Salient Secret 2

29

Vada

I look at the clock on the wall, it's 3 am, everyone is asleep. I get out of bed and sneak my way down to the room where Tasia works. If I can get a look at what she has been working on maybe I'll get to see what their plan is. I sneak downstairs and start making my way to Tasia's office.

"Vada? What are you doing?" Tanith's voice makes me stop and turn around.

"What are you doing?" I ask not knowing how I'm going to get out of this.

"I couldn't sleep, I got up to get a glass of warm milk," she says lifting the glass in her hands.

"Me too," I say before thinking it through. I also come to the conclusion that this may be my one chance alone with her, it's now or never.

"But you don't drink mi-" I interject her sentence and create an illusion of Lorenzo for her to see. Don't judge me, it's the only person I could think of who could get her out of this, I know her and him aren't anything yet, but the trance breaks when a stronger, more real feeling is felt. I'm counting on her genuine, innocent crush to break through.

"Tanith?" I say to check if it worked.

"Vay," I sigh in relief, it worked, she called me by the nickname that only she calls me. "It is not cool to use one's crush against her," she scolds and then laughs.

"I'd love to chat but right now I have to break into Tasia's office to see what their plan is," I say and then walk away expecting her to follow, but she doesn't, she just stands there. "Tan? What is it?"

"Tasia. She's gone. We weren't very close but she didn't deserve to be killed and replaced by a Wilder," she says, clearly devastated. I feel sorry for her I do, but this is not the time.

"I know Tan, I know. We need to avenge her, and we will, but not if we get caught, so we have to get into her office, find out what they're planning, get Rik back and go to the others," I say sympathetically with a tad of urgency.

"You're right, let's go," she says walking in the direction of her office.

We get to the door, it's locked of course, luckily, the last person I healed was Kai, so I can use his powers to channel Palmer's ones.

"Please tell me you have a plan," Tanith says.

"I'm working on it," I say trying to focus. I eventually hear the lock click and I push the door open carefully. I walk in first and look around the large room. I see the table where she was working by, so I walk towards it. There's nothing but bottles filled with dark liquids and an old, vintage looking paper rolled up like a scroll. I open it and take a picture with my phone and send it to Cassian because it's in Latin and I have no idea what 'Coniunctio' means and there's no time for Google translate now. "Alright let's get out of here before we're caught," I say and then slip my phone into my back pocket and roll the paper back up.

"Vay," Tanith says in a way that tells me something is wrong, so I look in her direction.

"I'm taking you two back to Clover right now, try anything and I'll pull the trigger," Rik says holding Tanith at gunpoint.

"Alright, we'll come with you," I say raising my hands in surrender, knowing full well that we are never going back to those rooms. I wink at Tanith and that's enough to signal her, she steps on Riks foot hard and he cries out in pain. I teleport to them and teleport both of them to the gym. Rik tried to resist which causes us to stumble and fall on the floor when we get there. Rik reaches for the gun and aims it at Tanith, I use Palmer's powers to stop the bullet right before it enters her body, and then I use the same powers to rip Rik's teleportation ring right off his finger so that he can't escape.

Kai

As we're training, Avery and two others appear out of nowhere and fall all over each other. When I get a good look at who she's with, I notice it's Rik and Tanith. Rik then picks up the gun that fell out of his hands when he hit the floor and aims it at Tanith who is struggling to get up, to my surprise, he actually pulls the trigger while aiming at her, but Avery somehow stops it.

"See, ultimate trust," Imelda whispers to me with a grin on her face and makes her way to the three. "I take it you couldn't snap him out of it," she says while approaching Avery.

"Well, to be fair I didn't really get the chance," she responds.

"Pick up the gun and shoot me with it," Imelda says and Avery looks at her for a second and then says okay.

Vada

Mel suggested I shoot her, but I know I don't actually have to, I just have to make Rik see that.

"Traitors!" he yells. I lock eyes with him and create the illusion of Imelda getting shot right in the heart, I made it in slow motion too for dramatic effect. Rik falls to his knees. Mel starts walking towards him and then crouches down when she gets there so they face to face. "You back dipshit?" she says with her Imelda Daniels charm.

"I knew you missed me," Rik says to her with a grin on his face.

"He's back," Mel says to us while helping her brother up.

"It's a joining ritual," Cassian says breaking Rik's welcome home moment.

"A joining ritual?" I ask walking towards him knowing he is talking about the picture I sent.

"What are they joining?" Tanith asks.

"People."