The Dysasters (The Dysasters #1)(37)

“Of course we are. Cora left the breadcrumbs and we’re birding them. We can help,” Foster said, her voice holding a lot more confidence than she felt. “We will help. We have to. No one else can. After all,” she gave him a sassy sideways smile. “We are the Planeteers.”





12


EVE


Eve smiled as she approached Mark, who was sitting on the sunlit beach, his loose linen pants rolled up and his feet submerged in water and sand. He was bare chested and his long, dark hair floated free around his broad shoulders. Mark was a grown man, but what Eve saw when she looked at him, especially when he was on this beach, was the sweet, sensitive boy he used to be.

“I thought I’d find you here.”

He didn’t even look up at her, but patted the sand next to him as if offering a seat. “It’s pretty easy to find any of us on this island, which is no accident—as we all know.”

Eve sat beside him, delicately crossing her legs under her so that not even her feet touched the salty water.

“You still don’t like the ocean?” His tone was light and teasing. It was a family joke between them. If they were in the middle of the country—as they just had been—Mark continually asked, “Are we there yet?” Meaning, are they back on the coast yet, echoing the whining he used to do as a child whenever Father took them off island. Eve had, of course, been the opposite, and only felt truly at peace when miles and miles and miles of ocean-free land surrounded her.

“Never have. Never will,” Eve said firmly. “You are the only water I like.”

As if in petulant response to her statement, an errant wave washed too close to her feet. With a quick, slight motion of his hand, Mark directed his element to stay back.

“Better?” he asked.

“Of course. And thanks.”

“Of course. And you’re welcome.” Mark sighed, his gaze resting on the turquoise waves. “Where is he?”

“In his laboratory staring at nothing, as usual. Did Matthew have any luck picking up credit card usage for either of the kids?” Eve asked, even though she knew the answer. Had her brothers found even a hint of anything she would have been the first to know.

“Nothing. The boy’s parents were killed at the stadium. He’s listed as missing and presumed dead, with a couple dozen or so other teenagers. A bunch of them were stupid enough to run to their cars instead of into the school, which was a designated disaster shelter. One of the funnels sucked up the cars and after it spit them out they exploded, making it tough to identify the remains.” Mark shook his head. “Idiot teenagers.”

“But you’re sure it was him with Foster in that truck, right?”

“I’m positive.” Mark picked up a broken shell and heaved it into the ocean. “I’m so pissed that none of us got the license plate number on that damn truck.”

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. You would’ve caught them if they hadn’t invoked another tornado. And there’s no way any of us—not even Father—would have believed they could have shown that much control over air that soon.”

“How bad is he today?”

Eve worried her bottom lip between her teeth before answering in one clipped word. “Bad.”

“Damn, I’m sorry, Eve. Is there anything I can do?”

“Find those kids. He’s as obsessed with them as he is with my crystals. I’ll handle Father.”

“He’s getting worse and worse. All of us can see that,” Mark said. “Isn’t there some way you can stop him? Wean him off or something?”

“You think I haven’t tried?” She hurled the question at him. He winced at the harshness in her voice, making her instantly contrite. I don’t ever want my brothers to fear me as they do Father. She touched his arm gently. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like that.”

Mark met her gaze. Not for the first time Eve thought how very beautiful this strong, gifted brother of hers was. If only he wasn’t also so very haunted …

“Eve?”

“Oh, sorry. What did you say?”

“I said that maybe you should overdose him.”

Eve blinked at Mark in shock, pressing her finger against her lips to shush him, and then looking quickly behind them. She saw nothing but palm trees and grass that had once been meticulously maintained but had gone to seed more than a decade ago. Like everything else on their island—it used to be sweet and beautiful, but was now wild and neglected. Ever cautious, Eve closed her eyes, rested her hands on the sandy ground, and concentrated, reaching into the earth and listening with the grass, swaying and seeing with the palms …

She opened her eyes and slid closer to Mark, lowering her voice to a whisper. “You can’t just blurt out something like that.”

“I get tired of hiding how I feel, Eve.” The waves mimicked Mark’s frustration by swirling and rippling around his ankles erratically.

“It won’t help if he hears you say something like that.”

“But he isn’t here. He’s inside messing around with his lab equipment and not actually accomplishing anything because he’s a fucking junky obsessed with his next fix. So, I’m saying it again. Maybe you should overdose him.”