Rayne Stevens had to be the best boyfriend in existence, at least for me he was. He always seemed to know the right thing to say, right when I needed it the most. Sure, our relationship wasn’t perfect, and neither were either of us, but we always seemed to figure it out together.
After we had our talk, Rayne and I went downstairs to eat our dinner with Jax. I couldn’t believe how okay with everything Jax seemed to be. I thought he might feel awkward around Rayne and me, but he seemed to bounce back like a champion. He truly was an amazing friend. I only wished, for his sake, that more people in Banya could see him that way, instead of immortalizing him as some kind of demigod.
After dinner, I fell asleep again. I must have pushed myself to the very brink the night before with Voss because I was still exhausted.
When I woke the next morning, Jax said his goodbyes, leaving Rayne and I to have some time alone before we returned to Banya. At first Rayne wanted me to go back right away, but I reminded him that we had learned through my last session at the testing center that I didn’t heal any faster on Ambrosia than I did on Earth. For whatever reason, my healing abilities now worked completely independent of the Healing Water or the Sacred Pool. They seemed to have little to no effect on me.
Plus, I was in California, and I wasn’t ready to leave yet. Orion must have been busy taking care of Voss because he didn’t send anyone to check up on us. I had to take advantage of the situation while I could. As soon as I got back to Banya, Orion would probably put me under house arrest at the Academy. And even if he didn’t, the chances of me getting permission to come back to California again were minimal, at least until I graduated and became a Keeper. This would be my last chance to see my old home for at least four straight years.
After another good night’s rest, I finally had my strength back. Rayne was such a sweetheart. He had breakfast-in-bed waiting for me when I woke up. After we ate he even agreed that I should get in touch with Heather to make sure and see her before we had to leave. Heather already had plans with her family in the morning, so she wouldn’t be able to meet up until afternoon. That gave Rayne and I a good part of the day to spend together.
First and foremost I wanted to go home to Newport Beach. The closer we got to all of my old favorite places, the more the nostalgia set in. Even though it had been less than two months since I’d been away, the separation felt like an eternity.
We drove all around through Huntington and Newport Beach, reliving the moments from my past. Summertime was in full swing and the beaches were crowded with locals and tourists alike. I kept my window rolled down and took in the salty breeze. It brought back such feelings of comfort and familiarity.
I took it all in with a sense of peace. I missed this place so much; it was hard to remember why I left in the first place.
But deep down, I knew. I had an important purpose to fulfill.
I didn’t think about that now, though. Instead, I allowed the calm, California sunshine to wrap around me. Reminding myself how lucky I was to come back here at all.
There was one thing that wasn’t quite the same as we took in the familiar sites. To me, the sky in California was now purple, just like in Banya. When I asked Rayne what he saw, he explained that for him the sky had appeared blue after only a day back in California, as soon as the Healing Water had started to fade from his system. But for me, the California sky would probably never look blue again.
After driving by many of my favorite places, Rayne and I went back to our old street. Rayne’s house sat quiet and vacant, with the quaint white door still hidden behind a yard full of trees. My house looked quiet too. I knew that Rayne had stopped by a few times to pick up some of my belongings, but without my mother’s bright smile or me bounding in after a fun day with friends, the place seemed a little lonely.
“It feels different now,” I said to Rayne as he opened the front door.
The living room looked exactly as I remembered it, yet the feeling inside was so distant.
After wandering through the kitchen and the front rooms, I made my way back to my old bedroom. My hand drifted across my grandmother’s vanity table, remembering all the mornings I had spent there preparing for school. It felt like a lifetime in the past.
I lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, pondering how much my life had changed in such a short time. Rayne came beside me on the bed, leaning on his elbow to gaze at me. He didn’t say anything, but I knew he understood what I was feeling. He rested his hand on my stomach, gently tracing his fingertips across the fabric of my shirt.
“Do you miss it?” Rayne murmured quietly in my ear.
I turned my head toward him on the pillow. “Sure. Of course I do.”
He reached for a strand of my hair that had fallen on my cheek, brushing it softly away. “Do you regret leaving?” he asked sadly.
I rolled my body toward him. If I had stayed here, there was a good chance I would have lost him forever.
“Not even a little bit,” I said earnestly. “I love my memories, but my life is with you.” I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair. “You talk about this light you see in me, and at first I wasn’t sure I understood what you mean, but when I look at you now, I think I do understand. Rayne, I’ve literally seen inside your soul... and it is the most beautiful, radiant thing I have ever seen.”
Rayne didn’t say anything. He gazed at me softly and pulled me closer, as if words weren’t enough to express how he felt.
We rolled toward each other, arms reaching, longing, as we moved into an embrace. Our lips found each other gently, drinking in the tender kisses, until we melded into each other completely.
As our lips caressed each other softly, my mind floated to a higher place... a place where dreams and euphoria lived freely, where heartache didn’t exist. Rayne’s essence beamed from deep within, like a light so brilliant it overcame the sun. I felt my soul intertwine with his, and I knew that we were meant to be as one.
We stayed there holding each other even when the kisses were done. Sometimes, all I needed was to feel him next to me, to know that he was there no matter what.
It wasn’t long until it was time to go. Heather texted me after she was done hanging out with her family, and we agreed to meet at a restaurant nearby for lunch.
It was wonderful to spend time with Heather again. After lunch we went back to her place and stayed until late. At first she had dozens of questions about what it was like to have healing abilities—half of which I couldn’t even answer—but after a while we mostly ended up reminiscing and laughing about old times together.
It was hard to leave when night came, but I knew I couldn’t stay forever. Before we left, I vowed to stay in better contact with Heather through email, thinking that Rayne could probably pass through the border regularly and send Heather messages for me while I was at the Academy.
After we gave our hugs goodbye, Rayne and I drove back to the house by the border. Our plan was to stay there one more night and cross back into Banya the next morning. As I exited the car, I stopped and stared out at the view of Santa Monica. Right now it was dark, not quite as comforting as it was in the sunshine.
I was tempted to go back to Banya right now. It might be too hard to leave in the morning.
Rayne came around the back of the car where I was lingering and put his hand in mine. “Shall we?” he said.
I nodded quietly and let him lead me up to the house, brushing off the feeling.
When morning came, I woke up ready to focus on Banya. I knew it was time to go back and I didn’t want to dwell on the fact that we were leaving.
Luckily, Orion had left us the paperwork we needed to come back through the security bypass area at the border, so we didn’t have any problems passing through the Threshold. Rayne held my hand as we walked through the shimmery wall of light and emerged on the other side to exit through the Hall of Clocks.
For a split second, I felt a sense of peace and invigoration as we passed through. Even though I was sad to leave California behind, I knew in my heart that Banya was the place I needed to be.
The feelings of purpose were suddenly interrupted as a familiar, unwelcome face appeared to block our way.
Naples Dupree, the reporter I had recently met at an Academy party, barged toward us with a camera crew close at her heels.
It seemed like Rayne was taken by surprise just as much as I was. In all the time I’d been in Banya, passing back and forth through the Threshold to the testing center, never once did the media show up to question us on campus.
“Agent Stevens!” Naples called out forcefully. She ran up to greet us, shoving a microphone in Rayne’s face. Naples’ eyes jerked sideways to scrutinize me. “Agent Stevens, is this your girlfriend?” she questioned.
She paused a second but Rayne didn’t answer. Instead, he cradled his arm around me and urged me to follow him. Instantly, I wished I had listened to my instincts the night before when I wanted to come back to Banya early, when the Hall of Clocks would have been empty of people.
Naples followed us relentlessly, thrusting the microphone in my face. “At least tell us your name,” Naples urged. When I didn’t answer, she continued to throw out more questions. “What are the two of you doing across the Threshold border?” she pushed. “Is this woman an agent? Why haven’t we heard of her before?”
Rayne’s face was cold as stone. He didn’t reply to a single question.
Luckily, Rayne had driven us to the Hall of Clocks in his truck when we left for the mission, so we didn’t have to wait for the campus shuttle to arrive. We hurried outside to the parking lot.
Naples and her crew followed us every step of the way. “Agent Stevens,” Naples called again. “There are rumors flying around that the criminal Voss Hastings isn’t dead as the Council would have the people believe. Some say he was recently arrested and brought into custody. Have you heard anything about this? Weren’t you the agent supposedly responsible for Voss’s death just last year?”
Rayne pushed forward across the lot, continuing to ignore Naples’ questions. When we reached the truck he opened the door and quickly ushered me inside.
Rayne hurried around to the driver’s seat and started the engine.
“I thought they weren’t allowed on campus,” I said as Rayne drove quickly out of the parking lot.
“They’re not,” Rayne replied. He reached over to the glove box and pulled out his phone. He had one phone that worked on Earth and another he used here in Banya.
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
“I’m reporting her to the authorities. Naples has no right to question agents at the border.”
I nodded and sat quietly as Rayne made the call, remembering how just before we had left for the mission, Jax had to kick a nosy photographer off his property during one of my training sessions.
I hoped Rayne’s phone call would be enough to take care of the problem. The media was becoming more of an issue than I wanted to deal with. The last thing I wanted was to finally start classes at the Academy, only to be hounded day in and day out by a bunch of reporters, simply because I was Rayne Steven’s girlfriend.
What if they cornered me sometime when Rayne wasn’t with me? I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle it on my own. Then, an even worse thought came to mind... if anyone ever found out who I really was, that I was Hamlin Fairbank’s daughter and that I had been born on Earth, it would be a major catastrophe. The people could demand that I be kicked out of the Academy because I wasn’t born on Ambrosia.
Rayne watched his rearview mirror carefully as he talked on the phone, probably checking to see if we were being followed. I twisted in my seat to look over my shoulder several times, but as far as I could tell, no one was behind us. The last thing I wanted was for Naples Dupree to know where I lived.
“They’re sending a team to remove her from campus,” Rayne told me when he hung up the phone. He shook his head. “She shouldn’t have been able to get that far in the first place.”
Rayne glanced at his rearview mirror again. “At least they didn’t follow us,” he said, still sounding annoyed.
We pulled into the parking lot of my apartment building and hurried to the elevator to go upstairs. Five seconds after we walked in the door, Violette stormed out of her room in front of us.
“You will not believe what happened to me!” she complained.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Violette waved a paper in her hand angrily. “Well, let’s see...” she hissed. “I went to class this morning all ready to start my training at the Academy—the one thing I’ve been working for my entire life—and the teacher told me I wasn’t enrolled in his class.” Violette shook the paper again. “And then,” she went on, “I went to the office to figure out what happened to my schedule, and they told me I wasn’t registered at the Academy at all. They said I wasn’t even enrolled.”
“You’re not enrolled?” I repeated, confused.
Violette crumpled the paper in her fist and tossed it across the room. “Nope,” she said irritably. “I’m not enrolled there at all.”
I shook my head. “But... how is that possible? They sent you that letter of acceptance and everything.”
Violette grabbed at the sides of her face as if she was ready to tear her hair out. “I know,” she said with a frustrated groan. “It doesn’t even make sense.”
“It’s probably just a mix-up with the paperwork,” Rayne offered. “I’ll talk to someone for you. We’ll get it figured out.”
Violette continued to fume, pacing back and forth across the room. “It wasn’t a mix-up with the paperwork. I know what it was... it was him.”
“Who?” I questioned.
Violette didn’t answer, continuing to rant to herself. “He’s been telling me for months he didn’t want me to go. He probably blackmailed someone at the admissions office, or paid someone off to get them to tamper with the files.”
Rayne and I both stared at each other, confused.
Rayne grabbed his sister’s arm and forced her to the couch. “What are you talking about?” he urged.
“It was him,” Violette said. “It had to be. He sabotaged me.”
“Who?” Rayne asked. “Who would want to do something like that?”
Violette let out an angry sigh and closed her eyes. “I think it was Ash, okay? I think he purposely found a way to keep me from going to the Academy.”
Rayne squinted. “Ash? But... why would he want to do something like that?”
Violette pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “He’s been trying to talk me out of it for months. And you know him; he has a way of getting what he wants.”
Rayne looked dumbfounded. “That just doesn’t make sense. I really don’t think he would do something like that.”
Violette stood abruptly. “Just forget about it. I’ll figure something out.” Then, she stormed out the front door, slamming it behind her.
Rayne and I looked at each other, unsure what to say.
“Should we do something?” I finally asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Rayne said. “There has to be a mistake. I’ll talk to Ash and get this cleared up.”
Rayne got up from the couch. “Will you be okay here while I go make some calls?”
“Sure,” I said. “Go do what you need to do.”
I sat for a minute after Rayne left. Why would Ash want to keep Violette from going to the Academy? And if he did, how would Violette even know that he didn’t want her to go? Wasn’t he locked up at the Court of Ambassadors the last couple of months?
I was just starting to believe Ash was an okay guy, especially after realizing all he had been through with his father. Would he really do something so cruel to Violette? And what would be his motive if he did?
My thoughts started to wander as I sat there thinking. Classes didn’t start for me at the Academy for another month and a half. What was I going to do with myself in the meantime? Orion had made it pretty clear that I wasn’t allowed at the testing center anymore, and the last thing he had told me was that I would be grounded to campus until further notice.
The thought of being stuck here with nothing to do for the next six weeks sounded painful. What would I possibly do with all that free time? Would Orion at least let me continue training with Jax in the mornings? After all, Jax’s house was considered part of campus grounds.
It crossed my mind that maybe if I just didn’t say anything, I could keep going like I wanted to in hopes that Orion would let it slide. But then I remembered that before we left on the mission Orion promised me a trip to go visit my parents. If there was any chance that it was still possible, I would have no choice but to talk to Orion in order to make arrangements.
As much as I hated the idea, I realized I needed to talk to Orion immediately. I had no idea where I stood on any of these things.
I took out my phone and dialed the number to Orion’s office. His assistant, Tessa, answered politely.
“Hi, Tessa, this is Sadie James,” I said. “Is Councilman Bennett available by chance?”
“Oh, Sadie,” she replied, recognizing my name. “Let me check for you. Just a moment.”
I was on hold for several minutes before a familiar voice picked up the line.
“Ms. James,” Orion greeted. “I’m glad you called. I’ve been meaning to get in touch with you. I assume you and Agent Stevens made it back through the border without any problems?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“Good,” Orion said plainly. “Now we need to discuss what your current arrangements will be now that you’re back in Banya. I’ll be sending one of my men to your apartment shortly. You should be there when he arrives. Due to your irresponsible behaviors on our recent mission, an escort will be posted outside your door at all times. For the time being, you will be permitted to leave your apartment, but you will not be allowed to leave the campus grounds. Your escort will remain with you at all times.”
Apparently, Orion was still really mad at me. I was hoping his earlier threats to ground me were just said out of anger, but he was seriously not even going to let me leave campus. I wanted to protest. It didn’t seem fair, or even necessary. I could understand him wanting to keep watch on me back on Earth, to make sure I didn’t spill any secrets about Ambrosia, but now that I was back in Banya, what difference would it make if I left Academy grounds?
“You’re seriously going to ground me to campus?” I complained. “But all I did was visit a friend. And I didn’t tell her anything about Ambrosia. You can ask Rayne... he was with us the whole time.”
Orion’s tone remained firm. “Ms. James, you blatantly disobeyed orders. If you were an agent, the consequences would have been much worse.”
I groaned in response. “So, how long am I grounded?”
“That hasn’t been determined yet. We’ll discuss it again in a few weeks.”
“A few weeks?” I grumbled. I shook my head. “Well, now that I’ve figured out I have more abilities beyond healing, will we at least be doing some more experimenting at the testing center?”
“I’m afraid that’s out of the question,” Orion replied. “After your little stunt on the mission sneaking out, your rights to go to the testing center have been permanently relinquished.”
“But my locating abilities played an integral part in helping the team capture Voss,” I argued. “Doesn’t that count for something? Shouldn’t we at least explore what else I can do?”
Orion’s voice was cold. “Ms. James... how long did you know you had this ability to locate before you actually told me? As far as I can see, you went behind my back and worked with Ash on the mission without telling me anything about these new abilities.”
“I had just barely figured it out,” I insisted. “I was so unsure about it that I didn’t even think you would believe me.”
Orion paused. “Well, you should have told me sooner.”
Even through the phone, I could sense Orion’s demeanor. At first I was sure he wasn’t going to budge, but now there seemed to be a slight hesitation. I had to take advantage of it while I could.
“I’m sorry for disobeying orders,” I said, hoping to soften his heart. “It was poor judgement on my part. I know I still have a lot to learn. I should have told you I might have locating abilities as soon as I started trying to figure them out.”
“That’s very big of you to admit,” Orion said.
“I promise I’ll be better in the future,” I went on. “If any other changes come up with my abilities, you’ll definitely be the first to know.”
Orion’s tone softened. “Well, good. I appreciate that.”
I hesitated, hoping his calm would continue. “So, I know this might be a lot to ask,” I said, “but before we left on the mission, you mentioned that maybe I could go visit my parents.” I started to ramble, hoping to keep Orion from getting a chance to say no. “Your men could come and babysit me the whole time,” I assured him. “I promise I wouldn’t leave their sight for even a second. I wouldn’t talk to anyone else, or anything. I would just go straight to the meeting and then back to my apartment.”
I finally took a breath, just waiting to hear him disagree.
“Well, perhaps...” Orion began. There was a hint of possibility in his words.
“Please,” I cut in, “I’ll do whatever you want. I haven’t seen them in so long. And I’ll be bored sitting around campus all day... I’ll do anything to go see them.”
“I would have to check with the Council to see what they decided about letting you go,” Orion finally said. “But I suppose it’s still a possibility.”
“Really?” I squealed. “That would be so great. I promise I won’t break any rules ever again.”
Orion told me I would get a phone call from his assistant once a decision was made by the Council regarding a visit to see my parents. In the meantime, he reminded me to stay at my apartment until my escort showed up, and then Orion ended the call.
I sat on the couch with a huge grin. Things weren’t exactly perfect, but at least I had something to look forward to. There was a chance I would get to see my parents.