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Jayla was amused. “Well, that’s the advantage to growing up in the desert,” she said. “No artificial light, so if you didn’t have a candle and the moon wasn’t out, you learned to move through the darkness. You get so you can sense where things and people are, even if you can’t see them.”
“I’m not sure I’d ever get good at that.”
They waited a bit longer, hoping someone would emerge from the kitchen with a few lit tapers. Jayla’s hearing was always sharper in the dark, and she could catch a few snatches of conversation down the hallway.
“I think they’re having trouble finding the candles,” she said. “It might be a while.”
Madeleine made a small sound of irritation. “All right, just a minute—where’s the nearest planter?”
That made no sense, but Jayla just gave a mental shrug. “Take my arm. I’ll lead you over.” They crossed the floor in a cautious step-and-glide, then Jayla guided Madeleine’s hand to the stone lip of one of the big pots. “Feel that?”
“Yes, thank you.” There was a faint sound of digging, a barely discernible movement in Madeleine’s dense shadow—and then a small globe of cool light bloomed between Madeleine’s fingers.
Jayla stared at her in absolute shock.
Madeleine responded with a merry laugh. “If you could see your face!”
“What are you—what did you—”
Madeleine twisted her hands back and forth, pivoting in a slow circle, and the icy light created swooping shadows across the surfaces it was strong enough to reach. “Isn’t that a fun trick? My brother and I were always able to do it, but I’ve never met anyone else who could. Give us a patch of dirt, and we can squeeze it into a ball of light. It was very handy when we were children sneaking around the house at night.”
It was hard to know how to phrase the question, hard to even form the words. “Why do you think this is somethingyoucan do? And no one else.”
“I don’t know! Just something we inherited. From our mother, I suppose, since my father can’t do it.” A pause. “Well, he says he can’t. But I’m not sure he always tells me everything.”
He absolutely doesn’t tell you everything, Jayla thought. “And you’re sure your friends can’t do it? Your cousins? Tivol? Reese?”
“Oh, I’m sure. When we were children, our cousins would try and try, and get so mad when they couldn’t make anything happen. Tivol always says it’s one of the things he loves most about me, because it’s such a pretty and useless skill.” Madeleine was silent a moment, perhaps remembering something Reese had said on the same topic, but deciding not to repeat it. “Anyway, since I’ve been an adult I haven’t had too many occasions to go around creating my own personal ball of light! But it’s good to know I still can.”
“Yes. I imagine it is.”
A flicker caught the corner of Jayla’s eye, and she turned to find Norrah and the footman making their way from the kitchen, lit candelabra held triumphantly aloft. “Excellent,” Madeleine said. “Now we can all see.”
Jayla felt she was more in the dark than ever.
It was noon the next day before power was restored, but none of the city’s systems appeared to have sustained any permanent damage. Rumors filtered through the streets about what had caused the breakdown, some speculating that it had been sparked by a small quake, and others insisting it had been purposeful destruction by petty criminals. Madeleine’s father dismissed all the theories, saying the problem had been caused by normal wear on the power core and that city workers were figuring out ways to prevent the problem from happening again.
It was a week before Jayla had an unexpected free day when Madeleine came down with a headache and moaned that she would not set foot outside the house for any inducement. Jayla left Aussen with Norrah and took a chugger to Cody’s house.
“You’re lucky,” said Kammi, who answered the door to Jayla’s knock. “He’d have left in another ten minutes.”
Rovyn was peering over Kammi’s shoulder, and she looked as though she wished Jayla had not been so fortunate. But she managed a civil, unsmiling nod, and Jayla responded in kind.
Cody appeared surprised but happy to find Jayla had sought him out. “Did I forget I would be seeing you today?” he asked.
“Madeleine’s sick, so I got the day off,” Jayla replied. “Do you have to work?”
“I was planning on it, but I don’t have to. Is there something you’d like to do?”
“I want you to take me to see Pietro.”
Chapter Twenty-three:
Jayla
If Cody had been surprised to see Jayla, Pietro was astonished. He’d answered her urgent knock by throwing the door wide open—this clearly was not someone who was afraid thieves or murderers might be awaiting him on the other side. When he saw her, his eyes widened and he stepped back as if her presence had hit him with the force of a blow.
“Jayla.” And then, suddenly alarmed, “Has something happened to Aussen?”
