Axiom Theory: Book Four of the Shadow Series (2 page)

“Spill it,” blurted Lauren
as she tugged at the neck line of the t-shirt she was wearing.

Reaching over and patting her forearm, Prim tried to ease the tension. “Let’s be civil here, okay?” Turning to Iku with a smile, Prim tried to speak in a respectful manner. “So, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”

Lauren let out an audible gasp as she rolled her eyes.

“That’s enough,” said Prim firmly. “Should I have treated you as you are treating our guest, how would you have felt?”

“That’s diff…”

“It’s fine,” interrupted Iku. “I understand her concern.” Bowing his head to Lauren, he continued. “I have known Lauren for a great many years, and I know of her ways. I would find it strange if she behaved any differently than she is now.”

Prim took Lauren’s hand into his and squeezed. She looked to him and couldn’t keep the grin from appearing on her lips.

“Prim’s right,” said Lauren. “
I apologize.”

Iku leaned back in his chair, a large smile gracing his face. “So, it seems that you have been domesticated to a degree,” he joked.

Pointing a finger, Lauren replied. “Watch it.”

With the tension eased, Prim took a deep breath and asked Iku once again the purpose of his visit.

“After the battle a year ago,” began Iku, “I relocated to Oklahoma. I did all I could to change my appearance.”

“Hence the fabulous hair,” replied Lauren. “Don’t most people on a reservation have long hair? I’d have thought you’d stick out like a sore thumb there.”

Iku grimaced as he replied. “You watch too many movies.”

Prim squeezed Lauren’s hand again. “Let him speak.”

Iku leaned forward and clasped his hands together in front of him. “As I was saying,” he continued, taking a short pause. “Well, I guess none of that is really important. What
is
important is that I was visited by the twins, and it wasn’t because they missed me.”

Prim and Lauren glanced at each other.

“I remember seeing that on the news,” replied Prim somberly. “We weren’t exactly sure of what happened or who was involved. We assumed it was you and the twins, since it was on reservation land.”

“Separately, Casper and Ashley don’t pose a threat to me, but together, they proved to be quite formidable,” replied Iku.

“What did they want?” asked Lauren.

Iku glanced between she and Prim. “Revenge.  I was a part in what was the death of whom they considered to be their father.
They wanted my life as partial payment for the loss of Isaac.”

A silence once again
blanketed the room.

“This happened a year ago, Iku. Surely this isn’t the reason you are here now, is it?” asked Prim.

With a stoic gaze, Iku replied. “Unfortunately, no.” Pushing himself away from the table, he stood and walked to the counter to pour himself another cup of coffee. “This incident forced me into thinking into the future,” he continued. “Lauren, you know the twins.” He looked to her as she nodded her head. “You know that they are relentless. Once they are given a task or set their mind to something, have you ever known them not to follow through?”

“No,” replied Lauren
, arching her brow.

“They are on their own, something they have never been. They have no
leader; no guide, but worse—no one to control them.” Iku retook his seat at the table. “Knowing that they will no doubt seek revenge for Isaac’s death, I sought
them
out. Not directly, of course, but after a period of a month or so, I was able to locate them in Brookfield, Illinois.”

“How in the world were you able to locate them?” asked Prim.

Before Iku could answer, Lauren did it for him. “Because it’s in his blood,” she replied, her eyes locked on Iku. “Native Americans from his time had to be skilled in tracking. They didn’t have all of the technology that we have now. Iku retains that gift. He’s a master.”

Iku once more bowed his head to Lauren. He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped himself. He repeated this several times before Prim did it for him.

“What is it that you have to say, Iku? Tell us, please.”

Locking his eyes
on Prim’s, he took a breath and replied. “They have a child.”

“What?” asked Lauren, slapping her hands on the table. “They’re brother and sister!”

Iku’s shoulders dropped and he allowed his head to fall as well.

Placing a hand on Lauren’s shoulder, Prim tried to calm her. “I don’t think he was implying that they had a child
together
. Isn’t that right, Iku?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Iku replied. “That is correct.”

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Lauren leaned back in her chair and slouched down. “Okay, so the twins want to play mom and dad, so what?”

Under his breath, Iku muttered to Prim, “You still have some work to do on taming this one.”

Prim rolled his eyes. “You have no idea.”

“The issue,” continued Iku, “isn’t that they have a child. The issue is that the child is a
Shadow.”

All of the air was sucked out of the room as
Prim and Lauren stared at Iku in a stunned silence.

“How old?”
Prim finally managed to ask.

Taking a sip of his coffee and then placing the cup down slowly, Iku tapped the rim with his index finger. “Last I saw him, he looked to be three, maybe four years old.”

Though Prim knew that there was more to things than what Iku was saying, he couldn’t stop himself from speaking. “That’s not possible. Shadows don’t come into their powers until later in life.”

“That’s not completely true,” replied Lauren with both hands wrapped tightly around her coffee cup.

“Lauren is correct,” said Iku. “There has been one.”

With Prim turning in his chair, waiting for her to answer, Lauren’s voice suddenly became timid. “Yeah,” she said, glancing back and forth between Prim and Iku. “But he’s…”

“Special?” interrupted Iku.

Once again, the
dead silence returned as Prim’s legs bounced anxiously under the table while Lauren studied Iku.

Leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his chest, Iku continued. “There’s something else.” He paused, trying to determine how to best
put his thoughts into words. “Not only does the child have the gifts of a Shadow, he also resembles one of us.”

Immediately, and in a whisper, Lauren blurted out a name. “Test.”

Prim watched as Iku slowly nodded his head. “What?” he asked in disbelief. “Are you saying that this is Test’s child?”

“No,” answered Iku. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying that the child looks like he could be Test’s
clone.”

“That’s not possible is it?” asked Prim.

As Iku opened his mouth to respond, Lauren spoke. “I think it is,” she turned in her seat to face Prim. “Think about it. Test has told us the story of when he was captured. He told us about how they learned what we are. They have his DNA.”

“This is real then?” asked Prim in disbelief, taking Lauren’s hand but turning to face Iku.

Iku took a deep breath and reached for his coffee. “Clones have been made around the world for decades. It would be ignorant to think that the government wouldn’t want to weaponize our kind.”

Furrowing his
brow, Prim replied. “So you think the twins are working for the government?”

With a chuckle, Iku answered. “No, they are much too arrogant for that. I think they took him.”

“Wouldn’t we have heard about that on the news or something?” asked Lauren.

“Yeah, the government is going to get on the news and tell everyone that they’ve cloned a Shadow. Not just any Shadow, mind you, but the most powerful Shadow ever known to exist. Oh yeah,
but by the way, that clone has been kidnapped,” Prim replied sarcastically.

Lauren’s eyes flared at Prim a
s she clenched her teeth tightly, trying desperately not to lose her temper.

Realizing what he’d done, Prim patted her thigh and tried to ease the tension. “Hey, it could be worse. At least we know the kid won’t have Test’s full power for the next ten years or so.”

Abruptly, Lauren shot up straight in her chair. Numbness overcame her as she stared across the room. “That’s not true,” she answered, as she looked to Iku. “Is it?”

“I’m afraid not,” he answered. “We know that Test had his powers when he was a child, but his mother found a way to suppress them
, which more than likely delayed Test’s full development. I doubt that Casper and Ashley want to do that. In fact, I think their goal is more than likely to develop them as fast as possible.”

Raising his hand, Prim spoke incredulously. “Hold on. I’ve got a question. If this kid is three to four years old, how is he Test’s clone when Test was captured less than two years ago?”

Lauren turned to Iku with raised eyebrows, waiting anxiously for the answer to Prim’s question.

With a heavy sigh, Iku replied. “Of that I am not exactly sure. My theory is that when cloned, something else was done to accelerate the boy’s growth rate.”

“Why would you say that?” asked Prim. “I don’t understand how you can even connect those dots?”

“When I first saw the boy six months ago, he was an infant.”

“
Shut the front door!”
shouted Lauren as she slapped the table top again. “Come on, Iku. This is bat-shit crazy!”

Iku leaned forward on the table and clasped his hands together. “If I hadn’t been witness to this myself, I wouldn’t believe it either, Lauren. But the words I speak are true. The boy’s growth rate actually appears to be accelerating.”

Standing from the table, Prim laced his fingers behind his head and arched his back. Turning his back to the table, he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “So who wants to be the one to tell Test?”

Standing atop the peak of Black Mountain, Test looked out and took in the view. Moving to the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico wasn’t necessarily a choice that he had made; he felt that it had
actually chosen him.

No matter where he was, it seemed h
e’d always been drawn to the forest. It was a place that he could get lost. The Gila Wilderness provided a wondrous mixture of trees that varied from the junipers and oaks at the mid-elevations to the fir and pines higher up.  Standing amongst them gave him comfort, like an old blanket that a child would hide under to be invisible from the monsters in the night.

Though he surrounded himself with peace, internally his spirit was at war.
His mother had left them shortly after their arrival in New Mexico. She left under the premise that she wanted to see long lost loved ones, but it was the words that she had uttered just before she left that stuck in Test’s head. “No one wants their mother to live with them forever,” she had said. She was right—Test didn’t necessarily want his mother around forever, but he wasn’t really ready to see her go either. He was hoping to make up for the time they’d lost before.

He continued to struggle over Nicole’s death. As much as he tried not t
o think about it, her memory always crept in, never allowing his peace to be complete.

He worried about many
other things as well. He wondered if Prim was dealing with the loss of Jenz any better than he was with the loss of Nicole. He wondered if Prim resented him for Jenz’s death. After all, as Test saw it anyway, she had died for him.

Just as his thoughts were beginning to stain the tranquility of the area, Test sensed a spirit’s presence down and to his right.

“Alyssa?” he called out half-heartedly.

“Nope,” called out an old man’s voice. “It’s me, son.”

Taking a seat on the rocky earth, he instinctively offered a small amount of his energy and looked down to see Cliff’s form come into view. As the old man sat next to him, he avoided eye contact, staring off into the distance.

“Everything okay?” asked Cliff.

In two years, Test had never questioned Cliff’s presence. Though he was happy and grateful to have him, the question tumbled from his mouth like a pinecone falling from its branch.

“Why are you still here, Cliff? Why haven’t you moved on
like Mom did?”

Caught off guard by the question, Cliff couldn’t help but chuckle. “Wh
y would I?” he asked. “Everything that means somethin’ to me is in this world.”

Test continued to star
e off into the distance, his stoic expression remained. “When does it end, Cliff?” he asked as he turned to his friend with a pained expression.

Though the question was vague, the old man knew what he was asking.
Resting a hand on Test’s shoulder, Cliff replied. “When you finally decide to forgive yourself.”

Suddenly blinded by a well of tears, Test h
eld his hand out in front of his face and watched as the light from within him glowed faintly in the early morning sun. The frustration of his emotions quickly escalated as he reached out with his right hand. A stream of red streaks ran down his arm as a boulder ten feet away lifted from the mountain side.