Sneak Peek: Chapter Five

Chapter Five

First Impressions

“I don’t think I’m the right person to tell you that, Jaden,” Gwen said, her eyes lowering to the floor and avoiding his gaze.

“I can’t imagine anyone better than you,” he said.

Percival eyed Gwen with a look that reminded Jaden of when his mother had to tell him that his first dog, Lady, had died due to bone cancer. He wished he could read minds because Percival clearly knew something, something about how Jaden fit into all of this madness that Jaden obviously did not.

And he was growing tired of feeling out of the loop.

“Gwen,” Percival said in a whisper, “if you think it would be best for you two to be alone so he can hear it from someone he—”

“Of course not,” she said, straightening up, “don’t be silly, Percival. Jaden, there is a time and a place to have that discussion and right now is not appropriate for either.”

Whoa. What was that about?

“I, okay,” Jaden said, “sorry to bring it up.”

Percival buried his furrowed brow into the chart and Jaden tried to avoid eye contact with Gwen.

There was something about the sternness of her voice, the cold and harsh tone to her words that unsettled Jaden. He had never seen Gwen look the way she just had, so rigid and deflective in her posture. She usually moved so fluidly when they would walk across campus, her sylph-like arms exaggerating her stories and expressions as they waved to and fro with such joyful vigor. The Gwen he was used to seeing was always smiling and laughing, her cherub cheeks stretching to the sky instead of clenched in a calculated austerity.

The nagging feeling that Jaden didn’t know who the real Gwen was gnawed away at his mind again, taunting him with suggestions of embarrassment and betrayal. Perhaps she was just that good of an actress and it had all been a part of her cover. He could handle that one, but the nagging sense that Gwen was somehow ashamed of her feelings for him grew.

“I’m not who you think I am.” Her words resonated once more within his mind and almost on cue, Gwen turned to him and even though he couldn’t be sure, a fading glimmer from her eyes seemed to reappear if only for a moment.

Did she know how he really felt? Had she—

We’ll talk about that later.

The shock of her voice jolted Jaden, his aching sides screaming their disapproval at the sudden movement.

What did she know? How much had she heard?

I’m sorry but we’ll talk about that later, all right?

He nodded, glancing over at Percival who appeared oblivious as he eyed the chart for a third time a little too thoroughly.

He tried to empty his mind and think about innocuous things, like what kind of stone was around him or how old Percival was since he looked like he couldn’t be much older than his early forties, even with the outdated spectacles and olive green suspenders suggesting a more vintage age. Then more pressing concerns entered Jaden’s mind, like if Percival was even a real doctor.

“Oh,” Percival said, breaking the long silence, “I thought of another question I’d like to ask you, Jaden.”


“Okay. That sounds great,” he said, happy to have a change of topic and a break from the excruciatingly awkward silence.

“Were you conscious for the entire trip here?” Percival asked him, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Images of Jaden’s dreams bubbled up into his mind but he didn’t really want to share those since he wasn’t even really sure what those visions or memories were.

“Actually,” Gwen said, “he drifted in and out of consciousness. But, why don’t you ask him what’s really on your mind, Percival? I’d like to hear it just as much as you would.”

She smiled and Percival blushed, clearing his throat in an obvious attempt to sidestep his sheepish embarrassment.

Jaden hated being out of the loop—again.

“Well,” Percival said, clearing his throat another time, clicking and re-clicking his silvery pen without compassion, “I just wanted to confirm that you did, in fact, strike Diederik Drake.”

“The guy Merrick was fighting with when we got back to the coffee house,” Gwen said, noticing the look of cluelessness Jaden knew he must have had upon hearing the name. “Did you hit him or did something else happen?”

Percival stopped clicking and looked up, eyebrows arched over the folder.

“Yeah,” Jaden said, “I hit him. Why?”

Percival and Gwen looked at each other with the same stunned expression, both of their eyebrows now stretching towards their hairlines.

“Curious,” Percival said, already hastily writing something on his clipboard. “Can you describe how you hit him, please?”

“Uh, I closed my fist and—”

“No, no,” Percival said, pausing in between scribbles, “how were you able to land a punch without him evading it, especially one with such force that it proved capable of knocking Diederik unconscious.”

Huh? Everything had happened so fast. There was never any intent or master plan. He just reacted as quick as he could.

Gwen scooted closer to Jaden, gently laying her cool hands on his forearm.

“It’s strange, I know,” she said, “but any specific information you can remember would be invaluable to us in the future.”

He tried to think of an answer other than, ‘Well, I just hit him,” or some other response dripping with either confusion or veiled sarcasm. The task proved quite challenging as Jaden was beginning to feel frustrated by not understanding what was going on or why everyone seemed to take such an interest in his actions. But he could tell that both Gwen and Percival had asked out of all seriousness and sincerity, which took some of the ridiculousness out of their request.

“Well,” he said, weighing each word the best he could, “Diederik was trying to hit Merrick on the head with that lamp post that Merrick had somehow ripped out of the ground. And Merrick had his back turned because he was checking on Gwen so I, I mean, I just jumped up, clenched both my fists together like a club and swung as hard as I could.”

Jaden mimicked the movement and a deep, sharp ache forced him to stop. He gingerly ran his fingers over the large purple and blue bruises and dark red cuts covering his hands. He’d have to remember to ask Percival how hitting a person’s face could do so much damage to the person doing the hitting.

“So I hit him on the chin before he was able to do anything to Merrick.”

Percival scribbled a fury of sentences into the manila folder, his forehead etched with wrinkles of focused contemplation.

Gwen shook her head, her face blank. “Wow.”

They acted like Jaden had just revealed to them the meaning of life.

“Am I missing something?” he said.

Percival’s pen scratched the paper in quick strokes, as if he was in a world of his own, a trance of thought and postulation. It was odd, but Jaden could almost swear that he could almost detect Percival’s awestruck excitement at this news and what it might mean, as if his sensation of ecstatic surprise was somehow tangible.

“You’re not missing anything,” Gwen said, “well, kind of. You see no one, not even Merrick, has ever been able to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Actually hurt Diederik before.”

“Let alone render him unconscious,” Percival said in the midst of turning the page over and continuing to write. Jaden began to feel self-conscious that all of Percival’s notes were going into a folder that had Jaden Montgomery Scott as a title.

“But,” Jaden said, “I saw Merrick landing what seemed like two-ton haymakers on him. The guy flew back hundreds of yards. I’m pretty sure he felt those.”

“And yet Diederik still kept coming,” Gwen said, “didn’t he?”

Jaden tried to respond but the words caught in his throat. He hadn’t thought of it that way. But still, just because they had never seen someone hurt this Diederik guy, doesn’t mean it’s never happened.

“Then I must have just caught him off guard or got lucky,” Jaden said. “But it definitely felt like I had hit a concrete wall. Hence the battered hands I guess.”

“Indeed,” Percival said, “but that does not lessen what you did in the least bit, now does it? In fact, I would say it further reveals just how extraordinary it actually was.” Percival emphatically finished a last notation in the folder and returned his pen to his shirt pocket. “Well Jaden, it was a pleasure to meet you and I’d shake your hand but, well, I can’t go and do that and keep my Hippocratic oath, now can I?”

Percival chuckled in his high pitched cackle again and Jaden couldn’t help himself but laugh a little as well. Jaden liked Percival, he seemed flawed and wonderfully—normal.

“Well, Jaden, I’ll leave you in Gwen’s capable hands.” Percival closed the clipboard and tucked the metallic case under his right arm. “I simply can’t wait for your report on him, Gwen.”

Perhaps Jaden had spoken too soon about Percival being normal. Report?

Percival smiled and nodded at Jaden, gazing at his knuckles one last time before muttering, “just fascinating,” under his breath.

Gwen seemed to be avoiding Jaden’s glances after Percival said the word “report” and Jaden couldn’t understand how it was possible for him to have even more questions than answers now.

“But what about those other people, Gwen?” Jaden said, “What happened?”

“Um, Percival, he’s good to go?”

“Yes,” Percival said, heading for the large door, “just give me a second to put his file away and I’ll accompany you two to the hall.”

“Okay,” she said.

Percival inserted Jaden’s paper work into the metallic filing cabinet against the wall and turned back, heading for the other side of Jaden’s bed.

Jaden wondered where they would be taking him but was too excited to get out of that bed to say anything. He made a concerted effort to ease off of the bed himself without using his hands but he underestimated how weak his legs had become and how cloudy his head still was. He slid off the side of the bed and barely managed to catch himself on the edge, his ribs stinging with a fresh stab of pain, before Gwen and Percival steadied him.

“Whoa, easy there,” Percival said.

“I’m fine, just a little woozy.”

And embarrassed.

Gwen and Percival stood on both sides of him. He took a few short steps, adjusting his balance to his weakened gait and dual escorts. Percival opened the thick wooden door, revealing a long stone corridor before them. Gwen went through it first, Jaden second and Percival trailing.

“I don’t really remember all that much, Jaden,” Gwen said, slowly easing Jaden up the walkway with Percival’s help on Jaden’s other side, “but this is what happened as best as I can tell you. Once Merrick brought both of us to the car after you were knocked unconscious, everything felt all right. I didn’t feel like we were being followed and Merrick made sure to take different routes while driving here.”

Merrick had carried him? Jaden would have expected Merrick to drag people before he would ever carry them.

Gwen stayed glued to Jaden’s left and Percival kept his hand on Jaden’s right shoulder. He felt like a toddler taking his first steps with two overprotective parents. Though after almost falling flat on his face, he couldn’t help but appreciate their caution.

“But why drive? If Merrick could carry both of us while running really fast, I mean, I saw what he could do,” Jaden said, “then—”

“It would have been a bad idea,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Percival said, “Merrick is extremely talented with the physical ability, which means that his body has adapted to traveling at high speeds and the forces and strains he can place upon it. You and Gwen on the other hand, well, let’s just say that there’s a reason why aithêrs without the physical talent typically don’t ever get carried or transported by the ones who do.”

“I see,” Jaden said, feigning understanding and wondering if he had heard Percival misspeak since aithêr didn’t even sound like a real word.

A long stone tunnel stretched out before him when they got around a small bend a few feet from the medical ward’s door. They were walking inside of what appeared to be an intricate system of interconnected caverns. The medical ward had clearly been built at the end of a long hallway of rock that opened up into a small dome. Even though the walkway was no more than six feet wide and maybe eight feet high, the corridor did not feel cramped. On the contrary, it exuded an atmosphere of spaciousness and comfort. Elegant rugs lined the walkway’s floor and bronzed archaic lamps hung on both sides of the stone hallway about every ten feet. Despite the surprising touches that made the stone walkway resemble a luxurious hallway, the path was on a significant incline and Jaden had to focus not to stumble.

“How much do you remember about being in the car?” Gwen said.

“Not a lot. Though I remember that bright overhead light really well.”

Gwen smiled and for a split second, she seemed like her old self again.

“But I still don’t understand who those people were outside of the coffee shop, Gwen? And why they would want to kill me?” The air seemed thin around him with each step up the stone hallway as the steep walkway finally leveled off.

Silence.

Gwen looked at her feet again and Percival’s wide hazel eyes were amplified by his round glasses. She did not answer him and Jaden knew that as long as Percival was around, she never would. So he dropped it, but not before wondering what could be so bad that she would want to talk to him alone about it.

They reached the end of the tunnel, the corridor opening up into a vast room. Jaden looked up to see the stone ceiling climb dramatically, at least twenty feet high in the middle of the large room. Various other offshoots and pathways led in and out of this domed cavern, the diameter of which was easily fifty feet in all directions. This appeared to be the major hub of the cavern’s connecting pathways and he could hear the distant echoes of conversation out of a corridor to his left.

He didn’t know why, but the chatter of voices lifted his spirits. Long shadows fell on the ground and moved inside one of the sloping walkways across the room to his right. He took a couple steps while looking at the ceiling.

“Hold on a moment,” Gwen said, stopping before they entered into the large room.

Jaden followed her gaze and the distant outline of people sitting around a large table in the middle of the room caught his eye. There was no way he wanted their first sight of him to be one where he was being chaperoned like a weak toddler into the room.

“I can stand without you guys,” Jaden said squinting from the pain of trying to hold himself up, “I’m better now.”

“Are you sure?” Gwen said.

Jaden nodded, taking a few short steps to prove his point no matter how much his ribs burned and his legs ached in protest.

“I’m going to go on ahead,” Percival said, smiling and patting Jaden on the shoulder gingerly, “I’ll give you a moment to collect your thoughts.”

Gwen nodded to Percival, who turned and walked towards the distant table. She took a deep breath and Jaden almost thought that he could feel a tangible sense of sadness within her, a mixture of melancholy and longing but didn’t say anything.

“This is where it all starts,” she said, facing him with her back to the table, “just remember that were here to protect you, to help you. And that you’re not alone. And, know that I…”

She paused, taking Jaden’s purple and blue hands into her own slender and soft palms.

“That you what?” He tried to make his voice sound casual, instead of nervous and probably a little too eager.

“That I’m on your side,” she said, letting go of his hands. “I promise, the answers are coming. Just promise me that you won’t rush to judgment, Jaden. On anything.”

“I, okay.”

She led him to the middle of the vast room toward a large, octagonal wooden table. The sound of groaning chairs being turned echoed throughout the adjoining tunnels as Percival reached the table ahead of them and pulled out a large chair to sit down in.

Jaden.

Gwen’s voice echoed inside his mind when they were about thirty feet away from the table. Jaden looked towards her as they walked closer to the others.

They can’t hear me from here yet.

Jaden looked back at Gwen. Why couldn’t they hear her?

Because I don’t want them to.

Gwen smiled.

Jaden forced a smile back.

She was not scary. Nope. Not at all. He absolutely did not feel exposed or uncomfortable with the fact that she could still read his thoughts and stop others from hearing her own.

Gwen stifled a laugh, pretending it was a cough.

But if she was able to keep others from detecting her thoughts, why had he been able to sense her thoughts back at school if she hadn’t intended for him to?

That’s a good question.

He could not stop himself from thinking that this inability to keep his thoughts private would get old. And fast.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you to watch what you think about while we’re at the table with everyone else because others will be able to hear you. I’m not the only one with gifts.

Great. That didn’t complicate meeting new people or making introductions at all.

They approached the table of people and he noticed a dull black and rather large light fixture hanging all the way from the peak of the dome to a few feet above the table. The dark metal fixture had many arms branching out from the middle with a bright lamp at each end. The fixture looked like a darker and much larger version of the antique candelabra in his mother’s living room.

Or what was left of it.

He missed his mother, wondering how she was doing and if those shadowy people had gone after her. Why would they though, if it was him that they were after?

The whole room seemed to stretch on forever the further they walked into it. He felt small underneath the grand light fixture and the closer he got to the table the more the bulbs illuminated the center of the room, revealing Percival and five strangers sitting in scuffed chairs, some made of tan leather and others made of a dark wood with scarlet cushions. The table was longer in the middle than a true octagon, with bright striations of richly colored wood interweaving throughout.

Gwen walked him to a large leather chair at one of the narrow ends of the octagonal table.

A broad-shouldered and burly man on Gwen’s left stood up. He had short wavy brown hair, dark brown eyes and a patch of facial hair just below his bottom lip. He must have been eight or nine years older than Jaden. And he was huge, his shoulders a good six inches above the top of anyone else’s head. He looked like he could snap Merrick in half if he wanted to as he towered over the table, his head even with the light fixture. On his right wrist was a black reflective gauntlet which looked to be made of stone, perhaps onyx, with a gleaming orange stone beaming out of the middle.

Jaden puffed his chest out.

The man pushed his tree-trunk sized arms across the table towards Jaden, who winced at the thought of a handshake.

“Look at you. There’s no denying that you’re Jude’s boy. I’m Nolan. It’s good to see you’re all right after all this time.”

Did this guy really know his father? How would that be possible?

“Nice to meet you,” Jaden said, reluctantly reaching out his battered hand, confident that Nolan could break his arm off if he wanted to.

“Solid bruising,” Nolan said, eyeing Jaden’s knuckles, “you just can’t help but be impressed with that.”

Jaden’s hand disappeared inside of Nolan’s football sized palm and Jaden flinched in anticipation but before he knew it Nolan was no longer shaking his hand.

He gave Jaden a big toothy grin and nodded a salutation to Gwen and Percival before narrowly missing the light fixture while looking back for his chair. Nolan sat down, the wooden chair supporting his tremendous size creaked and whined in protest.

Jaden looked around at the others while sitting down, Gwen on his left.

A sandy-blonde haired man to his immediate right would not stop staring at him, the man’s dark, almost navy blue colored eyes wide with what looked like astonishment as Jaden smiled uncomfortably at him.

“H-hi, I’m Rufus, Rufus Rowan. It’s good to have you here,” he said. He fidgeted with a topaz colored stone in the middle of his gray leather wrist band that looked more like a watch than the Nolan’s.

What was with all the shiny rocks and wristbands?

“Thanks, Rufus,” he said.

“So you feeling a little nervous, yet?” Rufus said with a grin.

And now everyone was looking at Jaden.

“More and more every minute,” he said, his voice cracking midway. Of course that would happen. “But luckily it’s not showing,” he said.

They all smiled.

“We all were nervous, don’t worry about it,” Rufus said.

“I don’t think I was ever that anxious,” said a thin but muscular man beside Nolan. Nolan nudged him, nearly knocking the slender man out of his chair.

“What?” he said with an animated movement of his hands. He had mocha-colored eyes and dark brown skin and he moved with an odd fluidity.

“You were anxious, Synjin,” Nolan said to the slender Synjin, “plenty anxious. In fact I seem to remember you having to race to the bathroom to throw—.”

“Whoa, whoa! I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Synjin said with a pearly smile to Nolan before turning to Jaden, “hey man, what’s up? I’m Synjin. And seriously, I don’t know what Nolan’s talking about.”

Jaden nodded back, smiling at Synjin’s feigned attempt at deflecting a clearly sore story.

“See, nothing to worry about,” Percival whispered to Jaden from his right, “just think of this as an extended introduction, for all of us.”

Jaden smiled, happy to be sitting between Gwen and Percival and forced himself to look around the table. Synjin reclined in his leather chair, putting his hands behind his head when a bright red stone caught the light, drawing Jaden’s attention to a tan colored, leather gauntlet on Synjin’s left wrist.

Two large clangs rang out throughout the room causing Jaden to jump. Synjin stifled a laugh and Jaden turned to see a dark shadow near a shiny bell hurry three other people out of one of the connecting tunnels.

“I guess Merrick wanted everyone here a little faster, huh?” Synjin said.

“Seems that way,” Nolan said.

An icy eyed man with short black hair suddenly stood behind Synjin’s reclining chair with his arms folded. How long had he been there?

“Hey, now,” Synjin said, “Fitzroy, you’ve got to stop doing that stuff. You’re going to scare one of us half-to-death one of these days, just sneaking up and spooking us all the time.”

The steely-eyed Fitzroy took his seat on the other side of Synjin, watching Jaden. Fitzroy was probably a few inches taller and broader than Jaden and carried himself as though he could do serious damage to you if he wanted to, but it was the large scar across the side of the his head, running from his temple to his jawline, that unnerved Jaden the most.

“Well if you kept your guard up at all times, like you should, that wouldn’t be an issue now would it?” Fitzroy said.

He must just be a bundle of fun.

Gwen shot Jaden a look and Fitzroy’s jaw clenched but Merrick suddenly appeared at the other end of the table before Jaden could figure out why Gwen would glare at him like that.

Merrick cleared his throat while Fitzroy’s icy glare was fixated on Jaden.

“All right, we’re just about all here,” Merrick said, eyeing the very same tunnel he had just made the hurrying motion to. Within a few moments two young women walked into the light of the chandelier fixture and sat beside Rufus. The first one was very short and a little heavyset with fiery red hair; her vivid green eyes were somewhat magnified behind thick glasses. She gave a quick wave to everyone and took her seat, her chin down and eyes on the table.

The second woman had very light blue eyes, almost colorless, and richly brown hair. She had well defined muscles and a lean athletic build. She sat next to the redhead and drank out of a bottle of water, catching her breath in between gulps.

“Sorry, I was just finishing up some boxing when I heard the call,” said the light eyed woman with an unexpected British accent. “Alexa and Fitz designed a new training regimen for me that’s absolutely brilliant. Isn’t that right, Alexa?”

The red head smiled and nodded, looking up at Jaden, mouthing a ‘hi.’ She had a beautiful violet orb and petite white gauntlet on her left wrist.

He mouthed a hello back.

“Good,” Merrick said, “Alexa and Aurelie round out everyone who could be here, Raeburn and Juliana being out on assignment to safeguard Jaden’s mother.”

Jaden wanted to ask about his mom but kept quiet. He looked for what color stone the light eyed, athletic Aurelie had in her gauntlet but the water bottle kept blocking her wrist from his view. Her forehead did seem to be glistening quite a bit from the sweat she probably worked up exercising and her ponytail looked a bit ragged.

She must be the tomboy of the group.

Excuse me?

He looked over to see Aurelie glaring at him, a British accent still echoing inside his mind.

Oh, no.

He turned to Gwen who was shaking her head in disbelief. Surely Aurelie wasn’t one of the ones who could read his thoughts. But even so, it’s not like he thought that Aurelie was gross or that tomboys weren’t attractive. Aurelie was very attractive.

“What?” Aurelie said.

“Shoot,” he said, “You heard that, too? Awesome. Well, I didn’t mean to imply that a tomboy can’t be attractive. I’d love to date a tomboy. I mean, you’re really pretty right now, even though you obviously didn’t try to clean up or look good so—”

Why was he still talking?

“Wow, it’s like a train wreck,” Synjin said, a look of astonished glee on his face.

Aurelie glared at Jaden.

“I, I didn’t mean it like that,” Jaden said, “You’d be pretty with or without makeup, even if you are a tomboy. I mean, I just assumed—”

Merrick loudly cleared his throat.

Jaden shut-up.

Did he actually just tell Aurelie she was pretty—and he wanted to date tomboys?

What a disaster.

Aurelie didn’t look at Jaden for the rest of the meeting, at least that’s what Jaden assumed since he was unable to even glance in her direction. He was certain that he could not have made a worse first impression.

With the embarrassment still fresh, he decided to hold every thought of his captive from then on out, deliberately closing-off his ideas and mind to anyone else. He visualized his head as an iron safe, which he shut. And then locked.

Twice.

No one was getting inside his head again.

Merrick stood at the other end of the table. Everyone looked away from Jaden, eventually, and many moments later everyone’s focus shifted back onto Merrick.

“Now then,” Merrick said, his scruff beard seeming a bit thicker and scragglier, “as you all already know, this is Jaden Scott.”

Jaden felt like he was on display as all eyes turned to him.

“Jaden, you’ve met Percival,” Merrick said, “and you’re familiar with Gwen and myself, so let’s just get the formalities out of the way as fast as we can. Starting from your left and moving around the table is Nolan Norwood, Synjin Slade and Fitzroy Fletcher.”

Merrick paused, the left corner of his mouth rising up when he pointed to Aurelie.

“This is Aurelie Windsor.”

Jaden mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ but refused to look up to see if Aurelie had seen it.

“Beside her is Alexa Mallory and then Rufus Rowan. As I said earlier, those two empty chairs represent Raeburn and Juliana, who’ll be returning soon from their safeguard assignment at your mother’s house.”

“So my mom’s okay?”

“According to their latest update, there has been no activity around your mother’s house at all,” Merrick said. “But Raeburn and Juliana will spend some more time there before the situation is considered an all-clear.” Merrick sat down, shifting for a few moments in his chair before continuing. “Before we discuss anything else I need to let each of you know that Jaden’s escape was very difficult, due in large part because of the sheer number of the Legion that had been sent to kill him.”

Kill him. Merrick’s brutal words seemed to repeat inside Jaden’s head. Somehow hearing someone else say it made everything much more real and terrifying.

No one around the table said anything for a few seconds.

“You mean that an abnormal portion of the Legion were there?” Fitzroy said. “Not just the Killing Squad?”

“That’s right, Fitz,” Merrick said, “I wanted to wait to share all of this with you until now so that Jaden could be here with us because, due to the nature of his extraction, we were unable to tell him anything.”

Wide, stunned eyes looked from Merrick back to Jaden.

“He doesn’t know anything?” Nolan said, “do you really think then that—”

“I really do, Nolan,” Merrick said.

“And you’re positive that he is one of us?” Aurelie said. “I know how closely he’s been monitored but what if it’s there’s been a mistake?”

Jaden shifted uncomfortably. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what she meant when she said that he had been closely monitored but Jaden was done being in the dark. It was time for him to say something.

But before he could say anything Merrick spoke first.

“Gwen and I aren’t entirely sure of what happened back there,” Merrick said, “but I am certain, beyond any doubt, that the moment Kendrick and the Legion sensed Jaden’s physical ability, they went above and beyond their normal behavior to kill him. They clearly didn’t want Jaden to escape their grasp and that leads me to believe something that so many of us have been wondering about for the last fifteen years.”

A collective drawing in of breath followed Merrick’s words, each person around the table leaning forward in anticipation. Jaden most of all.

“What Sarah Scott told us is true. What we’ve all heard about that night, about what happened fifteen years ago, really did happen. The behavior of Kendrick and the Legion, the almost panicked attempts to capture Jaden in a very public and open place, risking being seen or photographed. This is not the type of behavior we’ve ever seen from the Legion. And that’s why I believe that all of it, from what Jaden could do back there without any formal training to their flustered attempts to kill him, it all points to what we’ve all hoped was true: I believe Jaden did stop Lamont Kendrick fifteen years ago.”

Merrick’s amber eyes seemed to glow like a flame.

“I think he stopped the unstoppable.”