Morgan felt a burning in her nose and a prickling in her eyes. “Yes, Dad. I think… I brought you here because I needed you.” She pulled Lucas closer to her, burying her face in his hair, allowing fresh tears to fall into the dark strands.
In her periphery, Morgan noticed someone else approaching. Turning her head, she saw Ris, trailed closely by Corbin, who held her right hand in his and cupped her left hip protectively.
“Morgs,” she said quietly, eyes sweeping over Lucas, Kellen, and Lia, “what happened?”
The full weight of the question crashed down on Morgan and a low wail escaped her lips. “It’s my fault! Lia was just… and then Orrick just… just… And I asked Lucas to fix it—to fix her, and… It didn’t work.” An icy sensation coursed through Morgan’s body as she said these words. Instantly, her tears stopped. The enormity of the truth anesthetized her emotions. “It didn’t work,” she repeated. “This is my fault. It’s all my fault.” She looked down at Lucas, remembering what he’d said about their shared future. Sparing a glance for Kellen, she wondered what her future would hold now. “This isn’t how things were supposed to be,” she said, her voice hollow.
“You’re right, it’s not!”
Lurched from her introspection, Morgan’s attention snapped to the origin of the words. On the sweeping staircase, standing from her crouched position beside Orrick, was Aurelia. So focused had she been on Lucas, Morgan hadn’t noticed Aurelia regain consciousness.
“This is not the way things were supposed to be,” Aurelia continued. She motioned toward Orrick, who sat propped against the wall, his panicked gaze flitting around the room. He wore the look of a man called upon to answer for his sins, not at all like the collected, self-assured leader of the Veneret he had been mere minutes before. “You’ve destroyed him,” she growled. “What you did to him… He’s worse than dead! I’ve tried everything I can think—he can’t even receive energy anymore. He’s more common than common.” She started down the stairs, kicking Orrick’s legs out of the way as she passed him. “I know you think you’re above evils like killing—but what you’ve done is worse than any death sentence. Killing him would be more merciful than leaving him how you’ve left him!”
Morgan’s eyes scanned the room until she locked her gaze on Greg’s. She looked for an indication about what to do, but the thought he intimated to her was wait.
Aurelia snorted as she paused on the landing of the stairs. “I bet you think not taking his life shows your strength, but you’re wrong. It just shows your weakness. That’s a fault we don’t share.” She turned back toward Orrick, holding an open hand toward him, fingers bent in a claw-like fashion.
Orrick’s hands went to his neck, his nails clawing at the collar of his shirt. Low gurgling noises emanated from his mouth and his eyes began to bulge. Aurelia clenched her fist in a sharp, decisive motion, and Orrick tipped sideways and tumbled toward the landing, coming to rest at her feet. She nudged him with the toe of her shoe, but he didn’t rouse. A grim smile twisted on her lips.
“He is really a great man, you know,” Aurelia continued, locking eyes with Morgan. “Well. Was. But his biggest problem was always—always—the Prophecy. He put too much stock in it. In you. But I don’t have that problem. I don’t care if you’re the One. I’m sick of waiting on fate—I think it’s time to make it myself.” Her lips stretched over her teeth, giving her a feral appearance. “I’m gonna watch the light fade from your eyes.”
Before Morgan had a chance to respond or react, Aurelia launched herself off the stairs, gaining seemingly impossible height and propelling herself directly toward Morgan.
Morgan’s mind blanked. Time seemed to slow. Eyes locked on Aurelia’s, she couldn’t even muster an atom of fear. Instinctively, she gathered Lucas closer to her. Perhaps it would be a relief to die.
Her stomach twisted at the thought. She couldn’t die—not now, not like this. To do so would render Lucas’s sacrifice meaningless, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. In one fluid motion, she released Lucas’s body and propelled her body upward with all the energy she could muster. She jumped high into the air, meeting Aurelia above the heads of the dozens of people now in the room. The force of Morgan’s collision adjusted Aurelia’s trajectory and the two began moving upward toward the vaulted ceiling.
Morgan’s hands twisted in Aurelia’s thick blond hair, holding her in place while she landed a kick in the girl’s stomach. Aurelia beat at Morgan’s arms in an attempt to knock loose Morgan’s grasp. When it didn’t work, she reached her hands towards Morgan’s face, thumbs attempting to press against Morgan’s eyes.
Aurelia’s back connected with the ceiling and Morgan lost her grip on Aurelia’s hair. Aurelia took advantage of the moment, taking Morgan by the shoulders and spinning her so that her back nested against Aurelia’s front. One of her arms snaked around Morgan’s neck, the other across her forehead.
“No!” Chelsea’s voice rent the air. A surge of energy flowed over Morgan like a wave and felt Aurelia’s hold on her slip. And then Aurelia was plummeting toward the ground. Hitting it, she crumpled, her eyes wide and unseeing, blood trickling from her nose and ears.
Morgan landed on her feet beside her father, whose body stiffened. Slowly, his legs pressed him to standing. Morgan looked up him and saw his gaze locked on Chelsea, who stood mere feet from them.
“Dylan,” Chelsea whispered—a prayer.
He closed the distance between them and embraced her as sobs issued from both of them.
Their reunion was too much for Morgan to take in. As her parents shared their first kiss in a decade, Morgan crouched beside Lucas, overwhelmed by loss. A sob pushed its way up from the very center of her being and she pulled Lucas’s body against her tightly, part of her wishing she could pull him inside of her, so he could be with her always.
Against her, she felt a twitching. She froze, a prayer rising in her soul.
“Morgan…”
Taking in a breath, she looked down into Lucas’s face. His light blue eyes—the color of the purest sky—fixed on hers.
“You’re alive!” she cried, pulling him to her chest again.
“Morgan,” Lucas said, voice strained. “Morgan, I won’t be for long if you keep squeezing me like that.”
A laugh bubbled up in her and she released her grip on him, leaning down instead to kiss him.
When she straightened, helping Lucas to a sitting position, she noticed more stirring. Lia and Kellen both pushed themselves to sitting. Lucas gave Morgan the tiniest of nods and she immediately clamored over to Lia, embracing her.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry,” Morgan murmured, feeling a prickling of thankful tears invading her eyes.
Lia gripped Morgan’s shoulders and pushed her back. “It’s okay, Morgan. I’m okay.”
Morgan allowed herself to be displaced by Joss and Corbin, who nearly tackled Lia with the ferocity of their embrace. She turned to Kellen, who sat in a kind of crouch, as if ready to leap to his feet at any moment. He found her eyes and what she saw there surprised her: a kind of gratefulness she hadn’t thought he was capable of. She opened her mouth, intending to say something to thank him, but nothing came out. Instead, she reached for him and pulled him to her in a fierce hug, using her abilities to push her gratitude to him. His arms encircled her, though his touch was tentative, distracted. She released him and searched his face for a hint about what was going through his mind, but he gave her none. He nodded once and pressed himself to standing. Turning to Lia, who had only just been released by Corbin and Joss, he offered her his hand.
She took his hand cautiously and allowed Kellen to pull her to her feet. He studied her closely. “You’re not pissed at me for taking you away from Lord Jesus or something, are you?”
The edges of Lia’s lips curled up in a barely-there smile and she shook her head. After a beat, she took a step closer and the two exchanged a cautious hug. When Lia took a step back, Lucas attacked her with a bear hug, picking her up
and spinning her around. She let out a high, genuine laugh and gave Lucas a glowing smile when he set her down. They said nothing, but, Morgan realized, there was really nothing that could be said.
As Morgan watched, Lucas rounded on Kellen. The two considered each other a moment before smiles graced both their faces. Lucas cupped the back of Kellen’s neck in his hand and pulled him so the two were standing forehead-to-forehead. Lucas’s lips formed words, but they were so low only Kellen could hear them. Kellen threw his arms around Lucas and the two shared a brief hug, complete with fist thumps on each other’s backs when they separated.
A look of pure joy on his face, Lucas turned to Morgan and took her face between his palms. As he planted a soft kiss on her lips, Morgan heard Ris’s voice.
“When did that happen?”
Laughing, Morgan turned to her friend. Ris stood beside Corbin, who had resumed his protective stance just behind her. She closed the distance between them. “Ris.” She reached for her friend’s hands. “There’s so much I have to tell you.”
Ris responded, but her words were lost as a fresh wave of people arrived in the room. Shouts and cries of joy and surprise sounded throughout the space, echoing off the high ceilings. As Morgan looked around, she realized with a start that she recognized some of the people—including Ris’s mom and Lia’s family. Mrs. Perry went quickly to Ris, cutting off Morgan’s opportunity to talk to her. She looked back toward Lucas, but he was surrounded by a woman and three men: his mother, father, and older brothers. Her eyes found the familiar forms of her Aunt Ashleigh and Uncle Wes as they located Joss in the crowd.
Feeling suddenly out of place, Morgan searched through the sea of people for her own parents. When she saw them, she began an approach, but paused, hesitant. Dylan’s hands went from Chelsea’s hair to her shoulders to her hands and back again, his eyes never leaving her face. Chelsea gripped her husband’s shirt at his waist as though ensuring he not move too far from her as she spoke. Every few seconds, Dylan would kiss his wife: her hand, her cheek, her forehead, her lips. Morgan decided now was not the time for her to invade. She pivoted on her heel, considering attaching herself to Joss and her aunt and uncle, but she found herself face to face with Greg. Wen and Ellie flanked him, and each one looked as dumbfounded as the last.
Abruptly, Greg pulled Morgan to his chest in an exuberant, if uncharacteristic, hug. Without thinking, she returned the embrace. “This is incredible,” he said, gripping her shoulders and holding her at arm’s length.
Morgan looked around the room. The joy was palpable, and not just from the reunited families. The Watchers interspersed throughout the house radiated a kind of happiness and relief that Morgan had no word to describe. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
Wen looked incredulous. “You don’t get it, do you?”
Morgan was confused by his tone. “Well, yeah. I mean, Orrick is… gone. And…” She found she didn’t know what else to say. They had fulfilled the Prophecy, hadn’t they?
Wen chuckled softly. “Can’t you Feel it?”
She was taken aback by his questions until she realized that, no, she didn’t Feel anything. Taking a moment, she centered her energy. She had been so fixated on Lucas, on survival, that she hadn’t focused her abilities on her surroundings. But she reactivated them now and was flabbergasted at what she Felt.
“The common,” she whispered. But that was just it—they weren’t common. The dull glow she was used to associating with people who didn’t have abilities—her father, Ris—was no longer dull. It didn’t match the brightness of the Watchers, but it had a power all its own. She turned to Wen, whose eyes danced.
“Your vision? You were right, Morgan. Completely right. I’m sorry we doubted you.” Wen grinned, leaning forward and planting a kiss on her cheek. He was positively alight—not particularly Wen-like at all. He gripped her upper arm and gave it an enthusiastic squeeze—a motion that was much more in-character for him.
It was Ellie’s turn to speak. “Morgan, what’s happened here tonight—what you’ve done… This shakes the foundations of what we believe. Not just the Veneret, the Watchers too. Part of why the Veneret never had a problem draining energy from the common was because they believed it did them no good to have it. Even the Watchers have always believed there was something different about the common on a base level—that while they possessed their own bit of energy, they didn’t—couldn’t—possess abilities. But…” She made a sweeping motion with her hand, and Morgan understood what she meant. She needn’t tax her own abilities too much to realize that there was a kernel of ability developing in every “common” person in the room. Like flashes of lightning in her mind’s eye, she suddenly Knew things: Ris possessed the ability to See, Dylan the ability to Move, Aunt Ashleigh the ability to Heal. They wouldn’t be able to use these abilities right away—they would need to be developed.
Greg smiled down at her as if he’d had the same realization. “We don’t have to hide anymore. It’s time for us to step out of the shadows and start guiding others, helping them learn how to use their gifts.”
Ellie cleared her throat and inclined her head toward a group of people who looked both bemused and excited. “I think we should go talk to the locals.”
Greg nodded, and they started toward the group. Morgan smiled and watched them go. When she turned again, eyes seeking her cousin, they landed instead on Lucas. He grinned at her and broke away from his family.
“You can Feel it, can’t you?” he asked, snaking his arm around her waist. “It’s amazing, right?”
“Yeah,” Morgan agreed.
The two surveyed the scene unfolding before them. Chelsea and Dylan seemed to finally be aware they weren’t the only ones in the room: Ashleigh and Wes had approached and Chelsea was locked in a reunion hug with her sister. Joss towed Wen from where he stood with Ellie and Greg and began introducing him to her father and Dylan. Lia stood a few feet away, engaged in energetic discourse with her family and gesticulating encouragingly at Kellen, who was immediately embraced by a tearful Mrs. Roderick and given a hearty handshake and a slap on the back by Mr. Roderick. A look of genuine humility washed over Kellen’s face and, if Morgan wasn’t mistaken, a blush. Corbin and Ris stood a bit apart from their family members, who seemed to be working through this new reality together. Morgan noted that the two held hands, Corbin’s thumb rubbing slow circles on the back of her hand.
“We did it,” Morgan said. “The Prophecy, I mean.”
Lucas gave her a puzzled look, his eyebrows pulling together. “You don’t get it, do you? Morgan, we haven’t done anything—we’ve just started it. After today, nothing’s ever gonna be the same again.” He paused. “Well, almost nothing.” He pulled her so she faced him and put his free hand at the back of her head, pulling her to meet his lips and kissing her so hard it took her breath away. When he released her, smiling, she gasped and glanced around self-consciously.
“Maybe we should make some proper introductions to each other’s families before we start making out in front of them,” Morgan said.
Lucas shrugged, unconcerned. “Come on. Your parents have both met me. And just a minute ago, I pointed you out to my family and told them that the beautiful creature who now stands before me is the love of my life.” Morgan opened her mouth to respond, but he put a finger over her lips. “Besides, me kissing you is a sight they’ll just have to get used to because I intend to kiss you every day for the rest of my life.” Removing his finger, he replaced its pressure with his lips. “Maybe more than once a day.”
Morgan laughed. “You certainly are sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “Well, you did tell me you loved me.”
“So I did.” She leaned forward to kiss him again, but a gentle clearing of a throat caused her to pause. She turned, fully expecting to see Dylan standing beside her with a disapproving Dad scowl and was pleasantly surprised to see Greg instead.
“Morgan, do you think you should say a few words to everyo
ne?” He asked it the way only a teacher could: though his voice indicated a question, it was clear that he already knew the answer he was waiting to hear.
She looked immediately to Lucas, but the look she found there reflected what she already knew: yes, she should say some things to everyone. And not only did she know she should, she wanted to.
Keeping hold of Lucas’s hand, she wound her way around the clusters of people between herself and the staircase. As she ascended, she was relieved to see that someone had removed Orrick to a more discreet location. She turned at the landing and climbed to the center of the higher section of stairs. Taking in a breath, she surveyed the room, eyes locating those most important to her: Joss, Dylan, Chelsea, Ashleigh, Wes, Lia, Corbin, Ris, Wen, Greg, Ellie. As if she had called each of them by name, they looked her way, waiting for her to begin. She glanced at Lucas, who merely squeezed her fingers and smiled.
Looking out over those assembled, Morgan began to speak.
Epilogue:
Ten Years Later
Morgan Kenrick knocked at the door of a brick ranch and waited, shifting her weight from foot to foot while she waited for the door to open. She glanced at her watch and then at her husband. “We’re late.”
Lucas smiled at her agitation. He reached forward to remove the gift bag from her hand, pausing to press her fingers with his. “They’ll understand. I’d say we should just go in, but someone’s going to open the door in five… four… three… two…”
On cue, the door swung open to reveal Joss, whose brown hair was tied back in a messy bun. A smile spread across her tired face when her eyes landed on Morgan. “You made it!” She pulled her cousin into an embrace. “I heard on the news the summit was going longer than scheduled. I figured you’d still be stuck in New York for a few more days.”
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