Chapter 48 #2
It drifts away as another petal lands in my outstretched palm.
She’s at a beach, playing in the waves with another girl her age.
Her red hair, a tangled mess of curls as they pretend to be mermaids.
“Emiliya, I found a shell!” I laugh with her as she giggles, holding the other girl’s hand as they jump in the surf.
That memory floats away, and another lands on my shoulder.
She’s a teenager, fingers intertwined with a boy with a terrible haircut, she blushes at his smile.
It fades away on the breeze, replaced by another memory.
She and I in my office, a coy smile on her lips.
From her perspective, this moment is so different from how I remember.
I give her the salve I made for her hands.
And she feels…grateful, taken care of. It was such a little thing, but she perceived it as the kindest gesture.
I didn’t know. I smile at the memory, wishing to make it more—I should have taken her hand, rubbed the salve on her palms myself.
I reach for another petal but remember why I’m here before my fingers grasp it.
I need to find the source of her power. I need to help her regain control.
I wade through the golden light, searching, until I feel it—a chill in the air, so stark against the surrounding warmth.
A shadow lies in the distance, a dark spot marring this radiant world.
It pulses with a coldness, its edges fraying like a wound or blight in the fabric of this perfect place.
I take a step toward the dark spot, and the ground below my feet shifts, repositioning the world so I’m standing just inches from the dark edge.
The light and pleasant heat has receded and has been replaced by a biting frost. The air becomes thick and oppressive, carrying a scent of smoke and winter.
I step into the blight, and immediately, heavy ice falls like hail, a blizzard, a swirling mass of black and gray, shifting and writhing in torment as if alive.
I’m pelted by a chip of ice and yanked into her memories.
She’s standing in a crowded ballroom, horror and humiliation cause her body to heat as Katri and the lion shifter kid make a mockery of her.
Another memory hits me, and she’s curled on the tile floor of a dark shower, crying and screaming into her hands, anguish and sorrow pouring over her in waves.
I’m pelted with another memory, her body sick and starving of magic, bruised and broken.
She’s alone, afraid, but trying so damn hard.
I’m jerked into another memory, this one of my classroom as she processes learning about Adrik and her family’s history.
She’s shocked, embarrassed, and heartbroken.
I just chastise her, rubbing salt in a newly formed wound.
I’m thrown into another scene. Someone pushes her into the lake at the institute, and her peers laugh like high school bullies.
All this unnecessary pain, just flung at her for no other reason than her lineage.
I’m pelted again, and again, memories going back before her time at the institute, years of running, fractured glimpses of cold nights and tall shadows, abrupt cross-country moves, peeling paint and crowded apartments, birthdays spent alone.
Then I feel it—a deep soul-wrenching ache that whispers of lost hopes and endless suffering.
I see her standing in the cold, crying over a newly dug grave.
I move toward the center of this dark place and wade through unhappy memory after memory, until I sense it, the center of this deep well of despair.
She’s standing on the top of a ravine screaming, calling out. She falls, I fall with her. We tumble together into a hollow, aching void. As I near the bottom, I’m gripped with a deep knowing that within this blight lies a truth, terrifying and inevitable.
Pain explodes in my immaterial body. That’s never happened before and shouldn’t be happening now. I shouldn’t be able to feel her physical pain, that’s not right.
A magica stands over her crumpled broken body. He’s shadow and darkness. I can’t see his face on this cloudy night, just his black scaly wings.
“Vladlena, my sweet Solnishko.” He crouches down next to Lena, pushing a bloody curl from her face. “This isn’t how I wanted to find you when we met again.” His voice is warm and laced with sorrow.
“Papa?” she says softly as tears slip from her eyes. But this isn’t right, that is not Adrik Solis. Adrik’s wings were those of a Blue Jay, feathered in cerulean, indigo, and navy. This magica is too tall, his features too dark, and his expressions too sad.
He snaps his head in my direction. His eyes drill into me, like he can see me. Like he senses me here.
“You don’t belong here.” His voice transforms into a deep growl. He can see me. “This isn’t for you.” He draws a sword from his back, a black blade that sucks in what little light there is in this memory.
My heart races. I shouldn’t be here. I scramble up and turn and run.
I fly over rocks and dirt through the canyon in her mind with my vampire speed, searching for her power to help her shut it down. There’s so much pain, so much hurt.
But there she is up ahead, my Lena. The Lena I know, standing in the warehouse with a huge hydra. Fuck, what the fuck is that?! She strokes one of its scaly heads lovingly.
“Lena!” I scream, running toward her. “You need to let go. You need to come back with me.”
“I don’t want to.” She narrows her eyes at me. “I told you before, I don’t trust you.”
“Good. You shouldn’t. But trust yourself. You sent me, you let me in. I need you to take my hand.” I glance over my shoulder, wary of being followed by the shadowy magica.
She sends me an incredulous glare full of suspicion.
“I couldn’t be here if you didn’t let me in. Remember, your mind is like Fort Knox. Please, úmnitsa.”
At that, the corner of her lip tips up in amusement. “You’re pretty when you beg.” She smirks. There she is, my Lena.
“Take my hand, and I’ll show you how pretty I can be.” I wink, and she lets out a gorgeous unabashed laugh.
She looks back at the hydra and plants a loving kiss on one of its many heads. Gross. Her hand reaches for mine, and as soon as our fingers brush, I’m thrown out of her mind and back into my body.
I gasp, sucking down cold air and dropping to my knees.
Cal lunges forward toward Lena as she falls, as if in slow motion, toward the hard concrete floor. They catch her in their arms and cradle her unconscious form to their chest.
My breath is ragged as I bring myself back to my body fully. Teariki coughs and stands, shaking off Lena’s power. Boden helps Kian up from the ground as they both register the shock in my expression.
“What is it?” Kian demands. “What did you see?” They all turn to face me.
“I don’t know who Lena really is, but one thing is for sure, she is not Adrik Solis’s daughter.”