The Pentagram Child: Part 1 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) (53 page)

“I’m sorry I ran from you.” I told him back, as I truly was. I realised how stupid it had been and that I should have trusted him to explain, which brought us right back to the beginning and all we still needed to discuss. And that was why I said,    

“We need to talk.”

“I know.” He replied in a deflated tone that spoke volumes to how much he really wished we didn’t have to have this conversation. I felt his arms loosen around me and soon we were once again sat next to each other on the couch, only this time I could only hope there were no more Draven explosions of temper…my own however I couldn’t yet vouch for.

“Okay so back to my original question. Why is she the only one who would know why you could burn me?” I asked knowing there was no way of asking that in a delicate way.

“Alright Keira, I will explain everything but first for you to really understand I will have to go back to the beginning and well…”

“Well…?” I prompted when he dragged a frustrated hand down his face this time.

“It’s painful.” I closed my eyes briefly and absorbed what he was telling me. He was about to tell me everything. I knew this but what I needed was to be sure that I was ready to accept it. Because this question was the only one, above all others that I needed answered the most and the one I had asked myself from the very beginning and what had inevitably sent me on a journey that had changed my life.

And that question was simple…

“Why?” 

Chapter 37

Truth

I looked at Draven and waited as my simple sounding question grew into a million answers that needed to be told. You could tell he was trying to think of where the best place to start was and like he himself had said, there was only the beginning. So that’s where I started.

“What happened that day you left?” I asked thinking back to that moment outside my house and replaying the same torturous words he had left me with, ones I didn’t trust in after I found out his greatest lie.

“I love you, keeper of my heart.”

I shook these words from my thoughts and turned back to Draven. He was bent over with his elbows to his knees and his head in his hands. I put my hand on his shoulder and said,

“Hey, I get it…I mean I don’t know exactly why but I know it must have been something bad, so bad in fact that…”

“She told me I would kill you.” Draven blurted out quickly and it felt like someone had kicked me in the gut. My hand dropped from his shoulder and I felt the shock penetrate deep inside me like my veins were being flushed through with ice water. I couldn’t believe it! I just couldn’t. It was as if everything I had ever known was crumbling down around me and I couldn’t even find the strength to care enough to put my arms up as protection.

In fact…

It was like my whole world had just ended.

“Keira come back to me.” Draven said reaching out to me and I couldn’t help my flinch. The look of hurt I saw there wasn’t something I could ever take back but I could at least explain it.

“I don’t believe it.”
I whispered as if first testing my voice.

“Keira.”

“I don’t believe it!” I said this time louder after he said my name, trying no doubt to sooth me.

“Keira you need to listen to me.”

“I DON’T FUCKING BELIEVE IT!” I then screamed losing it in a big way. I shot out of the chair and after walking a few steps away I stormed back to shout over to him.

“You believed this shit?!” I accused making him wince.

“The Fates themselves told me this and they can’t lie, Keira.” Draven explained but I was beyond any reason that wanted to take me to a calm place.

“Oh yes they fucking can!” I bellowed not caring one bit that I was swearing, in fact I was just letting the foul word fuel my rage and give it greater depth.

“I need you to calm down.” Drave said standing and reaching out for me. I spun away from him and said,

“Calm down, calm down…you tell me about the biggest load of bullshit the Fates ever told you and that you believed it enough to fake your own death and you want me to calm down…have I got that right!?” I ranted wanting nothing more than to hit something. I knew I was taking this out on him but part of me was utterly devastated that he would have believed something like this from the very beginning.

“I need to explain.” He tried saying, coming an extra step closer to me.

“Actually I don’t think you do, in fact I have a bloody good idea who exactly does need to explain, the Oracle that’s who!” I said folding my arms and he took this opportunity to make his move. Before I could utter a shocked yelp I was trapped in his arms and struggling became useless.

“Calm down and I will explain everything. I know you are upset…uh huh.” He said when I tried to speak silencing me before carrying on.

“I left you that day with no knowledge that I wouldn’t be coming back to you. Pythia really did go missing, only what I didn’t know at the time was that it was planned. They needed to get me away from you and keep me that way and unfortunately for us both, they succeeded.”

“But why would you believe them?” I asked in a quieter but no less whiny voice.

“Because I had no choice but
to
believe in them. The Fates cannot lie and I mean that in the sense that Pythia would literally die and be exiled from Heaven if such a thing happened. So you see, I had no choice but to believe in what she told me.” I shook my head and felt the anger turn quickly to a bitter devastation.

“So what are we to do? I mean did they at least tell you how or give you a date?” I asked and Draven laughed once only it wasn’t because he found the situation funny.

“Come and sit back down and I will explain everything.” I nodded knowing that every feature on my face showed my despair.

“Trust me, it is not now as dire as it seems.” Draven tried to assure me as he walked me back over to the sofa that it felt like we had both being playing jack in the box with this evening. We sat down and I listened as Draven began the real truth of the matter.

“Around the time my contact with you stopped was when I finally found the Oracle. I ended up finding her exactly where I first found her all those years ago in Mount Parnassus in Greece and at the now hidden Temple of Apollo. It was as though they knew they needed to get me as far away as possible from you before they could contend with my rage. I couldn’t believe it and was very much like you to begin with. I couldn’t understand why they would finally send me my Electus and then so quickly take her away from me again.” I shook my head not understanding it either and he gave me a sad smile before carrying on.

“They explained how this is the way of the Fates and the prophecy must be fulfilled at all costs. I demanded to know details but other than telling me how I would bring forth the death of the one I love and gifted with my life’s blood, this was enough for me to make that soul destroying decision.” I still couldn’t believe it as it just seemed too cruel to believe.

“But why didn’t you just leave me…why have me believe you had died?” I asked feeling hurt and the evidence of this ran down my cheeks and dripped onto the sheet.

“I was told there was no other way you would have let me go. They needed you to live they said, as you were still important to their plans. But they needed you to continue along your chosen path and if you knew I had simply left you then that path would never have taken place. I never understood it but I just wanted you to live. I wanted you to have the full life that they spoke of, telling me of how your life’s plan was set and in the future they saw only happiness...” He paused long enough to pull my body back to him and then say,

“…and I so wanted that for you Keira, I needed that for you. For if I couldn’t be with you, if I couldn’t give that to you myself, then I needed to know at the very least there was happiness waiting for you.” I held him back and started sobbing on his shoulder. It was the hardest words to hear and yet I needed every single one of them he gave me.

“But then after I saw you, after I heard how the Fates had not only intervened in my life but in yours also, I was furious! I knew they had set you out on this journey and that was the path they spoke of. They had said things to you and spun their little webs of twisted truths until they got what they wanted, only I just didn’t figure it all out until now.” Hearing this and the bitter edge that laced his voice I lifted up my head.

“What do you mean?” I asked wiping away my tears.

“I was so blinded by my self-pity and self-loathing for what I had put you through that I couldn’t see the smoke for the flames. It’s ironic then that it was my once enemy who made me see the truth.”

“Lucius?” I said his name in shock and Draven nodded in response.

“And what was the truth?” I was almost too scared to ask but it was like Sigurd had told me, ‘
Don’t ever be the type of girl to run from the truth because of fear
’.

“We have both been played from the very beginning.”

“I…I…don’t know what to say.” And this
was
the truth.

“Now I don’t know exactly how they have twisted what they told me to make me believe I would end your life but the only certainty I have is that they did.”

“But why?!” I shouted throwing my hands up in the air as my anger came back at me.

“Because they needed you to do what no one else could do.” He said taking one of my fists and uncurling it gently to then run his fingertips down the length of my hand.

“And what’s that?”

“It’s simple. They just needed you to be yourself.” He looked up and saw my confused face and in that moment I don’t think I have ever seen him looking so proud.

“You have no idea how my kind is drawn to you. Even from your childhood they never shied away from you. I never understood it when we first met, just saw it as an annoyance in a selfish greed to have you all to myself and I suppose I still possess these traits but at least now I am more understanding of why.”

“Draven you’re not making much sense to me.” I complained making him smile.

“It’s your gift, Keira. It’s the power of your heart and how you open yourself up to people, my kind, them all, to the idea of knowing such a heart. You let them in and they instantly see the gift you have given them. But not only do they take this gift but they treasure it, they believe in it and they will stop at nothing to protect it.” I shook my head and was about to tell him he had it all wrong, that it was impossible, that I was only one girl...just one mortal girl. But he didn’t let me. Instead he took my head in his hands to cease my shaking and said,

“Yes. That is your greatest gift as the Chosen One. You are the one they all follow and that is why for the prophecy to ever happen they needed to send you on your journey to find me.”

“But I still don’t understand why!? I mean, what did they gain other than me discovering the truth?”

“Think about it. Think about your time in a different light. It wasn’t the goal they wanted you to reach but all the important points along the way. Sigurd your guardian and chosen King of the Ouroboros, one who refuses to take his position in our world.” Draven held out his finger as if crossing them off a list. 

“Then there is the Alpha of Hellhounds, Cerberus, another King of a different kind yet one too bitter and lost in his grief to take the last steps to the throne. And even your little friend Percy, who braved the wrath of the hand that gave him his greatest fear but all for you. I can even go as far as meeting my own father in a level of Hell that no mere mortal would ever survive. Yet you did. So ask yourself again, why…why does it take one single heart of such purity and strength to change and challenge the frozen hearts of men who for centuries have said no and denied who they truly are.” When Draven had finished I was left dumbstruck but with only one thing that came to mind,

“But I’m from Liverpool.” To which he threw his head back and laughed.

“Maybe the fates are a fan of the Beatles.” Draven teased making me too burst out laughing. I think this was something we both needed after such an intense conversation. It was as if I was about to believe all that Draven had told me because let’s face it…who would? But some of it at least made sense after all, if this great prophecy meant it needed Sigurd and Jared in the picture then I could certainly see how the Fates could have used me to get their way. 

“So what about these?” I asked as I looked down at his bare forearms and saw the raw scarred flesh that I could now see was in the shape of a Pentagram. Only it was strange and made up from a series of smaller symbols I had never seen before. There was also a circle around each one and these too held their own symbols. Draven lifted his arm and looked down in disgust.

“Do you remember me ever coming to you in your dreams, Keira?” I knew the instant he said it what this was about.

“You’re of course talking about the night with…uh…”

“My brother, yes.” He said looking down at his scars and clenching his fists. I thought back to that night that up until now I thought was only a dream.

“Back then I lived in the shadow of your absence, going through the daily motions barely living a life but I still managed to preserve my control. Oh don’t get me wrong, there were many times, too many to count when I would fight within myself to take back what was rightfully mine. However I always replayed those despised words of warning back to myself and I would resist. But then the nights came and it was where I found I was at my weakest.”

“What do you mean?” I asked softly placing my hand over his where he held one over his forearm, as if hiding that part of himself.