Page 94 of Inception

“So, how does my sister factor into all this?” I asked when she was gone.

“I think I should let Tessa tell you that part herself. It isn’t my place to speak for her,” he said, pushing his untouched glass of water to the side.

“Okay, fair enough.” I took a mega bite of my burger and smiled as the flavor exploded on my tongue. “How about your father? Is he still around?” I asked through a mouthful of food.

His taut expression tightened. “He’s alive, however, he’s chosen not to be a part of our lives anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Jemma.” He regarded me as though I'd lost my mind. “Dominic and I are Revenants. The Huntington bloodline has ended because of us. We’ve disgraced our family—our lineage, our entire race. How could he not renounce us?”

“But the Council…you still work for them, and the Magister said you were one of their best—”

“That may very well be, but it doesn’t change what we are. I can still work for the Order, though I will never be anything more than a foot soldier to them, and I’m okay with that. Had this happened even a decade ago, I would not have been allowed to live, let alone step foot inside Temple, regardless of whether I was a danger to them or not.”

“What changed their minds?”

“I suppose the realization that Turned Anakim could be of use to them since our bloodlust can be controlled. We are strong, nearly indestructible, and most importantly,expendable. As long as we operate in the shadows and do as we’re told, we are permitted to exist.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Perhaps,” he agreed, though not wholeheartedly. “But I understand their reasoning. They don’t want other Anakim seeing this as an acceptable alternative though I don’t see how any Anakim worth their Mark would ever choose this. It’s a disgrace; the lowest form of existence.”

The hatred he felt for Revenants was palpable. He was raised to hate them, to hunt their breed and kill them without so much as a second thought, and now he was one of them. I could only imagine the mental anguish this caused him. My heart ached for him in ways I couldn’t even articulate.

“Here’s your coke,” said the waitress as she set it down in front of me and then sped off to answer a ringing phone. I barely noticed her that time.

“Well, I think he’s missing out,” I said, taking a sip of my drink. “Your father, that is. My life’s only gotten better since you came into it, and I can’t imagine anyone feeling differently about you. It’s his loss.”

Gabriel smiled back at me. It wasn’t a toothy grin by any stretch of the imagination, though for Gabriel’s standards, it might as well been a full Cheshire smile. And that was enough.

We chatted quietly for the rest of my meal, mostly keeping to lighter subject matters until it was time to pay the bill. I still had a lot of questions though for now I was satisfied in what I’d learnt. The most important thing was that I felt I could trust him again. Paradigms and Fated deaths would have to be revisited again some other day when my brain wasn’t completely fried and overloaded.

“By the way,” I said as we stood up from the table to leave, my curiosity getting the better of me. “How did you know you and Dominic were fated to die anyway?”

Gabriel paused. Something about the look on his face made me hesitant to stick around for the answer. “A Time Keeper,” he said finally. “From the future.”

27. EXCAVATION

The rain came down like liquid ash, dusting the world in its wet gossamer as I made my way into All Saints the next morning. Trace and Paula were already setting up and didn’t seem in the least bit fazed by the constant rainfall. I, on the other hand, couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen the sun and was growing increasingly vexed by it.

I’m sure it didn’t help that I hardly got any sleep last night. After Gabriel dropped me off, I’d spent the better part of the night tossing and turning, musing over the potential ways my sister factored into everything Gabriel had told me. I wanted to know her secrets; all of them.

I couldn’t help but think she was connected to the mysterious Time Keeper from the future. Whatever it was she was hiding, I wasn’t about to just let it go. This was more than a few skeletons in her closet. This was a bone yard’s worth of skeletons. A bone yard that I’d been dragged into on more than one occasion and I was determined to find out why, even if that meant I would have to unearth every last rickety bone myself.

By the time the lunch rush was over, I settled down at one of the back tables and busied myself with a list of all the possible people this mystery Keeper could be, though the names seemed to be few and far between. At the top of the list was Trace—the only Reaper I actually knew...

And then there was Linley.

For one, she was a trained Keeper, and Trace’s sister, so I knew she had the same abilities as he did, which meant she too could travel freely between space and time. Not to mention she was also the same age as my sister and could very well have been friends with her.

The more I thought about it, the more all signs pointed to Linley astheKeeper. But why did Gabriel say she was from the future? Had she traveled back in time to warn them about their impending death? And why? What was so special about Dominic and Gabriel’s death that she felt the need to save them, especially if our deaths are supposed to be fated—inevitable?

More importantly, I couldn’t help but wonder what this all meant for the rest of us, and for the loved ones we’d already lost. Loved ones like my father. Could they too be saved?

“Is there any particular reason why you’ve been staring at that wall for the last ten minutes?” interrupted Trace as he sat down in the banquet seat across from me.

“Is there any particular reason you’ve been watching me stare at it?” I countered, dodging his question as I tucked the list inside my book.

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