“Apparently every move you made from the moment that video of you at the mall posted, the Koenigs were always either ready for you or one step behind,” Lacy continued.
My forehead pinched in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“Did you ever wonder how the Koenigs always seemed to show up everywhere you went? How they always seemed to know what you were up to?” Madison asked.
“Not really. There was always something else to keep me distracted.” My mind buzzed with the implications of what Madison was saying.
“Since you left, nearly all of the HCA missions have been compromised,” Lacy added. “And our informant inside the Koenig family tells us that once you left the underground, there hasn’t been a single update on you.”
Sickness spread from my stomach outward, choking me with nausea. “What are you saying?” I asked because I needed them to say what I had already figured out. I wanted to hear the words coming from someone else’s mouth.
“There’s a spy in the underground,” Madison stated bluntly. “Someone close enough to give the Koenigs details of your daily life.”
Silence fell thick around us. I struggled to breathe through the betrayal. Someone close to me gave my enemy information about me.
“Who?” Luca asked. His jovial attitude switched to soldier seriousness that completely changed his demeanor.
“We haven’t figured it out yet,” Madison answered. “Whoever they are, they’re damn good at hiding their tracks. Even Cayden couldn’t trace him or her or them. Hell, we’re not even sure how many there are.”
“Cayden? The microbiologist?” Luca asked.
“It makes sense,” I answered. “He probably knows more about technology than the underground’s actual tech guys. Plus, he’s obviously trustworthy since he arrived after the information leak and because of his devotion to his uncle and the underground.”
Madison and Lacy nodded in agreement.
“Have you gone to McCredie yet?” Kian asked. Winkles marred his forehead and his eyes unfocused in deep thought. Some of this information must have been new to him.
“Yes. We told him before the attack resulting in Mrs. LaMotte and Joshua being taken.” Rebecca spoke up when Madison and Lacy looked at each other, both challenging the other to answer.
“I’m not going to break down if you say her name,” I sighed. “What happened? Now that I know there’s a spy…” I couldn’t finish the thought. The idea of someone I knew being a part of Mrs. LaMotte’s kidnapping filled me with a rage that excited my Talent.
“About a week before the attack, the communication channel we discovered stopped. Cayden suspected that they discovered we were on to them and most likely opened another line of communication,” Madison explained, her eyes locked on to mine. “There was no way for us to know what they had planned.”
“Before, the Koenigs would show up to disrupt the HCA’s peaceful protests or to stop our missions. Although there were a few injuries, it seemed like they were trying not to harm anybody. It confused the hell out of McCredie,” Lacy added.
“They were waiting for something,” Rebecca whispered. She reached out to Luca and he scooped her up in his arms. Her prosthetic leg glinted in the florescent light. A dark reminder of how evil the Koenigs were.
“Yeah.” Madison sighed, her eyes trained on Rebecca’s leg. Pain washed over her face before she schooled her features. “They were waiting on something. Either for you to come back or for something else to come along.”
“Mrs. LaMotte,” I gasped. I stood and began pacing as everything clicked together. “They wanted to hurt me. No, they wanted to devastate me.” I stopped pacing as the weight of realization settled on my shoulders. “He’s done trying to get me on his side, isn’t he?”
I stopped and looked at my friends. Various degrees of sadness stared back at me. No one had to nod in agreement for me to understand the truth. “But why Joshua?”
“He is one of your friends, and none of us were on that particular mission. We suspect he has something big planned for the two of them,” Rebecca answered.
“So what now?” Kian asked as he leaned forward. His eyes narrowed in concentration.
“Cayden hasn’t discovered the new communication channels, so information is on lockdown. No one but McCredie, Marianne and us knew of our transfer to the Moreau family estate. Our job is to keep Sadie safe and to help Marianne in any way we can,” Madison answered.
“Can you tell us what McCredie had you doing, Kian?” Lacy asked.
Everyone shifted to look at Kian. He sat back and crossed his arms, not concerned by five pairs of eyes locked on his every move. His jaw clenched and released as he met each one of our gazes, stopping at me. He patted the seat next to him and I sat. Nerves danced below my skin.
“He asked me to use my business contacts to get information about the Koenigs and HPC. Much of what I discovered is classified, but I do have permission to tell you all that Miles Koenig has been doing genetic research on Caelians for years. He’s discriminating about who he picks; they usually have a unique, destructive Talent.”
Luca sucked in a deep breath, his eyes widening before they closed in pain. He must be thinking of his brother.
Kian stared at Luca with his head cocked to the side, eyes narrowed as if he saw Luca for the first time. I touched his thigh and gave it a squeeze, bringing him back to the conversation.
“There is not much information to go on, since we found my primary contact’s body a few weeks ago, but I have a hunch—and McCredie agrees with me—what Miles Koenig is up to.”
“What’s that?” I whispered. Whatever information he was about to share felt huge, like a bomb that would shatter our world as we knew it.
“That he’s searching for a way to weaponize Talents.”
Chapter 20
“What the actual…” Luca bit his lip, stood up and raked his hands through is hair, mussing up his coiffed mane.
“Of course, we aren’t one hundred percent sure,” Kian continued. “That is why McCredie has been conferencing with Marianne even though he despises her.”
“Why?” Rebecca asked.
“Because.” My voice cracked as flashes of my morning lessons with Marianne raced across my mind. “The Moreau family is strictly medical, and if the Koenigs created some sort of weaponized Talent, the Moreau family would be the ones to stop it.”
“I don’t understand how a Talent can be weaponized. Isn’t it a part of who you are?” Lacy mused, her eyes dancing back and forth as she stared at the floor deep in thought.
“That is an excellent question, norm girl,” Jedidiah’s voice boomed from the doorway.
Madison jumped up, the air around her dancing as the heat from her Talent flared beneath her skin. “Who are you?”
“I’m someone who is choosing peace,” Jedidiah answered with his signature riddle.
“This—” I stood and walked toward the guru, “—is my new Talent trainer, Jedidiah. He is some sort of Talent guru and has risked his safety to come here to help me.”
Madison’s muscles relaxed as the air around her cooled. Rebecca leapt up and limped toward Jedidiah, arm outstretched. “Good to meet you. Do you think you can help her?” she asked, nodding her head in my direction.
“I can help only when she embraces who she is destined to be.”
“Okay…” Rebecca backed away, her questioning gaze locked on me.
“You‘ll get used to it. He talks in riddles, but I believe he’s the real deal. There’s something different about him.” I hurried to ease the tension in the room. Jedidiah was the epitome of power and everyone felt it.
No one spoke as they stared at the massive guru. He met each person’s gaze with a lazy grin, undaunted with the wary attention they gave. I began to fidget as the silence grew. There was too much going on for this childish staring contest.
“Are you here to begin my training, Jed?”
The guru’s golden orbs locked on mine and swir
led as a barking laugh escaped his lips. “Jed. I love the nickname, my friend. No one has tried to act so familiar with me.” He placed a large hand on my shoulder. “You will make a difference.”
Unease from his compliment and intense gaze fluttered in my stomach until I couldn’t hold his stare any longer. I mentally snorted at his assessment. “Everyone makes a difference in their own way.”
“Truth,” he boomed as he turned me back toward my friends, placing his other hand on my free shoulder. “Yet there are those in the world destined to change it in greater ways.”
Power surged through me, and Jedidiah opened my eyes to another reality. Flowing strands of colorful energy danced around each of my friends, pouring from their stomachs. Each energy pattern was unique and felt familiar as if I knew intimately them. Their Talents. I gasped in awe of how much I didn’t see—didn’t know—with my secondary.
I tilted my head and focused on Lacy. Her energy wasn’t as bright as the rest, but it flowed the same. Could norms have the innate ability to have Talents? I traced her energy as if flowed outward and mingled with the others’, weaving in and out with each of the others as if they were strands in a corded rope.
“Look down and see,” Jedidiah’s voice usually loud voice whispered from somewhere behind me.
Without question, I obeyed. A bright white light pulsed out of my stomach and merged with my friends’ strands. Is this my Talent? As I watched my Talent flow around the other energies, they tightened together, becoming one solid energy stream, my energy the catalyst for everyone else’s to merge.
“Everyone is tied together whether we realize it or not. Your group is bonded in a way that defies logic, but is felt in your hearts. Yes, I believe you will make a difference, but do you see that you will not be alone?”
“I never was alone. Even when captured. Even when separated. We’re together,” I whispered.
“Always.” His voice echoed in my mind. “Do you see?”
“Is there something else?” I asked as I scanned the fading energies for anything I may have missed. Frustration blurred my vision even more until a loud pop made me scream out in pain.
“Sadie!” Kian’s hands wrapped around me in instant.
“What did you do?” Luca demanded as my friends gathered in a line blocking Jedidiah from me.
“I showed her what she needed to see.”
I reached out and placed a hand on Luca’s shoulder, pushing him gently to the side. Kian’s hands grasped my waist in a silent urge to stay put, but he released his hold when I stepped away. “I’m okay. Everything is okay.”
“Did you see?” Jedidiah asked me, his eyes swirling like molten gold.
“I saw, but I don’t understand. Was there something more?”
“There is always something more.”
“I don’t…”
“You will understand in time.” Jedidiah’s eyes solidified and his playful grin returned behind his bushy beard, softening his features and adding crinkles to the corners of his eyes. “That was your lesson for today. Think on what you saw, and next time we meet you will be ready.”
“You think I’ll be ready tomorrow?” Sarcasm bled through my question unintentionally.
Jedidiah’s laugh was jovial. “No! No. Other, more important things will get in the way for a while, my friend. We will come together again when the timing is right.”
“You have a lot of faith in the unknown, guru,” Madison stated, her obvious confusion replicated on each of my friends’ faces.
“It’s easy to have faith when you see. It grows hard when the prize is hidden.” Jedidiah walked away, stopping at the door to turn around and lock his gaze on me. “Marianne knows what she’s doing. Trust her. Trust your friends. Trust yourself.”
I nodded as he walked through the door. His parting words sunk in and felt heavy in my chest.
“I’m never going to get used to that guy,” Lacy murmured.
“What did you see?” Rebecca asked as everyone turned to look at me in anticipation.
“Something amazing.”
I tried my best to explain what I had seen when Jedidiah had opened up my eyes to the energy around us, but it fell short. No words could explain the profound beauty of what is unseen.
“Do you think he tapped into your Talent’s true potential?” Kian asked.
“Yeah. Maybe, in time you will see everyone’s energy, like an aura reader,” Rebecca agreed.
Their assessment didn’t feel right. “No. I think he somehow used my secondary Talent and merged it with his own Talent in order to open up my mind. He wanted me to see our energies in a bigger way than I do now.”
“He wanted you to see that we’re connected on a primal energy level?” Madison scoffed. “I could have told you that without causing you pain.”
I smiled through the pulsing in my head. “I think there was more than one lesson he wanted me to see.”
“What’s that?” Luca asked, his scowl softening with each gentle stroke down his neck from Rebecca’s hand.
“That I am never alone and with each other we can change the world.” My voice rang with resolve.
“Truth.” Lacy attempted to mock Jedidiah’s booming voice and thick accent with her soft, feminine one, throwing everyone into a fit of giggles.
“I think ol’ Jed will like you all. He’s strange, but I truly believe his heart is in the right place.”
A round of noncommittal grunts echoed through the group. They were still wary of Jedidiah, but they couldn’t see what I saw. They didn’t know what I had discovered during his impromptu vision quest— that he had some kind of preternatural ability to see beyond the physical. His presence and training was crucial to my success and the victory everyone desired in the end.
“What did he mean by ‘Did you see’?” Kian asked, breaking me from my thoughts.
“I don’t know. The whole experience was incredible and at the time, I wasn’t looking beyond what I could see.” Kian looked at me thoughtfully while everyone one else stared as if I had two heads. “If you hadn’t noticed, Jed doesn’t show his hand. He makes you work for it. I think he revealed something to do with my Talent’s true nature, but I don’t get it.”
“Neither do we,” Madison answered. “This whole situation is insane.” A few murmurs of agreement followed. I understood where they were coming from. It’s human nature to balk against something you cannot see.
“Maybe it will click when the time comes,” Kian answered as he stretched. “If I took anything from my upbringing it’s that some mysteries in life cannot be understood until the circumstances align.”
I met Kian’s smile with my own. Warmth spread throughout my chest as I fell for him a little more. He saw me differently than the others, and with his unique perspective he offered me unwavering faith, even when he questioned my methods.
“Oh wise and great Kian.” Luca bowed in mockery.
“Damn straight,” Kian replied with a haughty look. We girls rolled our eyes as the boys postured like animals. We laughed as the seriousness of the afternoon melted away, along with the stresses of our world. For a moment, we were just friends hanging out without the weight of war bearing down on us.
“Oh, there you are!” Francis marched into the room, her heels clicking loudly against the marble. “Marianne needs to see you in her office. Now.”
The peaceful moment shattered and reality poured back in. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes. She has something to discuss with you.” Francis looked around at the others. “Isn’t there something you all should be doing at this moment besides lollygagging? If you have forgotten, the world is in unrest.”
“We haven’t forgotten,” Kian answered, his eyes narrowing at Francis. “We wanted to give Sadie a moment of peace before responsibility weighed down on her again. Have you forgotten, she is still recovering from a harrowing ordeal?”
Francis cheeks heated as she adverted her eyes from Kian’s relentless gaze. “I will
never forget.” I blushed in turn, remembering all the nights when Francis had heard my anguished cries and the mornings when she doctored my self-inflicted wounds.
“We do have to set up our rooms and get ready for integration into the estate’s routine,” Lacy stood and stretched. “Plus, I think we’d all like to go to bed early and sleep. Traveling takes it out of me.”
“See you tomorrow,” Madison whispered as she swept me into a hug. “Isn’t strange that Jed told you to listen to your aunt and then not an hour later she’s asking for a meeting?” I pulled back and looked at her before nodding in agreement.
Madison stepped away, her gaze focused on the wall, deep in thought while Lacy and Rebecca both wrapped me in a hug. My eyes met Madison’s before she stepped out of the room. She would fill the others in. Luca flicked my nose as he passed by, drawing my gaze away from the girls.
Ass. I mouthed to him. He lips curled in a smirk as he mock saluted me.
Turning my attention back to Francis, I released a slow breath. With Madison’s reminder of Jed’s foresight urging me to trust my aunt, I knew this wasn’t going to be a typical meeting.
“Let’s go see what Marianne wants.”
Chapter 21
Marianne was pacing in her office when Francis opened the door. Her skin was pale and an intense worry for her health stunned me. Is she getting enough sunlight? I cut my eyes to Francis, my brows raised in question as I pointed to my aunt. Her hawk-like gaze assessed my aunt and she shook her head at me.
“Sadie! Good. You’re here.” Marianne waved to the small conference table in the far corner of the office. “Take a seat.”
“Okay.” I followed my aunt with Francis and Kian in tow. Marianne’s nervous energy spread, and soon my leg shook under the table and my Talent buzzed underneath the surface of my skin.
Once we were all seated, Marianne looked straight at me, ignoring everyone else in the room. She looked older, as if the stress was sucking the life right out of her. Her normally prim hair was limp and greasy, as if she’d been running her fingers through the tresses all day. She gave me a halfhearted smile before turning her gaze to Kian. The love I usually saw when she looked at me snapped away as the business side rose to take its place, reminding me of the first time I met her when we arrived to pick up Cayden months ago.
The Caelian Cycle Boxed Set Page 49