Chapter 7
After grabbing a peppermint mocha from the coffee shop near Sophie’s, the girls crossed the street and pushed through the heavy door. The tinkling sound of a small bell accompanied their entrance and brought Sophie from the back of the shop.
“Hi, girls.” She set down the lamp she was carrying and wiped her hands on her jeans. “Giving up on school already?” She smiled and motioned for them to follow her into the back.
“Well, you know. Too cool and all that.” Ree threw her bag down in the corner and collapsed onto one of the overstuffed chairs. Taking a big sip of her warm drink, she leaned her head back on the armrest and draped her legs over the opposite side. Closing her eyes for a moment, she let herself relax. The dusty smell of the shop and the sunlight streaming in through the back windows combined to fill Ree with a peaceful feeling. With her eyes still closed, she listened to Mel and Sophie talk about the shop and the gentle sound of classical music drifting in from the storefront.
“Yeah, when I got to the bathroom Ree was floating in front of Shannon like an avenging angel. I didn’t know she could do that and apparently she didn’t either.” Mel was sitting backward in the desk chair, her arms propped on the backrest. “I’m pretty sure Shannon was a minute away from pooping her pants.”
Opening her eyes, Ree snorted and looked at Sophie. Despite being amused by Melanie, she was curious what Sophie had to say about the floating. The Greek woman’s expression was almost unreadable, which made Ree sit up in the chair. Could this be a bad thing? Or was the older woman trying to cover her own shock?
“Has this happened before, Ree?”
Ree almost said no, but something sparked her memory and she thought about the time she had fallen out of the tree on the island. Somehow she had managed to use the power to catch herself mere inches from the ground. Had she somehow used the power to float herself? Had she created a shield that kept her from hitting the pebble streaked ground? Her eyes rose to her friends and she cleared her throat.
“Actually, something happened on the island, but I didn’t know how to explain it. When I went out for some time alone, I fell out of that huge tree.”
“Ree!” Melanie looked at her with huge eyes. “You could have been really hurt!”
“Tell me what happened,” Sophie said quietly. “Everything you can remember.”
“I wanted to be alone, so I went for a run that morning after eating a huge breakfast. I took a break near the giant tree with the low, thick limbs. I tried to lean back against the trunk but I was too far away and fell. I thought I was a goner but everything stopped. I opened my eyes to see that I was floating a couple of inches above the ground. As soon as I realized it was happening I fell the rest of the way and ate dirt.” Scrunching up her nose, she looked at the peppermint mocha that she was still holding and considered what that might mean. “I’d like to say I had a split second of clarity and caught myself on purpose, but the truth is I was completely shocked. I had no way of explaining it and when I got back to the house everyone else was getting ready to go hunt.”
Straightening the papers on her desk, Sophie didn’t meet either of the girl’s eyes for a moment. Melanie looked at Ree, her eyes drawn together in suspicion, apparently not liking the hesitation.
“There are several things that could have caused these things to happen. When you fell out of the tree it could have been an instinctual use of the power. Perhaps something in your subconscious took over and kept you from cracking your head on a tree root. As for this morning, that is another matter altogether.” Sophie looked at the girls; her brown eyes were shadowed and if Ree didn’t know better she would have thought there was a tremor to Sophie’s voice. “I only know of one case where an Alastriana had enough reserve power to float the way Melanie described.”
“Did you ever meet her?” Ree asked, interested by the intensity of Sophie’s words.
“Did it give the Alastriana an advantage?” Melanie obviously had focused on the more pressing matter of the battle.
“Yes, I knew her.” Sophie looked at Ree with eyes that sparkled with tears. “And it got her killed.”
Ree slid her legs off of the armrest and placed her feet on the floor in front of the plush chair. Her heart felt like it was stuck on pause and her breath caught in her throat. She wondered if Melanie had also thought of the same thing and looked at her friend. Caught in an unusual moment, Melanie’s face was clouded in sadness.
“Tria was the only person to ever have enough of a personal reserve of power to float in the manner you are speaking of. Until you, that is.” Sophie stood up and walked over to where Ree sat, kneeling at the younger girl’s feet. “I don’t think there is any more denying what is right in front of us.” Beautiful, lilting words fell from the older woman’s mouth as she looked at Ree in awe. A dam seemed to break in Ree’s chest, water flooding her eyes. She stood up and backed away from Sophie.
“No. I’m not your sister, Sophie. I’m sorry, but I can’t be Tria.” Her fists clenched her skirt on either side, the material bunching under the stress. Why this would be the straw to break the camel’s back, Ree would never be able to explain. Yet, it was more than she could handle to have the rest of her identity taken away from her.
Sophie’s smile was luminous as she shook her head at Ree. “You are, and you aren’t. There is a part of you that is Tria, but in this life you are most definitely Ree.” Taking a deep breath, she moved closer to Ree, still smiling. “Souls come back all the time. They evolve, change, learn, and grow. There will be a part of you that will always be Tria, just as there are many new facets that are not. It isn’t a shame to have had some experience as an Alastriana before this battle. Obviously, the gods thought so as well.”
“You said it killed her, but I thought it was because she saved Roland,” Melanie asked from her chair. Ree wanted to scream in protest. Her life didn’t feel like her own anymore, yet her friend was more worried about fighting. And she couldn’t begin to fathom what this might mean for her as far as Roland and Paden went. She belonged with Paden; she knew it in her gut, even if he had doubts. But a part of her seemed to grow daily, seemed to remember something of Roland, missed him when he wasn’t around. Was that her or Tria? Was there even a difference?
Ree backed away slowly from the Greek woman and her friend as Sophie turned to respond to Melanie. The need to be herself—to not feel like she was a weapon controlled by gods—burned in her veins. She wanted out of that back room, out of the suddenly stuffy shop, and away from the people that seemed to think she was nothing but a tool.
“Because Tria had such a large reserve of power, she didn’t pull from me the way she should have, and bringing Roland back drained her to the point of death. When she received a blow from another Dark One, her body literally gave up. She had no more strength, no more will to live.” Sophie turned back to Ree, her face pulled by a frown. “Where are you going, Ree?”
Ree’s back hit the swinging door that led to the front of the shop. She looked between the two people staring at her and could think of nothing to say. Instead, she shoved through the door and ran as fast as she could.