Imperial ((Imperial) Web of Hearts and Souls) (21 page)

Maybe that was the lesson I was supposed to learn in the Veil...maybe that was what Vade was trying to tell me at that shop.

I did trust Vade. I did have gratitude for him. He had saved me, more than once. I suppose that was why I was so focused on this war of lines. I was trying to repay the favor, save him.

I let the thoughts of my past and the dark future slip away as I focused on his touch, on how his skin felt against mine. We held each other for hours, sometimes tenderly, others more aggressively. We found ourselves laughing, feeling emotions that were so powerful that they nearly stilled us as we stared into each other. More than once I had to close my eyes, demand that tears that were of bliss but mocked weakness retreat.

We held each other like it was our first time, as if it were our last, not taking one moment for granted.

Now, lying in his arms and staring at the low lying moon, I began to pull myself out of the bliss we were in, this manifestation around us. I had to; there was a war waiting on us, one that had waited for far too long.

“You know what I don’t understand?” I said quietly.

He waited for me to go on.

“Why did the Reaper allow the dead to be trapped in the Veil, for those souls not to be brought to him or given the chance to move on? Was it because the line before him was so long that he did not notice, or was it because he was not powerful enough?”

“Don’t,” he whispered.

I propped my chin up on my arm across his chest so I could look into his eyes. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t bring that war into our bed.”

“Just trying to understand,” I mumbled.

He reached for my head and gently caressed my hair. “Listen to understand.”

“I’ve been listening for some time now. If the Reaper protected me as you say, offered me his cathedral as a school for the Creator, then I will repay him. The dead are precious to him, and on my way home I saw how he had been robbed. As soon as I get Silas situated, that is where I will focus next.”

I thought that was a plan that was full of grace and gratitude, but the look in Vade’s eyes told me it wasn’t.

“Any closer to getting those words you are looking for?” I asked, almost sure that the reason he didn’t think it was a good idea was that he knew it would all be for naught.

“The question is, are you any closer? What has this night given you, made you remember or feel for the first time?”

“Everything. I don’t know why the Creator is waiting on me. By now, He should know that I do not do well with analogies, that I need bluntness.”

“We always forget the lessons we are told, but never the ones that we learned through experience.”

“Right,” I breathed. “I have to go back for Silas.”

He nodded once.

“No words of advice? No telling me to tread carefully so he can keep his guard?”

“You will know what to say, what you have to do.”

“Are your Fated as stubborn as Silas is? Did they doubt you when you went to them?”

He grinned. “Very stubborn, but I haven’t gone to them.”

“Why not?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

“The time is not right. They are working together. I will continue my watch.”

“They need to hear you, know that they are protected.”

“Ah, but they fight harder and discover more when they pave their own path. Donalt and Xavier have plotted to use them against me, but they underestimated the fight in each of my own.”

“So not like you,” I mused.

“They are not like any other before them.” His eyes were full of bliss.

I leaned forward and gave him a slow, subtle kiss as I manifested my warrior clothes to my body. “Go make sure they are okay. Silas had no idea that Xavier was a king; if he mentions that to the others, they may falter and think they cannot find a victory.”

He smiled. “I really don’t think they know how to falter, at least not for long. They think they are in a war of hearts, not a war of humanity; souls will hesitate when fighting for masses, but not for their rush.”

“Truth,” I said as I blinked back the dreadful onset of weak tears. “Wish me luck.”

“I will listen closely,” he said as a regal suit appeared on his body. I stood, giving him room to do the same.

He reached to kiss me once more, and I decided to be playful and start a passionate kiss that would have landed us right back in that bed—but I vanished from his arms just as that idea took hold of him, just as those long arms reached down for my thighs and moved forward.

Grinning and still blushing, I appeared in the springs. One glance at the evil that was infecting The Realm took that grin away. I let out a sigh and reached for the water to call forth the image of Silas.

“Forgetting something?”  I heard Mazing say.

I glanced to my side to find her there. “I haven’t left yet, have I? Are we over our fight?” I asked, glancing around, looking for Rasp.

“No, not entirely. He blames me; that, we agree on. What we don’t agree on is the why.”

“The why?”

“He thinks I was too wrathful to see his future intentions of becoming a fever for me.”

“Future?”

“That is what I said, you can’t plan a fever. I told him as much. I told him we would have never been more than friends.”

“So he is hurt.”

“Nope. That tells not only me, but also him that he had seen whatever he wanted us to be, as some kind of contract—arranged. He is mad at me for breaching an invisible agreement and the result of that. Nothing more.”

“Did you leave here? Find what you were looking for?”

She hissed before she spoke. “Yes. Colton’s scent is everywhere, but he is nowhere. I cannot find that godforsaken Cadence petal anywhere. Rasp thinks she must be close to Fielder, that is why she is hidden.”

“That, or she is mirrored.”

“Oh, how I wish.”

If anyone in a line was near their sovereign, they would be hard to sense simply because the sovereign’s essence was so powerful. Fielder, the king of grief, was always in the real world, not in human form like Donalt had done, at least not for extended periods of time, but he was always down there. I’m sure that was the reason why Cadence was hidden from Mazing now, but like Mazing, I hoped she was mirrored.

Mirrored souls were ones that were basically imprisoned by their kings. They had done something horrid, and now their souls were trapped; only their images could roam The Realm, and they would stay that way until the king saw fit to release them.

The springs had manifested my dear Silas for me. He was not in The Realm, but a dimension below. He was sitting under a tree, and a chapel was near him. It was old and decaying, the once white wood was gray and the windows had been blown out by Mother Nature, gray cloths that were once curtains blew through the broken glass.

“I don’t think I need you. He is in the real world.”

“So are the kings that betrayed you.”

“On point,” I said under my breath. “Where is Rasp?” I asked, glancing around.

“Vade called him. That is half the reason I knew you were here.”

“I don’t suppose you learned any secrets with Rasp? Like him telling you there was a big, fat lesson in front of my face that I cannot see?”

“Got that vibe, but no words.”

I clenched my jaw as I stared at Silas.

“Am I missing something?” I asked, glancing to her.

“Just as much as I am, I suppose.”

As much as I needed to go to my Fated Escort, my First needed me now. I turned to face her. “You harbored a deep secret for quite some time. I’m sure it feels new because we are back here, because you are near the anniv
ersary of that cycle of eternity.”

“I just wish I could have heard and felt the promises he did from the Creator.”

I bit my lip and held in a sarcastic grin. I so knew how that felt. “Don’t we all,” I finally said. “It was real. You hear me? It was real for the two of you.”

“I don’t know,” she said as she sighed. “It hurts like hell now, I know that much.”

“We’ll figure out how Cadence is taunting you with his scent and stop it. That might help a bit.”

“What else is on the agenda besides ceasing the memory of my torrid affair?”

“Getting Silas home, then releasing the dead that are trapped in the Veil.”

“Tall order.”

“Even if we find a way to let a few loose, it will appease me. I may not be able to send the Reaper a bouquet, but I can send him a single stem, let him know that my deeds are to help him and others. I don’t want to go back.”

She glanced away. I knew she was in the middle of an internal war. One thought told her that at any second she would perish because she had been coupled with Colton, who lives no longer; the other told her that she wouldn’t because it was not a blessed coupling. I did not envy her for that battle and knew that no punishment I could give her would be worse than what her mind was doing to her.

“All right, then. I guess we are going to do this. I still want you to stay cloaked; Silas deserves to see me alone.”

Her eyes moved up, then beside me to where Rasp was now standing. “Good meeting?” I asked him.

Rasp grinned. “It was good to see my old friend again.”

I turned crimson. “You guys are staying hidden. This is my moment with Silas.”

“Where to, Sovereign?”

I reached my palm for the spring, asking it to open wide for us.

That instant, it pulled me in. I reached my essence around Silas and the scene he was in, shielding us. I hesitated, making sure I could sense Rasp and Mazing; oddly, Mazing was full of wrath. Maybe I should have asked her to stay. It was clear that she was being haunted at this point.

Silas looked up instantly. He breathed in deeply as his eyes filled with judgment. “Mint,” he seethed.

“Yup,” I said, not really caring to rehash words that had already been spoken.

Silas stood as he took in another breath and tilted his head slightly as his eyes grew curious. “Who is with you?”

“They cannot see or hear you.”

He took two dominant steps toward the direction where Rasp and Mazing were standing, but he hit the wall of my energy. He could see the fields that were there, but not them.

“I’m imprisoned,” he said, glancing scornfully over his shoulder at me.

“No, you are shielded to have a private conference with me.”

Silas breathed in again, then clasped his chest as if he were in pain. His eyes squinted closed.

“Still processing the awakening,” I stated. His senses had to be on fire. Every sensation was new to him now, yet it linked him back to a past, one that was clearly showing him each step of the way what he truly was.

“There was no awakening,” Silas said, gaining his composure and turning to face me.

“My line does not lie. Learn that lesson now.”

“Oh, but you have already breathed a lie to me.”

I cringed as my hands formed into a fist
s. I never should have let him see a weakness in me, know my limits. We were going to end that now.

“I see that you took my advice, found a place to think.”

“You kinda cleared my calendar for the afternoon,” he said with a smirk.

“That power could be yours.”

“Tempting with power...tsk, tsk—that is clearly a trait of what evil does,” he said, moving his head from side to side in a sarcastically playful manner.

“No, evil tempts with fear.”

“True.”

“I did seek counseling about your rare hybrid of energy.”

“Is that what Escorts call it?” he said with another deep inhale.

“Do you need to be restrained in order to listen to me?”

“Not at all. I see now that a sense of humor is not afforded to
real
Escorts.”

“There is no precedence for you, but basic lore states that when you are risen into an Escort that your past lives are just that, in the past. Any debt you have to Charlie or those in the form of Witnesses will be null and void. They saved you, and I will repay them for that, but you are mine and it is time to come home.”

“I belong to my Creator, and my Creator alone,” he said, raising his brow.

“And He has placed you in my care.”

“Apparently, He took me out of your care,” he shot back.

“Are you seeking a compromise, telling me that you can remain as you are and discard your emotions for Charlie?”

“I told you before, our LOVE is a necessary evil.” I knew he meant that to be damning, or even sarcastic, but as soon as that sentence left his lips pain came to his eyes as he clenched his chest once more.

“What is wrong with you? What is this pain?”

Silas gasped as he breathed through it. “Oh, dear queen, this is not a new agony. But for some reason, your presence enhances it.”

“How is it not new?”

He had regained his composure once more and was standing tall. “I knew I was an Escort or something close to it before today.”