“She’s telling the truth,” Aidan said. “The person behind Soma is the same person behind the Milan Initiative. He’s playing both sides. The Chief Justice are in his pocket. Pawns like the rest of us.” He knew very little about Livia’s father, Marcus Servius. Just the few details Quinn and Santi had told him, but he knew enough to suspect he was likely the real benefactor behind the Milan Initiative. He’d built Soma into a powerhouse. A man like that would be on to the next bigger and better thing—an army of Syntrophos.
“And here I thought you were all mindless sheep.” Rowan smiled. “Aidan pays attention.”
“So, why stage this bullshit takeover at all?” Bennett asked. “Why waste time training us to take over Soma if they’ve already got it?”
“It’s a coup for the Chief Justice. To our world, they will look like heroes,” Rowan said. “Re-electable heroes. While behind the scenes, Soma just moves from his left hand to his right.”
“Who are we talking about?” Wes demanded. “Who is this person making decisions for me and my Syntrophos?”
“You don’t want to know,” Aidan and Rowan said at the same time.
Aidan stared at Rowan as if seeing her for the first time. “What do you know of him?” He asked, not expecting an answer.
“Who do you think trained me?” she said in a hushed tone while the others continued to talk over them. “I have his ear. More than the fools who believe they are in charge of this venture.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Aidan asked. “If you’re trying to gain my loyalty, it’s not going to work.”
“I don’t need your loyalty. You can see me as a monster without a conscious, but I do what I must to take care of my own. They are my responsibility, and my loyalty lies with them and only them. Can’t you imagine what I wouldn’t give to be in the same room with my Syntrophos and my Complement? What I wouldn’t give for the opportunity to keep them both safe? Until that miracle happens, I am a tool Marcus wields as he pleases.” Rowan stood, tossing some lira on the table. “Order another round and then get back to your rooms. And remember the rules next time.”
Aidan sat in silence, watching her leave. She was trying to tell him something without saying it. Whether she meant to or not, Rowan had just given him a great idea—if Naomi would go along with it.
If Aidan was going to sweep Soma beyond Marcus’s reach, he needed to earn his trust. And if he played his cards right, Marcus would think he had the child of prophecy under his thumb at last. Aidan could use that to his advantage. When the time came for them to make a move against Soma, Marcus wouldn’t think twice about sending the full army of Syntrophos to seize Sterling Tower for the Senate—including Rowan and her team. He would get her in the same room with her Syntrophos and her Complement. Aidan would give her the miracle she craved and when he did, she would cast her lot in with him. That was the only way Aidan could be sure no one was left behind.
“Who is this Marcus guy and what’s he after?” Bennett asked, interrupting Aidan’s thoughts.
“Power. Total control.” Aidan shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. He’s on the wrong track anyway.”
“How do you know all of this?” Wes asked.
“To be honest, I’m making a lot of guesses, but I know I’m right. It’s the prophecy.” Aidan swirled the last of his drink around the bottom of the glass.
“So there is a prophecy about you?” Bennett asked.
“It’s not about me,” Aidan said. “Marcus will think it is. And that’s fine, let him.” As long as Marcus was fixated on him, he wouldn’t spare a second thought for Allie.
“What does this prophecy say?” Wes asked.
“That a child will repair the damage our ancestors caused during the Great War. That he will lead us into an uncertain future filled with darkness.” Naomi offered. “Many have thought Aidan is this child.” She met his gaze. “And our family has had a few close calls with this Marcus guy.”
“If it’s not about Aidan, then who is it about?”
“We don’t really know,” Naomi explained. She still didn’t know the prophecy was about Allie, though she might suspect it by now.
“It’s about all of us,” Aidan said. He would protect Allie no matter what, but her role in the prophecy was only one part. They were all in this together. “Our generation will rise up as one to stand against the corruption of our world—a corruption Marcus is responsible for. I’m beginning to wonder if Soma is where we make our stand. If we do this, I need everyone to trust me. Can I count on you all?”
Naomi gave him a worried look. “Of course.”
“We’re behind you a hundred percent,” Samantha said.
“You can count on me and Ezra too.” Wes added.
Aidan nodded, grateful for their loyalty. He just wished he could talk to his father. Gregg would talk him through this. But the moment Aidan reached out to his family, Cleo and Genevieve would be on Allie like a pack of wild dogs. If he risked it, he could end up just like Rowan and he wouldn’t allow the two most important women in his life to be used against him like that.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Allie
Cleveland, April
Allie paced the length of the barn gym back at her house. After nearly two months, Navid was still lost in the dreamworld, a captive within Brecken’s prison tower and they still didn’t have a plan to get him out. It killed her to watch his body waste away. He slept, ate, and shuffled around his home in the Yard. He mumbled and muttered when she tried to talk to him, but his mind was far away, locked in the world of dreams for as long as Brecken deigned to keep him prisoner. Everyone insisted she had to move on, but Allie and Livia spent every spare moment in the dreamworld searching for their father.
“Is there any change?” Allie blurted the moment her mentor walked through the door. She hadn’t visited Navid in nearly a week and she was anxious for news of his condition.
“I’m sorry, no,” Emma said. “Navid is resting comfortably at home. Raina is taking good care of him, making sure he eats and drinks and gets plenty of rest. His physical body is fine.”
But he wasn’t fine. Not in his mind. “I was just hoping for a change.” Allie sank to the mat.
“Quinn and his walkers are working day and night to bring him home, Allie.”
“I know. So what’s on our agenda today?”
“Give me a second to catch my breath. I feel like I’ve been running a marathon today.” She shrugged out of her jacket, her eyes sweeping up to the finished hayloft. “Our training room is ready?”
“It has walls, but we don’t have any furniture up there yet. Or air conditioning.”
“Oh. Bummer. I was hoping for a more comfortable space for our session today.”
“We’re not working out?”
“Not today.”
“Want to hang out in the house? Everyone’s at school, except Darius. We don’t have class until this afternoon. I can tell him to make himself scarce.”
“Let’s do that. I don’t relish sitting on the floor if we don’t have to. These old bones are feeling their age today.”
“We just need to find the time to furnish this place, and we’ll be more comfortable here.”
“You know, Livia has turned her new apartment into a beautiful space, and she’s bored to death in the underground. I bet she’d be happy to order some things for the gym.”
“Sounds good to me. I bet we could bring her here and let her go nuts. She’d love a field trip.” Allie led her mentor through the barn doors and across the lawn to the little cottage she shared with her friends and Darius.
“Tea?” Allie offered. “I don’t have coffee. It keeps disappearing when Naeemah visits.”
“Yes, please, I’d love some tea and anything you have to eat. I’m starving.” Emma climbed wearily onto a bar stool at the kitchen counter. “You know, one of these days, you’re going to win that war with Naeemah.” Emma laughed. “How do you even manage to buy coffee anymore? She’s hit every
grocery store in the city by now.”
“You can’t rat me out, Emma.” Allie poured filtered water into the electric teakettle. “It’s my secret weapon.” She placed a hand on the kettle, heating the water with her solar gift. It was just faster than the old fashioned way.
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Well, it turns out, Naeemah can’t work her magic mind mojo on a U Scan It machine so I sneak a few items into my shopping every week, coffee being the number one contraband item in this house. That and chocolate.”
“But you’re sticking to your clean diet most of the time, right? It’s my duty to ask as your mentor.”
“I actually don’t mind the clean diet if I can have my vices every once in a while.”
“Naeemah would likely agree with you and put an end to this nonsense.”
“No way, man, we’re having too much fun messing with each other.”
Emma rolled her eyes. Eyes with dark circles.
“You sure you’re okay, Emma? You look tired. Is everything okay at home?” Allie sorted through her tins of loose-leaf tea searching for her favorite chamomile. She would deny it until the ends of the earth, but she’d recently discovered she actually loved tea. She wasn’t about to turn her back on coffee, but she’d cut down on her caffeine intake since Naeemah strong-armed her into a clean diet. It wasn’t so bad.
“I’m just so … exhausted with everything.” Emma rubbed a palm across her brow.
“Any news of Chloe or Jin?” Allie asked.
“She doesn’t want to be found and Jin won’t rest until he brings her home. It’s been a year.” Emma’s shoulders slumped. “I just worry about her. And Jin’s not in his right mind. It’s so heartbreaking to watch the way they use their abilities against each other. Jin follows her trail using his probabilities gift.”
“And Chloe evades him with her version of that same gift.” Allie sighed. “She can see his decisions before he even makes them.”
“Chloe is capable. I know she can take care of herself and she’ll come home when she’s ready,” Emma said. “I just wish Jin could see that for himself. If he would stop chasing her, she might settle down somewhere safe. For most of the last year, she’s frequented the Boston area a lot. I can’t help but think Chloe would stay with Graham near MIT if we’d just leave her alone.”
“How is Graham?” Allie asked, trying to steer her mentor away from talk of Chloe.
Emma smiled. “He’s doing great. I can’t believe his freshman year of college is already behind him. He’ll be home for the summer soon, and I can’t wait to baby him a little. I love having Quinn so close to home, but he’s all grown up now. He’s still so young, but he doesn’t need me as much anymore.”
“He will always need you,” Emma.”
“I know, but it’s not fair.” Emma fumbled with her tea infuser. “Soma stole so much from him. He’s only twenty-two but he’s Commander of the Dreamworld and fully in charge of his own life. I completely missed the years between his adolescence and adulthood. He was my first baby boy. And my first child since Hélène. The world was different when she was young and I made so many mistakes with her. There are almost five hundred years between my two eldest children. Adopting Quinn was like starting over, and I so wanted to get it right with him in a way I never did with Hélène. I don’t know, maybe I finally have it right with Graham.” She sipped her tea. “All you kids have had such trials over the years. It’s just not right. I want to protect all of you from this cruel world as long as I can but it never seems to work out that way.”
Allie stirred honey into her tea, wishing she had the right words to make Emma feel better. “I think despite the crappy things we’ve all been through, we’re stronger because of it. Because you’ve all prepared us for what’s out there.” Allie said.
Emma took a sip of her tea, closing her eyes and letting her shoulders slump.
“I know you’re stressed, but are you sure you’re okay, Emma?” Allie couldn’t put her finger on it, but her mentor was not her normal self. Emma thrived on chaos and was always moving at a million miles an hour. There was nothing she couldn’t handle.
“I don’t know, Allie. I’m feeling a little run down and tired, I guess. I don’t think I’m sleeping enough.” She reached for her fourth vegan, whole grain “donut” that Allie normally left for Sasha to eat. In her opinion, they made better coasters than food. “But enough about me,” Emma said. “We need to talk about evolving gifts. You’re due for another spurt of progress.”
But Allie wasn’t listening to Emma’s rambling thoughts. Something was wrong with Emma. She was in danger. Allie could see her future filled with blood and pain. Emma’s screams of agony and terror reverberated in Allie’s mind. Darkness. A perfect storm of unpredictable chaos. Allie couldn’t see through the veil obscuring her visions, but she could hear the foreign cry. Emma was headed for a change—one she likely wasn’t expecting.
“Are you even listening to me, Allie?”
“What? No, sorry.” The aura around Emma had gone green, telling Allie she was on to something with substance. The green visions always happened one way or another no matter how much or how little she meddled with the outcome.
“What did you see just now? You’re looking at me weird.”
Allie shook her head. “Something’s … strange here.” She pulled her mentor up from her chair. “Just stay there. Let me get a good look at you.”
“Allie, seriously. I’m fine.”
“Oh, my God. No way,” Allie gasped, staring at her mentor with wide eyes. A smile spread across her face. She doesn’t know! But why would she? She was more than eight hundred years old. It probably never occurred to her.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Allie?”
“How long have you been feeling out of sorts, Emma?” Allie finally asked, hoping to lead her to the realization on her own.
“A while. I don’t know, really. It’s nothing.”
“Emma, it’s not nothing.” Allie tried to hide her smile behind her hands, but she was losing this battle. All the screaming and blood made sense now. It wasn’t exactly a dangerous vision, although it did seem like Emma might be in for a difficult night.
“Why are you acting like a goof? What are you smiling about?” Emma frowned. “You’re making me nervous.”
“Emma … I think you’re pregnant.” Allie clapped her hands over her mouth, trying to contain her excitement. She couldn’t wait to meet the baby. It was a boy but she waned to keep that knowledge to herself.
“What? No way.” Emma shook her head, sinking back into her chair. “You’re just nuts, lady. Totally nuts.” Her face went pasty white, and Allie feared she was about to faint.
“Emma, you don’t look so good there. Can Immortals pass out from shock?”
“I-I don’t know.” Her hands shook. “I don’t know anything.”
“Breathe, Emma.” Allie snatched up a magazine from the pile of mail by the teapot, furiously fanning Emma’s face.
“You’ve lost your mind, Allie.” Emma shook her head again. “I can’t be having a baby.” She said baby like babies were aliens from another planet.
“Oh, but you are.” Allie grinned.
“Oh, but I’m, not. I’m old! I’m so freaking old. I should be thinking about grandchildren soon. Not babies. Not my babies. Maybe Quinn’s babies. But no, I’m not even ready for that yet. He certainly isn’t.”
“Ming Lao was about your age when she had Chloe,” Allie said softly, hoping to find the right words to calm Emma down because she was totally cracking right now.
“Shut your face.” Emma reached for Allie’s hand, squeezing it like a lifeline. “I’m scared, Allie. Oh please, be wrong.” She closed her eyes. “Please, dear God, please let my sweet, amazingly talented clairvoyant student be dead wrong.”
“Should I call Daniel?” Allie asked.
“Nu-uh, he’ll freak out, and right now I’m freaking. He doesn’t get to freak. Oh my God!
I’m going to kill him. My stupid husband knocked me up.”
“Emma, you’re a wonderful mother. You can do this.”
“Nope, nope.” She shook her head. “This is not fair. We’re infertile for God’s sake. We don’t get to have babies. We’re taught all our lives that it will probably never happen for us. We adopt the lost Immortal children and love them as our own. I don’t want to do this, Allie. I can’t grow a tiny human inside me! You know how crazy that sounds?”
“It’s rare, but it happens; you know this, Emma.”
“Well it’s not supposed to happen to me! Oh, lord. I don’t know anything about being pregnant. How long does it last?”
“Whoa, Emma, you’ve got to take some deep breaths with me. Let’s concentrate on not freaking out so that brain of yours starts working again.”
“How much time do I have?”
“Okay, we are going to take a deep breath in. Okay, Emma?
She nodded, turning her frantic eyes on Allie.
“One. Two. Three. Deep breath.” Allie sucked in air along with Emma. “Hold it. And breathe out.” Allie coached her through another few breaths. “You breathe and I’ll talk.”
Emma nodded again, taking another big breath, still clutching Allie’s hand like a vise.
“When was your last period?” Allie asked.
“I don’t remember.”
“You need to try,” Allie said.
“Allie, for God’s sake, it was easily before your were born. I don’t remember the exact dates.”
“Really?”
“Once you get a few hundred years under your belt, your cycle gets erratic.”
“Did not know that. That’s something to look forward to, because this every month crap is for the birds.”
”Allie, focus!”
“Right. So pregnancy lasts nine months. You know this—or you would if you ever watched TV.” Allie blew a stray curl from her face, racking her brain for a way to talk Emma through this. “Right, you were there with Ming through her pregnancy with Chloe. It’s all going to come back to you once you’ve had time to absorb the shock. My gift tells me you’re a little more than four months along.” Emma’s grip on her hand tightened, but she kept breathing.
Emerge- The Betrayal Page 26
