Read The Reverence of One: Book Three of the Shadow Series for Free Online Page A

it. Isaac can sense these outbursts.”
    “But you said you f oun d me when I was young, why wasn’t I killed then?” asked Test.
    Lauren placed her face in her hands and let out a deep sigh. “We didn’t know that you were a child. When I arrived and discovered that you could barely walk , I couldn’t bring myself to harm you. It was one thing to dispose of someone who could defend themselves , but to harm a child… . ” A sudden softness had come over her . “ I always turned killing someone into a sort of twisted game. When I realized it was you that I’d been sent after, for the first time since I was—human—I had a conscience. I couldn’t go through with it.”
    A heavy silence had taken over the room. Test watched painfully as his mother, her form not completely solid, cried in her seat as she watched the flames in the fire place lap into the air.
    Lauren stood and walked to her and held out her hand, the faint pulses of red light flickering down her arm. Maggie reached out and, with the energy Lauren offered, became solid once again.
    “I watched the two of you for a while,” said Lauren, fighting back tears of her own. “I know how hard it was for you, how crazy it made you to know that something was different about your son and not being able to tell anyone. I know this because I lived it myself. No human can understand what we are.” She glanced to Alyssa. “Well, almost no one,” she said with a smile. She turned back to Maggie and continued. “I know it was a hard choice, putting Test on medication at such a young age, but it saved his life.”
    With Lauren’s last words Maggie broke down completely. With her elbows perched on her knees, she sobbed heavily into her hands. Lauren caressed the back of her head gently.
    “I left Nebraska after Test’s powers faded, and told Anil that I had disposed of you. I knew what this could mean if your powers ever reemerged, but I had no other choice. I lived a life filled with internal conflict for many years . T he conscience that had returned upon the sight of you seemed to hang around long after I’d left Lincoln . Anil noticed this, began to question my dedication , and forced me to take even more lives —which I did—just to save my own.” As she spoke, the pain was apparent in her words. “ More so than ever before, my life had become a tortured existence . ” She paused and looked to Test with a painful expression. “ And then the day came that your powers resurfaced .” She watched as Test hung his head in shame. “Never before had I been as scared as I was that day. I was summoned by Anil to the home of Isaac. It was a rare occasion to be invited to his home, and something in me knew that I shouldn’t go—so I didn’t. Instead, I phased to the other side and disappeared to where we now sit. I’ve lived a quiet existence looking over my shoulder for the last year, waiting for them to come for me , and not caring about what would happen to you . ”
    Test stood and walked to the window that looked over the back of the property. “So what made you change your mind?” he asked somberly.
    “You showed up again,” replied Lauren. “The fact that you were so close to me, just a state away, only served to intensify my fear. Fact is , I had grown to resent you.” She paused as he turned and looked at her. “When I saw the news about the possibility of a meteor crash just outside of Saratoga , something in me knew it was you. It only took a day for me to decide that I was going to finish what Anil and Isaac had intended for me to do so many years ago.” Maggie gasped while Alyssa sat stoically in her seat, in awe of all that she was hearing. “I went to Saratoga that night. When I arrived, I saw all of the military vehicles and knew that I was right—it was you. I phased to the other side and listened in on what their plans were. I learned where you lived by eavesdropping on the man named Dawson .
    “I immediately went to the