by Carly Marino
He tickled my sides.
I squirmed and giggled. “Cole!”
Our eyes connected. Nothing else mattered. With him, I didn’t have to worry about my ability. I could relax and enjoy every pleasurable sensation. Warmth spread through me as my desire flickered to life. I wanted to share everything with Cole.
I gazed at him. A soft smile crept on his face.
He leaned over and found my lips, kissing me with tender sweetness. I’d waited for this, an unburdened kiss without memories ruining the magic. The euphoria was dizzying, surreal.
I fumbled for the button of his jeans, surprised at my willingness to go this far. If he knew I’d never kissed anyone, he had to know I’d never been with anyone either. Was I ready for this? First kiss to first time? That’d be crazy. It was way too soon. Then again, finding a guy I felt this strongly about was hard enough, let alone one I could actually touch.
He pulled back slightly. “Thea, I know you’ve never… I don’t think we should—”
I yanked him to me, claiming his kiss, silencing his reservations. I wanted him. I didn’t know what to expect at The Mirrors. They could kill me or separate us forever. These few precious minutes might be my last. Might be our last. And I refused waste even one second.
Fire burned along my arms. With a crackle, the room illuminated. Cole separated from me. His head cocked to the side, and confusion flashed behind his eyes.
Twinkling zaffre and yellow stars swirled in the room. Waves of light brightened his face. I laughed as the snakes of light twisted, danced, and knotted together. Green sparkles showered upon us.
Cole’s brows creased to the center, and his gaze wandered about the room. What was he thinking about? I hoped he didn’t regret this kiss. I sure didn’t.
He drew in a deep breath, and his eyes glistened. Was he tearing up? Before I could ask, his mouth found mine. He kissed me with more need and hunger, passion burning between us. He inhaled, sighing after. Our hands explored, and our lips tasted.
My body awakened. As his fingers trailed along my bra elastic, I tangled my hands in his wavy hair. Shivers of desire begged me to get closer to him.
I tucked this memory deep into my subconscious. Never would I forget how I felt in that moment. I would treasure this for eternity, and I prayed he would too.
I grabbed at his waistband. He helped me with the button.
“Oh shit! I’m sorry, guys. I—”
Cole and I jerked apart, the flickering lights dissolved, and I yanked down my shirt, heat creeping up my neck. Logan stood in the doorway, his eyes wide and mouth open. I’d never felt more embarrassed in my life. I wanted to run and hide.
Logan laughed. His cheeks just as red as I imagined mine were.
I folded my quivering hands in my lap to calm them. My breath heaved in my chest. The skin around my lips was raw from Cole’s five o’clock shadow, and my heart raced.
A smirk curled onto Logan’s face. He cleared his throat. “We only have a short window of time. So adjust yourselves, and let’s go.” He gave a wave. “I’ll meet you guys in the lobby.” He chuckled as the door closed behind him.
I groaned.
Cole rubbed the nape of his neck. He smiled, leaned down, and kissed me softly. “We’ll finish this later.”
I bit my lip. If everything went well at The Mirrors, and we lived, I could only hope.
Chapter Nineteen
Cole, Logan, and I waited in line for the ski lift. I followed the moving chairs with my eyes as they shrank in size and disappeared at the peak. The sight sent a shiver down my arms. First the floatplane and now a ski lift. Was Cole preparing me for something way scarier?
Cole raised my chin and tugged on my winter hat so the sides covered my ears. “You cold?”
I smiled. “I’m a little chilly, but I think it’s more nerves than anything.”
He cupped the side of my face, and I leaned into his hand. His thumb stroked my cheek. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
“I know.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. I wished he’d went a little lower. I loved kissing him. He wrapped his arms around me, holding my body close to his chest.
My ears warmed. Everything warmed. I glanced at Logan. He didn’t seem fazed by our PDA. Instead, he gawked, winked, and smiled at every pretty girl who passed.
He motioned to a gorgeous blonde with wedge boots and long legs. She had smooth skin and a button nose that wrinkled when she smiled. He pointed for her to meet him at the front of the line.
Logan nudged Cole as she walked toward us. “Bro, I’m totally getting some tonight.”
Cole chuckled. “You’re way too thirsty, man.”
“Guys gotta do what he can.”
I rolled my eyes.
A man unhooked the rope and directed us to a lift. The blonde girl stepped over to join Logan. They whispered. Logan grinned at us. “I’ll see you at the top. I’m going to keep this beautiful lady warm.” She looped her arm through his, and he escorted her to the chair in front of ours.
I groaned as Cole and I buckled in. The chair scooped upward, my stomach flipped, and I gasped. As we glided to the top, I looked down. Big mistake. The trees below appeared tiny like the ones outside my dollhouse as a kid. We were high. Really, really high.
The muscles in my neck tensed. I clamped my eyes shut. Please, don’t let us fall.
Cole held my hand, and I squeezed the heck out of it. His breath tickled my ear. “Open your eyes. You have to see how beautiful this is. I promise, I won’t let you fall.”
Had he read my mind?
A guy yelled and whistled. My heart dropped, and I think I might’ve yelped.
“Look guys!” Logan stood on his chair. The cables rocked and so did my stomach. He howled, and pointed. “Look down there!”
I ignored the fact that Logan could plummet to his death any second and scooted in my seat. A bear and her two cubs walked along the mountainside. The smaller ones batted at each other every few steps, and they tumbled in somersaults of fun.
“That’s amazing,” I whispered.
Cole rubbed my leg. “Told you.”
Logan finally sat down, and I sighed.
Cole chuckled and dropped an arm around my shoulders. “Don’t worry about him. If you do, you’ll stress the whole time. The guy’s crazy.”
I cuddled into him. “Then why’d you bring him?”
He kissed my temple. I thought back to our kiss earlier. Joy sparkled in my heart, and I glowed from the inside out. I curled my fingers to refrain from actually glowing.
“I trust Logan more than anyone in the world. Plus, he’s been to The Mirrors a few times.”
“Really? What for?”
“His parents work for the Ancients. He visits them every so often.”
“People actually work for the Ancients?”
“Not people, Inflexaens.”
I rolled my eyes but kept the smile on my face. “I’m sorry. Inflexaens, actually work for the Ancients? Doing what exactly?”
Cole ruffled the back of this head. “Keep us in line.”
“Like police?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess. If we didn’t have consequences, once the sun went down there’d be a lot more human deaths. Killing a human is forbidden. Like we said, we take what we need to survive. Our system operates on an-eye-for-an-eye basis.”
“You kill them? What if they didn’t do it?”
Cole arched his brow. “Ancients are powerful enough to break their masks and read their memories. If they did it, there’s no lying.”
A cold wind bit at my cheeks, and I shivered. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I rolled the bracelet around my wrist. “What about the Resparé? How do the Ancients deal with them?”
“We all hunt Resparés. A member of the council, like Logan’s parents, will meet with us every so often for updates. It’s where Nora and Drake were going that night you came over, but their parents handled it without them.”<
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The chair swayed. I clutched the bar around my waist. “So, what happens to all the bodies? I feel like the cops would find corpses everywhere with this secret war going on.”
Cole hugged me tighter to his chest. “They age and turn to dust.”
“Oh … right.” I thought of the Inflexaen girl Larc had drained to death. I swallowed and shut my eyes. I’d never told Cole about her attacking me on the beach. Now that she was gone, it didn’t seem important anymore.
We sat silent for the rest of the ride. He held me closer, kissing my head or rubbing my arm every few feet. His gentle touches lulled my racing heart.
The chair lift cranked as we reached the top. Cole helped me off and hugged me the moment my boots touched the pavement. I beamed at him, proud of myself for not freaking out.
People milled around, taking pictures of the view. We swiveled around them. Logan waited for us on the other side of the gate. He handed a cell phone to the blonde and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and waved to him.
He elbowed Cole when he approached, still eyeing the blonde as she walked into the mountaintop restaurant. Cole and he laughed back and forth as we walked to the gondolas. I ignored their banter and wrapped my arms around myself. I worried about going to The Mirrors. What if they realized I was half-human? Would they kill me? Capture me?
Now with the possibility I could be something else… I needed to stop thinking that way. Why stress about something Cole flat-out told me could never happen? One thing at a time. Mirrors first, Roamer issue later.
We stopped at the roped-off line for Peak to Peak. Cole lifted my chin and kissed me gently. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you—”
He stepped up to the front of the line before I could ask.
I turned to Logan. “What’s he doing?”
Logan grinned. “We need an empty ride. Can’t have other people seeing the excitement.”
“Excitement?”
Logan didn’t answer. I followed his gaze to the employee ushering people onboard. Cole placed a hand on the employee’s shoulder and the man paused, eyes glazed. Cole released him and motioned Logan and me over.
We stepped into the vacant, enclosed gondola that had benches on either side. The doors slid closed. Windows surrounded the top half for riders to admire the spectacular views. I didn’t love that we hung this high from a cable.
Peak to Peak was one of the biggest attractions. The gondola ran between Whistler Mountain and Backcomb Mountain. I read in the brochure that we would get as high as 1,430 feet. I shuddered and pressed my back to the bench.
I had to admit, though, afraid or not, the view beat anything I’d ever seen. Lush pines grew in the valley between the peaks. The late-afternoon sun glistened on the snowcapped mountaintops.
When the gondola approached the center, I noticed a strange swirl of low hanging clouds. I kneeled on the bench to get a better look out the window. Everywhere around the clouds was clear. They almost seemed to funnel toward the ground like a tornado.
Logan hopped to his feet and pulled a crowbar from inside his jacket. “You ready for this?”
Why the hell did they need a crowbar? I wasn’t liking this one bit.
Cole jumped and shook his shoulders. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
I stared between them. Logan stuck the crowbar in the door and wiggled the metal handle. He leaned and grunted as the door opened.
Wind gusted in, blowing my hair back. The freezing breeze stole my breath. Snow flurries swirled inside. “What are you doing? Are you crazy?”
Logan laughed. “Oh shit, Cole. You didn’t tell her, did you?”
Oh my gosh. Tell me what? I wasn’t going to like this. “What?”
Cole’s shoulders drooped with his exhalation. “You saw how she was on the floatplane.”
Logan shook his head. “Good luck, bro.” He turned until his back faced the open door.
I rose to my feet. What was he doing? He stuck out his tongue, waggled his eyebrows, and backflipped outside. I screamed and ran to the opening. He disappeared into the white clouds below.
“Oh my God. He didn’t have a parachute. He didn’t have a—”
Cole gripped my shoulders and lightly shook me. “Thea, look at me.”
“He’s crazy. Why would he jump? Why? I don’t understand.”
Cole cupped my cheeks. “Listen. We don’t have much time. The entrance to The Mirrors is in that cloud. It’s the only way in and if we miss it, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Nothing will happen to you.”
“I can’t, Cole. Please, don’t make me.” I clutched my chest. I couldn’t jump out of this thing. I’d die of shock before I even got to the cloud.
“I’ll hold you,” he shouted over the wind whipping inside.
The swooshing noise made me dizzy. I backed up until I pressed against the far side of the gondola. “Please…” I held my hands up.
Cole swiped his hand through his hair. He cursed under his breath, glanced out the door, and then grabbed me.
“No, Cole. No. I can’t.” Tears fell from my eyes. I screamed and struggled.
His strong arms wrapped around my body, securing me to his chest. “This is our only chance. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He fell out.
I shrieked and clenched my eyes closed. We soared through the air. My stomach rolled and flipped. I didn’t know if I wanted to faint, cry, or throw up. I opened my eyes as we entered the white cloud.
A loud snap startled me, and Cole was gone. I plummeted through the smoke, cold and alone.
“No. Please!”
I cut through the fog. Flailing and scrambling, I bellowed, praying I could fly. If I lived through this, I would do whatever it took to survive. Just let me live.
The cloud separated and everything blurred. Green, brown, and white spun around me. I’d hit the ground soon or break every bone in my body as I rolled down trees limbs.
A jolt to my body contracted my lungs. I coughed and wheezed. The sudden halt made my head ache and my spine bend in an unnatural position. Was I in The Mirrors?
I hovered on my stomach, inches from the top of a pine tree. Floating and frozen in mid-air, I peered through the leaves, and I saw her. A woman with her arms stretched toward me. A white trail of wavy light flowed from her fingertips, holding me in place and encasing me in a bubble.
My breathing sped up to match the rapid pace of my heartbeat. I tried to thrash free, but I couldn’t. She weaved my body around snow-dusted pine boughs, and the sphere bent the branches. Some of them snapped and fell to the ground with a crash.
She turned my body to stand me upright, and then lowered me until my feet rested on the dirt. The bubble vanished. I wiggled my fingers. Relief wash over me when they moved. My mind screamed run, but my legs refused the command. I stared at her.
Her silver-streaked, vibrant red hair fell in wild ringlets to her shoulders. A golden headband of jewels with a single emerald teardrop hung in the center of her forehead.
Her long, sleek, white and gold gown flowed to the ground and had a train behind. The sleeves were sheer and sparkled as if sprayed with glitter.
She was thin, about the same shape and size as me. There was something familiar about her face, but I couldn’t place what. She peered at me with eerie, vacant, colorless eyes.
The pigment slowly appeared. She blinked, and I stumbled. Her eyes were the exact same color as mine. Piercing, defined, and terrifying. I shuffled until a tree came between me and my escape.
“Who—who are you?” I swallowed.
She glided toward me. Her unnatural, graceful movement was smooth like a figure skater on polished ice. I flinched, turning my head to the side as if that would save my life. All I thought about was Larc gripping that girl by the chin and taking her youth.
“I will not hurt you, dear,” a sweet voice said in my head.
I swiveled back to her. She angled her neck, her gaze observing me with a soft
smile. Something behind her eyes relaxed the fear in my muscles. Quieted my rapid heartbeat.
“How do I know that?”
She held my hands. Her voice hummed in my mind, again. “I am Mnemosyne, your grandmother.”
Chapter Twenty
Grandmother? I stumbled backward. The woman standing before me couldn’t be much older than thirty.
She laughed and spoke to me telepathically. “Inflexaens stop aging at thirty-five. We live slightly longer than humans but are born and die just the same.” She squeezed my hands. “Your father is my son.”
“How can I believe you? I have no way of knowing—”
Her eyes faded to white. Wind swirled at our feet. Fallen leaves covered my boots, and the ground swept from under me. I closed my eyes at the familiar feeling of falling as I drifted into a memory.
When I opened my eyes, I stood next to a hospital bed.
My daughter-in-law stares down at her beautiful baby girl. Tears drip down her face and I smile at the joy behind her eyes. An arm wraps around my shoulders, holding me tightly.
I peer at my son, his golden eyes glistening in the fluorescent lighting.
“She’s absolutely lovely, Weston. You both are so very blessed,” I whisper to him, not wanting to disturb the baby.
Janica looks up from her child. “We truly are, Mnemosyne. She’s perfect.”
I sucked in my breath. My chest clenched as if a punch connected to my gut. My mother. Even after just giving birth she still radiated with beauty. And my father’s smile was warm and gentle.
Whether this woman had read my memory and given me images from my past or not, seeing my parents alive brought more joy to my heart than words could express. I’d yearned for years to know them.
I wanted to believe her.
“I didn’t steal your memories, for you have none.” She frowned. “I am so sorry we had to take them from you. It was the only way to keep you safe. To keep the memory safe.”