I was too stunned to answer right away. It was all too much to take in. My smiling family, Ray’s touching words. It took a conscious effort to force the words out of my mouth, but it was well worth it.
“Yes,” I whispered. “It was always going to be yes.”
“Explain to me why I just walked away from my husband,” I growled into my phone when it rang. “And damn it, if there isn’t a bloody good explanation, I’m turning this car around.”
“Some of the records are missing.”
Slamming on the brakes, I came to a screaming stop at the side of the road.
“What?”
“Some of the records are missing.”
It took me a second to process Lizzy’s words. “How in the hell are some of the records missing?”
Our entire race was in there. Everything. Everyone. Every place we had ever been and every place we currently were. Everything we had ever done. The explicit details of everything we were capable of.
How we forged The Seats. The details of what we did to maintain their power.
Everything.
If someone had taken the records . . .
“Take a deep breath, Aunt Sere.”
“Lizzy, now is not a good time to tell me what to do. Explain to me how someone managed to get past you and the entire colony of Cats to get to the records in the first place.” They should have been secure there.
Our whole history was in those records.
“We weren’t home,” she whispered. “We were up at the colony celebrating the newest Cats. We weren’t home.”
Though it was clear she was beating herself up for not being there when it happened, I couldn’t focus on that. “What’s missing?”
“All of them.” She whimpered, her voice shaking. “Every family tree we have. Every single one.”
Time stopped. “What?”
“They’re all gone.”
“They can’t be. Not all of them.”
Missing histories wouldn’t be a big problem. They could be replaced. They weren’t essential. Even the details of all of the gifts we had been blessed with over the years could be replaced. They weren’t needed. The family trees? That was what would wipe us out.
It was a simple enough decision, but one that I did not take lightly. Once the words were out of my mouth, there was no turning back. “Move everyone.”
The Last Keeper Page 31
