Winter's Scars: The Forsaken (Winter's Saga #5)

“Let me be sure I understand her abilities as you’ve described them. She can feel the emotions of people near and far, read their intentions, heal them of emotional pain and now she can project a psychic, mind-control energy across a distance that can affect one to a dozen or more people—human and metahuman.”


“That about sums it up.” Alik felt his adrenaline start to course and made himself breathe slow, deep breaths to calm down so he wouldn’t overreact—in his own way. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed deeply.

“Where is she now?”

“Running.”

“Alik, you know I have always taught you three to choose the path of morality—God’s will, over your own. Every thought and action must be filtered through our faith first. There are definite rights and wrongs. In this battle our family has taken on, the lines between the two have started to blur. I’m going to have to pray that all my years of teaching will help Meg find some sense of God’s purpose in her abilities.”

“She’s got to learn to control her emotions.” Alik’s blue eyes stung with worry.

“That’s always been her double-edged sword. Just think of all the good her gifts have done for us. She’ll come out of this, Alik. Just give her time. Everything has happened so quickly. It wasn’t all that long ago that we were at the old ranch—just the four of us—separate from the world.”

“You’re right, Mom.”

“Now,” Margo sighed deeply as a way of shifting subjects in her mind. “What are we going to do about Arkdone’s witch hunt?”

“Well, it’s just a matter of time until they produce some formal charges. We may have to go into hiding, Mom. I don’t know how they’re going to prove it, but I bet Arkdone is going to have Meg charged with the deaths of all those ‘heart attack’ victims. That would mean life in prison. Damn, I wish I could ask Evan his thoughts on this.” Alik looked wistfully at his sleeping brother.

“I just don’t get it. Why is Arkdone doing all this? What’s his motive? Williams, well as monstrous as he is, his line of thinking made sense.” Margo tried to keep her voice steady, though she was feeling anything but.

“Those are good questions. I’ve been racking my brain over the same thing. I’m going to start researching him and see what I find.”

“Good idea Ali. I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

“And Alik?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for all you’re doing to keep our family safe. I wish none of this was happening, but I have faith that there will be a way to live in peace.”

“I know, Mom—and please don’t thank me. You know I’d do anything to keep my family safe.”

“Whisking you, Meggie and Evan away with me was the most wonderful thing I will have ever done. You three have been my gift from God, no matter what happens.”

Alik could hear the tears in her voice. “All right lady. You’re embarrassing me,” Alik teased, trying to put a smile on his mother’s face.

“Maybe you could have Meg call me when she gets back from her run?”

“Sure thing, Mom. We’ll get through this, okay?”

“Okay, sweetie. Bye.”

“Bye, Mom.”

Margo sat with her phone still warm in her hands thinking.

She was thinking back a few hours ago when she sat waiting during her layover. She’d waited in the middle of terminal B3 in El Paso International Airport when the flat-screens angled around the room came to life in unison with the footage from the Flagstaff scene. The first time it showed the footage, she watched the screens with wide-eyed amazement at her precious children as they fought to stay alive.

The second time the story looped, she watched everyone else’s reaction. They were terrified of her children. She saw the slack jawed, wide-eyed expressions and cringed. She saw mothers sweep their children up into their arms and hurry past the screens so as not to expose them to the freakish, scary scenes. She watched men cross their arms, sway anxiously and shake their heads at Alik as he tossed the sedan.

The reaction to Meg’s demonstration of her powerful mind control provoked the most visceral response from the humans walking around her. The looks on their faces was fear and hatred. Margo had felt the urge to scream at the top of her lungs in defense of her children, but she knew it would have done no good. The media and Arkdone’s fabricated speech had insulated the world from the truth.

She transferred carefully back to her wheelchair and moved around the house closing and locking all the windows she had just opened. The world outside was too ugly and the air had lost its sweetness as worry slipped deeper into her soul.





Chapter 32 I’m Not What I Seem



Meg was completely paralyzed physically and though her cognitive abilities were mostly intact, the effects of the drug on her system had numbed her empath abilities.

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