Chapter Thirty-Three
“Isaw the other day what you didn’t want me to see,” I said looking out his window. I’d gone to his house again.
“What was that?” he asked softly.
“I saw what that man did to you, as a child. Who was that?” I turned to look at him, his face was hard and cold, just looking out the window.
“That is just how life is, sometimes.” I watched as he spoke and noticed the way he shielded Shad’s soul.
“True, however, no one deserves to be treated like that. You were just a child.” I touched his arm, and he flinched away.
“You know nothing of it, Emma. It is in the past, over and done.” He folded his arms across his chest like he was trying to piece a part of himself back together.
“I know enough. You were just an innocent, little boy.”
“And how do you know, Emma?” he shouted and turned to me. “You know nothing about it. You don’t know who I was back then. I could have done horrible things—I did do horrible things, but I did them to survive, and I won't apologize for them.”
“But you didn’t, did you, Cade?” I asked, touching his arm again as comfort, curious about who he really was, about what really had happened to make him who he then was.
Cade was not my favorite person, but I could say that slowly, I was not hating him as much as I had.
The monster was still trying to rage, but the more and more I spent time with Cade, the more I realized that he was broken, that he had been hurt, that there was a wound there that had never healed.
If I healed it, would he let the crystal go?
Would he give me Shad’s melody? I knew that it was too great a hope, but I couldn't help having the thought.
“I do not wish to speak about my childhood; it is of no consequence.” He brushed past me and walked to the counter, getting something to drink. I wondered what it was that he was drinking as I watched him.
“Cade, I can help you,” I started to say when a laugh hung in the air from him.
“Emma, you want to help me? What am I to you? Someone to fix? A pity project for you?” He leaned against the counter and took another drink of the clear liquid that I was certain was not water.
“No, but I do wish to help. Who was that man?” I asked, walking closer to him. He set the cup down and turned to me with anger in his eyes.
“I am who I am, Emma; I did not kill your parents, no, but I did still steal this soul and beat your best friend, didn't I? I may not be all wicked, but there is no purity inside of me.”
Why was he trying to scare me away? Why, after all of his work, was he trying to get me to see him differently, telling me that he was bad?
Before I could say anything, he spoke. “I will take you home, now.” He walked to the door, opened it, and motioned for me to go out.
“Fine, but I will continue to ask you until you tell me.”
He groaned and softly pushed my back so that I would go outside.
“I did not know how irritating you could be,” he murmured under his breath.
***
“So how are things going with ‘operation Cade’?” Ash asked as we walked down the halls at school.
“Fine, I am getting closer to him.” I held the books I was carrying closer to my chest. I had so many strange feelings for the boy I once hated, one of them was pity.
Keil said that my corruption was lessening, and I could confirm that for myself.
I felt the darkness wavering. I wasn't feeling the beast overtaking me anymore.
“That has got to be so odd. I mean, I am grateful, at least, that you know the truth, that he didn’t directly murder your parents, but still, hard.”
“If I didn’t know that one piece of information, I am sure I would not be able to get close to him.”
“How do you plan on stealing the crystal?” Ash asked as we walked down and out the gate of school. She was coming home with me and spending the night. We walked down the street, and still, even after a few minutes, I did not know what to say. I didn’t know what I would do to get the crystal.
“Keil says that he must be wearing it, but it must be under his clothes because I haven’t seen it,” I said, looking at Ash as she watched a few cars drive by us.
“Well, that will be difficult to figure out.”
I knew it would be. I had thought that, perhaps, I could invite him over to swim, but it was too cold. Spill something on his shirt? Anything to get him to change so that I could get a glimpse of it.
“I am all up for ideas,” I said with a sigh.
“We will think of something.” Ash paused, and her lavender eyes got all huge as she grinned.
“You could kiss him, and then rip his shirt off.” She nudged my shoulder, and I would have loved to do that if it were Shad, although I wasn’t sure he would because the real Shad, my Shad, with his melody intact, didn’t even change to go swimming in my pool, and I suddenly wondered if that was a modesty thing.
That being said, however, I knew Cade would not mind in the slightest. However, it wasn’t an appealing idea.
I did not doubt that he was well-formed and muscular, and I was sure that any girl would probably think he was hot stuff.
He was handsome, but he wasn’t Shad, and I didn’t want to, nor care to, see him without his shirt on.
“I was kidding, Emma. Too bad he isn’t a boy who you actually like, because that could be fun.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“How many boys have you ‘had fun’ with, exactly?” I asked Ash.
“Well, to be honest, I have never really been kissed, so none, but I read all the books and movies there are about love, and these are how things seem to be done, and in my opinion, how they should be done.” She laughed, and I nudged her in the side.
“No kissing at homecoming?”
“No, and I am not sure when I will ever get my first kiss. I am seventeen now, so it feels like now is the best time for it, but I don’t know. I know on Terra that we don't kiss casually like they do here, but I grew up mostly as an earthling, so—yeah,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders.
We stepped onto my front porch.
“All I know is that Shad was my first kiss, and it was like lightning. Seriously, I thought we were being struck by lightning or something.” Thinking about our first kiss ignited a new flame within me.
I wanted Shad so much. I missed him, every single thing about him.
We walked inside of my house, and we flung our backpacks on the couch, and then we walked into the kitchen.
I was hungry, and I figured Ash would be, too.
“That is so dreamy!” She sat on one of the bar stools near our kitchen island.
I grabbed a few drinks out of the fridge and a bowl of strawberries.
“When I have my first kiss, I want there to be fireworks or something.” She bit into a strawberry and gasped.
“Oh, and like a live band playing our song!” She bounced up and down.
“How could you make all that happen?” I questioned, sitting down on the brown wooden stool picking up a red berry.
“It is called planning.”
“You are going to plan your first kiss?”
“No, but he better. I mean, hello, I am a princess, and whoever he is, he better treat me like one,” she laughed, and I joined her.
“No one is kissing anyone.” I heard a loud and firm growl of a voice. We both turned to see that Glasson and Ryker were standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Glasson’s brown, short, cropped hair making the expression on his face even more frightening.
“Glass, you are not my mother,” Ash said, putting another strawberry into her mouth.
“That’s true, Glass, you aren't,” Ryker said with a smirk of amusement, folding his arms and leaning against the white kitchen counter, stealing a strawberry for himself.
I watched as Glasson’s eyes grew darker.
His melody, I noticed, was faint, but it was there.
I just felt the basic tone of it. He was very irritated.
“Ashlyn, let me take you home,” he said.
“I am staying with Emma; she doesn’t have training tonight, and we are having a sleep-over. Come on, let me live.” She hopped off of the brown wooden stool and walked up to Glasson.
“Go home,” he growled, his voice cold, a warning.
“You are such a jerk,” she said, pushing his shoulder, and he didn't budge. He held her wrist as she tried to hit him again, and their eyes locked. I looked at Ryker who looked back at me with a raised brow. Finally, as they moved away from each other, Ash turned around and sighed. “Let’s go upstairs, Emma. I am sick of these knights.” She walked to the couch, retrieving her backpack and then headed up to my room.
“Sorry guys, but we need some girl time.” I stood up and moved to put the strawberries away, but Ryker snatched the bowl from my hand.
“Talk to her, Em. You need to talk your feelings out with her. I am not good at those conversations, and you, Glasson, should let her. Girls need to talk,” Ryker smiled.
“Guys should talk, too,” I said.
“We do talk,” Glasson said, moving to Ryker and stealing the bowl of berries.
“Sure,” I said, walking past Glasson. I walked down the hall and turned around for a moment as I saw Ryker reach over to take the bowl from Glasson, only Glasson had already eaten the last five berries and set the bowl in the sink. I heard a sound of annoyance from Ryker, and then I turned around.