Allyra woke up to their exchange. She pushed her plate to Rob. “Here, have mine.”
Rob looked at her in concern. “You need to eat.” He prompted gently.
She shook her head tiredly, and rested her head on her arm crossed over the table. “Maybe later.”
Rob looked as if he was going to object, but he stopped and placed his coat over her shoulders, as she seemed to fade into sleep again.
“What did you want to tell me?” Jamie asked.
Rob looked up questioningly.
“You know, that day by the Baobab.” Jamie reminded his brother. It all seemed a lifetime ago. “You said you needed to tell me something – was it about the Rising?”
His brother looked down uncomfortably and then glanced at Allyra.
“What is it?” Jamie asked again.
Rob finally met his eyes and Jamie recoiled at the pain visible within them.
“What is it…” Jamie whispered, suddenly gripped by fear.
Rob stared down at his empty plate, refusing to meet Jamie’s eyes. When he finally spoke, his words came slowly, hesitantly.
“After Sam died, the Rising refused to risk any more lives by entering the Between.” Rob said softly. “We couldn’t risk the possibility that a Revenant might find their way across the Veil through an open Gate. Nonetheless, we believed the Council was hiding something. Emma volunteered to find out what.”
Rob paused, and swirled his drink, the ice clinking against the glass. “Emma applied for a job at the Inferno College as assistant to the Combat Master. Two months ago, she phoned me. I could hear something was wrong. She didn’t have much time, but she told me that she’d found something. She wasn’t sure if it was anything useful, but she was going to look into it further. That was the last time I heard from her.”
“What are you saying?” Jamie demanded, slamming his hand down on the table. Allyra jerked awake and immediately winced in pain.
“We got word from the Inferno College, another member of the Rising sent word that there’d been an accident and Emma had disappeared.” Rob paused and stared at Jamie. “He believed she was dead.”
Jamie stood up abruptly, his chair crashing to the ground behind him. “No!” He shouted. “No!”
He turned and stalked away, pushing past other empty tables unseeingly. He stumbled out the door and gulped at the cool night air.
Emma wasn’t dead.
She couldn’t be dead.
He’d know. He’d know if she was hurt or in pain.
When they’d been fourteen years old, Emma had her wisdom teeth removed. His jaw had swollen up with hers and they’d spent the weekend eating nothing but ice cream. They’d always been connected, so close that they felt each other’s pain.
Jamie refused to believe that his twin was dead. Not Emma, not when she was stronger and better than him in every way.
He took a deep breath to steady himself and looked out into the night. In the flat, almost desert like landscape of the Karoo, the sky had never appeared so big. Unerringly, his eyes found the Gemini constellation amongst the multitude of stars.
He remembered the warm, summer night he’d lain, with Emma, beside his mother. They’d stared at the stars as his mother traced the Gemini constellation in the sky. The twins, hung into the night sky, stronger together than apart.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Allyra. She had Rob’s jacket wrapped around her, it was much too big for her and she seemed small and tired swimming in it.
“Are you ok?” She asked gently.
“She’s not dead.” He said firmly, staring at Gemini, the stars bright despite the full moon.
“Ok.” Allyra replied, not questioning his statement. And in that moment he felt the chasm between them close just a little bit. And for a moment, she was the girl he’d grown up with, the one he loved unreservedly. And the girl that hid secrets from him, the one with tattoos she refused to explain, seemed to fade away.
“So what are we going to do about it?” She asked.
Jamie turned to her and stared into her steel grey eyes. “I’m going to bring her home.” He said firmly.
Chapter 39 – Allyra
Allyra sat on the rocky outcrop, staring into the veldt. She traced her fingers along the rock, feeling the heat rise off them as the sun set over the horizon. It was hard to believe this was where it had all begun, only two short months ago, in a dusty, forgotten corner of the veldt, with the Baobab tree looming behind her.
The burning obsession was gone. She’d discovered the circumstances of her father’s death.
This was where he’d died.
Where his blood had soaked into the ground.
Where he’d given his life in search of answers.
Maybe it was their family curse, to always search for answers that eluded them. She’d thought that finding how her father had died would bring her peace; instead it had only brought new and more daunting questions.
Jamie and Rob were waiting for her at the bottom of the outcrop. They’d given her this time alone, given her time to say her goodbyes.
She looked around her. Time had passed, they were solidly in summer now, but it seemed as if nothing had changed at all. The impala were still prancing in the distance, making their evening journey to the watering hole. The Baobab was just as still as it had always been, imperious to time itself.
And yet everything was different.
The Baobab wasn’t just a tree anymore. It called to her, a siren’s call for her to open the Gate, to find her way back to Alex.
Allyra had a million questions for him, but now more than ever, she wondered if she could trust him.
She turned from the Baobab, resisting its call. It wasn’t safe. Marcus was surely keeping close tabs on her, and as careful as she might be, she was too inexperienced to be sure that she could open the Gate without him knowing. Worse, she couldn’t stop thinking about
