The students filed past me,following Kiran’s limp body into the gymnasium. Principal Saint knelt downbeside me, offering his tuxedo jacket. I took it, grateful for something towrap around myself. The jacket was enormous and thankfully hung down past myminiskirt which had been ripped to an indecent state.
“Were you attacked again?”Principal Saint asked grimly.
I nodded my reply and heard himcurse under his breath. He said something about calling my aunt. I didn’tobject, but realized that I was missing the sound of sirens in the distance.
“Has someone called 911?” I askedin a hoarse whisper, barely able to hear my own voice.
“No Eden, we have our own ways ofhealing,” no sooner had he spoken this then a long black limo pulled in frontof the school and the teachers once again carried Kiran’s limp body over thehole imprinted in the shape of our fall and into the back seat of the car.
“I must go with him. Your aunt willbe here soon,” Principal Saint put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed itgently. “I’m glad you’re alright Eden.” I watched him quickly get into thepassenger’s seat of the limo and then the vehicle drove away.
The rest of the students waiteduntil Kiran’s “ambulance” was out of sight before walking to their ownrespective limousines. An eerie silence settled over us, except for a few ofthe other girls who cried like me. One of them in particular, who could notcontrol her tears, was Seraphina. Adelaide and Evangeline helped her to a limoalone and I realized that Talbott must have gone in the other car with Kiran.
A pang of guilt hit me and my heartdropped to my stomach as I realized that I was the reason Kiran was on therooftop to begin with. If he had been with Seraphina like he was supposed to,the attackers probably wouldn’t have found occasion to assault him. It was becausewe were alone on the roof without his body guard that they found theiropportunity. And then it was because of me again that Kiran sacrificed himselfover the ledge of the building.
“Are you alright?” Avalon, dressedin his tuxedo again, was at my side.
“Don’t,” I said simply, but my oneword was filled with all of the rage I felt.
“Eden, there are things you don’tunderstand,” he knew I had figured out it was him on the roof.
“I don’t want to understand. Idon’t want to be anywhere near you,” I spat out the words like venom. I sawAunt Syl approaching in her red convertible and looked around, realizing Avalonand I were the only ones left standing in front of the gymnasium.
“It’s time that you do understand.I can’t lie to you anymore,” his voice was soft and sad, but it wasn’t enoughfor me to listen to. I waited impatiently for Aunt Syl to drive up. “Kiran hasto die, Eden. We have to destroy his bloodline in order to survive.”
“I don’t know what you’re talkingabout,” I refused to turn and look at him; all of the energy from the battlehad turned to hate and focused completely at Avalon.
“His bloodline is the reason we areso weak. The reason we die. They’ve closed off the magic. By not letting usmarry whomever we choose the magic is confined to one type of Immortal or theother. The magic can’t be free, and because it can’t be free we are all goingto die. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually every Immortal willfade out of existence. And if that is going to happen, I’m going to start withthe source of the problem,” I shook my head as if refusing to believe whatAvalon claimed was truth. “They take and kill whomever they choose and thenimprison the rest of us to ensure their bloodline and their Immortality. But itaffects them too and so I call for their blood to be shed. Every King beforeKiran has made it worse for our people. I want to cut it off at the sourcebefore we all die, can’t you see that Eden?” his voice was pained and full ofemotion.
“Why him? Why not his father?Kiran’s not even King yet,” I finally addressed his accusations.
“But he will be one day. And hewill be no better than his father. Probably worse. Have you asked him aboutLilly? Have you asked him what his father is going to do to her? Have you askedhim why he won’t testify on her behalf even though she fought to save his life?No you haven’t. You’ve bought into his lie just like the rest of them,” heraised his voice with passion.
“Oh, but I should buy into yourlie. I should just believe exactly what you say, although you’re the one tryingto kill me!” I shouted, enraged myself.
“I have never tried to kill you;I’ve only tried to protect you! And yes you should listen to me, because afterall I’m your brother damn it! Your twin brother!” That was it. I couldn’tlisten to him anymore. I was overwhelmed with information I couldn’t discernfrom fact or fiction. The events of tonight had been too traumatic to evenprocess his words, let alone believe them.
Thankfully Aunt Syl pulled up thedrive. I put my hands over my ears like a little girl and ran away fromeverything I didn’t want to face anymore. I threw myself into Aunt Syl’s carand yelled at her to drive. After she obeyed, I let out all of the emotion onceagain in fitful sobs, trying to wrap my head around the words Avalon justshouted at me. Could he really be my twin brother?
Chapter Thirty
“Eden, there is someone here to seeyou,” Aunt Syl’s voice whispered softly but firmly in my ear.
My room was completely dark, and Iwas comfortably wrapped in my comforter, surrounded by feather pillows. Igroaned a response and rolled over. She patted my back maternally, beforestanding up to open my bedroom door and allow whoever was here to see me,inside.
I heard Avalon’s familiar voice anda wave of nausea swept over me. He was speaking to my aunt about accommodationsor a spare room or something I couldn’t quite make out. I heard my aunt turnthe lamp on, creating a soft glow of light not strong enough to hurt my stillsleepy eyes. I peeked one eye out from the pillow I had my face buried in andsaw Avalon fidget tentatively in the doorway.
“Well you might as well come in;you have a lot of explaining to do,” I struggled to lecture through a hoarsewhisper. In the last twenty four hours I had begun to accept the fact that hewas my brother. This was the first time he had tried to speak to me himselfsince he told me, but I decided it was something I always knew deep within. Atleast I understood there was something internal that tied us together, althoughI was unable to put a word to it. Much like when Principal Saint came toexplain my Immortality to me, Avalon was now here to explain our connection.
“You’re not mad at me?” he askedquietly and walked to the end of my bed, standing awkwardly and playing idlywith the bed frame.
“I wouldn’t say that. But at leastI’m not planning on turning you over to the authorities,” my voice grewstronger than a whisper, but maintained its’ hoarseness.
“Would you like some tea, my dear?”Aunt Syl offered from the doorframe.
“Yes, please,” she gave me anencouraging smile and disappeared down the hallway. “We’ll be down in asecond.” I called after her, feeling suddenly awkward with my brand new brotheralone in my room. Who knew what I had lying around on the floor?
I crawled out of bed stiff andsore. My knee and shin throbbed dully from the bloody gash covering them. Myhair was tangled and wild, I had yet to shower; and my skin was filthy. AuntSyl was kind enough to let me sleep through the day; I supposed sleep was how Iemotionally healed.
I staggered out of the bedroom, butnot before grabbing a hair tie that I worked my human-kind-of-magic with;pulling my tangled locks into some type of vice grip on the top of my head. Inoticed the green dress from last night in a crumpled heap by my door; Iglanced down quickly to make sure I was actually clothed. Thankfully I had anoversized sweatshirt and shorts on. I didn’t remember putting them on, but itdidn’t really matter at that point, at least I was dressed. I grabbed the dressoff of the floor with full intentions of burning it when I got to the bottom ofthe stairs.