Please, call me Peter."
Kat's smile doubled in wattage. "Very well, Peter. Feel free to tell Jace if there's anything you despise, but other than that just trust him to do right by you—my little brother has incredible taste."
That last was said innocently enough, but she gave me a knowing look as soon as my dad turned away. I nearly died in embarrassment, but it was an interesting look into what made Kat tick. Even now, when she was playing a role, the teasing undertone that so readily made itself felt in normal conversation was waiting in the wings.
Dinner was amazing—even better than the last time. I would have said that wasn't possible, but apparently there really was some magic to his normal recipe that Jace had been forced to forgo last time because the burgers had burned.
The best part was watching my dad's face as he bit into his burger for the first time. He'd relaxed while we'd been out on the water, but it wasn't until I heard his heartfelt sigh of contentment that I realized even eating had become nothing but another chore for him.
Mealtimes had definitely taken a turn for the worse after my mom had died. Seeing Dad actually enjoy a meal was like watching the last five years melt away and seeing him how he'd been before Mom had died. I wanted to hug Kat and Jace, but there wasn't any hurry, we had all of the time in the world.
Once lunch was over, Kat convinced Dad to head back out on the water with Ari. He tried to refuse, but it was like she knew exactly the buttons to push to bend him to her will. I watched the two of them jet away and then turned and gave her that hug.
"Thank you, Kat. I really appreciate you and Jace making this weekend happen, and for convincing my dad to come here today. I haven't seen him like this in years—it was the best gift that anyone could have given him, which means it's the best gift anyone could have given me."
Jace came up behind us and wrapped his arms around the two of us. "The best part of it all is that this is just a preview of things to come. Once we get you that metal detector and you 'find' that massive nugget of solid gold, your dad will finally be able to relax and enjoy himself a little more. Just don't be surprised if it takes him a while to adjust."
"You've seen it before?"
"Yeah. Based on what's survived of my early journals, I even experienced it for myself when I first realized that I wasn't going to have to worry about money ever again. It's funny how much our jobs and the battle to provide for those closest to us can come to define us. Your dad is probably going to need some time to figure out what he wants to do with his life."
"Well, I guess there are a lot w
orse problems than that to have."
Jace shrugged. "There is an awful lot that I don't know, but it sure seems like people default back to the same level of happiness regardless of their circumstances. Hopefully your dad is one of the rare individuals who can rise above that and just realize how fortunate he's been."