Starlight (Book 1)

21: A Doll Trapped in a Glass Case

"You're letting me come with you?" As soon as the question escaped from my throat, I wished I had said nothing.

If Halley wanted to take me with her, I wasn't going to argue.

She'd been busying herself from the millisecond that Grace left, sweeping through the apartment like a cyclone. I could only watch her, reminded of the time Riley overturned every desk and cupboard in the house, searching for a notebook he'd misplaced. Back then he was muttering something about turning into Halley, and I understood what he meant as I watched her hobble into the kitchen, pulling on her socks.

"I don't see the point in making you sit around and wait," she said as I hurried to slip on my shoes. "You're already involved in this. There's no sense in pretending you aren't."

I didn't know how involved I truly was, but for once I was going to act like I deserved this. We sped from the room and down the elevator to where her police car was parked.

"Thank God for take-home cars!" exclaimed Halley. "I'm going to turn the sirens on, just thought I should let you know!"

I nodded, and within seconds the car swept through the street relentlessly. We seemed to have the road to ourselves as all the other drivers quickly pulled aside to allow us passage.

"Call Riley," commanded Halley as she held the steering wheel in one hand and her radio in the other. "He should know what's going on."

I reluctantly agreed, though I didn't particularly want to him to get angry with me. The car took a sharp turn, flipping my stomach inside out. Removing my phone from my pocket, I wasn't entirely surprised to see a few messages sitting there from Aisha.

I swiped past them and quickly debated whether to call Riley's cell before deciding on the downstairs lab phone. Of all the downsides that existed to having a father who didn't typically work out of one place at a given time, my biggest gripe was having to cold-call no less than ten extensions in order to track him down.

Luckily for me, the downstairs lab was normally the most populated location, and the line rang once before a voice spoke, "This is a secure line. I swear, if this is another telemarketer, I need to know how you got this number—"

"Hi, Papa," I deadpanned.

"Ah," said Riley guiltily. "Is everything okay? Did you make it through meeting Grace?"

The car swerved to cut through a stoplight. It felt like being on a rollercoaster.

"Not right now," I muttered, not wanting to talk about that right now—and preferably never again. "Halley heard on her scanner that something's up, and she wants to know what's going on."

"Of course she does," Riley said, huffing impatiently. "Let me guess. She heard that Thomas was found, and now you're both blazing a trail over to MARS headquarters like you own the goddamn universe."

His tone was laced with enough anger that all I could do was smile blankly at Halley.  "Yeah, pretty much."

A disappointed sigh came through the line. "This is not just any old fight, Kacie. This is dangerous. You remember everything I was telling you about my studies?"

"But what does that have to do with—"

"Listen to me. Remember what I told you about powers. They're like a light switch, right? Every home has one. Once it turns on, it stays that way. But every light switch can turn off."

The panic leapt through my throat. "He's going to try to take everyone's—"

A rustling cut through the speakers; feedback invaded my ears, and I flinched as the crunching sound receded and the apologetic voice of Riley breathed, "Tell Halley to hurry the hell up. I don't have my suit. I can't stop them."