Page 25 of Calling Quarters
Though Storie didn't fit into anything that had been drilled into our heads about Counters over the years. If she really were the entity I felt from before, why would she have saved me if she wanted me dead? Why would she have saved all of us? We were perfect targets at that moment.
Scattered thoughts bounced around my head, presenting themselves faster than I was able to comprehend. I was torn between following my gut or listening to a lifetime of warnings aimed against Counters from sources who have proven themselves untrustworthy. Our fathers want the same thing the Movement wants—for us to be burned so they could continue their reign as Quarters.
I decided I had to get out of my house and think. The energy here was constantly buzzing with chaos and aggression, just how my father liked it to keep everyone on their toes.
“The moment they get comfortable, you've lost all credibility,”he always said.
The close proximity to him didn't help.
I always found myself at the ocean when my head got like this. My feet carried me there when my mind was in too much of a flurry to focus. The waves calmed me in a way nothing else could, even when they were overwhelmed themselves.
No one else typically bothered coming to the black sandy shore, especially when the weather shifted and the breeze had a bite to it, scaring away the faint of heart. The only access to it was technically on private Wildes property. Sometimes, in the summer, the staff and their children would take advantage of the ocean's beauty and spend their time off swimming and playing on the beach. Outside of that, only the brave dared coming up here to swim in our waters, but we never punished them for it. After all, none of it would exist without their contributions to our wealth. Plus, I don't think I've witnessed my parents bother a glance at the ocean in years.
So, it was a surprise for me to find a single, petite black figure standing at the water's edge. Their focus was on the horizon, unaware that they now had an audience.
When a few moments passed and the figure hadn't moved, I closed the distance between us, pushing away the doubtful, cowardly thoughts that were trying to infiltrate my headspace. I could feel that it was her, and that terrified me more than I wanted to admit.
I was a Quarter. Nothing scared me. It was my job to protect people from the things that scaredthem. But this small girl had more power to destroy me than anything else in the world, and I had no idea if she was even aware of it.
When I took her into the woods, though I'd been on my best behavior, she had the nerve to act petrified of being alone with me. Didn't she realize how big of a threat she was to the future of the entire coven she was so greedily asking about? She had no business being on my property—then or now.
My nerves stopped me a couple of steps behind her, but I watched her shoulders tense as soon as she sensed my presence.
“It's real,” she muttered to the sea.
I swallowed my fear and loathing and walked up beside her. “Why are you here?”
“I thought I was hallucinating. Or maybe it could have been a weirdly vivid dream, I don't know. But it's not. It's real.” Storie had yet to turn in my direction. I was standing inches away at her side, completely facing her. But she continued to stare out into the distance.
“You were in my room.”
She shoved her hands into the pockets of her hoodie as her hooded head bobbed slowly.
Disbelievingly.
“Nothing about this place seems plausible. It goes against everything I've been taught in the real world. Every moment I spend here, I feel like I'm losing my mind even further.”
“Would that be so bad?”
She finally turned her face toward me and revealed the shimmer of tears running down her cheeks. “What?”
“It's only when you lose your mind that you can discover who you're truly meant to be.”
My mother had said that to me once, back before I'd taken in my gifts and we were closer. That felt like a lifetime ago. She was practically a stranger to me now.
“That… is exactly the kind of confusing thing I'd expect someone from Beacon Grove to say.”
I laughed, forgetting my reservations about her for a moment. She had a point. The waves sluggishly crept onto the shore, bringing me back down to Earth. “Why did you come here? To Beacon Grove?”
Storie's eyes roamed my features, bouncing back and forth as her scowl deepened. They looked pale and mauve against the blue and green landscape around us, and her reddened, raw lids only contributed to the ethereal effect of them.
“I thought I wanted answers. Now, I'm not so sure.”
Why would someone go through such great lengths to find answers about who they were? Did her family truly keep her in the dark? That seemed odd, given their reputation, which I'd shamelessly looked into after our time together in the woods.
The Graves were apparently a prideful and dangerous bunch. They'd never let their heroic tales remain hidden away and conveniently ensured all their faults were forgotten.
Unless there was a reason for it. Unless the information she was seeking couldn't be found in a simple online record search, or even at the local library.