I must have looked more confident than I felt, because I saw John exchange a look with Madeline and turn back to whisper to another girl, who had similar features to him. The two of the talked for a while before John returned his attention back to me.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and resisted the urge to look back and see the reaction on the others’ faces. It must be a shock for them; it was for me too. I mean, I had little inkling of my parentage and I still couldn’t believe I had never heard of the de Silver family before! Either I missed the lesson or they weren’t planning on telling us until we graduate. I hoped Steven was okay, after all it wasn’t every day that he found out three (technically four, but he didn’t know about Tom yet) of the survivors he was protecting weren’t even loyal to the family he was serving.

Eyes fixated on my necklace, John took a step forward and in a flash Tom was beside me. John glanced at Tom, annoyed but the latter was already glaring down at him.

“Abigail, can I talk to you for a moment?” he asked, I nodded and gave Tom what I hope was a comforting expression. The two of us walked to the side until everyone was out of earshot.

“Who are you, really?” He asked, sounding genuinely curious. I gave him a flat look and raised my eyebrow.

“I think I introduced myself pretty clearly.” I replied coolly, trying to hide my nervousness. John frowned at me and scratched his head.

“I know Lynette.” He started, my interest piqued and I stared at him intently, eager to hear what he had to say about my estranged grandmother. “She never mentioned that she had any children; in fact the only thing I knew was that she married a norm.”

“Norm?” I echoed, is that what they called non-POE? He studied me for a while and I waited for him to continue.

“What’s going on?” He asked finally, looking around. “How come you are in the Ganesh family guard? And your powers?” the way he said it confirmed that Emily, I mean Madeline had somehow known about my power, at least part of it and sent the information to him. I looked at this newly discovered relative of mine and sighed. Things had definitely taken an unexpected turn and I didn’t know how much I could trust them.

As if sensing my thoughts, John gave me a genuine smile and put a hand on my shoulder. “My grandfather is Lynette’s cousin.” He said, “I think that makes us third cousins or something.”

Recalling the histories of de Silver family that Lynette had drilled into her letters, the proud, accomplished family that they, that we are, I decided to tell them the truth. Not the whole truth, but part of it.

“She doesn’t know about my power, not for sure.” I started, leaving the part about me discovering my power when I was young and skipped to the day of the Legre Invasion, the pivotal moment of my life;it is so strange to think that two years have almost passed since I was last in London Citybase. I skimmed over my months at POE Academy and told the tales of the escape and how the Ganesh family helped us and of course, the attack.

John gave out a sigh at the end of my tale and my heart sank; he must know something about the POE Academy, about the people that were captured at the test. Even though new students were not supposed to know about the families, they surely keep tabs on the Academy.

“They are moving faster than I thought.” John sighed, “The POE Academy was in lock down since the incidents, we only knew that something went terribly wrong and that it probably had something to do with the Apocalypse. But if things were the way you said it was, then they are more resourceful and powerful than we anticipated.”

“Can you help us get back?” I plucked up the courage and asked; if they could find a way in here without being detected by me, then they must have some kind of way to get back out again. John gave me a long and hard look and I held his eyes for the whole time. I hate asking for favors, but right now I didn’t have a choice.

“We can.” He finally replied and it felt like a huge weight had lifted off my chest, but his next words quickly caused them to return. “But you would have to come with us. I am sure the Elders would love to meet you and ask about your powers. We never had someone who can communicate with Legres before.”

The horrors from my childhood came back at me, and I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to run away. Would they experiment on me? Surely not, I mean I am one of them. Noticing my strange expression John asked me if I was alright.

“Are they going to experiment on me?” I asked, trying not to show fear in my voice, although my face probably said it all anyway. A strange emotion flickered across John’s face and he shook his head hard.

“You really don’t know anything about our heritage, do you?” He asked, resigned. I shook my head and looked at him curiously, wondering if he would elaborate. “The de Silver family is completely against POE-trials. In fact, we completely oppose any kind of human or POE experiments.”

It was calming to hear that, although I could feel some undertone to it but I didn’t press the matter. Somehow I knew that this would all be explained to me in good time. “We can take your friends back to the nearest Citybase.” John continued as we made our way back, the two groups still separated from each other but Madeline was back by Vladimir’s side. “But I will have to take you to our base right away.”

I looked at him in alarm. I wasn’t ready to be separated from my team; especially not Tom. “If things are as bad as what you told me, we need to get news back to the council as soon as possible and you need to be initiated.” John said giving me a serious look. “The reason why the clans don’t send their descendants to POE Academy is because we have a better system of training our own blood. And with this coming war, we need to know about your powers and train you.”

A million thoughts went through my mind and I didn’t know what to do. More than ever I wished I was powerful enough to protect the ones that I care about so I didn’t have to be in this situation. Silently I nodded and John gave me a clasp on the back.

“I knew you would do the right thing.” He said, “We de Silver always do. We will leave right away as soon as we get back to the main group.”

I nodded, going back to my group and told them the new plan. Now that I had revealed my true name, I didn’t know how they would react; or to the fact that I was a de Silver. My head ached as I tried to predict how Tom was going to react. Would he believe me if I told him that I didn’t know until now? Probably not.

“Gwen?” Kailey asked uncertainly as I rejoined the group and I gave her a sheepish smile. I looked across at Tom and found him looking at me with confusion. My heart clutched and I wanted to tell him everything right now. The whole truth.

“I am sorry that I lied about my name.” I began, twisting my hands nervously hoping that they would believe me, however shady it might look. “I didn’t know I was a de Silver until recently and they are going to get us out of here.”

I was relieved that some of them seemed to be satisfied with my explanation. I could feel Madeline’s eyes boring into my head as I avoided looking her way; and of course, Tom was just waiting for me to explain. I didn’t know which one was worse.

Within minutes we were all on our way back north. I could feel curious glances from the de Silver gang but I did my best to ignore them. I was trying to plan a goodbye speech to Tom in my mind but my brain seemed to freeze in fear every time. If we say goodbye now, there was a possibility that we might never see each other again.

It didn’t take long before I realized that we were heading towards our makeshift campsites, nor did it take us long to get back there. Upon entering the clearing, I spotted a large group of about thirty people milling around searching for any signs of activity. The moment they spotted us one immediately came forward.

“John, I think we are onto something! There are signs of Legre and human footprints together but no fighting…” the man gushed and stopped abruptly when he noticed the addition.

“It’s okay Dawson.” John said, holding out a hand as the rest of his group realized what was going on and started charging towards us. “We need to get back out, the Apocalypse is more powerful than we thought and we need to get the word back.”

Still eyeing us suspiciously Dawson shouted the orders back and everyone immediately started gathering their belongings and pulling into a formation in a matter of minutes. John nodded at me and I knew that this was my chance to talk to Tom.

“Tom, can I talk to you?” I said, dropping the use of his cover. Tom gave me a bewildered look but allowed me to pull him away from the group. I led him to the trees until we were barely visible to the group. I hoped there was no one with super-hearing here, if this got out I would be embarrassed to death.

Taking a deep breath I forced myself to look at him right in the eyes and Tom looked back at me with a puzzled expression. “I need to tell you something.” I said, watching his face carefully. “I am not going with you guys when we leave.”

For a few seconds he just looked at me, all the nervousness that evaporated when I got the words out came flooding back as I waited for him to react. His temper is just like his power, and it was just a matter of time before he blew up…

“What do you mean, you are not coming with us?” Tom demanded, the temperature around us rose several degrees and smoke started rising from his body. I held my hands out in an attempt to calm him down and glanced around us, hoping our commotion went unnoticed.

“I need to find out about my heritage.” I said, my right hand playing with the necklace that was no longer hidden beneath my clothing. “And I need to do everything I can to find out what happened and to save Owen, Holly, Fred, Casey, Oscar, Natalie and Evanna.”

My voice cracked when I said the names of my friends and I tried to blink the tears back.  Tom sighed and ran a hand through his hair, turning his face away from me. Seeing that smoke was no longer coming out of his body I deemed it safe enough to put a hand on his arm.

“Hey,” I called out gently, taking a step closer trying to get him to look at me. “I don’t want to go either.” I said, trying to express my feelings. I had never done this before and I had no idea what I was supposed to say. “But I have to.”

After a few seconds of silence Tom sighed again and turned back towards me. I looked at him, hoping to see some positive sign that his attitude had changed. “I know.” He said finally, looking defeated. Pulling me into an expectant hug me buried his face in the crook of my neck; the tingling sensation of his face on my exposed skin combined with our proximity was sending my brain into overdrive but it felt so nice to be in his arms that I quickly relaxed and leaned against his chest.

“We will find each other again.” He said, muttering into my ear. “I promise.” I could feel a fresh onslaught of tears coming and I tightened my grip on him and tried to hold them back. I can’t let him see me cry.

“This isn’t goodbye.” I agreed, trying to convince myself into believing that we will see each other again. I closed my eyes, trying to treasure this moment in my heart.

After what seemed like an eternity we pulled away from each other, I took a peek back to make sure that no one was coming to get us yet. Good.

Turning back towards Tom my heart skipped a beat as my nose nearly collided with Tom’s. I blinked nervously as his glance flickered towards my lips and back. This is now or never, I thought to myself before closing my eyes and breaching the small distance between us and pressed my lips against his.

I could feel the surprise from him at first but he quickly regained composure and grabbed the back of my head. Pulling me closer he deepened the kiss sending butterflies flying in my stomach and my heart dancing. Almost instinctively I circled my arms around his neck and snuggled closer to him, kissing him felt too, too good.

We broke apart after a while, both breathless and in need of oxygen. I rested my forehead against Tom’s and he smiled at me. A smile so carefree, so genuine that it lit up his face; this was a side of Tom that I had never seen before, but it was definitely one that I hoped to see again.

“I really like you.” I blurted out; the smile on his face turned into a huge grin and he pulled me in for a quick kiss.

“I like you a lot too.” He said, then added. “I will find you. Believe that.”

I nodded, trying to hold back all the emotions threatening to break out. Looking into his eyes, somehow I believed that there was really a way around all this; that everything will work out in the end and be okay.

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Early update :D I managed to get this chapter done early and even had time to get my new editor to go over it :D thanks Avanish!

Anyway I am sure the Tabigail fans are super excited about this, despite the fact that they are now going to be separated for god knows how long! I enjoyed writing their interaction a lot :)

Also not sure if anyone has noticed but i updated my profile about the projects that i have going on - so let me know in the comments what you think of them and this chapter as well.

As always - vote and comment :)