The Breaker's Resolution: (YA Paranormal Romance) (Fixed Points Book 4) (17 page)

She wrapped arms around my neck and I pulled her off the ground. She issed me hard and I felt a flood of relief the likes of which I had never known before. It wasn’t like kissing Cresta. It lacked the spark of true love. But it was magical nonetheless. We were connected, Merrin and I. And as that rush of energy passed between us, I had never been more aware of it.

“Where?” I asked breathlessly, hoisting her up with one hand and using the other to pull my shirt off. “Where’s the bedroom in this stupid place?”

She laughed hard and I felt her heart leap. “Back up the stairs,” she said coyly.

“Then let’s go to bed, Mrs. Lightfoot,” I said, and kissed her deep on the lips.

“Whatever you say, Mr. Lightfoot,” she smiled.

As I marched her up the stairs, I let my mind clear. Yes, my heart would always be somewhere else; at least partly. But this woman was my wife, and I loved her with the only pieces of me that hadn’t already been claimed.

Maybe that made me a less than honorable man, but if she knew what Wendy told me, if she could have heard what was coming, then she’d have understood. I know she would have.

She pulled her own shirt off as we made our way into the bedroom. I kicked the door closed behind us as I threw her on the bed. And, by the end of the night, we were truly husband and wife.

I woke screaming. No, it wasn’t that regretful ‘what have I done’ morning after screaming that seemed so popular in Nineties Era American sitcoms (My History  of North American Cinematic Cultures Class can be thanked for that little tidbit). I knew what I was doing. And to say that I regretted sleeping with Merrin would be a lie. She was my wife, and this was my duty.

And, of course, there was the business of what Wendy told me.

The reason I was screaming however, was a much more pressing one. It was because the entirety of the Council of Masons was now standing at the foot of my newly christened martial bed.

Merrin jerked to a start, not making a sound but pulling the covers up to cover herself as soon as she saw what was going on.

That’s right. We were naked. And here I was thinking this couldn’t get any more embarrassing.

“What in Fate’s fertile bosom are you people doing here?” I hissed, sitting upright. I had a sheet covering me from my waist down, but (unlike Merrin) I didn’t have to worry about indecency beyond that.

“Interesting choice of words,” Chant grinned, his eyes flickering over to my wife. I felt the bile rise in her throat.

“Keep your glances and your words directed at me,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Standing up for the little woman, I see. It’s warming to know that you’re finally acclimating to your new- what is it the Neanderthals say on their social experiment platforms?”

“Relationship status,” Ilsa answered deadpan from beside him. “Thought hat’s neither here nor there.”

“The ‘little woman’ can stand up for herself just fine,” I practically growled. “But you’re not here for her, are you? You came to see me.”

“And seen you, we have. Too much of you for my taste.” Ilsa rolled her eyes.

“Then you shouldn’t have helped yourself into my house,” I answered. “Even if it is just your mental projections.”

Merrin looked over at me for explanation.

“We’d have heard Chant’s decrepit old ass struggling up the stairs if they were actually here. Besides, the door is closed. I doubt they’d have bothered with that.” My eyes remained trained on the trio before me. “What’s more,” I added, motioning to the toddler that rounded out the Council. “I’m not sure Felix is old enough to see this.”

“Let me decide that, Dwagon,” He said in that ridiculously childlike speech of his. Which made sense, given that he
was
a child. At least technically.

“Chant this has gone on long enough. Tell the boy why we’re here,” Ilsa said, shaking her head.

“It’s time to fulfill the rest of your duties, Dragon. The seer has had another vision, one that makes this procrastination in dealing with the Bloodmoon unacceptable.”

My heart stopped. Luca had seen something else, that unimaginable douche. What could it have been now? And was he even telling the truth? He
had
just offered to lie to the Council for me. Maybe that’s what he was doing now. Maybe that was what he had been doing all along.

“You will leave for the Bloodmoon’s location today. As is customary when leaving on a mission of this magnitude and threat level, you’ll have one hour to get your affairs in order. If you are not in our Chanmbers in that hours’ time, we will declare you a traitor and have you forcibly brought to us.”

“That won’t be an issue,” I answered, biting at my bottom lip. I didn’t want to do this. I wanted to run away and hide until Cresta was safe again. But I couldn’t. Pieces of the world were falling apart and Wendy told me that-

“Good,” Chant broke through my thoughts. “We’ll see you then.” He looked around. “And I’ll send someone to remove these interior doors.”

“Newly joined couples get interior doors for the first half year of their union,” I countered, though honestly I didn’t know why.

“Not this couple,” Chant declared. It was a petty show of power, I knew that. But it also wasn’t worth the effort to fight it.  “One hour.” His voice boomed through the room. And then the three disappeared.

I threw the covers off of me and started getting dressed. A spike of guilt finally showed its face inside my chest. I couldn’t help feeling that I had done something wrong, that I had betrayed Cresta in some way. But I did what was necessary. And yes, what I wanted to as well.

But I had told Cresta to go. I told her to move on. Was it wrong for me to do the same when everything in the entire world was telling us we couldn’t be together?

Still, I saw her face. As much as I tried to fight it, this was all for her. Everything I did, everything I was, it was hers. Even now.

“Where are you going?” Merrin asked, and now the guilt in my chest stretched two ways.

“I have to see my family before I go. I need to check on my brother,” I answered, pulling the shirt over my head. “I’ll come back here before I go.” I leaned down and kissed her mouth.

“Don’t,” she answered. “Spend time with Sevie. I’ll meet you in the Chambers.”

“You sure?” I asked, looking for my shoes in what I could now plainly see was a needlessly massive bedroom.

“I am,” she answered. “And they’re in the corner.”

“Oh!” I said, seeing them. “Thanks. You’re-you’re the best.” The words came out sharp and stammered, but I said them. And that meant something, right? “I’ll see you soon.” I nodded.

“See you soon,” she answered.

*******

Living in the Lightfoot farmhouse seemed a lifetime away now, even though it had only been a day.

Well, it
had
been a hell of a day.

Still, that was a place for a boy. And, after last night, I was most definitely a man. I marched toward the old homestead, carefully forming what I wanted to say in my head. I had dreaded this day for so long and, now that it was here, I felt strangely free. I no longer had to worry and wonder when the worst would happen. It had happened. I was doing it. And there was a certain liberation that came with knowing that.

But how would I say what I needed to say? How
could
the words even come out?

In the end, it was anticlimactic.

When I walked into my old house, my parents already knew what was happening. I could tell from the prideful and victorious grin on my father’s face and light red rim around my mother’s eyes.

“I’m very proud of you,” Father said, extending his hand for me to shake. The last time we spoke, he told me that I didn’t have a choice, that my sensibilities would effectively strip me of any option but this one. And, in the end, it turned out he was right. So, as I took his hand, I couldn’t help but ask one question.

“Proud of me, or proud of yourself?”

“Both can be true,” he answered without skipping a beat. “Can’t you see this is all I’ve ever wanted for you? What any father would want for his son, to be important. You have the chance to save the world, Owen. You can be the single greatest Breaker who has ever lived, and that makes me beam. I won’t apologize for that.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” I countered. “But I think it’s important that I say a few things. We haven’t always gotten along or seen eye to eye. But I don’t think you’re a bad person, not really. I don’t want to leave with you thinking that I think you’re a bad person. You were raised a certain way and, because of that, you have priorities that I’ve never quite meshed with. But that doesn’t mean that…that.”

“Son, there’s no need to get emotional,” he said flatly. “Just take the compliment.”

“Right,” I answered, steeling over.

“Be safe out there,” he said sternly.

“Yes Father,” I answered, trying to sound more aloof than I actually was. After all, he didn’t know what I did.

Turning to my mother, I started to break. Though they had taken like minds as of late, none of the coldness that he portrayed was evident on her. Her entire body shook as she took me into her arms.

“Control yourself,” Father said from over my shoulder. But she didn’t seem to listen, crying openly as she pulled away from me.

“It’s all going to be fine, Mother,” I lied, careful not to look her in the eyes. I wasn’t sure why, but I was afraid she’d be able to see the truth in my eyes.

“The last time you left me, it was for years.” She shook her head. Her cheeks were wet and stained with sorrow, but she didn’t try to hold on to me. She didn’t try to change my mind, not that it would have mattered. This was maybe the last thing in the world I ever wanted to do, and here I was doing it.

“This time it’s different, Mother.” And it was. Everything was different this time. And though she didn’t know the specifics- there was no way she could have known what Wendy had told me about all of this- there was something in the way she stared at me that told me she could feel it coming. There was difference in the way we related to each other, a shift in the air that neither of us could ignore. But what good would posturing about it do? The wheel was in motion. There was no going back now.

“I’ll see you off,” she sniffled, backing away from me. “I’ll be there when they put you under.”

“That’s not necessary,” I motioned to stop her. “Isn’t it hard enough like this? Do you really want to do it all over again?” My head lowered. “You never said you were proud of me, Mother.”

“I didn’t think I had to,” she answered, a smile tugging up the ends of her lips. “I thought it was clear.”

“I suppose it is,” I answered, smiling just a little myself. “Where, um, where is Sevie?”

“Your brother is in the back forty. He’s spent a great deal of time by himself since returning from the Medic Bay,” Father answered.

“I’d like to see him,” I said.

“I assumed as much.”

“I don’t think there will be time for me to swing back by here,” I murmured.

“Then this is goodbye,” Father motioned toward the door. “For now. May Fate be with you, Son.”

“You as well,” I answered and walked out the door.

******

The back forty was a huge stretch. I didn’t have a long time to look through it. An hour goes by quicker than you might think. And Chant hadn’t been shy in telling me what would happen if I was even a minute late.

Still, if there was even a piece of who my brother had been still left inside of him, I knew exactly where he would be.

The old barn that sat at the edge of Father’s property wasn’t much to look at. It hadn’t been used in generations, but Sevie had always like it. So much so that Father promised to give it to him as a Coupling gift. It would be made into a home for him and his perfect. For him and Cresta.

We both knew how that had ended. But he still loved this place and I knew that, if I was going to find it, this is where it would be.

“Sevie!” I yelled, standing in front of the large wooden monstrosity. Did he even answer to that name?

The silence that answered me seemed to settle that question. Still, I repeated my call. “Sevie! Where are you?”

“What are you looking for?” The response startled me, not because the tone and lilt of his voice was different (though it was) but because it came from so high off the ground.

Looking up, I saw him there. Sevie stood at the peak of the barn, balancing on the ridge of the rusted metal roof with one feet in the air and his arms stretched out at either side, evening his weight distribution.

“What the hell are you doing up there?” I yelled. “You’re going to break your neck. Get down here!”

He blinked hard, as if straining to understand the reason behind my words, before jumping into action. Leaning forward, Sevie tucked himself into a ball and rolled down the steep end of the roof. As he reached the end, his hand caught on an errant nail head, slowing his descent long enough for my brother to stretch his body out and dart toward the wall.

He grabbed the draining pipe and wrapped himself around it, sliding down to the ground.

Sevie didn’t have this sort of coordination. His powers were passive, so he was never trained for combat. And even if he had been, these were Grade A Breaker moves.

“When did you learn to do that?” I asked as he neared me, my mouth agape.

Sevie had a sheen of sweat across his face and his blond face stuck wet to his forehead.

“Right now,” he answered flatly. “How can I help you?”

The distance in his tone broke my heart. My brother had always been a lot of things; excitable, compassionate, as pure as the first snow in winter. But he had never been distant. Not even a little.

“I’m leaving. I wanted to talk to my brother,” I answered. “I was hoping he was somewhere in there.”

“You seem to be the only one who seems to have even an inkling of what’s going on here.” He shook his head. “Your parents believe me to be ill, that a few more visits with the Medics will fix me. But they do not understand, there is no sickness within me. There is only that which is missing.”

“And what’s missing?” I asked, squaring my jaw.

“She is, of course.” He seemed sad and almost reverent as he spoke.

“Cresta?” I asked.