“The tent?” I look back through the trees, trying to spot signs of an out-of-control fire.
“Tanner put out the flames.” Thessaly steps forward, so we can see her face. “Are the two of you alright?” She tilts her head to the side as she waits for our answer.
“Did you know?” Luther grasps my hand. He’s staring at Thessaly with fire in his eyes. “What we were going to see?”
Slowly, Thessaly nods. “I knew.” She gestures back toward the tents. “Come. I’m sure you have many questions.”
When we reach the clearing, Kole and the others are standing in a circle talking quietly. He’s the first to see me.
Little Star.His voice fills me up. It makes me want to cry.
In unison, the five of them envelop me. I can’t tell who is kissing me or who’s hands are who’s. I don’t know where I begin and they end. All I know is that even though nothing makes sense, at the same time, it does.
“This way.” Thessaly gestures to a larger tent with feathers strung outside it. She ducks inside and we follow her.
As we gather around another fire, she lifts a small iron kettle and hangs it over the flames.
Kole smooths his hands over his hair as he looks at his mother. “What we just saw, it wasn’t just a story was it?” I’ve never seen him so pale. “We were there. It wasus?”
Next to Kole, Tanner has closed his eyes—as if he’s trying to block out the whirlpool of emotions filling the tent.
Thessaly sits down, crossed legged, and motions for us to do the same.
I shake my head. “I can’t sit.” I flex my fingers, fold my arms, then unfold them. “I need to know what that was… what did we see?”
Again, Thessaly nods for us to sit down. When the others obey, even Luther, I give in and lower myself to my knees. He sits opposite me, staring at me through the flames. I put my hands on my thighs and lean onto them. “Was it real?” My words catch in my throat. “What we saw? What wefelt? Was it real?”
“It was real.” Tanner’s voice is shaky. He rubs his neck and mutters, “So much pain.”
Pressing her lips together, Thessaly inhales slowly. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she says. “All of you. But you needed to feel it. You needed to understand.”
“I don’t understand.” I shake my head. “Idon’tunderstand.”
“Yes,” Thessaly says, smiling at me, “you do.” She presses her hand to her chest. “What does your heart tell you, Nova?”
Before I can answer, Kole looks across at his mother. “We were here before,” he says, an answer not a question. “The six of us. We have been here before.”
Thessaly locks eyes with him. She tilts her head to the side. A braid escapes from behind her ear and falls in front of her cheek. “Yes,” she says, “and no.” She looks at each of us in turn. “The six of you are descendants of The Original Six. The things you just experienced happened to your ancestors hundreds of years ago. You are their descendants.”
As Mack breathes out a heavy sigh, Sam laughs a little. He scrapes his fingers through his hair and shakes his head. “That’s crazy. Wouldn’t you guys have known? Wouldn’t your families have known?”
“Not necessarily,” Mack says. “The records are vague. No one even knew their names. It was just a story.” He sucks in his cheeks and flexes his fingers as if he’s trying to make himself think straight. “It was just a story.” When he looks up, he turns to Thessaly. “Have you always known?”
Reaching for him, squeezing his hand tightly in the first display of true emotion since we got here, Thessaly says, “No. Not always.” She fixes her eyes on Kole’s. “I had my first vision about The Six when you were just a baby. I knew you’d be important.”
“And you were the one who was sent The Phoenix Prophecy?” Mack asks in a tone that makes me feel as if he’s about to get out his cop notebook.
Thessaly nods. “It was sent to me when Kole was five years old. At the time, there were no official records of the prophecies that seers received. We simply kept them in our heads and acted on them if they became relevant.” She glances at Mack. “When the Bureau introduced the Prophecies Archive, I handed it over.”
Mack frowns. He, Luther, and Kole all look shocked at Thessaly’s revelation. “You handed it over?” Mack says. “That’s not possible. There was no record of The Phoenix Prophecy until Kole accessed it for The League.”
Before Thessaly can answer, I nudge Mack’s arm. “Annalise said the Bureau has been infiltrated by The League. What if it started way before we thought? What ifthat’show Ragnor and his demon friend knew about the prophecy? Because someone at the Bureau stole it?”
Mack shakes his head. “Ragnor didn’t know what it said. That’s why they needed Kole. They couldn’t access it. All they knew was that it existed.”
There’s a pause, in which I can almost hear the guys’ thoughts whirring in their brains. Then Thessaly clears her throat and says, “They couldn’t access it because I protected it.”
In unison, we turn to look at her.