by Shelly Crane
“Where’s your head right now?”
“Firmly on my shoulders.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Smartass. Look, you told me before we came in here that no matter what happened in this room that I was yours and always would be. The same goes for you.” His thumb moved on my cheek. That thumb… “There isn’t anything they could say today…nothing,” he said harshly. “You’re mine, little bird.” He closed his eyes. “You’re mine, Ava. Nobody, with just a few spoken words, can undo that and take you away from me. You are completely safe with me and completely mine, I promise.”
It was the thing I needed to hear. I wanted to feel safe today and I didn’t. I felt like I could be ripped away at any moment, but Seth had crushed all that. I opened my eyes slowly to meet his. My hand lifted to his face and I pulled him to my lips. Warm and light, I just wanted to feel him pressed there. I opened my mouth slightly and he followed suit. When he licked the seam of my mouth, I heaved a breath. With one more press of my mouth, I pulled back, already breathless. He lifted my chin so I had to look at him.
He looked into my eyes, his own eyes wild with passion from our kiss and anger from the summit. Blue colliding with brown.
“I love you,” he said simply. “I just wanted to make sure you remembered that today.”
Despite it all, I did that half-almost-cry, half-smile, thing I was getting so good at, apparently. “I love you, Seth.”
He growled a little and laughed. “I love it when you say my name.”
I smiled wider. “I know.”
_ _ _
“So, Virtuoso,” Pablo said loudly over the clinking glasses. We’d just sat down with our food and now came the stuff that my Mother absolutely hated, but they insisted on. And she let them keep it. It was something they had done since the beginning when they had a Visionary, and who was she to take that from them, she said. “Stand for your Visionary.”
We all stood as Mom came in, Dad just a couple steps behind her. She fought for that right. She insisted that, even as the Visionary, it was being a significant that made her so powerful and she needed her counterpart. They agreed only if the male of the Visionary was always presented a few steps behind her out of respect and so our people have no question that the Visionary is still in the leader of our people.
Like it could be forgotten when it’s shoved down our throats. But the Visionary really isn’t the leader of our people, she’s a symbol for them, a beacon of hope, of the future, more than ever now since the imprints have returned. But the Visionary doesn’t rule our people…the council does. And I think they know that and I think they know that the Visionary knows it.
I wondered how long the game could last.
Mom turned her head to invite Dad to join her and he took her hand, giving her that same little smile he’d been giving her for years. They made their way to the head of the Jacobson table just as I see a couple of my cousins come in behind them. Late. To the summit. Not good. They don’t go sit in their seats, they go straight to Dad. Their Champion.
I get it then. These were the ones Dad sent to the Watsons to see what was going on. The spies.
I perked up and tried to listen, but Jordan spoke too low in Dad’s ear. When he leaned away, he looked at me quickly and I saw it. The sympathy. But why?
Dad looked at us both and stood. Each clan was separated by a table. It had always been that way. We always took our meals together and then reconvened with everyone when we were done. Dad looked at everyone and reached into his pocket. I felt myself grimace and took Seth’s hand in mine. This wasn’t going to be good, whatever it was.
Dad took out the cog from his pocket and rubbed it in his fingers. Mom covered her mouth with her hands, closing her eyes. I could hear her sucking in a desperate breath.
God help me, what was going on?
And then Dad looked at me and I knew that something had changed in him. His eyes lifted to our family and he held up his hand. “I know that you all just sat down to eat, but this can’t wait. I’m afraid we need to have a family meeting and this can’t happen here.” He nodded his head toward the doors. “Let’s do this quickly.” He smiled tightly. I recognized it as his “Champion” smile.
Boy, he was pissed about something.
We filed out the double doors to another conference room a short ways down the hall that Jordan had scouted and was standing at the doors. We all filed in. I was gripping Seth’s hand so hard. He knew. He didn’t know the what’s and how’s and why’s, but he knew it was about the Watsons in some regard, and that circled back around to him somehow.
And he knew that I knew it.
His thumb kept making a pass over my knuckles to soothe me, to comfort me, to prepare me for whatever was coming.
But nothing prepared me for what happened when the last Jacobson filed in and Jordan slammed the door. His partner in crime that had gone with him, Drake, and he reached for Seth’s collar just as Mom reached for me to hold my arms down at my sides, her arms around mine like bands.
“Wait, Ava. Just wait. They have to do this,” she hissed into my ear.
Drake, my cousin who I’ve known my entire life, who used to come to my house and eat s’mores with me at the Jacobson get-togethers, slammed my significant to the wall with his hand around his throat.
Seth didn’t meet his eyes, but instead looked at me. “It’s all right, sweetheart,” he soothed, but when he saw me struggling against my mother still, he said louder, “Baby, stop.” He squeezed his eyes for a second and wheezed against my cousin’s fingers. I whimpered. “I’m okay. It’s all right,” he said slowly, speaking to my very core.
He finally looked at my cousin and then my father who was walking slowly to their side. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I looked around my family and they all just watched, even Ember, Maria, and Dawson were glued, ready to listen to anything my father had to say. They weren’t going to jump on my side on this…and when I looked at Dad I got why. My shoulders sagged as I saw the cog in his fingers. He was the Champion and he had called the meeting to order when he pulled that out of his pocket. In their minds, whatever he had to say was the law and final word. I was about to lose before the war even began.
I looked at Seth as he stared at my father. Dad walked closer to him and tilted his head. He looked so angry his hand was actually shaking. What had happened? What could his spies have seen to make him so angry with Seth? That didn’t make any sense…
“Seth, you told me, in my own house, that I should send spies out to the Watsons because they no longer trusted you, and if we wanted to see what they were up to, that might be the only way.”
Seth waited a few seconds, obviously knowing that Dad was angry and he was baiting him. “Yes, sir, I did. And I’m assuming that you did that. And your spies found something you didn’t like?”
Dad actually made a growly noise as he got in his face. I fought Mom’s grasp, but she held tight. I realized when I saw a few blue ribbons in the air she was using her gift on me. I looked at her with a grimace. How could she? I swung my gaze back to Seth and waited for the next step.
“You know what we found,” Dad yelled at him. “I trusted you. I let you into my home. I let you take my daughter, my only daughter, to your home—”
“Sir, I don’t know what they saw or what they think they saw,” Seth said in return. He heaved his breaths, understanding they this was serious. My cousins told my father something that he obviously believed. “But you can trust me. I’m your daughter’s significant and that hasn’t changed.”
“Has it?” Dad asked softly, deadly, and the entire temperature of the room changed after that.
Seth didn’t move an inch except for his face as he lifted it to stare at my father. “What did you say?” he whispered.
“I said, has it changed? Are you still my daughter’s significant—”
“Of course I am!” Seth barked, but Dad just talked over him.
“—or are you planning for that title to ch
ange soon?”
Seth’s chest heaved. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“We know your family can force an imprint.”
“What does that have to do with Ava and me?”
“We also know that the Watsons attempted a kidnapping on my daughter the first night that failed. There hasn’t been a peep from them since. Not a mutter or sighting. Weird for them considering that they don’t back down.”
Seth licked his bottom lip angrily. “Mr. Jacobson.”
Dad pointed over at Jordan by the door. “He saw you, and heard you, today before you came here, before you went to my daughter—telling the Watsons that we had sent you there as a spy for our family.” Mom inhaled sharply behind me. “But that our family had betrayed you and you had had enough.” I heard muttering around me and swallowed. My heart pounded as I tried to catch my breath. Seth’s eyes looked past Dad to me and he begged me not to believe, to just trust, but just as I felt like I had a foothold, Dad started again. “That she didn’t want you to see your family anymore, and you had reconsidered the breaking of your imprint and being imprinted with someone else.” I couldn’t help it. Hearing it—I groaned in agony.
“Ava, don’t listen to him,” Seth begged me.
“You don’t speak to her,” Dad cut him off and grabbed his collar. That was it.
There was something in me, something in the back of my mind, the recesses, that just…knew. As Dad went on, talking about how Seth told the Watsons his plan to sabotage us, to keep pretending to be in love with me when he really wasn’t so they could come in and finish what they’d started that day, I noticed that Seth wasn’t denying it. He just begged me with his eyes…to believe him.
“Oh, God,” he said miserably. “There’s no way out of this.”
“What?” Dad barked. “So you admit it?” he growled.
“No, not in the way you think. There’s no way I could explain that you would believe me. I’m…screwed either way.” He looked at me. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you—”
“No,” Dad said and started to drag him from the room. “No more. We have heard all we need to hear.”
“Stop!” I yelled. Or rather my mouth did. That part of my brain…it just knew, it couldn’t let this happen. I tried to move from Mom’s grasp, my eyes latched on Seth’s wide ones. She wasn’t budging. I looked back at her. “Mom,” I whispered. “I need to do this.”
She sighed. “It’ll just hurt more, Ava.”
“Let go, Mom.”
She let go without another word and I looked around the room at my quiet family before I made my way to my father and Seth.
“Ava,” Dad cautioned, but I held up my hand as I stopped in front of my significant.
“He didn’t do it,” my mouth said again without my permission, almost.
Seth sagged. “Ava,” he said thankfully.
“Your cousins saw him, Ava,” Dad said carefully.
“Dad, he didn’t do it.” I looked at him. “There’s gotta be some explanation.”
He looked at me with sympathy that I didn’t want. “I know you want to believe that—”
“No, I don’t want to believe it. It’s true.” I pushed on Dad’s arm. “Let him go,” I said harder. “You’ve got the door blocked. It’s not like he can get away.”
Dad hesitated, but then released Seth with a sigh and stepped back to put his arm around Mom.
As soon as his arm was free of Seth, I swooped in and hugged his middle. “Ava,” he said into my hair. He pulled back and looked to be in the middle of a happy confusion. “Why do you believe me? I haven’t even explained myself yet.”
“I don’t think I need you to,” I said weirdly and frowned. “If it weren’t for my curiosity and the firing squad.” I looked at Dad and he still scowled at us, hearing every word. “I just...believe you. If you say you were there under different circumstances then you were.”
He cupped my cheek. “Even with the mounting evidence against me?”
I cupped his cheek in return. “I believe you.”
He sighed his words,” I love you, little bird.”
Mom gasped, covering her mouth. I guess they were surprised that he’d told me he loved me. Or maybe that we’d said it already. Or in front of all these people. I let my eyes flick over and saw several wide-eyed people.
“I love you. Explain,” I whispered. “Loudly.”
He looked around, his scowl settling back into place, one to rival my father’s. I took his hand as it fell from my face.
“It was your idea,” he told me. “To go to my family and tell them that your family had asked me to be a spy for them.”
My lips fell open, but Dad barked, “You’re not going to start spouting things to confuse her just so she’ll believe you.”
“I already believe him, Dad.” I looked back and him and gave him a look, begging him to just stop and let me handle this. “I’m not gullible just because I do. Please,” I whispered.
His lips twisted and he actually looked a little guilty. I looked back up at Seth and he gave me a few seconds to catch my breath. I loved that about him. He could read me like a book.
“I should have told you about my ability. I meant to. I’m sorry I didn’t, and now they’ll never believe me, and maybe you won’t either after I tell you everything.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What ability?” Jordan yelled.
Everyone knows that we don’t have powers yet. We hadn’t ascended so…what was Seth talking about? I squinted. The dreams?
He sighed, his eyes bouncing from face to face nervously. His eyes landed back on me again and I knew this was it. I was going to learn everything.
“Remember me telling you that I dream about you at night?” he asked and I immediately knew that it wasn’t just a dream. That little piece of my mind was so adamant that he was innocent. It had to be real. I nodded. “They’re not just dreams.” I shuddered as reality slammed into my bones, into my very existence. I shuddered so violently that he had to grip me around the waist so I wouldn’t buckle. My head fell back and I started to see flashes. Seth kept going. “We meet every night, in your room most nights…” I shook against his chest as I saw us there, talking, laughing. I gripped his neck with my hand.
“Stop!” I heard Dad boom and Mom joined in, but she seemed to be calming him down, holding him back, telling him that I needed to hear this from him. I heard my family around me, a chorus of angry words. Some said for someone to stop him, that he was killing me, some said for him to leave me alone, some for them to leave him alone—that he wasn’t hurting me. But Seth held me steadily, not paying them any attention, and put his hand on my cheek to pull my face up.
“Look at me, sweetheart,” he begged, his voice filled with agonizing love and patience. I opened my eyes and tried to push away the strange pressure in my chest. It didn’t work, but if Seth was looking in my eyes it seemed to dim to a manageable ache. He nodded, realizing it, too. “Keep your eyes right here. I know it’s too much right now, but I need for you to hear this. We need to get this all out in the open and then it’ll all go away, okay?” I nodded. I’d do anything he wanted if this would stop. His arm banded around my waist tighter, bringing my face even closer to his, our chests pressed so tightly together. I sucked in a breath and felt my eyelids flutter. I leaned in and kissed his mouth, just once, because I had to. He smiled a little in spite of the situation.
“Had to, huh?” he asked and chuckled once.
I breathed out. “Haven’t you ever just had to?”
He nodded, his lips twisted. “With you, often.” He glanced over super quickly over at the rabble and then back to me with a small smile. “Now can I get back to my story so I don’t get my ass kicked?”
I put my thumb over his lips. “I’ll protect your ass,” I said, but my voice cracked. Our playful banter had come back around to reality. I was going to fight this with everything in me, but if the Champion and Visionary decided to go a
gainst me and not believe me, what could I really do about it? He kissed my thumb and pulled my hand down, keeping it in his.
Keep your eyes on mine.
With my eyes right on his, he started again loudly enough for everyone to hear. If it was weird for anyone that they had to listen to this story while Seth and I stared at each other…I didn’t care. They had just tried to take my significant from me and I was quite peeved. “I don’t know why I have an ability and I haven’t ascended yet. I never told me family and I never told you.” He sighed. “I didn’t want them to use it to their advantage. And I didn’t want you to have more reasons to hate them when I was trying to find reasons to make it work with both families. So I was stalling. I was going to tell you. But ever since I was a little boy I could go into people’s dreams. My uncle could do it, too. An—”
“Echoling,” Mom said at the same time as him. And no one could mistake the pain in her voice. Or the disgust.
He looked away from me for a second to look at her because it was a shock to hear that in her voice and I buckled against him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. He spoke to my mother, but looked at me. “I take it you had a bad experience with my uncle.”
“He tortured her,” Dad explained with a growl. “On several occasions. We had to run away to get away from him. And the fact that you can do the same things that he can is not speaking to your favor, Seth.”
Seth sighed. “Just because I can doesn’t mean I will. I’ve been able to do them this entire time, since I was eight, and have I ever come at anyone in this family? I never even told my family I had the gift because I knew what they would make me do with it. Even as a boy, I knew.”
“You’ve been doing them to Ava apparently.”
Seth’s blood boiled over. He stood taller and looked away from me as he yelled back, almost growling, “Ava is my significant. It’s my right to go in her mind if I want to and she gives me permission.”
