Duvall chuckled. “What makes you think I’d remember a child from so long ago?”
“Just a hunch. Sephi Anovark?”
Duvall’s bony fingers clenched the edge of the table. “No doubt you saw that blasted column.”
“I already knew about her. You knew I looked like her. Why didn’t you tell me earlier? It would have explained a lot.”
“That isn’t what made me curious about you,” Duvall replied. “But the staff thought it was best if you remained unaware about your appearance at least until you became adjusted to this world.”
“Why?”
“It isn’t easy being a prophet or to be associated with one. Much like it isn’t easy to be a witch. You see, prophets and witches are categorized together as the gifted. Sephi was an instant target. Witches and prophets are not safe in the spiritual world, which is why I never leave this campus.” Duvall studied Alex with a look of determination. “Your mother learned that the hard way.”
“My mother? So was she a witch? Or a prophet?”
“Neither.”
Alex threw her hands in the air, exasperated.
“But she resembled Sephi Anovark enough for the spiritual world to become hysterical. People thought she lied about her abilities. Right away, the government assumed she was gifted and employed her to help them. She went digging for answers about her ancestry and it led her back to your hometown. She never came back. Ardor Westfall thought it best that you remain ignorant so your fate would not mirror hers.”
“Sephi’s family was killed, right?”
Duvall responded quietly. “Yes.”
“So let me get this straight. My mother had no prophetic talent and no possible relationship to this girl, but she was killed simply because she looked like her? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Magic scares people. Enough people were terrified of Sephi Anovark to want to keep any piece of her out of this world forever.”
“What’s to fear?”
“Prophets can see things about people, things that they might want to keep concealed. Many people believed that events occurred because she predicted them. Witches know better. Some aspects of fate are written in lead, some in ink.” She paused for several moments, allowing Alex to mull over what she’d said. “People are afraid of those who are different from themselves. I’ve been alive a long time, and that is something that never seems to change.”
But one person had never been afraid of Sephi.
“Professor, do you remember Sephi’s best friend here at Brigitta?”
Duvall puckered her lips in a sour expression.
“You didn’t like him,” Alex added.
“Correct.”
“Who was it?”
Duvall’s eyes flashed angrily like the reflection of an unforgiving sun. “The very person who murdered her.”
Alex recoiled, dread seeping through her.
“He went after her. No one wants to believe it, but evidence of Eviar has been resurfacing all year.”
“Eviar,” Alex squeaked.
“That was the name of his alliance. He certainly was not humble, was he, that Syrus Raive.” Duvall snickered. “Using his own name to label his group only implicated him in twice the number of crimes.”
“His name?”
“Spell it backwards.”
RAIVE. EVIAR.
If Alex had a body, she would have vomited all over the floor. His brotherhood. His name backwards, a nickname Sephi herself had inspired. Backwards thinking.
“Syrus Raive,” Duvall said his name like a curse. “He could infest a mind like a locust. I’m sure he’d heard that Sephi had predicted his death.”
“Was that why he left?”
Duvall reached into a desk drawer and extracted a green plant. She held it next to Alex’s face. “Unfortunately, sometimes we cannot control who we are connected to.”
“I don’t understand.”
She placed the plant back in the drawer before pointing a bony finger at Alex’s head. “She could hear him. Even if he wasn’t speaking. She had no control over it. She had to listen to the thoughts that made him a monster, and he could hear her prophecies. After class one day, she came to me wanting some sort of solution, but unfortunately I had none. She distanced herself, but she couldn’t get Raive out of her head even then. What a cancer. We need to keep our minds closed lest we desire insanity.”
Alex was feeling more and more lightheaded, and she reached out to stabilize herself against the counter. There was no explanation why she was so similar to this girl.
“Sit down,” Duvall ordered. “You just came back to the land of the somewhat living.” She patted Alex’s arm and continued to mix ingredients. “Raive heard Josephine’s thoughts when she went into hiding, and that’s how he found her. She tried to run from it, and she tried to fight it, but the world wouldn’t let her. Some things are just bigger than us. It’s foolish to think that we can manipulate that.” She bit her lip. “I couldn’t predict Syrus Raive’s future as she could, but I could taste his betrayal.”
Alex felt the desire to tell the truth. “I found letters that he wrote to Sephi. He never said his real name. He signed it Eviar. I had no idea it was him.”
Duvall rested her elbow on the edge of the table and leaned towards Alex.
“He seems pretty young. It’s mainly about school. But I can’t read half of them because they’re written in some strange ink.”
“The ink you questioned me about?” Duvall asked. She analyzed Alex like it was the first time she’d ever laid eyes on her. “When did the ink disappear?”
“After I tried to let Chase read them.”
“Hmm, yes, magic is unforgiving sometimes.”
“I can still see half of them.”
“Peculiar,” Duvall whispered. “May I have the opportunity to look at the letters?”
“I don’t know,” Alex said warily. “The last time I tried to show them to someone else, they disappeared on me.”
“I might be able to find a loophole. Where did you find these letters?”
“In Moribund.”
“Isn’t that interesting?” There was dry humor in her tone. “Were they in a box?”
“Yes. How did you know that?”
“If you were able to see the contents of that box, you must have some connection to Sephi, by relation or not.”
“You said it was impossible.”
“I’m a firm believer in the impossible.”
“Didn’t you say before it could be a glitch? If the person didn’t know what they were doing.”
“Oh, they knew what they were doing.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I created that box.”
“You?”
“Of course. I designed it. And that box wouldn’t have shown itself to you unless it felt some sort of allegiance. Whoever put it there wanted to know if you could see it.”
Alex shifted on the desk.
Duvall mumbled under her breath, raking her fingers through her erratic hair and causing it to stand on end.
“Professor?”
She waved her hand towards to door. “I think that’s enough. Go enjoy being awake for a change.”
The fumes in the ABC room, mixed with her confusion, made Alex woozy. She gladly escaped, picking up her pace the closer she came to the exit. Outside, the sun fell over the town like a spotlight. She’d never seen the city so bright.
Chase’s feet dangled from the edge of the picnic table. He lay sprawled in the sunshine with his eyes shut tightly. The light radiated from him so brightly he could have been an angel. He looked so young. She’d never understand how it was possible to love someone so much that she could ignore how terrified it made her.
Chase turned his head and opened his eyes, finding Alex with a smile. When she reached him, he braided his fingers in hers, and pleasant zings of electricity shook her body.