15. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
H er soul was so dark that I could feel the darkness, the corruption, swirling around her, twisting itself inside of her, making a home there. It made me sick. I wanted to cast it away. She needed to be trained soon in the ways of her soul, needed to know her soul’s melody—but in order to do that, she needed to know that she even had a soul’s melody.
“Em—” I called out to her as I unshielded my melody just a bit and let my hand find hers. I knew what she needed. She nearly collapsed into me as she looked into my eyes. I knew that she was on the verge of tears. I wrapped her into my arms, and she let a few tears fall.
“Ry,” she replied in a soft whisper.
“I should have come by this weekend, Em. I knew you probably weren’t doing well, but I didn’t know if you wanted to see me so soon after what I showed you the other day.”
“Ry, I’ll always need my best friend.”
I pulled her face up to look at me; I smiled. I knew that I needed to hold onto her for just a little bit longer. Her pain was melting away slowly, and she still needed my nearness—needed my melody.
“Em, I swear, I will find him, and I will give your parents the justice that they deserve.”
She nodded, unable to say anything at that moment. The warning bell rang, and students started hurrying to class. I let her go, and it ached. My guardian knight vow always pulled me to her, especially when she was in such pain.
“I will see you at lunch?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Emma, I wish I could fix everything right now.” I could not have said anything more true.
She held up a hand, “It isn’t your fault, Ry. I’ll see you at lunch.”
I nodded and knew that regardless of my plans, I needed to wait until at least after lunch. Information about the man I was searching for had just come in, and I needed to talk to Mary and Glasson about my plans as soon as possible. As I watched Emma’s retreating frame painstakingly walking to class, I was more determined than ever to rid her completely of the monster who had ruined her life.
“I found him.” I paced the floor in the backroom of the flower shop. I left during lunch, right after I made sure Emma was okay. I checked my phone as I walked out of the cafeteria. Another report came in from one of the Terran colonies which Keil had helped me locate. I had the sketch of the man copied during the summer, and I sent it out to all of the Terran colonies that Keil and Glasson had located, to discover if anyone else had seen the man. To be honest, he looked a lot like Shad, and that made me happy, in a way, because, let’s be honest, I hated that prince.
I held out my phone to Mary. There was a map, and I knew she didn’t know exactly what she was looking for, but it was the first piece of good news I had received in a long time.
“I heard that you told Emma about your search. She has been just as miserable as she was right after her parents died, you know.”
“It didn’t go over as well as I hoped it would,” I said awkwardly.
She glared at me, and added, “her soul—it’s corrupting again.”
I raised my hands in a frustrated gesture.
“Be careful with her,” Mary demanded.
“I am always careful with Emma.”
“No, you weren’t, not in telling her and showing her that picture again. She hadn't remembered describing him to the sketch artist, probably for a good reason.”
“I needed to. She is stronger than you know, Mary.”
She paused; then asked, “When will you go?”
“During homecoming week.” I paced back and forth. I wished that I could have gone sooner, but I knew that it would be easier for me to leave before the football game so that I could avoid the questioning looks from Emma. She was going to the dance with Shad anyways, and I was not interested in seeing that play out.
“I should go with you, Ryker,” Mary said, placing some florist tape down on the back table. She looked so tired.
“Who would stay with Emma?”
“Maybe Glasson could—“
“Mary, are you insane? We can not leave Emma without one of us with her. If we both leave—“
“I understand; I do, but I want to help you. It was my sister, her life—her death we are talking about.”
I placed my hands on her shoulders, and I looked into her blue eyes.
“Mary, I will find this man, and I will get rid of him, or I will die trying.” She gasped and stepped away from me.
“Ryker, no! Take it back!” she yelled, shoving me away.
“I can’t. It’s already been spoken.”
“You are an idiot,” she whispered, looking at her hands on the table as she played with a rose petal. We both understood that I had just made another vow.
“I’m sure that I will find him.”
She didn’t look at me as she nodded.
“We have to tell Emma, Ryker. I keep thinking that she’ll discover something in her parent’s old things, but she doesn’t ask me anything about them, not really.”
“It’s still safer not to tell her yet. She asked me about an old letter that Lamont wrote to Ara. She is getting curious. We will tell her soon, but we need some more time.”
She nodded again and looked behind me. “I miss them so much, Ryker.” Her eyes filled with tears.
“I do, too, but this is good news, Mary. We are one step closer to getting rid of him,” I assured her.
“Yes, but there is still so much to figure out. We need to tell Emma and discover how to get home. Then once we are there, who knows? We don’t even know what Terra is like after all this time, especially after the wars.”
“I know, and sometimes, I wish we didn’t have to go back, but if Soulless are being created here, it’s only a matter of time before all the Terrans in this realm become soulless. I have to go, find the cave, find who did this, deal with it, and then we can be free of it,” I added.
“And this map? This is where he is?” Mary asked.
“The people in these Terran colonies indicated that there are a large number of soulless around this general area. They also told me that there are a bunch of caves around there, and it all seemed somewhat familiar to me. It is in the Northern California area, near Oregon. The cave could be there, Mary. This could be our way home. Possibly, this man has already found the cave and is using it. He might be traveling back and forth to Terra and creating soulless.
“I hope you find the answers we need, Ryker.”