Page 63 of Echo Unbound

"None of my friends mentioned that. But they don't tell me everything about the journal."

Gabriel lifts his gaze to mine. "Why not? Don't they trust you?"

"Of course they do. But they also treat me like I'm a lost child they've taken in. I understand why, but sometimes, I wish they'd let me in on their deepest secrets."

"Does everyone else in Sanctuary know that stuff?"

"I don't think so. There are some secrets they won't share with anyone outside the inner circle—Dax, Allison, Grant, and Erin."

Gabriel holds the open book out to me. "But they gave you the journal. They mean that they do trust you. Maybe they just worried all this crazy stuff in the journal would scare you."

"That's probably true. I'm not a badass like Erin, or a fighter like Allison. Nobody taught me self-defense. Erin was going to teach me how to use a bow and arrow, but we didn't get around to that."

"Your friends think you're weak."

I start to object, but then shut my mouth. Do they treat me that way? Maybe a little. I don't blame them. They did find me on the beach, washed ashore like garbage, with no memory of anything before that moment. Of course they want to shield me from the worst truths. I've been coddled, kind of, but not anymore. Coming to the Echo has changed me.

Meeting Gabriel has changed me.

But am I strong enough to handle whatever comes next? I've never fought in a battle or stopped a mad man. But my friends wouldn't have given me the journal if they didn't believe Gabriel and I could handle the secrets hidden within it.

"You mentioned someplace called Fallenmouth," Gabriel says. "The cellar held boxes full of magics."

"That's right. Fallenmouth was the estate where Dax and Sefton grew up, and it became Sefton's home base once he enacted his insane plan."

Gabriel sets the journal on his lap. "The boxes were at Fallenmouth. They contained the magics that Sefton needed tostart the alchemical reaction, and apparently, to sustain it after the apocalypse got rolling."

"Yes. Does the journal talk about that?"

"Not in so many words. I read between the lines."

I glance down at the book. "The boxes are dead. That's what Erin and Grant said. They can't power anything anymore."

"Well, I guess that doesn't really matter. We're trying to figure out what the Brain does and why we need to power it up."

"Right. Let's get back to studying the journal."

We browse page after page but don't find anything of interest—until we reach a section of text near the end of the diary. Sefton mentions the Heart and the Lifeblood, two vital elements of the Echo. He believed the world he created from magics would not survive without a "pulsing heart" and "flowing blood," like any living thing must have.

"He cast an intense spell," Gabriel says, "to create those two elements and give them the power to keep the Echo alive. He had discovered a flaw in the alchemical reaction, which meant the new world he created would disintegrate in 'catastrophic fashion' unless he gave it the 'organs' it needed to survive."

"The spell he cast created the Heart and the Lifeblood."

"Exactly."

I chew on the inside of my lip as I stare at the journal and try to comprehend the scope of Sefton's master plan. He screwed it up, though, didn't he? The alchemy of worlds accidentally gave some humans magical abilities, what we call Echo power. That power let Allison stop the alchemy of worlds and destroy those boxes.

"Why didn't my friends know about this?" I ask, though I'm not expecting Gabriel to answer. I'm thinking out loud. "They had the journal for two months and studied it extensively."

"They clearly missed a few things."

"Did they? I wonder. I mean, we are talking about magic and transmutation." I lay my hand on the open journal. "What if the book is imbued with magics too? Maybe it can hide what it doesn't want anyone to see yet."

Gabriel scrunches up his face, like he wants to tell me that's crazy. But then he relaxes and sighs. "Who knows? Maybe you're right. That would explain why we found clues that nobody else noticed. And you did say you felt something strange when you closed your eyes while holding the book."

"Exactly. I think the journal protects its secrets until the right person comes along."

"You are the right person, Sarah."

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