The Root

by Na'amen Tilahun

  do you see? do you know? you are a part in the chain.

  TAE

  This was epically bad. Tae had only meant to warn Erik about some of the hints he was getting from working with Luka and his gift. Instead he’d triggered a Cassandra and Melinda had been swept up in it along with Erik. He had no idea what the two of them were seeing, but he doubted it was anything good and it would only lead to more questions. Especially after the whole dream thing, the last thing they needed were more eyes on them, but it was now inevitable.

  Melinda woke up first, her eyes opening so fast that Tae expected to hear a clink as they locked into place. She took a deep breath and then, without pause for an exhale, another shuddering breath and then another until her small cylinder of a chest was distended as her lungs pulled in more and more air. Tae worried that he was about to see a little girl explode when Patrah quickly knelt by the girl’s side, turned her over, and slammed a open palm onto her back. The breath snaked out of her tiny body in a long sigh.

  Hu and Luka started to pepper the girl with questions before she was fully conscious. She did not even look at them, having eyes only for the still-unconscious Erik and Patrah, who was now wiping her brow with a cloth she’d gotten from somewhere.

  Finally Hu grabbed her face and turned her to face him. “What did you see?”

  She immediately reared back to yank her jaw from his fingers and then snapped forward again. Only Hu’s quick reflexes kept himself from losing fingertips to her small, sharp teeth. Hu scrambled back and Tae noticed that he and Luka were not the only ones trying to stifle laughter or hide it within coughs.

  “None of your business!” The anger brought her color back to its normal dark sepia, though no one was happy with this answer. They all wanted to know and Hu’s clumsiness might have messed it up for everyone. She turned to Patrah and said in a more normal voice, “That’s what you were talking about, right? Getting drawn into someone’s head because they’re having really strong dreams?”

  Patrah nodded slowly. “Not exactly, but like that, yes.”

  “So it was Erik’s dream, not mine. So telling is like telling someone’s secrets without their permission.”

  The nod was even more reluctant now, but it was there, and with a sharp nod of Melinda’s head that was the end of it. Tae had no doubt that Hu would still try to get it out of her, but he saw the way she looked at Erik. She was loyal to him. Patrah’s face was doing a weird contortion back and forth between annoyance and pride.

  With a loud groan, Erik heaved himself off of his stomach and onto his side. He faced Tae, Matthias, and Elana full on and Tae could see that his mouth was open and panting with his tongue lolling out, his eyes circling independently of one another. His hands twitched at his sides as if they wanted to move. Matthias curved himself around Erik’s head, placing his thighs between the ground and Erik’s head as a cushion. He leaned down over his aspirant and wiped some of the sweat from his forehead with one hand.

  His face came up with a snarl across his lips.

  “Back the fuck up!”

  Everyone aside from Tae took a giant step backward, though Hu and Luka hesitated before moving back. Matthias looked at Tae and opened his mouth for a second before shutting it and focusing his attention on the stirring body in his arms.

  ERIK

  Erik’s body was not cooperating and so his mind panicked as he tried to get his arms to lift, as he tried to speak. His mouth spasmed open and closed repeatedly; his teeth chattered with no care for the damage they were doing to his tongue and the blood filling his mouth. His body flopped and shook and turned; he wanted to scream and the best he could push out was a sob. His body was not his own, and coming on the heels of his injury it was the world reminding him it could still fuck him over whenever it wanted, no matter how special he thought he was. Finally his body just flopped over onto its side and he panted, feeling slowly coming back along with control.

  His limbs jerked with a flood of pins and needles and muscle cramps. Erik clenched his teeth against the cries that wanted to emerge and ended up groaning through them. His vision began to clear and he could see more than the burnt-out white sunbursts. Matthias’s face slowly resolved, his strong Mediterranean features pinched in worry, his usually tan skin drained to blotchy yellow-white.

  His hand reached out to stroke Erik’s cheek and Erik’s eyes shot to meet his own. At this sign of his awareness returning, Matthias quickly yanked his hand away and some of the worry disappeared from his face, though it still lingered at the edges. Erik did not focus on Matthias for long because his body shook again, coming alive, coming under his control. He closed his eyes, riding out wave after wave of cramps as they raced over him, each wave getting less painful.

  When it finally ended, he did not bother to open his eyes again. Darting his tongue out to lick at his cracked and dry lips, he croaked, “What the hell?”

  Immediately a babble of voices answered him, talking over each other. They blended into a mélange of tones. He could pick out words here and there but they made no sense.

  “. . . did you see?”

  “Stay still.”

  “. . . vision.”

  “. . . Cassandra . . .”

  “Cassandra.”

  “Cassandra . . .”

  Finally Matthias roared, “Silence!” and everything fell quiet.

  Erik realized he had heard nothing from Melinda and groaned, forcing his eyes open against what felt like a mountain of sand. “Melinda, is she okay?” He tried to turn and look, but all his muscles screamed at what they considered an unreasonable request. He let his eyes drop closed again. He felt a smaller hand slip into the loose clasp of his own. He smiled as she squeezed his palm despite the jolt of sensation, not quite pain, that shot through him

  “I’m fine.”

  “Good.”

  “I’m taking him to his room.”

  As Matthias said this Erik felt himself lifted into the air bridal-style. It was an odd sensation; he could not recall being carried in such a way. It made him feel oddly vulnerable, a feeling he had tried to avoid for the last couple of years. Any hint of vulnerability was weakness and he refused to be caught by a surprise betrayal again. So he expected to hate the feel of Matthias’s arms wrapped around him, but for some reason it did not make him feel weak so much as safe.

  He could not remember the last time he had actually felt safe from attack. He curled into the embrace, just a little, just until they reached his room. The arms tightened ever so slightly and Erik’s felt a small flip of excitement and fear in his belly.

  He whispered, “Tae and Melinda.”

  Matthias paused in his movement and looked down at Erik’s face. Erik didn’t know what he saw but he nodded and called out, “Tae, Melinda, if you would come with us I think your presence would comfort Erik.” Then he started moving again without waiting to see if they followed. As they entered the elevator, they turned and Erik saw Tae and Melinda inside. The ride down was silent, as was the trip through the hall to Erik’s room.

  As Matthias lay him on the bed, Melinda closed the door. With more effort than it should have needed, he sank into the mattress until he almost felt a part of it.

  “So what was that?”

  “Well, it’s this effect where—”

  Erik interrupted Tae, who he could tell was ready to go on for a while.

  “Short version. Please.”

  Matthias’s voice rumbled and the bed shook lightly, letting Erik know the man was perched next to him. “A Cassandra happens randomly. No one can explain why. They usually show glimpses of the future, though they’ve been known to show the past as well. Most only have to do with things of a personal nature, but there have been a few massive Cassandras over the last century. Warning of wars, assassinations, et cetera.”

  “Okay.” Erik thought about what he had just learned. The images were all jumbled and the meaning of it, which had been so clear while he was seeing it, now felt vague and unbelievabl
e.

  “You don’t have to share it with anyone you don’t want to. A Cassandra is considered private and personal.” The words spilled out of Tae in a rush and then he fell silent.

  “Good.” Erik didn’t know who to trust; even the people in this room had only proved themselves more trustworthy than the others. He needed allies and they were the safest options.

  “I didn’t tell anyone either . . . and now I barely remember.” Melinda’s voice was soft and Erik squeezed her hand once before his exhaustion took hold and he passed out.

  He woke in darkness and even before he tried to pierce it by straining his eyes, he could tell he was not alone. There was one other person in the room, their breath was soft, and Erik could almost sense the heat they were giving off. He slowly sat up and slipped off the bed, heading in the direction of the presence. After a couple steps he could tell it was Matthias. He didn’t know what that meant, that he could tell Matthias’s body and presence even when he could not see him. He could even tell the exact point that Matthias started awake.

  “Did you rest well?”

  “Yes.” Something of the darkness kept them from talking at normal levels. They whispered their words, relying on the stillness and dark to carry them.

  “We’re gonna be leaving the facility soon and not coming back.”

  “But I thought—”

  “We can train anywhere and you’re getting better at control already. You can bring the rage on at will.”

  “Yeah . . .” Erik could, but it wasn’t the getting enraged that still worried him—it was not doing so.

  “And I already didn’t like Luka and Hu being here. Now with the Cassandra on top of the power drain dream, they’ll be watching you even more closely. I don’t like their interest in you.”

  There was a hesitation in Matthias that he could feel.

  “There’s something else.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yeah, the students from your first manifestation. They reneged, they want to sue.”

  “Those piece-of-shit entitled bullies.” Erik was up and pacing the dark of the room before he knew it, in a tight circle so he didn’t slam into anything.

  “Well, there was enough evidence that they were the aggressors that is shouldn’t be too much of a problem . . . but some actual legitimate newspapers picked the story up. It’s drawing even more attention.”

  “Fuck.” Erik had done his best not to draw attention to himself after the trial and cancellation. He’d appeared in public enough so they didn’t speculate too hard and he’d said nothing and eventually he’d faded away except for the occasional “where are they now?” bit online. Then the fight, and now this.

  Was this why Robert had actually left?

  Sure, his fuck-up son was in the news again, but all publicity was good publicity and Robert might be out there right now, giving interviews, steering every conversation he could to his campaign. Which meant he should probably be out there doing damage control.

  “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw. This is gonna suck even more.” He put his head in his hands and sat on the bed, where Matthias soon joined him.

  “Yup. We got you being ‘homeschooled’ now, so no more school. We’ll train indoors during the day and we’ll patrol in the early morning before dawn. Most of our training will focus on unarmed fighting and weapons as well as reaching a more full understanding of your powers.”

  Matthias’s voice had gotten more and more cold and remote as the conversation had gone on. Erik wondered why. Then he wondered why he cared. If Matthias wanted to get cold and distant it was for the best; the less close someone was, the easier to see a betrayal coming. He pushed the whole thing from his mind.

  “We have enemies. Not only the Angelics but their Suits within the government and without. As much as I hate to agree with Hu, you are a valuable weapon in the fight if you choose to join it. They may send people after you and we do not want you unprotected when you go out, so we ha—”

  “Who’s this ‘we’ you keep talking about? I thought you were an independent.” Erik suspected Matthias of using the formal language in an attempt to place even more distance between them. The silence that answered him as good as confirmed it, as did the different tone and softness to Matthias’s voice when he spoke again.

  “I have a present for you.”

  A hand took Erik’s in the dark and pressed his fingers close together. Something cold and metallic was slipped over them. The same was done with his other hand, though Matthias’s hand lingered on his own for much longer than was necessary. Then the touch was gone and Erik could feel him getting off the bed and backing away to the wall.

  “Close your eyes.”

  Even with his eyes closed, the sudden flare of light burned and left orange and pink starbursts dancing behind his eyelids. When his eyes had adjusted, he opened them and looked down at his wrists. They were both adorned with thick metal bracelets, bent and reshaped oddly, flat in some places and almost pointed in others. They were cold and sleek as he jangled his wrists; there was a weight to them, more than it should be.

  He looked up at Matthias in question.

  “Diamond coated in a layer of chromium, an easily hidden weapon.”

  Erik looked at them again, confused as to how they were a weapon. Matthias sighed heavily and stepped forward, once again taking Erik’s hand in his own. Carefully, touching as little as possible, he slid the bracelet back up until the flattened portion rested in his palm and then closed his hand into a fist. Erik lifted his hand and admired the way that the weapon hugged the space between his first and second knuckles. The blunt edges and burnished surface would make his punches more deadly. He liked it.

  “Or perhaps we don’t have to do more weapons training at all.”

  “No. I like this one.”

  Matthias smiled lightly as Erik positioned the other weapon on his fist as well and made a few experimental jabs into the air.

  “Good, well, get dressed and let’s go.”

  Erik was startled out of playing with his new toys. “Now?”

  Leaving in the dead of night was odd and made him wonder if Matthias was actually afraid of something. “Yes, I figured we could snoop a bit before we go. And I want to get you out of here as soon as possible.”

  “What about Melinda?” Erik was anxious to explore but he also wanted to say goodbye.

  “You can go and say goodbye before we leave.” Then he opened the door and was gone before Erik could say anything else. He stared at the closed door, then down at the bracelets that reminded him of Matthias every time he moved. He hadn’t unpacked most of his things, a habit that annoyed Robert because he was always wrinkled, but he felt the time saving was worth it.

  He had finally decided to venture out to Melinda’s room when he heard footsteps converging from different directions in the hall outside. Then the low murmur of voices. Erik froze with his hand already turning the doorknob. Slowly he crouched to place himself below the immediate line of sight and carefully, cautiously, finished turning the knob, cracking the door to listen in.

  “We apologize for coming at such a late hour but we did not want to miss your departure.” Luka’s voice was sharp, almost angry.

  “Of course. Well, I regret to say that we will not be staying any longer; if you wish to contact me after Erik is settled back with his parents, feel free,” Matthias replied.

  “So you leave like a cockroach scuttling before the light?” Hu’s voice was heavy with barely leashed anger.

  “Let me remind you that we are only here as a favor to the Organization and in return we have almost been killed, most likely by someone on the inside. I believe it makes perfect sense for us to leave now and in secret.” If Hu’s anger was leashed, Matthias’s was not. His rage was a well-trained attack animal held back only by its master’s will.

  The silence that filled that hall was heavy and Erik longed to peek out and see their faces, but he had no desire to get caught.

  “In any case.
We’re afraid this news cannot wait.” Luka pushed on, her voice slightly more conciliatory now.

  “I don’t know what you think you can say—”

  “We’ve been contacted by Suit Byron.”

  Silence again. This time so complete and unbroken that Erik thought they were gone, that somehow they’d been spirited away to a private chamber. Just when he was prepared to chance it and push the door open further and try to catch a glimpse of the hallway, Matthias spoke, though his voice was quieter now. It sounded fragile, close to breaking.

  “What, where has he been?”

  “He neglected to fill us in on his last few years of his life—” The sarcasm was heavy in Hu’s voice, and then it cut off completely with coughing and choking sounds.

  “Put him down, Matthias, honestly. This is all just wasting time.”

  The choking cut off with the thump of a falling body.

  “And what did the traitor want?” His voice was hard, without emotion.

  “Our help.”

  Matthias laughed. Despite the growing attraction that Erik felt for the man, he shivered to hear the lack of sanity in that sound.

  “Oh, does he?”

  “Actually, he was contacting us on behalf of the Agency.”

  The silence again was long and deep, filled with secrets Erik had not yet been told.

  “How much do they know?”

  “As much as Byron did when he turned, but we’ve changed everything we could since then—passwords, safe house locations, gathering times. Everything that could be altered was, but we must still assume he told them much of our numbers, powers, the bloodlines we had located. And what the Suits know, the Angelics do as well.”