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“Their crusade began with refusing to give Zordis access to basic needs until they eventually graduated to murdering innocent Zordis, starting with the children.

The young ones were easy targets, and they believed if they eliminated the kids first, then there would be fewer Zordis in the future to create more of our kind.

It goes without saying that the Zordi community was not fond of Sir William Knight or his people.

“Now the person you aren’t taught about in Zordi history class is Richard Taylor.

He was the Zordi who raped William’s wife, his two sisters, and his mother.

Some say Richard did it as revenge for all the dead children.

Others say he was hoping for one of the women to fall pregnant with hopes that if William had a Zordi in his family, he’d stop the killings.

“If that was Richard’s intent, it failed, because he only made things worse.

One of the four women did fall pregnant and carried the baby to term.

That woman was William’s oldest daughter, and she did not survive the birth.

This was the event that caused William and his followers to produce the poison that triggered the Grand Separation. ”

No wonder I never learned about Richard Taylor in my Zordi history classes. His actions were no better than what the Ordinaries did to us. But come on. Murdering innocent, defenseless children? Really?

Mia continues, “When the zovernment made the decision to hide our world and scrub all the Ordinaries, they also altered all Zordi minds to believe that procreation between our kinds is impossible. We were also taught to start calling the regular people Ordinaries. Before then, everyone was considered to be either a human or a gifted human. The people who hated us called us freaks . The zovernment hoped that the new language would foster natural distance, while at the same time, not separate our worlds too much that a future reintegration would be impossible.”

I shoot Mia a dirty look. “That’s some bullshit. The zovernment is keeping people away from their potential soul mates.”

My glare does nothing to faze Mia. “While there is some truth to your statement, Mr. Grant, it’s not completely true. With our kinds being separated for so long, we’ve naturally found soul mates in our own kind more often than outside of it.”

“So why are you here?” Phil asks. “I’ve got a feeling you have more of an agenda than to give us all a history lesson.”

“Correct, Mr. Ward. I’m here because Miss Rance is pregnant.

” Mia flashes Arella a soft smile. “Despite how hard the zovernment works to keep our world hidden, our goal is to eventually bring our worlds back together. That’s why when these pregnancies happen, we fully support them.

The more Zordis there are in the world, the better.

Our belief is that if we can get the Zordi population equal to the Ordinary population, then Ordinaries will be more likely to accept us again.

We’re currently nowhere near that, but it’s a work in progress.

“Typically, we Keepers wait until the second trimester before we offer support, guidance, and medications to ensure the health and growth of your child to term. Because you’re a rare Immune, it’s our priority to do everything we can to increase your chances of survival.”

I don’t like the word survival . Arella shouldn’t have to fight to survive the birth of our child. Especially not if the chances are fifty percent. With the way my life has gone, I can almost guarantee she won’t make it. Am I cursed? Is it my fate to see everyone I love die?

“What about Trey and me?” Arella asks. “I’m not going to have this baby if the zovernment separates us again.”

“Ah, right. Maybe I should have addressed that first. Have you heard of Augustine Island?”

“Yes,” I say. “It’s a hidden island where the entire population is Zordis.”

“Correct. That island is common knowledge for our people. The hidden island that isn’t common knowledge is the one called Jetty Island.

It’s where all the crossbreeding couples go to live with their children.

Many generations of crossbred people live there now.

It’s a pretty nice place, in my opinion.

There, our kind is free to be with whoever they want.

Zordis can freely use their powers too. It runs like its own little country. ”

Arella tilts her head to the side. “Are you saying that if Trey and I want to be together, we have to move to this island?”

“Yes. In addition, the choice is permanent and there is no contact with the outside world. This is how we’re able to keep this place hidden.

Your current friends and family will have their minds altered to believe you’re dead.

If you don’t choose this, your other option is to terminate your pregnancy, and we’ll have to scrub you again. ”

“No!” Arella and I shout at the same time.

“I predicted you’d say that,” Mia says with a chuckle, even though there’s nothing to be chuckling about.

“That’s why I’ve come with a secret third option.

With Miss Rance being immune, you have the ability to fool the Zordi world by claiming you’re one of us.

You can say your mind power is the ability to block powers and the zense.

If you choose this option, my team can begin the process of getting Miss Rance added to our Zordi systems as one of us. ”

“What are the downsides to that?” I ask, because this sounds way too good to be true. There’s gotta be a catch.

“The downside is that if this secret third option becomes a problem for the Keepers, we will force option two onto you without discussion. You’ll both forget that any of this ever happened. As for any children you might have, they will also be scrubbed and placed into someone else’s care.”

Arella and I glance at each other. It only takes us a second for us to silently agree on which option we want.

Mia nods her approval as if she heard the conversation we just had with our eyes. “That’s wonderful. As soon as I leave, I’ll have my team begin the paperwork.”

“Wait,” I say. “Does this mean Arella and I have full permission to be together now?”

“There are certain rules you’ll have to follow. For example, with Miss Rance pretending to be a Zordi, all Zordi laws will apply to her. Otherwise, yes, you are free to be together.”

“Does that mean I can legally marry her too?”

“On paper, Miss Rance will appear as a Zordi, so, yes, you may legally marry each other.”

I jump out of my chair with both arms in the air. “Fuck yeah!” I seize Arella’s face and plant a long, hard kiss against her lips. I don’t even care that everyone’s watching. Neither does she, because she kisses me back just as hard.

Every day for the last two weeks, I’ve asked Arella to marry me. She’s been rejecting me because we wouldn’t be able to have a “real wedding” or be “legally married.” I didn’t care. I just wanted to see a ring on her finger. I wanted us to at least pretend to be engaged.

Now she has zero excuses to deny my proposals. I’m going to make the next one so special, she’ll want nothing more than to say yes.

Arella has a giant smile on her face as I sit back down and take her hand into my lap.

I can’t stop smiling either. I never thought I’d see the day when a zovernment official told me I have permission to be with an Ordinary.

I want to take Arella home and make love to her right now.

After that, I want to show her off to my bandmates, then the rest of the world.

“Do the Keepers know what makes Ari immune?” Phil asks.

“It’s as much of a mystery to the Keepers as it is to you,” Mia says. “I can share our theories with you; however, nothing has been scientifically confirmed.”

“Please share,” Roxy says eagerly.

“Sure. Theory one is that while Ordinaries were developing the poison to kill us, they were also developing a drug that could make them immune to Zordi powers. It’s possible that they succeeded and the drug altered the DNA of those people before the worldwide scrub.

Now that gene has been passed down this far to Miss Rance.

We don’t have confirmation of this theory because we have yet to create an immunity drug ourselves, so we’re unsure how a bunch of Ordinaries could have done it back in the 1300s.

“Our second theory is that Miss Rance and the other Immunes are merely an anomaly. There’s no pattern to it, and it happens so rarely that we haven’t been able to gather enough data about Immunes to make any firm conclusions.”

“What data do you have?” I ask.

“We know about as much as you know,” Mia says, and I don’t believe her one bit. “The only thing I know more than you is the data involving Immunes and soul mates.

“Within the system of Keepers, my official title is Soul Mate Specialist. I lead a team of other Keepers who research and study how the soul mate connection is built, how it affects people, and how the glimmer works, especially when it’s between a Zordi and an Ordinary.

“As you can imagine, with Zordis believing that our kind should stick to our own kind, that type of connection is pretty rare. Being immune is even rarer, which means being an Immune who has built a soul mate connection to a Zordi is the most rare. To this day, you are the third couple in history who fits that criteria, and the first to happen in my lifetime. That’s why I, along with our Immunes specialist, have been keeping a special eye on you two over the past three years.

“When you were arrested by the Enforcers outside Shadow Ridge, word spread that they had found an Ordinary woman who seemed to be immune to Zordi powers. Once that word spread up to the Keepers, Grace, our Immunes specialist, went to check it out. You both might remember her. She has blonde hair with a strip of purple going down the front.”