Page 93 of Inception

“Will you tell me how it happened?”

He ran a hand over his face and nodded. I guess I finally wore him down enough to spill the goods.

“It happened four years ago,” he began, glancing out the window as though the pictures were replaying for him in the distance. “I came home after being out of town on assignment and found my brother entertaining Revenants in our living room. True Revenants, not Descendants like us.”

My eyes widened.

“Seeing them there in my home,invited, where my family lived...” I could see the fury settling in over him like an old familiar friend. “I did the only thing I knew how to do. What I’d always been trained to do. Ireacted.”

“Meaning you vanquished them?”

“Without question.” He glanced out the window again, his eyes sweeping the parking lot carefully. “Later when the dust settled, so to speak, I’d learnt that Dominic had been involved with one of the female Revenants from the coven,” he said turning back to me. “And that he fancied himself in love with her.”

“Are you saying Dominic was in love with a Revenant when he was still Anakim?” I had no idea why I was so surprised, this sounded exactly like something he would do.

He nodded, his expression undisturbed. “Dominic has always taken pleasure in breaking the rules. He’s always gravitated to the dark side but nothing like what he became after that day. It was as though something in him had switched off. He vowed revenge on me for what I’d done, though as it turned out there wouldn’t be much time for retribution since ironically, both Dominic and I were fated to die anyway. Or so we were told.”

“What you meanfatedto die?”

“On theParadigm,” he answered plainly. “The grand scheme of things—of all things. There is much we can manipulate in this world, things we can prevent or alter, though death is not one of them. It’s a Cardinal Law. If you’re ordained to die—if it’s your time to go—Death will come for you until the debt is paid and the balance is restored.”

I felt a prickling chill slide down my back. There was something about the way he described death, like it was a living breathing entity, and it made my skin crawl.

“Dominic, being the nonconformist that he was, refused to accept this fate and instead chose to spend every waking moment he had left looking for some kind of loophole—a way to cheat death. And indeed, he found it.”

“By Turning,” I realized aloud.

He tipped his head once. “You mustdiein order to become a Revenant, thus satisfying the Paradigm, which in turn left him free to reanimate without any consequences—cosmically speaking.” His moss-green eyes gleamed as he stared back at me from across the table. “And through that discovery, he’d also found the perfect way to make me pay for what I’d done. By turning me into the very thing I hated most. The thing I was raised to hunt and kill.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Hedid this to you? He’s the reason you’re a Revenant.”

“And I’ve had to carry that guilt with me ever since. For both of us. For my family.”

“Why would you feel guilty?” I asked, confused by his admission. “He’s the one who did this, not you.”

“Yes, but he did it because of me,” he said blinking slowly. “If I hadn’t vanquished them…if I would’ve heard him out first, found another way, none of this would have happened—”

“You don’t know that for sure,” I interrupted, shaking my head. “And besides, you can’t make people do things that aren’t already in them to do, Gabriel. You taught me that, remember?”

He looked up at me, his expression somewhat surprised.

The waitress returned to our table with my order and placed the plate down in front of me. “Bon Apetit.”

“Thank you.” I skimmed a French fry off the top.

“Have you changed your mind?” she smiled at Gabriel, wiping off the area in front of him with her dishrag. “A lot of people get an appetite after smelling the food.”

I tried not to laugh.

“No, I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Another glass of water maybe?”

He shook his head. She hadn’t noticed his glass was still full. Or that mine was almost empty.

“Could I get another coke?” I asked, shaking my glass.

“Sure thing. I’ll be right back with that.”

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