Revealed (Unbound, Book 5)

Chapter Four

"Are you sure?" Islene's green eyes studied me as I contemplated her question.

At the clearing, I'd only managed an hour of sleep. When I woke, it was obvious that Calin hadn't slept at all—when I opened my eyes, they'd met his. We worked together to take the tent down and pack everything away, and drove back to Calin's within a half hour of waking. We went straight to the library where he started to research the books in the library while I talked to his mother.

"Not even a little." I sighed and glanced across the library to look at Calin, then brought my gaze back to his mother. "But I think... I have to do it alone. Zach came to me again and I can't bring myself to try to explain that to Calin until Zach is back. He can't think it's impossible if Zach is here, right?"

"Even if Calin didn't believe it, he would never want you doing this on your own. You should give him a chance."

I shook my head. "No. I can't."

"But—"

"I get why you want to think the best, Islene—he's your son. I want to believe he would be supportive too, but I can't... no." I shook my head again, unable to explain what made me so scared to have Calin think I was taking the crazy train to learn about my heritage. "It's better if he doesn't come. That way, I can concentrate on finding out what I need to know. Once we've discovered what I'm supposed to find, we can come back, and I'll introduce Zach to Calin. Until then, I'd prefer not to have Calin think that I'm crazy for thinking that Zach is still alive after I saw him in the morgue next to my mother, dead and cold. You know, I barely believe it, so why should he?"

"I'm not worried about Calin thinking I'm crazy, but I still believe Zach is alive."

I snorted, rolling my eyes. "Yeah, but you have visions. You know what feels real versus what's a bunch of... not real."

"Do you want me to tell Calin about Zach?"

"What? No. Why?"

"I could, if you think that will help him understand."

My gaze focused on Calin again as he pushed a book away from him on the desk and reached for another. Since before we'd discovered Maible's true parentage, Calin had been busy trying to prepare because of some feeling he'd had. He wasn't able to put what he sensed into words, much like my mother had been unable to explain her concern for our protection before she died, and my world turned upside-down. Given the validity behind her trepidation, I was determined to take Calin's fear seriously.

It wasn't like I could say it was unfounded. First, we'd worried about stopping the person pulling pranks and then unbinding Maible, only to have to investigate who'd bound her in the first place. It was like everything was building in difficulty, though, because after learning Devland was behind Maible's inability to access her power, we learned he was actually her father and had cheated on my mother before she'd fled. In fact, Maible had been bound so nobody would learn Devland was her father, which meant it was very likely that he would be seeking some sort of punishment on who aired his dirty little secret—pissing off the leader of the High Council wasn't the smartest thing that I'd done. After he'd had a hand in keeping me from regaining my memory, I wouldn't put anything past Devland, and he obviously wasn't against using magic against his offspring.

If that wasn't enough, I still didn't know why my mother had carved out a new life for us in Briarville under a different name to hide from Devland, the secrets she'd died keeping, and—this was what I feared the most—how she'd died. How did Zach allegedly come back to life? Had the boy that was missing been found? Who was I to assume responsibility to ensure that no one else went missing and why did Zach expect that I would?