Immortals of Indriell- The Collection

by Melissa A. Craven

  THIRTEEN

  Lily:

  “Why is it when I show up to do the dishes, I find you’ve already done them?” Carson asked as Lily shut the dishwasher.

  “I’m convinced it’s your gift.”

  “The phone was ringing,” he said innocently. “Navid’s on his way over.”

  “Do you think he’ll finally tell us what this whole jaunt to Sydney’s been about? He’s been so vague about why we’re here.” With Allie’s birthday looming on the horizon, Lily worried the next few months would be too much for their daughter.

  “I think he just wanted to spend some time with her, Lil. It’s been years, he doesn’t really know her anymore.”

  “It’s sad. They’re so much alike. It’s been wonderful seeing them together again.” She just wished they could have stayed in New Zealand a little longer. But circumstances made that impossible when Livia showed up on their doorstep long before she was expected. It would have been nice to let Allie have her last months of peace in a home she was familiar with, but it just wasn’t safe anymore.

  Sydney felt like Limbo, even though she’d seen positive changes in Allie since they arrived. She was becoming more adventurous and Gavin was really good for her, but she was headed for such a turbulent time. Lily worried this relationship was all very bad timing. She just didn’t have the heart to stop it.

  “I’m glad Navid’s had this time with her, considering the difficult road we’re all facing.” Carson’s words echoed her thoughts.

  “I’m not ready for this,” Lily said. “I thought by the time she got to this age that it would be easier somehow, letting her go—to finally be who she is.”

  “She will always be our daughter, Lil. That’s been the most important factor in all of this. It’s vital that she identifies as a mortal. Raised by a mortal family she loves, completely ignorant of her heritage.”

  “I just wish I could make this easier for her. I’m afraid she won’t take it well when she has to leave us.”

  “If I know our daughter, she will throw an epic fit.”

  “But Navid will be the best person to train her and get her through this,” Lily said.

  “I know it’s only two years, Lil, but I’m going to miss her. I know she needs to be with Navid to train in a safe, remote place, but I can’t wait till she’s back with us and we can finally go home. I’m ready to get this done.”

  “She won’t be the same.”

  “None of us will.”

  A soft knock at the door announced Navid’s arrival.

  “Here we go.” Lily breathed a silent prayer for courage. This felt like the beginning of everything—the end of Allie’s childhood, and the dawn of a terrifying, uncertain future.

  Lily took one look at Navid’s face and knew he’d made a monumental decision about their daughter’s future. In their minds, Allie had four parents. They’d always acted together for her benefit, but Allie would be his daughter far longer than she ever would be theirs. Still, Lily couldn’t stand not knowing what Allie’s future would hold. She knew it was almost impossible for Kassandre and Ashar to see and interpret what would come. Even with their gifts, there was still such a snarled mass of contradictions and unmade decisions ahead of them. She didn’t know how they could ever make sense of it all. Lily and Carson’s role in this was important, but even they only knew what they absolutely needed to know and nothing more.

  “What’s changed?” Carson asked as they all took a seat in the living room.

  “I’m struggling,” Navid said. “I’ve looked forward to this phase of her life as much as you both have dreaded it.”

  “You’re wavering,” Lily said in surprise. Navid was always so certain in the decisions regarding Allie.

  “The plan has changed, yes.”

  “Is that wise?” Carson asked. “We’ve spent her whole life making these decisions and sticking to them implicitly.”

  “And our goal has always been to keep her safe and teach her what she needs to know,” Navid agreed.

  “So why go back on that now?” Lily didn’t want to hope for a last minute decision that might keep Allie with them, but her heart was nearly bursting with the possibility.

  “She will not be happy. She isn’t happy now and she doesn’t even realize it. I thought keeping her isolated would be a difficult sacrifice, but that it would be for the best. She has so much time ahead of her. I thought her safety would be worth the loneliness she would experience cut off from our world, but I hoped she would forget it in time and look back on her childhood fondly.”

  “She is lonely, but I wouldn’t say she’s unhappy,” Lily said. “We’ll take her home when she’s a little older like we planned. The others her age will still be there when she’s eighteen.”

  “Two years is nothing to me,” Navid said. “But it is an eternity for her. Her childhood will be over so quickly, and our daughter will have to fight for her freedom every single day. I thought spending the next two years with me would give her some happiness and allow us to get to know each other, but I am no longer certain that is in her best interest.”

  “What are you seeing that we aren’t?” Carson asked.

  “When she was little, I’d look at her and see her vibrant mother. Now that she’s older, I see a glimmer of myself there too. But Alexis is dying inside, my friends. And she doesn’t even know how to express it. She needs the friendship and the acceptance of her own kind—of her own generation, and she needs it now. Not two years from now.”

  “How will this affect the rest of her life? Should we not stay the course as planned?” Carson’s face grew white at the prospect of making a rash decision.

  “This will not change anything significant. She has you both. She doesn’t need me. Not now. My daughter and I will get to know each other when she is older. These few weeks in Sydney will have to be enough to sustain me.”

  Lily felt sorry for him. Navid was like a man haunted.

  “So we’re leaving?” Lily wasn’t sure deviating from their plan at such a critical time was smart, but the thought of keeping her daughter with her a little longer was tempting.

  “You will leave tonight. Before I change my mind.”

  “Wait, we need to talk about this,” Carson said. “I need to know that this Governor and their family are the right ones to … to finish raising our daughter. That was never part of the plan! We always said we four would raise her. That you would train her!”

  “You have new jobs in Cleveland. I’ve had a trusted friend make all the arrangements with Greggory. He is expecting Lily as his new curator of Egyptian artifacts at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He does not know about Allie and he does not know I’m still living. He cannot be told these things. When he sees Allie, he will suspect, but he will not ask too many questions now. Eventually he will figure out who she is, but by then he will be just as invested in this as we are. I always intended for Gregg and his family to train her for her Proving anyway.”

  “Can we really trust these people?” Lily asked. “What if they try to take her from us? That’s the thing we’ve been running from all these years.”

  “Greggory McBrien once had a very special bond with Kassandre. We trust him and Naeemah more than anyone else in this world. They will do what is best for Allie. Their children will be her truest friends. Whether we take her there now, or in two years from now, they will be her family in a way none of us will ever be.”

  “So are we telling her everything tonight?” Carson sounded terrified.

  “We cannot tell Alexis anything.” Navid’s voice was filled with regret. “She must go into this completely blind.”

  “Blind? What do you mean, blind?” Lily lurched from her chair. This was news to her.

  “This game we are playing with the future. It is not an exact science,” Navid continued. “We’ve always known Allie will be powerful. If an Immortal child is like a ticking time bomb in the weeks leading to their Awakening, Alexis is like an armed nuclear warhead. She canno
t handle such a revelation until after she is manifested and has the strength to contain that much power. We tell her nothing.”

  “Navid! That’s outrageous!” Carson gripped the arms of his chair until his knuckles turned white.

  “If you tell her, everything will be for naught. This close to her Awakening, the shock would be too much. She would lose control and never become the woman we all need her to be.”

  “So we take her home and let her meet these people? People who will not know she can’t be told?” Lily nearly sobbed. Navid wasn’t telling them everything. He never did. She couldn’t fathom how she would ever survive this only knowing half the story.

  “It’s only two months. We should stay here and get her through this before we uproot her again,” Carson insisted.

  “This should have been our plan all along,” Navid said. “I just … I needed her. Or I needed the promise of her to get me through these last years without losing my mind.”

  “This is too rash.” Carson held his head in his hands.

  “You have always trusted us. You’ve always done what we’ve asked, knowing we could not divulge all the details. I am asking you to trust us again. This is what’s best for Allie.”

  “Where will you go?” Lily knew Navid was right; they’d always done as he asked. She knew Kassandre saw something in their daughter’s future that they couldn’t know. They had to continue trusting blindly.

  “I will live as I have since she was a small child, constantly on the move.”

  “She will have so many questions. What are we to tell her?”

  “Nothing. You must pretend you know nothing. It will be easier for Greggory and his family to leave you alone if they believe you became her parents by mere chance. Which means Allie must believe that too.”

  “It seems unlikely that he wouldn’t come to us when he learns she has been raised by mortals,” Carson said, looking for any possible flaws in the plan.

  “Greggory is the most patient of men when it truly matters. He will have questions, but he will not leap to ask them. There may come a time when he decides to approach you. If that time comes, I will intercede.”

  “Navid, she will have no one to confide in,” Lily said. She and Allie had always been close. She couldn’t abide the thought of how they might drift apart through all of this.

  “This is an impossible thing you’re asking,” Carson said. “I don’t know if I can do this to her. Not telling her. Not preparing her. It’s like throwing her to the wolves.”

  “She will rise to the challenge. We must remember, Alexis is strong and stubborn like her mother. When she finally accepts this life, she will thrive.”

  “It’s going to kill her to leave Gavin.” Lily was afraid Allie would resent them for tearing her away from him so soon.

  “She’s already questioning that relationship. She senses that it will never work,” Navid said. “And there are other friendships waiting for her.”

  “Is there anything else we should know?” Carson asked.

  “No, my dear friends. Your job is nearly done. I cannot tell you anything more than you already know. There is a slight chance that Allie and I will have our own special way of communicating in the years to come. It depends entirely on how her gifts manifest and develop. It won’t be much, but it is all that I have to give her.”

  “How much time do we have to prepare her for the move?” Lily asked.

  “Your flight leaves in a few hours.”

  “Then I need to start packing.” Lily squared her shoulders and steeled herself for what they were about to do to their daughter.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  FOURTEEN

  Aidan:

  “I feel like death on a biscuit.” Aidan rolled over and stared at the clock.

  “Wow, I overslept?” He was groggy and bleary eyed, and his bed looked like a war zone, but for the first time in ages, he’d slept a full night.

  Aidan stood with a stretch, but his legs trembled and he stumbled to the floor. Even two weeks later, the episode in the grotto still plagued him. His body ached with a bone deep weariness he couldn’t seem to shake.

  How am I ever going to get through a whole Saturday session like this?

  As he struggled to get dressed, his every move was stiff and slow. He made his way down to the kitchen hoping breakfast would help.

  “Feeling any better?” Naeemah asked as he shuffled into the kitchen.

  “Yes and no.” He poured a cup of coffee, hoping it would give him the jolt he needed to get through the morning. “I slept the whole night, but I’m just not bouncing back.”

  “Sleep is good progress. How about an omelet? You need the protein.”

  “With cheese and bacon? And not that turkey crap you keep trying to convince me is food. I’ll make the toast, since you have a habit of charring it.”

  “I do not.”

  “Really, Mom? You’re gonna lie?” Naeemah was a brilliant woman, but when it came to the dinner rolls, they beat her every time.

  “Oh fine! Go make your toast! But you’re having a veggie omelet with a sprinkle of cheese and make that wheat bread, no butter.”

  “Aw, Mom! No butter? That’s the whole point of the toast!” He dropped the thick sliced sourdough bread he preferred and grabbed the dry-as-sand multi-grain stuff.

  No one else has to worry about this crap!

  “You look exhausted, son. You slept, but you’re not at your best. Keeping your diet clean will only help your recovery.”

  “I kept my diet clean all summer, Mom. I thought I was done with that! I ate nothing but rice and bland chicken with vegetables for two freaking months!”

  “And it helped. It gave you the added strength you needed to heal. It will do the same now.”

  “It’s not permanent, right?”

  “For someone like you, a clean diet could be a tremendous help.”

  “We’ve been over this! I like my cake, my fried things and my butter. I deal with a lot, but I draw the line at butter.”

  “Try it for a few more weeks and then I’ll back off. But when you get a little older, it may be inevitable.”

  “This sucks!” He flopped onto a seat at the bar as Naeemah reached for the gas burner to heat the pan for his omelet.

  He saw it all in slow motion: the way the pilot light sparked and the burner flushed with heat; the way the flame rose high as she poured the eggs into the skillet. But it continued to blaze as it responded to Aidan’s errant new gift. The fire flickered and flashed, rising higher to spread quickly up her arm, burning through her thin sleeve and scorching her flesh.

  “Mom!” Aidan cried as the phantom pain shot up his arm and his power burned deep in his chest.

  Naeemah screamed as the unnatural fire engulfed her hair and face. The heat of it hotter and brighter than it should have been. She stumbled to the floor. Aidan moved slowly, as if his limbs were weighted down with cement. He had to stop this!

  “Mom! No!” He beat at the flames with a towel, but they kept coming back. She curled up into a fetal position and bit back her screams.

  “Aidan! The burner!”

  He needed to cut off the source. He lunged for the stove and extinguished the flames. The fire went out with a puff of smoke.

  “Mom, I am so sorry!” Aidan sobbed as she lay on the floor panting for breath. Her beautiful hair was a charred mess and her face and arms were blistered and raw.

  “It’s okay. I’m okay.” She winced as she sat up, clutching her arm. Aidan crouched down beside her and the ghost of her pain nearly overwhelmed him.

  “No! This is not okay!” He felt completely helpless when he tried to heal her and nothing happened. He was still too young and his fledgling gift just wasn’t strong enough.

  “I am fine, Aidan.” She swiped his hands away gently. “Do not tire yourself. I will heal.”

  “But I can—”

  “You will not take my pain. It is not so much that I cannot bear it. Save your strengt
h, son. See, I’m already healing on my own.” She held her arm up so he could see the fading burns.

  “How about cereal for breakfast?” She attempted a grin, but the gruesome sight of her face beneath her charred skin was like a punch in the gut. “And maybe a protein smoothie?”

  “Don’t joke about this!” He sat down beside her, his face ashen.

  “These things happen, Aidan. Please do not blame yourself.”

  “How can I not? I set my mother on fire!”

  “And I’m healing.”

  “This is not okay!” he said again. “I can feel everything I just put you through. Even your fear, Mom! I did that.”

  “My fear was for you and what I know this will do to you. I am not as old as your father, but I am old enough to know that pain will always pass. It is momentary. When you’re older you will understand that there are much worse things.”

  “Like hurting the people you love the most?”

  “Like watching the ones you love the most suffer when there is nothing you can do to help,” she said softly. “Help me up. We are putting this behind us now.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Aidan lifted her and set her on her feet. She was much better already. Even her hair was coming back.

  Aidan ran his hands through his hair in frustration and reached for his mother. He held her as tightly as he dared, towering head and shoulders over her slight frame.

  “It’s okay, son. We will figure this one out, just like we always do.”

  “Da’s going to flip.”

  “He doesn’t need to know.”

  “Like hell! I’m not keeping this from him. I need to get a hold of this thing now!”

  “Fine. We’ll go talk to him after you’ve had breakfast.” She steered him back to his seat, plopped a box of cereal and a carton of milk in front of him, and left to change her ruined clothes.

  Aidan rested his forehead against the cool quartz countertop. He had a huge day ahead of him but he wasn’t sure he could face it. Jin would be expecting him soon for their three hour session, and then it would be Ming Lao’s turn. After lunch, Aidan would spend what was sure to be another brutal session with dear old Da before ending the day with his mother. He didn’t know how he would survive.