by Indie Gantz
My head whips back toward Avias to gauge his reaction to our new arrival. He looks surprised for a moment, matching Cal’s expression, but then Avias’ eyes grow cold.
“What, you couldn’t stuff your face somewhere else?” Avias asks through a fake smile.
“It’s a dining pod,” Cal responds harshly, his voice hoarse. “You don’t own it.”
The tension between them is palpable, Cal still standing rigid in the pod’s doorway and Avias staring him down like he’s waiting for the other boy to make a move.
“They’re all out of your father’s tomato soup,” Avias jests sharply. “You might as well turn around.”
Cal rolls his eyes and places one hand on his hip. “Avias, I’m tired. Can we not?”
The reply is surprising. It’s very familiar, like Cal and Avias have had these kinds of interactions countless times before. There’s trust in Cal’s request too, like he expects Avias to back off just because he asked him to.
Cal’s eyes shift to me, and he gives me a thin smile. Hesitating only a second, I decide to return the smile politely. Avias seems to be the one who’s out of line. I see no reason not to be friendly.
“Well, I’d love to stay for round two,” I say pointedly, my voice brighter than the situation calls for, “But I think I’ll just head back to bed.”
“I’ll join you.” Avias stands, eyes still on Cal. I look between them and give Cal an awkward smile when he finally looks my way again. He steps aside, but doesn’t move farther into the pod.
“Great,” I reply dryly, abandoning my banana and peanut butter and moving towards the door. Avias follows closely behind. “Enjoy your snack,” I say to Cal as I pass him, hoping I sound genuine.
“Thanks,” Cal replies, looking over my head to Avias and giving him a smug smile.
I don’t turn around to watch as Avias passes Cal, but I can bet there is some sort of death glare involved. When we make it through the doorway and the door closes behind us, I whisper, “You two have some sort of history?”
“You could say that,” Avias answers shortly, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the sleeping occupants of the pod we’re walking through to get back to our own.
“You want to talk about it?”
“Not even a little bit.” His tone gives nothing away, but judging by their interaction alone, Avias is obviously bothered.
“Okay,” I reply back simply, not wanting to press him on something that’s clearly none of my business.
When we make it back to our pod, Oleander’s snores welcome us. Avias silences the area around his bunk immediately, and I thank him profusely.
“We’ve only got about ten minutes to fall asleep before it wears off,” Avias says regretfully. “Better get to it.”
“Yeah, I’m still pretty beat. Thanks for the company.”
“Of course. Goodnight, Charlie.” Avias turns to his bunk and settles in.
“Night, Avias.”
Once I’m back in bed, I stare up at the ceiling of the pod, eyes unblinking and mind racing. Our interaction with Cal was a nice distraction, but now I am left alone with my thoughts and they all are screaming at me to make sense of Tirigan’s accident.
The only people in our immediate vicinity that could have moved that knife, are me, Tirigan, and Avias. Maybe Oleander if he were advanced enough to single out the carbon signature of the knife as it was in motion, but I doubt it. Avias is ruled out, because, despite how little I know him, I trust him.
Tirigan is a very unlikely candidate, and normally, I’d consider myself an unlikely candidate as well, but under the circumstances, I’m not so sure. Right before Tirigan was stabbed, I was thinking about ways to make sure we shared a room when we got back to Pacoa. Now, with his injury, Tirigan and I are guaranteed to share a room.
Did I do this?
If I did, my subconscious made the decision for me to move that knife. I certainly didn’t do it purposefully, and that makes this so much worse.
Calla said it would be difficult to control our powers early on, but I don’t think she meant this. If possible, the degree of this incident goes far outside the scope of controlling our powers. It’s far more serious than accidentally making tree branches fly back or setting my sleeping bag on fire. I didn’t even have the idea of Tirigan sustaining an injury in my mind. How would I have known to control my powers to avoid it?
If I had moved that knife by invoking Aéras, it would have to be a conscious choice. Even when I’m not sure what I’m doing, I feel connected to the elements as I invoke them. I felt nothing like that when the knife switched trajectories. No, this—whatever this is—if it came from me, it came from somewhere else.
The possibility is terrifying. It means we have no idea what we can do. It means we have no idea where our power truly comes from.
I let out a deep breath and turn towards the wall, forcibly closing my eyes. Silent tears wet my cheeks.
It’s too much. All of this is too much for me to deal with on my own. I know I have Tirigan, but this, I’m not ready to tell him this. I’m not ready to face it if it’s true, because I don’t know what it means. This potential power, however it works, it’s dangerous, and now we’re racing towards a home that doesn’t deserve dangerous. These people are good. They are loving and accepting, and they don’t need to be dragged into something that could get them impaled.
I don’t want them to get hurt. I also don’t want us to get hurt. I just want to find my mother and keep Tirigan safe. That’s my mission. Find Calla. Keep Tirigan safe. Bring my family back together. I’ll do what I have to in order to accomplish that, which could mean bad things for the people around me.
I try to push away my tears and fall back asleep, but I eventually roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling once more.
Maybe this is why we aren’t allowed to exist.
Maybe what I might have done to Tirigan, maybe the kind of power that could have allowed me to stab my brother without even consciously meaning to, is the reason Anunnaki and Téssera are separated. Maybe, with both species’ blood running through us, a new kind of elemental power is created, and it is just too powerful.
But that would mean both sides would have to know that. They’d have to know about the power a half-Téssera, half-Anunnaki could possess. Maybe that’s why the barriers between our lands went up and history was rewritten not to include the other side.
That would mean we’re not the first half-breeds.
That would mean...
We may not be alone.
To Be Continued…
A LOOK INTO KINDRED:
Book II of The Akasha Series
The rock I just placed in my jean’s pocket is distracting me. It feels like it’s pulsing against my thigh. I take it out and examine it more closely.
“Do you know what kind of rock this is?” I ask Kor.
Kor bends towards me and looks into the stone. “Quartz,” he says after a moment. Then, he narrows his eyes at me. “You should already know that, though.” When I avoid his eyes and don’t say anything, he continues. “Quartz crystals are versatile blanks for Gyans. I’m surprised you haven’t seen one before.”
I think quickly. “Well, I mean with my mother gone and my father sick… and you know, we were on the road all the time. Plus, there weren’t a lot of stones near the jungle. I mean there were some, of course, but not a lot. It wasn’t exactly easy to find the ones we needed. I’m sure we could have if we tried but…” I’m rambling. For some reason I’m finding it increasingly difficult to lie to this man.
“Hmm,” Kor hums thoughtfully, obviously thinking carefully over my rant. “You know, come to think of it, I’ve never seen a casted Quartz. Oleander is prone to using Jade or Jasper.” He pulls the crystal from my sweating palm and looks at it closely before offering it back to me. “Do you mind? I’d love to see what it looks like.”
It takes me much longer than it should to figure out what he’s talking about. He wants me to cast i
nto the Quartz. Theoretically, I should be able to do this. If I can invoke all four elements, I should be able to cast all of them into stones too, as long as I have the right kind of stone. Calla explained it to us in her letter. I just have to focus my power into the stone and some of my power should naturally transfer into it. Simple as that.
“Um, sure,” I say as casually as I can manage, taking the stone out of Kor’s hand. He eyes me warily, like he’s trying to find the missing piece of a puzzle.
Just think Earth. Think Earth and I will cast Earth. I repeat it like mantra, over and over again, closing my eyes and holding the stone tightly between my palms. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth.
Feeling my power transferring, a quick jolt of excitement rushes through me. My hands are tingling, like the muscles inside had fallen asleep and are now coming alive again. After a moment, the feeling disappears, and I’m just left holding the stone between my palms.
I realize as soon as I open my eyes that this was probably a huge mistake. What if I didn’t cast the right color? They’ve seen me invoke Earth, they think that is my element. If I cast another element into the Quartz, what will he say? It isn’t possible, is it? To cast one element into the stone used for another element? I definitely felt something happen, so I must have done it correctly.
I’m sure every one of my thoughts can be read in the crease of my brow and the thinly pressed line my lips make, but when I look at Kor, he looks more concerned than anything else.
“Okay then,” I say slowly, preparing myself for the next step. “Here.”
I push my hand forward; the stone nestled between the fingers and palm of my right hand, still out of sight. Probably another mistake on my part. I should have looked at it first, that way I’d have a chance to think of a lie if needed. Too late now. Now Kor is reaching for the stone, forcibly pulling my fingers back because they are apparently unwilling to move on their own. I see the glow between my fingers before I can register what’s happening.
“What…?” Kor questions absently, staring into my hand as I try to remember how to breathe.
The quartz isn’t green.
Acknowledgements
The debut novel of a fantasy series is a painstaking process that could never be accomplished alone. Without the aid of my editor, Hannah Bauman, or the talented artists at JD&J designs, I would never have been able to put this book in your hands. A special thank you to my first editors, my husband and my sister. For years they’ve been reading and listening to the unintelligible prattle that eventually became this series. And, of course, I can’t forget my children, who ensured the delay of this book’s publication whenever possible.
About the Author
Indie Gantz grew up in Northern Virginia and received her Psychology degree at George Mason University. Despite her passion and curiosity for the human mind, Indie left her chosen field of study to finally give voice to the many imagined minds she has created.
Indie has lived with Charlie and Tirigan in her head for quite some time. After a licensed professional assured her this was normal for writers, Indie hasn’t stopped listening to the Damuzi twins.
Indie lives with her family in North Carolina. She spends her days drinking tea and clacking keys.
Look for Kindred:
Book II of The Akasha Series
Charlie and Tirigan’s separate timelines continue in the next installment of the Akasha Series, but by the end of Kindred, their timelines finally converge.
Picking up where Charlie left off in Passage, at the beginning of Kindred we find the Damuzi twins settling into their new home with Kori Lark’s family. Desperate to keep the dangerous truth of their identity a secret, Charlie and Tirigan educate themselves on everything that was kept from them, while delving deeper into their mother’s past.
In the future, Tirigan is dealing with the complicated emotions that overwhelm him after the events of Passage. In an attempt to control the situation, Tirigan turns inward and cuts himself off from those who need him most.
By the time Charlie’s timeline merges with Tirigan’s, a burning mystery is solved, and more than one relationship begins to unravel.
Friendship. Trust. Dependency. Lies.
The Damuzi twin’s story continues.
Coming 2019
