Chapter 17 Sex Magic #3
“The Fathom may seem like just a secret club to you,” he says, eyes sparking with emotion—anger, pain, hunger, fear. “But it’s so much more than that. There are things she hasn’t shown you yet. Things that will change you. Forever.”
“What things?” I press him, tired of being kept just outside of a loop that holds all the answers I’m seeking. “Tell me. Please.”
He purses his lips. “I can’t. It doesn’t work that way.”
My frustration ramps up, taking control of my mouth.
“I don’t understand. First you tell Aaron all this stuff you shouldn’t.
Now you won’t tell me whatever it is you should.
You’re kissing Arla’s hand one minute and calling her a parasite the next.
” I drop my hands in my lap, take a breath.
“If you knew this about her before, why not leave once you realized? Why stay? Why help her? Why recruit me?”
He laughs again. “I told you. She changes you. There is no going back. You’ll see.” When I don’t respond, he adds, “Besides, I only just put it together. After last night—”
My brow furrows. “Last night? What does last night have to do with any of this?”
His face lights up, something hopeful, wistful, shifting behind it. His hand reaches out for mine. “The levitation … It’s not something I’ve ever done before. It’s new. I’m getting stronger.”
“Okay.” I blink, take another breath. “Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? A good sign?”
His face falls. “It might seem that way, but you don’t know Arla like I do. She won’t like that.”
“Why?”
“It means she’s losing favor. It means something isn’t under her control. She can’t abide that.”
Sighing, I rub my temples. “What about the others? Have you tried telling them about your concerns? Maybe they could shed some light on what’s happening.”
Brennan laughs sourly. “I wouldn’t get anywhere with them.
Trust me, I know. I live sandwiched between them all.
Twig and Rock and their undying devotion on one side, Cadence and her weak-kneed fear on the other.
She’s terrified of Arla. They’re in love with her.
Exactly who do you think I could trust in that scenario? ”
He has a point. “Why is Cadence so afraid?”
He shrugs. “Her power is all twisted up inside her, hard to read, harder to control. It was never like this before. She’s used to the ways autism manifests in her life, the sensory stuff and the stimming.
It used to be something she felt was a part of what made her her.
But even that has changed in confusing ways since she came here.
She thinks Arla has something to do with it, that she’s using Cadence’s own power against her, to keep her from seeing… ”
“What?”
“We don’t know,” he admits. “But it can’t be good. Not if she’s hiding it from all of us.”
I get up from my seat and walk around it, leaning down over the back, thinking.
“Maybe you’re not giving Arla enough credit.
She wants to keep everybody safe, that’s why she asked me to spend time with you.
As long as it’s not a danger to the group, she shouldn’t have a problem with this new growth you’re experiencing. ”
Brennan rolls his eyes. “I wish it were that simple.”
“Okay, so, play to her needs,” I suggest. “Tell her that you being more powerful means she can be more powerful. She can’t take issue with that.”
Again, he looks annoyed.
“Look, whatever is going on between you two, you shouldn’t have brought Aaron into this,” I tell him, fed up.
“I know,” he says, genuine remorse in his voice. “I panicked.”
“Yes,” I say flatly. “That’s obvious.”
He looks at me and away, his gaze venturing toward the window, the blank sheet of sky outside. “You don’t get it. You think this is just between her and me, a spat between friends. But it’s more than that. It’s all of us. She’s planning something,” he tells me. “Something big. I can feel it.”
I watch him, wishing I could understand his concerns, the things he hasn’t found words for. I see a tangle of emotion shifting across his face and wonder.
He eyes me. “In one way, I was right in those early days. Arla isn’t like the rest of us.”
“Brennan, you’re going to have to be more specific or—”
“She’s channeling us,” he interrupts. “What we can do. But Arla can’t abide competition. So, what do you think that means?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him. “These things you’re telling me, I have no way of knowing if they’re true.”
He looks disappointed.
“Even if I believe you, how can she do that, Brennan? It doesn’t make sense.”
He shakes his head, and it’s as if a wall goes up. “I wish I could say.”
I sigh, uncertain what to think. “All I know is, you’re the first people I’ve met like me who weren’t in my own family. And for the first time in a very long time, I feel boundless. And that feels fucking good.”
Brennan looks sad, wilted like week-old flowers. “Mark my words,” he says, “she’s working on something. Maybe she always has been. And once we become disposable…” His eyes find mine across the room. “Well, all your boundless feelings can’t save you then.”
I stand to my full height and take a step away, a chill penetrating the hotel that isn’t coming from the vent. The Arla I know is incisive and controlled. Ambitious perhaps, bold, even pushy. But still a far cry from homicidal maniac. “I have one more question before I leave.”
He smiles, but it’s not welcoming. “Sure.”
“What’s in Arla’s basement? In the locked room beneath Medusa?”
His face rearranges itself around a secret he won’t share, but I can see it burning inside him—he knows. He’s seen. Fear flits behind his eyes, urgent and restless.
“Maybe you understand after all,” he says, getting up and walking to the bathroom. He closes the door after him, leaving me alone to guess.