Whispers in Autumn (The Last Year, #1)

by Trisha Leigh

  “Let me get Lucas settled and I’ll be back.” She leaves with my soaking undergarments pinched between two fingers.

  My eyes slip closed in the darkness. It’s so quiet, so peaceful, and for the first time since I lay on the forest floor I don’t feel as though someone is watching me. My chin rests atop the bubbles and my mind shuts off, thankful to have a break. Glowing yellow patterns flicker on the tiles. I just breathe in the solitude. In. Out. In.

  The door opens again and Cadi slips in. She kneels at the end of the basin by my head. She’s changed into lounge clothes, a pale green pair of pants and a matching top. She grabs a couple of bottles from under the sink and squirts shampoo into her palm. “You have questions, Althea?”

  Only about a million.

  Cadi rubs the fragrant suds into my hair and kneads my scalp. She works on me in silence for several seconds. There are an infinite number of questions but few that Lucas won’t want to hear, too. My brow scrunches and I nibble on the tips of my fingers as she finishes with my hair and moves on to my back. No one has ever taken the time to pay attention to me, to take care of me. I don’t know Cadi at all, but I let her do it. A feeling of protection fills the room, as though this little cabin offers safe harbor.

  It’s silly to feel that way. It’s an Other facility in the middle of nowhere.

  It’s Cadi that’s making me feel like this, not the building. She and Ko are strange that way.

  “What are you if you’re not an Other?”

  “What am I? All this time in the dark about you and your question is about me?”

  The words choke off at the end and I twist to look at her face. Water floods her midnight eyes and she looks at me like the people in my dreams do. Whatever she and Ko are, they do care about us. She couldn’t fake the raw, jagged emotion written all over her. But why?

  “What’s the water in your eyes called? I get it, too, and Lucas has had it before, but no one else does.”

  “The humans call them tears. And they all have them, but tears are brought on by emotion. When they come it’s called crying, or weeping. It’s how everyone would purge feelings naturally, if they could.”

  “Tears.” I try out the word, happy to have a name for the water and also, a definition for one of the words in Lucas’s strange, haunting booklet. I examine my fingertips, wrinkled and pink from the water, and take the washcloth from Cadi. Even though my clothes absorbed much of the smell, I’m not ready to get out of the water just yet. “So, what are you?”

  She seems to think about it for a minute. “The gulf between our languages is vast. Your vocabulary is quite limiting.”

  “Hey!”

  She shrugs. “It is not your fault, Althea. The Others have nothing to gain and much to lose from teaching language or history.” She searches her mind for another few minutes while I practice using my patience. “I am an Augur. It is the closest definition. I am not wholly Other, nor am I human. My forebearers were from a planet called Sprita. We had one primary emotion—love. Our planet is…was peaceful, full of respect and happiness. When the Others arrived, no one stood against them; fighting is not in our nature. We welcomed them, offered them sanctuary. The Others spent many years on Sprita before moving on. No one survived their habitation except those they took with them when they left.”

  “They took you with them,” I squeak out. Greg asking what happens to the Others’ hosts hops out of my memory. This is almost worse than no one surviving.

  “Some of us, yes. My people have specific abilities the Others wished to copy. They took a dozen of our women when they left and extracted genetic material. Experimented with controlling the genes they wished for themselves. It worked, to an extent. I am an example. So is Ko.” A ghostly smile haunts her face. “We are not the first to be taken. Or the last. Many species do not survive the aggressive gene manipulation. Or do not behave as intended.”

  A shudder of what looks like revulsion wracks her tiny frame. I’m unwilling to push her on what is obviously a distressing point. The hot water turns lukewarm and I want to get out anyway, to return to Lucas. “Cadi, why are you and Ko helping us?”

  She watches me through sad, resigned eyes. “You remember what I told you about Sprita? We wish a different outcome for Earth. You could be the answer.”

  I get out of the water and rub myself dry as Cadi leaves the room, then returns with my clothes. They smell clean and fresh, like they dried in warm air. “How?”

  She winks. “Magic, Althea. Come. I’ll tell you more.”

  Whatever magic is.

  I dress and enter the kitchen to find Cadi and Lucas staring at each other over steaming mugs of hot chocolate. A third cup waits for me in front of the seat beside Lucas. My stiff fingers warm as they wrap around it.

  He leans over and sniffs, then gives me a nod of approval. “Much better.” He steals one of my hands, then turns a suspicious gaze on Cadi. “I have a question. Why are you here now, after sixteen years of leaving us to fend for ourselves? Something’s happened, hasn’t it.”

  It’s a statement, not a question. We know something has.

  “Yes, things have changed as far as the two of you are concerned. First of all, you must know we did not leave you to fend for yourselves. Ko is the reason you have survived until now.” Her eyes darken further and grief pulls at her perfect, sharp features. “He wrote you those notes and helps you travel between seasons. His abilities kept you safe after your parents could no longer hide your existence on their own.”

  Lucas clears his throat, opens his mouth, and then closes it again. He finds his voice before I do. “What abilities?”

  “The hologram stored in Althea’s necklace is a good example. Spritans have advanced capacities for altering perceptions. We can’t change reality, just the way it is perceived.”

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Lucas scoffs.

  “There are a great many things in this universe you’ve never heard of, young man. I promise we are more than capable of producing results. Ko is a powerful Augur. I possess an adequate amount of knowledge in this area as well.”

  Her words attempt to penetrate the barrier between what is known and what is possible. My brain pounds and stretches, clearing space for the new ideas.

  “Why did he help us?” Lucas is harsh with Cadi. He’s obviously frustrated and having a hard time trusting her.

  Cadi stares back at Lucas, and he avoids her emotion-soaked gaze. “Althea can fill you in on my past, but Ko and I have our reasons for keeping you alive. In the course of protecting you as you’ve grown, we have come to care for you very much. Almost as if you belong to us.”

  I’ve been stuck on her original statement this entire time, when she mentioned our parents. My heart climbs into my throat and tries to beat, tightening my airway with a painful pinch.

  “You said Ko took over because our parents could no longer protect us. We have parents?”

  She sees our earnest, hopeful faces and shakes her head. “Yes, of course you have parents. The Prime Other wants you because of your parents. After all, you’re the only children born to an Other and a human.”

  My jaw drops open. We are Other. At least, part of us is. Lucas’s eyes find mine and dismay flows out of them into my heart. Cadi places a hand over our linked ones. Comfort drips from underneath it and into my blood, but it can’t thwart my shiver.

  “I thought relationships between Others and humans are forbidden,” I say.

  Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise, giving her a comical appearance. “How do you know that, Althea?”

  “Long story. I heard some Others talking about me once, and saying it was too bad intimacy is forbidden.”

  Lucas grunts and I remember he didn’t know that part.

  Cadi continues, keeping her hand on ours. “The kind of love humans experience between a man and a woman is peculiar to this planet. The Others had never encountered it before. Your Other parents were sent to the four corners of Earth to help subdue the plane
t. In the process, they fell in love. The emotion caught them off guard with its distinct power and the desperate ferocity with which they protected it. Their Partnering with humans resulted in your births.”

  She stops, taking a deep breath and staring off into space, as though gathering her thoughts. “Any Other beside your parents would have been killed for breaking the first rule of habitation—no intimacy.”

  “Why not our parents?” Lucas’s mouth pulls down into a frown.

  My heart beats wildly, wanting to know, not wanting to know.

  “The two of you doubtlessly realize you possess strange qualities.” She waits for our assent. “The Others have not been able to locate a planet that can sustain their existence indefinitely. When they arrive in a new atmosphere, their presence changes its makeup. The air becomes cold, so bitter that every living thing withers and dies within seconds. They need the cold, feed off it. They also need the indigenous population and environment to support them as long as they want to stay. This is where your Other parents come in.”

  Cadi pauses, taking her hands off ours and using them to support her weight as she leans back in the chair. She sucks in a deep breath before going on.

  “Your parents are the Elements.”

  CHAPTER 24.

  The world stops. If Lucas hadn’t put an arm around me, my face would have smacked the table. “Our parents are the Elements? But how—” I stop. So much about me makes sense. At last.

  “They control the climate on the host planets—the seasons here on Earth—and maintain a livable environment. Without them, the Others would not be able to stay long.”

  “But there are four of them.” Even in his shell-shocked state, Lucas tosses a lure into his statement, trying to confirm our suspicions.

  “And there are four of you, which you’ve likely figured out. Smart kids.”

  “What do they want from us?” The thought of spending two seconds in a room with any of the Elements simmers panic in my blood.

  “The Others don’t want anything from the four of you. They just want you. They’ll dispose of you, in all likelihood, unless they discover some way you can be useful to them.” Cadi pauses again while she prods at the mini marshmallows in her cup.

  “If all this is true, how come they’ve never found us? I mean, we’re just walking around like everyone else. They aren’t stupid.” Suspicious Lucas is back, poking at Cadi’s story for holes.

  “No, the Others are not stupid, Lucas. The furthest thing from it. They’ve never found you because they haven’t been looking. Your existence has been kept secret until recently, when…I will just show you what happened when the Others learned of your parents’ love affairs, and what has happened to Ko this autumn. It will be easier.”

  Before we can react she reaches out to touch us, snapping the thumb and forefinger of her free hand together. The kitchen dissolves and we’re in a different place. I assume it’s a house, though it’s unlike any I’ve ever lived in. It’s much bigger, for one. The floor underneath our feet is a cherry-colored wood with thick rugs covering it at regular intervals. Straight ahead, an impressive staircase spirals up toward the vaulted ceiling. It twists out of sight above our heads.

  To the left is a sitting room, a fire roaring in a cutout in the wall. I take a few steps back but it remains confined as it crackles and pops. Couches, chairs, and end tables surround a glossy black piece of wood with part of the top propped into the air. The whole thing is backed by a huge wall of windows; frost decorates the glass in lacy patterns. Warmth and familiarity hug the room, creating an inviting atmosphere very different from the cold, hard spaces in which I spend my days.

  To the right is a hallway, perhaps leading to the kitchen considering the metallic clinks and smell of garlic and onion coming from that direction. At my side, Lucas’s face shines with surprise, his eyes wide as he takes in our surroundings. Cadi watches us, her own features reserved and closed off. The despondent, ravaged expression in her eyes starts a shiver down my spine. Whatever it is we are about to see, she’s not looking forward to it.

  As we enter the sitting room another cluster of chairs and couches come into view opposite the fire. Four Others perch on the edges of the furniture, silent and surrounded by nervous energy. I recognize them in an instant and my sweaty hand slips into Lucas’s.

  The Elements.

  I glance at Cadi. “Can they see us?”

  “No.” She shakes her head, shiny hair bobbing up and down. “This is only a memory.”

  A voice snaps our attention back to the seated foursome.

  “I can’t believe this is happening.” Fire’s voice flows like water over rocks in a stream, bubbly and fresh. The quality doesn’t mask the defeated tone.

  The voice in my head, the one that sounds like mine but not really, because it’s smarter, prettier—it doesn’t quite sound like mine because it’s hers.

  I suck in a breath and lean into Lucas. My hands clutch his arm, leaving indentations in his shirt. I jerk away when the blue fabric starts to smolder. Lucas and Cadi both look at me, concern reaching out from their gazes and colliding with my heart. I shake my head, unwilling to share.

  The man sitting next to her, Water, puts his hand over Fire’s. “We knew what would happen if the Prime found out about our affairs, Flacara. We all hoped he wouldn’t, but he has.” His voice is low, pleasant like hers, and just as forlorn.

  “We should have been more careful, Apa. Sent our Partners away with the children five years ago.” She jerks her hand out from underneath his as the fire crackles and climbs higher in its confined space. It writhes, gaining force as though she commands it, brandishing the undeniable truth.

  She’s my mother. She talks in my mind. I say it to myself so I can try to actually believe it.

  One of the men speaks. I recognize him from the portraits, of course. Earth. “You were the least willing of all of us to give up your daughter, Flacara. Now we must deal with the consequences.”

  Even though Cadi assures us they’re unaware of our eavesdropping, fear tumbles around in my gut. Parents or not, I’m uncomfortable in the room with them. At the same time, their countenances are different than I expected, somehow. In their pictures they appear evil, cold, even merciless. Here, now…they are more human than they should be. Far more so than the Wardens.

  Water speaks up from the couch again, desperation breaking his previously calm demeanor. “Ko will help us.”

  Fire—no, Flacara—won’t be placated. “Why would Ko do anything for us? After what we’ve done to him and his people? We destroyed his home, enslaved and then murdered his own mother. He must hate us.”

  Despite the anger she’s projecting, her sorrow is clear. The men aren’t afraid of her. Earth answers with words infused with kindness. “The Spritans don’t know how to hate, Flacara. You know that. Ko and Cadi see our children as this planet’s hope. Perhaps they are right. We’ve witnessed the small talents they’ve inherited from us. Perhaps they could save this planet when we exhaust its resources and move on.”

  “You know I agree with Pamant.” Air, who has been quiet until now, adds his two cents. “Ko and Cadi aren’t offering aid because they want to help us. They want to help the children—and the humans. And so I trust them. We all agreed to trust them. Where is Ko, anyway?”

  As though on cue, the heavy front door bangs open behind us and a small man bustles into the room. It’s hard to tell, since we’ve only seen an insubstantial version, but it looks like Ko.

  He brushes past us without breaking stride and goes to stand in the empty space in front of the fire. The Elements sit up straighter as the tension thickens.

  Flacara speaks first, terror lacing her words. “Well? Are they safe?”

  Ko takes a moment to catch his breath, unwinding a long, magenta scarf from around his neck and shaking snowflakes out of his dark blond hair. It, as well as his other features, matches Cadi’s almost exactly, right down to his impossibly dark blue eyes and short statur
e. “The children are protected. They will travel between seasons without detection, and I’ve put other mechanisms in place to help ensure their safety. None of it’s foolproof, of course, but…” He shrugs and trails off.

  Water, the one they call Apa, stands. A chill descends from him that frosts over the windowpanes. Puffs of white breath emerge from our lips in a room that felt warm ten seconds before. Lucas’s fingers tighten on mine. His eyes are full of wonder, fear, and disgust—the same mix of emotions running through me. I turn back to the standing man, beautiful perfection in flesh.

  That’s Lucas’s father.

  He walks toward Ko, who stands his ground. The shimmering firelight provides a clear view of the star-shaped scar on Apa’s neck, the sight rolling fresh shock through me. It’s black, and instead of a simple red outline of a star, it’s filled in as though someone colored it. Instead of resembling my necklace, it is my necklace.

  The necklace must always have been meant as a clue to the truth—that I’m connected to these aliens, these Elements.

  Apa speaks, frosty breath accompanying the words as they leave his lips. “‘Not foolproof’ isn’t good enough. How will you harbor them until they are old enough to care for themselves?”

  “Cadi and I have the power to move them at will, in case they unintentionally attract attention. They will each be surrounded by a…what is a good word? Curse this limiting language! Ah, let’s say an invisible bubble that prevents humans from seeing them clearly. Their hosts, the children at Cell—no one will notice when they are gone. They will hardly notice when they are there. Your children will not stay in one place too long, and they will never visit their natural seasons.” He pauses as Flacara gasps and starts to weep quietly. “It’s better that way. If the Others become aware of their existence, they will search for them where they would be most comfortable. I’ve provided each of your children a note, encased in a clue. As they get older they will understand what it means.”