The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (18 page)

As if it were a voice in his own head,
someone spoke behind him.

“
You’re hesitant about
tonight.”

Colton turned to find Bernam standing
next to the podium. He had entered and crossed the room silently
and stood inspecting Colton with a steady gaze.

“
I am, yes.”

Bernam studied him a
moment longer and then walked to the window to look down at his
plane. “That’s understandable. You have only just begun the process
of defining yourself through your abilities. Ideally I would never
ask anyone so—pardon the term—
fresh
to accompany me on such a dangerous mission. But
I can see in your eyes that you want to be tested—that you long to
know the true depths of your power.”

“
I’m worried about Reece.
He’s acting really strange.”

Bernam nodded. “Jealousy toward our
kind is a very real problem. It is the reason we usually do not
tolerate outsiders. They invariably feel confusion and eventually
rage at their lack of abilities. They wonder why someone else was
chosen instead of them. It is a futile line of thought that can
sometimes have deadly consequences.”

“
So why is he still
here?”

“
We all have a part to
play, Colton. Even those without abilities can be
useful.”

“
What should I do about
him?”

“
I have already spoken to
Reece. I assured him that he is welcome to stay even if you do not.
He seemed much relieved.”

Colton frowned as he thought about the
situation. He watched one of the workers on the plane jump down off
the wing and walk into the building.

Bernam sighed. “You are still not
convinced. Alright, then. I will give you another reason to go with
us tonight.” He paused until Colton looked at him. “They have your
mother.”

The world sank away around Colton and
he was suddenly a small boy in his childhood home on the morning
his mother abandoned him. His father stood in the kitchen,
clutching her note in his hand until his chewed fingernails pierced
his palm and blood dripped over the paper and splatted onto the
tile floor.

His father had never let him read the
note.

“
Colton?” said
Bernam.

Reality snapped back and Colton was
standing in the conference room on the eleventh floor of a building
in the middle of the Montana desert.

“
My mother?” he said
weakly.

“
She was taken years ago,
when you were a boy. They promised her a cure for her ability—an
ability she was hoping that you did not inherit. They ran tests on
her, Colton. Painful tests. She is still alive, but she is locked
away deep within their secret facility under heavy
guard.”

“
Why won’t they let her
go?”

“
Because that’s what they
do, Colton. They take what they want and hurt whoever stands in
their way. We must draw them out into the open and follow them back
to their headquarters. Only then can we save your mother and
whoever else they are holding prisoner.”

Colton looked at Bernam. “Okay,” he
said. “I’m in.”

23

H
aven watched as the man named Dormer dropped a wrench he had
been holding and ran to the large door as yet another scream echoed
through the dome.

Next to the door was a
metal box as big as a refrigerator. Dormer pushed down a handle on
the front of the box and the side panels slid down to reveal a
compact block of machinery. He flipped a switch on the box and it
fired up like a car engine, shaking quickly on its base. Dormer put
his hands into the machinery and grabbed onto a thick metal pipe.
The machine’s loud rumbling turned to a slow, intermittent chugging
until finally the engine died and the box went silent. Dormer let
go of the pipe and walked over to the large door. He pressed a
sequence of buttons on a black wall panel and the door unlocked
with a loud, pneumatic
phoomp
and swung open.

“
I’m going to check on
them,” said Corva.

Elena nodded and rested her hand on
Haven’s shoulder. She gently guided her toward the opposite side of
the dome.

“
Not all of us are lucky
enough to have full control of our abilities,” she said.

Haven looked behind her as Corva went
through the doorway.

Elena sighed. “Sometimes we have to
take extra care of some of our own. It’s very sad.”

“
Are we really
underground?” asked Haven.

“
Oh, yes. We built this
facility decades ago as a safe-house for our kind. We saved a
bundle by not renting any equipment to dig the hole. It helps when
your friends work better than dynamite!” She giggled at her own
joke and her clear eyes twinkled as she relived an old memory. “We
have been safe here for a long time.”

She guided Haven around tables,
chairs, piles of machine parts, and stacks of paper, and steadily
toward a set of swinging double-doors that were cut into the wall
of the dome. As they walked, Elena explained the existence of
Sources and Conduits. She told Haven how one needs the other if
they are to fully realize their own potential—Unity—and how rarely
that synergy is achieved.

Elena pushed open the doors and led
Haven into the Grove.

It was like stepping out of a
warehouse and into a forest. Lush, green grass rolled over small
hills to the distant corners of the room. Haven vaguely remembered
it from when she had first arrived at the facility. A grid of trees
had been planted in the middle of the vast space, half of them
dead, half still blooming with green leaves and small, colorful
flowers. Blue pinpoints of light floated lazily amongst the
branches.

“
Do you play football?”
asked Elena.

“
I’m an all-star
quarterback,” said Haven, smiling weakly. Something about the trees
and the grass made her feel lighter and happier than she had felt
in a long time.

Elena laughed. “Very good.
You still have a sense of humor. Sometimes we lose that.” She
pointed to the far side of the room. “This space is roughly the
size of a football field, give or take a few yards. We come here to
relax, to think, and to heal.” She walked over to the nearest dead
tree and rested her hand on the blackened trunk. “This was mine,”
she said. “Not long after I first moved here, I was injured quite
badly in a car accident. A
car
accident
, of all things! I thought I was
going to die—and I would have, if not for this tree.”

Haven stepped closer to the trunk and
looked up at the bare branches above.

“
A Conduit can take life
from the tree and give it to someone else,” she said.

Elena nodded. “Not all Conduits—some
are more gifted than others.”

“
Like Dormer.”

“
Yes.”

“
Why trees?”

“
There is an enormous
amount of energy in living things,” said Elena. “This life essence
can be tapped and redirected to heal injuries. A Conduit can absorb
and redirect
any
kind of energy—but for healing, they must use something that
is, or was very recently, alive. Ancient trees harbor vast amounts
of this life energy, and it is why we use them to cure the most
severe injuries.”

“
But when you brought me
here I wasn’t dying.”

“
Oh, but you were. The men
at the medical center don’t like to operate on living specimens.
They keep a certain amount of prisoners alive for long-term
studies, but they much prefer a subject that won’t wake up in the
middle of the procedure and cause trouble. The drugs they injected
into your system would have killed you shortly after you arrived
here.”

“
What did they want from
me?”

“
To find out what makes
you the way you are. They believe that if they can uncover the root
of our abilities, they can dig it out and alter it to fit their
dark needs.”

Haven flipped over a fallen leaf with
the toe of her shoe. “In that case, thank you.”

Elena smiled. “You are very welcome.”
She walked past Haven and slowly sat in the grass at the top of a
small hill. The bones in her knees popped loudly as she stretched
out her legs in front of her. A small blue light floated to her,
touched the top of her head, then floated away.

Haven walked over and sat in the grass
beside her.

“
Do you like the lights?”
asked Elena. “I made them myself.”

A cluster of blue lights formed
directly over Haven’s head. They swarmed together and spun in the
air like a pinwheel before flying off in every direction. “They’re
beautiful,” she said. “What are they?”

“
Just a distraction. They
make me happy.”

Elena raised her arm and extended her
pointer finger toward the ceiling. A small ball of blue light
formed between the first two knuckles of her finger—exactly like
the blue light that Haven had seen on her own hand in her
kitchen—and slowly moved to the tip of her fingernail.

Elena watched the light, turning her
finger to the side as it hovered at the edge of her fingernail.
With a gentle blow from her mouth, the light floated up into the
air and joined the others in the trees.

“
Is my brother still
alive?” asked Haven.

Elena’s smile faded and her arm slowly
lowered to her lap. “Yes. He is at the medical center where we
found you.”

Haven felt the threat of
tears well behind her eyes, but forced them back with anger. “Why
didn’t you save him? Why did you take
me
?”

“
We thought you
were
your brother. We
lack the resources to save everyone that is taken by Bernam and his
followers, so we must bide our time and strike when it is most
important.” She sighed. “Our numbers have been decreasing over the
past months. Some go out into the world and never return. I believe
they were either killed or captured by Bernam and taken to his
medical facility for testing. He’s searching for
something—something that he thinks he can only find in
us.”

“
Why take Noah? He’s just
a little boy.”

Elena hesitated for a
moment. “Your brother—” she said, then stopped. She seemed to be
searching for the right words. “I explained to you that there are
Sources and Conduits, and that some are more powerful than others.
On each side, there is one who is the
most
powerful. Others may be more
capable than these two individuals in only one area, such as
storage capacity for a Conduit or burst capabilities for a Source,
but the most powerful individuals on both sides more than make up
for these shortcomings by being masters of their remaining
abilities. More than any other of his or her kind, this person
wields a power so profoundly versatile, yet so completely
dangerous, that it eclipses all others in existence. If this person
is a Source, they are known as a Phoenix. The strongest Conduit is
called a Void.”

“
Which one is my
brother?”

“
Neither,” said
Elena.

Haven looked up as a blue light
floated over her head. It glowed brighter and split into two
lights, which swirled around each other as they quickly rose higher
in the air.

“
You’re a Phoenix,” she
said suddenly.

Elena nodded. She looked as if
admitting it caused her great pain.

“
I have never been able to
sense the existence of any of our kind,” she said, “until very
recently. It was an aspect of my ability that I was told would
manifest itself when the time came. I must admit that I had my
doubts. Now I know that those doubts were wrong.” She looked over
at Haven hesitantly. “Your brother is a hybrid. He possesses—or
rather, he
will
possess—the characteristics of both a Source and a Conduit.
He will be able to create his own energy and also to unleash it
without the need for a counterpart. This hybridization of our
abilities has only happened once before, and that person died
because they did not know how to control their unlimited potential.
It is the holy grail for Bernam, and it is why he has taken your
brother. If I, as a Phoenix, could sense the existence and location
of your brother, then it stands to reason that Bernam, as a Void,
could sense it as well. He wants to be a hybrid, and he will stop
at nothing until he achieves his goal.”

“
Oh, Noah,” whispered
Haven. A warm tear rolled down her cheek.

Elena reached over and wiped away the
tear. “There is still time,” she said. “Now that you are awake, you
can come with us to the medical center and help us rescue your
brother.”

Haven shook her head slowly in defeat.
“I don’t even know what’s happening to me.”

“
You will,” said Elena.
“In time.”

“
How much time is there?”
said Haven hotly. “What if he’s already dead?”

“
They still need him,
Haven, and as long as they still need him, he is safe. You must
hold on to that hope for as long as possible.”