I knew just seeing her would calm me down. A little voice in my mind told me to tell her what I’d always seen in the North Wing, how I was sure it was over. I knew she would not be able to respond, but I just needed someone to listen to me right now.
I thought it was odd that the medical desk full of all her needs was missing from outside her room. Even odder that the around-the-clock nurses were nowhere to be seen.
I knocked gently on the door before opening it. I gasped. Her bed was made, and she wasn’t in it.
Rage coursed through me. My hand that was on the door instantly froze it, then the ice spread across the walls. What the hell had she done with her? Just as I was about to storm out of the room, I heard, “Genevieve, sweetheart, come in.”
I pushed the door open wider and reached for the light to turn it on. Gran was in the center of her massive room, dressed, standing, looking years, if not decades younger.
“What—wh—you’re better,” I said with a broken gasp as the room froze even more. I was terrified she would slip on the ice and hurt herself.
I wasn’t used to being this out of control, having my curse this visible. What was even more terrifying was that Gran didn’t seem the least bit surprised by how out of control I’d become.
She smiled tenderly and nodded once as a gasp and a tear escaped me.
I walked slowly to her side, trying to push my emotions down so I could touch her. “How?”
Her wise eyes held my gaze as she reached for my arm. I flinched, still terrified for her, but either she didn’t notice or she didn’t care how cold I was. Her hand squeezed my shoulder with more strength than I’d ever known her to have. “I woke up, Genevieve.”
“Just like that? After almost four years?”
“Just like that,” she repeated in the sweetest voice I’d ever heard.
“I need to get your doctor, call everyone. They are going to be so excited. You have no idea how afraid I was that I…that I would have to say goodbye.”
“Sit, I don’t need a doctor,” she said, edging me to the bench at the end of her bed.
“I need to call everyone,” I protested, refusing to sit down like this was just another ordinary day, like this was not the most insane turn of events that I’d ever witnessed.
“They know.”
“And no one bothered to tell me?” I said as my instant anger seemed to intensify the ice that was forming. With a deep breath, I managed to make it go away.
“You need your rest, though. I understand you’ve had a troubled night.”
“She really is spying on me, isn’t she?” I muttered, knowing that Cadence or the guys hadn’t told Gran about my night terror. I would have been the first person they would have told that Gran was awake if they’d seen her.
“What is that look in your eyes, Genevieve? Why are you so distressed?”
I tried to swallow the emotions. I really did. But tears spilled down my face as I looked away. “I can’t let you wake up, only to figure out that I long ago lost my mind.”
“Why on Earth would you think such things?”
I shook my head as I harshly wiped away the tears on my cheek. “I’m in love with a past that I can’t understand how I’m linked to, and that love affair has caused me to keep everyone at arm’s length. I’m stressed, to the point that the night terrors are back, to the point where my own mind is shutting down the images I’ve come to rely on.”
“The North Wing,” she said tenderly.
I looked up at her waiting eyes to see her smiling slightly.
“Why did you tell me that wing was mine?”
“Was I wrong?” she asked, raising her brow as a half-smile emerged on her aged lips.
“It’s not of this world. I mean, most of it is, but sometimes I hear things there that make no sense, that turn reality into fantasy.”
“Nothing in that wing is fantasy. That is the beginning, Genevieve. Your beginning.”
I knew she meant that I had been adopted by the Falcons, that I was now and forevermore a Falcon, but she just didn’t understand what I was talking about.
“I’ve seen myself. I’ve…I’ve watched a life there for years now.”
“And why are you troubled by that?”
I shook my head. “Because I think it’s over now.”
She reached her arm around me. “Child, it’s not over, for your soul still thrives. It’s time to move forward now. Make a new beginning.”
“I wish I could,” I said under my breath as Wilder’s image slid through my mind. I still couldn’t do it. I still couldn’t imagine giving us another chance. “I’ve tried letting people in, but I freeze. Literally.”
“Then you have not found your fire. It will come.”
I blushed as Sebastian saturated my thoughts, as he often did each day after I left that wing.
“I wish I had your faith.” I glanced over at her. “Your will to fight.”
She laughed as if I had said something ironic. “You are fighting right now. And you need to keep fighting. Never doubt your emotions, your gut instinct. Follow your soul, and you will never go wrong.”
I nodded as I looked away. “I’ve been trying to see you for days. Rasure wouldn’t let me. Ben had to take legal action. Can you believe that?”
“You need to get that woman out of our home,” Gran said boldly to me, which was shocking; she had always had her opinions but thought it rude to display them openly.
“Working on it,” I said so quietly that I barely heard myself. I just couldn’t believe this, that she was okay, that she looked so good, the way I always remembered her to be.
“Your uncle is trapped by her, and if you are not careful you will be, too.”
“What do you mean ‘trapped’? He’s sick with grief, not trapped but that will be over now that he knows you’re okay.”
Gran moved her head from side to side slowly. “He was trapped long ago. Genevieve, I need you to fight her, get her out of our home, set my son free so I can have peace, set them all free.”
‘All?’ What did she mean by that? “Let me go get him. I’ll call Ben, too, see what we can do to speed things up.”
“I believe you have won your battle with the law, but she is not going to leave so easily,” Gran said, gripping my arm, telling me to listen to her.
“Ben told you I won? Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He didn’t have the chance.”
“OK, well, then I’ll order her out, get a court order or something.”
Gran smiled, but it was a painful smile. “Genevieve, dear, what lesson did your parents strive to teach all of you?”
The agony in my heart caused my eyes to glass over and the ice around us to thicken. “To face our demons.”
“Why have you not done that?”
I looked away, not wanting to answer the real question she was asking me. “I’ve been trying to face her. Ben has been handling the case because he knows what he’s doing.”
“Rasure is not your demon; she is the one you see, the one you focus all your energy on, and you do that so you will not have to discover who you are.”
She wanted to talk about the ice, why I was the way I was, but I wasn’t ready to go down that road just yet. I fought to forget or overcome this curse every minute of every day, the last thing I wanted to do was understand what I did to deserve this.
“Which demon shall I face first, then? The ice, the lack of normal dreams, the visions, my addiction to the memories in the North Wing—which one? What order?” I asked desperately. I wasn’t asking her to tell me what to do, I was trying to tell her that by facing Rasure I was facing the one thing I could change, the one thing I had the power to make go away.
“Your past does not emphatically state who you are, but it is a part of you, it is something you can choose to embrace or break away from. This old lady has a feeling that you will not want to so easily discard the past that is woven into your soul.”
“If the past I saw in the North
Wing is truly mine, then I know life cannot get better. That is a fantasy, and in real life I’m battling Rasure, this odd curse, and my fear of commitment.”
She laughed. “You fear no such thing.”
God, you’d have thought this conversation was happening ten years ago, when she was vibrant, full of life—not today, not right after she left death’s door.
My night terror raced through my mind as I stared into her eyes. “The camera,” I said, taking in a deep breath. “In my dream, I went back for that camera. I nearly died trying to reach it. Are you telling me to develop that film, understand that past?”
She didn’t bother to tell me yes or no. She had figured me out years ago. If you wanted me to do something, really wanted me to, then you had to make it seem like it was my idea.
“I think I could have ruined that film years ago. The first time I touched it, I froze it. Over the years, I’ve bound to have washed it out. I would rather think there are images there than know that there aren’t.” That wasn’t completely a lie.
“I see,” was all she said.
“Why do I feel like you know something that you are not saying? Why does this feel like a dream or something? I was watching you die days ago.”
Gran gave me one more painful smile. “I took you to that North Wing long ago so you would understand your foundation, so it would give you the courage to face what this life would put before you. You are a Falcon, Genevieve. You always have been, and you always will be.”
She was confusing me. Everyone was made to feel like they were of lineage, but she was stating it as if it were fact. She was answering the questions I never dared to ask her: who I was named after, if I looked like the original Genevieve, if she thought it were possible that I was her, then and now. And she answered yes to each of them.
“I have no doubt I was born on these grounds or that I have seen my image in the memories this manor has, but I have never understood where I came from. How I got here. What fate is leading me to.”
“Fate brought you home,” she said as her eyes raced across mine. “You couldn’t know this, and I hated that I could not tell you for so many years, but your birth mother did say something before she died, just before your adopted mother brought you back to life.”
“Back to life? I know I would have died if Mom didn’t show up when she did, that I may have even been meant to die. What do you mean ‘back to life’?”
“You weren’t breathing,” Gran said as her eyes glistened with tears. “Your mother had to cut the cord, clear your passageway and rub warmth into you. Precious seconds, maybe even minutes passed, but you finally cried.”
“What did my birth mom say?” I asked, trying not to cry, knowing it would cause her tears to flow. She never really got over losing my parents in that boating accident. I think a part of her died that day, too.
“She said that you were one of seven, that you’re hidden by a veil.” She smiled widely. “I knew then that you were home. You had found your way home.”
I furrowed my brow at her, wondering how healed she actually was. She wasn’t making sense and I had to wonder if maybe the stroke had damaged her beyond the grasp of any overnight miracle.
“I have real, live brothers or sisters? Is that what you’re saying?”
“No,” Gran said as she caught a tear that was trying to escape her eyes.
“Then what am I one of seven of?”
Her wise eyes rapidly moved across my fearful expression. “When your birth mother said that, she was gazing at the constellation of Taurus, to the Pleiades.”
“Stars. I’m…I’m lost here, Gran.”
“I know you are, but you will find your way. I believe you are one of seven very special people that will move this universe, that will bring more change than your parents could have by adopting lost souls.”
“Gran, maybe you need to lay down. Maybe you shouldn’t be moving around this much, this soon.”
She looked down and smiled tenderly. “I’m well. I’m at peace. I finally told you what that stroke would not allow me to. Genevieve, this is your home. Defend it, hold on to the fire in your chest, and trust that it will save you from this grief, trust that you are a part of an army that will rise to bring balance in this dark world.”
My eyes grew wide as she said ‘dark world.’ It was a casual statement, but it reminded me of the conversation I’d so recently heard in the North Wing.
My head started to spin. I really did feel like I was in a dream.
A knock at the door halted me from telling her that I was in love with the boy lost in my past, of asking her how she knew that before she ever led me there so long ago.
Chapter Five
Standing on the threshold was a man I’d never seen before. He was younger and looked a lot like the images I’d seen of my grandfather, the one and only love Gran ever had.
“I have to go now,” Gran said as she squeezed my arm once more.
“Where are you going? The weather is horrible, you need your rest.”
“There are a lot of things I want to see once again, a fresh snow is one of them.”
“Who is that?” I whispered, nodding to the door.
“A welcome sight.” She cupped her hand on my cheek. “I’ll see you soon, dear, but make sure it’s not too soon. Stay safe.” She kissed my cheek, then walked past me at a speed that I’d never seen her use.
I told myself to turn around, to follow her, at least to go along with her, but I couldn’t move. Her touch had ignited visions all around me, visions of my mother telling Gran about how she found me in the snow, visions of her and my mother mulling over endless legends that surrounded those stars my birth mother pointed out. They even had mythologists from all over the world flown here to teach them about the beliefs and lore, always finding conflicting information. One man told my parents very bluntly that I was the only one that would ever know what my birth mother meant, that I would feel it in my soul.
All I felt in my soul was coldness, the cold that I was born into, the cold that was my curse. With that thought, the room I was standing in felt empty, vacant, lifeless.
Finally, I snapped out of the spell I was under and turned, but Gran was long gone. I rushed to the hallway, looking in both directions, not seeing her or her companion anywhere in sight.
I went back to my room to find my phone so I could call Ben. I was mad that he didn’t tell me Gran was better, that supposedly I’d won the case against Mrs. Rasure, that my inheritance was free and clear mine—that I could kick Rasure out.
It took me three tries to get the call out because the phone kept freezing in my hand. Skylynn better pop in soon. I couldn’t control this much longer. All I got was Ben’s voicemail, and it said for personal reasons he was taking time off and directed his calls to his partner. My message was short and sweet. “Um, personal? What’s more personal than family? I’m a bit ticked at you. Why didn’t you tell me Gran was okay? Where are we with the case?” The call ended then because the phone had turned into a block of ice. I grunted in frustration. I never realized how dependent I was on that scarf, how much it shielded this curse.
Cadence walked in our room at that moment, holding a steaming cup of coffee. “Looks like you need this more than I do.”
“Thanks for noticing,” I muttered, balling my fist. “Did you know Gran was all better?” I asked, looking up at her.
She looked at me like I was insane. “Did you hit your head when you climbed the walls last night?”
“Looks like you did. What did you do to your head?” I asked, noticing the gash on the side of her forehead. It caused a panic to rush through me, and the room turned to ice for an instant; that was the same place I saw her bleeding from in my dream.
“I slid on the ice, hit it on the side of the car door when I was getting out.”
“Looks like you need stitches,” I said with wide eyes as I moved closer to her.
“No, it’s not deep. I have that invisible Band-Aid stuff on
it, but you’re starting to make me self-conscious,” she said, taking down her ponytail.
I frowned as I noticed how easily the wound was covered when she did that.
“What about Gran? Are you serious?”
“Serious. I just saw her. She’s never looked better. The nurses are even gone.”
“You’re joking,” she said as she turned to go and see for herself.
“She left, went out with an old friend,” I said to stop her.
“Indie,” she said before she turned to look at me. “You’re seriously freaking me out.”
“Fine, go look for yourself,” I said as I sucked in a deep breath and stood to go to my darkroom.
“Hiding in the dungeon again? Maybe you should head to the North Wing. You’re always in a better mood when you leave there.”
I was so not going there with her.
“Gran told me to develop the film.”
“The film.”
“Yup.”
“Are you going to?”
I smirked. “It felt so good to hear her voice again. This was basically her only wish. Who am I to deny it?”
“Do you want me to call the bar and tell them we can’t come in, that is, if they opened today? This storm is wicked.”
“No, I want to get out. This won’t take long.”
“Give me a second to check on Gran. I’ll be your hands.”
I was close to telling her no, that I’d call Mason over to help, but I didn’t feel like fighting with her about it.
I’d been staring at this camera for almost fifteen minutes before Cadence showed up. I’d already had everything else ready to go. I just needed her hands.
“Told you so,” I said absentmindedly as she came to my side.
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