Derive (8 page)

My thoughts called to her, and her gaze turned to me. Elegantly, with angelic grace she moved to my side. Her eyes were gleaming with anticipation, and my soul was pulsing as it tried to grasp the belief that she was not a dream, that she was real; she was everything I never knew I needed, but my soul ached for endlessly.

We were nothing but energy now, only retaining the shape of our bodies from habit.

I leaned into her and let my lips flutter against hers. The vibration I felt there caused both our bodies, which were resting behind us, to sigh and reach for one another.

The hunger I had for her grew even more because I knew that if she was not mine, we never would have made it this far; we would never feel this emotion, this power.

My hands moved across her, just barely touching, just barely feeling the energy of all of her. The moans I heard her body make were like a live wire. I was straining to take my time with this, to make it something that no Fall could ever allow us to forget.

She followed my lead and let her hands move across the surface of my energy, falling deeper in all the right places. It was too much to bear, and my body agreed; behind us, it pulled hers to it. It clenched her body as if it had just exited the throes of passion.

I let one thought emerge from my soul. “Come to me.”

And she did. She moved forward and slowly sunk her energy into mine. The merge was exhilarating; I could sense every part of her essence. When we were completely one, no thought could come—it was impossible. Ecstasy. Even that word was weak compared to the way she made me feel. In that embrace, there was no darkness, light, right or wrong, anger, worry, or fear; only bliss...only silence. It was the return to creation. It was the return to oneness. And for me, it was an awakening. It was me understanding for the first time that no matter how much of my own life I had witnessed, or those on the other side of The Fall—I had not lived. I had not truly felt a single relative emotion.

Life was nonexistent before her.

Chapter Seven

It was hours before dawn when we began this dance of passion, this exhilarating ride that allowed me to know her as no other had ever known her, allowed her to awaken me. So when I finally found the will to move us apart, I was confused as to why the window behind us reflected a twilight.

I tried to calculate the hours we must have remained as one, submerged. At the very least, it was the better part of a day. I silently hoped that perhaps it had carried us past that three-day threshold she seemed to believe was all we had together.

I glanced to my side to see her stretching her body, the flush of her ivory skin. One glance to me, and she let out a playful laugh, one that was completely satisfied.

I leaned up on one arm so I could look over her. Those eyes of hers were gleaming a bright blue. My lips found the flesh of hers. The vibration there was even more powerful than it was before; it was that way because my awareness of her was now even more elevated. I smiled against her lips. “We are creating our own path now…” I brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “Perhaps we were only shown those images so that we’d appreciate how precious this is. So we would know that it should not be taken for granted.”

She gazed up into my eyes. “You are meant for greatness, Aden. Meant to lead so many. I knew that before last night, and now I
’m sure of it.”

Before I met her, I never would have entertained such thoughts, such a grasping, universe-changing fate—but with her at my side, I knew there was nothing I could not do. I knew that because she made me care. She took the black/white view I had of the world and flooded it with the vibrant color of lavender and highlights of blue.

“We,
we
are meant for that. Meant for this.”

She leaned up and briefly claimed my lips. “Now you must play.”

I laughed as my hands moved down her sides. Playing the drums was the last thing I wanted to explore right now.

“It empowers you,” she said, trying to remain serious as my hands lost their manners.

“Right now, all I care about is the story before the story. All I care about is leading your heart to mine.”

“Already there,” she said, reaching her hand for my chest.

The palace alarm screeched at that moment. The echo around me felt as if it were a call to death. It was ripping me from the arms of life.

I barely let my lips meet Skylynn
’s before I vanished from my room so I could peer out the oval window in my sitting room. With the millions of thoughts racing through my head, the regret of not putting more passion behind that bleak kiss or gazing more longingly into her eyes slammed into me. For all I knew, I would never see her again.

Seneca pounded on my door, and I pulled her in so she could watch Skylynn. After securing the door, I glanced over my shoulder to see that Skylynn had rushed after me.

“It’s okay. Stay right here. Trust me,” I said as I vanished, not sure how many of my words she’d actually heard. I took comfort in the fact that if she did create another porthole, Seneca would follow. That someone would know exactly where she was—not that I couldn’t feel her as if she were next to me. Her energy had elevated me. I knew it had. I moved far too fast, thought my actions out before I understood them.

I could not fathom how or why we could have been breached again, who would have dared to cross that sea—especially knowing the fate of Cashton and his sister. More had happened in the last few days at the palace of The Selected than had ever happened in my lifetime.

My vim soared me to the shores. I was the first to arrive. The first to witness betrayal—this treason.

Camlin was on the shore. I was seriously questioning how long Skylynn and I had been lost in one another at that point. I had no idea how he could have made it back here so swiftly.

I watched his hand drop the thread of energy that connected Guardian to our reality. I saw The Fall ripped open, against its will, without the balance of the sun and moon.

The waters were bubbling, the ground was rumbling, and that fool Camlin looked like a child who had just heard his first ghost story, with wide eyes, open mouth, and a trembling stance.

“What did you do!” I bellowed as my eyes searched the waters. Even though they were violent, the ice circles remained intact.

Darkness was invading. Shirking beings that had no hope of ever taking a corporeal form were racing through the water. I had no way of knowing if Guardian
’s line of energy were broken or whole, if this fool Camlin was indeed strong enough to pull him violently from the life Guardian was living within.

I had to dive, and did so with my next stride. I had plowed a path through the dark abyss, killing every damned soul I passed, trying to reach the vine of energy that connected to Guardian. Seconds after I entered the water, I knew that my men had reached their post. I could see their energy not only extending my path, but also ensuring that no one could harm me.

Finally, I saw what I thought was Guardian’s body. He was limp in the water, still wearing whatever clothes he must have just died in on the other side. From the tears in his pants and shirt, I knew it was a violent death, and even more rage for Camlin absorbed me.

I grasped Guardian and soared back through the water, through the safe path that was made for us. Seconds before we reached the surface, Guardian came to life, roaring under the water and slinging punches at me.

The surface was more chaotic than under the water, and no one knew I had him, that he was alive; they were too busy trying to defend us.

Rage may have been fueling Guardian, but I still had far more strength than him. I pulled us up on the bank. My path to him and back had put us on the far side of the shore, near the point where sand instead of marble took over.

We rolled across the sand, and I dodged as many of his punches as I could as I tried to read his tracers to see how badly Camlin had hurt him and his life plan. Guardian only had half the time he’d asked for. He had been robbed in the most tragic way; the fierce stare in his eyes told me he was well aware of that fact. He was struggling to understand where he was, what had happened.

“Where is she?” he roared.

“You’re alone!” I harshly whispered, cupping his mouth with my hand, using my body and vim to pin him in place so I could figure out if I had any chance of saving his mind.

I was staring at the tracers of his energy, the flashing scenes of his past; so much had occurred in such a short time, and each second he was losing these memories. I had to find a way to anchor him to them. A way to stop the madness that would steal him away.

“Aliyanna, that’s her name.”

He stopped fighting me. Trusting him, I let go of the hold I had on his mouth.

“No,” he said weakly under his breath.

I wasn
’t surprised he had said that—he was confused; that was the first name his girl had. No doubt, not only was he ripped from a life where she had a different name, but in that life he had not had the chance to discover any of his past lives—or even us—through his dreams. He had just found her. I had to take him back to the beginning. I had to seal that. That was the only way he would ever have the simplest chance of retracing his steps and discovering the life plan he’d had before he left these shores.

“Say the name,” I demanded. Under my hands, I jolted a rush of vim into his body. I had to shock him back to this reality. Out of the nightmare he was living in now.

He whispered it to himself, and in a second’s time his eyes expanded and he rose, clasping his head. Memories were invading him. He was grasping that first life. He knew who I was now.

A growl left him as he crawled to a stand, then raced back toward the water. My vim reached out for him and slammed him in the sand next to me.

“Listen to me,” I grated through my teeth. “She is lost to you now. A dream that has ended.”

“The hell she is!”

There was something in his stare, something in his energy that sparked a familiarity in me. It took precious seconds to realize what it was—I was seeing myself in him. I was seeing the determination I had to protect and provide for Skylynn, no matter what my reality said or thought about it. He felt the same way. We were in the same war, but on different battlegrounds.

He was doomed. I knew he was. There was no one, not even Tarek himself, that would allow him to go back this soon—or even by some slim chance, if that girl followed him, allow her to live with us. She was born of darkness. Born to live in that reality, not ours.

I was Guardian’s only hope, and I knew it. I knew it even if he didn’t. I made a split second decision. I was going to help him. I was going to do this because I knew that if I did not, karmic law
would
take my lavender beauty away.

“We need a plan, and you need to be calm enough to help me make it. I
’m not willing to risk everything I have ever had, or believed in, for the sake of one selfish madman. Display honor if you have one ounce of love for that girl.”

Him seeing me use a firm, nearly cold tone was not new to him, yet he hesitated. He was now the one evaluating me; he was using his gift, seeing my intent. He knew I was going to help him, but he was not clear on the reason why. All he knew was that it was a miracle in and of itself that I was even entertaining this idea.

“Camlin is trying not only to destroy you, but the sanctity of The Selected. He pulled you back for more reasons than you and I will ever understand, but you are
not
going to let him do that. You are not going to let him prove to the other realms that we are careless, that we let a man who was unpracticed and untested through that Fall—and he not only came back mad, slung at us from the wraiths of death, but he brought destruction with him. You will
not
let that happen.”

“I don
’t give a damn about him or The Selected! I left her. I have to go back. She will crumble without me. The darkness half of her will overtake her. She will be destroyed.”

My eyes raced across his fierce image. I was looking for a resemblance in my recent past to the one he had lived—and when I saw it, when I saw him touch his lover
’s skin and a glow of light beamed from her flesh, I knew then that the chances of me being this stark raving mad were promised to me.

I was a stubborn man, I knew I was, but I was smart enough to listen, sometimes a moment or two too late; I admit that.

Right now, in the chaos of this moment, in my mind, I was hearing my Skylynn telling me that she felt every crest on this shore, everyone’s energy mingling near ours in that life plan she saw. Fate was twisting us. Somehow, some way we were all twisted. Now, not only did I have to worry about Cashton and his sister, but the threat of Guardian returning. The universe itself was demanding that I move through that Fall, that I stop whatever this is that seemed determined to disrupt peace.

“Something is meant to destroy us, my friend. Something is meant to divide us from the counterpart of our soul, and I fear that evil is within our world.” I knew it had to be the Hermetic Realm. They could not find fault, so they were going to create it. Crested souls were seen as sacred, and within days they had found a way to destroy three of them. I would not be the fourth.

“Then it is within both,” he grated. “We were divided by darkness more than once.”

I nodded, seeing this in his tracers, vague scenes of his lives.

“Someone came through The Fall the day you left.”

His brow rose as he tried to slow down his heaving chest. Both of us jolted more than once as we heard the screams in the distance, my men at war with the evil that had followed him through.

“She’s yours,” Guardian said in a matter-of-fact tone to me.

I didn
’t bother to answer because I already knew that.

“Camlin wishes to end her. He
’s already attacked her once. I’m sure he has a plan for another attempt. For all I know, he has even staged this and the loss of Cashton and his sister to blame her as a curse.”

“The loss of Cashton,” Guardian repeated. It took him a second to place the name, even though they had trained side by side. Suddenly, his rage came back with a vengeance; he had remembered him. I found myself slightly in awe of his mind, of his soul. I had pulled far too many people out of this emerald sea at their appointed time. I knew that even when the return was calculated, the memories of us were slow to come, that for a brief time we were seen as gods to those that returned.

“What happened?” he asked.

“No one knows for sure. Camlin claims Cashton jumped in as The Fall was opening. While trying to stop him, his sister followed. We can see her—but not him—on the other side. It is feared his fall was too short.”

“The Veil.”

The Veil of death is something that has to be passed to reach the other reality, quite literally. The Veil is almost a realm unto its own.

“We are searching, but that place is difficult to witness.”

“Witness,” Guardian repeated, then his blue eyes went wide. “All is not lost; I confided in a Witness.”