Chapter 29
EXPLANATION
Iwake and instantly feel the loss of my mother all over, but instead of a panic-stricken loss, a serene state enters my being. My mother’s words always had that effect on me, and the dream of her was no different.
I hear the soft chattering of two voices in the next room as the familiar dark grey couch of my beloved Detroit living room cradles me within it.
Parts of me remember driving here with Lollie, but I was in a whirlwind of emotion that I barely know how I came to be back in Detroit in the first place.
I sit up on the couch, squinting to adjust my eyes to the light shining in from the adjoining room, which houses the dining table and chairs.
Lollie and Ashton sit at two of them, mumbling in hushed voices.
When they notice my movement, they both turn.
Lollie smiles, gathering herself up to walk to me.
“Jade. How are you? All rested up, I hope.” Lollie says, her outward love and peppiness warming me.
She is still upbeat, but there’s a new softness in her voice—one I’ve never heard before.
It is almost maternal, which sounds weird coming out of her youthful image.
Maybe it’s been there all along. I manage a smile.
“Ash brought over some soup from that deli you love. And some beer. Guinness. He thought you might need that more.” Lollie rolls her eyes in Ashton’s direction. At least some things haven’t changed.
I look towards Ashton, and he nods, knowing I need quiet. Always knowing what I need. Even when his roles in each life looked different, he was always my protector.
I get up and make my way to the food. My body aches, but my mind was rewarded with the rest it needed. With food in my stomach, I hope I’ll start to feel like myself again. Though I know I can never go back to who I was.
Ashton eyes me, waiting for me to say something, but it feels good to be in silence. So, I eat with both of them giving me the grace to talk when I am ready. It’s finally after I’ve had a sip of the dark beer that I break the ice.
“My mother came to me,” I say matter-of-factly. “In a dream last night. She explained some things.” After taking another spoonful of soup, I look them over before saying, “But I still have questions.”
“And we are here to answer them. The ones we can, at least.” Lollie says, her reassuring voice confirming it was the right decision to come back to the two people who know me best.
“OK,” I begin, “what’s with the house? In Louisiana? My uncle?” I look to them. In all this time they were explaining about keeping me away from Ry, or whatever his name is, they let me go straight to the town he resides in, so there must be something with the house I inherited.
“I can answer that.” Ashton straightens his back and rests his forearms on the table. “The house was built by the lesser Beings of Rooted Realm. A safe haven for us to converge together from time to time. We all lived there at one point, protecting you as a child.”
Ashton lets the information sit. I’m putting the pieces together. He talks about my previous life right before the one I find myself in now.
“Until after your eighteenth birthday when Carya found you, I believe you know him as Ry. He staked claim over the house. Sneakily stole it outright from under us.” Ashton pulls his fingers into a fist. Always calm, even when anger bubbles up.
“Que soon moved in with him. You see, they were friends once upon a time, but that was the house that broke them. You broke them.” Ashton’s words sound harsh, although I know he doesn’t mean it. It is just the truth.
I think of Ry’s silent battle over these past months. Was he trying to be decent? To push me away—to save us? Or was it just a game? I wonder if even he knew the answer to that. Ashton continues, as if seeing the wheels in my mind turning at full speed.
“Ry loved you fiercely, but he knew his hunger for your blood’s power would win in the end. And Que, he grew bored. Until I think he started to feel something for you himself. But it wasn’t true love…”
“Because I only belonged to Ry. He said it himself.” The words tumbling out of my mouth. I wish I would’ve kept them in, sadly still unsure if I can trust my two dearest friends.
“Yes, your being promised to Ry gave him power over your soul, but you also had power over his, which I didn’t think he expected.” No, he didn’t, I think to myself as Ashton keeps talking.
“Que saw this, and he knew he could use it to make Ry jealous. He told you something he shouldn’t have. Trying to break Ry and gain your trust. He ended up doing the opposite.” The girl on the bridge. Cutting her arm. The visions were all real, and now I can place them, since I know I lived them.
“A few weeks later, you ended your life. You said only your mother, and the earth held a claim over your blood. And you drained yourself of it by the bridge in town,” Ashton’s voice is shaky.
“I saw this. I saw my death, many times. Too many,” I say to them.
“You washed up at the willow tree on your property. When Ry found you, he dragged you to his hickory, but you had no blood left. There was no power for him to take,” Ashton explains.
I saw this too. It is all coming back clearer now that sleep doesn’t plague my mind. How could I live so blindly, and how could my friends let me? I try to absorb what Ashton says next.
“But the power you had over him cracked his ego and his heart. He was so broken he cursed himself to never feel anything for you again, which obviously didn’t work completely, given the situation we find ourselves in today.”
Oh, but this is new. So, he does have a heart.
“Your mother wept more than I ever saw. It tore all of us up. It did every time.” Lollie explains, twirling the ring on her finger. Old habits die hard.
“OK, but why would you let me go back there? To the house where this all happened?” I ask.
“Free will, Jade,” Aston explains. “You are mortal. It is the one thing we can’t control.
We can try to dissuade or persuade you, but in the end, it’s your choice.
” It can’t be that easy, can it? “If we told you before you were ready, it would’ve caused more harm than good—that is, if you even believed us.
Ry knows this. He saw an opportunity when the groundskeeper passed to get you back to that house. ”
Ashton breaks, then adds, “the groundskeeper who is of no relation to you at all. Just some sorry soul they trapped to do their bidding, while they hunted you down.”