House of Leights (Secret Keepers, #3)(61)

“You got this, Cal. Just follow the lights,” Daniel said, lifting their joined hands up slightly. “I’ll help you go the rest of the way.”

It took fourteen minutes before her eyes took on the same unfocused cast as Emma’s, then apparently, she was in. Jero took two steps to the right and I tried to breathe through the absolute rapid pounding of my heart, feeling it in my throat and hearing it in my head.

“Your turn, Maya,” he drawled. Chase swung his head toward him, like he was shocked by something.

“No nickname?” Chase asked him. I was confused, but I figured this was a “Jero” inside joke that I’d hopefully find out one day.

Jero’s lip twitched a little. “I’m working on it,” he replied, with a lopsided smile.

He lifted the frame higher, and for the first time I could see exactly what it was. Like Emma, I was familiar with it. It was one of those three-dimensional images hidden inside a two-dimensional pattern. You had to readjust your focus and you could see the hidden image inside. I was always terrible at it. Like … horrendous.

The pattern was akin to a night sky filled with a million shooting stars, beams of lights crisscrossing each other. My eyes flicked across to Chase, who was watching me closely. As he inclined his head at me, the smile he wore never faded. You got this, that look said. And I nodded. So what if I sucked at this sort of thing when I was younger? People learned new skills every day.

Turning back to the image, I tried to calm my mind, blocking out the world around me.

Come on, Maya. No matter how hard I tried though, the damn picture still just looked like a night sky. It reminded me of when I’d been in the transporter, all of that darkness, with the pinpricks of light in the distance. Only these lights were closer and smudged into each other.

Maybe I needed to just focus on one light in particular and try to see which smudge belonged to it. I searched around for one near the edge of the image. It had a tail that spun and flipped around, crossing back in on its self. I continued to follow, losing the path once or twice and having to backtrack, but I eventually got there. As I reached the tail it … moved. So I continued to follow its path … which continued to move.

That feeling of excitement inside of me brought the thrum of energy in my hands to greater heights.

“That’s it, sayana,” Chase murmured close to me. “Follow that light.”

It extended off the page, and I kept my focus, scared if I lost sight of the line for even a second, I’d lose whatever ground I’d gained. It spiraled down the side of Jero’s leg toward the ground. It was easy to follow now; there were no other lights to interfere. The moment the beam hit the green grass, it solidified.

Lifting my eyes, I stared at all the lights on the image, tracing some of their paths, and without any effort this time, all of them started to move. It took me ten minutes to have hundreds of bright lights anchored to the ground. They were vibrating, and I could hear noises, maybe even voices coming from within them.

One twanged loudly at me, and within it I felt Chase. I mentally reached for his light and it hit me in the chest. The energy I felt when I was near him filled me up, then it dragged me down into the ground. I didn’t physically move, but my consciousness was going with that beam of light, and then I was “standing” … existing … in a world of darkness. Only it wasn’t just darkness, there were beams of light everywhere, crossing in front of me and over each other.

There was a lot of noise here at first, but when I focused, most of the chatter died away. I could feel them all here: Emma, Callie, Lexen, Daniel, Xander, and Chase. I couldn’t see them, but I recognized the bright beams of light around me. The seven of us glowed, running almost parallel to each other.

Maya, you did it, I heard Emma’s words in my head.

Be very careful what you say here, Lexen reminded us. All conversations can be recorded and overheard in the network.

We fell somewhat silent, and I wondered what we were supposed to do now.

Let’s start with a little test, Daniel suggested. Try to find Jero. His energy will be close to ours, because he’s physically near us.

I hadn’t had much time to get to know Jero, but that didn’t seem to matter. I only had to picture him in my mind, had to remember the sad, heavy emotions he carried around, and my light immediately shot toward a tattered-looking beam about ten yards away. It strummed at me, almost like a greeting.

We can feel if someone is searching for our energy, Chase told us. Jero will know, but if he wanted to respond or communicate, he would have to enter the network.

Callie’s light went bright then and I felt like she was laughing. This is just like virtual reality. Our bodies are where we left them, but our consciousness and vision is now in another world.

That was true, and while there wasn’t much going on in the way of world building here, I felt the vast endless opportunities that lay beyond us.

Okay, now that we have found Jero, let’s try for someone on Earth, Emma suggested. Maybe my guardians. For those who have met them and know their energy.

That wasn’t me, so I sat that one out.

Easy as, Emma finally exclaimed.

That was definitely a positive, but since none of us had met the last secret keeper, it was no doubt going to be more difficult. I hoped they had a good plan.

Lexen sounded serious. We’re going to have mere seconds to find her, because the moment we locate her rough proximity, we need to cut the connection. Otherwise she could be found by others.