The Line Between: Cassie Wilson Book 3

Chapter 1

Cassie took a deep breath and stepped forward as the next person came up to introduce herself and offer her welcome. 'This is by far the strangest birthday I have ever had, ' Cassie thought as the woman in front of her gave a short little bow.

"Welcome, cousin. I'm called Annabelle, " the woman said.

Cassie smiled. Having spent the last few weeks studying each member of the assembled group, she knew that the woman in front of her spent a great deal of time in greenhouses surrounded by flowery, growing things. To see her in a wood decorated with patches of ice and snow was odd after the greenhouses, but there was nothing about her that was frightening, technically. She had light brown hair streaked from time spent in the sun, warm gray eyes and a pleasant smile. She looked like a nice, average woman.

'Nothing to be afraid of, ' Cassie reminded herself as she nodded and replied with her thanks for the greeting.

Inside she still tensed, bracing for pain. The last interaction Cassie had with the woman, Annabelle, was when she held out a stone bowl of water. The stone matched her eyes and neither held any warmth. The bowl was a part of some test to see if she was a Walker. A man, who later introduced himself as Mikal, traced a symbol on her hand that burned through her palm like white hot metal and glowed blue in the air. She plunged her burning hand into the stone basin of water creating a steam bath around her. When the steam dissipated everyone in the clearing, including her grandfather, Abraham, was gone. It was later that she found it was a test and not just a cruel trick of some sort. She passed, but was uncertain what passing meant.

'If I was a Walker I would have lost the hand, but I didn't lose the hand, ' Cassie thought.

Her fingers absently traced the palm of her left hand where the symbol burned. The skin was whole again and no pain remained. On the first night after the test, when she traveled through her dreams to the place of twisting lines of light in the darkness that she thought of as the map room, Cassie could still see the symbol burning brightly on her palm.

Surprisingly, she could also see a symbol coming out on her right palm. This one looked as though it was pushing up from beneath her skin, rising to the surface like a submarine coming up for air. As her birthday drew closer, the burning symbol of the test faded so she no longer saw it on her skin, but the other symbol pushed forward, glowing ever brighter.

This morning, her grandfather picked her up for her birthday. She stood in a semi-circle, the others surrounding her as she faced the rising sun. The sun sang one clear note to her as it rose, the sound echoing with a feeling of right-ness somehow that filled her body. The symbol on her hand burned brightly and then burned itself down into the grass, not only scorching the grass, but burning deep so that she saw blackened rock under the symbol. Surprisingly, no one else saw it at all. They saw only the print of her bare feet in the dirt.

'They saw the boulder though, and the downed trees, ' Cassie reminded herself.

She glanced back towards the clearing. A large boulder looked as though a giant hammer struck it, splitting it in half and sending sprays of rock shards flying in every direction. Several trees were uprooted and torn like a giant had a temper tantrum. She heard them fall, but wasn't looking in their direction at the time so wasn't entirely certain how the damage occurred. Part of her didn't really want to know as she suspected she caused the damage.

"I wouldn't worry about them, " Abraham said, noticing her attention. "In a few weeks' time they will look perfectly natural."

"I hope so, " Cassie replied, smiling at the man she grew up believing was her grandfather.

She squelched her discomfort with the fact that she might have destroyed rocks and managed somehow to rip full grown trees from the earth. Whether Abraham was actually her grandfather, she didn't know, even if she still thought of him that way. Truth be told, he didn't know either. It was little consolation. When he admitted it, he told her that they were related somehow, but he wasn't entirely certain how. He was very vague on the details. In fact, he was vague on a lot of things.

'But he said to wait until my birthday, ' she reminded herself. 'Perhaps he will explain later.'

"Enjoying your party?" Abraham asked. He looked a little apprehensive. "There is cake."

"Chocolate cake, " she replied, offering him a smile. "It's a great party." He looked relieved and went to bring her a slice of the cake.

It was the first party Cassie ever attended. Her previous birthdays generally included a gift from her grandfather and another from her parents, but no parties. As Abraham put a blocker on her so that others couldn't see her unless she spoke directly to them or touched them, Cassie didn't have many close friends.

'And my parents aren't actually my parents, ' Cassie reminded herself. Carolyn and Alan, the two people posing as her parents were some sort of Walker acolytes, another thing Abraham didn't explain very well.

Even with this event being her first ever birthday party, she could see it was a little on the strange side. 'Not exactly how the sitcoms portray birthday parties, ' Cassie thought, having nothing but television to compare with it. Abraham promised cake, as he understood it was the custom to have cake on a birthday. She was fairly certain he also knew that there were candles that were supposed to go with the cake.

The candles he brought however, weren't on the cake, but set in large wrought iron candle stands each looking a bit like a candelabrum was welded onto a hat rack. They reminded her of the candle stands in old movies that either featured medieval churches or vampires. There were eighteen stands placed around the clearing, Cassie counted. She guessed that as it was her eighteenth birthday, there was one stand for each year.

'Which is similar to a cake, although I don't think I'm going to be blowing them out, at least not with one breath, ' Cassie told herself. 'At this point, I don't even know what I would wish for if I did blow them out.' The amusement of attempting such a feat made her smile widen and look more genuine as yet another person offered her welcome.

'And that's another thing, ' Cassie thought. 'No one is saying happy birthday, just welcome, like I just joined a club. At least they are happy I joined.'

At the moment she was more than willing to accept any strangeness on their part. At the end of her ceremony, before she was brought to see the cake and candles on the other side of the clearing, Enki showed up. It was clear from the reaction of the others that he was neither invited nor welcome at the gathering. Thankfully, he didn't stay long and the others made it clear that he was not to hurt her.

As his cousin Erra attacked her a few months prior and he threatened to kill her if he found out she was a Walker, Cassie was relieved by their protection. 'But I'm not a Walker or I would have lost my hand during the test, ' She reminded herself circling back to her original thought. 'But if I'm not a Walker what am I?'

Abraham and Jacob told her that there was only a short list of things she could possibly be now that they knew she wasn't a Walker, but failed to elaborate on the possibilities on the list. Abraham returned with a piece of cake. The slice was placed on a handkerchief.

"Apparently, we didn't bring plates, " he told her handing the handkerchief and its slice of cake over to her. "Or forks." She lifted the napkin to her mouth and nibbled the chocolate cake.

"Delicious, " she told him. He exhaled with relief.

"I'm glad you like it, " he replied.

"Um, can I ask something?" she said after taking a second bite, chewing and swallowing.

"I'm sure you have many questions, but this is a celebration, questions come later, " Abraham told her.

"As long as answers come with them, I'm okay with that, " Cassie replied. "I just want to know why I smell a pork roast."

"Because we are roasting a pig, " he told her proudly. "In honor of the celebration."

Cassie looked around. She saw the small table with cake, her one slice taken out of it, the large dagger looking knife used to carve the piece from the whole looking strange stabbed point first into the table next to it. She saw the candles. While she smelled the pig, she didn't see it or anything that could be used to roast it.

"And where is it?" she asked.

"Oh, " Abraham said with a laugh. He gestured towards an earthen mound off to the side. "Underground. We roast the coals in a pit until they are white hot, then we put the wrapped and seasoned pig on top, and bury it so that it acts as an oven. When we are finished with cake, we will open the earth and feast."

Cassie looked around and realized she was the only one eating cake. She nodded and continued eating her slice, trying not to wolf it down as she realized the others were waiting for her to finish.

'He did say he had to tell them that cake was traditional, ' Cassie remembered. She guessed the others weren't terribly fond of cake, or felt no need to eat a piece to be sociable. They didn't see to feel the need to do much that was sociable. They offered their welcome and stepped away. While a few were speaking to each other as they waited for her to finish her cake, the bulk of them merely stood, silently waiting. Cassie thought it a little strange and tried to eat a little faster so they could move on to whatever it was that everyone was waiting to see or do. Her slice of cake was consumed quickly enough and Abraham whisked the handkerchief away with a flourish as she finished.

"Just out of curiosity, how are we going to eat the pig if no one brought plates or utensils?" she asked as Mikal and the surfer looking man picked up shovels and began to uncover the pig. She wasn't certain where the shovels were hidden as she didn't see them before.

"We use knives, " Jacob told her. "It is tradition."

Personally Cassie thought a knife was a utensil, but her comments died before she could voice them as he walked over and held out a dagger in a sheath. The sheath was attached to a cord and Jacob helped to belt it around her waist. A second smaller cord kept the end from flopping around by lacing around her thigh. It reminded her of the holsters cowboys wore in the movies.

Once attached, Jacob moved away and Cassie pulled the dagger from its sheath. The handle was some sort of antler although she couldn't name the animal, and glowed softly amber and white, in the early morning light. The metal part was silver and reflected the sun almost painfully bright and looked sharp enough to slice air. As Cassie wrapped her hand around the handle, the knife felt right in her hand, fitting her perfectly and feeling warm in her grasp, the handle almost pulsing in time with her own heartbeat. It felt almost like a living thing.

She blinked and shook her head to clear it. Cassie slipped the dagger back into its sheath although she found herself strangely reluctant to let it leave her hand. When she looked up, Cassie found several of the other attendees at this strange party looking at her, Abraham and Jacob included. Each of the fourteen faces she saw bore an identically gentle smile.

The smiles made her heart and stomach flutter in an odd, but not terribly unpleasant way. It felt like she passed another test. 'At least this one was less painful, ' she decided, dismissing the looks. Cassie was relieved when the intensified aroma of the roast pig caused the others to look towards the pit rather than at her.

Cassie looked as well and saw the mound of earth was peeled back and the pig was lifted out of the hole. Metal stands were driven into the ground to either side of the hole and the large pole threaded through the center of the pig was rested on them so the cooked pig floated above the pit in which it was roasted. The pig itself was wrapped in some sort of large and shiny green leaves she couldn't identify. The leaves were charred around the edges and had both black and white ash stuck to them.

Mikel peeled the leaves away and placed them in the pit below the pig. Cassie felt herself drawn forward, her feet taking two steps in the direction of the pig before she realized it. She inhaled deeply, the tantalizing aroma making her mouth water and filling her with a deep, visceral hunger. She took another step forward, then stopped herself. She blinked and looked to her grandfather. Abraham stood to her left and gave her an encouraging nod.

"It is time, " he told her.

Cassie looked back to the pig and found the others moved to the roast as well. One by one they knelt on the ground around the pig, leaving space for her right in front of the roast. Cassie took her place, completing the circle and kneeling on the ground.

The scent was stronger now and despite the time being earlier than she usually woke, Cassie was as hungry as though she fasted the day prior. The earth beneath her jeans was cold and hard and she shivered as the chill seeped through her clothing. In front of her the pit beneath the pig still radiated heat and she found herself leaning forward towards the warmth, inhaling deeply of the scent of the roast while enjoying the warmth. Everyone else remained motionless and Cassie looked to Abraham for direction.

"You need to cut the first slice, " he told her. "Use your knife. Once you have taken a bite, we will join you in the feast."

Cassie nodded and took her knife from its sheath. She smiled as her fingers wrapped around the hilt. "Do I need to say anything?" she asked.

With the movements and the silence, the roast felt less like a meal and more like a ritual. He shook his head no and as Cassie turned back to the roast in front of her she saw a few of the others smiling in amusement. The man she thought of as the surfer winked at her. She thought his name was Devon, or something like that but couldn't remember at the moment. Cassie ignored him and turned to the pig.

While she carved roasts before, she never tried to carve a slice off a spitted animal in the middle of the woods. She wasn't quite certain how to proceed. Slowly she lifted the knife, looking for a spot to insert the blade. The silver caught the sun and gleamed.

She stopped thinking as though a switch was thrown in her mind, washing all of her concerns away with white noise. She plunged the knife into the pig, slicing off a strip. The meat came away easily, the knife moving as though the animal was merely soft butter. She felt a small electric thrill run through her as she leaned back, meat in one hand, knife in the other. She shivered with something other than cold, but she had no name for the sensation that filled her. It felt alien, otherworldly and not at all like her. Cassie lifted the meat to her lips and took a small bite. The meat was tender and succulent, the skin perfectly crispy. As she chewed, her mouth was filled with the taste of aromatic spices, and something sweet and tasting vaguely of apples. The white noise inside her faded away.

She swallowed her bite and took another from the strip she still held. The second bite signaled the others to join her in the feast and each leaned forward, knives sliding out of sheaths. The blades descended on the roast in glittering arcs of silver. After the first few bites, the others seemed to relax a little and the feel of ritual faded. It began to feel more like a strange sort of picnic. Cassie felt her own internal strangeness fading and exhaled with relief, feeling more like herself.

"It has been a while since we gathered like this, " Mikel said. "I almost forgot the taste."

"It was snowing last time, " Annabelle remarked.

"Glad there was no snow this time, " Devon, the surfer replied.

"I kind of miss the snow, " Mikel said between bites. "Gives it a bit more drama."

As Cassie had to be barefoot during the ceremony, she was pretty glad the only snow left on the ground was close to the tree boles in the deeper shadows. Even though her socks and shoes were returned to her, her toes were still a little chilly from the half frozen ground.

"I think Enki was enough drama, " Cassie replied. A few of those gathered chuckled.

"He won't be a problem now that he knows what you are, " Abraham assured her.

"And what am I?" Cassie couldn't help asking.

"One of us, " Mikel replied with a shrug. He leaned forward and cut another slice off of the pig. The knife looked just like a knife now, nothing special. Cassie tried not to frown as she wondered what changed. "Of course we don't know the details yet, " he continued. "But it should be interesting to see how it develops."

"Abraham said your sight was changing?" Anabelle asked. She took a bite of her portion and chewed as she waited for Cassie's response.

Cassie darted a glance towards Abraham. All her life he told her to keep what she saw to herself and she was uncertain about breaking that habit now.

"It's okay to tell them, " Abraham replied.

Jacob snorted. "His advice was to not tell anyone anything and to try and act normal, " he told the rest of the group.

"At the time it seemed like good advice, " Abraham replied.

Jacob opened his mouth to reply. "I swear you two bicker like old women, " one of the women in the group said. There was no sting to the comment, it was a simple matter of fact statement causing smiles in some and frowns on both Abraham and Jacob.

The woman who spoke was the one Cassie thought of as the dancer as she frequently watched her move through clubs. On the dance floor she became one with the music in a way Cassie found mesmerizing. While she hid her presence from the others sharing the dance floor with her, when she swung and her long braids or fingertips grazed those around her, the other dancers almost glowed with ecstasy and gave themselves fully to the music around them. Cassie couldn't remember hearing her name. As she spoke, both Abraham and Jacob glared at her. She smiled back at them and took another bite of the pork. Attention was once again focused on Cassie.

"Well, I always saw those with odd bits, like the tusks and beaks, feathers and snake eyes, " She began.

The vice principal of her high school, Mr. Babbin, also known as Ratatoskr had large curving tusks. Each time she saw him she had to remind herself not to see them. Oddly enough in the last few months, things like tusks and feathers became the least of the things she had to ignore.

"And then when I touch some of the others, I can see different places and get a ...sense of the person, " Cassie added. She blushed as she said the last part. The sensing of good bad or neutral always seemed a bit new-agey for her tastes. The others nodded as though accepting it as fact. She was pleased they didn't question her on it or laugh at her touchy feely description.

"That sight started recently?" Anabelle asked.

"No, that started a long time ago, " Cassie told them. "I think the invisibility might be new though. I can't remember having to pretend not to see people who others couldn't see at all before, just their odd bits like the feathers. And I've only been able to see the golden nets around the buildings since your...test, " she added. Her left hand clenched automatically at the memory and she forced herself to uncurl her fingers. If anyone noticed, they ignored it. "So that's new."

"There might not have been others hiding themselves here before, " Devon said.

"The area did become more populous after the gate opened, " Mikel replied. He looked to Cassie. "You didn't have anything to do with that did you?"

"Well, yeah, sort of, " Cassie admitted.

"I thought you hadn't been through the gate before your test?" Abraham asked.

"I hadn't been, " Cassie explained. "The first one I opened as a mistake actually."

"You mistakenly opened a gate?" Devon asked. His grin was wide and he looked as though he wanted to laugh, but was attempting to restrain himself.

"It was in a dream, " Cassie said. "I didn't think it was real."

"What happened in the dream?" Abraham asked.

"In the dream, I found myself in the district, " Cassie said. She decided to leave out the bouncing from lamppost to lamppost as she moved between the carved symbols. Something inside her didn't want to mention the symbols to the group, even though they had to know about them. Keeping secrets was too deep a habit to lose all at once. "The area where the gate was located started humming, so I hummed along with it and it opened."

"So you heard the gate then?" Mikel asked. "You didn't see it?"

"Not until it was open, then I could see in."

"Did you open the other gates?" Annabelle asked.

"Yes, " Cassie told her. "It seemed like the easiest way to get everyone to leave. After I opened the gate here, so many people came to the district that it was really hard to ignore them. Opening a gate and sending them elsewhere seemed like the best solution."

"Did you dream of the other gates too?" the dancer asked.

"Not exactly, " Cassie replied, uncertain how to explain the map room. She found the space in her sleep, but wasn't certain it was a dream.

"She found the nexus, " Jacob told the group. There were looks of surprise on all of the faces around the room.

"She found the nexus in a dream?" the dancer asked.

They all looked to her and Cassie nodded. "When I go to sleep I end up there most nights. I've been calling it the map room."

"Not a bad description, " Mikel replied nodding. "And if she's only been there in her sleep it explains how she was able to open the gates remotely. Even if it usually is the other way around."

"Do you mean I could go there when I was awake?" Cassie asked.

"Of course, " Mikel said. "Then you could travel places in person, physically instead of just mentally. Typically, you learn the physical first and then the mental route, but apparently you decided to go backwards."

"Oh, " Cassie replied, uncertain if it was a rebuke or not.

Abraham shook his head and frowned at Mikel. "That's the way Walkers learned to find the Nexus, when they could find it at all, which very few of them could."

"True enough." Mikel said amiably. He carved another piece off of the roast and Cassie noticed that the roast was starting to look a little ragged, bones showing through in places as the flesh was consumed. She took another piece herself and chewed slowly as the group continued to talk. Oddly after the first bite, her strange hunger faded away.

"We'll still need to see what abilities she is likely to develop, " Annabelle said.

"It might be interesting to be in town for a time anyway, " Devon said. He grinned wickedly as he carved off another slice of meat. "Especially as Enki and the others are still here. And if they do try anything it's an excuse to...play with them." The grin he flashed at the thought had a wicked edge. Cassie was surprised to see if flash across several other faces in the group including her grandfather's.

"I don't suppose there is a reason he calls you Cupcake is there? A nickname we should know about?" One of the others asked. Cassie couldn't remember his name and even in her weeks of silent observation only managed to see him twice as he favored remote wind swept places that tended to be far from the carved symbols she used to watch them through.

"Not exactly, " Cassie said. "The first time I met him I was in the bookstore in the district. The one owned by Ami Pi, and to keep from reacting to him and Skadi I pulled a book on cupcakes from the shelf. Since they seemed intent on hurting those they thought were Walkers and they thought Walkers would in no way be interested in cupcakes I held onto the book until they left." Cassie shivered remembering that first meeting. It was the first time she ever heard the term Walker and it was then that her world started to change. "I figured he never bothered to learn my name. He seems to give everyone nicknames."

"So it is not a name you chose or like?" Devon asked.

"No, " Cassie said. She thought of Enki's voice and how he often called her Cupcake when threatening her with violence or death. "Definitely not."

"Then we won't use it, " Annabelle said. She cast looks at the others, favoring Devon with a stern look.

He smiled and shrugged. "Cassie works well enough for me. Less formal than Cassandra."

"We'll have to set up a schedule to test her on various skills, " Mikel said.

"I have midterms this week, " Cassie told them. "Then winter break. It's a short three day week though."

"We will wait until winter break then, " he replied nodding. "That should give us time to work up a schedule. "You will still be working at Hestia's Bakery?"

"I would like to, " Cassie replied. "Unless she has a problem with me. I'm sure Enki will tell everyone that I'm...something now, even if that something isn't a Walker."

"We'll plan for you working in the Bakery and you can let us know if your employment ceases so we can adjust, " Mikel decided.

Cassie wasn't sure if he knew what would happen when Hester and the others heard Enki's news any more than she did. Inside, she felt a fluttering of nerves as the others discussed schedules. From their words it sounded like she would have a very busy winter break this year. Usually, it was quiet with her parents off to some exotic locale and her grandfather only stopping in occasionally to check on her. She usually used the solitude to practice more time consuming and elaborate recipes that she didn't have time to try at other points in the year. Somehow she didn't think she would have that luxury this year. She didn't know how she felt about that.

'I suppose it will depend on how painful the testing for skills turns out to be, ' she thought.

Discussions and arguments lasted until the pig was a pile of clean bones, each dropped into the pit when the flesh was consumed. The metal pole threaded through the center of the animal and the two supports were removed and Mikel quickly shoveled the dirt back over the bones, filling in the hole and patting it smooth. The others remained in place and as the last shovel of dirt fell, they looked to her. Cassie looked to Abraham.

"Place your right hand on the earth and bless the remains, " he told her.

"Bless?" Cassie asked.

Abraham smiled. "Say thanks for the meal. It does not need to be said aloud."

"Oh, " she said.

She noticed a couple of smirks on those surrounding her, but most of the faces looked curious. It was as if they were wondering what she would say, but somehow it felt like another test. Cassie leaned forward and placed her right hand on the dirt. Despite the chilled ground she could feel beneath her legs, this dirt felt warm. 'Maybe it's the coals, ' she thought.

Her hand sunk a little into the freshly turned earth. Despite the oddness of the request and the initial amusement at her questioning, the others now looked serious and she thought this too might be some sort of ritual. She felt the symbol in her hand pulse, a warm and comforting heat. She thought of her grandfather's request.

'Thank you for the meal, ' she thought, unsure if she was thanking the pig, the ground or whoever put the pig in the ground. She dismissed the thought and focused on her thanks. As her thoughts stilled, words floated across her brain. They seemed appropriate so she focused on them, saying them aloud even if her voice was barely a whisper.

"Thank you for this offering and I grant my blessing in return, " she said.

Her hand pulsed and she felt an odd sheering sensation as though something left her hand and went into the ground. She was startled enough that she rocked backwards pulling her hand from the dirt. The stillness inside her faded away and she wondered what happened. On the ground, her hand print could be clearly seen pressed into the dirt. The symbol she was growing familiar with seeing on her skin glittered brightly in the center as though written with a metallic gold ink pen.

She blinked and Cassie saw something pushing up through the center of her mark, distorting it. She frowned and leaned forward. Despite the winter cold earth, a seedling was sprouting from the center of the mark. At first it was a small dot of green, but with each heartbeat the sprout grew larger, sprouting tiny leaves and stretching upwards. It was like watching a film with time lapse photography, every time Cassie blinked the plant was bigger.

When the little seedling was developed into a small sapling, the base of which was the same size as the mark her palm left behind, it stopped growing. Cassie looked at the dirt. The mark was gone, taken up by the small tree. Oddly enough, her hand print still remained in the dirt around it. She saw her finger marks around the base of the trunk as though the tree was held in the palm of her hand.

"Well, that certainly settles it then, " Abraham said, a satisfied ring to his voice. "Definitely not a Walker."

Annabelle leaned forward and studied the tree. "Cherry, " she pronounced. "Interesting." She leaned back.

"Now what, " Cassie said, looking to Abraham.

"Now we get you home where it is warm, " he told her.

He, as well as the others, stood, and he offered her a hand, helping her to rise to her feet. As Cassie stood she wondered if the others saw the golden mark or like the other times it was visible only to her. As everyone began to walk away from the clearing Cassie turned her palm upwards and studied it. She brushed the clinging bits of dirt off of her hand and saw the symbol still on her palm. Even as she looked, the symbol faded until her hand looked normal. She shook her head and let her hand drop, following her grandfather back to his car.

Chapter 2

Everyone left the clearing and flowed into different vehicles. To her surprise, Jacob, carrying the mostly uneaten cake, joined her and her grandfather in his vehicle.

"What about the candles?" Cassie asked.

"Taken care of, " Abraham assured her. Cassie wasn't sure how they could be, but decided to let the matter lie. "Riding back with us?" Abraham asked Jacob.

"I am. Annabelle brought me, " he explained as he slid into the back seat, leaving Cassie the front passenger's seat. "And I have no doubt she will spend the entire drive back to town trying to figure out what a cherry tree signifies. Besides, I thought I could help carry the cake."

"Is the cherry tree important?" Cassie asked.

"No clue, " Jacob replied. "But she'll still worry over it. She's like that. Anabelle thinks everything has to have some sort of meaning. Not everything does you know. The world is just not that orderly."

"I could have carried the cake, " Abraham said as Cassie fastened her seatbelt.

At the edge of the woods, Cassie caught movement and she saw Enki hiding just inside the tree line. He was off to the side where there were fewer cars and no one else seemed to notice him. His eyes glittered as he scanned the departing crowd.

"Not while driving, " Jacob replied.

"Sure I could, " Abraham insisted. "I'd put it in the back seat."

"It would slide."

"I'd drive carefully."

Jacob snorted and opened his mouth, no doubt to comment on Abraham's driving.

"Enki is still in the woods, " Cassie said.

Both men stopped arguing about the cake and looked around. She tilted her head towards the section of trees. She kept the gesture small, not wanting Enki to know she spotted him, since he was clearly trying not to be seen. She watched Abraham's eyes narrow and saw he still wasn't looking exactly where Enki was standing. She swiveled in her seat to see that Jacob too was looking in the wrong spot.

"He's between the large pine and the ash that is tilted to the left, " Cassie told them. They adjusted their gaze. "You can't see him can you?"

"No, " Abraham admitted. Jacob likewise shook his head.

"Sight was never my gift, " Jacob replied.

Abraham stopped looking for Enki, started the car and backed out of the space. "He can do no harm here."

"He might just want to check out the space, " Jacob said. He turned away from scanning the woods a little more reluctantly than Abraham. "He has to be curious, after all this isn't an everyday occurrence."

Abraham snorted, but concentrated on the road as he drove instead of commenting.

"So I can see him now even when he pulls his super sneaky invisibility and not just when he is generally invisible?" Cassie asked.

Even though the sentence sounded strange to her ears, she had no other terms to explain it. There were a few times, like when he directly spoke to her, that Cassie knew she and everyone else could see Enki and those like him. There were other times when even though he spoke and at times lectured at length, he thought he was invisible to everyone and not specifically making himself visible, even though others like Skadi, and she assumed Abraham and Jacob, could still see him.

There were other times when he, and others, visited her home and she only knew of their presence by the odd smell in the house and the footprints in the thick pile of the carpet to let her know where they were standing. She thought of that as the super sneaky mode. She thought the others could see through that as well, but that didn't seem to be the case. She frowned wondering if Enki could sneak up on the others or if they would get the same feeling she did when she couldn't see them. When Enki pulled his invisibility routine, Cassie could still feel and smell his presence. He smelled like an electrical storm or burning wires and the hairs on her arm tended to stand up. She thought of it as a miniature version of the lightning ball at the science center.

Abraham smiled, even though he kept his eyes to the road. "It looks like, which means they at least won't be sneaking up on you."

Cassie blinked, her frown fading away. Even though she liked having her hair raising early warning system, actually seeing what Enki was doing when he thought she couldn't see him was a bonus.

'Even if he is harder to ignore that way, at least I won't wonder what he is doing.' Cassie thought.

"Although you might not want to let them know you can see them, " Jacob added. Cassie nodded. Keeping things to herself was second nature at this point.

"But he'll know I can see him if he isn't in the extra invisible mode now?" Cassie asked.

"Yes, " Jacob said. "They will all know they have to deliberately hide from you now if they don't want you to see them."

"Which won't actually help, " Abraham replied. "Clearly."

"True, " Jacob said.

"So, can I go invisible too or am I now visible since you took the blockers away before the ceremony?" Cassie asked.

While there were many times she felt overlooked because of the blockers, Cassie was used to gliding through her life unnoticed by the bulk of the people around her. She thought of Kelly and her animosity because she thought Cassie might be a threat to her quest to secure Eric as a boyfriend. Being completely visible would have its drawbacks.

"Midterms isn't exactly the best time for her to start noticing me again, " Cassie said, more to herself than anyone else.

"You'll actually be less noticeable now, " Abraham told her. "But we will put the blockers back on you when we get back to the house. We'll make them strong enough to get you through the rest of your school year and through graduation."

"You will?" Cassie said. She felt relief that at least one thing in her life would remain the same, even if it was being ignored by her classmates. There were already so many changes, it was nice to have one element of familiarity remain.

"It will help with your training, " Abraham told her.

"Training?"

"Yes, " Jacob confirmed with a nod. "Not only do you have your regular schooling to get through, but you will need to learn to control your abilities. You'll need to practice the things we can all do, like moving unseen or choosing to be seen as well as whatever abilities you personally develop."

"Oh, " Cassie said. While she couldn't remember a time when she didn't see strange things in the world, Cassie wasn't certain how she felt about extra abilities, about being one of the strange things. She looked at her hands wondering if they would start glowing like the symbol on her palm. Abraham noticed her study of her hands and chuckled.

"It's like having the ability to paint, " he told her. "You may be born with some innate ability, but you need to actually learn to paint. You won't become some sort of hulking superhero throwing fireballs around or anything."

"That's good, " Cassie said. She stopped studying her hands. Neither he nor anyone else noticed her hands glowing so she wasn't sure how accurate his statement was, but she was somewhat relieved to think that her abilities might not be all that dramatic. Having the ability to choose when she was visible and when she was unseen sounded good, tossing fireballs around just sounded dangerous.

'Although I suppose it would mean my survival pack would need fewer matches, ' she thought. She wondered how the new training would affect the lessons she was already taking from Oliver and Bes.

"So they are going to teach me to make myself invisible?" Cassie asked.

"You will learn that, but mostly we need to see what natural abilities you have, " Abraham told her.

"And who is the most like you, " Jacob added.

"Because they may be related to me?" Cassie asked. Cassie saw her grandfather's hands tighten on the wheel, gripping it until his knuckles bled white. He looked in the rearview and exchanged a glance with Jacob.

Cassie looked between the two men. "Are abilities not inherited, like genetically?" she asked.

Abraham sighed and relaxed his grip on the wheel. "I suppose that is as good an explanation as anything."

"You know we are going to have to tell her, " Jacob said.

"I know, " Abraham said. "It's just ancient history I never really thought I'd have to revisit."

"Pre-ancient actually, " Jacob said. He chuckled softly to himself. Abraham frowned. "Just being factually accurate, " Jacob added. "And if we don't tell her, she will ask someone else, like that oh so helpful fighting instructor of hers."

"Do you not like Oliver?" Cassie asked.

"It's not a matter of liking him, " Jacob told her. "It's that he doesn't actually know. It doesn't stop him from claiming he knows and explaining things, but he doesn't really know. He wasn't here then, none of them were."

"Like any of you actually explain anything, " Cassie replied.

Both men laughed. "I suppose we have rather been avoiding things haven't we? It becomes habit after a while. Never answering questions, " Abraham said.

He sighed again and focused on the road. Something in him changed and Cassie frowned trying to figure out what. Somehow he looked older, harder. It wasn't that he gained more wrinkles or gray hair, it was just a sense of...ancientness wafting off him like steam rising from a kettle, you knew the water beneath was hot even if you couldn't actually see it. Cassie shivered.

"The world was new when we came to be, " Abraham said. His voice carried the weight of millennia, the heaviness of the age pressing down on her and making Cassie want to rub her ears. "We wandered, each behaving as was our nature. Each seeking our own course and keeping our own council. Sometimes we came together, other times we dwelt in solitude. Then the others came."

Abraham paused and the silence stretched out. His eyes looked forward, but Cassie doubted he was actually looking at the road.

"The others, like Enki?" Cassie dared to ask.

"Like humans, " Jacob added.

Cassie looked over her shoulder at him and saw that he too was radiating age like an overly powerful perfume. His eyes looked like black coals punched into his face, the edges of them surrounded by the blue-white flame seen in the hottest fires. The sight wasn't scary, but she wasn't certain how to deal with it. She looked to Abraham who appeared to be pulling himself back from his silence. In his present state, Cassie found it hard to think of him as her grandfather any more.

"Like humans, " Abraham agreed. "They were interesting creatures. Entertaining. We found we could take their forms and walk among them. They did not have our abilities, but it was clear they were something different from the other animals. They could think and learn, change and grow. We befriended them, helped them, tormented them, played with them or destroyed them depending on our mood. We could be cruel and we could be kind, our decision to help or hurt decided in the moment and rarely consistent."

Cassie looked at him and saw a blush creep to his cheeks. He glanced over and smiled at her. "I did not say we were better than Enki and his kind, just that we were from here, while they were interlopers."

"This is our world, not theirs, but it doesn't really make us good and them bad, " Jacob added. "We can be both, and neither, so can they."

Cassie thought of the book she had hidden in her parent's library. It was small and sandwiched between several books that had nothing to do with it, as though it was hidden. The book was in Latin and she was slowly translating it, reading the stories claiming to be the oldest tales. The first story was very much like what Abraham and Jacob were telling her now, only from a human perspective, rather than from one of the others.

"You had children with them, " Cassie said, remembering how the book said the Walkers came to be. The book called them 'those who walk the paths'. Abraham started and the car edged out of the lane as he jerked the wheel.

"Yes, " Jacob answered, his voice tinged with amusement. "I think Abraham was just getting to that part."

"And the children were Walkers?" Cassie added, the few pieces she had of this puzzle starting to fit together as her book and their tale clicked together.

"I don't know why you complain that we don't explain things when you can figure them out on your own, " Abraham said, sounding more like her grandfather and causing her to smile.

He sighed heavily. "Yes, the children we had with the humans were called Walkers, " Abraham continued. "They had some of our abilities, but were limited. They couldn't alter their forms, but they had some of our skills. They were stronger at first, but as time passed and they mated with other humans, their blood... thinned and they lost many of those skills. They retained the ability to walk the paths, hence the name Walkers, and they could see and do things other humans couldn't, which often caused them to be labeled sorcerers, shamans, witches, or whatever the culture they were in called them."

"Some became leaders, " Jacob said, picking up the story. "Some were shunned or killed for their abilities. We helped when we could, sometimes. Eventually they sort of came together as a group and hid what they were from the other humans."

"We think that might be how you were born, " Abraham told her.

Cassie frowned. "Because they came together?" she asked.

"In a sense, " he said offering her a smile. "When they separated themselves, they took their families and became a community. Those Walkers whose ancestors were my children lived side by side with those who were descended from Jacob, and Anabelle and the others like us. Some of them married outside the community, bringing in fresh blood every generation or two, other Walkers married and had children with Walkers."

"Increasing the amount of blood their children got from you?" Cassie guessed.

"Exactly, and the others. So one Walker could be descended from both me and Jacob, and Annabelle, and Devon and others after enough generations, " Abraham said.

"Of course they stopped believing they were related to us long ago, well before they formed communities and started keeping records, " Jacob added. "Their records told them that we weren't like the others, something the strongest of them could feel, so they tolerated us occasionally, when we were behaving, but they did not believe we were kin."

"Then they stopped tolerating us, " Abraham added. His voice sounded sad.

"That's when the Purge happened?" Cassie asked. Everyone mentioned the genocide that killed the Walkers, but Cassie hadn't really managed to get many facts about it.

"This was several hundred years before the Purge actually, " Abraham told her. "By the time of the Purge, the fact that we were different was a footnote in their history and as we stayed away from them for the most part, not a footnote most of them believed."

"Most of the footnotes even hinting at such a fact were expunged from the records by then anyway. The zealots took over and we were grouped with those to be eliminated, excised back to the place of our origin." Jacob laughed. There was a hard, bitter edge to it. "The others can't open and close the gates you see, only we and the Walkers could do that."

"So what happened when they tried to banish you?" Cassie asked.

"We went through the gate they opened, let them think they had done a good job, then when they left, opened the gate and came back, " Abraham told her. "I was banished quite a lot before I decided to just stay away for a bit."

"So because I can open the gates I'm like you, but I'm not a Walker because I didn't lose my hand in the test?"

"Well with each generation most of the blood we passed to them was diluted with more and more regular human blood. What we think happened is that at some point a strong Walker decided to have children with another strong Walker. Those children grew up and again looked for strong Walkers to mate with. We think this process continued long enough that instead of diluting the blood, it concentrated it."

"We know from her acolytes that your mother was strong, very strong and that even though she preferred study and academics to leadership and combat, her parents and grandparents were strong leaders within the Walker communities. We think that she might have been strong enough to be very much like those first Walkers. If she chose a mate of equal or greater strength, then there could have been a tipping point, making you more like us than them. It pushed you over the line so to speak."

"They said she was having trouble holding her form, " Jacob said. His voice sounded far away.

"She was?" Abraham said. He sounded surprised. "They didn't tell me that."

"You were seeing to the arrangements while I looked after them. They thought Cassie's father had the same problem, which is why they were put together. It was thought that they would produce a child that would equal the stories of old, " Jacob smiled. "Little did they know."

"Put together?" Cassie asked.

"Their union was arranged I believe, " Jacob said.

Cassie looked at her hands as if they would suddenly change shape. Abraham turned the car into her driveway. Cassie barely registered that they reached her house.

"I don't have a problem holding form, " Cassie said.

"It's part of the protection we gave you, " Abraham told her. He turned off the engine. "To make you look like everyone else. Although, you were only blurring a little around the edges before then."

"Blurring?" Cassie asked.

"We'll make sure you can control it, " Jacob added.

"Did my parents turn into other things? Will I turn into something else?" Cassie asked. She looked up and shifted her gaze from one man to the other looking for answers.

"Alan said they could become trees, " Jacob said. "He didn't give me any other details. In fact I'm certain he felt bad about giving me those details. I think he believed it was a betrayal."

"And seeing what you could turn into is part of the tests, " Abraham told her. "Clearly if they were concentrating the blood lines you will more than likely be related to one or more of us, which may give you some abilities. And then since you clearly are one of us, you might have abilities that are just yours and not something we share."

"It should be fun to figure out, " Jacob said. Cassie saw his eyes flare and remembered their story or amusing themselves with the humans around them. Cassie realized at the moment that whatever else she was, now, she was their latest amusement.

Chapter 3

As Cassie went inside, followed by Jacob and Abraham, she wondered what being the source of their amusement would bring. Jacob placed the left over cake on the kitchen island while she slipped off her coat and hung it in the front hall closet. From the depths of the overcoats, she saw Herman her sparring dummy staring back at her. She made a face at him and closed the door. Neither Jacob nor Abraham removed their coats, clearly not intending to stay.

"All right, " Abraham said. "The blocker so normal life can resume for your midterms and final semester. This won't hurt, " he promised as he saw her tense up. Cassie nodded, her mouth suddenly dry. Abraham placed both of his hands on her head. She felt the cool swish of rain and was surprised to find herself dry when he pulled his hands away from her head. Jacob repeated the procedure and this time she felt an intense wash of heat as though she stepped into the center of a bonfire.

He lifted his hands and she was surprised her hair wasn't burned to a crisp. Cassie shook her head, feeling dazed as both men moved to the front door.

"Lock this door behind us, " Abraham warned. Cassie nodded and the two of them slipped outside before she could do anything else. She moved to the door and looking out of the window pane, she saw the car with the two of them inside pull out of her driveway.

"At least I saw them leave this time, " Cassie said, letting the curtain slide over the glass. She locked the door. Usually when her grandfather left, he merely walked out of the door and disappeared. "I suppose that's progress, but it might be because he had the car with him." Until today, Cassie never saw a vehicle. "Maybe he can't make the car disappear."

Her brain felt full from the events and the information and Cassie wasn't entirely certain what she believed. The information seemed too fantastical, but she lived with more or less fantastic elements cropping up throughout her life.

Cassie crossed the living room and walked up to the thermostat. For as long as they lived in this house, the thermostat was set for sixty degrees as it was more comfortable for the old books and artifacts her parents brought home, or at least that was what she was told. When her parents were at home, which wasn't often given their frequent travels to accumulate the books and artifacts they stored in the house, the temperature in the house was raised to seventy degrees.

Recently she found that the thermostat was just programmed for 'Away' when they weren't in residence. When Cassie left the house, she set the thermostat for the standard sixty, but when she was home she turned it back to seventy, forcing the thermostat at least to register that she was in fact in the house. Small though it was, Cassie still felt as though declaring her presence was a victory. She adjusted the thermostat letting it know she was home. The system clicked and a moment later warm air was gusting through the vents, taking the chill off of the interior.

Smiling to herself, Cassie moved to her bedroom. When left to her own devices, Cassie took down the carefully selected framed prints her mother Carolyn and the designer she hired, placed on her walls. In their place she pinned maps. Some were modern, some old, some reproductions of ancient maps showing long vanished civilizations. When Enki proclaimed Walkers loved maps and Skadi decided an inspection of her home was a worthwhile endeavor, Cassie took down her maps, hiding them away, and placing the framed prints back on the wall. The generic prints made Cassie feel like she was living more in a hotel room rather than in her own space.

"Maybe now that things are settled, I can put the maps back up, " Cassie told herself. "If they are settled."

Unease fluttered in her belly now that she was not surrounded by those who would prevent Enki from harming her. Cassie untied the cords holding the knife in its sheath to her and placed it on her night stand. She stared at it for a moment, then opened the drawer and slipped it inside, making certain it was buried under the notebook she had stashed there. She closed the drawer feeling better now that the knife was concealed, although she couldn't explain why.

"Abraham put new lock on the kitchen door and that was the only door whose lock Enki could pick." She reminded herself as she moved to her closet, shoving thoughts of the knife away. When she dressed for the morning, Cassie didn't know what to expect and dressed in layers, leaving the outside layer looking as nice as possible. She slipped off her heeled boots, but left on her socks.

She knew that her feet were still dirty from standing barefoot on the ground and she didn't want to leave dirty footprints on the carpet.

'He added something extra to the lock too, ' Cassie remembered as she began peeling off her layers. When she was down to just her underwear, Cassie chose a comfortable pair of jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt from her clothing, moved to her dresser and retrieved clean underwear and a thick pair of fuzzy socks from the drawer and went into the bathroom.

Despite the warm food, Cassie still felt cold all the way down to her bones. "Probably running around barefoot then kneeling on the cold ground to eat that did it, " she decided. The knees of her jeans showed the dirt where her weight pressed them into the ground. Her legs beneath felt slightly damp, the moisture from the ground soaking through the fabric.

In the bathroom she closed and locked the door and leaned into the shower to start the spry so the water could warm up before she went in. While it warmed, Cassie dropped the rest of the clothes into a pile. As she thought, there was dirt pressed into the soles of her feet. "At least they match the jeans."

Cassie stepped into the spray and after washing off the dirt, she just stood under the warm water, letting the heat sink into her bones. As the water thawed her out, Cassie tried to order her thoughts.

Most of the others she met took the names of ancient gods, or names that were similar enough to ancient gods that if you jiggled the letters around enough you might be able to pull an ancient god from a list and match it to them. Hestia became Hester, Bes became Bert and Oghma of the Trí Dé Dána became Oliver Dana. It was hiding in plain sight, if it was hiding at all. Some of them, like Enki and Skadi, didn't bother changing their names at all.

"Of course they only used them when they thought I couldn't hear them, " Cassie reminded herself as she reached for her shampoo. "Maybe they introduce themselves as Bob and Sally when they go out. Or maybe Ernie and Suzie."

The thought brought a smile to her lips as she lathered her hair with suds. Given the contempt he seemed to feel for nearly everyone, whether human, Walker or other, she doubted he introduced himself as anything, let alone Bob or Ernie. "The one time he talked to me directly he didn't bother giving me a name, or asking mine, " She remembered. "Hence the Cupcake."

Cassie rinsed out the shampoo and reached for the conditioner. Her grandfather and those like him didn't use the names of gods like the others, but regular names that they changed out periodically. She knew that Jacob was Henry before and Annabelle was once called Christine. When she met Jacob in the map room, or nexus, after swearing her to secrecy, he confessed that he was once known as Fire and that her grandfather Abraham was known as Rain.

"And there was the storm, " Cassie thought as she worked the conditioner into her wet locks. The week before Abraham, Jacob, Oliver and Bert all arrived at the same time. The sky was gray and over cast when they arrived. As Abraham's temper grew, a storm arrived. When his temper abated, the storm backed off.

"It could be coincidence, " she tried telling herself as she rinsed the conditioner from her hair. Somehow she didn't believe it. 'Maybe they are some sort of elemental type beings, ' Cassie thought, unwilling to say the thought out loud, even when she knew she was alone. 'After all they didn't say they created the world.' She thought about what they told her.

"The world was young when they came to be, " she repeated as she picked up her mesh scrubby and squirted a little of her apple blossom shower gel onto it. "Personally, I like elementals better than the thought of gods, " Cassie decided as she worked the gel into a lather. "Although I could see how ancient man might have worshiped them thinking they were gods. That storm was pretty impressive. If he did make it."

As Cassie continued bathing, she realized that she didn't find the concept as laughable as before. Today, at times, both Abraham and Jacob felt ancient to her in ways she couldn't really explain. They seemed almost heavy with age rather than lined by it.

"They said they could change forms, " Cassie said as she rinsed the last of the suds from her body. "I wonder if they chose to look like old men then or if they can just become trees or birds or something."

Cassie turned off the water and pulled the towel from the rack. She dried herself, then wrapped the large bath towel around her body as she picked up a smaller towel to dry her hair. 'My parents could become trees, ' she thought as she rubbed her hair dry.

The thought sat oddly in her mind. Until recently she didn't really think much about trees. They were just there. Her house was surrounded by a thick layer of them, separating her house from the others in the neighborhood and making her feel like she lived alone in a forest. When she was little she pretended she lived in an enchanted forest, but it was always the things in the forest that her imagination gave the enchantments, not the trees themselves.

Then Oliver decided to help her with her survival and nature lessons. Part of those lessons involved learning to differentiate between the different types of tress. Since he and Bert were also helping her with learning Latin, he made her learn both the common and Latin names of the trees so she now not only knew that the trees around her house consisted of oak, maple and spruce, she knew that the oaks were of the genus quercus, the maple of acer and the spruce of the fraxinus.

"He still hasn't said why he is so fascinated by the yew and the elder trees, " Cassie mused as she hung up the towel and began to dress. When he visited, Cassie noticed Oliver placing a hand reverently on the trunks of the yew and elder trees and murmuring what she thought might be some sort of prayer.

After dressing, Cassie finished drying her hair with the hair dryer and left it down as she gathered her dirty clothes in her arms and left the bathroom. The clothes were dropped into the hamper and Cassie went into the kitchen.

The cake was as Jacob left it and she sliced herself a small second piece, before moving it into the fridge. This time, she placed the slice on a plate and took a fork from the drawer. She leaned against the kitchen island as she ate the cake, savoring each bite instead of rushing through it.

Despite the events of the morning, it was still early. Her grandfather came to get her well before dawn. The sunrise ceremony lasted only long enough for the sun to move past the horizon. Even with Enki's appearance, Mikal and Devon brought the pig out of the ground when the sun still hadn't banished all of night's shadows. The whole of the day stretched before her.

From her position, Cassie could see out of the small window in the back door. A light breeze teased the trees into a dance and she could see some of their branches waving through the air. Trees on her mind, Cassie finished her cake and set the fork and plate down. She walked over to the window and looked into the yard.

From where she stood, Cassie could just make out the yew and elder trees shivering in the wind. Most mornings, she started her day standing between them, the spot marking the start of her morning run. Beyond that, she didn't really think much about them. They were just trees. Now as she looked she could see there was something odd about them. She couldn't quite figure out what was different, but there was something about them that didn't feel the same. Deciding to take a look, Cassie moved to her bedroom, slipped her feet into her running shows, laced them tightly and slipped on a heavy sweatshirt before letting herself into the garden.