Relentless

Chapter 51

The girl sitting before me smiled, her lips thin and a pale pink but that wasn't even the odd thing about her. That was her hair. It was black and white like Katrina's but the colors parted down the middle. She took her fingers and raked them through the white side so it was parted on the side as the white hair fell over the black, layering it almost like Katrina's. Her eyes were different colors, too. On the left, where her hair was white, her eye was baby blue and a hazy grey eye framed the right side of her face. Her skin was pale like Katrina's but their faces looked nothing alike.

"You must be Claire." I said with a smile.

"You must be Celeste." She said as she stared through me.

"Yes, how did you know?" I asked, giving Katrina a look.

She smiled at me. "Lucky guess," she replied mockingly.

Katrina said she was eighteen but she looks younger than that. "I thought her power was ability cancelation?" I said to Katrina.

"Or reflection." Claire replied, my attention returning to her. "It's not polite to talk about someone like they're not there. Anyway, usually the kind of Lesser Divine that I am can't do both but I sometimes can reflect powers. It's easier when they're related to you."

"But don't they have to be using their power in order for you to reflect it?" I asked.

"It does, and it was. Kat was trying to read my thoughts so I reflected it and learned your name." She rose from her bed and grabbed the satchel next to her. "So aren't we going to get going?"

Katrina and I looked at each other. Neither of us expected her promptness. I hadn't expected her to be ready to go just like that. It was helpful that we now had the whole day ahead of us though. As soon as we left her room, we ran into trouble.

"I don't want you to go, Claire! It's too dangerous!" Her mother wailed as she blocked us from the door.

"But Kat is out there everyday! She's risking her life!" Claire whined.

"That's not-"

Katrina interrupted her mother. "I will protect her."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?"

"But mother-"

"You girls forget that I have been out in the world. I was fighting in this war before either of you were alive! I saw the darkest parts of this fight and I never wanted either of you to have any part in this war. When I married your father, I resigned and we moved here so we could raise a family far away from this war!"

"Mother, I hear our concerns. I really do, but we need to make decisions for ourselves. And mistakes ourselves." Clair defended.

"Oh, you've made plenty of mistakes."

"I know, I know. You don't need to remind me, but I am leaving... and you can't stop me." With her words, she gave her mother a deafening glare that made me shiver.

"Not if I- ah... Ahh!" I'm in shock and horror as I watched her mother grab at either side of her head. She just started screaming.

"Claire..." Katrina whispered, trying to reach her sister. "Claire," She tried again a little louder but she still couldn't be heard over her mother's screams.. "No, not again." Katrina whispered.

"Claire!" She shouted. "This has to stop now! Claire!" She shoved her sister. When she fell on her bum with a thud, her power was interrupted and their mother fell to the ground exhausted. She was breathing hard and rarely conscious when we snuck out the front door past her. I wanted to stay to help but Katrina grabbed my arm to rush me out the door.