Chapter 51—Earth
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Some of the Followers of Isis might be a little overzealous or even misguided, but I’m telling you. We won’t kill you for Waking if that happens. I’d never let it happen.” His eyes are wide and his expression earnest.
Like he could stop them. He couldn’t even keep them from making me pee with a camera in my room.
“You’ll take care of me because of your convictions?” Why did I ask that? I shouldn’t be hoping that he says no. I’m an idiot.
It’s a warm day—every day in Houston is warm, pretty much—but I find myself inching closer to him, not sliding away to encourage the breeze.
“Of course, my beliefs, but also. . .” He shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“What if it matters to me?”
He’s just as tall and just as broad-shouldered here on Earth. His hair is much shorter, but still perfect—a dozen shades of golden blond. His hand rests next to mine on the concrete bench and I feel almost compelled to reach for him. Which is exactly why I can’t. Stupid fate, trying to shove us together.
“You—I—it’s not only my convictions.” His voice is low and rough. His eyes rise to mine. “It’s also. . .” He clears his throat. “I can’t explain what it is, actually. But even though we’ve just met, you’re important to me. Does that sound bonkers?”
“It’s the exordium,” I blurt out. “That’s all. We felt it on Terra, too.” Having never dreamed of Terra, he may not know what that is. “It’s like this weird—”
Kahn frowns. “The exordium is the pull that two people on Terra feel when they’ve fallen in love on Earth. It was created, or so the legends say, so that it would be easier, when children were formed, for the Naming to show the child’s father and mother at once.”
But that means. . .
“Since we’re not on Terra, whatever I feel for you can’t possibly be the exordium.”
And when I met Kahn on Terra, I’d never met him here. So that couldn’t have been. . . My mouth goes dry. My stomach tumbles round and round.
“You’re saying that on Terra, you feel, what? Drawn to me? Like you’d burn down a building and dance on the ashes, if only it meant you could kiss me?”
How could he have so perfectly named how I feel right now?
He must be feeling it too.
“You’ve never even been to Terra. How do you know what the exordium is and isn’t?” But of course he knows. I’m just arguing to argue. What he says makes perfect sense. Of course they’d need something to pull the same people together on Terra whenever possible, to help family units form there too, and to keep the children safe.
“I only know what I’ve been told.” Kahn’s voice is low and rough again. His eyes meet mine and a thrill runs up my spine.
“If this isn’t the exordium, if it’s not. . .then what is it?”
The corner of Kahn’s mouth turns up in a wicked, wicked smile. “So you do feel the same?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want to burn any buildings or anything.”
His laugh is one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard. “But you know what I mean.”
I look up at him, and his head lowers, slowly, his lips approaching mine. I could no sooner stop him than I could breathe underwater, or swim through the sky. His lips are a hair’s breath away when. . .
A bus pulls up in front of us. I start as I hear the discordant hiss of the air release on the doors. “That’s my bus,” I whisper.
“Forget the bus.” Kahn’s eyes are on my lips.
My heart is in my throat, and I want to kiss him. Badly. But I have very little time. I leap to my feet. How could I have forgotten about Jesse? I’ve got to get information, and then I have to do whatever it takes to save—or avenge—him, or possibly both.
For a brief moment, I consider asking Kahn to help me. Part of me desperately wants to unfold my innermost desires to him—to trust that he’ll help me based entirely on how I feel about him. It would be so nice to share my desperate idea to save Jesse and ask for his help.
But I don’t know him.
And I can’t trust him.
Nothing matters as much as saving Jesse for as long as it might be an option.
So I turn around instead, and I climb on the bus. I’m so distracted by watching him standing at the bus stop, forlornly waving, that I almost don’t notice the men following me.
Almost.
Clearly Isis can’t just let me go. I knew they’d send bodyguards. But they look a little bit like spies. . .and I actually don’t need their help.
Because I want Devlin to find me.
I think about what I know of Terra—that it’s a prison for anyone on Earth with telekinetic powers. It keeps their powers trapped, and the downside is that anyone there can die in more than one way—battle or injury on Terra, and of course the whole slew of normal things here.
As a prison, if Jesse is here, and he dies, he’d die there. Wasting. Which is exactly what’s happened. But, he’s still alive for a few more days. . .so obviously there’s more to it. He must be alive in both places. If he dies there, Jesse would have a heart attack sometime later on Earth? Or at the same time?
These are the kinds of questions I need to find answers for—and exactly what I plan to torture out of Devlin, just before I kill him.
The bus jolts and whirs down the road, hitting every pothole, and bumping into the curb now and then. But eventually, I reach my destination.
I’ve been riding these buses for a while now, and I’ve gotten to know the stops in this area reasonably well, thankfully. I hop off the bus. . .and jog as quickly as I can around the corner, and down the block. The gray Honda Civic that’s been following me races around the corner too. Two men are in the car, the driver quite tall and thin, the passenger muscly and short. Both of them are wearing sunglasses.
I duck into the CVS pharmacy on the corner, hoping to lose them. I stroll as casually as I can toward the back door. When no one’s looking, I duck through the “Staff Only” door and into their break room. There's always another exit, and I finally find it. I race through, and jog around to the dumpsters. I find a big rock, big enough, I hope, to knock a man out.
I could easily Bind the men in place, or knock them out by Lifting something, but then Isis would know I’m Awake. Unless I’m willing to kill them, which I can't bring myself to do, I have to do this old school. I crouch down behind the dumpsters and wait. Sure enough, the short, brawny man zips out the back door and looks around. I pull back a little more and reach out with my senses. He’s walking toward me. I wait until he walks past, and then I jump up and clock him on the back of the head with the rock.
He’s supposed to go down in a heap. That’s what happens in the movies.
Instead, he turns around, cursing in a steady stream, and puts one hand over the back of his neck. “What is wrong with you?” I notice a gun at his side. “I’m here to keep you safe. Why are you hitting me?”
So much for keeping anyone from knowing. I Lift the gun and turn it on him.
I'm surprised to see it's a weird gun, and it has darts in it. “Tranqs?” I ask.
“Holy sh—”
I dart him before he can finish his sentence. He collapses in the heap I was hoping for that first time around.
And it happens just in time for his partner to come flying out the back door. I dart him, and he goes down, too. I hit them both with a second dart, just to be safe.
Because once they wake up, in spite of Kahn’s reassurances, I’m guessing that all of Isis will be shooting to kill.
This isn’t a very well thought out plan.
I’ve never been so anxious on my way to work in my entire life. Even on the day I thought Declan, er, Devlin was coming for me. But this time, I hope he is. Because soon enough, Kahn and his men will be.
And I need to reach Devlin first.
It's almost 3:00 when I reach Perry's and walk inside. I find Henry in the back office. He jumps off the chair when he sees me.
“Alora! Where have you been? Do you have any idea how much crap I’ve gotten for you just disappearing?”
So much for Henry being worried about me.
“Umm, I'm sorry I missed work today.”
He drops his voice to a whisper, which seems a little late. No one in the restaurant missed him yelling my name. “No, I mean, forget all that.” He looks back and forth and then turns back toward me. “It’s not safe.”