chapter 1
“It’s not coming—there’s no way he’d move it back here after what happened last time,” he said, kicking at the sand. “Let’s go.”
Her hair was whipping around from the strong breeze coming off the ocean and she gathered it, pulling it into a bun at her neck. “He’s dying and he has no heir to take his position as the Overseer—he has no choice.”
He cut his eyes at her. “In nearly 250 years the Sanders family has never moved it to the same place twice. We’re wasting our time.”
“Remember, before they were trying to keep it hidden by moving it to a different place every year,” she said, “but Fate can’t afford to do that this time. He needs to make sure every Akori knows right where to find it.”
“Even if it does show up here, that still doesn’t get us any closer to getting the Overseer’s Stone, or figuring out how to get the power from it.”
She put her hand up at him. “One thing at a time—first we need Tremain. They said it’ll be here tonight. ”
“Yeah, based on information from someone who may or may not still be on our side.”
“Don’t let them hear you say that. A lot of planning and time went into getting to this point.” She raised her arm, pointing across the beach. “That guy over there’s been watching the same place we have all night. He was there when we got here earlier.”
“I noticed.” He squinted his eyes in the man’s direction. It was difficult to see through only moon light. “He doesn’t really look like he’s trying to hide it either.”
“Think he’s one of their people? Maybe they sent him ahead to make sure it was safe.”
“Not sure. Stay here, I’ll go check him—” He gasped and took a few steps forward. “Look!”
A faint blue glowing began swelling up from the ground in the empty beachfront lot ahead of them. They watched from behind the tall grass growing along the edge of the sand as an ancient looking estate took shape.
She walked up behind him and slipped her hands up his shoulders. “Let’s get out of here before one of their scouts spot us.”
As if she hadn’t even spoken, the man began walking quickly toward the twenty-foot tall stone walls surrounding the grounds of the estate. The woman reluctantly trailed behind him. She glanced toward the spot where the other man had been standing.
“C’mon, we need to report it’s here,” she said in a hushed voice. “And the guy who was watching is gone—he probably saw us.”
The man glanced at her quickly as he reached the corner of the wall. He pressed his hand flat against the stone. “It’s freezing.”
She reached up and placed her hand next to his. “It just came from somewhere cold—really cold.”
He tipped his head back, looking up. She followed his eyes and they both stared up at a fifty-foot tall obelisk covered with glowing blue symbols. There was one standing at each corner of the wall. The top of the wall was covered with several inches of snow that glowed against the dark sky above them.
He grinned at her. “Let’s just take a fast look around.”
She looked back at him with uncertainty, but followed behind him as he began moving. They skirted the edge of the wall until they came to an archway. There was a gate, but it was wide open.
She grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Just a quick peek?”
He nodded and continued through the opening to the estate. The ground under their feet was covered in a thin layer of slushy snow. It was melting fast in the heat and soaked through their shoes. The smell of soggy wet earth was already beginning to fill the air.
They looked around to find themselves standing at the far end of the grounds—it looked similar to a garden with benches, hedges, statues, and leafless trees. There was even an empty swimming pool surrounded by tables and chairs layered with snow.
Every building in sight was made of grey stone and carved with symbols. Stone paths branched off of a main walkway in different directions, each ending at one of the small stone houses that lined the edge of the garden. At the end of it, straight ahead of them, was the enormous main house. It was on the opposite end from where they’d entered and took up the entire space.
The woman leaned over. “It looks just like the drawings we saw in the—”
“Shhh! Get down.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the snow topped hedges.
They held their breath and watched as two men passed by, heading for the front gate. Once the men were out of view the woman closed her eyes and shook her head.
“We gotta get out of here,” she whispered, backing toward the way they came. “If we get caught they’ll—“
Suddenly the man was thrown to the ground, sinking in the sloppy melting snow. The woman started to flee but couldn’t get any traction and slipped. She was quickly grabbed from behind; a hand was firmly placed over her lips. The glowing blue symbols on the hands indicated they belonged to an Akori.
An angry voice filled her ear. “What the hell are you two doing here?”
The man on the ground let out a huge sigh of relief as he recognized the voice. He got to his feet and shook the icy water from his hands. “Damn, I’m glad it’s only you—I thought we were done for.”
The woman was immediately released and shoved into the man. She whipped around to face the one who’d had a hold on her.
“Well, don’t you look—different,” she said, sizing up their aggressor. “I haven’t seen you in at least—”
“Get out, before you screw up the entire plan. Let them know we’ve got the girl under control and she won’t be an issue—no matter what happens. I’ll visit as soon as it’s safe.”
“Will do,” the man said. He took her hand, pulling her toward the beach. “We’ve seen enough anyway.”
Standing in the garden, Addy stared out at the ocean in the distance. It was hard to believe just yesterday she’d been looking at snow capped mountains from that exact spot. It was by far the most wonderful place they’d ever been. Usually, the landscape looked pretty much the same the morning after the estate moved to a new location. Addy was shocked when she woke up and found they were in the middle of a busy tourist town, right on the beach.
The morning after a move, everyone who lived at Tremain gathered together and Addy’s grandfather Fate would say a few words. She looked on as people slowly migrated to the garden to listen to him speak.
Addy spotted her grandfather’s childhood friend Bernard and his wife Doris entering from her left. Only five humans, including her and her grandfather, lived at Tremain. They were two of them. The other human was Addy’s best friend Kim.
Bernard and Doris both looked up and waved to Addy then began walking toward her. Her favorite thing about Bernard was that under his harmless looking exterior, he wasn’t harmless at all. Despite standing at about five foot eight inches, and being a bit on the portly side in his old age, he was much stronger than he looked.
“Good morning,” Bernard said, “This place was quite a surprise.”
“Surprise doesn’t cover it.” Addy put her hands up, motioning around. “Why’d he move us here? Not that I’m complaining.”
“I’m as baffled as you are,” he said, following her eyes. “I had no idea we were coming here of all places.”
Doris pointed toward the winding stone staircase leading from the terrace off the dining room to the garden. “They look as thrilled as you are.”
Addy looked up and watched as her friends Matt and Renee made their way down the steps to the garden. Matt was three years older than her, but he turned out to be one of Addy’s best friends. Their uncle Josh was waiting for them at the bottom of the stone steps.
Bernard smiled as Matt grabbed Renee and messed up her hair before walking away to talk to someone else. “How many years has it been since the three of them moved here?”
“It was fifteen years last month. Goodness, where does the time go?” Doris looked up at Addy. “We’re going to have to stop calling you kids soon.”
“I remember the first day they showed up at the door. Matt and Renee were both clinging to Josh.” Bernard shaded his eyes and looked over at Josh and Renee, who were still standing by the stairs. “They were maybe five and seven. Matt was so protective of her they had to sleep in the same room for months.”
Matt was only about two years older than Renee, who’d just turned twenty, but he still treated her like a kid. She was one of the few Akori born without any powers.
“I remember that. We were so little then—they were sad all the time.” Addy pushed her slipping sunglasses back up on her nose. “I think I was four.”
Doris nodded. “All Matt could talk about was how many days until his parents came back. The fact it would be years was too much to wrap his little head around.”
“Well, it’ll only be a few more years now.” Bernard pressed his index finger to his chin. “They’ve been Scattered fifteen, so maybe five more.”
“Their parents shouldn’t have been using their powers anyway,” Doris said, shaking her head. “It’s irresponsible to risk leaving your children like that.”
When an Akori completely depleted his or her powers they disappeared, or Scattered as they called it. That’s what happened to Matt and Renee’s parents. Once their power built back up they’d rematerialize. The problem was that it took around twenty years to happen.
Addy never really thought much about the Akori’s powers, but she agreed it was wrong for any Akori to risk Scattering when they had children depending on them. “Since the only thing their powers are good for anyway is slightly shifting time, it does kind of seem like they could’ve just stopped using them.”
Regardless of their power, Akori were essentially humans to Addy—but she’d never say that to them. Aside from the blue symbols marking the tops of their hands, they looked exactly like humans.
“We don’t know the circumstances surrounding what happened, and it’s not our place to judge.” Bernard reached over and took Doris’s hand. “Let’s go take a look around. I’ll see you when your grandfather comes out, Addy.”
The garden was getting crowded but her grandfather still wasn’t anywhere in sight. Glancing at the time on her phone, she also started wondering what was taking her friend Kim so long to come out to the garden. Addy headed down the sidewalk toward her villa to get her.
Seeing the estate without any snow was like looking at a whole different place. The grass was soggy, but there wasn’t one single patch of the white stuff left in sight.
The entire south wing of the main house was the Overseer’s living space. That’s where her grandfather lived. From where she was walking, Addy could see the terrace that wrapped around his side of the building.
The large gate across the driveway was rarely closed, but as she made her way around to Kim’s villa, Addy saw it was shut securely. Malcolm and Gage, two of the Akori who worked for Fate, were posted in front of it. They typically locked the estate down after a move while Fate sent scouts out to confirm they were safe.
Making the turn up Kim’s sidewalk, Addy noticed palm trees peeking up outside the walls of the estate. The structures that made up Tremain looked ancient, but on the inside they were completely modern. Josh, her friend Matt’s uncle, was their resident handyman. He coordinated all of the updating over the last few years. The library was the only place that looked exactly as it did when Oren Sanders, the first Overseer of the Sanders family, laid eyes on it. Her grandfather wouldn’t allow any changes to it at all—not even electricity.
Addy reached up to grab the door handle to Kim’s villa as it was whipped open. She and Kim both jumped.
Kim put her hand on her chest and smiled after getting over the shock. “Did you see where we are?”
“Kind of hard to miss,” Addy said, grinning. “I’ve been waiting for you in the garden.”
Kim smiled back at her. “I couldn’t find anything to wear that wasn’t lined with fleece.”
Clothes were going to be an issue for everyone until they could get to the store. Almost everything Addy owned was for cold and snowy weather. She just threw on cut off jeans and a tank top when she was hurrying to get dressed after discovering where they were. Kim had clearly put a little more effort into it and managed to pull together a semi-stylish outfit.
“The weather’s perfect,” Kim said, looking up at the sky as they walked back to join the others in the garden. “Living here is gonna be awesome. It’s so much better than back home.”
Addy smiled and nodded, remembering what the rough winter weather was like where Kim grew up. “We gotta check out the beach today—there’s no way we’re staying cooped up inside.”
Everyone was gathered in the open area of the garden when they walked up, but Fate wasn’t there. Scanning the crowd, she noticed her grandfather’s Akori friend Stubbs wasn’t out there either.
“It’s strange Fate’s not out here yet,” Addy said, leaning over toward Kim. “I’m gonna go check on him.”
Addy pushed through the crowded lawn to the front where Bernard stood talking with Gage and Malcolm, the two Akori guards who’d been at the front gate.
“Hey,” she said, interrupting their conversation. “Where’s Fate?”
Bernard stepped forward taking her hand. “I just spoke to him. He’s resting, but he’s ok. The move took a lot out of him.”
Addy diverted her eyes. “Oh.”
At eighty-three years old, Fate had lived the longest of any Overseer ever. He warned Addy the move would take a toll, but she didn’t expect him to miss speaking to everyone.
Her grandfather’s Akori friend Stubbs came down the stairs and joined them, giving her a reassuring smile. His little dogs, Winkie and Brutis, trailed behind him.
“Fate’s doing fine,” he said to Addy. “He’d like to meet with you, Bernard, and myself this evening, but for now he wants you to go enjoy the beach.”
Addy glanced over her shoulder at the group of Akori standing behind her. “What should we do about them?”
Stubbs looked in Addy’s direction and raised his eyebrows. “What would you like us to do?”
Fate always said she was to take charge when he wasn’t around and not rely on the others to tell her what to do. It was just easier said than done. She’s grown up with these men—respected them. Telling them what to do was awkward.
“We should probably just send everyone away unless one of you wants to speak to them,” Addy said with a slight amount of uncertainty.
Bernard was clearly trying to force back amusement as he spoke. “Do you want one of us to speak to them?”
Addy rolled her eyes and smiled at him. “Fine,” she said, turning to Stubbs. “Please let the group know what’s happening.”
Stubbs nodded his head and made his way to the front of the impatient looking crowd.
Bernard, Gage, and Malcolm were still standing there waiting for her to say something.
She shrugged her shoulders. “You guys can just break up the group or something after Stubbs is done talking, I guess.”
Malcolm and Gage exchanged looks and headed off.
“We’ll have to work on that part, I guess.” Bernard grinned, patting her on the shoulder as he started off into the crowd.