Reaper

Chapter 15

When we finally got to the hollow, we found Anna and Thomas there, but Will wasn't in sight. Anna sat on the ground, staring at a crystal as she turned it over on her hands while Thomas leaned against a tree, his eyes narrowed in a glare directed at the ground. His aura seemed to pulse, a dark red surrounding him. His arms were crossed in front of his chest but I could see a small light shining from what seemed to be his hands. I was curious as to what it was but I decided that it was better not to ask.

We stood quietly for a moment at the edge of the hollow before Anna looked up and noticed us. "Morgana!" She stood and ran over to us, throwing her arms around me in a tight hug.

Thomas looked over and he seemed to relax a little. His glare softened into a look that I couldn't quite come up with a name for. The dark red that surrounded him faded into a pale yellow.

"Where's Will at?" I asked as he walked over to us.

He stopped a few feet in front of me. "He went to look for Aiden but he hasn't come back yet," he said quietly.

"I thought that he was going to wait for us here," I said, confused.

"He decided to look around the pond again; he wanted to see if Aiden had gone there after we left." His gaze shifted to Lauren. "Is this your cousin?"

"Yes, this is my cousin Lauren."

Thomas held out his hand. "I'm Thomas. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lauren."

Lauren hesitantly shook his hand, her hand immediately grasping her other hand behind her back afterwards. "It's nice to meet you too."

Anna finally released me and looked at Lauren. "I'm Anna."

"Hi, Anna. It's nice to meet you."

Thomas's eyes looked at me once more. "We should look for Will."

"What about Aiden?" Anna asked.

"We'll be looking for both of them. Hopfully if we find one of them, we'll find the other one as well," I said.

I looked at Lauren and Claire and saw the confusion evident on their faces. "I think what Morgana means is that if we can find Will, then maybe he's already found Aiden," Thomas said.

"If he's already found Aiden, wouldn't he come back here to tell you?" Claire asked, confusion still etched on her face.

Thomas sighed, suddenly looking much older than he really was. "Not necessarily," he said, "Will has a habit of not telling me some things. We should start looking. We can start at the pond and figure something out from there." Lauren, Claire, and I nodded in agreement and let Thomas lead us out of the hollow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As we walked through the forest, I stayed far enough behind Anna and Thomas but far enough ahead of Lauren and Claire that I was somewhere in between them and Thomas and Anna.

Talk to him, Morgana, a quiet voice in the back of my mind spoke, You must talk to him and forgive him.

Why should I? I argued, Why should I forgive him for keeping his powers from me?

Will's words from the other day echoed in the back of my mind: Thomas was going to tell you.

I believe you, Will, but how soon was he planning on telling me?

Thomas's voice ripped me from my thoughts. "Morgana, are you alright?" I looked at him and realized that he was now walking beside me, rather than in front of me.