Coming Together (Tèarmann Chronicles book 6): A Christian Urban Fantasy
Page 14
“In the morning then,” Mom said, running her fingers through my hair. “Just sleep.”
I nodded as I rested my head on her lap. I let my eyes shut, and within seconds I was out.
The next morning, I woke on my bed, stiff and sore. I groaned a little and rolled over. I glanced at the time; almost twelve. “Eh, I can sleep more,” I mumbled, rolling over to do just that.
“Jessica,” Mom whispered from her sitting position next to my bed. “Mr. Mason called-”
“Noo!” I moaned into my pillow. “Tell him we’re out of commission- Wait.” I peeked out at her. “Please say he’s just calling you and Dad.”
Mom slowly shook her head. “This is about the team. If anything, he's mostly calling you two.”
I whimpered into my pillow. “No! I’m so sore!”
“And so is Jessie. Come on, once we get home you can go back to bed, okay?”
“Humph.”
Mom smiled. “Good, I’ll see you downstairs.”
I gave a long groan before trying to get up. My entire body ached, and I was pretty sure I fell back a few times.
Eventually after getting dressed and applying makeup to hide some of the bruises, I struggled downstairs. I didn’t want too many questions from Mr. Mason, Terry, or anyone else there who would feel the need to ask. Every movement felt like it brought a small amount of pain. “Ow,” I mumbled, plopping into a chair. I groaned.
“Morning, Jess,” Dad said, kissing the top of my head. “Don’t worry, the meeting shouldn’t be too long. And Quinn explained what happened, so you don’t have to.”
I laid my head on my arms. “Yay.”
Dad gave a soft chuckle. “I’m going to check on Jessie. We will be leaving soon.”
“Breakfast? Lunch? Food?” I asked, unsure of the time.
“We’ll pick up something on the way,” he said, rubbing my head with a smile.
I sighed. “Okay.”
About ten minutes later, Jessie was up and we were in the car. I hit my head against the headrest and passed out.
I begrudgingly woke myself up enough when it was time to go through a drive through.
“Afternoon!” Terry yelled, whipping open the car door. He laughed when we both jumped before trailing off, his amusement quickly being replaced with worry. “What happened to you two?”
Didn’t put on enough makeup, Jessie said as she reached for her crutches.
True-ish. He would have noticed if we put on more.
I suppose. “Tired,” Jessie said as Terry helped her out.
“Well obviously. You guys have been off missions, what did you do to yourself?”
“Ouch,” I muttered. In more ways than one. “Yeah, hi. How are you?”
His eyes continued to roam us, looking at the visible bandages and likely trying to spot the makeup-hiding bruises. “Worried about you two. What happened?!”
I shrugged before wincing a little. “Things.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Right, things that got you beat up.”
I frowned. “Who said we were beat up?”
His eyebrow shot up. “Let’s see, the wincing, the crutches, and the black eye that is being hidden by makeup, which then leads to the possibility that you’re wearing more makeup to hide other things. What? Happened?”
“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Dad said, coming up beside us. “We shouldn’t keep Mr. Mason waiting.”
Terry’s hand rolled into fists. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say,” he muttered.
When we entered the meeting room, everyone turned to look at us.
I took a deep breath and walked in, trying to act like nothing had happened. Unfortunately, there were those there that knew me and could likely see through it.
There were about half a dozen agents around a table with Mr. Mason. Behind him was a television. Mr. Mason watched as we took our seats. “Now that we’re all here, something has caught my attention that needs looking into.” The lights were dimmed, and an image flashed onto the screen.
I felt the sudden urge to strangle him. The picture on the screen was of my team, not during the fight—which may have made it worse—but afterward as we were sitting around, hurt, trying to catch our breaths. I let out a long breath.
What do we do? Should we let him know that we’re on the team? Jessie asked.
And let him try and use us against them? Not a chance. There’s a reason we’re here. We’re never brought in for things like this. It’s clear that he doesn’t trust the team.
It kind of makes sense, she said, glancing at me.
“These aren’t just a bunch of kids playing around, they are literal people with powers. They supposedly fought against the UIC, but I’m inclined to think otherwise,” said Mr. Mason.
Jessie took my hand. “Ow,” she whispered when I squeezed it. No, you can’t punch him.
Humph.
“We all know the UIC experimented on people, and this could be the reason. Now, we also have a police officer that’s backing them up, but I still want to be on the lookout. We don’t know what sort of abilities these children have. I’m not saying they are evil, just that we need to keep our eyes open.”
I fought the urge to slug him for the entire time he spoke. I mean, it was nice he admitted that we might not be evil, but especially because of the events of the night before, I was done.
Mr. Mason was able to guess some of our powers. It felt like he went on forever.
When he finally finished, he asked to speak with Jessie and I alone. As always, our parents remained in the background.
Once everyone had left, I asked, “Can we skip you asking what happened?”
He was quiet for a moment. “For now. I have a mission for you … when you’re better healed, of course.”
“What? You don’t think I can crawl through vents with these?” Jessie muttered, gesturing to her crutches. She tended to be more sarcastic when she was tired.
Mr. Mason stared at her blankly for a moment. “It has nothing to do with that.”
I glanced back at my parents, then at him, realizing where this was going. “If it has anything to do with infiltrating the superhero team, it’s a no,” I said. “There have been rumors about this team for a few weeks now, so frankly, I’m surprised you haven't noticed sooner. But from what I’ve heard, they’re doing good. And they’re with the police, so it’s the police’s job.”
“I agree with Jessica,” Jessie whispered when he looked at her.
Mr. Mason turned back to me. “I thought you wanted to go on missions.”
I looked away. “I do, but forcing myself onto something like that, no. I have to fight crime and be suspicious of those working with me, not a chance. Besides, it seems almost more dangerous than going on missions. I try to keep a low profile on missions but not these people. It’s a no… even if it means no missions for a little bit.” That last sentence was hard to get out.
His eyes shifted toward our parents for a moment. “All right,” he said with a nod. “You will remain off missions. I have a meeting, so we can talk about your injuries later. You may go.”
“It has nothing to do with this place, so you have no right to make us tell you,” I muttered.
“Thank you, sir,” Jessie said. She let out a long breath as we exited the room.
“I saw that coming,” Dad said.
“Didn’t we all?” I mumbled. I stretched.
That didn’t mean you had to add that part at the end. It wasn’t very respectful, Jessie said.
That was about as respectful as I was gonna get. We just dealt with one of his problems, and he wanted to bring us in. Come on, let’s go before Terry hears that we’re done.
We can’t avoid him forever, Jessie said as she did her best to keep up. “Slow down. My body is still killing me. This is going to be a long few weeks as we heal,” she muttered as we headed toward the parking area.
When we got home, I sunk into the couch, allowing myself to relax.
“Just not anytime soon,” I said, closing my eyes. “And as long as Mr. Mason doesn’t go poking about. I’m surprised he didn’t guess that we were on the team. I mean, it’s not too obvious with our uniforms and masks and everything, but neither is it subtle.”
“It’s amazing,” Jessie whispered
I turned to face her. “What is?”
“Us and what happened. You can still walk, I can somewhat walk, Sapphire isn’t going to be in the hospital for long, and it only happened yesterday. What we went through could have— and maybe should have— done more to us, but it didn’t. Comparatively speaking, we’re fine.” She gave a long sigh, then adjusted her position next to Dad.
Dad rubbed her head. “You’re saying it’s a miracle?”
Jessie shrugged. “Maybe.” She was smiling.
I said nothing, not wanting to risk an argument.
That night, I stared out in front of me, running through everything that happened the night before in my mind. In truth, it made no sense that we survived with no one having to have an extended stay at the hospital. “If miracles make sense, then sure, maybe it was a miracle,” I muttered under my breath as my eyes shut. I rolled onto my side. Maybe, just maybe, I would talk to Jessie later about her god. My shoulders tensed as a gentle voice reminded me that I had prayed to escape. I blinked a few times. What was that? I glanced toward the ceiling, then shook my head. Exhaling a long sigh, I told myself I would talk to Jessie tomorrow about it. I slowly drifted to sleep.
The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs, where I found Jessie huddled on the couch. “Why are you awake?” I asked with a small laugh.
She peeked out from the throw blanket she was huddled under. She grunted.
I took a seat next to her and exhaled a long breath. “How are you?”
“Sore.”
“You’re being careful with your foot?”
“Yep. Dad already passed by and made sure of it,” she said with a yawn. “How are you?”
I shrugged.
“What does that mean?”
I wrung my hands together. My mouth opened to speak, then shut. Finally, I said, “Why did your god allow Eve to crash?”
She sat up, eyes wide.
“Please don’t react or I may leave.”
“I didn’t- Why haven’t you asked earlier?”
“I didn’t want to get your hopes up or anything,” I mumbled. I bit my tongue. “And other questions like that peace that you keep talking about.”
A small smile pulled at her lips. “I’d be happy to do my best to answer them. But do know that we don’t know everything. I know you won’t like the answer, but part of what happened to Eve is free will. But even in horrible situations, God can use it…”
“Are you having second thoughts?” I asked as I watched her face scrunch up.
She shook her head. “No, no, just thinking about what happened a few days ago.”
“And?”
Her eyes met mine. “For sure we can talk about this after, but did we ever hear what happened to Julie?”
My eyebrows furrowed together. “No.” I began to stare off. “She was kidnapped, but we never heard much else. And what about her arm?”
“Yeah, I thought it was damaged, not able to change shape.”
“The magic aspect, too. Malissa made it sound like it wasn’t possible,” I said. “But that doesn’t explain why Julie was left in the shed, tangled in wires. I mean, it’s not like she was on the brink of death.” I blinked a few times, feeling more confused the more I thought about it. “So, what happened to her?”
Thank you
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About the Author
Born in Canada, TR Moore Ede grew up in a large family, the third of ten. At the age of ten, she was switched from public school to homeschool. In her free time, she enjoyed playing with her siblings and reading fantasy and greek mythology based novels. As an early teenager, inspired by the books she read, she decided to try and write her own. Throughout the years, she has honed her writing skills until she decided to try her hand at publishing them. To this day, her love for magical creatures continues to influence her writings.
Check out her stories on Wattpad for free as well as descriptions of her different magical creatures.
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More by TR Moore Ede
Tèarmann Chroincles
YA Christian urban fantasy
Nearly Drowned
Double Vision
Wings of Change
Out in the Open
Humans that Aren’t
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the many people that helped me through this journey of writing and publishing my books.
First to my family. My younger siblings who read my books were and are my motivation to keep writing. Specifically to my brother John for letting me use and essentially take over, develop and change the characters he made. Some of them turned out to be my favourite characters and some now very important to the plot. Also for letting me talk his ear off during my first write of the series as I was figuring it out. Certain aspects of the books wouldn’t be there without it. To my parents who were encouraging me to go down this path and gave me different tips and resources that ultimately led me here. Especially to my mom. Whenever I lacked someone I needed, Mom found or was willing to step into that role until I was able to find a more permanent individual. Also, her patience as I figured out the publishing process. I would also like to thank my sister Rebekah. When my first editor didn’t work out, she offered to step up. Although it didn’t work out, she helped me smooth out certain areas of my books. As well, I’m not sure I would have learned some of the skills I picked up while she was my editor.
To Mrs. Tracey who introduced me to SPS and without the course I would have not made the first definitive jump into the world of self publishing. To my SPS coach, Ramy who was patient with me as I crawled along in progress and stayed confident in me. To those in the SPS fiction group who were always willing to lend a hand or find the answer to any question I posed to them.
To my current editor, Rebecca. Her skill, patience and speed are better than I could have asked for.
To my family and friends who were a constant support and encouragement.
To my closest friend, Anne, who was and is always willing to listen to my struggles and be a support not only by being a listening ear but in her prayers.
To my cover artist Eugene (Wickard) for the fantastic covers that he produces.
And lastly, I thank God for His help. When I first started writing my thoughts were jumbled and didn’t always make sense but looking back, I can see how He used some of my ideas for the plot before it even existed. Things match up in a way that doesn’t make sense and I can only attribute that to Him. Thank you all for making the dream of publishing a reality.