The Forever Blaze [3]

C H A P T E R - 1 6

It can't be, Sophie told herself, repeating it over and over and over.

Jolie died sixteen years ago.

And Sophie was only thirteen.

The numbers didn't lie.

But the numbers also didn't account for the fact that the Black Swan had built her in their lab, twisting and tweaking her genes for who knew how long before her embryo had been implanted in a human being. Sophie didn't know much about that process, but she knew embryos could be frozen. Which meant her mother could've been anyone, anywhere, any time.

"Please, Vertina," she begged. "You have to tell me what Jolie was hiding about the Black Swan."

"I can't. Not unless . . ."

"Unless what?" Sophie shouted, looking around for something heavy she could threaten the obnoxious mirror with. "Why can't you just tell me?"

"Because Jolie said it wasn't safe!" Vertina shouted back. "She said that someone was not who she thought they were, and even if I knew the person asking, I couldn't tell them unless they knew the password."

"But she couldn't have meant me—I wasn't even born yet!"

"You still don't know the password," Vertina reminded her.

She clicked away before Sophie could argue, and Sophie sank to the floor, the lavender gown crumpling around her.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror.

She knew she should be focusing on what Vertina had just told her, since it sounded like Jolie might've known about the Black Swan's leak—and maybe even who it was. But she was too distracted by a much stranger question.

If Jolie was her mother, and Grady and Edaline were her grandparents, did that mean she and Dex were . . . cousins?

--------------------------------------

"Are you avoiding me?" Dex asked, cornering Sophie the next morning in PE.

"Why would you think that?"

"Uh, maybe because every time I tried to find you at orientation you were somehow on the other side of the room—and now you've partnered with pretty much everyone except me."

She'd been hoping he wouldn't notice that. . . .

She forced herself to look at him—and then instantly regretted it. Suddenly she was noticing the curve of his chin and the lines of his cheekbones, realizing she could sorta see a resemblance to hers.

She didn't understand why that bothered her so much. But it did.

"Are you still mad at me?" Dex asked quietly.

"Of course not."

"Then what's wrong? Is it Marella? Because I heard about what she said to you yesterday, and if she thinks—"

"It's not Marella," Sophie interrupted, though Marella had gone out of her way to avoid her again. Even Jensi wasn't hanging around, though when she'd made eye contact with him, he'd still smiled. "I'm just not feeling good, okay?"

"What's this?" a deep voice asked behind her, and she spun around to face Sir Harding, her broad-shouldered PE mentor. "You do look pale," he decided after studying her face. "Perhaps you should go to the Healing Center."

An Elwin visit was way better than more Dex interrogation. So Sophie told him, "Maybe you're right."

She gave Dex a hasty wave and retreated from the gymnasium.