Book of Revenge by Abra Ebner

that easy.
    “I’m afraid not.”
    I felt a little angered by his reply. “How would you know if you haven’t been there in a while?” I wanted him to get to the point.
    Max tilted his head. “It’s a good assumption, but…” His voice trailed off.
    “ But what?”
    “Your parents are dead, Wes. I’m sorry.” His gaze dropped. “I heard word of it long ago. There was a massive reaping in the mountains of Washington where many of your kind had fled for refuge. No one survived.”
    Just like that, the little hopes I’d had vanished. “Why tell me this?” My voice was raised. “Why lead me to believe they could still be out there?”
    Max touched my shoulder, but I jerked away from him.
    “I’m sorry. But in my defense, I didn’t have the time to tell you before because of what was going on with Greg, and I regret that you assumed otherwise.”
    I was suddenly angry at Jane and Emily for putting those thoughts in my head. I remembered the day they’d first mentioned it. It was before we had truly learned what Max was, right before Emily had been taken by Greg.
    “You were conceived in Winter Wood, but when your mother gave birth to you, they knew you needed to have a human upbringing. Even with both parents being shifters, there was no guarantee that you would be. They wanted to be sure to prepare you for that. If you never developed the gift, they wanted you to remain in the human world, unaware of their trials and tribulations. It was safer this way. Our world was, and is, a dangerous place.”
    I put my head in my hands, fingers in my hair. “But I’m not human, so now what?”
    “You’re one of us, and their trials and tribulations are yours as well.”
    I sat up. “Great. I could have just been with them instead of stuck here.”
    He ignored my negative comment. “Your foster parents are friendly with the magickal beings here. They’re some of the few humans that know about our world and want to help.”
    “It’s like a giant conspiracy,” I muttered.
    Max stood. “You should tell them what has happened to you. You can confide in them, and they’ll want to know that you’ve made the transition. They’ve been anxiously waiting to see if you take to the gift or not. They deserve to know that you have. Your parents were good friends with Gladys. I know she has stories she’d love to tell you about them.”
    He stepped off the porch, not bothering to turn back. I watched him walk across the lawn toward Jane’s house. My gaze fell to my feet as the reality sank in. My parents were dead. Dead as dirt. Dead and gone. Once again, I had no one.
    I heard the front door open, the hinges whining. “Are you alright, Wes?” Gladys’s small eyes peered out. She tilted her head. “I just don’t normally see you sit out here, and—”
    “I’m fine, ma’am,” I interrupted before she could say anything more. I didn’t want to talk about my parents, and I didn’t want to talk about me. My parents had left me, and I was going to leave them as well. They never existed in my memories so there was no point reliving their life through stories. There was no point in sharing my life with Gladys.
    I would not allow any of them to exist or know.
    This was my life.
     
     
     
    Jane:
     
    “Oh, Jane. Thank you.”
    I handed my mother a cup of tea as she wiped her nose with a tissue. She was slouched against the counter in the kitchen, watching me as I rushed to make myself breakfast before school.
    “I must have caught that flu that Wes and Emily had last week.”
    I turned away from her in time to hide the smile. What my mother still didn’t understand was that what Wes and Emily had was anything but the flu. Thankfully, Max had made sure she thought otherwise. I turned back to her, toast in hand.
    “Well, drink that tea and I’m sure you’ll feel better.” I smiled, but it was quickly washed away as her future death trickled over me. I saw her running, tripping as she stumbled from a cliff. I