“She gone, she’s really gone,” I wailed, sinking into his chest. He enfolded me, kissing me softly on top of my head.
Couriers appeared in front of us. There must have been hundreds. The thin iridescent strings came looking for information to take back to Kace. Brent stood tall and as he had at Maggie’s, he started absorbing them, but there were so many and they were darting all over the room. A few were around Reese’s head, pulling memories from him they would share with Kace, telling him where we had been – where we were. I had to do something.
Bravery took over and I hauled myself up next to Brent putting my hand out in front of me, hoping I had the same ability to absorb the strings. I focused on pulling the strings towards me, encouraging them to enter my hand. Gradually, they started to comply. Reese watched with astonishment as each string left him and entered my hand easily. Their movements became erratic, flying in every direction, exiting the boat house.
After several minutes, all of the strings were gone.
Reese interrupted the silence. “Guys, we need to get out of here now,” he demanded.
“What? What about Maggie? We can’t just leave her here,” I choked, holding back tears and kneeling down beside Maggie, brushing loose hairs from her cold face.
“Claire, she is with the Agents, now,” Brent coaxed. “They will take care of her, don’t worry. Reese is right. We have to go. We don’t know what the Couriers saw and will deliver to Kace. He could be here soon and we aren’t ready for him.”
I wasn’t sure how I could possibly walk out of there without taking her with me, but I knew they were right. I finally agreed.
“Fine, but we go to Maggie’s and wait for an Agent,” I told them, rising to my feet.
“No, Claire,” Brent scolded. “I forbid it, you aren’t going there.”
“You forbid it?” I mocked, lightly jabbing my finger in his chest. “You can’t control what I do, Brent.”
“I can, and I will, Claire,” Brent threatened with an edge to his voice that made me want to scream.
I protested, stomping my feet. “I’m going!”
Brent’s face was expressionless but his voice was commanding. “Would you stop being irrational and l
isten to me. What we need to do is get somewhere safe. It’s not safe at Maggie’s,” he reminded me, softly squeezing both of my arms just above the elbows.
“It’s not safe anywhere, Brent. Kace has found me before,” I declared, pulling from his grasp. He looked at me questioningly and I continued. “On my way to school the first day, he was in the middle of the street, glaring at me. I almost hit him with my car.”
“What?” They both shouted.
“He was just there. I lost control of the car for a bit. When it settled, I pulled over to look for him, but he was gone,” I explained.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Brent asked.
“I didn’t know it was him. When it was over, I thought I imagined the whole thing.”
“Claire, it’s too dangerous to go to Maggie’s. We aren’t going.” He was unyielding, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to be controlled anymore for my protection by anyone.
“Fine! I’ll go alone!” I yelled, stomping out of the boat house towards the Audi. Both of their footsteps pounded into the earth behind me.
“Claire, you’re being ridiculous,” Brent voiced. “You don’t even know if an Agent will show up. We’re not even sure how they get there.”
“The mirror in my room,” I said succinctly, turning to face the two of them. “I saw Maggie in a vision, consoling me through that mirror. She said I would know what to do, so I’m going. You can come with me if you want, but you can’t stop me. Kace is not getting away with this. Haunting people is one thing but killing people is something else. Kace has to be stopped.” I urged Brent and Reese to understand.
Brent was pacing and I knew he was struggling with my ultimatum. “Okay Claire, we’ll go, but twenty minutes is all you get. If an Agent doesn’t show, we leave. You can’t argue with me about it, not a minute more. It’s too dangerous. You have to trust me, okay?”
I agreed but it was a flat out lie. I would stay at my aunt’s house until this ended no matter what the outcome. If Kace wanted me, then he would have me, but nobody else I loved would be hurt.
While watching the coral-pink sun set, I reflected on everything that happened to me over the last few days. My life would never be quite the same as it was four days ago when Brent literally stormed into my life. My parents were gone. My grandparents were gone. My aunt was gone. I was completely on my own. Ironically, a few days ago, all I wanted in life was to have complete independence, and now that I had it, I wanted nothing more than to give it all back.
We were quiet on the drive to Maggie’s house. No one was quite sure what to say. Occasionally, I inhaled sharply and bit my quivering lip to catch my breath in between crying spurts. How did Kace know where to find me? It was suspicious. After all of these years, Kace somehow knew where I was. Logan had surely spilled everything he knew, but how had Kace found Logan to start with?
CHAPTER 11
“We recognize a soul mate by the supreme level of comfort and security we feel with that person. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues that remain to be ironed out. Rather, it means we know intuitively that we can resolve issues with our soul mate without losing his or her love and respect.” – Linda Brady