13. Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“ S o, we’re still on for today, right?” I asked, sliding next to Emma at the lunch table. I had been spending all of my time with Glasson, piecing the puzzle together about who had destroyed Emma's family. I knew from our connection and from the pull that I had for her that she needed me. I’d texted her earlier that week, making plans with her for that night. I knew that being with her meant that I needed to fight the pull that grew and intensified each day that her soul was exposed, but she did need me, and I couldn't deny it any longer.
I watched as Emma looked up at me and then nodded. I stared into her beautiful, vibrant, green eyes, hearing her feelings pulsating through her melody.
It was hard to hear her feelings exactly, especially with my soul shielded, but I had learned how to let it out just enough in order to sense her. She was thinking something about reading a letter, about seeing my name, and being confused by it. Confusion, that was what radiated strongly from her soul. I shielded my melody entirely once again as Emma responded: “Of course.”
“Awesome,” I smiled, placing my hand on her shoulder, feeling its warmth.
“What’s today?” Sam asked, sitting down at our table. I knew that in order to keep up appearances I needed to act like I was friends with the students here, but it was tiring. They were the least honorable boys I had ever met. The things they spoke about to each other about the females were very disturbing. I assumed that if they had melodies, theirs would have been corrupted long ago.
Sam was soon followed by more football players. I could tell from the way Emma smiled and nodded at my teammates that she wasn’t thrilled to be with them either. But I had a part to play. I wasn’t Rykerian, the guardian knight of the heirs of Haleston at that moment. I was Ryker Dall, the football-playing boy. I put an arm around Emma and breathed in the scent of her coconut shampoo. How badly I wanted to pull her into my arms and bury my face in her hair.
“Oh, Emma has been waiting all week to hang out with yours truly. Sorry about all of my practices getting in the way,” I said, winking at her. As I focused on her eyes. All I saw were emerald pools of confusion.
She seemed uncomfortable with my touch, which was starting to become a new normal. I did not like that.
“My parents are out for the night,” I raised my voice for the sake of the football team. Emma nodded, I assumed, not caring in the slightest if my parents were home or not.
“Dude! Score!” Andrew high-fived me. Kevin and John gave me fist bumps. I smiled and acted like I was proud of the dumb things that I knew my comment had made them think. I didn’t want people to hurt Emma. My main concern was always her protection. If being her boyfriend caused those disturbing boys to stay away from her, then that is what I had to be, at least make it look serious between us. I had already told them and half of the school that we were together. It had been that way since freshman year. She was mine, not anyone else's.
“So what are you guys going to do?” John asked with a smirk.
Andrew punched his shoulder and said: “Dude!”
“We are just going to hang at his house,” Emma said, irritated. I squeezed Emma’s knee, and her green eyes found mine. I unshielded my melody to push my apologetic feelings towards her. I quickly shielded it again. I was pretty good at it by then. It was something Lamont trained me for, so I wouldn’t become soulless. She smiled with what I knew was her fake, but warm, smile which meant—“you owe me.”
“Hey, guys,” I heard Ash say, and I glanced up at her for just a moment, and then I focused back on Emma. I watched Emma as she looked around the cafeteria. Her coming into her melody was something extraordinary. I felt a pain of guilt that I was able to witness it, but that her parents would never be able to see her as she grew. She looked at me, and our eyes met for a moment, and a funny look crossed over her face. I could only stare back until she glanced away. Then I was pulled into a memory.
“Her melody is so captivating,” I had commented about Emma, as I sat with Lamont one evening, watching the stars.
“It is, isn't it?” he said reverently.
“Indeed.”
“I’m so grateful, so indebted to you, Kerian.” I watched as Lamont looked up at the stars. Prince Lamont had been the one who gave me the nickname Kerian when we had first met, telling me that “Rykerian” was too formal. Once I arrived in this realm, I wanted a better, simpler name, and Ryker seemed to fit just fine. It didn't feel right to have anyone else call me Kerian.
“It is my duty and my honor, Lamont; you know this.”
“I know how hard it must be, so hard being without Ana.”
I tried to stop those memories from making me feel the despair that I so longed to be freed from.
“Everyday, I think of her,” I whispered into the evening air.
“I know, and I wish I could bring her back from the Ancients.”
“What is done is done, Lamont, and I have come to be at peace with it.”
“Have you?”
“I believe—” I started, but Lamont cut me off.
“Sometimes, we get a second chance in life. The Ancients and I are giving you that second chance. I wouldn’t have asked you this if I didn’t think it would bring you great happiness. We are here, stuck, and we might as well be happy. You are the truest and best friend that I have ever had, Rykerian Dallard.”
“I thank you; I do not deserve your friendship.”
“Yes, you do.” He turned to look at me then, and I wondered, not for the first time, how an heir could regard me so highly. “You are more a brother to me than Tarick ever was,” he smirked.
I laughed.
“What? It is true, isn't it? That idiot tried to kill me.”
“I thank you, Lamont,” I said, bowing my head; he slapped a hand on my back and smiled.
“All will be well again, Kerian; you shall see. We can be happy here.” As the memory of that night faded, I heard Emma’s melody as loud and as pure as ever also fade into that long-ago night.
As the bell rang out, I packed up my backpack and raced from my last class. I walked down the hallway to meet Emma out front. The sight of Prince Shad and Emma together made me sick, but I tried to endure it for her sake. I knew she was growing fond of him, and whatever he had done to weasel his way into her life was working, and it was making her happy. I did not want to be the bad guy who didn’t want her to have other friends and act all jealous—or at least, I tried really hard not to be that guy. That was a low thing to do, after all.
“Have any plans this weekend?” I heard Shad ask as I waited outside their classroom. I was partly hidden by a beam, for which I was then thanking the Ancients.
“Yeah, I’m hanging out with Ryker this weekend. You?” She asked, and I smiled so wide. That was probably not the answer he was hoping for. I wanted to unshield my melody in order to hear his feelings at that moment, but I didn’t want to risk him sensing my melody. I may have been able to do it undetected, but I didn't want to risk it, especially with my emotions being heightened as they were at that moment.
“Hanging out with Keil, then work. Have a good weekend. See you on Monday,” Shad said.
It was silent for a bit, and I moved from behind the pillar and walked up to Emma. Shad was long gone, just another shape in the crowd of students on their way home from school. I was smiling like the biggest idiot.
“Ready?” I asked, moving to her side. I chuckled as she jumped, surprised that I was there.
“Yep,” she said.
I took her hand, her warmth flooding my insides and led us through the mass of students in the parking lot. We usually walked home. I didn’t drive a car to school as our homes were only minutes away by foot. Shad, of course, had a car because—well, he was annoying. But for me? I wasn’t as pretentious as he was. He was a prince after all, and princes just think—I paused in my thinking—well there was one prince who didn’t think he was the ruler of the realms—Lamont. I tried to swallow that thought down without wanting to cry. I was too soft. This realm was making me way too soft—and different. “So, my parents aren't home, so we have some privacy.”
“Okay, yeah. I heard you at lunch, but why do we need privacy?” She looked at me, raising her eyebrows.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen you in a while?” I shrugged. Honestly, I just wanted to kiss her, but I couldn't do that, not then. I mean, I could have, but the ramifications would have been too costly. It wasn't the right time—as much as I wanted it to be.
“Okay, so what are we going to do?” she asked.
I tried hard not to be like the humans on my football team—I think they were rubbing off on me because I just thought again about kissing her, and holding her in my arms—I needed to cool it.
“Watch a movie?” I said, trying to keep my thoughts contained.
“Another movie, really—don’t you get tired of that? That is what we did for two weeks nonstop right after you got home from your trip,” Emma whined.
“What? I thought you liked watching movies with me.” I gave her a frown. I loved watching movies with her. She always sat so close to me, leaned her head on my shoulder. And—the couple of times when she fell asleep in my arms—that was heaven, as they would say on Earth.
Her shoulder brushed mine, and I smiled like an idiot. “No, I tolerate watching movies with you because I love you.” The words struck me to my core. I had known her all her life. All her life, I had lived beside her, and those words directed at me, never before had come out of her mouth. She thought those words plenty of times when, on occasion, her soul had been unshielded, but never out loud before. I felt like I was soaring.
“What?” she asked, looking up at me, confusion in her pretty, green eyes.
I shook my head and smiled, “Thanks, Em. I love you, too.” It was true I did love her. My words came out as a whisper, and I found myself remembering, remembering a past moment with Emma—
“You know, that isn't very nice,” she said, moving away from me with a glare.
“What?” I said, teasing and walking past her down the trail.
“You know what I thought—that you—that we, would—”
“Kiss—right this moment?” I turned back to her and tried to let my feelings calm down so as to not alarm her. I would have been lying if I had said that I had not thought about it, but I wanted it sometime in the distant future. Not right then; she was too young. I was not yet ready.
“Of course,” She shrugged, as if it were the easiest conversation to have in all the realms.
“I—ah—don’t think it’s a good idea right now, Em.”
“But I need it to be you. Ry, I need my first kiss to be important, you know?” I watched as she sat down, defeated, in the dirt.
“Emma, I am sure your first kiss will mean something. I am sure it will be earth-shattering.”
She looked up at me in disbelief.
“Ry, please?” she begged, looking up at me with those beautiful eyes that made it hard to focus. My nickname, on her lips, was carried from her breath and made alive in the air. She had a way of making everything seem so simple, like breathing. Only she could break me down to just my basic self, with one basic syllable: Ry.
“Not right now, Em; not right now. Let’s go; let's not waste the day.” I held out my hand to her, and she took it. The warmth flooded between us, and I raised my hand to cup her cheek. I had given her a simple nickname, after she had made up mine. One just for her, just from me: Em. She stared at me as if I were the entire world, her melody swirling within mine. I wished I was ready. But I did not want to kiss anyone again, when I would only be wishing I were kissing Ana.
“Okay, fine, Ry—I will watch a movie with you, just as long as it’s not a horror movie,” Emma said, smiling at me.
“Yeah, no, of course,” I agreed as I started walking again, still stunned with the new revelation mixed with the past memory. My life had never been more complicated.