Page 25 of The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies 2)

“Would you be mad if this whole time it’s been full of nothing but dirty laundry?”

“Alien dirty laundry?” Sam asks sarcastically.

I laugh, then reach down and grab hold of the lock. My hand instantly glows when touching the cold metal, and the lock again warms, shaking and twisting in my grip, protesting the ancient powers that keep it closed. When it clicks open I remove the lock, set it aside, and place my hand on the Chest’s top. Six and Sam both lean forward in anticipation.

I lift the lid. The Chest is yet again ablaze with light that hurts my eyes. The first thing I do is remove the velvet bag holding the seven orbs that make up Lorien’s solar system. I think of Henri and how we watched the light glow and pulsate at Lorien’s core, showing that the planet is still alive, albeit hibernating. I place the bag in Sam’s hand. All three of us peer down into the Chest. Something else is lit up.

“What is that glowing?” Six asks.

“No idea. It never did that before. ”

She reaches down and plucks a rock from the bottom of the Chest. It’s a perfectly round crystal no bigger than a Ping-Pong ball, and when she touches it, the light brightens even more. And then it fades, and begins to slowly pulse. We watch the crystal, transfixed by the glow. Then, suddenly, Six lets it drop to the floor. The crystal ceases to pulse and resumes its steady glow. Sam reaches down to pick it up.

“Don’t!” Six yells.

He looks up, confused.

“Something doesn’t feel right about it,” she says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“It felt like pinpricks against my palm. When I grabbed hold of it I got a really bad feeling. ”

“This stuff is my Inheritance,” I say. “Maybe I’m the only one allowed to touch it?”

I bend down and carefully pick up the glowing crystal. Within seconds it feels as if I’m holding a radioactive cactus; my stomach compresses and acid climbs up my throat, and I instantly toss the crystal onto a blanket. I swallow. “Maybe I’m doing it wrong. ”

“Maybe we don’t know how to use it. I mean, you said Henri kept you from seeing inside because you weren’t ready. Maybe you’re still not ready?”

“Well, that would be pretty lame,” I say.

“This sucks,” Sam says.

Six walks into the kitchen and returns with two towels and a plastic

bag. She carefully grabs the glowing crystal with a towel and drops both into the bag, which she then wraps in a second towel.

“You really think that’s necessary?” I ask. My stomach continues to gurgle.

She shrugs. “I don’t know about you, but the feeling I got when I touched it was bad news. Better safe than sorry. ”

What’s left in the Chest is everything comprising my Inheritance, and I’m not really sure where to start. I reach in and grab an object I’ve seen before, the oblong crystal Henri used to spread the Lumen from my hands to the rest of my body. It comes alive and bathes the dining room in its bright light. The crystal’s center begins swirling with what looks like smoke, twisting and turning back on itself, as I have seen it do before.

“Now we’re talking,” Sam says.

“Here,” I say, giving it to him. The crystal falls inert when it transfers hands. “I’ve already seen it. ”

Also inside the Chest are a few smaller crystals, a black diamond, a collection of brittle leaves bound with twine, and a star-shaped talisman the same pale blue as the pendant around my neck, which tells me it’s Loralite, the rarest gem found only at Lorien’s core. There’s also a bright red oval bracelet and an amber-colored stone in the shape of a raindrop.

“What do you think that is?” Sam asks, pointing to a flat, circular stone the same milky white color as a pearl that’s stuck in the corner.

“Don’t know,” I say.

“How about that?” he asks, this time pointing to a small dagger that looks to have a blade made of diamond.

I lift it from the Chest. The handle fits snug in my hand as though it was made for it, and I suppose it was. The blade isn’t more than four inches long, and just by seeing the way the light glints along its edge, I can tell it’s far sharper than any razor one might find on Earth.

“What about that thing?” Sam asks again, pointing to something else, and I have no doubt he’ll ask the same question over and over until he’s inquired about every object inside.

“Here,” I say, setting the dagger down and removing the seven orbs in an effort to keep him occupied. “Check this out. ”

I blow on them, and tiny lights flicker across their surfaces. Then I toss them up in the air, and they instantly spring to life, spinning in orbit around the orange-sized sun in the center.

“It’s Lorien’s solar system,” I say. “Six planets, one sun. And this one here,” I add, pointing to the fourth orb, which remains the same various shades of ashen gray as the last time I’d seen it, “is Lorien as it looks today, at this very moment. The glow at its center is what’s left. ”

“Wow,” Sam says. “NASA dudes would be crapping themselves right now looking at this. ”

“And watch this,” I say, illuminating my right hand. I sweep the light over the orb, and all at once the surface changes from its depressing gray tones to vibrant blues and greens of the forests and oceans. “This is the planet as it was the day before the attack. ”

“Wow,” Sam says again, staring in awe with his mouth hanging open; and while the rotating planets have him transfixed, I look back in the Chest.

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