Elizabeth nods. “Yes. And he was in love with me . . . but she tricked him, Remy.”
I am quiet. Confused. I can see Elizabeth’s hands opening and closing with tension. Lyneva smiles, knowing she has power, until something in my memory breathes out. Her words have conjured up demons deep within me that I’ve been forced to forget or chosen to forget . . . I’m not sure which. An angry inferno builds within me, my memory whipping its blue flames. “You always looked at me like you couldn’t stand me.” The words burn my lips as they billow out. Lyneva’s confidence drops from her face, which makes me want to continue, “The times when Dad left and you stuck me in a corner for days. Or the beating I received for nothing . . . something you made up in your mind. Don’t try to pretend you’re the upstanding citizen! Your jealousy made a lasting impression on me . . . left me with holes that Elizabeth did her best to fill.”
Elizabeth is clearly grateful I have caught on. “Lyneva thought that when she married your father, she would be The One. It was your father’s line that was connected to the original Prophecy. Yet it wasn’t until she was pregnant with you that Gyre told her the truth. She would give birth to The One. I’ll never forget the day she lost her place in line. You took what she felt was hers.”
Lyneva’s true nature suddenly spreads across her face faster than strikes of lightning across the tumultuous sky. “Navin!” she calls.
My knees weaken when Elizabeth and I fearfully scan the room in search of Navin.
A gliding figure in dark clothes enters from the back room, a handgun, firmly clenched in his hands, pointed at me. However, my reflexes are so fast that I’m holding a black handgun in seconds. The Willow in me wonders how it all happened so fast. He has no chance to shoot. The way that I can suddenly move, holding the gun as comfortably as a pencil in school, my feet confident and the thoughts in my brain repeating how he has no chance, whatsoever—and truly believing it—tells me clearly that this is not me.
“I wouldn’t, Navin!” I warn him. The standoff is silent for an uncomfortable minute until he takes several steps closer. I pull Elizabeth behind my back to keep her safe, but then an older voice hits the stale air behind us. In a split-second I somehow have a gun in each hand, my arms pointed to opposite sides of the room—one at the old man and the other on Navin.
“I can’t hide anymore.” This truth that I very much understand tumbles out of Lyneva.
“Then let’s fix that. It’s what I’ve been fighting for.” My white knuckles on the guns remind Navin and Japha that I am serious. Japha, who dresses like my grandfather without the golfer’s cap, wraps his crooked fingers around his weapon.
“They have to be beaten,” Lyneva says quietly.
I laugh, “They? Ephemes? Okay . . . I see. It’s always something. There’s always someone to hate.” I adjust my feet, “That’s why I can’t do this. You see that, right? Freedom doesn’t mean anything at the annihilation of someone else.”
Navin takes a step forward, “Remy, I need you.” Lyneva looks at him with sharp confusion but he pays no attention. “The world needs us. You know that. You and me.” I keep the gun pointed at him. “I believe in the Prophecy. I was told when I was a child that The One would be with me. Together we would do what others can’t. Think hard. You remember.”
Lyneva’s eyes are wild with anger. “Navin, what are you doing?”
Yet he ignores her and continues pursuing me. “Your mother’s always been your weakness. We knew she could bring you to us.” He looks at Japha and that’s when Lyneva realizes she has never been a part of the plan. Their eyes say it all.
Without warning, Navin turns his gun on Lyneva, yet his eyes stay on me. Lyneva cries out “No!” just as the gun reverberates. Blood splatters the wall behind Lyneva and sends her flying on to the gray carpet. Navin then walks to her body, places the gun behind her ear as she coughs up blood, and pulls the trigger again.
“No!” I yell.
Before I can shoot, Japha points the gun at Elizabeth and shoots twice. My gun pops, sending Japha to the ground, but only for a moment as Navin ducks my second shot and grabs me.
Suddenly voices shout from somewhere outside. Japha and Navin look up in surprise—their plan has been interrupted.
My body jerks as I open my tired eyes and I am no longer in the memory. Arek is in front of me. My head spins, and I’m groggy. Arek keeps me upright while the confusion subsides.
“Calm your breathing down,” he whispers.
In and out, the air passes through my nasal passage until my chest puffs up like a bird; slowly the breath squeezes through my lips, allowing my ribcage to shrink. My arms are numb all the way down to my fingertips, so I wiggle each finger trying to increase the circulation. Finally shapes and colors begin to form, and I am in Sassi and Kilon’s cabin living room once again.
“He killed her,” I breathe out while still squeezing my eyes shut.
Arek sits up straighter and Kilon closes the distance between us as though he is going to speak, but my shaky voice begins first. “It is during a storm. At first it is sunny, but it changes. Remy, Elizabeth . . . Lyneva . . . are there. Elizabeth has proof that Lyneva was working with Japha and Navin.” It is difficult to remember even though it just happened, and I tap my forehead with my fingers as if to make the memory clearer. “Lyneva helped Navin and Japha plan the Summit?” Everyone’s faces change.
“Elizabeth has proof?” Sassi casts her eyes on Arek.
Peter is the only one who doesn’t seem to understand. “Is she talking about the Red Summit? The one from 1979?”
Arek nods. “There were assumptions that it was Navin, but no one could ever prove it.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“There was a massacre of Ephemes in 1979. The Soviet Union was blamed due to the Cold War,” Geo explains.
“Elizabeth swears that Lyneva helped them,” I say quietly. “And she is right. I believe her. Lyneva didn’t realize that she was being used. And Navin shot her. He shot her once in the chest, then again in the side of her head.”
“He never wanted Lyneva,” Arek rubs his eyes. “He always wanted you. You were the one with Power. Lyneva was just a way to get to you.”
“So, we find Navin tomorrow?” I ask. “Teach me how to handle myself. At least how to keep him out of my head so I can help.”
Geo lets go of Beckah’s hand, takes off his jacket, and throws it on a nearby chair. “Let’s do this.”
“You will?” I ask.
Geo grins as he takes off his watch and lays it on the table. “The connection to our spiritual being, our mental being, and physical being makes sense to me—like music to Mozart,” Geo says quietly as he pulls a chair from the table and sets it in front of me. “Teaching you to defend this is the only way for you to walk away tomorrow.”
“No. We’re not doing this.” Arek’s anger tumbles out in a growl.
“I can do this.” My words come out, however, without much conviction.
“No, you can’t.”
Everyone is silent for a time. I watch Arek’s fear turn his muscles tense. Finally, unconcerned about the people watching, I walk to Arek until I’m so close our chests touch. Looking into his tired eyes, I see that this has been Arek’s life since my death. He has done nothing else or wanted anything else. “Remy’s coming back. I can feel it.” My fingers touch his temples on one side, “I saw your mother . . . and she says hello.”
“What?” his rough voice whispers.
“She says to tell you hello and not to worry.”
