The urge to escape became irrepressible. I felt my shoulder blades start to lift and expand, just like they did before flying, though now the motion was involuntary. Michael must have sensed it, because his grip tightened. Trying to wrench out of his grasp, I dug my nails into his arms. “Michael, what’s going on?”
“El ie, his name is Ezekiel. And he’s going to tel us who we are.”
Chapter Thirty-one
“Who are you?” I asked this “Ezekiel,” as I tried to shake off Michael. Why was Michael holding me in a vise grip so I could listen to this guy?
“El speth, al ow me to introduce myself. My name is Ezekiel. It is a pleasure to final y meet you, although I apologize for the circumstances.” Zeke
—or Ezekiel—said, as if we were being introduced over high tea at Bar Harbor’s finest hotel rather than on a deserted beach on a freezing cold evening while my boyfriend held me down. Al the while, he kept that strange smile pasted on his face.
“Where’s your friend, Missy?” I asked, as I struggled to free myself from Michael.
“I am sorry for my unfortunate association with your classmate Missy. I entered into that relationship with the hopes it might provide me with an easy introduction to you and Michael. Sadly, that was not to be the case. But I stayed with her because I saw she could serve other purposes.” His language had a formal, almost antiquated, feel to it.
Suddenly I understood why Missy had been so friendly to me at the beginning of school. It was an effort by this Ezekiel to get to us through her.
And I thought I knew what he meant by the “other purposes” that Missy served.
“Did you put Missy up to the Facebook stunt?” I asked, having seen him in those flashes. Not that he’d know about them, of course.
“You showed yourself to be quite the savior in that incident, El speth. And you showed me quite a lot about yourself in the process.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Did you orchestrate that whole sickening thing?”
He sighed, as if disappointed by the inquiry. “No, El speth. I did not force Missy to perpetrate the Facebook stunt, as you have cal ed it. Missy did not act outside her own nature and she did not act at my behest. I wil admit to fostering her nature and her Facebook plan as the incident afforded me an important insight. . . . It al owed me to see how you would behave when faced with a truly soul ess act. And I saw that, while you were wil ing to sacrifice yourself to protect the potential victims of Missy’s game, you were not immune to the lure of the darkness that emanated from it.” Ezekiel smiled, evidently pleased by his remote handiwork and my reaction to his test. “But you should know that I was no puppeteer of Missy, El speth. You must have seen that she acted of her own accord—in your visions.”
Like ice, my blood froze in my veins. “How did you know about those?”
“I know what you are and what you can do. Therefore, I assume you saw how her plan unfolded, El speth.”
Michael final y spoke. “El ie, listen to what Ezekiel just said. He knows what we are and what we can do. He can help us understand who we are.”
Was this the reason that Michael was acting so deferential y toward this Ezekiel? Even if Michael believed that Ezekiel had the answers, it was no excuse for his iron grip, for his betrayal of me.
Ezekiel interjected, his tone stil becalming. “It is quite al right, Michael. I think you best release El speth from your embrace.”
As if obeying a command, Michael’s arms slackened. I faced Ezekiel alone, thoroughly exposed to his fear- someness.
Ezekiel spoke to Michael, but stared directly at me. “El speth’s reaction is perfectly understandable. She does not know who I am. She does not even know who she is. Yet. But I am very much looking forward to sharing with her the uniqueness of her—”
“I don’t need you to tel me who I am.” It was my turn to interject. Thanks to my parents, I had some understanding of my identity. Some.
“El ie, please,” Michael begged me—to listen and defer. I felt like I didn’t even know Michael. He seemed almost drugged by the very presence of this Ezekiel.
I spun around toward him. Drugged or not, how dare he? “Why should I? You’ve dragged me to Ransom Beach under false pretenses—once again. I have no reason to trust you, or him.” I was so thankful that I hadn’t shared my parents’ secrets with him.
Michael started to stammer out another objection, but Ezekiel interrupted. “Michael, of course El speth is mistrustful. Once she learns everything that you have learned, she wil undoubtedly relinquish her suspicions. She wil come to understand—as you have—that I am only here to help you both.”
Even though my instincts told me to flee, I knew I would stay. I wanted to hear Ezekiel’s explanation of my “uniqueness,” to compare it with the story my parents had told me. So I stood firm in the face of his devouring gaze, and waited. I would listen to what he had to say but I would not react.
I would take the knowledge I’d garnered from him and return to my parents—with my new information in hand. And they would help me make sense of everything; they would tel me al the details they’d withheld last night. That was my plan, anyway.
Ezekiel acknowledged my momentary acquiescence with a self-satisfied smile. It was the smile of one used to getting what he asked for.
He began. “Last night, I came upon Michael. Alone. He was scared and ful of queries, so I answered them. Much as a parent answers the pleas of his child. Because, in many ways, Michael is my child. As are you, El speth.
“You and Michael are born from the same source as me. You fly. You can read and influence the thoughts of others, through touch and blood. You know you are different from the others. Better. But what are you?
