The Uprisen

Chapter 11

After summarizing her date to Waverly and Cameron, Willow sits on the deep purple chair in the sunroom waiting for their response.  Throughout her summation, her sister and Cameron kept silent, intently listening.  Willow could tell that their silence was most likely due to the underlying meaning of her date, they've been discovered, but Willow would find it comforting to hear some sort of reply.

Finally, Waverly says, "How didn't we notice that he's an elemental?  Ugh, I feel so dumb."

"So, just to get this straight, Devin works with The Seekers, who are probably looking for Jake," Cameron speculates.

"Yeah, I have a feeling that Devin tried to get close to me just to see if we knew where Jake was.  He probably followed us from the shelter or something, and he probably knows that Jake is still with us," Willow says.

"So what do we do?" Waverly asks.  She thinks back to their conversation about Jake a few days ago, and the possibility of choosing between his safety or The Group's.  Then, the decision seemed obvious to her, but now she's not sure that Jake can hold his own against The Seekers.  They did kill him once before, what's one more time?

Willow shrugs.  "Honestly?  I don't know.  Devin never asked about The Group; I don't even think he knows about us."

"If they used Devin to spy on us the first time, why wouldn't they try to spy on us again?" Cameron asks.  "We're going to have to be extremely careful if we take in more elementals."

Waverly nods.  "Undoubtedly.  Especially since they know who we are and where we live."

"Do you think they'll come after Jake again?  Or after us?"  Cameron looks nervously out the windows that make up the walls of the sunroom.  He finds himself looking for someone hiding in the bushes, then feels ridiculous.  He figures that if The Seekers do decide to spy on them, they'd be more discreet than hiding in the bushes outside the windows.  Still, he finds himself scanning the backyard.

"I can't see them ignoring Jake now any more than before.  Knowing The Seekers, they probably wouldn't hesitate coming after us just to tie up loose ends."  Willow sighs.  She can't help but to feel guilty for putting Cameron and Waverly in this position.  If she'd just declined Devin's date, they'd be in a completely different situation.

Waverly watches her sister closely.  "Willow, you know this isn't your fault, right?"

She looks up at her sister quizzically, then surrenders to the fact that her sister has always been able to read her emotions.  She starts to say something, possibly to deny or agree with Waverly's statement, but she can't seem to bring herself to say anything.  She'd be lying if she says she doesn't feel some guilt, but she doesn't have the energy to try and convince herself that Waverly's right.

"Willow, his goal was to deceive you.  The fact that you caught on before it was too late—"

Closing her eyes out of frustration, Willow interrupts her sister.  "Waverly, I know.  I just..."-she sighs-"Can we talk about something else?  What about protecting Jake, since we all agree that he's still at risk."

Cameron drags his attention away from the stars shining through the glass ceiling.  "Personally, I think we should insist on him staying here, but we can't be here every minute of everyday to protect him."

Waverly nods.  "We'll obviously do our best to help while we're here, but what if The Seekers attack while we're gone and everyone else is here?"

"You think they'd hurt the kids?  They don't even know that they're elementals," Willow states.

"I think they'll do whatever it takes to get Jake," Waverly says.

"So you think we should warn the others?  I'm pretty sure that'd make it nearly impossible to keep the fact that we're elementals from Jake," Willow points out.