Mortal Raised

by Kit Bladegrave

  Because it was Sunday, I figured that classes were not in session, so Edgar was not in much of a hurry to leave the mall, because after the uniforms, our arms already weighed down with bags, we continued shopping for more fun things besides clothes. He helped us pick out some things for our bathrooms, and bought me a nice purple throw pillow and matching rug for my dorm.

  He sported an honest smile whenever he bought something, like he really was enjoying spoiling his grandnephew and grandniece and I stopped freaking out every time he spent money on us.

  It was nice, not having to worry as I usually did when I had to buy something for me or Mason. I had never been treated that way before, so I really didn’t know what to say. A part of me wanted to get defensive and call him out on his charity crap, but another part of me was ridiculously grateful.

  I just wound up going with behaving sheepishly shy, never asking for anything outright, unless he suggested. I would not dare to ask for a single thing he did not recommend or point out. Until we stopped at a shoe store, and I walked out with six new pairs of flats, pumps, and boots.

  We stopped by a set of chairs to figure out our next stop when something caught my eye. I whipped to the right, squinting into the crowd of people exiting the movie theater attached to the mall, but it couldn’t have been him.

  I stared a few moments longer, searching for any sign of Slade, but when he didn’t magically appear, I shrugged it off.

  Or tried to.

  The same anxious worry I woke with this morning came rushing back as those words echoed in my head.

  “Alright,” Edgar said loudly, and I jumped, but neither of them noticed. “One last stop.”

  He guided us down another wing of the mall and into a tailor shop where we gratefully dumped our bags. A man and woman helped me and Mason up onto two tiny platforms and started to take our measurements with serious looks on their faces.

  “What are we getting here?” Mason asked curiously while the tailor measured his shoulders.

  “Just getting your measurements on the books,” Edgar said. “You never know when the school might do some sort of event, and I’ll need to get something made for you.”

  Event? I pictured a ball and swallowed back my laughter at the thought of Mason in a fancy tux or me in some fancy gown. What sort of fancy school was he sending us to?

  When we were finished, I craned my neck around as we left the store, searching one more time for Slade, but he wasn’t what drew my attention this time.

  There was a jewelry display to my right for the boutique store. It wasn’t fancy stuff, certainly not like the necklace I wore right now, and I was ready to move on when my gaze flickered up to the balcony of the second level of the mall.

  I froze, worried he’d vanish if I moved too quickly, but those blue eyes… I’d know those eyes anywhere. Slade was here, at this mall. And he wasn’t alone.

  A larger guy in a tight t-shirt and a buzzed head stood beside him at the railing. They were chatting about something serious.

  Slade’s eyes were narrowed in anger, just like they’d been in my dream, but he had a baseball cap on, covering his hair. Whatever was happening, his and his friend’s faces darkened, and I saw Slade grip the railing hard as if he resisted the urge to hit something.

  “Everest? See something you like?” Edgar asked.

  “Huh?” I asked, not wanting to take my eyes off Slade. “Oh, I was just looking.”

  “We can make one more stop if you’d like,” he assured me.

  I glanced at his face, then back up to the reflection of Slade, but he was gone, so was his big friend. “No really, it’s fine. I don’t need anything.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” he said and started for the store.

  Something inside me snapped. “No, I said I didn’t need anything, alright? You’ve already bought us enough today, and I don’t need a stupid bracelet.”

  I had noticed the cute ones in the window, but Edgar spent more than I could ever hope to spend on myself in a year if I had the means. I was always too worried about food on the table for Mason and me if I could afford it. I didn’t just go around blowing money, and here he was, this man who barely knew us, dropping nearly two thousand dollars without batting an eye.

  “Everest,” Edgar said gently, and guided us to a bench. “It’s okay to want things, and it’s more than okay to ask for them. You’re not alone now, not anymore.”

  “I know it’s just… it’s hard, okay? We’ve never had anyone care like this, or do anything nice for us and I’m not… I’m trying, I really am.” I huffed in annoyance and plopped down on the bench, staring intently at the floor.

  I didn’t mean to have a breakdown in the middle of the mall, but all this kindness was weird for me to experience. I was used to taking care of Mason, picking up Mom when she got so drunk I swore she wouldn’t wake up again.

  Edgar’s hand rested on my shoulder, and I glanced up at his face.

  “You’ve taken care of yourself and Mason for so long, I think it’s about time you let someone else worry for once. I imagine you probably have never asked for anything before because you couldn’t. But, it’s okay to ask for something. Even if it’s just a little bracelet, or if it’s a favor… or if you just need someone to talk to. It’s okay, Everest. I’m your family, and I know life has not been fair to you up ‘til now, but that’s about to change. I swear to you, this new life you’re starting? It’s going to be everything you could’ve ever hoped for and more.”

  “That’s what worries me,” I confessed. “I keep waiting for it to get yanked away from us. For someone to come along and say we don’t deserve this, any of this.”

  “But you do, and you best remember that.”

  He told me to stay put on the bench by Mason and the bags, and he went inside and bought me the cheap little bracelet. I stood up, and I gave him a hug.

  I never even liked jewelry. Never wore it. But, he was right. I had never really asked anyone for something before. It was nice being able to do that for once.

  He helped me get it on, and I took a few seconds to admire it before we gathered up our bags and headed for the doors.

  “You ready to check out your schools?” he asked after we got everything loaded into his car. “We’ll be there in about an hour.”

  Mason happily climbed back into the car, but I turned back to the mall, hoping for one last glance of Slade.

  Ten

  Slade

  “About damn time,” I cursed as I watched Everest get into the car with her brother and great uncle and leave the mall.

  I hated malls. Hated being around so many people. If ever danger was to break out, being in such a crowded place automatically meant risk of exposure and death to innocents too stupid to get out of the way.

  “You think they bought enough shit?” Tank said with a grunt.

  “Probably not.”

  We walked through the parking lot to where our motorcycles were parked. Two others were posted closer to the school, and I wasn’t worried about their car being hit on the way. We’d scoured the town when we first arrived, but saw no signs of the enemy hiding out anywhere. For the moment at least, Everest was safe.

  I climbed onto my bike, then Tank and I took off down the street heading towards the local hideout. It was too far from the school for my liking, and I was scoping out a place to keep a better eye on the grounds. Couldn’t get too close or I’d risk being spotted, or worse. Not like they changed in the hundreds of years since the war. Their laws were bullshit, harming more innocent people than protecting them, and they did nothing. They didn’t even know about what was happening, too blind and arrogant to care.

  We pulled into the back alley, parked, and hurried upstairs to the top floor of an old, rundown townhouse. I barely opened the door when a hand jerked out, and dragged me inside.

  “What?” I snapped, but a hand slapped hard over my mouth, shushing me.

  Tank frowned beside me, and Morg finally removed his hand from
my mouth. He pressed a finger to his lips, and I rolled my eyes as he pointed out the window.

  “Seriously, man, it was just the bikes. Told you we need to find some damn cars so he stops doing this every time.”

  I frowned as Tank stomped to the tiny kitchen to grab a bottle of water as I worked at calming Morg down. He was still frantically pacing around the room, glancing out the windows with paranoid eyes as if an entire army was about to charge through and take him away. He shoved aside the curtains, and his whole body trembled.

  “Morg, it’s the bikes, remember? You’re safe here. They told you that.”

  “He doesn’t get it, mate,” Tank grumbled.

  “Just leave him alone, alright?” I snapped. “He was tortured for years before they got him out. What do you expect him to be like?”

  “Why isn’t he in the underground getting help is what I want to know.”

  “He scares the others too much.” I gently reached for Morg’s shoulder, but he didn’t even seem to know I was there.

  His black hair hung in dirty braided chunks and dirt covered his face.

  “You need to get cleaned up. Come on.” I carefully dragged him down the hall to the bathroom and pointed him to the shower. “Take a shower and calm down. You’re safe.”

  He blinked at me long and hard before he bobbed his head, smiled, and patted me on the cheek.

  I grinned back at the clarity in his eyes and left him alone.

  Back in the living room, I stomped to the windows and stared out in the direction of the school.

  Morg was only one amongst hundreds, thousands even, that had been saved and reminded me of all the others still suffering. We were too outnumbered to do any major attacks to save our people, save them before they all turned into versions of Morg.

  Years ago, he’d been one of the smartest men I knew. Then he was taken and broken down for trying to start a rebellion. For years no one saw him until a rescue attempt dragged him out of a darkened cell. He’d gone mad, they said, never spoke a word. Always thought they were coming to finish him off. He woke up in a panic every time he tried to sleep, when he passed out from exhaustion.

  I knew what he went through, had seen much of it in person, not done to him, but to others I knew. Others I had to leave behind because there weren’t enough of us to get them out alive.

  Tank’s cell phone went off behind me, and I jumped, cursing quietly when I did it.

  “Yeah?” Tank answered as he joined me at the window. “What? When?”

  “What’s going on?”

  He held up a finger and bobbed his head. “Yeah, course. I’m on it.” He hung up and shoved his cell back in his pocket. “Looks like you’re on your own here for a few days. Can you handle it?”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Back to the city. Our other assassin was just captured, but Jenny wants me to make sure it’s him before we take the time to question him instead of killing him.”

  I wanted to go back with him, but I couldn’t leave Everest alone. “Keep me posted.”

  “I will, mate, don’t worry. And if anything happens on your end, you call me.”

  “Get your ugly mug out of here,” I said and shoved him towards the door before I turned my watchful gaze back to the window.

  The door opened and closed and a few seconds later, Tank’s motorcycle roared to life, and I heard Morg thundering out of the bathroom, clothed and clean at least. I caught his arm and reassured him it was nothing, and we were safe.

  “Why don’t we go up to the roof? Get some fresh air.”

  He didn’t seem so sure of my idea, but followed me anyway as I climbed out the window and up the fire escape to the roof. The sun wasn’t terribly hot and felt comforting on my skin as I leaned against the roof’s edge. Morg stuck right by my side, eyes searching the sky, but after a few moments he calmed down again.

  The city fell away the longer I stared up at the blue sky, and my mind wandered. “So many people we’ve lost,” I whispered to Morg. “Too many to even count anymore. It’s never going to stop, is it? The suffering, the war.”

  I was surprised when his hand gripped my shoulder, but didn’t turn to look at him.

  I kept talking, “They all think it ended back then, but it never did. It just disappeared from their view and now… now they live their happy, rich lives not even knowing who watches over them, risking everything.”

  Zara’s face popped into my head, and my heart ached suddenly as her loss hit me all over again. Her face was followed by another and another, on and on, down the line.

  The last face, I hadn’t expected to pop into my head, but there it was, Everest, staring back at me from that night in the alley.

  A dark voice in my mind told me it was still her fault and I was angry with her, but I knew she had nothing to do with this war. Not yet at least.

  I’d half hoped she would’ve steered clear of it, but going to that school, she was about to be thrown head first into shark-infested waters.

  I just hoped she’d be able to come out of it in one piece.

  Tomorrow, I’d find a hideout closer to the school, so I could watch her easier, but today I hoped those idiots would be enough.

  I’d hate to have to save their asses, too.

  Eleven

  Everest

  We dropped Mason off at his school quickly after we unloaded his stuff and carried it to his new dorm.

  Everything checked out, and the headmaster there was a nice guy. He spoke kindly to Mason, and Mason was beyond ecstatic to find out he would have two roommates at the dorm.

  Edgar, of course, had made sure that Mason would be getting one of the nicer rooms. The dorm was way better than our apartment had been, and Mason was beside himself when he found out the top bunk had not been claimed by the other two guys.

  Only after Edgar gave each of us cell phones and I double checked that Mason and I would not have trouble communicating did I feel okay about leaving my little brother behind.

  He was distracted by his new companions whom he had really hit it off with the moment he had entered the dorm. I also learned that he would be assigned a buddy for his first week of school to help him to and from classes, so that made me feel a lot better.

  That was the tough part—or at least, it was the part I thought would be the tough part. Walking away from that school and leaving Mason behind made me sad and nervous all at once. I hated it. But, I knew this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

  I had always talked about wanting to go to college and achieve serious career goals, but that had been a fantasy up until this point. Now, Edgar was laying the path out for me. Putting me in a fancy high school with the best teachers and best classes. And, he was doing it while keeping Mason and I close.

  So, why was I so hesitant?

  I wanted to blame it on seeing Slade at the mall, feeling he was watching me for whatever weird reason. It made no sense why he’d be here in Virginia. Or why he’d look so horrible in my dreams, telling me people were coming to kill me.

  I brushed it off and braced myself to meet the headmistress at my new school.

  Edgar pulled the car out of the parking lot of Mason’s new school, and butterflies danced around in the pit of my stomach.

  “So, why exactly can’t Mason go to this other school?” I asked.

  “It’s for gifted students,” he said with a wink as though there was some joke I was not getting. “You’ll see soon enough, don’t worry.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  I had been fairly gifted at my old school. I took advanced classes. I just assumed that Edgar had somehow gotten a hold of my old transcripts and had sent them to this fancy new school on my behalf. He sure had managed to do that fast if so.

  I exhaled with relief when we pulled up outside of the enormous entryway of the school’s campus. It really was just a short walk to Mason’s school; at least he’d been telling the truth about that part. Though I was still waiting to find a chance to call him out on all
the other crap he lied about. But after he parked the car and I had a chance to peer up at the enormous building before me, I forgot about all those questions and gulped. This school was nearly five times the size of Mason’s. It had multiple buildings scattered around the massive grounds, arched doorways, paths lined with columns, fountains, and that was just what I could see from the front drive.

  Edgar and I climbed out of the car and unloaded my much larger suitcase and two other bags of items. He took me toward the main building, and was kind enough to drag my now packed luggage for me.

  “So you have a chance to admire the view,” he said when I tried to carry at least one thing.

  And he was not wrong. My neck hurt after seconds from my trying to crane and take in every detail around me.

  The architecture was astounding, all gothic and stonework, just like Edgar’s home. Gargoyles clung to the rooftops, too and I wondered what had been built first: Edgar’s home or this school. Both looked old, very old.

  “How old is this school?” I finally asked.

  “Old,” was Edgar’s reply and I huffed. “Just wait until you meet Elsa. She’s the headmistress here. She used to be a teacher, back when your mom attended but has since moved up in the world. I think headmistress suits her quite well.”

  “Course she knew Mom,” I muttered worriedly. “I hope they got along.”

  “Are you kidding? Everyone loved Mahlia, Elsa included.”

  The main building was pretty empty; we only passed a few curious teenagers I assumed were students, decked out in street clothes.

  I supposed with it being a weekend, most of the students were either in their dorms or out doing extracurriculars. The school seemed normal enough, and we rode the elevator—which took me completely off guard—up to the top floor of the main building, the sixth floor. This was where the headmistress’s office was, and I was shaking by the time we reached her door.

  This floor was pretty eerie, to say the least. It was decorated a lot like Edgar’s home—ancient artifacts lining the hall, red carpets, and historical paintings depicting some rather gruesome looking battle scenes with mystical creatures thrown in.