“You have forgotten nothing, Jake Stevens. You are exactly where you are supposed to be. You are with exactly who you should be with. Let go of your paltry human worries. Join with me, and you will exist for an eternity free of pain and hunger. All you must do is let go of your human thoughts, and I will make you a part of my inner circle. I will bless you with immortality. You and beautiful Berrach will rule this dark planet for me as I move to another. You would enjoy that, would you not? You will be a king, an imperial ruler of all the land with the comely Berrach at your side. And nothing will ever be able to hurt you again.”
No more worries. No more pain. No more hunger. I wanted that. I wanted to feel healthy again. A whole, immortal being. I want to be whole again.
“Yes. Whole. You will be whole. Let go, Jake Stevens. Open your door. Be here now.”
Be here now. It sounded like good advice. It sounded like … like something I’d heard before. Like something someone had told me. Someone …
Emily. Emily had talked about that. “Be in the now,” she had said. She told me it was something Madame Wong had taught her. And she helped others. There were others. We were a … a tribe.
The Lucent Tribe. Tristan and Greta. Ashley, Tanner and John. And …
Emily.
I thought of her, and it was as if I had a tickle in my brain. No, it was an itch, a powerful tickling itch that overcame me.
Emily?
There was something that I was supposed to remember.
Emily.
I could see her in my mind. Her face was radiant and surrounded by a luminous golden light. Her eyes were two brilliant emeralds, and she smiled at me.
Emily. I love Emily.
“But the witch does not love you. Do you want to live a tortured life? The despair of knowing that while you loved her with all of your human heart, that whore chose another?”
It doesn’t change the way I feel. I still love her. I’ve always loved her. I will always love her.
Love. That’s what I know. I know love.
My eyes had been half closed as I concentrated on my daydream of Emily. I didn’t want to open them for fear that I’d lose that image and sink back into darkness. But my half-open eyes saw something. It was in stark contrast to everything else around me. It was shining and golden white. It hovered before me and looked familiar. I’m tired. My overwrought mind is seeing things.
I forced my eyes to open wider and focus.
It was a person. Someone I knew. She was there, but not wholly.
How is this possible?
She smiled at me. It was the kindest, warmest smile I’d ever seen. It was the kind of smile that reaches down inside you and warms you from the inside out and makes you feel, if only for a little while, like you are wholly and unconditionally loved. My mom gave me that smile, though since Ciardha arrived I’d seen it a lot less than I used to.
It didn’t matter what had happened before. All that mattered was that Emily was there. Somehow she was there. And her smile burrowed right down into me and showed me the truth of it. She loved me. Wholly and unconditionally, she loved me.
I heard her voice in my head.
“You remember, don’t you?”
Yes, I remember.
“Remember.”
I remember.
31. Let Me In
Emily
One minute I was with Madame Wong in the Netherworld. The next I was with Jake in our world.
At least the essence of me was with Jake. My body still remained in the Netherworld, tended to by Madame Wong (I hoped). But the inner being – my Anam – was with my poor, broken Jake.
Unfettered by my human body and mind, free of mortal constraints, I knew instantly the state of Jake’s mind and body. He was injured badly. He was losing blood both externally and internally. Ciardha had pushed him to his mortal limits. If I didn’t do something soon, Jake would be lost to me.
Stay with me, Jake. Remember.
He was remembering. He was on the brink of turning, but he’d held on. For now, anyway.
It’s about love, Jake. Remember love.
His body convulsed with the pain of Ciardha’s Dark Energy volts. If I had been in my human body with my human mind, I probably would have thought too hard about what I should do and worried too much about what was right and what was wrong.
But in that ephemeral state of being, I felt myself act without thought. I knew only that he was in pain and that I could make it stop.
I had to make myself visible to him. He had to see me and know that I was there, not just a figment of his imagination. I focused on my corporeal form and was pleased to see my Lucent body take shape. I reached out my hand to Jake, and I saw it as a golden light in the shape of my hand.
Jake opened his eyes and focused on me. He could see me. He knew me. His lips turned up in a smile, and his face softened.
I bent down to him and touched my Lucent lips to his. I felt the warmth of his skin and the softness of his lips. I could taste the blood on his mouth. My golden lips formed of pure Lucent Energy softly kissed his warm, pliant human lips.
Remember love.
He must have been able to feel me because he responded and kissed me back. My Lucent heart beat faster, and my energy soared. I didn’t have to see myself to know that I was becoming more substantial with each passing moment.
I wrapped my golden arms around him and enveloped him. I pulled his broken body to my Lucent one and imagined his bones healed, his organs repaired, his vessels undamaged. I kissed him and held him and imagined him whole.
I felt his arms reach for me and hold my arms. Even though I was nothing more than an energy being, he could feel me.
His passion rose to meet mine. We feasted on the kiss and allowed it to fill us from the inside out. We were entwined, arms and legs wrapped around each other. I felt the firmness of his chest pressed against the softness of mine, his heart picking up speed and strength. I fed him Lucent Energy through my kiss, and he allowed my love to heal him.
“Remember,” I thought to him.
“I remember,” he thought back. “Love. I love you.”
“And I, you. Love, Jake. Love creates Lucent Energy. Let’s make more of both.”
His arms encircled my Lucent form, and he pulled me to him more tightly. I could feel the heat rising from his body. I could see his aura grow. When I’d arrived, his aura had been dark, almost completely black. He had only a thin halo of dark green around his head.
But as we embraced, his aura had grown brighter and brighter. He was surrounded by a large halo of bright green light extending out from his body at least two feet.
“My Lucent love,” I thought.
“My angel.”
I was vaguely aware that Fanny was there with us. The body that used to be Fanny, anyway. She stood still and silent, watching us. Ciardha had lied to Jake, of course. Not just about me and Tristan, but about everything. When people were turned, they weren’t free of pain and worry and fear. Fanny’s body was full of fear. I could sense her easing herself backward, away from the scene. It made me wonder if there was a part of Fanny left. Maybe she wasn’t entirely dark after all. Why else would the sight of my Lucent body make her so uncomfortable?
Ciardha bellowed. “No! You will not defeat me with that puny Lucent body. I am a god! I destroyed Brighid, and I will destroy you too.”
“Jake, don’t be afraid. I’m coming in, okay?”
“Coming in …”
Before he could answer or have time to think about what I’d thought to him, I allowed my essence to flow once more as a vapor. I again let go of corporeal form and moved like smoke into Jake.
I poured into him through his nostrils, his mouth and his ears. I engulfed him and became him. Past the sinews and tissues, the blood and the bone, there was a Lucent body. I sought that body out and poured myself into it like one glass of water being poured into the other.
It was like it had been when I was with my mom in the Akashic Field. J
ake and I were merged at the soul level. There was no Jake or Emily. No him or her. It was only one luminous soul.
I knew all that he knew. I experienced all that he had experienced. His pain was mine. His fear my own. And his love. Oh, his love! It was great and boundless and beautiful. And it was mine as well. That love swelled me from the inside out. I could feel it expand and grow me.
We were changing. I didn’t know if Jake’s body would survive it. I didn’t know if I’d survive it and be able to reunite with my body, still tethered to me but in another dimension. But in the moment it didn’t seem to matter. We were at last as one.
32. Let’s Make More
Jake
Remember.
I did remember. I remembered the spicy smell of her and the way her nose had a crease across the bridge when she laughed. I remembered how she had gently helped all of the Lucent Tribe to protect themselves from the shadows and how she didn’t give up on finding her dad or getting Fanny back no matter how much the odds seemed stacked against it. And I remembered how the mere thought of holding her in my arms was the only thing that I’d needed to keep the darkness from overcoming me.
She was a golden light that hovered before me. I didn’t know if it was real or a dream. Or maybe I had finally died and this was my heaven. I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. All I wanted was to feel her lips against mine, my arms enfolding her to me, our bodies pressed together. And I wanted to stay that way for the rest of time.
She told me not to be afraid.
I fear no more.
She said she was coming in.
Coming in?
My lips were pressed to hers, our bodies entwined in a heady embrace that left me at once breathless and also energized beyond anything I’d ever experienced. And then she was no longer above me or on me or around me.
Emily was within me.
“Love.”
It was a whisper in my ear, an understanding deep within me.
Love was all that we had. Love was all we had ever needed.
“Let’s make more.”
And we did.
33. We are One
Emily and Jake
Neither Emily nor Jake existed any longer. We were one being formed of pure Lucent Energy.
We didn’t have love. We didn’t know love.
We were love.
Like it was in the Akashic Field, human senses were of no consequence. There was only knowing and feeling.
We felt alive. We felt full. We felt large and powerful.
Human beings surrounded us, but we did not see their hair or bodies or eyes. We saw only their energy signatures.
Most of the energies were dark and without Lucent Energy. And in the center of them all was a swirling vortex of blackness.
Ciardha.
His energy was large and formidable, and it was a black hole of swirling energy. And like a black hole, it fed on any light that came near it, sucking the Lucent Energy into his event horizon and turning what was once light into dark. He devoured the light, and it was lost to the world.
But there were a few beings with some Lucent Energy shining forth from them. One in particular caught our attention.
We didn’t need to read her mind like Emily had done in human form. We effortlessly stretched out to her. We had only to desire to be with her, and we instantaneously were. No travel or movement required. No effort needed.
In less than the time it takes to think a thought, our energy reached out to her like a golden thread. We gently caressed her cheek and found her respond with curiosity. We wove ourselves into a blanket loomed of pure Lucent Energy, and we wrapped ourselves around her.
She had been Fanny; then she had been called Berrach. She had known the light of the Goddess. She had been a faithful friend and a loving daughter. She had glowed with Lucent Energy that had been devoured by Ciardha.
Fanny, are you still in there?
Her voice was small and shaky, but it called out to us. “Emily?”
We weren’t sure we could produce an audible sound, but we decided to try.
“We are the Goddess.” The voice was melodious yet thunderous. It filled the space and caused the structure surrounding us to shake.
“But I see … I thought I saw her face. There … there it is again.”
“The Goddess is Emily. Emily is the Goddess as are all Lucent beings. We are one.”
Her aura brightened, yet dark smudges still marred the beauty of her Lucent core. As her energy began to brighten, Ciardha drew near, and as he did, her energy once again began to smudge to darkness.
“Impressive theatrics, Miss Adams. Did Madame Wong teach you that? I was not aware that the old hag knew such tricks.”
“We are the Goddess. We are Lucent. We are one with all Lucent beings.”
“Enough!” Ciardha bellowed. His voice rattled objects on the shelves and tables in the space and shattered a few windows, allowing the cold, outside air to chill the room.
Ciardha fell to his knees, and a loud scream escaped his lips. He grabbed his head with his hands as he shrieked in pain.
“Are you doing this to him?” Fanny asked.
“No,” we said. “The human body that he occupied is dying.”
Ciardha fell the rest of the way over onto the floor. His body twitched and convulsed as he screamed. In an instant, the painful shrieks ended as the body that Ciardha had stolen exploded into a fine spray of bone, blood and flesh. The beautiful white, marble floor and silk curtains looked as though they had been spray-painted crimson.
A swirling whirlpool of black hovered in the space where Ciardha’s human body had stood. Ciardha’s true form just as we had seen it in the Umbra Perdita replaced his human body. He was a whirling mass of black fire tinged here and there with a blood-red color. Occasionally the black flames would lick out of the whirling blackness, but mostly he looked like a black hole of darkness filling the space.
We felt Ciardha hurl Dark Energy toward us. It was as if we had been hit by a wave. The darkness crept up to us and tried its best to knock us over. But we found that we were like a collection of sand grains on the shore. The wave simply washed over us, and as it did, the Dark Energy was transformed into Lucent Energy.
We did not engage in a war of energy bombs lobbed back and forth. Instead we said, “We love you, Ciardha.” And it was a true statement. Our core held nothing inside but love. “You are a part of us, and we are a part of you. Neither can exist without the other.”
“Mind games are not your thing, sister. Nice try, though. You may have grown strong enough to escape the prison that contained you, but you will find your position on this planet much weakened. While you were a sputtering ember in the Umbra Perdita, I was a busy god. Oh yes, sister, I have been quite busy. I have grown strong feasting on your precious Lucent Energy. You can spout all the lies you want. It will not change the fact that I am far stronger than you.”
“Love does not lie.”
“Love is weak. Lucent Energy is passé. Darkness is the true power. And now that this world has seen the power of Dark Energy, they will not willingly give it up.”
“Hate is not power. Hate is merely the absence of love. All souls long to return to their Lucent state. That is their nature, Ciardha. You could only change that by ripping their Lucent core from them.”
“Darkness is not power, you say? Let us see how weak my Dark Energy has become, shall we?”
Black fire licked out of Ciardha’s whirling form and seized Fanny. Her human body convulsed from the pain, and she fell to the ground, where she writhed, straining against the fire that spread throughout her body.
“Em? I’m … scared,” she choked out. “I don’t have the strength to … fight it. Help me!”
Our Lucent Energy engulfed Fanny in a cocoon of love. Ciardha’s Dark Energy fire was extinguished, severed from Fanny like a machete cutting through a jungle vine. Fanny’s body stopped convulsing. She looked around her and beheld us. Her hands reached out to touch our
face, and we let her.
“Emily … and Jake. You’re both … you’re beautiful.”
“We are Lucent as are you. You, too, are beautiful, Fanny.”
Her lips curved into a smile. Her eyes had been almost black and devoid of light. But they were once again golden brown and shone with the light of her soul.
“Are you forgetting something?” Ciardha thundered. “You may have saved one of your Lucent beings, but I have built an army, dear sister. My last count was over a billion that I have devoured. A billion souls taken from you. And, dearest sister, you have saved but one.”
Ciardha gave a command, and his waiters moved in on Fanny. Dorcha stayed behind Ciardha, neither moving nor making a sound the whole time. She watched in mute ambivalence as Ciardha’s Dark Energy minions surrounded Fanny on all sides.
Even though they had lost the last shred of their luminous energy, we could not kill them. We reached out with our Lucent Energy and wrapped each of the dark creatures in a lasso of brilliant, golden light. Being wrapped in the light made no change in their auras. They were, as we suspected, lost souls. We gathered them together and wrapped them tightly with our Lucent rope. They sneered, struggled, and growled with frustration, but our bonds held fast.
“You cannot tie up an entire planet, sister. And your rope will not last.”
Ciardha hurled a Dark Energy bolt at us. Ciardha’s Dark Energy had no greater effect on us the second time, but his followers were again free and moved in on Fanny.
“Do not be afraid,” we told her.
“Oh, be afraid, Berrach. Be very afraid!” Ciardha thundered. He called for more of his followers to come to his suite.
It was at that point that we felt it. It was palpable and powerful. Something was coming, and it was Lucent.
Fanny fought off two attackers as we turned our attention to the entrance to Ciardha’s chambers. We were filled with a surge of Lucent Energy. The door was busted in, and a throng of Lucent auras entered the room.
“Ciardha, release your prisoners,” shouted a man.
The Akasha Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set: The Complete Emily Adams Series Page 73
