I’m barely standing. Have my knees frozen solid? “What are you doing?”
“Trust me.” Her eyes are blazing.
“All right.” If it’s the last thing I do, I guess I’ll trust her. I touch the diseased garnet and instinctively reach for the aquamarine. Justice does the same, as does Alana.
Nobody else moves.
Alana jerks her head. “Listen, assholes. Either you help, or I’ll move into Thorn’s castle, all by myself, and let Aquarius Social die. Hell. I’ll post first about all of you and how you were working with Nico. I’ll destroy you.”
Mathias growls and then motions the other two forward. Quinlan grins and Scarlett shrugs. I kind of like them, to be honest. Not Mathias. I still want to kill him but probably won’t because it’d upset Alana.
Her cousins both touch a rose quartz and a garnet, and Mathias, grumbling, reaches for his aquamarine and seems to take forever to decide to plant his hand on the healthiest garnet.
“Would somebody please explain to me what we’re doing?” he asks.
“Alchemy,” Alana says, her voice sharp. Her face is bruised. Her body looks beaten and the white bandage on her arm glares beneath the meager lights. “Okay, I need everybody to charge as if these are regular crystals.”
Mathias purses his lips. The sounds of the ball echo in the distance. “They are regular crystals.”
“Oh, that’s right.” She looks around. “Kaz, did you bring the alexandrite pyramids? The ones you guys stole from my dad?”
Kaz reaches into his pack. “Of course. Your orders were clear.”
“Put them in a triangle around the diseased crystal but make sure they’re touching at least one other crystal.” He does so.
“Excellent,” she says. “You’re sure that these can contain more data and transmit faster than anything else?”
“They’re supposed to,” I say.
She swallows, her face pinched. “All right, good. So each of us will charge different crystals, and they’ll amplify each other. As you know, garnets are warm gems, which is why they’re being killed by the frost. Aquamarine is a cold stone and rose quartz is thick.”
“Thick?” Scarlett asks.
“Yeah, it’s dense.”
Fascinating. “How do you know this?” I ask.
“Your library,” she bursts out. “Do you think I took all those books for fun?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” she admits. “I did borrow them for entertainment, but I chose the ones all about crystals because that’s what I’m interested in, and then when you told me about your illness . . .”
Oh, the little sweetheart. “You dove deep,” I murmur.
“Yeah,” she says. “I dove deep. I need everybody to concentrate and charge, but I want you to think heat and healing instead of fire and power. Okay?”
“All right.” I don’t think I could heat a battery at the moment, but the idea is intriguing.
“Kaz and Ella,” she calls out.
“Yeah,” Kaz growls.
She sucks in air. “I want you to run an anti-malware program, starting right now. In fact, run every one you got.”
“I have about twenty of them,” he mutters. “A couple you’ve never heard of.”
“So do I,” Ella says. “I’m really sorry, Thorn.”
I try to smile at her, but my lips are frozen. “I’ve already forgiven you, but you seem to require penance. So you will work for Malice Media for a bit.”
She pales but nods.
“Good. Hit us now!” Alana yells.
Kaz and Ella start rapidly typing, sending code and energy through the leads to the stones. The garnet beneath my hand vibrates.
“Charge the crystals now,” she orders.
I concentrate and try to charge the crystal just as I normally would. Energy violently bursts around us and I feel the tension. I look up and lock gazes with Justice. He then looks down at the aquamarine. The crystal is humming and glowing a bright blue.
“Harder, concentrate,” Alana orders.
I’m going to have to do something about that bossy nature of hers if I survive this. Nonetheless, I do as she says, and force every ounce of energy I have into the garnet. Red sparks fly from the stone.
Scarlett cries out and flies back to hit a rough wall. Quinlan releases the stones and goes after her. The alexandrite crystals start to glow and ebb as if they have a life of their own.
“What the hell?” Mathias hisses.
