Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 10 - The First Summit of the End of the World - IV

  "I trust this meeting will be kept confidential?" Rowan asked pointedly, looking at Gordon Merrill.

  "Of course, of course," Gordon replied excitedly. "This won't appear in any paper. I'm writing this down for my memoirs. Someday that'll sell like wildfire."

  "What is this meeting, anyway?" Neffie asked.

  "A peace summit," said Cinza. She stretched out her legs, which barely reached the floor, relaxing after the stress of the town hall. She removed her hood, and a moment later, a line of bright silver snaked up her hair as it shifted from pure grey to her natural brown, to gasps of shock from the newly aware.

  "Would you quit showing off?" Ryan said, gently kicking her chair under the table.

  Cinza laughed, which was even stranger in her echoing voice. "I'm just reminding them who they're dealing with."

  "Enough," Rachel said sharply, and to her relief they fell silent. "Mr. Mayor, I—"

  "Rowan, please," he replied. He smiled weakly. "By all rights it sounds as though you're as much in charge of this town as I am. We may as well start treating each other more equally."

  "Rowan," Rachel started again. "I'm grateful for what you said back there, but you know it won't hold sway with everyone."

  "Oh, undoubtedly. The gossips will still gossip, though news isn't likely to travel outside Rallsburg. Robert was correct, very few people ever leave this town. We're quite contained here."

  Rachel nodded. "That's not my gravest concern."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Salem," Cinza answered simply.

  Rachel inclined her head at the girl. "As much as none of us want to voice it, there is still a great aversion to the supernatural in the world. We might live in modern, enlightened times, but those only came about because the scientists all proved that witchcraft wasn't real. There's honestly no way to predict how people will react when confronted with the real, undeniable thing."

  "I think it went over pretty well," Rowan countered. "Everyone seemed to leave in good spirits. And let's not forget that this is still Rallsburg. Most people here just want to be left alone. We simply don't have drama."

  "For now," Rachel said. "But that was a small taste. A candle and a butterfly. What happens when they're forced to confront something more dangerous?"

  "How's this any different than someone roaming around with a gun?" Preston Bowman interjected. "It's not like anyone with a hunting rifle is automatically dangerous."

  Cinza held up her hand in response, and despite her diminutive size, the mundane half of the table flinched away. "What about a weapon you can never take away, one that's always at our fingertips and dramatically more destructive and versatile? Where I can snap my fingers—" which she did, and moments later a ring of bullets appeared in mid-air floating above her thumb, "—and in a moment snuff out more lives than any single gun."

  She closed her fist sharply, rolling her fingers between each other as she did, and the bullets flew straight at the neck of each person present with deadly accuracy and terrifying speed.

  Gordon Merrill shrieked, falling over backwards in his chair. Jackie and Rowan had both ducked, while Neffie and Preston Bowman were frozen in terror. An instant before reaching their targets, each vanished, leaving only a brief sparkle of light before disappearing entirely. Ryan and Rachel had not moved an inch, knowing Cinza's illusions for what they were.