Sospi Tare: Swirling Secrets, #2

By Rosie Zayne

Magnhild, is still a freak.

It's much easier to be a freak, however, if you are able to be confident in who you are. Magnhild has found the path to confidence and finding herself, with the help of her friends.

While the Sospi Tare are persistently attacked, Magnhild struggles to find her strength, and keep her new family safe.

Some questions are answered, while shadows grow darker, and more secrets arise.

Will she learn to harness her powers in time, or will she fall prey to her past, and the Desi Pere?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosie Zayne
• Release date: Oct 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393009719

Book preview

Prologue

Two years ago, my life turned upside down. I started out as a bored, angry senior in high school, counting the days until a diploma told me I could be on my own.

Fate, laughed in my face. She gave me a new path, littered with lies, danger, and a good dose of everything you believed was wrong, and you’re more screwed up than you thought.

See, I had finally made a friend. For the first time since I was in elementary school, I had someone who cared about me, without the desire to make fun of my odd look, and wacky personality. Lesley simply wanted to be friends, and I needed one, as badly as I didn’t want to admit it at first.

Then a Friday came along, where all hell broke loose. Three guys claimed to know my mother. A mother who, until that moment, I’d thought to be dead.

Long story short, I naively believed them, ignored all the stranger danger lectures we hear as kids, and let them take me to a secret militaristic base. They basically kept me as a prisoner, dangling a missing-but-still-living mother in front of me, to keep me compliant.

They tricked me, lied to me, and used me.

Why would they go through all that for a goofy teenage girl? Well, I’m...weird. I can do things most people can’t. Supernatural things. I hate it, but what can ya do - I can’t change it any more than I can change my silver hair or green eyes. Hide it, yes, but not change it deep down.

The people I chose to trust, the Desi Pere, are one side of an underground group of people, fighting for humanity. The other side, the Sospi Tare, is where Lesley ended up originating from. While she did want to be my friend, there was an ulterior motive to it. In my life, there always seems to be another shoe to drop, as they say.

I had foolishly chosen to believe and trust in the Desi Pere. Mainly though, my trust was in a group of D.P. hell-hounds: Sar and Breasal, led by Gedeon. Sar is now in Kansas with no memory, and Gedeon is, well, probably still pissed as hell at me. I kind of attacked him...with lightening. It’s a long story.

Breasal has abandoned the D.P., breaking free of their hold on him. The D.P. leader, Commander Forrester, is a sadistic, psycho killer, Hitler-wanna-be lunatic that neither of us could stand following another minute. Oh, he’s also Breasal’s father.

See, big year. The climax to the drama, was the day we actually found and rescued my mother, escaped Forrester’s base, and fled for our lives. We got away, and have now been on the run for nearly a year.

It’s difficult, and nerve-wracking, but we’re still alive. More importantly, we’re still free.

We work every day to find the Sospi Tare, and it’s leader, Phil. We have to warn him.

Breasal knows his father’s plans. He knows what’s coming, and if we can’t find Phil before the new year, the world as we know it, will come to an end.

I wonder what shoe will drop this time, and if we’ll survive it.

~ Chapter 1 ~

Out Of Options

I THOUGHT THINGS WOULD be different. I thought they would be cleaner...fluffier. I thought we’d be like that family I used to envy. I thought...I don’t know what I was thinking.

What was I thinking?

I’ll probably never figure out what delusion I had been under two years ago. I thought having a mother would be wonderful - far better than my father had been. Chalk it up to a lonely, naive little girl, I suppose.

I try not to think about it. I try to live in the moment, and keep moving forward. In the daylight, when there are people around, that works just fine. It’s solitude that drags my mind down. Especially the dark of the night, where I can’t escape my thoughts. They become like monsters under my bed, waiting for me to lay down, alone and vulnerable, tearing my mind to shreds.

I thought my mother would be some wonderful fantasy. It was just that though, a fantasy. She’s nothing like I thought she’d be. When I used to wish I’d been left with her instead of my father, sure she’d make a better parent than he did, I never imagined I’d be so wrong. Finding out she was alive, that I could save her, clouded my mind. The desire to experience the one thing I’d never been able to have growing up made me stupid.

Don’t get me wrong, she’s nothing like my father had been - she is different. She’s just not everything I’d built her up to be. She’s another messed up adult, with her own set of problems. She’s human, and I hadn’t been prepared for that.

She had been locked up for years, a prisoner of Commander Forrester, and his band of demented followers. The Desi Pere did a fantastic job of tricking me, twisting my life inside out. I can’t completely blame them though - I was an idiot. I trusted them so easily, it makes my stomach lurch even thinking about it now. So young, so trusting, and so stupid. I got exactly what I deserved.

The problem is, I hurt a lot of people along the way. As my life tore itself apart, I dragged a lot of people down with me.

Attacking Gideon was a necessary evil, and while I hate the fact I hurt someone who spent so much time keeping me safe, I can’t say I would do anything differently. He chose his side, and while I was in their group without all the info, he knew what he was doing, and was a part of the D.P voluntarily. He wasn’t ignorant, and it needed to be done. I had to get away from him. I’m sure he wants to kill me now - I’ll have to face that, and soon.

Phil and Lesley though, they did not deserve my attacks. I had no idea where they were now, and apparently their entire complex has disappeared. Everything is gone - buildings, trees, even the garden. It’s like it was never there. I’m positive I found the correct place, and so is Breasal. He saw the coordinates during the original strike, and he helped attack the Sospi Tare while I was locked up there.

Wherever they went, it will be damn near impossible to find them now.

That’s what we’ve been doing - searching for the Sospi Tare. They are our only hope to surviving Forrester and the D.P. He is searching for us, and we can’t get caught.

See, the big twist is, Breasal is Forrester’s son - a fact I didn’t know for most of the time I was working with him. Forrester had spent nearly twenty years disappointed and ashamed of Breasal for, well, having a heart and soul. He lacks the killer spirit of his father, and is by default a defunct D.P. Luckily for us, and the S.T., he knows his father’s plans.

The problem is, Phil doesn’t. He has no idea, and if we don’t find him before Forrester does, the world will end. Unfortunately, Forrester is far more equipped to find the S.T., giving him a major advantage. We barely have the ability to buy new shoes, much less fight a well-funded group of lunatics with satellites and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment.

If only I could contact Lesley somehow. I could apologize - I’m sure she’d understand. I thought to myself for the hundred time, laying in bed, staring at the ceiling I knew was above me.

My thumbs fidgeted as my teeth ground, my body stressed from my mind’s non-stop worrying. I’ve got to find them.

I heard a crash in the kitchen, jumping and shrieking as my train of thought was violently derailed. Rushing to the little kitchen, I saw Lillyana cleaning up a broken drinking glass.

Are you alright? I asked, kneeling down to help pick up the bigger chunks.

Yes yes, I’m fine. She sighed, aggravated. She didn’t sleep much either, and I knew she was tired.

What happened? I asked, going to the closet to get the broom.

Nothing, just an accident. She waved me off, not wanting to talk. She rarely ever wanted to talk.

Ok... I said to her back as she left me to clean up the rest of the glass.

I can’t wait for Breasal to get back.

He was gone again, searching for any clues to finding the S.T. Since he actually had experience searching for this particular secret society, he was really the only one who knew how to find them. More than that, he was the only one of us who didn’t stick out in a crowd, besides his size. That was less noticeable compared to my mother and I though, and the best option we had.

I remembered the first time we were able to stop running - stuck in a dumpy motel, Breasal having just enough money on him to pay for a room and food for a couple of days. It gave us a chance to figure out our next move. For me, it gave me a chance to really see Lillyana.

We had convinced the motel owner to let us have some clothes from the lost and found which basically consisted of random articles of clothing he’d found left in rooms, all thrown into a plastic bin in his back closet. I doubted many people who came here, would come back looking for clothes. Luckily, neither did the owner. He also seemed to take pity on Lillyana - her clothes were torn, her hair a mess, and she was dirty from head to toe. He let her have her pick of clothes, and she pulled several pieces out for me as well. Nothing in the bin would fit Breasal’s huge body, and even though she apologized, he simply waved her off and led us to our room.

We washed the clothes with soap in the sink, dried them with an ancient blow drier we found in the bathroom, and let Lillyana shower first. She seemed rather refreshed when she came out of the bathroom, the dirt off her face and rags off her bones.

While she was alarmingly skinny, the resemblance to me was obvious. She had the same silvery-white hair, intense green eyes, and ghost white skin. Her eyebrows though, weren’t black like mine - they were white, like our hair. Other than that, we looked nearly identical. I had been so relieved that day, to see the undeniable similarities.

That was all we seemed to have in common.

Her personality was far different from my own, as was her temperament. She was blunt and bold, verging on rude. Her mood swings gave me whiplash, and her emotional outbursts were frightening. To avoid fighting, neither of us talked much. I even had a difficult time calling her mom or my mother and usually just referred to her by her name.

After escaping the D.P. Fort, we’d spent the first three months living in the forest, Breasal and I each having a hunting knife to catch food with. I was back to sleeping on leaves and twigs...again. It had been cold, and the winter was difficult. Most of the energy Breasal and I had we spent trying to keep Lillyana alive. She had been so weak already, and getting out of the fort used most of her energy. After that, I carried her telepathically most of the time, while she slept. My energy drained quicker than I was used to, and we had to sleep every night. Breasal and I knew we could travel for several days on only a few hours of sleep - we’d done it before. While she slowed us down, we didn’t resent her, simply made the best of it.

She, however, was constantly grumpy at the fact we hadn’t formed a better plan before rescuing her, or, as she said, dragging her to a new hell on the run. Most nights were spent listening to her complain herself to sleep, listing her resentments, while Breasal and I simply stared up at the stars.

He didn’t talk to me much either, then or now. I could tell he had a lot on his mind, and was sure most of it had to do with his father, and the D.P. plans. That, and how to find the S.T.

Most of the time, I spent on my own. Even when we were all three together, I was lost inside my own mind, or off walking somewhere. I had a lot to figure out and think about, and most of the time simply stressed about what to do next.

We had found a few clues here and there, giving us new places to go. Each seemed to lead to a dead end, leaving us twiddling our thumbs, frustrated and lost once again.

Running for a year had gotten us used to apartment hopping, or rather, town hopping. We sold things, washed windows, and did random work where we could, but past that, most money came from robbing banks. I didn’t like it, but Lillyana’s complaining would peak after a few months sleeping in forests and parks, and we’d decide it was worth it.

We’d found ways to scrounge money in this town, and had managed to rent a crappy little apartment, complete with one bedroom, a cracked ceiling, and leaky faucet. I didn’t care much though, as it was still better than freezing outside again, seeing as it was October already.

Today, I simply left Lillyana alone. After the glass breaking in the kitchen, she locked herself in her room. I had no idea what she did in there all the time, locked away on her own.

You’d think she would want to be around people. Or at least, me. Why doesn’t she want to be around me?

My mind wandered as I washed a load of dishes, letting them dry on a rack on the counter. We’d learned the art of stretching a tiny bit of money pretty far, keeping bills down and eating light. Washing dishes always helped calm me down, my cold hands soaking up the warmth of the soapy water.

As I finished rinsing the last plate and setting it to dry, I heard the front door open and close. Breasal.

I greeted him in the living room, drying my hands as I walked. How’d it go?

He grumbled something I couldn’t understand, throwing his jacket on the floor in the corner - we had very little furniture, and made use of organized piles for our meager belongings.

He paced a little, obviously frustrated. Before I got the chance to repeat my question, he blew up.

I’m not getting anywhere here. There is nothing! I don’t know where the hell they are, and I’m not going to find anything else. Every lead is cold.

There has to be something. Maybe we could-

There is nothing. Not here, not anywhere. I have run out of ideas. We are stuck.

We simply stared at each other, both wrestling with the displeasing idea of accepting it.

There’s only one thing I can think of. He said quietly, running fingers through his long hair. His eyes met mine for a moment, and I knew what he was thinking. Before I got out my inevitable protest, he cut me off. Magnhild, we have to do something. I can’t think of anything else we can do - we don’t have enough information.

If we go back there, they will catch us.

I know. He said quietly, still working it out in his mind. The high school is the only clue we have left. I know it’s dangerous, but-

Dangerous? I felt my temper bubbling. It’s suicide! I didn’t go through all this just to get caught by those maniacs again! Gideon will be expecting us - he will expect us to go back there.

Yes, because he knows there is something to find! His temper was bubbling as well.

Lesley won’t be there - there is nothing to find!

Bull. She had friends, and she didn’t travel hours every day to the S.T. base. She lived somewhere, and where ever that is may have some clues.

I watched him for a moment, digesting his words.

Look, I don’t want to get caught any more than you do. If my dad gets a hold of me, he will kill me, no questions asked. It is a possible suicide, for all of us. But if we want to find the S.T., then it’s our only option. Otherwise, we may as well give up, and find a way to live as clueless normal humans, helpless to what’s coming.

I didn’t like it, but I knew he was right. Holding the bridge of my nose, I let out a sigh.

He’s right, Maggie. We have to go back to where this all started. Lillyana had emerged from her room.

I glanced at her, and simply nodded. Alright.

WE PACKED OUR THINGS quickly, planning to leave first thing in the morning. The apartment was paid for through the end of the month, but that didn’t matter much. We’d leave the key on the landlord’s door, and be done with this ruddy little town. We’d never be back, that’s for sure.

I didn’t sleep much, and I doubt the others did either. If I did manage drift off, my mind would be invaded by horrible nightmares. I’d shoot straight up in my bed, my eyes wide with horror, body drenched in sweat.

Around four in the morning, I gave up trying to sleep. I did a final clean up of the kitchen and bathroom, showered quickly, and repacked all my things a couple times, anxious to leave.

Why be anxious to go to your own death? That’s just weird. I thought, zipping my backpack shut for the third time, swallowing the butterflies trying to escape my stomach.

I hadn’t realized anyone else was up, the creaking of the wall behind me unexpected. My shriek got a chuckle from Breasal, as he leaned on the still creaking wall.

Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.

You know, you say that ever time. And yet, you still do it. I rolled my eyes, irritated and embarrassed to have been caught off guard.

What would you like me to do, then? Hm? He asked, still amused. His enormous arms were folded over his massive chest, taking up the entire space of the door.

I dunno, clear your throat or something. Or just, not creep on me.

Creep on you? He struggled to hold in the chuckle.

Yes! It’s creepy, you standing there like the monster bouncer from hell. My sleepless night added a bit more bite than I had been intending, and I watched the humor leave his eyes a little.

You mean that? He asked quietly, unfolding his arms. Would you rather I not watch you like that? He was hurt. Damn.

I paused a moment, watching him. He looked so much smaller, insecurity somehow seeming to shrink him a bit. He started to turn, ready to leave, taking my silence as a confirmation.

N-no! I blurted out, reaching toward him. I snatched my traitorous hand back quickly, before he could see how forward I’d almost been. He turned back to me, his eyes searching me intensely for clarification. "I mean, I didn’t mean that.