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“You and Reese?” I confirmed.
He nodded.
“How did they know?” I asked curiously.
/> “The Agents measured the connection in our seals. I was the one who was most loyal and protective towards you. They knew I was your Aegis. Reese pulled towards you loving and affectionate, so it was determined he was your Paramour.”
“Oh,” I said, not convinced I would ever have feelings for the sandy haired boy from the lunch room, though I did blush when he smiled at me.
“All of the children’s parents knew and understood the importance behind who their child might be, and how important it would be for them to be hidden and protected if their child turned out to be The Locket,” he continued, moving quickly past Reese as a topic.
“So, how did they know it was me?” I questioned, still trying to piece it all together.
Brent told me how our kind got their abilities as they aged. We were strongest in adulthood. The Locket child would display one or more of the abilities around age four, lose them a short time later, and then gain them twice as strong in adulthood. He told me I was about four, and was riding in the car with my parents. We had passed a cemetery, and I was waving and saying hello to people. My parents had turned to me and then to the cemetery. It had been empty other than headstones and trees.
Remembering it very clearly, I was waving and saying ‘hello’. The people in the cemetery were warm and friendly. My dad had asked me who I was waving to. “The people,” I had told him.
I dreamed about it many times since then, passing cemeteries full of people, but in my dream the people were distraught. They waved and begged for my help. I woke often, restless with an internal need to help those people, but as reality had set in I knew it was a dream, and my anxiety went away. Recalling the people at my father’s funeral, and my curiosity with their distance, I knew now, they must have been apparitions.
Brent told me my mother had known immediately. “Your father hadn’t been so sure. He thought it was mere coincidence so they took you straight home to discuss it with an Agent, and it turned out they were both correct.”
“But how can that be? How can they have both been right?” I asked.
He continued explaining that all human children have some abilities. “They fade long before adulthood except for our kind. It’s not uncommon for a small child to see apparitions. This is why children have more nightmares than adults. The Agent determined that it wasn’t enough to say that you were The Locket child but they wanted to test it.”
Thinking about this for a moment, I racked my brain for something traumatic from my childhood that would trigger a memory.
“The dog?” I offered.
“Yes, very good Claire,” he said.
Fear flooded my mind but the details were still foggy.
“I remember being in the woods chased by a dog. I was terrified. I recall when the ordeal started and when it was over, but nothing in-between. My mom swept me up in her arms and we left Northfield that night,” I informed him.
“I will never forget it. I felt every bit of terror you did. It didn’t last long but I begged my parents to make it stop. My mother held me and rubbed my back promising it would be okay,” Brent shared, looking distraught.
His revelation toiled with my emotions, as I thought about Brent as a small child, wrenching in pain all because of me. It didn’t seem fair. Remembering other times in my life when I was afraid, I pictured a brown-haired little Brent clinging to his mom, his blue eyes filling with tears. My heart ached for him.
“Last July must have been awful for you. I’m so sorry, Brent,” I said, remembering how much pain I experienced when my parents died. I hadn’t been alone in my struggle after all.
“Don’t, please. I learned to control the way it affects me. As I got older I accepted that it’s a gift, and that someday it would help me save you. When I felt you yesterday, the only thing I was afraid of was not making it to you in time.” He struggled to finish the sentence. My body stiffened with the memory.
Brent kept going telling me the Agent wanted to see how I would respond to fear.
“Your mother told him you were afraid of dogs. They took you into the woods and let the dog loose on you. They assured your parents if the dog made it to you, they would end the experiment. You weren’t in any real danger. Your father protested but your mother convinced him they needed to know. The dog charged after you and you ran screaming, but as the beast got closer, you turned and faced him. Just as you did at Maggie’s, yesterday, you created an encasement around your body, manipulating energy. The dog smashed against it and fell to the floor, yelping in pain from the impact. It was confirmed. You were The Locket child.”
Relief swept over me. My parents weren’t crazy after all. Their erratic behavior was all to conceal my identity, keeping me safe from this monster, Kace.
“Are you okay? Please don’t worry, Claire. This is all meant to be.”
“I’m not worried,” I lied. “Why would you think that?”
“You purse your lips to the side and put your head down whenever you’re worried,” Brent teased, easing the tension that had been clinging strongly to the air between us. I was thankful to him for the break in intense conversation.
“I do not!” I argued, knowing darn well that he was right. I pursed my lips again in an exaggerated fashion, and looked at him through a furrowed brow in a lame attempt at pouting.
A contagious smile curled at the corners of his beautiful mouth. He let a laugh roll of his lips and shook his head. “You’re hilarious, Blake.”
