Cardinal

Chapter 21

"I take it they don't know what happened to you." 

I stare at him from my seat with a raised eyebrow and my mouth set in a harsh line. I didn't trust this man for one second. 

"And they'll never find out," I said with determination and finality in my voice. 

He leans back on his chair, a picture of nonchalance, his fingers tapping his chin pensively. 

"And no one told them where I was? It wasn't like the situation with my family was a secret to the community."

He leans forward towards me, hands intertwined against his desk. 

"They would have gone looking for you without a doubt but their parents are some high-powered gifted, Lilac. Some are in the magistrate. They didn't allow it, especially after what happened to your family. We, the magistrate, decided to cover the truth of what happened." 

As expected, we're all just caught in a web of lies. Lies, lies, lies. 

"What's the official story on my family?" 

His expression changes, his joking and calm demeanor were nowhere to be found. 

"Everyone thought that your family was tangled up in a mission gone wrong, and the other party went after your family. You ran away after finding out what happened to your family. The magistrate knows the real story. We had decided it was best if no one knew where you were. There were also some memory tamperers who altered memories of some gifted close with your family to diffuse the panic and the commotion it would cause the community. "

The magistrate covering up the truth regarding my family's demise made me feel conflicted but also angry. Why were they lying about so many things? There were some parts of the story that were missing and now that I'm not a recently orphaned 17-year-old girl, my judgment was a little better. Nonetheless, all the lies make my skin itch in annoyance. 

"You guys told me to hide! You told me, that it would be best that I stay away. I begged you to let me stay with them. I NEVER expected to come back. My fucking uncle sold me out!" 

"I know you're upset..." 

"Upset? I'm livid! I don't understand why I'm back. I don't understand why you made up that story when you could've just told the truth about what happened." 

His face doesn't move an inch, showing that he wasn't as annoyed with this conversation as I was. It was pissing me off even more. I can feel the energy of my gift pouring out of my pores as my temper changes and I can tell that he feels it. Alfonso looks at me warily. 

"You don't know this but Mortem has been relentlessly pursuing you since that incident in the basement. Fear does things to people, Lilac. We may have unique abilities but fear doesn't care about that. Your links come from very, very important families. Their parents didn't want to have anything to do with you after what happened and pursued a very uneasy and frightened group of people to do what they did." 

He sighs and continues his explanation. 

"Mortem had escalated recently and we had to make the last-minute decision to pull you out of hiding without involving the three of us. Balthazar and I are in a precarious situation and we've been trying to find the mole who sold you and your family out without revealing ourselves." 

I stay quiet. The aftermath of the situation was larger than me and larger than what I thought it was. 

"It had to be the links that found you. That guy with the gift of Candor had helped keep us out of the picture, in the guise that he would be paid to locate you from your links. All we had to do was have Brutus leave a trail for them to find. They've been kidnapping cardinals as well and units have had to stay together. It was a perfect time and cover to get you back into the community. Plus the recent events have made the members of the magistrate panic. I planted the seed in their head to have your links look for you."