by Sophie Davis
“I was going to say hidden,” I grumbled.
Crane sighed. “They loved you. Remember that.”
My parents had loved me. They’d also died because of me. Maybe that was why I often chose anger when I thought of them, because the guilt was too much. It was easier to be mad at them for lying and keeping secrets.
“I can’t deal with this right now,” I stated flatly. “Can we please just not? Okay?”
“Why don’t we take a break?” Crane suggested.
I shook my head. “No, we should keep looking through this stuff. I just don’t want to talk about my parents. Okay?”
Heavy concern was visible in Erik’s turquoise eyes. He nodded slowly, but I read his conflicting feelings as plainly as a tattoo on his forehead. Erik realized how unhealthy it could be to shove things down, to suppress your emotions instead of dealing with them. He thought this stuff with my parents was something I should take time to process, but he wasn’t going to say so.
“Okay. For now,” Crane agreed. He studied my face with too much scrutiny for my liking. “But we do need to talk about your family, specifically Ferdinand Lyons. Do you know anything about him? Looks like he was your great-great-great grandfather.”
I recognized the name but knew nothing about the man beyond the fact we were related.
“Not really, why?” I asked.
“Because he was married to Marie Bordeaux,” Erik replied.
My eyebrows shot up. “Bordeaux? Like Jacques Bordeaux?”
“They were twins,” Erik confirmed.
I flipped back to the Bordeaux family tree. There was no mention of Marie.
“Why isn’t she on Jacques’ tree?”
No one had an answer.
“There are two other siblings. Gaston and Charlotte,” Erik announced. Fingers flying over the keyboard, his eyes were glued to the holoscreen. “Looks like Gaston passed away without marrying or fathering children. Charlotte married a woman named Marsha, and they adopted two kids.”
I mulled over the information. Based on what Erik told us, it didn’t seem that we’d find either Gaston or Charlotte on any of the other family trees. Clicking on Marie’s name, I found an in-depth record that was similar to the others we’d seen. One observer noted that Marie exhibited “a strong control over others” and “appeared to force her will upon another”.
I would’ve written off Marie as a Mind Manipulator, until I read an entry by an observer who’d tailed her when she was in her twenties. It was around the time Marie married Ferdinand. “At her birth, Marie Bordeaux was said to have violet eyes. She currently possesses brown eyes”. A footnote explained that standard alterations were a possibility, until further inquiry made clear that the girl he’d been following “bore no resemblance to Marie Bordeaux”.
Erik and I exchanged glances. Both our gazes finally landed on Crane.
“Yes,” he confirmed, nodding in response to our unasked question. “Marie was likely a Perception Manipulator. Or something akin to that. Some first generation had capabilities that were vastly different than those we see today.”
“Marie wasn’t first generation, though,” I said flatly. “As Jacques’ twin, she would’ve been born prior to the contamination.”
So was Ferdinand, I realized.
My family—my family—was…what? Descended from witches? Okay, witches might’ve been the wrong word. But my ancestors did have powers prior to the Great Contamination.
I hurried to click on Ferdinand’s name, desperately needing to see his birthdate with my own eyes. The most interesting thing about Ferdinand wasn’t the year he was born; it was his talent. Ferdinand was a healer.
“Is this right?” I asked.
Crane and Erik had no answer, which was expected. Would anyone alive really know the truth? It was unlikely.
“Healing was rare, even in the first generation,” Erik said cautiously. “It’s possible the observer was wrong. Maybe….” He trailed off and looked to Crane imploringly.
“Ferdinand wasn’t first generation,” I finished.
“No, he wasn’t,” Crane agreed.
Is that why Gretchen truly wants me? I wondered. Why she wants Kip?
Clearly, she knew about our familial ties. She must have. If Mac knew, Gretchen knew, too.
“All the people at the top of these charts were documented as having powers before the spill,” Erik announced, trying to catch my eye.
He was in my head, worried about my reaction to this bombshell news after my reaction to my parents’ names. Honestly, I was too stunned to freak out. When we’d learned Jacques had abilities before the Great Contamination, that was earthshattering. A part of me had been convinced he was an outlier. Erik had just crushed that hope.
“Wait, is that including Margaret Anne McDonough?” I asked curiously.
Surely a public figure like the President wouldn’t have been able to conceal abilities, right?
“No, she wasn’t Talented,” Erik confirmed. “Whoever made these family trees probably started with her because she was born around the same time as Ferdinand, Jacques, Marie, and the rest of them.”
I saw the spark in his turquoise eyes at the same time realization dawned on me.
“But the McDonoughs knew about all these people somehow,” he added slowly.
We both turned to Crane.
“That’s the connection we still need to find,” he told us. “We know what nine of these ten families have in common. Or, at least, one thing they have in common.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “You think there could be something more?”
Crane closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose.
“I’d stake my presidency on it,” he finally answered.
All the files were in front of me, and I rearranged them to see all the names at the tops of the trees simultaneously. In addition to my father’s and Kip’s lineages, the Montague family was also among those in Mac’s files. So were the Rossi family, the Rodriguez family, the Tao family, the Larson family, the Delmore family, and—
“Holy shit,” Erik muttered.
Crane’s eyes were perfectly round.
“You didn’t know?” I guessed and watched his reaction closely.
Of all the adults in my life, Crane was one of the few who’d never flat out lied to me. Withholding information was technically different, but he looked genuinely surprised by this revelation.
“No,” he replied. “I…wow. Bradford was my great-great-grandfather. I did know that much. He never mentioned the fact he was Talented, though.”
I clicked on Bradford Crane. Besides finding the man was born before the Contamination, his talent gave me pause; some observer noted that Bradford had the ability to alter time.
“Alter time?” Erik asked dubiously.
As Crane explained about Rewinders—a talent so rare that some believed it never existed at all—I scrolled down the screen and nearly choked on my own spit.
Bradford Crane had married Hattie Vasseur. Vasseur was my mother’s maiden name. I was pretty sure Hattie was my mother’s great-aunt twice removed or something.
Crane and I were…related.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Erik
“Mom,” I whispered.
Talia’s head popped up. Even Ian’s eyes went wide. I touched my mother’s name on the holoscreen, shocked to see it on one of Danbury McDonough’s family tree files. For a moment, it seemed like the small act might transcend the worlds of the living and dead. The existence of my mother was something I never thought about, I couldn’t. It had been so long since I’d heard her name, and even longer since I’d seen it written.
“Erik,” Tals breathed, her right hand covering her heart. Her eyes widened. “I didn’t know your mother’s maiden name was Aris.”
“Get out of my head,” I snapped, the anger flaring up inside of me so fast that the outburst was unavoidable.
The intrusion shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did.
Like it or not, Talia just couldn’t help using her abilities in certain situations.
“Your emotional outputs spiked, I was worried,” Talia shot back. Her anger was more controlled than mine but bubbled just below the surface.
“Easy, everyone,” Crane said calmly, hands raised to show he at least was no threat.
I ignored him, but Talia’s glare held so much heat it was a wonder Ian didn’t burst into flames. Had I not been so worked up, I might have noticed then that I was not the only person on her shit list.
Things went downhill from there. Everything I’d pushed down in the last thirty-six hours—all the emotions from one disaster after another and another—clawed to the surface and spewed from my mouth.
“For as much time as you spend in other people’s heads, I’d think you might understand people better,” I spat, suddenly on my feet. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as though readying for a fight.
My words were barbs meant to inflict pain, and they did. Talia bristled. Her hackles rose, both figuratively and literally. A part of me wanted to apologize, while another part craved the inevitable fight on the horizon. I didn’t think about the other inhabitants of the house in that moment. The animal inside of me screamed for release, bloodlust consuming me from the inside out.
Then, my girlfriend did something so unexpected, my shock quieted the rage. Instead of yelling back, Tals stood and plastered a forced smile on her face.
She stood and looked between Ian and me, acid green venom in her violet gaze.
“I need some air. Maybe by the time I return, I’ll know a little more about people,” she said calmly. Too calmly.
Shit.
With that, Tals strode from the room. Awkward silence trailed in her wake.
Nothing else left to do, I turned and punched the closest wall. I needed physical release. I needed to feel a physical pain that would temporarily distract from the emotional agony I’d just inflicted on the love of my life. Needing to quiet the voices demanding blood, I hit the wall again. The skin over my knuckles split. My hand throbbed when I flexed my fingers to assess the damage. Nothing was broken. A part of me wanted to pound on that stupid wall until a bone did crack.
You’re stronger than this. Control the talents, don’t let them control you, I lectured myself. It was something Penny had said to me while we were on our failed peace tour, the reassurance I’d needed in one of my weaker moments.
“Maybe, instead of banging your fist, you should try talking to her rationally?” Ian suggested.
I raised an eyebrow in his direction.
“Have you met my girlfriend?”
Ian smiled wryly. “We can’t fight with each other, Erik. This war will divide the Talented. Many of our kind will side with Gretchen, particularly now that the treaty is no more. The Poachers are coming out of hiding. My sources tell me they’re already planning to hold an auction after the grace period expires. Sons of After have declared open season on Talents. Even those of us who don’t agree with Gretchen’s methods will still fight with her, because it beats the alternative. The only way we win this war is together.”
“United we stand, divided we fall,” I muttered.
It was clichéd but true. Now, more than ever, Talia and I and the rest of our friends needed to put on a unified front. We couldn’t let stupid shit get in the way.
“Yeah, well, I don’t think I’m the only one who needs to talk things out with Talia,” I said pointedly.
Ian’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? What did I do?”
I laughed humorlessly. “No clue. But all that ire wasn’t just for me.”
After a long moment of eyeing Ian, I did go after my girlfriend. I didn’t even know why exactly I was trying; any attempt to approach Talia after I’d bitten her head off wasn’t going to end well for me.
I knew I should be thankful she’d walked away. Tals thought that I, with my created abilities, was the more dangerous of the two of us. It was probably true. Uncontrolled power was more dangerous than controlled power.
But her controlled power was far more lethal.
Locating Talia in an estate the size of Ian’s presidential palace didn’t prove easy. I ran across Epsilon and Kenly on my way up from the basement. They were both more alert after refueling with Robo Gentry’s cooking and ready to dive back in to decryption algorithms. Neither of them had seen Talia since leaving the crypto bank earlier.
Penny and Brand were in Ian’s study talking to Tanaka about Henri’s last known location. Reportedly, it was somewhere in Germany. The councilman swore he was doing everything in his power to find Frederick’s boyfriend.
“Thank you. Just remember there isn’t much time,” I said before exiting the study.
Next, I tried the room where Talia slept the night before. That was a bust, too, though I did find Frederick and Riley both resting in nearby rooms of the same wing. Riley was awake and eating something that looked like a bowl of gravy with carrots and celery. It smelled good enough to make my mouth water.
“That Gentry fellow is a right good cook, eh?” he asked when I sniffed the air like a dog.
“Yeah, that’s what I hear,” I said, realizing I hadn’t yet eaten anything the droid had made.
After the fight with Sons of After, I’d been near collapse from using so much energy and ate a venison steak on the hover ride from the school. No point in letting our hunting or my father’s cooking go to waste.
Riley set the bowl on a tray in front of him, the clattering bringing me back to the present.
“Have you any news about Willa?” he asked hopefully.
Willa was Riley’s girlfriend. I’d spent even less time with her than I had with him, which wasn’t much at all. After Bryn and Riley were injured at Pure Bliss, I’d sort of lost track of Willa.
“I thought she was going with you on the hover?” I asked carefully.
“No, mate. Penny thought it was possible she was on another, headed for the Isle. But….” He trailed off. A faraway look settled in his oddly ordinary brown eyes—being a highly skilled Morpher, Riley almost always wore a different appearance.
I was pretty sure I’d never seen his real face.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” I promised him. With those departing words and small wave, I left him to his lunch.
As much as I did want to patch things up with my girlfriend, I couldn’t resist the urge to spend time with Frederick when I came across his room. The space was dimly lit with electronic candles that gave off a soft orange glow. Quiet orchestral music played through unseen speakers. Machines monitored his vitals, keeping his heart pumping and his muscles from stiffening.
Swallowing thickly, I pulled a chair over beside the bed and sat. Even though he couldn’t hear me, I felt the need to talk to him. It wasn’t that I had any burning secrets to confess or parting words for him. It was more that I was willing to try anything to reach the part of him that was still tied to this worldly plane.
“Talia’s pissed at me.” I laughed shortly. “What’s new, right?” I paused as though waiting for an answer. “I guess I sort of deserve it. Sometimes I wish she would just stay out of my head, though. She doesn’t need to see what Mac did to me.” I exhaled slowly. “How thin the line is between sanity and insanity these days. That’s why she’s pushing the decryption of these files. She thinks I don’t know. But she wants the cure so badly. For me.”
I sat back and dropped my head into my hands.
“I don’t if I’m going to be able to hold on that long. Penny’s cracking. I don’t think she has much time, which probably means I don’t either.” I sniffed, a little surprised to realize tears had collected in my eyes. “I really am an ass, sitting here talking to you about time when—“
“When I’m dying?”
“Ahhhhh!”
My scream could have woken the dead. Maybe it had. Frederick’s brown eyes were open and staring up at me. I jumped up so fast, the chair flew backward. I tripped over it in my shock.
Blinking rapidly, I tried to decide whether I was hallucinating.
“I see,” Frederick croaked. “Now you’ve got nothing to say?”
Stumbling to my feet, I scurried to his side. I was too afraid of hurting him to touch him. Frederick started to sit up, but I shook my head.
“No. Don’t. Let me get someone.”
Frederick’s long fingers encircled my wrist.
“Where am I, Erik?” he demanded.
“Ian’s estate in Virginia,” I told him.
“Virginia?” He shook his head, clearly confused. “How did I get here?”
For a long moment, I stared down at him and considered how much to say. Finally, I settled on nothing and went with deflection.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked.
Frederick’s eyes became unfocused. I felt how hard he was concentrating, as well as the blank space in his memory. My last peace rally—that was as far back as he could recall.
“You know what? Right now, let me get someone to check you over. We can talk about how you got here once that’s done, okay?”
Uncertainty wove lines on his face.
He knows it’s bad news.
“All you need to know is that you’re safe. I’m here. Talia’s here. And you’re alive.” I got a little choked up, and he smiled.
“Never knew you cared so much,” he teased.
It turned out my shriek earlier had drawn quite a bit of attention. I didn’t even make it to the door before three medics I vaguely recognized came rushing into the room. They all seemed as shocked as I’d been to find Frederick conscious.
“You need to leave, Agent Kelley,” one woman told me, her tone curt.
“I was just coming to find you guys,” I stammered.
She was no longer listening. No one was. At least, they weren’t listening to me.