by Winter, Eden
The Queen and The Pawn
Adam’s gallery opening lasted longer than Veri realized. She didn’t stick to him like glue as she’d said, but she was certainly sure she kept him in her field of vision for the remainder of the evening. She occasionally bumped into Jesse and offered a quick nod. He mouthed to her and asked if she was okay, and her answer was always yes.
Jesse wasn’t sure what was happening, but he wasn’t going to leave Veri in a place she didn’t know with a man she had had already described to him as dangerous. He mingled with a few fellow artists he knew and would sometimes slip away to check on Veri just in case she needed him.
“Here,” he said. He slipped something into her hand. She looked down at it. She recognized it as the paper he used to give to the horse-taxi men when they arrived at their destination. It was some sort of currency to them. “Just in case.”
Jesse whispered something into her ear. He repeated it two more times to ensure that she heard him clearly.
“It’s my address. Don’t ever forget it.”
“When this is over, Adam says he’s going to take me home,” Veri muttered to him. They were close to some people, and the two of them pretended they were admiring one of Adam’s photographs. Quite a few people had stopped her and asked if she was the woman in the pictures, and Veri had to grin and tell them that she was. She didn’t answer any of the other questions. Some wanted to know how she knew Adam, while others asked if she considered pursuing a modeling career. Veri was completely lost and opted to walk away from anyone who spoke about anything other than acknowledging that she was indeed the subject of a few photos in this gallery.
“Are you sure you that’s legit?”
“I’m not sure what you mean. If you’re asking me if I feel this is the right thing to do, I can honestly tell you that I’m not sure. But Jesse, I have to try.”
“I really hope you can find your way home, Veri,” Jesse said. He turned to look at her and smiled. She smiled back. She didn’t think that it was possible to find a friend in a place like this, but that was now what she had found with Jesse. He didn’t have to do any of what he did for her.
“I do, too. Thank you, Jesse of the Samaritans, for your friendship and for your kindness. I will tell my people about you.”
At this point, Veri didn’t care if Adam was watching her talk with Jesse. She leaned over and gave him a warm hug. It was quick, but it was what Veri needed to gain some of her strength.
“Will I ever see you again?” Jesse asked.
“I doubt that very much. But I will never forget you for as long as I live. And I can assure you that we live a very long time where I come from,” Veri said. Jesse laughed a weak laugh. He was sad to see Veri go, even though he hadn’t known her for very long at all.
“Everyone.”
Veri’s heart leapt when she heard the voice. It was coming from all around her. She saw Adam speaking now. He was holding a black stick with a round silver netted ball in his hand. That seemed to be the source of the sound. It made Adam’s voice louder.
“I’d like to thank everyone for coming to my show. Thank you to my friends for the support, the new friends that I made tonight, and to the people I don’t know. I’m glad you like what you see, and for the sake of my rent and my cat, it would be awesome if you bought some of my stuff.”
There were some people in the audience who laughed. Veri didn’t get it. She stood among the crowd and waited.
“We gotta wrap this up tonight, but if you guys would like, Salvatore’s is having a two-for-one drink special right down the street. I know the owner, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be getting a discount.”
There was more laughter. It made Veri uneasy to see just how well Adam could hide who he truly was in both worlds. He was a funny, artistic human in this world. As far as Veri could tell, aside from the person or people who contacted him, no one knew what Adam truly was in this world. And where she was, Adam pretended to be a human. How many people really cared about him in her world? How many people did he need to manipulate in order for them to believe his lies and let him into their lives and their hearts?
Veri still had a difficult time believing that Kainen had just fallen out of love with her to be with Adam. There must have been something more. She remembered when she first saw Adam in person. He had starting using his incubus charms on her, and she had to admit that she had fallen victim to them. It took her no time to believe that she was falling in love, and she had to believe that the same went for Kainen.
Adam spoke his final goodbyes, and the crowd around Veri began to file out of the gallery. Veri did not move from where she was standing. Soon she, Adam, and the woman Adam had been with earlier were the only ones left in the gallery.
The woman eyed Veri. She didn’t have a friendly face at all. She was threatened by Veri when the last thing on Veri’s mind was doing anything with Adam aside from going home.
“Can I help you?” she asked. Her arms were folded over her chest.
“Not likely,” Veri said with an evil smile. There were many different ways that she could break this woman’s neck, and she wouldn’t even need to have her fangs or any powers to do it.
“Adam,” the woman called out. Adam walked over to her, but he kept his eyes on Veri.
“Becca, I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting to see her tonight. I know we were supposed to spend some time together, but there’s something that I need to take care of first.”
Veri rolled her eyes. Everything with this man was a lie. What could Kainen or even this woman see in him?
“But we…” Becca sputtered.
“I know, I know. I’ll find a way to make it up to you. I’ll get you a cab tonight and explain everything later. I’m sorry,” Adam said.
“Forget it, Adam. When you’re ready to be an adult, you know where to find me,” the woman said. She turned around to walk out of the gallery but not before flashing Veri the dirtiest look that she was capable of. Veri stood unfazed and waited for the woman to leave.
“I decided something,” Adam said.
“And what’s that?”
“I decided not to wait. I’m going to go back with you.”
*****
Veri and Adam had been walking down the street for several minutes. Veri hated every step she took. The boots and the large fuzzy jacket may have been keeping her warm, but the heels were becoming unbearable. People were not meant to walk in shoes like this! She slipped several times on sheets of transparent snow and got her heel caught in one too many vents.
“How much further?” she whined in a gruff voice.
“Not too far. You should maybe be able to recognize the place in a little while.”
Just then, Veri slipped on ice again, but this time the ice made her spin around and fall flat on her behind. She hissed in pain but refused to let Adam help her. She sat on the sidewalk for a moment to collect herself. She looked up and caught a glimpse of something familiar. It was a bright sweater made from different colors.
Jesse!
He had been following them. He probably wanted to make sure that Veri was all right. Veri pretended not to see him, and she stood up on her wobbly long legs. She would give anything to take off the boots, but they went all the way up her legs and they were the only thing protecting her lower half from the cold.
Adam kept walking. He didn’t try to entertain her with small talk. He had no power over her in this place.
“What is your reason for wanting to return with me?” she finally spoke up.
“I’m worried.”
“About?”
“I’m worried you will find a way to turn everyone against me before I have a chance to come back. I could go back and find that everyone I know there no longer believes me.”
“Why should they?” she snapped. He was utterly pathetic now that he was just a human. “You are nothing but a fraud. You’ve been lying to everyone that you know, and you expect compassion and understanding from me? Something co
uld have happened to Kainen by now, and you’re only thinking of yourself.”
“But if I go back,” Adam said with some courage returning to his voice, “then I’ll be an incubus again. You’ll be subjected to the headaches again. You said they were so strong that they were killing you.”
“And I’m willing to risk it. I’d risk anything for Kainen. You may be an incubus on your return, but I am still a queen. I will find a way to make everything right and everything as it should be. The people in my world need to know that your people are coming. You are entering your people into a world and a war that they cannot win.”
Adam turned the corner suddenly, and Veri almost slipped again trying to follow him.
“You think that you’re so high and so mighty,” Adam said as he continued to walk. Veri now recognized the place. It was dark now, but this was the alley she had landed in when she first stepped into this world.
“No, but I know what is right. I cannot let my pettiness get the better of me when there are so many lives at stake. You blindly trust a being who has given you powers and have convinced yourself that you can reassert yourself into our world. You have no idea what you are getting everyone into.”
Veri was beginning to regret this. Adam shouldn’t come back at all. If she killed him now, there was no way at all that she would be able to get back home. But if she went alone without him, the next time he stepped through the portal, he could be coming with an army of incubi and succubi. Would she have time to convince the people she knew? Would they have time to prepare?
No, it had to be this way. Adam had to come back with her. But that meant the two of them had to fall through the portal at the exact same time.
Adam stopped in between two buildings. This was where it had to happen.
“At the same time,” was all Veri said.
Adam looked at her and glared.
“Adam,” she said, “at the exact same time.”
Adam eventually nodded at her and looked away. Veri looked around her then and she caught the glimpse of a shadow. Was that Jesse? Or was that someone else heading into the alley? If it was someone else, they were about to witness a real surprise.
A bright light burst before them. It was such a dark night that the green light nearly blinded her. She closed her eyes and backed away. The portal was now opening, but she didn’t have the right eyes to adjust to such a bright light.
“Adam!” she called out. There was no response. She squinted but opened her eyes just as she saw Adam slip into the portal.
“No!” Veri screamed. If he slipped there before she did then that gave him a head start. She still did not understand how the time worked between the worlds and the portal. What if he was ahead of her by several days or even several years simply because he had stepped through the portal before she did?
Veri closed her eyes again, and as fast as she could tumbled into the open portal behind Adam. Her stomach lurched, and even though she knew what to expect, she screamed and screamed as she fell down.
*****
Veri came to in a field. No. Not just any field. It was the same field that she recognized. She jerked her head up to take a look around.
She was back. She was back in a world that she knew. She flung the large coat off her and took off the painful boots. She laughed and spun around in the field. She laughed so long and so loud that she almost forgot about Adam.
Almost.
She couldn’t see him anywhere. That meant that he had in fact landed in a time before Veri had. But how much time? Veri looked around her, and really studied the surroundings.
There was something certainly off. That was when she decided to look up. Veri’s eyes rose to the sky and she gasped. She thought that it had been night, but it was still day. She could see the suns shining overhead, but now the sky itself was a blood red. The sky only changed the color in her own realm, but now the whole world was blanketed by the scarlet sky.
She needed to know what was happening, and she needed to know fast. She needed to know how long the sky had been like this and if this had been Adam’s doing.
She turned her head to the direction of her own kingdom. If she could find it, then she would be able to make her way home.
Veri stopped when she saw it and screamed. It was slowly climbing up toward the sky and dissipating. Coming out through the trees in the direction of her castle she saw very thick black smoke. Veri knew that wherever there was smoke, there would certainly be fire.
Veri’s knees buckled beneath her. She had failed her people, and by the looks of it, she had failed her whole world.
Veri covered her face and began to cry.
“What have I done?” she asked herself as she wept.
“What have I done?
End of Part Two
KEEP READING TO SEE MY FREE NOVEL: A SECOND SIGHT IN A FEW PAGES
A Note From The Author
Hello, this is Eden Winter. Thanks for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed the read. If you did, I would be super grateful if you could leave a little review on Amazon?
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Eden Winter
A SECOND
SIGHT
A Paranormal Romance Story
By
Eden Winter
Copyright © 2017 Isse Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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Contents
Chapter One
Very Superstitious
Chapter Two
Walk on the Wild Side
Chapter Three
Afternoon Delight
Chapter Four
Imagine
“Samantha…”
Chapter Five
Night Fever
Chapter Six
Family Affair
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. If I didn’t ask you to come, then…”
Chapter Seven
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Chapter Eight
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
Chapter Nine
Killing Me Softly
Chapter Ten
Staying Alive
Epilogue
“TanTan, get away from there!”
THE END
A Note From The Author
Prologue
For some reason, there are moments in our lives we think we can control. If something works in our favor, for example, it means that the universe is rewarding us for our previous thoughts and actions. Our subconscious works in such a way that we send some sort of frequency out into the cosmos that ensures we receive a punishment or a reward. We control our destiny because of what floats about in our minds, and we can control or manipulate our external world based on the decisions we make.
Is that what you think?
Do you think it’s possible for us to be able to control our emotions or how we’ll react to whatever life throws at us, control what comes next—whether we expect it or not—or control any aspect of our lives because we take the necessary steps mentally or physically? If you do, then maybe you’re more of an idealist than you’d care to admit.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Truth be told, I wish I was still an idealist. There is something beautiful in believing that everything will work out and that there is a chance we can all live happily ever after.
This story might be what could ch
ange your mind. Or maybe when we reach the end, my mind will be the one that’s changed forever. But I’m nowhere near the end, I don’t think. And I’m too far from the start.
To be perfectly clear, I don’t believe we control anything. Even inexplicable events are just random—and rarely welcome—coincidences.
Like this moment that I’m in right now… or will be in later. There’s nothing that can be done about what is happening before me. All I can do is watch in horror. I can’t move, scream, touch or intervene, even though I desperately want to. Even if I could, I would probably be too late. It’s very hard trying to dodge an arrow that is already halfway toward its target, even though everything feels as if it were moving in slow motion.
I wish I was wrong about all of this. I wish there were situations in our lives that we had control over, that once you saw something coming, you could actually do something about it to prevent the worst from happening.
But I’m not wrong.
We’re all at the whim of the cosmos. If everyone is in control, then no one is in control.
No matter how much I’d like to be in control of the situation I’m witnessing, I know there is nothing that can possibly be done. What makes it worse is that I’m the only who is the least bit aware of what is about to happen and who knows that the time from what I saw to the actual event occurring isn’t too far off.
There was never any way to gauge the time. It could have been anywhere between a day from today to several years into the future. No, that was definitely hyperbole. I never had to wait long for a vision of mine to become something that happened in real life. I could sense it was soon enough, certainly within the next several weeks. There was something very urgent about what I needed to see. I didn’t have the power to choose where I went, what I saw, or whether I could change things. All I could do was watch and wait and hope that there was a way I could possibly change the outcome of whatever it was I was able to see.
Wait. Before I go any further into this, I am going to need to start from the beginning if I’m going to make you understand what I’m saying.
