Chapter 23 #2
“He was one of the attackers,” Zephyr said, continuing the train of thought.
“You saw him?” Vince asked eagerly, the armchair creaking as he leaned forward.
Zephyr looked at me uneasily.
My stomach couldn’t sink any lower, but somehow, it did.
Watching Vince’s face light up was familiar.
Because I did remember his son, now.
His son was one of the men from my nightmares, one who didn’t die when I killed the rest. He’d called me phantom, asking me to look upon him while he died.
I’d killed him without a second thought, and Zephyr hadn’t reacted beyond a clench of the jaw.
The gravity of what I’d done at such a young age really hit me, then. I’d been a child, and I hadn’t hesitated in killing someone.
That man had been someone’s son.
Vince still watched me eagerly, his blue eyes a dead match for the man I’d killed.
“Will you tell me? His final moments? What did he say?”
I swallowed thickly as Zephyr shook his head, making his curls bounce.
“You don’t wanna know,” he said.
Vince’s expression fell slightly, and I thought I heard Wyatt curse behind me.
“Please,” he said softly. “I know he wasn’t…well. I know he was one of the attackers. I found him after…I saw him. You won’t make my suffering any worse than what it’s already been.”
Zephyr cringed, giving me a look I couldn’t decipher.
“He…” My voice shook slightly. I’d never told the story to anyone, and I wasn’t sure how much to even share. “He tried getting me to cooperate. We were surrounded…they said a Sensor had felt me and knew there was a strong affinate nearby. They thought it was me.”
“They’d been right,” Zephyr muttered.
“Your son didn’t die initially,” I said. “He survived somehow. He was dying, though.”
Vince nodded, his expression still eager.
This…was a very sad man.
I couldn’t imagine missing someone so badly that I needed their last words, even as it would hurt me.
“He wanted me to watch him die,” I said slowly. “I think. He called me–”
Zephyr made a sound of disapproval, and I stopped, then amended what I was about to say.
“He kept calling me some code name. He wanted me to watch him. He said he’d been worshipping something, but…I don’t know what it was. I was angry he’d stood by while they hurt Levi, so…I killed him.”
Vince nodded as if I hadn’t just told him something horrible.
“You said they weren’t looking for Skye. Why was there a code name?” Rafe asked.
Vince shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t privy to everything going on. I was just tasked with finding the male.”
Rafe shook his head, and then Vince spoke again.
“Thank you.”
“That’s all you wanted?” Wyatt asked in disbelief.
“I get the feeling you don’t know what it’s like to love someone so strongly,” Vince said, narrowing his eyes at Wyatt.
“But I loved my son, even when he was lost to me. I wasn’t even that far from him when he died.
I came upon him after the fact, and a Healer told me what’d happened, but I still wanted to know from the source. ”
“A Healer,” Rafe murmured. “Which Healer, Vince?”
“Holmes,” he replied before sitting back in his chair. “She’s the best of the best. They had her out there not long after the strike.”
“Holmes,” Rafe said slowly. “And she told you? What had killed your son?”
Vince nodded, looking a little confused.
“Yeah. I told her I’d been distracted by a strong affinate, and she told me it was a Telekinetic that’d killed the group of men.
I couldn’t feel the affinity anymore, though.
I wasn’t sure how you’d escaped.” Vince’s jaw worked for a second, as if he were reconsidering what he was about to say next.
“I sensed the teleportation, I’d just never sensed it before, so I didn’t know what it was.
When I met you at the testing center, though…
I felt it again, and I…just knew. I’d had years to reconsider what’d transpired at the massacre. ”
I nodded. That all made sense.
“Why’d you lie?” Zephyr asked.
Vince shrugged again. “I may have known what the affinity was, but there’s no code for it in the system. I’m not really lying if there’s no way for me to log it, right?”
Zephyr gaped at him.
“And Aiden?” I asked sharply.
Vince’s blue eyes finally rested on Aiden. He hadn’t looked at him once since we got here. Aiden stared back, looking bored, but I could feel his anxiety spiking.
“Didn’t lie about that one,” Vince said.
Wyatt groaned.
“Then why does he have a new affinity?” Rafe asked. “Did Lucille put you up to it?”
Aiden blinked several times as shock rolled through us. Rafe and Wyatt thought Lucille had…paid Vince off?
I was getting tired of not having all the details before going into a situation.
“Nope,” Vince replied easily.
Wyatt pinched his nose. “Then how does he have a new affinity?”
“He doesn’t,” Vince said. “I already told you. Affinities evolve.”
None of us responded to that.
We fell into silence for several minutes, and I could tell Aiden was going to freak out as soon as we left.
I was going to freak out as soon as we left.
If the attack at the parade wasn’t random…
I didn’t know what to think. If they were there for an affinate that wasn’t me, who would it’ve been?
Zephyr? Levi?
We’d assumed they were after me, but the other two had been around me the whole time. Maybe the Sensors had been confused.
I want to leave, I told Rafe.
“Well, this was quite enlightening,” Rafe said, not missing a beat. He stood, offering me a hand, then smoothly stuffed his hands into his pockets when I ignored it. “Thanks for the info, Vince-o.”
Vince scowled.
“You got what you needed, we got we needed, we’re all set.” Rafe continued, gesturing for me to walk past him toward the door, where Wyatt was already waiting. Zephyr glared hard at him as he reached for the door, then paused as Vince spoke again.
“Arias,” he said.
Zephyr and I turned slowly, a little robotically, to face him.
“You’re a rare pair,” he said. “There are people out there that collect rarities. Be aware of your surroundings.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
“Got it,” Zephyr said sarcastically, though there wasn’t much heat behind it.
“Special Sensor advice, how lovely.” Rafe said.
“Princeling?” he said after another beat of silence when we’d tried to leave again. I turned along with Rafe, curious to see what else the old man had to say.
“Yes?” Rafe replied with a sigh.
“You want to be different, so be different.” Vince said. Rafe went still, so still it seemed unnatural. “Break the cycle of your forefathers.”
“This is some more of that special Sensor advice?” Wyatt asked, his tone hard.
“I didn’t know Sensors had time to specialize in such things,” Rafe said lightly, earning a snort from Zephyr and a huff from Aiden.
“We don’t,” Shafer said. “Some of us spend our never-ending lives sensing and tracking, alone in a dungeon, waiting on a king to save us.”
Rafe didn’t speak the rest of the afternoon.