Page 29 of Awakened Gifts

In an effort to deflect, I shift the subject. “Things seem tense between you and Uncle Brazen.”

Mom’s head drops back, and she groans while dropping to a chair. “He’s just… confused right now. He believed my love for Hale stemmed from our attraction as counters. That’s why he waited for me—which is something I told him not to do. He reconciled that decision by saying it was destiny versus us. I always loved Hale, and he knew that, but somewhere inside, he tried denying that just so he didn’t… I don’t know. It’s giving me a migraine.”

“He’s being unreasonable,” Simone says simply. “Aria isn’t like us—she’s not like anyone, really. He can’t hold his expectations that high.”

Mom smiles weakly, shaking her head at the scientist who seems to have lost her spark over the past few months. Simone has changed so much, and she always seems so distant and sad.

“I loved two men. I always said Hale was my counter and Brazen was my soul mate. I almost think fate did that on purpose.”

I don’t understand her pain, because I’ve never loved two men. I’ve only ever loved one, but two men love me. With tight lips, I look up at Simone, and a burdened sigh leaves me. I don’t want Kellan to be like Brazen, because there won’t be a happy ending in it for him.

“You have to help me. Kellan needs to find a way to detach himself from me, because I can’t attach myself to him. As you can see, men in love grow very desperate—like Fricks. And I’m not like Mom.”

Simone starts to speak, but a deeper voice startles us. “She may not have to help you,” Uncle Brazen says, coming close to me, but still not looking at Mom.

I never even heard him come in. How long has he been listening to our conversation?

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, let’s look at the facts. Simone says your results have faltered for the counter test. And honestly, Jase is probably a better fit both biologically and emotionally. The love shared is undeniable. And as Simone just said, we know very little about the true emergent hybrid.”

Crap. He heard a lot.

Mom squirms uncomfortably, but he doesn’t pay her any attention. “What are you trying to say?” I ask. “And how do you know about the counter tests?”

He offers Simone a sympathetic glance while sitting down beside me. “Well, since all of you seem to keep unloading on the poor girl like she’s your vent machine, Simone needed someone to talk to. Seems she’s taken the spot of Clay, only she has a lot more to deal with than he did because you all keep asking her to do a thousand things at once and berating her for the results.”

I haven’t berated her for any results, but I have a feeling Kellan has. I hate it when Uncle Brazen gets all paternal and sounds like he’s scolding me without actually scolding me.

“We need to set a list of priorities, and curing the infected is low on that list. Our priority is to the children.”

“What do you mean about Aria?” Mom prompts, and Uncle Brazen stands to go to her, cupping her chin and tilting her head back before pressing a gross kiss on her lips. Well, gross to me.

He leans away from her lips before turning to answer the question, but he’s answering it as though I asked it. “In all actuality, Jase is more compatible. You overheat easily, and he has the ability to cool you down—this proved especially helpful during the blood calling. Your blood is so different and so unique that even it grows curious—that goes for both of you. Your empathic abilities both strengthen and weaken you, but Jase understands because he’s reading your thoughts as you go along, and he gives you what you need when you need it the most. All in all, evolution wasn’t keeping up, so you subconsciously took it upon yourself to speed up the process. You’re turning Jase into your counter and you’re tearing yourself away from Kellan, slowly relieving the claim your blood has on him.”

Everyone stares at him in stunned silence. I… I don’t see how it can be true. It can’t be.

Simone drops to a chair when her legs give out, because she’s just as flabbergasted as I am. Her mouth even opens and closes several times when she tries to think of a way to rebut it, but it’s as though she’s calculating the facts.

“Holy shit,” she says on an exhaled breath. “I think you’re right. It only makes sense. But… how?”

“Aria is getting to choose her counter, and Jase doesn’t exactly seem to have a problem with it. Her blood is claiming him, and he’s allowing it without a fight. Kellan is resisting the detachment, but eventually, I think it’ll all be stripped away with painful abruption. The question is… what happens when she rewrites evolution? But it’s not a question we have time to answer right now.”

Simone drops back and then she grips her head. “Her empathic abilities,” she groans randomly, as though something just clicked, but I have no idea what. “That’s why I attacked Kellan and Jase like I did. If she has been slowly exchanging her counter, then her emotions have been in a wild tailspin. I’ve been emotionally vulnerable, especially with everyone else finding their counters while I longed for mine... It makes sense now. I became a receptacle for her empathic runoff.”

None of that makes a damn bit of sense to me, but for some reason, Simone looks like she’s just had the entire world lifted off her shoulders. Laughter bubbles out of her, and tears start streaming as she jumps up and almost tackles me in an embrace.

“I’m not just crazy,” she says, laughing and crying while hugging me closer.

I had no idea how completely fucked up she’s been lately until right this minute. I almost taste her emotions rolling out of her. Why is it she was feeling something from my empathic side, but I couldn’t feel all this misery inside her? Now that it’s almost bursting out of her, I feel it fleeing.

It’d be really damn awesome if at least one of my powers worked the way it’s supposed to.

I hug her back, smiling as her tears of relief drop to my shoulder. Mom and Uncle Brazen kiss like they’re making up, and my nose scrunches up in disgust.

“You should go talk to Jase. This has all…” Simone’s words trail off as she wipes her eyes and leans back. “He took your dea— Um… disappearance harder than anybody. Mel had to put him on suicide watch.”

My stomach roils after hearing that admission, and Uncle Brazen frowns.

---