There, before a huge, walnut desk, sat his mother and father, both agitated, looking down, poring over papers. She wondered what paperwork they could be so upset about. After all, they would be dead in a few weeks. Didn’t they realize that? They should be out there living—not sitting here worrying. He was amazed everyone spent their final weeks of mortality worrying, doing anything and everything but living. Not him. Now, finally, he was determined to live. To really live. Since meeting Scarlet, he found a reason, and he was determined to.
The two of them looked up. Immediately, their faces crumpled in frustration.
“There you are,” said his father.
“Where were you all day?” asked his mother.
“I’m through with being interrogated by you both,” Sage replied. “I just came to say my goodbyes. I’m leaving.”
“You are not,” answered his father.
“And where do you think you’re going?” asked his mom.
“As I said, I’m through answering to the two of you. It’s been a great two thousand years. It really has. But our time together is over. In fact, all of our time on this planet will soon be over. Let’s end this graciously. Goodbyes are so cumbersome.”
His parents looked at each other, then at him. They saw that he meant it. A worried look flashed across their faces.
“So that’s it?” said his mom. “Just a curt goodbye? You’re just going to abandon us? Abandon the whole family? Just like that?”
“That’s just like you,” his dad said. “Looking out for your own needs.”
“This is about her, isn’t it?” his mom asked, her eyes narrowing.
“Leave her alone,” Sage said firmly. “You’re wasting your time with her. Her key will do you no good if she’s dead.”
“On the contrary,” his father corrected. “Her being dead might just do us all the good in the world. You still don’t seem to realize that we will stop at nothing to have what we want, do you?”
Sage slowly shook his head. They just wouldn’t listen.
“You can’t harm her,” he said. “Not without harming me.”
His parents snorted in disdain.
“You’ve underestimated us, once again,” his dad said. “We saw this coming—and we’ve already prepared our contingency plan. In fact,” he said, looking down at his watch, “Lore will be leaving at any moment. He will achieve what you failed to, and will brings us what you could not get.”
“And then,” his mom added, “when all the rest of us achieve immortality, guess who’s getting left behind?”
His parents both grinned, an evil grin, and Sage felt himself fuming. Was it true? Had they really set Lore in motion?
He studied their expressions, their small, satisfied smiles, and sensed they were telling the truth.
Sage summoned his super hearing, and zoomed in on the activity in the far reaches of the house. As he did, he could hear a commotion in a far corner of the house. He sensed Lore hurrying through the rooms. This meeting had been his signal. His parents had indeed set him in motion to find Scarlet. To kill her.
Without another word, Sage suddenly turned and raced from the room, through the open front doors, down the marble staircase. He took them three at a time, and found himself on the lower level, in the large marble foyer. At that moment, Lore was also dashing across the room, heading for the front door. Sage sensed that he was on his way to kill Scarlet. He was determined not to let that happen.
It all happened in a flash. Without thinking, Sage charged across the room and slammed into Lore, tackling him to the ground just before he reached the front door. They both slid halfway across the marble floor until they slammed into a wall.
Sage spun on top of him and pounded him several times.
But Lore was equally powerful, if not more so. He quickly spun Sage around, and kneed him hard, knocking the wind out of him.
Sage, determined, found an opening and spun and kicked Lore square in the chest, sending him across the room.
“Stop it! Both of you!” screamed Phoenicia. She ran into the room, trying to break up the two of them, as she had their entire lives.
But this time, she would not. Sage was determined. And so was Lore.
Sage thought quickly. He was desperate, absolutely desperate to stop Lore, and there was no way he could outfight him.
In a sudden flash, Sage realized what he had to do: he had to kill him. For good. For all time.
It was something Sage had wanted to do for centuries. Something that the Grand Council might even have permitted, given all the new feeding Lore had done lately. But it was something that no one in Sage’s clan had the backbone to do.
But now, finally, with nothing left to lose, the time had come. It was time for Sage to kill one of his fellow Immortalists. He had never done it before. But he knew how.
As Lore got up and raced back towards Sage, this time, Sage waited. He let him get closer and closer.
Sage waited until Lore was halfway across the room, beneath a chandelier, directly across from the huge mirror over the fireplace. Then he burst into action.
Sage reached over, grabbed a candlestick from the mantle, and just as Lore was perfectly aligned with the mirror, he hurled it.
“NO!” Phoenicia screamed, realizing.
There was a huge shattering of glass, as the pieces of the mirror poured down in a million pieces. It was what Sage was aiming for. It was the only way to kill an Immortalist: to catch his reflection in a mirror, then shatter the glass.
Sage looked over, expecting to see Lore flat on his back, dying.
But what he saw stunned him.
As he looked down, he didn’t see Lore there, but rather Phoenicia. She lay on the ground, gasping for air.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Lore dart from the house.
Sage realized what had happened: Phoenicia had jumped in the way of Lore’s reflection. It was her reflection that got caught. It was she who he had killed.
Sage was suddenly overcome with guilt and grief. He had never meant to harm his sister.
“Sage?” she asked, looking up, a shocked expression on her face. “Why did you do this to me?”
“Phoenicia!” he screamed, wailing, collapsing to his knees.
He bent over her and held her head in his hands, wiping her tears away. Tears of his own dripped down onto her face.
“I’m so sorry!” he wailed. “It wasn’t meant for you. It was never meant for you!”