by Anne Schlea
Anna refolds the paper without reading it. She’ll have to take time to do that later when Marissa isn’t watching her. “You know about the Fallen.”
“And I know my dad was killed by one of his friends and that my mom went after the killer.” Marissa’s voice finally wavers a little bit. She draws her bottom lip between her teeth. “I know that at some point you would have to send me to live with the rest of the Fallen and that you might not be able to come with me. Is that what’s happening? Are you sending me away with that man who came last night?”
“No.” Anna feels relief pour over her. It was just like her sister to leave something for Marissa. “I am Forsaken, that is true. No one leaves the Fallen and is permitted to return. Or at least it is rare and there are always consequences, but things have changed. I don’t really understand it myself and I probably won’t until we get home. Riley came here to try and bring me back last night. He didn’t know about you at all. The timing is good. I was going to have to take you soon anyway.”
“I should probably show you this, too.” Marissa takes a small book out of her backpack and puts it on the table. She moves one hand over the book and concentrates very hard. Anna wonders what she’s doing until the book moves. The top pages turn like they’re reaching for Marissa’s hand.
Anna’s breath catches in her throat. They really are out of time if Marissa’s gifts are starting to surface. This is the mark of adulthood in their world. She needs more energy than Anna is able to give and she needs it soon or her growth will be stunted forever. “Riley said he’d be here before lunch. Pack one bag – only what you can carry with you.”
“This is it?” Marissa looks at Anna with fear in her eyes for the first time since they sat at the table. “They’re not going to take me away from you?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Anna hopes she’s telling the truth. “Riley was my partner for many years. We fought side by side and he saved my life more than once. I trust him and he says there’s nothing to be afraid of. We’ll be okay.”
∞∞∞
Anna paces around her small living room waiting for the knock to come on her door. She’s packed the absolute necessities. Some clothes. The few things she’d taken with her when she left Orasul. A few pictures from their life in New York. Her most secret, sentimental possession: a photo of her and Riley from their youth. It’s in its frame and wrapped in paper at the very bottom of her duffle bag. The necklace he’d returned to her is around her neck. Her departure from their life had never been about him. She hopes she might one day be able to explain that to him.
She still jumps when Riley’s knock breaks the strained silence.
“Come in.” Anna opens the door to find Riley waiting in the hallway with the red-headed female Fallen he’d been with the night before. They’re both dressed in normal, human street clothes. Good. Maybe her neighbors will believe her about the movie opening and not call the FBI when she doesn’t come back.
The woman nods at Anna but doesn’t cross the threshold. Her expression is respectful and familiar, but Anna still can’t place her. “I’ll give you a few minutes and wait out here.”
“Thank you.” Anna nods her head gratefully. She needs Marissa to feel comfortable with Riley before this goes any farther. In the event the Committee separates them, she knows Riley will watch out for Marissa.
Anna closes the door and turns to watch Riley.
He’s walking slowly across the room with his eyes trained on Marissa who’s waiting quietly in the center of the living room. She watches him approach with a guarded expression. To her, he’s a stranger come to take her away from the world she knows.
“My, God. You look exactly like your mother.” He looks like someone kicked him in the stomach. Anna guesses that’s what happens when the dead come back to life.
“Marissa, this is Riley.” Anna steps around him to tuck Marissa into the curve of her arm and body, an unnecessary, protective move to make her feel better. She looks at her daughter. “You can trust him.”
“Did you know my mother?” Marissa’s eyes rake over him. She takes in his plain, navy t-shirt and blue jeans, the scar on his neck, the single dagger hidden under his street-clothes. Anna watches her and wonders why she hasn’t noticed before how aware Marissa is. Nothing escapes her careful scrutiny.
“I did. I mourned her when she died. She was a great warrior.” His eyes shift to Anna. There’s something in them Anna doesn’t have a name for. “Just like your aunt is.”
“Mom.” Marissa corrects him firmly. She looks at Anna. “She’s my mom. I was five when my mother died. I barely remember her.”
“Your mom she is.” Riley smiles warmly before his gaze drifts away from Anna’s face. The warm smile wavers. “Now it’s important we get both of you back home. Your mom needs help we can’t give her here. Do you have any questions before we go?”
“I want you to promise no one will try to take me away.” Marissa speaks in a firm voice. Her eyes bear down on Riley and her tone doesn’t waver. Anna can see she won’t move an inch until she has his word. “Then we can go.”
“I swear on my life no one will force you from Anna.” He meets her gaze with his own. There is no wavering, no attempt to avoid the firm commitment, and there is no room for duplicity in the words.
Anna’s shocked. The vow of a Fallen is binding and never made lightly. Riley will be forced to uphold his vow until death. It is proof he speaks the truth.
“Then let’s go.” Marissa turns to pick up the backpack she left on the sofa but Anna puts her hand lightly on her arm.
“Wait.” She reaches back into her pocket and pulls out the pair of leather gloves Riley gave her the night before. “Put these on first.”
“Why?” Marissa frowns and looks at them. Anna doubts the letter Lily gave her went through the finer points of life among the Fallen; things like protecting your hands and the seat of your power.
“What you showed me this morning will only grow stronger when you are introduced to our kind.” Anna glances over at Riley and realizes she should have warned him but it’s too late now. “This will help you from having accidents.”
“Her gifts are beginning to show?” He looks from Marissa back to Anna. “You didn’t tell me that yesterday.”
“I didn’t know until this morning.” Anna watches Marissa slide on the leather coverings and wonders again how she didn’t know before. There should have been sloppy accidents and mistakes. “Lily left her a letter I didn’t know about. Our life wasn’t as much of a secret as I thought it was, my daughter has been practicing without me knowing about it.”
Riley laughs. It sounds good in the midst of so much stress and serious talk. “That sounds like Lily. She’d want to have the last word.”
“Of course.” Anna finds herself laughing with him. It’s the first time she can remember Lily’s name doesn’t bring up the slicing pain of loss. Maybe this was what it takes – to share her memory with someone who knew her. She turns her attention to Marissa. “Honey, would you mind?”
Marissa looks less than happy to show off, but she dutifully returns the gloves to Anna’s hand and picks up a book to demonstrates to Riley the same trick she performed for Anna that morning. What she doesn’t know yet is that this is the first indication of a very powerful, very special gift. It’s one that hasn’t been seen in generations and is coveted by the Committee. Marissa could one day be more powerful and valuable than both Anna and Lily combined.
Riley watches with an impassive face; any shock is kept locked down under a mask of neutrality. When the book is placed back on the shelf, he smiles. “Marissa, that’s amazing.”
“It started a month ago.” She takes the gloves from Anna’s outstretched hand and returns them to her hands. “Do I really need to wear these?”
He holds up his own gloved hands. “Yes. Your gift will grow very quickly when you are introduced to more of our kind. We wouldn’t want any accidents. The leather gloves help us keep the gifts
under control.”
“Mom never wears gloves.” She looks over at Anna, her eyes on Anna’s folded hands.
“She used to, and she will again once she’s better.” Anna doesn’t miss the concern in Riley’s eyes. If she gets better. “She’s been away too long and her gifts are dormant. It will take time and healing before she can use them again.”
“She gave up a lot to bring me here, didn’t she?” Marissa looks at Anna with more wisdom than a fifteen year old should have. Anna feels a pang of regret. How much of a burden has she helped Lily heap on the girl?
“Yes, she did.” Riley’s eyes soften. “But it was out of love for your mother. Don’t ever feel like you need to carry that burden. That trial is ours.”
Anna looks more closely at Riley after he says “ours.” He keeps his gaze shielded from her, walls are up that hadn’t been there before.
“It’s time.” Riley reaches a hand out to Anna. “Are you ready?”
Anna looks around her apartment one last time. She wonders if she’ll see any of her belongings again. The Committee generally frowns on excessive worldly possessions. At home they’ll have a small apartment, clothing they need for their jobs, and few extras. Even though Anna’s city apartment is small, it’s still larger than her room in the barracks had been.
She allows Riley to take her hand and then slings her duffle bag over her shoulder before she put her arm around Marissa. Marissa’s backpack is on her own back and Riley uses his free hand to pick up Marissa’s bag.
This feels like a family.
The thought strikes Anna as she turns to lock the apartment door behind them. She belongs with Riley and her people. Today is the first day in ten years she feels completely whole. She just hopes her people really do want her back.
Chapter Four
“Pull over here.” Riley breaks the car’s silence three hours into their drive.
Anna looks up. The car is on a scenic two-lane highway; a well-travelled road in upstate New York. The trees are tall and green, sheltering the car from the view of the farmlands they just left behind. Ahead are the rolling hills that lead to the Adirondacks.
Mia pulls onto a dirt road, the car bumping through a few ruts in the road that leads deeper into the woods. The car rolls to a stop, Riley gets out to open the trunk. The second car, one being driven by Kurt, pulls up behind them.
Anna follows Riley to see what he’s doing while she stretches her legs. “Why did we stop?”
“Mia and I need to change.” He faces her as he pulled his shirt off and drops it in the trunk. Anna tries unsuccessfully to not stare at the abs and toned skin. She can also see welts and bruises that wrap around Riley’s body from his back. Before she can ask what happened, he pulls a black button-down over himself. Two daggers came out of the trunk and are strapped to his thighs. He’s armed and looks ready for battle. “I didn’t think it was a good idea to take you and Marissa from your apartment dressed like a mercenary. I thought it might draw the wrong kind of attention.”
She nods her head, thinking about the FBI and her poor neighbors. “Good point.”
Riley reaches out and takes Anna’s hand again. She realizes he’s held her hand a lot since he first showed up at her front door. Unlike humans who seem to avoid contact, touching is normal in their culture, it sends energy pulsing between them. Today, Anna can feel her body draining as much power off Riley as it can, fighting to correct the damage done by too many years on her own.
He moves away from the car, pulling her gently down the dirt road while Mia pulls her own weapons out of the trunk and changes. When he speaks it’s in a low voice. “I’m to take you straight to the Committee when we reach Orasul. You should prepare yourself.”
“Are they going to try me?” Anna does her best to make her voice sound strong. It’s difficult to not fear the men and women who might be her judge, jury, and warden. In their world, there’s nothing to fear more than the Committee.
“No.” He looks past her to Mia and lowers his voice even more. “All Forsaken must stand before the Committee. You will answer for your crimes against the race and give your word to stand with us now. Your penance has already been paid; there will be no punishment for your transgressions, but you still must be strong before the Committee and show them you are fully committed to return. You must convince them you will not again abandon our people. There are no second chances here, Anna.”
“Penance?” Anna knows what kind of penance the Committee is capable of giving out. She shudders. “How has mine been paid when I haven’t set foot inside of Orasul in ten years? You said the army needed me more than the Committee needed their rules.”
“You did not leave because of arrogance or deceit.” His reminder comes gently at the same time his right hand reaches out to brush away a strand of hair the breeze blows into her face. “You left out of love and a promise. Despite what you believe about the Committee they can see the difference.”
“You spoke to them last night?” She can’t hide her surprise. He didn’t have enough time to make the drive twice before he picked her up. He must have called them. She can’t imagine any member of the Committee with a cell phone. Either things have really changed a lot or her memories of the arcane ways of their people are skewed through the lens of youth.
“I want you to be prepared.” He glances back at the car and sees Mia is ready to go, leaning against the trunk, watching them. “Be strong. Be courageous. Make sure they understand you only left because of your vow to Lily.”
Vow. Anna hadn’t exactly made a “vow” to Lily. It was a promise. Vows are unbreakable. Promises are bendable; but Anna can see what Riley’s doing. If she vowed to Lily to protect her daughter, and she had reason to believe the spirit of Jonathan’s murderer still lived within the walls of Orasul, then she would have no choice but to leave the city to protect the child.
Riley’s telling her what she needs to tell the Committee. It isn’t an outright lie, only a bend in the truth.
“I understand.” Anna meets his eyes with a nod of the head. “Thank you.”
“Mia’s ready.” He turns toward the car. “We’ve got another hour. We should get moving.”
Anna starts after him when a wave of nausea washes over her. She stumbles, tries to regain her balance, but still ends up on the ground. Pain shoots up from her knees where small pieces of rock cut into her skin through her pants. Her vision waivers until it becomes a fight for consciousness.
“Anna!” Suddenly, he’s beside her on the ground, his hand resting on her back. “Are you okay?”
“Give me a minute, it’ll pass.” She waits for the blindness to recede and silently curses herself. Her medications are still sitting on the shelf in her bathroom. She didn’t pack them because she knew she wouldn’t need them once she reached Orasul. It didn’t occur to her that she might need them on the way. “I over did it a little last night.”
Anna can hear footsteps sprinting toward her from the car. “Mom, are you okay?”
“I just need to catch my breath.” The vision starts to come back but the nausea doubles. Anna thinks about the morning’s rush and realizes that she hasn’t eaten anything. Food would help her stomach settle, but on the other hand, food could also make her throw up all over Riley.
“Did you eat anything this morning?” Riley seems to read her mind. His hand eases a soft pattern of movement along her back to help calm her and send energy from his body into hers.
“I was concerned about other things.” She takes a deep breath through her nose. Count to ten. Exhale. “No. I forgot.”
A second set of footsteps approaches from the direction of the car. The tone of Mia’s voice cuts through Anna’s head like a knife. “Drink this, it will help.”
Anna reaches out a shaking hand to take a small cup from Mia. Inside is a bright pink liquid that makes her think about the stomach medicine she’s seen in the grocery story. Anna swallows it in one gulp. Her stomach immediately starts to settle and the pain slic
ing through her skull subsides a little. “Thank you.”
“Mia, drive. Marissa, would you please move to the front seat?” Riley helps Anna to her feet. Her legs wobble under her so he reaches his arm around her to support her weight fully with his own body. “I’ll sit in the back and do what I can to help Anna.”
He helps Anna into the backseat of the car and then slides in beside her. His jacket comes off and then he shifts her so that she rests across his lap. His bare arm wraps around her back and cradles her so that their arms are resting skin to skin. It isn’t much, but Anna can feel his energy sifting into her.
“We draw our energy from each other.” Anna can hear Mia speaking quietly to Marissa in the front seat. “Riley is giving her some of his own vitality. She won’t be able to fully recharge until we reach the city where there are more of our kind, but this will get her through the next hour.”
“Is she that sick?” Marissa’s voice is barely more than a whisper. Anna realizes they don’t want her to hear their conversation.
“Yes.” Mia’s eyes looks back in the rearview mirror. She doesn’t say the thing they’re all worried about – that too much damage may have been done to her system and Anna might be un-savable.
Anna has different plans.
Riley had been right to take her into the field. She resigned herself to an early death when she left with Marissa. Now she has a chance to live again – to live to see Marissa become an adult. To live to fight again as she was born to do. The hunger inside burns her with fire unquenchable. She’s a good soldier. She has been since the first time a teacher handed her a bow. Her hands ache to hold that bow again, to feel the heavy weight of blades strapped to her body as she prepares to fight. Her heart sings when she thinks of the moon in its full glory as she runs through the forest at night.
This is what she lived for.
This is what she has pledged to die for.
She will make it home and she will withstand whatever the Committee demands of her. In this, she will not fail.
