“So the sewer rat has returned.” A haughty feminine voice interrupted my thoughts.

It didn’t take a genius to recognize Syrani, the most powerful, or should I say most popular, student within the school. She was in her sleeping robes, her hair braided down her back. Her eyes looked wild and I could see a few dark circles under her eyes.

“Why are you wandering around late at night?” I asked.

“I live here. I have every right to come and go as I please. What of you? Did your dirty clansmen bring you back because they no longer wanted you?”

At one time, Syrani may have made me feel self-conscious or pitiful and nervous but not anymore. Now she only grated on my nerves. I let the anger rise to the surface and felt wind blow my hair even though there weren’t any open windows near. I let my skin crackle with power, and I showed her what really lay beneath the surface.

Syrani stepped back and almost toppled over in fear when she saw the difference in my eyes.

“Y-your eye. It’s glowing. You’re not a rat,” Syrani stuttered. She tried to back away down the hall and maintain her confidence, but her fear was obvious. “You’re a freak!”

Chapter 15

“This is highly unusual,” Adept Lorna said. She tilted my face from side to side, studying my eye. Her blue eyes pierced mine. Lorna’s spiky white hair always seemed to be at attention. Her tanned skin and angular face made her look so serious, you’d never guess she had a softer side until you heard her deep throaty laugh. But she wasn’t laughing now. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Have you, Kambel?”

“No, I haven’t. I once read about another race with eyes silver like the moon, but they weren’t here in Calandry.”

“Where?” Lorna asked.

“Not where…when.” The elderly adept known as Kambel Silverbane spoke. Taking off his spectacles, he cleaned them and slid them back onto his pointed nose as if by that action alone he could clear up the puzzle of the one discolored eye. He scratched his head with an ink-stained hand. “I came across a scroll from Avellgarde’s archives that spoke of another race from before the fall. Before the Denai came to Calandry. But that scroll disappeared shortly after I found it.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just lose the scroll in your office?” Adept Cirrus asked.

Kambel shook his head. “No, I’m positive. I’ve continued to search, but any other mention of Denai life before Calandry has been destroyed. The few books I’ve been able to recover over the years are unsalvageable.”

They had found a stool for me to perch upon, and one by one, the five adepts studied my deformed eye and asked me pointed questions. I squirmed uncomfortably in the stool and tried to answer as honestly as I could, but the truth was I didn’t know what was happening to me any more than they did.

But I was most uncomfortable with the silent figure that sat quietly in a chair, observing me with piercing blue eyes. Her red hair was held off of her shoulders with delicate bejeweled pins and her delicate hands never twitched or moved. Her posture and composure bespoke years of training that I knew I would never be able to learn or mimic. How could I possibly? She was the queen.

“So you say you have been regaining more memories concerning the experiments done to you,” Adept Cirrus asked thoughtfully. His long blond-white ponytail made him look the most normal of the bunch. I just appreciated his level-headedness.

“Vivid dreams have been bringing it back in bits and pieces in.” I shivered just recounting my last few.

“How do you know what you’re dreaming is truth?” Adept Cirrus asked, no hint of accusation in his tone.

“Also the pain of the experiments could have hidden the memories deeper as well,” Kambel spoke up again, his gray head bobbing. “If she kept encountering similar pains or experiences, they could have triggered the subconscious.”

My mind immediately jumped to the sound of thunder and how it pulled me back into the pit, back to the prison. “I think Adept Kambel is right. High stress situations seem to bring it back faster. It’s been a slow process, like a disease. Over time, it’s spread and gotten worse. Especially in the last few weeks. I’ve been in more pain, but I’m getting stronger. Talbot himself said I was exhibiting at least four Denai gifts, and it is fairly obvious I’m not a Denai. The Septori must’ve succeeded, and I’m positive in what my powers are doing. They drain all of a Denai’s powers and give them to another.”

“I don’t think we should trust her. Or whatever you are calling that Denai imposter” Breah challenged. She was never afraid of speaking her mind in front of Queen Lilyana. Breah, the youngest of the Adept Council seemed to have disliked me from the moment I arrived in Haven. Her auburn hair was in a coif today—probably an attempt to make her look older.

“Look at her,” she fumed angrily. “Look into the true face of evil!” Silence filled the room, except for the angry panted breathing of Adept Breah. “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again—she shouldn’t be here.”

It was Pax who stood up and came to my defense, gently taking the young woman and directing her toward a chair. No one argued against the giant of a man.

“She should be chained up, imprisoned,” Breah sniffed over her shoulder and sat down, glaring daggers at me.

The hatred that poured from Breah toward me came off of her in waves and, for once, I actually feared the adept. In that moment, I saw clearly how delicate the balance of power was among the Adept Council members. I glanced around and saw the uncertain expressions on Kambel and Cirrus. Adept Pax and Lorna were unreadable, and they were the two that usually were on my side about everything.

The scale could have tipped at any moment, deciding the rest of my future. Maybe the Adept Council weren’t my allies but could potentially be my enemy. Ultimately, I could only trust myself. And right now the less I told them the better.

Queen Lilyana had raised an eyebrow at Breah. “Come now. I doubt she is in any way to blame for what was done to her against her will. You need to let that go, Adept Breah. She’s the victim here. She wasn’t a danger to us before, and even though she is growing stronger, I doubt that her intent is to kill us all in our sleep. Thalia would rather have this whole process reversed if possible, am I correct, Thalia? If you had the chance to undo what was done to you, would you take it? Give it all up for normalcy?”

The air left my lungs and I couldn’t catch my breath. My hands shook and I leaned on my knees and lifting my gaze with utter hope. A weight lifted off of my shoulders as I stared into her beautiful blue eyes. I would do anything to just have two the same color again.

“Yes,” I sighed. Even to me the words were barely audible, but she leaned forward as if to catch them.

Then she smiled softly and leaned back in her chair. “So now that we know that we have her cooperation, let’s work on fixing this.”

Kambel spoke up in nervousness, “My Queen, I don’t think I could unless I actually had Lord Horden’s journals. I think these experiments are a direct link to his findings. If only I had the original journals. I could—”

“Well you don’t,” Lorna interrupted. “So use that brain of yours and find a way around it.”