A chocolate muffin appeared beside the cupcake. “I didn’t make this, but they’re pretty good.”
“I was kidding.”
“It’s your birthday, you need something. And calories don’t count on the big day.” She winked. “Come back for seconds later.”
“Thanks, Becci,” Galen said, picking up the cupcake and his coffee. The world spun, he took a deep breath and walked carefully back towards the shop, aware of Rob hovering behind him. “I won’t fall down in the middle of the street.”
“You never know.” His brother opened the shop door and held it as Galen walked in. “Sit down,” Rob said. “I’ll open up. I remember how from before.” He smiled as he set his coffee and muffin on the counter, then opened the curtains and turned on the sign. He walked back over to Galen and leaned against the counter. “Happy birthday.”
“Happy birthday, Brat. I don’t have anything for you, yet. I was planning on shopping yesterday.”
“Galen,” Rob swallowed. “I…” He cleared his throat. “I have my brother back, I don’t need anything else. I don’t have anything for you, either.”
“Will you—can you forgive me?”
“Forgive you?” Rob asked, his eyes clouding. “Galen…”
“I’m sorry, Rob, I shouldn’t ask.”
“Shut up,” Rob snapped. Galen blinked in surprise at his brother’s harsh tone. “You’ve asked me that before, and Galen…”
“Rob…”
“What part of shut up do you not get?” Rob said, his eyes flashing. “You don’t need to ask, you have…I can’t…I thought…It’s me…”
“You aren’t making much sense, Rob.”
Rob took a deep breath. “You died for me, Galen. How can you think…?” Rob shook his head. “I didn’t know, Galen, I didn’t hear that.”
“What?”
“That it was in both of us, that it needed both of us. That you’d die, too. I’ve thought that if I’d just died then, you wouldn’t have.”
Galen shook his head. “I’m sorry. There wasn’t time to tell you. And Rob, I would’ve died, had it been in me or not.”
“You don’t know that, Galen. Your Gift might have…” Rob trailed off.
“It’s our way, isn’t it? Custodes Noctis?” Galen sighed. “I don’t think the Gift would have helped.”
“Galen…” His brother took a deep breath.
“Hey, what kind of coffee you want this morning?” The shop door banged open and Flash came in. He stopped, looking from Galen to Rob and back again. “Oh my god.”
“Flash, this isn’t the best…”
“Oh my god, the brother.” He took three large steps over to Rob and pulled him into a quick embrace. Galen had to chuckle at the look on his brother’s face. “Good to see you, kid,” Flash said, letting go and slapping Rob on the back. “How’d it happen, Galen?”
Galen smiled. “He was in the hospital, Mike called.”
“You and hospitals, kid. How I saw you last time.” Flash smiled at Rob.
“What?” Rob looked at Galen. “Galen?”
“This is Flash. He plays bass in The Urban Werewolves.”
“Hi,” Rob said.
“Hi, he says. Damn, Galen.” He looked at Galen. “Just damn.”
“Yeah.” Galen smiled at his friend.
“You were responsible for one of the biggest scares I’ve ever had, kid,” Flash said to Rob.
“Flash, shut up,” Galen said.
“What do you mean?” Rob asked.
“Shut up, please, shut up.”
“We were playing a big party,” Flash said, ignoring Galen. “We were taking a break, kicking back, having a drink, you know. Chatting. There was this girl…Never mind. Galen and I were talking and all of a sudden…”
“Shut up!” Galen practically shouted.
“He just drops. Eyes roll up in his head and he was down. It took a second for it to register, you know. Then I checked him, I think one of the girls was screaming. Galen wasn’t breathing and I couldn’t find a pulse, but I’m not very good at that. I was getting ready to start CPR and he takes a big breath. A few seconds later he was awake, but disoriented and muttering about ‘got to get to Rob.’ I had no idea what he was talking about.”
“Galen?” Rob turned to him.
“The car wreck, three years ago. I’m not sure where you were when it happened, but I can tell you the moment your heart stopped for a few seconds.” Galen tried smiling. “Flash insisted on coming with me.”
“Yeah, like you could’ve driven yourself anywhere at that point,” Flash snorted.
“Coming with you?” Rob said softly. “You were there. I thought…You were there. It wasn’t a miracle recovery, it was you.”
“Yeah, I…I should have stayed, but…”
“You were worried. You needed to stay away. You needed to stay dead. That won’t work anymore.” Rob frowned. “You told me, when you saw me the other day the block shattered, why not then?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I might know,” Rob said with a smile.
“Coffee?” Flash said. “No? Sarah’s coming on, I’ll be back.”
“That’s a strategic retreat if I ever saw one.” Rob glanced at Galen.
“Probably, but he does have the hots for Sarah. She comes on about now, and she and Becci work together for awhile.” Galen looked away. “You have to go, Rob.”
“What?”
“You have to go, It’s coming for us again. For me. You have to go. If this is the Legacy…”
“It is, Galen, I’m sure of that.”
“Then you have to go, Rob, you have to. We can’t be the two that bring that thing back, let It walk again.”
“We already are.”
“No, no, you have to go.”
“You know I can’t, Galen. I appreciate the offer, but you know I can’t.” Rob smiled. “I did suspect you’d try and send me away, once I knew you were alive.”
“Gods, Rob.” Galen sighed, suddenly understanding. “You…the Ritual of Swords. You forced it. You knew.”
Rob shrugged. “I thought you might try and send me away, once the euphoria passed. I have no intention of going, Galen, sorry. We needed to perform the ritual anyway. It was time.” He laughed. “Actually, well past time.”
“We can break the ritual.”
“Do you think you can…? Galen…” Rob looked at him. “It’s too late, anyway.”
“No, you can go.” Galen grabbed Rob’s arm, his brother tried to pull away, but it was too late for that, too. He stopped and looked at Rob in horror. “What did you do?”
“It has to be in both of us, Galen.”
“No, Rob, no. If this is the Legacy…”
“It is, that’s what I’m telling you, this is the Legacy. I thought it was, I’ve thought that for years. What I remembered, what happened, what…” He sighed.
“But it can’t be us, we can’t be the ones that free that thing…”
“It was mistranslated, somewhere along the line the saga became corrupted.”
“Someone’s corrupt?” Flash said, coming back in. “Sweet. I love corruption.” He put three coffees down on the counter. “You both look like you need more. I had Sarah make them with an extra shot in each.”
“Is that my usual with an extra shot or your usual with an extra shot?” Galen asked.
“What?” Rob said, sniffing the coffee.
“I like my coffee a little stronger than Galen,” Flash said, slapping Galen on the back. Galen stumbled. Flash and Rob grabbed his arms and led him to the stool. “What’s going on?” Flash asked, frowning with concern.
“I’m okay,” Galen grumbled.
“Right, okay, uh huh.” Flash picked up his coffee. “You believe he’s okay?”
“No, not at all,” Rob said. He handed Galen a coffee and looked at him.
“Rob,” Galen sighed, and took a sip of his coffee. “How many shots are in here, Flash?”
“Oh, I don�
��t know, eight or nine probably.” He shrugged. “It’s good for you. It’ll put hair on your chest.”
“It’ll put hair on my tongue.”
“That too.” Flash grinned. He looked from one to the other. “I’m glad you’re here, kid.”
“Why?” Rob asked, sipping his coffee and making a face. “Yikes.”
“I’ve been worried,” Flash said, dragging a stool out of the back and sitting down.
“Worried?” Galen looked at Flash. “About what?”
Flash frowned. “Well…”
“This isn’t one of your ‘I’m worried about you because you aren’t partying’ things, is it, Flash?”
“Let him talk, Galen,” Rob said quietly. Galen glanced at his brother. Rob was watching Flash’s face with the unfocused look that meant he was using the Sight.
“I’ve had this funny feeling lately, and this guy was hanging around your shop—once in the morning and once at night. Then that thing with your chest the other day. I know it gets bad around this time of year, but you’ve never been so bad I had to fetch the meds for you.” He paused. “And I, uh…”
“Are you blushing?” Galen chuckled.
“Probably. I had a friend do a reading, you know.”
“Tarot?” Rob asked.
Flash shook his head. “No, she uses Runes. It was a little vague.”
“Runes usually are.”
“But it was something along the lines of death and destruction and end of the world stuff.”
“I told you that strip club would be the end of you.” Galen tried laughing. His brother and his friend frowned at him.
“The reading was for Galen, wasn’t it, Flash?” Rob said, looking at Flash.
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to think of a way to bring it up, without sounding crazier than usual.”
“Flash?” Galen asked, looking at his friend with surprise.
“Sorry, man, I…” Flash shrugged. “Then the brother is here? I’m worried. I talked to Mike and Rhiannon, too.”
“You’ve all been keeping an eye on me. Damn.” Galen stood, steadied himself on the shelf for a minute and paced away. He sighed, it was hard to make a dramatic exit when you had to wait for the world to stop spinning. He walked behind the curtains at the back of the shop and sat down at the table. Galen could hear Rob and Flash talking, their voices low, intense. A minute later Rob came back.
“Flash is going to keep an eye on the shop so we can talk.”
“Rob, I don’t want to talk. We’ve talked enough. I…” Galen put his head in his hand. “Coming back from the dead was a mistake. I should have healed you and left like before.”
“You said the block shattered before you healed me.”
“It did. I couldn’t stop it. I’m not sure why.”
“I might know why.”
“You said that before, Rob. What? And why, damn it, Rob, why?”
“Why did I say it?” Rob looked at him.
“No, why did you…how did you?”
“Oh.” Rob looked away, staring out the window on the door. “It has to be in both of us, Galen. You said that. I didn’t know, not until now. I knew you wouldn’t…”
“Let you take part of that thing into yourself? You’re right.” Galen could feel anger simmering, threatening to boil over. “You act like you had this all planned out, but until I touched the girl, It wasn’t in me, not like now. It’s been a little worse since Dad and Bobby died, when It came for me that time.”
“Galen,” Rob took a deep breath. “I don’t think It came for you, not that night. I’m pretty sure it thought you were dead until that moment.”
“What?” Galen asked, aghast, five years of guilt pressing against his heart.
“It wanted Keepers of the Emrys line, Galen. As far as It knew there were only two left.”
“Dad and Bobby,” Galen whispered. “It came for them.”
“I think so. It fits with what I’ve uncovered.” Rob looked at him. “After hearing what happened to you ten years ago, knowing what happened to me. Yes, Galen. It came for them, not you.”
“I thought…It was our birthday…”
“It was their birthday, too,” Rob said gently. “It wasn’t expecting to find you, It wanted them, hoping they might be enough to let It walk.”
“You say that like you don’t think it would’ve worked.”
“I don’t think it would, it’s what I was telling you, about the Legacy.”
“We can’t be that pair of Keepers, Rob, we can’t. It can’t be us that frees that thing…”
“From the prison the first Keeper, the first Emrys, trapped It in?” Rob shook his head. “I’ve wondered how Dad and Bobby missed that. The sagas say It was imprisoned in a lesser demon, possibly a wood hag. Until last night I thought they hadn’t known, but they did, they suspected even before the second ritual, when you blocked Dad’s healing.”
“Suspected?”
“That it would be you and I…”
“No, Rob.” Galen was shaking his head, trying to deny it, terrified his brother was right.
“They were right, but Galen, they were wrong, too,” Rob said, meeting his eyes.
“They shouldn’t have brought me back, they should have left me dead.”
“That’s not it. They should have let it happen, let the Legacy begin.”
“We can’t be the two that release that thing, Rob,” Galen insisted.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, we already are.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was set into motion then, Galen, ten years ago. We have to finish it, the Legacy.” Rob sighed. “We, you and I, have to finish it.”
“Rob?” Galen asked, letting his hand rest on his brother’s arm so he would know the truth.
“Galen?”
“Is that why you’re here? Now?”
“Yes,” Rob said quietly.
“You said you were here because of a call from a friend.”
Rob shrugged. “He did call.”
“You said he told you to come.”
Another shrug and a wry smile. “I lied.”
Silence stretched between them for a long moment. Galen looked at Rob, fighting a growing wave of panic. He could sense his brother’s calm certainty, his determination. Galen pushed himself up from the table and walked to look out the back window.
“Galen?” Rob asked.
“Rob,” Galen began. He sighed, shaking his head. Something dark flitted at the edge of his vision. He turned his head to look, but nothing was in the parking lot but their two jeeps. “Why are you here?”
“Galen…”
“Why?” he asked again, aware of the first hint of simmering anger bubbling in his chest.
“The Legacy,” Rob said quietly.
“What?”
“I’m here to fulfill the Legacy, Galen. It’s why I…”
“What?” Galen whispered, the anger boiling over. He turned to face his brother. “You’re here to do what?”
“Galen…”
“I died to stop that. You know I hated Dad at first for saving me? I was so terrified that I was the one who’d let that thing loose on the world again. I tried to die again, but Dad blocked that too, like he blocked our bond. I couldn’t…I tried…I didn’t want to become…” Galen stopped, the anger pressing against his chest. “Dreading what would happen, and then losing Dad and Uncle Bobby. To stop the Legacy from happening. Denying what I was, who I was supposed to be. Ten years, Rob, ten. With that ache of the broken bond throbbing in my chest every damn day. And now you’re back and you want to let that all happen? Make everything I did…” He picked up a jar from the shelf and threw it against the wall, watching as it shattered.
The scar was suddenly awake, twisting in his chest, the thing resting near his heart purring with joy as his rage reached It. Galen closed his eyes and pressed his hand to his chest.
“Soon, soon, my Emrys Keeper. Soon we will walk together,” the voice
whispered. “We will Become. See, see who we are.” The vision unraveled, pictures playing in his mind like a slowly unfolding horror film. Rob lashed to a stone altar, covered in blood, something dark hovering over his body. Galen saw that it was himself there with blood on his hands. The vision shifted, something ripped through Galen’s chest, out of his body, exploding into the night, a shadow rising above them both, roaring jubilant defiance. “No,” he groaned. “Never.” Black fire was consuming him, burning him away.
“Galen,” a soft voice said, breaking through the vision. Something that felt like the gentle drops of a spring rain washed over him, slowly dousing the fire. “Galen?” The soft voice silenced the other that was screaming with glee, driving the vision forward. “Trust me.” The vision was pulled away. “Galen?”
“Oh, gods,” Galen groaned. Awareness was replacing the black-tinged vision, the horror slowly retreating. A warm hand was resting against his forehead, another on his back. He leaned into the support. “We can’t stop it, can we?”
“We don’t want to,” Rob said gently. Galen opened his eyes. He was crouched on the floor, Rob kneeling beside him. Rob eased Galen into a sitting position, guiding him back to rest against the wall. Galen watched as his brother got a bottle of water out of the small fridge, then sat down beside him. “You always drank sparkling water,” Rob said with a smile as he opened the bottle, waiting as the bubbles settled before handing it to Galen.
“Thanks. What happened?”
“When you lost your temper, It found an opening, I knew it was only a matter of time, I was hoping what I did would last a little longer,” Rob said with a grimace. “Sorry.”
“What you did?” Galen looked at his brother. “When you took part of It into yourself?”
“Yes.” Rob met his eyes. “Galen, we have to talk.”
Galen shook his head. “Why, Rob?”
“We have to,” his brother said simply.
“What? No, it can’t be us, we can’t be the two…”
“We always have been, Galen. I think Uncle Bobby was beginning to figure that out.”
“He was always obsessed with the Legacy. I remember grandfather getting into an argument with Bobby when I was nine. Bobby insisted he’d see the Legacy come to fruition in his lifetime.”
The Legacy: A Custodes Noctis Book Page 23
