“I hope so,” Asher replied, not sounding very convinced. “Okay. Everyone ready?” he asked, maneuvering the boat into the dark sea cave that was only illuminated by a spotlight near the stone stairs.
“Guess so,” Simone replied, jumping off the boat onto the small dock and tying the boat’s rope around the cleat on the floor.
“Si arrestino!” a voice from the shadows shouted in Italian. Footsteps pounded down the stairs toward us. In English, he repeated, “Stop!” As he stepped out into the yellow glow cast by the spotlight, the hulking figure in uniform pointed his gun at all of us. “Don’t move, or I’ll shoot.”
Simone turned to face the gunman. “You’ll do what?” she asked in a superior tone.
The guard lowered his gun. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Bimington. I didn’t realize it was you.”
“Apparently,” Simone answered with all the coolness of an ice queen. “Now put away that gun. You might hurt someone with it.”
“Yes, miss.” He eyed Asher and me before placing his weapon back in the holster under his jacket. “Your mother left word you might be coming.”
“Good. We want complete privacy.” Simone motioned for Asher and me to get out of the boat. “Make sure that we are not disturbed … by anyone.”
“Yes, miss.”
“How many people are here?” Asher asked.
Simone shot him a look. Asher needed to remain quiet.
“Same staff as usual,” the guard replied eyeing Asher with suspicion. “Why do you ask?”
Asher fiddled with the boat’s rope. “No reason.”
“We’re going up to the house,” Simone declared to the guard. “I want you to stay here and keep an eye on our boat.”
“But—”
“But nothing.” Simone followed us as we headed to the stairs. “You don’t want me to tell my mother that you didn’t follow orders.”
“No, Miss Bimington, of course not. I will take care of the boat.”
“Good,” Simone answered as we all hurried up what seemed like a thousand steps.
Finally, we reached a white door. My calves burned after going up so many flights of stairs, even though we’d stopped three times to catch our breath.
“Okay, now that we got over the first hurdle.” Asher pointed to the door in front of us. “What comes next?”
“We go straight to my mother’s room. It’s on the second floor, and she has her personal safe there. I’m pretty sure that’s where the spear will be.”
“Do you know the combination?” I asked, realizing that this was probably a question I should have asked earlier.
“I can guess,” she replied with a hint of disgust. “It’s the most important date in my mother’s life.”
“March fifteenth?” I offered. Simone’s birthday.
“Not even close.” She opened the door, and we stepped into a large foyer with a black-and-white-checkered floor and the largest chandelier I’d ever seen. “It’s November fourteenth. The day she made her first billion.”
“Oh,” was all I managed to say. I couldn’t imagine having a parent like that. I knew with all my heart that I was the most important thing in my father’s life. Not just because he told me, but because he showed me. But then again, I’d just discovered that I had a parent who was a murdering madman who would likely kill me in order to regain the spear’s power. Perhaps not choosing Simone’s birthday wasn’t that big of a deal.
“It’s up there.” Simone drew our attention to a dark wooden door at the top of a wide white marble staircase.
“Then let’s go.” Asher sprang up the stairs, taking them three at a time. I didn’t know where he got the energy.
Arriving at the top, he waited in the hallway until we got there before trying the doorknob. It was locked.
“It’s in there.” I clenched and unclenched my fists. A sensation that I could only describe as a magnetic pull urged me to go into the room. “I can feel it. The spear is definitely there.”
“I can kick the door in.” Asher took a couple of steps back, but as he lifted his leg, Simone blocked his path.
“Are you stupid or just a brute?” She shook her head and rapped lightly on the door. “If it’s locked, it probably means someone is inside. My mother keeps things on a pretty tight leash around here. She might have another guard or—”
The door swung open, but it wasn’t a burly guard who opened it. It was a petite woman dressed in a white nurse’s uniform.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I’m Simone Bimington … Sarah Bimington’s daughter.”
“Mm-hm.” The nurse didn’t seem to care much about who Simone was.
“We need to go into the room,” Simone explained. “My mother called ahead.”
The nurse stepped aside, but her body language told me she was suspicious. It was in the tilt of her head, the crossing of her arms, and the pursing of her lips. She wasn’t going to be as easy as the guard who was still in the sea cave. “I did not speak to your mother.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter. You can go,” Simone said dismissively. “You’ll be paid for the day.”
“I’m not leaving my patient,” the nurse retorted.
Her patient. It was probably Tobias. My biological father was only a few feet away.
I glanced around the nurse, trying to see past the slightly opened double doors of the sitting room and into the bedroom. Curiosity pushed me to catch a glimpse of the man I was related to. A monster who killed people and had driven my mother into hiding.
Suddenly, an anger that I didn’t recognize swelled inside me. My mother had deserved better.
“You have to go.” Simone sounded like she was pleading with the nurse, not commanding.
“Well, I’m not,” the nurse replied. “Even though his recuperation is nothing short of a miracle, he’s still not strong enough to be left completely unattended.”
Asher grabbed the nurse by the arm and twisted it behind her back. “I’m sorry about this.” He pushed her toward the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” The nurse tried to get away, but Asher had a tight hold on her.
I followed them into the bedroom and saw the figure from my vision standing by the window leaning against a chair. He was looking out at the sea and didn’t even notice us at first.
Simone rushed to close the bedroom door after closing the one to the sitting room. She pressed a button, and a second metal door slid across the doorway, sealing the room.
“Let me go!” the nurse yelled. Finally, the man by the window turned to face us.
It was here.
Time had caught up to what I’d seen in my vision.
But now that the moment had arrived, I didn’t know what to do.
Part of me wanted to attack him, while another part wanted to run away.
I did nothing, simply letting my eyes lock with his.
Tobias had dark hair and a worn, haggard look to his face. He was very thin and didn’t seem very threatening. He was definitely not the intimidating monster I had imagined.
“Make any noise and you’ll regret it,” Asher threatened the nurse. He shoved her into a closet, closed the door, and slid a chair under the doorknob to trap her inside.
“Amanda?” Tobias stumbled against the bed as he called out my mother’s name.
My heart hurt at the mention of her name … especially coming from him.
“No, it can’t be.” He shook his head and sat down. “But you look so much like her.”
“The safe is over here.” Simone went over to where a Picasso hung next to a gold-framed mirror. “Help me get this painting off the wall.”
“Wait a minute.” Asher dropped his backpack and pulled out the duct tape. “Hold out your hands,” he told Tobias. The man seemed to be in no condition to fight. In fact, he could barely stand.
Tobias sat on the bed and did as Asher instructed, but he continued to stare at me. “You know who I’m talking about, don’t you? You have to be related
to Amanda.”
I ignored his question and went to help Simone. The painting was heavier than I’d imagined. It would take both of us working together to lift it off the hooks.
“Please … tell me if she’s here,” Tobias begged. “I need to see her. Explain things to her. It’s been too long.”
Everything felt wrong. I’d expected someone crazed with anger or obsessed with power, someone who’d tried to destroy the world. Not this weak and broken man.
I glanced back at him as Asher cut off a piece of duct tape and began to tie his ankles together. It seemed like I should say something, but what?
Before I could think of anything, a searing pain blinded me. I fell against the wall, my hands dropping to my sides as I let go of the painting.
Not again, I thought. I frantically fought to stay in the present, but it was no use. I slipped into the vision. In it, I saw something that had flashed by too quickly for me to really notice before: Simone’s mother, sitting in an underground bunker, surrounded by TV screens blaring reports about mass casualties all over the world.
Blegh!
I sputtered and spat out water.
My eyes popped open, and I found myself sitting on the floor, my face dripping. Asher stood in front of me, a bunch of flowers in one hand and an empty vase in the other.
“A little help over here,” Simone eked out while trying to balance the painting against the wall.
Asher tossed the vase and flowers on the bed and rushed to help her with the Picasso. I knew I should help them, but the episode left me feeling dizzy and drained.
“You just had an echo-tracing episode. You’re the one who’s bound,” Tobias declared, his eyes were wide with surprise. “You stole the power from me!”
“Tape his mouth or something,” Simone said as she and Asher set the painting down on the floor. “Before he alerts the staff.”
But it was too late. Tobias was piecing it all together. “You’re Amanda’s daughter, aren’t you?” He didn’t wait for confirmation. “You have to be. And if you’re marked, then it must be because I’m … I’m …” He didn’t finish his thought, letting it instead float in the space between the two of us.
I stood, using the wall for support.
“She never told me,” he muttered to himself. “Not that I blame her. I was out of control.” He shook his head in disbelief. “But a daughter. I have a daughter.”
Simone walked over to stand next to me. “Does he really think he’s your father?” she whispered. Then, seeing my reaction, she took a step back. “It’s true?”
Asher cut a strip of duct tape to cover Tobias’s mouth.
“No, don’t silence me. I have to explain what happened, so you can tell Amanda. Make her understand.” He squirmed on the bed even though his hands and legs were tied. “You also need to know the dangers of using the spear.”
Asher drew closer to him, the duct tape stretched out between his hands.
“The choices I was making …” Tobias called out. “It was because I was trying to change the final outcome. I was desperate!”
“Don’t listen to him, Asher,” Simone said, already standing by the safe. “He’s working with my mother.”
“No, no. I’ve only been pretending to be in an alliance with Sarah,” Tobias claimed. “I needed her to get the power back to me … I didn’t imagine my daughter would be the one who had it.” Asher hovered over him, trying to not miss his mouth as Tobias frantically thrashed his head from side to side. “Please … listen. I only wanted the power back so I could release destiny once and for all. Don’t let my daughter become what I was!”
Asher stopped an inch above his face. “What did you say?”
Tobias gazed up at him. “Releasing destiny. There’s a way to do it.”
“Tell us what you know,” Asher said.
Tobias’s expression changed. “You’ve already heard of this?”
I nodded.
“Then you know it’s the only way to undo all the events that someone using the spear may have set in motion,” he said. “It brings back all the options for the future. I just couldn’t figure out who I needed to find in order to do it.”
“What do you mean?” Asher asked. “You had to find someone?”
Tobias studied me. “I should be telling your mother these things … not you. Where is she? I want to talk to her.”
“We’re the ones who are here,” Asher replied, his hands balling up the piece of tape. No longer wanting him to be quiet. “Just tell us what you know.”
“I’m done talking,” Tobias stated, his eyes narrowing with resolve. “I want to see Amanda. I’ll only speak to her.”
“You can’t,” I replied, not wanting to tell him what had happened to my mother. After everything he’d done, forcing her to leave everything and everyone she knew, he didn’t deserve to know anything … not even that she’d died.
“I can and I will,” Tobias said. “Or you won’t get anything further from me.”
I stared at him. I could almost see the callous monster right beneath the surface of this frail man. He was not going to manipulate us. He had scared my mother, but he wouldn’t do that to me.
“Cassie …” Asher was prompting me to say the truth. “He may have useful information.”
I hesitated.
Tobias’s expression softened. “I understand you being protective, but I only want to talk to her. Please,” he begged, “I have to make things right.”
I could tell that this was the thing he wanted most in the world—and I was the one who could crush his hopes. Make him feel a little of the pain he had inflicted on others. Suffer like he had made my mother suffer. It was a small victory, but I was going to enjoy plunging the dagger in his heart.
“It’s too late,” I said coolly. “She’s dead.”
His face fell, and I saw his spirit crumbling with the news. “When?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
“Right after I was born.” Tears were welling up in his eyes. Then, to add a little bit of salt to his wound, I added, “For all I know, your choices may have killed her.”
“No, no,” he muttered. “She needed to know. I wanted to explain …” He blinked, and a single tear ran down his cheek. “I can see things so clearly now that I’m free of the spear.” He went quiet, lost in his own thoughts.
“But you can still help us,” Asher said. “Tell us whatever you know about releasing destiny.”
“And using the spear,” I added.
Tobias gazed at me, his head still shaking in disbelief. “What’s your name?” he asked me.
“Does it matter?” I replied.
“It does to me,” he answered.
“Cassie. My name is Cassie. Now tell us about the spear.”
“Are you happy, Cassie?” he asked. “Have you been cared for?”
I thought of Papi and how he had always given me everything I’d ever needed and wanted. He’d only kept secrets because he wanted to protect me. Because he loved me more than anything. “Yes, I am.”
“Good. Your mother would’ve wanted that.” He glanced over at Simone, who was busy opening the safe.
“It’s here!” Simone exclaimed, pulling out a piece of velvet cloth and unwrapping it to reveal the spear. “We got it!”
“Don’t let her have it,” Tobias warned. “Keep it away from her. The power will corrupt her. Look what happened to me.”
I gritted my teeth. Who did this man think he was? He knew nothing about me. “I’m not you,” I said. “I’ll only use the spear to make things better.”
“No, no, that’s what I thought at first, too. But you’ll lose yourself in trying to fix things,” he replied. “I’ll tell you what you want, but you mustn’t use the spear. Stay away from it at all costs. Releasing destiny is the only way to truly save yourself and free the world. Anything else is hopeless.”
Simone walked over to us with the spear. “Then how do we release it?”
“I … I …” Tobias�
�s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. That’s why you must keep it away from Cassie. The only thing I was ever able to discover was that there seems to always be one person, a linchpin, who if sacrificed could create a future full of possibilities. Every time I thought I found the right person … a politician, an industrialist, even a member of the Hastati … nothing worked. The final vision I saw only got worse, never better.” Tobias looked away, his gaze falling somewhere outside the window. “I convinced myself that their sacrifice was for the greater good. No one understood that I was trying to prevent the apocalypse, not start it.”
“So you killed all those people?” Simone handed Asher the spear. “You thought killing could free destiny?”
BAM! BAM! BAM!
We all jumped as someone pounded on the door.
“Who’s there?” Simone shouted.
“Open this door, Miss Bimington,” a deep voice called. “I don’t know what you are doing, but the nurse called the house. You can’t be in there.”
I stared at the closet where Asher had locked up the nurse. We hadn’t even thought about the fact that she might have a phone on her.
“What do we do?” Simone’s eyes darted around the room. “These are reinforced doors, but they won’t stop him for long. Where do we go?”
We were trapped, but I could change the immediate future. I had the power to do that.
“Give me the spear,” I told Asher. “I can get us out of here.”
“It’s too dangerous.” He put the spear behind his back. “We can find—”
BAM! BAM! BAM!
“Open this door right now! I’m going to have to call your mother.”
“We’re going to lose everything. I need to use it … NOW!”
Asher scowled but reluctantly handed me the spear.
“NO!” Tobias yelled.
It was the last thing I heard.
The moment my fingers touched the spear, an electric current ran through me, and I fell into a world of deafening silence with a brilliant white light surrounding me. I felt myself drifting on what seemed to be a wave. It felt the same as when I had first used the spear in the Knights of Malta garden.
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