Shift

EIGHTEEN.1

With the arrival of Blaze's father and Kayden's mother in Los Angeles, life was abruptly yanked into a more normal pattern. After a lengthy discussion with Lira Fallon, Silas Merg and Karen Lee decided that the best course of action was for the five of them to share the three-bedroom suite at Le Lieu. Blaze's father got a room to himself, and Lexi and her aunt shared a bed in another room. But the king-sized bed in the final room was replaced with two twin-sized beds, one for Kayden and one for Blaze. The hope was to minimize their stomach pain while discouraging any nighttime canoodling.

True to his word, Walter found an herbalist who agreed to help them. After a day of consultations—the small man had them run through a long list of strange questions—they had found their short-term solution: an herbal tea to help keep their symptoms at bay. Kayden could only describe it as bitter-tasting urine, though she liked to gloat that she handled it better than Blaze did; he had to chase it with a can of soda each morning.

For the first week, as the Congregation solidified plans with foreign countries and as thousands of scientists across the globe worked to craft the new spell, they all had a chance to relax. Kayden wished she had her guitar with her, but she was able to enjoy herself nonetheless. She spent a lot of time shopping with her mother, buying various necessities like a toothbrush, clothing, and a new phone charger. She also grew accustomed to days spent walking around in 90-degree weather and evenings swimming in Le Lieu's enormous swimming pool. But all too soon, their one-week vacation ended and the first day of volunteering arrived.

"How did it go?" her mother asked her later that night after they had returned. All five of them were sitting around the television in Le Lieu. Kayden could almost pretend it was a typical Monday evening, save for the potestas news station throwing the word "magic" around with ease.

"It went well," she said, and it wasn't a lie. Kayden, Lexi, and Blaze, along with several other volunteers, had been shuttled to a farm to pick various herbs for the spell. Kayden had enjoyed it; it reminded her of the times her parents had taken her strawberry picking when she was little, toddling down the rows of plants in a tiny pair of overalls.

The only thing that had been a bit strange was the startling lack of women around. Almost every volunteer at the farm, save for a single woman in her fifties, was male. Kayden had finally asked Blaze why there were so few female potestas and, surprisingly, his answer had a lot of biology behind it. He had explained there were two separate genes carrying the trait, one on the X chromosome and one on the Y. And while men only needed one copy of either gene, women needed two—if they only had one, they either had no symptoms at all or were slightly psychic.

Kayden had walked away from that conversation happy that she had understood approximately two-thirds of what he had said.

Kayden's mother nodded at her daughter's short response and added, "Did you see Helio at all?"

Lexi instantly reacted to the name, looking up from the novel in her lap. "No," she said, her finger hovering over the page. "His internship is... keeping him busy."

Kayden frowned as her cousin bent her head back over the book. They had seen Helio just twice in the past week, running past them with various papers in his hands. He said "hi" both times, but he never stopped to chat. Kayden could tell it was starting to bother Lexi.

Eager to change the topic away from Helio, Kayden asked her mother, "How was the kitchen work?"

"Not too terrible," Mrs. Lee said with a shrug. "It's nice to be helpful. I met a few other women there, mostly sanspotestas wives, and Mr. Merg came too. We made a lot of sandwiches for the spell writers."

This caught Blaze's attention. He turned to his father. "What were you doing in the kitchen? Didn't you have work to do? For your job?"

"Don't worry about me, Blaze," his father answered shortly, his eyes on the television. "I brought my laptop and worked remotely."

Kayden followed his gaze. The news bulletins scrolling across the bottom of the screen hardly made sense to her; they were interspersed with Latin that passed by much too quickly to attempt a translation. The main focus of the program was centered on the Congregation and the magic shift spell. There was a large number "12" on the bottom right of the screen, counting down the days until the spell was to be cast. It flashed silver every so often as if to remind the viewers of its importance.

One of the news anchors, a woman with dark skin and a very attractive face, looked at them through the screen solemnly. She had a hard edge to her jaw, as if she had fought her way to the top and she intended to stay there.

"Although spell preparations are already underway in most parts of the world," the news anchor announced, "United States Congregation member Russ Naven offered up his concerns on the immediacy of this plan."

The screen cut to some footage filmed somewhere inside Le Lieu; Kayden recognized the wallpaper. The members of the Congregation were sitting at a table, cameras flashing, with small microphones set in front of them.

"People were mentioning this in the field," Blaze said, brown eyes locked on the screen as the camera zoomed in on Naven.

No one besides her, Blaze, Lexi, Helio, Walter, Mr. Merg, Mr. Ruke, and her mother knew about Naven's kidnapping attempt; the Congregation had smoothed it all under the rug, no doubt in an attempt to keep the public focused on the magical crisis at hand. But seeing Naven's face on the screen made Kayden's insides burn. She remembered Blaze mentioning that there was an election next year; she hoped he was voted out of office.

"I understand the desire to cast this spell as soon as possible," Naven said, speaking into his microphone calmly, "but I have some valid concerns. We are set to cast this spell worldwide in less than two weeks, and I personally do not think it is enough time to make sure all the kinks in the spell and the potion component are worked out. Let me remind the public that this isn't a prewritten spell. It is being crafted as we speak. We have no way of knowing whether it will have unintended consequences."

A reporter's voice could be heard, calling out, "What does the rest of the Congregation say about this?"

Carsten leaned forward into his microphone, his white hair shining in the bright lights. "I have complete confidence in our teams of scientists, spell writers, and potion brewers. Everything is being double- and triple-checked. I understand Naven's concern, and I am looking into it, but I do not think we need to postpone the date any further. Safety is a top concern, but delaying this spell will only harm the people who are suffering right now."

The news cut back to the anchor. "This debate has been going on for most of the day, drawing concerns from potestas all over the globe. We go now to our field journalist in Russia..."

"Naven does have a point," Silas Merg said. "I never expected the spell would be written so soon."

"Neither did I," Kayden's mother said. She ran her pointer finger along the couch arm. "But," she continued, "I trust Carsten. If the scientists are checking it, then it must be fine."

Silas regarded her with thin amusement. "I think you give them too much credit."

Mrs. Lee smiled. "That's just how I am."

Kayden stared at her mother. It took her a moment to realize why her smile bothered her so much: there was a hint of coyness to it, a hint of flirtation. 

Kayden's stomach twinged as she thought of her father, all alone in his small apartment in New Jersey, and she felt the sudden urge to leave the room. "I'm going to shower," she announced, and no one stopped her as she left.

- - -

Dun dun dun! Let me know what you think of this new development. Is Kayden overreacting? Also, could you guess I was a biology major in college? I just had to put some biology into this story :p Anyway, let me know if you have any questions or find any typos (I caught one just as I was about to post!) And as usual, if you enjoyed it, please give it a vote! Thanks everyone! <3Bdicocco