Page 42 of Avelina

Ew, that’s a dumb name. “Okay,” I said, “but didn’t you say that I needed a combination of fragments to get it? How could they have suspected I would gain Conjuration when Seleca didn’t know about my Protection? My only other one is Connection.”

“And Absorption, like Seleca,” he responded.

I stopped in my tracks. So did Aaron. Ward almost ran into him but stopped in time, turning around to look at me.

“You didn’t know that?” he asked.

I shook my head, then looked at Aaron. “Will that help us?” I asked.

Aaron’s eyebrows squeezed together. “Yes, if it’s true.”

Ward shrugged. “Seleca said a person must have both greater Connection and Absorption at the time of death to acquire Conjuration. They can then be brought back with Protection, but the spirit of the one coming back has to decide to reenter their body. It can’t be forced unless a conjurer is standing by to push them back in like you did to me.” Ward’s face was neutral as he stated this, but his choice of words left me with the impression that he was conflicted about his own return.

“I’ve never heard of someone having both Absorption and Protection,” Aaron countered. “I thought that combination was impossible because those two fragments repel each other, but if it’s true, then you could possibly gain enough power to defy the Ministry.”

Aaron and I stared at each other for a moment, then he started walking again. Ward and I followed, but I refused to jog anymore. I wasn’t tired, just grumpy and sick of arranging myself around the needs of others. I fell behind and the men finally had to slow down to my pace, which gave me a feeling of vindictive satisfaction.

I dug a granola bar out of my pack as I walked, guessing that maybe I was hangry because Aaron’s attitude was starting to aggravate me. “Absorption is the one where you steal other people’s powers, right? How do you know I have that?” I asked with my mouth full.

“I heard Seleca talking about it with her,” he said.

“Eve?” I clarified, wondering why a supposed goddess would concern herself with me. One would think somebody that powerful could handle her own necromancy. Or Conjuration. Whatever. I sighed. This whole thing is so ridiculous. Eve isn’t a goddess. She’s probably just some schmuck behind a curtain, demanding we pay no attention. But if she’s no goddess, then how did she know which reservoirs I had?

“Yes. Eve,” Ward said. “Hey, do you have another one of those?” He motioned to the granola bar. I dug one out for him but paused for a second to wonder if he should be eating chocolate. Laughing at myself, I handed it over.

“You heard Eve talking about my reservoirs?” I asked.

Ward nodded. “After Seleca trapped me in the dog form, she kept me in a cage for a few days in her room while I went through the worst of the withdrawals.” He looked at me to confirm that I understood withdrawals occur when you stay transformed for too long. Satisfied, he continued. “I thought I would die, but it eventually went away. I heard Seleca get instructions from Eve, and then she took me to you. I was supposed to watch for signs of those two fragments and report on it when she came to me.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes as he spoke.

“She broke into the house every few months while you were sleeping,” he continued, “and then she would break into my mind and see what I had learned. It was never what she wanted. She commanded me to force you to absorb Conjuration by putting you in danger, but I wouldn’t do it, no matter what she did to me. She got more and more angry and would kick me so hard I thought I would die. But, as time went on, she lost interest and showed up less. She went a year without showing herself at one point. I hoped she’d forgotten about me.”

“But she came back,” I said.

Ward nodded. “When you went to college, she came for me with a new assignment.”

“Aaron,” I guessed. “She sent you to him. That’s why you disappeared.”

“Yes,” Ward said. “She figured out where he was hiding and that you were linked to him, so I was supposed to spy on you and find out how.”

“How did she know we were linked?” Aaron asked over his shoulder. I hadn’t known he was listening to our conversation.

“Your mother’s book,” I said, the pieces falling together. “Your mother wrote that I was meant to find you.” I looked at Aaron, a shadow of suspicion growing. He was dangerous and may have been one of the only people who’d ever thwarted the Ministry. “Seleca probably thought she could use me against you, but the book must have tricked her somehow because she didn’t know about my Protection. She said before leaving that she wanted to find your mother to complain.”

“She thought that, as soon as she got you here,” Ward continued, “she would wait to see what happened with you and Aaron, then try to take both of your reservoirs in one move. She didn’t know that you could protect not only yourself but him as well.” He smiled. “She must be livid,” he said. I smiled back at him, feeling smug.

“What did she mean when she said, ‘someone like you’ should be in a dog’s body?” I asked.

Ward didn’t answer for a minute, but then he stopped walking and turned those piercing amber eyes on me. “Because I’m like you,” he murmured.

I looked at him, trying to figure out what he meant. Then I got it. Ward was queer, like me. “Dog” must be the derogatory term they use here. “Oh, you mean you’re . . .”

He nodded, peeking over his shoulder at Aaron, who had continued walking without us. He looked down at the ground, his body tense. I took his posture to mean that he assumed Aaron would be homophobic. I hoped that wasn’t true, for both our sakes.

I stepped in close to him and whispered, “Exactly like me?”

He shook his head, indicating he was gay, not bisexual.

“I take it that’s not very well accepted around here,” I said.

---