Sadie had named the incident the Great Meat Failure, and it had occurred on one of those weekends when Mom was in the mood to make a full Sunday dinner, appetizers and desserts included. Mom had spent hours rolling out puff pastry and sautéing mushrooms and garlic, and had lovingly wrapped the ingredients around the roast before she popped it in a hot oven. However, it hadn’t occurred to her to cook the beef before she wrapped it in pastry. Our dinner had been a mess of bloody meat and burnt bread.
We shared that and other war stories from Mom’s kitchen, laughing at her fallen cakes and her green eggs, and no, those eggs weren’t an attempt at Seussian cuisine, and no, we never knew what calamity had caused their sickly pallor. The best part about Mom’s kitchen misadventures was that she always laughed with us, no matter how badly dinner had turned out.
Make no mistake, we still had to eat it, raw meat and burnt vegetables and all. Mom was not about to let all that misguided energy go to waste.
In fact, we were laughing so hard that we didn’t hear them until it was almost too late. Max held up his left hand, motioning for us to keep talking with the right. Then he and Dad quietly stood and walked off the dock to join Sadie and me on the beach. After a moment, Max pointed toward the forest.
“Dad,” Max whispered, “portal.”
Reluctantly, Dad dropped the branch he was brandishing like a weapon and reached inside this shirt pocket. Before he had the chance to cast the portal, Peacekeepers materialized out of the trees and surrounded us.
“Corbeau!” barked a middle-aged man in fatigues, who I assumed was their leader. He strode up to Dad and poked a finger into his chest. “Always trying to outsmart us.”
“Good thing your practices mean that I always escape,” Dad retorted.
“We’ll see about that. Put him in my transport,” the leader said. That was when I noticed that all of the Peacekeepers were wielding plastic guns just like the ones I’d seen at the Institute for Elemental Research. How could they have known that they would encounter Elementals here at this remote lake, and metal ones at that? “Keep these three together,” the leader added, indicating myself, Max, and Sadie.
A Peacekeeper fitted Dad with some plastic cuffs and led him away. Dad hardly struggled, unless you counted a few snide remarks about how soon he’d be free again. Once our father had been loaded into the back of a large, green van, the leader turned to us.
“What do we have here?” he murmured, his gaze sweeping over the three of us. “Three little Corbeau Elementals.” His eyes settled on Max. “You’re the one who slipped the Institute.”
“And I’m the one who broke him out,” I said, my bravery fueled by rage. We had looked for Dad for sixteen years, and he gets hauled off while we reminisce about Mom’s bad food at the lake?
No. I would not lose my father—or my brother—again.
“Sara,” Max warned. When had he become cautious?
“Sara,” the leader repeated, his eyes lighting up. “Little Sara Corbeau. We’ve been looking for you. I’ve been looking for you.”
My bravery melted like ice cream on a summer sidewalk. “W-what for?”
He stepped forward, reaching as if to touch my cheek. I jerked away, right into the grasp of one of his minions, who grabbed my upper arms. “I was on duty the day you had your fun at the Institute,” he said, trailing his gloved fingers down my cheek and neck. “Thanks to your antics, I got demoted.”
He slapped me, the sound of his palm against my cheek ringing in my ears, almost as painful as the impact. Despite the resulting pain and shock, I thought it was a pretty lame attack.
“That’s it?” I sneered. I looked at the name badge sewn onto his shirt. Girard. “Big bad Peacekeeper, and all you can manage is to slap a woman while she’s restrained by two of your boys?”
I didn’t even see him move. Pain exploded across my eyes, my cheekbone, and my ear. After a moment, I realized Sadie was screaming, probably because I’d just been pistol-whipped.
Before I could offer another ill-advised comeback, we were herded into the back of a covered truck. My head was swimming—and the motion of the truck didn’t help.
“Hey!” I croaked, when something cool touched my head. My vision focused, somewhat, and I realized that Sadie was holding my face. “Sis?”
“I’m Max,” my brother replied. “Stay with me, kid.”
“I’m right here,” I mumbled, and then I fell into blackness.
14
When I woke, I was cold and damp, and I felt like I’d been rolled in some kind of gritty sand. I was lying on a stone floor, and based on the smell it hadn’t been swept or mopped all that recently. The rest of the room came into focus, and I made out matching stone walls and a wooden door. Instead of a doorknob there was a plastic lever—I couldn’t see any hinges, or anything else that might be metal. I reached out with my abilities, and my heart fell. I was trapped in this tiny, dank cell, and there was no metal anywhere near me.