Ethan gets a little impatient. “Did you see Shadowface’s men? Are they coming?”
“I think so,” I say. He tries to ask me more, but I don’t say a word until everything I can remember is written down on paper. I start with the name, Stephen, and the description of the room. It was a dark, tight space. There was me, Stephen, Lydia, and of course, Ashley. I describe the scene in full detail as best I can. Once I’m finished, I hand the notepad to Ethan and he reads it carefully.
When he finishes, his eyes are wide and he shakes his head. “This is crazy.”
“I know.”
“I wonder if she is acting alone or if Jeremiah and Mitch are in on it too,” he says.
I shrug and take a deep breath. “I suppose there is only one way to know.”
Chapter 9 - Waverly
Everyone here is in danger. My first thought goes to Remi. I don’t feel weird about going to her and trying to touch her hand, but the fact remains that I am too scared to learn of her future. Is that selfish of me? I have the opportunity to know if she is going to be safe or if she will be in danger. But then, I might not learn anything at all. For all I know, when I touch her, I will see a vision of her next meal or something unimportant like that. But deep inside, I know that won’t be the case. That’s not how my power works. It’s a gift—a gift to help me discover my safest path. It tells me whether to act, or to remain still and let things be.
But when I read over and over what I wrote about Stephen’s future, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. How am I supposed to stop Ashley? Do I try to stop her long before she forces us to my room? If she gets to that Starborn blood, all of us will potentially be in a lot of danger.
Also, I’m a little nervous that I wasn’t with Ethan. Why wouldn’t he be near me? We have decided to stay close to each other. Does this mean that he’s already been shot?
The day after my encounter with Stephen, Ethan and I decide on the next target. He thinks I should go after Mitch, but I feel more comfortable talking to Jeremiah. I’ve never even spoken to Mitch except to say ‘excuse me’ when I nearly ran into him walking down a hallway. Jeremiah has a safer, more approachable look than Mitch.
“But Mitch is closer to Ashley, I think,” Ethan says as we sit in my room. He sits on the floor against the far wall as he bounces an old tennis ball against the other side. “Don’t you think we might get more from him?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I think I need to look into both of them. Everyone, really.” I tap my pencil against the top of my notepad. I’ve written the names of all our targets on separate pages. I stare at the page open in my lap. Remi.
“I think I’m going to tell my sister,” I say.
“Really?”
“She might already know,” I say. “She seems to be pretty close to Gabe. If he knows, she might, too.”
Ethan shakes his head. “I’ve already talked to him about it.”
“You have?”
He nods and tosses the ball against the far wall again. It bounces back onto the floor and into his palm. “I told him that if you wanted Remi to know about you, then you would tell her yourself. And he agreed.”
“Oh,” I say. “Thanks.”
He smiles and tosses the ball again.
“I just feel weird about trying to see her future and not telling her. I feel like she deserves to know.”
“Can you trust her?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I want to. I’ve talked with her a lot over the past week, but she seems so closed off. But she is my sister.”
“You do what you think is right,” Ethan says. “But know that you don’t owe her an explanation. You don’t owe anybody anything.”
I smile at him and he smiles back. This past week with Ethan has been a strange one. The fact that he has been so carefree about his own future helps me stay calm about it too. That doesn’t mean I’m not constantly thinking about it. I still plan to try and stop him from dying. It’s just good to have a partner again—someone I can trust. I feel bad that I lied about the second vision I saw of him. Well, him and me. I really don’t understand how I can see myself on a rooftop kissing him, but lately, it hasn’t seemed like such a crazy concept. He has been sweet. Supportive. Caring. He really wants to help me, and I’m not entirely sure that it’s for the benefit of all the others as much as it is for me. It’s crazy to think that with the world as it is, there are still people like him that are so selfless.
Without much more talk, we decide on Jeremiah. A couple of hours later, I find him standing outside in one of the parking lots. His jacket stands wide open and he seems oblivious to the chilly air. A stout cigar hangs loosely in his fingertips. Ethan stays behind just inside the entrance to the building. I know he won’t get shot in there because the vision showed him outside in the open.
Jeremiah straightens up when he sees me approaching, and he brings his cigar to his mouth, taking in a deep puff and releasing it into the air. The smoke is all I can smell and I have to hold my breath for just a second.
“If it isn’t Miss Waverly,” he says with a smile. There is something about him that looks off, but I can’t tell what it is. It shouldn’t matter to me. He has been kind to me so far. I just have to be on my guard. For all I know, his whole going after Shadowface thing could be a distraction to get to the vial of blood.
“You keeping warm out here, Jeremiah?” I ask.
“Oh, I love the cold,” he says. “The heat bothers my skin. Bothers me in general. But the cold? I might move a little slower, but it feels nice. Soothing, you know?”
I don’t agree, but I nod at him with a smile.
“What can I do for you?”
“I was hoping for a better start,” I say.
As expected, he looks at me with a confused stare. “I thought our start was good enough.”
“I mean, when you first came here, people weren’t exactly the most friendly. To me or to you. I just thought it would be nice to let you know that as far as I’m concerned, you’ve got a friend, and I’m glad you’re here to help us.” I hold a hand for him to shake it, but he only looks at it and takes another puff on his cigar.
“Does your little boyfriend have the same feelings, Starborn?” he asks, looking away from me.
“What? Boyfriend? Starborn? What are you talking about?” I let out a nervous laugh and scratch the back of my head awkwardly. I look back at Ethan and curse myself for not asking him to just stay in the room. I look back at Jeremiah, feeling flustered.
“It’s nothing to get excited about,” he says. “But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since we last talked. I think you’re a Starborn and afraid to tell anybody.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, starting to walk away.
“Oh come on,” he says. “The way you were asking questions to me the other day. It was pretty obvious. You can either read people’s minds or see the future. And now I’m pretty sure you have to touch the person to do either.”
My silence is my answer.
“Which is it?” he asks. “I haven’t told anyone. I’m not going to tell anyone. I’m just curious. Having studied your kind, I’m simply fascinated by you.”
I look back at Ethan again and let out a sigh. “The future,” I admit to Jeremiah.
He nods and smiles.
“At least, a possible future,” I continue. “I can change it, though.”
“Well, no doubt,” Jeremiah says. “If you couldn’t then it wouldn’t be much of a Starborn power, would it?” His face turns serious like a flash. “Why were you trying to see my future?”
“I have a plan to see everyone’s,” I say. “Ethan and I are trying to determine if and when Shadowface will be here. If so, we can be better prepared.”
“You can choose when you see?”
“That’s the problem,” I say. “It feels random, but they have all involved me except one.”
“May I ask?”
I hesitate. It feels weird to tell
him about Ethan, but I do anyway. “Ethan gets shot. I don’t know when. I don’t know why. I’m not sure where. But in the vision, I’m nowhere near. Nobody is. I can’t even determine where the shot comes from.”
Jeremiah takes another long drag on his cigar. The puff of smoke that he lets out engulfs him almost completely. “It has something to do with you,” he says finally. “A Starborn’s power is always meant to help the Starborn in some way or another. It becomes even more helpful if you can control it. I’m guessing you can’t control it yet.”
“I can’t.”
He nods. “Then it will affect you in some way or another. Perhaps you are part of the vision, but you just never saw yourself. You might just be too far away when it happens, but you still see it.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I wish I did. Then I could do more to stop it, but I feel clueless.”
“You’ve seen a lot of visions before?”
“Yes,” I say. “Like I said, I’ve only been able to change one. All the others have happened exactly as I saw it.”
“Interesting.”
I think about Ashley. I want to tell him what I saw, but is that wise?
“So, what have you found out, anything?”
“I touched Stephen and saw a glimpse of the future,” I say. “I think I can confirm that Shadowface will be here. There was no way for me to tell when it will happen, only that we need to be ready.” In more ways than one, I think. “Would you be willing for me to touch your hand?” I ask.
Jeremiah looks at me for a moment, seemingly thinking about the prospect. Finally, he shakes his head. “I don’t think so,” he says.
“But what if I see something that you should avoid?” I ask.
“What if you see something that makes you think I should be killed?” he comes back.
I can feel myself getting hot despite the cold. “Why would I see something like that? Are you planning to betray us?”
“Of course not,” he says, “but the future is a tricky thing. What if you see me killing your boyfriend over there? You’re going to want to kill me before I do that, right?”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
Jeremiah waves me off. “But what you didn’t see in that vision of yours, is that Ethan killed everyone on my team. Ethan is an agent working for Shadowface. Ethan has planned to kill you since the day he met you. Then you would have killed me and the enemy will destroy you. Like seeing only the corner of a painting, a short glimpse into the future hardly lets you see the whole picture. Things aren’t always as they seem.”
Jeremiah is right, and I don’t like it one bit. “Forget I asked.” I turn and start walking away toward the building. My first thought is of Ashley. What if she’s trying to get the blood because it will save us? There’s no way for me to know what her true motives will be. All I know is what I saw in the short span of just a few seconds.
Before I reach the door, I turn to Jeremiah. “Please don’t tell anyone about me.”
“As long as you promise you aren’t going to run all over the place, secretly gathering people’s futures.”
“Deal,” I say.
The answer seems to satisfy Jeremiah. He nods at me and turns the other way to finish his cigar. But my answer is a lie. I’m not going to stop until I know what’s going on around here. I want to know everything in our futures. That means I’m going to see a glimpse from Ashley, Lydia, and Stephen again if I have to. And maybe I’ll even find a way to corner Jeremiah.
If I can see the future, I can at least be better prepared for it, even if I can’t change it. I walk past Ethan, ignoring his questions as I storm down the hallway. I don’t even hear what he asks me because I feel a new urgency, maybe a freedom to do what my Starborn ability has enabled me to do. I shouldn’t hide from it. This is who I am now. And as far as I’m concerned, if Jeremiah doesn’t want me to see into his future, then he’s got something to hide. Nothing is going to be hidden from me anymore.
I turn to Ethan. “Go stay up in your room. You won’t be shot there. I need to do something.”
“What?” he asks.
“I’m going to talk to my sister. She needs to know what I can do.”
Chapter 10 - Remi
I love my little sister. I always have and I always will. But this past week has been weird for us. I guess that’s because when we were little kids, we were best friends. We did everything together. Sure, I’m a few years older than she is, but that didn’t stop me from dressing up in pink princess outfits and pretending to be the supreme ruler over some enchanted land—a place with fairies, elves, and handsome knights. We were that way until I got into middle school and my sister suddenly became uncool to be around. From that day forward, Waverly and I had a pretty rotten relationship. We fought constantly and I remember telling her in more than one fight that I wish she was dead.
Things got better when I went to college, probably because we weren’t around each other. And really, it wasn’t until the outbreak that I realized how much I truly loved her—how much I missed her company. For the last three years, I’ve thought she was dead along with my parents. I thought I was the only one left in our family. So, when I saw her here in Elkhorn, a flood of emotions poured through me. I hate it when floods of anything flow through me, so I was uncomfortable. Happy, but uncomfortable.
It was like I was just starting to get used to surviving on my own (not with the help of Paxton), and then I was slapped in the face with a new responsibility: Waverly. Because I once loved her, because she is my family, I have to stay with her. I have to be here for her. I feel like I have the duty to forsake whatever I was doing before and focus on her. The only problem? I don’t know her anymore and she doesn’t know me. We are completely different people that haven’t talked to each other in three years. And we haven’t had anything more than a shallow conversation in at least four years.
Over the past week, I’ve tried to hang out with her a little, but she has been busy with Ethan, and Gabe and I have been helping Stephen set up Elkhorn’s defenses. Waverly and I have done our best to make time for each other, but it is forced. Honestly, I hate it.
It comes as a surprise to me when she walks into my room and tells me that she has to talk about something important.
“What’d you do, kill somebody?” I ask as she closes the door behind her.
“I might have to,” she says.
I thought she was joking, but the seriousness in her expression doesn’t switch to a grin or laugh. She stands in front of me awkwardly.
“I’m a Starborn,” she says.
My insides turn cold. She’s got it, too. In a way, I’m not surprised. I look away from her, thinking about my own ability. I wonder if hers is the same thing. I stare at the ground, wanting to tell her that I know what she’s going through, but I can’t bring myself to say it.
“What can you do?” I ask.
“Oh,” she says.
“Oh what?”
“I just…I thought you would be more shocked. Surprised.”
“I am,” I say, though not convincingly. I am surprised, but I suppose that it just makes so much sense to me because Waverly and I share the same blood. “What can you do?” I repeat.
“I can touch someone and see into their future.”
“A palm reader?” I shake my head. “You could make some money doing that. Not that money would do you any good now.”
“Not a palm reader,” she says. Her face is starting to turn red and I instantly know that my sarcasm is going to set her off if I continue.
“You’re telling me that I can reach out and touch your hand and then you can tell me my future?” It hits me that that’s why she wouldn’t touch me when we first saw each other.
“I can’t control what I see,” she says. “When I touch someone I see a future that somehow affects my own. I don’t always know what to do with it.”
“That’s why you’ve been so distant.”
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn�
�t want to be. I just don’t know that I want to see your future. I don’t want it to be bad.” She takes a step closer and I can see that she has tears in her eyes. Something inside me wants to break, but I set my jaw firm and I look away from her. I don’t want to cry.
“I understand,” I say. “Seems like a pretty heavy load to know the future.”
“You have no idea,” she says. “Did you ever meet Hattie’s son, Lucas?”
“I’m not sure,” I say. “I remember that he existed but that’s about it.”
“I traveled with him ever since the outbreak. For three years,” she says.
I look up at her. My stomach starts to turn in knots because I know she’s going to tell me that he died. I hate those stories. But who doesn’t have them?
“I learned of my ability a couple of weeks ago. I reached out for Lucas’ hand and saw that he was about to be shot by a raider. Since it was the first time, I didn’t know that it was a warning—a premonition to let me know that I might have been able to do something about it. I decided not to act, and now he’s dead.”
I wrap my arms around my belly, hugging myself to try and stop the sick feeling. I never wanted Waverly to have to go through stuff like this.
“Then there was Hank. Then there was Gilbert. Scarecrow, and now, Ethan.”
Gilbert. This isn’t the first time she has mentioned the name. It’s not the first time that I’ve wondered if it’s the same Gilbert I lost contact with about a year ago.
“You’ve seen Ethan die in a vision?” I ask.
“Yes. But I’m doing my best to stop it. And we’ve come up with a plan about Shadowface.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m going around to every person that I can find, and I’m touching them in some way. I’m sure that at least one vision will enable me to see if there is a future with Shadowface in it.”
“Who have you gotten to so far?”
“Only Stephen,” she says. “But it was enough to be disturbed.”
This time the feeling of shock is in my chest. “What did you see?” I ask standing now.
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