Surprisingly, he didn’t have any dreams. He stretched, enjoying the pops in his joints, then reached over to pick up the journal from where it had fallen during the night. He wanted to read over a few sections again.
As a precaution to misuse of the Key of Kilenya, we have affixed special diamonds to it, two of which are dyed with a color only Jacob—it is still difficult to call him this—recognizes. In order to get the Key to function, he will need to slide the diamonds together.
Did they intend for anyone else to use the Key, and not just him? Kenji had been surprised when it didn’t work for anyone but Jacob. And the rose color—apparently no one else could see that. That was kind of cool.
He rolled to his side, reading the next three sentences in the journal.
We’ve found that some of his abilities shine through, even though he’s just under two years old, and the potion should have stopped them all. He sees things normal people can’t. The characters of those around him, especially.
Maybe this explained why he could see the Molg, and Akeno and Aloren couldn’t. And also why he’d always been able to tell when someone was being dishonest with him.
He re-read the part where Dmitri talked about wanting to eventually return to Eklaron. Would that happen? How would Jacob’s knowledge of who he really was affect things? Would they have to move to Eklaron now? That would be both good and bad—good because it would be so cool to live in a castle, and bad because he’d basically just made the basketball team. There was no way he could walk out.
Then it occurred to him—they wouldn’t live in a castle. There were only two castles in the area he’d passed through. One was almost completely in ruins, and the other had disgusting, foul creatures in it.
For some reason, this comforted him. He wanted to stay here as long as he could—be the senior-class star of the basketball team. He hoped his parents would be okay with this. His mom had never liked living here—now he knew why. He’d always thought it had been because Mendon was such a small town. Of course, he'd never figured out the real reason—that she missed her people and kingdom.
Jacob sat up as another realization hit him. What about Matt? Where’d he come from—how was he older than Jacob? Was he the one who’d been adopted? That had to be it. And how had his parents hidden all this information from Jacob his whole life? He tried to remember what his mom and dad had told him about them growing up, but he couldn’t. He’d never been that curious. That was probably a blessing to his parents—they didn’t have to lie if he never asked. The only thing he’d ever wanted to know was where his grandparents were. He’d been told they were dead. Arien’s parents were dead—the journal had stated this. And Jacob remembered Dmitri’s account of when his mother died—she’d basically been killed by her husband, Dmitri’s dad.
He sighed. After reading the journal, he felt like he’d been smacked in the face by an astrologist. Though, instead of learning about his future, he was being told his past, but in a way he’d never heard before, with abilities and secrets and crazy things.
He was royalty. That was still weird. Jacob lay back down on his bed, wanting to read the journal from start to finish again, but this time, with the knowledge that Dmitri was his dad.