Chapter 24
With two Vims by my side, I move through the forest searching for another few to carry out my evil little plan.
After Theon’s reveal about the prison island and Levington’s lies, I wanted to seek out each of them, but I was too unbelievably angry at Levington and what he had done to them.
I went to bed with my thoughts on them all but woke up feeling lighter than I have since I came here.
Theon told me Knox knows all my hidden spots in the forest after following me around like a shadow stalker those first two weeks, and even though Theon knows I know everything now, he’s the only one who does so far.
I want to come to each of them myself, but the chance to mess with Knox is too good to miss.
I find another three Vims and start to open a connection to Knox when I hear something from behind me.
“You must be really powerful.”
I whip around to find Willow giving me a tentative smile. She gestures toward the Vims curling around my legs.
“I can see their energy.” She frowns. “But they’re constantly syphoning from you and refilling their own. I’ve never seen anything so pure.” She stares at me in awe and her eyes widen. “You don’t even realize you’re doing it, do you?”
Shock slides through me and I shake my head, glancing at the Vims as they purr and curl around my legs. I thought they couldn’t syphon from me.
Willow’s gaze flickers between me and them. “You’re an Alita, aren’t you? But you’re able to conceal your energy somehow.”
My stomach drops as she steps forward, and when I tense up, she pauses. “I won’t tell any of the others, especially not the other Alitas.”
“Aren’t you an Alita?” I ask, not willing to trust her especially if she was anyway involved with Sasha and her little group.
“I’m a little… different.” She grows uncomfortable and looks down at the forest floor. “An anomaly you could say. But I suppose there’s something wrong with us all.” She glances up at me, her brows furrowing. “Well… maybe except for you.”
“What do you mean?” For some reason the realization that she knows what I am doesn’t scare me. Something inside me tells me I can trust her.
For now, I go with whatever instinctual gut feeling I have about her and shove the thought of her revealing what I am to everyone to the back of my mind.
“Have you met any of the other Alitas and seen any of their abilities?” she asks.
I immediately think of Sasha and the strange incident with Cain. “I came across Sasha and her little group. She was…” I frown, trying to explain what she was doing. “She was just holding a male Shadow’s arm, but it was like he was in pain.”
“She was syphoning his energy,” she says with a tired sigh. “She’s not supposed to be doing that but most of the Alita here think they are owed it for simply being an Alita.”
Shock splinters through me. “Wait... you’re telling me Alita’s can syphon energy?” I stare down at the Vim’s in shock before looking back up at her. “Like Vims?”
She nods. “We’re not supposed to be able to, but something is wrong with us all.” She sighs and it’s full of frustration and sadness. “In order to access our abilities, we all need to syphon energy.” She gives me a pointed look. “But it has to be a… specific kind of energy.”
I immediately think of Cain. “The Shadows?”
She nods. “Yes. They found that out by accident. But the Alitas mostly use the crystal to power their abilities.”
I still. “I thought the crystal was needed to stop the Shadows from turning dark.”
“It is,” she says with a frown. “But when Levington found out about the Alitas… abnormality, he created a piece of jewelry for each of us and placed a small piece of the crystal in it.” She glances down at her wrist, and I spot the small silver bracelet with a tiny round diamond at its center.
“It’s the only way the Alita can now access and use their abilities. ”
A spear of anger slams into me at the thought of Levington. I guess his secrecy and lies goes much further than just me and my mates.
“I thought there was only one crystal?” Though I wouldn’t be surprised if Levington lied about that too.
She winces. “There is. But he… broke little pieces off to create the jewelry.”
Shock flitters through my anger as I realize the lengths that Levington is willing to go to in order to get what he wants.
“But I thought the Shadows needed it?” I ask. “Won’t the crystal drain faster the longer the Alita syphon from it?” Levington said it will only last another decade, if that.
She nods and stares down at her bracelet. “Levington ensures they only take a little to charge the smaller crystals. But years have already been taken off it. I doubt there’s much more than five years left, if that.”
Everything inside me turns to ice. “Levington knows this, and he still allows it to happen?”
“There’s only a handful of Alita left, and Levington would choose an Alita over any of his Shadows. Even if that means taking a few years off their lives to do it.”
I originally thought Levington was a better man than Talos. But him and Talos are much the same. One is just more open about getting want he wants.
“So, Levington decided to take some of the crystal for the Alita and allows them to syphon energy from it, all while not giving a shit about his men?” The very men that watch over and protect his precious Alita. Who would easily lay down their lives if asked.
She glances around as if checking to make sure no one can overhears us before staring back at me. “He doesn’t want anyone to know that we have to syphon energy at all. Technically Alitas should be able to give it, like you.”
My stomach churns the longer she speaks. “It’s horrible, I know but there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
“If they have the crystal to help them access their powers, then why do Sasha and the others syphon the Shadows here?” I ask.
She sighs. “Greed, I guess. They want more power. Levington only allows them to take a little each time.”
“How kind of him,” I say with a deadpan look that makes her smile.
“But won’t syphoning the Shadows’ energy only bring those very Shadows closer to madness?” I ask, and she nods, giving me a grave expression.
“Not only that, if they do it too often, it will kill them,” she reveals, and I blanch.
Fuck. What is hell is Levington up to? What game is he playing to allow this?
With a headache slowly forming, I try to ignore the throb in my skull but something about what she said niggles at the back of my mind.
“You keep talking as if you’re not one of the Alitas. You keep saying them not we, why?” I ask.
She shrugs, giving me a sad smile. “I don’t feel like I am,” she says looking down at herself and frowning.
“One of them, that is. My wings are not… they don’t work right, and I don’t have any real power.
The ability to sense energy is something I’ve always been able to do, even without the crystal’s help.
” She fidgets with her hands and clothes before finding my gaze.
“But I can’t syphon energy. Not from the Shadows or the crystal.
” She looks down at the ground once more.
“He made me try once and I hated every second of it.”
“Who made you try?”
She glances up at me. “Levington.”
I clench my hands by my side. “But you still have a crystal.” I point out.
She swallows hard and gives me a look that tells me she’s afraid to reveal whatever she’s about to say. That she hopes she can trust me.
“I can’t syphon energy,” she says as the fear seeps into her eyes. “But the Alita can syphon mine.”
My brows rise in shock as her gaze moves back down to the bracelet on her wrist. “The crystal stops the other Alita from syphoning from me.”
My eyes widen. “Is that something they all can do? Syphon energy from another Alita?” If is it, it’s definitely something I need to learn to lock down. Especially with Sasha already having it out for me.
“They all can syphon from me but only me.” She glances up at me with nothing but vulnerability on her face. “Anomaly, remember?”
Oh. “What happens if you were to take the crystal off?” I ask and her face crumbles as she stares straight at me.
“If I take it off and one of the Alitas syphoned my energy, I would have moments to live.”
I don’t know her, but my chest tightens at the thought. “Do the Alita know?”
She shakes her head as fear slashes across her face. “They think my power is seeing energy and that the crystal allows me to do so. They don’t know that they could syphon from me.”
I have a feeling that if they did find out, Willow would be in trouble.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I ask as my anger for Levington and his secrets grows. “Not that I’m not grateful or anything, but we’re not close and you just revealed things that could really do some damage.”
She sighs. “I can see your energy. It’s pure.
” She watches me with awe. “And just like the Vims, I’m a little drawn to it.
To you.” She gives me a soft expression.
“And I don’t know, I just feel like I can trust you.
With the other Alita…” She frowns… “Their energy… it’s like it’s tainted.
Dark. I knew from the moment I met them that I could never trust them. ”
She turns and frowns at something. I glance over at the direction she’s looking but there’s nothing there.
She looks back at me, her frown still in place as she takes a step back. “I have to go but I won’t tell anyone about you. You can trust me, I promise,” she vows and for some reason I know I can trust her. At least with this.
She watches me with a glint of something familiar in her eyes and I take a minute to inspect and examine every little flicker of expression and really look at her.
I quickly realize why I feel such ease around her.
She’s me a couple of years ago. Or at least she reminds me of that time. Of the lonely foster girl with nothing and no one around her. The one who only wanted a family or someone to confide in and a chance to find my place in this world.