“Of course not.” She grinned back. “Okay, maybe a teensy tiny bit.”
Mistress Jane stopped what she was doing. The fiery orange cloud sucked back into her like something shown in reverse on video, and she lowered her hands. The woman’s shoulders slumped as if she’d used every last ounce of her energy. Now that the rock and stone had quit grinding and cracking, Lisa heard another odd sound. Like a rushing wind, with a hum and bulge of power behind it. It reminded her of the heavy thrum of machinery, as if somewhere around the corner was a manufacturing plant still trying to work its way through the landfall of a hurricane.
Mordell had stayed very quiet through the whole ordeal, but now she walked up to Mistress Jane and gently put her hands on her boss’s shoulders.
“Are you alright, Master?” she asked in a voice Lisa barely heard over the noise coming from outside. “May I help you sit down?”
Jane turned around, and her mask showed no emotion at all. “My friends. My creatures. I . . . What did the Void do to them?”
Lisa thought that was a strange thing to say and exchanged a confused look with her mom, who shrugged her shoulders slightly then spoke. “What do you mean, Jane? After everything that has happened, the abominations you created are the only thing you’re worried about? Do you even care in the slightest that my son could be out there, hurt or dead? Do you?”
Lisa’s mom had grown angrier with every word and had shouted the last question. She visibly huffed like a bullied kid on the playground.
But Jane seemed to have no reaction. Maybe she was just too weary. “I fear for your son, too, Lorena. I do. But you could never know what it’s like to stand here and not sense the presence of hundreds of your own children. The Void took them . . . transformed them somehow.”
Lisa’s mom took a furious step forward and stopped, as if she realized how crazy it would be to threaten this woman who’d done the magical things they’d just witnessed. “I could never know? You stand there and say I could never know? I have an actual child out there, and you’re talking about things that were created only to hurt and kill others.”
Lisa had never seen her mom so mad.
Unfortunately, so was Jane. Her red mask pulled back into a fierce expression. “How dare you speak about them that way! You have no inkling what you’re talking about! I won’t stand for this disrespect!”
Lisa knew her mom was about to do something stupid. She quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “Who cares what she thinks, Mom? Let’s just get out of here and—”
There were several soft thuds of something landing on the ground nearby, and Lisa heard her mom gasp. She quickly turned around. Several people had jumped down from the piles of rubble to join them, and the one standing closest sent a wave of something indescribable through Lisa’s body, filling her heart and making it beat rapidly.
She and her mom ran to Tick and pulled him into a hug so tight she might have feared for his life if they all weren’t laughing and crying so hard.
Chapter 32
Talking All at Once
Tick didn’t know if he’d ever felt such a burst of pure emotion. As he hugged his mom and sister—both of them seeming to have a contest on who could squeeze him the hardest—he was crying one second then laughing the next. It was as if he’d lost his mind and all the control that went with it. But the feelings surging through his body were so strong, he didn’t quite know how to handle it.
All the things he’d been through recently flashed across his mind: being taken by the Sleeks, the ordeal with the Blade of Shattered Hope, the terrible battle with Mistress Jane at the Factory, and then the short time he’d been in the Nonex, wondering if he’d ever see his family again. When they’d first been reunited in the Great Hall, he’d been too dazed to fully appreciate what it meant to be back together again. But now—especially after thinking they might have been crushed by the collapsing castle—it had hit him all at once.
Finally, reluctantly, he pulled away and took a step back. And the first thought he had when he looked at the tear-lined faces of his mom and Lisa was that they were still missing two important pieces.
“Dad,” he said. “Kayla. I wish we were all together. Do you think they are okay?”
His mom nodded. “We left them at home, and I’m pretty sure Edgar wouldn’t dare venture out with all the problems going on. They’ve got plenty of food, and the house wasn’t hurt in the earthquakes.”
“We need to hurry and get back to them,” Tick said. “Make sure they’re okay and let them know we’re all safe.”
His mom simply nodded and smiled, fresh tears squeezing out of her eyes.