September 8, 1859

September 8, 1859

Dear Safiya,

No, I haven’t apologized to Duncan yet, but I don’t think I need to anymore.  I’ll explain that soon.

I stayed in that room in the tunnel for three days without talking to Jaime.  Sure, he came and gave me food, and asked me some questions, but I ignored him.  I didn’t want to talk to him after he betrayed me.

After a while, I did some thinking.  I remembered all the letters that you had sent me, and a thought came to me.  You had said Frederick’s last name once, just once, when Thomas told Grandma that he was a spy.  It had seemed familiar when I read it, but I couldn’t place where I had heard it before.

Then it hit me.  Frederick’s last name was Shuster.

When Jaime came to me on my fourth morning there, I asked him, “Are you related to Frederick Shuster?”

He smirked.  “He’s my grandfather.  The one that I told you about before.  He immigrated here from Germany, after he made a pit stop for a few months in Ireland.”

I could feel the blood flowing from my face.  “He tried to kidnap my grandmother.”

“I know.  Where he didn’t succeed, I did,” he laughed.

I wanted to hit him, but I knew that it wouldn’t help.  They hadn’t tied me up, so I was happy about that.  I asked, “Why did he kidnap her in the first place?”

“You don’t know?” he asked incredulously.

I rolled my eyes.  “Would I be asking you if I did?”

He laughed.  It was a ruthless, evil laugh that sent chills down my spine.  He said, “Because you’re the Family of the Prophecy.”

I shook my head.  “You’re crazy, and that’s impossible.”

“Not really.  Think about it.  Your great-great uncle, your grandmother’s uncle, was a magician.  A true magician.  How could he have been that if he wasn’t part of the family?”

“There were little spells from before him,” I argued.

Jaime shook his head.  “You don’t understand.  His father was the one who taught him the spells, and his mother before him.  Before that was when the prophecy came into being.”

I sighed.  “I’ve heard so much of this stupid prophecy, and I don’t know anything about it except that it’s been causing all of my problems.”

Jaime thought for a minute, then he left the room for a few minutes.  When he came back he was dragging his chair.  He was finally planning on giving me some answers.

“So you know that it says that the Old Magic would be brought back to the world by a certain family.  It also says that someone in the family will fall in love with someone, and whoever it is will help bring the Old Magic back to the world,” he explained.  “That’s what my family has been doing for years.  We’ve been trying to get someone, a young woman, in the family to fall in love with one of us.  That’s why Frederick first started talking to Julia.  He wanted her to fall in love with him.  When the people in the Underground found us, they had to flee.  Frederick didn’t have time to properly woo Julia, so he tired to kidnap her.  That didn’t work, and she escaped.  It took us a few years, but when we read her obituary we knew that it was her, so we came back.  Grandfather always said that trying to kidnap her was his biggest regret, and if he could he would go back and redo everything.”

“I thought Frederick died,” I replied.

“He was gravely injured and had trouble breathing for the rest of his life, but he did live.  He married his third cousin and had my father and two aunts, and then they moved to Illinois when my father was just a baby.  We remembered that Julia had family there, so we thought that she would still be there.  When we found that she wasn’t there, we expanded out search,” he said.  “That’s how we found you.”

“I still don’t believe that we’re the Family,” I muttered.

He sighed.  “Let me ask you something.  When I first brought you here, what color were the waterfalls?”

“It was like a rainbow,” I replied, still amazed at the colors.

“And when I took you here four days ago?”

I thought for a minute before replying, “It was red, like the falls were angry.”

Jaime breathed heavily, getting excited.  “We were right.  We were completely right.”

“About what?”

“The falls were angry, and since you’re part of the family, you could see them.  Lucy, dear, sweet Lucy.  The falls were red because the Mainlanders were here.  Because this is where the Old Magic has hidden for so long.”

I am getting very angry here.  The MacJohns keep interrupting me.  Mr. MacJohn wants to introduce me to some of his friends, and I can’t think of an excuse.  I’ll write more later.

Sincerely, Lucy

Author's Note

If you notice, I DID say that Frederick's last name was Shuster before. I think that was some of the only foreshadowing I did the entire book, or at least the only foreshadowing I did on purpose. Please tell me what you think!