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I looked up at Bianca but didn't say a word.
"I have to say, this is a huge honor for me. I have been studying you and your family for many years now. I have also been looking into this forest of yours. It's quite the place, isn't it? One of the oldest sources of your magic. There is even talk that it might be the genesis of your people," she said.
She wasn't anything like I thought she would be. She looked like any other late twenty-something and if I hadn't been aware of who she was, she could have easily blended in with anyone on the street. Her dark hair had golden highlights woven through it. She wore something that you could typically see on any young woman; torn jeans, well-worn running shoes, and a loose shirt. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and I even saw diamond studs in her ears.
There were no remarkable tattoos or even anything that made her more than just generically pretty.
As long as you ignored the gun in her hand and the knife in her other hand and the cold glare that she pinned me with.
"I told my grandparents that Glenwood Lock was too much for Savannah, not for her first assignment. I encouraged them to send her somewhere back east, somewhere closer to us. But, I think they also knew how much she wanted to come here and meet all of you."
I wished that I had Lou’s wit or even Artie's remarkable ability to annoy people. But I didn't. What Eli and I were both blessed with was a calm silence. Sometimes that worked too. Sometimes it was enough to anger people and make them say more than they meant to in an effort to get a rise or reaction out of us.
I didn't expect that from Bianca. She was too well disciplined and believed more deeply in the Ascendancy than anyone I had heard of.
"I have a couple of questions to ask you. I'm sure you were expecting that."
I shrugged.
"But I have to ask, how did you know that Savannah would break? How did you get inside her head and make her doubt everything she had been taught since she was born?"
That was the question, wasn't it?
But, as far as I knew, I had nothing to do with it. Perhaps that was the Ascendancy's doing. Perhaps they raised her in isolation, relatively speaking, and she wanted the family unit more than she wanted anything else. She probably buried it deep inside of her, seeing it as a weakness. Being here, watching us, and having that magic seep into her brain for so long, would have broken her down. So it wasn't me. It was Glenwood Lock.
"I didn't do anything. In the time that your sister has been here, I've only spoken to her twice, very briefly. I didn't torture her or force ideas into her head. Whatever thoughts she is having, those are all her own," I said.
Bianca seemed to consider this for a moment and nodded. "She was always a bit clingy. She was fearless and would follow me into any kind of danger, but she was always more likely to sympathize with things like you than anyone else I have ever met. No matter. We have ways of breaking her down and remaking her," she said.
I didn't want to know what she meant by that.
"But that's all personal. Let's get onto business. Who did the magic choose? I have been buried in our files for the past couple of days. There hasn't been magic like this, registered on this kind of scale, and in a very long time. Can you guess how long?"
"A thousand years or so."
"So you do know what I'm talking about."
I shrugged. "I'm a guardian. It's in the job description."
Bianca rewarded me with a blinding smile. "See, that's something that you don't learn from the files on your family. How funny things like you can be."
I remained silent.
"So, seeing as it is your town, who did the magic choose?"
I kept my thoughts on Marcus and how he used to smile when we kissed. I thought of my parents and the time they threw me a surprise birthday party when I was seventeen. I thought of Eli when he first learned how to ride his bike and rode far away from me.
"I don't know."
Bianca nodded and stepped away. On the other side of the room now, she put her knife down. She wasn't the only one that had files on us. We had the same on her. I knew how much she loved to torture with knives and blades and sharp instruments of all kinds. I really didn't want her to pick up that blade again.
She checked the magazine in her gun, like she was unsure of it, pointed it at me, and shot.
It was pain beyond anything I had ever felt. Even my first shift had never felt like this and that was the first time I ever felt all of my bones break and remake themselves.
This had to be cinder but it didn't smell like the cinder we were used to. I fell over on my side and clutched my leg. I gasped and clenched my eyes shut and when I felt her move closer to me and crouch down near my head, I opened my eyes.
"We have a new recipe. The scientists even let me name this one. This isn’t cinder anymore, I named this one radiance. It won't kill you, so you can take some comfort in that. But, you are going to be very sick. And I've heard that if you do survive, you're likely to lose that limb. That's unfortunate, right? Have you ever heard of a three-legged alpha wolf? I haven't."
She patted my cheek affectionately.
I watched with blurry vision as she stood and retrieved her blade and left the room.
As she left, the lights went out.
I lay in the dark, with nothing but the pain to keep me company.