Lightning Kissed (18 page)

And Colby was never quiet. She even talked
in her sleep. Colby didn’t eat cake at her own birthday party.
Though maybe that part was true. Since she’d learned that mind over
matter thing from Pema, she may have changed her mind.

Either way, these things added up to Colby
being very upset.

But, she hadn’t come to me.

That was the worst part. After everything,
she still ran to someone else instead of me. When would she learn
that there was no one on Earth who could love her like I could?

I didn’t have time to wonder why or to let
it fester. I had to figure out what my purpose was. Because without
my purpose, nothing made sense.

Finding nothing in the other texts, I lost
hope until I picked up the last one. It couldn’t be seen under the
others because of its tiny size. My back and neck ached, but I
pressed on. The book was small, dark burgundy, and leather bound
with a matching leather tie. From the side, some of the pages could
be seen. A lot of them were torn and some warped.

Colby was always one to talk about the smell
of older books, but it wasn’t until I opened this particular one
that I noticed how pungent a book smell could be. It carried the
smell of spices along with—woman. The smell of flowers came through
the most.

It’s been seventy-three days since Eivan
travelled to the other side. He stays for a longer period of time
every time he goes. I can’t blame him. If I could go and get a
glimpse of the other side, I would. I’d give anything to be able to
flash like him—to go the places he can—to do the things he can. He
won’t take me with him. I’ve begged.

Instead, I have to sit here, at the mercy of
the Synod who watch me constantly. I am forced to endure their
threats. I fear one day they will be a lot more than threats. But I
have no power over the Eidolon, despite the fact that he is my
husband. They say I am a shame to the Lucent people. They say I
should’ve moved aside when I found out he was the Eidolon, so that
a proper Lucent wife could travel with him.

But no one can help how they are born—not
even the perfect Lucents.

Each time they visit, they get sneakier,
pushier—they are looking for something and I just don’t know what
it is. For all they know, Eivan has not returned since he first
flashed to the other side so many years ago.

I’ll die before I tell them where he is.

I can’t even imagine what they’d do with
such a key.

The voices had come back when I opened the
book. I didn’t even have to read it. The voices read it to me.
Sometimes overlapping, sometimes speaking all at once. It was like
being invaded with a thousand radio stations. They read the
Portuguese to me word for word until I closed it.

It seemed that every time the voices came
back, they multiplied exponentially.

Sevella was from Portugal? How did I miss
that? More facts that flippantly landed in my lap and had no
meaning. Nothing actually meant anything. It was like being given a
treasure chest with a key that didn’t fit.

“Where did he go?” I became intrigued and
yelled at the book. I flipped through the pages until an imprint of
my thumb curved the corners of the journal upward. But as soon as
my hands left the book, the voices faded. Whatever they needed me
to know was connected to that book.

Yet, I found no information to give me
anything but more questions.

By the time the sun fell in the hotel room,
I was nowhere closer to the answer than I had been at the
beginning. Collin had fallen asleep on his bed with one of the
other books still clasped in his hand. He’d studied as hard as I
had, if not harder. There was something he wasn’t saying. People
don’t just follow other people blindly. I was at least twenty years
his younger. To him, I should’ve been just a punk kid who showed up
at his door with a pompous attitude and a head full of ego-bloated
ideas.

“Is there something I should know about?”
Colby’s voice rang close. Just the relief to have her back caused
my eyes to close and revel in her nearness.

“You tell me,
Querida
. You’ve been
gone. And I had to talk to Ari. Not the best combination. Are you
okay?”

She blew out a great sigh. Without looking
at her, I knew her hands were on her hips—her pouting lips were
swishing back and forth, picking her words.

“I will be. I can’t tell you everything yet.
It’s too fresh in my head—too raw. What I can say is that they said
something about Portugal and Pema. I don’t know in which order, but
we should be prepared to go there. There are so many things that
don’t make sense, Theo.”

“There are some things I need to tell you as
well. I’m just so tired. I haven’t done anything but sit here all
day, but I’m exhausted.”

“Did you eat, Theo? I know how you get.”

I thought about her inquiry. I hadn’t eaten
all day. But there were so many more things at stake than a missed
meal.

“I just want to sleep. Can we just
sleep?”

“Sure.”

She walked over to Collin, tiptoeing all the
way. First she slipped the text from his hand. After putting the
book down, she pulled a blanket over his monstrous form. He stirred
a bit, but soon drifted back to sleep.

We went back to our own room, and I stripped
down to my boxers, wanting to get into bed as soon as possible.
Colby ducked into the bathroom and came out with a different pair
of my boxers, rolled at the waist, coupled with the same shirt she
had on before. The black gunk she used to rebel against the Synod
clung to her eyes, but not nearly as much as it had before.
Secretly, I loved it when she piled on the black stuff. It made her
eyes seem twice as big.

We both took our respective sides of the
bed. The routine was so normal, so everyday. We’d curled up like
this an infinite amount of times. The window to the hotel room was
open. Music and laughing people could be heard in the city below
us.

It was strange how when everything was
frazzled in your life—the world just continued. It shouldn’t
continue. It should stop when our lives do and take notice.

“That should be us. We should be in the
streets, enjoying life together. Sometimes this ability doesn’t
seem like a gift at all. Sometimes it seems like false freedom.” I
whispered more to the dark than to Colby. I could feel her take a
deep breath with her back against my chest.

“One day it will be. That’s all I want.”

“Tell me what you want,
Querida.
Tell
me all of it.” Her hair moved as the motion of my whisper floated
across it.

“Just go to sleep, Theo.” Her voice drifted
with the last words.

***

I felt the slightest weight shift as she
rose from the bed the next morning. The shower signaled that she
was up and ready to go. I didn’t think we should head straight to
Portugal, but I was sure Colby would disagree.

Would Pema ever come for her books? Collin
had to be feeding her information.

I grabbed a button-down shirt and threw on
the closest jeans I could find. As long as we were in Belgium, I
might as well take advantage of it.

The streets were bustling with people, most
of them families, dressed up and headed—somewhere. Just as the
thought of what day it was crept up, one of the voices joined a
gonging bell from a nearby church. This time it felt far away and
called to me from the direction of the hotel room. I stopped in the
middle of the sidewalk and turned to match the voice with
something—a face, a person—anything. Patrons jostled me as they
passed. I’d become a rock in their flowing stream, preventing them
from flowing the way they once had.

Yet, nothing in my line of sight matched the
voice that called for me to help. Help—all it said was help.

The only thing that brought me out of my
complete obsession with the disembodied voice was the smell of
fresh croissants and baking loaves. The smell of baking bread could
wake people from comas, I was sure of it. I’d once heard Rebekah
say that at a family brunch.

“Do you always make everyone else divert
their paths around you?” A familiar female made me chuckle.

“Actually, most of the time, I divert my
path so that others don’t have to sway.”

“So why the sudden change?”

Turning around, my eyes denied the voice and
body connection. It was Pema. But out of her rusty robes and
pilgrim dress, she was shocking. Today, in jeans and a red sweater,
she almost mixed into the masses.

“I heard something. It made me stop and
turn.”

Pema grabbed my elbow and stepped in close.
She scrunched her nose in an almost snarl as her eyes zeroed in on
mine.

“What did you hear?” A filament of
recognition buzzed in my consciousness. It seemed to warn me
against showing all of my cards too soon.

“Someone shouting,” I answered without
actually revealing any information.

“Who was shouting?” She bobbed her head
around mine, looking for evidence of my accusation.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t find them.”

She examined me further. The sunlight
glinted off the top of the stubby wires on her head as she cocked
it back and forth searching for something just out of reach. I
blinked once, my tired eyes unable to match her stare any longer.
Another gong of a church bell made her cringe. Her back
straightened, relieving me of her invasion into my personal
space.

“I’m assuming you were going for
breakfast—though that mate of yours looks as if she never
eats.”

“You should talk.”

Pema was rail thin—those robes actually did
her a favor in helping her look less gaunt.

“I eat. Not all of us are as blessed as you
are. We can’t all make deliveries for the big software companies
and have successful investments.” She sneered at me as we again
took pace with the people on the sidewalk.

That last remark was a direct jab at
me—specifically, my parents.

“I see the monks taught you humility.” I
jabbed back.

“Touché.” She didn’t look impressed.

A clap of her hands changed her demeanor as
we found a bakery and went inside to order. She studied me, never
offering to help or lend a hand, as I placed our order and gathered
it all up.

Not very monk-like.

About halfway back to the hotel, I deduced
that Pema was coming all the way back with me. She was probably
going to take all the books before I could figure out why some of
them caused the voices to come back and some quieted them.

When we got into the elevator, she pressed
the button to our floor before I told her what floor we were
on.

I felt like a fish in an aquarium. No matter
how many rocks I hid under or treasure chests’ bubbles camouflaged
me, I could be seen from all angles—anyone who wanted to look in
could get a gander at the flashing male.

When we reached the room, I allowed Pema to
enter first, saving Colby from blabbing some pertinent information
out of turn.

I noticed Collin was sitting in a chair in
the corner without the surprised look on his face that I expected.
As much as he came down on Sway—he wasn’t out of my range for
suspicion either.

Everyone froze in place when Colby saw Pema.
She cut her eyes down to the space between Pema and me. Following
her gaze, I found that Pema’s arm was looped through mine. I hadn’t
even noticed she was doing that or how long it had gone on. My mind
was constantly in a different place.

“Look what I found on my way to get your
breakfast, Colby. Isn’t it convenient?”

Colby opened her mouth, but Pema interjected
first, “It isn’t convenient at all. Your female stole books that
didn’t belong to her. I can’t imagine that she thought that was the
honorable road to take.”

“How strange,” Colby began. Her cheeks had
grown red in the few seconds we’d been in the room. Pema didn’t
know what was about to hit her. “As I recall, you said we had three
days to study. There were no stipulations about location or any
other parameters now that I think about it.”

Pema scoffed, “Well, the most appropriate
thing to do would’ve been to leave sacred texts with their owner,
regardless of the stipulations. But then again, I’ve heard that
appropriateness hasn’t always been your forte. I didn’t see much of
it in Tibet other than the usual lack of propriety, until you
turned into a thief.”

I backed up a step out of instinct. It was
one thing for me to pick on Colby about her crassness or for her to
joke about it, but Pema didn’t even know Colby and yet here she was
judging the hell out of my mate.

“The texts are in perfect shape in the other
room. There’s no reason to resort to rudeness on either account.”
That was my best effort in diffusing the situation. Colby cocked
her eyebrow at me. I knew she’d be pissed for me not taking her
side, but it probably was for the best to stay on the good side of
the family of the Eidolon—or, I guessed, the former Eidolon.

“I’ll take them now,” Pema demanded.

“We still have a day,” Colby reminded her,
pretending to check her cuticles. “Unless, you’re intending on
going back on your word.”

Three times Pema opened her mouth to
respond, but came out with nothing.

“Fine. I will stay with you until you are
done.”