Page 28 of Revenge of the Forgotten

Vega couldn’t argue, shrugging with a nod of agreement.

“Plus, I’ve only driven a vehicle once, and it didn’t go too well.” She glanced over to Vega. “Don’t ask. It scarred me for life.”

The crinkle of the Doritos bag filled the compact-sized car. Vega held her hand out, wiggling her fingers.

“We don’t have these in Tolevarre,” Arlet told her as she filled her palm with chips. The crunch filled Vega’s ears as she popped the first one into her mouth. “They were your favorite when you lived in Houston, and I’ve craved them ever since.” Arlet laughed, recalling a memory. The way her face brightened gave Vega a peek of what she would have looked like ten years ago—as if she wasn’t timeless enough already. “I brought a bag back once, and the boys devoured it before I could get one single chip.” The cheer Arlet was filled with diminished quickly.

Vega distracted her from the thoughts dimming her shine with questions of their childhood in Tolevarre, about the twenty lives she’d lived on Earth, and learned that she and Arlet grew up together, becoming best friends instantaneously. Vega asked for more stories, and each time, Arlet delivered.

She learned about a man named Khort, who shifted into a dragon. Her brain couldn’t wrap around the concept, but when Vega asked too many questions about him, Arlet replied, “Khort likes you to get to know him through him. He’s picky—particular—just one of those guys who like things a certain way.”

Vega knew the type.

“So, you said before that you never had a power before summoning Remus,” Vega started, seeing Arlet nod out of the corner of her eye. “Are we usually born with our abilities then?”

Arlet twirled a curl between her fingers, staring out at the road ahead. “Yes and no. It’s complicated. Yes, because we’re born with whatever our power is inside us and no, because there’s no telling what it’s going to be until we’ve learned to manifest it. Before you can control what’s inside you, you can always feel something though—a buzz in your mind, a trickle of power through your bloodstream. I never got that feeling until after the summoning. That night was the first time I understood what everyone had been talking about. We spend most of our adolescence in school, training our mind and body for the day we’re strong enough to use it for the first time, and then we spend the rest of the time learning how to control it.”

Vega didn’t have to ask more questions because Arlet continued on. “Usually, your power is from the stronger parent, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes a power can trickle down from generations before. Like you. You got lightning, and there hasn’t been a lightning-wielder alive in your lineage for centuries. But I’m not so sure your lightning has ever been separate from your control of the weather. I think it was just all you knew how to control at first, and everyone assumed your lightning and wind were different powers.” She shrugged.

The ping of Vega’s phone interrupted her train of thought.

Arlet grabbed it before Vega could. “Bobby says you’re fired.” She flashed the screen to show her.

Vega rolled her eyes. “Susan is jumping for joy right now.”

The sun moved through the sky, and the mountains started to peak in the distance. Vega turned the music up, attempting to drown out the silence surrounding them after finding out she’d lost yet another piece of her life back in Chicago. She didn’t love her job at Bobby’s, but it was another string snapped, disconnecting her from this life—from this world.

The radio began to skip, static hissing in the background as they got too far from whatever city station they were listening to. Vega reached for the dial and twisted until she found one that came through clearly. Songs from the early 2000s shuffled.

Arlet’s bare feet began to tap against the dashboard, something Vega asked her not to do, worried that if they wrecked, her legs would go through her pelvis.

Arlet’s reply had been, “Well, then don’t wreck.”

A song Vega hadn’t heard in years came on, a smile forming on her lips at the same moment Arlet jumped forward to turn the volume up. Arlet squealed. “Oh my gods, I wish you could remember this, but in your last life, we listened to this on repeat for an entire three-day trip.”

The happiness in Arlet’s voice was like a warm blanket, wrapping Vega in a tight hug as she began to sing the lyrics to “Over My Head (Cable Car)” by The Fray. Vega barely had time to wonder what happened to The Fray before Arlet started to bop on beat to the song.

Vega’s smile grew, crinkling the corners of her eyes for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

Vega only watched Arlet for a few seconds—the throwback settling into her body, her hips wiggling in the seat while keeping her focus on the road. The highway was clear ahead, the other traffic moving at a leisurely pace.

From the outside looking in, they were two best friends singing along to their favorite song. Vega used the steering wheel as a drum pad, falling horribly off-beat, making them sing louder and more enthusiastically than before.

Vega didn’t have a musical bone in her body, but Arlet had a voice she would consider a god-given gift. A couple of times, Vega found herself giving Arlet more solo time just to hear the melodic pull of her tone as she hit every note perfectly.

What if I’m already dead and this is my guardian angel escorting me to heaven?

Vega cracked up at Arlet’s guitar solo. Her head bounced back and forth from the road to watching the performance Arlet was putting on, and a feeling of euphoria hit her. This feels too right, too real to be fake. What if they really were two best friends separated by a curse?

They sang over a fit of giggles, and for the first time since the road trip started, Vega felt like she was doing the right thing—that she was in the place she was meant to be, right here, right now.

When the song finally came to an end, without thinking, Vega reached over and held Arlet’s hand as the next one came on.

Arlet squeezed it three times as she always had, but Vega didn’t know that. She returned her hand to the steering wheel, fixing her eyes back on the road with a new feeling digging into her chest.

Hope.

Vega set her heart towards hope. Hope for a life she couldn’t remember. Hope for people who loved her. Hope for being wanted. Hope for belonging.

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