by M. H. Soars
She turned to face me. “You can’t possibly believe that. You're just saying it to make me feel better.”
“Cross my heart. There are more mysteries between Heaven and Earth than we can dream of. Now, how did Ethan react?” I was more concerned about him than Alexia at the moment. What if he decided to tell someone? We couldn’t let outsiders know how exceptional Alexia was.
“He was the one who pointed out I had done it, but I refused to believe him. Then he said that I was the one who’d made him walk again. Can you believe it?”
Yes, I could believe him very well, but I didn’t like it one bit that he had come to that conclusion. I would have to deal with him later. Durgin would probably compel him to forget the whole thing, but he would have to compel Alexia to forget, as well, and that we couldn’t do. We needed to tell her the entire truth. I was lost in thought when I realized that Alexia was still waiting for my input. “Can you explain to me exactly how you, um, healed him?”
“As I said before, he cut himself, so I took his hand to have a better look at it. I felt my hand warm up with a prickly sensation, and energy whooshed from my fingertips. Ethan told me that he felt power coming from my hand, knitting his cut back together. He also said he felt the same sensation when we first kissed. The only difference was that the feeling spread through his entire body then.”
“And you actually saw his cut healing?”
“Yes. At least, I believe I did. I don’t know! But if I imagined the whole thing, then Ethan wouldn’t have seen anything, right?”
“Unless you were both tripping on ’shrooms,” I joked, trying to lighten up the mood.
“Great, now you’re mocking me.” Alexia raised her arms in frustration and started to move restlessly in front of me, biting her nails.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make fun of you. But hey, there’s a way we can find out for sure if you imagined the whole thing.” The idea had just crossed my mind. I needed to prove to Alexia that her powers were real.
“How so?” she asked uncertainly.
I stood up and walked to my bathroom. After I found what I was looking for and went back into my room, I sat on my bed while Alexia watched me warily.
“What are you doing?” she grew wide-eyed when she saw that I had a pair of scissors in my hand.
“This is how we’re going to find out if you have the healing touch or not.” Before she had the chance to protest, I punctured a hole between my thumb and index finger. Alexia screamed. It freaking hurt, but the damage had to be substantial; otherwise it wouldn’t serve my purpose. Blood was already pouring out of the wound, and belatedly I realized I should have grabbed a towel, too. Now the yellow skirt I was wearing had a big red stain on it.
“Are you crazy?” Alexia was already next to me holding my hand. The moment she touched me I could feel her power spreading through my hand, concentrating on the wound. It was exactly like Ethan had described. We both stared at the wound as it healed completely in seconds.
“Holy shit!” We both jumped, startled at Sean’s exclamation. When had he come in, and how come we hadn’t heard him? “Did I just see that? Did Alexia just heal your hand?” He came closer to us.
“I guess so.” Alexia looked at me for confirmation.
Sean surprised both of us by picking up Alexia and twirling her around, laughing like mad. “That is so freaking awesome! Finally!”
“Sean! Put me down!” Alexia screamed, but she was laughing, too. Sean’s enthusiasm was contagious. He obeyed, but the wide grin didn’t leave his face.
“You’re crazy, Sean! And what did you mean by ‘finally’?”
Sean scratched his head and looked at me for help. He had opened his big mouth, and now I had to fix it. But no sir, not this time. I crossed my arms in front my chest instead. “Yeah, Sean. What did you mean by ‘finally?'”
“Uh…finally something interesting happened in this house.” The guilty look on his face did nothing to convince us, but Alexia decided to let it go.
“Guys, I know this is huge, but can we not tell anyone about it?” she asked, looking from me to Sean.
Sean in turn glanced my way for confirmation. “Sure, Alexia. We can keep it a secret for now, right Sean?” I pointedly asked him. Asking Sean to keep a secret was the same as telling a dog not to wag its tail when it was happy. But it wasn’t like I could keep the secret, either. I had to tell Gary that the Prophecy had started.
“Hi, Gary. You wanted to see me?” I asked as I walked into his office and sat on one of the chairs facing his desk the next day. I still had to tell him about the awakening of Alexia’s powers, but Gary had only returned from Arcadia that morning. He didn’t look up from his computer. He seemed engrossed in whatever he was doing.
“Yeah,” he answered absent-mindedly. It was another two minutes before he finally glanced at me and continued. “It’s about your training. Durgin just informed me that he’ll be handling it personally.”
“Wait. What?” I squeaked, and forgot all about Alexia. I didn’t want Durgin here on Earth training me. He was way too observant. It wouldn’t take long for him to figure out about Matthew and me.
“You seem unhappily surprised. Durgin is not only royalty, he’s also one of the best-trained fighters in Arcadia. I figured it would be nice for you to learn combat skills from him.”
“We've had combat training since we were ten years old. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Why would such an important person like him waste his time training me?” I knew for a fact that it was a waste of time to fight Gary’s decision, but I couldn’t help it. Having Durgin here was a very bad thing.
It was Gary’s turn to look surprised. “Come on, Samantha. You and the rest of the Prodigy are extremely important to the future of Arcadia. Of course you should be trained by the best. Besides, it wasn’t my decision, it was Durgin’s. He insisted on training you.”
Double damn. Now we were totally screwed. I asked when my training would start. Gary replied that Durgin was already waiting for me at a training facility ten minutes from the house. As soon as I left Gary’s office I tried to call Matthew but it went straight to voice mail. I texted him instead. Unfortunately, I could only reach his mind when he was nearby.
The training facility turned out to be an old, small gym that had been closed for about a month. We all thought it had been closed for renovations, but it turned out that Gary had purchased it for the sole purpose of using it as a permanent training facility for all of us. With Alexia living with us, we couldn’t train at the house anymore. At least not until all was revealed to her.
Durgin was already there, wearing full combat clothes: black cargo pants, steel-toed boots and a tight, black t-shirt that did nothing to hide his impressive physique. His somewhat long hair was tied back. The whole place had been cleared of the weight-lifting machines. All that was left were the tatami in the center, some punching bags in one corner and some other training stuff piled against the far wall.
“You’re late,” he said with a grunt. Oh great, he was grumpy already.
“I came as soon as Gary told me to.”
Being alone with Durgin was sort of intimidating. The guy oozed menace. I didn’t care that Matthew had come to respect him. Durgin was, simply put, scary as hell.
“I figured we should start with hand-to-hand combat in order to assess your skills and gauge the level of control you have over your powers.” He moved to the center of the tatami mat and waited for me to join him. I was glad Gary had warned me that Durgin intended to train me in combat, as well. At least I’d be wearing sensible clothes when I had my ass handed to me. I could hold my own and had done so thousands of times against the boys, but sparring with Durgin was going to be a totally different ball game.
I tried to convey confidence as I walked toward him and positioned myself for the fight. Half the battle was to show your opponent that you lacked fear, but I doubted that I was fooling Durgin. We stayed liked that, assessing each other, and I wondered
if I should make the first move. Before I could decide, Durgin moved in a blur. I felt a sharp pain in my chest before I fell hard to the floor. I could barely breathe.
“Get up.” I heard Durgin’s stern voice. I would, as soon as I got some air. I managed to get up, just to be knocked down again.
“Come on, Samantha. You’re not even trying.” Now he was mocking me. Jerk. I would show him. I pinpointed his location before I got up. I would be ready for him this time. But the bastard knocked me down again, then again. The worst of it was, I didn’t even know how he was doing it. He was so damned fast. I started to feel the rage bubbling inside of me, the same rage that I had felt before I struck Matthew when he used his powers against me.
I was still lying on my back when I felt raw power coursing through my veins. I got up slowly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Durgin move. This time I could actually see him. He was about to strike me again when I unleashed all the power going through me onto him. There was a blinding flash followed by a loud 'thud' and a groan. As soon as the light faded, I found Durgin sprawled on the tatami looking tremendously pleased with himself.
“It's about time!” he exclaimed with a grin.
“You just wanted me use my powers? You could have told me that! I thought we were only doing combat training.”
Durgin stood up before he replied. “What kind of instructor would I be if I didn’t teach you how to combine all of your skills? I know that you can defend yourself. What I don’t know is if you can harness your powers while fighting.”
I crossed my arms in front my chest, pissed-off. “Well, obviously I can. How did the tatami taste?”
Durgin laughed, which surprised me. I didn’t know he was capable of laughter. It totally changed his face. I was even able to notice in that brief moment that Durgin was a very attractive man. “The only reason you were able to use your powers against me was because you got angry. In a real fight you might not have the chance to get angry before you’re seriously injured. You need to learn how to use your powers on demand, with a cool head.”
That made sense. But I still thought he had enjoyed putting me on the ground so many times.
After three hours of intensive training, Durgin returned to the La Maison Falafel with me. We found everyone waiting for us, except for Alexia. She probably had another date with Ethan. Gary looked troubled. It didn’t take long for us to find out why.
“I have news from the Council.” Durgin raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. “They’ve found the seventh son of a seventh son.”
We all looked at each other, perplexed. Talk about timing. It made sense for Alexia’s powers to manifest around the time we found the Promised boy. It was probably what had triggered her powers in the first place. But what about Ethan? They were so happy together. I knew this would have to happen sooner or later, but I was hoping for later, after Alexia’s relationship with Ethan had run its course.
“Are you sure about that?” Durgin asked Gary. He stared intently at him, his face cold and grave.
“Absolutely. Your father’s own private operatives found the boy in Louisiana and have already brought him here. He doesn’t know the truth, though.”
Durgin being out of the loop regarding Council’s business was something I never expected to see, with his father being the Council’s President and all. He didn’t look one bit happy about it.
“How did you manage to relocate him to California? What about his family?” I asked.
“You know that the Council has its ways,” Gary replied matter-of-factly, like it wasn’t a big deal to uproot someone’s family without giving any explanation. They probably just used their old methods of compulsion and manipulation.
“When are we going to tell them the truth?” Mia asked the question that everyone was thinking.
Sean snorted. “Oh yeah. Piece of cake. Let’s just take her to her favorite restaurant and say, ‘Hey, Alexia, we’re not really your family but actually a bunch of aliens here on Earth to protect you because you’re part of a wacked Prophecy, and by the way, you have to dump your boyfriend because you’re promised to another dude, and are you going to eat those fries?’” It was typical Sean to ramble like that, completely unaffected by the presence of Gary and Durgin.
“Once you demonstrate your abilities to them, they’ll be convinced,” Gary replied.
“Or they’ll run to the hills screaming bloody murder,” Sean continued.
To my surprise, Durgin didn’t seem to be about to flay Sean for his lack of respect. He wasn’t even looking at Sean. He was completely immersed in his own thoughts. Gary turned to him. “Durgin, should we tell Alexia the truth, or not?”
“No, not yet. I agree with Sean that we can’t simply spring the truth on Alexia like that.”
“Well, we might have to tell her sooner rather than later.” All eyes turned to me, and Matthew gave me an encouraging nod. I had told him about Alexia last night.
“How so?” Durgin asked.
“Alexia’s powers have manifested already.”
“What?” I heard Zach, Mia, and Melanie shout at the same time.
“It happened yesterday. I mean, we only figured it out yesterday. Alexia’s power is healing, by the way.”
“Wow, that’s huge,” Zach commented.
“It was freaking awesome! You should have seen it. Sam had this big hole in her hand, and Alexia healed it in like, two seconds.”
Zach turned to his brother. “You knew?”
“Hold on a second.” Gary raised his hand to command our attention. “You’re telling me that you accidentally hurt yourself yesterday, Samantha, and that Alexia healed you by chance?”
“Not exactly. This is where things get complicated.” I told them about Alexia healing Ethan’s cut and also about the possibility that Alexia might have healed the injuries from his accident. Durgin and Gary seemed troubled by my revelations but for different reasons.
“How do you suggest we approach the situation? We have to tell her the truth, like, now,” Melanie said, looking completely pissed at everything. She had her hands on her hips and she was glaring openly at Durgin. “It wasn’t our idea to keep the truth from her in the first place.”
This time Durgin did look like he was about to flay someone. “You forget your place, Melanie.” He answered in a tone that would have anybody shut up immediately.
“So we're just going to tell Alexia that her cat went on the roof?” Sean asked.
“I beg your pardon?” Durgin turned to Sean, completely lacking any patience. Either Sean was stupid or extremely courageous.
“You know, instead of telling Alexia that her cat died, you start the story by telling her that her cat went on the roof first, then you tell her that her cat fell off the roof, then you tell her that her cat is in intensive care, and then you finally tell her that her cat died.” Sean explained it like it was the most common thing in the world, when in fact it didn’t make any sense. I was wrong, he was neither stupid nor courageous, he was crazy.
Durgin stared at Sean, perplexed, before he shook his head and turned to Gary again. “We will not tell her anything for now. The compulsion will stay in place.”
Melanie scowled at that.
“What about Ethan?” Mia asked, looking extremely concerned. I shared her sentiment.
“Who is Ethan?” Durgin asked.
“Alexia’s boyfriend. She seems really attached to him.”
Durgin frowned at Mia’s answer, but Gary retorted, “Don’t worry about Ethan. As soon as Alexia meets Henry, Ethan will cease to exist to her.”
Only Melanie seemed unaffected by Gary’s remark. I, like everyone else, was not too happy about Gary’s easy dismissal of Ethan. Even Durgin seemed disturbed by it, but I must have been reading him wrong. Why would he care about Ethan?
Durgin left soon after the meeting was over. I followed Matthew to his bedroom and closed the door behind me. He had me pinned against it in a second. His hands kept going up and down my arms
while he placed little kisses on my neck and my jaw.
“I missed you,” he murmured against my neck, and I shuddered. But I pushed him away because I wasn’t in his room to make out. “Matt, we can’t be doing that in broad daylight. It’s too dangerous.”
My comment didn’t deter him one bit. “If you didn’t want me to do this,” he placed a kiss just below my ear, “you shouldn’t have followed me into my room and closed the door. Besides, Gary and Durgin are gone for now.”
“I know. That's why I need to talk to you.” When Matthew saw how serious I was he stopped teasing me.
“Aren’t you concerned by what’s going on? And on top of it all, Durgin is now my instructor!”
“Yeah, I’m concerned about the new developments. But I’m more relieved than anything else,” he replied calmly. I wondered if hormones had made him daft.
“Matthew! This is huge. You were worried before about Durgin’s operative finding out about us. Now that it’s Durgin himself poking around, you're not even apprehensive?”
I saw a flash of irritation cross his face. Finally, I was getting a reaction from him, but how come I had the feeling he was irritated at me? “I’m tired of this hiding, Sam. I want to tell the world that I love you.” Matthew released an appreciative sigh as he got near me again. He placed his hand on my face, caressing my cheek. “I want to be able to hold your hand at school and kiss you senseless in front of everyone. Maybe now that the Prophecy is about to be fulfilled, we can come clean.”
I closed my eyes and allowed myself to lean into Matthew’s caress before I burst his bubble. “Matt, I don’t think it will be that simple. I just proved to Durgin today that I still can’t fully control my powers. There’s so much I have to learn. His excuse for keeping us apart still exists. More than ever, he’ll want us focused only on the mission, nothing else.” I held Matthew’s gaze and tried to convey to him the seriousness of the situation. His jaw tensed. He was frustrated and unhappy about it all.
“You're right, I know. I just wish…I just wish we could live a normal life, without responsibilities, and powers, and lies.” He started to play with my hair as he drank me in. I leaned into him and hugged him. His strong hand rested on the small of my back.
