Chapter 13
13
Sonny
T he Landry library is just a small library in the main building that’s packed with retired textbooks, inches of dust, and horrible lighting. I spent most of my weekend pouring over everything I could find about the bloodlines Abigail talked about. My books have remained sprawled out across the singular table they’ve got set up, and only one other student joined me over the course of two days.
Even the librarian looks like she doesn’t want to be there.
Abigail wasn’t lying about the legacies being tied to specific bloodlines and gifts. It appears that was the entire reason all those people followed the Landry family here in the first place. But they all passed on from a fire and their piece of the bloodlines withered away—a major event in Nocturne Valley history that seems to have very little information published. The university was created to train the young and gifted individuals how to use their special powers in a safe environment. They figured that was a better alternative to hiding away and leaving it up to family members like they always had done in the past. It was a way of preserving what was left.
Aunt Divina’s bloodline—Valeria—is empathic. At their most basic level, they can sense other people’s emotions. At their highest, they can manipulate them, read thoughts, and even infiltrate dreams.
I wish I was joking.
How many times has she used these gifts on me? How many times has Poppy tried them on me?
While I’m horrified to discover there are people out in the world with unchecked power, I’m relieved to find a reason behind the weird things that happened to me. Random instances that I’ve glimpsed pieces of the past that were connected to certain objects. I’m also doubting the integrity of every interaction I’ve had, including the ones with my mother. I have to wonder if she ever planned on telling me about any of this.
Why would she kill herself right before my gifts matured?
My mind is like a hamster wheel of constant, maniacal thoughts stringing together.
It took almost no time to figure out which bloodline is ours: The Aeternum. A family line with the ability to manipulate time and perception. It was given away by one specific trait: violet-hued eyes. While rare, they’re most notably known for the odd physical attribute. With that, on top of a few accounts of people experiencing the exact phenomenon I’ve dealt with for half my life, I’m fairly certain that’s where we land.
I haven’t told Poppy about any of this yet. Mostly because I’m not fully convinced any of it is real, but a small part of me is also terrified that it is, and she’s known about it all along.
But I can’t deny it any longer. The information is all right here, printed in ink and bound together. There are hundreds of students supposedly preparing to practice their gifts when classes start this week. The thought of interacting with people who can read my mind or manipulate time makes me want to take the first flight out of here.
I’m so grossly underprepared for this.
On the other hand, I’m hungry for more information. I want to see some of these gifts in action. Can an aerokinetic descendant of the Primaris bloodline truly conjure up a tornado from thin air? Will a member from the Viridian bloodline be able to heal a broken bone within minutes? It feels like I’m under a spell that will be broken if I step foot out of this odd little town.
The traditional degree programs that regular people see when they research Ravenshurst from the outside are secondary to the courses that delve deep into these lines. Many of them are taught alongside the legacy courses to prepare students to apply their gifts in the real world.
I’ve learned that, as Abigail said, the Valerias are highly successful in fields such as psychology or social work. With the ability to see the past and future, the Aeternum line would be successful as historians or librarians. Aetheris are more physical, and they succeed in law enforcement or athletics.
For centuries, these families have dominated the industries they excel in and have lived among the rest of society in secret.
When I mocked Poppy about life not being a Disney film, I had no idea I’d be proven wrong so spectacularly.
So, my plan is to wait. To keep an open mind and gather as much information as I possibly can. I’ll either be found out for not possessing a shred of empathetic gifts, or I’ll wake up from this fever dream and be back at Flower Power with Carol breathing down my neck about taking more shifts.
Either way, it’s going to be a wild ride.