Cooper nods to everyone and they continue to do whatever they were previously doing, but we have definitely drawn everyone’s attention to ourselves. Two guys about my age run over and take the deer from Cooper. Bren joins them in taking the deer and Cooper starts leading us toward one of the far tents across the clearing. When we enter, Cooper motions for us to take a seat on a cloth that has been thrown down and then Cooper sits down across from us.
“So are you going to tell us what’s going on now?” Alexander pushes.
Cooper nods and begins speaking, but he can’t bring himself to make eye contact with either Alexander or myself.
“Seven years ago I was taken from Garth with the other nine people you see around here. An older man planned our escape and brought us out into the woods. Back then I was only ten years old, like many of the others. Mio and Cinder are the only two adults and they basically raised all of us. The man who brought us all out here told us that in seven years a girl named Adaline will arrive here and that when she does we had to help her.” He stops suddenly and I know he’s leaving something out.
“Cooper,” I say, trying to figure out my own question. “Who was the man who planned all this? Who brought you here and told you about me?”
“Adaline.” There’s a long pause before he continues, “It was your father.” He takes in a deep breath and says, “Our father.”
Part 2: The Truth
Chapter 11
“Wait, what?” I ask, probably more forcefully than necessary. Instead of answering me I watch as Cooper reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small folded piece of paper. I watch as he unfolds the paper and I realize that it’s actually a photograph. He hands me the wrinkled photograph and I gently take it and examine it. It’s a picture of a young kid who I can only assume is Cooper. He is sitting on a couch next to a man I instantly recognize as my father, even though only half of him is in the photograph. Both of them have been captured in mid-laugh. I take my finger and run it along the ragged edge of the image where my father sits.
Something seems oddly familiar about this picture, and then I make the connection. I reach into my own bag and pull out my own photograph of myself, Titus, and my father. When I hold the two next to each other I see that they make a perfect match. I can feel Alexander tense up next to me as obviously shocked as I am.
“You’re my brother?” I question, barely audible. Cooper just nods and lets me continue, but all I can manage to say is, “What?”
“It’s a pretty complicated explanation, Adaline. Maybe you want to eat something before I get into it,” Cooper stumbles over his own words.
“No,” I force, tears brimming the edges of my eyes. “I want to know everything. I’m tired of not knowing anything. No more half-answers. I want the whole story. Every single detail,” I say, frustration building inside of me. Mostly because of everything I have been left out of, my father’s elaborate secret group waiting for me in the forest for example. But I’m also frustrated because no matter how hard I try I can’t ever remember having a brother, besides Titus.
“All right,” Cooper continues, coughing to clear his throat. “Our father, Derith, dedicated his life to helping people with gifts escape Garth. This way they wouldn’t be taken in by King Renon. Mother and Father were both Future Holders, and so the odds of them having a child with the gift was very high.” My skin tightens at the knowledge that my father was also a Future Holder. Both of my parents had an enhanced sense of sight.
“Before we were born, Dather was ruled by King Renon’s Father, King Lexon. He, similarly to King Renon, took in children with gifts but was much more secretive about it. When he passed away rule fell to his son. King Renon tripled the number of gifted prisoners in just a couple of months. That’s when Derith decided he had to find a place of freedom for people with gifts. There was an underground operation that had been going on for a while where gifted people were being smuggled out of Garth and to an island known as Libertas.” I nod my head connecting the memory I had about my father calling that our new home.
“Our father joined the operation and began to help move other families to Libertas. We were born about a year apart and when I turned ten years old we confirmed through the testing process at the castle that I did not have the gift.”
“They took you in to be tested?” I ask confused. If he did have the gift he would have been targeted and hunted for sure.
“We knew before based on our mother and father’s visions that it would be you who had the gift. They needed me on record to keep suspicion away from our family while our father continued to work for Libertas,” Cooper explains, and I realize how precise and detailed this entire plan really had to be.
“During one of Derith’s journeys to take another gifted family to freedom, he ran into
