by Kade Cook
“So, what do you want to do now?” he hums.
Her pulse quickens, responding to his sultry tone. She studies the beauty of his rugged jawline as he speaks. He flashes Gabrian a cheeky smile, moving in closer to her, then slides the mammoth-sized black book in between them and opens it to page forty-three, pointing at a picture. Her eyes fall away from him in frustration then drop to where his fingers press against the page, making her brow rise in confusion to his excitement. His finger rests on a picture of a star map—the constellation of Orion the hunter, to be exact.
She lifts her gaze back to Shane and watches him in silence as he struggles searching the sky to find it. After a moment, his fingers shoot up into the star lit night. “There it is,” he hoots, turning to her with a grin of triumph in his findings.
She shakes her head amicably. “Yup, there it is.”
“What?” He shrugs, questioning her sheepish grin.
“Nothing,” she answers, shaking her head.
Shane lowers himself back down beside her, resting his weight on his elbow, and sighs. “Well, since you didn’t want to go see the stars on the big screen at the movies, which I figure is mainly due to the fact you would be packed into a tightly confined space surrounded by people that may be just as cantankerous as those of the Covenant—as you so often describe them to be—I thought the next best thing would be to take you to see the stars upon the largest screen that I could think of.” He waves his hand across the open space in front of him, his skin cascading shadows along the creases of his muscular physic and his face alight with the glow of innocent accomplishment. “And I knew that your favourite constellation is Orion, so…”
Gabrian can’t help but beam as she watches his attempts, however corny they may be, and laughs softly, acknowledging that these kinds of things are what makes him such an incredible soul.
“So,” she coos softly at him. “This is wonderful, Shane. Thank you.”
“Oh, I almost forgot.” He jumps up again and leaves her sitting alone on the mat as he vanishes through the hobbit door once again. Hearing muffled cursing, she turns to get up but he rushes through the door just before she can move.
“What on earth are you doing now?”
“I got something for you today,” he says, his words not as bold and playful as before as his hand reaches out for hers.
Gabrian gasps at the awkwardness in the way he said ‘something.’
“Oh, umm all right.” She scrambles to perch on her knees and reaches out her fingers to allow him her touch, feeling a shiver through her skin as he does. The tips of her fingers tingle with warmth. Not knowing what to think or what exactly is coming next, Gabrian pulls in a breath and holds it.
He cradles her hand then flips it over, palm side up, and drops something in it then curls her fingers around it. Gabrian lets the tension in her hand release, revealing an exotic-looking bracelet that harbours a smooth stone within its mold. Her face wrinkles in the confusion and exhales, somewhat relieved.
Definitely not what I thought was going to happen. I really need to stop overthinking things.
She inspects the gift, turning it in the dim light coming in from the living room window in front of her. The stone resembles earth as it would seem from a thousand miles above its reach. It feels as if it holds the secrets of a million souls all condensed and packed tightly into this one tiny object like the universe itself, mesmerizing, speckles of its own stars shining from afar within the wraps of the harden surface.
“I know that you have been struggling with your memories about the night you were kidnapped by Adrinn. The legend of this particular stone is its ability to connect your mind to the truth, to center your thoughts and amplify your ability to think more clearly.”
“Oh.” Gabrian glances at the gift again and rubs her fingers along the details in the metal binding, studying its delicate precision.
“It is also a token of my devotion to you. It’s called a heart stone.”
“Hmm,” she hums. Her face tenses and her eyes press tight at the edges.
Shane scratches the side of his head and shifts his body, displaying the heaviness and awkward response from Gabrian. “I just thought it might help,” he says, tone solemn and almost deflated.
Lost in thought and admiration of this beautiful gift, she hadn’t realized that she was leaving Shane completely out of it. Hearing the saddened tone in his voice catches up with her brain. She tears her eyes away from the bauble and stares at him, feeling the wind being knocked out of her—in a good way.
“Oh!” she says, hands beginning to tremble with the weight of what this gift actually symbolizes.
“So, what do you think?” His breathing becomes shallow with his uncertainty of her answer, and he bites gently down on his bottom lip.
Gabrian’s face grows serious under his gaze and her mouth presses tight while she bites at her thumb, not looking at him. “I think that it’s…” her eyes lift to look at him, dampened with emotion, “…perfect.”
Shane exhales loudly, giddiness returning to its previous state though he tries to contain his exhilaration for her acceptance. “May I?” His fingers edge toward the gem and with a gentle tug, removes the token from her hand, glancing down shyly at her.
“Yes, of course.” She shakes her head to clear her thoughts, bringing her to the present.
Laying it softly against her skin, the metal binding unwinds from the gift and seeks out its hold on Gabrian’s wrist, delicately securing itself to her skin. Shane kisses the stone and releases her hand.
Gabrian gasps, and her eyes jar from the stone to stare strangely into Shane’s sea of green.
“Can you feel it?” he whispers.
“You mean that is real?” Her eyes shoot back toward the stone and inspect its placement. A low vibration tingles over her flesh where it lays then settles as a warm caress to her senses while the stone memorizes the signature of her soul’s energy. “What is that?”
“It’s the magic of the stone. It is getting to know you—you are the keeper of all it contains. It is yours and yours alone—well almost,” he says, shrugging away his seriousness as he pulls at a chord around his neck. From beneath the collar of his frayed worn t-shirt appears another stone, exactly like hers.
“It’s the other half of your stone—my heart’s gift to you. In this world, as long as we both wear it, it will hum with the magic of our bond, our hearts’ connection.”
So, it was what I thought only Schaeduwe style. Holy crap! Her face drops all expression as she tries to let the magnitude of what has just happened sink in.
He stares at the strange manifestation of her face and takes her by the hand, holding it gently, but Gabrian can feel the subtle tremor in his grasp. Fear grows again in his eyes, and he opens his mouth to say something, but she presses herself forward and runs her fingers through his curls, tangling her fingers within them. With her body beginning to ache for his closeness, she pulls his mouth to meet hers, tasting his tongue hungrily and searches for more of him, the fire of her desire threatening to consume her.
Shane’s heart pounds wildly at the touch of her skin against his, every part of his body hurts but in a tender way. His doubts of her possible rejection melt away with every second they mesh—aching to push further is nearly killing him—but he withdraws his lips from hers. It fills him with torture but he forces himself to do it anyway. He clamors at calming his breath at the sight of her small slender face, closed eyes and mouth slightly still ajar from their kiss.
Gabrian’s eyes open to see him gazing down, still tangled up in the moment.
Sliding the back of his knuckles along her cheek, Shane traces the outline of her jaw. “So, what constellation do you want to find next?”
With a loud and obvious exhalation of frustration from each of them, Gabrian smiles and slips the book from its spot wedged between them and shakes her head slowly, pulling herself together. Any measure of sadness she had felt that day has disappeared as her heart sw
ells in a new level of affection for him.
They spend the next few hours searching the night sky for constellations they find in the book, enjoying each other’s company, and laughing in the simplicity of it all. As the night grows cooler, they quiet and pull themselves close, tucked beneath the plaid duvet, staring silently up into the heavens. They listen as the whispering winds of the night sing to them the lulling melody of the ocean’s song.
“Do you think we will be together in the next life?” Gabrian’s soft whisper breaks the sound of the wind.
Shane feels his heart tighten at her question and holds her just a little closer to him and smiles, pressing his mouth against the back of her hair.
“As long as there are stars to shine through the darkness of night and there is breath to fill my lungs, there will never be a place in this world or the next that my heart won’t find yours.”
Gabrian pulls his arms more snugly around her and rests her head upon his chest, hearing his heart gently beating in rhythm with her own, and knows she will never feel more safe than she does right now. Just for tonight, only for a moment, she allows herself some peace, and closes her eyes in hopes of finding sleep.
18
WHO’S TO BLAME
Gabrian’s vision blurs, the weight of fatigue pulling heavy on her eyelids but only for a second—or so it seems. An unfamiliar noise stirs her from her slumber, and her eyes catch on something bright breaching the barrier of darkness around her. Pressing her eyes hard to focus on the light, it seems to shift its position slowly at first then its course quickens as it shoots across the sky, trailing a spectacle of stardust in its wake.
She follows it to the edge of the horizon then lets it go to find something else intriguing—the silhouette shape of a woman with silvery eyes and long billowing hair staring at her. Drawing her in, Gabrian squints her eyes, straining to focus as the waking sun rushes the night sky, removing the woman’s shadowy cloak.
Gabrian knows exactly who she is—Cera.
Having not dreamt of her since she pulled Gabrian back from the depths of her coma, Cera is a sight for sore eyes, and Gabrian’s lips curl upward in recognition to her rescuer, her birth mother, and those hypnotic silvery eyes staring back at her.
Slipping herself out from under her blanket, Gabrian moves out into the night and quietly treads toward her visitor, pushing past the long timothy that dances sullenly around her. With each step she takes toward the woman, she grows further and further away. A wave of panic—an urgent need to see Cera—jolts through Gabrian’s senses, forcing herself into a run to try to catch up. But it is no use. The woman slips away from her and into the edge of the forest.
Pushing her legs harder, Gabrian feels her muscles burn, trying to move faster but the harder she tries, the more she becomes stuck. Her incessant need to continue on, to gain ground, finally leads her from the clearing, to the edge of woods. Seeing a small part in the trees, a path of sorts designed by the fallen pine needles that have soured the ground, she steps into the trees which quickly consume the space around her. Each step takes her deeper into pointy tangled branches that grab and pull at her hair, ripping her clothing with its sharp barbs.
Gabrian searches for the way back out but the light to the opening in the trees is no more. With no other real choice, Gabrian covers her face, hiding it from the razor-sharp points, and pushes her body forward, trying to break free from her entanglement and follow the path as best she can. Feeling the sting of all the scratches taking effect, and now wanting nothing more than to forget about following Cera and crawl back into bed, Gabrian presses once more against the thick brush—falling forward onto the ground through its final tangles without resistance.
In a quick pounce, she recovers from the tumble, up and battle worthy—scouting her surroundings and eyeing the trees behind her with a hateful glare. Gently rubbing at the soreness in her bare arms from its sharp claws, she is happy to be free and in open space, no longer confined. Taking a glance around for the woman, Gabrian brushes at all the broken bits of branches and forest debris still stuck in her hair and clothing, but there are no signs of Cera to be found, only what looks like the edge of a precipice mere steps from where she stands. Diamonds sparkle on the wake of the water as if from a midday sun. She breathes in the scents and the sounds of the waves breaking below her.
A familiar swooshing of ebony wings draws her attention, drowning out the ocean’s whispers from below. Gabrian twists her head to the side to greet her friend as he lands on a borrowed branch nearby. He tilts his head, inspecting with a rumble in his throat and then exhales a coo of contentment once her safety is confirmed.
“I would be careful of where you sit, Theo,” she warns, looking down at the red tears upon her flesh—her own reminders of their nasty temper. She starts toward him to close the distance between them but her feet seem to be stuck, glued to the ground without an inch of give.
Gabrian’s legs strain as she wills them to move but it’s futile. They refuse to respond to her demands. A loud cackle erupts from her Raven Guide in response to her sudden distress—a warning. “He’s coming.” Her mind’s voice picks up from the bird as the sky above them becomes plagued by the menacing dark clouds hungrily devouring any of the day’s light.
Gabrian struggles harder to get free. The grass beneath her feet crackles and hisses as the life of each blade is sucked out, turning them brown before charring them into mere fragments of dust. The once green earth that surrounded her is now nothing more than blackened soil and the ocean’s sweet scent succumbs to the stench of death as it stifles the air around her.
Her eyes rush to the sound of flapping and urgent caws as the tree moves to lash out its spindly branches around her feathery friend—wrapping its deceiving ends tightly around him. Theo’s shrieks echo through her as she watches without means to help as his ebony body becomes imprisoned by the wood he sat upon.
A low rumbling soon drowns out his calls and the ground at her feet begins to tremble and shake, splitting into tiny fissures and fractures beneath her. She pulls and tears with her thigh muscles, screaming at her lifeless feet. “Come on. Just move!” Her stomach flips as the ground gives way and swallows her up.
In a painful stop, Gabrian’s body crashes against a cold surface in a loud smack and her head aches from the sudden impact. Her skin pimples from the coolness of the stone beneath her but she slides her arms under her and presses down, leveraging her body upward and lifts her head, eyes straining in the darkness. She slides her left foot underneath her crouching body and pushes up into a standing position, relieved to be in control of her appendages once again. Instantly, she is rocked backward and pressed hard against a stone chalice that immediately confines her movement again, this time her entire body from the neck down is rendered useless.
Unable to move anything, she wrenches the muscles in her arms to move but they remain still. Her eyes recklessly gather bits of shapes around her as they adjust but all she can see is a rainbow of colours in the distance, a dimmed iridescence of flickering shadows, and the sudden tightening and binding of her gift around her—definite confirmation that she is now within the walls of the Covenant of Shadows and imprisoned on the very chair that she sat upon not so long ago.
She searches for the wall of light that normally allows natural brightness to penetrate through the shadows of the sanctuary, but all she finds is darkness—a darkness that seems to mock her. She glares at it and her eyes widen when she catches movement in front of her. Her mind envisions thousand-legged creatures slithering through the darkness, venturing toward her, and her heart pounds in the realization that she is not alone.
“No, my dear Gabrian, you are not alone. Not at all.”
Her heart leaps into her throat at the recollection of the voice. An eerie glow begins to form in front of her from the center of a table, revealing the owner of the voice whose face is lit with delight fused with a cynical grin—Adrinn. Behind him, with the help of the luminescent glow, Gabrian i
s able to see what is moving on the wall. It is not the creatures she had imagined before, it is much worse.
There are people.
Not just people—it is a wall decorated with the bodies of all the Covenant of Shadows Elders. Their bodies lie motionless, bound tightly to its surface. Their eyes are open but empty and unresponsive as if caught in a suspended state of dreaming.
“I would like to thank you, my dear,” he begins.
Tearing her eyes away from the wall of bodies, she gapes at him. “Thank me, for what?”
“For helping me make all of this a possibility.” He congratulates, waving his arm across the collection of Elders spread behind him. “Without you, none of this would be happening.”
Gabrian grapples for words, her mouth gaping in shock. “I didn’t, I mean I didn’t think…”
“You did not think what, that these vile creatures would go unpunished for what they did?” he says, leaning forward into the light, and folds his hand on the table. “For what they do.”
“I know what they are and that their ways are selfish and cruel but this,” —Gabrian’s eyes leave him to stare at his collection, shaking her head she returns to her captor, “—what you are doing isn’t right either.”
“Oh, isn’t it?” Adrinn sneers as he rises from his perch and stalks closer to the wall, admiring his collection of Elders as if he were at a fine museum of art. “This is what I would call exactly right.”
Gabrian pulls against her invisible restraints, trying to break free, but she is still bound tightly to her stone slab.
“So, now that I have them, what ever shall I do with them?” He pulls at the edge of his chin, continually petting the remnants of a beard that hasn’t fully grown in and paces, deep in contemplation. “Exile? No, too easy. Torture? Hmmm, now we are getting somewhere—maybe a mixture of the two.” He halts his walk and drops all his attention on his captive guest. “Perhaps you can help me decide, hmm? Since you were the one to help deliver them to me, it would be rude of me not to include you in on the fun.”
