“Go,” Wen said firmly. “We’ll follow.”
Joss bit her lower lip before nodding. She walked over to her cousin, her steps purposeful.
Morgan waited until Corbin and Lia started in her direction before moving toward the void she perceived up ahead. She had gone no more than a handful of steps when Kellen’s low voice met her ears.
“You know what you have to do, Morgan.”
She glanced back at him, heart lurching at the pained look on his face. His emotions radiated toward her, a mix of sadness and righteous indignation, both fear and longing. Despite all he’d done to Kellen, a deep attachment to the man still remained. He had, after all, been a father figure to Kellen for the last decade.
Her stomach dropped. Father. Back at Desideration Tower, Orrick claimed he, not Dylan, was Morgan’s father. Whether he was or wasn’t, what Morgan had to do didn’t change. But, she realized, either way, she needed to know.
“Guys,” she said, looking at the Naturals, “go ahead. I’ll catch up. I… I need to talk to my mom for a sec.”
Joss opened her mouth to protest, but Lucas placed his hand on her arm. “See you in a minute.” Lucas started walking, motioning for the others to follow.
Morgan watched them go for a moment before turning back to where her mother stood. Chelsea’s brow furrowed as she walked toward her daughter. “Yes, Morgan?”
Morgan bit her lower lip. “I have something to ask you. It’s… It’s about Orrick.”
The confusion on Chelsea’s face intensified. “What about him?”
Morgan shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. She glanced behind her and saw the indistinct shapes of her friends moving farther away from her. She didn’t have time to be delicate. “The two of you use to be involved, right?”
Chelsea’s lips twitched and Morgan took it as confirmation. Not waiting for her mother to explain, she pressed on. “At the end of the summer, Orrick told me something. And I know… I know what I have to do, but I need…” She pursed her lips, exhaling through her nose. “Is Dad really my dad?”
“Is…? Of course he is.” Chelsea’s spine straightened. “Why would you think otherwise?”
The pressure that had been building within Morgan’s chest dissipated and she released a shaky breath. “Orrick said… He said he was my father, and—”
“And you believed him?” Chelsea placed her hands on Morgan’s shoulders, leaning forward so Morgan had no choice but to look into her eyes. “He’s a liar, Morgan. If he told you that, it was to manipulate you. You’re a Natural, Morgan. Remember that. If he was your father, you’d be Veneret, and you wouldn’t be the One.”
Morgan allowed her mother’s words to press themselves into her mind, allowed herself the luxury of resting in the truth for a moment. She considered hugging Chelsea, but the motion felt contrived; instead, she took her mother’s hands from her shoulders and gave her fingers a quick squeeze before turning and taking off at a jog after her friends.
Lucas cast a sidelong glance at her when she rejoined them, but he said nothing. The void was located nearly a half mile from their position and they moved in silence toward it. Morgan kept expecting to hear the cracking of branches or screams of pain behind them, and she was both relieved and worried when she heard neither.
Finally the trees began to thin and a clearing presented itself. The group paused at the edge of the tree line. Morgan appraised the house at the center of the clearing: a large brick building with a giant deck above the walk-out basement and an attached garage.
“Really, there’s no one around here?” Joss’s eyebrows arched suspiciously. “Yeah, like I believe that for a second.”
Lucas’s face was tight with concentration. “There are only five people in the house. One of them’s putting off a ton of energy. That one must be Orrick. The others are probably his security detail or something. But there’s no one outside. Maybe all the outside guards came to greet us in the woods.”
“We can’t just sit here,” Corbin said, shifting on the balls of his feet. “Let’s move and just be on the lookout. If someone does try to stop us, we’ve just got to be ready.”
Morgan felt the eyes of her friends on her. For a moment, she allowed herself to long for the assistance of Greg, Ellie, and Wen, of her mother and Kellen. But in her heart she knew, she had always known, that this was the way things would be in the end: just her and her Naturals, her friends. Taking in a deep breath, she nodded. Corbin took his cue and started into the open area between the trees and the house.
As one, the group moved at a jog toward the house. There were no lights on inside, nothing to indicate that the people inside expected company, but Morgan knew better.
Less than ten yards from the front door, Corbin fell to the ground. It took only moments to realize he hadn’t slipped: his movements were being restricted by someone.
“Leave me!” Corbin managed to choke out as he thrashed on the lawn.
“No!” Morgan’s harsh whisper carried to the rest of the group, who stopped. She linked with the energies of her friends and reached out to determine who was hindering them.
“In the upstairs window,” Joss whispered, though there was no need for the announcement. She Felt what they all Felt: there were two Veneret in a room overlooking the yard, and one of them was restraining Corbin. There was a note of confusion emanating from the two of them, as if they were unsure why the whole group had stopped. Then the distinct sensation that one was about to send a message to the others in the house to come round up the intruders.
Lia took control of the collective energy of the group and Morgan Saw as the two Veneret turned toward each other, their eyes glassy and their faces slack. Each surveyed the room in which they stood before selecting a heavy object: one picked up a lamp, the other a substantial book end. In a flash, the two turned toward each other again, raising the heavy objects and bringing them down over the other’s head in a swift, decisive motion. As the two men crumpled to the floor, Morgan Felt their energies dim: they were both unconscious.
Corbin pushed himself to his hands and knees and Lucas offered his hand to pull him the rest of the way up. Once Corbin was on his feet, the group continued toward the house.
“Two down,” Joss muttered.
Morgan took no joy in the pronouncement. It was true that there remained only three people in the house that could pose a threat, but one of those people was Orrick. Were it only him in the house, what they were about to do would still be a difficult task. An impossible task. Could Morgan really kill someone, even someone like Orrick? Could she really ask her friends to assist her with something so dark?
Lucas approached the door first. He glanced at Morgan before curling his fingers around the doorknob. “It’s open.” He didn’t wait for a response before pushing the door open.
They filed into the house, standing in a wide foyer. Moonlight filtered into the open main room through a set of thin, high windows.
Morgan’s every muscle was coiled tight, ready to spring. The adrenaline which had been coursing through her all night sent a fresh wave throughout her body, making her fingers tremble. Was it possible that Orrick didn’t yet know they were in his house? Their collective energy was still obscured behind a wall and the lookouts hadn’t been able to send a message to anyone before knocking each other unconscious.
Tentatively, Morgan reached out, Feeling for Orrick in the large house.
The light in the foyer flipped on, momentarily dazzling Morgan and causing her eyes to squeeze shut. Still, she didn’t need her eyes to Feel that two people were approaching them, and she didn’t need her eyes to realize the energies were familiar to her.
Tesin and Aurelia positioned themselves at the mouth of the foyer. Aurelia wore a wide, expectant grin. Tesin’s face was fixed in a hard grimace, and his olive complexion shades lighter than Morgan remembered. A sensory memory overtook Morgan as her mind flashed back to the blinding light of Aurelia’s consciousness ripping through her thoughts. Months ago
, Aurelia headed a Veneret team whose goal it was to tap into Morgan’s head, and the times Aurelia made contact were seared into Morgan’s memory.
“He knew you’d come,” Aurelia said, her voice containing barely suppressed glee. “He knew Kellen would bring you. No one can resist Orrick indefinitely. Isn’t that right, Tesin?”
A muscle in Tesin’s jaw jumped but he said nothing. Morgan’s mind went back to a conversation months ago, just after Tesin dropped off the Watchers’ radar. She’d said it was likely that Orrick was Pushing Tesin to appear to be aligned with the Veneret cause, that he was using Tesin to solidify his aura of power with others in the Veneret community.
Aurelia’s hand darted forward as quick as a snake and she grabbed Morgan’s upper arm roughly. Lucas’s body shifted as Aurelia jerked Morgan’s body forward, but his movement was arrested by an unseen force. Morgan attempted to resist as Aurelia pulled her into the house’s main room, but it was no use: her body moved of its own volition, following Aurelia’s lead. The shuffling of feet behind her told Morgan that the others were being Pushed into the room as well.
A wave of dread swept through Morgan’s body as she inched forward. A voice in Morgan’s mind asked what she had really expected. What kind of plan did she really even have? None. And now she had no idea how to get out of this situation. Aurelia was going to take her to Orrick. What would Orrick do? Nothing good, she knew that. In fact, nothing good could come out of this situation at all. It was a suicide mission suddenly. Morgan had walked herself and her friends into a trap.
She attempted to struggle against Aurelia’s grip, but it was useless. She could no more resist the desire to continue moving forward than the Earth could resist spinning on its axis.
The shuffling behind her got louder, becoming a scuffling and Aurelia turned her attention to it. “Tesin, keep them in line!”
But it became clear that he wasn’t doing so. Lucas arrived and Morgan’s side, pulling at her, tugging her away from Aurelia’s grip. As Morgan watched, Tesin launched himself at Aurelia, tackling her and pinning her to the ground. He looked at Morgan, his eyes wide and wild. “Run! I don’t know how long I can fight it!”
Free from Aurelia’s Pushing, Morgan surveyed the room. Lucas still tugged at her arm, pulling her toward the door through which they entered, but Morgan resisted him. Her eyes swept the area as she pushed out with her abilities, seeking the one she’d come to destroy.
“Morgan,” Lucas said, his voice low and tight. “Morgan, come on. We’ve gotta leave now.”
“No,” she said. “We’ve come this far—”
Joss arrived at Morgan’s side. “It’s a trap, Morgan. We’ve got to leave while we still can.”
Aurelia let out a choked scream and Tesin bellowed in pain.
“He’s upstairs,” Morgan said. “Orrick. If we go up now, maybe we can catch him off guard—”
“He’s not off guard. Not at all. He’s expected every move we’ve made.” Joss’s face was hard, but her eyes were shining and terrified.
Morgan struggled against Lucas’s grasp again, attempting to head for the stairs, when something caught her attention. Corbin ran across the room toward Tesin and Aurelia. He managed to land a punch on Aurelia’s jaw before she pushed Tesin away far enough to turn to Corbin, a malicious smile twisting the corners of her mouth.
In an instant, Corbin’s body sailed through the room, slamming against the wall beside Morgan. Lia let out a shriek and scurried to his side. In the center of the room, Aurelia and Tesin stood, arms locked about each other. He struck out with his feet, attempting to knock her off balance, but Aurelia seemed to anticipate his every move. Morgan shifted her weight, ready to leap in to assist Tesin when Aurelia managed to free her arms and slide one around his neck and the other across his forehead. Then, in one swift motion, she snapped his neck and let his lifeless body slide to the ground.
“No!” Morgan called, immediately moving toward Tesin. She got no more than a few steps before her progress was arrested, her limbs unresponsive to movement.
“Not so fast,” Aurelia growled, directing Morgan’s body away from Tesin, back toward the stairs.
Morgan’s mind raged against the control Aurelia exerted over her movements, but she was powerless to keep herself from moving through the open area of the room. In her peripheral vision, she could see that Lucas, Joss, and Lia were likewise being forced across the room. Corbin, unconscious, remained crumpled on the floor by the wall Aurelia had thrown him into.
There was a momentary flicker in the energy controlling her and as she was forced to a stop, Morgan realized Aurelia was no longer in control of her body. There was someone else in the room.
Light flooded the large, high-ceilinged room, illuminating an open staircase that had been cloaked in shadows. At the top stood Orrick Williams, dressed, as ever, in an impeccably tailored suit—as if it were the middle of the day, not the night, and he was between business meetings. He peered at them with a kind of detached interest, like he was inspecting a new pair of cuff links. He took a few steps down, coming to the middle of the upper part of the staircase. A smile touched his lips. “Morgan. I expect you’ve come to kill me.”
Morgan pressed against the invisible bonds holding her in place, but she was unable to move anything but her head. “Kellen told me that was the only way. So, yes, Orrick, that’s what I’m here for.”
Orrick chuckled to himself as if she had shared an amusing anecdote, not threatened his life. “I’m sure that Kellen told you a great many things in his tenure at your safe house. To be honest, I was sure he would come back to me. You must be more like your mother than you realize, Morgan, to foster such a change in Kellen’s heart.”
Morgan snorted. “Yeah, since you’ve spent the last ten years telling him lies and Pushing him to forget who he really is.”
“Kellen had a role to play, and, in due deference to him, he did it well. Despite his defection, you are here. And that, Morgan, is what I’ve been waiting for.”
She shook her head. “You’re going to be disappointed, Orrick, because I’m not turning to your side. I’m not going to do what you say. I know what the Prophecy is really all about, and it has nothing to do with enslaving the common or becoming kings of humanity or whatever it is you think you’re entitled to. It’s about sharing our abilities, opening the world to what we can do. It’s about reclaiming abilities that we’ve been losing over the generations. You have five Naturals here as proof that abilities do manifest in common people, and that we can be powerful—more powerful than you. We’re so much stronger together, but you can’t see that. You can only see yourself and what can benefit you. And that’s why we’re going to defeat you, Orrick—because we can do it together.”
Orrick’s gaze was pitying as he looked down on Morgan. “Spoken like a child with no knowledge of the real world. You’re too young and too inexperienced to realize that this happy bubble you’ve constructed for yourself isn’t reality. Even if you could share our abilities with the common, what would it solve? Do you really think that would put an end to the suffering in the world? On the contrary, you’ll just give a depraved world new and better ways to make each other suffer.”
“I suppose you would know,” Lucas sneered. “A man like you—power hungry. Nothing’s ever enough. No matter what you have, you want more. Of course you think everyone is like that. But you’re wrong. There are decent people in the world, people who can benefit from abilities like ours, who can learn. And if we make our abilities known to them, we won’t have to hide them anymore—we can be who we’re born to be.”
Aurelia moved to the foot of the stairs, cowering under the glare Orrick leveled at her. “Orrick, I’ve just received a message from Walters. He says there’s a mob of people heading through the forest in our direction.”
Orrick smiled. “Watchers, no doubt, come to—”
“No,” Aurelia said, immediately looking ashamed for having interrupted Orrick. “It’s not Watchers—wel
l, not entirely. They’re mostly… common.”
At these words, Morgan felt as confused as Orrick looked. She attempted to press out with her abilities to check the validity of Aurelia’s words, but whatever force was restricting her movement was also hampering her abilities.
Orrick regained composure of his features and looked at Morgan. “Quite the stunt you’ve orchestrated. And bringing in a horde of common people is supposed to prove what to me, exactly? We’re all really the same? I assure you, that’s not true. We are not the same. Some of us have been born more. Of all people, Morgan, I would hope you could understand that. But it seems that’s not the case.”
“So what now?” Morgan demanded. “It seems like we’ve been here before, doesn’t it? You wanting me to join you, to twist the Prophecy to something that serves to give you more power. Me saying no. Kellen said I’d have to kill you, but that’s not the only way, you know. You could step aside. You could let me fulfill the Prophecy the way it’s meant to be fulfilled.”
A smile tugged at the corners of Orrick’s mouth, but his eyes remained hard and cold. “Actually, I have other plans.”
Corbin’s body shifted and for a moment, Morgan’s heart swelled, thinking he was waking up, thinking he might be able to distract Orrick enough that she and the others could break free of his control. But in an instant the feeling evaporated: Corbin was still unconscious. His body moved in a limp and uncoordinated way, like a puppet in the hands of a child. Orrick directed Corbin to the foot of the stairs near where Aurelia stood, so that Morgan and the others could see him clearly.
Morgan knew what Orrick was about to do, but she was powerless to stop it. She watched helplessly as Corbin’s body began to tremble and shake, a low moan issuing from his mouth. Though her other abilities remained dampened, Morgan found she could suddenly Feel again. Every nerve ending seemed to be on fire and she cried out, tears burning in her eyes as she realized what she was experiencing was a mere echo of the torture Orrick was inflicting on Corbin.
After a short eternity, Orrick relented, leaving Morgan gasping for breath.
The Naturals Trilogy Page 64