Kilenya Series Books One, Two, and Three (76 page)

Matt laughed. “No reason. It was the first thing that popped out of my mouth.”

“I’ll tell him—if you’d like,” Mom said.

Aloren nodded, keeping her face in Mom’s shoulder.

Mom took a deep breath. “Son, you know you’re adopted from Eklaron, correct?”

“Of course.”

“Well, when we brought you back, we had no idea your mother was still alive. Alive and pregnant.”

Matt’s face blanched even more. “She was? Where is she now?”

“I’m sorry, honey, but she passed away several months ago.”

Matt looked confused, as if this was too much to digest. “She’s de—dead?”

“Yes. A lot to hear right now, I know. But, the point is, she wasn’t having just any old baby.”

“She was pregnant with me.” Aloren finally pulled her face away from Mom’s shoulder and took a deep breath. “Matt, you’re my older brother.”

Matt fell onto the couch. “No way! Are you serious?”

Everyone nodded.

“Oh.” He expelled a big breath of air, the colors around him showing he was shocked. Very shocked. “Wow.”

Mom put a hand over her heart, her eyes bright. “We just now figured it out.”

Matt bounced to his feet, hooting. “It’s freakin’ awesome! So cool! I’ve got
another
sister! Does Amberly know?”

“She’s playing with Ida Mae’s grandkids.” Mom picked up her book and closed it.

Matt rubbed the side of his face. “Wow. It’s a good thing I was dating Sammy. ‘Cause things might’ve turned into a Luke-and-Leia relationship. You know, before they knew they were siblings and Leia was trying to make Han Solo mad—”

Dad laughed. “That’s enough, son. We get the picture.”

Matt sat back down on the couch, staring at Aloren. “We look nothing alike! I mean, I’ve got blond hair and blue eyes, and hers are brown.”

“There’s always the smile,” Mom said. “You both have Kelson’s smile.”

Jacob had grown up with Aloren’s brother! It just wouldn’t compute.

Wednesday, he’d gone to math and history, completely in a daze, and was now walking to woods class, still trying to digest this new piece of information. It was weird—really weird. And almost made her his sister. That thought made him stop completely, several students calling out to him in impatience when they ran into him.

Did she think of him as a brother? He definitely didn’t think of
her
that way.

He glared at the floor as he walked again—she’d fallen for Kevin, so it didn’t matter either way.

Finally, as school neared an end, Jacob’s thoughts turned to tryouts that afternoon. He was nervous, but surprised at how calm he felt, too. He’d practiced his hardest. He’d been working toward this for years. He was as good as any of the seniors on varsity, and definitely as good, if not better, than Kevin, Coach’s son.

Right when the bell rang after choir, Jacob sprang from his seat and rushed to the locker room. He changed into his basketball clothes as quickly as possible, then raced to the gym where tryouts were taking place.

Fear hit him really hard when he saw how many people were there. Where had they all come from? He only recognized a handful of them—a couple of which he knew for a fact had
never
played a game in their lives. He jogged onto the court with his ball and shot baskets, warming up.

After a couple of minutes, the assistant coach blew his whistle, and Coach Birmingham stepped away from the bleachers, calling everyone over.

“Many of you have tried out for varsity before and so you know what we’ll be doing. For the rest of you, we start by shooting drills, and then we’ll practice lay-ups. Next, we’ll test your endurance and strength. We finish off with a few timed games.”

The students lined up in front of the different hoops, and Coach and his assistant meandered through the players, watching closely and taking notes. Jacob kept his eyes on the others too, making sure to play harder and faster than they did. He mostly paid attention to how Kevin was doing. Excellently, of course. Kevin waved at him before slam-dunking the ball. Jacob rolled his eyes, but smiled just the same. He’d spent more time with Kevin in the past week—through Aloren—than he had since third grade. And . . . he hated to admit it, but Kevin wasn’t all that bad.

Jacob growled at himself when that thought crossed his mind. Kevin and Aloren . . . Okay, that was it. He had to focus on basketball, not the problems in his social life. He put everything else behind him, and pressed forward as hard as he could.

Sweat poured down his face, and his limbs burned from exertion. Coach was having them run across court in a complicated way, dodging cones borrowed from the driving range. The guys had to step over and around the cones, going both forward and backward.

Gratitude for Scott and their team rushed over Jacob—they’d practiced something similar to this during the past two days, and he knew he was doing well. He felt the assistant coach’s eyes on him several times and made sure to be at the front of the line every time. If he wanted to make the team, especially as a point guard, showing leadership was essential.

Finally, everything was over. Coach congratulated the players on how well they’d all done. Jacob looked around—a few of the applicants had fallen out, but he wasn’t sure when. Maybe twenty had made it all the way through, and out of those, only three were point guards. Jacob was much better than the others.

“First cuts will go up tomorrow morning. After school, we’ll have the next—also last—round of tryouts. Final cuts will be posted Friday morning.”

The students filed toward the locker room to shower and change. Jacob’s heart swelled inside him—he’d done exceptionally well. Possibly the best he’d ever done.

As soon as Jacob got home, Mom had him run an errand to Taga Village—taking a huge box of Walmart stuff to Ebony. It looked like Mom was planning her party with a lot of energy and excitement, and Ebony would be helping. He sighed in relief about the errand—he’d wanted an excuse not to be around when Kevin brought Aloren back from school, and using the Key to get to Taga Village meant not running into her as she walked past his house. She’d attended tryouts, and Jacob was grateful he hadn’t seen her there until it was all over. She would have made him too nervous.

He Keyed to Ebony’s place, gave her the box, then spent some time with Akeno until dinner was ready back on Earth. He’d missed hanging out with the Makalo.

The next morning, Jacob, Matt, and Tani rushed to see the list of who’d made first cuts. Jacob’s name was second from the top. He nearly dropped his bag in excitement. He’d made it! His first response was to look for Aloren, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Tani threw her arms around him, saying over and over again that she knew he’d do well.

Jacob laughed. “I’m not on the team yet.”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “For all you know, he’s going to fail miserably this afternoon.”

“Oh, be quiet,” Tani said, elbowing Matt in the side.

When the assistant coach blew his whistle during tryouts that afternoon, Jacob knew things would go well. He was alert and energetic—definitely in the mood to play. He was ready for this. Nothing could stop him.

An hour and a half later, he dropped his ball near Tani, Gus, and Josh, completely satisfied with how he’d done. If that performance didn’t get him in, he didn’t know what would.

“Congrats on making varsity,” Tani said.

Jacob waved her off, looking around to see if anyone had heard her. “We don’t find out until tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, I know. But you’re definitely on the team. They’d be complete idiots if they didn’t let you.”

Jacob hoped she wouldn’t jinx him by saying that.

Chapter 6. Brojan’s Secret

W
hen Jacob and Matt got home, Jacob was surprised to see Brojan there. Had he walked the entire way? He was sitting on the couch, looking very uncomfortable. He got to his feet after Jacob burst through the door.

“How are you?”

“Good. You?” Jacob dropped his backpack and took off his coat.

“I’m well.”

“Are you waiting for my mom or dad? Are they around?”

Brojan shook his head. “No, I’m here to see you.”

Jacob pushed his bag into the closet by the front door, then joined Brojan near the couch. “Okay. Did you want to talk about something?” The colors swirling around the Makalo said he was nervous.

“Yes. Would you mind taking us somewhere private—not Taga Village? I don’t want to run into anyone.”

Jacob nodded, his thoughts racing. What could the Makalo patriarch have to say that he didn’t want others to hear? And where was Jacob going to take them that would be guaranteed private? “How about Aldo’s cabin?”

Brojan shook his head. “No—there aren’t any walls.”

Jacob looked at his watch. Six o’clock. Tryouts had gone longer than he’d thought they had. “Well, we could always go back to my school and find an empty classroom. The cleaners were just finishing up when Matt and I left. As long as no teachers are hanging around, we should be fine there.”

“Yes, that would be excellent.”

Jacob Keyed them to the school, but went through the door near the pool, just in case someone was in the offices near the main entrance. The hallway was dark, and Jacob found himself wishing Akeno were there to light it up. He quickly walked them to the math section of the school and breathed a sigh of relief when he found it empty.

“We should be fine here,” he said, opening Mr. Coolidge’s classroom with the Key.

Brojan motioned for Jacob to sit, and the Makalo chose a student desk. Jacob stared. It was so weird to see a Makalo—especially this one—sitting at a desk. In his school.

After a moment, Brojan got to his feet and paced. Then he turned and faced Jacob, bright orange swirling around him, showing he was even more nervous now.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while. Tell you something—confess—what I did years ago.”

Jacob frowned. “Confess?”

Brojan sat again. “Do you remember the story of Onyev? How he and his people left the trees to live together as families?”

“Yes . . .”

“Do you remember why they did this?”

“They’d been focusing too much on power and their own abilities, and had forgotten the important things in life.”

Brojan nodded. “Yes, exactly. I’m not sure if Akeno told you, but they entered into an agreement that Makalos would never again introduce Kaede Sap into the finger of an infant.”

Jacob realized he’d been absentmindedly molding his desk. Mr. Coolidge would kill him if he saw that, so Jacob worked to fix it while concentrating on what Brojan was saying.

“And that agreement wasn’t broken,” the patriarch continued, “until fourteen years ago.”

“By who? You?”

Brojan folded his hands, looking at them. He flushed, his colors changing to show embarrassment. “Yes—I did it. To one of the Makalo children.” He looked up suddenly. “Jacob, you must understand my reasons for doing so before you judge me.”

Judge him?

“I couldn’t stand how helpless we were against the Lorkon. So many Makalos were slaughtered—it was horrendous. Absolutely terrifying and heart-wrenching. And, what’s worse—my beloved Sabelle . . .” His voice faltered, and the pain written on his face shocked Jacob.