Page 95 of Reap the Night
“But they weren’t wiped out,” Padma said. “Were they, Mr. Crescent?”
“No. Not all of them,” he said.
“And what is this gene?” Holly asked.
“There’s a virus on the island where the surviving witches reside. One that infects humans and manifests in witches when they turn twenty-five. They call it the surge, and some are able to subdue it, while others succumb to it.”
“Did this virus wipe out the witches?” Padma asked.
“Something like that,” Lorenzo said.
I held up my hand. “Slow down. Let me get this straight. My parents aren’t my biological family, and I have family on an isle where witches live?”
“Yes,” Lorenzo confirmed.
“And my family are immune to this virus?”
“There’s more to it, but all that matters is your blood holds a gene that has the potential to produce witch offspring who also have that immunity and don’t need to go through the surge.”
“Wait, I’m a witch?”
He closed his eyes briefly as if gathering his thoughts. “No. Orina, you’re not a witch. You’re from a powerful human bloodline who is immune to the virus. They run the witch hunter institutes on the isle. You have the ability to produce offspring with a super gene that can pass that immunity to some witches through procreating with a male witch.”
“So they want tobreedher?” Holly said.
My skin chilled. “No way.”
“We won’t allow it to come to that,” Lorenzo said, confirming Holly’s conclusion. “Holly and I will work on a serum to hide you from the hunters. They’ll be carrying bloodstones primed with the blood of the last seventh daughter to help locate you. We’ll need to work on a way to block them.”
Holly nodded. “I can do that. I can help.”
“The seventh daughter of a seventh daughter is highly prized because her firstborn always has a special ability.”
“What kind of ability?” Edwin asked.
“That is something that hasn’t been shared with the mageri high council.”
My head buzzed with all this information. I had a family, and they were looking for me, not because they loved me and missed me, but because they wanted to breed me like a fucking mare. The Order stole me, but maybe they’d been trying to protect me.
The bell above the door tinkled again, and I looked up, expecting to see Padma or Edwin returning with lunch, but a teenage boy wearing jeans and a puffy jacket stood there holding a small box. “Looking for an Orina?”
“That’s me.”
He held out the box. “He told me to give this to you.”
“Who?”
He shrugged. “Dunno. Some guy.”
I took the box.
“What did he look like?” Lorenzo asked.
The boy frowned then blinked sharply. “I…I don’t know.”
Goosebumps crawled up my arm as I set the box on the counter.
“Ezekiel, maybe?” Merry said. “He does like to send you stuff.”
