by R. Lynn
Hannah wanted more than anything to end the girl’s life, but she needed to cool down and use her head. “Phoebe, can you take over here? I need to go get Sollara. When you are done questioning her, if anyone deserves to slit this bitch’s throat, it is her.”
Phoebe nodded and pinned Laora against the wall and proceeded to question her while Hannah left to get Sollara. It didn’t take Hannah long to make it to Phoebe’s office, but Oya was in the hall guarding the door.
“Hey Oya, I need to talk to Sollara. Can I go in?”
“I guess so. Has anyone found Kai yet?” she asked.
“No, maybe you should go look for him. Last I heard he was in Sollara's car.”
“Alright. I will tell him what happened.”
Hannah watched Oya leave before opening the door to peer in. She saw Sollara sitting on a couch and writing in a book. “Journaling?” she asked. “I do that when I need to think some times.”
Sollara looked confused at first. “Oh yes, journaling. Yep,” she said as she nodded her head and quickly closed the book.
“So we have that girl. I figured you might want to talk to her.” Sollara nodded her head and got up and headed to the door. While she was walking, she carefully wrapped her journal in a silk cloth and put it inside her bag.
They trudged down the hall to the dorms, and when they got to the bathroom where they held Laora, Hannah pulled her to a halt.
“Now make sure you don’t do anything too rash. Phoebe still needs to ask her some questions.”
She didn't answer Hannah but smashed open the door and walked right up to Laora, punching her in the face. Warm blood trickled down the shifter’s nose.
“Ah, Sollara, I was wondering when you would come.” Laora immediately changed into the mirror image of Sollara.
“Phoebe, have you gotten anything out of her?” Sollara snapped, never taking her eyes off of Laora.
“No, she refuses to talk even under pain,” Phoebe admitted quite exasperatedly.
“We do not need her,” Sollara spat.
“Yes you do. Without me you will never know what atrocities Mari has set in motion,” Laora laughed as she phased back into her form.
“Won’t we?” Sollara cocked her head and stood inches from Laora’s face. Suddenly, Sollara shifted and took the image of Laora.
“How did you...? You shouldn't be able to do that,” Laora gasped.
“Oh, this little thing? I guess Mari forgot to mention to you that I can shadow other’s abilities. Oh wait, Mari does not know that I can. I think I will just march right back to the Deep Kingdom looking like you, and I will find out everything I want to know.”
“Sollara, that is not advisable. If anyone were to discover you, they would kill you,” Phoebe cautioned.
“Not before I kill them.”
Phoebe and Hannah stood back and watched Sollara as she squeezed the breath of life out of Laora, who had gone back to Sollara’s form.
“This is too perfect. I will go to Mari appearing like Laora and carrying the body of a dead Sollara. She will celebrate my arrival, and when she does, I will kill her for everything she has taken from me. My parents, Aurora, and now Kai,” she screamed.
“No. Please...I will speak…please don't...kill…me,” Laora spluttered between her labored breaths.
Grief does crazy things to people. But the murderous rage Sollara was projecting was scaring both Hannah and Phoebe.
“Sollara and Hannah go wait in the hall.” The tone in Phoebe’s voice was so sharp that it snapped Sollara out of her rage. Hannah jumped as if she had been prodded with a branding iron.
As Sollara was leaving, she glared at Laora. Hannah quickly followed her into the hall. By this point Andrew, Iresh, and Josiah were pacing back and forth outside. Oya must have told them what had happened.
“Josiah’s here,” Hannah mumbled so only Sollara could hear. She looked over at him, and his eyes nervously scanned her face. Poor guy, Hannah thought. How humiliated he must feel. He was taken advantage of by someone who looked and presented herself like the girl he wanted. Hannah walked over to him.
“Josiah, can I talk to you?” He nodded and she took his arm and led him away from the group. When they were out of hearing range of the others, she spoke.
“Did the boys or Oya explain what Laora did to you?”
“Laora? I guess that’s her name. Yeah, they told me it wasn't you, and man I feel like an idiot. I should have known. You have always been too much of a lady to throw yourself at me or anyone else. It’s just that I couldn’t think straight.” His face reddened as he spoke of his feelings for her.
“Josiah, you’re a great guy. Thank you for saying and thinking those nice things about me. But...”
“But you don't feel the same in return?” he interrupted.
Sadness consumed his face. She shook her head, took his hand and held it to where her heart would be if she had one.
“A long time ago I was really hurt, and I have not fully healed. I do not think I could feel that way about anyone. Not until I can forgive Nathanial for what he did to me. I’m not ready to do that yet. You’ve been a really good friend to me. I don't want this to come between us, but I also don’t want to give you false hope or mislead you in any way.”
He pulled his hand away from her and studied her face. His grief-hardened expression softened.
“I have been lucky to count you as a friend. I will not press this any further as I cannot bear the thought of not having you in my life. By the way, I like this you a lot better than the you that manipulated my emotions to get me to do her bidding.”
“Hey, that isn’t fair. That wasn't even me.” She smacked him in the arm. He put his arm around her shoulders, and they sauntered back to the group.
Andrew was watching the pair approach, his eyebrows raised, questioning Josiah’s arm around Hannah’s shoulder. Before Hannah could explain, Josiah threw his arms up in the air. “Seriously woman, I already turned you down once, don't you know I just want to be friends. Stop harassing me,” he shouted. All the boys started to laugh.
“Nice Josiah, really nice,” Hannah said. She was thankful that he could make her feel at ease and bring them back to the place of friendship so quickly.
The pressing need to find Kai burned in Sollara’s chest. Before anyone noticed, she slipped away from the group. Not knowing about Kai made her assume the worst. She needed to hear the truth from him so she would know where she stood. Hannah was right. She couldn't lose him, not now.
Slowly, she moved her feet, one foot in front of the other. She walked toward her car and hoped she would find Kai. When she got into range, she saw that he and Oya sat on the hood of the car, and they were quietly talking. Oya had her arm around his shoulders, and Kai was looking at the ground and shaking his head. Simultaneously, they snapped their heads up as Sollara approached. She froze in her tracks. The reality of what she had to deal with caused her to doubt she was ready.
Oya floated up in the air and out of vision, leaving Kai and Sollara alone. She wanted to run, to copy Oya and float away to a happy place. But for some reason, her feet refused to move.
Kai ran and fell to the ground on his knees in front of her. “Sollara please, please Sollara listen to me. I need you to listen to me...please.”
She knelt down in front of him and put her hands on his face, pulling him to look at her. She wanted him to be very clear about what she was going to say.
“Kai, I want you to know I will never forgive you for sleeping with Laora.”
-48-
“I will never forgive you because you did nothing wrong to merit it. You thought it was me, I know you did. I trust you.”
The strain of loss that had creased his brow disappeared, replaced by a wave of joy.
“Oh Sollara, you have no idea how much that means to me. I thought for sure I’d lost you.” He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his face into her neck. After a few moments, his body tensed and he pulled back, studying
her face. “I did not sleep with Laora. I pushed her away. It didn't feel right. I knew it in my heart that it wasn't you. You are not just what you look like to me, you are so much more.”
Gratitude flooded into her as if it were oxygen given to a drowning victim. He knew. He didn't have sex with Laora because he knew. She thanked the Fates that he was still hers, all hers. Then they held each other and with each tear that left Sollara, her heart slowly erased all the painful memories of his time with Laora.
Peace filled the void, a peace she had dreamed of many times. The very peace she would have never thought she would be able to experience. The peace of knowing she was not alone and that she was loved.
“Sollara, you had best be getting ready,” a strangely familiar voice called out.
“What? Who said that?” Sollara pulled out of Kai’s grasp and looked around. A stabbing pain began to clutch at her head. She pushed her palm to her temple and tried to lessen it.
Strong arms grabbed her shoulders. “Sollara, look at me. Look at me, damn it!” Kai screamed as he shook her violently.
“It is Nicola. Asima sent me to wake you.”
“Asima is gone. Dead. This isn’t funny. Who is speaking?” Sollara whipped her head about, ignoring Kai’s pressing screams. She had to see who was talking, the voice, the name Nicola. It was all too familiar. Her heart began to shoot forth bursts of her electricity, and she fell to her knees clutching her chest.
“Sollara, what’s happening? Please don’t listen to the voice. Come back to me!” Kai begged as he clung helplessly to her body.
“My lady? Asima is well… I just spoke to her… Are you feeling ill?”
Sollara rocked her head back and forth and put her hands over her ears. The ground seemed to spin, and she could not make sense of anything. Who was this familiar person? Why was she purposely hurting her by pretending Asima was alive.
“No, I don’t understand. Who are you?”
For a brief moment her world went black. Then reality met her, and she awoke in the comfort of a warm bed.
Opening her eyes, she squinted and waited for them to adjust to the half-lit room. What had just happened? She seemed to recall Kai yelling for her, pleading with her to stay with him.
What a strange dream that had been.
Rubbing her eyes, she pulled the pillow off her head and sat up. She hadn’t even remembered going to her room to sleep.
“My lady? Should I get Asima to check on you?”
“Asima?”
Instantly, Sollara was aware of her surroundings. The room was familiar, but it was not her room at the school. No, she was somewhere else, somewhere worse.
“Nicola?”
“Yes Sollara?” The door muffled her words, but Sollara could make them out.
“What day is it today?” Sollara asked as she held her breath and waited for the response.
“Why, it is your coming of age day, your eighteenth birthday!” Nicola replied.
“No, no this can’t be. Nicola, you’re wrong. That was months ago.”
“Months? You must not feel well. I am coming in!”
“No. Nicola wait…I’m fine. Just leave me. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Desperately she searched her room for something, anything that would tell her it was a liean especially nasty lie. If what Nicola had said was true, then Sollara had been dreaming this whole time. She swallowed the knot that was rising in her throat. But it couldn’t have been a dream. It was all so real.
No! Being here again wasn’t true. She refused to accept that Kai and everything else had been a fantasy of her imagination. She had to prove it to herself. Kai was real.
Being back in the Deep Kingdom— that was the lie.
Hoping that she could return to Kai and remain with him forever, Sollara once again did what she normally would do. She pulled the pillow over her head— blocking out the world around her and concentrating on her world, the in-between.
"Better never to have met you in my dream,
than to wake and reach for hands
that are not there.”
-Otomo No Yakamochi
book two
~1~
“Sollara come back to me!” Kai clung to her frail form rocking her in his arms.
A blank face and hollow gaze looked up at him, her limbs hung limply to her side. She wasn’t there, her body was, but she had left it somehow.
“Sollara, please ignore the voice, hear mine and return to me!” He buried his face into her chest and collapsed to the ground crying. She’d just forgiven him, they were supposed to live their happily ever after, now she’s gone.
“Kai?”
Her gentle voice broke through his grief and he raised his head to stare into her eyes. “You came back!” he said as he wiped his tears and kissed her face. “Where did you go, I thought I’d lost you?”
“One moment I was hear and the next I was back at the Deep Kingdom.” She paused and thought over how to explain it to him. “It was the day you first visited me as Lark.” Her brow furrowed as she thought over what had happened. It was unexplainable, both seemed like reality, one must have been a lie. But which? Was being with Kai the dream? Or was returning to the Deep Kingdom one?
She was shaken up from the ordeal, and although she felt comforted being back with Kai, she knew staying there was only going to make her doubt her reality. "I really don’t want to move, but maybe we should go check on Phoebe’s progress with Laora.”
His concern filled eyes studied her face. “We have to tell her about this.”
In an effort to appease him she nodded her head in agreement, although deep inside she wasn’t ready. She wanted to figure out what happened on her own.
Satisfied with her answer he took her hand and led her after him to the school.
Every once in awhile Kai would stop and watch her. It was as if he wasn’t sure she was really there, with him. And that didn’t help the uncertainty Sollara was feeling one bit. Somehow she mustered the strength to smile at him, she hoped it was enough to calm his nerves. If he was ok, then she could lean on him to get through whatever had just happened.
All she knew was that if she opened her mouth to say anything she would once again fall victim to her fears. Fears of not knowing if the perfectly complex world she was in with him, was the makings of her mind, or her true reality.
Despite the awkwardness of their walk, they seemed to make good time. Now all that separated her from facing Laora, was one door.
Phoebe and a group were engrossed in an argument. So much so, that they didn’t even noticed Sollara and Kai’s approach.
"What happened, why is everyone yelling?" Sollara asked, jumping right into the group and out of Kai’s worried glance.
Phoebe titled her chin in the air, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and turned to Sollara. "I let her go."
"You did what?” She turned to Hannah. Hannah would tell her the truth. If this was a joke it was cruel. When Hannah refused to make eye contact she knew it was true. “Why would you do that? Are you crazy?"
A strong hand pressed down on her shoulder and she turned to see Iresh offer her a smile.
"I got the information from her I needed and now we can watch from a distance and see where she goes," she explained.
"She’s a shifter! Possibly the hardest person to track!" Sollara was baffled. Phoebe normally thought everything through. “You’ve made a grave mistake.”
"I understand that you think that, Sollara. But what you don’t know is that Josiah and Kai will be able to sense her. Shifters print in those they have been intimate with, it is like an emotional tracking devise." She turned to Josiah, "Since rumor has it that you have been the most intimate your bond to her is strongest. Are you be willing to come with us?"
Josiah's face reddened as much as a SOD’s face could. Despite his hope, he now knew that the incident was not put behind him just yet. He nodded his head and looked to Hannah to confirm with her that his participation
would not cause her trouble.
In understanding to the situation, Hannah nodded and smiled to confirm it would be ok.
"Good then it is settled, we will pack and head out immediately. Your training will continue during our travels." With a flick of the wrist Phoebe gave her commands.
Even though what she had done infuriated Sollara, Sollara did not argue. What was left for her to do? All that that was left for her, was hope. Hope that Phoebe was right.
They quietly went their own ways, to pack and prepare for the journey that lay ahead.
Being in her dorm room felt strange after what had happened that morning. The first thing she did was go to the dresser and make sure the sacred book of Prophecy was still there. When she could not find it, she began to panic. She was about to run to Phoebe’s office when she noticed a package on her bed. She sat down and picked up the precious package and carefully unwrapped it. The sacred book lay beneath the cover. She paused to run her fingers over the worn leather cover, and then opened it to reveille the blank pages.
Even though it was not practical to bring a book, when room for basic necessities was limited she didn’t care. Careful not to bend it, she re-wrapped it and stuck it at the bottom of her bag. Justifying the choice with the fact that it might come in handy.
Because of its size, it left little other room in her bag. It pained her to have so many new clothes and have to be frugal with her choices. But now was not the time to be self-centered. They were going after Laora. It was time to be focused.
After much deliberation over what to bring, she still couldn’t fit all her things in her one bag. Somehow she managed to convince Hannah to let her put some items in her bag. Feeling satisfied with her choices she left with Hannah to collect Kai on their way to her car.
Phoebe was already at the cars. She was busy instructing, Andrew, Iresh, Oya and Josiah on the proper way to pack the vehicles. The truck had been stacked with coolers of blood and various other camping supplies.
Coeus once again was staying behind and start planning with their allies. They hoped to build an army of Dark Ones. An army that was willing to fight, Mari and the Descendants.