Aaron scowled when he saw Connor approaching. “What are you doing here?”
“Working for Jeremiah,” Connor answered. For a moment, he thought about trying to knock Trace out and then going for the guard’s gun, but he wasn’t sure what kind of power Trace had. Any action like that against a Starborn could be futile.
“You’re a lousy traitor,” Aaron said. “I’m surprised they even let you stay on their side with all the Screven soldier’s you’ve killed.”
“Sacrifices had to be made.” Connor hated the charade. Pretending to be one of the bad guys made him hate the sound of his own voice. He wished there was a way to communicate to Aaron that he wasn’t really with them and that he was only trying to provide a way for me to track Jeremiah.
He noticed the blood on the back of the wall where Aaron had leaned against it. “Are you alright? Have you been shot?”
“What do you care?”
“Can you communicate with him?”
Aaron looked at Connor with a confused look on his face. “What?”
Connor closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about me. The words came across as clear as if he were speaking them out loud. I’m talking to you, Mora. Can you communicate with Aaron? Tell him I’m not a traitor!
My eyes snapped open. Christopher had since let go of my hand and was sitting next to me asleep, and there was no one else around. Closing my eyes, I thought about Aaron. As soon as my consciousness was near him, I called out.
“Aaron,” I said. “Connor is on our side. The two of you need to figure a way out of there together.”
I got no response. Instead, Aaron continued to talk to Connor.
“I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t trust you,” he said. “Why do you think I never told you about my gift?”
“Probably because you were ashamed,” Connor said. “You used them to kill my parents.”
“So they’re your parents now,” Aaron said. “I see. Well, that’s not why I kept it from you. You’ve been a Jeremiah fanboy from the beginning. You only helped us out of Salem because you’re infatuated with Mora.”
“Don’t talk about her,” Connor said.
I could see his face turn red with anger. I suddenly realized that he was no longer playing the part of the bad guy. In his frustration with Aaron, it was coming out naturally.
Trying to diffuse the situation, I called out again. “Aaron!” I said. “He’s on our side!”
Still nothing. Aaron just sat there, loathing.
I switched to follow Connor. “He’s not hearing me,” I said.
This is bad, Connor thought. “I’m not here to argue with you, Aaron. We need to know what you’re planning.”
“I’m not saying anything to you or them,” Aaron nodded at Trace when he said this. “You can kill me, but I’m not talking.”
Connor looked at Trace, clearly not sure what to do. “I’ve done my best,” he said. “He won’t talk to me. What more do you want?”
Trace shook his head. “Nothing for now.” He looked at Aaron. “We’ll be back, I’m sure.”
“You’re tough now that you’ve got me without my gift,” Aaron snapped.
Trace smiled. “And for all you know, you were the last person I touched. That would mean I have no gift here, either, since there isn’t any electricity.”
Aaron stared for a long moment.
As I sat and watched them, part of me want to shout out for Connor to attack Trace, because if what he was saying was true, Trace would have no power in that room. But what if he had touched Jeremiah or Anthony? If Connor tried something, he would be dead.
Trace let out a laugh and turned his back on Aaron, walking out of the room. Aaron must have had the same thoughts as me because he sat there motionless.
Before the door closed, Connor looked back at Aaron. It seemed that Aaron wanted to kill him. But Connor looked at him almost apologetically. He didn’t want to be against Aaron. He wasn’t against Aaron. How could he communicate that to him? As the door shut, Trace led Connor back down the hall.
“Now you can’t get your brother to talk,” he said. “You’re just about to lose every bit of usefulness you have.”
Connor ignored him.
I opened my eyes to find Christopher still asleep, though I wasn’t sure how he had slept through all of my talking. I closed my eyes in search of Evelyn this time. I found her and Jeffrey walking through the streets. But when I looked more closely, I was surprised to see them so near the hideout.
They looked over their shoulders to make sure there were no Screven guards watching them. They crossed the courtyard and finally made it into the hideout. At first, I wanted to get up and greet them, but I didn’t have the energy. Besides, they would have so many people coming up to them to make sure they were all right.
Minutes went by and I just kept my head rested against the wall. I thought about Jake and Grandma at Springhill. It wasn’t a pretty sight there. Most of the dead had already been piled up and burned. The two of them were helping to clean the village while others worked hard to finish the wall. I was glad they were still working on the wall, but I hoped they wouldn’t need it for long. All I could think about was them living out their days in New Haven away from all this mess. I didn’t want them to have to rebuild with the rest of the world. I wanted them to be in a new one. A place where they could have a brand new start.
I couldn’t help but smile at them, even though there weren’t smiles on their faces. They were staring at tragedy all around them. But I would rather have them stare at iI couldt than be a part of it. Of course, one was always part of it in some way. These were our friends. People we lived with. I silently hoped that my family would never have to face such disaster again.
More minutes passed until I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Christopher who pointed at Evelyn standing above us.
“Don’t get up,” she said as she got to her knees and sat in front of us. “You two probably feel terrible.”
Neither one of us answered.
“I see you made it out alive,” I said.
Evelyn nodded, but the look on her face showed nothing but deep concern. “I was told Aaron was shot, but no one here saw it happen.” She looked at Christopher. “Could I speak with Mora alone for a minute?”
“If you’re asking me to leave so you can discuss her ability to see people from far away, I don’t think it’s necessary,” he answered.
Evelyn and I looked at him sharply.
He waved us off. “Sadie mentioned something about it.”
I shook my head. “So, Sadie just claims to have no interest in other people’s thoughts, yet she really does?”
Christopher shrugged. “She tells people that so they feel more comfortable around her.”
“Fine,” Evelyn said. “Tell me what you saw.”
“Aaron is alive. Jeremiah has him somewhere in the Center. No access to electricity.”
“I’m glad he’s okay,” she said. “What about Connor?”
“He’s in a tight spot. He’s keeping up with his act, but I’m afraid Jeremiah is starting to catch on. If we’re going to attack and know exactly where Jeremiah is, then we need to do it soon.”
“You might get your shot after all,” Evelyn said. “Allison is broken. She’s upset about the prisoners obviously, but she now wants to make a full-on attack against the Center this evening instead of tomorrow morning.”
“Why does she think that will work?” I asked.
“She doesn’t,” Evelyn said. “The attack itself will be no good. She only hopes we are able to get the explosives into the basement of the Center and somehow get someone to detonate it. She doesn’t really expect us to survive this.”
“Well,” I said, “I’m not planning on dying until I’m face to face with Jeremiah.”
“But if we can take down the Center with him in it, you won’t have to be face to face with him.”
“I plan to make sure he stays put,” I said. “I’m going down
with the Center.”
Evelyn paused at my words. Talks of planned deaths and sacrifices were not conversation pieces we were used to. I had obviously come to grips with my mortality, but Evelyn still seemed to have trouble hearing about it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She looked down at the floor. “It’s just…” She stopped herself to take a deep breath. “It’s just that you were supposed to be the one to carry on after Jeremiah was gone. In a sense, I have been looking for someone to take my place when I’m gone. A person who can train other Starborns to help rid the world of the greyskins and whatever else might be lurking out there. When I first touched your arm, I knew you would be the one to carry the torch.”
“Why me?” I asked.
“There’s just something about your passion, Mora. Your drive to protect the ones you love. Most of the others that I’ve met and examined, in part, only looked out for themselves. Aaron included. But from the start, you were completely selfless, and I knew that you were the one I wanted to carry on.”
I felt deeply touched by hereat words. I had never known that she saw me in that way. I figured that she just liked my ability and saw it as a way to help her cause against Jeremiah. It made sense, I guess. From the moment we met, she had taken a strong interest in me, always trying to help me see things her way. Especially with the dreams. I was probably one of the only people in the world who knew about the origins of the greyskins so intimately. I bet even Jeffrey hadn’t seen all that I had seen.
“If you have time to get some rest,” Evelyn said, “you might be able to see more of what I’m talking about.”
“When can I rest?” I asked. “Also, it doesn’t really matter anymore. I’m going to die.”
“I guess it would just make me feel better knowing that you knew everything,” she said. She looked down at the ground again and then stood.
“We won’t be leaving for another hour. You might have time to catch up on some sleep.”
With that, she turned and walked away.
I dropped my head and looked at Christopher who seemed to be in some kind of daze, staring at nothing in particular. I waved my hand in front of his face and he shook his head quickly.
“Sorry,” he said. “Just thinking.”
“Don’t worry about anything she said. She’s just nervous.”
“Sounds like she had a lot planned for you,” he said, still not looking at me.
“Plans change, I guess. Except ours.”
He looked at me.
“You just need to help me one more time before we leave,” I said. “In fact, I think it would be a good idea for you to stay back here when we go.”
“No,” he said, sitting up straighter. “I’m going with you all the way.”
“That wasn’t the plan.”
“I have to be able to help you,” he said. “If you get sick in the middle of the Center, I need to be there to help you up.”
“No you don’t.”
“I’m not going to listen to you on this,” he said. It was the first time I had heard Christopher raise his voice.
I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay. Okay. I just think it’s a little foolish for you to go running into the very place that has a half-dead man in need of a healer.”
“No more crazy than coming here in the first place,” he argued.
I supposed he was right. This is what we had signed up for. We weren’t in Screven to hide. I had asked him to come along. I wouldn’t be able to change his mind. A part of me thought about just knocking him out and tying him to a chair, but I decided against it. I wasn’t going to tell him what he could and couldn’t do.
After a few seconds of silence, Christopher spoke up again. “That was some heavy stuff she was saying.”
I nodded.
“I guess you should probably get to sleep,” he said. “Figure out what else she’s trying to tell you.”
I scooted down the wall until my body was on its side and straight on the floor. My head rested on my hands as I closed my eyes. I don’t know if it was all the commotion we had gone through, or if the virus was getting worse, but my eyes felt so heavy.
It only took me a few seconds until I fell into the dream world that Evelyn wanted me to see.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
t>
“Just once…just once do I wish that you could teleport us near the location we intended,” Evelyn griped.
Jeffrey walked silently beside her as she went on her rant. The night was eerie and the winds didn’t help anything. The moonlight gave them just enough light to walk without fear of tripping over something and twisting an ankle, but did little to help them see possible greyskins in the distance. Both of them held rifles in their hands, ready to fire at anything that might come out at them.
“How far out do you think we are anyway?” she asked.
Jeffrey didn’t know. “Maybe a mile. Two miles.”
She didn’t say anything to his answer, but she scowled at him as she held tighter to her gun. She knew she had no right to scold him. His ability to teleport had proven its value more than a few times in her life. She was just frustrated because the group that had gone out from Salem to help one of the regional villages had been missing for a week.
The Salem group had been headed by Robert and Isabelle. When word had reached Salem about a terrible greyskin attack in a village called Springhill, they were the first to volunteer to help. They had gathered enough people and filled trucks with food and medical supplies to help the survivors.
Evelyn had thought it was a stupid idea considering the village of Salem barely had its own flimsy walls. Salem needed all those supplies too. But she had kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t about to get the reputation as a person that didn’t want to help others. She had already caused enough trouble trying to convince the village leader, Heinrich, to stay away from Jeremiah’s help. Just saying that he was a man that couldn’t be trusted had done little to persuade Heinrich, though he still held tightly to Salem’s independence.
But then there was this matter with the relief group set up by Robert and Isabelle. When they left, they had maintained communication with Salem for several hours. But then all communication simply stopped. Heinrich had just decided that something simply must have been wrong with their radios and that it would be fine to proceed.
Days went by.
Most people started to wonder if the attack at Springhill had been so huge that it had also taken over the relief team. Robert and Isabelle had two sons back at Salem. There were plenty of people to watch the boys, but it was unlike Isabelle to be away from them for so long.
Now, a week later, Evelyn told Heinrich that she and Jeffrey were going to investigate. He didn’t stop them, but only told them to be careful. They had left early in the evening. Jeffrey had known where Springhill was, but he had never been there before. He had taken them within a mile or so and it was late when they had arrived there.
One of the village elders had let them know that there was no relief team that had come to Springhill. The situation was odd. Surely they hadn’t run into too much trouble on the way. Evelyn had supposed it was possible to have car trouble. And that only meant being exposed to the greyskins.
It had been tough for Evelyn to see Springhill. The devastation had taken its toll and all Evelyn could think about was one of the villagers that she had spoken with. Such a grief-stricken young girl made Evelyn hate Jeremiah all the more. Evelyn knew she would never forget visiting the village on that night.
They walked through the darkness, hoping they were going in the correct direction to get back to Salem. Evelyn remained frustrated at Jeffrey, but she knew that it took a lot of energy to travel such long distances.
The minutes went by. to Salem.Eventually, Evelyn’s grip on her rifle wasn’t so tight. She felt at ease. She didn’t sense any sort of threat ahead of them. Besides, if there were greyskins around, Jeffrey would be able to zap them out of there in a blink.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “I didn’t mean to bicker. If you weren’t around, investigating at Springhill would have taken two days of travel altogether.”
“I just wonder how we’re going to explain to Heinrich that we actually investigated but we’re back already,” he replied.
Evelyn had thought about that too, but she knew it was getting close to the point where she was going to have to tell Heinrich everything. She needed him on board with her cause. She didn’t know what she would do if Salem became a colony of Screven. It would make things more difficult, she knew that much.
As they walked, Evelyn couldn’t help but notice several flashing lights in the distance. They seemed to be moving, maybe bouncing around in no particular pattern. Jeffrey saw it too and held his gun ready.
“What is it?” Evelyn asked.
“Looks like flashlights to me,” he answered.
Looking at the lights again, Evelyn agreed. There were several of them moving around what looked to be a large covered truck. They kept marching until they were only a hundred or so feet away. Evelyn turned her head to try and listen to what they were saying, but all she heard were worried whispers. By aid of the flashlights, the two of them saw smoke rising out of the front of the truck. It seemed to have overheated.
Evelyn motioned for Jeffery to follow closely behind her as she moved forward. They would never be seen unless the flashlight beams landed directly on them. Once they were about fifty feet away, Evelyn was able to recognize the type of vehicle it was. It obviously belonged to Screven. She couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing so close to Salem. From this distance, she was able to hear them more clearly.
“How was I supposed to know it needed water?” one of the men said.
Evelyn counted three of them, each wearing a standard black, Screven guard uniform.
“Because you’re the driver,” another one said. “Your job is to drive and to maintain the vehicle. Now, thanks to your ignorance, we’re stuck out in the middle of nowhere.”
The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) Page 55