Inborn (The Birthright Book 1)

Chapter 26

When I saw light again, I was on my back, caged in glass. I panicked at first, banging on the inside of it. Then Bryce's face loomed over mine and I could see his lips moving, but couldn't make out the words. He held up a finger, his head dipping out of sight for a minute.

"How's that?" he said, his voice blaring in my ear.

"Loud!" I tried to cover my ears, but my hands felt cemented to the cushion beneath me.

"S-sorry...that better?" He came through in a much more moderate volume and I nodded. "It's an intercom. You wouldn't need that now, but...it's old." He patted the glass top. One side of his face was still swollen, but not as bad as I remembered.

"We're still in the creepy basement?"

"We're still in the creepy basement."

"So all that really happened?"

"Kind of." He smiled sympathetically, giving me a minute to absorb it.

My dad was actually the killer. And I had actually taken his powers.

"Look–" Bryce pointed next to me. I turned my head and Xavier gave me a weak smile.

"Xavier!" Then I realized he couldn't hear me. But he could see me, and I think he got the point. "How? I mean, the special code or whatever..."

Bryce shook his head. "Not an issue. Between your mom and me, we figured out how to circumvent it. Hence my emphatic head shaking when your dad threatened you. That was never an issue."

"So I didn't dream that either? She's still alive?"

"Still alive. She would've healed you herself, but ironically healing yourself sucks the life out of you. As does stealing your father's powers and getting hit in the face with a maximum charged laser gun."

I digested that too. "Wait–that means–"

"She didn't have the stuffing to take him out." Bryce smirked. "She's a good bluffer."

That made the whole situation back there much more frightening, even though it was over now. Was she banking on me, or hoping she could talk him out of killing everyone?

"Where's Joss?" I said.

"Also recovering. She was very, very confused. She's been unconscious since your dad kidnapped her at the school."

"Lachlan?"

Bryce clenched his fist on top of the glass. "Took off while we were taking care of you."

"And...my dad?" I was scared to ask. I'd had a nightmare that I did actually kill him.

His fist closed even tighter. "Disappeared through a portal while you saved his life."

Part of me felt relieved he was still alive. At least that's what I assumed. The other part felt pure dread. I'd either just saved us all, or created a much bigger problem.

"Don't worry about it now," Bryce said, smiling down at me. "Your mom doesn't think he'll show up any time soon. Not in the state he was in when he left."

That was sort of comforting.

We stayed there until the next day, when Mom felt safe to take us all out of the medic chambers. I was happy to see Joss reunited with her parents, and sad to hear Mom have to lie about what actually happened. And sad to realize we would have to make up stories about the last several days for the rest of our lives.

Because the house had a chunk blown out of it, we stayed in a hotel in town. Over a week later, we returned to start gathering our things. The kitchen and dining room suffered the most, leaving pretty much nothing behind to salvage. But our rooms and the living rooms were mostly spared.