“I… Let’s stop for a sec.” Lucas’s voice was tight and a few notes higher than usual.
“No, let’s keep going,” Joss said. “She’s gotta be close now, right?”
When Lucas didn’t answer right away, Morgan tugged at his arm. “What is it?”
He didn’t meet her eyes. “I… I can’t find her. I was convinced she was over here, but now… I just don’t Feel her anymore.”
Joss crashed through the underbrush until she was standing in front of Lucas. “What does that mean? I know I’m still not very good at the whole Feeling thing, so maybe you’re talking in some sort of Feeler-ese that I’m not familiar with, but when you say that, it kind of freaks me out. Is something wrong?”
Lucas shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Corbin made his way to them. “Luke, take me with you—we’ll find her.”
Without preamble, Lucas did as Corbin requested, taking Morgan’s and Joss’s energies along with him. He pushed out with his abilities and led them to the area where they had sensed Lia before. Lia’s signature was no longer there, neither was the glow she had been projecting for the Watchers to follow.
“Maybe the Watchers were right and they already got her,” Joss suggested when she came back to herself.
“We still would’ve Felt her,” Corbin said quietly. “If we’re not Feeling her…”
Morgan’s stomach clenched. “She’s not dead.”
Joss looked at her, alarmed. “That escalated quickly. I didn’t realize dead was on the table.”
“She’s just weak. She hasn’t been eating, it’s cold, she’s using a ton of ability.” Lucas reached for Morgan and squeezed her upper arm through her coat. “But that’s making her hard to find.”
“If she’s weak, she’s probably not moving, right?” Joss looked to the others to validate her assertion. “If she’s not moving, she’s probably near where we were headed to begin with. Lucas, just take us there. We’ll find her.”
Morgan allowed herself to trust in the certainty of her cousin’s voice. She found Lucas’s eyes and offered a tiny nod. It seemed to be all the encouragement he needed.
As they started trudging through the woods again, Morgan pressed out with her abilities. Knowing that Lucas had a good sense of where they were going, she allowed herself to explore the area for Greg, Ellie, and Wen. How would they feel when they arrived in the place they were convinced Lia was hiding? Were they realizing she was growing weaker? Did they know that Morgan and the others were no longer in the cabin?
She sensed the familiar energies of Greg, Ellie, and Wen, but she also sensed others in the forest. Her heartbeat tapped out the cadence of dread. There were others in the woods, unfamiliar glows moving through the shadows. Morgan attempted the push down the accompanying panic: hadn’t Ellie said something about alerting the perimeter guard? Wasn’t it most likely that these others were Watchers coming to assist in the search?
But what if they weren’t?
Morgan opened her mouth to alert the others, but the words caught in her throat. A sensation tore through Morgan’s mind, a flash of luminosity that knocked all coherent thought from her mind and caused her to stop in her tracks.
An attack. She experienced something like this twice before, when Aurelia accessed her thoughts during her searches for her mother. Even through the shock of the event, she realized this energy was different than Aurelia’s—it was significantly weaker and somehow familiar.
Before she could detect anything else, the presence was gone.
Corbin stopped in his trek and turned to her, concern clouding his eyes. “You okay?”
Morgan took in a breath and released it, assessing herself. The invader hadn’t accessed her memories or information about the safe house, of that she was certain. Paired with the familiarity and the dimness of its glow, she felt she might know who it had been. “I think Lia… She might be close.”
Taking Morgan by the elbow, Corbin began leading her forward as quickly as he could manage.
Ahead, Lucas paused, turning his head slowly from side to side. “This is it. This is where she was last time I could sense her.”
Corbin and Joss lost no time scanning the area with the watery beams of their flashlights. They moved slowly, Morgan near Corbin and Lucas with Joss, peering around tree trunks and beneath clusters of branches. As the moments ticked by, Morgan’s heart felt heavier and heavier. What if Lucas was wrong? What if she wasn’t here—if she had never been here?
Joss’s voice cut through the darkness. “Over here!” As she rushed toward a fallen tree, the weak light from her flashlight danced against a coat-clad form huddled close to the ground.
Morgan and Joss got to Lia’s side first, crouching to their knees to get to eye level with their friend. Corbin and Lucas stood close by.
“Lia?” Joss shook her vigorously. “Lia?”
Lia struck out with her arms. “Leave me alone!”
Morgan leapt back to avoid being hit, confusion setting in. Hadn’t Lia just attempted to contact Morgan? Shouldn’t she be relieved they were there to save her?
“Sorry, but we didn’t come all the way out here in the freezing cold to leave you alone,” Joss said. She tugged at Lia until her face appeared out of the depths of her voluminous coat. Lia’s eyes were puffy, her face shiny with tears.
“I’m not going back. I have to go home.”
“How do you intend to get home?” Morgan asked. “I can tell you’re not laying on the forest floor for a power nap. You’re weak, Lia—you can’t make it—”
“I can! I have to! I have to get to my family to keep them safe.”
Joss put a placating hand on Lia’s shoulder. “The Watchers are doing everything they can—”
“Well, they’re not doing enough, are they?” Lia’s eyes flashed wildly, reminiscent of a trapped animal. “They need me!”
“Did they say that?” Corbin asked.
“What?”
Corbin knelt in front of Lia, displacing Joss and Morgan. “In the letter they sent. Did they say they needed you at home?”
A confused expression crossed Lia’s face. “No,” she said slowly. “They didn’t say it… But Ellie’s the one who actually got the message, who actually wrote it down. She could’ve just kept that part out.”
Corbin nodded. “I guess she could’ve. But then why would she keep the part about your brother getting hurt? Why not leave that out too?”
Lia’s lip twitched, but she didn’t respond.
“The fact is, your brother’s okay. Your parents aren’t worried or scared. And if you really wanna keep your family—keep everyone—safe, the best way to do that is stay here. To help us. Because until Orrick’s gone, it doesn’t matter if you’re here or right next to your family, you’ll all still be in danger.” Corbin leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice. “Now, the fact of the matter is that the four of us could probably make you come back with us. But we’d rather you come along on your own.” He stood, holding his hand out to her. “So, what d’ya say? Will you come home with us?”
Lia didn’t move, save for her involuntary shivers against the wind. Morgan glanced at Lucas, waiting for the signal to Push Lia to her feet, but no such signal came. Then slowly, by degrees, Lia reached for Corbin’s hand and used what strength she had remaining to pull herself to standing. Corbin immediately wrapped an arm around her to keep her steady. Joss rose and put an arm around Lia from the other side and the two began guiding Lia back toward the cabin.
The three of them were a few yards ahead when Morgan began to follow. Lucas fell into step beside her.
“Good job finding her,” she said softly.
He shook his head. He opened his mouth once and closed it again. A muscle jumped in his jaw. “It’s a good thing Corbin got through to her. I really figured we’d be Pushing her back, you know?”
Morgan stumbled over a protruding root and Lucas caught her, helping her regain her footing. “He’s good at that kind of stuf
f,” she said, nodding toward Corbin. “Comforting you. Making you feel like bad things aren’t so bad.” She waited for Lucas to say something, and when he didn’t she felt the need to go on. “I have these… nightmares sometimes. They’re never anything I can remember, I just wake up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding, and just… terrified, you know? And… Corbin helps me feel safer afterward.” She glanced over at Lucas, trying to gauge his reaction to her words, but it was too dark to see his face properly. She wasn’t sure why she felt it necessary to give an explanation to Lucas of all people about why he’d seen her entering Corbin’s room the other night—she hadn’t even talked to Joss about why she seldom spent an entire night in their shared room anymore. “So,” she continued, “some nights, when I can’t sleep—”
“It’s really none of my business,” Lucas said, his voice barely audible over the sound of their feet crushing leaves and snapping branches. “I didn’t ask then; I’m not asking now.”
Morgan pursed her lips and nodded, turning her full attention back to navigating over the uneven terrain.
Before they even passed through the last few yards of forest to reveal the cabin, Morgan knew that Greg, Ellie, and Wen were back. She could Feel notes of panic, irritation, and anger—lots of anger.
Lucas jogged in front of the group. “I should go in first. This was my idea, they should take the bulk of their energy out on me.”
Corbin and Joss, still supporting Lia, just pushed past him. “No way,” Corbin said. “It’s all of us. We all went—and I’d do it again.”
Together, the five of them closed the remaining distance to the cabin. Morgan held open the door, allowing Corbin and Joss to navigate through with Lia. Lucas nodded for Morgan to go in before him and closed the door after he’d entered.
Morgan pasted her gaze to the floor, unwilling to accept whatever looks greeted her. Worse than the anger she’d Felt while still outside, now the edges of the room were tinged with another emotion: disappointment. She felt a prickling in the corners of her eyes and pressed her lips together in a tight line. Anger was to be expected, and much easier to deal with than the sneaking sensation of betrayal that radiated toward her.
She felt a hand slip into hers, squeezing her fingers tightly. Without glancing over, she knew that Lucas was on the other end of the touch, and her first impulse was to pull away from him: she didn’t need him to calm or reassure her in this moment. But in the same moment, she Felt that he was the one seeking reassurance. Returning pressure to his fingers, Morgan leveled her gaze to where Greg, Ellie, and Wen stood.
It was Ellie who met her eyes first. A spasm crossed her face, as if she were biting back words, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. She turned her attention to Wen, who stood on the opposite side of Greg, and the two removed their hands from Greg’s arms and moved toward Lia. They relieved Corbin and Joss of Lia’s weight and guided Lia down the hall toward her room.
Moments passed in silence before Greg lifted his eyes from their study of the cabin’s floor and focused them on the four remaining Naturals.
“Greg.” Corbin’s voice was quieter than usual, but firm. “Before you say anything—”
“Corbin, do yourself a favor,” Greg said, his voice low. “Stop talking.”
“But—”
“Corbin.”
Corbin exhaled noisily through his nose. Shifting backward, he approached Morgan, the back of his hand grazing hers.
“I told you explicitly to stay here.” Though Greg’s eyes brushed across each of their faces, they lingered on Morgan’s the longest. “I would’ve thought—after everything you’ve been through recently—that you’d gotten the whole taking-unnecessary-risks thing out of your system.”
The unfairness of his accusation stung Morgan. She wanted to snap back, to insist that Greg had been wrong and that they had been right, but decorum kept her tongue in check.
The same could not be said for Lucas. His pressure on Morgan’s fingers increased. “But we tried to tell you—”
“Lucas. I’m not in the mood to argue.” Greg suddenly looked tired. “You four should get to bed. I’m going to go make sure Ellie and Wen don’t need anything.” Slowly, as if moving through water, Greg turned and headed down the hallway, taking the heavy air of disappointment with him.
Lucas let out a low whistle and, releasing Morgan’s hand, headed toward the couches. “That went well,” he murmured, letting his body collapse back into the cushions of the olive couch.
“I totally expected him to yell at us.” Joss followed Lucas into the seating area.
“Yelling would’ve been better than that,” Morgan said, following her cousin and sitting across from her.
Corbin sat on the same couch as Morgan, leaving considerable space between them. She glanced at him, surprised, even in this moment, that he wasn’t closer to her. The look on his face was so clouded that she decided not to read too much into his body language. After a short silence, he spoke. “Maybe I’m the luckiest one here. Giving up a family like mine is nothing. I can’t imagine what this’s been like for Lia.”
Morgan’s heart lurched at his words. Was it too much, expecting for the others to give up their families and their lives for this cause? She had already resigned herself to her fate, but perhaps the others hadn’t. An overwhelming sense of guilt coursed through her. Was it her fault Lia felt so hopeless that she wanted to take her chances against the elements rather than stay at the safe house even one more day?
A pillow hit her square in the face. After the immediate shock wore off, Morgan looked toward where it had come from and saw Joss, who was looking resolutely in the opposite direction. Impulsively, Morgan threw the pillow back, hitting Joss in the chest.
Joss’s head snapped toward Morgan. “What the—?”
Morgan raised an accusing eyebrow at her cousin, but Joss just pointed at Lucas. When she locked eyes with him, he grinned.
As if it were the sign everyone had been waiting for, pillows suddenly began flying in every direction. Morgan threw two throw pillows in Corbin’s direction. One hit him square in the chest, but the other was struck midair by another pillow and landed harmlessly on the couch beside him. When she turned to collect another, a barrage of five pillows hit her, rapid fire, as if they’d been shot from a pillow machine gun. She glanced in the direction from which they had been launched and, predictably, saw Lucas, grinning like a maniac. Morgan reached for the pillows to throw them back, but before she could, they began to move, seemingly of their own volition, in the direction of Joss and Corbin.
Morgan released a cackle that reminded her of the way her friend Ris laughed. If Lucas wanted to involve abilities in this fight…
Doors banged against walls as they flew open, and Morgan directed the pillows from her bed, Joss’s, Lucas’s, and Corbin’s to zoom down the hall and pelt Lucas in the back of the head. Caught off guard, Lucas toppled forward, taking down a throw pillow that had been in midair as he went.
Giggling gleefully, Joss lunged for the full-sized pillows and took one in each hand, alternately hitting Morgan and Corbin. Lucas pushed himself to his knees and, using the pillow he’d landed on as a battering ram, pushed Morgan over. Unable to locate any pillows within groping distance, Morgan Moved one into her hand and began beating Lucas over the head with it while he laughed.
Suddenly, all of the pillows seemed to disappear. Morgan looked around the room and locked eyes with Greg.
“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded, firm teacher-voice in full effect.
Lucas looked at Greg, completely unabashed. “I think the answer’s kinda obvious, don’t you, Greg?”
Greg did not look amused. “You think this is appropriate? Lia could have died tonight, and you’re out here having a pillow fight?”
Corbin glanced at Morgan, Joss, and Lucas before turning his attention to Greg. “Lia’s back, and she’s safe. No thanks to you.” His jaw set, he eyed Greg with a look verging on mutiny.
“You
don’t get it, do you?” Greg snapped. “Lia put herself in jeopardy because she tried to take things into her own hands. She didn’t trust us. And then the four of you decided to do the same thing—take things into your own hands, not trust us.”
“Yeah, but it turned out okay, right?” Morgan ventured tentatively. “I mean, we’re safe. Lia’s back home.”
“This time, yeah. But what about next time?”
Joss made a face. “What about next time one of us runs away?”
“What about next time one of you decides to take matters into your own hands? What happens when things don’t work out the way you’re hoping?”
“But you guys weren’t listening to us,” Morgan said, irritation flaring, the words she’d bitten back earlier bubbling to the surface. “Lucas and Corbin tried to contact you, but you were blocking them. If you’d just let us help, Lucas could’ve told you that you were heading in the wrong direction and none of this would’ve happened.”
Greg clenched his jaw. From the expression on his face, Morgan could tell he was choosing his next words carefully. “Look, I know you guys think I don’t see your point, but I do. What’s bothering me is that you guys aren’t seeing my point. I know we can sometimes forget, but there is a war going on out there. One misstep and the Veneret suddenly have the upper hand. One misstep and the Veneret could suddenly have you.”
Lucas snorted. “And what? The Watchers don’t make missteps? You guys are totally infallible or something?”
“No, but the fact is that we have more experience in this fight than the five of you put together—”
“Yeah, but Morgan is the One. She’s the One that’s supposed to be fixing all your Veneret problems, right?” Lucas asked.
Greg sighed. “The Prophecy—”
“Then shouldn’t you guys be taking your orders from Morgan?”
“This isn’t the time for your smart mouth, Lucas,” Greg said, a hint of warning in his tone.
“I’m not trying to be a smart mouth,” Lucas returned. “I’m being completely serious here.”
The Naturals Trilogy Page 45
