Eternal: Chapter Seven, Part 2

Turning around, my eyes found the young man who had spoken. He was tall with bright jade eyes, sharp facial features, and a crooked smile; his pine colored hair was long and shaggy. Words escaped me; I hadn’t expected to see him, though I should have guessed he would show up somewhere.

I hugged him as his arms enveloped me, holding me tight, as they had so many times before. “Nick,” I murmured into his shoulder. I don’t know how long we embraced, but I did eventually remember I was playing hostess and pulled away. When I did, there was Drei, leaning in the door frame. Walking over to him, he pulled me into his own comforting, familiar embrace.

He kissed the top of my head. “Do you like my surprise?”

Nodding, I stepped back from him. “But now we’re ruining the meeting.”

He chuckled a little. I smiled goofily at him before taking his hand and then Nick’s and walking them into our circle.

“Drei’s here now. And the last member of our council will be Nick.”

“Can we trust him?” Mikael asked skeptically. It was a fair question; Mikael, Kora, and Xenia had lived through the aftermath of Nick revealing his involuntary involvement with the government. What information they’d received at the time was likely limited and compounded by rumors, particularly when Nick didn’t join us during the relocation.

Glancing at Nick, I nodded. “If we couldn’t, Drei wouldn’t have brought him.” There was still some uncertainty, though it was considerably dispelled as they contemplated Drei’s endorsement of Nick’s character. I turned to Nick and Drei. “Would either of you like something to drink before we start? And did you catch everyone’s name?”

“I think so,” Nick replied, nodding. “If not, I’ll ask you about it later. And I’ll take water, please.”

“The same,” Drei said as Valetta went to the kitchen. I would have objected, but I understood. We had already been derailed enough.

“So, to business then.” I smiled at everyone sitting around me, feeling better than I had not minutes before. I knew, without a doubt, I could do this. “I’ve talked to all of you about the general timeline but I’ve withheld what the focus of our movement is…until today. From talking with all of you, I know more than ever it’s the right thing to do. To prevent others from experiencing the same dilemmas and heartaches we’ve faced over the years. To protect, or to heal, the ones we love. We’re taking down the government by letting people know we exist,” I said. “We, as elementals, have to stand up for our own rights as people; the only way to do that is to show regular people we exist to begin with, that there is a unique group being exploited and endangered by the very institution that’s supposed to protect us.”

“We’re admitting we’re different?” Kora asked slowly, her hands shaking in her lap. Her hazel eyes were wide.

“It’s the only way,” I said gently. “We don’t physically look different, so no one knows unless we tell them.”

“So what’s with the miracle tagline you gave Ian and I to work with?” Caroline asked, eating another one of her cookies.

Drei raised an eyebrow at me. I felt myself blushing, knowing it was a silly thing for me to have remembered for so long. “I once asked why the government hated us, and Drei told me the only reason he could think of was because they wanted to erase miracles.”

“What’s the tagline?” Xenia asked, taking one of the sandwiches.

“Miracles still exist,” Ian said, a smile in his voice. “So it was your inspiration?”

“It seems that way.” He smiled at me.

“I’m not sure about this, Abs,” Caroline said, setting her napkin of cookies on the coffee table. “I’m all for taking down the government—you know that. And I don’t mind putting myself at risk either. But you’re not talking about just us;” she stood and began pacing behind the couch and talking with her hands in broad, sweeping gestures. “You’re talking everyone. That’s everyone who’s managed to live their life without getting caught, and everyone who’s just starting to figure it out. That’s a ton of people, Abs. Who says they want to come out of hiding?”

“If they don’t, nothing will ever change,” Jake argued. “When the Black Civil Rights Movement started, not everyone was sure they wanted to fight that battle. But the few, and then the many, did anyway; look how that turned out.”

“You’re seriously comparing this to the Black Civil Rights Movement?” Kora demanded, going to stand by Caroline. “We’re not black…well, not all of us.”

“But we’re oppressed,” Ian said, shifting on the couch to look at the two. “Our civil rights aren’t being acknowledged, and they won’t be until we do something about it.”

“And what about the people who are fine hiding?” Kora asked, crossing her arms, trying to control her shaking.

“No one’s fine hiding,” Xenia said. “No one likes to hide who they are; eventually it eats away at who you are inside and then what are you left with? Some ghost of who you might have been?”

“Well, I don’t mind hiding;” Kora turned and walked towards the door.

“What kind of lasting relationship will that make, Kora?” I asked, hoping it would at least stop her from leaving; if she walked out the door, I wasn’t sure there was anything any of us could say to bring her back. “How do you know if he loves you if he’ll never know who you really are?”