The Branded Rose Prophecy

by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Asher didn’t ask where their mother was when this happened. He had a pretty good idea why she hadn’t helped and it didn’t matter anyway. “Are you thinking he should be in a hospital?”

  “There’s a hospice. Not far away....” Lucas sat there looking miserable.

  Asher sighed. “You’re going to have to lay it out for me. I don’t see why your dad going to hospital means you have to sign your life away.”

  Lucas looked up then. “You don’t think I should.”

  “I don’t know why you want to. Explain that to me, then I’ll tell you what I think.”

  Lucas kicked at the leg of the chair with the heel of his sneaker, watching his shoelaces bounce at the movement. Then he looked up again. “The navy will pay more than I can get on the docks. It’ll cover the bills.”

  “Not much more than you’re getting now, not for a fresh recruit.”

  Lucas went back to looking at his shoes.

  Asher studied him. “Why the navy?”

  Silence.

  “Lucas?”

  He glanced up again, and Asher saw that his face was infused with red, darker than when he had come in. He couldn’t keep his gaze up. It fell back to his toes. “SEALs,” he said flatly.

  Asher would have shrugged that one off. Every kid thought about becoming a SEAL, for at least thirty seconds. It was a standard boyhood fantasy these days.

  “Well, you’ll probably get paid more as a SEAL, if you get selected for it and if you survive the training,” Asher said carefully. “But you’ll never be home. Have you thought about that?”

  “I can send money home.”

  “You could get a job here on Wall Street, trading commodities. Shorter training and better pay, even these days. You’d be home every night.”

  Lucas shook his head and the short, controlled, tight little movement told Asher that it wasn’t embarrassment staining the kid’s cheeks. It was anger.

  “It’s not just the money, is it?”

  Lucas shook his head again.

  “You’re going to have to spit it out,” Asher told him, “because I can’t see it from here.”

  Lucas’ nervous tic with his foot stopped. He grew still. “I don’t ever want to not know what to do again.” He said it so quietly Asher had to cock his head to hear it properly.

  Asher sat back. Ahh... he breathed mentally as it all fell into place. He picked up the coffee cup and swirled the lukewarm dregs around the bottom of it, giving himself a moment to think. “You’ll know what to do if you become a SEAL, that’s for sure. You’d be able to take on three Sergios at once and not break a sweat. But you won’t be here. You’ll be in Papua New Guinea or the Middle East, sitting on a steel ship waiting for orders.”

  “There’s Sergios there, too,” Lucas muttered.

  “But your sister won’t be.”

  Lucas flinched.

  So, he’d thought about that, too. Asher sighed. “It’s a one-way ticket, Lucas. You sign up, you’ll never go back to normal again. Even if you quit and get out, it stays with you, in your head.”

  “Good.”

  Asher didn’t just sigh this time. He blew out his breath. “You don’t have to do it. You shouldn’t do it, not for that reason. If you’re going to join up it should be for positive reasons. Because you want a challenge. Because you want to serve your country. Because it’s a better opportunity for you. Not because you got caught up in a crappy, once in a lifetime situation where you were helpless and didn’t like it. Normal people don’t know what to do in moments like that, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

  “Charlee and me, we’re not normal. Not anymore.” Lucas lifted his chin once more, but he was still having trouble meeting Asher’s gaze. “We’re...what it is at home...it’s not normal.”

  “You think there isn’t a single other family out there that isn’t dead broke, with a drunk who is drinking away the money and someone who is sick?” Asher asked gently. “There’s probably a dozen families that look like yours, just in the Bronx alone.”

  Lucas flinched again at the word ”drunk”. Then he squared his shoulders and met Asher’s gaze. The worst had been said. It was out in the open now. “If dad doesn’t go to the hospital, Charlee would have to quit school to look after him full time. One of us should get to go to college, and it’s not me.”

  “Don’t do it for her. She’ll hate you changing your life around just for her.”

  “It’s not just her.” Lucas pressed his lips together. “It’s been nearly three years. I still lie awake at night. Wondering what I should have done. Wishing I had done...almost anything. It makes me sick. It makes me sweat.” He shrugged. “I don’t want to do that anymore.”

  His ego was tied up in knots over it. Asher sighed again, this time in his head. “I’m not sure why you’re asking me what I think. You’ve made up your mind.”

  “Charlee.” Lucas grimaced. “I don’t know who else to ask. Someone has to watch out for her.”

  I’ve been watching her all along.

  “I don’t know you much, but I trust you,” Lucas added.

  “Thanks.” He meant it. “If you have to do this, then I’ll make sure Charlee is okay while you’re gone.”

  Lucas relaxed. His shoulders fell back into place. “Okay. Good. Thank you.”

  Asher thrust out his hand. “Good luck, Lucas. Although I don’t think you’ll need it.”

  Lucas grabbed his hand. Asher picked up the kid’s palm and pulled it along the inside of his forearm and curled his own fingers around Lucas’ arm. Lucas got it quickly, although he gave a short laugh as he gripped Asher’s arm like Asher was doing to his. “Weird.”

  “Old,” Asher corrected. “It’s how warriors used to measure the strength of their enemy before the battle, before it turned into just a type of handshake.”

  “Cool.”

  “Not really.” Asher let his arm go. “But you’ll be a warrior soon enough.”

  “I don’t even know for sure they’ll take me.”

  Asher ran his gaze over him, assessing. “They will.”

  * * * * *

  Charlee hurried home. It was nearly dark and therefore very late, and it made her hurry. She should have gone home straight after school, but Elizabeth had invited her to her house, and Charlee had grown to love visiting Elizabeth’s place.

  Elizabeth might have cared less about schooling, but unlike every kid Charlee had ever heard talking about their home life, Elizabeth got along with her mom and dad. Actually, she loved them, quite openly. They clearly loved and approved of their daughter. Her lack of academic ambition wasn’t a barrier to their love. They teased her about it and Elizabeth teased right back. Besides, Elizabeth was trying. She was really working her ass off to make it in school, because she didn’t want to disappoint her father again.

  Charlee barely noticed the size of the house when she was there. It was big and it was more luxurious in comparison to any home Charlee had ever seen, except on television, where the houses were beyond ridiculous. But Charlee’s attention was always caught by the harmonics that resonated in Elizabeth’s house. Everyone liked each other. Everyone spoke to each other nicely. Caringly. The atmosphere was free of tension and worry. It was a relaxing and enticing place to spend time.

  So she had lingered far later than she could really afford to, then sprinted for the train. The train had been almost empty because it was so late and that had made her feel even worse.

  Now she was hurrying down the street, only a few houses from home and running through her mind what needed to be done as soon as she got in. Her father would need the sheets on his bed changed, for sure. There was some of the casserole that Lucas had made yesterday still in the fridge. That would be their supper. She could feed him first, then eat hers in her bedroom while she tackled her homework. It was late. By the time she was done with her father, it would be almost time for bed.

  When she passed Darwin’s house, she was hailed softly. She looked over the fe
nce, noticing only now that Lucas sat on the front step there. Darwin was sitting next to him.

  It had been a warm day, one of the first warm days this year, but now the sun had set, the chill had settled back in. “Why are you sitting outside?” she asked, resting her hand on the top of the gate. She didn’t want to go into Darwin’s yard and get involved in a conversation. She needed to get home as quickly as possible.

  “Waiting for you,” Lucas said. “I’ve seen to Dad, so don’t worry.”

  Charlee relaxed. “You have? Thank you. I got caught up—”

  “Lucas has something to tell you,” Darwin said. “Want to step in here so he doesn’t have to tell the whole neighborhood at the same time?”

  Charlee pushed past the gate and hitched her book bag to get it settled back on her shoulder properly as she walked down the concrete slabs that made up Darwin’s front path. The soil had been weeded and raked on either side of the path and new annuals dotted the dark loam. In a couple of weeks, Darwin would have pansies exploding all over the beds. Pansies had been his wife’s favorite flowers, so he planted them every year.

  She stopped in front of them. “What’s up?”

  Lucas held up some folded sheets of paper in his hand. The white paper seemed to almost glow in the gathering dark. “I joined the navy, Einie. They took me in.”

  For a moment, her surprise was so great that no thoughts came to her at all. Lucas had never spoken about the military before. He had been more interested in sports. She couldn’t even recall him watching a war movie. “Why would you go and do that?”

  Lucas looked surprised, then puzzled. He frowned, looking down at the ground at his feet. “Lots of reasons,” he muttered.

  “You should be proud of him, Charlee,” Darwin said. “Proud that he wanted to and proud that he was accepted.”

  “I guess, yeah, I am. About both of them. It’s just, well, it’s a surprise,” she confessed.

  “Once I’m in, there’ll be money for the hospital we looked at,” Lucas added.

  “Oh.” Now she understood. “You didn’t do it just for Dad, did you?”

  Lucas frowned. “You sound just like Asher.”

  This day was handing out more surprises than the last three months combined. Charlee stared at her brother. “You spoke to Asher? You went and saw him?”

  Lucas shrugged as if it were no big thing. But he had made his feelings about Asher and their friendship more than plain, years ago. For him to seek Asher out voluntarily seemed…peculiar. And significant.

  “This is going to change things, Einie,” Lucas said, patently steering the conversation away from Asher.

  “You figure?” she asked dryly. As soon as he’d said he’d joined up, she had seen the difference it would make almost immediately. “I’ll be home alone.” Then she added, “With mom.”

  “No, not alone,” Lucas said quickly, with a force that made her step back mentally.

  “I’ll be keeping an eye on you,” Darwin said.

  “You graduate in just under two years.” Lucas was moving the folded sheets of paper between his hands, flipping the little rectangle over and over. “Then you’ll be eighteen and no one will give a damn what you do. But for the next two years, Darwin and Asher will be there if you need help.”

  “You arranged this,” Charlee said, indignation stirring. “You talked to both of them before talking to me.”

  The paper stopped moving.

  Darwin studied Lucas, too, as if he wanted to know the answer just as badly as she did.

  Lucas looked up at her and she saw how uneasy he was. “You would’ve said no. You would have talked me out of it.”

  She opened her mouth to protest that he was lying, but couldn’t speak. Because it was true. “You’re doing this for everyone but yourself,” she pointed out.

  Lucas took in a deep breath. “The biggest reason I’m doing it is one hundred percent, purely for me.”

  Darwin rested his hand on Lucas’ shoulder. “As it should be.”

  Charlee looked from Darwin to Lucas and back. Darwin understood something that she did not. It was uncomfortable, not understanding what was happening and she realized that it had been a long while since she had felt this confused sensation, as she clutched at anything that might offer a clue that would unravel her confusion. She had grown up trying to understand adult behavior and all the implications and assumed knowledge that informed their speech. Gradually, she had acquired the necessary experience, so gradually that only now she realized how long it had been since a grown-up had made her feel naïve.

  She didn’t like it much, especially now because it was Lucas who was making her feel hot and squirming with embarrassment because she didn’t understand.

  “Well, okay,” she said, with a sigh. “I don’t get it. But I guess that doesn’t matter, especially now.” It hit her from nowhere. Her eyes stung with hot and sudden tears. “But I’m going to miss you,” she whispered.

  Lucas surged to his feet and hugged her. “God, me, too.” His voice was rough. “More than you know.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Nigeria was in the northern hemisphere, but only just. Because of how close it was to the equator, “winter” was only different from summer by a few degrees, and the midnight air was warm and scented by the thousands of plants and trees nearby. Even this high above sea level in the southern mountains, it was still pleasant, and Sindri went about his work in a good mood, completely undisturbed by locals or tourists, or even the native wildlife.

  The Alok Ikom Monoliths had the virtue of being unknown anywhere else in the world except for a tight radius of locals who stayed away in fear of the gods that haunted them. Even the brave and faithless would shun the area on this night, for it was the winter solstice. They might not believe in their gods, but they lived in close harmony with the earth and the sun, the movement of the moon, and the crops the fertile soil provided. The power of the solstice was as real to them as the dawning of the sun and so they stayed away.

  For this reason, Sindri had picked the Nigerian monoliths. Those in Europe and Britain were too well known and too popular. The solstices always brought out the heathens and neo-pagans to prance around the stones in the belief that they were communing with imaginary entities that they called “gods.” Their antics were harmless and seemed to bring them pleasure, but their presence at the stones year after year had begun to hamper Sindri’s collection process.

  Last year, he had barely managed to avoid detection and had sworn that this year, he would find another focal point to use.

  Nigeria was also considerably warmer than the French standing stones, while the Giant’s Dance at Amesbury was a complete misery at this time of year.

  Sindri didn’t need to consult a watch to know when the solstice approached. He could feel the stones almost vibrating with the coming moment, gathering their power, bringing it all into a gestalt moment that the locals were wise to hide from.

  Sindri stood among them, right in the center, and raised his arms. The crucible was ready. It was already warm against his skin and he touched it with his thoughts, sending warm regard over it. The crucible was growing more and more potent. With each collection of power, its strength built. It wasn’t ready, not yet. But Sindri could feel that the time was near.

  Tonight would add considerably to the crucible’s power. Unlike the other winter solstices when he was forced to gather the current from some safe distance, tonight he stood in the very heart of the gestalt. It would be…enormous.

  He began the incantations. The power swelled, beating at him in silent waves. He closed his eyes, feeling it throb around him. The solstice was approaching at stellar speed. He must take the power at its very zenith….

  Now.

  He drew the power into himself, and through him, it fed the crucible. It was a jolt of white energy, a powerful zap of pleasure that coursed through his body, which responded with an almost instantaneous orgasm that added its tiny dollop to the stream.


  And just as suddenly, the moment was gone. The sun had moved on, past its zenith. The alignment with the Earth altered and the power diminished.

  Sindri lowered his arms, panting. The crucible was glowing against his chest. His flesh beneath the metal was burning. Blistering. He only noticed the pain now. Carefully, he removed the crucible and returned it to the velvet-lined box that carried it, moving stiffly now that the power had gone.

  But he was very pleased. This had been a most successful reaping.

  Soon, he told himself. Very soon, the time would be here to share what he had achieved.

  She would be so proud of him.

  * * * * *

  Unnur’s store had seen an uptick in customers that had kept her busy for months. These were genuine, paying customers, not merely people curious about the macabre little place on the wrong side of west Main Street, tucked away behind the main street stores.

  It wasn’t just serving the long, almost continuous stream of customers that kept her busy. The increase in business meant an increase in everything; she found herself restocking shelves at night and coordinating stock orders so she wouldn’t run out of anything. Even trying to anticipate how much of any one item to bring in took longer because now she had to reconsider such basic decisions all over again. Simple things like her daily sales journal entries took three times longer, just because there were so many more sales.

  Some nights, she didn’t fall into bed until after midnight, her eyes bleary and her body aching from shifting heavy boxes around. Her lifeless foot was even more useless when it came to lifting things, and she had done more heavy lifting in the last few months than the previous year combined. Her hands sometimes throbbed in the mornings, her fingers swollen from the effort of gripping and twisting, dragging and tearing open cardboard, to the point where she had trouble closing her fingers.

  Handling the cards was a problem on days like that, but in a way, that was a relief. So was the steady stream of customers. Everything that kept her at the front of the store by the cash register, or in the back stock room, was a blessing in disguise, because it meant that she didn’t have time to sit at the round table and read the cards.