“Aidan . . .” I stop talking and rise up, wrapping my arms around him, unable to hold myself back. I don’t know what else to do except clutch him to me, trying to make his pain stop, as if my touch can keep him from hurting.
“Please don’t,” I whisper. “Don’t be so sad.” My voice cracks and my insides ache with his sorrow. He’s so close—the smell of his skin, the feel of his solid form—and all I can think of is how badly I wish he were mine. All mine. Because I know that if he were, I could fix this; I could make the storm inside of him stop. All of it.
At the thought, something in me cracks open and the dam breaks, emotions spilling out of me. Tears wet my cheeks as one wave after another hits me, making me shiver. It’s sorrow, it’s loss, but it’s not mine, it’s Aidan’s. It’s his heartache I’m feeling—I know it is. And I’m taking it on as my own, carrying it for him.
It burns in me, the ache in my chest becoming like a fire.
Through my closed eyelids, I see a light flash, and I open them. To actual fire.
I gasp, jerking back.
Golden flames flicker over Aidan’s shoulders, then trail onto my arms. His mark is a light all its own, the power warming the air around him. But he doesn’t seem to notice his own skin. He’s gaping at mine.
I look down to see those gold flames coating my palms. I raise my hands in front of my face, stunned and terrified. I feel nothing, no burns, no heat. My hands aren’t even warm.
I open my mouth to scream but nothing comes from my throat except a choking sound.
Then the world dims, tipping, before it all goes black.
TWENTY-ONE
Aidan
I watch Rebecca’s hands in horror as she backs away. They’re coated in flames. My flames.
Panic races through me as my power slithers up and down my mark, lighting up my shoulder and chest. The glow of her hands casts itself over her face in a yellow dance, reflected in her wide eyes. Eyes that now seem made of their own fire.
She opens her mouth, like she’s screaming, but no sound emerges.
And then her eyes roll to white. Her head snaps back. And her body goes limp, crumpling to the linoleum like a puppet whose strings were just cut.
I jolt from my shock and crouch at her side, grabbing her by a limp wrist, taking her head and pulling it onto my lap. “Rebecca!” I yell. It feels like a yell. It comes out like I’m drowning.
A second ago I was tormented. I was lost and confused because of what Sid had said, what’s happening to him, what could be happening with my father. Then Rebecca wrapped me in a tight hug and all I could feel was her warmth, her breath on my neck . . .
She held me and a fleeting memory passed through me, of that moment in the club when I first met her and she smiled at me, when she touched me that very first time and I wanted to kiss her. But I kissed Kara instead.
With that memory, my energy came to life, spilling from my shoulders, my chest, but before I could react, Rebecca and I were both on fire. My power was reaching out for her.
I shake her, saying her name again. “Please, Rebecca! Wake up!”
Kara is suddenly beside me on the floor. Holly and Jax and Connor are hovering, and Sid is coming in through the back door.
“What happened?” he asks, panic in his voice.
Then Kara says, “Did she faint?”
“She . . . she was on fire. She had fire in her hands,” is all I’m able to get out. And it doesn’t make sense. It’s crazy. “What did I do to her? Did I hurt her?”
“Fire?” Sid says, lifting Rebecca’s hands and studying them. “There are no burns, Aidan. She isn’t hurt. Are you sure—?”
“Yes!” I say, too loud. “It was real fire. I think it came from me, from my power, when she hugged me. I think my mark did this.”
“Hmm . . .” Sid’s face falls in a frown. He reaches out and touches Rebecca’s cheek, running a fingertip under her right eye, then he rubs his thumb and forefinger together, studying them before he holds them up to show us. “Gold flakes.”
The kitchen light catches on his hands, and sure enough, speckles reflect gold.
“Whoa,” Jax breathes.
“What does that mean?” Connor asks.
“Couldn’t it just be glitter from eye shadow or something?” Holly says.
Sid shakes his head. “It smells like roses. And it seems to be in her tears.” He glances sideways at Kara and the two of them exchange the oddest look. Kara shakes her head, like she doesn’t want Sid to say anything.
“What!?” I bark. “Stop hiding. What do you know?”
“I know she’s going to be fine,” Sid says, like there’s no secret. “We should take her up to her bed, though, since it may be a while before she awakens.”
“So, you know what this is,” I say.
He looks over to Kara again. “Yes. I believe so.”
“As long as she’s fine,” Connor says. But the troubled look on his face doesn’t reflect the mellow words.
“Help Aidan take her upstairs,” Sid says to Connor as he stands straight, moving back to lean on the kitchen counter for support.
As I help Connor pick her up, I say over my shoulder to Sid, “You’re going to tell me what the hell just happened after I get her settled.”
Sid nods. He exchanges another look with Kara.
Anger fills me. Definitely more secrets. Dammit, I thought that part of my life in this house was over.
Connor and I get Rebecca settled in the bed. He sits beside her on the edge and tucks the blanket in around her. “She’s so cold.” He touches her forehead. “Like ice.”
“What the hell? How is this happening?”
“It’s always insanity, man,” he says, resigned. “End of days and shit. Who knows?”
“She’s supposed to be safe here,” I mumble, staring down at her pale face, her fiery hair spilling over the pillow. She’s so pure, so normal. So uninvolved in all this. It’s horrible that my own screwed-up life is infecting her now. “I should’ve sent her to Samantha’s. This wouldn’t have happened.”
“You don’t know that. Right now you need to find out what’s going on. I’ll watch her.”
“Yeah.” I stand there for a second in the doorway, before adding, “I’ll be back.” Like I need to say it. Like I need her to hear me.
When I get to the kitchen, Sid and Kara are walking out the back door.
“Sid needs to be in the shed,” Kara says to me. She takes his hand like she’s helping an old man. “He can’t do this without some stable ground.”
More like he needs dark magic. But I know it helps his body stay in this time, as creepy as that is.
I wait just outside the shed door as Kara gets Sid settled on the bed. He sits with his feet on the trunk, walking stick on his lap.
The smell of dried blood and sorrow spilling from the shed is strong enough to knock me over, but I hold fast. I just need to put up with it long enough to get some answers.
When Kara steps out, she doesn’t come to stand beside me. She folds her arms over her chest and leans on the wall beside the door, looking out at the yard. Then she says in a matter-of-fact way, “Rebecca is the girl you were supposed to be awakened by.”
I blink as the shock hits me. “What?”
“When my headaches started last week, I realized something was wrong. But I didn’t want to tell you before I was sure. I was finally positive about it today, when you told me that my curse was turning silver.” Her voice is void of emotion as she touches her nape. “That’s why I had to talk to Sid. I had to find out if it could be true.”
“If what could be true?” I ask. It’s suddenly hard to breathe.
“I was made to be your other half by the spell Sid did on me to reverse my father’s curse, but Rebecca is your true soul mate, made from birth to be yours. It was always supposed to be her that woke your powers. Not me.” Her voice catches a little, sending a sharp pain through my chest. “It was never supposed to be me.”
“What are you saying? How . . . ?” I don’t understand.
“Every soul is looking for its mate,” Sid says, “though not every soul finds it. I assumed once your soul linked with Kara that everything would set itself right, as it should’ve. But I didn’t take into account that your true soul match would be close by. I thought when your destiny changed, so would hers. It never occurred to me that she would be one of your Lights. That she would have already been hurtling toward you.” He sighs. “I believe what happened in the kitchen a moment ago was your power finally recognizing her, so it physically touched her.”
“And this is the first I’m hearing about this soul mate thing, why?” I ask, overwhelmed by what they’re saying.
Could it be true? It would explain so much. Like why I felt so protective and drawn to Rebecca even while I was falling for Kara. It would explain why I didn’t feel the same way about the other Lights. And why I can’t seem to let Rebecca go, even when I try.
“I didn’t know it was possible, Aidan,” Kara says, her voice now tinged with desperation. “My headaches started right after your Awakening. I assumed they were from my concussion, but when I went to see an old friend who’s a witch, and she read my cards, something she said made me realize it was all connected.” When she sees my face shift at the mention of a witch, she adds, “I needed to know our fate. I knew you wouldn’t approve. And I knew you would’ve insisted I tell you everything that I was feeling, but I was scared. I wanted to wait until after I was sure.”
Helplessness filters into me, not understanding why she didn’t let me know what she was struggling with. “What did the witch say?”
“She said I was suffering because there are consequences when you try to fight destiny. She said that a punishment was coming because I’d stolen another woman’s mate.” Kara hesitates for a second and then says, “And something else changed the day I started bleeding.” She lifts the bottom of her shirt a little, then she turns to show me. Her tattoo. It’s faded, now only a pale version of the violets and lilies that were the sign she was meant to be mine. “Sid’s spell is definitely failing, which is why you saw my father’s curse turning silver. It’s returning.”
A chill works over me. “The blood-show, this,”—I motion to her now pastel tattoo, my throat tight—“it’s all some kind of a punishment?”
“Yes and no,” Sid says. “I believe the witch was sensing something, but she read it wrong.”
“What’s the truth then?” I ask.
“We aren’t sure,” Kara says, quietly. “But I think it’s all because you’re meant to be with Rebecca, not me. It all seems to come back to that.”
Agitated, I run a hand through my hair. “This is crazy.”
“Fate is a difficult taskmaster,” Sid says with a shake of his head.
I want to punch a hole through his damn magic shed. What the hell kind of answer is that?
Kara pushes off the wall, facing me. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you everything, what I was thinking the last few days. I knew if I did that you might blame yourself or feel you needed to fix it. And I need you to be able to focus on your destiny, Aidan. That’s why we’ve fought so hard.” Her voice is weak and small. She steps closer, her eyes locked on mine, pleading. “I want you to be mine, but there’s so much more to this than just you and me.” She reaches out to touch my chest, pressing her palm against my brand.
“I get it, Kara,” I say, covering her hand with mine. “I do. But . . . it all feels corrupted. And wrong. I need you, just as much as anything else. And it’s not because of some spell or some magical link, not anymore. It’s because it’s real, and it’s my choice. Our choice.” Fuck fate; the guy’s a bastard. “So, we’ll figure this out,” I say, “together, okay? Don’t keep your fear from me. Not anymore.”
She settles into my arms, wrapping herself around my middle. “I can’t lose you, Aidan,” she says into my chest. “I think it might kill me.”
I kiss the top of her head and whisper into her hair, “Yeah.” I want to say, Me too. Because with all the mess in my life, this here in my arms, this girl, she’s the only thing that keeps me standing when I want to give up.
Her arms tighten around me and she buries herself in my chest even more.
Sid clears his throat. “Well, this is all lovely, but perhaps we should get to work on finding a way to fix it.”
TWENTY-TWO
Rebecca
I wake with a jerk, sitting up straight, a hundred thoughts and feelings and strange memories rolling over me.
But it’s all jumbled. It’s all wrong. I never kissed Aidan. I never held hands with him, sitting on a tree branch high above the ground, or kissed his bare shoulder beside a river. We never made love in tall grass with limbs tangled together, my skin, his skin. No. Definitely not. I can’t—
Someone touches my arm, stopping my thought rampage. “It’s all right. You’re okay,” a voice says, deep and soothing.
My surroundings come into focus and so do my memories of reality. The hug. The fire on his shoulders. “Aidan! Is Aidan okay?” I ask, as I look over and see Connor sitting on the side of the bed, his face in shadow. I blink at him, surprised. “What are you doing here?” That came out way snarkier than I intended.
His brow goes up. “You’re welcome?”
“What happened? Where’s Aidan? There was fire. He was on fire!” Ohmygod, I sound like a loon. But I can’t seem to help it. “There was fire on me, on him. Gold fire. There was fire on my hands.” I hold up a hand and it looks perfectly normal.
Connor takes my wrist and settles my hand back in my lap. “Like I said, everything’s fine.”
“But, Aidan . . .”
“Yes, Aidan does light up sometimes with fire. It’s kind of a thing.”
“Thing?” Like a defect? A talent?
“A power,” he attempts to clarify.
But it’s still not very clear. “Like how he sees souls?”
Connor hesitates. “Sort of. Sure.”
I deflate back onto the pillow and put a hand to my forehead. “I just . . . I’m so confused.”
He nudges me over to make more room on the bed. “Yes, it’s confusing,” is all he says.
He settles in, slipping off his flip-flops and putting his legs up on the mattress parallel to mine.
“But it is what it is,” he adds. Like that helps at all.
I sit up slowly and lean on the wall beside him. “Aidan has powers. And that golden fire, or whatever, is part of that.” I wonder why it latched on to me.
“Yeah.” His head falls back against the wall. “He’s got all these things he can do, and it’s basically so he can kill demons and save the world.”
I laugh. Connor turns to me and raises a brow, making me choke on my laughter. “Seriously?” I ask. “Save the world.”
“Yep.” He looks forward again.
“Well . . . okay.” I don’t even know what to say to that.
“Don’t worry, you don’t have to understand it. You just have to accept it.”
“Okay.” I hug myself and shiver from the weight of it all.
He seems to think it’s a sign that I’m cold; he pulls the blanket from beneath him and tucks it around me like I’m a kid.
When he’s finished, he leans against the wall again.
I stare at his profile for a second, taken off guard by his nurturing touch. “So Aidan is supposed to save the world,” I repeat. It sounds even weirder when I say it out loud.
“Supposedly.”
“And he kills demons with his gold fire.”
“No, he stabs them.”
I scrunch up my face. “Sounds messy.”
He shrugs. “Haven’t seen him do it.” Then he adds, “Well, I did see him trap a demon once. Sort of. And I saw him catch a wraith, which was pretty bloody. But it was his own blood.”
I try and imagine Aidan caging a demon like someone would cage a hungry lion. “And you help him?”
He smiles, like that’
s funny. “No. Not really.”
“What is it you do, then?”
He sighs, sounding tired. “Survive.”
TWENTY-THREE
Aidan
The house is dark and quiet now that night has settled in. Connor’s still in the room with Rebecca. Jax is downstairs in the office watching YouTube with Holly and arguing about some new promotional ideas for LA Paranormal. I showered and changed my bandages—still no healing happening as far as I can tell. I wonder if I should get someone to stitch me up, but I can’t think of who. I could call Sid’s doctor, but then Sid would know, and he has enough to worry about. Plus, it’s not like I want to announce my new weakness. So, I just wrap myself back up and plead with my power to fix the mess.
Kara is sleeping in her bed a few feet away from me. I’m sitting in her chair getting ready to open Eric’s journal for the bazillionth time, to look for that “under-passage.”
Eric said that I should be able to find it now. I guess because I’ve—what?—linked to my dead father’s bones?
The thought sends a shiver through me.
Just as I’m running my hand over the leather binding, getting ready to open it again, someone knocks on the door.
“Hey, it’s Connor.”
“Yeah,” I say, quietly, not wanting to wake Kara. “You can come in.”
Connor opens the door and I lean forward.
“What’s up?” I ask. “Is Rebecca okay?”
“She’s awake. She’s fine.”
Some of the tension leaves my muscles.
“I should probably talk to her,” I say, more to myself. She needs to know what’s happening. The secrets aren’t helping at all. But how do I tell her something like this? I barely understand it all myself. And I really don’t want it to be true, that my soul would’ve rather chosen Rebecca instead of Kara.
“What’d Sid have to say?” Connor asks.
I blow out a puff of air. “Oh, you know, the usual. A bunch of stuff I wish I’d known two months ago.”
“About your power? Did all this with Rebecca happen today because of it?”
“Yes. And no. It happened because of both of us, I guess.”
Darkness Fair (The Dark Cycle Book 2) Page 13
