Enlightenment (Children of Ankh series Book 2)

by Kim Cormack

  Kayn swatted him as she went to grab her own cup of coffee.

  “He might be my new hero,” Zach added.

  As Kayn wandered back to the table with her piping hot java, she glared at Zach and sparred, “I’m glad you find my painful situation hilarious.”

  They were all silent for a second before Melody whispered, “Oh…You’re in so much trouble Brighton.”

  She definitely was… Kayn responded, “Just give me a minute to regain the ability to think straight before we go for breakfast. I’ve got this.” She glanced out the window as she sipped her coffee. Kevin was also sipping a coffee on the steps to his cabin. He’d already changed his clothes. He noticed her watching him through the window and grinned. She smiled back and shook her head. It wasn’t that she thought he was going to try something with her that she didn’t want. She was afraid he was going to try something she wasn’t going to be able to deny she wanted. That reckless early morning kiss had messed with her mind.

  “He’s so much hotter now,” Melody sighed.

  Zach raised his cup towards Mel and teased, “So is Brighton.”

  Kayn got up and wandered away from the table while muttering, “Don’t be gross Zach.” Once she’d turned away from him, she smiled.

  Friendships blossomed between the opposing clans during those next couple of days. After dinner, each night, a small group of second tiers sat by the flickering light of the campfire, singing goofy songs and roasting marshmallows. They’d tell seriously sketchy jokes and share funny tales of crazy days gone by. To boaters, they’d appear to be a random group of teenagers on a camping trip. Kayn grew quite close to a few of the Trinity. The teens from Trinity were a lot like them. Tonight, she was sitting on a log next to Kevin as she had been on every other night. Even though his memories were erased, their connection hadn’t been. It seemed feasible that she would have fallen for him this week, even if they’d never met. Patrick and Stephanie from Triad were goofing around, along with Leanne and her boyfriend Caleb from Trinity. Crap! She was burning her marshmallow. She waved her stick around, attempting to extinguish the flames.

  The flaming marshmallow flew off and landed on Zach’s lap. He shouted, “What in the hell Brighton?”

  This was of course, followed by a chorus of laughter. Stephanie leapt up to save Zach’s unmentionables from their fiery demise. Zach had been spending a lot of time with her.

  Kevin dug through the bag of marshmallows. He placed three of them on his stick, sat back down beside her dangling his marshmallows in the flames. They were listening to Leanne and Caleb’s animated sparring match. Leanne’s British accent was amazing, she was from Whitby, North Yorkshire. Caleb was from Anderson Mill, a small city in Texas, so his was incredible as well. She probably had an accent to from growing up on Vancouver Island. You never hear your own accent. Maybe hers was just as majestic to them?

  Kevin shimmied closer, holding up his stick, he offered, “Have mine. I’ll make more.” When she didn’t reach out and take one right away, he tried to take one off for her while saying, “Ow! Ouch! That was still hot!” He held it up to her mouth and fed it to her. He licked the sticky remnants off his fingers and whispered, “You haven’t let me kiss you again. I’m going to follow you home tonight if you don’t kiss me.”

  She swallowed her mouthful of marshmallow, leaned forward and gave him a sticky marshmallow flavored peck on the lips. He chuckled as he wiped some ash from the campfire off her lip. This kind of intimate gesture was almost worse for her heart. She licked her lips and excused herself, saying she needed to go to the washroom, hoping he’d follow her. She walked back to the cabin, quickly scaled the stairs and disappeared inside. Kayn strolled across the room and closed the bathroom door behind her. She checked herself in the mirror before she left and there were, of course, still ashes on her face. She wiped them off and opened the door, half expecting to see Kevin standing there. He wasn’t. Disappointed, she walked back to the group. She heard his footsteps and grinned as she turned to face him.

  “You and I are taking a quick detour.” Kevin explained as he held out his hand. She laced her fingers with his and he led her towards the dock. The path was lit by paper lanterns that created this soft romantic feeling light. This place looked truly magical at night. The dock was lit by half a dozen flickering torches. Kevin took off his shirt as he stepped onto the dock and tossed it aside. Surely, he wasn’t expecting her to do the same? He left his shorts on as he sprinted down the length of the dock and dove into the water with a soft graceful splash. He wanted to go for a swim. Each day the water had grown warmer and today it hadn’t been nearly as traumatizingly frigid as it had been when they arrived. Kayn pulled her top over her head and dropped it at her feet. She slipped off her shorts and stood there for a second waiting for him to surface. She didn’t want to land on top of him. He surfaced off to the side and she raced down to the end of the dock and dove into the crisp invigorating water. She emerged from the depths and swam back to him under the flickering light of the torches.

  “I need to say something,” he whispered as he pinned her against the ladder. He tenderly caressed her cheek, slowly moved in and seductively kissed her lips. She loved him. It didn’t matter how much she warned herself against it. She was trying to grip the ladder with wet fingertips and slid off. Without missing a beat, he stopped her decent beneath the water’s surface. She looped her arms around his muscular shoulders while managing to wedge one of her heels on the slippery wooden steps behind her. She was so caught up in the intoxicating sensation of his kisses that she almost forgot where they were. He didn’t push things further than a kiss.

  He pulled away stared into her eyes and then leaned in and gave her an affectionate kiss on the temple. He whispered in her ear, “You scare the hell out me Brighton.”

  He’d used the nickname, he’d given her. Kayn responded, “Ditto Smith.” Kevin looked confused for a second and then it occurred to her that might have been the first time he’d heard his mortal last name.

  He didn’t ask her to elaborate. He whispered, “Why do you have to be Ankh? In a few days, I have to let you go.”

  He doused out the flame in her heart with his statement regarding their reality. She squirmed out from between Kevin and the dock and climbed up the ladder as quickly as she could. She had to get away from him. Kayn scrambled to collect her clothes, strewn in haste around the dock. What was she doing? What in the hell was she doing? He wanted her and he sure liked her a lot, but he didn’t understand how much she loved him. How could he? Kayn tugged her shorts back on over her damp underwear and didn’t even bother with her top.

  Kevin followed her back down the dock’s ramp in silence before attempting to retract his statement, “Kayn. Please. Just stop for a second. Talk to me... That didn’t come out right.”

  She paused, without turning around and countered, “No, that’s where you’re wrong. That came out exactly right. I know you want to remember who you were and you need my help. You don’t remember me and I’m still... I’m pretending that you still love me. Can’t you see what I’m doing? The closer we get, the harder this is going to be for me.”

  Kevin took her hand, held it to his heart and pleaded, “I need to remember the version of myself that was worthy of being loved by someone like you. For you to love me, I must have been good and kind. I must have been funny and probably just as strange as you are. Do you have any idea how incredible it would be to remember the guy that got to be with you? The more time I spend with you the more I want what’s impossible. I want to be the guy, I can never be again. I can’t be the nice funny sweet wonderful guy you deserve and survive in Triad. This is my last few days to be anyone you would ever want to spend time with. If you love me, please let me feel loved by you for a few more days. We’ll never have this chance again.”

  Kayn allowed him to tow her into his arms. She hugged him as tightly as she could. He was afraid. Kevin was afraid of what he was going to become. He didn’t have a choice. He
had to assimilate or be destroyed. If he didn’t allow the darkness in, there would never be the opportunity to walk into the light. She’d forgotten that this was about so much more than her wounded ego and broken heart. This was survival of the fittest. She needed him to survive. If he remembered who he was before the Testing, he wouldn’t. There’s no way he would mesh with the rest of his clan psychologically. He would take his whole clan down with him. Kevin was asking her for two more days to pretend. She wasn’t the only one pretending. She whispered in his ear, “I understand. We’re fine, let’s enjoy this time together, while we have it.”

  Kevin held her tighter, visibly afraid to let her go. He whispered, “I must sound like a complete head case.”

  Kayn pulled away from him and repeated his own words, “Being crazy isn’t a deal breaker. I do prefer to be warned up front.”

  Kevin smiled and said, “Everyone’s either crazy or boring.”

  She leaned in, kissed his cheek and started to walk to her cabin. She called back, “You’re definitely not boring!” She could hear his laughter coming from behind her as she walked away.

  Strange Sensations

  Kayn awoke that next morning ready for something. It was an unusual feeling. The second she opened her eyes, her body felt invigorated. She glanced around the room, looking for Melody and Zach but they were already sitting on the front stoop of the cabin drinking coffee.

  Kayn wandered outside into the crisp morning air and questioned, “Do you guys feel that?”

  Zach looked up at her and said, “That’s why we’re up.”

  Kayn disappeared back inside, taking a moment to get dressed and pull her hair back into a ponytail. She turned the tap on, cupped her hands under the stream and splashed cool water on her face. After staring into the sink for a moment, she looked up and for a split second, she could have sworn she saw Chloe’s reflection. Kayn placed her palm against the mirror and smiled. There was a time when her twin’s reflection would have startled her or caused her to jump away. At this moment, she was grateful to see her, even though she knew her mind was only playing tricks on her. Feeling her presence and seeing her thoughts was not the same as seeing her twin’s face. It wasn’t the same as holding her hand or glancing over at the bed next to her and watching her sister in a peaceful slumber. She needed to feel like her twin was still out there in the universe and not just dissolved into nothing as though she’d never existed at all in the real world. It made her feel guilty whenever she thought about it. What was going on? Why would she be able to see Chloe this morning when for so long it’s all she’d needed to see. Was she seeing her sister today because it was close to the end? Was this a last gift from the universe? Her reflection was once again only her own. Before removing her hand from the mirror, she whispered, “I miss you Chloe. I miss you every day.”

  Kayn heard Kevin greeting Melody and Zach on the stoop. She left the bathroom to go see her friends. Kevin was with Caleb and Leanne from Trinity. They’d all felt the same strange sense of urgency this morning when they’d awoken.

  Caleb said aloud what they were all thinking, “Is it the danger of the Testing we’re feeling? I think we start as soon as the others come back. Call it a hunch, but it feels like that is what’s going to happen. What have you guys been told?”

  Kevin spoke up, “It was insinuated to us before they left for the Summit. They said they weren’t allowed to give us any details.”

  As Kayn came down the wooden stairs, she piped in, “Ankh was basically told the same thing. We know the Testing is coming. They just couldn’t give us any details.”

  Leanne interjected, “Trinity was told the same thing.”

  Kevin locked eyes with Kayn as he suggested, “Maybe, our anxiety over the end of the week together and the Testing is being amplified because we’re all in the same place?”

  “These feelings usually mean imminent danger,” Melody stated.

  Kayn took a seat on the stairs as she added, “Maybe they’re coming back a day early? Maybe it’s something else entirely but if something is coming we’re sitting ducks with only a few of us Enlightened. Maybe we should stay in a group today and wait the feeling out?”

  Kevin squeezed onto the stairs beside her and said, “If it is the Testing and they’re coming back early, maybe we should take the opportunity to tie up loose ends. Just enjoy the last moments we have left together.”

  Kayn smiled. He was giving them a slightly altered version of the speech he’d given her last night. She watched Kevin’s mannerisms as he spoke to the group. He was destined to be a leader now. She could see it in him. He was born to be a leader. He had to leave her side to become the man he was meant to be. Kayn didn’t feel like she was supposed to be a leader. She felt like she was supposed to be more than she was now, but she didn’t have a clear picture of what her future would look like. She knew one thing for sure, this was another fork in their road.

  Kevin got up, made his way down the stairs and held out his hand towards her. Kayn slowly descended the stairs and her hand slid into his seamlessly. They had always had an instinctual friendship but now the pull between them couldn’t be denied. Her heart whispered, it’s almost goodbye.

  Kevin squeezed her hand as he declared, “Whatever is coming for us, is coming, regardless of whether or not we’ve eaten breakfast. I for one would prefer to die with a full stomach.”

  They all seemed to silently agree with the idea and as they wandered in a group to the dining hall, they picked up a few stragglers. They entered the hall as a unified group of teenagers. They all sat together, joked around and laughed. They made a valiant attempt to act like everything was normal, even though they knew, it wasn’t. It was in the unspoken sentiment behind every smile. Time was up. They would become enemies. It was hard to imagine a shift from this, to that. Kayn was the first one to say the words, “Why does this have to change? Can’t we just refuse to fight each other?”

  Caleb placed his hand on top of Kayn’s and said, “In a perfect world.”

  Kevin gave her another look that she couldn’t quite place. There was both sadness and resolve in his eyes. She knew what she’d said was impossible. Stephanie touched Kevin’s shoulder. She forced him to look her in the eyes and nodded. They were having a coded conversation based on what she’d said. It felt the few feet she sat away from Kevin had become miles between them. Kayn turned to look at Zach and Melody. Her love for Kevin had removed her from their trio. She needed to be closer to them today. It was as though the feelings of urgency and fear disappeared for everyone but her. They all blew it off as a group and went on with their morning. After breakfast, they all made their way in a group down to the lake. They began to take off their clothes to get ready to jump into the moderately chilly water.

  Caleb from Trinity loudly announced, “Wait a second!” He jumped into the water first and as he surfaced, his eyes became a brilliant hue. He began to slowly spin in the water while moving his arms back and forth. He smiled as he pulled himself back onto the dock and said, “Now, jump in!”

  They leapt in as a group, while screaming with wild teenage abandon. The water’s temperature had been changed. It was wonderful and much warmer than it had been. If she could have picked a perfect temperature this would be it. “Okay, that’s a really cool gift. Couldn’t you have done that a few days ago,” Kayn sputtered as she came to the surface of the water that no longer made her skin feel anything but wonderful.

  Caleb laughed, “How do you it think it warmed up that fast? I never understood the purpose, until I came here. I honestly felt pretty ripped off in the gift department.”

  Kayn swam closer to him and said, “I’ve already frozen in water and died once. I think that’s a pretty incredible gift. Our clan doesn’t have anyone who can do that. It definitely would have come in handy.”

  Kevin swam over while pointing out, “Your clan has one Kayn. I bet Caleb can start fires too?”

  “No, not yet. Nothing out of the water,” Caleb replied.
“Maybe, I need to learn how?”

  “You can warm up an entire lake,” Kayn pointed out as she swam past him. “That is pretty damn cool.”

  “Well... I showed you guys mine,” Caleb teased, while doggie paddling in place.

  “I wish I had something to show you but I don’t have anything yet,” Kayn replied while floating on her back. “I can move a mean salt shaker across a table but that’s about it. I’m going to get my butt kicked in this Testing. Whatever and whenever it is.” She submerged herself under the water and as she opened her eyes she saw a boy she recognized as one of the Trinity. He hovered in front of her. His neck opened up into slits resembling gills and he swam away as fluidly as the water, with movements as graceful as a fish. Kayn had gazed into the boy’s eyes for only a split second and it was like he’d mentally convinced her to attempt to breathe. She sputtered to the surface of the water, gagging. Kevin came to her aid, patting her back until she stopped choking. She coughed one last time and sputtered out, “That guy had gills like a fish.”

  Caleb laughed and explained, “That’s David...He also has a weird mental power of suggestion thing he can do.”

  Kayn grasped her throat as she declared, “I’d say so.” She was still recovering from his shenanigans.

  Caleb repeated his earlier question, “Well? What can you do Kevin? You are the Prince of Triad… I bet it’s something good.”

  Kayn hadn’t realized they referred to Kevin as the Prince of Triad. He was the prince of Triad, wasn’t he? He was the prince of Triad and she was a foot soldier.

  “I can see memories,” Kevin replied. “I’ve been told I probably have other abilities but I haven’t figured them out yet.”

  He could have just taken whatever he wanted from her, he didn’t even need her to play along. Kayn stated the obvious, “Well...why haven’t you tried to look at mine?”

  His eyes softened as he answered, “I did try to look at yours. I couldn’t see anything.”