Chapter 6
YESTERDAY’S TOMORROWS
Dazed, I stood in the eye of the storm as a flurry of activity erupted around me.
“I want that creature escorted off the property now,” my dad bellowed, rushing to my mother and slipping a strong arm around her waist. Blood leaked from a multitude of gashes across his face and body as he led her toward the barn door.
“You require a healer,” my mother protested.
“So do you,” Dad told her, pausing while she panted through a contraction. “I’ll call Dr. Azul.”
“I’ll make sure the monstra is safely relocated before the birth,” Emma said, hanging back. Her gaze remained on Jasher, still strewn over the floor, a sad smile curving her lips.
The monstra couldn’t stay here. Not at the farm, not even in Ozworld. He must go back to Hakeldama. Today. Now.
I wrapped my arms around myself. About to lose my parents again…
My dad got my mom in gear the second the contraction eased. “Join us when you’re done, Emma. We’ll need your help. And Rye.” He flicked his gaze to me, projecting a jumble of emotions I couldn’t untangle. “Be safe.”
No need to decipher that. An unmistakable goodbye. He knew what I planned.
“Be safe,” I echoed, memorizing the sight of Mom and Dad together once again. So young. So healthy. I love you both. So, so much. “Until we meet again.”
“You…you don’t leave without me, Oracle,” Mom said between ragged breaths, stalling as Dad attempted to urge her on. “I’ll be ready… just need… few days.” She groaned, leaning on him. “It hurts.”
“I know, I know,” Daddy cooed. “Just think. Soon you’ll be holding your precious Moriah Isha.”
Little alarm bells dinged through my mind, and I flattened my palms against my churning stomach. Elowen’s warning played on repeat, whisper stacking upon whisper until becoming a thunderous scream.
Be gone before the baby comes. Bad things will happen if you’re here.
How much time did I have? Mom’s contractions were only minutes apart.
Daddy got Mom outside, so careful with her, but Emma hung back, as promised.
She continued to peer at Jasher. He hadn’t budged. Or changed. His sharper facial features, monstrous wings, and razor-tipped claws were on full display.
“You can’t rely on an eye-lock long-term,” she said to me, “and the shackles will keep him docile only a short while. Soon his body will adjust. He’ll have free motion again. But as long as he’s wearing the metal, your words will control him.”
“Voice compulsion?” Dread slithered over me. What relationship could survive that? “I’ve already spoken with Elowen and paid the price for passage to Hakeldama. For two,” I added.
Dry humor glittered in her purple eyes. “I know. The cuffs prove her visit. I just wanted a chance to tell you—”
We both grimaced when my mother howled with pain.
“He was a good boy,” Emma said, tone now a hundred pounds heavier. “But he always felt more than the others. So much more. It made everything harder for him. It will make things harder for you.”
“What—”
“Find the Ember,” she interjected. “It’s our only hope.” Out she rushed, following the same path my parents had taken.
I curled my fingers. Elowen had known what I sought all along. She’d only pretended not to.
A disturbing noise yanked my gaze to Jasher.
He remained on the ground, but he’d begun to move his limbs.
Urgency returned, a fire in my blood. I stuffed the journal in a front pocket of the backpack, then anchored the hefty, unopenable bag to my shoulder.
Aches and pains flared, reminding me of the injury he’d given me only minutes ago.
I returned to the puddle. “We’re ready, Elowen. Let’s do this.”
The barn light flickered.
Frowning, I peered at the water, but it never stirred.
More sounds from Jasher. He climbed to his feet, not quite steady but strengthening quickly.
My pulse jolted. I stretched out my hands to stop him, but he looked beyond me. Guess he’d learned his lesson about the dangers of eye contact.
“You want to kill me,” he snarled. “I sense it. But I will strike first. I can already feel your beating heart in my hand.” His fingers unrolled to reveal a bloody palm dotted with cuts from his claws.
“I want to help you, never hurt you. Please, Jasher. Let me. Don’t fight—” When he flared his wings and braced, as if to attack, I shouted, “No! Stay!”
To my astonishment, he submitted, exactly as Emma had claimed. But oh, fury crackled in his sunset eyes, promising brutal retribution.
“How are you doing this?” he demanded.
Guilt surged as I lowered my arms. I’d known he would hate being powerless, but seeing that hatred live and up close was altogether different. I attempted a smile. “You wouldn’t want to hurt me if you remembered my importance to you.”
Hey! Maybe I could force the return of his memories. “Remember me,” I commanded.
He bared his teeth. “Die,” he snapped.
Great. There were some orders he couldn’t obey. Or maybe it took time? Maybe I could move his body, but not his mind.
Ignoring my abused, protesting muscles, I picked up the end of his chain. “I’m taking you home,” I told him. “Do not attack me.”
“I will gift your corpse to my brothers. They’ll feast for days.”
“Don’t expect them to thank you,” I snipped. “I’m a little too spicy for most monsters.” Eyes on the water. “Elowen, I paid your price. Deliver on your promise.”
Nothing.
“I paid your price. You owe me,” I gritted out. I don’t know why, but instinct urged me to add, “Until the end.”
I did, and ripples immediately erupted over the glassy surface. That worked, like a password of sorts? I expelled a relieved breath, then braced. Time to return to that brutal, horrific place where I’d nearly died.
I cast a last, longing glance through the barn’s doorway, finding the farmhouse in the distance.
Jasher pulled at the chain, reaching for the axes too far from his reach.
The water gurgled, the ripples coming faster and faster. Soon, a funnel formed.
Elowen didn’t appear, but I heard her voice dance through my mind. I’ve done my part. Enter or don’t. The choice is yours.
My mind locked onto my task. Find the Ember. That was it. When I succeeded, and I would, I would save my parents. Free Jasher. And defeat Ian.
This trip, I wasn’t going in empty-handed.
My mom’s pained bellow pierced the air, and I stiffened. Time to go.
Chin up, shoulders squared. Backpack and journal secure. Elowen had said the storms might carry me where I needed to go. Hopefully, this waterway did the same.
“Follow me,” I commanded Jasher, stepping into the rushing water.
He trailed right on my heels, without the axes.
A terrible suction yanked us down, down into a whirling sea of darkness.
Lights pulsed into my awareness. Bright pinpricks within an endless black void. Once. Twice. Thrice. The next flash lingered, bleeding into color.
A kaleidoscope of shades melded before fracturing. Again and again, faster now, accompanied by blips of sound. Not words. Not quite screams. Small, sharp bursts of indistinguishable noises. One pulse slammed into another until the darkness split.
War.
Monstra clogged the sky, nearly blotting out the sun as they rained down streams of fire.
A market turned battlefield erupted into chaos.
Soldiers screamed and scattered across cobblestone streets, knocking over carts and tables.
Smoke curled from burning wares, veiling everything in a choking, panicked haze.
Men on horseback charged through the madness, attempting to shield women and children with oddly long shields.
But the metal melted under the relentless assault of flame.
I stood atop a mountain, watching it unfold, removed from the carnage. From all emotion. I was an observer, nothing more, untouched by the pleas climbing into the air.
A tall, muscular man in gold-plated armor strode up a hill across from me, bellowing orders. Soldiers snapped to attention, rushing to obey. A pack of monstra stalked him like dogs following an owner, their delight unwavering.
Ahav?
The king.
My father.
Still, I felt nothing.
He reached the top. All the monstra who followed him grinned—then unleashed hell. In an instant, fire consumed his body, even his scream.
Ash drifted away on the breeze.
Someone loosed a scream, agonized and broken.
From the desperate masses below, a lone woman rose, exploding into the sky.
She wore art in dress form: a sheer green gown as delicate as the clouds, fabric whispering in the wind, clinging like mist to her emerald skin, catching the flickering firelight with an ethereal shimmer.
A thick jade braid hung over one shoulder.
But her face. Her face was blurred to my gaze, as if covered by a cloud.
And yet, something in me recognized her.
Wings made of water flapped with elegance and grace, raining upon those beneath her, dousing all flames. On her index finger glowed my mother’s—my—ring, six stones aglow. Golden armor appeared on her body, a perfect match to Ahav’s. A sword of fire materialized in her hand.
The first time I’d fought monstra, the same golden armor had appeared on me. I’d created a sword of fire from air. What I hadn’t done: hover in the air with water wings.
The monstra focused their crazed fury on her…
From every direction, through time, space, and eternity, a disembodied voice bellowed, “Andrea!”
My brows drew together. Andrea? As in Elowen’s ancestor, the first water maiden? The one who helped Morris defeat the monstra in round one?
No answers came, only more questions. Then the world shattered.
Suddenly, I lay in a room flooded with blinding light.
Padded walls. Straps biting into my wrists and ankles.
Modern medical equipment beeped and hummed around me.
Men and women in scrubs surrounded me, poking and prodding at different parts of my body as I fought for freedom.
In the corner stood a woman cloaked in shadows and a tall man built with muscle.
Their faces were as blurry as the green woman’s had been.
This didn’t feel like the past or the future. It didn’t even feel like the present.
The numbness evaporated, and panic swallowed me whole. “Jasher!” I screamed, thrashing. “Jasher!”
“Put her back under before she hurts herself,” the shadowy woman commanded with a soft tone.
A sharp sting. Darkness. “Jasher,” I breathed out, and my eyes popped open.