Unknown.

16- I can't imagine it.

"We don't have enough people to do all of this before Fen carries out its plan!!" A woman's deep voice shakes me from my dreams, her voice gravely but hard as iron. "You know we aren't going to be able to stop them!!"

   I slowly open my eyes, my mind blank as I stare into the dimness of the room. When I lift my head and look around I eye a group of people sitting a length away from me, all of their attention glued to the woman who sits at the only desk in the room. There must be at least 12 of them that peer at my mom in the light of the lamp that shines on the desktop. They are all wearing blue-blood outfits except instead of the regular black and gray colors they wear black and gold. They all also wear belts like what Wolfe and I had worn except they have tons more weapons.

   I stare at my mom, discarding everyone else in the room, thinking, This must be a dream.

   Her dark blue eyes pass over each person that is crowded around her as she speaks and gestures to an object that sits under the light of the single lamp. A few people respond to her here and there but I can barely register their words because my eyes are glued to my mom.

   Her dark hair flows in thick curls from her head unlike the last time I saw her, when her hair was thinning from her sickness.

   A pierce of anger jumps me and flicks my head, the feeling sending thoughts through my mind.
  
   If she is alive where has she been all of these years? How could she have died in front of me and now be breathing perfectly fine? Why would she never tell me?!

   Who are all of these people?! Where am I? Is my mom the leader of whatever this is??

   Ripping my eyes away from the beautiful woman in front of me I end up realizing that the walls are made of stone bricks and don't look very sanitary. Roots run along the ceiling and every few clumps drip dirt and water and hopefully not any other liquids. I lay in a twin bed that only has a thin sheet and a hard pillow, identical ones spreading throughout the long room only feet away from each other. There are no windows and the only door I spot is cement and is bolted shut with at least four different locks.

    After taking in my surroundings I peer down at myself. My sleeves are torn off and my leggings are gone from the top of my thighs down. I realize that my wounds are healed perfectly, thin lines left remaining of them.

    "Essence." A voice from my left cuts my mother's conversation off short. I whirl around to see who it is but my eyes land on a stranger beside my bedside. He has super curly hair that is orange like I would imagine the sunset on the savanna. Freckles dot his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, his eyes baby blue but soft unlike Wolfe's intense ones. "Eve has woken."

When I turn around to look at the group of people I turn to a dozen pairs of eyes. All of them study me curiously but my mother's eyes are lit and dazzling like a million stars in a clear sky. Her lips are parted, her body frozen as I eye her.

And then a man steps up next to my mother in the center of the group and my heart rises so high in my chest it feels as if it is wedged in my throat. I stare in disbelief as the man speaks and raises his hand as if he could touch me from a distance.

   "Eve..." Gage's voice thunders, his light green eyes flickering with excitement.

   I sit up fully and then swing my legs off to the side of the bed, leaping towards him as he rushes to me. His blonde curls dangle in front of my face as he embraces me but they don't bother me. His thick arms hold me against him and honestly after everything I've been through in the past couple of days a familiar face is just what I need... Especially Gage's.