Free Rivulet by Jamie Magee Page B

foundation, so it would give you the courage to face what this life would put before you. You are a Falcon, Genevieve. You always have been, and you always will be.”
    She was confusing me. Everyone was made to feel like they were of lineage, but she was stating it as if it were fact. She was answering the questions I never dared to ask her: who I was named after, if I looked like the original Genevieve, if she thought it were possible that I was her, then and now. And she answered yes to each of them.
    “I have no doubt I was born on these grounds or that I have seen my image in the memories this manor has, but I have never understood where I came from. How I got here. What fate is leading me to.”
    “Fate brought you home,” she said as her eyes raced across mine. “You couldn’t know this, and I hated that I could not tell you for so many years, but your birth mother did say something before she died, just before your adopted mother brought you back to life.”
    “Back to life? I know I would have died if Mom didn’t show up when she did, that I may have even been meant to die. What do you mean ‘back to life’?”
    “You weren’t breathing,” Gran said as her eyes glistened with tears. “Your mother had to cut the cord, clear your passageway and rub warmth into you. Precious seconds, maybe even minutes passed, but you finally cried.”
    “What did my birth mom say?” I asked, trying not to cry, knowing it would cause her tears to flow. She never really got over losing my parents in that boating accident. I think a part of her died that day, too.
    “She said that you were one of seven, that you’re hidden by a veil.” She smiled widely. “I knew then that you were home. You had found your way home.”
    I furrowed my brow at her, wondering how healed she actually was. She wasn’t making sense and I had to wonder if maybe the stroke had damaged her beyond the grasp of any overnight miracle.
    “I have real, live brothers or sisters? Is that what you’re saying?”
    “No,” Gran said as she caught a tear that was trying to escape her eyes.
    “Then what am I one of seven of?”
    Her wise eyes rapidly moved across my fearful expression. “When your birth mother said that, she was gazing at the constellation of Taurus, to the Pleiades.”
    “Stars. I’m…I’m lost here, Gran.”
    “I know you are, but you will find your way. I believe you are one of seven very special people that will move this universe, that will bring more change than your parents could have by adopting lost souls.”
    “Gran, maybe you need to lay down. Maybe you shouldn’t be moving around this much, this soon.”
    She looked down and smiled tenderly. “I’m well. I’m at peace. I finally told you what that stroke would not allow me to. Genevieve, this is your home. Defend it, hold on to the fire in your chest, and trust that it will save you from this grief, trust that you are a part of an army that will rise to bring balance in this dark world.”
    My eyes grew wide as she said ‘dark world.’ It was a casual statement, but it reminded me of the conversation I’d so recently heard in the North Wing.
    My head started to spin. I really did feel like I was in a dream.
    A knock at the door halted me from telling her that I was in love with the boy lost in my past, of asking her how she knew that before she ever led me there so long ago.

     
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
    Standing on the threshold was a man I’d never seen before. He was younger and looked a lot like the images I’d seen of my grandfather, the one and only love Gran ever had.
    “I have to go now,” Gran said as she squeezed my arm once more.
    “Where are you going? The weather is horrible, you need your rest.”
    “There are a lot of things I want to see once again, a fresh snow is one of them.”
    “Who is that?” I whispered, nodding to the door.
    “A welcome sight.” She cupped her hand on my cheek. “I’ll see you soon, dear, but make sure