AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What makes you so sure?” I looked behind me one more time. All the Hellers stood together in the middle of the room. They whispered to each other and cast glances over their shoulders at me and Kingston leaving together.
“None of them accepted my challenge. That means they accept my ruling.”
I peered up at him trying to understand. This was definitely a different culture. They had a whole bunch of rules I didn’t understand. Would I always be an outsider?
Kingston saw me watching him and cocked his head. “What?”
“If mixing and marrying with outsiders is so forbidden, why did your dad marry my mom? Why did he leave his family to marry an outsider? Your mom sounded really upset about him getting together with another woman.”
“She’s upset about him marrying an outsider. She didn’t care about him leaving and getting together with another woman. They split up a long time ago and she married another man—a man from our Clan.”
“Why did your dad leave, then? He left your entire Clan.” I shut my eyes as a whole bunch of other ideas rushed into my head. “He raised you away from your people. He kept you from your Clan and never brought you here. You never mentioned any of this. You never mentioned even belonging to a Clan.”
“No.” Kingston turned away. “He never told me.”
“Why, then?” I asked. “Your dad and my mom could have had a child together.”
“Yeah, they could have and I don’t know why he left or why he married an outsider. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished he was still alive so I could ask him.”
“Wow. That must be hard.”
“Not as hard as it’s going to be for you to come here. You’re the first outsider who has ever set foot in here.”
“That’s what your family said.”
“That was Barrett. He’s my cousin.”
I shook my head trying to take it all in, but just then, Kingston came to a staircase rising from the main hall. It disappeared into a corridor carved out of the rock.
He led me and Connor down it and turned into another huge room. Twenty kids of different ages ran around playing in there, but they didn’t have any jungle gym equipment or anything like that.
The room had been set up similarly to the hall downstairs. Different spaces with couches, chairs, tables, and computers offered the kids everything they could want to do. A massive bookshelf covered one wall and a lower set of shelves housed crates of blocks, Legos, train and car sets, art supplies, and everything else to keep them entertained.
None of the kids in the room could have been more than ten and none of them were using the supplies. They were in the middle of playing a game of tag with kids climbing over the couches, onto the tables and chairs, and hiding behind each other to keep out of reach of the one boy chasing the others around.
They laughed, shrieked, and called out to each other. Their voices rang off the stone walls. My soul lifted at that joyful, excited sound. How many years had I been avoiding this?
The kids ran around for a minute before some of them noticed Connor. They came over and planted themselves in front of us.
One girl about seven years old pointed at him. “Who’s that, Kingston?”
Kingston put his hand on Connor’s shoulder. “This is Connor Strickland. He’s going to stay here for a while. He hasn’t spent much time with other kids, so you can all show him how things work around here.” He gave Connor a push. “Do you want to play with them, Connor?”
A nine-year-old boy stepped out of the group and extended his hand to Connor. “I’m Wilcox—Wilcox Heller.”
Connor shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“This is Ximena.” Wilcox waved at the girl next to him. “Do you know how to play tag?”
Connor nodded with his eyes hanging out. “Do you have any special rules for that?”
Wilcox laughed. “Of course not. It’s just regular tag.”
“I know how to play,” Connor replied.
“Come on, then.” Wilcox waved him into the room. “Santana is it. Just don’t get caught or you’ll be it.”
The others broke up, spread through the room, and the same boy who had been it started chasing the others around.
