Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence

by Am Hudson

  “So Sam will die one day,” I said sadly. “And that’s all there is to it?”

  “As will a hundred-year-old man,” she said with a smile. “We all must leave this earth eventually, but Sam is here for a reason. And he will die for a reason. And when he does, his soul will be put to use.”

  “What use?”

  Her smile moved in to shadow her face in secrets again. “Enough has been said already. Now tell me, how is he?” she asked, the smile softening with a thousand fond memories. “The boy—Jason?”

  “He’s slowly recovering. I don’t think he’ll ever remember his old life, but he’s…” I thought about his face—how young he looked because of the grin beneath his eyes, yet how, at the same time, he also looked a bit older than David—given that he actually was now. “He’s happy,” I finished.

  “And the Spirit Bind?” she asked with interest. “It’s broken?”

  I nodded, searching inside myself for the feel of that connection—but it was still gloriously absent. “It seems mortality also breaks its spell—as death does.”

  “What good news.” She bunched her hands together beneath her chin. “A happy ending then—for all?”

  “For some,” I corrected. “And there’s still the issue of Jase and I being soulmates.”

  “But there’s a different kind of love there now, is there not?”

  “As in… do I still care for him like a lover?” I asked. “No. I love him deeply—as…” I thought about that. What was this love we had now? Friends? No, it was deeper than that. Brother-in-law to sister-in-law? No, it was deeper than that, too. Brother? Maybe. But a little bit closer. “Perhaps I love him like he’s a part of me—like a son, but also not.”

  Lilith laughed. “Then that is a good kind of love.”

  “Yeah.” I nodded, my eyes drifting away with thought. “It is, isn’t it?”

  “And how is my great-great granddaughter?” Lilith’s face lit up like Vicki’s did when she talked about Elora.

  “She’s crawling now, and starting to think about walking. And David’s been sitting her in his lap at the piano once a week to start lessons.”

  Lilith laughed, the sound trickling through the air like fresh cool water. “With such a talent for her teacher, I’m sure she will be playing fluently by her first birthday.”

  “If by fluently you mean bashing the keys and making an awful racket, she already is.” I moved over to the tree and sat down under its golden glow, all thoughts stopping for a moment as I took in its warmth, closing my eyes and drawing a breath to really feel the magic here. When I opened my eyes, Lilith was watching on with a smile.

  “It is an amazing feeling.”

  “It is,” I said, remembering the way the Other Side felt. I looked behind me at the gates of Elyse, reflected softly in the glow of the tree. “I think about the Lost Souls a lot.”

  “I know you do,” she said softly. “I’ve been watching.”

  My eyes narrowed as I tried to count how many times I’d seen the little blue bird dancing outside my window recently. “When will I begin my training?”

  “You role is a great responsibility, Amara. Not to be taken lightly. I feel it best if we begin your training once the child is fully grown.”

  “But what about all those souls in the meantime?” I sat forward off the trunk a little. “They’re suffering.”

  “Yesterday, you looked at your daughter and noticed that she’d grown overnight. You held on to a prayer in your heart that you would never look away long enough to miss any of it. And if you begin your task as the Seeker now, she will grow before your eyes and you will be too busy to see. Time moves differently in that realm.” Her eyes swept along the ground slowly until they landed at the gates of Elyse. “Days may go by before you return, and decades will pass before your training is complete.” She looked back at me. “Raise your daughter first, Seeker. And then you can free the Lost.”

  With those words, not one ounce of me wanted to argue. My entire heart agreed and moved my head in a nod. And in the silence that followed, I found myself staring up at a seemingly ordinary piece of fruit. My thoughts wrapped around it and travelled backward, touching on everything that led me here—to this moment. Lilith sat in silence while my mind wandered, moving her head slightly to look at me again when a string of questions entered my mind.

  “When you offered me that apple on the condition that I show David what I did with Jason, and tell him about Arthur, what was it exactly that you needed to see?” I asked. “I know you said you wanted to see if he was worthy, but how could his reaction to what I told him about Arthur show you that?”

  “To prove your worth as Queen, you took the Walk of Faith; you were tested beyond the normal emotional limits of any average being. But David was sworn in only by your word that he was a good, kind man. Yet the David I had come to know was cold and mean—not worthy of the power he received from the Stone or the right to walk eternally beside my descendant. I needed to push him to the limits to see how he reacted.”

  “So, you were pleased that he ran away from me and then burned the training hall down?”

  “Pleased that he did not hate you. In his heart, not one ounce of all that hatred he felt was for you. Not even after he saw what you did with his brother. I knew then that his love would stand the test of time. I knew then that he loved you as much as the other boy did. I knew then that his soul was not as impure as I first believed.”

  “What did his soul have to do with it, though?”

  “I did not know then what the Fruit of Wisdom would show you. Had it shown you that you must give the child David’s soul and be eternally happy with Jason, I needed to be sure that he was not pure evil. And if the Fruit showed you another path—one where you might save both boys—I needed to be sure that he was worthy of remaining as King for eternity. I knew the time was approaching where our fates would intertwine—where you would set me free of my burden to the Stone, and that I would then move on from this place, leaving it in the hands of the new King and Queen. I owe this entire great land to the power of that seed I planted and there is magic here beyond imagination.” She looked around at the treetops, her eyes filled with wonder. “I would not leave it so lightly in the hands of an evil man—one that could not love his wife enough to forgive her.”

  I felt a weight lift as it all fell together, all the pieces of my life here that had never really made sense. Lilith acted for the sake of the Stone—the power that was beneath it all along and, second to that, she acted to protect the bloodline—those that would, eventually, be charged with the protection of the Tree. One day, Elora would assume that role, and if she was lined with an impure soul, she would not be worthy of her inheritance or, worse, she might abuse it as Anandene did.

  I nodded at Lilith, smiling. “I understand now.”

  “I knew you would. One day.”

  ***

  Mike laid another plate of cheese, crackers, and his amazing guacamole onto the table, moving out of the way quickly as Ryan dived in for a double dip.

  “Gross!” Alana shrieked, grabbing a cracker and scooping up Ryan’s ‘germs’ from inside the bowl. “Don’t do that.”

  Ryan laughed, taking the contaminated cracker and popping it in his mouth.

  Mike smirked at me, standing back with his arms folded. “Ara’s the same—she double dips, I mean,” he said, and I caught a flash of a thought in his mind—a joke, about double dipping into siblings. He stopped it as quickly as he thought it, though, laughing to himself as he walked back into the kitchen—my kitchen.

  While David talked with Em and Alana about current events, I sat scanning the old dining room of the house I once lived in—in another life, it seemed. I would always own this little house, but I couldn’t bring myself to live in it now—not after everything I went through here. It felt like a place in my past that I would only ever visit but never return to. And since I owned it outright, it didn’t matter if it sat here empty for months on end, wai
ting for a visitor to come from another country or state that needed a place to stay. I guess it had now become a sort of Ara’s Friends and Family Holiday House.

  “…I was just saying that to Em,” Alana said with a laugh. “There’s one bedroom left in this house to fit another baby.”

  Em smiled sweetly, reaching for the dip. “When I’m human again, I want to spend at least six months eating everything I don’t really enjoy as a vampire. Then I’ll think about a baby.”

  “You’ll be pregnant before we return from the honeymoon,” Mike said, folding his arms and leaning against the kitchen counter.

  “What makes you so sure?” Em said with a cracker filling out her cheek.

  “Because, while you can’t resist food, you also can’t resist something else.” When he winked at her, she looked down shyly, and we all cringed, making a point of it vocally.

  Mike laughed, shaking his head as he turned away to pour some more drinks.

  “I still can’t believe it,” Alana said. “I always suspected David was a vampire, but knowing now is… it’s really cool.”

  “And maybe now you know vampires can be made human again, you might change your mind about being turned?” I suggested, looking at Ryan, since he seemed to have the final say.

  He shook his head at Alana and she just smiled to herself.

  “Ryan likes his food too much,” Alana said, hugging Ryan’s skinny arm. “But maybe once we’ve started a family he’ll change his mind.”

  “Why then?” Ryan asked.

  “Because you’ll be scared something will happen to one of us, and our children will end up in your mother’s care.”

  Ryan cringed, but then laughed. “You’ve got a good point. So it’s a maybe.” He pointed at me with a cracker. “A big maybe.”

  “Yay!” I clapped once, bouncing in my seat. A maybe was as good as a yes.

  “So what’s happening with Drake?” Em asked. “Has Morgana called yet to say he’s awake?”

  “No.” I pouted. “But it took a few days for Morg to wake up—”

  “It’s hard to say, Emily,” David cut in. “All vampires—all Originals are different. There’s no one set of rules, and we’re avoiding getting Ara’s hopes up too much.”

  “That’s bollocks.” Mike sat down, bringing a tray of cocktails with him. “Let her hope. She needs it. Look at her—” He extended his arm, motioning to my face, “—she doesn’t stop thinking about it. Any idiot can see that.”

  “She loves him,” Em said. “Of course she’s thinking about him.”

  “Love?” Mike’s lips turned down in a funny, crinkled-up cringe. “I get it—I get that they bonded over their powers and stuff, but I will never be able to think of her feeling love for that guy.”

  “You just don’t know him,” David offered, reaching for my hand.

  “And most of the stuff you hated about him was an act, Mike,” I reminded him. “He’s actually really sweet.”

  “And murderous.”

  “Yes, then there’s that.” I smiled to myself. But I kind of liked that. Drake could be loving and protective and kind, but he was still a vampire through and through. I felt safe with him because I knew who he was and what lengths he would go to. He was predictable in that sense, but so uniquely clever that I would not like to be an enemy of his.

  “If he does ever wake up, how do you think he’ll feel to know Vicki killed his father?” Mike asked David.

  “To be honest?” David leaned forward and scooped up a cracker and dip, popping it in his mouth before speaking. “When he finds out that Vampirie tried to kill Elora, I think he’ll be fine with it. He’ll mourn him, of course, but the bastard had it coming.”

  “And he can be resurrected—according to Lilith,” I added. “So he’s really more on lockdown until we decide what to do with him.”

  “Or is that just what you’re telling Sam?” Mike asked.

  “Yeah,” Alana cooed. “Poor Sam. How’s he doing now after losing his dad twice?”

  “He’s tough,” I said.

  “And he has Jason,” David added.

  “Sam said Jason’s the brother he always wanted.” I grinned at Mike, who grinned back.

  “He talked about it all the time,” Mike said, sipping his drink and then putting it down before adding, “Vicki couldn’t have any more kids, so he just accepted that he’d only ever have a sister who oddly enough is actually his niece.”

  We all laughed.

  “But,” Mike continued, “he said to me the other day that ‘Jase’—” he used quotey fingers in the air, still not used to calling him that, “—was his brother from another mother.”

  “And Jason’s happy, too,” David said, passing me a cocktail and taking one for himself. “I thought he’d wanna be turned vampire again, but he says it’s the last thing he wants. Ever.”

  “But you will one day, right?” Ryan asked. “Turn him?”

  David just sipped his drink in response, and Ryan took that as “No comment”. I, however, knew David would turn Jase one day against his wishes, because he would not let his brother leave him for eternity, like Arthur did.

  “He looks good,” Em noted with dreamy eyes. “A few extra pounds, some sunshine, and a few extra inches of height really suits him.”

  “Don’t get any ideas.” Mike pointed at her, and then they both laughed.

  “He’s too much of a kid now to think about him that way, Mike,” I added. “He acts more like he’s seventeen, not nineteen.”

  “I noticed that,” Alana said. “I mean, I only met him the one time—at your wedding—but he acts younger than David, and I was a bit surprised.”

  “He will grow up, though,” Mike offered. “School seems to be making a difference.”

  “It is,” David said, and I could feel the relief in him. “He’s got plenty of mature qualities, though—handling the situation with Vampirie for a start—”

  “Yes, I was a bit surprised to hear that he’d just moved the head like that and scooped up the blood in his hands,” Em said, sitting back, her brow moving up in thought.

  “Blood doesn’t seem to bother him,” I said. “I guess he’s been around it so long it’s second nature.”

  “And I hear the painting is, too,” Em said. “He told me he just woke up one day and had an urge to paint.”

  “Yes,” I said, swallowing my drink down. “It’s like riding a bike—he doesn’t actually remember so much how to do it; as in, if he puts thought to it he struggles, but when he works on autopilot he’s brilliant.”

  “Will he take classes again—relearn?” Alana asked.

  “He already is—at school.”

  “That’s good,” she said with a nod. “Sounds like he’s going to be okay then.”

  “Yes, now all we need is for Ara’s real dad to wake up, and she might actually have a hope of being happy,” Em said.

  “I’m happy.” I looked into my lap as I spoke, because it was true. I was happy. But having my dad here—my teacher, my friend—would make all the difference.

  Em’s ears pricked then and she sat taller, listening. “Is that the baby crying?”

  I looked at the monitor, but the lights weren’t moving. “Nope. You’re hearing things.”

  “My mom used to say that you hear babies crying when you’re expecting, or if there’s one waiting up there in the pipeline for you,” Alana said, grinning widely at Em’s expression after.

  “Funnily enough,” I added, “my mum used to say the same thing.”

  “I remember that,” Mike said, his eyes changing as he clearly remembered her. “She heard babies crying for months before she finally fell pregnant with Harry.”

  “Well,” Em said, putting down the cracker she was about to eat. “I’m not risking it. I’ll get Ara to turn me human after the wedding. My dress cost a fortune and there is no way I’m getting married with a thicker waist!”

  Mike laughed. “You’d be perfect no matter what, Em.”

 
“Yes, but you don’t have to think I look perfect. I do.”

  We all laughed, and Em smiled affectionately at Mike to say she didn’t really mean it. But Mike already knew that. So did I. He was the only person she cared about impressing on the day, and we’d had enough arguments so far about the finer details of the wedding to prove that.

  I sat back again then and let myself disconnect from the conversations, listening instead to the hum in the room—the feel of the energies, the pulse of their souls, and the undertone of love and friendship that lingered in their voices. Even though this moment would end too quickly—Mike and Em would go back to Oz and Ryan and Alana would continue with their own lives, coming to visit only occasionally—it was nice to have everyone around again, to feel human and to feel normal, doing normal human things. Since Safia’s death, life really had turned around, more than I expected it to. And each day, minute by minute, both David and I were accepting that. Our scars just didn’t run so deep anymore; they were healing on the inside and the out, and the rhythm of normal life—of a six-to-five workday and Saturdays by the lake—had become the beat of our hearts. It was reliable, solid, and consistent enough now to sometimes get boring. It was perfect. Just like this moment.

  ***

  If my life were a novel, it felt as if only a chapter or two had passed since my beautiful daughter came into this world. A year came around almost as fast as she grew, and as Vicki and I strung up crêpe streamers and pink balloons over the Christmas garlands, I had to stop a few times and bite my lip so I wouldn’t cry.

  “I was the same when Samuel turned one,” Vicki sympathised. “I think I cried for a week.”

  I laughed, wiping my eyes. “She’s too little to be one. Look at her—” I pointed to the chubby little baby sitting in her chair, chewing on a piece of crêpe paper that had carelessly landed on her tray.

  Vicki walked over and fished it out of her mouth, wiping it on a pink and yellow Happy Birthday napkin. “Before you know it she’ll be sixteen.” She shook her head at the boys across the way in the den, laughing loudly at their video games. “And you’ll be crying because she’s so much closer to graduation and finding the love of her life.”