by Ivy Baum
He nodded. “We were on our way to pick you up when we ran into some—problems.”
I could’ve sworn he was going to say something else.
“Anyway, we had to split up. Nev took Diana straight to the safe house.”
“The what?”
“Don’t get too excited. It’s nothing fancy. What makes is safe is that the purebloods don’t know it exists.”
“And your sister took my mom there?”
Sol nodded.
“How can she drive? Isn’t she, like, fourteen?”
You already know that’s not true.
Sol grinned. “I may have fudged her age a bit when I registered us at White Falls High. Anyway, Nev’s a perfectly competent driver. Her first car was probably a Model T.”
“And I suppose you’re two-hundred years old or something?”
He gave an indignant squawk. “Do I really look that old?” He caught my eye and winked. “I’m much younger than Nev. Though she’s never told me exactly how old she is.”
“So she’s not really your sister.”
“No. But I trust her.”
I turned to look out the window.
Magic. Safe houses. And a girl who might or might not be a century old. Was any of it real?
The phone rang.
Sol’s grip tightened on the wheel. “Nev?”
“Change of plan.” She sounded out of breath. “Can you meet me at the secondary location? I think I’m going to skip the reunion at the safe house and get out of town.”
“What’s going on?”
“Oh, just the usual fun with Hunters. They’re running around like someone set their ant hill on fire.”
Hunters. I felt a deeper chill.
Sol gave a rueful smile. “Yeah, well, a poorly-timed magical debut will do that.” He glanced over, as though remembering I was there. “Okay, we’ll meet you at the secondary location. Just be careful out there, okay?”
When Sol hung up, I felt the questions explode out of me.
“What are Hunters and why are they after Nev and my mother? And what’s going on with Dr. Sotheby? Was he really going to hurt me?”
Sol ran a hand through his hair, looking flustered. “Look, I’m going to answer all your questions, it’s just—” He sighed. “I thought I’d have more time to work on this speech.”
“What speech?”
“The one where I tell you who you are and why you have a race of magical psychos trying to kill you.”
I could feel my eyes widen. Okay, scratch that—they were probably bugging right out of my head.
Sol glanced over. “See? I told you the speech needed work.” He paused. His eyes were fixed on the road ahead. “I guess I just have to start with you who are. And who you’re not.”
I waited, wondering how this night could get any weirder.
“The thing is…you’re not entirely human.”
Chapter 12
“Not…human?” I was sure I’d misheard. Or that this was the finale to some enormous prank.
But Sol’s face was deadly serious.
“I said not entirely human. But let’s not get bogged down in semantics.”
“That’s—” Crazy. Impossible.
Sol shot me a look. “That thing you did at the dance tonight…does it strike you as the sort of thing normal human girls go around doing?”
I thought back to his conversation with Nev. “You called it a magical debut.”
“Yes. It’s the first step toward your powers becoming fully developed.”
“Wait. Go back to the part where I’m not human. What’s the other half of me?”
Sol seemed to hesitate.
I was growing impatient—and anxious. “Whatever it is—just tell me.”
He sighed. “They call themselves the Aristoi, or Noble Race.”
“What are they?”
“Honestly? They’re no different from regular humans, except they have magic. And very long life spans.”
“And which one of my parents is—what did you call them?”
“Aristoi.” A look of discomfort came over his face. “Neither, actually.”
“But you just said—”
He blew out a breath. “Jonathan Adler, the man you know as your father—well, he’s not your biological father. Your real father is Aristoi.”
My real father.
I felt as though all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. “But that would mean Mom—”
“Yes. Your mother knows.”
“What does she know?”
A faint smile. “Everything. I came to her last year, when it became apparent that you were…special.”
“But if Mom already knew who my father was—”
Sol was looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Look, this is really a discussion you need to have with your mom. I don’t know all the details. Suffice it to say that if you’d never Manifested—if your magic had never woken up—you’d have gone on living your normal life.”
Your normal life. A siren call to a reality that would never happen.
He turned back to the road. “That’s how it is with a lot of half-bloods. They never Manifest, and no one knows about their true heritage.”
Lucky them.
“And these people trying to kill me?” Magical psychos, he’d called them.
Sol’s lips twisted in a sardonic smile. “That would be Daddy’s side of the family. They’re a bit old-fashioned, and they don’t take kindly to half-breeds.”
I frowned at the word half-breed.
Sol said, “Don’t be offended. It’s what you are. It’s what I am too. And Nev, and everyone else you’ll meet tonight. We’re half-bloods.”
Half-blood. The word still sounded like an insult to me.
All this time, I’d been different—but I hadn’t known it.
And Mom…
The thought of my mother brought a fresh twist of pain.
What other secrets was she keeping from me?
Sol slowed and turned into an empty lot.
The rain was so heavy that I didn’t notice the other car until Sol pulled up next to it.
A moment later, Nev slid into the back seat.
“Ready?”
Sol sighed. “Remind me again why you need the Range Rover?”
I peered out the window, trying to see into the other car. “Where’s my mom?”
Nev pulled back her oversize hood, revealing a pair of dark, ageless eyes. I wondered how I’d ever mistaken her for a teenage girl.
She put a hand on my shoulder. “She’s going to be fine, Kes. I’ll explain in a moment. First, we need to move her.”
Numbly, I followed Nev and Sol to the other car—an old sedan rusting at the edges.
Mom was laid out in the back seat. She looked like she’d just lain down for a nap…but when the three of us picked her up, she didn’t so much as stir.
It wasn’t until we got her in the back seat of the Range Rover that I got a good look at her.
She was pale, her breaths deep and apparently peaceful.
I searched Nev’s face. Even her sympathetic gaze had an inhuman quality to it. “Is she—?”
“Your mom’s okay, Kes. But she’s going to need help.”
“Do we take her to the hospital?”
“A regular doctor can’t help her. I’m going to take her to a special kind of healer. The best one I know.”
There were tears in my eyes. I blinked them away. “What happened? Who did this to her?”
Sol exchanged a long look with Nev.
Finally, he said, “I had a bad feeling about tonight. I called your mom at work and told her it was time to go. She went back to the apartment to get your stuff.” A pause. “Galen was waiting for her.”
Dr. Sotheby. The knowledge burned through me like a cold fire. “He did this?”
Sol nodded. “He’s a Thanatos. He has the power to put people into a deep sleep. One they can never wake up from, if they don’t get proper help.”
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My throat tightened. “If I’d been there—”
“Then you’d be dead.”
I closed my eyes.
Someone touched my arm, and I opened my eyes.
Nev was studying me with concern. “I’ll take care of her, Kes. I promise. But in the mean time, you need to get to safety.”
“The safe house?”
“For now—yes. You need to meet up with the team and grab supplies. Then you’ll have a much longer journey.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Sol will explain on the way to the safe house. But we really do need to get going.”
I looked down at my mother. “Why can’t I come with you?”
“It’s safer this way. I can travel under the radar. But you…Well, what you did at the dance was like shooting a flare gun into the sky. They’ll be looking for you, now.”
Sol nodded toward the door. “All the more reason to get out of here.”
I considered the darkness beyond the window. I didn’t want to go back out there. To leave my mother here.
But apparently, I had no choice.
Nev said, “Once Diana is well enough to travel, we’ll come to you.”
“Come to me where?”
Nev glanced at Sol. “Sol will explain in the car. For now—go.”
I leaned over my mother and brushed my lips over her forehead. Her skin was cool and dry.
She’s going to get better.
Nev had promised. And for some reason, I believed her.
“See you soon, Mom.”
And I followed Sol into the torrential rain.
Within minutes, we’d driven out to the far edge of the industrial park, to the city limits. Now we were hurtling down a two-lane highway.
This car was nothing like the Range Rover, and I felt each and every pothole.
“Tell me about the safe house.”
“It’s a charming little crap-shack on Doe Lake.” Sol glanced over with a smile. “I believe you’ve been there before?”
Doe Lake? “Not the cabin Mom inherited from her cousin?”
He laughed. “Is that what she told you?”
“She wanted me to spend my birthday weekend there.”
“It would have been the safest place for you.”
Thoughts of Mom made me feel like there was a vise squeezing my heart. I changed the subject. “Explain to me again why these people are trying to kill me.”
Sol sighed. “Relations between humans and Aristoi are strictly forbidden. Being a half-blood is punishable by death.”
“But they’ve never come after me before.”
“Right. Because you weren’t splashing around your magic yet.” His face darkened. “But that’s only part of the story.”
“Are you going to tell me the other half?”
“Nev is really better at the history lessons than I am. But since she’s not here…” He sighed. “The thing is, White Falls is a Treaty Zone. Or at least it used to be.”
“Treaty Zone?”
He held up a hand. “Look, I really hate this part, so can we try to get through it without interruption? Two hundred years ago, after the last Blood War, we signed an Armistice with the purebloods.”
“We?”
“Half-bloods.” He smiled caustically. “In exchange for us withdrawing from the Capitol, the purebloods established the Treaty Zones. They were supposed to be areas where half-bloods could live in peace. Places they wouldn’t hunt us down.”
“And we’re leaving it?”
“Remember what I said about interrupting?” He sighed. “Every ten years, the Council of Elders gets together to renew the terms of the Armistice. This time…they didn’t.”
“What do you mean, they didn’t?”
“I mean, there are no Treaty Zones anymore. Which means there’s a shoot-on-sight order for every half-blood in the world.”
I felt something heavy settle in my belly. “Those Hunters you keep talking about…are those the guys trying to kill us?”
“Yes. If you see one, run.”
“Dr. Sotheby—is he a Hunter?”
“Not exactly. But he’s working with them.”
I frowned. “So how come I’m not dead?” When Sol glanced over, I said, “I lived next to him most of my life. I’ve slept over at his house.”
“Right. But he didn’t know what you were. If he had…well, you would be dead.”
“So if everywhere on earth is a shooting ground or whatever, then where are we going?”
“After we meet the team at the safe house, we’ll head for Sanctuary. It’s a place of refuge for half-bloods. The purebloods won’t bother us there. Unfortunately, it’s also several hundred miles away.”
“And once we get there…”
Sol let out a short laugh. “One thing at a time. For now, let’s worry about getting you there in one piece.”
I turned to look out the window.
This was insane.
More insane than everything else in your life?
The heater was turned up to full power, but I couldn’t stop shivering.
Sol’s gaze flickered in my direction. “There’ll be a change of clothes for you at the safe house.”
“Since when?” I’d certainly never left any clothes there. I couldn’t even remember if the place had any furniture.
“One of the team went to the trouble of packing a bag for you.”
The darkness outside seemed to press in all around us.
I wondered how Sol could even find the place. It would’ve been hard to find on a good day—and it wasn’t a good day.
The first time we’d driven out to see the cottage, it had been broad daylight. Dad had taken one look at it and said—
The thought stopped abruptly, like it had run into a wall.
No. Not Dad. That man was not my father.
Sol slammed on the brakes. “Damn. Nearly missed it.”
He took the corner hard. Now we were on the narrow gravel road that looped around the lake.
I shivered. I really hoped that Sol was right about that change of clothing. Though I wasn’t too keen on the idea of some strange guy going through my dresser drawers.
Not that he’d find much. It was the night before Laundry Day, which meant that I’d been down to the dregs of my wardrobe.
Sol pulled up to the cabin. It was the same ramshackle place I remembered.
But as we climbed out of the car, Sol seemed almost cheerful.
I eyed the door skeptically. “Do you have a key?”
He grinned. “Don’t worry. The team’s already there. They’ll let us in.”
He knocked. Seconds later, the door flew open.
I stared.
Standing on the other side, looking very dry and slightly smug, was Junie Roberts.
Chapter 13
She grinned. “Bet you never thought you’d have to see me again.”
My jaw had gone slack. “Junie?”
“Not my real name. But…it’s kind of grown on me.”
Was this some kind of joke?
I glanced at Sol, who seemed to be enjoying my reaction.
Junie frowned as she took in my soaked dress and hair that probably looked like I’d climbed out of a storm drain. “Come on. Let’s get you into some dry clothes.”
This was definitely not the Junie I knew.
Inside, the cabin was in better shape than I remembered. It was by no means fancy, but there was some sparse furniture, and someone had thoughtfully hung a few lanterns from the ceiling.
But the change in the cabin was nothing compared to my shock at seeing Junie.
“Are you—” I couldn’t quite bring myself to say it aloud.
“A half-blood? You bet.” She peered around Sol, who was bolting the door. “Where’s Nev? And Diana?”
At the sound of my mother’s name, I felt a cold chill wash over me again.
Sol put a hand on my shoulder. “Galen got to her first.”
Juni
e blanched. “What?”
“She’s going to be okay, but she’s going to miss out on our road trip to Sanctuary. Lucky for us, Nev has connections with some very talented healers.”
Junie regarded me soberly. “I’m so sorry about your mom, Kes. I like Diana.”
“You know my mom?”
Junie started to answer, but Sol cut her off.
“Look, there’ll be time for all this later. In case you’ve forgotten, we’ve got a two-day drive in front of us. And since we’re going to have to avoid Hunters, it’ll probably be double that.”
Just then, two figures emerged from the bedroom.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Clover threw down a pair of duffel bags. “What? You think you’re the only one who gets to have special powers?”
Rob Blandish was next to her. He shot me a grin. “Hey, Kes.”
I still hadn’t found my voice.
Behind me, Junie muttered, “Oh, crap. She really does look like she’s going to faint. Where do we keep the smelling salts?”
I glanced at Sol. “This is your team?”
Clover laughed. “She doesn’t sound all that impressed.”
Junie came up beside me. “Give her a break. It’s been a long night.”
Rob was still smiling, but his smile was nothing like the one I remembered. “I know you probably remember me as the creepy guy in your Calculus and Gym class. But when I’m not pretending to be a teenage jerk, my name is actually Deo.”
Day-oh, with a sort of European lilt.
Sol said, “That’s short for something, but for the love of God, don’t ask him for his full name. We’ll be here all day.”
“You’re just jealous.”
I looked to Clover. “And I suppose your name isn’t really Clover?”
“Actually, it is. I’m the only one of these losers who isn’t pretending to be a high school student.”
The feeling of vertigo had returned. “How long have you guys been at school?”
No one answered right away.
Finally, Junie said, “Since last spring.”
I frowned. “I don’t remember any of you guys being new—well, except for Sol.”
“Don’t feel bad. That’s Nev’s magic at work. She kind of slid us into everyone’s memory.”
Junie smiled, but she seemed tense.
I turned to Clover. “Except for you?”
