HEART OF THE CHOSEN (CASTE BOOK 1)

Chapter 13

When I got home, it was already dark. I had walked for a long time and I told myself that with the train incident, I was going to have a hard time getting back on public transport for a while. However, this walk had had the providential effect of calming my nerves and giving me the opportunity to think more logically about my situation. I had therefore classified the events in my head in order to better understand them.

a. My father had died under mysterious circumstances.

b. Sam had used every means at his disposal to hide my existence. Although he failed and hid the truth from me, a part of me was grateful to him for caring about my fate to the point of protecting my life. But how involved was he exactly and what else did he know about my parents?

c. I was endowed with a power that I didn’t control, or barely, and which could manifest itself whenever my emotions took over, in other words, most of the time.

d. I felt an inescapable s****l attraction for my fellow caste, and vice versa. My… disorder was only linked to this genetic attraction, and yet… This explanation wasn’t enough for me. I had the feeling that, since my meeting with the Panchaks, my libido had exploded. Even a caste attraction couldn’t explain such an outburst!

e. The Order of the Chosen. What can be said of them, apart from their frightening penchant for the submission of men and their cruelty.

f. And me, in all this, what was I going to do?

I couldn’t hide indefinitely.

A lukewarm shower had finished putting all the elements in their context. I went downstairs and flopped down on the couch. A candle sat above the small table in the living room. I closed my eyes and created a vacuum around me, silence reigned in the house. My breathing became slower, more relaxed, and when I opened my eyelids, returning all my attention to the candle, nothing happened. I tried for a good half hour, without result, until, impatient, I brooded over my failure by releasing a sudden wave of my hand. The candle exploded against the wall of the stairs, leaving me speechless.

Intoxicated by this success, I went in search of all the candles in the house and went to the bedroom. I stashed the most delicate objects and I spread the candles on the bed. In a cross-legged position, I started my mental experimentation again, but they didn’t move an inch. With perseverance and many attempts, a candle finally fell, another flew across the room and one of them levitated in front of my amazed eyes.

I cannot properly explain the feeling I felt when faced with this phenomenon. I considered it a miracle. A miracle over which I had complete control. I could levitate the candle a metre above the ground and then bring it back down. I spotted my cell phone on my desk and waved it to me as easily as if I’d picked it up with my own hands. I burst out laughing as I dialled the number.

“Eric! I can do it!”

“Do you want me to come for a demo?” he suggested in his warm voice.

“Oh, yes!”

He arrived barely a minute later. I opened the door for him, and then quietly sat on the couch. This gift was going to make me very lazy in the future, I told myself. He was surprised to find me in my place rather than at the door and gave an amused smile.

“As natural as learning to ride a bike,” he told me, a touch of pride in his voice.

“I can’t believe it, it’s…exhilarating!”

“I’m willing to admit it, but that’s only a tiny part of your powers, girl.”

“That’s what Thomas told me.”

“We don’t yet know how far your faculty can extend.”

“I would like to know.”

“You’ll know one day. Training is a good thing.”

“You think it could be dangerous?”

“I don’t know. It’s you I’m worried about. Eve… We need to talk about what happened on the train, because of Thomas…”

“Eric, I don’t have the slightest desire to have this discussion, you did well to kiss me on the train, otherwise I would never have gotten out of my shocked state, so let’s not go back over that.”

He seemed to think for a moment, his right hand resting on his forehead.

“Alright, would you still let me sleep on the couch tonight? I don’t like knowing you’re alone and the seats in the Audi aren’t as comfortable as you might think.”

“You were in front of my house the whole time! I should have guessed from the speed at which you arrived, but I put it down to your super-speed.”

I was deeply touched by his gesture. He was so worried about me that he spent the night in a car.

“Eric, I have to see your brother.”

His attitude masked an ill-contained disappointment, but he didn’t protest. He immediately took me home in his luxurious sedan. We didn’t exchange a word until we arrived.

“I will be here if there’s any problem.”

“Thanks, Eric.”

But he had already looked away. I got out of the car and headed for the building entrance. I rang the intercom.

“Who is it?” an impatient voice called out to me.

“Thomas, it’s Eve!”

After a few seconds of silence, the door unlocked. I took the elevator. The entrance to the Panchaks’ apartment was wide open. Inside, a majestic vision seared my retina. Thomas was shirtless, hair damp, wearing only light jeans and barefoot. This apparition had done away with my last resentments towards him.

He walked past me, looking sad, and went to sit on the armchair in the middle of the room. He lowered his head and buried his hands in his ebony hair.

“Eve! I’m going crazy. I can’t stand this coldness any longer. I can’t live without you, I’m dying!”

He released his emotions as if he had kept them to himself for years. His sadness shook me instantly. I couldn’t bear to see him like this, I had never wanted to hurt him so much, and discovering him in this state was agony. I was aware that he hadn’t been honest with me, but looking back now I could understand his gesture. An unshakeable bond united me with the Panchaks, and in particular to Thomas, whom I had loved from the start. So I threw myself at his feet and slipped my head between his knees. He jerked his chest up, startled by my gesture, then finally ran his fingers through my hair. His forehead rested against mine as he whispered:

“Eve…I love you.”

I uncurled my arms and put my hands on either side of his face. We stayed there for a moment, staring at each other as if it were our first meeting. Slowly, I moved closer to him and brushed my lips against his mouth. A small smile crept onto his face as he ran his hand over the back of my neck. He kissed me back a hundredfold. A wave of heat flooded my chest and my cheeks ignited. With a gesture, he pulled me against him and ran his fingers down my back as his other hand tangled in my hair. I pulled back for a moment to catch my breath as my breathing became feverish. This left him in no doubt as to my feelings. I loved him too.

We stayed there for a while, lying naked on the living room floor. I still had my head in the crook of his arm and kissed his neck. I wasn’t cold, on the contrary, the burning fire was still smouldering under my spine when we hadn’t yet exchanged a single word. I’m happier now. Everything was almost back to normal. From his silence, however, I hadn’t sensed anything of his discomfort before he broached the subject himself.

“Eve, I have a question for you.”

“Mmm…yes.”

“Are you already attracted to Eric?”

Immediately, I stiffened. My magic stasis had just dissipated. I myself had many questions about Eric but I certainly couldn’t talk to Thomas about it. He wouldn’t understand, that was for sure.

“No.”

“It will happen one day, Eve. If it were to happen, don’t ever tell me, okay?”

His sentence pierced me like a white-hot blade. The guilt came in a flash and I now had the painful feeling of having betrayed him. My anger towards him had made me cross the barrier of modesty that I should never have crossed with Eric, but only in thought. The train episode was different, kissing me was the only way for Eric to get me out of my paralysis. But if all this was just an excuse to convince me, then Olivia’s words made sense, “I think he’s in love with you”. In the future, I had to avoid Eric as often as possible, it was vital. It was out of the question to put myself in such a delicate situation again. My heart belonged to Thomas, I was absolutely certain of that.

“Agreed,” I said then, as I subtly rose above him.

For a moment, he stared at me, a suspicious look in his eyes. As he was about to comment on my response, I did what any woman would do at the time. In surprise, his eyes widened. An incongruous thought crossed my mind: s*x could therefore cut short any embarrassing discussion? I hardly dwelt on this aphorism and abandoned myself to it.