by Nicole Thorn
Burning Willow Press, LLC (USA):
3724 Cowpens Pacolet Rd., Spartanburg, SC 29307
This edition published in 2017 by Burning Willow Press, LLC (USA)
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©Nicole Thorn and Sarah Hall, 2017
©Edd Sowder, editor, 2017
©Loraine Von Tonder, Ryn Katryn Designs, cover design, 2017
©Lori Michelle, The Author’s Alley, interior formatting, 2017
To Ron and Tracy.
Thank you for always being supportive.
We love you, Mom and Dad
CHAPTER ONE:
The Future is Bright
Jasmine
The country music blared right in my ear. I scooted away from the speaker but nearly toppled off the bar stool in doing so. I almost started laughing, but since I sat alone, I thought that might look weird.
But it had been so funny. I could have hit the floor, and then Juniper would have been so upset when I got beer all over the front of my blouse, and she’d mourn the stain while trying to remove it. It would have been a hoot. Grinning, I looked over to my right and saw a nice looking young lady. She watched me from the corner of her eye, so I wiped the grin off my face.
Frowning, I looked down at the beer in my hands. It was a nice frosted glass with a lot of golden beer in it. I liked beer. Tequila was better, but beer tasted pretty good too. Ooh, and vodka was great. Whiskey. There were so many different kinds of drinks, and I hadn’t even tried half of them. sad, really. A shame.
That’s it. The giggle came out, and I couldn’t hold it back. I put my face down on the bar so that no one would realize I had started giggling. The woman next to me got up and walked away. “Wait!” I shouted after her. “I’m not drunk, I’m j-just giggling!” At least, I tried to shout it. Giggling is a hard word. All those G’s . . .
No matter. She clearly didn’t understand why bars had been created, so I would have to ignore her. I sucked down the rest of my beer and then ordered another one. The bartender, an overworked woman in her forties, happily poured me one. I drank it slowly because this one needed to last.
It was only my fourth . . . or fifth. I couldn’t really remember . . . There was that beer that the nice gentleman in the army suit had ordered for me. What were those called? Fatigues? Something like that. And then I had ordered one myself. I thought he had gotten me another one before he had to leave. Whatever. It was just beer. I couldn’t get drunk on beer. That’s what the tequila shot I’ll order next is for.
Mmm. Tequila. Wonderful numbing juice that let you feel all happy and bubbly. I loved me some tequila. I downed the shot, and then chased it with the beer. Then I sat in happy bliss for a couple of minutes, wondering if another shot would be too much, but not caring enough to actually decide. Then another shot landed by my beer, and it looked so wonderfully inviting, so I took it. I don’t know how it got there . . . I should probably be paying more attention, but that’s okay.
If I got in trouble, Jasper would come and get me. He’d tuck me into bed, and if I got lucky, I could get him to sing that silly song from when we were children. Juniper loved The Cat in the Hat, but I liked it when I got Jasper to sing Chim-Chim-Cher-ee. He would be so good at it too.
Of course, I had to get home before I could make him sing to me, and I should really avoid getting in trouble again. They always got so worried about me, but they didn’t need to be worried. I did fine out here on my own. I could see the bad guys coming, after all. It was worse now that we had Zander and Kezia with us, too.
I had caught those looks they gave each other. The ones that said something had gone wrong, but there was nothing wrong. They worried too much, but I loved them anyway. Kezia made my brother so happy, and I liked seeing him happy. I liked watching his face light up when she walked into a room. I’d never seen anything like it before.
And Zander was the biggest sweetheart ever. Always so worried about me. Fussing over things that didn’t even matter, and trying to make sure that I stayed okay. Of course, I am okay. Why wouldn’t I be?
Ooh, another thing of tequila. Last one. I swear. I swallowed it, and then chased it with the beer. The room got all buzzy, and I couldn’t hear the conversations anymore. I put my head down and smiled quietly to myself. I found it so pleasant, this floating feeling. I didn’t have to worry about anything.
Still smiling, I sat up and caught the bar counter before I could go over backwards. That would’ve been embarrassing. I wore a bright blue dress with a flouncy skirt. I didn’t want to show everyone my underwear. They had smiley faces all over them, and that was something that should be kept to myself.
The people had a great time. A small dance floor had been set up between a half dozen booths, and they all danced together. The scaredy-cat danced with a man twice her age, flipping her hair so that he could always see her face. They both smiled at each other, and it made me smile back, happy that they had such a good night.
A couple of girls kissed in the corner booth, ignoring their friend who looked bored out of his mind. Every now and then he’d look at his phone, and smile, though. He had a nice smile. I wondered why he sat in the bar when he seemed happier with whoever he talked to.
The song changed to another blaringly loud tune that I didn’t know, but I kicked my feet to it anyway, bobbing my head. I doubted I stayed on beat, but I had a good time, and that was what mattered. Sure, the room spun, and I regretted those peanuts I had eaten, but I still had a good time.
Until I got a look at the clock over the door. It read one in the morning. I had been there since eight, and I promised to be home three hours ago. My heart tripped in my chest, and I scrambled off the barstool, which was my first mistake. My legs got all tangled up, and I couldn’t get them untangled, so I went down.
I would have landed on the floor if this nice gentleman didn’t grab my arm, and steady me. He was a strong fella too. Held all my weight like it didn’t exist. I smiled at him to show how grateful I was, and he smiled back. He looked to be in his sixties or seventies but had aged well. All lean muscle, and tanned skin from working outside. His eyes could have been hard, but they looked so gentle.
“Easy there, miss,” he said. “Don’t want to hurt yourself.”
“Thank you,” I said, and he looked at me a little more closely. “I just realized that I’m supposed to be home,” I continued. My words sounded funky, but I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. My mouth moved the right way.
“Are you now?” the nice gentleman said. “Well, a couple of more minutes won’t hurt anybody. Why don’t you sit here, and talk with me for a spell?”
Oh, I should say no. Jasper and Juniper probably worried . . . But he seemed so nice, and he caught me when he could have let me fall. So, I hopped back onto my barstool, and offered him another smile. “Thank you, sir. I think I will.”
“I’m Bill,” he said, offering his hand.
“Jasmine,
” I said, and was proud that I got it out in one try. My name could be so hard to say.
He smiled at me. “Well, Jasmine, it’s good to meet you.” The corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and for some reason that made me happy. I never knew my grandparents, and my father was only middle aged, so I wasn’t used to seeing that kind of thing. Probably never would get used to it. “You know, you look just like a girl I knew when I was your age,” he said.
“Oh?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yup. She was a sweetie. She would go around town, saving everything that would let her save it. Never once did it occur to her that maybe that bird was perfectly fine sitting on the wire.”
I laughed, maybe for a little longer than necessary. Bill and I talked for about ten minutes, about this girl who would save everything in sight. When he finished his story, he said, “Jasmine, why don’t you let me call a cab for you, so that I don’t have to worry about you getting home.”
I smiled politely, prepared to say no, when he laid his hand over mine, and changed everything. I knew better than to let people touch me after I had been drinking. I had so few defenses already, but when I drank, those few defenses went away. It all flew through my mind in a flash that couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of seconds.
Bill had a wife whom he loved deeply. When he went home, after drinking with his buddy, who was currently on the dance floor with the scaredy-cat, he would kiss her cheek, and lay down. The blanket would come up to his shoulders as he put his head on the pillow, and he would close his eyes.
And in the night, his heart would suddenly strain, too much pressure on it. He would wake up, clutching his chest, his eyes widening in shock. He would reach for his wife, and she would wake up, startled, and she would be so scared. Her darling husband, who she had loved for so long, was in trouble, and she’d be scared.
She’d rush to the phone, but deep in her heart, she knew it was too late. Bill would be lying dead in the bed by the time the ambulance got there. They would try to resuscitate him, but even their faces would show how hopeless it was. They would put him on the gurney, and they would zip his face away, the face that had not frozen in peace but frozen in pain. Eyes that would look on for eternity.
They’d give him a lovely ceremony. They’d have the coffin all set up, and his corpse would be so pretty buried in the wood. His eyes would be closed because watching them stare into eternity would’ve been too unnerving for most people. They would fold up a nice little flag, and handed it to his wife, but she wouldn’t want it because it meant he was dead, but still she’d take it. She’d hold it to her chest because she had nothing else left.
Then that nice coffin, with that nice man inside, would be lowered into the ground, while everyone who loved him watched with tears in their eyes.
I blinked back to reality and smiled at Bill. He watched me, clearly having seen my mind drift. “Thank you, that would be great,” I said. “You’re such a nice man. There should be more people like you.”
Bill smiled, and I watched his eyes light up. It had been such a small compliment but it brought him so much joy. And he deserved to have joy because this nice man wouldn’t live throughout the night. I held my tear
s at bay so that he wouldn’t see them while he took his phone out of his pocket.
“You’re a sweet girl, Jasmine,” he said. “Now you give me a second, and I’ll have a cab on the way.” He dialed something on his phone, and put it to his ear.
I looked back toward the bar, at all the alcohol bottles that looked so appealing. Then I looked to myself, reflected in the mirror behind the bar. I never understood why it sat there. To make people take a good hard look at themselves before they ordered another drink?
My hair was short. Dark brown, cut to just above my shoulders. It used to be down to my chin, but it had grown out some. My face looked paler than it normally did, probably a combination of lighting and drinking. Which was also why my eyes looked so weird. They appeared foggy bloodshot. I had one blue and one gray eye. Such a simple thing to indicate something so huge. One gray eye, just like my brother and sister had one gray eye. Triplet. Seers.
I was cursed with the future.
Now I knew that Bill wouldn’t live through the night. He had been so kind, helping me when he didn’t have to.
Bill came back about a second later. “Cab’s on the way. Why don’t you have some water?”
“Sure,” I said, smiling like a pro. He handed me a nice cool glass of water, and I took a sip from it. Not as good as beer but it took the dryness away from my throat. Even if my stomach didn’t want to have anything else in it.
While we waited for the cab, Bill told me about his new grandson. Three days old, and he had been named after him. I smiled while he spoke, and chatted like my chest hadn’t been torn apart. I thought it easy. I had learned long ago not to act like I had seen the visions, because people couldn’t know. They couldn’t know about anything that I had in my head.
Like that Zander and Kezia were demigods. They couldn’t know that. They couldn’t know that my siblings and I were seers. They couldn’t know that the gods watched them, because the gods saw everything.
They couldn’t know any of that. So, I smiled, and asked questions about the baby. He apparently liked to smile, and would hold onto you for dear life if you just let him do it.
Then the taxi showed up outside the bar. Bill took my arm to steady me. We were almost the same height, and not because he was short. I stood at five feet and eight inches. Yet his grip felt sturdy enough that I didn’t have to worry about getting outside. He opened the door for me, and I slid into the cab, smelling leather and fast food.
Bill leaned down. “You have a nice night, Jasmine,” he said.
I smiled. “You too, Bill.”
Then we pulled away. I must have given the cab driver my address, but I didn’t remember it. I watched the buildings fly by, and tried so hard not to think. About anything. It was too hard. I did a pretty good job, too. One second I stared into space, and the next we pulled up outside my house.
I tipped the cab driver after he told me that Bill paid him for the fare. Then I stumbled up the walkway, ignoring the way my feet didn’t seem to go where I wanted them to. When I stumbled against the door, it opened up. I fell into my brother’s chest the next second.
Jasper steadied me easier than Bill had. “Jazzy?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
He saw right through my smile, but I smiled anyway. “Oh yeah. I’m fine. Just tired.” I stared at my brother’s face, so much like our father’s. His one green eye, and one gray eye watching me with concern. He still stepped back and let me into the house. “I’m gonna go upstairs, and get some sleep,” I slurred.
“Do you need help?” That wasn’t Jasper. That came from Kezia. I looked over. She sat on the couch, her legs curled up against her body. Her hazel eyes looked almost completely green, and her almost pink hair around her kind face. She had the unnatural beauty of the all the demigods, but she looked so much more gentle than all the others.
I smiled. “Nope. Stairs will not beat me!” I threw my hand into the air to emphasize my point, and almost went over backward. I giggled to show that I was fine, and then gripped the banisters, and started getting my feet moving. They didn’t want to work with me, but I forced them, taking a step at a time.
I felt their eyes on me the whole way up, and I ignored it. They could be concerned for me. I would be absolutely fine. Except that I got to my door, and the last thing I wanted was to go in there.
“Jasmine?” my sister said from her doorway. I looked over. She had on her sleep clothes; all white pajamas. Her long brown hair hung down, and her brown and gray eyes looked worried.
I grinned at her. “Sorry for the scare! I lost track of time. Go back to bed. That’s what I’m gonna do.” I grabbed the doorknob and stumbled into my room. Then I leaned against the frame until I heard the door close quietly. I didn’t want to worry her with how alone I felt.
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I couldn’t stand being by myself, so I slipped back out. Down the hall, and to the old guest room. Zander’s room now, and his smell smacked me in the face the second I pushed the door open. It comforted me immediately. I stumbled across the room, and practically fell on his bed. He was out like a light, so they must not have told him that I had gone out to a bar.
I crawled onto him, putting my cheek right against his chest. I felt his heart beating against my face, and for some reason that became too much. Silently, I burst into tears.
CHAPTER TWO:
Broken
Zander
The weight on my chest felt familiar, but I knew before I even opened my eyes that it could’ve been the body I was so used to. Kizzy didn’t need me like that anymore. She had a new way to get comfort, and I felt as happy about it as I did sad. I acted as her big brother, and she’d graduated from me. Of course, that wasn’t really true. She found a new person to make her not so scared anymore. Jasper had been a blessing to the both of us. He did things for her soul that I couldn’t.
So, the person on me could not have been my sister. It was his. Jasmine laid her head on my heart, and fresh tearstains on my shirt. She was awake, and pouring tears onto me. Her little hand grasped my shirt in her silent fit. I wanted to fix it, but after years with Kizzy, I knew that it would be useless. I would only cause more damage. I could break someone into pieces, but I didn’t know how to put them back together.
It hurt, what I felt from Jasmine. My mothers had given me a great many things. I looked like a human’s dream. Blond hair to my ears, blue eyes that could stop traffic, and a body that people seemed to enjoy. It meant so little to me, so I couldn’t see the appeal. But more than how I looked, I had abilities. Like my sister could influence nature, I could do something similar to people. I Charmed them into doing what I wanted, and I was an empath. I didn’t know if that was a specific ability I had, or powerful intuition. I could feel sorrow deep in Jasmine. More than the sorrow that she and her siblings always ignored. Jasper less now, but Jasmine and her sister . . . they hurt me so much. They didn’t even understand that they felt miserable.
