Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Iwalked out from Keil’s and Shad’s house, waving goodbye to Keil, right as Shad and Ryker pulled up. Ryker was still driving Shad around when he needed it.
I paused in the driveway.
“Hey, Em, are you okay?” Ryker asked as he shut the front driver’s side door and walked over to me.
“I just needed to talk to Keil. I’m okay.”
Shad grunted.
I turned my attention to Shad. “Excuse me? Can I help you?” I said, glaring at him as he slung his backpack over his back and looked like a model doing it.
I bit back my melody.
“Yeah, you can help me, but you know how, and I will be around when you're ready.” He nodded to Ryker, who looked confused, and then Shad walked inside his house.
“What was that about?”
“That—” I said while tugging on Ryker to follow me across the street “—is the problem that I am trying to solve.” I watched for traffic as we made our way across the street and onto my porch.
“He is weird, right? Never thought I would see the day when Prince Shadrict would be kinda cool.”
“He is not cool, Ryker. He is turning evil,” I said, turning to look at him.
“What? No, he isn’t; he’s just a Soulless—“
As Ryker spoke, I noticed behind him that the wind started picking up, making the tree branches shake. Autumn was beautiful, but its beauty could not exist, not at a time like that. It was getting cool out, and as the breeze caressed my skin, I shuddered.
“Okay, so he’s kinda turning corrupt, but he’s kinda fun, too, right?”
I let go of Ryker’s hand to wrap my arms around myself. “He kissed Karen today!” I shouted at him in frustration.
“He did?” Ryker wiped a hand across his face. “Keil is gonna kill me.”
“Yes, and Shad doesn’t even care. Right after that, he wanted to make out with me in the bathroom.”
“The bathroom? Well, that’s gross.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s where I dragged him after I saw him with Karen.”
“Why would you go into the bathroom?” he asked with a large smile. He was oddly intrigued by that, and I didn’t understand why. A breeze blew past us on the porch, and I watched as a few dead copper leaves passed by our shoes. October had a way of making death look drastically beautiful.
“I just walked somewhere where we could be alone for a minute.”
“Okay, but I wouldn’t recommend that in the future; I mean—yeah, maybe don’t do that again,” he smirked at me in his playful way.
I grunted. “Can we get over the bathroom thing? This is getting bad, Ry. We need to help him, and soon, before—he, before—he can never be the Shad I—” Ryker pulled me into his arms, and I cried yet again.
I tried to calm myself down as my melody swirled around me, but Ryker’s touch was cold.
Then all of a sudden, he was warmth to me, and light, and I pulled away from him.
“How come you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Your touch warms me, sometimes, and at other times, nothing.”
“Is this supposed to be a compliment? It doesn’t feel like one.”
“Be serious, I mean, what’s that about?”
“Sometimes, I unshield my soul a bit, when I sense you need some comfort. I guess, sometimes, it feels like warmth to you?” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but I knew it did.
“Why do you completely shield your melody all of the time, anyways? I thought that was frowned upon?”
“I made a vow to keep my soul shielded as much as possible around anyone but you—until the time is right.”
“What time?”
“A different time than now–one that I know of,” he said with a smirk, and I wanted to shove him, but in a friendly way.
“But I don’t ever hear your melody. How is your melody not corrupt?”
“I have training in soul-shielding. I let it out often enough.”
“Well, I do like the warmth.”
“I am glad I offer you comfort,” he grinned.
“Shad makes me feel on fire, like electricity. Every time we touch, it's like lightning is passing through me,” I whispered.
“That sounds painful.”
I hit him in the chest. “Ry, please, be serious!”
“I am; being electrocuted would hurt pretty horribly, Em.”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt, okay. It makes me feel—“
“Okay, I will stop you right there. I mean, I know we are best friends and all, but I don’t think I want to be the kind of best friend who you talk to about your feelings and intimate moments with Shad.”
‘Kind of friend. ‘I want to be the kind of friend who knows you. I want to be the best friend that you—that you fall hopelessly, and desperately, in love with—’
I thought those words over and over again in my head, trying to bite back the memory that they brought into my mind, a beautiful and wonderful and deeply painful memory.
“Ry—” I tried to force the words from my brain. But they haunted me.
‘Best Friend.’
‘Best Friend.’
‘Best Friend.’
‘I want to be that kind of friend, Emma.’ Shad's voice was an echo in my mind, a memory trying to escape.
I bit my lip, trying so desperately to control my emotions, to control my feelings, my memories. How has this simple title, ‘Best Friend,’ done this to me?
Ryker talked on as if nothing was going on inside of me. “Tell Ash this stuff, but if you need anything else, I am your guy.” Ryker walked past me, pulling me along, and opened the door to my house. I followed him as he made his way into the kitchen.
I let go of his hand, and as the words floated around me again, I felt each letter as they formed the word.
I counted the four letters in Best: a rounded “B,” a small “e,” a swirled “s,” a “t” the shape of Shad's sword, which he had used to unbind Ryker in the cave. I gulped. The memory spilled from me then. I couldn’t help but remember.
I wanted to remember, was afraid to remember; I cherished the memory, and I lingered on it, letting it engulf me.
“Darling, I want to be your best friend that knows you entirely—body, mind, heart, and soul. Emma—I do, indeed, want to be your friend.” He moved his face, so that he was whispering into my ear.
“I want to be that kind of best friend for you—the very best kind of friend that you will ever have, darling.” He kissed my ear and then bent his head down lower, leaving another kiss on the side of my neck and at the hollow of my throat.
His hands trailed down my arms, leaving me speechless.
“Emma,” his voice was low and grave as he said: “I want to be the best friend that you—that you fall hopelessly and desperately in love with.”
“You are that kind of friend, Shad—my best,” I whispered.
“Emma?” I heard a voice that interrupted me from my memory. I turned and saw Ryker standing in front of me with a cup of water.
“Oh, thanks.”
“I am sorry about the Karen thing,” he said as he handed me the cup.
I took a sip and then placed it on the counter.
The water was so cold that it felt as if I I had to choke it down.
I coughed and could not help comparing the hot chocolate from earlier and the way it warmed me, like peace inside of my soul.
I scooted the cup away, not wanting another drink.
“It’s okay. I have a plan. It will work,” I said.
He pulled a bar stool over and sat beside me. “I do hope so, Em.”
“I am going to train my melody, working harder with Keil, and I will, seriously, start to befriend Cade.”
“You weren't doing these things before?”
“Not with all my heart. But now, I will; there is no turning back.”
Ryker gulped and turned to me with shock in his eyes.
“Why are you so shocked? I need to control my melody like you all can; plus, Cade can soul-speak to me like Shad used to. He will, eventually, learn all of my secrets, and tricking him would then be impossible. I want to make sure I can control it.”
“I am all for more training. Does Keil still think this will help you access the memories that Shad gave you?”
“Yes.”
“I wonder why you can’t access them already. I mean, normally, it is pretty hard to ignore someone else’s note inside of your own, or so I hear.” I looked at him, and he tugged at his collar as if he was nervous? I didn’t understand that, but I moved on.
“Well, Shad always just seemed like a part of me. To be honest, I don’t always notice that it is there, but not in a bad way. Plus, when I need a little comfort, I do play it. I miss his melody so much, Ry.”
He patted my knee and smiled at me. “Well, if anyone can help train you fast, it’s a warrior. They are good at training. I don’t know if you are going to train as fast as you want to, but I am proud of you for trying.”
“I know it won’t be as fast as I’d like, and that I will continue to be drained and tired.”
“Training your melody is exhausting and tiresome work, yes, as you are well aware, Em. That is why we do it when we are children when we still live with our parents, and the corruption is kept at bay.”
“There is that much corruption on Terra?”
“No, I mean, I am not sure, now, but every once in a while, it happened. It’s always just better to be safe.
Don’t overdo it. Too many emotions can draw out the negative ones, and once the negative emotions and feelings come out, and if your melody becomes weak, that is the perfect time for the corruptor to make his move.
” He paused, I hoped, to change the topic of conversation away from training because, although I was recommitted, just talking about it made me feel tired.
“How much did Mary tell you before getting me from the cave?” He asked.
“She told me enough, like you being a slave to me for my entire life.” I shoved his shoulder, and he feigned injury.
“I already told you, Em. That is not what it’s like for me, for any of us.”
“Okay, but it’s weird.”
“Kinda cool though, too, right? You have a knight all to yourself–and you really are a princess.”
“You know, I try not to dwell on that—makes me feel less insane and less out of control if I don’t.”
“Emma—”
“It's fine, I am fine. I know I will be fine, right?” I begged, more than I believed, that those words would be true.
Stepping up the training would put me more at risk, and as the monster inside me seemed to be growing stronger daily, I wasn't sure that it was a great plan, but I couldn't worry just about myself when I needed to save Shad.
“Nothing will happen to you. I will stay near throughout the day so that you have someone paying attention to your melody.”
“But I have the crystal on. How would you even be able to tell? Also, aren’t you in charge of Shad?”
“Knight here, remember? I have my ways of keeping an eye on you; also I can be whatever you need. So if you need a corruption radar, I am your man. I can keep an eye on Shad, too.”
“This is so weird.”
“Yes, but it’s also amazing, right?”
“So far, very little is amazing. most of it is scary and complicated.” And the only part that was amazing?—was being with Shad, and that was taken from me.