Ciara's POV
I thought I could do it, but I couldn't. I was wrong about all this. I felt every bit like a hypocrite as I continued walking to my next destination. I don't know why Kevin kept so many secrets, but they were going to be trouble and no matter what I tried he just wouldn't listen to me. At first I thought I could deal with it, then he started thinking about joining the Purgers. The Purgers who only have a goal of running a school and picking on others. I thought that was just a mere temptation that he would eventually get over, but he never did.
He eventually joined them. I am not sure what arrangement he had with them because so far he had not even shown any signs of having joined the Purgers. He hinted that the Purgers knew something that he was supposed to get from them and the only way how was if he joined them. Each time I looked at the queen bee, Sutton, and the way she treated anyone she just didn't like, I found it increasingly hard to believe she could have any information that would make Kevin join them. In my opinion, that didn't make much sense, but I let it slide since this was only the first weird thing I saw going on in Kevin's life.
Then he admitted to training with Mr Bergstrom. I would have been okay with this, but chances of that happening were blown away when I say him all wrecked after training with Bergstrom once. He had trained so hard his void had closed. My father had been teaching me magic since I was eight and never once in his life did he give a task I could not handle. As a result I had never had my void close yet I remember learning some difficult magic from him.
To put my worries to rest, I decided to at least be healing him each time he was in terrible shape after his training with Bergstrom, but even that was soon off the table. The reason he gave for that one was that his body had to heal naturally so that it would become tougher and be able to withstand even tougher conditions. Once again I was left powerless to help him. That was about how far I was going to go with all of this. Besides, I was sure this might be all there is to the secrets that the Siege kept with him.
That was before he asked for my help in rewriting an enchantment. I was curious about how specific the task was until I got into his house and found that the owner of the object in question was none other than Sonia Everglade. She also knew about magic and that was not all. She knew about us and so did Kevin and yet none of them said a thing about it. That was the last straw for me or at least I thought.
Later this very evening he revealed that the reason his brother was not affected by the magic was because he was an artra too. The whole crew had been looking for the last artra and Kevin had known and who knows for how long. He then almost immediately revealed the name of the other Homage as they appear to be two and it turns out to be my very own sister. I took time to observe Kevin's face and it was the same as always. There was nothing on his face that showed that he was done with the secrets. A person who had revealed their last secret would look like they had just had a huge burden lifted, but Kevin stayed normal as if this was nothing. Like it was only another pebble on the beach that I had found.
I always knew there was something wrong with him or that there was a lot he was hiding, but knowing what I know and finding out it could be less than half of what he knows was a scary revelation. I lost the will to even continue with our conversation and teleported out of the room completely overwhelmed. I was now walking through the Cave between Waterfalls. The entrance to Zaraias' cave. I needed a way to solve my problem. Due to the vows I made with Kevin, I could not reveal anything he had told me. I needed away to solve all this. My first mission was to ask Zaraias to break the divine pairing he cast on Kevin and me. I didn't want him to be the reason we all died. I know I was sounding like a hypocrite right now, but this was my judgement. Kevin was going to be a liability and that was not something I was willing to risk. I was the alpha and I had a whole team to look after. Kevin was only going to make it impossible to keep them safe.
I went through the waterfall that led straight into the inner part of the cave where the White Phoenix resided. The phoenix ruffled it's feathers from its perch before it took flight and landed before me casting its luminous blue light on my small frame. The phoenix currently easily stood to a height of ten feet and was capable of much bigger or even smaller size. "What brings you here, young alpha?" the voice of the phoenix sounded in my head. The warmth of his magic wrapping around me and cooling my nerves at the same time.
"I would like you to reconsider the divine pairing you made with me and the Siege," I said to him.
There was a period of silence after I said it and the atmosphere of the cave became remarkably different. Almost as if I was standing in a wasteland. I have no idea how someone feels like that or even gets to describe it, but that was the only way I could describe what I felt currently in this room. "Why?" he asked.
"He keeps so many secrets. I don't know what to do with him. He's going to doom us all if he keeps this up. I have tried to get him to open up, but he won't change his mind. I don't know how I let this go on," I tried explaining.
"Has he told you why he keeps all these secrets?" the phoenix asked.
"Is that all he has done?" the phoenix asked looking extremely relieved.
I was at a loss of words, "You've got to be kidding me."
"Let me ask you something Ciara. If you knew something that was important to protect your friends, but when the only way to protect them from it was if they didn't know about it, would you tell them?" he asked.
"How is this related to what the Siege is doing?" I asked infuriated. I could not believe what I was hearing.
"Nothing is as it seems. I will protect the two of you from the effects of conflict, but you must resolve your issues when you can otherwise you will never be able to beat Travas," the phoenix said.
"Why, Zaraias? Why did you pair me with him?" I asked him out of painful curiosity.
"Do you really think I'm going to answer that?" he chuckled. To be honest, I felt much better after that. There must have been a reason why Kevin would go through all this trouble to keep all these secrets and hopefully, I would soon find out why. I bid the phoenix farewell and went back home. The next time I was to get time alone with Kevin, he was going to have to explain everything to me