by Rachel Jonas
“See? This isn’t a woman’s ring. And I’m guessing the others aren’t either.”
Roz’s eyes lit up. She lived for this kind of thing—the intrigue and mystery always seemed to bring her to life.
“Sweeeeeet.”
I smiled and rested against the mattress again while she skimmed the image.
“Pops was quite the artist, I see.”
“I guess you have plenty of time to perfect just about every craft when you live to be eight-hundred and six years old.”
Her eyes nearly bucked out of her head. “Holy cow.”
“Indeed,” I yawned. “I didn’t realize how old he was until I went through his things. He wrote often about letting himself age up, so he could stay put in Seaton Falls. Apparently, that’s a thing—getting to choose when to age. He spoke about it like it’s a decision people make when they start families, when it becomes more important for their children to have stability and protection within a clan than it is to move around from state to state trying to keep the secret.”
Roz zoned out while I spoke, staring at the floor.
“Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? How many of the shifters we’ve encountered in our lifetime—probably even the staff here—have been walking around for centuries looking like you and me. Most just probably don’t settle down in one spot long enough to care about people noticing they don’t age. I mean, technically, we could choose to look like this forever if it suited us.”
This was something I had a basic concept of already, but my grandfather’s notes helped me grasp a firmer understanding of how it worked. My thoughts went to my own parents, how they had, apparently, allowed themselves to look their ages. I was positive it was only because they fell in love young and started a family right away. They did it so my brothers and I could stay in the town we grew up in. It also made sense now that their plan was to relocate to the outskirts of Seaton Falls as soon as I graduated. My guess was, this would afford them the convenience of still being a part of the clan while also having the privacy they sought.
It’s amazing the little details that fly over your head when you’re blissfully unaware.
Roz nodded. “Ok, so, what if I have kids and then reverse the aging process?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Can’t. It’s a one-way ticket. You can stop whenever you want, but there’s no going back.”
She frowned. “Well, I guess I’ve just officially decided I’m never having kids. Not if I have the choice to stay young forever.” She laughed and the sound of it lifted my mood a bit. For a second, she actually made me forget about the rage from before.
Her eyes lowered to the page again as she scanned the drawing of the ring.
“You suck,” she sighed, which made me smile bigger. “Now that you showed me this stupid thing, I’ll be obsessing over it like your grandfather used to. Thanks for that.” She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the ring. She’d use it for research purposes I was sure.
“If you find anything, let me know.”
“Will do,” she said, standing to rush off to her room, planning a date with her laptop, I assumed. “Anything else I can do before I go?”
It shouldn’t have surprised me that she’d ask, but it did. Probably because I was feeling so low today. I gave her question some thought and, while there wasn’t a whole lot I did have control over at the moment, there was one thing I’d been mulling over and decided to run past her.
“So, this whole Liberator thing has to have a cure … right? I mean, there has to be a way to reverse it like most curses?”
Roz stared for a moment and I don’t think she meant for me to see the skepticism in her eyes, but I did. “It’s … not a curse, though. It’s just who you are.”
Was that pity I heard in her voice?
“I’ll check,” she said, quickly amending her original response. “If there is something out there that can be done, I’ll find it.”
The look on her face didn’t give me much hope, but I would settle for her agreeing to help.
She neared the door and it dawned on me that I couldn’t just let her go without acknowledging how much I appreciated her coming here to talk me down. More and more, I was beginning to see how she always had my back. As far as friends went, she was one of the best.
“Hey.”
At the sound of my voice, she turned to face me again and her brow lifted. “What?”
“Just … thanks. You know, for everything,” I added. “And when I’m ready to talk about it all, I promise I won’t keep you in the dark.”
A soft smile touched her lips and she nodded before heading to the door again. “Whenever you’re ready, Prince Nick. Whenever you’re ready.”
—Chapter Nine—
Liam
Security measures made it impossible to contact members of upper-level staff on my own. So, first thing this morning, I started asking around. My only request was a short conversation with Elise, the director, but no one seemed capable of making that happen. Everyone was either too busy, uninterested in my concerns, or unsure of where her office even was. I was this close to making a scene so they’d take me there on their own. However, I was pretty sure that would only get me kicked out, and I couldn’t afford for that to happen. This facility was the only place I needed to be.
“Can I help you?”
The question made me do an about face when someone finally volunteered to assist me. I turned to find a woman I’d seen once or twice in passing. Her sleeping quarters were in Gold Sector not too far from mine.
I offered a tight smile, one brimming with frustration. “Yeah, actually. I’m trying to find the director. No one seems to know where her office is or how I can arrange a sit-down with her.” My brow lifted with a question. “Do you know how I can get in touch with her?”
The woman smiled again and I noticed her name tag, which read Mei. From the looks of it, she considered my request. That meant she must have been one of the few people with access.
“I could help, but there’s only one small problem.”
The faint smile I managed to fake, faded.
“It’s just a matter of security clearance,” she replied. “There’s a chain of command in place here. Low-level staff bring all questions and concerns to mid-levelers, like myself,” she smiled.
I didn’t.
“And, from there, if whatever you bring to our attention is out of our jurisdiction, then and only then, would one of my team members present your issue to upper-level staff. And, in case you haven’t already realized it, the director is one level above uppers, so … yeah. Your chances of getting to her are slim to none.”
Our conversation was interrupted by a static-ridden prompt that came through the walkie-talkie she kept on her hip. She excused herself for a moment and responded to what I assumed to be a lower-level staffer wondering how many monitors were needed in each hall as they prepared for the first day of training to begin.
Another reason I didn’t have all day to waste time cutting through red tape. There would be shifters waiting for me in a lecture hall soon.
“Sorry about that,” Mei said, apologizing for the interruption. “But it’s like I said—”
“Can you reach her that way?” I cut in, pointing at the walkie-talkie she clutched.
When Mei didn’t immediately respond, I assumed the answer was yes. She struck me as one of those people who takes their job way too seriously, did everything by the book. If I was right about her, it’d take an act of God to get her to budge.
And I didn’t have that kind of time.
“I need you to do me a solid and just buzz her. She already knows who I am, and I’m willing to bet she’s even expecting me.”
And that was true. Seeing Elise yesterday was like looking into the eyes of a ghost. Actually, I was surprised she hadn’t sent for me.
Mei hesitated, and that hesitation was a sign I could convince her if I just pushed hard enough, pushed the right buttons.
“Al
l I need is two seconds, Mei. Two. It’s urgent and it concerns the wellbeing of a student.”
When all else fails, play into the vulnerability of a do-gooder’s natural inclination to maintain order on the job. All I had to do was make it known that my issue posed a threat to the facility’s standard and I was in.
“Give me a moment,” she said the next second, eyeing my nametag as she lifted the device to speak into it. It took a moment to weed through the upper-level bureaucracy, but she made it happen. Eventually, the voice of the woman I’d been waiting to speak to since arriving yesterday came through.
“Uh, ma’am?” Mei said, suddenly lacking the confidence she exuded while shooting down all my other requests. It was clear Elise was well-respected by her staff.
“I have a gentleman by the name of Liam here and he’s requesting permission to speak with you. It’s regarding one of our students,” she added.
There was static on the line again and Mei and I both stood in the hall, waiting.
In response to the information Mei passed along, the voice replied, “Naturally.” I could tell she was smiling without even seeing her face. “Please, get him to David and have him escorted up.”
Mei looked at me with disbelief. “Well, that’s never happened before.”
It was clear that direct access to Elise beyond the welcome she’d given when everyone arrived, was a rare occurrence.
Mei made quick work of swiping her card in the elevator, gaining us access to restricted floors. A tall, wiry guy with bright, red hair stood poised when the doors parted. I picked up right away that he was one of the few dragons on staff. And, from the way it sounded, he was Elise’s righthand guy, which made sense seeing as how she, herself, was a dragon. Even for those of us who liked to believe we’d overcome our prejudices, most still preferred to be in the company of their own species when given the choice. It was a matter of trust; the result of a volatile past between lycans and dragons; a past steeped in war and betrayal on both sides, but mostly exaggerations to keep us separated.
From over his shoulder, our new escort glanced back at Mei and I as we power-walked down a dimly-lit, carpeted hallway.
“Morning, newcomer. Name’s David,” he said, introducing himself.
I gave a quick nod. “Liam.”
At my reply, he handed something back, never missing a step. I accepted the keycard from him and eyed it just as intently as Mei did.
“It’s to give you access to this floor and many others whenever you should choose to use it,” David explained. He glanced back again with a bit of a smirk. “Looks like someone thinks quite highly of you.”
Mei frowned and her footing got clumsy when she spoke. Well, more like protested.
“But … that grants him Executive-level privileges. Only a handful of people in the whole building have these and one of them is you.”
David shrugged, smirking a bit at how frantic Mei had become. “I don’t make the rules. Boss-lady does what she wants and, apparently, what she wants is to make sure Liam here has free reign at the facility.”
Mei sputtered again as we came to a stop in front of another elevator. “But he just got here yesterday. Shouldn’t there be some type of screening process or … I don’t know, something to ensure he can even be trusted?”
I wasn’t offended. This was typical behavior of Mei’s straitlaced personality type. It made sense that she’d react this way to someone making, what seemed to her, a rash decision.
David, however, was growing more and more annoyed by the second. The elevator doors parted and he stepped in. I followed.
“Mei, I don’t have any answers. If you’d like to take this up with the director herself, you’re fully aware what the process is to file a grievance. However, right now, I have clear orders to deliver this gentleman to Elise before instruction begins. So, if you’d please take two steps back, this is where we part ways,” he asserted, rubbing more salt in the wound right after when he added, “Seeing as how you don’t have security clearance to accompany us any further.”
I was proud of myself for not laughing when Mei was thoroughly put in her place. She closed her mouth with an audible snap and glared at David until the doors closed between us.
“She’s a stellar employee,” David assured me, “but the woman can be downright insufferable at times.”
I smiled at his deduction and was sure it was spot on.
We stepped off and onto yet another restricted floor. One I, apparently, could visit whenever I wanted to. Walls of frosted glass hid expensively-decorated offices that were only visible when we walked past their doorways, all with upper-level staff hard at work inside. Rounding a corner, a familiar face came into view, and at the sight of me, Elise abruptly ended a phone call. She stood, staring with a look that brimmed over with emotion, but she held it in as David delivered me to her door.
It’d been years.
Centuries.
“Thank you, David,” she said politely. “I trust that you remembered the keycard?”
He nodded dramatically, making it border on somewhat of a bow. “Yes, ma’am.”
Pleased, Elise smiled, dismissing him with the gesture. Alone, I moved closer and that emotion she tried to hide spilled over as we met at the side of her desk.
“It’s been so long,” she whispered, doing her best not to sob when we embraced. “I thought you’d come yesterday. I couldn’t send for you,” she rambled. “It would’ve caused the others to question who you are, and then they’d start questioning who she is, and—”
“You don’t have to explain,” I replied, still holding her.
She leaned her face away to get a better look at me, staring with the same adoration and fondness she had in the past. For me, it was like looking into a past I’d long since left behind; like looking into the eyes of the woman who’d been the closest thing I ever had to a mother.
Eyes Evangeline inherited.
“You have no idea how wonderful it is to see you,” she breathed, pressing her hand to the side of my face as more water pooled at her lids. “I thought you were … I thought—” Her voice trailed off, and every so often, I heard faint traces of her native tongue—French.
“I thought the same about you,” I admitted.
Her hand pressed to my face again when she smiled. “Did she remember anything when she saw me? Does she know?”
The question struck a chord and I shook my head. “No, but … she will. She deserves to.”
With all the loss Evangeline had experienced, with the feelings of not belonging, she deserved to know who and where she came from. I could only give her so much of that.
She needed Elise—her mother.
Elise became solemn when she nodded, letting her gaze leave my face for the first time since I stepped into her office.
“I hope she understands why I’ve … handled things the way I have.”
I didn’t say it aloud, but I didn’t even fully understand her logic myself. Now that I realized she’d been the one to bring Evangeline back, while I was eternally grateful, I still had no idea why. Or how. Or why, once she did bring her into existence again, she handed her over to a human family she must’ve known wouldn’t always be allowed to be in Evangeline’s life. Why move her to Seaton Falls? Why so close to the Liberator?
Seeing her, knowing she was behind it all, answered just as many questions as it raised.
A tear slipped down Elise’s cheek. “You have no idea how happy I was to get word yesterday that you found her. Once Baz reported the news to the other elders, the information spread through the Council and, eventually, made its way to me. If I’d known you came out of the war alive, I would’ve brought you in from the beginning,” she expressed, remorse filling her eyes. “You have to understand that I didn’t know, Liam. I didn’t think—”
Emotion overtook her again and I brought her into my arms like she used to do to me when I was small. I’d gone over this day in my mind a thousand times, the day I came face-to-
face with whoever was responsible for Evangeline’s return. There was supposed to be a heavy interrogation, possibly involving torture if necessary, to get the answers I sought, but … now … knowing it was family, I…
“She’ll hate me,” Elise breathed against my shoulder.
I was shaking my head as soon as she finished. “She could never. It’ll take a while for her to wrap her head around everything, but … if you want her to trust you, you’ll have to be straight with her,” I warned. “She’s not strong like before. Not yet.”
I didn’t add that Evangeline was bordering on fragile when it came to her emotions. Nor did I share that a lot of that fragility was the result of severe abandonment and displacement issues since finding out about her adoption. But that was true.
Elise nodded. “I would never dream of lying to her.”
She wiped her eyes and I released her.
“That’s a good place to start.”
“Will you bring her to me this evening?” There was hope in Elise’s eyes when I nodded. “I’ll arrange for dinner for three to be brought to my quarters around seven and we—”
“I won’t stay,” I interjected. “You two should have privacy to discuss everything.”
My hands were taken the next second and I stopped speaking. “She needs you Liam.” My gaze lifted to Elise’s. “Tonight will be difficult for her and I know she won’t turn to me for comfort. She’s my Evangeline, yes, but she doesn’t remember. However, she’s still connected to you. Always has been. Always will be.”
I looked away.
“And you deserve answers too,” she went on. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Not from you two. My family.”
—Chapter Ten—
Evie
Beth and I stared at the box that’d been delivered to our room for a solid minute after opening it. Inside, two packages of uniforms. One set of five for her. One set of five for me. And these were so bad, they gave the ones we had from Seaton Prep a run for their money.
