* * * * *
“You finally awake, honey?” Her father leaned down over her, the early morning sun shining behind him. Leslie stood against the wall behind him, the color returned to her face. Her friend was far more relaxed today.
Janelle blinked the sleep from her eyes and shifted under the covers of the same boat cot she’d tried to sleep in yesterday morning. The yacht swayed gently underneath as she eyed the tape player. “Yeah. Did it actually work this time?”
“Hopefully,” Leslie said. “You like, listened to it all night. It almost put me to sleep. Whatever crap that…that woman made you listen to must be erased by now.”
Janelle agreed. Even without the tape, she would’ve passed out last night. The day before went by in a blur. Joey needed medical attention for his broken nose, and was taken on a speedboat to the Bahamas. Leslie called home to tell her mom she was alive. Her grandmother’s body had to go back to Alara for a memorial service. And the Elder Council had made arrangements for the start of Janelle’s rule. They’d made Janelle stay below decks for the rest of the day yesterday, and she was still here, floating out on the ocean that still wanted to claim her. By now, if she caught a whiff of the water, she’d jump in. The urge had gotten too strong.
It all seemed like a dream now, with the sun pouring into the yacht and Leslie here, just like in her old life.
Her father tapped the tape recorder. “You slept since seven last night, so this must have erased Andrina’s suggestions for sure. Your natural path has to be restored by now, so whatever you do, it won’t be destroying New York City.”
“That’s always good to know,” Janelle said, tossing the pillow to the side and leaning against the wall of her cubby. Now she could leave Operation Reckoning behind her like some horrible nightmare.
Something like that now would never happen again.
She said so.
Tempest High Leader. The words wouldn’t get out of her head.
Wow, she’d come a long way since a few days ago. It had to be a dream.
Mr. Deville appeared around the corner with Elise, one of the Elder Council women. She smiled as she looked at Janelle and fluffed up her white hair. “Ma’am, how are you feeling? I know you had a long day yesterday.”
Janelle sat up. How was she supposed to feel after all that? The loss of her newfound grandmother left a hole inside her somewhere, but the rest…“I don’t know.”
“This has been a big shock for all of us,” her father piped in. “Janelle had no idea about anything a few days ago. I've been preparing her, but I had no idea she’d take the throne so soon. We have a lot to work out. And with my mother and all—” He didn’t finish.
Janelle wiped fresh tears away, hoping that no one had seen. Camellia might have killed hundreds, but at the end, did she regret it? Maybe she'd been trying to atone for it by facing Andrina and stopping Operation Reckoning. The thought left an ache in her that wanted to have another chance to know her a little better.
Without Camellia, Andrina would have won.
“Certainly, Lucas. I understand. We’ll be here to help both of you adjust,” Elise said, clasping her hands and leaning against a cabinet. “I’m so relieved that monster’s gone. I had the most horrible feeling she was planning to get rid of the Elder Council and turn into a dictator.”
So Camellia hadn’t been the only one against her. But she’d been the only one brave enough to do something. Maybe she wasn’t the leader of a race of murdering psychos after all.
“I'm sure she was.” Janelle brought a hand to her face and stared into it for a while. A few days ago she’d run from Gary on the beach, unable to believe the truth. Now she was Tempest High Leader and responsible for almost two thousand Tempests around the world, according to the Elder Council. It was too much to absorb. “Dad,” she said, looking up and squinting against the morning light. “What’s going to happen? I don’t see how I’m going to go to school. Or college. When do we go home?” She glanced at Leslie, leaving far more questions unspoken. Her friend stared back, no doubt thinking along the same lines. And what about my friends?
He patted her on the knee. “We’ll be living on Alara from now on. And we’ve got more than enough money now to bring in a tutor. You’ll get your diploma, no problem. You can get into a very good college now.” He winked. “You can do this, Janelle. Lots of Tempest High Leaders have had jobs outside of politics.” He smiled as Mr. Deville squashed in beside Elise and Leslie, barely leaving any room around her cubby. “She’s going to make a much better leader than Andrina, that’s for sure.”
He actually thought she could do this, but she wasn't so sure.
Janelle swung her legs around the bed as a thought hit her. Things had changed. She could make things right. “Elise, we need to send those kids Andrina kidnapped back to their parents. You said there were two dozen on Alara? And call Gary’s mom and let her know he’s okay. There won’t be any more reeducation programs.”
She was giving orders. Janelle could hardly believe it.
Elise’s wrinkles deepened as she smiled. “Of course. Oh, so many people are going to be happy to read about this in Surge tomorrow.”
Her father sat down next to her, glasses shining. “You’re more cut out for this than you think. It’ll be a lot of responsibility, but you’ll travel the world with a fortune at your disposal. You’ve got a private jet in the Bahamas and a vacation home in Hawaii. And you’re going to be living in a tropical paradise. We’ll show you the rest of Alara when you get back. The beach is breathtaking.” He paused. “You could even invite Leslie for a vacation if you want. It’s not like she doesn’t know about us now.”
"That would be great," she said, sharing a smile with Leslie. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. But she felt her smile die as she recalled his words: when you get back. They only meant one thing.
Maybe one thing she could change now.
She stood as tall as she could, hoping she looked commanding. “I’m not going to become a hurricane. No Tempest is going to change ever again if I can help it.”
Elise made a tsk sound and shook her head. “Ma’am, you can’t do anything outside the Natural Law. It’s there to keep everything running the way it should. And it says every Tempest must become a storm when their name is up. That includes you.”
Leslie's face grew pale again. Janelle couldn't meet her gaze. Her heart raced as she felt all the sunlight vanish inside her. This was a mistake. She couldn't come all this way just to have her hope yanked from her like this. She took a step back and swallowed over a lump in her throat. “If I don’t change, there won’t be any more hurricanes. It’ll save thousands of lives.”
Elise folded her arms behind her back. “No. It’ll kill millions of people, ruin the planet’s ecosystems, destroy livelihoods, and generally throw everything into chaos.”
Janelle furrowed her brows. The words hung in the air. “Huh?”
Her father wiped his palms off on his pants. “Hank, go get those printouts. This is the talk I wanted to have with her before she ran away." He extended his hand towards her. "Come sit on the couch with me, Janelle. Leslie, you’re excused. Have a safe trip back. And I want Gary to listen in, too. It might relieve some of his guilt.”
Leslie went above decks to the waiting speedboat they’d called for yesterday. Deon was taking her back to civilization. She stopped in the doorway and gave a nervous wave to Janelle. “See you. Call me when you can.”
Janelle nodded, too miserable to say anything. “See you.”
The boat started outside and sped away, its motor growing fainter and fainter. She wished she were on it, heading back to the mainland.
Her father sat down beside her and waved Gary over to the booth, who had come in from outside. She had barely noticed even him. Mr. Deville handed her father a bundle of papers, probably the same ones that had blown off the t
able yesterday.
Janelle clawed at her jeans. “Okay. What was it you wanted to tell me?”
Her father took them and shuffled them around, flipping some over and smoothing out creases. He cleared his throat. “Contrary to what Andrina said, Tempests aren’t here to slaughter people. It’s a side effect of what we have to do, but it’s not our purpose.”
“Then what is our purpose?” Gary asked, brushing the bangs back from his face. “Andrina never told us anything else. With her it was all just ‘kill, kill, kill before they find us first.'”
“I know. That’s why I had this printed out before we left to get you. Take a look.” He handed the bundle of papers to Janelle as Gary shuffled over to sit next to her. Good. He made her feel a little better, being there. At least he understood.
Janelle shifted on the cushion. Her father had printed out a bunch of stuff from the Internet. She read the title to the one on top: Hurricanes Play Major Role in Earth’s Heat Balance, Scientists Say. Janelle flipped the paper to the back. Hurricanes deposit sediment in marshes and provide many areas with the rainfall needed to sustain life. A news article. Area Farmers in Need of Joey’s Rains.
Her arms trembled as she lowered the papers to her lap. “So this is it?”
Her dad lowered his voice. “The point is that if it weren’t for us, life on this planet would be in horrible danger. Droughts would take over in places and kill crops. People would starve. Species would go extinct. The world’s heat would stay in the tropics and make them too hot to live in without storms to carry it away. It would be a huge, huge disaster.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I know this is going to sound strange, Janelle, but by doing our job, we’re saving lives.”
“What?” Gary leapt from the couch, echoing Janelle’s thoughts exactly.
“You ended a bad dry spell Florida was having. I bet Andrina never told you that part,” her father said. “It was on the news. Of course, you probably avoided the TV after you changed back.”
“Actually, I ripped the wires out of the hospital one so Andrina couldn’t torture me with it. Janelle, you need a tissue?” Gary sat back down and took her arm.
Tears had filled her eyes without warning, blurring the pages on her lap. Great. Now she was going to cry in front of everyone. She put her face down in her hands before her father could see and let the tears flow. She hadn’t wanted to hear all this. She hadn’t wanted there to be a reason she had to change.
“What’s wrong?” Her father rubbed his hand up and down her back.
She could barely choke the words out. “I’m scared, okay?”
“I was when it was my time, too. My mother couldn’t comfort me. It was why she didn’t tell my little brother anything when it was his turn. I'm sure that's the reason I held back from telling you as well. But it’ll be okay.”
“But what if I am like Andrina?”
“You’re not. Trust me on this,” her father said. “Just because you have a lot of power doesn’t mean you have to be a monster. You think I’m not as strong as my mother was? I chose to restrain myself. And you will, too.”
Janelle lifted her head and stared out the window for a long time. She blinked the water from her eyes. The ocean sparkled outside and the sun shined on a calm day. “What’s it like? The change, I mean?”
“It’s nothing to be afraid of, honey. It’s an enjoyable experience.” He smiled at Gary. “You didn’t tell her that, did you? Were you too embarrassed?”
Gary shook his head. And blushed. “I…I didn’t want her to think the wrong thing about me.”
Her father pointed to the papers. “Look at the last page there, Janelle. I think I know what it is you’re going to do.”
Janelle sucked in a breath and wiped the last of the moisture from her eyes. She flipped to the final page of the packet and read the bold words across the top. No End in Sight for Northeast Drought, Water Restrictions in Place.
Her father wrapped his hand around her forearm. “Come on. We’ll be there when you change back.”
Janelle rose without a word and followed him outside.
Chapter Twenty-One