Silver Dew (2 page)

“
I want for us to be dry
.” The fire from my necklace exploded up my throat and escaped my lips on those whispered words. Complete and total silence settled around us, the sounds of the storm instantly severed from the air.

“Gracelynn?” Sebastian’s voice broke through the sudden quiet. The uncertainty behind his words made my eyes pop open in surprise. He was staring at me wide-eyed, his blatant shock obvious.

I tipped my head back and saw bright, blue sky peeking out between the branches of the tall pines above us. The rain had stopped and there were no clouds to be seen. The only evidence of the storm that had been raging moments before was the muddy, needle-strewn ground and the sparkling drops of rain that still dripped from the branches and clung to the ferns around us. The forest was quiet and still, at peace.

I grinned triumphantly, my heart soaring victoriously as the sun warmed me through. I had done it! My joy was short-lived.

“Gracelynn, how did you do that?” Sebastian demanded as he scrambled to his feet. He dropped onto his knees before me in the mud, his hands squeezing my upper arms firmly, his eyes earnest and seemingly afraid as he searched mine for answers. I frowned in confusion, not understanding his sudden intensity or the question. “That shouldn’t have been possible,” he whispered when I didn’t respond. His words hung heavily in the air between us.

I noticed his clothes were dry already, as were mine. I lightly ran my fingers through his soft, black hair – not a trace of dampness to be found.

“I just… wanted us to be dry,” I tried to explain. I shifted uncomfortably beneath his steady gaze. “I didn’t
exactly
mean for the storm to disappear but I don’t understand why you’re so upset. You did the same thing once.” He obviously didn’t know what I was referring to, his eyes squinting slightly as he tried to remember. “In the garden shed, the first day we kissed. That random storm that came out of nowhere and ended so abruptly,” I reminded him.

His eyes brightened with understanding and then clouded once more.

“I didn’t want that storm to happen, Gracelynn,” he denied. “I did want to kiss you - I couldn’t help but want it so badly that the opportunity was bound to come up but I didn’t want that storm to start or to stop the way that it did. It was just one of the strange events that my presence triggers. But this…” He looked around us wide-eyed, his face paling slightly. “To intentionally stop a naturally-occurring storm in its tracks and to make it completely disappear like that… You said it didn’t work that way. I don’t understand. Why would you deceive me?” His voice faded to a whisper as he desperately searched my eyes, a sudden, confused panic overtaking his features.

I froze, my whole body instantly tensing as I realized it was happening again. My heart began beating too fast as my own panic set in. I struggled to control my emotions, forcing myself to speak slowly and carefully while staring steadily into his frighteningly unfocused eyes.

“I didn’t lie to you; I would never lie to you. I’m not her, Sebastian. I’m not Caoilinn.”

“What are you saying?” His eyes filled with confusion. He blinked, looking around, disoriented. “I don’t understand. Where am I?” His voice was unsteady, his lilting accent more pronounced as it had once been, so long ago. His eyes darted back and forth, his confusion obvious and overwhelming. Fear gripped my soul.

“I’m Gracelynn,” I reminded him softly. I gently placed my hands on each of his cheeks and turned his face back so that his eyes would meet mine. “I’m Gracelynn.”

I held my breath as he stared back into my eyes, counting the seconds as they slowly crept by. Like a passing storm, his eyes gradually began to clear and refocus. The wispy clouds of the past were blown back to where they belonged – for now at least. He still looked dazed but I could tell he was himself again. My fear slowly subsided.

“Gracelynn,” he whispered back to me. He leant forward to lightly kiss my lips, his relief a match for my own. Just the feel of his warm, soft lips against mine even for that brief moment was enough to set my heart pounding, to erase the rest of my fears. “I don’t know what happened just then. I apologize. Sometimes I… forget.”

“I know,” I quickly reassured him. I buried the sudden, heavy guilt that hit me, lowering my eyes to the forest floor in case he might catch a hint of it. Ever since I had made Sebastian remember his past, he had been having these kinds of episodes. The memories that had initially been so clear to him had quickly dissipated into a thick fog so that he now had to search to remember even the simplest of things. He often became confused, frequently calling me Caoilinn or becoming so lost in his own thoughts that I would have to repeat his name several times before he would come back to the present. Since the day he had remembered, the day we had started running, he also had frequent, painful headaches and tossed and turned each night, plagued once again by the nightmares from his past. And it was all my fault.

“It’s not your fault,” he argued, guessing at my thoughts.

I sighed, feeling miserable once more. “It is. I wish I’d never told you your true name. I don’t want you to be… like this. I want you to forget again,” I confessed.

“And I want to remember. I never want to forget you or anything else, ever again.” He pulled me into his arms and I closed my eyes. For a moment, I relaxed in the warmth of his embrace, the comfort of his body so close to mine. I let myself forget about the fact that I had just made an entire weather system cease to exist because I had “wanted to be dry” or that my boyfriend, the love of my life and my soulmate, had just mistaken me for Caoilinn, a reincarnation of my soul from thousands of years in the past. I didn’t even worry about the mud that we were now both kneeling in, that was steadily soaking into my stained and worn, once-perfect designer jeans. In that moment, none of it mattered beyond the fact that we were together and safe, for now. I sighed, feeling almost content for a heartbeat.

“Caoilinn could never have made an entire storm just disappear like that. Instead of fading away, the magic inside of you must have grown stronger with time. It’s fermented, like a fine wine,” he mused, his warm breath tickling the side of my neck as he spoke.

A thought occurred that I didn’t like one bit but I forced myself to say it aloud. I couldn’t quite meet Sebastian’s eye, so I held myself more tightly against him.

“Or perhaps she did deceive you. What if Caoilinn lied?”

Sebastian slowly pulled away from me, forcing me to meet his gaze. He shook his head in denial as I’d known he would. His brows pulled down into a stubborn frown, his dark eyes smoldered beneath his long, thick lashes. “You shouldn’t take something I said in a moment of confusion so seriously. I have faith that you would never deliberately deceive me. My rational mind knows that it’s not even a possibility for you to have lied. You didn’t lie,” he repeated.

“We were talking about Caoilinn, not me,” I reminded him gently.

He shrugged, flashing me his most charming grin as his expression lightened and brightened. “Sometimes it’s the same thing.”

“Perhaps,” I hedged.

He laughed softly at my obvious denial, leaning down to sweetly kiss my lips. “I may have been drawn to you because of who you once were, but I love you now because of everything you are today. I love
you
– Gracelynn Stevenson,” he declared, smiling down at me affectionately. “Never doubt or forget that.”

“I’ll try.” I smiled back at him playfully. “But it is nice to be reminded.”

“I will tell you that I love you for every single day of eternity – I promise,” he responded without hesitation. His solemn words were lightened by his teasing grin. Then his lips came down to meet mine in a kiss so sweet and simple, it left me breathless.

I reluctantly broke away from him, my heart thudding wildly in my chest, a rosy flush blossoming over my cheeks. “We should keep going,” I reminded him breathlessly.

“I agree,” he responded, pulling me closer, a smile brightening his intense eyes.

“You know what I mean,” I reproached, attempting to be stern. His smile broadened upon hearing my tone, his eyes laughing at me. “The Others are still close.”

The smile abruptly disappeared from his face. He sighed and slowly moved back. “I know. The closer they get… I can almost
sense
them.”

My eyes automatically began searching the shadowy forest around us. I knew that if any of the Others were close enough for us to see, we wouldn’t be standing there still. It was an instinctual reaction. The moment Sebastian spoke of the danger, I felt almost like I could sense it too - lurking nearby, waiting, watching, driving us further and further east.

“They might have been close enough to see the storm disappear, and if they did, they will know it was you. We may have given them a glimpse of your true strength.”

“Maybe they’ll be afraid,” I suggested - I knew I was. It was starting to really sink in just what I had done and how impossible it should have been.

“Or maybe they’ll feel threatened enough to make their move before a fifth joins them,” Sebastian warned. “You’re right – we shouldn’t stay here. Let’s put as much distance between ourselves and this place as we can before nightfall.”

With that being said, he grabbed my hand and led me forward through the thick forest brush. He was always like that, as soon as he’d chosen a path, he was already on it.

We traveled at a light jog, using deer trails to make our travel easier where we could, skipping over twisted roots and scrambling up and down the rough, rocky terrain as we headed further east. We were traveling through Quetico Provincial Park, along the border between Ontario and the United States. It was a world-renowned destination, known for its back country camping and canoeing. Only, we didn’t have a canoe so we spent our days navigating the highlands and avoiding the low-lying bogs while following the riverbanks and lake shore as best we could. Miraculously, and mostly due to Sebastian, we continued to somehow travel eastward without getting too lost. Sebastian expected us to reach the eastern-most edge of the park within a few more days and then it would be onward to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Beyond that, I didn’t know what, if anything, Sebastian had in store for us.

We had begun our journey from Victoria, British Columbia, traveling on Sebastian’s motorcycle. At first we had slept quite comfortably in cabins or motels and eating at restaurants as we made our way along Highway 1 through the provinces and eastward across Canada. I supposed the Others must have thought we had it too easy, and suddenly whenever we tried to go near a city,
something
would always happen to deter us. This was when we started camping on the side of the road and eating gas station foods or stopping at the occasional roadside hut or diner. Apparently we still weren’t suffering enough. Nearly a week ago, Sebastian’s motorcycle had suddenly stopped running. The gas tank had been full, the engine purring along smoothly one second then rapidly losing power the next. Sebastian had pulled over to the side of the road and the engine came to a stuttering stop, never to start again. That was the first time he had sensed the proximity of the Others as he suddenly knew with a deadly certainty that there were four of them and they were only a few kilometers behind us. We’d had no choice but to run into the wilderness of the nearby Quetico Park. At the time we had feared they were ready to make their final move but it now appeared that they had merely been watching us from as close as they dared, pushing us to see how far we’d go. This felt like it was a game to them, and Sebastian assured me it most likely was; a deadly game that must be played by their rules. We could only hope that I would be able to regain the full potential of my magic before this game came to an end.

Our journey had gone from bad to worse once we were forced to flee on foot. It had been a tough trek through Quetico and our progress had been agonizingly slow. At least we were able to travel light with nothing but the clothes we wore and one small pack on each of our backs. Sebastian was quite a skilled outdoorsman; he built a fire each night with ease, hunted rabbits, birds, squirrels and even chipmunks. He found edible plants and berries, fresh water and always kept us traveling in the right direction.

I might have enjoyed spending so much time outside, having never been allowed to go camping myself, if it weren’t for the circumstances. Though some things were unpleasant, the novelty of it all and the fact that I was with Sebastian stopped me from despairing completely, at least for the most part.

Our journey since leaving the West Coast had been both amazing and horrifying. There were some beautiful moments and amazing sights we had seen as we traveled across the country. The towering, majestic peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the low-lying valleys, and flat, never-ending plains of the prairies, the breath-taking, natural magic of aurora borealis, the storms, the sunsets and spending every night in one another’s arms. But there was also the constant fear and paranoia. The random and alarming reminders that the Others were close by, that they were following us, herding us towards… something. And there was also the pressure that had been placed upon me to learn to control my magic so that we might hunt down and destroy the Others before they could do the same to us.

It had been over a month ago when it had started, since the day Sebastian had remembered. The day when I had spoken his true name, unheard for hundreds of years. The day when I had unknowingly renewed the Binding between our souls and reawakened the dormant magic within me. The day when all hell broke loose. The day when we had begun the never-ending run for our lives.