Hereditary (16 page)

A large, antique bench seat sprawled against the far wall, and set into it was a mattress barely big enough to accommodate Harbringer’s large frame. There were several work benches set up around the room, harbouring a staggering weight of twisted metal and machine parts, and what space remained around us was crowded with towering stacks of dusty books.

Stepping lightly around one such stack that had fallen over and spilled across our paths, I followed the others to a set of light-green couches that had been invisible to me behind one of the workbenches. Harbringer skirted the couches and sat on a nearby stool, sliding a twisted miniature of a person from the nearby bench and spinning it around his fingers as he watched us restlessly. Hazen and Cale took one couch while Rose and I took the other, and tried to pretend that we weren’t out of our depth as we clutched at each other’s hands.

“So,” Harbringer said, mostly to Cale and Hazen. “Why the sudden need for self-defence? Not that I’m complaining, you know I love a good fight. Especially with the stronger powers.”

“Did you know about a new synfee king?” Cale asked, instead of directly answering Harbringer’s question.

Harbringer frowned, and the little person in his hand stopped spinning for a moment.

“Who are you talking about?”

“His name is Nareon Soulstoy,” I answered for Hazen.

Harbringer flinched as if I had slapped him, and his eyes suddenly became unfocussed. Hazen jumped up, a string of expletives flying out of his mouth as he shot his hands into his dark hair and started pacing around, causing me to stare at them both in astonishment. Cale’s eyebrows shot up, and Rose’s hand tightened on mine.

“That’s not the new king,” Harbringer muttered, his eyes refocusing and watching Hazen fume with what appeared to be a mix of amusement and sympathy. “There is no new king. Nareon has been in power for hundreds of years now.”

The darkness flashed up then, with surprising intensity, catching both me—and apparently Hazen—by surprise. It was a little unnerving, to know that he was now so in-tuned with my mind that he could sense the subtle changes in me even when he was preoccupied with someone else.

“Calm down,” he said to me. “It doesn’t undermine his intentions. This doesn’t mean that he lied to you, necessarily.”

“He made contact with you?” asked Harbringer, rising from his stool and throwing the little mechanical person to the bench.

“Yes, a few months ago.”

“Why?” He didn’t even look at me as he bit out the question, and began pacing.

Hazen stopped his own pacing and returned to his seat, apparently calm again, though Cale was staring off at nothing, his expression uncharacteristically bleak.

I shrugged a little, because Nareon’s motives seemed to be ever ambiguous. “He wanted to help me come into my inheritance power.”

“You’re a Force user?”

“Yes.”
How had he guessed that?

His frown deepened, his steps quickening to the point where I started to realise that he had the ranger’s abilities. No human should be able to move that fast, and that effortlessly.

“It still doesn’t make sense. Force is rare, but not rare enough to drag him into our world, though you surely wouldn’t have survived the transition without him. Force kills most of the people it inhabits within the first year, if not the first day.”

“All the other Force users in his own kingdom have disappeared,” I said, choosing to ignore the last part of his comment. “He thinks that they are being used to destroy the land. I’ve seen it, we only travelled about a day’s journey to the western border… but it’s horrible.”

His pacing faltered then, and I had gotten so used to trying to focus on the lurching blur of his movements that I flinched back a little as he became abruptly still.

“He took you over into his kingdom?”

I nodded, and he fell back to his stool, looking utterly astonished.

“This can’t be good.”

“You think he’s lying?” Cale asked, his tone implying that he was leaning toward that impression himself.

“He would have just killed her, and taken her power. It makes no sense that he didn’t. No sense at all.”

“Maybe he
likes
her?” said Rose, causing every head—including mine—to snap in her direction.

“That’s absurd,” I scoffed, feeling ridiculous heat pool my cheeks.

“Not really,” muttered Hazen, looking away. “I’ve seen into his mind. He is drawn to you.”

I slapped my hand to my head. “You realise that’s what I do, right? I’m a synfee, I draw people to me.”

“Wrong,” countered Harbringer, now examining me as if he could see right through me. “Your glamor blocks the compulsion—with it up, you’re not doing anything. But either way, I’m not buying it. Drawn he might be, but Nareon is a monster, if he liked her, it would only make killing her more pleasurable.”

“That’s disgusting,” I said, realising a little too late that I was talking to a synfee myself, and snapped a hand over my mouth.

“I’m not one of them, Harrow,” he said, answering my thoughts as if I had spoken them, “I just caught their power.”

“Caught?” I asked, brow furrowing.
When had I told him my name
?

“I was brought up a ranger. But by the time I was five I had already specialised in every element, as well as the general race-specific abilities. Eleven years later, I had a nice collection of the rarities as well. I inherited Force when I was fighting against Nareon.”

“How is that all possible?”

“As soon as I touch a person, I gain their abilities. Not steal—” he said, holding up his hand, “—only copy. My gloves slipped off when I was grappling with one of Nareon’s soldiers, we were so close to losing the war by that stage, the synfees, as you can imagine, are no easy enemy to defeat, and they were leading the Tainted Creatures against us. I had actively avoided taking their powers, because I didn’t want to be consumed by the urges that drove them, but I suppose it was inevitable. I inherited the powers of the guard who I fought with, and he was a Force user. That was how I won the war.”

“If Nareon really is the old king, and the rumours about the old king are true, why didn’t he just sacrifice one of his own people to get the Force power himself?” asked Cale.

“An interesting question, one that I assume has something to do with your Miss Harrow here.”

“There must be some kind of drawback,” muttered Hazen. “One that outweighs the benefits of the power.” He turned to Harbringer. “Have you noticed anything?”

“There is always the push.”

I looked at the others, to see if they understood any better than me, but they all appeared confused.

“Push?” I asked.

“Yes.” He picked up his mechanical person again. “It pushes your most powerful ability to act without your consent. Usually when you’re upset. I assumed you knew about it, since it happened to you only a few minutes ago.”

“The darkness?” I looked to Hazen, who shrugged, and then back to Harbringer, who had suddenly gone blank, an expression that I had seen so often on Hazen, that there was no doubt in my mind that he was currently digging through my memories.

Deliberating over whether I should wipe my mind blank or help him out with his invasive search, I eventually gave a frustrated sigh and pulled up a memory of Kaylee insulting me outside the greenhouse. I felt the familiar stirrings of darkness, though they were thankfully muted enough that I was able to console myself that it wasn’t happening again. After a few short seconds, Joseph snapped back to attention, though his face remained blank, this time purposefully so. He stood up calmly, and strode over to the door, shoving it open and motioning to the jungle beyond.

“Out,” he said calmly. “All of you.”

None of us spoke until we had reached the gates of the Academy, and in that time, the angry cloud in my mind had blown back up to a dangerous size.

“Well, he was certainly helpful,” I snapped, shoving my book bag further up my shoulder as I made to go the opposite direction to the others, back toward Sparrow’s Settlement.

Rose grabbed my arm before I could take so much as a step.

“You’re coming home with me.” She sounded serene, apparently not perturbed by the completely unreasonable, black wrath boiling at the base of my skull.

Cale stepped up to my other side before I had the chance to protest, however, and slipped his arm through my free one, trapping me between them as they started to walk toward the castle. Hazen had remained deep in thought since Joseph’s strange outburst, and didn’t even really seem to notice.

“This will be great.” Cale spoke in his usual light tone. “The castle absolutely comes alive of a Friday night; as a creature that feeds off energy, you should be in heaven, Little Synfee.”

I elbowed him for that remark, but let them march me to the castle as if I were a prisoner all the same. To nobody’s surprise, Kaylee was waiting for us when we got there, and she looked just as unhappy to see me as I was to see her. Though for the sake of the others, I managed to keep the hostility out of my expression. I watched as Hazen walked right past her, still deep in thought, and almost laughed at the look on her face. She skipped after him and put a hand on his arm, causing him to look up in surprise.

“Hey,” she said. “Everything okay? You did say I could come over tonight.”

“Right.” He seemed a little annoyed, but when she smiled and planted a kiss on his lips, he returned it with enough force to make Rose gag a little beside me.

When Kaylee drew back, her eyes were shiny and she was a little breathless, but Hazen seemed unaffected, and he led us all through the gates and into the entrance chamber. For once, we didn’t go straight to the garden, but climbed to the third floor and entered a huge, elaborately decorated sitting room. Miriam was already there, talking to a tall, handsome man on the other side of the room. They both turned when we spilled in past the doorway, and Miriam’s face lit up into a breathtaking smile.

“Beatrice! It’s been so long!” She rushed over, ignoring her own children, which I suspect secretly amused them, and pulled me into a hug, her hand running over my hair in a way that gave me no doubt as to why she was so happy to see me.

I said a muffled and slightly embarrassed
hello
, though the heavy feeling weighting on my chest lifted a little, and when she pulled back I managed to smile.

“I see you’ve found a new mannequin to fawn over, Mother.” Hazen’s words were rich with amusement.

She glanced at him, and a look of such tenderness passed over her face that it almost hurt to witness.

“Hello darlings,” she said, planting a kiss on Hazen’s cheek, and then Rose’s.

To my surprise, she included Cale in the round of kisses as if he were her own child, and indeed, he held the same expression of tolerant amusement as the others.

“Lovely to see you again, Kaylee—will you be joining us for the Friday festivities? Garlen here was just telling me about his circus troupe; they’ll be performing in the theatre, I really am quite excited.”

The man strode over as though summoned when he heard his name, and gave us all an exaggerated bow, but I had to tune out the rest of their conversation when I heard Hazen’s voice in my head.

I think a little distraction will be good for you.

I turned to look at him, still not used to this strange way of communicating, but his attention was on his mother and the dark-haired stranger, his hand wrapped around Kaylee’s waist.

Why her?
I found myself asking.

His reply didn’t come straight away, but when it did, I got the sense that he had picked his words carefully.

Being around people is often painful. Some minds are worse than others. Sex especially is difficult for me, but Kaylee’s mind is very simple, very uncomplicated. It’s easy to spend time in. 

I didn’t really know what to say to that, and I felt a spark of sympathy for him that was immediately followed by a spark of something else at the thought of him and Kaylee doing much more than the kiss I had witnessed outside. Whatever it was, it left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I quickly pushed it out of the forefront of my mind before Hazen could sense it.

Why didn’t you let Cale kiss you?

I didn’t know what he was talking about for a few moments, but then I remembered Cale walking me home after our first session together, backing me up against the fence, his face so close to mine…

“Bea?”

I jolted from my thoughts, my eyes snapping up to see everyone watching me, apparently waiting for me to answer a question that I hadn’t heard.

“Oops, daydreaming.” I blushed.

Rose chuckled. “I asked if you have anything to wear tonight?”

I groaned. “Oh god, not this again.”

Miriam clapped her hands together, taking this as begrudged acceptance, which, in a way, it probably was. I liked Miriam and Rose, there was something pure and uncomplicated about both of them, something that always managed to lighten me when they were near.

“We’ll go easy on you,” Miriam said gleefully, causing Rose to giggle. “I promise.”

I caught sight of Kaylee’s expression then, and immediately felt bad. Deliberately not pausing to consider my next words, I quickly blurted them out before I could stop myself.

“As long as Kaylee has to go through the same torture.”

The elven girl seemed just as surprised as I was at my unanticipated effort to include her, but Miriam looked overjoyed at the prospect of two dress-up dolls, and turned a pleading look on Hazen, who smirked and held up his hands, and if to say that he wanted nothing to do with this. When Kaylee finally tore her eyes away from me, I wasn’t sure if the blush rising in her cheeks was embarrassment or anger, but her tone was coolly polite.

“I have something to wear, and I’d rather just hang out with Hazen, if that’s okay.”

For just a moment, Miriam looked a little crestfallen, and I doubted many people had ever refused her before, but a second later, the whole thing seemed to blow over, and she was again talking about Garlen’s troupe. I didn’t try to pick up the internal conversation with Hazen again, taking the interruption for the blessing that it was. I liked Cale, I liked his easy smile, and the way he took everything in stride. I especially liked that he was the first person to show me any sort of kindness, and that without him, I never would have met Hazen, Rose and Miriam. I probably would never have survived my eighteenth birthday, and certainly wouldn’t have survived the Academy with my darkening mood swings. Not to mention the Academy surviving me. Cale was my very own guardian angel, but I felt no need to kiss him. Even under Nareon’s compulsion, I had violently resisted it.