Chapter 3 #2
She takes a moment to glower at me for even thinking it.
“He’s particularly interested in the children,” she says with a hard edge to her tone.
“In Eden and Jaxson’s developing abilities.
And, of course, the other boys, too.” She frowns at the mention of them.
As much as she loves them, and she does, she is well aware of who their father is—or more to the point, their grandfather.
“He’s assessing how much of your power they’ve inherited, Skyla. ”
“He’s assessing the kids? With something called observation points in the celestial barriers?” A chill runs through me that has nothing to do with the storm outside. “To what end? And why?”
I get the feeling Logan and I can sing an entire chorus of whys and never get a single straight answer. We’ve never gotten one before, I don’t see why we’d get one now.
“That’s what we argued about.” Candace floats a notch into the air, moving to the window where lightning illuminates her profile in stark, dramatic flashes.
“He’s living in a bubble of fear because of your children.
And we all know how volatile a fearful Fem can be.
Demetri is a danger to us all. He claims it’s a harmless observation, but we both know Demetri doesn’t observe anything without planning to use that knowledge. ”
Logan and I exchange another glance. This sounds plausible, exactly the kind of thing Demetri would do, but something doesn’t quite add up.
“So, what do you need from us?” I ask because there’s always something.
My mother doesn’t make house calls to deliver information, and definitely not Chinese food.
Unfortunately. Although let’s be honest, if she came bearing takeout, it would make things a little easier on all of us all the way around.
She’s here because she wants something—dare I say, needs something.
Candace turns from the window as a slow smile spreads across her face. “I need your help to create an anchor in the past.”
“An anchor?” Logan repeats.
“A fixed point in time,” she explains, “serving as a marker to a predetermined point before the faction war began. It’s essentially a historical reference point, and since the two of you were instrumental in getting that particular ball rolling, I thought you should be the ones to choose which moment to mark. ”
“Why exactly do we need this anchor?” I press, not quite ready to agree to anything. And I’m certainly not agreeing to something I don’t understand.
“Think of it as a safety measure,” Candace says smoothly.
“A home base of sorts, if we ever needed to reference the time before everything changed—before Celestra was threatened. Trust me, it’s for Jaxson and Eden, and the twins.
I need to protect my grandchildren. Come, we need to hurry.
” She holds out her hands, beckoning us as if we were toddlers.
The explanation sounds like complete bullshit, but when it comes to my kids’ safety, I can’t risk being wrong.
“And this has to happen right now?” I scoff her way. “During a storm at midnight?”
“Yes, but only because the celestial alignment is perfect tonight,” she counters without missing a beat.
“And I promise, no more than an hour will pass in this reality. Gage is more than competent to handle things here. I’m assuming.
” She takes a moment to glower at the thought.
Yet again, she’s not exactly Gage Oliver’s biggest fan, and mostly that has to do with who his father is.
Although on the rare occasion when I’m not his biggest fan, it mostly has to do with who his mother is.
Emma Oliver is still the bane of my existence.
“Gage can handle things.” Logan nods slowly. “And I hope Eden gives him a run for his fun uncle money.”
That gets a genuine laugh from my mother. “She is my granddaughter, after all.”
“One more time,” I tell her. “Explain this to me as if I were three.” And something tells me that still won’t be enough. “Why the anchor marker thingy?”
“The anchor isn’t just a marker—it’s a way to harvest genuine emotional energy from a powerful moment in your past. I need this energy to create a protective hedge specifically calibrated to your family’s unique power signature.
Demetri’s surveillance has shown me that someone, or something, and most likely Demetri himself, is planning to target the children directly.
The only way to shield them is with a barrier woven from the emotional resonance of your shared history.
By creating an anchor at a moment of pure love and unity, we establish a temporal home base that will automatically pull your family back to safety if anyone tries to displace you through time. ”
“Wow,” I say. “That was a lot.” But then it is late.
And I do have about three brain cells left after having all those children.
Plus, there’s that whole no sleep thing.
Come to think of it, I have a lot working against me.
I probably should invest in a protective hedge fund—or an anchor, as we’re calling it.
It more or less sounds like a supernatural security system, and that can’t be all that bad, can it?
I hesitate, still unsure of any of this.
“How far in the past do you think we should go?”
Candace’s face lights up as her countenance begins to glow and sparkle a pale shade of blue. She looks both dead and pleased, far too pleased if you ask me, as if she’s won a game I didn’t realize we were playing. And something tells me she has done just that.
“We can poke and prod until you find something you’re comfortable with,” she says, reaching out to take our hands in hers and succeeding this time.
And sure enough, that electric current that courses through her rides up our arms, and both Logan and I suck in a quick breath because of it. “We don’t have any time to waste.”
Before I can voice the objection forming in my throat, the room around us begins to wobble and warp before fading away like a fever dream. Our familiar living room dissolves in a spray of tiny blue stars, each one carrying away a piece of the present like cosmic confetti.
The last thing I see before our new reality sets in is my mother’s eyes—gleaming with an emotion that looks nothing like the protection she’s promised and everything like the victory of a predator that has finally cornered its prey.