“You sure? Because I think I could help. Like I said, I was able to do anything Wen asked me during training—”
“Joss,” Morgan warned.
Corbin chuckled.
Morgan eyed him. “Something funny?”
He shrugged. “I guess I just thought it’d take longer to see you acting like family.”
“He thinks it’s cute when you call me Joss.” She looked at Corbin for verification and beamed when he nodded at her. “See?” she said, turning to Morgan. “I’m getting the hang of this Seeing thing. I can help.”
Morgan rolled her eyes. “Help by thinking about my mom. Then follow my lead, okay?”
After a moment, Joss nodded, holding her hands out for Morgan and Corbin to take.
Taking Joss’s and Corbin’s hands, Morgan glanced at Corbin. “You ready?”
He nodded. “The wall’s in place. I’ll keep us safe.”
Morgan closed her eyes and cleared her mind of everything but her mother. When she was ready, she reached out to both Joss and Corbin, connecting the energies of each of them before pushing out in search of her mother. She focused on the memories she had of what her mother was like, hoping such impressions would help her to locate Chelsea amid the billions of people on earth. Joss seemed to sense what Morgan was doing and added her own reminiscences of Chelsea to the mix.
Morgan could immediately tell that Joss’s help was making a difference. Everything happened more quickly and easily than they had when she had been alone or even when she had worked with Corbin. Time lost meaning as they sifted through energies of people. They surrounded Morgan in her mind’s eye like so many pinpricks of starlight. Some stood out—bright supernovae against the steady burn of the majority within the constellations. These were Watchers and Veneret. Morgan approached these only close enough to sense whether or not they felt familiar.
Exhaustion was nearly upon Morgan before she even realized she was tired. A quick assessment of Corbin and Joss told her that they weren’t far behind. She knew they needed to stop soon, but she couldn’t help the feeling that they were close—so close. She couldn’t bear the idea that they would be stopping just short of their goal.
And then she saw it. The grey house on the desolate street. Morgan pushed forward with her mind and Felt her mother’s energy. But it wasn’t enough and she knew it. She needed to figure out where the house was. She had to widen her field of reference, not narrow it, if she wanted to get a sense of where in the world the house existed.
A blinding flash tore through Morgan’s mind, like a supernova explosion in her head. She knew in a fraction of an instant what was happening—she knew she was compromised, that Aurelia had found her and was Seeing what she was Seeing, that Corbin was too exhausted to defend against the attack—but she couldn’t do anything to stop it. She couldn’t even muster the strength to pull away.
Then the blackness came.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When Morgan opened her eyes, she realized two things. First, her eyes had been closed for a rather long time. Second, she was still in Corbin’s room.
The room was dark and she could tell it was night outside. A quick shifting about told her she was on a mattress and that someone was beside her. She sat up quickly, surprised, and almost fell off the edge of the bed.
“It’s not me. It’s Joss.”
The voice came from across the room. Morgan peered through the dimness and could just make out Corbin’s figure against the opposite wall. Carefully, Morgan got up from the bed and crawled to where Corbin lay. He sat up as she approached.
“You were out cold,” Corbin whispered, explaining before Morgan had a chance to ask. “We didn’t know how long you’d be out, so Joss texted your dad and said you’d be staying at her house again, and she called her mom to say she’d be at your house. She wouldn’t leave you, even when I said I could watch you.”
“So, the two of you are okay?”
Corbin put his hand on Morgan’s. “I’m so sorry. I told you I’d protect you and—”
“Sh,” Morgan said, touching the side of his face with her free hand. “I knew we should stop, but I just kept pushing. It was my fault.”
“Did you at least See where she was?”
“No.” Morgan dropped the hand from Corbin’s face. “But I think whoever attacked us did.” She felt a prickling in her eyes and rubbed them angrily. “The Veneret found her and it’s my fault,” she said. “Mr. K was right—”
“It’s okay.” He pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Morgan said, her eyes welling up. “I put her in danger—Corbin, what’s wrong with me? How could I do that to her? Why didn’t I listen to Mr. K, to Wen, to anybody?”
“Sh.” Corbin stroked her hair. “We don’t know she’s in danger—not really. Maybe she’ll get out before anyone gets her.”
Morgan shook her head. “She won’t,” she said, tears falling now. “The Veneret have her and it’s my fault…. It’s all my fault! I’m a terrible daughter and my mom’ll hate me—”
“She won’t,” Corbin whispered. “It’ll all be okay, Morgan. We’ll make it okay. If Orrick gets her, we’ll get her back.”
She didn’t have the energy to disagree. Instead, she allowed Corbin to hold her, to calm her. She tried to believe what he was telling her. She had to believe it.
***
When Morgan woke again, it was morning. She was on the floor and Corbin’s warm body was against her back, his arm around her torso.
Behind her, Corbin stirred. He propped himself up on his free arm and looked down at her. “Hey.”
Morgan managed to smile at him. “What time is it?”
He reached across her for his cell phone and pulled a face. “Nine. Looks like we’re late for school.”
She closed her eyes. School. Mr. K. Miss Scotford. She wasn’t sure she could handle facing them, positive they would be able to tell what she’d done. She looked at Corbin. “I think I’m sick today.”
He smiled. “Well, we’d better not all be sick today; that’d look too suspicious.” He sat up fully. “I should get ready for school.” But he didn’t move. Instead, he caressed Morgan’s cheek before leaning down and planting a soft kiss on her lips. He pulled back just far enough to study her face, as if weighing her reaction. “It’ll be okay. You’ll see.”
He stood up then and Morgan watched as he quietly went to his closet to select clothes for the day. Her pulse sped to an unaccustomed rhythm as she watched him move. One part of her couldn’t believe she’d allowed him to kiss her again, but the other was convinced she had done nothing wrong. After all, he and Ris were no longer “together.” She had no reason to feel guilty.
When he finally left the room, Morgan glanced toward the bed and was surprised to see her cousin’s eyes on her.
“Well, that’s interesting,” Joss said quietly.
Morgan just stared at her, stricken, unsure how to explain.
“Is that why he and your friend stopped hanging around each other?”
“No way. No.” Morgan sighed. “It’s… It’s complicated.”
“Isn’t it always…” Joss raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t tell Ris,” Morgan whispered.
Joss sat up, throwing her long legs over the bed’s edge. “Not my place to tell.” She slid off the bed and walked toward the door. “I’ll be downstairs.”
Mere minutes passed before Corbin reappeared in the room, ready for school. He collected Morgan and they met Joss in the living room. Morgan was surprised Joss hadn’t been detected, but Corbin explained that his father was already at work and his mother never woke before ten in the morning. He dropped Joss off at her house first so she could get ready for school. When he dropped Morgan at her place, he kissed her again before she got out of the car.
As she walked to her house, Morgan wondered vaguely whether she should be concerned about the turn her relationship with Corbin seemed to be taking. But her mind couldn
’t focus on it much because her overwhelming concern was what she should be doing now that she had compromised her mother’s hiding place. As far as she knew, Orrick could already have Chelsea.
She knew her first instinct should be to tell Mr. K or Wen, but she couldn’t make herself make the call. How many times had they warned her about pushing out with her abilities? The last thing she needed right now was to hear an I-told-you-so.
Morgan unlocked her front door and walked into her house. She made a beeline for her couch and as she collapsed on it, she knew who she should contact. Tesin. He would understand why she’d done what she’d done, and, she figured, he would be able to tell the Watchers that Chelsea had been compromised and make it sound like the information had come from within Orrick’s organization.
She sat up on the couch and had her cell in her hand before she realized she didn’t have Tesin’s number. In fact, she had no idea how to get in contact with him.
She did know how to contact Kellen—provided his cell number hadn’t changed since the summer. She scrolled through her address book and stopped at his name, her thumb hovering over the letters. Even after what happened a Desideration Tower, she hadn’t deleted his information from her phone. Why? Had something inside her known he would turn to her side?
Shaking her head, she exited her contact list and set her phone down. She still had no real confirmation Kellen had done anything of the sort. True, he had come to her in a dream to warn her about Aurelia, but his warning hadn’t been enough to keep the Veneret out of her mind. No, she couldn’t call Kellen.
She decided to take a shower. Sometimes the act of showering helped her clear her mind and come up with solutions to problems, and she hoped this would be one of those occasions. Stopping briefly in her bedroom on the way for a change of clothes, Morgan headed to the bathroom and turned the shower on. She peeled off her clothes and paused briefly to look in the mirror. Objectively, she looked pretty bad. There were dark circles under her eyes as though she hadn’t slept in days and the red in her hair was fading. Her blond roots were coming in. At another time in her life, she would be more concerned with this, but now was not that time. She ran a brush through her hair to get out the morning snarls and stepped into the shower.
As the hot water beat down on her body, Morgan thought about Tesin, about how to contact him. She didn’t know his last name but figured that his first name was unique enough that it might not be a problem. She wondered what she would pull up in an internet search for just Tesin. Or perhaps she could find an employee listing on one of Orrick’s company websites. Both leads were thin, but, as she turned off the shower, she figured it was a place to start.
She got out of the tub and quickly dried and dressed. She headed to her bedroom, fairly certain it was where she had left her laptop. Pushing open her door, she screamed.
Standing in the center of her bedroom was Tesin.
“Hey—Morgan, I’m sorry,” Tesin said quickly, holding out an allaying hand in her direction. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just… I needed to talk to you.”
Still clutching her chest, Morgan released a breath. “You scared me.”
“Clearly.”
She eyed him as she closed the door behind her, her heart rate returning to normal. “I was just trying to figure out how to get in contact with you. I needed to tell someone something.”
Tesin nodded encouragingly. “You go first. I have a feeling my news is related.”
Morgan swallowed hard. She crossed the room to her bed and perched on the edge of it. “It’s my mom,” she began. “I found her last night—well, kind of.”
“On your own?”
She shook her head. “No. I had help from Corbin and—” She wasn’t sure why, but she stopped herself from saying her cousin’s name. She wasn’t sure yet who knew Joss had been activated. “And we found her. I mean, I saw the same house I saw in my dream, and I knew my mom was in there, but then—”
Tesin nodded knowingly. “I heard. Someone in the Veneret Saw what you Saw.”
“They Saw more than I Saw,” Morgan ventured, hoping her suspicion was wrong.
But Tesin nodded. “They found her. Morgan, I’m sorry.”
The room reeled around Morgan. She heard a rushing in her ears and forced herself to focus and push it back, afraid of what she might inadvertently do in an overly emotional state. After a few moments, she mastered herself and looked at Tesin. “Where is she?”
“Still en route, as far as I can tell. I still don’t know where they’ll be taking her when they get here. And there’s something else. Morgan, they know you’ve found the fourth Natural. There’s every indication that Orrick’s going to make a move on you soon. He doesn’t feel like it’s worth waiting any longer.”
Morgan just stared at him, unsure how to react to the news.
“The Watchers are planning on moving you all to a secure location before he can act.”
Something snapped into place in Morgan’s mind. “When?”
“When what?”
“When are the Watchers moving us?”
Tesin shrugged. “I’m not sure. They have a bunch of different safe houses, but they have to make sure none of them have been compromised before they can take you guys there—”
“How long?”
“A day, maybe two.”
Morgan nodded. “Will my mom be in town before then? You said Orrick’s bringing her here, right?”
“Yeah. From what I can tell, she should be here sometime today. Why?”
“Because I’m gonna get her. Before the Watchers can take me away, I’m getting my mom.”
Tesin shook his head. “No, Morgan. That’s a terrible idea—”
“I have to, Tesin. I haven’t been this close to her in ten years. Besides, it’s my fault they found her—I have to get her.”
“Are you not listening to what I’m saying to you?” Tesin asked, a note of exasperation in his voice. “Orrick is planning to come and take you and your friends. And you’re going to play right into his hands?”
“No,” Morgan said, shaking her head. “That’s the beauty of it—Tesin, don’t you see? I mean, he doesn’t know you’re a Watcher, right?”
“Of course not.” He gave a soft laugh. “You think I’d be here if he did?”
“So he doesn’t know I know what I know, right? Orrick doesn’t know you’re here talking to me, so he’s not gonna know that you’ll tell me where they’re keeping my mom. He won’t be expecting me! I can sneak in and get her before anyone even knows it. It’s brilliant!”
“It’s insane,” Tesin said firmly.
But Morgan was smiling at him. “So insane it might work?”
A brief internal struggle played itself out on Tesin’s face. Then he nodded slightly. “It might work. Notice I say might.”
She beamed. “All you have to do is figure out where she’s being kept. I can take care of the rest. And after I get her, the Watchers can hide me wherever they want.”
Tesin sighed. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
“It’s been said. So, you’ll help?”
He offered a smile. “Yes, I’ll help.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time. “Okay, I’ve gotta get going or someone’s gonna wonder where I am. But I’ll be in touch.”
“Okay.” Morgan stood and crossed to him, touching his arm gently. “Tesin, thank you.”
He just nodded before leaving the room.
Morgan watched him go, then listened as he made his way through the house and finally let himself out the door. She fought the urge to grab her phone and text Corbin, Joss, Lucas, and Lia. All in good time. She needed more information first. But then she’d finally be able to do it.
She was finally going to find her mother.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Hours passed with no word from Tesin. Morgan tried to busy herself around her house but was distracted. She watched the clock and ticked off the school day as it passed. English, lunch,
Senior Math, JY. When there were just a few minutes left before she knew the final bell of the day would ring, she sent a text to Corbin, Joss, Lucas, and Lia telling them something important had come up and that they needed to meet her at her house ASAP. She figured that once Tesin contacted her, time would be of the essence and it would be easier to apprise the others of the situation now rather than later.
A short eternity passed before Lia arrived at the house. She looked relieved when Morgan opened the door to let her in. “I was worried when you weren’t in JY today,” she said by way of greeting.
“I’m okay,” Morgan assured her, leading her over to the couch. “Anybody ask about me?”
“After JY second hour, Mr. K did,” Lia replied, correctly interpreting the spirit of Morgan’s question. “He said he wondered if you were a little embarrassed after your talk at training yesterday.”
Morgan sighed, relieved. She supposed that meant the Watchers weren’t aware of what had happened the previous night. But that would also mean they didn’t know that Orrick had found Chelsea. Didn’t they have Watchers besides Tesin in Orrick’s employ? Perhaps, Morgan reasoned, not all of them were as close to Orrick as Tesin was. She was sure the information of Chelsea’s capture wasn’t common knowledge within Orrick’s organization yet.
Before she could put more thought into it, Lucas and Joss arrived. Corbin arrived soon after and Morgan instructed everyone to sit in the living room.
“I have news,” she said, a smile touching her lips.
Corbin and Joss eyed Morgan carefully, and she could tell they were wondering if she was going to tell Lucas and Lia what had happened the previous night. But before she could continue, Lucas was talking.
“Your mom?” he asked, incredulous.
Morgan looked at him, surprised.
“Corbin’s not the only one who can read you, Morgan,” he said quietly.
Lia looked between the two of them for a moment before her eyes settled on Morgan, her expression anxious. “What about her?”
“I’m going to save her,” Morgan said. “Well, we are—I hope.”
The Naturals Trilogy Page 35
