Dancingwas wonderful.
After that, nothing.
‘I’m just drunk,’ he says, which is a lie.‘Sorry.’
‘Why are you sorry?’
‘For passing out?’
‘It’s not a problem,’ Lachlan tells him honestly.Kade can’t imagine getting used to having someone care this much about him that it’s ingrained, instinctive, no flash, no novelty.
‘Why do you think I’m a Brightling?’
‘I don’t think it, Iknowit.’
‘Why?’
‘The last few months it was undeniable.The electronics, the storms, the rain.It was you from the start.That’s how you slipped free of tracking.’
‘So this kid was good with tech—’
‘No,I’mgood with tech,’ Lachlan corrects quickly.‘Jolene was good with tech.What you could do was something else.I researched it a lot.Had my people hack into government files.I read reports.Tests they’d been running since the sixties.It’s all real and it’swaymore than anyone knows.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘It’s not just Brightlings.There are others.’
Kade stares, something unsettling stirs within.‘Others?’
‘Your father knew it too,’ he adds, tone grim.‘Hence the lack of a pool.’
‘What?’
‘Are you feeling better now?’
‘Bodyguard.’
‘Yes or no?’
‘Obviously yes.Answer my question.’
‘You’re determined not to believe me anyway so what’s the point?’
‘I just…’ Kade scowls, shakes his head.‘It’s not like I don’t think they’re not real, I know they are.I just thinkit’snot real.It can’t be.’
‘Magic.’
‘I mean, yeah.It can’t be real.Think about Tesla discovering how to harness electricity when everyone else was still using lamplights.That would have seemed like magic, but it was just science.’
‘What about me?’
Kade looks away.His mind seeks to reject it, but no one who’s seen Lachlan heal could ever deny the truth.‘I don’t know.Does that mean that God’s real?’
‘Blaire used to say that God was water which makes more sense to me than a book of violent fairytales, but I don’t know.There has to be something.’
‘Why?’
‘Because why does life strive to continue?Why not just have efficient nothingness?Why do your cells try so hard?’
