“Kind of lost. Kind of overwhelmed,” I admitted. “But you can go on.”

“Okay, but just so you know the next part is going to be very hard for you to hear. And you need to make sure to stay as calm as you can.”

I swallowed hard, my stomach churning. “I’ll try.”

He took a deep breath and surprised me when he reached over and took my hand. “An accident happened three years after we found the star. Theron, the Shifter I told you about, was attacked by Demetrius while in possession of the object that was holding the star’s energy in it. He ended up panicking and accidently shifted the power into something it should have never gone into.” He gave a long pause. “It went into a woman.”

“A woman?” My eyes widened “What happened to her?”

“Well, the energy didn’t end up in her exactly. She was pregnant when it happened, and it ended up going into her unborn child.”

I froze. Why did this seem so familiar? And why did the incident back at the telescope—the one where I’d been sucked away to the field—pop into my mind. “So what happened to the mother and the baby?”

“They both lived and everything, but the stars energy got trapped inside the baby. And it’s still there. For some reason—and no one knows for sure because no one’s ever came across anything like it before—no Shifter could transfer it back out of her.” He pressed his lips together, his hand tightening on mine. “A few years after it all happened, the mother did end up passing away. But her death had nothing to do with the star.” He watched me closely. “She was a Keeper and her name was Jocelyn.”

“Jocelyn,” I repeated. “Why does that name sound so familiar? Did I know her?”

He nodded. “You did and very well.”

“How?”  But before he could answer, I realized why. Because I’d seen the name before. On my Birth Certificate.

Jocelyn was my mother.

Chapter 14

Neither of us spoke for awhile. The only sound came from a clock ticking back and forth. Alex was still holding my hand, his skin warm and flowing with static. He’d never actually answered my question when I’d ask how I knew the woman. But I think he might have sensed I’d figured it out by my sudden muteness.

“Gemma, are you okay?” he finally asked.

I nodded slowly.

“You do know who she is, right?”

I nodded slowly again.

“Then you understand what that means, right?”

I pressed my lips together. Yeah, I understood what it meant. Way, way too clearly. He was saying that for the last eighteen years, I’d been harboring a fallen star's energy inside of me. Some piece of a freaking solar systems sun. And as crazy as it sounded, it made sense. I’d never been normal. I’d been hollow and emotionally numb until an invisible prickle had shown up, and my emotions had come barreling out of me. Add that to the violet color of my eyes, and my ability to either sense or cause electricity to flow just by being around someone….I really was a freak. Literally. I probably wasn’t even considered human.

“So what am I?” My voice sounded so numb.

“What are you?” His eyebrows dipped down. “Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Well, I can’t be human?” I choked on the words. “So what am I?”

“You’re human,” he assured me. “Just a human with a lot of power buzzing inside her.”

I could feel that power buzzing right now, and it was making me feel like I might throw up. I tried to ease my hand away from his, but he clutched onto it.

“Look,” he began in a very guarded, yet very determined tone. “I know this all sounds crazy. And I understand that you’re probably freaking out right now, but there’s more I have to tell you.”

“There’s more!” I cried. A few hours ago, I’d wanted nothing more than to hear the truth. But now, after what I’d heard, part of me wished there was a rewind button so I could go back in time and chose not to hear it.

He gave a slow nod. “And I think I should probably warn you that it’s just as bad—if not worse than what I’ve already told you.”

My hands shook, and I felt like I was suffocating. How could anything be worse than getting told I was carrying around the power of a star that could possibly save the world from a deathly, apocalyptic portal? I ripped my hand away from his and let my head fall into my hands. “This is a lot to take in. I’m not sure if I can take anymore.”

“Well, if you want me to stop then—”

My head snapped up. “No.”  I sat up straight. I was going to have to tough it out.  “I need to hear the rest otherwise it will drive me crazy.”

He sighed. I think he might have been hoping I’d tell him to stop, but good or bad, I needed to hear it. I’d already learned too much to go back now. Everything had changed. Nothing was simple anymore. But really, had anything ever been simple for me?

He looked reluctant, but continued. “Well, we lucked out because Demetrius never discovered the location of where the stars power ended up. A few months after you were born, though, a Foreseer told Stephan another prophecy about the star. The prophecy said that if your emotions weren’t controlled then the power of the star would weaken and eventually die altogether, which would make it useless to stop the portal from opening.” He placed his hand back on top of mine, which I thought was kind of weird. He sure did seem determined to touch me.  “So to keep that from happening, and to keep Demetrius from ever finding out, Stephan made a decision that you’d go and live with Marco and Sophia in the real world.”

“How old was when I went to live with them?” I asked.

“You were one when you went to live with Marco and Sophia,” he replied in a flat tone that puzzled me. His palm felt sweaty on my hand, and I had to admit it was kind of gross. “And they were under strict orders to make sure you stayed unemotional.”

I didn’t say anything for awhile. I’d hit some kind of eerie calm or something. Or maybe I should say an “unemotional” calm. I knew right then and there that any doubts I’d had about Alex telling the truth were gone. How could I deny it when he knew about my unemotional issue? Now the problem I was facing was that I was made to be that way.

Intentionally.

“Gemma,” he said.

“How?” I asked in a lifeless tone. The same lifeless tone I’d used for most of the last eighteen years of my life. Until I’d felt the prickle.

He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “How what?”

“How did they do it?” I tried to wiggle my hand free from his, but he wouldn’t let go. “Make me unemotional.”

He fixed his gaze on the floor and shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess by shutting you off from any kind of emotional contact. If someone doesn’t ever know happiness, sadness, or love, then how can they ever feel it?”

The inability to make eye-contact was the first sign someone was lying, right?

“You’re lying,” I accused.

“No, I’m not,” he said, his eyes still locked on the floor.

“Yes, you are,” I insisted. “You can’t even look at me.”

He shook his head and looked at me with a tolerant expression. “There. Are you happy now?”

My dulled calmness abruptly faded, and a wave of panic and anger thundered through me. I tugged and pulled and yanked my hand, desperately wanting to get the heck out of here. I wasn’t sure where I’d go, but how could I stay here after what he’d just told me? All I wanted to do was get away and hide; curl myself in a tiny little ball and cry until my eyes ran dry. So I did the only thing I could think of to get him to let me go. See, what I’d learned about Alex over the last few weeks was that he liked to be the one in control of the situation. So what I needed to do was make him think he was losing the control. There was only one thing I could think that might do that.

Lie.

“But I have been able to feel,” I told him.