First World (23 page)

“Abby worries that the kidnapping was too much for me to handle.” Lucy’s voice sounded teary. “But it was actually the best thing to happen.” She cleared her throat. “You are also my soul mate, Sammy. I know that for sure. I feel it in the ache of my heart, in the urge to be by your side for eternity.”

“It
does feel strong and maybe it is even unnatural the way this has happened, Luce. But I can promise you will never regret choosing me. I will be that man for you, the one who wipes your tears, kills your spiders, chases away the fears, fights the darkness and never ever leaves you.”

Okay, now I was kind of hearting
Samuel as well. And I really didn’t even like the big douchewad.

Silence descended over the room again, maybe a few murmurs but I couldn’t make out any more words. They were going to be here forever
, but I really wanted my necklace.

Turning
, I walked back ten steps before moving forward again. But this time I was loud and whistling as I moved closer to the door. I knocked once before strolling right in.

They were snuggled on the
couch; Lucy looked a little dazed as she smiled at me.

“Hey
, Abbs, that was fast. What did Lalli want?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I was almost there when I
realized I forgot my necklace. You know I hate being without it now.”

Lucy jumped up immediately. “Where did you leave it? On the couch after you showed me your un-freaking-believable Walker marks?”

I nodded once, a small smile of delight turning up the corners of my lips. I loved my marks too.

Lucy scrabbled around in the corner chaise before emerging triumphant. I had been studiously ignoring Samuel, but he caught my eye as I turned. There was something buried in his light
-brown depths. And for once it didn’t seem to be animosity, maybe more curiosity.

I took the necklace from Lucy, and blew her a kiss before I left the room again to find
Lallielle. My thoughts were troubled, worried about everything that had happened, but mostly that which was still to come.

Lallielle was in the entrance room. The white and burnt-orange couches had been pushed aside to make room for a massive table, which groaned under paper, material samples and other crap.

I slouched into the orange single-seater.
Lallielle hadn’t even noticed my arrival. She was engrossed in a book of material samples.

“Alright,
Lalli, hit me with these sash choices.”

She didn’t flinch; my arrival hadn’t been as unnoticeable as I’d thought. She couldn’t have picked up my thoughts. My shield was solid.
Josian had worked with me until my head ached, but I was shielded.

While
Lallielle was busy, my perturbed thoughts went back to yesterday’s training session. I had eventually asked Josian about his strange expression when he’d first met Lucy. Generally, I felt as if I could read him pretty well. Highly emotional, usually his feelings were out there for all. But the moment I asked, his expression shut down. He’d said she reminded him of someone, which was totally not the whole story. But that was all the information I could get before he kicked my butt back to training.

Shaking off my worries
, I waited patiently. Eventually Lallielle finished what she was doing and spun around, book clutched in her hand. As she opened her mouth to speak, we were interrupted.

Crystaline
, the head housekeeper, had appeared in the doorway. “You have a visitor, Madam.”

Without preamble, a
woman stepped into the room.

Lallielle
gasped, the book falling to the carpeted floor. I sat upright in my chair as I recognized her: the woman from Lallielle’s memory.

Her waist-length white hair was braided off her face, a few strands framing her pale skin and white eyes. Those eyes were creepy as creep and to complete the creepiness she was covered from head to foot in a white cloak.

“Francesca?” Lallielle moved closer, disbelief in her voice. “Where have you been?”

The woman reached out a hand, sorrow in her expression.
“Lalli. I am so sorry. Sister – please forgive me.”

I attempted to pick my jaw up off the floor. This was my aunt. Why had no one ever mentioned that to me?

Lallielle clutched the outstretched hand. “Why did you leave then, Frannie? I needed you. Aribella needed you. I thought you were dead.” Her voice shook. “I never even told Aribella that you were her aunt. I believed it to be easier since she was never going to meet you.”

Lallielle
and I were going to have words soon about this protecting me for my own good thing. It was annoying.

Pulling her arm free, Francesca crossed the room and sank into a chair. She looked exhausted.

“I’ve traveled non-stop for two days to reach you at this moment, Lalli. Just give me a chance to explain.”

Taking a calm breath,
Lallielle sat next to her.

“I know how angry and hurt you are. I just need you to wait for the end of my story before you berate and question me.”

I found it disturbing to try to track eyes without color, iris or pigmentation. Pure white. As I had that thought, she faced me. I decided it was safe to stare somewhere in the middle of her face.

“
Aribella. I knew this would be the moment we met officially. How I wished things would be different for us all.” Sighing, she tugged nervously on the long strands of free hair. “From the moment I touched you as a baby, three different paths for your future opened up to me. I have spent the rest of these years hoping I made the right choice, and watching the future shift and change.”

Lallielle
shook her head. “I don’t understand. You told me the poem thing. You never mentioned different outcomes.”

“Always the same, little sister: impatient.
Let me tell my story. That poem appears to be technically correct, but I only gave you half the information.”

Lallielle
sat straighter, emotions ready to burst forth. But she held her tongue, simply glaring at her white-haired sister.

Francesca
was looking at me again. “This is about the Walkers. More importantly, the original Walkers.”

Josian
walked into the room.

With his hearing and general sneakiness, he had probably been listening the entire time. For some reason the man was everywhere and knew everything. He leaned against the far wall, but didn’t interrupt.

“The worlds are dying. The negative energy from First World is moving into the ether of the six youngling planets. Which of course we already know. But I have figured out why.” She looked toward Josian. “Someone is freeing the Seventine.”

He grew even more rigid as something passed between them.

I looked around the room. “Is this the same Seventine you mentioned earlier?”

Josian
shook his head. “That’s just a theory. This is pure legend at this point, Frannie.”

She glared. “You of all people should know that everything legend has a basis in truth, has an origin and a history.”

“Don’t you tell me what I shou – ”

“Two are free,” Francesca interrupted
his thundering.

Josian
shook his head. “That’s impossible. There are none left with the knowledge to find them.”

“Someone has figured it out,” Francesca said before turning to me. “They must be stopped. I
have seen that you are important, although you cannot do it alone.”

I didn’t know what to say.

A sigh drew Francesca’s attention. She reached over to separate Lallielle’s tightly clenched fists and hold both hands.

“I have a confession to make.”

I couldn’t be sure, but the white of her eyes looked pleading.

“When you brought
Aribella to me, I didn’t see her early death. I
saw
that she had to grow up on Earth. I couldn’t tell you the truth, Lalli, for you loved Aribella too much and would never have parted with her.”

A single tear trailed down her cheek.

“It pained my heart to hurt you, but there was so much more at stake than you even realized. It’s literally the fate of the entire universe.”

The room erupted then. Pretty much everyone
started yelling at once. Except for me. I just sat there feeling bemused.

“How could you not tell me the truth,
Frannie? And why did Aribella need to be on Earth? What’s this great reason you ripped our family apart?” Lallielle’s loud voice wasn’t the only one.

“How do you know of the Walkers and
Seventine? These are private stories. Who have you spoken with?” Josian boomed.

“I told you, Sam. Didn’t I tell you something was happening here?” Lucy had somehow made her way downstairs to hear the last part, Samuel right behind her.

“Yes, Luce, you told me,” he replied in his typical dry manner.

She looked at me. “And let’s put a little more pressure on Abby. Save the world, Abby. Oh, no. Wait.
If you’re not too busy – save the universe.”

“Aunty
Frannie?” Samuel looked shocked. “I haven’t seen you since I was a child. Where have you been?”

Ignoring the
loudness echoing around the room, Lallielle was now muttering in another language, something she tended to do when upset.

I leaned forward in my chair. “What else did you see?”

I don’t know why I asked but at least the room quietened again as Francesca spoke.

“I disappeared because if I didn’t go into hiding I’d have been captured and forced to reveal my visions for the future – altering everything. I foresaw my return, at this exact date and time.”

Lallielle smiled, just slightly at this. “Frannie is one of the only natural-born soothsayers. It’s among the rarest talent. Her skills have always been in demand, although she’s equally admired and feared.”

“So the hair
... eyes ... part of the package?” Lucy leaned forward in curiosity. She was now sitting on the floor with Samuel.

Lallielle
nodded.

Francesca continued. “I stayed hidden, waiting, watching events unfold. But now I have returned to reveal the information that could spell the difference between survival and annihilation.” She shook her head
in frustration. “I don’t see everything, just glimpses and they keep changing.”

“Why does it change?” Lucy took the words out of my mouth.

Lallielle laughed derisively. “Because free will exists. Frannie sees a path, but people change their minds, make other choices and everything shifts.”

“Yes. I saw one future for
Aribella at first. But the moment Lallielle sent her away an entirely new path opened.”

Francesca and
Lallielle kept speaking over each other.

“So what am I supposed to do now?”
Since apparently it was outside my control anymore.

Francesca shook her head. “You need to stay here until you are eighteen. This is the enlightening of your Walker powers.”

I shook my head. But she continued anyway.

“I believe the only way is for you to find the other half-Walkers.”

“Excuse me? Half-Walkers,” Josian sneered, dislike across his features. “Aribella’s the only one.”

Francesca shook her head. “No, she’s not. There has been one woman
of power on each planet to carry a half-Walker female to term.”

“So you’re telling me I need to travel to other planets, and somehow stumble across these girls?”

Francesca’s eerie smile crossed her face. “Exactly ... you catch on quickly, Aribella.”

I looked around the room in
puzzlement. “And if I don’t do this, the world will end?”

She nodded again.

Excellent.

“I’ll check my schedule and get back to you.” I stood to leave the room, needing some air.

As I walked out the front, I could still hear them arguing through the open window.

“I’m going with her,”
Josian said loudly.

“You cannot go,
Josian. You need to start rallying your people. I see an epic battle. We already have the smaller chance. There are too many outcomes for a clear future. But we need all the Walkers.”

Lallielle
sounded angry. “I just got Aribella back. She was stabbed in the chest and now you expect me to send her off alone, to strange planets.”

“No,
Lalli. I see a few of her friends along for the journey.”

“You are not going without me, Abbs.” Lucy’s voice
came from behind me.

She
’d joined me on the front porch. I was sitting on the railing, my feet dangling, so she leaned in next to me.

Josian’s
voice rose again. “I can’t even sense Aribella. How will I find her or know if she needs me?”