step forward. Why does he have to do that? I have to crane my neck back to look at him because he’s so much taller than me. “I’m just tired of seeing you get hurt. Why does it always have to be you?”
“Because I’m the prophecy girl, remember?” I give him a sad smile. He opens his mouth like he wants to say something else, but realizing that everyone is looking at us, he closes it again. Running his hand through his hair, he clears his throat and steps back. I feel the heat wash over my cheeks as I divert my gaze to the ground.
Speaking to no one, I say “I’m going to try and go into his mind, not just read his thoughts. That way I’ll see who he is working with and what exactly he was supposed to accomplish tonight. Claire do you think you can try to strengthen those enchantments you had up? The person he was with got away. We don’t need him attacking also.”
Claire nods and walks out of the room. I turn towards the unconscious man. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and focus on breaking through the barricade in his mind. Someone spent a lot of time putting it up, so no one could access his thoughts and memories. I feel my body swaying and a pair of arms wrap around me to keep me upright, but I don’t let it lessen my concentration. I search until I find a small crack in its exterior. I push all my energy into the crevice until it caves in, breaking down the mental barrier. The second the barrier ruptures, images and voices swarm around me.
I see him growing up. He hit his growth spurt before everyone else, so kids picked on him, because he looked different. He was beaten up at school. He came into his powers when he was nineteen. He could think of anywhere and travel there. I saw Dravin approach him one night telling him that he could be extraordinary if he joined him, which he did. He wanted to feel like he belonged somewhere.
Those images leave and are replaced with Dravin standing in front of a large crowd. “There’s a girl who will be born to non-magical parents who plans on killing us all. She’s ruthless and determined to put an end to us Gadramicks. She doesn’t think that we should work with humans and feels that we should remain hidden. We know that we are superior to those measly humans, but she wants to let them continue to rule. Find out who she is and bring her to me!”
Next, I see him walking stealthily through a dilapidated building. He is searching for someone with another man. Quietly walking up the stairs, he sees old pictures lining the walls—a family smiling in each one. Walking into a bedroom, he finds the family from the photographs. The man behind him rushes forward and stabs the father quickly. The woman and child start screaming at the violent act. He moves on and stabs the woman. “Larkin, grab the girl.” The girl is crying when he reaches for her, but doesn’t fight. She’s too weak. They go back to the compound and lock her up, thinking she was the girl from the prophecy. When they found out that she was just a human, they killed her.
He is sitting on the bed in a small room when he hears someone knock on the door. Opening it, he finds Thomas standing there. “We found her,” he says and walks away.
“They weren’t supposed to find her so soon.” Slamming the door, he walks into the middle of the room. Running his hand through his hair, he starts pacing and muttering under his breath. He walks over to the desk in the corner and knocks all of the books onto the floor. Angrily, he picks up a large stack of papers and throws them across the room, watching as the papers slowly float to the floor in disarray.
I see him walking down a long cemented hallway. He stops in front of a door with a frown on his face. He is standing outside the cell I was being kept in. I am lying unconscious on the ground with blood running down my face and nose from their last attempt to get information out of me. Thomas walks up beside him, smiling at his handiwork. “Is it necessary to torture her that much? She’s so small.”