Emblems

Chapter 26: Reversal

Chapter 26: Reversal

IT WAS A SHOCK TO deal with, and he didn't feel happy. "Why don't I know this? Why didn't anyone tell me?" he murmured, more to himself than Amber. He’d said so many things, accusing someone of doing things that were despicable. Till he pushed himself over the edge and threatened to do those same despicable things to him. I know you're part of Vortex. You killed them. And I’m going to kill you. With just my magic if I have to. Nicholas’s smirk flashed in his head. Think carefully about what you saw that night. Remember with a clear head – you’re Mind, you should know that.

And yes, he should have known, should have thought harder, looked deeper. The person he’d blamed for everything bad that had happened now turned out to be the one that had made all the good things happen. Nicholas had given him Camp, the Daron twins, his kouhais. And his brother – Kayden. You can join him in hell. He’d been blind not to pick up on it before. Nicholas’s brother was a touchy topic for him. He didn’t die in a Demon attack. That’s what it said in the official records but isn’t that the same for your parents? He died protecting someone too.

Across from him, Amber stood with her back to a bookshelf and nodded, and the motion brought him back to the here and now. "My only guess is that we're not supposed to know all of this. Nicholas only knows because he was directly involved."

He glanced at her. "Where is he now?"

Amber shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't ask him what he was going to do."

"Why?" he demanded. It occurred to him that he sounded more and more frustrated. 

"Nicholas can do what he wants. It's not my problem what trouble he decides to get into," she answered. 

"But it is our problem. We're the Emblems, Amber. We're a team, we have to stick together through thick and thin or we'll never get anywhere!" She just raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical but unwilling to argue. He stood up. "This changes everything. I need to find Nicholas and apologize to him. The way I've been treating him..." He shook his head and started to walk out again. 

"Daniel," she said suddenly. This time he turned. What now? "Saying sorry can wait. Think about it, Daniel. Vortex killed your parents. Aren't you going to do something about it? And if Vortex knew to keep us alive, even keep Nicholas alive when he was stationed at my parent's house, doesn't that mean that they knew we were the Emblems even before the Delegates?"

"Vortex is powerful, and back then they may have had sources that the Delegates didn't. But it doesn't matter now. We're the Emblems and we're here in the Athenaeum. The Delegates are keeping us safe. All we have to do is fulfill our own role: Grow stronger," he told her. 

Amber just looked up at him, gaze like a storm, grey and roiling. "And what about your parents?" He caught the question hidden in the shadow of her tone: what about your revenge?

His hands clenched into fists and he closed his eyes. He had hated Nicholas White and the Vortex organization for more years than he could count, but now? Now he found that the former was innocent, had not deserved any of his blame at all. When he spoke it was finally and slowly: "I'm over it already. I've accepted that my parents were murdered, but I'm not going to go after their killers, even more so since I've been blaming Nicholas all this while for nothing. Becoming Emblems, saving the world, proving that Vortex is wrong - that's enough revenge for me. That’s all that matters now."