“I love him, Darius. You know that.”
“I know.”
“But right now, I want to strangle him, hang him up by his toenails, and beat him with a sharp stick like a piñata. How many ways can I say it? How many times do I have to tell him he can’t make decisions for me?”
“He’s a fixer, Allie. He’s always been the guy who takes care of his family and those he loves. Whether they want him to or not.” Darius moved to sit on the sofa beside her. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but you’re a lot like him in that way.”
“I care about people the way he does, but I don’t bulldoze right over them without listening to what they want.”
“Oh, yeah? When did you ask Aidan if he wanted to be rescued?”
“I—he … Why wouldn’t he want to come home?” Allie stammered.
“There’s another side to his story, Allie. We can’t know what’s driving him; we probably don’t have anywhere close to the full story. But you’re doing the right thing with Soma. And we do need to give all of the Syntrophos of the Milan Initiative the option to leave. But we can’t choose sides for them. Not even for my idiot brother.”
“I really hate it when you’re right.”
“It happens a lot. I’m sure it’s irritating.” He smirked.
“All right, you get one.” Allie smiled, putting her feet up on the ottoman. “It just feels like he has no faith in me. Like he will always see me as that fifteen-year-old, clueless, lonely girl that ran right into him on the trails of Kelleys Island a million years ago.”
“Where you are concerned, Aidan will always react like an over-protective boyfriend first and your equal second.”
“Where do we go from here, Dare?” Allie’s eyes filled with angry tears. “I did all of this for him. I’m such a fool.”
“You are not the fool here. Aidan takes that prize.” Darius rubbed his hands across his face in frustration. “You know what needs to happen next, Allie. We have to move on without him.”
“He left again,” she whispered as she stared out of the floor to ceiling windows that often felt more like a prison than a luxury. A big part of her wanted to pack up and go back to school to the homey little cottage she shared with Darius and their friends. Where her adorable niece lived just across the street, so Allie got to see her everyday. She wanted that boring, normal life again. The grass is always greener, she mused.
“I think you should take a step back for a little while. Delegate some of your workload as we move forward. You don’t need to be responsible for every single decision.”
Allie nodded. She knew she had to slow down, or she’d never see this thing through. And she had to see it through. Soma was her responsibility now. She’d just never considered she’d be doing it without Aidan.
“Allie-girl?” Alexander knocked softly at the foyer entrance.
“Grandpa?” She stood to greet him. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s worse than we thought.” Alexander crossed the room to her side. “Marcus isn’t just in cahoots with the Chief Justice on the Milan Initiative. I’ve done some digging and it’s not good.”
Allie had never seen her grandfather so flustered before. “Sit down, Grandpa.” Allie pulled him down on the sofa beside her. “What’s he up to?”
“Marcus is a senator, Allie. He sits on the International Senate with his eyes and ears on every move the Chief Justice makes. They don’t make a single decision without his approval.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Standing in her cap and gown, Allie found herself alone among her classmates on graduation day. Darius and Sasha waited in line far behind her. With everything that had happened recently, this day wasn’t the momentous occasion she’d been looking forward to for the last four years. She just wanted to get it over with, so she could get back to Atlanta and figure out what to do next. After she’d force herself to accept Aidan was on the wrong side, the burning need to take a stand against the Senate was stronger than ever before.
Allie absently followed the graduate in front of her, filing into the outdoor auditorium for the long morning of ceremony. Not for the first time, she wished she could have just received her diploma by mail and skipped the ceremony, but Lily and Carson deserved to have this day.
Allie crossed the green lawn and took her alphabetical seat among the other students with surnames beginning with “C.” Her mind wasn’t on the graduation or the dean’s commencement speech. Releasing the spectral figures from her peripheral vision, she let them wander but didn’t let them talk. She was back in control again, but she had to stay on top of them, taking the time to examine her visions as often as she could. She found that when she gave them the attention they deserved, focusing on one at a time, she began to see so much more than just the person. Little details began to surface. New faces and places emerged, giving her a much better look at what her gift was trying to tell her.
She saw Aidan first. He followed her often now, but it was odd seeing him like this after their real encounter recently. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. In the privacy of her own thoughts, she studied him more carefully. In the intervening years, his jawline had hardened from the slight softness of boyhood he’d once had. His dark hair gleamed almost blue in the afternoon sunlight. His eyes smoldered with golden fire, his shoulders, wider than they were before, tensed with anger. He was so furious with her. But this wasn’t him. Not really. He was lost to her now; the boy that had once been her high school sweetheart.
Allie rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the images from her vision. Strange, dark blue clouds rolled in like a storm suddenly brewing. But the sun still shone through, casting her world with an eerie green light. Thunder rumbled in the distance and yet the dean still droned on, her cue that this wasn’t happening for anyone else.
She saw Aidan again. Her Aidan. The one she knew inside and out. It was the version of him just before he left. His dark eyes filled with anguish and despair as he paced across the lawn, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. Emma joined him, her arm around his waist, comforting him as they approached his parents. Emma spoke softly with them, while Aidan stood absently by, letting them make the decision of whether he would go to Germany or not. Somehow, Emma talked Naeemah and Gregg into letting him go. He left a few days later. He’d put on a brave front for her when he said goodbye, but as she watched him board the plane now, he looked utterly broken. It really had killed him to leave her.
So why did he do it? She shook her head, refusing to focus on him any longer. If she did, she would break down right here in the middle of her college graduation. Instead, she focused on the spectral figure of Livia. Her tall, dark, and regal sister. So much better suited for positions of authority than Allie. It was easy to think everything would be better with Livia in charge, but as Allie watched her and a future version of herself laughing with an older Lily and Carson, she realized how damaged her sister still was. Despite how far she’d come in the last years, Livia still had a long way to go. She deserved to take a backseat for once. Allie smiled as she watched herself and her sisters, one Immortal and one mortal, play with her mortal niece and nephew. She hadn’t seen her sister Josceline much in the last few years, but they spoke often, and it warmed her to see a future where they were all together and happy. Carson rolled on the floor with his grandchildren, healthy and happy, looking younger than he had a right to look at his age in this future that was still a long way away. She’d once feared she wouldn’t have her mortal family with her for long, and that she would be alone someday without a family of her own. But her Immortal family was there with her in this vision: Darius, Livia, Liam, and Kahlynn. Navid. Alísun and Alexander were there right alongside her mortal family. It was a good future. Aidan was there, too, looking more like the boy she remembered. Allie stared at them for a long time. The valedictorian was almost through her speech before Allie finally tore herself away from the happy picture. That future wasn’t hers. Not yet.
The midnight bl
ue clouds threatened to snuff out the sun as she took in the other figures swirling around her, vying for her attention.
She saw Gregg and Naeemah standing before the Senate, a panel of judges looking down on them with disapproval. A ghostly Allie stepped up beside them, Livia at her left and Darius at her right. Quinn stood proudly behind them with Sasha and Santi, but there were others. Many others. Alísun and Alexander stood with the McBriens. Her whole family was present, except Navid. He was a former Chief Justice who was supposed to be dead, so there was no way he could be there. The Senate watched the proceedings with confusion. The Chief Justice looked on from their high seats at the center of the courtroom, looks of disdain on their long faces.
And then Alexander and Alísun crossed to the center dais, standing opposite Naeemah and Gregg who were on trial for some unknown crime. Allie turned her focus to the ancient circular auditorium. Crumbling stone and faded frescos adorned the domed ceiling where an oculus opened to the starry night above. Hundreds of elected Senators sat in a semi-circle around the panel of the Chief Justice who sat with two vacant seats beside them. Seats Allie’s mother and father once occupied. Others sat below them. High officials meant to assist the Chief Justice in their office. This was their government, broken as it was.
Why are those seats still vacant? It’s been eighteen years. Allie tried to recall her lessons with Daniel. He explained it once, how the Immortal world moved so slowly. The next election wouldn’t take place for another seven years. The office of the Chief Justice was traditionally held by four people. Two Complements, each representing one vote. The system was meant to check and balance each other. Nothing was decided until both parties could agree. Sarah and Charles Madison held only half of the office, yet they’d been trusted to take on the full responsibility of the Senate. How much damage have they caused in the last two decades? And how much more can they cause in the next seven years? To most Immortals, seven years was but a moment. To her, it was still a long time. She didn’t trust the Madisons. They were working for Marcus, which meant his influence had also spread from the Coalition to Soma and now to the Senate itself. He was behind everything. The Chief Justice were his puppets. The vacant office needed to be filled immediately. The election couldn’t wait any longer.
Allie scanned the courtroom, memorizing the faces of each senator. She didn’t want to miss a single detail. And then she saw him. Sitting among the lower ranking senators at the back of the courtroom, with his unremarkable face, was Marcus Servius. The seat beside him where Livia’s mother, Porcia, should have sat was vacant.
Seeing what her clairvoyant gift wanted her to see, the vision vanished, leaving Allie trying to figure out how the man got himself elected to the International Senate.
“Alexis Carmichael, graduating summa cum laude,” the dean called.
It took Allie a moment to collect herself as she stood, shoving the remaining visions back into her peripheral vision. She took a shaky step toward her future, the next uncertain chapter of her life. She understood it now. The way some Immortals her age chose to stay in college for years and years. It was comfortable. It was normal and it was safe.
But what lay ahead of Allie was anything but safe.
Allie walked along the beach, her black graduation gown billowing behind her. She’d discarded her cap in the car on the drive home, but once they arrived back on Kelley’s Island at the home she’d grown to love, Allie wandered down to the beach. She’d promised Livia she wouldn’t go far, but she needed some time to think. The rolled piece of parchment clutched tightly in her hand.
She found herself at the grotto. Darius and his family were still in the city, celebrating his and Sasha’s big day. They were all supposed to be together today, but Allie had changed her mind at the last minute, preferring to be alone. She insisted that Darius go on without her.
Lily and Carson were back at the house, preparing some big last minute family barbecue with Liam and Livia. But they didn’t know yet what plagued Allie’s mind. The decision she had to make.
She sat at the cold, stone fire pit. She hadn’t spent much time here in recent years. With school, she was too busy. But if she were honest, it was the memories keeping her away. Too many memories of Aidan haunted this place.
She stared at the piece of paper in her lap wondering what to do next. Retreat to Soma? Take her entire family with her? But how could she take her mortal family into one of the biggest seats of the Immortal world? How could she explain their presence at Soma?
Like so many times in the past, Allie wondered what good was the gift of clairvoyance if she couldn’t see what was coming next? She released the visions again. She had to study them all, but there were still so many; she wasn’t sure how she would ever learn to process them on her own.
She’d made the worst mistake of her adult life by allowing school to come first when she should have spent more time devoted to her training. Sweeping it all under the rug to deal with another day was never a solution. It had to stop now. And maybe one day, she would be prepared for the big things before they were sitting in her lap.
Allie studied a vision of Chief Justice Sarah Madison with her prim, round face, watching her from a distance. Her Complement, Chief Justice Charles Madison, lingered behind his wife. They were Marcus’s eyes and ears. It always came back to him. He was never in the picture, but he was always behind the scenes pulling his puppets’ strings, making them dance to his tune. But if he truly was an elected Senator, he was keeping a very close watch on his most important puppets.
Allie watched them all. People she knew. Moments she recognized. Strangers. Simple moments that seemingly meant nothing—and wouldn’t until they did. She saw fighting. War. Death and destruction right alongside peace, progress, and joyous moments of life.
“How did you do it, Kassandre?” she spoke to her mother. Her dead mother. “How did you see so much and make sense of it all?”
Kassandre and Navid had orchestrated every moment of their lives together, and every moment of their children’s lives, right up until her death. For so long, Allie had held on to the hope that she would one day see her mother again. But it wasn’t meant to be. She gave her life, so her daughters could have this one. This one future Kassandre saw for them that was the best of all the futures she’d seen.
“How did she do it? How did she know it was the right choice?”
She didn’t. Allie realized. Even with five thousand years of experience behind her, Kassandre made her choices based on careful guesswork and intuition. That was what Allie had to do now.
She smiled as she caught a vision of Aidan making his way down the beach. His black pants rolled up as he walked barefoot in the shallows, the gentle waves lapping at his feet. He was different from the Aidans she’d seen lately. Less angry and scary. More like the boy she remembered.
He dissolved in a burst of green light as Darius charged down the beach. The bond ignited between them. Something was wrong.
“Darius?” Allie stood, her heart in her throat.
“I’m so glad you didn’t come with us.” He slammed into her side, pulling her tightly against his chest.
“What happened?” She pulled back, searching his eyes for answers.
“Mom has been arrested. They came for Dad, too, but he was with Sasha and Quinn, so they settled for Mom.”
“Naeemah? Arrested? For what?” Her chest tightened with the burn of her power. This was all her fault. “For shielding me from them all these years?” Allie stared at the paper still clutched in her hand.
“It’s a bullshit charge.” Darius collapsed onto the stone sofa where Allie had been sitting. “Charges have been filed against them for harboring an unknown with questionable abilities. Somehow, they know about your judgment gift.”
Allie sank down beside him, all the blood rushing from her face. Marcus knows. It was the thing that drove him and all of his ambitions. Thousands of years ago, Allie’s ancestor, Queen Eiselynn, bonded with her commoner Complement
, Ían, and jilted Marcus, known then as Lord Teigan. When Marcus attacked Ían, he retaliated and took Marcus’s gift for himself. Since then, Marcus had obsessively hunted the royal line, looking for his gift to manifest in another. Allie’s judgment gift was a combination of skills she’d inherited from her father, Navid, and her ancestor, Ían. And Marcus wanted it back.
“What’s this?” Darius gestured at the rolled piece of paper in her hand. “Have you crushed your diploma?”
“No.” Allie took a deep breath to still her racing heart. “This came for me a few hours ago, just after the ceremony.”
“What is it?”
“A summons. I’m being called before the International Senate in Barcelona.”
“You can’t answer that summons, Allie.”
“I have to. If they know about my judgment gift, I won’t make it out of there a free woman. But I can’t leave Naeemah to suffer this alone.”
“What does that paper say about you, Allie?”
“I am a fugitive. There is a rather large bounty on my head if I don’t show up for this.”
“What have they charged you with?”
“Treason.” Allie trembled at the thought of what faced her. This was serious.
“Dad will be the first to tell you to ignore this. We will find another solution for Mom. They can’t hold her on something as trivial as neglecting to report a neighbor girl raised by mortals. They have no evidence that you are anything more to them than that.”
“But if they know about my gift, they will make Naeemah suffer until I turn myself in.”
“They might try, but they won’t get far without any real evidence of what you can do.”
Emerge- The Heir Page 20