Absolute Zero: Soldier of Light Chronicles Book 2

by Ireland Gill

  I furrowed my brow. “You did that on purpose, didn't you?”

  “Did what? I just wanted to kiss you.”

  I rolled my eyes at his excuse, but couldn't help but laugh while I lunged toward him, knocking him down to hold him.

  “So does this mean I have to protect you now, too?” I asked.

  He cuffed his hand around my bicep, and wiggled my limp arm in the air. “If that were the case, we may need back-up.”

  I sucked air. “I'm so insulted right now!”

  He laughed. I kiddingly shoved him in the chest, then leaned over him and ran my fingers through his dark hair. He was perfect. Beautiful.

  Hayden grinned and pressed his lips to mine, then laid his head back into the pillow, staring at me with admiration.

  I blushed. “What?” I asked.

  “This moment,” he took my hand, “and every moment after, I want to remember forever.”

  His sweet words made me melt. “Then let's make sure we never forget.”

  I felt a sudden grip around my hips as he placed me on top of him. “And how do you suggest we do that, Pony-girl?” he challenged, lips curling into a wicked grin. “What would you say to a little toast to our new chapter with a mimosa?”

  My eyes widened. That sounded so good. “Genius idea. I would love one.”

  “Great.” Hayden bobbed his head in satisfaction. “Then I'll go make them,” he said as he gracefully slid me off of him. He whisked the covers aside and rolled over to the edge of the bed only to come to a screeching halt before standing.

  “What's wrong?” I asked.

  “Uh.” He laughed nervously, looking down. “I'm a bit inconvenienced at the moment. Would you mind going down and grabbing everything?”

  “Oh!” I realized the issue. “Say no more, Angel Man.” I giggled as I threw on my black tank-top and hiphuggers. “I'll go fetch the champagne and O.J.”

  He lay back down onto the bed carefully and let out a sigh of relief as he beamed a smile my way. I shook my head and admired his adorable expression, one of innocence and embarrassment.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  I leaned down to peck his lips. “Be right back.”

  I hustled down the stairs to the landing, excitedly turning the corner and making my way to the kitchen. Many thoughts ran through my mind. All feelings of giddiness and joy, until I heard an unfavorable voice, one that pestered, reminding me that I was soiling the perfection of the moment by continuing to keep a huge secret from my angel - my encounter with Alysto. Why, oh why did guilt surface at the most inconvenient times? I justified my actions by reminding myself that I'd told Luka, and that was good enough for the time being. There was no need to say anything further, for Hayden's own good. I let out a heavy sigh and tried to shake the feeling as I searched for the bottle of Dom Perignon. It was one of the most expensive bottles on the shelves, and I had dropped it in the shopping cart without Hayden noticing...until it was time to pay, of course. Surprisingly, he let me get away with it.

  I grabbed the orange juice and glasses and placed everything on the breakfast tray to head back upstairs. There was a loud knock at the front door just as my foot hit the first step, startling me to the point that I'd almost dropped the tray.

  “Crap,” I muttered. I set the tray on the bottom step and threw on a pair of jeans from the unfolded clothes in the hamper I'd left in the foyer. Yesterday's laziness cures today's craziness, I thought. I unhitched the locks, and pulled open the heavy hickory door to find a face staring at me through the screen door.

  I noted his dark, shaggy hair coming to mid-face length, chocolate brown eyes, pale skin, with a slight stubble growing in, and a cute smile plastered on his young face. The young stranger seemed familiar to me, yet still very foreign. I couldn't pin what it was. I quickly shoved my thoughts to the side before it got too awkward with the strange silence between us.

  “Uh, hello,” I said, offering only a slight smile.

  “Hi.” His hand waved to me, and then he shoved his hands back in the pockets of his gray hoodie. He studied me for a moment longer and smiled wider, captivation in his eyes. What was wrong with him?

  “So, can I help you?” I hinted to get him to talk. I regretted answering that door.

  “Oh.” He shook his head, as if trying to force himself out of a trance, and then blinked a few times. “Uh, I'm so sorry. It's just that I didn't really think this part through. I mean, I did, but now I'm just sort of drawing a blank here. Rehearsal didn't really do me any good, I guess.” He laughed nervously. I looked at him, still waiting for an answer to my question. “You're Evika, right? Evika Stormer?” he asked.

  “Maybe,” I said, folding my arms and shifting my weight. “Who wants to know?”

  “Well, if you're Evika, then I'm your other half, so-to-speak.” He smiled proudly. “My name is Jaxon. I'm your twin brother.”

  I choked on some spit in mid-swallow. “I-I'm sorry. You're my what?”

  “Your brother,” he answered confidently. “I'm Jaxon Stormer. Our father was Jack Stormer, former Warrior for the Seekers, slash, Soldier of Light. I'm assuming you've already begun the whole destiny thing, considering I found you down here in Georgia all of a sudden,” he rambled. “Last place I tracked you showed you were in Cleve-”

  “Hold on. Time out.” I held up my hands. “Let's rewind here, buddy. My twin? You're my twin, as in same mother, same father, same egg, shared-a-womb-together, born-on-the-same-day kind of twin?”

  He nodded slowly, befuddled, as if finally grasping the fact that I'd had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. “Wow, you mean your Guardian never told you?” he said rhetorically.

  My mind went spinning again, and my mouth remained agape, refusing to confirm. My heart started pounding with an unfamiliar pain. Confusion consumed me. “H-How do you know about all this stuff? About my dad and who he was? How the hell can I have a twin?”

  The stranger smiled genuinely. “Come on, look at us,” he said. “Is there really any denying that we're related?” He held out his hand, palm up, lifting his sleeve and exposing his right wrist. And that was when I saw it. Without further thought and only overwhelming curiosity, I pushed open the screen door in a stupor and walked out onto the porch to grab his wrist. I saw the mark. My mark. His was a bit lighter than mine, but still visible. It was the negative zero.

  “Is this some kind of sick joke?” I asked, pointing to the mark and looking up at him.

  His expression grew solemn, and I could see into his deep, brown eyes, and saw what I had been seeing in the mirror for twenty-one years; I saw myself. He exchanged the same look and, in that split second, I could almost feel a part of me come back, a part I didn't even know was missing. A piece of me.

  “No sick joke. This is real,” he said, declaratively. “You really are my sister,”

  “Hey, Pony-girl?” I heard a playful voice calling from the top of the stairs. “What's takin' so long?” The sound of Hayden's hurried footsteps hustled down the stairwell all the way down to the landing, coming to an abrupt halt. “Oh. Shit,” was the brilliance he muttered in sync with his last two steps.

  I whipped my head around to see his face in a state of shock. His face and bare chest muscles tensed. Fear filled his eyes. His comment, alone, was enough indication that our visitor was quite unexpected. I felt the prickling in my eyes as I witnessed Hayden's face become ashen. He backed away, flustered.

  “What the hell have you been keeping from me, Hayden?” The boom of thunder jolted the three of us as I started to feel more irritated. My nostrils flared as I gritted my teeth. He stood there, speechless. The rain started. “Hayden!” I yelled at him, annoyed at his stupor, my voice booming throughout the entire house. “What the hell is going on?”

  Still holding the stranger's wrist, I pulled him inside the house with me, getting us out of the inevitable downpour.

  Hayden's hands rose, palms up. “Okay, Evika.” He spoke in a calm, yet shaky voice. “I swear, I ca
n explain all of this.”

  “It's true then?” I asked impatiently. “Is this my twin brother?”

  His hands were still up in surrender. “Evika, please. You have to under---”

  “Goddammit, Hayden! Just answer me this one thing! Is...it...true?” I was done with surprises, and this one was the biggest of them all.

  I watched him take a hard swallow before he sighed in defeat. “Yes.”

  After hearing his honesty, I felt the fury rise within me once again, this time causing a mild shaking. “Why didn't I know, Hayden?” I asked through gritted teeth. “Why?”

  “Because the time wasn't right yet, Evika,” he admitted.

  It hurt that my whole life had been a lie, that I had missed out of years of a bond with a brother, a twin brother, family.

  “The time wasn't right?” I asked scathingly. “Really? When would have been the right time, Hayden? Did you ever think that maybe not robbing me of my own flesh and blood was something that may have called for a bit of urgency? I'd already been robbed of enough in my life, and for you to take him away from me---” I stopped and took a long deep breath. The heat was rising in my body. My thoughts were too scattered. “Oh, my God.” I tightened my fists in pain. I was going to do something terrible if I didn't get out, or worse, say terrible things I could never take back. I threw my controlled words at Hayden. “You kept me from my twin brother.”

  “Uh, maybe I should just step outside,” Jaxon said softly, inching his way back toward the door.

  Both Hayden and I looked over at him in unison. I'd forgotten the very topic of the conversation was also our audience.

  “No, Jaxon,” were Hayden's first words to him. “There is no need for you to leave,” he said with assurance. “There is much to discuss now that you've arrived.” He then brought his eyes to mine once again. “Evika, I'm so sorry that it came up this way. I will explain everything to you both.”

  My brow furrowed as I looked at Hayden and felt the rage inside of me reach its tipping point. I clenched my teeth. I knew he was going to spew off a list of rules or commands that were given to him by the Council. Free will? How did this not tamper with anyone's free will? As far as I was concerned, angels were just as imperfect as humans, and probably worse. I knew there was going to be a list of excuses Hayden would rattle off; I didn't want to hear them. None of them.

  No matter what I did, the words were going to pour from my mouth. “You know what, Hayden? I don't want to hear what you have to tell us. Fuck the rules and fuck this life!” I gave him my most deadly glare. “Nothing. Nothing like this should be kept from someone. I don't care what your damned Council says. Your mission is over. You're done. I'm done!” I headed for the door and tugged Jaxon by the hood of his sweatshirt. “Come on, Jaxon. We're going out.”

  Jaxon stumbled on his feet. I hadn't realized the severity of the tug I gave him. I finally let go so he could make his way out the door first. I was sure I'd made enough of an ass of myself.

  “No.” Hayden rushed past me and blocked the door with his arm before I could get out. “Evika, you need to hear this. Both of you. There was huge danger in keeping you two together, and there still is.”

  “No!” I held up my hand. “Just save it. Get the hell out of our way.” I grabbed my army boots and jacket, planning on throwing them on after I was outside.

  “You're not going anywhere right now,” Hayden said sternly.

  I glared. “The hell I'm not, Hayden! You can't fix this. No matter how hard you try, you just can't!” I yelled, seething, shoving him hard in the chest.

  He made an advance toward me, and I shoved him even harder the second time. “Don't you dare touch me, Hayden!” I screeched. “I swear, you will regret it!”

  He backed away. Concern, hurt and shock washed over his face. Defeat.

  I opened the screen door and guided Jaxon to step out first. I looked at Hayden. “And don't even think about sending Luka after me. He kept this from me too.” I held my penetrating glare. I saw the frustration in his face before I turned to leave.

  “This was everyone's secret to keep, Evika!” he called to me. “Even hers! She kept this from you, too. You don't understand. We all had to! You're making a huge mistake.” I could hear the desperation in his voice. It was his last attempt at calming me down. He knew that I might think twice if my mother was mentioned. But it only made the rage in me spill over.

  “Mistake?” I bore into Hayden's eyes, my nostrils flaring. “The only mistake I ever made was trusting you,” I said to him scathingly. “Be out of this house by the time I'm back tonight.”

  “E-Evika,” Hayden projected devastation in his tone, “you're just upset. You don't mean---”

  “I do mean it, Hayden!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “I want you out!”

  I could almost hear the rip I tore into his heart – the new heart that had just started beating less than twenty-four hours ago - as I said those words. I could almost feel it break. Or maybe it was my own. I saw the agony in his face. I was so livid, I'd only cared that I'd hurt him and was satisfied to know that I truly had. Maybe there really was a darkness inside of me that was trying to win.

  Beau started barking after me as I stepped out, a reminder of the past, one full of lies. “No, Beau. You stay here. I gotta go.” The words came out brokenly, each of them stinging as I said them, making me feel as if I was abandoning him.

  I just knew I needed to clear my head, and the only way to do that was to get Hayden out of my sight. But, I was certain that my contempt spread far beyond just Hayden. It went deeper than that. It included the Council, all Guardians, Alysto, my father, even my mother and, worst of all, God. It felt like there was no one left to trust.

  Just when I thought I had all of the pieces to my life put together, just when I thought I knew who I really was, who I was becoming, a whole new curve ball was thrown. My whole life had been a lie.

  I felt guilt blanket over me as I pulled the door closed with such a force that it shook the entire porch. I stared at my bare feet, still clinging to the jacket and the boots, breathing heavily in anger after the echo of the slamming door dissipated, leaving only the sound of the rain drops plummeting menacingly onto the porch roof. Hardly prepared, with head spinning, I slowly raised my tear-filled eyes to meet those of my own flesh and blood...my twin brother, Jaxon.

  The adventure continues…

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