Page 153 of Caelum

EVE

“It started before I was eleven.”

Six words, six damning words, but they were the truth, and having learned so much about our people, I knew that this, somehow, would be the most mind-blowing of everything I had to reveal.

If I was looking for a positive, I could say, hand on heart, that this was the last secret I had to share. There was nothing else I was holding back, nothing else I was afraid to reveal.

My final secret, one that was far more terrifying than any of my others, would flay me open for them.

Now they knew this?

I was in more danger than ever, while equally, being safer than ever before.

“How is that even possible?” Stefan demanded, his eyes wide and the crystalline blue irises sparkling a storm as he stared me down.

“You’re asking me? I don’t know,” I retorted, shrugging as I spoke because I wasn’t lying.

If anyone was the most in the dark here, it was technically me!

“That makes no sense,” Samuel stated, his tone cold. Not enough to freeze me, but enough to tell me his brain was ticking away. A thought that was confirmed when I shot him a look over my shoulder and saw he was staring at the wall like it held all the answers—it was kind of creepy.

“Perhaps not,” I told him stiffly, aggravated with him and Dre and how they always questioned me like I was making things up. “But it’s the truthnonetheless. Look, I didn’t ask for any of this, just like none of you did either.”

Stefan raised his hands in apology. “Sorry, Eve. Please, just explain.”

“There isn’t that much to say.” I reached up and rubbed my eyes, tiredness was hitting me hard because I was so exhausted from hiding. From holding back. I looked at Nestor, suddenly needing him to understand something, “Nestor, I have no other secrets.”

His eyes softened, the tension in his jaw fading somewhat as I urged him to believe me. “You promise?”

I nodded. “Promise.” After licking my lips, I whispered, “The second you use the words ‘I wish’ around me, it comes true. I don’t consciously choose to make it happen.”

“That can’t be possible,” Dre argued.

“It is.” My heart began to pound. “It isn’t like how they show it inAladdin.” They’d made me watch both movies, and I’d flinched every time Will Smith and Robin Williams had granted their wishes.

I’d wanted to scream that it didn’t work that way, but how could I?

I could grant wishes, and I didn’t know how it worked, just knew it wasn’t as easy as they made it look in the movies.

“What is it like, then?” Nestor asked.

“It’s specific, and it isn’t instantaneous.” I licked my lips. “Remember weeks ago, you wished forbrigadeiros…”

His eyes widened. “They were in the canteen the next day.”

“Yes. Exactly. They don’t just pop out of nowhere, it’s like when you wish for something around me, the universe wills it into being. It can take days or weeks. It’s never instant. At least, never in all the time I’ve experienced this. Back at the compound, people didn’t wish for much though. It just wasn’t done. Wishing wasn’t something that was accepted. We prayed for things and worked hard when we could to earn the little we wanted.” Not for the first time, I shrugged. “I’ve granted more wishes here than I have in years.”

“What else have you granted?”

My throat closed. “Dre wished to be better. For his knee not to hurt.”

Nestor cut the Were a look. “You told me when I was out of the sickbay that your knee wasn’t hurting…”

“And it isn’t. Because of the shift. You know we heal?—”

I licked my lips. “I’ve been wondering if the wish was behind that.”

Silence fell at my admission, and I ducked my head, shame washing through me. Was this the straw that would break the camel’s back?

---