“I know, son,” Shawn said, placing one big hand on Trace’s shoulder. “There was nothing you could’ve done. It’s a miracle that you held out as long as you did. That tells me just how strong you are.”
“But Dad, Rebekah made me believe that she was my mother. She, like, gave me memories of us and places we’d lived since you’d died, things we’d done, schools I’d gone to. She made me believe that it was somehow my fault that you died.”
Trace’s voice cracked and my heart shattered right inside my chest, shards of pain shooting out in every direction. Without thinking, I brought his hand to my lips, only conscious of the desire to soothe him, to offer him some kind of comfort. When I saw his head jerk toward me, I realized what I’d done and pulled his hand away, embarrassed.
Trace watched me for several long, tense, humiliating seconds before he looked back to his father. But before he did, he gave my fingers one firm squeeze. My head wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but my heart swelled with hope despite the seeming insignificance of the gesture. Maybe it could sense things that my mind was incapable of identifying.
“I have so many questions, Dad, but the biggest one is why? Why would anyone do… why would…I just don’t…”
“Trace, your mother and I spent the better part of your life trying to keep you from them, trying to keep you from this life, but,” he paused, dragging his hand over his face, “there’s just no hiding from them. At least in there, not even they can get to you.”
“In there?”
“In Two Lakes. It’s protected. That’s why I haven’t been able to get to you. I don’t know how the witches are getting in there, unless they’ve learned how to subvert the old magic.”
“Old magic?”
“Druidic magic. It keeps both sides out of the town so that the young can grow into their powers without any outside influence.”
“Wait a minute,” Trace said, shaking his head, likely as confounded as the rest of us. “What- what are you talking about?” He was a little waspish in his confusion.
“It’s a long story, one that we can get into some other time. Right now all you need to know is that you and your friends are special.”
“Yeah, we’ve recently discovered just how ‘special’ we are.”
“No, I mean beyond whatever your supernatural ability is. That’s why I think the witches have found a way in, why they wanted you there so badly. I think the prophecy is coming true.”
“Prophecy?” Trace snorted, the word on his lips sounding like blasphemy. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” When Shawn didn’t smile and made no move to further explain, Trace continued. “This is getting more and more ridiculous by the minute.”
I knew Trace was frustrated, even if he hadn’t just run his fingers through his hair for the fifth time in about as many minutes. When he finally sighed and calmly faced his father again, Shawn asked, “Finished?”
“Yes, sir.”
Trace’s father cleared his throat and resumed his explanation. “The prophecy speaks of a girl who would be able to absorb the powers of others, who would be able to see things and know things that others don’t, who would draw to her two enchanted souls.” Every eye turned toward me for one nerve-racking second before Shawn continued. “I believe she is the oracle, the one they’ve been waiting for.”
“Who has been waiting for her? And what do they want with her?”
“Well, it’s complicated. With the oracle comes one who will bring out the darkness in those around him and one who can affect the oracle’s ability to absorb. Any Order in possession of all three would be invincible.”
“Order?”
“There has long been a war between creatures of the day and creatures of the night. It is said to have begun as a game between the god of the moon and the goddess of the sun, but it soon got out of hand and the one true God was forced to intervene to correct what the gods and goddesses, His fallen angels, had done. He created the oracle to bring peace. But the Druids cast powerful dark magic on her. There is little that can be done to undo magic.”
That was when I found my tongue. “But you said you gave Trace something to strip away the magic.”
Shawn nodded. “Yes. I am hopeful that it will not only strip away Rebekah’s magic, but the Druidic magic as well.”
“What will stripping that magic accomplish?”
“Well, for one thing, he won’t be bound to you. And if he’s not bound to you, he won’t be as valuable. If they don’t want him anymore, they won’t chase us when we run.”
I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. Trace’s father had purposely taken away what we had together, the special bond we shared. That hurt. But what hurt even more was the knowledge that it hadn’t even been real in the first place. It had been an elaborate mirage, a magical joke, not real feeling or real love. It had all been fabricated.
The ache in my chest argued that I was wrong, that it was much more than that, but logic screamed with a louder voice this time. And it didn’t stop until my heart was a barely-discernible mumble in the background.
“So what we had wasn’t real?”
It was Trace who asked, voicing my thoughts as if we’d shared them.
“If it was real then the magic won’t matter. It will still be there.” Shawn paused for a moment to let us absorb what he’d said before he moved on. “You’re missing the point, though, son. You’re safe right now, but I have to make it so you can leave here one day and have a life of your own.”
“How can we really be safe here when there are witches doing magic like this?”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about that now. And as long as you make sure they don’t know you’re free from it, you’ll be fine. As far as being safe in Two Lakes, none of you can really hurt each other with your powers. Yet. You can’t fully change. You’re sort of like baby animals, just getting your legs, learning your strength, how to hunt and feed. But there is a darkness that is alive in all of you, and we need to make sure that no one gets out of here with that darkness. People on the outside will die if it gets loose.”
“Where does it come from? I mean, does someone actually make people, like,
evil
?”
“There is darkness in everyone, most people just usually suppress it. Unless there is some supernatural influence that interferes with that.”
“So you’re saying there is a person that interferes with it?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Shawn hung his head uncomfortably for a second before he looked up and turned his face toward Brady.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was obvious where his eyes were trained, even though we couldn’t see them behind his glasses.
“What?” Brady asked, taking a step back and holding his hands up. “Man, you’re nuts. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Brady? It was Brady? That’s who was unleashing the darkness?
I thought about it for a few seconds while Trace, Lacey and I all stood, mouths agape, looking at Brady. It didn’t take long for puzzle pieces to fall into place, pieces that told me Shawn might be telling the truth. At least in this.
It made sense now that I saw people’s powers come out around Brady. He was accidentally triggering them. But where was all this supposed darkness? We hadn’t really seen anything that seemed that bad. Anger, yes. A bit of maliciousness, yes. But something that black, like
evil?
Where was it?
“It’s nothing that you can control, nothing that you do on purpose,” Shawn said. “It’s simply who you are, who you were born to be.”
Brady looked as if Shawn had slapped him. But then he recovered, his sharp mind always working, thinking.
“Well can’t you get rid of it, like you did for Trace?”
“I could try.”
“Then do it. I didn’t ask for any of this and I don’t want to be a part of it,” Brady stated vehemently.
“You’ll have to come back tomorrow. I don’t have any more of the herbs with me. I’ll have to get more.”
“Fine. Whatever it takes.”
Unease prickled up and down my spine. I searched my heart, looking for the source, for what it was that Shawn had said or done that made the situation suddenly seem not quite right, but I found nothing. And yet I still felt…
“All right then, we’ll meet back here tomorrow night. Same time.” Shawn’s declaration interrupted my troubling musings.
“Fine,” Brady agreed sharply.
“Trace, remember that it is of vital importance that no one, especially Rebekah, know what has happened or find out that you’re no longer under her influence.”
“I understand,” Trace assured docilely.
“It’s time for you to go. It’s not safe for you to be here very long,” Shawn explained.
“Dad, before you go, what were those things last night?”
“They were the children of the moon. They’re second nature is tied directly to the lunar cycles. They are slaves to it, they’re bound to it. Some are werewolves, some are windegos, some are grendels. There are many manifestations of that power.”
I saw Trace swallow nervously. “So, I’m like them? I’m one of them?”
Shawn nodded.
“Why? Why aren’t I like you?”
Shawn shrugged. “No one knows what their second nature is until it manifests after exposure to the power of Two Lakes. It changes you. That’s why you can never go back once you leave. You’d die.”
“We’re not in Two Lakes now. Why doesn’t this count?”
“You’re at the outside realm, which is like a buffer zone where a small amount of the power still leeches out. That’s why I can meet you here. It’s not so much that I can’t be here, and not enough that you can’t go back.”
“So what did Two Lakes change you into? What are you?”
“I’m a gorgon.”
“A gorgon? What’s that?”
“Gorgons have some traits that are similar to a reptile. We can taste the air, sensing other supernatural beings in the vicinity. Our bodies are difficult to harm, as our bones can shift easily. Our defenses are the most notable thing, though, and the reason for the glasses. My eyes can turn people to stone.”
“All the time? I mean, you can’t control it? The eye thing?”
“Well, I can control it most of the time, but sometimes it’s reflexive. That’s why I wear the glasses. I don’t want to accidentally hurt someone. You know, friendly fire and all.”
Trace laughed. Brady laughed. But I couldn’t find Shawn’s glib “friendly fire” comment amusing for some reason. He’d begun to tickle my internal danger antennae in an unpleasant way that I couldn’t put my finger on. All I knew for sure was that I didn’t trust him. Beyond that, he was a bit of a mystery.
“Well, you’d better go. We’ll have plenty of time for explanations and catching up later. Besides,” he said, his head shifting in Lacey’s direction. She’d been quietly standing behind Brady, listening and observing with a slightly stricken expression on her face. “I think you owe this young lady some answers.” After what I felt was a slimy smile, no pun intended, he turned back to Trace. “You all need to get back before you’re caught.”
All of us seemed to be reacting to the entire run-in with Shawn in a different way. Lacey just looked lost, of course. Neither Trace nor Brady seemed suspicious of Shawn or anything he’d said. I, on the other hand, found myself questioning everything.