The Seven: Chapter 3
I took in a shaky breath.
Kira, you are a Mekt. My head spun as the words repeated over and over in my mind. There was no way I was a Mekt. Yet…
“No…” I began. I slowly sat down across from Arthur, still wary of him. “I think I would know if I had powers.”
“There are many who go decades before they realize that what they thought were coincidences were actually things happening because of their powers,” he explained. I could feel my chest tighten with his words. “There are some who go their whole lives without understanding.”
I slowly shook my head, looking down at my hands.
“You, Kira, are a special kind of Mekt.” I looked at him then. I shouldn’t be listening to such words from a stranger, but I also couldn’t stop for some reason. “What do you know of the comet and the legend of the seven?”
“I know that the Strexlar passes by every 98 years,” I started, “and that it magnifies the powers of the Mekt. They can do things during its passing that make them more powerful. Terrible things.”
“Not all are terrible,” he explained. “Yes, I know there are many who kill and sacrifice, but that is not the only way. There is a legend that seven linked beings can harvest this power, together, into one ultimate power.”
My confused face told him enough. A figure passed by, nothing more than a shadow in the corner of my eye. Arthur noticed too and waited until they were gone to continue.
“It is said that these seven can join together to forge this power, without killing.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked quietly.
“Because, Kira,” he said with a look that I couldn’t pinpoint — some mixture of excitement and sorrow. His eyes said one thing while the rest of his features said another. “You are one of the seven.”
*****
I pushed my hands through my hair as I paced in my small kitchen. One of the seven.
With Anna gone… There were now seven of us. My head pounded as I thought through everything Arthur told me. It couldn’t be true. Not one of my sisters had ever shown signs of having even the slightest bit of power. Yes, there were now seven, but could someone really have killed my sister just to make that possible?
After telling myself it was all just coincidence, that Arthur was just a stranger with an impossible conspiracy, I sat on my bed with my textbooks and notes. I just needed to get through the rest of the week. I studied, or tried to, for a few hours before attempting to get another restless night of sleep. Knowing full well that my regular nightmares would have this extra information to fuel them and make them even more unbearable.
I wasn’t wrong. The same nightmare with the blue light and my sister’s unmoving body seemed to make more sense with this Mekt nonsense. And the next morning, as I walked to class, I considered what it might mean if Arthur was telling the truth. What it could mean for my sisters and me.
With a realization, I changed my course and headed toward the library. Before anything, I needed to find out the truth. I needed to find out if I had power. I needed to find out if I was a Mekt.
