Other Side Of Forever (Other Side Of Forever Series Book 1)

by Shannon Eckrich

  His soft hands were all over me—my face, my forehead, and my cheeks—examining me, searching for any kind of physical injuries.

  He wouldn’t be able to find anything. Everything was gone. The only thing left was the emptiness in my chest. An emptiness that was consuming me little by little, minute by minute, every breath growing shallower, weaker. Death had to be better than this. I would rather die than continue living my life for the next sixty years or so without Ethan by my side.

  “What did he do to you?” Jeremy mumbled as his arms slid underneath me, lifting me in the air.

  I wanted to tell him Ethan had done nothing. It was me. All me. I had let them take him away. But I couldn’t speak. The darkness was getting thicker, heavier. My body felt cold without the warmth of Ethan’s energy entwined in mine. I struggled to hold onto the edge of consciousness, but, instead, I slipped farther and farther away.

  Jeremy struggled under my weight as he carried me through the room, unlike Ethan, who would just pick me up and toss me over his shoulder as though I were light as a feather. As he placed my body down onto something soft, I let go, falling into a frigid abyss of nothingness.

  * * *

  My eyes fluttered open to the warmth of the sun, gently touching my face. I squinted around the room. I was in the living room, on the sofa, fully dressed. Jeremy had pulled a chair up next to me and was sound asleep, his hand rested over mine, protecting me the only way he could.

  Poor Jeremy. What he must have thought when he found me. What he must have seen. This was the first time since he’d arrived that I was actually grateful for his presence. If he wasn’t here, if I were all alone in the world, with nobody to turn to, I would find a way to disappear. But I couldn’t hurt Jeremy that way. No. I had to force myself to push forward, continue to live. And, more than anything, I had to figure out a way to reach Ethan.

  I slowly slipped my hand out from underneath his, then got up off the sofa and made my way into the kitchen. I was mentally dizzy, like everything that had happened last night had been a dream. I stood and stared at the pantry door.

  The memories of Ethan being forced through that door, the tips of our fingers barely touching as they dragged him away from me, and his face…twisted with pain as his dark eyes, veiled by moisture, called to me, pleaded with me not to give up.

  I stepped in front of the door and placed my hand on the smooth surface as the tears streamed down my face. He was gone. The only thing that they’d left me with was his essence and the pictures of our time together branded into my mind. They didn’t know him, didn’t understand him. Not like me. I knew the pain he’d suffered. I knew his past, his losses, the future he’d envisioned before he’d found me. Everything had changed when he’d found me—changed for him—for me. They’d taken everything that was good with them. I leaned against the door to steady myself as the walls seemed to close in on me, suffocating me.

  “Allie, I’m sorry,” a soft voice whispered from somewhere behind me.

  My breath halted in my throat as I spun around, searching for the location of the voice. Kiera stood in the corner of the room, next to the fridge, staring at me. Her dark eyes, outlined by her thick, black lashes, appeared sad.

  “How long have you been here?” I questioned angrily, knowing she had something to do with this.

  “Since this morning. I walked in right after Jeremy found you on the floor.” Her once smooth, porcelain face was now creased at the forehead. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d probably be in the hospital right now. You’re lucky I talked him out of it.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “How do you know Jeremy?” I asked, pressing the soles of my feet against the tiled floor, refusing to close any of the distance between us, but willing to fight if it came down to it. I knew how she felt about me. She’d made it quite clear to Ethan that night in my kitchen.

  Kiera rolled her eyes and sighed as she hoisted herself up on the kitchen counter. “Relax, Allie.” A smile played at the corner of her lips. “I can feel your negativity toward me. And I want to assure you that I’m not the enemy here.”

  “How do you know Jeremy?” I repeated, the words charging through my teeth. I still didn’t trust her. Not until she gave me a reason to.

  “Like Ethan, I didn’t go back to Asteria. I’ve been hanging around, pretending to be a normal mortal teen. I met him at the pool hall. Or rather, found him at the pool hall.” She smiled casually. “At first I was just curious. Even though I was a mortal once, I kinda forgot what it was like to be one, especially,”—she shrugged—“a teenager.”

  “You’re the one he was rushing out to meet.” I shook my head, not wanting to believe the truth even though it was staring back at me. Did Ethan know this? And if he did, why would he keep it from me?

  “I’m sorry, Allie. Really, I am.” She dropped her eyes to the floor. “I just had to find out what Ethan could see in a mortal…”

  “So you experimented on my best friend?” I raised my voice, totally forgetting that Jeremy was sleeping in the next room.

  “He’s so close to you…so I figured he was like you. You know, with the powers and all.”

  “But he’s not!” I argued, feeling the heat rush into my face. The last thing I wanted was for him to be a part of this. “He’s nothing like me. He’s normal. Jeremy doesn’t even know about me. Nobody does, except you and Ethan.” I closed my eyes to try to cage my anger. “All you’re going to do is hurt him, Kiera,” I told her as I opened my eyes. “They’re going to come for you like they came for Ethan. You know that, don’t you?”

  “They already have. Last night.” She shook her head. “I felt them coming and I took off. I think they came for me before they came and took Ethan.”

  I swallowed hard, not wanting to believe what I was hearing. “And you couldn’t come and give him some kind of warning?”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered again. “I was scared. I didn’t want to be shut out from the mortal world. I can’t be shut out.” Kiera looked up, her eyes pleading with mine. “Please, Allie. You have no idea what it’s like to be like me. Frozen at seventeen, watching from the background as all your friends grow old and die, being forced to disappear into a strange world with strange people. People who don’t even understand you. Sometimes it’s like they have no feelings, including love. I may have only known Jeremy for a couple of weeks, but he’s breathed new life into me.”

  “I…I don’t understand,” I whispered, my face beginning to cool as I forgot about Jeremy for a second. “Ethan said your kind were peaceful. That’s why they wanted to separate themselves from people like me—the mortals—because we’d turned so negative.”

  “They try to think of themselves as peaceful, and some of them really are, but there are others, others who conspire to rip the throne from underneath Marcus. Ethan doesn’t notice any of that. Well, at least he didn’t before, because between you and me, he was starting to act just like them. But when all Asterians were all called back and he and I stayed instead, that’s when he met you. And you…you brought out a side of Ethan I had never seen.” She smiled. “You woke him up, Allie. Brought him back to life. Something not even I could do.”

  “We brought each other back to life,” I corrected her. “And yet I couldn’t save him.” The thought brought back the tears.

  “Don’t you see? You did save him,” she reassured me. “If he hadn’t found you, who knows what he would’ve become. Besides, don’t give up hope. With your power, you may be able to reopen the portal.”

  “My power.” I laughed at her. “My power is useless.”

  “If it were so useless, why do you think they took him away? Why do you think they separated the two of you?” she asked, raising her brows.

  “Because of the Darkness.” My body trembled slightly at the thought of all that negativity.

  “Please,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t tell me Ethan believes in that too? I think one of the Asterians conjured up that story to bring fear to the people.�
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  “No, I felt it. I encountered it in the tunnels at Fort Delaware.”

  She bit her bottom lip as she gazed at me. “I don’t know, Allie. Anything could’ve been lurking down there. I just don’t believe it. I think they’re scared of you.”

  “Me?” I stifled a laugh. “Why in the world would they feel threatened by me?”

  “Because they know how powerful you are. They can feel it. Ethan could feel it. And I can feel it now, but it’s stronger when you’re around him. A lot stronger.” She grinned. “And I think,”— her smile grew wider—“your power may be strong enough to open the portal.”

  “Why do you want the portal open so badly? I mean, what’s in it for you? I thought you didn’t like it there.” I watched her cautiously, trying to pick up any negative vibes from her energy. There weren’t any.

  “Let’s just say that I’m just as protective of Ethan as you are of Jeremy,” she said. “Ethan and I have this bond, since we’re among the few immortals that originated in this world. I can feel his pain, and I can feel yours. You truly love each other. So, it’s my job to bring you two back together, except I’m not powerful enough to open the portal. But with a little training, I’m sure you could get in.”

  “Yeah, right,” I said as my tension lifted. I walked toward her. “Ethan couldn’t even help me. What makes you think you’ll do any better?”

  “Because I’m not Ethan, so I’ll be less distracting to you.”

  The heat tingled in my cheeks as I opened up the fridge and reached for a can of soda.

  “Allie…Kiera, do you guys know each other?” Jeremy asked from behind me.

  I froze, my hand still wrapped around the soda. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, as I stood there, my body concealed by the refrigerator door, knowing that Jeremy was behind me, waiting. What was I supposed to tell him? I knew I couldn’t continue to lie to him. Not now. Not with Kiera in the picture. And definitely not since Ethan was gone.

  So I turned around to face him. His big brown eyes, so innocent, so clueless, were awaiting an answer. And since Kiera had no intention of answering him, I put the soda back, stepped forward, and said, “We need to talk.”

  Chapter 16

  Jeremy sat beside me on the sofa, his eyes focused on the blank TV screen. I wanted him to look at me, wanted him to say something, anything. Even if it was to tell me that he didn’t believe a word I said—that immortals don’t exist, people can’t have powers, and that I wasn’t sane. I could take it. Really, I could. But what I couldn’t take was his absolute silence.

  And just as I was about to stand up and walk out of the room to avoid the awkwardness, he turned his head and looked at me with eyes so full of pain, so full of sadness, that his expression crushed my insides. “How long have you known?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

  “About what?” I wasn’t sure which part he was talking about, since I’d laid almost everything out for him. Everything except Kiera’s immortality and Ethan’s abduction.

  “About you, Allie. About your powers.” He spat out the words, finally unleashing the anger he’d been holding back.

  I gazed at the floor, feeling small and pathetic and like the worst best friend in the entire world. All he had done for me, all the times he had been there for me, and yet I’d betrayed him. All I ever thought about was myself, about how I felt, not what Jeremy would have felt when he found out I was hiding a secret from him.

  “Since I was ten…right after my dad left,” I mumbled, the tears welling up in my eyes. For someone who refused to cry about things in the past, I sure was making up for it lately.

  Jeremy got up off the couch without saying another word. I watched him, bleary-eyed, as he disappeared out of the room, headed for the backyard. I wanted to run to him to tell him how sorry I was, that I never ever meant to hurt him, but I knew he wouldn’t listen to me right now. I had to give him time, something everyone else had, something I never had enough of.

  Kiera scooted over next to me and placed her hand on mine. “He’s going to be okay, Allie. He needs to absorb everything you’ve said to him. You know how difficult it is to understand.”

  “I don’t know…I think I really made a mess of things this time.” I shook my head, my voice cracking and breaking as my throat tightened.

  “I’ll go see if I can talk to him—try to make him understand.” Her hand slipped away from mine and I watched her as she left to find Jeremy.

  Why did my life keep falling apart? Did fate have something against me? I brought my head to my knees, choking on big, chest-heaving sobs, as I tried to stop the walls from closing in on me. If I was so powerful, like Ethan swore I was, then why couldn’t I hold on to anyone? I should have been able to save Ethan, should have been able to prevent Jeremy from walking away from me. But I couldn’t do any of that. How? How could I be so strong when I felt so weak, so powerless? Unable to control anything that happened in my life?

  “Allie.” Kiera had returned. She gently rubbed her hand over my back. “Jeremy wants to talk to you.”

  I slid off the sofa and walked through the kitchen and out the back door, my eyes still burning as I forced the tears away.

  Jeremy stood at front of the pond, his back to me as he gazed over the water. I fought the urge to run, to get away, because I needed him more now than I ever did before.

  “I’m not sure what hurts me the most,” he said, his voice sounding distant. “The fact that you’ve intentionally hidden something from me, something that I could have possibly helped you with, or the pain that you’re in now.”

  “Jeremy, this isn’t about me anymore. Before…maybe. But right now, I’m trying to hold onto anything I have left. And apparently I suck at it.”

  He turned around. His eyes stabbed into mine. “I want to know everything. Everything about you and about where Ethan went. Because I know he didn’t just up and leave you. Something happened to him; something happened to you. No. More. Secrets.”

  I swallowed hard, knowing this was what I’d been waiting for. Whatever I said to him now—no matter how crazy or completely unreal it sounded—would be my one and only chance to make things right. I took a deep breath. “You’re right,” I exhaled. “Ethan didn’t just leave. He was taken away by the others.”

  “Others?” He squinted at me.

  “Other immortals, or other Asterians, as they call themselves. It’s against their rules for him to be with me, to be with any mortal. Anyone from our dimension. They’re afraid of us, but Kiera thinks they’re even more terrified of me because I’m able to manipulate energy.”

  “Wait—how does Kiera fit into this?”

  “She’s one of them.” I flinched as I popped the pin out of the grenade, mentally preparing myself for the explosion of words, the artillery of accusations, everything I wanted to avoid.

  “She’s immortal?” he asked, then narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “Did you tell her to hook up with me?”

  “No, Jeremy, not at all.” I shook my head, denying any involvement in what she had done. “I didn’t even know she was the girl you had met. I’m so sorry she got you involved in this Jeremy, sorry for everything. I never intended for you to get hurt.”

  He lifted his eyes to mine. “But I would’ve been involved anyway, even if Kiera hadn’t shown up at the pool hall. I love you. You’re my best friend. I could never let anything happen to you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  I couldn’t believe he could be so forgiving, especially with all I had done to him, all I put him through. Even now he was still willing to protect me. “Really?” I asked.

  “Really,” he said, taking a step toward me, closing the gap between us.

  I threw my arms around his neck and smiled, relieved that I had managed to salvage at least one very important thing in my life. “So, do you forgive me?”

  “I’m still working on it.” He was smiling too. “Now, let’s get inside and figure all this out.”

  We brok
e away from our embrace, but Jeremy kept one of his arms around my waist as he towed me back to the house.

  Kiera’s face lit up when he and I stepped into the kitchen together. “So, everything’s good between you two?” Her dark eyes widened as she lifted her brows.

  “Sort of.” I pulled away from Jeremy and headed over to the fridge to retrieve the soda I’d abandoned earlier. “But now it’s your turn to apologize to him for what you did,” I said, popping open the tab on the can and leaning back against the counter.

  Her eyes zoomed in on Jeremy, who had taken a seat at the kitchen table. “I’m sorry. I meant no harm. I was just curious,” she told him, pulling herself up on the countertop.

  “Curious about what?” he asked.

  “Curious to know why Ethan was so attracted to a mortal.” Her eyes drifted to the floor as she swung her legs from side to side.

  I pretended to sip my soda to hide the laughter that was bubbling up inside of me. She may have been immortal, but she still carried her mortal emotions.

  “And what did you find out?” The edge of Jeremy’s lip lifted, a gesture she would have noticed if she would’ve just looked up at him.

  “That mortals aren’t entirely bad.” She continued to move her legs while her hands gripped the edge of the counter. “That some of them are really cute and forgiving and kind and fun to be around.”

  “And?” he pressed, his lips finally stretching into a full-blown smile.

  “And…” She hesitated, then glanced up, her ivory cheeks tinted red. “Really, really good kissers.”

  My eyes widened and the soda nearly slipped through my hands. “Omigod! You two kissed?”

  “Of course we kissed, Allie,” Jeremy said, laughing. “You didn’t think you and Ethan were the only ones having fun, did you?”

  “Let me guess, she did that thing with her eyes to lure you in?” I asked sarcastically, wishing Ethan were here so I could be taken back into our own little world.