Warning: Some spoilers for book ten, Into the Gauntlet.
Stars and Golden Spills
Why strain to shine above everyone else, when in a way, you already have?
Natalie Kabra stared at the gauntlet, a feeling of growing isolation blooming within as she pictured her mother. She and Ian were on their own now. It would be an amazing miracle if the two former Lucian heirs were even safe. With any luck, Isabel and Vikram would simply let them be, just scorning upon the fact that their children had betrayed the family of their ultimate goal.
Her gaze slowly slid away from the gauntlet that had put all their lives in peril to her long time enemies, and cousins, Amy and Dan Cahill, the winners of the hunt, the first to have all thirty-nine clues in hand. Surprisingly, she didn't feel scornful, she didn't feel the urge to scream and stomp out her internal fury that the Kabras hadn't won.
Kabras never lose.
Did she truly believe that?
Natalie had always kept faith that her family was the best of the best, undoubtedly the picture of perfection. They had the beauty, the wealth, the intelligence and cleverness, the power to get away with anything...victorious.
Part of her hated to admit it, but... Not anymore. It wasn't true any longer.
Isabel was going to jail, finally having her criminal act of murdering Hope and Arthur unearthed. Ian and Natalie had lost the race, the Kabras', and all the Cahills' for that matter, main focus for centuries.
But Natalie wasn't upset of the loss. She wasn't distraught from being bereft of her mother. What she felt was quite the contrary of those emotions.
A new emotion was presented to her. One that she hadn't ever had the opportunity to experience before. A true, mutual feeling of... joy. From being freed of her mother's, and her father's, clutches at last.
The realization had hit her, and momentarily, her breath hitched and her her heart thumped raggedly in a stunning second of shock. She felt as if she'd betrayed her family, almost, because she was happy. Happy for their long awaited destruction.
It was a peculiar emotion, actually. After all, how many people would be happy for their parents' possible demise?
...But didn't Natalie have reason to be?
I despise questions. They're intricately irritate me. Why am I thinking such atrocious objectives? I am much to superior for lowly statements like questions!
The thought had barely finished before another one arrived at the entrance of her sharp, thinking mind.
Without my Vikram, Isabel, and Lucians, I'm not superior!
The words struck her in horror, shattering all coherent thoughts, fracturing her confidence. She'd been raised in high class all her life, wealthy, spoiled.
And what had she been degraded to now? What was she?
Just...another person. Another, among billions, of humans.
The very thought terrified her. It clung to her desolately like a spider hanging from a thin awareness that she was beneath others, when she had always been above. She still longed to be above.
However, she didn't have any implication of wishing for the bullet to be above where it had struck, damaging her world for eternity.
For the first time since she'd stepped out of the gauntlet, Natalie felt the soaring pain in her foot. Where her own mother had shot her. Her mother, the woman that Natalie had looked up to, the woman that had been her shining role model for nearly all her life.
The woman who had shot her in her blind greed to have control.
And as much as she detested to confess, Natalie knew that part of her would never, ever recover from this wound. The shock, the acrimonious explosion within both Isabel and Natalie, simply all the turmoil that had occurred with the Kabras. More events had happened in the past few hours than in the time since the clue hunt commenced.
It was almost as if a lightning bolt had struck the family, shattering the most important family in history into fulgerites. Tiny, hollow fulgerites.
Was it possible?
Generally, it was. The Cahills had disintegrated into sand before Natalie was born. This only felt like the destruction, but truly, the destruction had been completed years ago. Long before any of this generation could possibly stop it.
This generation. It was odd, to say the least.
Her gaze slid from person to person, contemplating each soul. There was Alistair Oh, leaning heavily on his cane. Less successful than most of the Ekaterina branch, not as genial, but strong. Not physically, but mentally, internally. Without all this, without clues, a great burden had been lifted off his shoulders.
Jonah Wizard. Injured and pitiful, at the moment. Yet, actions speak louder than words, and in his flight of actions, he had reason to be proud.
She halted when she met the green-eyed gaze of Amy, who stood rigidly next to Daniel, though her expression shone with jubilation. Words wouldn't make their way out of Natalie's mouth when she stared at her, and she felt the undeniable urge that they would be lost, wandering in endless tunnels, never exploiting their way free.
The pitiful girl had saved them all, and in a way, she helped Ian and Natalie most abundantly. But Natalie's pride was still there- it always will be. She was a Kabra, and there was no way to escape the family name. Fear, sneers, mocking, cruelty- they would always be the stereotypes when Cahills heard the name Kabra.
Maybe those first impressions were true.
Did being a Kabra mean that one was automatically stunning, amazing, and powerful? Did it automatically give you a shine?
No. No, not at all. Not every Kabra shone. Isabel didn't. Neither did Vikram.
Did Natalie?
Well...
Perhaps. She had potential. Why is what some would ask. After all those mistaken deeds, why?
Because she was Natalie Kabra, and if one would just take a closer look at her wily figure, they would find her brimming with the unmistakable shine of a true star, like a cup overflowing with glittering gold.
A/N: Reviews will be gratefully accepted. Please point out any errors and feel free to hand over what I'm sure will be expertise advice.