The Power of The Merge (Book 1 of the Daearies series)

(Chapter 4) EMMIE

I sat staring at my tray of food picking at my scrambled eggs and toast, thinking about what Kit had said. Maybe there is a reason why I'm different, why I'm the only one with my type of power. I know I'm not the only person thinking it. I see people whispering and throwing me weary looks whenever I use my power in front of them. Knowing someone, anyone with the same power as me would make me feel not so...alone.

"Is there something wrong with your eggs?" I lifted my head to see Cora placing her tray of food on the table, taking the seat in front of me. Cameron took a seat next to her. Cora is his daearies and these two are inseparable.

"I'm not hungry" I shrugged. I placed my hand on my chest feeling the growing ache.

"Where is he?" Cora questioned.

"In a meeting." I answered.

"Honestly someone needs to have a word that boy" Her eyes flickered to Cameron who was focused on devouring his breakfast.

"And where were you this morning? I woke up and the pair of you were gone" She said.

"He wanted to train," I said nonchalantly.

"Of course he did" She rolled her eyes.

"Or maybe he wanted to get you alone," A voice from the left said. I looked up to see Milo taking a seat next to me. He turned his head towards me, raising both his eyebrows, and took a bite out of his toast.

"What?" I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"That boy is clearly in love with you," he said with a playful smile. I looked from Milo to Cora who was also smiling and shrugging in agreement.

"You're wrong" I looked towards the door searching for him. The pain in my chest was growing.

"I could always poke around in that brain of his and find out for you" he suggested. He lifted his hand revealing his black chipped nail polish and wiggled his fingers slowly. An emerald light flowed from the palm of his hand and swirled in between each of his fingers glowing against his deep brown skin. A daearies with green power has the ability to see into minds, see memories, wipe memories, and even give memories.

"You will do no such thing" I said. He closed his fist and the light disappeared into nothing. He chuckled and slouched back into his chair. Milo was the daearies of Silver who was the complete opposite to him. She was like Kit and took her training seriously while Milo was more eccentric and liked to get on everyone's nerves. Milo and Silver's relationship was more like siblings, constantly bickering but would die for one another. You can tell Milo has some influence over her though, last week he convinced her to dye her hair deep purple, and I'll admit it did make her look more edgy and cool. A soldier approached our table to hand-deliver mail. No daearies ever received any mail but some of the soldiers did from time to time. They were usually from their remaining family members, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It must be nice to have people out there in the world who know who you are and care about you. The soldier handed Milo a letter.

"Well....thank you very much" Milo leaned forward accepting the letter with a wink and a flirtatious smile. The soldier's cheeks turned red and he quickly turned to leave.

"You're such a flirt" I chuckled nudging Milo's arm.

"Look who it is" Cora nodded towards the door and I noticed the pain in my chest had subsided.

I look towards the door to see Kit searching the room. When his eyes locked on mine he tilted his head slightly in the direction of the exit and I knew he wanted me to go with him.

"I'll see you in the training room," I said to Cora and then quickly glanced to the others as I stood and turned to leave.

I met Kit in the hallway. He said nothing and started walking down the hallway staring straight ahead. He had the same serious expression he always has but I could sense something was troubling him.

"What's wrong?" I asked. He briefly looked towards the people passing us in the hallway.

"Not here," He said and we continued walking down the hallway in silence before entering our sleeping quarters.

"What is it?" I asked again. Concern growing on my face.

"There's going to be a new merge later today" his voice was low and calm. I paused in shock and I could tell he had a plan in mind.

"What are you going to do?" I whispered even though we were alone.

"When everyone else is training I'm going to slip out and see if I can get a look at what happens at the merge." He said.

"How on earth do you plan to do that? You can't exactly waltz up there and ask for a private viewing. We are not allowed anywhere near those rooms. It's forbidden." I whispered more loudly.

"I'm going to use the vents." He stated.

"How are we going to get into a vent without anyone noticing?" I thought aloud.

"We are not going to do anything." He pointed out.

"If you think I'm going to let you go alone—."

"If I get caught I have a better chance of talking my way out of it because I'm a leader. If you're there and we are caught they will throw the both of us in the pit and I highly doubt they will let us do the assessment." He interrupted.

"Just how exactly do you plan on talking your way out of it? What are you going to say? That you just felt like climbing into the vents to give them a good clean?" I scoffed, folding my arms and he looked away from me, clearly irritated.

"I'm coming with you." I affirmed.

"Fine. Meet me outside the training room at ten past three. By then everyone will be too focused on their training to notice you slip away". I nodded in agreement and we both turned to leave.