by Sadie Waters
His eyes widened slightly, and she could tell he was more afraid than he was willing to show her. “You can prove it?” he asked.
“I can.”
“How? By producing a demon and killing it in front of me or something?” He smirked at her, and Ember was tempted to kick him underneath the table.
“No, smartass. I have my ways. There’s a lot more to our world than just that, but Ryan has a theory about how it is you could see the Scale last night. I don’t think there’s any way he could be right, but I want to take you to visit with a friend of mine who might know. His name is Dr. Sylas Ford. He’s an Ink but he also works in the religious studies department of NYU. He might be able to help us.”
Zach was shaking his head before she even finished. “I have to go to work. And class. And I have a test coming up next week.”
“Or you could be dead next week.”
He was out of his seat, walking toward the kitchen with his cup in his hand. He approached the sink, dumped the liquid out, methodically, like he wasn’t even aware of what he was doing. “I can’t do this.”
“Zach?”
Leaning against the counter, he folded his arms but then unfolded one to run it through his hair. “I have… a date next week. This girl… I met at the library. She’s cute, not compared to you, but then who is….”
He was rambling, clearly more than a little freaked out. Ember slowly walked toward him, trying not to chuckle at that last comment. “Zach?”
“I just… I can’t do this right now….”
Unsure of whether or not what she was about to do would make him lose it even more or give him the evidence he’d asked for earlier, Ember decided to prove to him that her story was real, and he needed to listen to the rest of what she wanted to tell him. Coming to a stop in front of him, she held out her right hand. He looked at it, still listing off all of the things he had to do, but as a small white light began to form in her palm, Zach’s mouth stopped moving, hanging open as he watched the light grow.
Ember didn’t make the ball of light too large or hot, but she wanted him to see what she was capable of. Once she had his attention, she passed her left hand over the top of her right, extinguishing the small flicker of power she’d brought to life there. “Zach… listen… you are in danger. But the four of us can keep you safe, if you’ll let us. Are you willing to listen to the rest of what I have to say?”
Zach closed his mouth, his eyes still wide as saucers, but he nodded. Ember gestured back to their chairs at the table, and Zach headed back over, bewildered.
Chapter Nine
Ember gave Zach a few minutes at the table to collect his breath while she made him a fresh cup of coffee to replace the one he hadn’t even realized he’d dumped out. She noticed him looking around for it, his eyes still wild, as he sat in his seat, his leg jumping around underneath like a frog at the starting line in a county fair. Part of her wanted to laugh, but the rest of her just felt sorrow for him. She’d known who she was her entire life, known everything about this secret world. Zach had to be in his early-to-mid-twenties, which was a long time to believe one thing about life only to find out he was very wrong.
When the coffee was done, she brought it over. She’d noticed earlier he hadn’t added anything to it but she offered anyway. “We have a few different flavors of creamer.”
“It’s okay. Thanks.” He waited for her to set the cup down and then snatched it up off of the table like coffee was oxygen. Burning his tongue wasn’t a deterrent to his first few gulps. Ember reclaimed her seat and waited for his attention again.
Setting the cup down but keeping his hand on it, Zach asked, “So… what else could you possibly need to tell me?”
“Not much,” she admitted. “I just thought you should know what our various powers are and how you may fit into that, if Ryan’s right, that’s all. You do understand now, though, that you can’t possibly go on about your daily life, right? The power that I showed you, they have it, too. Some of them. For every Sorcha power, there is an opposite Scale power. Except for one. I’ll get to that last.”
“All right.” He was listening, but she could tell he was distracted by what she’d shown him, and the worry that was taking over his mind. There was a good chance she might have to repeat all of this when he was more capable of hearing it.
“So… there are three main powers that both sides, light and shadow, have. We call them Flying, Throwing, and Blending. Flying isn’t actually flying, it’s just running super fast. Throwing is creating that ball of energy in your hand and then tossing it at whatever it is you want to hurt or catch on fire. We can decide the strength, heat level, things like that. And Blending is the ability to be invisible.” Ember paused to see if he was with her. Zach’s face hadn’t changed. He didn’t look lost or confused, just dumbfounded. “For the most part, each Sorcha or Scale only has one of these powers. But some of us have all three.”
“You have all three?” he inquired, and Ember was glad he at least caught that much.
“Yes--I can have all three because I am a receptor. It’s sort of hard to explain, but I basically have three batteries inside of me, and when one of my powers starts to run low, I can go to an original source of that power and recharge.”
“Okay,” he said with a shrug. “And the guys? Do they have all three?”
Ember had hoped he’d catch on to what she was aiming at without her having to spell it out, but it seemed like she wasn’t going to be that lucky. “No, they each have one. Ryan is a Flyer, Jake is a Thrower, and Carson is a Blender.”
Zach nodded and took another sip of his coffee. “What’s Ruby?”
“She’s a Blender. But she happens to be really fast, too, so sometimes it seems like she’s a Flyer. Lane is like me--a receptor. We call the other type of entities chargers.”
“That makes sense.” He set his cup down. “So you’re telling me you could go invisible, right here, right now, if you wanted to?”
“I could. And so could Carson. He does that a lot to sneak up on Jake and Ryan.” She shook her head slightly in annoyance. “He thinks it’s funny.”
“Can he sneak up on you?”
“No. Because I have that power myself, I can see him. He can see me. But Throwers and Flyers can’t see Blenders when they are invisible. The only other entity that could see them is one we were pretty sure was extinct--Seers.”
She could see a lump form in his throat and watched him struggle to swallow it. “Seers?”
“That’s right. For thousands of years, we had the upper hand because we had Seers. Not only could they see Scale Blenders when they were invisible, they could see other things, too. You see, Scales use their dark magic of blending with the shadows to pass through solid objects differently than we can, such as walls.”
“Closet doors?” he said with a grin that let her know he was thinking of a little kid’s worst nightmare.
“Yes. They can pass in and out of dreams. We can’t do that. But when we had the Seers, most times, they could help us find Scales before they did too much damage, before they moved in on a target. Scales are looking for energy from humans, and they get most of it from killing. While they are content to sit around and feed off a person and drain them a bit at a time, they like the savage kill. And the only way a human can see a Scale is in a mind altered state--asleep, twilight slumber, or drugs.”
“But I saw one last night, according to you,” Zach pointed out.
“Exactly.” Ember nodded.
“Which led Ryan to his conclusion that I’m a Seer?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t make any sense.” She ran a hand through her hair, the exhaustion of explaining everything setting in. “You see, Zach, Sorcha are like humans in a lot of ways. We have physical bodies. We eat, breathe air, drink water, go to the bathroom. We are born and we die. Scales aren't like that. They feed off of human energy, and rather than dying, they’re banished to eternal fire. They aren’t born. They’re the fallen.”
/> “All right….”
“When a Sorcha is born, we know who and what we are. Sometimes it takes us a few years to fully develop our memories because we’re just babies, after all, but by the time I was three, I remembered who I had been before--all the way back to the fall. All of us do.”
Zach’s eyebrows were arched. “So you’re like twenty-thousand years old or something?”
“It doesn’t really matter how many years old my soul is, Zach. My body is twenty-seven. But I remember all of that. Seers would, too. But you don’t, right?”
“I have a great memory. I remember a lot of stuff from the last twenty-five years, but I sure as hell don’t remember anything before that.”
“Which makes me think you’re not a Seer. Besides, somehow about two hundred years ago, the Scales used some sort of dark energy to eradicate the Seers.” She shook her head, smoothing her hair along her shoulder as she thought back to the realization that the Scales had gotten in such a sharp blow. “They just stopped reincarnating. All of them.”
Even Zach looked saddened by the revelation. “How many were there?”
“About a hundred. There are about two hundred of each of the other three powers.”
“And how many Scales?”
“A lot more than that. We’ve handled thousands over the years, but there are always more.” She thought of her arch-nemesis, Lilith, and how she longed to send her to hellfire. All these years, and she’d only gotten close a few times. “So… I’d like for you to come with me today to talk to Dr. Ford so he can maybe come up with an alternative explanation for what allowed you to see that Scale last night. Because, Zach, while it’s a nice theory, I just don’t think there’s any way you’re actually a Seer.”
“Me neither,” he said quickly, taking another sip of his coffee.
Behind him, Ember saw Carson creeping down the hall, that slight iridescent glow around him that let her know he was Blending so she was the only other one in the house that could see him. He may have looked hot in only his boxer shorts, but she was irritated at him for being so rude to Zach, and as he held a finger to his lips to cue her to be quiet so he could sneak up on their guest now, she wanted to punch him in his handsome face.
“What?” Zach asked, seeing her expression. Ember didn't get a chance to answer before he turned around and looked over his shoulder. “Oh, hey, Carson,” Zach said, taking another sip of his coffee. “I guess I should be thankful you’re at least wearing your underwear.” He sort of chuckled to himself and then turned back around, setting his coffee cup down.
Ember’s mouth had hit the floor, and she couldn’t get it to close, nor could she form words. Carson had an equally stunned look on his face. They stared at each other in silence, contemplating what had just happened.
“What?” Zach asked, looking from one of them to the other. “What did I miss?”
“How the hell….” Carson said, still standing across the room, his hands on his hips.
“Told you.” Ryan was standing on the landing halfway down the stairs, a triumphant look on his face.
Ember was beginning to think perhaps the Flyer was right.
Chapter Ten
Carson took a few steps closer to Zach, staring at him as if he’d just seen a ghost--or a Scale for the first time. “How the hell is that possible?” he asked. “You can see me.”
Zach was still confused. He looked from the burly Ink to Ember and then back again. “Of course I can see you.” Then to Ember, he asked, “What’s happening?”
She got out of her chair and walked toward Carson. Zach followed, still dumbfounded. “Zach, Carson is Blending right now,” Ember explained. “You shouldn’t be able to see him. I can see him because I have that power. But Ryan can’t see him.”
Shifting his attention to Ryan, who was leaning over the railing on the landing, still looking pleased with himself, Zach asked, “You can’t see Carson. He’s right here.” He pointed to his right where Carson was standing in his boxers, his hands on his hips, shaking his head.
“I can’t see him.” Ryan didn’t even bother to turn his head, knowing it would be impossible for him to see Carson while he was Blending, not that he wasn’t already in his line of sight without turning his head.
“Ember, let’s see if he can see you when you Blend,” Carson offered.
It wasn’t a bad idea, so Ember took a couple of steps back away from Zach and then used her power to make herself invisible. “Well?”
“Well what?” Zach asked.
Turning her head to look at Ryan, she asked, “Can you see me, babe?”
“Nope,” Ryan said.
“I can.” Carson winked at her, once he had her attention, and she made a kissy face at him, pouring as much sarcasm into the gesture as possible.
“I can, too,” Zach said, confused. He looked at Ryan. “Are you shitting me? You really can’t see them? Is there something wrong with your eyes?”
Ember made herself visible again and put a hand out to Ryan, begging him not to bother to answer that. “Zach, he really can’t see us when we do that. If Jake were here, he wouldn’t be able to either.”
Closing his eyes and squeezing the bridge of his nose, Zach said, “I heard everything you said before, and that ball of light was a really cool trick but… I just can’t.”
“And we’re back to that.” Ember dropped her head, trying to contemplate what to do to convince him that they weren’t tricking him. A slight breeze caught her hair and she looked up to see Ryan had flown over to where they were congregated, and Zach jumped back away from him, hitting the chair he’d been sitting in a few moments ago. He let out a small squeal, and Ember thought about how Ruby had described his screams the night before. The part about him sounding like a little girl may have been accurate.
“What the hell!” Zach shouted. “Not cool.”
“I was just trying to show you what I can do,” Ryan said with a shrug, taking a step back. “Chill out man.”
“I’m gonna go put some pants on.” Carson looked as aggravated as Ember felt.
“Good idea,” she agreed, wishing there was something she could say to get Zach to calm down. He had backed up closer to the balcony door, like he thought he might have to defend himself against an apartment full of crazies.
Carson and Jake passed each other in the hall, and even though Jake couldn’t see him, he scooted aside because he had learned to sense when one of his roommates was invisible. Luckily, Zach didn’t seem to notice or he would’ve declared that was evidence of their trickery. “What’s going on? I thought I heard a little girl screaming.” Jake’s hair was damp, like he’d just gotten out of the shower, and Ember wanted to go run her fingers through it. Unfortunately, there was no time for that at the moment.
“Zach is freaking out.” Ryan sounded as calm as ever as he went about fixing his morning protein shake.
The high pitched tone of Zach’s voice proved Ryan’s point, even when he said, “No, I’m not. I’m not freaking out.”
“You seem perfectly rational to me.” Jake bit his bottom lip, trying to keep his sarcasm from being obvious. “Are these guys picking on you, Zach?”
“They’re… doing something. They’re all crazy. I think I have wandered into an insane asylum.”
“What did you guys do?” Jake set his hands on his hips and looked at Ember like he was her father, and she’d misbehaved.
“Nothing,” she assured him. “I explained everything to him--well most everything--and then I showed him my Throwing power. Carson came out here--Blending--and Zach could see him. He can see me when I do it, too, And Ryan freaked him out a little when he flew over here.”
Jake stared at Ryan for a second. The Flyer took a drink and shrugged, and then the Thrower dropped his head and shook it for a few minutes. “You guys, do you have any idea how overwhelming all of this must be for him? Really? All of that at once?”
“Thank you!” Zach exclaimed. “It’s a lot to take in.”
&nbs
p; “It is a lot to take in. Tell you what, buddy, why don’t you go take a shower, in my shower, get away from these good for nothings for a while, and I’ll set them straight--sound good?”
Zach hesitated, but Ember could see the wheels in his head spinning. “A shower does sound nice…. But I don’t have any clean clothes.”
“I’ll hook you up. Come on.” Jake slapped Zach on the back and took him down the hall to his room, and Ember prayed that Jake would work his magic--his other kind of magic--and calm the guy down. She’d thought she had him convinced there for a few minutes until Carson showed up and everything went off kilter again.
Finished with his protein drink, Ryan washed his cup out and stuck it in the dishwasher before he came over and wrapped his arms around her from behind. Ember leaned into him, breathing in the scent of the soap he always used, that blend of his aftershave and deodorant, and that unique smell that was just him. She closed her eyes, thinking back to the night before, wishing she could just go back and start over. He kissed the top of her head. “You’re going to say I told you so again, aren’t you?” she asked, keeping her eyes closed.
“Nope,” he assured her, his fingertips brushing against her neck as he moved her hair. “I don’t need to.”
Opening her eyes, she met his, and couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but I think you must be right. How can Zach be a Seer?”
“Now that, I can’t tell you,” he admitted. “But I’m hoping Dr. Ford can. Either way, we’ve got a big problem on our hands. Because if the Scales find out we’ve got him, they’re going to come after him with everything they’ve got.”
Ember swallowed hard and leaned her head back against Ryan’s chest, knowing he was right. As annoying as Zach could be, they would have to do everything they could to protect him because letting the Scales have their Seer just wasn’t an option.
Chapter Eleven
