Words of Power (Alice Gray Book 3)

37

I should have known. I mean, when is a gift ever really given without strings attached?

I'd hardly benefited from the boost of power so far. All it had done was break Roger Bingham's binding and got me in deeper shit with the DPA. Oh yeah, and it had shown me my father being tortured by the DPA, or the vamps, or both, all of whom were now after me. The way things were going I was going to be executed before I'd even had chance to do whatever it was that the Eye needed.

"Don't look so suspicious. You should be honoured that you're the chosen one," Brad said, his haughty tone telling me that he had his doubts about that status himself.

"Chosen one? This isn't bloody Hogwarts, and I'm certainly no Harry Potter."

"No need to disparage Earth's greatest fiction," Ralph chided.

Looks like Pottermania had broken through the Eye and infiltrated every corner of the cosmos.

"Excuse me for not jumping for joy," I grumbled. "Go on. Hit me with it. What do you guys need."

"The Eye needs to remain open for a period of time so that the Earth can rejuvenate."

"Why don't you just let the magic die out? We don't deserve it anyway."

Brad looked at Ralph, some indefinable language flowing between them through the silence.

"We can't. That's not the plan."

"And anyway, the cosmic universe functions in a state of symbiosis with all its parts. Every molecule must retain the balance of magic for which it was intended otherwise, the, ahem, consequences, are felt by us all."

Brad glanced at his arm. Following his gaze I saw the tiny particles of magical energy rise up from his skin to join the others in the complex sequence of fibres that wound around him.

These guys really were Red Giants.

"Ok, so what's the problem. Let the Eye open. Let witches disgrace themselves again. And then close it. Simple."

"It would be that simple if it were only witches that would benefit," Ralph said, his voice dark and low.

"Shifters? Vamps? Their magic doesn't function like that. Even I know that much."

"Something else," Brad said.

"Someone else," Ralph supplied.

"Someone like you," I muttered, understanding finally descending like a death cloud of doom.

"And like you," Ralph said softly.

When they'd finished filling me in like a tag-team of sparkling history textbooks I thought my head was going to explode. Purgatory takes on a whole new meaning for paranormal creatures that already exist in a hazy place in between humans and Gods. And that's before I'd even considered that the fall of witches may be entirely different to the fall of man.

I mean, I like history. Always have. But that was before I realised the vast magnitude of what life, or more accurately, magic, entailed.

If they were to tell me that little green men ruled complex societies akin to Star Trek's Federation, I would accept it right now without a flicker of doubt.

But my own part in all this was much more difficult to swallow. It was not easy taking in that Jennet Device's father was a rogue agent for the Almighty who had ventured down to Earth to spread his nasty seed. I'd thought it was bad when I'd learnt that Jonathan was my father. This was a hundred times worse.

Of course, Brad and Ralph didn't see it like that. As far as they were concerned, it was all part of the divine plan. The grand unwinding of providence, in which agents for both good and evil are part of the Eye's cosmological scheme.

"If that's the case, why are you guys interfering? Just let this dude play out his own destiny. Let the cards fall where they will. If what you say is true, it's all mapped out already."

"It doesn't work like that. At the beginning the Tree showed us all our own truths. Our paths are defined by that knowledge. We have consciences, and we must exist with the decisions that we make for the thousands of years of our lives."

"The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was you," I whispered.

"It's not the same as the original of course, but it was time for your awakening. Your mother had strong magic. She'd warded you so well with those little bloody dolls that we almost missed the chance," Ralph said.

His voice floated on a cloud of dreamy awe that a mere human could interfere with their plans. Pride for my mother's strength swelled up inside me until it reached my throat where a lump wedged itself tightly. Blinking rapidly I banished the tears that were stinging my eyes.

"We'd thought it might be your father, but it soon became clear that the Device bloodline was not enough on its own. His tree led him to your mother, and that is how you were created," Brad stated, inspecting his fingernails as though this information was the most meaningless speck of history he'd ever come across.

"What?" I stuttered, a flash of understanding filling me with horror such as I'd never experienced before.

"My mother? You monsters."

The words came out quiet, more like a hiss of air leaving my lungs in a whoosh of incredulity.

Brad and Ralph shared a look, eyes wide, eyebrows raised in utter bewilderment.

"He forced her, you bastards. He abducted her and then he hypnotised her. She had no say in it, no free will, and then she was left with a tiny baby to raise by herself. How could you?"

"But it was part of the plan. You are a Special Providence," Brad said, words slow, voice calm and patronising as though I had somehow misunderstood their very clear explanation.

"Screw the plan, you're all egomaniacal bastards, you ruined my mother's life."

"And without Jonathan's awakening, you would not have existed," Ralph said quietly. "What would you do? Let your mother have suffered in vain?"

They truly were bastards, but they'd had long enough to practice. I should have known better than to try to argue logic against providence. The two were incompatible.

That being said, I was in a world of Gods and magic. However much I wanted to stick it to them and live the rest of my probably very short life doing whatever I could to thwart this bloody plan, to do so would be selfish. I had to act for the greater good.

"Fine, what do I do?"

So these guys sent her the silver tree that started it all off! Somehow I think Alice would have preferred to remain in the dark!