Fractured Truth (33 page)

She looked around frantically as if to grab onto something. “I’m coming back for you! You’re all going to die!” she screamed, her face so distorted she looked nothing like the Sophie I knew. Her eyes settled on Rose. Before Sophie was pulled from the room, she raised her arm and shot a stream of Light, more like darkness by its color, from her palm. I turned just in time to see it hit Rose in the stomach. The force shoved her into the wall behind her, piercing her as if it were a dagger.

“No!” I cried and wiggled out from Liam. I took Rose by the shoulders and pulled her away from the wall. She collapsed into my arms. “Rose?”

I slowly lowered her to the floor, cradling her head in my lap.

“Rebecca, Abigail! Help her,” Dr. Han commanded. He was looking out the window as if to be sure Sophie was really gone.

The room filled with people then, like an imaginary door had finally opened. May and Tessa came to my side while Kiera stood behind me with Liam. Mrs. Crawford and Abigail kneeled on the other side of Rose.

“Can you help her?” I asked the two women.

“I don’t know if there’s anything I can do,” Abigail said. Mrs. Crawford looked at her sharply. Abigail shrugged. “I’ve been healing the others! I’m weak.”

Mrs. Crawford raised her hands over the gaping hole in Rose’s stomach. The skin around it was black as if burned and the smell made my stomach churn. I smoothed the hair away from her face. “Hold on, Rose.”

She looked up at me. “Llona,” she gasped.

“Don’t talk. Just rest,” I said. Mrs. Crawford’s hands were lit up. I felt the warmth from them on my legs.

“No time,” Rose whispered. “Listen.”

“Shh—”

She gripped my arm, silencing me. “There’s a cure. To remove a Vyken’s poison.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What? Where?”

“The Sentinelese. A tribe in the Andaman Islands.” She coughed suddenly, spraying the air with blood.

“Help her!” I said.

Mrs. Crawford shook her hands and created more Light. This time pressing it directly to Rose’s stomach. “I’m trying, but it’s not healing.”

Rose gasped and clutched my arm. With her last breath, she said, “Find happiness.”

I’ve seen Death so many
times that you’d think I’d be used to him by now. But I wasn’t. One minute the person you loved was there, the next they were gone, leaving only memories. I’d trade the greatest memories for the real thing, even at its worst, any day.

I didn’t cry this time even though the pain was just as severe. Another hole to add to my already cratered heart. I smoothed Rose’s silver hair back, wondering why she hadn’t saved herself. She obviously had the power to do so but had chosen to save me instead.

“I’m sorry,” May said. She was kneeling next to me, staring down at Rose.

I looked at her. Poor May. A dark bruise, barely yellowing, covered the left half of her face; the rest of it disappeared into her hairline. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her despondent expression made another crater in my heart.

I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close. “I can’t imagine what you went through. I wish I could take away all of your pain.”

She inhaled deeply. On her exhale, she said, “It seems it’s our lot in life to suffer.”

It took me a minute to answer. There was chaos all around us as Dr. Han tried to explain what had happened. I blocked
out as much of it as I could. “Time will fix this, May, if we let it. We just have to keep fighting.”

“I don’t know if I can.” Her voice was small.

“We’ll do it together. Like we always do.”

Her head nodded slightly.

“Llona?”

It was Dr. Han. “Let us take her,” he said, looking down at Rose’s body. “We’ll bury her in the Auran graveyard.”

“I think she’d like that.”

Arik came and picked her up. I appreciated how gentle he was with her.

When he left the room, Tessa came to kneel in front of May and me. “How can I help?”

“I need to get back to Aaron,” May said.

“Why don’t you go with her, Tessa?” I asked.

Tessa nodded and helped May up. May glanced back at me. “What about you?”

I looked across the room. Liam was sitting down, talking to Dr. Han, but every few seconds his eyes met mine. He was exhausted. I saw it in the way his shoulders were slumped over his ribs and by the large amount of sweat dotting his forehead. He never perspired. “I’ll come up in a while.”

“There’s going to be a war, isn’t there?” Tessa asked.

No one said anything. Silence was answer enough.

“Let’s go,” Tessa said and turned toward the door. May paused for a moment, our eyes meeting in a painful stare. Finally she nodded and followed after Tessa.

When the room was almost empty, I attempted to stand. Having used up much of my Light, I was extremely weak. My legs buckled a couple of times, and I almost fell, but Mrs. Crawford came to steady me.

“I’ve got you,” she said.

“Thank you.” I leaned into her as she guided me toward Liam and Dr. Han.

“I’m sorry about Sophie,” she said. “I’m still in shock.”

“Me too.” Truth was I had deliberately blocked out Sophie’s betrayal until just now. The pain was sudden and severe, and I stopped moving to keep from throwing up. How could she do it? And why? These were the first of many questions that raced through my mind, but the most important one was, who was this Llona-person that Sophie spoke about? My mom’s and her sister? I’d never heard of her. I looked up at Dr. Han.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. The lines in his face were deep; the pain in his eyes went deeper. “You don’t understand.”

“Tell me who Llona was,” I demanded. “I want to know everything. I want to understand what possibly could’ve happened to make Sophie choose Cyrus over her own kind.”

“Sit by me, Llona,” Liam said.

I limped over and dropped next to him on a large box. He gave me a reassuring squeeze.

You okay?
I thought.

He nodded but didn’t look at me.

Dr. Han walked to the open, shattered window. A cold breeze swirled around the room, catching his long robe along the way. The sun was just beginning to rise. Oranges and reds filled the eastern sky. It was a sunrise I might have enjoyed.

“Llona was your mother’s older sister, Sophie’s younger,” Dr. Han began. “She was exactly in the middle with everything.” He turned to face me. “Both Llona and Sophie had decided to stay on as staff after they graduated from Lucent. Personally, I think Sophie, whom Llona adored, talked Llona into it. I also think she wanted to keep an eye on your mother, Laura, who—as you probably already know—had a rebellious spirit.” He crossed back to us. “Llona was the best of both of them. She was kind and a hard worker with a questioning mind. She would’ve done anything for her sisters.”

He paused, giving me time to digest everything he was saying. Why had I never heard of her? Knowing my mother and father had kept something so huge from me made me angry. So many lies.

“What happened to her?” I asked.

Dr. Han slid a box over and sat near me. He didn’t look at me when he spoke next. “It happened the night your mother left Lucent to be with Mark, your father. Laura and Sophie had just gotten into a big fight over the fact that Laura was in a relationship with a Guardian. Everyone in the school heard it. Llona tried to intervene, but Sophie and Laura were like fire and ice.” He shifted in his seat as if preparing for something unpleasant. “When Laura ran away that night, Llona followed. From what I could gather, she got lost. No one really knows what happened, but the next morning she returned. She was disoriented, but even worse she had two bite marks on her neck.”

My eyes widened. “She was bitten?”

Dr. Han nodded. “Per Cyrus’s order, we quarantined her to keep it a secret. I’m ashamed to say I was a part of this. Only a few teachers, Sophie being one of them, knew about what happened. Sophie was devastated. She blamed Laura, of course.”

“Did my mom know?”

“Your mother came back to Lucent, but Sophie refused to let her see Llona, which only fueled the hatred between them.”

“What happened to Llona?”

He exhaled, one tired breath. “She slowly began to change. She’d have these fits of violence, destroying everything in the room. Sophie tried to help her, and for a time I thought it was helping. Even Sophie thought Llona could be saved. She and Cyrus became close during this time. I never realized how close until tonight.” His gaze drifted toward the open window. “Then one night, when it was raining hard, Llona broke her window and disappeared. We searched for two days. Eventually we found her. Dead.”

I sucked in air.

“We never found out who killed her. Sophie was devastated. For months she was inconsolable. Laura tried to see her many times, but the only person she’d allow into her room was Cyrus.
Then one day she emerged from her room seemingly a new person, completely dedicated to Auras.”

“And my mother?”

“She had your father to help her through the tough times.”

“But why didn’t she tell me about Llona?”

“I can’t speak for her, but I know that those who knew about what happened were too ashamed.” He looked down. “We failed her.”

“What would you have done differently?” Liam asked.

“I’m not sure if we could’ve done anything differently for Llona, but I would’ve made Sophie leave here for a while to grieve. I never felt right about her spending so much time with Cyrus, but he was our president. I was as naive as everyone else. Or lazy.”

“So it was Sophie who controlled the Shadow all along.” I thought back to when Cyrus took Sophie, at least I thought that’s what was happening at the time. The Shadow had gathered together from the four corners of the room and stood behind Cyrus, who was holding an unconscious Sophie. She was probably faking it. But the Shadow wasn’t behind Cyrus. He was behind Sophie.

We were silent for almost a full minute. The air blowing through the open window chilled the room, and I found myself rubbing my arms, mindful of the cut Sophie had given me.

“We have to prepare,” Dr. Han said. “She’s going to come back, and when she does, she won’t be alone.”

“We’ll fight with you,” a deep voice said behind me. I turned around. Petros filled the doorway. He looked particularly wolfy tonight with blue eyes that were practically glowing and muscles that looked like they might burst from his buttoned-up plaid shirt.

I opened my mouth to tell him thank you, but Liam stood up just then. He swayed slightly as if light-headed, then crossed the room to Petros.

No more drama
, I thought and was about to call him back, but Liam surprised me when he said, “I owe you an apology. I
may have had issues with Lycans in the past, but your pack has proven themselves. I may not want to be your friend, but I’m honored to fight next to you.” He held out his hand.

Petros looked down at it briefly before accepting. “And we have no desire to be your friend either.”

Liam let go and smiled. “Who knew we’d have something in common?”

“And of course we’re with you,” Arik said. He was leaning against the wall next to Mrs. Crawford while Abigail bandaged a cut on his arm.

“Most important,” Mrs. Crawford said, “Auras will fight. This is our home, and we will not see it destroyed.”

Dr. Han stood up. “I can’t ask these girls to take on a battle of that magnitude. I’ll have to consult with the Council, but for now we need to get some rest. It’s been a long day.”

We all agreed, but before we separated we let Mrs. Crawford and Abigail bandage our wounds. The cut on my arm was big enough that Abigail wanted to stitch it up, but I insisted she use butterfly bandages instead. Within a couple of days it would be back to normal. As for my face, she cleaned the jagged cuts with an alcohol swab. This stung something awful, but I didn’t flinch. The pain of Sophie’s betrayal was far more painful.

I was slow going up to my room. Liam came with me, but was unable to offer much assistance as he looked just as weak as I did, but with several more bandages. I opened the door to my room and stepped in, deliberately leaving the lights off. I stood there in silence, Liam on my right, and inhaled deeply. It smelled like roses.

“She spent a lot of time in here,” he said.

After a few seconds and a few deep breaths, I mentally turned on the lights. Next to my bed was a potted rose bush, the small buds a brilliant white. I walked over to it and lightly touched a petal. The rose bloomed all at once, startling me. I pulled back my hand, and the flower returned to its sleeping state.

I smiled. “I’m going to miss her.”

Liam lowered himself onto my bed, slow and careful.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“A little better, I guess.”

I joined him on the bed. “What happened?”

“The Shadow. It’s like it sucked all my energy when it passed through me. I’ve never encountered something I couldn’t fight before.”

Not many can
, I wanted to say. Only an Aura. “I wish Rose wouldn’t have stopped me.”

“Don’t say that. We’ll find another way. We have to.”

I looked at him. “There’s no other way, and you know it. One way or another, an Aura is going to have to die, and I’m not going to let it be anyone else, especially when they have nothing to do with it.”

“But neither do you.”

“That doesn’t matter. Sophie thinks I do.” My chest tightened. “I still can’t believe she caused all this. So much pain.”

“Try not to think about it right now. You need to get some rest.”

“I will, but first I want to check on May and Aaron. Will you wait here?”

“Of course.”

I found May downstairs in a room, sitting next to Aaron’s bed, holding his hand. Aaron’s feet hung off the bed at least a foot. “How’s he doing?” I asked.

“A little better, I think.”

“You should get some rest too.”

“I will.”

A clock on the wall ticked by the seconds. The soothing sound reminded me of my own tiredness. “This is all going to be over soon.”

“And then what?” She didn’t look at me.

“I’m going to leave.”

“To find the cure.”

I paused, realizing she must’ve overheard what Rose had said. If she did, then there was a good chance Liam did too. “Yes.”