Page 40 of The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies 2)

The footsteps are loud now. I swing my legs over the edge of the window. Using whatever concentration I can still muster, I am able to levitate myself a few centimeters above the cold stone. I push out into the swirling wind. Before I lower myself away from the tower, I see the mustached Mogadorian from the café round the last turn of the stairway and stomp into the belfry.

My concentration buckles and then snaps into a million little pieces. I go into a wild free-fall until the last moment, when I press my hands in front of my chest and set my mind on floating like a feather. My right knee lands a hair from Adelina’s shivering body.

I panic. I either have to try to get the Chest and Adelina down into the village for hiding—but it is the middle of the night and we are in our nightclothes and I can only see a few lonely windows lit in town—or I have to quickly find a place to hide us within the orphanage. It will take the Mogadorian less time to descend the tower than it did for him to race up it, but he still has a long hallway to travel and another flight of stairs to run down to make it to the first floor. I stick my head through the double doors, and once I see the coast is clear, I drape Adelina over the Chest and float them into the nave. My strength is waning immensely, but I am somehow able to summon just enough power to get the Chest, Adelina and me tucked away up into the farthest recess of the drafty, cold and damp nook where the Chest had originally been hidden.

I am beginning to think I led the Mogadorian right to me by opening the Chest. Perhaps the red pulse of the crystal I dropped is some kind of transmitter. Adelina will know what it is, what to do. To combat the fear that an evil alien race is coming directly for me, to somehow apologize to Adelina for drugging her, and to gather a little warmth, I rest my head on Adelina’s chest and wrap my arms around her waist.

Hours later, I hear Adelina grunt and shuffle her legs underneath mine.

“Adelina?” I whisper. “Are you awake?”

“Who is that? Marina?”

I whisper, “Adelina, you have to be really, really quiet. ”

“Why?” she whispers. “And where are we?”

“We’re in the nave where you hid the Chest. But please listen to me. The

y’re here. The Mogadorians came for me last night after I opened the Chest, and I had to hide us. ”

“How did you open up the Chest by yourself? It doesn’t work that way. ”

“You told me how to do it. You were sleep-talking,” I lie. I could tell her I drugged her, but I’m not ready for that argument.

Her confusion is evident in her voice. “I don’t remember. . . . I, I remember getting out of bed and then . . . I guess that’s about it. You opened up the Chest? What was inside?”

“A lot of things, Adelina. So much. There are all these stones and all these jewels, and one of them lit up in my hand and started flashing, and I think that’s why the Mogadorian showed up. ”

“What Mogadorian? What happened?” Adelina tries to sit up, but I stop her before she hits her head on the low ceiling.

I whisper, “I saw a man in the café a few days ago who had a book about Pittacus, and he kept staring at me. He had this hat on and this big mustache, and I could just tell he was from Mogadore. And then last night after I opened the Chest in the north belfry, he showed up. ”

“How did we escape?”

“I used my telekinesis to float us out the window and into the yard, and then I used it to get us up here. ”

“We have to get out of here,” she whispers. “We have to leave Santa Teresa immediately. ”

My excitement is immediate. I hug her in the dark, and to my surprise she hugs me back. Adelina crawls to the lip of the nook and I follow her with the Chest hovering behind me. When the nave appears empty, Adelina asks me to lower her to the floor. Then I carefully drop the Chest over the lip and set it silently next to Adelina’s bare feet. I’m about to levitate down when Sister Dora appears at the back of the nave and marches towards Adelina.

“Where have you been?” she barks. “You left your post all night. How could you do such a thing? And what is this luggage doing in here?”

“I had to get some fresh air, Sister Dora,” Adelina says softly. “I’m sorry I left my post. ”

I can see Sister Dora’s eyes narrow. “With Marina?”

“What?”

“I had four girls wake me up in the middle of the night saying that Marina snuck out last night and that you left with her. ”

Adelina starts to speak, but Ella suddenly appears behind Sister Dora and tugs on her dress.

“Sister Dora? I just saw Marina,” she lies.

“Where?”

“In the bedroom, sleeping. ”

Sister Dora bends down and snatches Ella by the arm, and the terrified look on Ella’s face causes something to shift inside me. “You’re a little liar! I just came from the sleeping quarters, and no one is in there. You’re making up excuses for her. ”

“Sister Dora, that’s enough,” Adelina says.

But Sister Dora begins dragging Ella away so forcefully that her feet hardly touch the ground. “We’re going up to the office, and you’re going to learn that you don’t lie here. ”

Tears stream down Ella’s cheeks. From the nook’s opening, I stare at Sister Dora’s hand and pry her fingers away from Ella’s bicep. Sister Dora yells in pain, and then peers down at Ella with surprise and confusion. She grabs Ella again.

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