“The blood that runs through your veins is the royal Evenstar blood which can be traced back to Eve herself. You are the heir of the Evenstar Dynasty, Jazmine. The last and only heir.”
I let out a loud laugh, that sounds manic, even to my own ears, but what other reaction could I possibly have to those words?
“You’re nuts,” I choke out, once the laughter subsides. But there is no humor in Magnus’s expression.
“You know what I’m saying is true.”
I sober up then.
“No. I don’t. What you’re saying is crazy. I live in a trailer, for god’s sake.
“You expect me to believe that my asshole of a father was a King and that I’m the heir to his royal Dynasty, next in line to the throne of a world which exists in an alternative realm?”
Magnus looks back at me calmly, although I feel like I’m losing my goddamn mind, no scratch that, I must have lost it already, because I’m still standing here, listening to this nonsense.
“When a King dies, the seven Dynasties rule together until the next sovereign heir comes of age to ascend to the throne. It is … expected that the next in line to the throne will be the heir of the St. Tristan Dynasty.”
“Oh, well thank god for that. Now, that we’re clear that I’m not about to be the next ruler of this alternative realm, you’re still expecting me to believe the rest of that bull? Well you’ve definitely got the wrong girl—because that thing that you just did? I can’t do anything even remotely close to that.”
“Oh, really? You’ve never looked up at the night sky and felt like you were connected to it somehow? Never felt like you could control the stars and moon with just a single sweep of your hand, if you just only reached out? You’ve never felt like you could touch the wind or feel the pulsing of the waves in the ocean?”
His words are like a punch to my gut. Because I can’t deny the truth in them. It’s as if he’s pried open my mind, read my deepest thoughts and is reciting them back to me. I have never been so unnerved in my entire life.
“You may not know how to use them yet, but you do have these powers within you—it runs in your blood,” he says.
“And if your foster home records are anything to go by, it would seem that you’re far more aware of your powers than you’d like to admit,” he adds.
My jaw drops, but at this stage, I don’t even know why I’m so surprised that he’s managed to get his hands on my foster home files. I shudder at the memories of my time at those first few foster homes. I’d been too young to make sense of the strange things stirring inside me. Too young to separate reality from what couldn’t possibly be real and in my innocence, I hadn’t yet learned how to hide those parts of myself that no one could ever accept, myself included. After the first few therapy sessions and foster home changes, I’d learned pretty damn quickly, though. I’d learned to accept that I didn’t belong, but that I should never again let anyone see exactly why.
“All your life you’ve felt like you don’t belong—not in any of your previous foster homes, not anywhere on Earth. You’ve always felt like there was something just waiting in the wings, dancing at the edge of your consciousness. Something that you can’t grasp in your waking hours, but you know it’s there.”
I don’t want to hear more, but with some kind of morbid fascination, I can’t stop myself from listening. Because I’d been right about him. Those eyes see things, know things that no one in this entire universe should know.
He steps towards me, and I know I have to get the hell out of here, although I have no idea where I am. But I can’t make my legs move.
“There’s a reason why you’ve always felt like you didn’t belong. It’s because you didn’t—you don’t belong on Earth, Jazmine. You never will,”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I manage, but my voice sounds as shaken as I feel because right now, the entire universe feels like it’s spinning—and everything I’ve ever thought I believed, everything I’ve ever thought I’d known, feels like it’s being swept away in the storm.
“You’ve always wanted more than your life on earth could ever offer you. It’s because you were made for something greater than a human life.”
I can only stare at him in silence, not a single coherent thought left in me as he approaches.
“I’m sorry for all you’ve been through, Jazmine, all the loss, the loneliness, the years you felt like you had nothing and no one. I can’t change that.
“Your father was sent to Earth on a mission and fell in love with a human while he was there—your mother, but he knew it couldn’t be, because the law forbids it and your father had his duty to his Dynasty, to his throne. He knew that he would be the King of Eden and his people needed him. He didn’t find out about you until just before his death. His dying wish was for you to be found and brought here to Eden, so that you can claim your rightful place as heir to the Evenstar Dynasty.”
“What was his name?” I find myself asking, although every fiber in my being doesn’t want to care.
“Arwen—your father’s name was Arwen Evenstar.”
There is another question echoing through my mind and again, I don’t want to care. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from speaking, but the words come out anyway, although I am sure I don’t want to know the answer.
“How did he die?”
Magnus is silent for a long moment and the sadness that I glimpse in the depths of those grey eyes in that moment is so unending, that it makes it difficult to breathe.
“He committed suicide.”
The words floor me and I want to know more, but something about Magnus’s closed off expression tells me he already knows the questions I’m about to ask and the answers are not for me to know.
“Your father was a brave man, Jazmine. A good King,” he says after a moment.
“I can’t change the past, Jazmine. But I can change your future—you’re an Evenstar now. You always have been and from now on, things are going to change. I promise you that.”
I’m silent for what seems like an eternity.
“Let’s say I believe you—do I get a choice in any of this? What if I don’t want to live here in Eden. What if I don’t want to be a Seraph, an Evenstar heir or whatever? What if I just want my life back?”
I feel the lie in those last words, because he’d been right earlier—I’ve always wanted more than my old life was able to give me. I was always searching for that more, although I never knew what it was—and now it’s being revealed to me … I feel like someone’s placed the entire universe in the palm of my hand, and I have no clue what to do with it.
“You don’t have a choice, Jazmine,” came his simple reply, but before I can speak, he continues.
“It’s not safe for you on Earth anymore.”
I remember that he had spoken those same words to me in the playground.
“What do you mean, it’s not safe for me on Earth?” I demand.
He only shakes his head and turns back to look out at the morning sky.