Cold Tomorrow

[5]

CHAPTER FIVE

We're seated at the coffee table by the window, and the world outside is coloured a dark grey, the unrelenting clouds showering us with fine rain. I sit patiently across from Katherine, hugging my arms to my chest. Somehow, a draft has found its way into the room, and it brushes up against my skin every now and then, triggering an assembly of goose bumps.

"I believe you may already know of what I'm about to tell you," Katherine says. "You may not know what it means, but you've probably heard it."

I nod, and as I wait for her to continue, questions I want answered manifest in my mind, each one throwing itself to the front in order to gain my attention. I'm not sure what she's about to tell me, but I'm hoping it'll answer at least some of the things that have been nagging me over the past two-and-a-bit weeks.

"Do you remember what Patrick said on That Day?" she asks.

It shouldn't even be a question – of course I remember what he said. Instantly, his voice returns to me, his words spinning around and around inside my brain: Have you told her about the Limit? The Origins? The Avexyr and the Anarkk? How well do you know these people, Melissa? How can you trust people you barely know?

His words spin out of control, magnifying in my mind until they're unbearable, and I shake them free. I've been trying hard not to think of them recently, unable to deal with all the secondary questions they give rise to. If there are things I don't know, things I haven't been told, then how can I make judgements about anything? How will I know if I'm fighting for the right side?

I take a deep breath and try to relax myself. These questions can wait.

"Yes," I say finally. "The Origins, the Limit, the Avexyr and Anarkk." The words sound funny in my mouth and leave a strange taste as they depart onto the air.

Katherine nods. "These are the things I need to explain. Really, you should have been told as soon as you realised you were a part of all this, but things got busy, as you probably know, and some of us felt it best not to say anything about it."

"What would have been so bad with just telling me?"

"This information changes things, Maya. We didn't want to add any extra pressure, especially when you had to worry about swapping back. It would have been too much if we piled it all on you at once. Plus, we weren't entirely sure you'd live long enough for there to be any point."

I try not to think about the last part. "Who do you mean by 'we'?"

"Ethel, Rand, Scott and I."

"Scott?" I ask.

She waves a hand, as if shooing my question away. "Caden's dad. He left before you met any of us, but he knew of you and helped plan out how to bring you up to speed."

"Caden's dad," I repeat softly. "Where is he again?"

"On official business."

I roll my eyes. "Right."

Katherine looks at me, her face revealing that she's not pleased. "I need you to be serious about all this, Maya. No eye-rolling, no attitude, no sarcasm – in fact, just scrap everything 'teenage'. You can't afford to be like that, not now or in the future."

I sigh, annoyed at how mother-y she's being. "I know."

There's a few seconds of silence and then she says, "I suppose I'll start then?"

I nod, and she begins.

"A long time ago – and don't ask me when, it's so far back that no one really knows – twelve original spirits escaped the otherworld, which is where our souls go after death. Original spirits are the spirits of people who have never lived – who are, in a way, born straight into the spirit world. And twelve of them somehow managed to come here – to the realm of the living. We call these twelve the Originals, or the Original Twelve, and we are their descendants."