“What if I don’t know which thing is the right thing?” Her voice was soft against the powers fighting around us; I doubted I would’ve heard it if we hadn’t been so close.
“I know you, and I know you know the truth.”
Please don’t let her get too confused by what I’m saying. This is hard to explain.
My silent plea went unanswered, as she said nothing in return.
“Please,” I said. “You told me Adonaias gave you a new heart. He’s forgiven you. You have been marked with the Blood Flame, the same as me. I know that sometimes it’s harder to have faith in something than it is to fear something, and that those things aren’t always mutually exclusive. But you still have to make a choice.”
I gripped her arm. “I know life isn’t fair. But we still have a choice to be fair or unfair. And this is something we choose, too—who we will follow, and who we will fear.”
“I know who I follow,” she said.
“Then what would he have you do?” I asked. I gestured with my free hand. “What will do you with all of this?”
She never answered me. The void inside of her pulled in the blood-colored flames, and for a long moment I thought that was it. I thought she was lost.
But when I saw the Blood Flame grow brighter, I realized what was actually happening. She was allowing her pain to consume the holy fire, and in so doing, she was giving it up.
I was forced out of the Realm of the Heart a moment later. I woke up to the real world, where we were alone in the woods near Shoreside Park, where Raiya, in her human form, trembled in my arms.
“You did it,” I told her, stroking her hair as I held her. “You stopped it.”
“It still hurts so much,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“This won’t be the last time.”
I sighed. “I know that, too. But I’ll be here for you this time to help. If I can.”
Raiya rubbed her eyes. “Thank you.” She gave me a tentative smile despite her tears. “I feel like I’ve cried more in the last week than I have in the last several years.”
“It’s okay to cry,” I told her. “I’d be more worried if you didn’t, to be honest.”
“Thanks. I think.” She stood up, sniffling some before she straightened her shoulders. “But there isn’t any time for tears now. Rosemary has Lyra and Lucas.”
I nodded, solemnly and somberly.
She glanced over at me. “I can’t lose anyone else, Hamilton. I just can’t.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” I said. “Let’s go and get the fabric. And then we’ll take it to Rosemary.”
“We can’t give it to her!” Raiya said. “She’ll destroy the world with that kind of power.”
“We’ll call St. Brendan,” I said. “Maybe we can get some help with this. Alora might be able to do something.”
“He won’t come in time.”
“We’ll have to find a way to delay her, then,” I said. “Or maybe we can stop time.”
“We don’t have that power.”
I sighed. “We need something to free Lyra and Lucas. Any chance we can give Rosemary a fake?”
Raiya bit her lip. “I don’t know. I’m not sure how much she would know about it.”
She was still upset, far from peace, and I hated everything about that moment. Once more, she was suffering and I felt helpless to help her. I was out of ideas and nearly out of patience.
I did the only thing I could think to do. “We’ll get them back, Raiya. I swear on my life, we will get them back,” I said.
Her face crumpled with sadness, but she nodded.
“We have until noon tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s go back to my house and check on my family. We’ll think of something. We’ll get a plan together.”
Raiya nodded again. She shook off the last of her sadness, replacing it with a righteous determination.
“Maybe Dante will be there,” I said, sadistically hopeful all of a sudden. Recalling how he had helped trap my family, with whom he was friends, I knew now more than ever he was among the enemy, and he’d betrayed us to Rosemary. “I can punch him some more.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop you,” Raiya told me.
I cracked my knuckles. “Don’t worry. I’ll show him mercy. Eventually.”
☼19☼
Family
I was happy to see several police cars surrounding my parents’ house when we returned, even if it did mean that I was going to have to hold off on hitting Dante.
While my parents were busy with the police (they were old friends, most of them, given Cheryl’s reputation in the city courts), Raiya and I sneaked inside and made our way up to my room.
“Is this the right one?” I asked, handing her the painting Mikey had given to me, the one that Lyra had so conscientiously rewrapped and Lucas had so haphazardly packed.
“Let me see.” Raiya began peeling off the paper. “Yes, it is. But did you have to break the glass?”
“Uh ... ” I decided not to mention how sad and unsettled it’d made me feel when I opened it up in my apartment. “The kids actually managed to do most of the damage. Lucas wasn’t kidding when he said he’d broken it, so be careful.”
“I do have healing powers,” she said, the slightly teasing tone allowing me to feel a sense of levity despite the desperation of our situation. “I’ll be alright.”
I snorted. “Just trying to be nice. I suppose it’s wasted on you.”
“Largely.” She smirked as she pulled off the paper. “Goodness, what did you guys do to it?”
I glanced down to see the familiar beauty of Raiya’s work—the quick and sure strokes of paint, layered with love and time and care—all shining through the gaping hole in the middle of the glass frame.
I definitely hadn’t been paying much attention to how broken it was.
“Wow,” I said. “I put it by the door when I left, after getting it unwrapped. I guess Lucas and Lyra really managed to mess it up when they broke into my apartment.”
As she finished pulling the painting from its frame, Raiya frowned. “They broke into your apartment?”
“Yeah. I came home from work one afternoon, and there they were.”
“Did they tell you anything about how they found you?” Raiya asked. “Anything about when they were born?”
“Well, they’re ten and twelve,” I said. “I just did the math. Cheryl’s talked with them some, too, about everything, but she said she’s waiting on the parents to respond.” I was about to ask her why when I noticed she was shaking again. “Why? What’s wrong? Tell me.”
“We’re not going to find their parents.” Raiya shook her head. “I can’t believe it.”
“What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
“The fabric of Time,” she said, pointing to the middle of her painting. “The blood seal I’ve placed on it has been broken.”
Frustration settled into my skin once more. “You know, you and the others do this thing, this thing I remember Aleia and Alora doing on so many occasions, where I feel like you expect me to know the answers, and I really don’t know what—”
“They’re ours.” Her eyes lit up as they met mine. “They’re our children.”
Frustration fell away into shock. Shock turned into disbelief, and then disbelief transformed into raging uncertainty.
Is it possible? How is it possible?
I watched, speechless, as Raiya pulled something off the back of her painting. In her hand was something like a small scrap of silvery cloth, made of power and energy so fine it hurt to look upon it.
I reached forward to feel it. It was like touching stymied lightning. There was no electricity, but just this smoothness and wonder at its light sturdiness. “This is ... weird.”
“When I first found the fabric of Time, I knew it was a powerful object,” she explained. “I hid it underneath my painting to keep others from finding it. But it wouldn’t stay hidden until I drenched it in my blood to main
tain its anonymity.”
“Ew, so there’s actually blood in your paint?” I frowned. “Gross.”
“I never wondered why you didn’t become a doctor.” Raiya rolled her eyes at my perhaps juvenile but reasonable disgust. “The important thing is, it wouldn’t have been broken by anyone but me. Or ... ”
“Our kids,” I finished. After a moment of thought, I added, “Or at least, your kids.”
“They’re ours,” Raiya insisted. “How many times did I have to tell Lucas to listen to me and follow instructions? And how many times did Lyra just sit there and look skeptical, for no real reason?”
“Hey, I have plenty of reasons to be skeptical,” I shot back.
“They act just like you.” Her hands pressed into her heart, like it was in pain.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my mind scarring itself all over again as I recalled our last battle with Draco. I didn’t need her to have another heart attack.
“Are you kidding?” She smiled. “I just found out that I’m a mother, and my children are alive. I’ve never been more happy and terrified. I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”
“Well, my mom did say ... ” It was my turn to drift off in mid-sentence, as I remembered exactly what my mother had said. Cheryl said she’d found their parents, but she was waiting to see if they would respond.
Semantics.
Cheryl would think it was funny, after all the trouble I caused her in my teens, to have my life interrupted by a pair of stubborn, strong-willed spitfires.
“Oh.” The word barely came out of my mouth before I bounded down the stairs.
“Hamilton?” Raiya came barreling after me. “Where are you going?”
I didn’t respond. I turned into the kitchen, where Cheryl was still talking to a police officer. Despite the pressing matters earlier in the day, I blurted out, “I need to talk to you.”
Cheryl took one look at me and then looked back at Raiya, as she caught up to me. She smiled warmly at the police officer. “Excuse me for a moment, Frank, I have to talk to my son for a moment.”
“Do you want me to question him?” the officer asked.
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Cheryl assured him. “Go and check in on Mark. I know Adam and I have already given our statements, and I am positive we are in the best possible hands.”
She waited until he was out of the room before she turned to us.
“Thanks for covering for us,” I said, a little unwilling to bring up the other subject. “I didn’t want to talk to the police about this.”
“I won’t make you talk to him,” Cheryl told me in threatening tones, “but you owe me and your father and your brother an explanation.”
“It was SWORD,” I said.
“We know who it was,” Cheryl said, “although I wouldn’t dream of telling the cops that. We want to know why.”
“And I want to know why you didn’t tell me about Lyra and Lucas,” I countered.
Her eyebrows raised, not in surprise, but rather in slight contempt. She hated to be overruled, even in conversation. “I didn’t think you needed to know,” she said. “You obviously had enough on your plate.”
“I’m their father!” I snapped, and suddenly the enormity of it all collapsed on me.
I have children. Children!
Small people that relied on me for food and shelter and guidance. Tiny humans that needed diapers changed, boo-boos kissed, help with homework, dating advice! Insurance and money for school and doctor’s appointments and extracurricular activities! All that they needed, I needed to give to them. And I felt severely underprepared and at a monstrous disadvantage.
On top of that, my kids were Starlight Warriors, just like me. They wanted to study battle strategy, fighting techniques, and the art of war.
That almost brought me down to my knees, as the horrifying thought finally broke me: My children were being held captive by SWORD, and I didn’t even know how to get to them!
Of course, while I was having the meltdown of my life, Cheryl just marched on, oblivious to my pain.
“Yes, but not for another couple of years, technically,” Cheryl said. “You know, you really need to work on your interviewing skills, Hamilton. You would’ve been able to figure it out much more quickly if you’d asked them better questions.”
I was about to begin yelling at her when she smiled kindly. “They’re very enamored of you and Raiya, you know. I guess whatever you will do to raise them worked. I don’t know how I feel about being called ‘Grandma,’ though. I think I need something more like ‘Gram’ or ‘Nana.’”
All of my wind came sputtering out as I slammed my fists into the countertop. “Why didn’t they tell us?” I finally managed.
“I’m not sure they were confident we could handle it,” Raiya said quietly. “Especially since, from what I know, they were likely breaking the rules at the time they activated the fabric of Time’s power.”
“I don’t know anything about that, but I would say it’s in your genes,” Cheryl said, doing nothing to help me at all. “I seem to recall my oldest son neglecting to tell me about his own supernatural trouble, not too long ago.”
“Seven years is a longer time than you think,” I argued.
“It only is if you’re unhappy.” Cheryl folded her arms and started toward the den. “Now, I’m going to check in on Adam and your father. You need to get those kids of yours back here and ready for dinner soon. Thank goodness Louis was out shopping when this all happened ... ”
I almost let myself tell her what happened, but when I saw Raiya shake her head, I shut my mouth. In all fairness, I don’t think she wanted to admit in front of her future mother-in-law that we’d lost the kids to SWORD’s agents any more than I did.
“It’s her fault we lost them,” I said bitterly, after I knew Cheryl was out of earshot.
“No,” Raiya said as she shook her head. “They’re our children. They act like us more than we would like. As nice as it would be to blame your mother, I know I would’ve done the same thing if I had been in their place.”
“You did do the same thing,” I said. I glanced down at my own wrist, where my mark seemed to mock me. Maybe I should’ve done something, too, I thought, immersed in guilt.
“We’ll get them back,” Raiya said.
“How are you the one that’s calm now?” I snapped. “They’re our children. The very thing Rosemary always wanted from you, and she has them!”
“I feel a little better knowing they are our kids,” Raiya admitted, making me stare at her with what I imagined to be a murderous look. She placed her hands on my cheeks. “Think about it. We’ve dealt with SWORD before, too. If they are our kids, they’ll not only be fine, but they’ll take a few of their agents for a ride before they break free.”
“They might be ours, but they’re still kids, Raiya,” I said. “They can be more easily manipulated and coerced and frightened. And we’re not there to make it better for them.”
“We will be,” Raiya promised. “We just need a plan, like you said.”
“We need to find them,” I said. “Rosemary didn’t even tell us where to meet her if we actually were going to be stupid enough to hand over the fabric of Time to her.”
Raiya snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it,” she said. “Let’s go see Logan.”
“Now? Really?” I frowned. “What is he going to be able to do?”
“Dante told you that the kids were on SWORD’s radar. They have a radiation signature, just like the other Stars we’ve known. Maybe he can track down their location.”
It was the only idea I could think of that made some sense.
“Then what?” I asked, still trying to talk myself out of crumpling into my own despair.
“We can call St. Brendan on the way,” Raiya suggested. “I don’t think he’ll be able to come right away, but if he can come at all, he still might be able to help us find a way to stop Rosemary from getting ahold of the bloodwater and gaining immortality
. As much as I want to destroy her, I’d hate to have to open up the world between here and Alküzor’s realm again.”
“I suppose calling St. Brendan would be a good way to alert Alora, too,” I said, as I continued to mull the idea over inside my mind. “I’ll call Mikey, too. Maybe he’ll help us trap Dante this time.”
“I know you want to beat Dante up,” Raiya said. “But you’ll have to exercise some self-control if you want to get the right information out of him.”
“Believe me, I have only known Lyra and Lucas are mine for the last five minutes, but I’m willing to do what it takes to get them back. Even if it means letting Dante live after that stunt he pulled in here earlier today.”
“Your dedication is endearing,” Raiya muttered dryly.
“I’m hoping that Dante will agree with you on that.”
☼20☼
Logan
“It still stings,” I muttered as we walked away from the marina.
“I already healed it,” Raiya said. “Stop being a baby about it.”
“You know I don’t like blood.”
“You mean, unless it’s animated and coming from one of your video games?”
“Yes,” I said. “Exactly that.”
“We had to call St. Brendan,” Raiya said. “Star blood is powerful, and having both of us call him might get the Meallán here faster.”
“That’s the only reason I agreed to give you some of my blood,” I told her.
I don’t think I was actually that upset about it. I was just overwhelmed. From all I’d found out in the last week, I was almost waiting for the curtain to drop, to awake from sleep, to only just blink, and be back in a world where it was me, me, me, all the time, like a radio station of my emotions and thoughts running all the time.
After a life like that—one I didn’t want to return to, even as tired and frustrated as I was—I was exhausted. And now, there was an evil organization to dismantle, a hole in Time to patch up, and a pair of my own children to rescue.
How did I manage to juggle everything so well in high school? I wondered.
Everlasting Page 18
