Vital

by Jamie Magee

  Chapter Eleven

  When we walked back into the study, we saw Preston sitting on the table, pointing to a part of the scroll as Perodine and Alamos read what he was showing them.

  “What’s going on?” Drake asked, clearly alarmed that Preston was reading the scroll.

  “Preston just pointed out a text between Earth and Mars,” Perodine said, filling with pride as she let her hand rub across his tiny back.

  “What does it say?” I asked, looking at Preston, trusting his interpretation more than Alamos and Perodine’s.

  Preston raised two fingers up, then looked over his shoulder at Alamos to confirm; Alamos nodded and smiled slightly.

  “Two what?” I asked, looking down at the text; it just looked like small dots, then the letter D, a few more dots, and then the letter A.

  “Not two,” Perodine said. “Twins.”

  My eyes widened as relief came over me. “I told you,” I said, looking to my side at Drake and Landen.

  “Preston,” Drake said as calmly as he could. “Does Willow have a twin? Is that what you’re saying?”

  Preston didn’t say anything at first; he just looked down, then up again. “Not really,” he said quietly.

  “What do you mean? It has a D; that’s for Drake. The A; her name starts with an A. Now we’re close. We find her, and we don’t have to fake anything; this will be over,” I said, feeling the first breath of relief I’d had in a while.

  “We already have a plan,” Drake said as his body grew tense. “I told you before that I don’t care if you find someone that looks like you; it doesn’t matter.” He looked back at Alamos. “Twin what? Interpret further before Willow takes off looking for some girl with a name that starts with an A.”

  Alamos looked down and read it again. “I see the word ‘twins’ in one language. The letters you see as A and D could be seen differently in several language’s. I’m almost certain the text beneath that says that they see the darkness.”

  “That helps,” Landen said under his breath.

  My eyes grew a little wider as Charlie came to mind, as well as the others with her, the ones that could see darkness. Before I could even mention them or argue that we should just go to Infante now, I uttered my one desire. “We should have been looking for a twin from day one...”

  I replayed the images that Preston had shown me, and doubt came when I realized that in no shape or form could Charlie be considered a twin of mine. Beyond that, she was deeply devoted to that mesmerizing musician I saw with her.

  If this were any other time, I would have already told Olivia everything I knew, and the two of us would be in Infante now, looking for that song, Charlie, and those with her. August was right before: the devil was clever, and he was taking people out of my life. I needed to find victory in a trial, but he was wrong about Clarissa; it was Olivia who was the key to this, and she was now in the last place she needed to be. Suddenly, getting her back became priority one in my mind. I was starting to think that there was no such thing as coincidences.

  Before I could even mutter the ideas swarming in my head and debate that sending Austin away this morning was a fatal mistake, Drake’s eyes moved to me. They grew darker as he glanced at Alamos. “Let’s go home. I want to find out when I need to be on that island. Landen and I will merge, and Willow will merge with Olivia. If we’re wrong, if it starts to tear us apart, then we’ll just fight and take as many of them with us as we can.”

  “Are you insane, son?” Alamos said, shaking his head. “That’s what they want. These aren’t common people; they practice dark magic – what are you going to do if they don’t kill you? If they take control of you and your power? What chance does the universe have then?”

  “Save the lecture. I’m leaving - are you coming or not?” Drake said, walking to the door.

  Alamos sighed and started to follow him, looking at Perodine as he reached the doorway. “I hope you’re happy; now they’re all going to die.”

  She just looked down at the scroll, then to Preston as she smiled warmly at him. “That isn’t going to happen, now is it?”

  He didn’t answer her; he just stretched out on the table and started to trace the letters A and D with his fingers as he hummed an almost silent tune.

  “Where could I find that twin?” I asked, looking at her, wondering if she’d seen Charlie in the scroll and the stars she studied. I didn’t know Perodine as well as I wished I did, but I knew she knew more than she was letting on. I was looking for her approval, for her to assure me that I wasn’t crazy. There was a twin, and for all I knew she was trapped or damned, and Charlie would be the girl to lead me to her.

  Perodine sighed. “Don’t get your hopes up, dear. I would say it was talking about you and Olivia, that you’ll see darkness that night. You need to be prepared for that; nothing is as easy as it looks.”

  “But there are letters,” I argued.

  “You’re seeing this in English; the letters in other languages are similar. They’re even considered numbers to some.”

  Landen sat down at the table and leaned his head closer to Preston so he could hear what he was humming.

  Are you gonna tell her about those other people – the ones that can see darkness? I thought

  It took him a second to answer me; he was too focused on Preston. Not yet. I need her to focus on Olivia; I don’t want to make them a target for any of this - and if we're ahead of this, I want it to stay that way. We don’t know who’s listening.

  I guess he was right; still, it seemed important. I focused on Preston; why would he just not say to go here and do that? What was this humming?

  I decided to just press Perodine for as much information as I could. “When you were fighting with Alamos before, you said you watched our lives, that you saw us love another, the same people...you have to be able to see her?”

  She looked away from me as if she couldn’t bear to look into my pleading eyes. I felt her solid intent to find this girl that I was looking for, that she would do everything in her power to discover where she was – or if she even existed. “The other...the one outside of the three of you...honestly, it took me almost a million years to pinpoint her. She never led herself to the spotlight; she fought behind the scenes. I can tell you this: that girl - the one that I’ve watched for longer than I can remember - is a very old soul. She sees love as a weakness, almost a blindness. She’s a fierce warrior, and a deep thinker. I will admit to you that over the course of lives that Drake had without you, there were a few girls that lingered near him, and the one that I’m speaking of was the only one that even came close to captivating him - not for his lack of trying, but because of the wall she places around her heart.”

  “I thought there was only one other...is this the same girl that loved Landen?” I said as jealousy coursed through me and I realized for the first time why Landen wasn’t as eager as I was to find this soul; he knew I’d explode with rage if that were the case and that I wouldn’t be as calm as he’d been with Drake.

  Perodine cleared her throat. “After that fight, when all of our secrets came out, Alamos and I debated the idea that there was always one. We scoured over charts and notes that were millions of years old, and what we found was that there was always one other - but she wasn’t the source of love. At first glance, I saw her as passion, but the degree of passion was reckless - at least for Drake and Landen. This girl almost seemed to control them, but the one I just spoke of...the girl that’s pure...she never loved Landen, but she did love Drake - more than once, though she only admitted it in a few lifetimes.”

  I noticed that an innocent smile spread across Preston’s face as he glanced up at me, then returned his attention to the scroll. Landen was extremely focused on him, waiting for Preston to open a door with his emotions or intent to guide him.

  A thousand thoughts rushed through my mind. I was terrified that if or when I found this twin I was looking for, it may be the wrong one, the one that could in some way control Lan
den and Drake.

  “Is that why you’re fighting against me? You’re afraid that we’ll attract the wrong girl, make this worse?”

  Perodine nodded slightly. “I know patience is hard for you to grasp, but let me find the right one. Let me understand if she’s in this life or not. The girl that’s dangerous, almost hypnotic, has often hidden herself around the birth of the pure one; it’s as if she can change form, a natural born predator for men who hold powerful souls. I have no doubt that if I find one, the other will be close; the good one has fought to end this soul more times than you’ve fought to redeem this dimension. With any luck, if they are in this life, the good one will end the bad one long before you find them.”

  “What if she needs our help to do that?”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of. Trust me when I tell you that you do not want Landen and Drake near that battle.”

  Landen looked up abruptly, offended by what he heard. “I won’t ever be subdued by another woman...that’s an impossibility.”

  Perodine bowed respectfully. “I’ve seen Witnesses coming to your aid.”

  “Witnesses?” I asked, completely confused as to why I’d never heard this before.

  She smiled slightly. “They’re fierce, loyal - some even call them archangels. I believe you’ve assembled an army, given them orders, and now that they’re close, it could only mean that whatever the two of you foresaw coming is near...perhaps in Mars, maybe beyond that point.”

  “Are they like ghosts?” I asked.

  Landen sat back in his chair as his eyes questioned Perodine. “No,” he said quietly as he glanced at Preston, then locked eyes with me. “Out of all the mythology August has taught me, their story was the one I found the most intriguing. I even studied further on the matter. They...I guess you could call them ghosts if you wanted to, but they manifest in the flesh...at one time they did live, but upon death they were charged with the purpose of fighting for the vessels of light. Life for them is eternal, as long as they feel love. More often than not, they’re couples; one man, one woman. I found lore on them in every dimension. They’re called Witnesses simply because they witness all of time; they have extreme patience and only intervene when they’re told to.”

  “Who tells them?” I asked, mystified.

  “They take their direction from the ones they’re bound to, but those that they’re bound to rarely remember giving that instruction because they die and are born again blind. Basically, they’re spirit guides; they’ll only act when they must.”

  “You think we have witnesses?” I asked in a shaky voice, not knowing if that was good or bad.

  Landen glanced at the scroll, then to me. “The thought has crossed my mind more than once, but if that were true, I would have thought they would have shown up before now,” he said as his eyes glanced to my chest, to where the blade had pierced my heart.

  “Not if something worse is coming,” I said as my stomach began to twist and the thought of Olivia surfaced in my thoughts.

  “Where do you see them?” Landen asked as he leaned forward and gazed at the scroll.

  “Mars. That’s the first mention of them. They were extremely hard to perceive; August was the one that translated that part.”

  “Why do you seem afraid of them?” I mumbled, noticing Perodine’s dread.

  She didn’t answer me; instead, she gazed at Landen.

  “The bigger the weapon, the bigger the enemy,” Landen muttered. “If they show themselves, reveal who they are, you can guarantee that soon a vessel of light will become like them, undead. When they’re obscure, they act more like spirit guides; that nudge you feel in your gut, a calming feeling you get when you should be out of control. Sometimes they communicate with numbers, causing your attention to turn to the same figures over and over. Most of the time, they’re a silent guide, and when they manifest, it’s too late to undo anything; the war hasn’t begun, you’re in the middle of it, and they have no choice but to reveal themselves to ensure that you don’t die. If you do...you become like them.”

  “OK,” I said as an uneasy breath escaped me. “Bright side: we won’t die; dark side: a war is coming.”

  “Both dark sides,” Landen said, reaching for me to come closer. “Instead of fighting for change, you aid those that do. For me and you, that would be agonizing; we’d have to guide others to do what we were meant to do.”

  The seriousness in his eyes caused me to hold my breath. “So this is bad? It’s too late – they’re already on the scroll?”

  “Normally, I would agree,” Perodine said, breaking our stare, “but I know the two of you had a life of illumination, and I believe that in that life you took action to use Witnesses as your aid; whoever you chose most assuredly vowed to help you defeat this evil in the current vessel you’re in.”

  “Let’s hope,” Landen said as he tightened his arms around me and kissed my neck before he slowly stood, setting the intent to find Chrispin.

  “Where are you going?”Perodine asked.

  “To talk to Chrispin,” he answered quietly.

  “If he isn’t inside, send someone out for him. They’re going to be watching you, and if they see that you’re calm, they’ll know they have the wrong girl - and then Olivia will be in danger.”

  Landen tensed slightly, then left the room.

  I sat down in the chair, and Preston slid down and crawled into my lap. I wrapped my arms around him and took in the peace I could feel coming from his tiny body.

  Perodine looked up at me. “I don’t want you to explain; just a yes or no: do you know why time moved twice? Why the rings are moving backwards?”

  I didn’t say anything; I just let my eyes tell her yes, then looked down to the scrolls. “All I’m worried about is getting Olivia back here and finding the right twin. Whatever I foresaw coming, I better have found a way to stop any one of us from forfeiting who we are and becoming Witnesses.”

  She sighed. “I want you to be prepared for anything and trust that we’ll defeat this in the end.”

  I swallowed as fear and anger caused my skin to flush. “No one’s dying on my watch.” I then nodded toward the scroll, waiting for her to translate. I managed to pick up on the soft melody that Preston and Landen were humming before. As I gently rocked Preston from side to side in my lap, for the first time he let himself be a little boy in my arms. I looked down a few moments later to find him sleeping peacefully. It made me smile to see him so calm; he was absolutely impossible not to love. I had no idea how Beth was able to go days without seeing him - then again, I had no idea how Beth had managed to survive any of the trials that life had given her.

  All at once, I felt a cold chill all around me. I squeezed Preston closer, thinking the winter air had managed to make its way in from the observatory, but then the chill was gone. My body tensed as my eyes moved all around, looking for any sign of the demon. My change in demeanor went unnoticed by Perodine; she was too consumed in her work.

  A low growl began to hum, then in front of the closed drapes across the windows I saw a darkness appear. At first it held no shape, but then the flawless image of the my evil angel began to take shape. He grinned coldly.

  I should have been afraid, I realized that – but I wasn’t; I was furious. I simply nodded my head forward with the intent to force every part of my energy, my strength at it. He vanished before my energy reached him, but the windows behind the drapes paid the price; the shattering sound of the glass caused Perodine to jump forward on the table, and Preston jolted awake.

  I shook my head from side to side, frustrated that I’d missed. “Sorry,” I said quietly.

  “Sorry?” Perodine repeated, looking back at the glass that had fallen behind the drapes.

  “I saw the demon...did you not feel him? I almost had him.”

  I felt her confusion and concern as her wide eyes looked over me, then down at Preston. I felt the others running in our direction. I knew Landen would think I was insane now, that he’d think I was se
eing things, and they’d all make me ‘rest’ - but I simply didn’t have the to time to do that. I stood, prepared to fight with them, then in front of me I saw a white glow and felt it began to pull me. I knew it was the rings; they were going to let me take this back.

  I felt Preston squeeze my hand, then looked down at him to find him staring intently at me. His emotion was calm, but I felt his intent not to let me change this. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes...he was right: if I stepped through this, then the devil would know without a doubt that I had control of the rings now – and he’d have time to plot to stop me. I opened my eyes and ignored the light that was growing brighter in front of me.

  “I really am sorry...I thought I had him,” I said, squeezing Preston’s hand.

  The light faded as soon as my intent to keep things the way they were was made. Suddenly, I heard an angry growl so faint, I had to hold my breath to make sure I was hearing it clearly.

  “Do you hear that?” I whispered.

  Perodine’s eyes looked all around her, then she slowly moved her head from side to side.

  At that moment, Landen, Brady, and Ashten charged into the room. I looked over my shoulder at Landen and thought, Don’t be mad; I saw the demon, and I tried to hit him - but he moved. Perodine didn’t see him. I’m not crazy or tired; he was just too fast for me.

  Sorrow filled Landen’s perfect blue eyes, and his expression was consumed with worry as he walked slowly to my side, looking all around me. Are you OK? That took a lot out of you.

  I nodded.

  “Are we being attacked?!” Ashten asked, rushing to pick up Preston.

  I felt Perodine’s concerned stare. “Um...the demon showed himself again,” she said quietly.

  “You saw him?” Brady asked, looking all around the room.

  “Willow saw him...she fought him,” Perodine said, walking around the table with the intent to find someone to board up the windows I’d shattered.