CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
THE SET UP
"I don't understand."
"Don't understand what?" Chey queried. "About using the power? It's quite simple really–"
"No," Montana interrupted her uncle. "I don't understand why you thought it was a good idea to get frosted tips whilst you were away."
Chey stopped in the middle of the basement, his expression faltering. "Seriously, Montana?"
Montana failed to prevent the corners of her mouth teasing upwards. "Did Kaia let you do it? Because unless it was for a joke, I can't imagine she'd have encouraged that."
"She did, actually," Chey replied. Montana, remaining unconvinced, quirked an eyebrow. "Fine, she did it for a joke."
"And you fell for it?!"
Chey gave her an exasperated look. "Listen, are you here to laugh at me or learn more about your powers?"
"Both," Montana answered. Chey sighed heavily in defeat. She grinned playfully at him. "All right, fine, help me out. I'm pissed I didn't get to go to that training session thing."
"That's because you're not part of the battle," Chey pointed out. "In fact, you're going to be as far away from it as possible. With your parents and Kota. Out of Washington."
"Oh, come on," Montana complained. "Look, I totally get not being part of the actual battle – I definitely don't feel like dying with only three days notice – but do I really have to leave?"
Chey scoffed. "Trust me, it'd be out of the country if Jacob had anything to do with it." Montana caught a spark of curiosity flashing in his eyes. "Speaking of Jacob..." Uh oh. "What's going on there?"
She cleared her throat and, not seeing another way out of the situation, glanced away from him. Montana focused her attention firmly elsewhere, a little dark patch of mold on the wall, hoping that her expression wouldn't give anything away. "What do you mean?"
"You're not fooling anyone," Chey chuckled. "In fact, we're all placing bets on when you'll finally reveal you're together. Mine's on the end of summer, so if you could just hold off until then–"
Montana whirled back around. "You're placing bets?!"
"Yeah," he shrugged nonchalantly.
"With who?!"
"All the adults."
"All the– What?! You're all in on it?!" Montana's voice had become higher pitched than it ever had before, and she had absolutely no idea how to stop it.
"It's just a bit of fun–"
"But Jake and I aren't even officially dating!"
Chey's eyebrows pulled together. "You're not?"
"No!"
His frown deepened. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure!"
Chey came to a halt in the middle of the room, glanced over at her, and tilted his head back, a smile curving on his lips. "Do you feel that?"
"What?" Montana accidentally snapped at him. She immediately felt bad and went to apologise, but her uncle hadn't taken any offence. Instead, he lifted a hand and pointed above them.
Montana stared at him as if he'd gone insane.
"Look," Chey prompted.
Witholding an exasperated breath, she followed her uncle's line of sight to glance up at the ceiling. At which point, she realised exactly what he was so fascinated by.
"Do you feel it?"
"Am I..." Montana breathed out, staring up in disbelief at the rapidly flickering lights. She had seen something similar to that before - outside Bella's house, when she'd been angry at Alice. "Am I doing that?"
Chey nodded. "It started happening when you got frustrated. And it's calming now. See?"
He was right. The hurried motion the lights had been flashing was now slowing to longer intervals. Montana caught on to her breathing, and her racing pulse, both of which were steadying. It made sense. She was the one controlling it.
"That's...crazy."
The flickering continued to slow until it had stopped in it's entirety. Montana sat down on the old, tattered green sofa chair. It used to be in the lounge, until they redecorated. Absentmindedly, she began picking at the loose threads of the arm, which was falling apart.
"A similar thing happened when you were around the Cullens," Chey said. "Alice, was it?"
"Yeah."
"You have strong emotions. And I think they're even stronger when they're tethered to a certain person," he hypothesised.
Montana stared at him unsurely for a few seconds. "Jacob?"
She wasn't sure why she asked. Of course it was Jacob.
"Yes." Chey moved closer towards her. "See, I don't think it's just him, though. Your most explosive emotions come from caring so deeply about the people you love. It's just that with Jacob...there's more of a connection that seems to bring it out," Chey began to explain. "Perhaps its to do with the shape-shifter gene?" And that I'm his imprint, Montana thought, but did not voice. "Though, say, Dakota were to be threatened by one of these Cullen's, I can imagine your powers would surface then just as strongly."
Montana cast her mind back to the most recent incidences that had put them in mortal peril – and, to be fair, there had been quite a lot in a very short space of time. But one in particular stood out.
"What about in the forest?" She asked him, looking up to meet his eyes. "You heard about Laurent, right?"
"I did," Chey affirmed.
"Well, nothing happened then," Montana pointed out. "That's the most danger we've ever been in. At least, in my opinion."
Chey studied her for a moment. "What emotion do you remember most from when that happened?"
Montana tried to recall the situation, put herself back in that place; the dread twisting in her gut, the way her heart raced, the blood pounding in her ears...
"I was...scared."
Chey nodded, as if it were the right answer, or at least the one he was expecting. "Fear. It's a blockage."
"It blocks the powers? But that doesn't... surely you can never eliminate fear? I mean, it's one of the strongest-"
"You can overpower it."
"What?"
"With control," Chey clarified. Montana remained perplexed. "Fear, anxiety, doubt, they will let you down. You have to conquer them."
"How?" she asked. "Because, personally, I can't imagine ever managing that."
"You have to accept the feelings," Chey told her. "Recognise them for what they are and then rise above them."
"I feel like that's easier said than done."
"Of course. But it's possible to overpower fear with something entirely stronger. Your emotions aren't a weakness, they are something to be harnessed - in the correct way of course. That's where you will draw your power from."
"What happens if I can't overcome it?" She asked doubtfully, slumping further down the chair. "Or what if I can't channel my emotions properly?"
"I don't believe it's a coincidence that our families are connected, Montana," he said. "My tribe...magic has always been in our blood. And your family? Well, their bloodline, their history, it's incredibly fascinating. I don't think it's a coincidence that any of us have ended up where we are. You're going to be very powerful, Montana."
"That sounds like...a lot of responsibility."
"You have a lot to learn," Chey agreed. "It won't be easy..."
"Nothing ever is anymore."
His expression softened. "Eventually it won't be so hard." He placed a comforting hand on her knee. "You kids shoulder so much burden."
"Tell me about it," she mumbled. Montana thought about the pack, and everything they'd been through lately. They'd all had to grow up rapidly in the space of few short months. "The boys are going into an actual battle in, like, three days. Against a literal vampire army. A whole ass army... I mean, what is that all about?"
"I suppose, this time last year, you didn't expect you'd be in this position."
"You can say that again," Montana replied. "It's beyond anything I could have ever imagined."
"I have to say, even I never expected vampire armies to be a thing," Chey chuckled. But it wasn't his usual light, breezy laughter. Montana understood why. It was a paralysing thought for all of them, even those not involved, but Chey and Kaia seemed to be bordering on whether to become part of it too.
"Are you going to fight?"
One thing that Chey and Kaia were experts at was keeping secrets, which unnerved Montana greatly. Nobody had any idea of their stance on the battle, or whether they were even going to stay around for it. Montana's parents had been on edge, and Dakota had been unusually quiet for the past couple of days. Their nerves had only been fuelling Montana's own, though she couldn't imagine how Chey and Kaia felt knowing they either were going to be in the midst of a battle or couldn't be there to use their powers and help.
"I don't think so."
Montana felt an immediate surge of relief flooding through her. It was difficult enough that the pack, who were like family to her, would be fighting. Putting Chey and Kaia into the mix would have just been herding pretty much everybody Montana loved into one insanely dangerous situation with lots of potential for multiple horrible consequences.
"We attended the training session this morning," he carried on. "Jasper knows a lot about newborns. Suggested it was not our fight." He tilted his head to the side in recollection. "Kaia and I were very happy to demonstrate our powers, of course. They were, well...surprised, to say the least."
Montana grinned at the thought.
"We mutually came to an agreement that two of us was not enough," Chey continued. "It only takes one of those bastards to sneak up on us and, well..." he trailed off, choosing not to finish his sentence. "Said we'd remain local instead. I've become quite the pro at healing spells lately."
"Well, hopefully they won't need your talents."
She could feel that familiar feeling of nausea creeping up on her again. Montana worried about the pack endlessly. She kept reminding herself that they were capable of much more than everyone expected. Truthfully, she thought the Cullens underestimated them. After all, they did take care of the Laurent problem much more efficiently than the Cullens had taken care of James. In fact, if they'd done their jobs right in the first place then there wouldn't even be a vampire army because Victoria wouldn't be hunting Bella.
Ah, there it was again, vampires causing all the problems. Montana wished that family would just move out of Forks for good and take their trouble elsewhere.
Chey most have noticed her drifting away into her thoughts. Montana blinked to find him in front of her. "They boys will be okay," he tried to reassure, but Montana couldn't feel any sense of comfort from words alone. She would only relax when they were safe again. "We all will." He patted her shoulder. "Now, I think it's time for some training."
Montana supposed a suitable distraction from her mind's inner turmoil wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
—
"Did you ask Uncle Chey why I was the only one who didn't inherit these witchy powers?" Was the very first question that came out of Dakota's mouth when Montana rejoined her cousins later that evening.
Montana had been in the midst of chugging a glass of water, some of which, in her desperation, had dribbled down her chin. She wiped it away with the back of her fingers before stepping into the lounge to greet her cousins, both of which were sprawled out across opposite couches. Kaia was occupied solely by her phone, and Dakota was crunching loudly on a bag of chips staring at the TV.
"Well, he said it wasn't homophobia because he is, and I quote, also a raging homosexual."
Dakota straightened up, turning her head to find Montana, who walked round the back of the couch and into the middle of the room. "Shit, really?"
"You didn't know that?" Kaia queried, though her eyes did not lift from the small screen in front of her. "I thought you were supposed to have a built in gaydar."
Dakota glanced from her sister to Montana with an expression of entire bewilderment. "You're seriously telling me Uncle Chey is gay?"
"Yes," Montana and Kaia answered in unison.
Personally, Montana wasn't actually surprised by her uncle's admission. She wasn't sure why, it wasn't like he had done anything in particular to give her that inclination, but it just made sense. And it seemed to make Dakota incredibly pleased.
"Holy shit, this is incredible?! I had no idea. Where is he? I have so much to talk to him about–"
"Kitchen," Montana informed.
"Amazing." Dakota practically bounced from couch in excitement, and Montana quickly claimed her spot, which turned out to be a mistake when she accidentally leaned on a cheeto that Dakota had dropped. She pulled it out from underneath her with a grimace, wiping the orange dust from her leggings.
"Well, that's just made her day," Kaia commented from across the room.
"I'm glad. She was pretty down in the dumps about everything going on. And also not hooking up with Sian last night," Montana said. "I assume you heard all about that."
Kaia nodded with a slight grimace. "Every excruciating detail."
"It's kind of sweet, really."
"Yeah, if you're into all that romance stuff." Kaia waved a hand flippantly. Montana raised her eyebrows and stared at her until she looked up. "What?"
"Well, Uncle Chey told me a few things..." Montana trailed, waiting for her cousin to catch on.
Kaia slowly lowered her phone back to her side. "Like what?"
"Oh, you know...just that you became good friends with a certain guy...Jason, was it? James? Jeremy? John-"
"Jude," Kaia spoke through gritted teeth, clearly unable to help but correct.
Montana grinned in satisfaction. "Jude," she repeated. "Like the song. Hey, Jude..."
"Don't you dare sing it."
Montana clamped her mouth shut, fighting back a laugh.
"Anyway, you're not one to talk," Kaia said, snapping her phone shut to give Montana her full attention.
"Elaborate?"
"Jacob Black."
Montana cursed the reactionary smile that always wanted to form on her face whenever somebody spoke about Jake. "And what about him?"
"And what about him?" Kaia playfully mocked in a high pitched voice.
"I don't sound like that!"
"Oh, please," Kaia scoffed. "You're smitten."
"Maybe so." Montana's face felt hot. "Anyway, tell me about this Jude guy."
"Tell me about Jacob," Kaia countered.
"You know Jacob."
"I haven't seen Jacob in two years."
"To be fair, he's not much different. You know, other than the whole werewolf thing and growth spurt and the muscles..."
"Ah, we like the muscles do we?"
Montana sank further down the couch, wishing to be completely consumed by it. "You're embarrassing me."
"Good," Kaia dead-panned. "Hey, it's nice to see you happy."
Montana's smiled softly. "Thanks."
"Also, forgot to mention," Kaia began, sitting up properly to face Montana. "Chey and I are doing some more training with the Cullen's tomorrow night. Just precautionary stuff...I'm sure he's told you we're not getting fully involved. And then we're going back to my place to practice healing spells, so you'll have the house to yourself."
"I'm supposed to be going out of town–"
Kaia shook her head. "Not anymore. Convinced Auntie Nita that you should stay."
Montana's eyes lit up. "Seriously?! You are literally the best–"
"I know, I know. So you'll have the house to yourself tomorrow night. Though we figured we shouldn't leave you entirely alone and unprotected with a vampire army descending on the town so..." The corner of Kaia's mouth started to twitch. "Had a little chat with Sam about one of the guys staying at the house. Jacob seemed happy to step in...."
Realisation slowly started to dawn on Montana. "Kaia..."
She held her hand up, silencing her protests. "Nuh, uh. I literally don't want to hear anything but a thank you coming from your mouth."
Montana gave her a pointed look. "This is literally a set up."
"Oh, are you speaking a different language? Because that does not sound like 'thank you' to me."
"I hate you."
Kaia grinned. "Love you too, cuz."
A/N
Kaia doing god's work.
Just a fun little family dynamics filler and getting learn a bit more about Montana's powers too. A quick reminder as I know it's hard to remember the family tree and in case anyone is confused — Chey is Tye's (Montana's dad) half brother.
Hope you enjoyed this one, sorry it took a little while, I have been occupied with obsessing over Shadow and Bone.
Also sorry there's no Jacob but the next one's defo gonna make up for it...