“No, but it doesn’t make sense.”
I lifted my brow.
“Light and dark, side by side. That is what this is. What the border is. Would it not be logical to think that it was mocking the soul? That in each soul there is light and dark? That the soul made of two could in some way find its reflection in another soul made of two? If you destroy him, would you not be destroying the light he loves as well?”
“He loves no one.”
“Before this dawn, you would have said the same.”
I was rigid, not because I was defensive or mad, but because she was right. I couldn’t bring myself to agree or disagree.
Finally, I said what was told to me but I never really felt. “I have every reason to believe that he must be destroyed. That he bound my soul.”
“Why?”
I didn’t have an answer for that. Not one that would make sense.
“I did not see him divide us in those images,” she said as her eyes clearly traced over those lingering visions in her mind.
I moved my head from side to side to tell her I agreed.
“Then he did not bind, for he did not divide us.”
That was a new way to look at it, but I didn’t clearly understand where she was going with this.
“I’m your soul. I’m darkness living within your light. That lesson was instilled in me by that man that gave me all those visions. I do not understand why you feel the need to destroy a man just because he’s dark and resembles you.” Her eyes searched mine for an instant. “Do you do this for you fear I would mistake him for you if I were to go?”
Before this day, I never had that fear, but I had to admit, at least to myself, that yeah, I was worried about that, just like I was worried about Cashton’s sister thinking he was me.
I reached to trace the base of her eye. I saw a fire there. That fierceness I was trying to get her to draw out with every story I had told her of the paintings we had passed, every story of the ones that showed beings fighting for what they felt only in their souls. This fire, this blaze of passion only seemed to surface when she spoke of how or when we would be divided, or how we would find our end.
“I don’t think you could ever truly mistake me for another, not when you feel the energy of that soul.” I swallowed, a bit nervously. “I agree and at the same time disagree with you. I never really felt that destroying him made much sense. I thought that he should have a chance to change his ways, but at the same time he has had a past darker than the energy he was born in. There is a risk that those of our kind will go to him thinking he’s me, that he would hurt them, drain their light.”
“You were happy with him,” she stated firmly. “I saw it. He was with you in those visions. Did you not see him with you?”
I didn’t, and I didn’t want to tell her that because right now I wanted to be here and not worried about what could happen. So, I simply smiled. “You must be starving.”
I led her into the dining hall. Every head turned when we walked in that room. I wasn’t sure if they were more surprised to see her or me there.
I kept my arm around her and a cold stare on Camlin as he lurked near the doors. Fury was in his dejected gaze. Every time he saw her or me laugh, each time he saw me lean in to take in her ivory scent, that fury glistened in his beady eyes.
My grandfather beckoned me across the room to his study doors. I went to tell him no, but then Seneca came to my side and urged me on, silently ensuring that she would stay with Skylynn.
Tarek was standing behind his desk with a long, beautiful wooden box before him.
“What is this?”
“It just arrived for you. Obviously, your parents have heard of this day’s events.”
I felt my gut clench. It had been years since I had spoken to either of them. That was my will, not theirs. I had this insane idea that I needed to be free of my bonds before I approached them again.
Tarek handed me a letter that was written in my mother’s classic, deeply slanted style. I read the words over and over. She spoke of a dream she’d had of me the previous night, how the dream reminded her of a dream she’d had when she was just a girl. A fleeting vision.
My mother did not have the same gift as my grandfather and I, at least not in the same sense. She often dreamed of a past or woke with desires to do something immediately to change her course, or the courses of others.
My mother’s words said that she did not understand what was approaching but that she worried for me. That no matter what, she wanted me to have peace and she felt that I would see the end before the beginning. She urged me not to doubt my path, not to call on reason, but instead to do as my soul felt pulled to do.
I curiously opened the box; inside on a silk cloth was a violin. The wood gleamed, even in the low light of Tarek’s study.
“That was hers, when she was just a girl,” he said with an admiring grin. I could see memories flooding the energy around him. “When she carried you and you grew from an infant to a boy, she played it to comfort you, to ease you into sleep.”
“Why did she give this to me?” I asked, feeling my heart pound, knowing without a doubt in some future this would be Skylynn’s instrument of choice.
“This is a marked gift, son. It is saturated in your energy, the innocent energy you had before you understood what was spoken over you. It carries who you are and where you came from. Your mother is trying to protect you.” I clenched my jaw, not understanding the silent message. “And she is wise, for she knows if the one you share your soul with is protected, then therefore you are as well.”
My eyes rose to meet his. “How revealing am I now? Do you know that it is taking everything I have not to rush this gift from this room and hand it to Skylynn, someone that was blind to me before this day?”
“Blind, but not truly absent. I cannot see your sacred moments, son. But heed my words: If she is cut from your soul and you have been here all this time, and just now this day she descends among us…one must wonder what lessons she was given, who took the time to guide her. One must understand that very few loves are intertwined such as thee. You are meant for greatness. So is she. And on your path to that point, you will fall in and out of glory. When you think you are at your weakest point, know that you are only growing stronger.”
I had no words for him. Only one nod.
“I will have this sent to your room. Perhaps now you would wish to show her how to feel this music.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice to return to Skylynn.
I found her staring at the small orchestra that played in the hall at the last meal of the day.
I reached for her hand. Her eyes grew wide with curiosity, not knowing what I wanted her to do. No one else was dancing, but I didn’t care.
In front of everyone, I knelt down and removed the heels on her feet once more, then gracefully pulled her to the floor.
There had to be at least two hundred others in the room, but as far as I was concerned there was not another soul in existence.
I placed her arm on my shoulder, pulled her waist to me, then clasped her hand. She smiled innocently up at me.
We moved to the music, stumbling on each other’s toes more than once. Instead of finding embarrassment in that, we laughed. Oh God, her laugh; it pulled at my soul. It was an act that I had not seen in those visions, one that I managed to create on my own, in this time. It gave me confidence that I could protect her from the torment I’d seen her endure.
Her eyes were gleaming. Songs went by before anyone decided to join us on the floor, and even when they did they kept their distance. I felt their stares, so did Skylynn, but we didn’t care.
“I love this,” she said as she reached to touch my dimple, one that was more defined than the other.
“Do you?”
She grinned as a warm sound came from her throat. “When you play, when you feel the beat, you press your lips together and that dimple comes to life. It punctuates your emotion, your passion.”
/> A shy, flushed smile came to me. In those visions, playing the drums was a vice, a coping mechanism of sorts. Passion, that was felt when we held each other, when we surrendered ourselves to each other.
“What?” she asked with a smile, one that almost made me think she was reading my mind.
“My head is just not in the right place.”
She let her shoulders fall slightly. “Your mind takes you from where you are often?” she asked with a lifted brow.
“That, it does.”
“Mine, too.”
“Where are you now?”
“In some future.”
“Tell me what it looks like,” I whispered into her ear, causing her to sigh in my arms and my body to tense. I was all too aware of every reaction her body gave mine.
Now she was the one blushing. “There is a balance.”
“What else?”
“Us. No worries. Just us.”
“Are we happy there?” I asked as I brushed my lips across her forehead.
I felt her hands clutch my back. “I’m so happy that I strive to make sure no one feels what we had to endure. I protect them. We do.”
“You protect them because you’re fierce, right? Because you are not going to let anyone hurt you? You’re a fighter, a stubborn, passionate fighter.”
“You’re not trying to change me now, are you?” she said with a wry smile.
I pressed her against me. “I’m trying to unveil you. I’m telling you that I never want anyone to take advantage of the innocence I see in you.” I leaned into her ear. “I want to be the only one that knows your innocence.”
I felt her body melt against mine and heard a near panting breath in response. I smiled into her hair. “I love how you feel my simplest words.”
The song shifted to one that only a violin played; the music made her skin hum. My first instinct to give her the gift my mother had given me had not wavered. This song only intensified that desire.
Once the song ended, I leaned into her ear. “I want to give you something…something that holds my innocence, that will protect you in my absence.”
Her skin blushed to the point where I no longer had to question where her gown began and her skin was hidden. That was when I realized how my words could have been misunderstood, especially since we had been teasing each other with words and lingering touches. I bit my lip before I spoke. “It’s a tangible gift, I swear.”
I could have sworn I saw disappointment in her eyes, which was my cue to get us out of the public eye before we managed to forget we were not alone.
I took her hand and began to lead her to the doorway. When we reached the hall, out of habit my gaze moved to the doorways that led to The Fall. Guilt for Cashton and his sister busted the haze of euphoria I had been hiding within. I’d been lost in Skylynn’s arms as they endured God knows what on that side.
“Go and check on them,” she whispered.
In such a short amount of time, she had already learned to read me. She knew I was cautious about having her near that Fall but that I felt my honor and duty calling me.
“I’ll stand right here. I’ll wait.”
I hated this sensation, being pulled between two points. I knew where I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, but I could not suppress the guilt or worry.
“I’ll just be a moment. I only want an update from my men.” I brushed my lips across hers, hearing her sigh. “I can’t wait to give you the gift I have for you.” A shy smile was the only response she gave me.
I vanished from her side, appearing at the shore. Even through the night, this sea glowed, this Fall shined.
I walked the path of the crests that were in place, ensuring they were still intact.
Lorecan came to my side as I rose from Guardian’s crest.
“There is still no sign of Cashton,” he said to me solemnly.
All along the shore, there were Allurest sitting in deep meditation. Their bodies may have been present, but their souls were soaring through this universe, trying to find one of our own.
“And his sister?”
“Witnesses are still lingering near her, closer now than ever.”
I clenched my jaw.
“That troubles you?” he asked, somewhat surprised.
Yep, it did. If they’re that close, then they see a mounting tension. “Continue keeping watch. Tell whoever is on post tonight to move into meditation to aid the Allurest,” I ordered.
Lorecan smiled easily at me as his stare moved over me. “I don’t think in my wildest dreams I would have ever imagined you with this much ease about you,” he said to me.
“Not at ease. Not until this is over.” I gave him a sharp nod and turned to leave.
I manifested at the doorway to the hall I’d left Skylynn in.
Rage consumed me then.
Chapter Six
She was against the wall, her arms back, her head to the side as if she could not bear to look forward. Camlin was leaning into her with a malicious scowl on his face. Before I could move there, a bolt of energy escaped her and flung him back; he hit the opposite wall with enough force to crack the marble, then all at once a ray of light opened and pulled him in.
I was already at her side, pulling her to me. She fought and struggled before she saw that it was me, then she began to shake; not crying, but on the verge.
The fierce noise, the sound of Camlin’s roar as he vanished, had caused others to appear in the hall, a mix of Allurest and The Selected.
“What happened?” I said as I pulled her chin so that I could see into her eyes. “What did he say to you?” I seethed.
My fury only made her tremble.
“He, he said that he knew I was evil, that I was vile. He said that he was going to throw you into The Fall, that he was going to seal it and close you in forever. I would be his.”
She stared at the wall Camlin had vanished from. “I just wanted him away. That is all I thought. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I didn’t.”
I pulled her against my chest and rocked her from side to side.
Tarek had been called to the hall. One of the Allurest had reached through that line of light that was still lingering in the air, fading ever so slowly.
She never spoke to Tarek. She didn’t have to; he could read her energy, what she assumed to be true.
“What did she see?” I asked him with a nod to the Allurest that was still inspecting the now all but faded ray of light.
Tarek looked down in his fatherly way at Skylynn. “She sent him home.”
A sinful smile emerged on my lips, one that matched that of everyone in that hall. Karma. I loved Karma. Skylynn didn’t do anything that we had not all thought of doing ourselves.
“I’m sure he will begin his journey back to us soon. I have no doubt that by that time, this confusion will be settled. Secured.”
Meaning I would have Skylynn hidden with the Falcons by then. The Hermetic would be fools to oppose them. Yet, I knew anger rarely revealed a clear path to the foolish.
“Rest now,” Tarek said with a nod to me to move on.
It was the first time he had ever dismissed me. The first time I’d wanted to be dismissed.
My only response to him was vanishing from his side with Skylynn in my arms.
The second she realized we were in my quarters, she let a sigh out. “He’s going to hurt you,” she said as she reached for my face. “He’s going to imprison you over there.”
“He is not foolish enough—or brave enough—to try. I promise.”
She didn’t believe me. I knew why. She had seen the path before her, the effects before the cause. She was searching for the cause, and you always find what you are searching for. No doubt, in her mind Camlin was who she thought would divide us.
“It won’t happen that way. I won’t let it. The Falcons will keep you safe.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about. It’s you. It’s this twisted idea that you have that you must destroy your twin. I know it’s false
.”
I looked away, not wanting to fight that thought out. I could not undo the intent that had been branded into me for so long. Not that easily.
“Aden, I swear to you, I recognize all of the energy on that shore. The guitars, the crest you keep checking, all of them. I recognized them because in those visions they were with us. In those visions, I saw an image of you that did not carry your energy—it was standing next to yours. Even on that stage, it was standing with you. That man that gave me those visions meant it, we are a solution; to what I don’t know, but every fiber in my soul is telling me that you have been plotted against, you have been tricked, and that boy, the one that said those awful things, will ensure that you remain fooled. He will use any weakness he can to stop what is already set in motion.”
“Camlin is weak, a parasite, an angry little man that only knows how to stomp his foot when he’s angry.”
“He’s more than that. I know he is. I felt evil in those visions. I felt evil attack me in those waters, but I swear to you he is colder than all of them. He’s death.”
I reached to caress her face. “He will not hurt me. Even if he managed to get past my men, my grandfather, I could take him down without a thought. I’m not boasting. I’m just telling you that the Hermetic Realm does not practice the mysticism we use here. They rarely use vim to move them, to protect them. He is unpracticed in the strengths that are instilled in me, the ones that rush through my veins by birthright.”
I smiled shyly as I moved closer to her and gently let the back of my hand glide down her arm. “Besides, nothing can stop a man who is fighting for someone he can’t live without.”
“Can’t you see? He already has,” she whispered as she slowly let her eyes fall to my lips.
“I see a past that has not happened, one that we will change.”
I took in a sharp breath, telling myself to stop my caress of her skin. I wanted to give her that gift. I wanted her to see that even those that I had been estranged from felt her coming, felt this bond.
My eyes searched my quarters, looking for that box. I moved away from her, searching from room to room. I was certain that Tarek had forgotten to send the box up until I spotted it on my bed. I playfully shook my head as I thought of him surely smiling when he told whomever where to place this.