Hereditary

by Jane Washington

  With a blush steadily rising, I took a big bite of my apple to save myself from an answer, and Cale soon seemed to move on, pulling his own lunch out and devouring it before I was even halfway through my apple.

  “So care to explain the card to me?” I asked.

  I had read it almost as soon as I sat down, and had thought that the single, scrawled symbol in the middle was some sort of joke.

  “It’s your invitation. You’ll need it to get into the castle.”

  “Oh noo, no no no.”

  I felt the unfinished apple slide from my grip, but his hand shot out and caught it before it even hit my lap. He handed it back without blinking an eye.

  “Oh yes, little synfee. I know you’d rather stuff a hot coal down your throat, but I’m afraid Hazen’s father insisted.”

  “By his father, I assume you mean the King!” I was aware that my tone was bordering on hysteria, but I didn’t care.

  “It has nothing to do with making you uncomfortable, I assure you. It’s just… well nobody really knows what you can do. Just as they don’t really understand Hazen’s and my own power, we’re a pretty volatile mix, and having use of the castle’s facilities isn’t such a bad thing.”

  “By facilities, do you mean guards, who will make sure I don’t try to eat their prince?”

  He laughed, reaching out to pat my knee, which had me flinching at the unexpected touch, something that he ignored.

  “I’d be more worried about him killing us, but I don’t want to destroy your bad-girl image.”

  Not for the first time, his bizarre statement managed to drag an unwilling laugh from me, and I put the issue to the back of my mind to deal with. I thought about Nareon then, and an unexpected shiver raced along my spine, something that I couldn’t quite place, as I wasn’t even sure what emotion had caused it.

  “Have you ever seen a synfee before?” I found myself asking.

  “Present company excluded?”

  “Of course.”

  “No, never. I saw a painting once.”

  “Tell me about it?”

  He turned, folding his arms behind his head again, tipping his face back up to the sky, though his eyes didn’t close this time, and his expression remained thoughtful.

  “It was a woman, a very beautiful one. She was all shades of gold, though in those shades, you could see the influence of other colours, like the gold was just a sheen over hair that was really supposed to be grey, or black, or brown, you know what I mean?”

  I thought back to Nareon’s own hair, of how I had gotten the feeling that it was a dark colour, despite the obvious golden sheen.

  “Yes, I think I do.”

  “Well she seemed to have blond hair, not the golden-blond type, it was more silver-blond, and her eyes were golden-green.”

  His eyes turned to me then, and I got the uncomfortable feeling that he was comparing.

  “She had your skin tone, it was really the only golden thing about her that didn’t seem to have any other underlying colour. There was no fault in her. She was beautiful, perfect, and yet…”

  He shook his head, and his eyes narrowed.

  “Hold on,” he reached out, taking on that slightly out-of-focus look that he had worn when declaring that I was wearing a glamor the day before, and I could feel his fingers brushing against my cheek.

  “That’s it,” he whispered, his tone amazed, “you’re hiding that golden mask. I can see it now. Your glamor, it’s hiding your gold, and holding back your compulsion too…” his eyes grew even more unfocussed, and I found myself unable to answer or move.

  “That’s enough.” The voice broke through to me, but didn’t seem to affect Cale at all.

  I could see Hazen standing there out of the corner of my eye, but the expression on Cale’s face was too distracting that I found myself not wanting to move, in case I spooked him. He looked as if he were in pain.

  “Cale?” I whispered, hesitantly.

  When I got no response, Hazen reached out and grasped Cale’s wrist, yanking his hand away from my face. As soon as the contact was broken, Cale gasped, and then doubled over, almost sliding off the chair. Hazen knelt down before him, gripping his shoulder hard, and forcing him to sit up.

  “Not here,” he said through gritted teeth, “you’re in the middle of the courtyard Cale, snap out of it.”

  It took Cale a few moments, and I inched away from the both of them, not sure if I should be alarmed or guilty. Hazen was acting as if this had happened before, which would mean that it wasn’t a fault of mine, but all I could hear was Nareon’s silky voice in my head, telling me that my powers were about to spin wildly out of my control. But then, if it wasn’t me, what had Cale been doing?

  It dawned on me that we were starting to gather a crowd, and that the rest of Hazen’s group was beginning to make their way over, expressions angry, all except for Rose, who just looked scared. I started to inch further away, but Hazen’s head snapped up, those dark eyes pinning me to the spot.

  “Don’t run away.”

  I don’t know why I listened, I was really getting sick of people telling me what to do by now, but I stayed where I was, and eventually Cale straightened and brushed his friend’s hands away.

  “I’m fine, it’s fine.” He was smiling easily again, but I could see the tightness at the corners of his lips, and he was avoiding looking at me altogether.

  I thought about what I knew of Cale’s power, but the truth was, I knew next to nothing. Was it possible that whatever had happened to him was some weird side effect to using his abilities?

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, little synfee.”

  I blinked up to find Cale watching me, along with Hazen, and everybody else, apparently. Attempting a smile, I quickly scooped up my bag and rose, sure that nobody would try to attack me if I ran away now, not with Cale upright and smiling.

  “Can’t be worse than what I see in the mirror every morning.” I muttered, my smile losing some of its tenseness when he laughed.

  “Nothing could be.”

  I winced, turning toward the voice. It was one of the elven girls, the one that Cale had called Kaylee. I decided not to rise to the bait, and began to move away from her, which wasn’t too hard, considering people fairly jumped out of my way, but she followed, persisting.

  “I wonder… does the sight of yourself ever make you hungry? I can only imagine what a synfee would do, trapped alone, and driven wild by hunger. The thought is positively revolting.”

  I slowed, having heard the ‘do you ever try to take a bite out of yourself’ joke before, but never around so many people. But before I could think of a reply, I was hit by a sudden, staggering wave of anger, so strong that I barely recognised it as my own. Somewhere above, I heard the rumbling of thunder, and even the air around me seemed to hang heavy with nervous tension. I began to shake, and not because the of the elven girl, but because I was suddenly fighting a losing battle with my powers. I could hear the people whispering around me, even heard Kaylee’s voice rising above them, but I couldn’t make out her words through the sudden static of nervous buzzing in my own mind. Hating my next task, I nevertheless closed my eyes and grappled with my control, managing to yank my barrier back in place quickly enough that it may have just looked as if I were gathering my thoughts. However, when I opened my eyes again, the world had grown considerably darker, and I realised that storm clouds had begun to gather. I turned slowly, ignoring the sea of faces, which looked to have doubled, and focused on just one. Kaylee.

  She was closer, standing only a few steps away, her expression torn between anger, fear and confusion.

  “What did you say?” I managed.

  The confusion deepened, and I could see from the brief spark of victory in her eyes that she probably thought I was daft.

  “I said,” she spoke with exaggerated slowness, “why don’t you crawl back to the forest, or does even your own kind not want anything to do with you?”

  I thought I wou
ld completely lose it then, which was strange, because I had heard all of these things before, and I really didn’t think that they would bother me so much anymore. I could see small black spots flashing across my vision, and a sudden crack of thunder had everyone—even me—starting in surprise. I have no idea what would have happened if Hazen hadn’t pushed past me. His hand flattened to the small of my back, and his voice sounded in my ear, so low that I was surprised I even heard it.

  “Calm down, Bea. You’re going to lose it.”

  It wasn’t his words that made the decision for me, it was his touch, or more, his presence. I could feel him there, in my mind, watching the storm kick up behind my blinking eyelids, and he calmed it where I had failed. When he continued to move past me, his touch falling away, I found myself in control again, staring into Kaylee’s now furious gaze. Of course, she, and everyone else, had seen Hazen’s interference, but did any of them understand just what he had done? I found myself looking for Cale, who was still sitting on the bench that I had left him on, his expression troubled.

  Someone did, I decided.

  He forced a smile when I made eye-contact, and pushed up from the bench, strolling over to me as if nothing at all had happened, throwing an arm around my neck and turning me the other way.

  “Don’t mind her, she’s just bitter. Besides, the bell rang, like, ten minutes ago.”

  “It did?” I asked, surprised.

  “Yeah. That storm kind of drowned it out.”

  I snuck a look at him from below my lashes, for once glad about his too-close proximity, so that I could better examine his expression. It was now calm.

  “It should be an interesting afternoon.” I said, at last.

  His smile quirked at that, “I’m sure we will have plenty to talk about.”

  I didn’t know whether to feel intrigued or alarmed, but as soon as my next class started, I was soon consumed by other, more mundane worries. Hazen, Cale, Rose and one of the other boys in their group were also in the Bender Physics class, though Cale decided to skip again, and I was forced to quickly acknowledge that this was by far, the most difficult class I had yet attended. It was mostly practical, which didn’t really inspire me with much confidence, since most of my tutors had declined to participate in more than just theory lessons. Hectarte had said that my bender abilities were strong, but I seemed to be the most incompetent person there, something that Professor Raeburn seemed all too willing to remark upon. We were only moving chairs from one point to another, and while it did seem to be difficult for others as well, mine was the only to fly like a rocket at the far silver wall, and explode into a million pieces. I was only lucky that people thought it was funny. I would much prefer people to laugh at me than fear me.

  By the end of the day, I was mentally and physically exhausted, and Cale was nowhere to be seen, which left me to walk to the castle by myself. I was disappointed, until someone unexpected fell into step beside me, and then walking by myself suddenly seemed like a very good idea.

  “What the hell are you doing in here?” I hissed, when I glanced sideways and caught sight of the incomparably perfect face.

  “Checking up on you of course.” Answered Nareon Soulstoy.

  I found myself slowing, until eventually I stopped altogether, staring at him with my mouth hanging slightly open. His golden sheen had disappeared, and there was now a fae glimmer shifting along his darkly tanned skin. His eyes were light grey, smouldering and coldly calculative all at the same time, and his hair was coal-black, pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

  “How?” I choked.

  “I’m a shape changer, of course.”

  He caught a hold of my arm, and I braced for the rush of awareness, but it managed to take me by surprise all the same. Luckily, he caught my stumble before it even began, obviously anticipating it this time, and began to walk me in the direction that I had already been travelling.

  “When you didn’t sneak through the wall, I came looking for you.”

  “How kind.”

  “Are you mocking me?”

  Was I? It was kind of hard to tell, with how scattered my wits were, simply from his touch.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “You’re a delight. I’ve never seen anyone resist compulsion as well as you do. You should be a weak mess at my feet right now.”

  “I’m not far from it.”

  “Far enough. Now where are we going?”

  “The castle.”

  “Interesting. And how did you lose control today?”

  “It kind of just happened. How did you know?”

  “I wasn’t far away. How did you stop it? One hour more and you could have flattened the whole kingdom.” He sounded almost delighted at the idea.

  “I’m not too sure of that either.”

  “Whatever it was, it saved your life. Figure it out, because I really do need you alive, and these powers are escalating quicker than I anticipated. It’s not so easy to get you alone.”

  We had arrived at the castle gates now, and while they were wide open, there were two soldiers stationed either side, with more meandering about the courtyard beyond. I could see Cale leaning against the wall alongside the huge oak doors at the other end of the courtyard.

  “Who’s that?” Nareon asked, pulling us to a stop, his gaze sharpening in on Cale, “He has an impressive depository of power, though it seems to be testing the constraints of his mind.”

  “A friend.” It felt weird to say the word, even if it weren’t entirely true. I’d never had a real friend before.

  Nareon pulled me close then, and very quickly any thoughts of Cale disintegrated, and I lost myself in eyes so light it should have felt like floating in clouds, as apposed to falling into some dark, dangerous pit. He was increasing his compulsion, but I didn’t know why.

  “If any other tainted creature approaches you, I want you to give them one of these.” His voice slid over me, once again the softest of silks, and he pushed a pouch into my hand.

  I was so intoxicated under the power of his compulsion that I shouldn’t have been able to say no, but I found the stubborn words leaving my mouth before I could even consider how I really wanted to respond.

  “I don’t work for you.”

  “You don’t work for anybody, little spitfire, it’s all about who you align yourself with.”

  “Fine, I’m not aligned with you then.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, once you see your other options, you’ll be begging to be anything I want you to be.”

  His touch shifted then, became something else, and I felt his compulsion lift completely, leaving me trembling and sucking in a deep breath of fresh air. His hand was half cradling my face, and I realised my body was pressed right up against his, and that I was probably the one who had done it. I wanted to lash out, as I had the last time he had lifted such a heavy compulsion, but the truth was, he was simply to entrancing up-close. There was a spark of interest in those grey eyes too, which seemed to darken as he gazed down at me, and the pad of his thumb stroked upwards, across the slope of my cheekbone.

  “Well,” he amended, “almost anything.” And then he jerked away from me, and stalked off.

  When I finally turned back to the gates, I was almost sure that I was under control again, but as I handed the small folded card over to one of the soldiers standing by the gate, I noticed that my hand was shaking. He took the card, glanced at it, and then waved me in absently, handing the card back. I walked over to where Cale was waiting and lifted it up for his inspection.

  “How do they know I didn’t just steal this?”

  “If you had, the card would have burst into flame. Not exactly the safest invention, but it does the trick.”

  He took my arm, and led me into the castle, which was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I had a few books that showed pictures of the inside of it, dating back to the first Read ruler, which was centuries ago now, but no picture could have prepared me for the reality. It wasn’t all
glossy and lustrous, though there was a glass domed roof high above the entrance hall, and the sunlight filtering through each tile played dancing patters across the polished wooden floor. It was mostly just imposing, the furniture dated, and the huge, open spaces stretching into shadow, though there was also something pleasant in the distinctly antique quality it held. We walked to the side of the large, entrance chamber, and through a side corridor that led to a garden, opening out into the afternoon sun. It was so big I would have hardly even called it a garden… it was more like a yard, with a maze of cobbled pathways leading to various hidden spots of seclusion amongst the perfectly preened hedges and apple trees. There was a towering fountain right in the middle, boasting a stone statue of a robed woman holding a jug over her shoulder in the typical pose of respited carelessness, as water tumbled from the mouth of the jug. Yet in her free hand, she dragged a sword along behind her.

  Cale lead me around the fountain and to the corner of the courtyard, where a few stone seats were arranged in a semi-circle, facing a bubbling birdbath, and not much else. Hazen was already there, sitting with his back to us, and two of the castle guards were stationed not far away, and having spotted us before Hazen, were already staring at us. I expected Hazen to turn around when his guards stiffened, but he didn’t move an inch, and when we came around the side of his seat, I noticed that his eyes were closed. Cale acted as if this was a regular occurrence, and quietly sat on the spare seat, leaving me to sit beside him and clear my throat awkwardly.

  Hazen opened his eyes then, and as that dark gaze swung up to lock onto me, I quickly ducked my head, fiddling with the books in my bag until I found the one I was looking for, and pulled it out.

  When nobody else made a move, I felt the anxious feeling building, and with it, the strange moodiness that I had felt at Kaylee’s prodding, earlier that day. I flicked open my textbook, and then realised that I had no idea what chapter to turn to, as I had no idea what either of them had specialised in.

  “So,” began Cale, much to my relief, though his question soon squelched that feeling, “who was the boy—or, man really—that walked you here, little synfee?”