Star Gods, стр. 20

“What kind of conversations did you have?” Tyce asks.

Sage scrunches her brows together in thought as she chews on chips. “He asked me about school, what grade I was in, how I liked living in Chicago, and if I had any brothers.” She lifts her eyes to me. “That’s weird, right, asking only about brothers?”

“Yeah, that is.” I push my sandwich around on my plate. I’m not very hungry.

“Sneaky, too,” Tyce adds. “By asking what grade you’re in he could figure out how old you are. Did you answer his questions?”

Sage nods. “Yeah, but only little answers. I never told him what school I went to, but I did tell him I’m a sophomore. I told him Chicago wasn’t any different than living anywhere else, and I shook my head when he asked about brothers.”

“If you started school at age five,” Tyce begins, wiping his hands on a napkin. “You’re sixteen. You’ve lived many places and you don’t have any siblings because at the time you probably didn’t realize he said ‘brothers’. Am I right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Sage frowns. “Pretty stupid of me.”

“He’s good looking and conniving,” Claire responds. “It could’ve happened to anyone.”

“But it happened to me, which brought me here and almost got Zeke killed.”

“I’m alive and I’ll be just fine. This isn’t your fault, Sage.”

“Isn’t it?” Her face skewers up and her cheeks flush. “We both get visited by this Star God. He brings me here and he warns you to find me on your own, when he already knows where I am. He has reasons for this, Zeke, reasons I know nothing about. I’ve never met any of you. Why is he after me? What’s so special about me?”

“Well, if you traveled here…”

“I’m telling you, Zeke, I didn’t.” She lays a hand on my arm and a tingle runs through me. Not static electricity, more like an ability searching for another ability.

Oh, she’s definitely part Star God.

“He didn’t give you any other reason than save me?”

I bite the inside of my cheek.

“There is another reason.” She drops what’s left of her sandwich onto her plate. “Tell me, I have the right to know.”

“Okay,” I clear my throat. “Remember, I’m only repeating what I was told.”

“Tell me.”

“You’re not supposed to exist.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

My brothers gaze nervously at one another.

“I don’t know. That’s all he said.”

“I want to know the entire conversation you had with Neil about me,” Sage says. “Please.”

I rub the back of my neck. “He said I had to find you and protect you with no assistance from my brothers or any Star God. Once I found you, Ashe and Tyce could help protect you.”

She glances between us. “You’re supposed to work together, aren’t you?”

We all nod.

“If I’m not supposed to exist, why bring me here and then stab you? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just take me out?”

“She has a point,” Tyce says.

“He probably took a chance. I was in the way to get to you, so stab me and it stabs you.”

“It didn’t work,” Sage replies. “And it still makes absolutely no sense. Why bring me here and then try to kill me. It sounds like he was after both of us. Why?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know.” I look to my brothers. “He also said I’m the only half-descendent who can travel. Traveling, apparently, is only born to one who is on planet.”

Tyce blows out a nervous breath and Ashe goes to the side door and stares out the window.

“Sage is right, none of this makes any sense,” Ashe states, his back to us.

“Maybe we should ask him?”

Ashe turns from the door. “How?”

“All I have to do is say his name and he’ll come here.”

Ashe’s face reddens. “You’re his charge. He’s assigned to you.”

I shrug. “I guess.”

“No, it’s not a guess.” He comes back into the kitchen, his eyes flashing in anger. “This guy really likes breaking the rules. You don’t need to be anyone’s charge when you have brothers who can train you. Tyce and I will remove the wards long enough for you to call him and then we’ll reinstate them—our turf, our rules, our control.”

“Wait.” Sage lifts a hand and swallows hard. “You’re going to bring him here? You want him to finish us off?”

I shake my head. “That’s not going to happen, Sage. I promise you.”

“And you didn’t just get stabbed.”

“Sage, Ashe is almost a first year Luminary,” Tyce explains. “With all three of our abilities we can protect you and Claire, that’s a promise.”

She looks nervously between us. “What the hell is a first year Luminary?”

“It only means his abilities are stronger,” I explain.

“You’re completely safe,” Ashe reassures. “It’s home court advantage, Sage, and Tyce is right—our abilities against him puts this in our favor.”

“I trust them, Sage,” Claire says. “If they say we’re safe, then we’re safe.”

“Ok.” Sage blows out a nervous breath. “Please don’t get me killed.”

Tyce squeezes her shoulder. “We got your back.”

“I hope so.”

What I had managed to eat sits like a log in my stomach as my brothers shove furniture out of the way. Comparisons of Neil roll through my mind putting me more on edge.

“Are you okay to do this?” Claire asks touching me on my shoulder and my brothers stop what they’re doing and look at me.

I draw my fingers through my hair. “Something is really bothering me.”

“Thank, God,” Sage responds. “I thought I was the only one.”

Ashe narrows his eyes at her. “All right. What is it?”

“I know people can change how they act or look in different situations.” I gaze around the room, placing my hands onto my hips because I don’t know what else to do with them. “I’m not absolutely convinced that Neil and the assailant are one and the same.”

“Why?” Tyce asks.

“The mannerisms, voice, facial expressions—they’re different.”

“Zeke, people can put on a false pretense for their own purposes,” Tyce explains, shoving the coffee table out of the way with a foot.

“I know that. But if you’d met them