“We’re trying to get the satellite to work,” Aaron answers without looking atut looki him. “I don’t understand. I’m doing everything Heinrich told me to do.”
Connor turns to Christopher and Sadie and extends a hand. “I’m Connor,” he says. The others introduce themselves as well.
“It’s nice to meet all of you,” he says, “though I already know most of your names.”
“So, where did you come from?” Heather asks.
“Salem,” he answers. “Same as you.”
Heather shakes her head. “I’ve never seen you before.”
“Sadie and I usually keep a low profile. We don’t like to get out much.”
Heather lifts an eyebrow and turns away from him to look back at the screen.
Evelyn steps forward. “It’s very nice to meet you, Christopher and Sadie.”
She extends a hand to shake. It’s an innocent move to anyone else, but I don’t like it. I know it only takes seconds for Evelyn to get too much information when she touches someone.
I don’t move. I don’t even flinch. But with my mind, I swat her hand away just before Christopher reaches out. Evelyn looks confused at first and tries to shake his hand again, but again I slap her hand away with a thought. This time she looks at me, but my jaws are clenched and my eyes are narrow. I shake my head slightly and Evelyn looks as though she could burst in anger with the stare she gives me. But I don’t care. Christopher is new to the group. He shouldn’t be assaulted by Evelyn’s curiosity the moment he sits down.
“How are you feeling?” I ask Christopher, finally taking my eyes away from Evelyn’s stare.
He can obviously tell that something just happened between us, but he’s not sure how to respond so he just looks straight ahead. “Much better, thanks. This wound will hurt for a while, but I’m alive.”
“I have some healing ointment that can speed the process,” Evelyn says.
Christopher nods his thanks.
“So, you’re a Starborn?” Danny asks.
“If that’s what you call it, yes,” he says. “I’ve never really had a name for it.”
“What can you do?” Heather asks.
Christopher looks at me, then at Heather as if he’s not sure he’s supposed to tell.
“I think it’s something we should all discuss later,” I blurt out.
Christopher holds up a hand. “No, it’s alright,” he says. “That’s why I came up here. I didn’t want anyone to think there was some secretive guy and his sister creeping around your village who refuses to tell you what they can do.”
He takes a deep breath. “I’m a healer.”
Everyone in the room turns their heads to Christopher.
“Seriously?” Connor asks.
“Yes.”
“This is terrific news,” Austin says. Linda and Bill nod their agreement.
“I knew you would think so,” Christopher says.
“Now,” I interrupt, “it’s not without limitations. We can’t just have everyone coming up to him every time they are sick or injured.”
“Why not?” Bill says. “Isn’t that why all of you are here? To help other people?”
Christopher holds up a hand. “Mora, it’s okay.” He shakes his head at me. “I would be happy to help people in any way. I just ask that you let me get a little better before I start. I do need some strength for this ability.”
Bill nods. “You just might be the answer to all our problems.”
Evelyn loom">Evelyks at me again, and I know exactly what she is thinking. He might soon be the cause of all our problems.
Aaron lets out an exasperated groan from the other side of the room and stands. “Right now it’s just a waiting game,” he says, walking toward me. “I don’t know if the satellite will work.”
“Well,” Austin says, “we’ve gone this long without one.”
Aaron looks at him with a stern face. “Seems to me like you could have used one a long time ago too.”
No one says anything in reply. Aaron looks at Christopher. “I for one am glad to have you with us. But as far as I’m concerned, you should be using your gift only when truly needed. We can’t have people coming up to you just because they’ve got the sniffles.”
“What about greyskin bites or scratches?” Linda asks.
Christopher shakes his head. “If you want, I can share my story with all of you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I tell him.
“I don’t mind,” he says. “I understand that for some of you it is a very personal subject, but for me it’s important to remember. I think it’s important to tell.” He nods to the blank screen on the other side of the room. “We’re just going to sit here and wait anyway aren’t we?”
I smile at him. Looking around the room, Christopher has made me realize that I didn’t know anyone’s story except for Aaron. I realize, as I look around the room, I don’t know what event helped Danny gain his strength. I know nothing about Heather. I don’t even know anything about Evelyn’s story either. But they all know mine. Sure, it was a scary moment in my life, but I’ve never been afraid to tell it.
Aaron’s is personal because it involved killing his parents. Well, his adopted parents. The only other person that knows about him is Evelyn. At least, that’s what he told me.
“It happened a couple of years ago, before my sister and I came to Salem. She had already gained her ability and I was bewildered by it.”
“Wait a second,” Heather interrupts. “She’s got a power too?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?” she asks.
Sadie shifts in her seat slightly, but sets her jaw firm and stares at the others with confidence. “I can read people’s thoughts.”
The room is completely silent. I imagine the others are as taken aback as I am, and are throwing a guard up around their minds.
“Is this something you choose to do?” Heather asks. “Can you turn it on and off?”
Christopher speaks for her. “At first, no,” he says. “But we worked on it.”
“It used to be like whispers in my mind,” Sadie says. “Constantly talking. But now I don’t have to listen to it.”
“I don’t think I like this,” Heather says.
“Don’t worry,” Sadie says. “I’ve heard enough people’s thoughts to know that most of what people think isn’t worth listening to. It isn’t a temptation for me.”
“Doesn’t help,” Heather mutters to herself.
“Please continue, Christopher,” I say.
“A friend and I,” Christopher says, “were walking through the forests, scouting out a good location to start a new village.”
“How original,” Heather says.
Christopher smiles at her. “My village was worse off than Springhill. We had started with more than five thousand people and had dwindled down to less than a hundred. All in just two separate attacks.”
I shake my head at the thought. Every time you think you have it the worst, there worst, is always someone else who has suffered more.
“We had no choice. We finally spotted a perfect location from the top of a nearby mountain. It is about a hundred miles north of here. We called it New Haven. Though it may have been the perfect place for a group of people to make a village, getting there was almost impossible. New Haven itself seemed safe from the greyskins, but the number of greyskins we passed on the way was beyond anything I had seen before. Couple that with difficult terrain…needless to say we never made it there.”
He takes a deep breath and stares into us, though not at any one person in particular. He seems as though he’s telling himself this story and he’s told it a hundred times before, but it never gets easier.
“Unlike many of you, I’m sure, my power to heal didn’t come out of any attack from greyskins, but from bandits. We must have stumbled too close to one of their loot sites. We didn’t want to fight them. We didn’t want to kill, but they weren’t going to let us go. We did what we had
to do. My friend was shot several times, and beaten so badly I didn’t think there was any way he would make it. But he knew the area better than I. If he was going to die, more than likely, I would be lost until I ran into another group of bandits or a herd of greyskins.”
To my left, Connor sits up a little straighter, intently listening to what Christopher says. Aaron glances back at the screen every now and again, but can’t help but be sucked into Christopher’s story.
“My friend was missing most of his arm. Both of his legs were broken. His eyes had been punched so badly, I didn’t think he would be able to see again. But when I rested my hand on his shoulder, I could feel his pain. Not only did I feel it, I absorbed it. It was the strangest thing ever. I knew that somehow, I was healing him. His sight returned. His arm healed as though it had been cut off years before. His legs were no longer broken. He had been beaten within an inch of his life, but I healed him within an inch of mine.”
“What do you mean?” Austin asks.
“I mean that I bore his pain. I received his injuries, though you couldn’t see them physically on me.”
“So that’s why you can’t help everyone all the time,” Connor says. “That’s why you kept a low profile.”
Christopher nods. “I am willing to do it, but there is a breaking point. I can only do so much. If a person’s injuries are life threatening, then they are life threatening to me if I try to heal it.”
“But your sister’s injuries were life threatening to her yesterday,” I say. “And you seem so much better today.”
“It was a risk I was willing to take,” he says. “She is my sister after all.” He points to his torso where a bullet had passed through the day before. “This will take longer to heal. I can absorb another’s symptoms and recover more quickly than they, but when I’m hurt, my own body doesn’t heal me faster than anyone else’s would. I might be able to heal a broken leg, but I don’t necessarily get a broken leg too. Just the pain from it.”
“And the greyskin virus?” Evelyn asks. “You can’t heal that?”
Christopher shrugs and shakes his head. “I’ve never tried, but I imagine it would kill me. I hope I never have to try.” He looks at Sadie when he says this, then up at the screen across the room. He smiles. “I believe your satellite is working now.”
Everyone spins around and Aaron rushes to the screen. He can’t help but laugh loudly as the crisp picture of forest and dirt spreads across the screen. The others clap at the sight, and I can’t help but feel happy too. This will go a long way in the protection of Springhill.
Aaron stands, aron stastill laughing. “I can’t believe it,” he says. “I knew it was possible, but to actually see this in person! Common people haven’t seen a view of Earth like this in decades, and we did it!”
He reaches out and hugs Evelyn who seems startled by his reaction, but happy nonetheless. I, too, am glad to see it working, and I’m pleased to see Aaron like this. That is until he comes up to me and plants his lips firmly on mine. Before I can even react, he pulls away and moves back toward the screen as if nothing even happened.
I’m sure a look of shock is etched on my face as the others look at me with wide eyes. A couple of them chuckle at me, while Heather looks straight at Connor. My eyes follow her trail and I see that he stands in the middle of the room stone-faced.
“Yes, well, we’re all happy the satellite works,” he says. “I’m uh…I’m going to go check out the wall.” He leaves the room and I can’t help but feel awkward. Aaron isn’t even looking at me. I know he was happy, but that just seemed like a slap in the face to Connor.
“You are an exciting bunch of people,” Christopher says.
“You can even hit this button here,” Aaron tells Danny, “and it registers body heat for night time and when it’s cloudy out.”
I start to leave the room and Aaron calls out to me. “Where are you going?” he asks.
I just look at him for a moment, unsure that I should say this in front of everyone, but I decide to anyway. “You’re so thoughtless sometimes.”
He looks confused. I open my mouth to say something else, but I think better of it. When I walk out of the Tower, I see Connor near the edge of the village, filling up his truck with fuel.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I ask him.
He doesn’t say anything for a long moment. Then finally, “I don’t belong here, Mora. I’m not one of you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not a Starborn. I can’t do much to help you here.”
“And you think you can help us by leaving?” I ask. What on Earth could he be thinking? Is this about the kiss? “I didn’t kiss Aaron in there,” I tell him. “He kissed me.” I hesitate, looking for the right words to say. “I didn’t want him to do that.” I know I don’t sound convincing.
Connor sighs and looks out toward the wall that is slowly being built. “You two are together and I’m fine with that,” he says.
“We aren’t together,” I say.
“Look at it from my perspective, Mora,” he says a little too loudly. He sets the gas can on the ground and takes a couple of steps toward me. “I see you two kissing in the woods. You go off with him to Salem. You two kiss in front of everyone. It’s fine, I just need to get away.”
“Why?” I ask. “Why can’t you just stay and help us?”
“Because I love you!” he almost shouts.
The words hit hard, and I’m not ready for them.
“I know we haven’t known each other very long, but we’ve been through a lot already. But I understand that it can’t work out because I want to be able to protect you. Instead, you’ll always be the one protecting me.”
“What are you talking about? You’ve saved my life several times over the past couple of weeks.”
He just shakes his head.
“I’m not with anyone,” I say, “despite what you might think.”
“You are all I thought about while I was at the compound, getting that satellite,” he says, looking at the ground. “It was weird. But it felt so much like you were there with me. Encouraging me. There was a There wmoment when I was about to try and take on a bunch of greyskins alone, but it felt like you were telling me to wait. Because of that, I was rescued.” He shakes his head and looks at me. “I don’t understand it at all.”
“I do,” I say. “It’s because
I was there, Connor.”
“What?”
Only Evelyn knows this about me. I feel strange telling him my secret, but right now it seems necessary.
“I recently learned that I can watch people that I’ve touched. Wherever you are, I can see what you are doing if I want.”
He squints his eyes and turns his head in confusion.
“I didn’t want to say anything to anyone about it yet because I didn’t want people to become distant. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”
“So, when I was about to open the door, you told me to wait?” he asks.
“Yes. I also saw the conversation with you, Heather, and Danny the night before.” I shake my head at him. “You can’t believe what they say about Aaron and Evelyn. They were just being mean.”
“I know that,” he says. “Well…I guess there’s no way to really know.”
“You are actually the first person that I’ve ever spoken to when I was watching.”
“Do it often?” he asks with an eyebrow raised.
“Only when I need to find you. Only when I’m worried. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before.”
He shakes his head. “Don’t be,” he says. “This is actually a perfect reason for me to get out of here.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“I’m guessing you never got a chance to touch Jeremiah, right? So you can’t see what he’s up to, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’m your man.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m going to Screven,” h
e says. “I will be way more of a help there than here. I’m going to see Jeremiah.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“You can’t do that!” I almost yell at Connor. “What makes you think you can just walk up to Jeremiah? What’s your plan anyway?”
“Well,” he says, “it was to get in on his good side by acting like I was against the rest of you. I’d try to figure out his plans and somehow get the message to you. Now, you just made that part so much easier. You can just watch me.”
I shake my head vigorously. “No way. You’re not going.”
“Mora,” he says with a smile. “There is no way for me to help here. I can do this. I’ve been thinking about it for a few days now.”
“When, since you saw me and Aaron in the woods?”
“Maybe that’s what started the idea, but I’ve really thought about this and I think it’s a good one.”
“I think it’s suicide.”
He rolls his eyes at me. “I’m a citizen of Screven, under Jeremiah. He won’t do anything to me unless he thinks I’m trying to kill him or something.”
“Or trying to betray his trust,” I say. “He’s a vicious man. He will kill you.”
The elders come out of the bottom of the Tower, followed by Aaron and the other Starborns.
Connor looks at me quickly and says something just above a whisper. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m leaving tonight.”
“Why canWhent I tell anyone?” I ask.
“If word gets around to Jeremiah that I’m playing him, he really will kill me.”
“No one here would say anything,” I tell him.
Connor raises an eyebrow and looks from me, to Evelyn, and to Aaron. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
“Hey,” Aaron calls out as he approaches Connor and me. “You know I really think this satellite is going to help us out.”
I nod, but Connor doesn’t say anything. When I look at Connor, I can’t help but notice the glaring scowl he’s giving to Aaron. Aaron notices too.
“Why does it feel like you always have something against me?” Aaron asks.
The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) Page 36
