A/N: Guys, this book has gone by so fast?! I don't even know what to do...
I start to notice a lot of things after that night that I never did before. There's a lot more nervous touches, a lot more blushing (according to Echo. I'll believe it when I see it), and honestly, a lot more smiles. It's not too bad. Things could be worse.
And then all hell breaks loose.
Because why wouldn't it, right? Ariadne Thorne has no right to claim happiness. Or peace. Although this might be the first, but not the second.
Callista calls me on a Monday.
The messenger comes into the training arena right after breakfast, as I'm wrapped up in an intense sparring session with Echo.
Her fist flies by my ear, nicking the edge of it and returned with a kick that does little to my stonewall of a sister.
"Ariadne!" someone booms, but I don't bother to turn and look. They're tried this trick before, and we've all easily outgrown it. My sister lunges at me with a growl and I barely manage to duck under her reach before she whirling and aiming for my throat.
"Echo! Please let her talk to me," the voice repeats, and we freeze as both of us slam our arms against our opponent's throat. Fist raised in the air and positioned awfully close to my face.
Titus is standing just outside the ring, watching us apprehensively with his arms folded across his chest. His hair is a little longer than when I saw him last, and he looks disheveled with his stubble-covered face. The scar across his cheekbone that's been there since he got in a fight at school at sixteen is somewhat more hidden beneath the layers of exhaustion across his face. There's exhaustion behind his emerald eyes, and his lips are drawn into a tight, thin line.
Something is wrong.
I launch myself over the edge of the ring and hug him quickly, and my brother lets out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Dad's been trying to reach me all day. He wants to see you and Echo, too. Hayden's given you the green light to leave," he informs us, his voice sounding weary and defeated.
"Something else is wrong," I point out, and he waves me off.
"Thea's birthday. Don't worry about it," he admits, brushing it off like it's nothing. Right.
Part of me wants to wonder if Thea might still be out there somewhere. I mean, last I saw of her, she had been with me in the desert, and next thing I knew, she was gone.
"Titus, can I ask you something crazy?" I question as we start walking towards the exit of the training center.
"Shoot,"
"I want to go look for Thea with you. To get you the closure you deserve," I offer, and he freezes. With a mask of complete and utter horror and confusion on his face he glances over at me and then whirls away to run his fingers through his hair nervously. He shoots out a long and heavy string of curses before turning back to me.
"I knew we were too lucky to hope you hadn't forgotten anything. Ari, Thea's dead," he says, his voice sounding defeated and depressed.
My heart freezes a little bit.
"And you know that without a doubt?" I ask, and he lets out a heavy sigh.
"She was leading part of the crews of the Burning when we were leaving the Refuge. We didn't know what happened to the Burning yet, and when she tried to kill you... I was the one who killed her," he tells me, sounding so incredibly broken that I can do nothing but hold him tightly.
"Titus, I'm so, so sorry," I tell him, hoping to bring some kind of comfort. It doesn't work, but he shrugs me off a few seconds later.
"We can talk about this later, Ari, but right now, we need to go," he says, and I nod quickly with a sniffle as we all climb onto the train that zooms us off to Ezekiel Thorne's office.
My father doesn't say a word as he merely instructs us to sit down. Callista's face is paused on the screen before us, and Ezekiel merely clicks on something that makes the video start.
"My name is Callista Reissman, and I have a message for Ariadne Thorne," she starts, and my father nervously covers his mouth with his hands.
"Ariadne, your mother is alive. Johann and I stopped at our old dome on the way home. She's alive, Ari. I promise I'll explain more, but call me, okay? Here," Callie says to the camera, and reaches over to scrawl out a phone number on a piece of notebook paper. She holds it up to the screen, and with a tired smile, the video freezes.
I don't react immediately. How can I?!
I've been blaming myself for her death for nearly a year, mourning and cursing the stars for my fate, and now, it's been flipped on its head. Athena Simo-Athena Thorne is alive. I don't know what to feel.
Suddenly, reality hits me like a slap in the face and I lunge for the phone in my brother's pocket.
The phone rings once, twice, and Callista picks up with an uncertain "Hello?"
"Callie!" I blurt, and there's silence for a few seconds on her end of the line.
"You got my message?" she questions, and I quickly agree.
"Yes?! Will we be able to get it?!"
"There was a revolution after we left. They overthrew Lockman. Matthias and Athena are in charge now. I think you'll be fine," she says, and my head spins with all of this information.
"Will you be there?" I ask, and again, there's silence.
"No? Maybe," she hesitates, and I suck in a sharp breath at her words.
"Yes. I'll have Johann send me over. When are you all going to come?"
"Tomorrow?!" Ezekiel splutters, and Echo and Titus rush to agree.
"Tomorrow it is. I'll see you then," she says, her voice taut and curt as she hangs up quickly.
"Pack your things. We leave first thing in the morning," Ezekiel says, a mixture of fear and joy somehow blending on his face.
"How are we getting there so fast?" I ask, and Ezekiel grins.
"Canaan's teleporter. It's how we drop field agents off at wherever they need to be,"
Suddenly, images of those people we'd seen in Seattle make a lot more sense. It had been Canaanite agents that we'd see there. Small world.
All three of us are silent on the way back to the training center, different emotions swirling through our heads. There's a mixture of bliss and terror in my veins. There's so many things I promised myself that I would say, that I would apologize for. What if she's changed and doesn't want us around her anymore? The whole guilt and mourning thing is a weird sort of hollowness of its own.
You're never taught what to do when you're given a second chance with someone you were sure you'd lost. Reality is composed of heartbreak and loss and only one chance to get things right. No one gets lucky enough to try again. No one deserves to try again. Especially not us.
"We don't deserve this," I tell them, and Titus agrees with a grunt. Echo hesitates.
"Nobody deserves anything. People fickle creatures with brittle bones and changing hearts. But we are owed better. We are owed," she suddenly says, her voice confident and determined. There's something fiery in her eyes, which cautions both Titus and I not to challenge her.
Titus drops us off at the training center almost twenty minutes later, and so Echo and I trot off to our rooms to get ready to go.
"I'm kinda scared," I tell Echo as I toss a pair of t-shirts into a duffel bag. She stops packing for a few seconds and breathes out a heavy sigh.
"I am too. Dad's excited beyond belief, though," she says, and I let out a semi-bitter chuckle.
"He should be. He's going to see his wife again. I wonder how Matthias will take that?" I ask, and Echo shrugs.
"We're gonna find out, won't we?"
There's a quiet knock on the door a few seconds later, and once Echo shouts out that they have permission to enter, Hayden pokes his head in.
"Hey. Are you guys all good to go? Anything you need?"
I shoot Echo a malicious grin and motion for Hayden to enter. He hesitates, knowing that this is the girls dorm, but cautiously walks in anyway.
"We're good, Hayden. You can hang out with us until we're done, though," I offer, and Echo raises an eyebrow at me. Hayden hesitates a little, but with a small smile, agrees silently.
"So... you guys are leaving?" he asks us, and Echo nods.
"Just for a few days. Don't worry; we'll be back soon. You won't have to go too long without me," she tells him with a wink, which earns her some blushing and a lot of squirming. I stifle a laugh, which thankfully, neither of them notice. I give Echo a smirk before leaving the room to go grab some extra supplies, and Hayden glances at me nervously just before I close the door.
I decide to grab an extra jacket from the supply room, and nearly slam into Kyros on the way in.
"Ari, I need your help," Kyros suddenly says, his face hardened into a mask of steel that almost terrifies me.
"What? Are you alright?" I ask him, my hand subconsciously reaching to hold onto his arm. This is weird.
"Sort of. So you know how I told you about my family that night? The one where I had a mental breakdown?" he asks, and I nod once slowly. Where is this going?
"Yeah. Why?"
"I... might not have told you everything. And I can't find any other way to deal with this so I need your help," he tells me, and I raise a skeptical eyebrow.
"Okay?"
"I wasn't David Bancroft's only child. I have a half-sister who's still at the Refuge," he says, and I'm kind of gripped by shock. He had a sister, and he left her behind?!
"And you left her there?!"
"It's a long story. She was with me when I got kicked out, but they put her in jail instead of banishing her. The Riddicks were really suspicious of her, so whenever I visited her, it had to be in secret. I knew she was safe in the dome, since the Refuge's prison is probably the safest place in the entire dome. I was planning to bring her with us, too, but when the Riddicks decided to come, I realized it would only cause unnecessary tension. But now that we found Canaan, it's been eating me up. I want to go back for her," he explains, and though it doesn't make complete sense, it's better that what I was expecting.
"So... where do I come in?"
"Your dad could surely get us into the teleport room and send up back for a few hours to get her and teleport back," he says, his voice wavering slightly with uncertainty.
I let out a heavy sigh. I'm a little bitter that he didn't tell us this, because he knows we would have helped him rescue her when we first left, but the other half of he feels bad for him.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Echo, Titus, Dad and I are going back to our dome to get Mom back tomorrow," I tell him, and his eyes light up.
"So... maybe we can go to the Refuge and get my sister, too?" he asks, a grin sliding across his features. I can't help but smile with him.
"I'll see what I can do,"
Kyros' grin cracks into a smile and he suddenly pulls me into a hug. My stomach does a couple backflips, but the moment is ruined by a sudden loud crashing.
Felix busts out of the closet, earning a fighting stance from Kyros and a loud scream from me.
"Just so you know, I'm coming with you guys," Felix informs with a grin, and then trots out of the room like nothing happened. Kyros and I exchange a look that's soon followed by laughter.
Classic Felix, I guess. One more can't hurt, can it?
Yeah, right. It's Felix. He's probably going to get us killed.