Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 19 - Wolves at the Gates - V

  "Beverly," the girl answered, still not meeting Rachel's eyes. "But please, don't tell anyone."

  "You fancy going by 'Grey-eyes' instead?" Lily asked, propped up against a few pillows. Her leg was in a makeshift splint, and she winced every so often as she tried to get more comfortable.

  They were in the room above Boris' shop, with the window covered up by thick curtains. Boris was busy attending to Rika, Hailey and Alden (as Rachel had learned was his real name—a common obsession with secrecy in his family, apparently), and Natalie was resting downstairs. She'd refused to leave her wolf, but it couldn't possibly fit up the stairs, so she'd volunteered to stand watch. Given that she outstripped the rest of them in power by a mile, Rachel didn't feel a need to protest.

  "I never liked my name much anyway. None of us did, actually," she added. "Our parents picked really old-fashioned names that sound pretty dumb at school. I mean, 'Alden Bensen the third'? Zack was Zack the second he realized he could be, same with Meg."

  "So did you use another name?"

  "I think we have more important things to talk about," Rachel interrupted. "Where does magic come from?"

  "We don't know," Beverly answered simply.

  "What?"

  "We found the book in the boarded-up library one night. I was the first one to read from it, and I was the first one to cast a spell. We were experimenting with it more and more, but then we started disagreeing on what to do next."

  "What happened to the book?"

  "Jackson tried to destroy it," Beverly said, shuddering. "We tried to stop him, but it just ended up scattering. All the pieces flew out everywhere. We weren't able to save a single page."

  "So that's where the Scraps came from."

  She nodded. "And because they're broken and destroyed, you can't actually awaken from them. I have to read you the rest or you'd be stuck in limbo and your body would die."

  "But you didn't. Is that why you're so much more powerful than us?"

  "I guess? I don't know how everything works exactly. I'm making a lot up as I go too." She looked around nervously, and Rachel noticed the pictures on above the desk, showing Hailey Winscombe and her together.

  "Hailey doesn't remember anything about you, and neither does your brother. How?"

  "I... I had to protect them," she said, and tears sprung to her eyes. "Jackson and... Alpha—" she paused. "I hate to use that name, but it's his business if he wants to tell you who he is."

  "Fine." Rachel was frustrated that Beverly was already holding back information, but the girl was still leagues more powerful than them. A few concessions could be made if it made her more comfortable answering their other, more important questions.

  "When they started getting really bad. They started threatening each other with real violence. I just wanted to protect magic, and Alpha wanted to let it grow and spread. Jackson thinks that'll be the end of the world. He wants to stop it before it spreads, but he knows he can't take us both on. So he threatened our families. Our loved ones. It scared us so much that Alpha went berserk, and I think you know the rest of that story."

  "Yes. But still, how did this happen?" Rachel asked, gesturing at the photos.

  "I... do you know about relationship and emotional magic?"