The Starborn Ascension: Books 1, 2, and 3 (The Starborn Saga)

by Jason D. Morrow

  I let out a sigh. “Do you want me to look now?”

  “Yes,” she says. “I already know that you can look at specific times and events in the future. I already know that it is the intended future, therefore whatever you see can be changed. I need to know if anything needs to be changed. But I also want you to tell me specifics. I want to know how many leaders are in attendance. I want to know what I say in the meeting.”

  Though she wants me to look into the future, she is also testing me. No doubt she has a prepared speech for the meeting. Certainly she knows roughly how many leaders will be in attendance. So, really there isn’t a way out of looking into this particular future.

  But would I be able to look into several futures at once? Would I be able to switch from the night of the meeting to a night much further without having to break concentration and coming to? I might as well give it a try. First, I’ll look seven days ahead, then if possible, I’ll try to look even farther ahead to see where Olivia’s future lies.

  As I sit in front of Olivia, I can’t believe how trusting she seems to be. But then I realize that she can be as trusting as she wants. It’s not like she has anything to worry about. Sure, I might see something she would want kept secret, but in reality she’s probably going to kill me at some point anyway. I’m a person whose only interaction is with a weird scientist and an abused prisoner. The only way I can hurt Olivia is if I give her the wrong information.

  She finally reaches her hand out in the air, palm facing upward. Her blue eyes stare into mine as she waits for me to take it. I hesitate, looking down at her hand. It’s as steady as a rock. Mine start shaking as I reach toward it. Finally, my fingers reach hers and a bright light flashes before my eyes.

  My mind is set on seeing Olivia’s future seven nights from now, but what I see couldn’t be then. She stands in a room alone. There are no settlement leaders, there is no speech to be made. She holds a gun in one hand and she looks out from a window. Below her, outside the walls are hundreds, maybe a thousand greyskins roving through the city. Olivia isn’t smiling, but she doesn’t seem nervous. Instead, she has a determined look.

  The door comes crashing open behind her, but she doesn’t turn around. She can see the reflection in the window.

  “I had a feeling this had something to do with you, Jeremiah,” she says.

  Jeremiah stands on the other side of the room, his gun raised into the air, a look of hatred in his eyes.

  “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.”

  “I know you have,” Olivia says. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you would get to me. I’m surprised you waited so long.”

  “Put your gun down, Olivia,” he says.

  “Why?” she asks. “You could have shot me already. You still can.”

  “I want to see your eyes.”

  “No you don’t. The moment we look at each other, you’ll remember all the sweet times we had.” She says this with an air of sarcasm that seems to make Jeremiah grimace.

  He curses her and aims his gun directly at her head. But in his anger, he hesitates. She spins around suddenly and lets off a shot from her pistol, hitting him in the chest and throwing him against the back wall. He drops his gun on the ground as he reaches for his chest in pain.

  Olivia shakes her head as she walks toward him. But her attention is divided when another figure rushes through the door.

  Waverly—my future self. She storms in, her handgun firing, but Olivia is too quick and hits her in the shoulder, sending her spinning to the ground.

  Olivia is breathing hard now, but she looks back at Jeremiah.

  “Someone is going to kill you before this is over with,” Jeremiah says.

  “Yes, well that won’t be today. And it won’t be you.” She takes a deep breath and points the gun at his chest again. “I loved you once.” She pulls the trigger. Blood splatters the floor and Olivia turns to Waverly.

  “And you,” she says. “I truly am surprised to see you here.”

  Waverly reaches for her handgun, but Olivia fires a shot into the floor in front of her, making Waverly freeze in place.

  “I didn’t really want to kill you, but you have given me no choice.”

  “Please,” Waverly says. “I just…I just…” She can’t seem to find the words to say.

  Olivia lifts the gun, aiming it at Waverly’s head. There’s a sound of a blast, and a white light flashes.

  I find myself in front of Olivia, my mouth gaping open. I shut it quickly when I realize that she is staring at me with an eyebrow raised.

  “Tell me what you saw,” she says.

  I shake my head. “A meeting.”

  “Among the settlement leaders?” she asks.

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me something I said.”

  I hesitate another moment, trying to think of something that sounds official. I don’t want to tell her what I really saw because she will become panicked. She would probably try to kill me now and figure out a way to go after Jeremiah so we would never make it so far. She knows that I can change the future. She would do everything in her power to ensure that I can’t this time.

  Apart from seeing myself die, what bothers me the most is that a week from now, I’m going to return here. What could possibly bring me back? I would never come back.

  I rack my brain for words that might sound like a speech. “You said something like ‘the time has come for us to unite under one banner,’ or maybe you said it a different way. I was watching the people more.”

  Her furrowed eyebrows tells me that she’s not convinced that I’m telling the truth. “And how many people were in the meeting?”

  How many leaders are in Shadowface’s network? “Twelve maybe?” I shrug, hoping I came even close to the right amount.

  Olivia sighs and her jaw stiffens. “You’re lying to me,” she says. “That’s not at all what you saw. How can we be in cooperation if you’re just going to lie to me?”

  “That’s what I saw, I swear.”

  She shakes her head. “No. It isn’t. If there is one thing I’m good at, it’s being able to tell when someone is lying. Besides, nowhere in my planned speech will I say ‘the time has come for us to unite under one banner’ or anything of the sort. And there are thirty settlement leaders that will be attending. If they do not attend, then they will be relieved of my services. I know for a fact that none of them want that.”

  “But you don’t know what will happen between now and then,” I say. “That’s what I’m telling you. You have no way of knowing if what I tell you is true or not, because seeing a glimpse into the future hardly tells the entire story.” I shake my head. “I learned that the hard way.”

  Olivia’s pale face is now red with anger. “Get out of here. The guard outside the door will escort you back to your room.”

  “I wish you would believe me,” I say, standing.

  “I want to believe you,” she says, “but I cannot. You are too far off base. But don’t worry. You’ve told me enough. I know now that I’ve got to be extra cautious.”

  The more she speaks to me, the more I realize that she doesn’t get it. She can do anything she wants to prepare, but that won’t stop what’s coming. She may be extra cautious, but that doesn’t keep Jeremiah from breaking through the door. The only way to change the future I just saw would be to investigate it and find out why there are greyskins within the compound, and why Jeremiah and I will be coming after Shadowface.

  Of course I’m not going to tell her this. By the time the greyskins get here I will be long gone. The only future I care about is tonight’s. I don’t know what the end result will be, but hopefully I’ll be far away from here.

  Chapter 6 - Remi

  I don’t know what time it is, but it’s dark and everyone is in bed. Well, not everyone. I heard footsteps only a few seconds ago, but they stopped. I’m pretty sure they came from Scott and Derek’s room from the other end of the hall. More than likely it was Ray get
ting up to pee, but I can’t be sure.

  I close my eyes and travel through the house until I reach Scott and Derek’s room. It is silent, and I almost abandon them until a hear another footstep, this time much more loudly. It’s not the sound of a soft sock or bare skin against the wood floor, but something more hardened like the sole of a boot. Since I doubt either of them would normally like to sleep in their boots, suspicion takes over me. I try not to make too much noise as I crawl out of bed. In anticipation of having to get up like this, I left all my normal clothes on except for my shoes—which I left at the end of the bed—and my coat that hangs on a hook next to the door. The bedsprings squeak as I stand from the mattress, but I don’t think anyone other than myself would have ever noticed. I try to maintain my hearing focus with my eyes open as I tiptoe toward my door and slip into my jacket. There is still some shuffling around in their room, and I’m pretty sure one of them is getting his shoes on. I freeze when I hear one of them whisper. It’s Derek.

  “Have you got your gun?”

  “Yes,” Scott whispers back. “Let’s go.”

  I can hear him grab the doorknob and twist, the door squeaking too loudly for their comfort, no doubt. I listen for them as they take light steps down the hall toward the front door. I’m relieved to know that they are leaving the house instead of going to my room or one of the others, but my curiosity still gets the best of me. Once I hear the front door close softly behind them, I reach for my pistol that rests on the dresser and tuck it behind my belt. I then grab my shoes at the end of the bed and carry them with me to the door. Thankfully, my door doesn’t squeak and I’m able to reach the front of the house with almost no noise. When I reach the door, I slip my shoes on. I look around me to make sure no one is watching from the end of the hallway. I don’t really want Gabe to come with me right now, and Ray and Nancy would only make a big fuss about it.

  I open the front door and the cold night air rushes in and nearly takes my breath way. I shut the door behind me as quietly as I can and step out onto the porch. The moon is bright tonight, and I can make out two shadows walking up the street in the direction of the mechanic shop and the barn. I know they left their truck up there earlier in the day—something wrong with the engine, I guess—but what reason could they have for going to take a look at it in the middle of the night? Were they leaving so no one would notice? They will still have to either break through the front gate or pick the lock.

  Not that that would be a hard task, I think to myself.

  I keep a safe distance away and watch them as they go into the mechanic shop. There isn’t a house connected to it, and no one stays there in the middle of the night. Maybe these two are just looking to see what they can steal. Maybe they’re just trying to get away for the sake of private conversation. Either way, they are up to no good.

  I grab the gun at my belt when I get nearer to the shop. They don’t turn on any lights, but I can hear them moving around. They talk above whispers now, more confident that no one can overhear them. When I get to the building, I duck low underneath the front window. The cold steel in my hands is all the protection I need. I make sure it’s cocked and ready in case one of them sees me and decides to come at me. I listen to them as they open the door to their truck and grab something.

  “How’s the battery?” Scott asks.

  “It’s fine.”

  I dare to peek through the bottom of the window, and I can see the two of them with their backs to me.

  “Boss, this is Derek, can you read me?”

  Derek brings his arm down and I can finally see what they have come for. A radio.

  He brings it to his mouth again. “Boss, this is Derek, over.”

  “Go ahead,” the voice from the radio says.

  It’s a man’s voice, but it wouldn’t be the first time Shadowface sounded like a man. Though, this time it doesn’t seem like an electronic voice mask, instead it sounds organic like an actual man. I guess it could be her righthand person, Samuel. My heart starts to beat faster as I think about what these two might be about to tell the person on the other end. I know I’m not overly important to Shadowface, but if she was informed of my presence here, then others would be in trouble.

  “We’ve done our run with Orick,” Derek says. “Frankly I’m surprised it hasn’t been wiped out by a herd of greyskins already.”

  “Would it be a good place to set up before the attack?” the voice asks. “Could we get some volunteers to help us?”

  “They are pretty open to visitors,” Derek answers. “I’m not too sure there are many that would be willing to die for the cause, though we know you can be convincing.”

  My heart skips a beat. What are they talking about?

  “Good,” the voice calls out over the radio. “We will need a place like Orick to prepare.”

  I grip my pistol tighter and go for the door. It slams open and the two of them jerk their heads toward me, both of them reaching for a gun, but they freeze when they see mine pointed at them.

  “Set your guns and the radio on the ground,” I command. Both Derek and Scott glance at each other and slowly set their guns on the ground.

  “Derek are you there?” the radio blares. Derek sets the radio on the ground as well.

  “What do you want?” Derek asks.

  “I was about to ask you the same thing,” I say. I point the gun at Scott and motion toward a couple of chairs in the corner of the room. “You two have a seat.”

  I look around the shop. It smells like oil and is stacked to the roof with tools that haven’t been used in ages. Dirty workbenches, nuts, and bolts are scattered all around. I walk toward the two as they both sit next to each other on the chairs, never lowering my gun.

  “What are you two doing here?” I ask.

  “Just passing through,” Derek says.

  “You’re lying.”

  Scott shakes his head. “All we wanted was some help with the truck and a night’s sleep.”

  “You’re evaluating the town, aren’t you?” I ask. “For Shadowface?”

  They look at each other again. When they look at me, they offer no answer. The voice from the radio calls out again.

  “Derek, what happened? Do you copy?”

  “Who’s that on the radio?” I ask.

  Again, silence.

  I point the gun at Scott’s head. “I’m not afraid to kill you. I think most people would have killed you already out of suspicion, but these people are just too nice.”

  “We’re just passing through,” Derek repeats.

  I clench my jaws, wondering if I will actually have the guts to pull the trigger. If these two are working for Shadowface, that means I might be able to get some information about my sister. If they aren’t, then they are potentially even more dangerous for this town. Raiders often find somewhere they like and completely wipe out the population just to have a place to prop their feet up for a while. Either way, these guys are no good for Orick.

  I look left to right, searching for something to tie them up with. Finally, on one of the workbenches, I spot a dusty pack of zip ties. I grab a few of them and toss them to Scott.

  I motion with the gun toward Derek. “Tie his hands behind his back.”

  Scott does so without argument. When he’s finished, I instruct him to tie Derek’s legs and then to move his seat further away from Derek and sit. When he does, I walk behind him and fasten a couple of zip ties so his wrists are bound to the chair behind his back. Then I tie his legs to the chair as well. The two of them are securely fastened and are going nowhere.

  “Now that I don’t have to worry about you doing something stupid, I want some answers. Who is that on the radio?”

  I take a step forward and press the barrel of the pistol against Derek’s kneecap. I’ve never done anything like this, but it seemed to work in those old cop movies. I can hear Scott breathing hard out of nervousness, but Derek remains steady.

  “You’re not going to shoot me,” he says. “By the ti
me I’m coherent enough to answer you after the shot, you’ll have the entire town on you. They’ll kick us all out.”

  “I’m a lot less worried about getting kicked out of here than I am of you destroying these people’s lives,” I say. “Do you work for Shadowface?”

  “We work for ourselves,” Scott says.

  My eyes don’t leave Derek’s. “Who is on the radio?”

  “I’m not going to tell you anything,” he says.

  I shake my head at him and take a deep breath. I look to my right and see a large wrench on the workbench. I hold the gun in my left hand and with my right, I grab the wrench. Without any hesitation, I rear back and slam the wrench into the side of Derek’s knee.

  Derek lets out a short scream and I can’t help but shush him, though the gesture goes ignored.

  “Who is on the radio?” I say again.

  “You call this an interrogation?” Derek asks. “You’re going to have to do better than that. I might not want a bruised knee, but I can live with it.”

  My eyes narrow at him. Why is he testing me? “I’m not a cold-blooded killer,” I say. “If you tell me, I will let both of you go.”

  “Which means you won’t kill either of us anyway,” Derek says with a smile.

  I rear back and hit him in the same spot on his knee, and all he does is grimace at the pain. The grimace soon turns into a smile, and Derek starts laughing. “Whenever you’re finished with your little questioning tactics, I would appreciate it if you let me go about my business.”

  His taunts only make me boil with anger. I know these two are up to something bad, and I have to find out what. I scan the room again and spot a small pocketknife on one of the work benches. I walk over to it and set the gun behind my belt again. I grab the knife and unfold it to reveal a sharp edge that is about three inches long. I turn my head to look at Derek and his eyes are on fire. He swallows as I approach him.