“My fear is that it has something to do with my family,” I say. “I don’t know what I’ll do if he tried to use them against me.”
Evelyn nods and reaches out to pat me on the arm in comfort, but I recoil. She quickly pulls her arm back to herself apologetically.
“Sometimes I forget my own abilities,” she says. “I’m sorry, dear. I wasn’t trying tdtkly g to see anything. I only meant to let you know that I understand your fear.”
I don’t know if she’s lying to me, but it makes little difference. I can’t really say much. The past few days have shown that I’m the queen of looking in on people without them knowing it. It’s a power that I know I shouldn’t take lightly, but I’ve found it useful enough that I’ve justified it to myself. Whether Evelyn was trying to be a comfort or if she was trying to see into my mind, I can’t blame her for either. I would probably do the same.
“Though I meant no harm, I’m intrigued to know what you might be hiding in that mind of yours,” she says to me. “You withdrew so quickly. You guard yourself well.”
“I imagine you understand my apprehension to let you touch me,” I say.
“We all have secrets,” Evelyn says, turning her head to the kitchen window, resting her cheek in her palm. “If your intentions are pure, then you should have no fear of me touching you and seeing into your mind.”
“You know my intentions.”
“Then perhaps you are hiding something else.” She drops her hands to the table and stares at me deeply with a new curiosity.
“Your ability makes you too inquisitive,” I say. “If you were different, you would have little interest as to what I may or may not be hiding.”
“A statement made by a person who has much to hide.” Her eyes narrow at me, and for a second I wonder if she will lunge at me just to see into my thoughts. But she does no such thing. She only looks at me, and then turns away again. “You are a special Starborn, Mora. That much I saw when I first met you.”
I don’t know what she means by this; I’m not entirely sure that I want to know, so I don’t ask. But that doesn’t stop her from telling me.
“I’ve never really met a Starborn like you,” she continues.
I sit silently.
“I’ve seen Starborns able to move things with their mind, sure, but you have many abilities stored within you. That’s why I think the time to strike is now. You are a natural leader.”
“I can only move things with my mind,” I tell her, but it’s a lie that doesn’t faze Evelyn in the least bit.
“That’s what you say, but I’m not so sure. But I understand wanting to keep it to yourself. Some abilities you don’t want others to know about because then they would never want to be near you.”
She says this as if talking from experience.
“How do you think it feels to have people pull away from you when all you want is to show affection?” she asks. “When all you want is to be shown affection…”
“We don’t choose our gifts,” I say.
“They choose us,” Evelyn responds.
“You understand why I don’t trust you, right?” I ask, feeling a little too bold.
Evelyn smiles and nods. “You’d be a fool to trust anyone fully right now. Trust takes time to build, but a single moment to destroy. I don’t expect you to trust me, or even what we’re doing right now. Why do you think I’ve been trying to show instead of tell you? Words are simply that: words. But when you’ve seen what Jeremiah can do, when you see how difficult it is to live under his rule, when you see what kind of person he is, you can make the decision for yourself.”
“I’ve already made the decision to help you,” I say.
“Because we are the best option available to help you. And for now that’s okay. Abilities aside, I can see that you are out to help your family first, and yourself second. That’s how we’ve come to live in this lip yoworld. That’s why any of us are alive today. But if we want our world to change, we’re going to have to look out for others again. We’re going to have to look beyond ourselves. Its up to us, the ones with special abilities, and yes power, to help people we’ve never even met.”
Listening to Evelyn, I can’t help but feel like I’m heading in the right direction. But it doesn’t change the fact that she knows the answers to some of the questions I have. It doesn’t change the fact that she completely ignored me when I asked her whether Jeremiah was responsible for my parents’ death.
“I want you to tell me,” I say.
Her eyebrows furrow at my demand. “Tell you what?”
“I want you to tell me why Aaron would say that Jeremiah is responsible for my parents’ death.”
Evelyn sighs. “But that will only be words from me,” she says. “I’ve given you no reason to trust what I say on this matter. The answer to your questions will only breed more questions, most of which I don’t have answers to.”
“Don’t you think I’m entitled to know why my parents died? All this time I’ve thought it was my fault. Do you know the burden I’ve carried thinking that it was because of me? I truly don’t know how it could have been Jeremiah or anyone else, but at least tell me so I can understand.”
Evelyn sits for a moment, silent. “I will tell you, but I want to hold your hands first.”
Her words make me freeze. I don’t want her to know all about me. Who knows what she can find within me in a short amount of time? Who knows what she is even looking for? Surely she will discover my ability to watch others from a distance – something I want to keep for myself. But to know why Jeremiah is responsible for my parents’ death is too tempting for me not to comply. It wouldn’t be the end of the world for her to find out. I just don’t want to become like her, where others are afraid to shake my hand out of fear that I might follow their every move when they’ve gone away from me. But it’s worth it to know.
Slowly, I hold out my hands to her, and slowly, she wraps her fingers around my wrists and closes her eyes. It feels like I’m in the home of some strange fortuneteller trying to figure out my future for a coin. Instead, Evelyn is probably seeing all of my past and every secret that I’ve ever kept for myself – nothing particularly dangerous to me, but they were secrets nonetheless.
We sit in silence for several long minutes until Evelyn is finally satisfied. Her tight grip begins to release and her eyes flutter open as though she has just woken up from a nap. Finally, she rests her back against her chair and sets her hands neatly in her lap, looking at me with concern in her eyes.
“I’ve guessed a lot of things right about you,” she says. “I suppose my intuition is nearly as strong as my Starborn ability, though I see now the importance of your need to know about why Jeremiah is responsible for your parents’ death.” She looks down at the table, sad. “I’m so sorry that you lost your parents that way. And for you to have seen them in their last moments…” She shakes her head. “We are a cursed people to have to live in such times.”
“How is Jeremiah responsible?” I ask.
“I also understand your need to keep your abilities a secret,” she says, ignoring my question. “I’ve never seen one like that before. You truly are special. New abilities will come to you in the future. I’m sure of it.”
“My parents,” I say.
Evelyn opens her mouth to respond, but she’s interrupted by the sound of echoing booms in the distance. Both of our heads turn toward the door and back to each other when ch arthe sounds continue and are suddenly silenced.
Our chairs fall backward as we both rush to the door. I get there first and swing it open. “Were those gun blasts?”
“Sounded like it.”
More shouts break the silence. The sounds are coming from the front entrance of the colony. The same one Connor had snuck me through barely a week before. Everything involving the Screven guards is stationed near the front entrance: Krindle’s office, the Vault, guard quarters. Evelyn and I both look at each other unsure of what to make of it.
“Code Red?” I ask.
She shakes her head, not knowing what to answer. “I don’t know why they’d be firing their weapons over there. It seems to me they would have tried to take us out in our sleep, one-by-one. I think this might be something different.”
But she doesn’t know anymore than I do. I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid of Jeremiah, I’m not afraid of his little Screven guards. I’m a Starborn with significant abilities.
“I’m going to check it out,” I say.
“No, Mora.”
“Why not?”
“It’s dangerous. This isn’t the time to fight them. Not in the dark. Not when they’re trying to draw us out.”
“You don’t know what they’re trying to do,” I say.
“And that’s what scares me.”
I shake my head and feel for the knife that is firmly secured to the strap on my thigh. Then I close my eyes, searching for Krindle. Surely he would be in the thick of what was happening at the entrance.
I can hear Evelyn, but she sounds a hundred miles away.
“What do you see?” she asks in echoes to my brain.
I can’t respond to her. My mind is busy.
Finally, my mind’s eye is drifting above Krindle. He’s in his office, but he’s not directing his men or trying to see what the commotion is. No. He’s standing in front of his desk. He’s saying something to the guard, Rob.
“They are all dead,” Rob says. “The gate is open.”
“Good,” Krindle says. “Stay outside the door and make sure nothing and no one gets in here.”
Rob nods and turns toward the door, but hesitates before leaving. “What about you, sir? Do you want me to handle the detonator?”
“It’s a last resort,” he says. “It’s set up not to affect this section of the wall. I can handle it. Get out.”
“Yes sir.” Rob closes the door behind him gently.
Krindle grabs the shotgun that had been set on his desk and checks the ammo. He then reaches out and holds up a small cylinder with a black button on the top. The detonator.
His hands are shaking.
Satisfied, he crouches to his knees and slides himself under his desk, hiding away from the world.
I open my eyes to see Evelyn in front of me, asking me again what I’m seeing.
“Something’s wrong,” I say. “Get the others. Meet me at the entrance. I think this might be the Code Red.”
“Mora, wait.”
I stop in my tracks, and turn to Evelyn.
She takes a deep breath. “Jeremiah created the greyskins. If it weren’t for him, the world wouldn’t be like it is today. If it weren’t for him, you would have never gone to ask him for help. He’s always wanted power. He wants to become a Starborn. If Jeremiah had never been born, your life would be different. All of our lives would be different. Your parents would still be alive. There woulde. tar be no need for protection.”
The room is silent, but alarms are sounding in my brain.
“What do you mean…?” I ask. “The greyskins have been around for more than sixty years. I’ve seen Jeremiah, he would have been too young.”
Evelyn shakes her head. “Jeremiah’s a lot older than you think, but there’s no time to explain it to you. In case something happens to me in all this, at least you will know the basic facts, though telling you this doesn’t even scratch the surface of what Jeremiah has done. He is a real enemy. A dangerous enemy.”
I’m not sure how to respond to Evelyn. The explanation does little more than make me think up a dozen more questions, but it will have to do. I don’t know what to expect when I get to the entrance of the colony, but for all I know, I’ll never see Evelyn again.
With my mind reeling, I turn from her and start toward the entrance, though I’m not entirely sure why I’m going. Something within me is telling me that this is the start, that this is the beginning of the war. For all I know, it could be the beginning of my end. But I’m sure this is the Code Red that I overheard Jeremiah talking about with Krindle. I figure I might as well take it head-on and flip the surprise on Jeremiah.
As I run down the road, I glance at Connor’s shack to my left and wonder if he’s inside sleeping soundly. Or perhaps he was awoken by the noise of gun blasts in the distance as well. Either way, I hope he will be okay.
Aaron enters my mind too. Connor isn’t the only friend I’ve gained, though I’m afraid Aaron may be more than a friend. That’s not what I want, and I wager that’s not what he wants either. I can’t help but feel that stressful situations have put us into a relationship that begs for some trust and reliability. It’s good to be able to rely on someone in this world filled with greyskins. What’s strange is that we have little reason to like each other, much less to feel any kind of romance. I don’t truly know how he feels, but I imagine it’s not much different than my own confused emotions.
Either way, I’m not here to fall in love. I came here on a mission. I’m here to finish the mission. I’m going to stop this Code Red by myself if I have to.
When I come up near the wall, the first thing I notice is how quiet everything is. Normally, Screven guards would be patrolling the area and I would have already been stopped or at least questioned for coming this close to the entrance.
The vehicles aren’t moving. The guards are nowhere to be…
An arm lays lifeless on the ground in front of one of the vehicles. Blood trickles past the wrist. My body seizes into shock, as I know that I’m about to see a freshly killed body. But the sight doesn’t stop my legs. I walk around the side and see the arm attached to one of the Screven guards, the blood pouring from a chest wound. I bend over the body and roll the man over to find two gaping bullet holes. The guard is dead.
I look up and turn my head to scan the surroundings but the pre-dawn darkness prevails over my eyesight. There’s usually some kind of light to illuminate the area, but it has been shut off. I know the colony wall and gate are about a hundred or so yards in front of me because directly to my right I can see the Vault where I had been taken in for examination a few days ago.
I move around to the other side of the vehicle and open the driver’s side door. The keys are still in the ignition. I turn it halfway to engage the battery and look around for the button to turn on the headlights. Found it. I hesitate as my finger hovers above the button.
Is this the best idea? I’ll be exposing myself to the eyse
nemy if they are watching for me. Someone has murdered these guards. That someone is probably still alive. It would be foolish of me to turn on the light, wouldn’t it?
“Mora!”
The sound of my name makes me grab for my knife and spin around quickly. I’m instantly relieved when I see Aaron standing in front of me, holding a shotgun, ready for battle.
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
“Same reason you are,” I say. “I heard gunfire. I nod to the front of the vehicle. “A guard is dead.”
Aaron’s eyes widen at this and he walks to the other side to confirm what I said. “What’s going on?”
I shake my head, not knowing what to say. “I’ve got theories, but nothing you haven’t already thought of yourself.”
“What are you about to do?”
I glance down at the headlight button and look back to him. “There are no other lights. I imagine there’s a few more dead bodies to be found.”
“You think that’s a good idea?”
I shrug. “We’re Starborns, right? Should be able to handle what some sniper might throw at us. There’s plenty of power in these vehicles for you to use isn’t there?”
He looks around the area. There are at least ten of them within forty feet of us. He nods. “Yeah.”
I turn back to the button and push it. The light is blinding at first and our eyes have to adjust for a moment.
However, it doesn’t take long for us to notice the dead bodies on the ground, the open colony gates, and the flood of greyskins pouring through by the hundred
s.
I do everything I can to stifle my gasp at the sight of the incoming herd suddenly attracted to our direction, but Aaron’s reaction is much louder than mine.
“Cut the lights!” he yells out.
I do as he says and duck behind the open vehicle door, though I know it’s too late.
“Where did they come from?” I say.
Aaron shakes his head at me. “This is the Code Red. It has to be. Jeremiah’s gotten his men killed, and set the greyskins on us. He’s trying to draw us out.”
“But why would he kill his own guards?” I ask though I know I won’t get an answer.
Turning on the light did much to let me know what was ahead of us, but did little to maintain our hopes of staying alive. Now all of the greyskins that have made it through the front gate have trained their eyes on our position.
“We’ve got to warn the colony,” I say. My mind goes to when Connor took me to the top of the crow’s nest to watch the Screven guards take on the greyskins outside of the colony a few days ago. I remember the sounding of alarms. “How do the guards set off the alarms?”
“I think there are several ways to set them off,” he says. “I remember seeing an alarm control in the Vault.” He points to my right and I shudder at the thought of going back in there. That’s where Bret was killed right in front of me. Red, he’s dead.
Aaron jerks me from my daze when he grabs my arm. “Come on, we’ll go together.”
He doesn’t have to tell me more than once. I follow him as we run toward the Vault. Several dead bodies lie on the ground along the way. Bullet holes have punctured them all in various places, ultimately resulting in their deaths. Why would Jeremiah turn on his own men? It doesn’t make any sense.
The door to the vault is hanging wide open. I follow Aaron to the left as we enter and I recognize it as the same path I had to take for my examination. We pass the corridor where Bretdorhave tra was shot down right in front of me, then through the room where the Screven doctors had me strip down so they could examine me for bites or scratches.
More bodies are strewn along the floors, blood smeared across the walls. The flickering lights reveal that the bodies are riddled with bullet holes. These people were killed by humans, not greyskins. To our left I can see the two doctors that examined me. The man has a hole in his head and the woman is lying on her stomach, unmoving. Their female assistant is sitting in the corner, and at first I think she’s dead like the others, but her head moves to look at the two of us. I look at Aaron and he nods at me, letting me know he’s going to find the alarm while I help her.
The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) Page 20