by April White
“Yeah,” I said. He let me go, and I went straight over to Tom. I could finally see his face and the wildness that still lurked in his eyes. “Come on. We’re taking you back to school,” I said.
He looked ashamed, and then whispered to me. “No one else. Just you.” I bit back tears and reached for his hand as we stepped onto the granite spiral. “Wait,” said Adam. “I’m coming too.”
Tom spoke before I could. “You guys should finish what we started. I’ll be okay.”
I shot a quick look at Archer. I didn’t want to take Tom back and leave him alone, but I couldn’t think of who should come with us. Archer moved, but Colin stepped in front of him. “I’m coming,” he said. I looked at him, then at Tom.
“Is that a good idea?” I asked.
Tom took a shuddery breath and nodded. “Yeah, it is.”
I looked back at Archer and saw him consider Colin for a long moment before he gave a curt nod. Other people from Alex’s trap-building team were starting to arrive, and they could help finish the traps here. “I’ll be right back,” I whispered to Archer.
This return trip was harder without Charlie, and both Tom and Colin fell to their knees and took great, gasping gulps of air to keep the dry-heaves down.
“That’s normal?” Colin said when he finally stood up and braced his arm against the wall.
“Yeah.”
Colin reached a hand down for Tom and helped him to his feet. I eyed them both. “Are you guys going to be okay?”
Colin was a couple of years older than Tom, but Tom was taller. They were both slight men, and I sensed Colin could probably take care of himself in a fight if he didn’t have a rifle pointed at his skull.
Tom nodded, still taking shuddery gasps of air. “Yeah.”
My eyes flicked between both guys for a moment until Tom finally gave a half-smile. “You’re going to be a fearsome mother someday, you know that?”
“Shut up,” I said, trying to hold back the relieved smile that threatened. “And clear out of the way. I’ll be right back.” The two guys were already moving across the room when I Clocked out.
Charlie was down out of her tall tree, and most of Alex’s group had assembled by the granite slab when I returned to the woods. Archer raised an eyebrow and I nodded, which was the wordless way of saying ‘is everything okay?’ and ‘yes.’
He stayed behind with Adam to make sure that Connor made it back and could return to his human form while Charlie and I Clocked the first eight people back to the solarium. Tom and Colin had left the room, and the returning group seemed tired, but also a little giddy. I advised them to move out of the way and then Charlie and I Clocked back to the granite slab.
The rest of our booby-trap team had assembled, and a giant Bat fluttered to my shoulder right before I started tracing the spiral for another trip back to the solarium. I jumped, a couple of people muffled shrieks, and then I glared at it fiercely as I completed the spiral.
Logan’s Bat was still gripping my shoulder when we landed back at school. The Bat flew up to the roof glass and then out of the solarium with what looked like a grin on his little Bat face. I glared at Connor, and he held up his hands in surrender. “I’m only surprised he didn’t Shift and go back with us naked.”
After a round of quiet thank-yous and quick plans to meet up the next day, most of the group trudged off to bed. Adam and Ava had gone in search of Tom, leaving Ringo, Charlie, Connor, me, and Archer alone in the solarium.
“Do we know what happened?” I asked.
Charlie nodded, and spoke quietly. “Adam got to work digging Colin’s pit traps straight away while Tom stood guard. Colin came to check on them often, always pausing to speak quietly with Tom. Adam noticed Colin’s attention on his cousin and said something teasing. The next time Colin came to check on them, he came up behind Tom and startled him. Before Tom had even seen who it was, he had knocked Colin backward into the pit and was standing over him with the rifle pointed at his head.”
Ringo sat back. “World’s not ordered for ‘im anymore.”
Charlie furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean, it’s not ordered?”
Connor exhaled. “It means Tom probably has PTSD.” He saw her look of confusion and quickly added, “Everything’s been coming at him, trying to kill him since Wilder took him from the Tower of London. He’s a little safer now, but he’s still ducking and waiting for the time they don’t miss.”
“He was doing better here, inside the building,” I said.
“Putting the gun in his hands started it, but honestly, I think the stress in the woods would have been enough to trigger his response,” Archer added.
I exhaled. “Okay, Tom stays here tomorrow night. And then, when we’re all done here, he gets some help.”
“My mum used to teach psychology. She’s the one who got me through the tough parts after France,” said Connor quietly.
I rubbed my eyes and sighed. “Somehow I think we’re all going to need her help when this is over.”
Fate
I was up at dawn despite only getting about three hours of sleep, and I grabbed a cup of coffee from the kitchen before creeping down the hall to Aislin’s office.
The door was open and the light was warm and welcoming inside. The last few encounters I’d had with Fate, beginning with my visit to her on the other time stream, had been tense at best and downright terse at worst. I knocked on the doorframe and found her already seated in an armchair. The other chair was pulled out and waiting for me.
“Come in, Saira,” she said with a kind smile.
I held up my coffee mug. “Would you like me to get you a cup of coffee from the kitchen?”
“Oh no, I have the kettle on, thank you. Please have a seat.”
“You were expecting me?” I asked.
“My dear, despite the tensions we have experienced lately, I do genuinely enjoy your company.”
I sighed. “Half the time I feel like I’ve been thrown in a giant ocean, but with no boat and no life raft. I swim and I swim and I swim, and the farther I think I get, the more I start to sink.”
“And the other half of the time?” she asked as she poured hot water into the pot of tea leaves next to her chair.
I scoffed. “I’m pulling my friends down with me.”
She smiled. “It is a remarkable thing to have friends, isn’t it?”
“Pretty spectacular, actually.”
She sat back in her chair, and the light of the floor lamp made her look more like Miss Simpson and less like young Aislin. “Tell me about your friends. I only know those who are students here, and then only as their headmistress.”
I smiled. “Are you doing that on purpose? When you sat back, the light changed and made you look more like the kindly older woman. When you sit forward, I see more of the young Immortal from the paintings.”
“Whom do you trust more?”
That was an interesting question. Did I distrust Fate? I took a sip of my coffee and thought carefully before I answered. “I guess I trust Miss Simpson more than Aislin.”
“May I inquire as to why?”
I exhaled and chose my words. “When you were Miss Simpson, your kindness and generosity felt genuine. Knowing you as Aislin makes the information you gave me access to feel like a carrot dangled in front of a gullible horse. If you guys – the Immortals, I mean – have a request of me, just say it. I’m tired of making every mistake in the book as I try to figure out how to navigate through your world.”
Aislin regarded me steadily, and then she sat back into her Miss Simpson light. “Tell me about your friends, Saira.”
“Why?” I was being manipulated, and I didn’t want to drag anyone else into it.
“Because I believe they are important to the tasks ahead of you and I’d like to understand, as they say, your assets.” She smiled at that, and I smiled with her. It sounded like terminology she had picked up from Connor or Ringo and their gaming-speak.
“Okay.” I pictured
the faces of the people I cared about as I spoke. “Did you know Archer and I got married?” At her expression, I grinned. “Of course you knew. It’s very strange, because I don’t feel old enough, or even adult enough, but I married my best friend, and I can’t imagine ever loving him less than I do now.”
Aislin sat forward again with a smile. “I’ve had forty-seven marriage proposals, and not one of the lovely, wonderful men was ever my best friend. I believe you are quite lucky, my dear.”
“Thanks,” I said, “me too.” I took another sip of coffee. “The interesting thing I’ve learned about best friends is that you can have more than one. I have two. One I love with passion, the other one I love with complete affection. Archer is my heart, my soul, my reason, and the sum of my experiences, and Ringo is laughter and adventure and strange wisdom that answers the questions that wake me up at two a.m.”
Aislin laughed – and it was Aislin, looking even younger and more beautiful than I’d ever seen her look in person. “I understand those questions, for that is the time when Ava wakes me with her visions.”
I smiled. “Ava … Ava is like a fairy princess with no filter.” I studied Aislin’s young face. “And Adam is the biggest, softest guy I’ve ever met.”
She sat back again, but this time I only saw Aislin. “Tell me about their cousin, Tom.”
I sighed. “Tom hid his pain for so long it became part of his identity. He cares very deeply, but he’s terrified to let other people love him because he’s sure he’ll hurt them.”
She tilted her head. “Tell me who else you consider a friend.”
“Well, Connor Edwards, of course, and his little brother, Logan. Charlie, and Olivia—” I tucked my legs under me and contemplated the people in my world. “I guess Millicent has become my friend too. And Mr. Shaw, obviously. He’s part teacher, part father, and part friend.”
She smiled, and it touched her eyes and made me feel as though she really heard me. “These are your people, Saira. You found them as you were discovering yourself, and through them, you’ve gained a much richer experience of this world we both inhabit. You asked why the Immortals haven’t made a request of you? Can you honestly say you would have even considered a request had you not experienced every joy and hardship, or met every friend and enemy that the past year has put in your way?”
I looked her straight in the eyes. “One year ago I was freerunning the streets of Venice Beach with only my mother and a few stray cats for company.”
“Would you go back to that?”
“Not in a million years.”
She regarded me steadily, and I didn’t look away. “Our edict against interference with our Descendants has a purpose. Just as telling a child not to touch the hot stove carries far less weight than the burn does, choosing one’s own path as the result of experience creates a much more committed traveler than the one who was directed to that path.”
“What if the path isn’t the one you wish the person would take?” I asked.
“One cannot trust a path, because the path is different for each person who takes it. One can only trust the person to choose the path that best represents their values and experiences.”
“Who set me on this path?” I asked.
“You did, my dear. The circumstances that brought you to us only mattered because of what you did with them.”
I hadn’t realized we were going to have an existential conversation about my life, although what did I really expect, given that I was talking to Fate? “I told you about my friends; can you tell me about yours?”
She knew exactly what I was asking, and I thought for sure she was going to refuse. But after a very long hesitation, she finally spoke. “When the world was younger, I knew them better, so I fear my experiences of them are out of date. Jera was like a sister to me. She had the wisdom of experience behind her, and mine was of things yet to come. Our discussions were lively, and our debates often became like theatre for the others. Goran always sided with Jera, but we never thought anything of it. Because everything about him was so big – his laughter, his fierceness, his voice – it overshadowed the signs of a couple falling in love.”
She sipped her tea and stared into the cup as if it were a mirror of a different time. “Aeron missed nothing though. He saw every look, every touch, every whisper that passed between Jera and Goran. Aeron had been in love with Jera since the beginning, you see. He was content to love her from afar, but he withdrew from all of us when she became pregnant with Goran’s child.”
Aislin’s gaze was direct. “And that was what Duncan had been waiting for. In the absence of peace, Death is the only thing that can put an end to War, so long as Aeron remained active among us, Duncan was constrained. But once Death retreated to his island home, Duncan had free reign. He spread rumors that Aeron’s jealousy was violent, and that he intended to harm the child and to kill Goran. Even Nature knew that Death could end that part of him which lived in the plants and trees and creatures of the Earth, therefore Goran heeded Duncan’s warning that Death should be cast out of our Council and his powers removed.”
“By whom?” I asked. “Who was strong enough to take away the power of Death?”
Fate smiled indulgently. “No one, dear. War was spinning a tale to suit his own ends, as War always does. But Goran was afraid, so he threw his lot in with Duncan and demanded that Jera and I do the same. I, of course, would not stand against Death, though I’d Seen the discord the union between Jera and Goran would cause and warned them against it. Jera cared only for the son she carried in her womb and would speak no word against his father.”
I was riveted to her story, and Aislin’s smile faded as the memories took her. “The babe was three days old when his empty cradle was found covered in blood. Not a trace of the child was ever seen again. Duncan stormed through the world proclaiming Death the villain who had slain the child in rage that the woman he loved had chosen another man. This served Duncan well, because Goran and his Descendants took up arms with War against all who stood with Death.”
I stared at her. “He caused a civil war?”
Aislin’s expression remained carefully neutral, even as her voice was filled with sadness. “Brother slew brother, friends became enemies, and the houses divided. Jera retreated in mourning and left her Family to their own devices to survive or die in the carnage. Aeron’s Family, always the smallest, was nearly annihilated, and any who survived were hunted by every generation that followed. I protected those of my Family that I could, and we remained neutral so that we would be left alone to live. But the discord was sewn by Duncan into the very fabric of our Families, and when Death’s Descendants had been hunted to near extinction, Duncan exploited a new fear – the union of Jera and Goran had created a child whose death began the war. Fear is a powerful reason to hate, and hate gives more power to the mongers of fear. Thus, the Mongers became the enforcers, because it was in their interest to keep the fear alive.”
“So they got powerful, the Shifters got angry, your Family stayed out of it, the Clockers declined to near oblivion from Jera’s neglect, and the Suckers who survived hid from the world,” I said.
“Precisely.”
We sat in silence for a long moment before Aislin spoke again, and her tone was that of a person confiding a secret. “We are only as strong as our Families believe us to be.”
I held my breath. “We who?”
She sighed. “Immortals are like the old gods. Our power lies in people’s belief in us, and our strength comes from the strength of our Families. Mongers became strong, so Duncan got more powerful. Clockers have died out, so Jera has become weakened as well.”
Aislin had just given me an Immortal secret – maybe the biggest one they had – and with it, I finally understood Duncan’s motive for stealing the ring. I swirled the dregs of coffee in my mug and considered her words. “What if Jera’s child didn’t die?”
I didn’t look up until it became clear Aislin wasn’t going to answer. So I asked aga
in. “What if the boy didn’t die?”
“Then the world would have another Immortal, and Duncan would burn the world to ashes rather than share his power with anyone.”
Ready
I stopped by my old room and knocked.
“Come in,” Raven called.
I poked my head in the door. She sat on her bed using her smartphone while Cole worked on a laptop at the desk.
“Hey,” I said, “how’s it going?”
Raven just couldn’t look at me without suspicion, but it didn’t actually bother me. “Everyone goes silent whenever I walk by, so, you know, that’s pretty fun.” She scowled.
“How’d Slick like your info?” I asked brightly.
“Who is Slick?”
“Your uncle’s voice is so smooth and smarmy, it’s what I called him before I knew his name.”
The corners of her mouth twitched, but she hid the smile that threatened. “It wasn’t enough. He wants more.”
I came in and shut the door behind me. “I have more.”
Cole closed the lid to his laptop and Raven set down her phone. If Raven was suspicious, Cole was downright hostile.
“Whatever information you give Raven is obviously going to be false, and that’s going to get my sister hurt.”
I shook my head. “Not false. You can ask Tam or anyone else to corroborate. I know what the stakes are, Cole. I’m not going to put Melanie’s safety at risk.”
“Why? Why help me?” Raven sounded more angry than confused.
“Do you really want to ask that, or do you just want to pass the information on and stay out of it?”
She glared at me, so I shrugged and reached for the door. “Okay, see you later.”
“What do you want me to tell him?” she said quickly as I pushed the handle.
I didn’t turn around. “Archer and I are taking the kids out of here tonight – the young ones. We’re stashing them at Elian Manor. It’s safe, but still close enough that their parents can get to them.”