by AR Colbert
“Is there somewhere we can chat privately?” Sean asked.
Gayla grinned mischievously. “We can go back to my room.”
“Perfect. Let’s go, Ev.”
Gayla’s expression flickered ever-so-slightly at the mention of my name. She didn’t seem jealous, exactly, but she was definitely a little disappointed that I would be accompanying them. It disappeared quickly enough, though. She even seemed to be walking a little straighter by the time we reached her room at the end of the hall.
Her bedroom on the boat was nicer than my entire house back in Oklahoma. A sparkling crystal chandelier hung over her four-poster bed. Air whooshed out from under me as I plopped down on her fluffy down bedding.
“Do you have the tablet?” Sean asked as the door clicked shut behind him.
I nodded and opened the small clutch I held under my arm. The tablet rested safely inside, still just as lifeless as it was when it broke back in the gallery. I hated to think about what kind of life was extinguished when it was dropped that night. But it definitely still held some sort of magic, as evidenced by the way it pieced itself back together.
I held the clay rectangle out toward Gayla. “Do you know what this is?”
Her eyes widened with excitement. “May I?” I nodded and she took it into her hands, turning it over and sliding her fingers reverently over its smooth surface. “I’ve never seen anything like this before, but it’s definitely powerful. Where did you get it?”
Her mind seemed clearer now that we were away from the party. I glanced at Sean, who gave me an encouraging dip of his chin.
“Well, I found it about a week ago. My mother and I were exploring a gallery in the city. This is going to sound crazy, but it almost felt like it was… calling to me. Like we shared a heartbeat. It glowed blue that night, and its light pulsed along with mine. And that same day, my mother went missing. She just… disappeared, right from the gallery where I found the tablet. I can’t help but think it’s all tied together somehow, but I don’t know what it says. Can you read it?”
“Incredible,” she whispered. “Well it’s obviously got some kind of connection to you. I don’t recognize the language, though.”
“Is there any way you can like, incite a vision or something and see what it means?” Sean shifted on his feet, just as anxious to get some answers as I was.
Gayla shook her head. “Visions don’t work that way. They’re more like dreams. I can’t control when they come, and their meaning isn’t always clear. I can try to get a sense of the object’s history, but I doubt it’ll tell me anything about what it says. And truth be told, I’m not a very skilled seer yet even without all this Ambrosia pulsing through my veins.” She giggled nervously.
“That’s okay. I’d love for you to try, if you don’t mind.”
“I’ll try.” She filled her lungs with air and closed her eyes, placing the tablet flat between her palms. She stayed that way for a minute—maybe longer before I noticed the muscles in her face twitching. It started slowly, a flick of her lip here, a twitch of her brow there. But after another minute her face was twisting into a painful looking grimace. Then, her eyes abruptly opened and everything was calm again.
Gayla laughed, the musical tinkle of her voice made even more endearing as it ended in a tiny snort. “Sorry guys, I tried, but all I can see is my trainer from the city.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, he was scowling, so it probably means my subconscious is feeling guilty about partying instead of focusing on my studies as he instructed me. But this is my last weekend of freedom, you know? Next week it’ll be all training and studying, nonstop, all the time.”
She set the tablet back on the bed, and we all stared down at it. But it remained lifeless, taunting me with its dull exterior and mysterious carvings. What are you?
“Where will you be starting school?” I asked, trying to change the subject and shake off my disappointment.
“Columbia.” She said it as though it was obvious.
Sean pursed his lips from the other side of the room. I probably should have known that. Did all the Keepers attend Columbia?
“Right, of course. Guess the Ambrosia is getting to me, too.” I giggled, trying to appear more relaxed, like Gayla. Sean cringed. “Is your trainer one of the professors, then?”
“No, he’s not associated with the university. He only lives in the city so he can meet with the Olympian leaders. He’s on the king’s council, but he’s not very well-known. I think the king likes to keep him a secret so he can have all of his visions for himself.”
I laughed again, but Gayla tilted her head in confusion. Oh. She wasn’t joking.
“So is that your lot as well? Will you go on to work for the king after you finish school?” I asked. If so, I could understand why she was trying to live up her last weekend of freedom. She was about to become a modern-day slave, in a sense.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe. I’ll definitely go into leadership because that’s all we seers are good for. But I don’t know if the king will want me directly. It’s rare that a seer can become as skilled as Rossel, even if I do get to train directly under him.”
CHAPTER 8
“Did you say Rossel?”
“Yeah, do you know him?”
“Like white man-bun, works in a gallery Rossel?”
Gayla giggled. “Rossel’s not hot enough for you to call it a man-bun.”
I locked my wide eyes onto Sean’s and turned back to Gayla. “Is he here? At the party?”
“Probably.” Her amusement was turning into more of a curiosity. “What about him?”
“I knew I saw him!” I grinned victoriously at Sean. “Come on.” I stood abruptly and moved toward the door.
“Wait!” Gayla stood, only slightly unsteady on her feet now. Evidently the effects of Ambrosia wore off fairly quickly. “What do you want with Rossel?”
I hesitated. What would she say if I told her the tablet belonged to him? Would she report my theft? After all, I’d only just met her that afternoon. Surely she was more loyal to Rossel than me. I bit my lip as a plan formed loosely in my mind. I’d tell her the truth, even if it was only a partial truth.
“I saw Rossel there at the gallery. He was the last person who spoke to my mom before she disappeared—they might have even left together. He will know where she is.”
Gayla’s forehead wrinkled as she tried to make sense of my words. “What would Rossel want with your mom?”
I shrugged. “I think they might have known each other. He called her by her nickname, Tilly.” I frowned, remembering that day and the fear I’d felt when my mom left. She just walked away with him. He had to be responsible somehow. “She was upset about his painting. She chewed him out pretty good, but she wasn’t angry anymore when they disappeared.”
“What was the painting of?”
I looked at Sean, unsure if I should answer her. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, but nodded for me to go ahead. Her big brown eyes were full of curiosity as I turned back to answer her. “It was a portrait of me.”
“You?” Gayla nodded silently. She opened her mouth, then shut it again with a slight shake of her head. Then she started pacing.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “What does that mean?”
“Tell me more about the painting.”
Sean shrugged. He had just as little idea what she was thinking as I did. “Well, I say it was me, but it wasn’t exactly. The girl in the painting was missing my scar.” I pointed to my chin. “She was fierce, determined. She wore a gorgeous gown and sat on a throne in a room I’ve never seen before. The painting was titled Deliverance.”
Gayla stopped, and rubbed her head. “Fascinating.”
I wanted to ask more about what it might mean, but the door to her bedroom slammed open before I could form the words on my tongue.
Dom stepped inside, sneering in my direction. “Stop!” she shouted. “Whatever they’re trying to get out of you, it’s all
under false pretenses.” She looked pointedly at Gayla. “Sean’s friend is not a Keeper. She’s a human!”
Gayla glanced in my direction, but she didn’t look shocked or even angry. Her dark eyes glittered with even more curiosity. “Are you sure?” she asked after a moment.
Dom put her hands on her hips, brows raised as she waited for me to admit the truth.
I shook my head. “Maybe. I don’t know.” I walked back to her bed and sat with another whoosh of air. A single feather shot out of the seam of her duvet and floated lazily to the ground. “I don’t know what I am.”
Sean finally spoke up, moving away from the wall to close the door again behind Dom, and the distant sound of music from the party faded into near silence again. “She was raised as a human. She only just learned of our world last week.”
This information did surprise Gayla. Her mouth fell open, and she turned to Dom for confirmation. Dom narrowed her eyes at Sean, reading his mind no doubt, then nodded.
I dropped my face into my hands, embarrassed or ashamed, I wasn’t sure. I just knew I didn’t belong with them. This wasn’t my world. And now that I had been identified as an imposter there was no way Gayla was going to help me out anymore.
The bed sank beside me and a thin arm wrapped around my back. “It’s okay. Let’s start at the beginning.” I looked up to see Gayla’s concerned eyes, then turned to the others. Sean looked apologetic, but this wasn’t his fault. Dom was going to discover the truth either way, so there was no use trying to hide it anymore. They moved in, forming a half circle around me, each one watching with anticipation.
“Sean’s right. Until my mom disappeared last week, I didn’t know it was possible that I could be anything but human. But my aunt Millie has filled me in on a few things since then.”
“Millie Gordon?” Gayla asked.
I nodded. “She explained that we are Atlantean. My mother was raised in this world, but she left when she became pregnant with me and hid for many years. The identity of my father is unknown.”
“So you’re not human. Your mother is a Keeper. But…”
“I could be fractured.” I sighed. “There’s a hunter already after me.”
“But we don’t know for sure,” Sean added. “Her father may have been Atlantean, too. As of now, Everly has no powers, but that doesn’t mean she never will.”
We all sat silently for a moment. Surprisingly, it was Dom who spoke next. “You’re worried that your mother bonded with a mortal and that she may be in trouble.”
“Yes.” It wasn’t a question really, but I confirmed what she gathered from my mind. It felt good to admit the truth aloud, despite the weight it held.
“Well, you don’t need to worry about that. You’re not a mortal. Or, not a pure mortal, anyway.” Gayla made the statement with so much confidence, it was difficult not to trust her implicitly.
“Did you have a vision?” Dom asked. “Have you seen her powers?”
“No,” Gayla shook her head. “But Rossel did.”
“What?” All three of us turned to Gayla with similar looks of confusion. Dom’s features pulled together suddenly with concentration, but Gayla waved her off. She apparently didn’t like her friend rooting around in her brain, either.
“When Rossel first began working for King Baerius in the 1400s, he had some difficulty describing his visions to the king in a meaningful way. The king didn’t trust Rossel’s interpretations—he wanted to see the visions for himself. So he asked Rossel to paint what he saw. The king would examine the paintings and draw his own conclusions. Eventually he learned to trust his seer, but the habit of painting his visions had become therapeutic for Rossel. It’s something he still does today.”
“So you’re saying the painting of Everly is the image of a vision Rossel had?”
Gayla nodded.
“No,” I rose to my feet again. “The girl in the painting wasn’t me. Remember? No scar.”
“That’s just it, Everly. The fact that you had no scar in the painting is proof that you’re immortal. Or at least… demi-immortal.”
Demi-immortal. I liked that. It made me sound like Hercules instead of just some poor fractured soul. I appreciated Gayla’s thoughts, but it still didn’t make sense.
Dom, knowing my hesitation, explained further. “Keeper blood is different from human blood. We heal more quickly. More thoroughly. But it doesn’t happen until your powers are activated. As kids, we all fell down and scraped our knees. Most of us had scars and broken bones, just like human children. But once we mature and receive our powers, the cleansing and healing power of Keeper blood restores us to perfect form.”
“And your scars disappear?”
Gayla nodded. “So it had to have been you in the painting. But the Keeper version of you.”
I shook my head again. “No, we still don’t know for certain. I’m eighteen and still have no powers. Zero. Ziltch. Nothing. And the way my mom became so angry… I have another theory. I think perhaps I have a twin out there and the painting is of her. Maybe she got the full Keeper soul and I got left with the mortal leftovers.”
Sean rolled his eyes. “Not the twin thing again.”
Gayla shrugged. “Could be. But don’t count yourself out.”
“We don’t have to theorize for long.” I strode to the door and grabbed the handle. “Luckily for us, the answer is right here on this boat. We just have to find Rossel.”
CHAPTER 9
We spilled out into the hallway, and Gayla grabbed the door frame for balance before moving forward.
“You okay?” Dom asked. Her brows pinched together as she examined her friend.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I just…” Gayla looked with longing back toward the main entertainment. The bass thumped through the hallway, reminding me that there were still hundreds of people on this boat who were completely oblivious to the stress pounding through my veins.
Sean reached out and touched her shoulder. “Don’t, Gayla.” Her cheeks flushed as she met his eyes, then she glanced down to the floor, hiding behind her long lashes.
“I’m good,” she said, louder. “Let’s get downstairs.”
Dom locked an arm through Gayla’s and the girls moved forward toward the elevator.
“What was that all about?” I whispered to Sean.
“The Ambrosia. It wears off just as fast as it kicks in, leaving your body thirsty for more. She’s fighting through a strong craving right now.”
We stepped into the elevator and Dom pushed the two button. Beside her, Gayla held her stomach, looking a little queasy as the elevator dropped and landed on the second floor. “This way.” She was the first one out the door.
I followed her out into a small bar area, mostly empty, with doors propped wide open to a large deck. Dozens of adults stood out in the open air, sipping cocktails—or maybe it was Ambrosia given the company—and enjoying music coming through the speakers. It was less glitzy than the downstairs scene, but way more tame than the raucous college kids upstairs.
“Do you see him?” I asked no one in particular.
“Not yet,” Gayla answered. “Let’s go out on the deck.”
We moved forward, each of us scanning the crowd as we went. The other three crossed straight over to the edge of the boat, grabbing a hold of the railing as they looked both directions down the sides. I stayed back. I wasn’t eager to get any nearer the water than I had to.
I turned back to the crowd and almost plowed right into the best-smelling man I’d ever encountered. His cologne must have been made from concentrated pheromones with a hefty dash of aphrodisiac. And leather. Whatever it was, it was divine. I was all giggly before I even brought my line of sight up to his strong eyes, which were a deep mossy green with flecks of… gold.
“Clayton Miles,” he grinned, flashing a broad smile of teeth that could have been carved from literal pearls. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“I, uh…” I giggled again, like an idiot. Clayton freakin’ Miles w
as standing right in front of me, and he looked even better in person than he did on all those red carpet pre-shows I liked to watch. “I—I…”
“Everly!” I looked over in time to see Dom’s platinum blond hair blowing over her shoulder as she stomped toward me.
“Yeah, that’s it. I’m Everly,” I said, turning back to the movie star standing in front of me.
“Well, Everly. Consider me charmed.” He lifted my hand and kissed the back of my knuckles. Clayton Miles kissed me!
Dom’s cold hand wrapped around my bicep and pulled me out of my reverie. “Snap out of it.” We weaved in and out of small groups on the deck. “He had you hook, line, and sinker. You’ve gotta stay focused.”
“How do you guys handle it?” I asked.
“Handle what?”
“Their charm. Or glamour or sway or whatever you want to call it. He’s a siren, right?”
“He is. And I don’t know. Maybe it comes with your powers?”
“You don’t know?” I stopped and looked at the gorgeous girl across from me. “Do you mean to tell me you’ve never been swayed by one of those guys?”
She raised a shoulder. “I don’t think they’ve ever tried.”
“Or maybe they just know you’d see them coming. You probably know what they’re going to try before they do.”
Dom laughed, and for the first time, I wasn’t intimidated by her. If there was any chance at all that Gayla was right and I did eventually grow into some powers, I might even like to call these girls my friends. And with my mom gone, I could definitely use a friend or two.
“There!” she said suddenly. I followed her gaze to a tall thin man. He wore an all black suit, which must have been incredibly hot on this sticky late summer evening, but somehow the sight of him still sent a cold shiver down my spine. His hair was pulled back into a ball high on the crown of his head, and his eyes were like pure darkness in the low light of the deck.
“Rossel.” I practically growled his name as I made my way over to the shadowy corner where he stood. A shorter man with round pink cheeks stepped away when he saw us coming, but Rossel didn’t move a muscle. He just stared with those dead-looking eyes of his.