SCINTILLATE - Book #1 of The Light Key Trilogy

Chapter 14

Mari drove us through the busy streets of Santa Cruz, past the boardwalk with its looming white roller coaster and candy-colored buildings, past the jagged knuckles of the cliffs on Highway 1. We had no destination. I needed to be out of my house and have a private place to make a plan.

I wanted to go to Ireland immediately, an idea Mari supported in the spirit that all quests were daring and noble, and if they weren't, at least I would have an adventure for once in my sad, sheltered life. She offered to use the rest of her airline miles to get me a ticket, and we tallied my savings with a couple hundred dollars she was willing to lend me. If I stayed in youth hostels, it might buy me a couple of weeks to search for information.

Dun remained doubtful. "What, you're going to roam the Irish countryside by yourself and go door-to-door asking if anyone knows anything about your mother?"

"Maybe she won't go alone. Maybe Finnegan will escort her," Mari teased.

Dun jumped in. "Oh, and rule number three of the Articles of Friendship states that when you go on your first date with Gorgeous O'Guinness, we have a debriefing. How'd it go?"

I tore my eyes from my mother's letter once more, thinking of my afternoon with Finn in the forest. "You want to know what it was like? Surreal. We were a movie. We were my favorite book. Dreamlike. Sweet—and hot—and you guys will tease me for saying this, but I feel like I've known him forever."

"Aaaah. Love and lightning," Mari said with dramatic pause. She tucked her straight hair behind her ear and winked at me. "They both can strike sudden and hot."

"And they can burn you to a crisp!" Dun shouted from the backseat.

"I still can't believe it happened." I exhaled. Truth.

Dun pinched the back of my neck. "So, the kissing didn't suck?"

I shrugged him off. Now wasn't the time to think of Finn and replay our spectacular kisses. I had work to do. I wanted to go straight to Ireland, try to find information on my mother, and arrange all my extremely confused feelings into tidy little mind-files.

Anger: that belonged with Dad for taking my mother's love away by telling me she left us. He could at least have let me believe in her love for me. Anger had a subcategory for my mother, too, for forgetting that when you have children, you're supposed to put them first.

Concern: a woman named Grace Sandoval loved me for five years but risked her life and our future for a mystery. Also file under: driving need to unravel that mystery.

It seemed I inherited that need to know the truth. Would it cost me what it did her?

"Where'd he take you?" Mari asked.

"Who?"

"Finn!"

"He didn't do the taking. I took him," I said, irritated we were still on the topic of Finn when everything I thought I knew about my life turned out to be a treasure box full of crap. "I wanted to show him the redwood grove and the albino—" The faintest trail of an idea formed in my mind.

"Mari, will you take me to the redwoods?"

"Right now?"

"Now. Yes, now. I have to go there now."

Dun poked his head between us from the backseat. "Intriguing. Could not have anticipated that request. I almost thought you were going to say 'airport,' but the woods, much more logical."

The parking lot at the state park was empty, probably due to the rain that pattered steadily on the windshield. I threw my hood over my head and climbed out of the car. Mari leaned over. "I love you, girl, so I'm staying here to, you know, keep the car warm for you."