Book of Life (9 page)

At the end of the bridge I was met by a door with a circular iron latch. Grasping the latch, I pushed the door open. It swung freely on well greased hinges, opening to a temple far more breathtaking than the one I’d grown used to in Winter Wood. On either wall, arched, clear glass windows invited the color of the morning sky into the space, ever-changing as the seconds passed. The room itself was long like a chapel, the nave lined with benches on either side. At the front was a spectacle of gold lotus flowers, twisting and arching over a circular stone pedestal a foot off the ground and at least ten feet across. The room was empty except for me.

I walked to the pedestal, stepping onto it and standing in the middle, spinning as I looked up and observed each element of this place. Direct morning sunlight had now crested the mountains around us, inching their way through the windows like knives of gold. Still the room was silent, but I suddenly felt the presence of another soul—a warm soul.

I turned around, seeing a figure enter from a side door, her head and body cloaked in a drape of white and gold silk. The figure looked up. A woman’s face was elegantly glowing below the hood. She drew the hood from her head with delicate hands, her skin porcelain-white and flawless, just like Avery’s. Her face was long and lean, blushed with a light spring pink. Her eyes were rimmed with a shimmery white like the frost of the blooming trees outside, lashes like icicles. Her lips graduated in color from nude to pink, lush and glistening. She was a splice of winter and spring, a perfect mix of an impossible season.

This had to be the pixie I was looking for.

She bowed gently. “Hello.”

When she spoke there was no hint of shadow to her voice. In fact, it was as though shadow could not touch her at all as I’d seen illuminated under her hood and cloak. She was as full of light as any pixie I had ever had the pleasure of meeting before.

“Hello,” I replied gruffly, sounding a bit taken aback, as I was.

“What a pleasure to have such a guest as you.”

I stepped from the pedestal. “You know who I am?”

She nodded. “You are Maximus Gordon. I watch over you each day the sun shines.”

“And who are you?” I was so bold to ask. I felt as though I should know more about her, but myths weren’t worth indulging. The thing was, she was no longer a myth.

“I am Soleil. The Pixie of the Sun. A very special Element pixie, as I’m sure you’ve come to understand?”

I shook my head. “I understand only a small part, the part where you fell in love only to have your light taken from you.”

She smiled. “That was so long ago, at the very beginning of human life on Earth.”

“And you’re still alive?” I felt compelled to ask despite my knowledge that pixies were immortal. Many still passed away in time, giving into war or suicide, but this was their choice. It just seemed so long to live. How could she do it?

“I am still alive, as you can clearly see. I have not taken the risks many do. I am too important to the lives of this world, particularly that of the human’s. You see, I am the sun—the most important light there is. To risk my life in the world risks more than I fear I have the permission to.”

I looked back at the sun outside the windows, realizing that it had not shown itself until her arrival in this room. “But is it true? Someone once stole your light?”

She nodded. “The Pixie of the Moon, Lune. I fell in love with Lune and he fell in love with me. Together we are each other’s perfect match, this I am certain. Still we spend some days together, but he is but a silhouette to me now, reminding me of our importance apart. You see, if we were to leave this world and descend happily into the Ever After, Lune and I would deprive the Earth and this universe of day and night. Without day and night, this universe cannot survive. Lune broke my heart when he first orbited away from me. I grew dark, and I no longer cared what came of our universe. To me there was no purpose without him. Lune, in his desperation and love for Earth and the other planets, worked hard to supply as much light as he could, but without me, he had no light to reflect. This was when the fever of the vampire began. My selfish sadness spread disease and despair across the globe. The world as we know it changed.”

“So, how did you get your light back?”

Soleil approached me, grasping both my hands. Her hands were warm, filling me with such hope. I felt all my apprehensions begin to fade—anything was possible. “Lune explained to me how our love, though perfect, could never exist in the Ever After. We were made to be selfless, but selfish at the same time. He showed me Earth in a way I’d never seen it before, as our children. He explained that though we could not be together, our children would bind us together. We would nurture them night and day as though nurturing our very love for all of eternity. Words like that could not help but ignite an ember inside me that soon turned to a powerful glow as I saw our love change the world back. I let go of the selfish anger, and I forgave Lune. That is all it took to change my fate.”

I was surprised. “It sounds so simple.”

“It does.” She let go of my hands. “But who do you know that can truly forgive? Who have you ever met that can turn back time and let go of all bitterness?”

I shook my head. Even I knew I would never be able to let go of some of the bitterness I felt about certain things. Greg and I would never be able to return to the brother’s we once were, not after all that had happened. How does someone forget?

“You see. Forgiveness, true forgiveness, is an elusive thing. It takes a lot of self confidence and awareness to get past those things that hurt us.” She tilted her head and lifted her frosty brow. “Why are you so curious?” She asked this as though she already knew the answer.

“I took a pixie’s light once, and I fear it has turned her into a force that could destroy this world once more.”

Soleil nodded, looking unsurprised. “Avery.”

I nodded. “If I can bring her light back, I think I can stop her.”

Soleil unhooked her robe and it fell to the ground, just as the sun fully emerged from behind the hills, filling the nave with bright light. She wore a matching sheer silk dress that allowed her light to shine through. I was transfixed as she stepped past me and onto the pedestal. There, she sat in an invisible chair that hadn’t been there when I stood upon the space. She looked quite comfortable, petting her finger across an invisible arm and revealing to me the shape of the undetectable object. “I think you can do more than stop her. I think you could make her the new advocate for all that is good about the human world.”

I couldn’t stifle the laugh. “The human world? Avery embracing the human world?”

Soleil nodded. “Yes. I think she is the perfect leader. After all, she makes the perfect leader of the Black Angels. Who’s to say she can’t simply apply those skills elsewhere?”

She had a point and perhaps a good bargaining chip in my attempts to persuade Avery back to our side.

“Find a way to convince her that being apart is better than being together. Find a reason that will persuade her as Lune found with me. It shouldn’t be too hard. After all, you and Avery aren’t even true matches. Her match is someone far different, but not at the same time. She eyed me slyly, a half smile adorning her lips.”

I narrowed my gaze, taking nothing from the hint she was trying to give. “How can you be certain she’s not my true match?” It was something I had battled with, despite the way I knew I felt for Jane. So many things had happened that it was hard to think straight any longer.

She ushered me closer to her pedestal. “I’ve seen the way you and Jane look at each other, like Lune and I do. Love like that can’t be fake.”

Her affirmation instilled even more hope than her touch already had. Jane was worth fighting for. It’s just nice to be reminded of that after so long doing so. It helped calm many of my doubts.

Soleil giggled at me, I could not assume why. “For heaven’s sake, you’re far too serious about this. Worst case scenario make a vow to Avery if all else fails. Promise to help her find love before your time here on Earth ends. Vow to work at that task tirelessly. Hope like that just might be enough to bring her back from the brink. Hope is the root of all lightness, I’ve found, and women thrive on it, whether it has true merit or not.” Soleil gripped the invisible arm rests of her throne, tilting her head back and closing her eyes as though bathing in sunlight.

“But, then I’d be lying to her. That could only end badly.”

She sighed, rolling her head on her shoulders as though to stretch her neck. “It’s not lying. Help her find her true love. I think if you put your mind to it you’ll be surprised at how easy it will be. She is prime to meet her true love very soon, I believe. This lifetime is the right lifetime for her to find him, after all.”

“Can you just tell me who he is?”

She laughed sarcastically, only to shut her mouth and seem to doze off.

I took it as a sign that my time here had reached a climax. I’d learned all she was willing to give and now I needed to apply it. I pressed my lips together for a moment before summoning a goodbye. “Thank you,” I offered at last, though Soleil didn’t seem to hear me. I backed a few steps away from the pedestal before turning and walking my way down the nave and out the door.

Outside, the world felt as quiet as it had when I arrived. I gently latched the door behind me, resting my hand against the wood before gathering my thoughts and turning back to the task before me. Walking over the bridge, I hardly noticed the figure that was now standing in the corridor to my left. He was just outside the light from the dimming lanterns, held in the shadows where he seemed to belong.

From across the pond I saw his outline reflected in the water, blue and powdery. I followed the outline as it melded with the figure itself, looking just the same. Dancing sunlight off the water gave his skin an ethereal light, a borrowed light that seemed to cloak him. He leaned casually against the wall, watching me as I walked, unafraid of what I thought of him.

It had to be Lune.

I allowed myself to watch him in return, and for a moment I let myself imagine his life. I saw him stalking the grounds of a love he could never have. Sometimes graced to be in her presence, yet distanced enough that love was but a glimpse from afar. I admired his strength. Here was a man that could practice patience. Here was a man that put others before himself, always seeking the better outcome for those he protected.

I wanted to be that kind of man.

EMILY:

Wes looked at me sideways. “What do you mean skip school? You haven’t been in two weeks. I understand you’re still upset about everything, but at some point you’ve got to try and move—”

I grabbed his arm. “Stop. No. That’s not what I’m saying. That’s not what I’m trying to do.” I felt cold and weak, as though I hadn’t eaten in hours.

He shrugged away from me. “Well, we can’t go find Max. He’s already left. He said he had a lead on his brother yesterday at the funer—
I mean
—at the thing for Jane.” He looked flustered. He knew I didn’t like the term funeral.

I put my hand on my forehead, finding it dewy with a layer of cold sweat. I had to tell him and I had to tell him right now. “I did something I shouldn’t have,” I blurted, looking at him directly. “And it did something to me I didn’t expect. I found a bottle of pills this morning. They must have been left over. I stupidly took one thinking it would help ease me into the day but . . .”

The look on Wes’s face was instantly full of disappointment. His body sank as his thoughts turned to anger and failure—he hadn’t been able to save me.

I was overwhelmed with guilt, knowing this wasn’t his burden to carry, or to blame himself for. I tried my best to ignore this feeling and go on, hoping further explanation would help. “They were the Angel Blood pills Greg had given me. I thought they were a generic thing, never did I expect that they were actually made of his blood. That’s the only explanation for what just happened.”

Wes pulled slowly onto the shoulder. I watched him, judging his facial expressions, his mind—the anger, betrayal, confusion. “What happened?”

The silence in the car felt magnified. “I think the pill got me into Greg’s head. I heard Avery and Greg talking to each other as though they were right here in the car with us.”

Max discreetly looked around the car. “Can you still hear them?”

I shook my head. “No. No, it’s faded. I think the pill already wore off.”

His mind was still angry, but intrigue outweighed it at this point. “Do you have more?”

“More?”
I gasped. I was not about to relive that moment. “I can’t believe you’re asking me that when you’re mad I even did it.”

“Of course I’m mad. You promised me you’d never do that, and I hoped you’d tell me when you did feel that way so we could talk it through. I thought we were closer than that.”

“We are close,” I argued.

He grasped the wheel and looked away from me. I read his mind. He didn’t want to fight, he just wanted to get to the bottom of this. He wanted to know if this whole thing was real. The only reason he asked about the pills was because he wanted to know if it could happen again, perhaps with Max there to witness it, so that he could get into my mind and hear the voices for himself—as much as Wes didn’t like the idea—having it happen in a controlled setting could be useful, given the state of things.