The Breaker's Resolution: (YA Paranormal Romance) (Fixed Points Book 4) (20 page)

“What’s in that room?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Laurel answered nervously.

I grabbed her hands. “What’s in that room?!”

“Don’t ask me that,” she begged, but her vitals were off the chart.

I turned my hand and threw it forward, the door yielded to me and swung open.

Casper’s hands went to his mouth as he yelled. “Oh my God!”

He darted into the room.

“Cresta don’t!” Laurel screamed, but hell if I was listening to her.

I ran toward the room. The breath caught in my throat when I saw what was going on.

Casper stood at the foot of a bed, shaking as he looked forward at an extremely pregnant woman.

It was her, the woman from the picture, the Damnatus. But that couldn’t be. Casper slept with that girl a couple of months ago, and this woman was about to pop.

“Sarah…” he murmured. “What the hell is going on?” he turned back to me. He had a piece of paper in his hand, the photo of his ‘little bean’ that helped us keep our sanity inside the Hourglass.

But there wasn’t an image in the picture anymore. Instead, where the baby had been, now sat three words and a descriptor.

I’m so sorry

-The Girl in the Tower.

“What?” Casper asked breathlessly. “What the hell just happened?”

“S-Sarah?” Casper’s hands were shaking. His entire body was shaking actually, and I couldn’t blame him. We had just found out that the girl he had knocked up was being held captive in my biological mother’s house and that she was way more pregnant than she had any right to be, given the date in which Casper slept with her.

And then there was the picture, or the lack of a picture.

“Damn you Wendy,” I muttered to myself. She had done it again, screwed with our lives from beyond the grave to get us to a particular point. Only this time she had hurt the person I cared about most in the world in a way that I wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to come back from.

“You…” Sarah said, sitting up with great effort.

“Casper,” he said bitterly. “My name is Casper.”

“I thought it was Toby,” she said, settling against the beds backboard. “I just don’t know-” She looked past him. “Laurel, what is he doing here? You told me he was gone.”

“He was supposed to be.” My bio-mom’s voice sounded from behind me.

I turned to her, a fire in my belly that wouldn’t be quenched until it burned something down.

“You bitch!” I screamed. “You were going to keep her from us!” II threw my hands. She flinched, probably thinking I was going to attack her with some shade of something, which made me feel equal parts guilty and good. “Do you have any idea how long he’s been waiting to see her? How worried he’s been about his baby?”

“It’s not my baby,” Casper was sitting on the bed now, his voice low and near trembling. Looking up at Sarah, he asked, “Is it?”

Tears pooled in the girl’s eyes. She was pretty. With blonde hair and sky blue eyes, she didn’t look very different than me, assuming I had grown up a little, let my hair grow out, and managed to not get dead. “It thought she was. I really did. I remember the entire thing. I remember…being with you, and the day we found out, with those-”

“Two blue lines,” Casper finished.

“And then one day, I woke up and you were gone. Which honestly didn’t surprise me. You’re a kid.  I had no delusions that you would stick around. But a few weeks later, I passed by a mirror and I was like this, just instantly.” She wiped tears from her cheeks. “I was scared to death. I called an ambulance, but these other people showed up; this curly haired girl and her grandfather. They told me that the doctors wouldn’t be able to help me, and then they told me everything that had been going on with me, and they said they could explain it all.”

“And did they?” Casper asked, his eyes sitting stalwart on the floral print comforter that covered Sarah’s uber pregnant belly.

“They said that I was important, that the world was changing and that I was going to play a crucial part in all of it.”

“And you just believed them?” Casper’s voice was emotionless now.

“About Breakers, and seers, and prophecies, and all that?” Sarah asked. “Sort of. I mean, I couldn’t explain anything that was happening to me. At least they had some sort of answers, even if they did seem ridiculous at first. Besides, they offered me a safe place to stay and plenty of food. I’m a psych major who’s two credits shy of graduating. My parents already disowned me for getting knocked up in the first place. This seemed like a better option than a woman’s shelter.”

“I’m sorry,” Casper said, and I could feel his heart breaking. “I’m so, so sorry that you had to go through that alone. I shouldn’t have left.”

“It’s not your fault,” she shook her head. “I’m not even sure you did anything. Laurel’s been helping me. She told me the actual truth, and we’ve been doing these exercises, trying to see beyond the shade, or whatever you guys call it. And the thing is, the memories I have with you, they aren’t the only ones in my head anymore.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, chiming in from behind Casper.

“There are other things layered over them, like I was living two lives at once. I don’t have any specifics and I can’t make sense of most of it. But it there, like an itch in the back of my head.” She looked up at me. “Who are you anyway?”

“I’m Cresta Karr. I’m this guy’s best friend and the reason the world is ‘changing’. Though that isn’t the word most people I’ve met have used for it.” I said.

“She’s also my daughter,” Laurel said, and the words poked at me like a stick.

“I’m not through with you,” I sneered, looking over at Laurel.

“Stop!” Casper screamed. “Just stop it. Sarah, you said that Laurel told you the actual truth. What was that?”

“That the people here want to kill me,” she answered flatly, as if she was asking for more root beer. “That I’m some big overture for everything that’s coming. It seems sort of farfetched to me, but I had already jumped off the deep end, and Cresta’s mom is very convincing,” Sarah answered.

The verbal stick jammed into my side again.

“Why would the Taggers want to kill her?” I asked turning to Laurel.

“Isn’t it obvious? Because they want the world to end. Killing the Damnatus is a huge piece of making that happen.”

“These people are such lunatics,” I scoffed. “It’s like I jumped from the self-righteous cult baby frying pan into the masochistic moron fire.” Shaking my head, I asked, “If that’s true, then why haven’t they killed her already? Couldn’t they have just shot her in the head or something and been done with it?”

“Thanks for the visual,” Casper murmured.

“Sorry, but it’s true. Why would they go the long way around on this one?”

“Because they didn’t have you,” Laurel answered. “Killing the Damnatus ushers in the apocalypse, but without you, they can’t focus it in the direction they need it to go in. That’s why I sent you to the other side of the country, to keep you way from them. And it’s why I came here, to help Sarah fake her own disappearance and save her life. And because you asked me to.”

“I did not,” I balked.

“Both of you did,” she said, turning from me to Casper. “You told me to find the woman and her ‘little bean’ and keep them safe.”

“Well, that does sound like something I would say,” Casper relented.

“But when I got here, I saw that things didn’t line up. Something else was going on and, before I could get her out of here, you came.”

“They just let you in here?” I asked. “You’re a Breaker. They hate Breakers.”

“I’m also the Bloodmoon’s mother. Like it or not, I’m a big piece of this puzzle. They figured, if they had me, you wouldn’t be far behind.” She sighed. “I wish they would have been wrong.”

“We didn’t know,” I responded.

“Yes we did,” Casper nodded. “Jiqui tried to tell us and we didn’t listen to him.”

“He’s a killer,” I shot back.

“A killer with a note from your mother,” he said.

“She’s not my mother!” I said before thinking. I shut my eyes and breathed heavy as I turned to her. “Look,” I started.

“No, it’s alright,” Laurel said, putting her hands out on front of her. “I didn’t do any of this so that you would like me. I did it to keep you safe, and that’s the same reason I’m doing it now.” She looked around the room. “I want to keep all of you safe.”

“And how do we do that?” I asked, feeling an unusual pang of guilt.

“There’s a field in this place, one that disrupts Breaker energy. I’m able to get around it, thanks to the specifics of my ability. And apparently so are you.” She smiled a little and I couldn’t help but think there might be a little pride in her voice. “The people here don’t know that though, and that puts them at a serious disadvantage. Right now, my people are launching a full scale assault inside of the Hourglass.”

“What?!” I started, and Owen’s face instantly flashed through my mind.

“My intel says they know we’re here. They’re sending the Dragon and a fleet of Breakers to end you.”

“It doesn’t matter what they do. Owen won’t kill me,” I assured her.

“That’s what I thought too. Your relationship with him has been the one bright spot in all of this. It gives him pause and stifles the Council from being as effective as they’d like,” Laurel said. She was all business suddenly and it was easy for me to picture as the amazing Breaker woman that everyone told me she had been.

“I agree,” I answered. “For different reasons obviously, but it’s definitely been a bright spot.”

Laurel looked at me, smiling again. “Falling in love with the one person in the world you shouldn’t. We have more in common than you’d like to admit, I think.”

“Is he safe, Owen I mean?” I asked.

“Honestly? I don’t know,” laurel said, sending my heart to pounding. “He is the Dragon, so my people won’t go to any lengths to keep him out of harm’s way. But he’s the biggest gun the Council has, so I imagine they’re keeping him safe.”

“You have to get him!” I pounded my fist against the wall. “Make you’re people extract him, bring him here.”

“What are you talking about?” She asked. “They wouldn’t listen to me. I’m not some leader. They’re doing this because they believe it’s the right thing, and not all of them are on the same page as me about the Dragon continuing to breath. Besides, there is no extraction. S you know, breaking out of the Hourglass is a near impossible feat. Even your father couldn’t do it. The people revolting are doing it for one reason, to buy us enough time to disappear again. And they’re likely giving their lives for that.”

It felt like stone landed right on my chest. More people dying for me. More people dying because of me.

“A plan,” I cleared my throat. “You have one?”

“Always,” she answered. “News of what’s happening in the Hourglass will drift back here pretty soon. The Taggers have people in the inside too.”

“Really?” Casper asked. “That place has more holes in it than my dad’s boat.” He looked back at Sarah. “He liked to get drunk and try to shoot fish out of the lake. It’s probably for the best that I’m not passing any of those genes on.”

He winced as he finished the sentence and my heart leapt out for him. He was devastated obviously, and his humor as a coping mechanism. I wanted more than anything to try to help him through this. But there was so much going on. There was
always
so much going on, dammit.

“Can Echo’s new wife be trusted,” Laurel asked me. “She had always been a bit of a stuffy loyalist, but she seems to have loosened up a bit.”

“I trust Dahlia with my life,” I said, without a hint of hesitation. “She’s saved me more than once. And she lost her daughter. It changed her.”

“It does that,” Laurel answered. She took a beat and then continued. “We need to get her, Royce, and Jiqui and make a break for it with Sarah. The Taggers will be preoccupied with news of the Hourglass rebellion as well as a little surprise I have in store for them.”

“We have to take Jiqui?” I asked, my distaste for him bubbling up to the surface.

“I made a deal with him. I’m not going to leave him here. Besides, he has more than a few bits of crucial information about our operation.” Laurel answered.

“I wanna bring Liv too,” Casper chimed in. “She’s not like the rest of them. I mean, I guess. Personally, I like the rest of them. But then again, they’re not trying to stab me through the heart or coerce me into ending the world. But either way, I want Liv to come.”

“I don’t know about that, Casper,” Laurel said. “That girl is a Rivers. Her grandfather is the Commissioner of this entre place. I know you have feelings for her. You told me as much in the desert. And maybe she even has feelings for you too. But will they be enough to convince her to turn her back on her family, friends, home, and upbringing. You’d be asking her to leave behind everything she’s ever known. I’m just not sure you can trust her to do that.”

“I don’t have feeling s for her. I love her, and she loves me too. I know she does. Shouldn’t she at least get the chance to decide?” He looked to me for help.

“Not when deciding against it could put us all in more danger, Casper,” Laurel answered.  “We have to be practical and, practically speaking, this isn’t the smartest move.”

“You’re not a leader,” I said, looking from Casper, to the woman and unborn baby he just found out weren’t part of his family, and finally back to Laurel. “You just told me you weren’t a leader. Well, somebody has to be. And since I’m the one with a gun to my head, I vote myself.” I looked back at Casper. “And I say we see what the girl has to say for herself.”

A smile lit Casper’s face.

“That’s not a good idea.” Laurel said. “If she says no-”

“Then I’ll wipe her mind.”

“Isn’t that what got you in this mess in the first place?” Laurel challenged.

“You want me to go along with this plan?” I asked. “This is the only way it happens.”

“I don’t like it.  Wiping minds is never reliable and it wastes precious time.”

“But you’ll do it,” I said.

“But I’ll do it,” she answered. Looking around the room, Laurel started. “We need to move quickly. Get Royce and the others here, and then we can move on to-”

A loud noise sounded through the room and Laurel collapsed, spraying red all over me. It was warm and metallic. It was-it was blood.

She crumpled to the ground, and I looked at her in horror, my mouth agape.