Surfacing the Rim (Piercing The Fold) Read Free Page A

any evidence of my fear and anger.
    I need answers. I need to know why these decisions were made. With conviction, I walk back to the villa.
    * * *
    I slam the door shut behind me, and I walk up to the table where Ezra and Nate are still sitting. “Are you implanted? Was my mother implanted?”
    Ezra responds, “Yes, and so is every other guardian in our fellowship.”
    I lean forward on my elbows, scanning both sides of Ezra’s neck. “Where is your implant?”
    Ezra shifts, turning his head to reveal the nape of his neck. “Right here. They’re all implanted there. It’s the closest spot to the central nervous system.” He turns back to us. “I was implanted when Sebastian took me under his wing.”
    Ezra shakes his head, almost as if to clear his memory of the pain from the process, but he isn’t fast enough to block me.
    Images flash through my mind. The sedative needle…the scalpel slicing through delicate skin at the base of his neck…the stream of blood releasing…the implantation of the device—the Copula—which is nearly the size of a half dollar…Ezra opening his eyes to Sebastian hovering over him.
    I turn to Nate to see if he saw it, too. By his expression, I know that he has. His mouth forms a thin line, and his arms cross in front of his chest.
    I need proof. When could it have happened? I don’t remember any surgeries as a child.
    Ezra reads me. “It was done during infancy. Your mother and I…we decided to perform the surgery before you could remember the experience.”
    I point to Ezra. “Wait, you just hesitated. There’s something else. What is it?”
    Shifting in his seat, Ezra folds his paper. He looks at Nate and me.
    Ezra instructs, “I’m going to tell you a story. Do not interrupt me until I am done.”
    Then, Ezra begins to tell us that he met with Sebastian in a lucid dream last night.

Chapter 3
    Ezra
     
    The sound of birds and the smell of flowers stir me awake, and my eyes flutter open. I’m sitting on a bench in a beautiful garden, and Sebastian is standing over me.
    Sebastian says, “Jesca’s abilities are becoming very strong.”
    I know my face must show some pain as I remember her mother. “Her abilities are beyond anything I have ever seen…since—”
    Sebastian finishes, “Anna Gershon.”
    Suddenly, I get a mental picture of Sebastian with a little girl. She looks like Jesca, but I realize it’s Anna. Sebastian is holding her in his arms. Then, he closes his eyes, and they both vanish into thin air.
    I open my eyes, looking at Sebastian with a combination of intensity and fear. “Sebastian, what do I not know about Anna?”
    My mind starts working a mile a millisecond. I know very few details about Anna’s past. She rarely talked about her childhood or family. She avoided questions about her life when I probed.
    I stand and start to pace in front of Sebastian.
    Sebastian says, “When Anna was young—ten years old, I believe—Elisabeth and Gabriel Gershon, my sister and brother-in-law, came to my estate in Colorado. They said that Anna had been having paralysis episodes. She also stared off into space, not acknowledging anyone around her, for sometimes as long as an hour. She woke up screaming every night from nightmares.
    “The things she said scared the hell out of them. Elisabeth and Gabriel took her to the family doctor. He performed a physical evaluation, and she appeared to be fine. The family doctor sent them to neurological and psychiatric specialists. They said that Anna was suffering from seizures as well as psychotic episodes. The doctors recommended admitting her to a psychiatric institution.
    “Elisabeth and Gabriel could do no such thing and immediately drove from Georgia to my estate in Colorado. I listened to them.
    “I remembered Elisabeth suffering from these crippling nightmares when she was a child. She’d wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Mom would hush her back to sleep while Elisabeth would remain frozen, limp in my