Chosen_Book One

by Rebecca Thomas

  “I know that you’re conflicted, Caleb,” she told him, placing a hand on his chest. “We all are.”

  “I don’t know, I wouldn’t say Hallie was.”

  “Don’t say that. You know that she’s glad you’re still with us.”

  “That wasn’t…” he sighed. “I just meant the grief she is feeling outweighs everything else.”

  “I don’t think you know what you meant. Your mind is so muddled that I can barely make sense of it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Stop apologising.”

  Caleb went to apologise for apologising too much, but Lily placed a finger over his mouth before he could speak.

  “Look, I know that this is hard, and I know that there are a lot of things that are unsure at the moment, but there are some things that you can be sure about. The first is that you have a family that loves you. Your Mum, Ezra, Kiara, even Hallie. If you were gone, they would be just as devastated, some even more so. I don’t want you thinking that there is any sort of even trade that could have been made between you and Will. That’s not something you get to carry anymore.”

  He had forgotten what it was like when she took charge like this, how she could command his attention and his feelings if she wanted.

  “And the second?”

  “That regardless of whatever the Elders decide, I want there to be an us,” she said. “If there’s one lesson that we should all take away from what happened it’s that life for people like us can be short, regardless of prophecy. We have to seize the moment and I want to seize the moment with you.”

  “You do?”

  “I do.”

  Pressing up on her toes, Lily touched her lips to his in short but sweet first kiss.

  Caleb had imagined many ways that this moment could go, but he hadn’t thought they would be able to find it here; a few seconds of calm certainty in the middle of a tumultuous storm of grief and pain.

  “I want that too,” he whispered.

  “Good.”

  He leaned in to kiss her again, lingering longer this time. When he pulled back, his mind was clear for the first time in weeks. All that remained was the scent of her perfume and the taste of her lips.

  “That’s more like it,” she said.

  “The next one will be even better,” he promised.

  ~

  Diana had been apprehensive at first about attending the funeral. She felt a great deal of responsibility for Will not having more time with his family. If she had been less tied up in her own anger and grief and allowed him more freedom, maybe...

  Maybe.

  It was Caleb who convinced her that she should go. He knew how important it was for her to be able to say goodbye after what had happened to them all those years ago. If she didn’t, then that decision was going to haunt her forever.

  She hadn’t asked Ezra to come with her. Like always, he simply volunteered with very little fuss. He was still attuned to what she needed, despite the vast amount of time that had passed.

  Diana had meant to go downstairs to wait with Will’s parents, but she had got distracted on the way by a sign on one of the doors. ‘Will’s Room’. As she pushed open the door, she wasn’t surprised to find that it was exactly how Will would have left it. His parents hadn’t touched it, probably to preserve a part of him while he had been gone.

  The walls were painted blue, although you could barely see the colour for the number of posters that were plastered over every single wall. There were movies, bands, pictures and ticket stubs, a massive collage that made up his early years. His bed sheets were a tumbled mess and his dresser had half the drawers poking out slightly, revealing old shirts and underwear. There was a desk in front of the window which was the neatest thing in the entire room, only because it had so little on it. This must have been where most of the belongings he had carried with him to France had previously been. Handing his possessions over to his parents had been the first thing she had done when she arrived. By rights, they belonged to them now.

  Diana made her way over to the desk and found a flight confirmation for his trip to New Jersey, the trip he had taken before he received his prophecy. There was a travel notebook with bits and pieces sticking out of the sides, leaflets about where he had wanted to go before his Dad shut him down. Flicking through the pages, she was glad that she had been able to take him to some of the places on his list: London, Moscow, Tokyo…

  The only other thing was a crumpled picture of him, his Dad and Hallie’s Mom, which he must have forgotten to take with him. He was only seven years old in the picture, holding newborn Hallie is in short arms.

  She sighed quietly, touching the pendant around her neck. It was where she kept the pictures of her own family, John and Caleb. She would have to find one of Will to add to it. It was the best way she knew how to keep him close.

  There was a gentle knock at the door, followed by a, “Hey.”

  It was Ezra.

  “Hey,” she replied, still holding onto the necklace.

  “So, this is Will’s old room.”

  “It almost mirrors what the inside of his tent looked like back at camp,” she said. “He was such a mess, in so many ways.”

  “But he wasn’t in the end.”

  “No, far from it.”

  Ezra joined her by the window, looking out at the sparkling water.

  “It’s my turn to be surprised by something I didn’t realise you still had,” he said.

  Diana looked down at the pendant enveloped in her fingers.

  “I wear it every day.”

  “I would have thought that you would have discarded it because it reminded you of me,” he said.

  “I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider doing that once, back when I was first expelled from the order. But I realised that it had come to symbolise so much more than what we meant to each other all those years ago.”

  “What was that?”

  “That was I was always carrying a little bit of love around with me, for those I care for and those who cared for me.”

  “That’s beautiful,” Ezra said.

  It was funny to think that, in a way, Ezra had been the person who had kept a part of her grounded all this time because he had given her one of the most important things that she owned.

  “I appreciate you being here,” she said. “And I appreciate all that you’ve done for me these last couple of weeks, from the moment you risked your life to come to camp to talk some sense into me. If you hadn’t have done it, then I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”

  “You don’t need to thank me,” he said.

  “Oh, but I do.”

  Diana grazed her the tips of fingers against his palm, letting him close his hand around hers.

  “All this time, I’ve been so angry at you, thinking that you were the reason that Caleb was taken from me. But the truth is that I wouldn’t have Caleb without you, and that’s a debt that I can never repay.”

  “You don’t owe me anything,” he tried to insist.

  “Would you just be quiet for once and accept my gratitude?” she asked, looking up into his familiar brown eyes.

  “All right,” he replied, bowing his head to her.

  They stood there like that for a few minutes, letting the hatred and pain of the past slip away from them so they could start again.

  “I have something I need to show you,” Ezra said, breaking the silence.

  “Oh?”

  He let go of her hand so that he could pull a folded letter from his pocket. It was addressed to him in Master Talbot’s handwriting.

  “Hallie told me about it the day before we came out here. She was asked to pass on a message from Talbot in the moments before he died.”

  “What does it say?” she asked.

  “Many things, mostly thoughts and regrets,” he said. “But his last wish was that I take over his position as the deciding vote on the Elders’ council.”

  “Really?”

  “Apparentl
y I was the best student he had ever taught, and he wanted me to lead the Guardians into the future.”

  “Ezra, that’s--”

  “I want you to know that the first thing we’re doing as soon as we get back is changing the rules surrounding families. Everyone deserves to have that love in their life.”

  “I would have been supportive regardless, but thank you,” she smiled.

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “If we’re going to move forwards, then we have to do it together.”

  “I agree.”

  “Which is why, if you agree to come back, I want to put you forth for my old spot on the council.”

  Diana opened and closed her mouth, a whole flurry of thoughts and doubts whirling through her head all at once.

  “You don’t have to decide right away. I know you’ve been through a lot and that convincing people to accept you will be difficult, but I would feel better knowing that there was another person on the council that I could trust.”

  Diana let out a shaky breath, looking back at the ocean rather than at his face. His generosity was almost too much to bear.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  Ezra smiled softly.

  “That’s all I ask.”

  ~

  The ceremony was perfect. There was very little pomp and circumstance. Will’s cousins read a couple of poems and his Dad gave a short speech about how proud he was about what his son had achieved in life, short as it was. They buried Will in a plot closest to the cliff, so that his body would forever be by the ocean he loved so much. Kiara couldn’t imagine a better send off, even though she barely knew him.

  She wished she had got to talk to him more, but she had already learned the hard way that you had to take whatever you were given and cherish it. They would definitely cherish their memories of Will.

  His parents held a wake at his Dad’s house, where everybody milled about in the sunshine, eating from the barbeque and telling stories about their crazy family shenanigans. It was lovely.

  As the sun began to set, Kiara found herself sitting on the beach, her eyes on the horizon. A definitive line that you could never reach. It felt symbolic in a way, but she couldn’t put together why.

  Slowly, members of their group started to join her. Hallie first. Then Lily and Caleb, walking together hand in hand. Finally, Diana and Ezra, who sat just to her right. No one wanted to speak. They all wanted to feel the one thing that had been impossible to find these last few weeks: peace.

  “I can feel him,” Hallie said without warning, making them turn their heads.

  “Will?” Kiara asked.

  “Yeah, it’s like… I can feel him smiling at us, wherever he is. He’s happy that we’re all together.”

  “I can believe that,” Kiara said.

  “As can I,” Ezra agreed.

  “It’s good,” Hallie said, managing a smile for the first time since the battle had begun. “I hope that we can make him proud.”

  “We will,” Diana said, looking at Ezra. “I’ve decided, I will let you sponsor me for your old slot on the council. Resolving our issues is the best way that we can honour him and the others who lost their lives or left us.”

  “From rebel leader to Elder,” Caleb said, sounding amused.

  “But always your mother.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “We’ll also be doing away with the ban on Guardian’s having families. I think we’ve all suffered enough,” Ezra said. “Although, I see you two have had a head start.”

  Kiara noticed that Caleb and Lily were still holding hands, and not just as friends.

  “That’s exciting,” Hallie said, and she meant it. “You two deserve each other.”

  “Thank you, Hallie,” Lily smiled.

  “If I say more nice things now, can I call dibs on being a bridesmaid?”

  They all laughed.

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?” Caleb suggested.

  But Hallie whispered, “Dibs,” in Lily’s ear anyway.

  “What’s going to happen to the Citadel?” Kiara asked.

  “We’ll repair and rebuild. I’m not ready to give up on it just yet,” Ezra said.

  That made sense. Despite what had happened there, it was still home to so many. They wouldn’t let fall to ruin if they could save it.

  “What will we do next?” Hallie looked at Kiara.

  “I hear New Zealand is very nice this time of year,” she said. “If you’re up for it?”

  “I think a little travelling might do me some good,” Hallie nodded.

  “We can work out everything else once we’re back,” Kiara concluded.

  “By the time you’re done, we should have everything back up and running,” Caleb said. “And then our real work will begin.”

  “Kicking ass and taking names the world over,” Kiara smirked.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Three Weeks Earlier

  Epilogue

  "Are you in the bathroom?"

  "It's the only place that I can get a little privacy around here! They've got four of us in a room together, it gets a little crazy sometimes."

  "You'd think with the amount of tuition we pay, they'd be able to get it down to two a room," Noah remarked.

  "I don't think it would be any less silly. We'd all just pile in together anyway," Sophia said, giggling at a shriek that came from the other side of the door.

  "Well, I know how you're finding the hotel. How about Vienna itself?"

  "GREAT! So great, I can't even... The opera house was stunning. And La Traviata!"

  Sophia jumped up and down, waving her phone around, which made him a little motion sick.

  "Oh my God, their voices. I thought they were going to bring the whole building down."

  "I'm glad you're having such a good time."

  "How's London? How's Faizal?"

  "Busy. He's got me trailing after him all over the city, going from meeting to meeting. I was hoping to see the sights, the closest I've got has been staring at them from the cab window while we're stuck in traffic..."

  "Noah, sorry, I missed half of that because they've started fighting. Give me a minute."

  Noah waited as his sister ducked past the quarrelling girls, out of the room, and made her way down to the pool. It was the middle of the night, so no one was around to bother them.

  "That's better," she sighed. "I heard something about you wanting to see the sights, then you were drowned out by a screech of 'THE GUMMY BEARS ARE MIIIIINE!'"

  Noah laughed. "What I had to say wasn't as interesting."

  "Was the gala fun at least?"

  "I got to do some schmoozing. Met a very cute redhead who would have been perfect for you, but she dashed off before I could start up a meaningful conversation."

  "Are you sure you didn't scare her off? Those dimples are a lot to handle."

  "They are, but I made sure she knew I was taken. I thought that would make things less tense, but it wasn't enough to stop her from darting away into the crowd before I could say goodbye."

  "Ah well, it wouldn't have worked out anyway, I suck at long distance anything if it's not you or Mom," Sophia shrugged.

  "And even then..." he teased, expecting a chuckle or a retort.

  Instead, she was distracted.

  "You okay?"

  "What? Oh, yeah, I thought I saw someone. It was probably just a reflection in one of the windows."

  "Yeah, probably. How's your head been?"

  "Pretty good, actually. The blocking technique we figured out has been working. I've been able to go out in crowds without getting overwhelmed and I've been able to find my friends' voices through the crowd as well, so I haven't got split up from them."

  "That's awesome, Soph," he smiled.

  "Right? I treated myself to some Linzer biscuits as a reward, they're delicious."

  "I've never had them before, but their chocolate is the best."

  "I'll get you some bef
ore I--"

  Sophia was cut off mid-sentence by a hand suddenly covering her mouth. Her eyes went wide, and she let out a muffled scream before the phone fell.

  Noah watched in horror as the world tumbled across his screen, his words getting caught in his throat. He heard glass shatter, then the call disconnected.

  "Soph?"

  He didn't know why he was only saying this now, not ten seconds ago when someone was in the middle of kidnapping her.

  "SOPH!"

  Yelling at his phone wasn't going to help her either.

  Noah rolled off the bed, barely stopping to grab his shoes as he bolted for the door. As he yanked it open, he almost ran headlong into his fiancée, who just about caught him.

  "Noah, what's wrong?"

  "I think someone just kidnapped my sister," he stammered, trying to wrestle himself from Faizal's grasp.

  "How do you know?"

  "We were having a video chat, someone grabbed her, and the call disconnected."

  "Are you sure it's not just her classmates pulling some sort of prank?"

  "I--" Noah cut himself off, stopping his struggle for a moment. "She sounded scared."

  "Have you got the number for the hotel? Let's give them a call."

  Steering Noah back into the suite, Faizal sat him down on the bed and pulled his own cell from his jacket pocket. It was a quick call.

  "They've found her phone, but there's no one by the pool. None of the kids are hanging out in the lobby either. They're going to do a thorough search and get back to me. If they can't find her, they'll call the police right away."

  Noah buried his head in his hands, his leg jiggling up and down furiously with nerves.

  "I just sat there," he said, berating himself. "I didn't say anything, I just watched as they took her."

  "There wasn't anything you could do, she's half a continent away."

  "I could have shouted something, made them think twice."

  "Noah, stop. If she's truly been taken, then we'll do everything without our power to get her back. You know we will. Between us and our contacts, we can have her safely back home tomorrow."

  Noah was too stressed to truly believe what Faizal was saying. Between their family’s money and her psychic powers, there was too much in her life that could put her in jeopardy. But he knew that if he didn’t calm down, then they couldn’t do what they needed to in order to get her back, and she was his number one priority right now.