by O. Rose
“Levi,” she spoke slowly as she turned. He was lounging on the sofa, draped across it with eyes closed. “What are you-” she paused and changed her question. “What am I to you?”
He didn’t answer immediately, knew she was unaware of the weight of her words again. The answer she wanted could define her. Instead of answering he warned, “You should be careful what you ask.”
His words turned in her mind for a long moment. “I still want to know,” she took a deep breath. “What am I to you?”
As silence stretched he sat and turned his eyes to hers. In his mind she was a child, potentially a companion. Someone he was unsure of. A girl he’d married and murdered. Whatever she was to him it was, “Unconventional.”
∞
She didn’t know what to make of his answer. Unconventional? What was that supposed to mean? Everything about the both of them was unconventional! Living forever, manipulating the basic elements of matter, seeing demonic entities, nothing about either of them was normal.
He’d avoided giving a straight answer. Maybe he didn’t know what she meant to him, but if that was the case then he should have said so.
Should she have asked again? Forced him to be more specific?
Yet now she felt the moment gone; it was too late to bring it up again. She’d missed her chance.
Perhaps it wasn’t fair to ask him anyway. She didn’t know what he was to her either.
Holly sat at the edge of the freshwater infinity pool, feet dangling, splashing. Everything about her life was surreal these days. How long had it been? It felt like years. She’d gone from unwanted foster child to unconventional something in a few days. Memories were reclaimed, though little understood, and she’d become a jet setter who warranted professional escorts through airports.
It was unbelievable and none of it would have been possible without Levi.
She was born because of the deal he made, right or wrong, and she’d pledged to remain by his side. He owned a house full of lonely magic and stayed there, hidden from the rest of the world.
What did that make him?
He was a mystery, unfathomable and so far above her. She didn’t know how to reach him or even if it was possible.
If she was unconventional then he was mystifying.
∞
Holly stood in shorts and a t-shirt, bra still on because, despite the fact that she was dead-on-her-feet-tired, the full day of travel left its mark, she couldn’t believe the choice before her.
The night Levi slept in her bed, well, he’d been the one to enter so it was different. She had no say in that. Now it was she, herself, who stood at the foot of the massive bed while he was already within, seemingly asleep.
She looked to the sofa. That was a definite possibility.
She turned to open doors that led to the deck; there was a bed outside too.
She’d taken one step in that direction when his voice sounded, “If you’re running away I’ll follow. This is something you should get used to.”
Holly turned her gaze to the ceiling and pressed her lips together as her eyes crinkled at the edges. The whole thing was mortifying.
“I believe I explained your intended purpose.”
She didn’t turn though she heard him moving, getting back out from beneath the covers.
“You were to be a companion who would never leave and I warned you about your words, yet you continue to insist on speaking things you don’t understand. You said you wanted one person, that you’d found that person. You called yourself loyal.” He stood behind her, made her jump when he quickly undid the clasp on her undergarment and tossed it away. “I have no interest in that, this is only a matter of your comfort. If it is uncomfortable for you to sleep in that then don’t wear it.” He passed her, out to the deck, and she knew she was supposed to follow.
Instead she remained still, mouth open in shock. The pink bra now rested on the floor several feet away and he had no reaction whatsoever. Was that good or bad? What did that mean?
A companion, someone to be around the solitary man who lived forever. That was her role.
An unconventional companion.
In the end they both wanted the same thing, to have someone stay beside them. Both weary of being alone and now she knew the truth of her birth. He’d gone to great lengths to secure a person who wouldn’t die and then she did anyway, all because her mother wanted to change the terms of the agreement and it didn’t even work.
With those thoughts in mind she moved to the outdoors and got on the bed beside him, far to the side and trying not to think on it too deeply. She lay facing away from him, listening to the sounds of the sea. It was incomparable, like nothing she’d ever experienced. Knowing he was there lent a certain comfort, too. She was so used to being alone.
Being his friend, she could do that and maybe someday he would be her friend as well. Not yet, but someday.
They had forever to get there.
Chapter Twelve
When Holly woke in the morning, the sun wasn’t even up yet, she realized she’d not eaten before falling to sleep. Meals were served on the flights, but it’d been many hours since then and her stomach was rumbling.
It wasn’t until she rolled over that she remembered the embarrassment of the evening before.
She clenched her eyes shut with a deep, quiet sigh. It didn’t matter to him, he’d said he didn’t care, but somehow it hurt. She supposed it was a leftover desire from all those years ago, the tiny flame of hope once held in her newlywed heart. Wanting her husband to love her because no one else ever had.
Levi was still asleep.
“What kind of man are you?” she asked in a hushed whisper and she watched him for a little longer before leaving the bed and disappearing indoors.
“A liar,” was the answer he gave after she’d been gone several minutes. He’d spent the night trying to find a way to speak to her about the parts of her story he left out. It wasn’t as if he’d never tell her, but it would be better to get it out before his brother made a sudden appearance.
He could feel his force. Distant, but moving closer.
The scry in the forest, completed the day after Holly arrived, had apparently made an impression.
A crystal grove and natural spring, the area possessed an energy all it’s own.
Thoughts of it reminded him of how much Holly would need to learn. There were so many things to know about the way the world worked, about aspects of life science ignored, and the lifestyle of ‘magic’. She lacked an awareness, one she had before, and he was hoping their trip to remaining pieces of island would call some of it forward. The best case scenario would see her remember the ways of her people on her own. It could be forced, but that would be traumatic. A last resort.
He removed himself from the bed and called for breakfast before she exited the bathroom.
“They’ll bring in a cart,” he told her as he passed into the washroom. “Have what you want, we’ll leave shortly after.”
She nodded silently as the door closed behind him.
Holly took the time alone to consider what the day might hold. Honestly, she wasn’t nervous about setting out, but she was experiencing a slight fear of the unknown. She really did want to remember more of that first life, it seemed the people were all aware of how to use elemental magic and she thought she must have been too. Perhaps the knowledge was still within her, waiting to be unlocked.
That in mind she quickly changed clothing. She’d dressed in hike appropriate gear, but her dresses might be a connection. Wasn’t that part of it? Being connected to the world in a deeper way, thinking outside the box.
Well, this was different from anything she’d considered before. Despite seeing things others couldn’t, she’d never put effort into understanding. She never felt she had the time. Constantly thinking she was on death’s doorstep made for a one-track mind.
A whole new world was open to her. The life Levi lived, the one she’d been pulled into, where magic
was real and something she could learn... It was beginning to mean more. The low level control taught at school had nothing on Levi or the world he’d introduced her to. They spoke nothing of truly harnessing air or molecules or whatever it was Levi did. Teachers could open doors and windows, bring down an eraser on a desk to wake you up, but only after years of university training. It was far from intuitive. In fact, that was the point. They were taught that it was difficult, but Levi didn’t live that way and neither did the people of her first life.
At the outset it was unbelievable, then almost acceptable but still insanity. Now? She wanted to know. She wanted to know her past, to walk in the future, whatever it might hold. More than that, she wanted to know herself.
‘Emma’ was a girl undefined. Living each day knowing more than most, but doing nothing with the knowledge. She could have been exciting. She could have run away and sought adventure, but she didn’t. She could have told people about the Things following them around, but she didn’t.
Why didn’t she?
Why didn’t she ever try to be more, to do more? Why was she content in abstract unhappiness, blending in as much as possible?
She’d always known there was more to the world than people realized, so why didn’t that make her live differently than them? She went to school, followed the rules, and let people ignore her. She’d never commanded attention.
‘Emma’ didn’t do those things, but who was Holly?
A new girl. New, even to herself.
Holly wasn’t a blank slate the way Emma was, waiting for something to happen. Emma felt out of control and rather than fight, she accepted it.
Holly?
Holly.
Holly was a little girl who killed a handmaid by sending a knife flying into her throat using her mind. Holly was a princess, born to a kingdom where that sort of ability was normal, but death wasn’t. Holly was born of death when the queen bartered her life, struck a deal with a stranger, for a child.
That man intended to steal the child away one day, to keep her for himself to ease decades of loneliness.
Emma was dumbfounded, Holly was perplexed.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand his motivation, but what was right about any of that? Didn’t she have any say in how her life turned out? He had years worth of wisdom and strength, knew much more than she did about the world, but what if, one day, she wanted to leave his side?
Then again, hadn’t he warned her? When she announced her intention to stay with him he told her to be careful with her words. He’d said it again when she asked him what she meant to him.
Did she seal her own destiny without realizing it?
∞
The pair boarded a powerboat at the main dock, Levi set the navigation system, and did the driving himself. Holly kept her eyes down because being seen in her light, white gown from centuries in the past was more awkward than she’d thought it would be.
She told herself it didn’t matter and the woman who led them to the boat was too professional to care. The resort undoubtedly catered to eccentric wealthy people daily, wearing such a formal gown on a powerboat was nothing much.
Or so she tried to convince herself. In any case this wasn’t about making a fashion statement, this was to help her search for the past and learn about herself.
In the time it took Levi to finish dressing for the day Holly’d made a decision:
She was going to live.
The more she thought of it, the less strange it seemed. Didn’t people of all ages find themselves at that crossroad? Realizing they were spending every day doing nothing much and some were okay with that, but others wanted more.
For her, this expedition was the first step. Finding history and accepting it, learning from it, making a choice about what to do with it. Part of her was afraid of what she might encounter, but she refused to run from it. Her past lives were all important, no matter how short they’d been, but the first was the beginning of everything.
She’d never tried to forget it or to avoid thinking of it, but she didn’t attempt to delve deeper either. Every day was the same as the last until now.
“Levi,” she spoke suddenly as the boat slowed. They’d been on the move for near ten minutes and were rounding into the bay of the next island, she could see others in the distance. “Thank you.”
The look in his eyes was questioning, but he didn’t speak.
Whether he knew what she meant or not didn’t matter yet. Someday, when she better understood what he meant about choosing her words, she would thank him properly. For now this was good enough. It was ‘thank you’ for meeting her again and for bringing her to the island. ‘Thank you’ for things she didn’t know he’d done.
Tomorrow she might feel differently, but today she was grateful and she didn’t want to let that go unexpressed.
She couldn’t remember the last time she felt thankful to someone. Lori, the social worker who kept trying to find a place for her despite evidence that it would never happen, was deserving of thanks. She would probably never get the chance to say it.
The thought drifted away as Levi pulled the boat to the dock. It was small, rough.
“It’s been decades since an official trip was made here,” he said, holding out a hand to help her.
A moment's indecision. Physical contact was still so different to her, but she didn’t want to shun it. Holding his hand, being near him, made her stomach twist and her heart ache, called forth memories of the way she felt when she saw him in the past.
Accepting his offer and stepping off the vessel made her drop to her knees immediately. The scene was before her for a hardly moment, but it was powerful. She’d taken his hand then, a ceremonial setting to bind them in marriage.
Hopeful. Cautiously happy. Enthralled by his dark features.
He was like her.
“I remember,” she began, still kneeling. “They were all brown haired and blue-eyed. Green-eyed, rarely.”
He bent before her, rocked on the balls of his feet. “That’s right.”
“They knew I was cursed because I was so different. Shorter than they were. Black hair with brown eyes.” Her fingers curled into his. “But I wasn’t any stronger than them, was I?”
“No.” The answer was immediate. “From what I’ve gathered the physical differences were the main issue at the outset, but you did behave differently as well.” He stood and gently pulled her with him. “It would be best for you to remember on your own.”
A small nod, coupled with a wavering sigh, and they walked together, hand in hand, onto the beach.
Chapter Thirteen
Every step was a struggle for Holly, when Levi removed her shoes it grew marginally easier, but the atmosphere was oppressive. It felt as if people were all around, yet they were two and the difference between what she knew versus felt to be true was tough to comprehend. She’d never experienced anything like it before.
Her shoes, he said, were an unnecessary barrier and bare feet would help ground her to the world around them.
She remembered taking off her sneakers in the front yard and throwing them over the wall. Was that an instinctual memory? To remove the shoes and walk closer to the earth, drawing on more natural power to help her see and feel clearly.
It was understandable and she hoped that later, when she wasn’t so overwhelmed, she would be able to fully understand what it all meant. It felt familiar, as if his words were a repeat of instructions given before.
Levi was patient, walked behind her and stopped whenever she did, made no move to hurry her along. He’d known this would happen, that she would meet this battle. There was more truth for her to find then he could tell her, things he didn’t know about her life that she’d forgotten.
For all his years he’d never known much about the mystifying people of The Island. Even at it’s peak it’s existence was questionable, a place described by sailors thought lost at sea, mysteriously returned on ships that should have sunk to the bottom of the o
cean. They told tales of tall, brown-haired natives with miraculous powers. They were healed and returned to the shores from whence they came with inconsistent memories of the things they saw and wild tales to tell.
He’d not put much stock in it, but his brother was intrigued and convinced him to go sailing, attempting to find the hidden race of sophisticated peoples. They had nothing to lose and no better way to spend unending days.
Even then, he was growing weary of living and so was his brother, though to a lesser extent.
When they arrived, after many years of searching, they brought valuables with them, plundered from ships full of dying men who would have no need for fabrics or jewels. That wasn’t enough to make the island’s inhabitants trust or welcome them and they were not allowed far onto the shores. However, the time spent on the beaches was enough for the brothers to glean the ways of the natives and to adapt the ‘magic’ for their own purposes.
The idea of making a companion was his brother’s, the one who killed her was Levi. When she didn’t immediately return to life his brother had a fit.
In fact, the end of the island was his fault. In his anger and disappointment he called on every fiber of his being, every molecule within reach, and shook the foundations of the island, ripping it apart as his self-assurance was shaken to the core. For the first time his overconfident brother felt the sting of failure and he hated it, rejected it.
He’d not seen him since then, had no contact. Even as he, Levi, found Holly in other lives, when she was younger again but still herself, he couldn’t reach him to explain what might have happened.
Despite what he told Holly of her mother’s interference, it was all guess work on his part. It made a certain amount of sense and she believed it easily enough, but he still wasn’t sure of it’s correctness.
And now he could feel his brother’s approach. Closer than the night before and moving at incredible speed.
Of course, this was the one day Levi didn’t want him to appear.
