Blue Violet - By Abigail Owen Page 0,6

as a young girl – Artemis. In mythology, Artemis was the huntress. Ellie felt she was anything but a hunter. She’d never tried to find her kind before, let alone track them. She had no idea how to go about it.

“Ugh. High school again.” Griffin’s voice cut into her thoughts. “Are you absolutely sure about what you’re doing? It’s not too late to quit.”

The Svatura people, along with their powers, also inherited a gene that extended their lifetime. They were not immortal. Eventually they did die. But they lived much longer than regular humans. So while Ellie could currently pass as a student, she had actually been born in the late 1800’s and had been through high school several times. Her great-grandfathers had long had a rule that their tribe attempt to blend into society as much as possible. Once Ellie and Griffin had found themselves on their own, the rule still made sense for them.

By pretending to be in school, Ellie and Griffin could then stay in one place for longer, and interact in society more easily… without attracting undue attention. Possibly more given how young they looked. It also had an added benefit of protection. By appearing to be normal humans, they hoped that it would disguise them from others like them, and from their pursuers.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the worry written on her cautious sibling’s face. “You know I can’t do that, Griff. My dream--”

“Doesn’t mean anything. It was just a dream.”

Ellie tapped the spatula on the side of the pan and laid it on the counter. Turning to face her twin, she crossed her arms over her chest. “It was not just a dream, and you know it. I know that premonition is not one of our gifts. But that vision, or whatever you want to call it, somehow led me to the Jenners.”

“But why did you suddenly dream about them?” Griffin countered with his typical argument. “For all you know you are walking straight into a trap. Those people could be hunting us.”

“They’re Svatura, like us,” Ellie insisted. “How can you walk away from that? We’ve been alone for so long. Don’t you think it’s worth the risk just to know they exist?”

“The risk to us might be worth it… maybe. But you’re putting them at risk too.” He stood up, placing both hands flat on the countertop to emphasize the seriousness of his point.

Ellie looked down and then slowly turned back to finish cooking the sauce. “I know,” she acknowledged softly. “But I can’t help thinking that dream led me to them so that we could protect them…save them.”

“And if we did have to protect them? What if you morph into that monster inside you? What then? I’d have to protect your new family from you.”

“That won’t happen,” Ellie insisted. “I can keep from shifting into that form, you know that. Besides, I’d never hurt them.”

Ellie poured the sauce into a large bowl, picked up the cooked noodles, and headed to the dining room. Griffin remained silent while they served themselves.

“So now you’ve found them. Now we know they do exist. Time to go home,” he started back in on her.

“And where exactly is home?” She took a big bite of spaghetti.

“That’s not fair,” he muttered.

“It’s the truth, though. You know as well as I do that after our entire clan was decimated, we stayed in hiding for too long.”

“Because of the Vyusher!” Griffin slammed his fork down and yelled. “They will hunt us down and kill us if we’re not careful, and you know that! And deliberately seeking out our kind is not being careful. These people you dreamed about might be Vyusher for all we know.”

Ellie stopped eating, folded her hands in her lap, and silently regarded her twin for a moment. “Griffin, we were raised to be in a community. We were part of the Darane Svatura.” Pride practically pulsed off her in waves… evident in her posture, the tilt of her chin. “We were a part of the largest gathering of our people in existence, an extraordinary assembly of abilities in one single tribe. Hundreds strong—”

“And every single one is dead… except for us.” Bitterness laced Griffin’s words.

“—and much as I love you, I need a family again. I need to be able to share who and what I am with others like me. No matter the risk.”

Griffin remained silent for so long Ellie started to worry. In all of their arguments about this, she’d never told him