Cora was the only one at our house when I arrived, which was a relief. I rushed into the house. She was busy in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes from what looked like a big dinner.
“So how did it go?” she asked.
I took a deep breath. I had been anxious to get home to tell her about everything, but now for some reason it was difficult to say something that I had no problem yelling to the Council earlier.
“When I got to the vault, Mr. Weathers—you know, the guy at the gate—said to me that it was interesting that I would join the Council—instead of going down to the record room to look around, I went back to talk to him—I found out he’s a Keeper.” My words were running together. I wasn’t sure if she understood what I was saying. I didn’t know if I was making any sense.
“Slow down, Nicholas. How did you find all of this out?” She stopped washing the dishes and turned to me.
“I asked him if he remembered different people who had been to the vault over the years. I wanted to see if he could be of use to me in trying to find out if Bryce was the 4th. I asked him a couple of test questions. I tried to trick him by asking him about Genevieve’s parents to see if he knew them. He did. At first, I thought he was crazy because they had never been there. But then I concluded that he was a Keeper after a couple more questions, and he didn’t disagree with me when I told him what I thought.”
Cora was now listening intently to my story. I was wringing my hands because I had to get to the part I had been avoiding.
“But that’s not what I discovered first, Cora. Mr. Weathers guided me into discovering who we have been looking for to complete The 7.”
Cora stopped breathing in anticipation of what I was about to say.
“We have been looking for me.”
“That’s impossible,” she said, like I was playing a joke on her. “You know that Riley said that the three of you went through your Realizations the same day as the 10-10 Earthquake,” she said.
“Right, Cora, that’s what he said. But the real question is: when did you go through yours?” Great, I was sounding like Mr. Weathers.
“Well, I guess around the time of the earthquake. I knew I had to do something right when the earthquake hit, but I didn’t do my Sacrifice until a couple of days later when we went into hiding.”
“Your Sacrifice has nothing to do with your Realization. I said the same thing to Mr. Weathers, and he told me to focus on the Realization. You see, Riley assumed I went through my Realization the day of the earthquake too. But I didn’t start noticing something was different about me until the night before we moved here.”
She sat down at the kitchen table. She was concentrating, trying to take everything in. She nodded her head after a minute. It looked like she understood and agreed with my conclusion.
“If that’s true, then what about Bryce?”
“I have been thinking about that most of the way home. I’m not really sure. I think he is just a Thusian. This town has its fair share of them. I never got around to asking Mr. Weathers about Bryce. But I have something else to tell you.” I cringed, thinking about what she was going to say next. “I told the Council we had already formed The 7.”
“You did what?”
I pulled back. “They were trying to get me to vote with them to stop anyone from forming The 7, no matter what. It was a trap. They just wanted me on the Council to stop us. I couldn’t sit back and let them.”
“Nicholas, I know you thought it was the right thing to do, or maybe it was your anger getting the best of you, but it doesn’t exactly keep us under the radar anymore. It puts us right out in front.”
“I don’t think we would have been able to hide much longer, especially when we start to go after Xavier and the Seekers,” I said.
“But what about our home? We were finally settled,” she said. She looked frightened, which was a look I had never seen in her before.
“Wherever we are will be our home, Cora. At least now we have a family. Where are Riley and Genevieve? I have to tell them what happened.”
“I think they already left for Bryce and Elle’s houses to watch them for the night,” she said with a concerned look. “Nicholas, you know they are both going to have to come with us when we leave.”
“What?”
“Riley didn’t want to tell you this, but Elle and Bryce will have to leave their homes even if they aren’t the ones, because the Seekers know we have been watching them. They will target them for sure after we leave to try and draw us back in.”
How could I have not seen this? The secret life I had been hiding from Elle was going to be a part of her life no matter what. I felt sick. A pit in my stomach grew. We drove over to Elle’s house and Bryce’s house to see if we could find either of them, but they were nowhere to be found. So we went home. I would have to wait until morning to talk to them. We both went up to bed. I was engrossed with the thought of Elle being with me, even if she didn’t want to be. How was I going to make her understand all of this and then convince her that she had to leave everything behind? That would be hard enough to accept by itself, but adding in the fact that Genevieve was going to be with us—that seemed impossible. I checked outside again through my window. There were still no signs of any of the Council. Maybe they wouldn’t come.
My night was just like the million before it. It was full of nightmares, but Bryce and Elle were in them. The darkness surged toward Bryce, but he moved in tandem with it and was able to get away. Elle needed my protection, but I struggled to help her.
The next morning I got dressed for school and left early, hoping to catch Riley and Genevieve at their house, but they weren’t home. Cora said she took a chance and called Riley’s cell phone last night when we got home and told him I had something important to talk to them about, but didn’t go into details. I told Cora to tell Genevieve everything when she got back and I would tell Riley at school. Then we would meet back at our house after school to prepare for whatever would happen next. The fact that the Council didn’t follow me home was unsettling. It should have made me feel better, but it didn’t.