Chapter 6

Liam woke me late in the afternoon, as the sun sank below the tree line on the mountain. He set a plate of food and a bottle of water down on my desk and left as quietly as he'd come in.

After letting Poe out my little window to find some food for himself, I ate dinner alone in my room, hardly tasting the food. I forced it down knowing I would need the strength later. Sleeping the little I did had helped, but my mind still spun with the story that Dad had told me. If I really wasn't a Stanwood, then why was I found in the Vault? Why would the Great Ones bring me to my mother and father?

I closed my eyes trying to force the never ending stream of questions out of my mind. I needed to focus on the test. Dad was right. If I wasn't a Stanwood, I really shouldn't take it. What if we went up there and the Vault refused to open for me? Or worse, it opened but nothing happened.

It was eight in the evening when I finally went downstairs. Everyone sat in the living room,