I shake my head. “There’s no reason to be worried.”
“Why don’t you come inside and get warm?” she says.
I wish I could talk to her about Ethan, but what is there to say? My feelings are difficult to put into words. Remi already knows how Ethan is acting, but she can’t know how it makes me feel. So, instead of talking, I nod and walk with her back into the house, keeping my thoughts to myself.
“Come over here with us by the fire,” Remi says, as we walk into the house.
“I’m okay,” I say. “I think I’m just going to bed.”
“Waverly, wait,” she says, standing next to Gabe now. “I was wondering if you could do something for me.”
“What is it?”
“Come to the couch,” she says.
I pull off my coat and sit next to her, wondering what it is she could want me to do right now. I look at Gabe for some indication, but he only stares into the fireplace. Evie sleeps soundly in the corner of the room.
“I was just thinking about something,” Remi says. “About Evie.”
“What about her?”
“What if she isn’t the woman you saw in the vision?” she asks. “Do you think that would change your thoughts on taking out Jeremiah as well?” She looks around the room as she says this, probably thinking she said it too loudly.
“I don’t think so,” I say. “Because that’s not all I saw. Instead of eradicating the greyskin virus, he’s going to use the greyskins to make villages come to him for help. And what I was seeing was years and years from now. This is bigger than us. Bigger than Evie. Why, are you having second thoughts?”
“No, it’s not that,” Remi says. “I just worry about her. I don’t like knowing that she might be shot. I just want to know if she’s the same person.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Look into Evie’s future,” Remi answers. “I want to know if she’s going to have a good life after we give her to Jenna. I want to know if she’s going to survive the gunshot wound.”
I hate that she’s asking me to do this. I hate only seeing parts and glimpses, not really knowing the meaning or the context. But the look in my sister’s eyes is that of true concern—fear even. She cares about this little girl, even though she has barely spent a week with her. But I know what it is. I know that she feels responsible for her because of her mother. Then there is the connection she had with Paxton, and her
actual
mother. I will do it, but only because I can see the true concern on her face, and it pains me. But it doesn’t change the confusion of it all. I’m so tired of looking into futures. Trying to interpret them is impossible.
A deep breath passes by my lips and I get up from the couch without a word. Remi and Gabe both follow me with their eyes as I sit next to Evie. I’ve never tried to see into a future while someone was asleep, but I don’t see why it would be any different.
Evie’s hand rests on the hardwood floor next to my leg. I watch her for a minute, taking in her innocence. She deserves a better life than the one she has. I think we all do. But no child should ever have to endure the pain and suffering that Evie has already seen. I don’t want to see her future because knowing how much more pain she will see in her lifetime is a burden I will have to carry.
I take another deep breath and reach my hand to hers. When Our fingers touch, I see a bright light.
I try to go beyond the here and now. I look five years from now…ten… When she is twenty years old, it seems that a greyskin herd attacks her village, decimating it. She and others are forced to leave. They seek a place called Screven. I move forward a year or two, trying to remember when she was eating with Jeremiah and Mark.
I travel through her future like wind passes by a tree. Scenes move in front of me like a movie running in fast motion. When I want to move ahead a year, the scene fades and is replaced by another. I do this for what feels like hours. When I get to the point where she is sitting at a table with Jeremiah and Mark, I know. Evie
is
Evelyn.
The shooting. She is shot in the back. She runs through the woods. Eventually she finds help, however. Someone nurses her back to health. That means she won’t be killed!
I move ahead and find her talking with a man—a friend. She talks of her pledge to do whatever it takes to kill Jeremiah. Another twenty years pass. Jeremiah should be an old man by now, but when he stands in front of Evelyn again, this time in a dark room, he doesn’t look much older. He is dressed from head-to-toe, clothes completely covering almost all of his body. Only his face seems to show.
Evelyn is restrained. She is with another man in the room.
Jeremiah points a gun at her head. I can’t help but wonder if this is supposed to be Evelyn’s last moment.
“This has been a long time coming,” Jeremiah says to Evelyn. “I thought you might have lived a long life in a village somewhere, hopefully forgetting about your lover, and actually moving on with your life. Instead you brooded for the past twenty years and now you’re facing the other end of a gun.”
She closes her eyes tightly, waiting for the bullet to come. “Wait!” she says. She looks at the other man in the room and then back at Jeremiah. “You took Mark away from me. He was the man I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with. At least let me kiss Jeffrey for the last time.”
“Him?” He looks at Jeffrey.
Evelyn nods. “You owe me that at least.”
Jeremiah walks over to Jeffrey and grabs him by the back of the collar, forcing him in front of Evelyn.
Jeffrey and Evelyn stare into each others eyes. Tears fall, but they don’t seem hopeless. Jeremiah points the gun at them, motioning them to move closer together.
“You see, this is poetic,” Jeremiah says. “In a way, I am merciful. I once took away your love, but I didn’t take love away from you.”
“You may live a long life,” Evelyn says, “but you can still be killed.”
“I don’t anticipate that anytime soon,” Jeremiah answers.
Evelyn leans forward and sets her head against Jeffrey’s, staring into Jeremiah’s eyes all the while. “When you die,” she says, “I hope I’m there. I hope I get to see it.”
Then, she vanishes.
She appears in a place far from where she was, lying on the ground next to Jeffrey. At first, I don’t understand what I see. It seems that either Jeffrey or Evelyn is a Starborn with the ability to teleport to a different place. She had just managed to slip from Jeremiah’s grip once again.
I keep moving ahead. More years go by. Jeremiah would have to be a hundred by now…surely he would be dead.
I go as far as I can. It’s bold, but I want to see how old Evelyn will be when she dies. I want to go to her last moment.
It isn’t pretty. There is a fight on a rooftop. There are people I don’t recognize. Two guys not too much older than me, a girl, and a woman who looks injured. She’s dying. Then, there is a bloodied body on the ground. It’s a man. He’s still alive and breathing, but he doesn’t have long. When I look closer, it seems like Jeremiah. But that couldn’t be. He looks too young. It has been too many years.
The injured woman is clearly Evelyn. She looks to be about sixty or so. The girl sitting next to her is bloody and beaten. She looks at Evelyn with pity, probably knowing that she will die.
“This has been your fight from the beginning. You should kill him.”
Evelyn shakes her head. “You will carry on after me. This is your first task as leader of the Starborns.”
The girl walks away for a moment, but I don’t focus on her. I don’t hear the words she says to Jeremiah. All I can do is watch Evelyn. Her eyes never go to the man on the ground. She only stares up at the girl with tears in her eyes. A shot goes off, and the girl comes back to her. The two of them talk for a brief moment.
Evelyn seems so happy that the girl is alive. I can’t even hear what they say until Evelyn’s final words. “You’ve got to lead the Starborns. That’s why I think you came to us. I think you were meant to move us forward. The Starborns are meant to rid the world of the greyskins and help usher in a new world. You’ve started with Jeremiah.”
“I won’t know what to do without you.”
“You will,” Evelyn says.
Evelyn closes her eyes, and I see a bright light.
When I open my eyes, I see a little girl in front of me, not the woman that will lead a revolution. I stare at her with tears in my eyes. Her life is filled with pain, but it is because of that pain that she is driven to go after Jeremiah. If this future is any indication of what is to come, then that means we will fail at killing Jeremiah, and he
will
become the new Shadowface.
“What did you see?” Remi asks me, breaking into my thoughts.
I shake my head. “I saw everything.” I start at the beginning. Remi and Gabe listen to me with their mouths gaping open.
“This is why I hate looking into the future,” I say. “The burden this makes me carry is almost unbearable.”
“Why do you say that?” Remi asks.
“Because tomorrow, when we storm the Anchorage, I’ve got to make sure I change the future. If I can kill Jeremiah, Evie won’t have to fight him. She will have a different life.”
“But what if that’s her purpose?” Gabe asks. “Should you steal that away from her?”
I think about what he says for a minute, but finally shake my head. “I don’t think so. Evie will say it herself. It’s up to the Starborns to usher in a new world. If I can do that for Evelyn, then why wouldn’t I? If I fail, everything will be up to her. If I succeed, she won’t have to die that way.” I sigh and look down at her as she breathes silently. “Evie will lead an uprising against Jeremiah. It’s my job to make sure she doesn’t have to.”
I didn’t sleep well last night. How could I have? Knowing what the future holds is a lot harder than not knowing. Though, I don’t really know what the future holds because my sister and I intend to change it. How, I have no idea. I know she plans to kill Jeremiah sometime after leading him to Olivia, but the thought makes me nervous. Once she leads Jeremiah to Olivia, he will no longer need Waverly alive. Once he kills Olivia, he could kill Waverly as well. I can’t help but wonder if trying to change the future is, in fact, setting it in motion. It’s an impossible paradox to contemplate, and my head hurts because of it. I came to the conclusion last night that the best way to change the future would be to find Jeremiah where he slept and shoot him in the brain. But then, how would we know that Olivia wouldn’t be a more terrible leader? Even after much thought, I still don’t know. If we kill Jeremiah, and are unable to kill Olivia, there will be one future. If we kill Olivia and are unable to kill Jeremiah, there will be a different future. And if we manage to kill both of them…well…
I feel like we are messing with stuff that is much bigger than us. It is far too big to take on by ourselves, but what other option do we have? What else can we do but what we know to do? We see evil—we try to stop evil. And I think we’re doing what the future Evelyn would want us to do.
I laugh at myself silently as I stare at her sleeping on the floor in the living room. I already look up to her for what she is supposed to do. I admire her courage. I hope in the days to come, I can be as courageous. I hope I can be that way tonight—that no matter what happens, I will have the ability to do what is necessary whether I live or die.
By the time everyone is awake, we gather in the middle of the street in Orick. Evie is in my arms, and Jeremiah stands in the back of a truck addressing the crowd that has gathered. Though my Starborn ability allows me to hear even the smallest sounds, I can’t bring myself to listen to Jeremiah’s lies. He touts revolution, though these people have never felt the need for it. He preaches revolt, but these people already live in peace. He continues to talk and talk, gathering more and more followers to his cause, and his words fall on my deaf ears. Once I might have gotten caught up in his rhetoric. Once I might have believed him myself. I wonder how many will die because they think Jeremiah is the savior of the people. I clutch tightly to Evie.
She doesn’t deserve to die. Not by Jeremiah’s hands. Not that way. Not that way.
My ears pick up the last bit of his message. “The more people that join with us tonight,” he says, “the better chance we have at ending this threat. I wouldn’t ask you to fight if it wasn’t your fight. And it might not feel like it today, but it will tomorrow. Stick with me, and I will make you free forever. You will never feel oppression.”
This garners a few whoops and hollers, but there are plenty of people that find it incredibly senseless to fight alongside Jeremiah when there has been no threat to them yet.
Everyone who plans to go spends the rest of the morning preparing for the battle that will take place tonight. It’s mostly silent throughout the village until a vehicle comes up carrying Jeremiah’s scouts, Scott and Derek, whom he had sent to assess Shadowface’s defenses.
From the window inside the house, I can see them come in. Jeremiah takes the two of them aside and talks to them in private, unaware that I can hear every word. Derek walks slowly and with a limp toward the other two and I can’t help but feel a little guilty about my interrogation of him.
“What did you find out?” Jeremiah asks.
“I almost broke radio silence over this one,” Scott says.
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t,” Jeremiah snaps. “Olivia could be listening.”