Starlight (Book 1)

31: Into Darkness

As soon as I climbed into the Belt after school on Tuesday, chaos welcomed me. Riley was on the phone—talking to Halley on speaker.

"Yeah, I know," he was saying. "Just tell me what's going on."

Through the phone, I heard Halley sigh. "Basically, we're still trying to figure out what it means, but we decided to track Jasper's cell phone. If he's been moving around, it would connect to a nearby cell tower, and we'd get a better idea of where he might be.

"The last tower his phone pinged was downtown, yesterday afternoon. I've already sent you the address. You're on your way right now?"

Kieran, at the wheel, sped up to merge onto the highway. "We're nearly there."

After Riley had hung up, he smiled at me. I could tell he was wearing his suit underneath his black sweater, since it was zipped up to the neckline. "I put your suit in the trunk, Kat. We might need it."

"Have you been waiting for me for long?" I said.

"Not really." Riley shrugged. "But after that snow day, it would be a shame if you missed more schoolwork. Did you get to see Vivian?"

"Yeah. She wants me to come over again this weekend. I think Charli is going to show us how to bake."

He chuckled. "That's a great idea. Maybe she can show you a few skills. I know she hasn't been over in a while, but she can always come and visit."

"I know. When Charli made dinner, she was asking about how I'm kind of famous now. It felt so weird to pretend I wasn't Starlight. Seriously, I have no clue how you do it."

Kieran laughed. "I don't know how we do it either, kid. It might be time to get a job, to have an alibi that keeps you conveniently on the other side of town all the time."

"Do you think I should tell her about Jax?" I said nervously. "I mean, I won't tell her about my identity, but shouldn't she know the truth?"

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Kieran answered, "Tell her what? We don't know anything for sure. Let's see what Halley has to say first. If there really is a simple explanation, you don't want to make things worse."

"I know, I'm just a bit embarrassed for leaving her out of everything for this long. I feel like she deserves to know."

"It's not your fault, Kat," said Riley. "I'm sure she understands. You two have always been close. I don't think anything could come between you."

I smiled. At least I was talking to Vivian again. Even if I couldn't tell her everything, it was nice to have her back. We'd hung out together at lunch, with Lily and the others. Eleni had taken us to the video game club room, where it was quieter—and effectively destroyed the rest of us with her skills at Wii sports. It was almost impressive.

It only took us another few minutes to reach the street where Halley was waiting.

The Belt pulled to a stop in front of a cordoned-off section of the street. A few police cars were parked in front of the bright yellow tape sectioning off a small group of buildings. I immediately spotted Halley—wearing aviator sunglasses propped on top of her hair, tied back into a bun. She ducked underneath the police tape to meet me halfway as I stepped out onto the road.

"There you are!" she said cheerily, bounding over to me. "I've heard you fought off Phantom again. Ever think of joining a karate club?" To demonstrate, she punched the air and enthusiastically continued, "I used to practice with your father all the time. Right, Lee?"