Authors: Conner Kressley
With my eyes busily searching the area in front, it wasn’t long before I slammed into a desk. Its contents, a vase filled with roses and blue marbles, fell to the floor. I expected the vase to shatter loudly and send the Breakers, wherever they were, running back in to find me. Instead, it landed with a soft thud and stayed in one piece. Even the roses stayed in place. Everything did, with the exception of a handful of the blue marbles.
As I bent down, picking the vase up and putting it back, the marbles started to move. They shot forward, running the length of the floor, and taking a sharp right as they moved into a separate hallway.
Okay. I guess that makes as much sense as anything’s going to.
I darted out after them, following as they took a left, another right, and trickled down a staircase that ran right past Echo’s office.
When they finally came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, I found myself in an expansive room. It was squared and lit with a soft blue glow. Large glass squares filled with empty still water lined the walls. Below them, written in the native language of their country, plaques read what I assumed were the locations where each square of water came from.
California, Deutschland, Mexico, Italia, and the like were all on display. It still rattled me that, in my new Breaker state, each language seemed as native to me as English. Standing there, staring at the tank marked Roma intently enough that you’d think something was actually in it, was Owen. He wore a tight black shirt and blue vest that, along with the soft blue light that I now saw was a reflection of the tanks, brought out the color in his eyes brilliantly. His fingers, all but the thumbs, were stuffed into his pockets. He was standing completely still, the way you only can when you’re either trying really hard or not trying at all.
“Where are all the fish?” I asked, and stepped into view.
“Cresta?” His eyes got wide and his face lost its expression. “I thought-How did you get out?”
Before I could answer, he rushed me, scooped me up into his arms, and spun me around. The world was a daze; not just because I was spinning, but because I was with Owen again. He was touching me, happy to see me. I could touch him, smell him, and breathe him in. He knew how I felt about him and, superhumanly perfect fiancés aside; I knew how he felt about me too.
“I wanted to come and see you, you know,” he said, his face buried in my hair. “I tried to. I begged Echo, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“I know. I asked to see you too,” I answered.
“Are you okay?” He asked, letting me down. The soft blue in the air made his face, always one of his best features, look even more perfect somehow.
“I am now,” I said, which brought a shy smile to his lips. His smile made me blush, and I turned away.
“No. Don’t do that.” He took my face in his hand and turned it back to him. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen that face.” He looked down, letting his eyes flicker to the floor for the briefest of seconds before pinning them back on me. “About Merrin, she’s not-“
“The Raven has my mother,” I cut him off, as much because I didn’t want to hear him explain the Merrin situation as because I knew we didn’t have much time to kill.
“What?” His eyes got wide again. His hands cupped mine, squeezing them tightly.
I explained it all to him; about the phone call, Allister Leeman, the woman’s scream, the girl in the tower’s note, the secret key, all of it. I ended my rant by telling him that I had to go, I had to chance it, and that I hoped he would understand.
“I’m coming with you,” he said flatly.
Looks like he understands and then some
“I can’t let you do that,” I answered, pulling my hands from his grip. “Your life is here, with the Breakers. You’re already in God knows how much trouble with the Council of Masons. There’s a good chance that the Raven doesn’t even have my mom. I can’t let you throw away whatever chance you might have to redeem yourself by running off with me.”
“He ruined my life, Cresta,” Owen folded his arms and looked me square in the eyes. “He manipulated me, made a fool of me. He took me away from my work; made everything I had done, every day of my life, meaningless. I want to make him pay for that.”
Though they probably shouldn’t have, his words sent spikes of doubt into my heart. Had he taken him away from his work? Did he really mean that it was Merrin he had been taken away from? Had he ruined his life? Hadn’t he sent him to me?
“So, the only reason you want to go with me is so you can get revenge?” I asked, and tried not to let my face scrunch.
He ran his hand through my hair, tucking a loose strand behind my ear. “I could forget about everything he did to me. I could let that all go, but if your mother is dead-Well, that’s my fault. And if she’s alive, if he has her, then that’s on me too.”
I opened my mouth, about to tell him that he was wrong, that it wasn’t his fault, but he placed his index finger over my mouth to silence me.
His fingers…on my lips…
“And if he did anything to you-If that son of a bitch so much as laid a finger on you and I wasn’t there to stop it-“He took a deep breath as if to compose himself. Leaning in closer he asked, “Do you have any idea what you mean to me, Cresta Karr?”
I leaned in to meet him. “I’m starting to,” I said just as our lips met. The kiss was gorgeous. So much so, that it almost allowed me to forget the horrible circumstances that led to it. I wrapped my arms around him, exploring his arms, his shoulders, the arch and small of his back. He was warm, and I felt his body tense and rise beneath my touch. His lips took mine in hungrily, panting as he brushed my flushed cheeks with his thumbs.
I wanted to stay there, to live there in the soft blue glow of the aquarium and the heat of Owen’s touch, but there were other things going on, reasons why something like this(even though it might be mind-blowingly awesome) had to wait.
“Owen,” I huffed, reluctantly pulling my lips away from his. “We can’t. There’s no time.”
He looked at him, his blue eyes gleaming devilishly. “It’s okay. I’ll be quick.” His arms pulled at me again, lifting me into the air and throwing me against the Roma display. My back pressed against the cool glass. Owen’s mouth searched mine before it traveled to my cheek, then my neck, and then the arch of my collar bone. I wanted to move, to push him away. We had to go. We had to get out of here before someone saw me and the whole thing was ruined. But as much as I tried, I couldn’t get my body to cooperate. It was his now. It belonged to his lips, to his eyes, to his heart, beating so hard that I could see it under his shirt and vest.
I tossed my head back, letting it rest against the cold glass. As soon as I touched the glass, something in me began to shift. I could feel the water behind me, actually feel it, as it twisted and turned. I tore away from Owen’s grasp, slinked to the floor, and turned to look. The water had clouded. What was once clear, blue, and still, was now a dark gray and spun around like a cyclone. When it settled, the water wasn’t empty anymore. Large fish that I had never seen before swam around. Some of them were scaly. Some were transparent. Some were so large that they took up the entire space and then some.
How did they even fit them in there?
“It’s leering glass,” Owen said, before I had a chance to voice how stunned I was. “It lets you see…everything.”
He walked closer and put his hand on the glass, tracing the space where something that looked like a prehistoric sea horse swam. “You know that everything holds a certain amount of physic energy, that anything can retain memories.”
“That’s how Dahlia found out everything that went on in Crestview,” I added, still staring at the glass. The image shifted. The Stone Age sea creatures dissipated, replaced by a desert scene. A huge battle was going on. Burly men in gold plated armor were fighting equally burly men in black armor. They drove spears into each other and rode horses over the broken bodies of their brothers. Except, I wasn’t watching it from a direct angle like the sea horse. I was rushing down toward it, falling on them like raindrops.
“Right,” Owen answered. “Water retains more memories than anything. You see these plaques?” He motioned toward the Roma sign. “Well, they’re meant to tell you where the water came from and, as such, give you an idea of what you gleam from it. But they’re useless, given that water is recycled so much. It seeps into the ground and ascends into the sky. Every drop of water is this place has probably been over every inch of this world. There’s no telling what sort of things it could show you. Some of it probably goes back to the dawn of time.”
“Can you pick what you want to see?” I asked, putting my hand beside his on the glass.
“You have to be trained for that, and lately, I’ve been out of practice,” he winced.
“Because of the Raven?” I asked.
Start Here
“I used to go to the aquariums at the Hourglass with my father,” he said, ignoring my question. “I loved it. I used to stay there for hours, just touching all the different waters and traveling through time.” He ran his hand up his arm, brushing where the bands had been placed. “That was when I still had my powers, though.”
“We’re gonna get your powers back,” I grabbed his hand.
“I don’t care about my powers,” he turned to me. “Let’s go get your mom back.”
“Don’t be stupid,” a voice sounded from across the room. Startled, I pulled away from Owen, ready to run. Casper came out of the doorway though, his arms folded. How long had he been there? Had he seen…the whole thing?
“Casper, how did you know I was gonna be here?”
“I got a letter.” He held up a white slip, much like the ones I had been receiving. “It said to come here. I thought you sent it.” He winced and ran his hand through his hair. “Well, I hoped you sent it.”
I ran to him and hugged him tightly. “Missed you,” I whispered into his ear.
“I promised to keep you safe,” he said with a break in his voice.
“I’m fine. I’m okay,” I assured him.
“Let’s get out of here, Cress. We don’t belong here. Let’s just go.”
“I thought you like it here. I thought you said it was cool,” I gave him a squeeze on the shoulder and pulled away. The blue lights made Casper’s red hair look purple, and made the freckles dotting his face resemble dark smudges. Still, he was a sight for sore eyes.
“Yeah, I sorta turned in my Breakers fan club membership card when they hauled you off like a common crook,” he huffed and stared past me at Owen. Wait, was he counting Owen among their numbers too? Did he blame Owen?
“Cass,Allister Leeman has my mom,” I said.
“I know you want to believe that Cresta, but you didn’t see the house. You didn’t see what was left of it. Your mom didn’t make it out of there. That sick bastard is just trying to lure you to him.” His voice was soft, and I could tell that losing my mom had hurt him too.
“With all due respect, Casper, Cresta’s mother was Breaker. You have no idea what we’re capable of surviving,” Owen walked toward us.
“I wasn’t talking to you, Owen. If that is your real name,” Casper hissed. Okay, so that answered the question of how Casper felt about Owen. “Just go back to your little cult, and let us go.”
“Go where?” Owen balked. Even if you’re right, and Julie Karr is dead, you wouldn’t make it half a day out there. Until sunrise on the solstice, Cresta is, for all intents and purposes, the Bloodmoon. If you run, they will come find you. If you’re not going to go after Cresta’s mom, then the best thing for her to do is go back into her room until after the solstice. At least then, they’ll know she isn’t the Bloodmoon.”
“And what if they don’t?” Casper’s hands balled into fists. “What if that doesn’t convince them? What if they pull some other prophecy out of their asses? They could keep Cresta here forever.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Owen answered.
“Oh yeah, cause you’re so trustworthy.”
“Cass, I do!” I answered. “I trust him.”
“Why Cresta?” His face scrunched, as though my words had hurt him. “Look, I know you’ve got the hots for him or whatever, but he’s just like the rest of them. All he’s ever done is lie to us.”
“That wasn’t his fault,” I shook my head. “I mean-Yeah, it was his fault, but he thought he was doing it for my own good.”
Casper gritted his teeth. “And what happens when he thinks killing you is for your own good?”
“You son of a bitch!” Owen rushed toward him. I jumped between them. I was trying to sneak away without being seen. The last thing I needed was a brawl in the world’s weirdest aquarium. “You don’t know anything about me,” Owen yelled. “You don’t know my life!”
“You don’t have a life,” Casper sniped. “You people live in a holding cell. You let other people tell you what to do so you don’t have to make your own decisions. You lie to people and tell yourselves that you’re heroes. You blame people for things you say they’re going to do. What about all the crap that you people do? You make me sick.”