“What’s wrong with her?” she demanded, turning back to Darius. He shrugged.
“She’s in the Nether,” he said simply. “It’s where she prefers to spend all her time these days. It’s more pleasant in there, I suppose, than her everyday reality.”
Looking around the room, Trinity couldn’t blame her. Slowly she rose to her feet. “She was dead,” she protested weakly. “I saw her body. And the coroner confirmed it. Fingerprints, DNA. It all checked out.”
“All bought and paid for,” Darius replied. “You’d be amazed at how little the coroner charged us for the false identification. He had no idea how valuable she really was.”
“But why?” she asked, staring down at her mother, feeling out of body and disconcerted. The last two years she’d had to deal with the horror of walking in on her mother’s corpse. Only to find out now that it belonged to someone else entirely. “I mean, why go through all that trouble to fake her death?”
“The space-time continuum is a fragile thing,” Darius explained. “Your mother did die the first time around—she accidentally mixed up some pills and took too many of the wrong kind—the day after spending Christmas with you. Because of this, you were sent to live with your grandfather, where you bonded with the egg. We still needed that to happen, but we wanted to save your mother’s life this time around, just in case. So we went in a day early and replaced her with one our own—a Dracken woman who didn’t survive the trip back in time. We simply dressed her in your mother’s clothes and used her as a stand-in. Thus, the important threads of the timeline remained largely unchanged. We did unfortunately have to change the cause of death, seeing as keeping her face intact would have given the game away. But with her history of mental illness, it didn’t seem too farfetched to have her blow her head off.”
And Trinity had believed it. Believed her mother to be capable of such a horrible thing without even questioning it. What kind of daughter did that make her?
“Oh, Mom,” she whispered, reaching down to embrace the woman who’d given her life. She was cold and stiff, but Trinity clung to her all the same as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t have any idea!”
She thought back to all the resentment she’d allowed to build up inside of her over the last two years. Believing her mother had broken her promise. Had abandoned her on Christmas Eve forever.
But that had never been her mother’s intention. The Dracken had stolen the last day of her life. Ripping her from reality and imprisoning her all alone, in a dark lonely room—as backup in case her daughter didn’t meet their expectations. It was all too horrible, too much to even contemplate, and she felt guilty as hell for every bad thought she’d had over the last two years.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” she babbled, burying her face in her mother’s lap, sobbing uncontrollably. “I’m so sorry I ever accused you of letting me down.”
But her mother did not answer. And soon the guards arrived to take Trinity away.
PART 5:
BURN
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Caleb trudged down the mall corridor toward his bedroom, his heart heavy and his legs feeling like lead. He’d been a total duffer to believe his brother. He should’ve known better than to leave the headquarters on a wild chase for a dead man. But the idea—the slightest possibility—that Trin’s grandfather wasn’t actually dead was too much to pass up. If he’d been able to find him, to bring him back, he would have finally proven himself worthy of her.
Instead, he had only proven himself pathetic.
He was so wrapped up in his own misery, he scarcely noticed at first all the shouting and banging coming toward him in the opposite direction. Finally it registered and he looked up to see what all the commotion was about. To his shock, his eyes fell upon none other than Trinity herself, being dragged roughly by two Dracken guards. She was struggling and fighting with all of her might but they refused to let her go. Furious, Caleb stepped into their path.
“Have you gone mad?” he demanded. “How dare you treat her like this? She’s the Fire Kissed.”
“Not anymore,” the first guard said with a smirk. “Now step aside and let us through.”
“No. You release her now. Or Darius will hear of this.”
“Darius was the one who ordered it,” jeered the second guard. “Go talk to him if you have a problem with it.”
His heart stuttered. “He wouldn’t do that!” he protested. But something in their mannerisms told him he was wrong. He shot an anguished look at Trinity, taking in her bruised eyes and scraped face.
“Trin!” he cried, rushing to her, not caring what the guards would do. Before he could reach her, the first guard shoved him back with the butt of his gun, sending him sprawling into a wall. For a moment he was too dazed to move, the wind knocked from his lungs. The guards regarded him with satisfaction before continuing their march down the hall.
“Trin!” he repeated, desperate and afraid. Ignoring the pain in his head, he dashed forward again, grabbing her this time before they could stop him, squeezing her hand with all he had. Send! he begged her. Send it all!
And so she did.
Caleb staggered, dropping her hand and hitting the ground hard, stunned and dazed by what she’d sent him. Their touch had only lasted a second, but it had been enough—enough to see the mutated dragons. The seedy arms dealer looking over the merchandise. Darius—his beloved mentor, Darius!—informing her of the Dracken’s true intentions.
“No,” Caleb whispered, rocking on his knees. “It can’t be.”
Darius had saved him. He’d rescued him from a life of crime and impending imprisonment. He’d promised Caleb a chance to become a hero. A chance to save the world. And yet all along, he’d been plotting to destroy it.
Somehow Caleb forced himself to stagger to his feet. While he could no longer hear Trinity’s whimpers of pain, they ravaged through his head all the same. He’d brought her here. He’d promised her peace and safety and a place to raise her dragon. Instead he’d put them both in danger.
“Caleb, there you are.”
He whirled around to find Darius walking slowly toward him, his lips curled into a self-satisfied smile. It was all Caleb could do not to smack it off his face.
“What’s…what’s going on?” he demanded, barely able to speak past his horror.
Darius gave him a pitying look. “There has been a complication,” he said, reaching Caleb and placing a fatherly hand on his arm. Caleb bit his lower lip hard, forcing himself not to jerk away from his touch. “The Fire Kissed’s mind, it seems, has been unable to accept the dragon’s bond.” He shook his head slowly. “We knew it was a possibility from the start. But we had hoped…” He trailed off.
What are you talking about? Caleb wanted to scream. You’re the one who’s been selling dragons as weapons. The one with the sick plan to burn down the world. How many people were in on this? All of the other Dracken? Had they known all along? Had they been laughing at him behind his back this whole time? Stupid, gullible Caleb, so desperate for someone to love him, he’ll believe anything you tell him—do anything you ask.
Gritting his teeth, he forced the thoughts from his mind. He couldn’t risk Darius overhearing them. “What did she do?” he asked instead.