Fractured Truth (13 page)

Dr. Han came up next to her. “Girls are waiting for you in your classroom. They want to learn to fight.”

May patted me on the back. “That’s awesome!”

“That is not
awesome
,” Ms. Hady said, sneering at May.

“What’s your problem?” I asked her.

“You are my problem. Ever since you came here, you’ve had your nose turned up like you’re too good for us. You want us all to change to your standards, and you won’t be satisfied until you’ve destroyed everything about Auras.”

“You’re wrong, Ms. Hady. I love this school, and I love these girls. Maybe at first I was resistant to Lucent’s teachings, but I get it now. I fully support everything being taught, except for the lack of self-defense courses. It’s in our makeup to want to protect ourselves and to want to rid the world of darkness and evil. We’ve been given gifts to do just that, so we need to use them.”

“You are so wrong.”

“Then how do you explain what happened last night? Surely you felt it. The power was strong, almost overwhelming.”

She pursed her lips, looking very much like no matter what had happened, she’d still disagree. She was the most stubborn person I’d ever met. “You’re a devil, Ms. Llona Reese, sent to destroy us all.”

May gasped, and Dr. Han said, “That’s enough, Susan!”

I stared at Ms. Hady, feeling more pity then anger. “What are you afraid of? What happened to you to make you so frightened of our power?”

She looked from me to Dr. Han, not saying a word, until she finally walked away.

I started to go after her, but Dr. Han stopped me. “Let her be. She just needs some time.”

“What can I do to convince her?”

“Don’t spend the energy. You’re going to be busy enough teaching all the new students. I had to add three more classes to accommodate everyone. You and Kiera are still the instructors, but I’ve asked Ashlyn to assist.”

“Good. I look forward to getting started.”

Dr. Han turned to May. “And how are you doing?”

“Fine,” she said, but I noticed she didn’t look him in the eyes.

“Will I see you this afternoon?”

“No.”

He was silent for a few seconds and then said good-bye. May didn’t give any explanation, just moved toward the nearest seat in the dining room. I joined her and looked around for Liam but didn’t see him. Then I remembered Christian. I was supposed to see him sometime today. I wished I knew when.

I was almost finished eating when Arik came and found us. “Hey, guys. Can you come with me for a minute? We have a visitor.”

May and I looked at each other. “Sure,” I said.

We followed him out. He glanced sideways at May. “How are you doing?”

“Fine,” she said, staring straight ahead.

“Aaron is worried about you.”

“I said I’m good.”

Arik didn’t say anything else as he guided us to Dr. Han’s office. Inside were Liam, Aaron, and, to my surprise, Charlie.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, shaking his hand.

Before he answered, he introduced himself to May. While
the two chatted briefly, Liam nudged me in the shoulder. “How did last night go?” His eyes flickered to May.

I shrugged and sat down next to him.

Charlie closed the door. I noticed May moved to the opposite side of where Aaron was. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. He still looked miserable.

Charlie spoke first. “I wanted to personally come by to give you my thoughts on the location of the three witches. I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of them, but I have a feeling one of you can.” He sat on the couch across from us and looked at Liam and me. “After you left, I went to our archives and read as much as I could about the witches. I even found an old relic of theirs. A necklace. I’m not sure how the Deific came across it, but I’m glad they did. It held great power, and I focused on this to try to find them.”

“And did you?” Liam asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Why not?”

“Because every time I sensed something, that power always led to Lucent Academy.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” May said.

I looked at Dr. Han. “Is that possible? Could the witches be disguised as someone here?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. The witches are not Auras, that I’m sure of.”

“Then who?” Aaron asked.

“When you sense their power,” Liam said, “what does it look or feel like? And is it a general feeling or can you pinpoint the exact location?”

Charlie thought about this. “The power feels similar to the same power I sense in Auras, but I can’t necessarily say it’s the same location. It could be somewhere very close.”

“So our power is masking theirs,” I whispered.

“What did you say, Llona?” Dr. Han asked.

My brain spun fast, like a spider at the completion of a web.

As soon as the ends connected firmly, I laughed. “I know where they are, one of them at least. Jackson must’ve known Cyrus would try to use psychics to find them just like we did. By hiding them near us, they would be unable to pinpoint their exact location.”

Charlie leaned forward. “So where are they?”

I stood up. “Come with me. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

After finding a few extra
Guardians to take my place at the Auran Sparring Class, Liam, May, Charlie, and I climbed into Charlie’s SUV. It smelled new and had all sorts of electronics on the dashboard, most of which I didn’t recognize. It reminded me of the high-tech room at the Deific, and I wondered what special things this car could do.

“It’s just down the road,” I said, after Charlie exited Lucent Academy. “Maybe a couple of miles.”

May turned around from the front passenger seat. “The rose house,” she said, remembering the story I’d told her.

I nodded.

“Rose house?” Liam asked.

“There’s a strange woman who lives there. I’ve met her many times on my nightly runs. I swear the woman doesn’t sleep.” I leaned up between the two front seats. “It will be a house on the right, set back from the road behind a row of trees.”

“It looks so normal,” Charlie said, when he pulled into the driveway of the light blue house.

“Looks are deceiving,” I said and opened my door. I inhaled deeply, breathing in the scent of hundreds of roses.

Charlie went to a nearby bush and was about to touch one as if to smell it, when I stopped him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

He glanced over at me. “Why’s that?”

I walked by him toward the front door. “They’re poisoned with magic.”

When we reached the front door, I asked everyone to stand off to the side as to not overwhelm her. I knocked on the door, waited, then tried again. Several seconds passed. I was about to push the doorbell, when the door opened a mere crack. Rose’s bluish-white eye peeked out.

“Hi, Rose. It’s me, Llona. From down the street?”

She opened the door and smiled big. “Hello! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you by?”

I cleared my throat. “Um, I was hoping my friends and I could talk to you.”

“Friends?” She stuck her head full of long silver hair out the door. When she saw the others, she withdrew. “I don’t think so. My sisters wouldn’t like it.”

A wave of excitement ran through me. We’d found the witches, I was sure of it. “Please, Rose. It’s important.”

“It’s always important whenever we have visitors. Life or death usually. It would be nice if someone came by just because.”

“I will, I promise, but right now I’m worried about your safety.”

“Why?”

I looked her square in the eyes. “Jackson cannot be trusted. It’s just a matter of time before Cyrus discovers your location.”

This startled her. Whether it was mentioning Jackson’s name or Cyrus that frightened her, she opened the door. “Come in, come in,” she said. “All of you.”

I stepped by her into the house and shivered from the chill in the air. The temperature felt like it was a mere fifty degrees. I moved all the way into the seventyish-styled living room. The walls were wallpapered in orange and yellow swirls, and up against them were glass cabinets that held all sorts of porcelain trinkets. Some of them looked extremely old.

“Have a seat,” Rose said after I introduced everyone.

May, Liam, and I sat on a green sofa while Charlie lowered himself into a paisley Queen Anne chair. Rose’s gaze lingered specifically on him, and I thought she was going to say something, but then she turned to me and said, “Tell me about Jackson.”

“Your sisters,” Charlie said, making her head snap in his direction, “will they be joining us?”

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Her voice was no longer pleasant.

“I think they need to hear what we have to say.” He seemed unaffected by Rose’s sudden change in demeanor.

“Wait here, then,” she said.

As soon as she was gone, Charlie turned to us and said in a quiet voice, “I want to meet all three of them to see if we can trust them. They did give Cyrus control of the Shadow after all.”

“We can trust Rose,” I said.

“Rose has been around for over a thousand years. Don’t underestimate her.”

He was about to say more when Rose returned. “Meet my twin sisters, Agatha and Audrey.” She stepped out of the way.

Behind her, emerging from a darkened hallway, two figures hobbled side by side toward us. Their shadowed bodies jerked as they moved, as if their joints weren’t quite hinged right. It was like watching a horror film at the exact moment a monster reveals itself. If I hadn’t been frozen with fear, I would’ve squeezed Liam’s hand resting on his thigh next to mine.

A collective gasp sucked the air from the room when the faint light from the window touched their faces. The women looked similar. Both were adorned all in white, a combination of satin and lace, part of it frayed at the edges. Their long straight hair was a brilliant silver, so shiny it almost looked like tinfoil. This brought out tiny blue veins just beneath their translucent, wrinkled skin. As if this wasn’t frightening enough, each one of them was missing an eye. They were standing so close together
that their good eyes were right next to each other, both of them the color of gold.

“My sisters are conjoined twins,” Rose said. “Audrey’s on the left.”

I lowered my eyes, and that’s when I saw it. The sisters were connected by their shoulders. So this was the strange-shaped figure I’d seen in the window that night.

“Sit, sisters,” Rose said.

Their eyes darted around the room for a tense few seconds before they finally jerked their way to the two-seater hard chair across from the sofa. They lowered into it as if one person. At the same time, their good eyes looked up at Rose. She stared back at them long and hard as if we weren’t even in the room. I glanced at May. She mouthed the word, “Awkward.”

Finally Rose spoke, but it was directed at her sisters. “I know this is an intrusion, but they have to talk to us about Jackson. They say he can’t be trusted.”

It was another few seconds of silence—the sisters were staring at each other—before I realized the three were communicating telepathically.

“I want to hear what they have to say first,” Rose said. She turned to us. “My sisters want to kill you, but I won’t let them. Not yet anyway.”

This time I did grab Liam’s hand, but a second later, the twins made a sucking sound as air passed in and out of their mouths through their teeth. Rose started laughing shortly after, and I realized that’s what the twin sisters were doing too—laughing.

“We’re just playing with you,” Rose said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

May and I looked at each other and laughed uncomfortably. I let go of Liam’s hand.

“Now, please, tell us why you’ve come,” she said.

Charlie motioned for me to speak first. I cleared my throat and mustered some strength. “I’m not sure if you know of Lucent’s troubles recently—”

“We know,” she said.

“Oh, um . . . well then you probably know that several of the Guardians betrayed the Auras and joined forces with Vykens, specifically Cyrus who was the president of the Auran Council.”

More hissing-like sounds came from the twins, but it was more high-pitched than their laughter had been. Rose patted Audrey on the shoulder as if to quiet them.

“Anyway,” I continued, trying to look anywhere but at the twins’ strange golden eyes, which I felt burning into me, “we captured Jackson and he told me the only reason why Cyrus hasn’t killed him yet is because he knows your location.”

“That is true,” Rose said.

“Jackson escaped”—the twins hissed again, but I ignored them—“and we feel it’s just a matter of time before he tells them where you’re hiding. We’d like to bring you three within Lucent’s walls so we can protect you.” I took a deep breath.

“Go on,” Rose said and waited for me to speak.

“We also want you to summon the Shadow back.”

At this, she straightened. “We can’t do that.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

The twins’ single eyes turned on me, sending an electrifying chill up my spine.

It was Liam who spoke next. “It’s not just about calling the Shadow back. We learned recently that Cyrus wants you to create another one.”

“We know. That’s why Jackson is hiding us. So far he’s kept us safe.”

Charlie cleared his throat. “Look, the bottom line is if Cyrus can’t get you to make another one, then he’ll kill all three of you to give him complete control of the Shadow. We can’t risk this happening. It would ensure the destruction of the entire Auran race.”

The twins looked up at Rose. Several seconds passed before she said, “We don’t care about your wars. We just want to live in peace.”

“Then why did you summon the Shadow to begin with?” I asked, but instantly regretted it when Rose turned on me, the cloudiness in her eyes seeming to clear, leaving vibrant blue eyes staring at me coolly.

“Like you,
Aura
, we do what we have to do to survive.”

“Then come inside Lucent where you will be protected,” Charlie said.

“Jackson will not tell. He too will do what he has to do to survive.”

“Unless they torture him,” May said under her breath.

Rose turned to her. “Don’t speak in my house, Fury. You were only invited in because of Llona. You are not welcome here.”