by Alana Siegel
Sitting inside a locked state trooper's car and behind metal bars, made me feel, once again, like a caged animal. After an uncomfortable ride, we stopped in front of Justin's house. I reached across Luca, who had passed out in the middle seat, and squeezed Justin's hand. He looked frightened and unwilling to leave me alone. I leaned back in my seat to prepare for the next stop.
“Everybody out!” the state trooper ordered. Everybody? Justin and I exchanged glances. Why wasn't he taking me home? I was sure my parents would have heard about the party bust and would be waiting for me.
The state trooper opened my door and motioned me to go inside the house. Justin pulled Luca out the other side of the car. Luca groaned, but we threw each of his arms over our shoulders and hurried to get inside. The state trooper didn't follow us.
Something felt strange the minute we walked in the front door. Justin's mom didn't meet us, ready to scold. In fact, most of the lights were turned off. The house usually felt warm and welcoming, but the glow of a single light coming from the den downstairs looked cold and ominous.
Again, Justin and I shared our thoughts with just a look. My heartbeat sped up as we made our way down the stairs, moving slowly and clumsily with Luca wrapped around our necks.
Peering into the room, I felt a tingling sensation creep up my spine. Sitting on the couch with her hands clasped in her lap was Great-Aunt Ev. She was wearing her usual grin with her eyebrows high on her forehead, but this time her warm welcome felt insincere. She spent years scheming and plotting against the Meta. The friendly great-aunt I met in Salt Lake City was an act, and I was only a pawn in her chess game.
I was no longer scared and powerless. My anger had officially reached a peak higher than Max's. I was irate and sick of being played as a fool. Taking one step in front of Justin and Luca, I balled my hands into fists in front of me, clenched my jaw, and felt the immense surge of my Gift from my core.
“Get. Out,” I growled, enunciating each sound and glaring at the old woman. Aunt Ev didn't flinch. My Gift buzzed with a life of its own. I wasn't sure if she was unbelievably tough or implausibly suicidal.
In a voice that was both firm and gentle she said, “Olivia, darling.” I dug my nails into my fists. How dare she call me darling!
I lurched forward, but she put her hands up. “Before you use your Elste Gift on me, I need to tell you a few things,” she said and this time her voice sounded urgent.
“Ev, is that you?” Luca asked. He swayed because he was unstable. “Carly....you sent Carly,” he slurred.
“Yes, I did, and if the next few days weren't important, I would ground you for this drunken behavior,” she said, harshly. I kept my eyes on Aunt Ev, but I heard Luca whimpering behind me.
“Why send Carly now?” My look was accusing. “You had years to tell him the truth about his parents.”
“Because we all have a dark past, sometimes from our own doing, sometimes from what our family or our ancestors did. Knowing the truth helps us heal and move forward. You all need to internalize that pain and strengthen your Gift,” she told us. I wasn't sure if she was apologizing for her own actions, or Luca's parents’, or for Thisbe. All I heard was the venom in her voice from her own pent-up emotions. Considering she was calling all the shots, I didn't plan on softening my stance.
“Why should we listen to you? Because you are always looking out for our own good?” My sarcasm was venomous. She could feed me stories about overcoming darkness, but I wasn't ready to believe them.
“I know it may not look like that,” she responded.
“You know what it looks like, Evelyn Forte? It looks like you are the ringmaster, and we are the dumb clowns in your circus. Is everyone under your control? Let me guess, the state trooper was once a member of your Gifted Retreat. I guess Prometheus was working for you, too. I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Dimon is actually one of your cronies!” I was shouting by then.
Aunt Ev was still until I finished. “No, not everyone,” she said, and turned to Justin's grandma sitting on her left. She was sitting so statuesquely that I hardly even noticed she was there until Aunt Ev looked at her.
“Do you want to tell them?” Aunt Ev asked the quiet woman.
“Yes, I think it’s time,” she responded.
“You speak English?” I was incredulous, and then snapped my mouth shut. Should I have been surprised? There was so much I didn't know.
Her sea foam eyes locked with mine. “I do. I prefer not to speak to people, so I use German most of the time,” she told me.
“Grandma…?” Justin said her name like a warning. I took a step back and looked at my feet.
“It is time you heard this story, my love,” she responded. “People often confuse me with my twin sister, someone I'm embarrassed and ashamed of. We look the same on the outside, but the real difference is on the inside. My sister is arrogant, selfish…and Gifted,” she said. I bristled, but stayed silent.
“We knew nothing about our family history. Our father came to America as young boy to be an apprentice in a small printing shop. Within three months, the man who owned the shop passed away. Without money to travel back to Europe, he stayed in the United States, working whatever jobs he could find. He eventually met my mother and they married, but our mother didn't make it through our birth. Then my father found work as a janitor at a university. The professors took a liking to him, and oftentimes, he was invited to stay and listen to a class.
“Chemistry was his favorite subject, and one day a professor mentioned a new agency in town that was looking for chemists. He referred my father to the group, and he started working at a subdivision of the Meta. They had opened an office in Washington D.C. to pacify the growing number of governments that blamed the Gifted for their problems.
“My sister and I lived with our father during a tumultuous social atmosphere. Being around politicians all the time, we believed all the propaganda and smut about the Gifted. Until a box came in the mail addressed to my sister from an uncle on my mother's side whom we never met. Seventeen and pregnant, my sister found a Gifted knife inside.” She took a deep breath as if telling the story winded her.
“I'm not jealous because I wasn't born with the ability to change the physical components of anything I wanted. I'm angry because my sister saw it as a mark of weakness rather than a responsibility. She didn't take any pride in her Gift, and she kept it a secret. Her insecurities grew over time. She believed there was only one way to make it right. Fortunately for us, her actions never cured what she believed to be a disease,” she explained. The room was still. “You see, she has made many mistakes…as the Chancellor of the Meta.”
I was speechless. Justin's great-aunt was a Horus and the chancellor of the Meta. I could feel the air prickling from Justin behind me.
She looked Justin in the eyes. “That's not all. Fearing her ‘disability’ was contagious, she asked me to step in as a mother for her little girl, and she walked away.”
I felt Justin push past me. “Is that true?” he asked her.
“Yes, I am not your biological grandmother, but I take credit for every one of your successes. When it comes to you and your mother, I refuse to apologize for the opportunity my sister bestowed on me. On top of that, I am happy to see she failed at keeping you from your Gifted identity. Of course, my father—your great-grandfather— made sure of that,” she said and the corners of her mouth tipped up. “What does he like to go by these days....oh, right...Prometheus.”
* * * *
Chapter Eighteen: The Power of Youth
I heard the front door swing open upstairs. We all froze in place as it slammed against the wall. “Don't worry, Luca! We're coming to save you!” Graham broke through our panic and screamed from the landing above. Two female voices tried to hush him.
Graham ignored their warnings. “I'm coming, Luca! Best friends for life! I won't let them tell Evelyn...,” he managed to form the full sentences, even if the words were slurred, before he tumbled down the stairs in
a green blur. Despite the fall, his Gifted agility was acute. He completed a perfect somersault and landed on one knee in front of Aunt Ev.
“Won't let them tell me what, Graham? That he had just as many alcoholic beverages as you?” Aunt Ev questioned him with the perfect concerned-parent look on her face.
“Evelyn! Great to see you!” Graham cooed with a brilliant change of expression, and reached up to give her a bear hug.
She patted him on the back. “We will deal with your misuse of my trust later,” she warned him.
“What are we doing now?” he asked with drunken zest.
“You are going to the Meta, of course,” she said, as if it were obvious.
“Says who?” Chelsea asked, coming to the bottom of the steps and surveying the room. “Judging by the angry and hurt looks on Olivia, Justin, and Luca's faces, we missed important details,” Chelsea accused, not in the mood to trust anyone.
I sighed, trying to release some of the tension. “Let's see, the chancellor of the Meta is actually a Gifted Huron, who happens to be Justin's actual grandmother, and Marie's Gifted-loathing sister.” There was a sarcasm in my voice I never heard before. Chelsea was speechless. “Does that sum it up, Aunt Ev?”
Aunt Ev pursed her lips together in a tight smile. “Yes, Olivia. It does,” she conceded. “I know you are all frustrated and feeling used. You have to understand we never meant to hurt you,” she insisted and folded her hands in her lap, settling in for a long story.
“Wait, where's Cliff?” Justin asked, looking around the room.
“He was talking to that beefy kid named Dave the last time I saw him,” Lynn said. Justin looked confused, but kept quiet. Did Cliff finally get fed up with our inability to find Helen? Was he turning against his Gifted friends? Justin looked defeated, and it was disheartening to watch. I didn't want to remind him he couldn't protect everyone.
Aunt Ev took the silence as a sign to continue. “When Prometheus's oldest daughter was hired at the Meta as a clerk-typist, decades ago, the governing body was already sick of defending the Gifted from the unfounded but plentiful accusations by other governing bodies looking for a scapegoat. Weak and without a clear leader to direct them, the tone was already turning negative towards the Gifted.
“Prometheus could see how the hatred for the Gifted was changing his daughter. Her greed for power was fed by the need to hide her Gift. Fearing his time at the Meta was ending and the existence of the Gifted was at peril, Prometheus gathered Gifted jewelry from the Meta's vault.
“His own daughter ratted him out and brought back the jewelry, proving her loyalty to the Meta. Winning over her fellow employees, she was rewarded by being named Chancellor. Prometheus, on the other hand, was exiled. He knew he needed to stop her,” she said, as if his path was obvious.
Looking slightly smug, she continued, “My Pyramus and Thisbe plan was well known, and he sought me out. He knew the imminent threat of power created from the union of an Elste girl and a Horus boy would frighten the Meta, which was why I was ecstatic when he brought the final piece to the puzzle.” She focused on me. “An Elste necklace.” I felt the chain turn ice cold around my neck.
“The Chancellor was unaware that Prometheus had managed to hang on to a few pieces of jewelry, including the necklace with a tag that read Hannah Rogers, female Elste, confiscated 1845,” Aunt Ev explained. I felt my stomach tighten. It was true. I was wearing my great-great-great-great-grandmother's necklace.
“Prometheus didn't think it would be enough to frighten the Meta. However, he believed the exposure of the Chancellor's Gifted kin would weaken her control. It was no accident so many talented Gifted ended up in the town of Pandora. The plan was to find a descendant of Hannah Rogers, surround her with strong Gifted friends, and help her fall in love with the Gifted grandson of the chancellor of Meta. Once we found the Harts, Max's great-uncle Joe, Chelsea's grandmother's sister, Prometheus, and I each convinced our relatives to settle in Pandora as well.”
My knees felt weak. The destiny of my friends was doomed before we were born, and I never had the option to free Justin of his burden. They couldn't substitute another Horus. He was chosen and condemned, just the same as I was, against our will.
Aunt Ev sighed, looking more like ninety-seven years old than usual. “We waited generations for a female to be born in the Hart family and Justin's mother to produce a son. There were years when we lost hope and years when we decided the trade off wasn't worth it.
“As a leader of the Gifted rebellion, it wasn't revenge that motivated me to dream up the re-creation of Pyramus and Thisbe. It was hope for a better future for Gifted children. Time had changed things. Our lives were different. The Gifted Retreat was a success, my sisters had families to watch over, and I had adopted children of my own,” she explained, smiling at Luca.
“Although our Gifted lives were still a secret, our human lives were so full. I fought Prometheus to put an end to the plan, but he had become obsessed. Instead, he disappeared, and I believed in the illusion that our lives would end, peacefully,” she said, glancing at each of us mournfully. Her haunted eyes landed on me. “Until I met the brokenhearted Elste who longed to be with her Horus, and I knew once the wheels were put in motion, there was no stopping Prometheus.”
We were silent. Every emotion coursed through my body: anger, remorse, frustration. I could walk away from this crazy plan. I didn't owe Prometheus anything.
“If you didn't want him to follow through, then why did you let us go to Fort Bliss?” I asked.
She smiled, sadly. “Seeing you work together for Gifted rights reminded me of what I fought for. I didn't know he planned to send half of you to the Meta's prisons, including my great- niece, but I have to admit, it was genius. You will fight harder for your friends.”
Aunt Ev was right. I couldn't back out. My friends needed me, and I wouldn't give up until they were free and safe.
“So you know where the Meta is?” Chelsea asked, bursting forward.
Aunt Ev sighed and said, “No, unfortunately. The Chancellor has always been an expert at concealing the location, but there is someone in Pandora who knows.”
“Mr. Dimon,” Justin said, with no inflection in his voice.
* * * *
Chapter Nineteen: Roses Have Thorns
My hand was shaking as I held the phone to my ear. Justin brushed my cheek, lightly, and I felt the beautiful buzz of his Gift warm my blood. We were sitting in his car outside the high school. The light to Mr. Dimon's office was a faint glow at the end of the brick building. We weren’t surprised to find out he was still at the school, given the upheaval after the senior party.
I listened to the phone ring twice on the other line, and then I heard my mom's shrill voice, “Olivia?!” She didn't try to hide the panic. It was after midnight.
“Hi, Mom,” I said. My own voice was calmer than I felt. “I'm calling to tell you I am going to see Helen.”
“Tonight?! Olivia, where are you?” she asked.
“Yes, I have to leave tonight,” I confirmed, ignoring her second question. There was silence on the other end of the phone. I waited for her list of reasons why I shouldn't go.
“Okay,” she said, defeated.
Now it was my turn to be shocked. “Okay?”
Mom sighed. “I know something is going on with Helen and Derek and probably others. I also know you are at the center of it. Olivia...”
How did she know something was going on? The guilt built as I realized she knew I was keeping secrets from her. Somehow that was worse than actually keeping the secret, like when parents say they're not mad, just disappointed. I thought I was protecting her. Perhaps I was wrong. I waited while she gathered her thoughts and prepared myself to hear her concerns.
“You are mature and behave like an adult, and I don't need to tell you how to treat others or remind you to be safe. They need you to lead them. You have Hannah Rogers’s spirit inside of you. I have faith in you.”
She said exa
ctly what I needed to hear. “Thanks, Mom. I love you. I'll call you,” I said and hung up the phone. Something about a mother's guarantee did wonders for self-confidence. I felt hopeful because Mom said I could do it. I was going to save my friends.
I took a deep breath and looked at Justin. “I have faith in you, too,” he said. He dropped his gaze, focusing on his hands in his lap. “But I don't have faith in myself. I researched every Huron, but I never looked at my own family. My grandmother is the worst Huron in modern history.” He said the word 'grandmother' with disgust. “What does that mean for me?” He asked.
I reached over and held both of his hands. His sad sea foam eyes searched my own for answers. “If there's anything I learned from this experience, it's that the actions of our relatives don't define us. You need to create your own destiny, and I will help you,” I promised.
Aunt Ev gave us protective gear. Long capes, thick belts, and heavy boots; it was the same fighter gear Hunter, Lynn, and Graham were wearing when they captured Helen in the fall and at Prometheus's mansion a few weeks ago. Aunt Ev insisted they would be useful as a repellent when the Meta agents were attacking us with the mulberry elixir.
In my new Gifted boots, I stepped out of the car and smoothed my silver cape. I felt the buzz of my power and raised my hand to cradle the charm on my necklace.
With Justin's long strides around the car, his silver cape billowed behind him. When his sea foam and now-resolute eyes met mine, the effect was powerful. His striking features, lean body, and strong jaw line were sexy, but more than that, he looked like a superhero.
Storming through the school's front doors, we marched the length of the hallway. Each step empowered me, and I could smell the rush of roses following in my wake. Justin was next to me. A cloud of dark blue held tight to his cape and cast a shadow on our faces like another layer of our suits.