“I know, I should’ve told her sooner.” He rolled his eyes. “You were right, as always.”
Klog Mor grinned. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Your smile did.”
“You definitely have your mother’s smarts.” Klog Mor laughed.
A brief flash of his mother came to mind. Her long blonde hair slid between his small fingers like silk strands, one of his few memories of her. A mix of comfort and sadness filled Edan each time he heard about his mother, as rarely as that was.
Klog Mor placed her beer back on the coffee table. “What can I do for you, my boy?”
“Synthia,” he said, hoping she could calm down his suspicions, hoping his senses were over exaggerating the situation. Hoping that his instincts failed him, for the first time in his life.
“The Marked One.”
Edan leaned closer. His elbows rested on his knees. “Something is wrong with her.”
“Honey, there’s a lot wrong with that girl.”
“Something more.” He passed his hand through his ruffled hair. “She’s always been vapid, vain, and—”
“A brat?” Klog Mor grinned.
“That sums it up.” He mirrored Klog Mor’s expression. He loved how there was no bullshit with her. “However, recently, she’s been changing.”
“Changing how?”
“Her actions are more intense. She keeps getting in trouble in order to get attention,” he explained. “She’s constantly lying, she’s obsessed with having me, and only me, helping her.”
“It’s called Histrionic syndrome.”
“It’s more than that. It’s turning psychotic.” Edan sat up. Each second that passed, he felt the paranoia creeping inside him. “I have the feeling she had something to do with Gaia’s accident with the fire, and I’m sure she knowingly left Shui to die.”
Klog Mor’s skin whitened, her blue eyes opened wide. “How sure?”
“She knew Shui was hurt yet she kept pushing me to walk the other way,” he said. His head felt dizzy thinking about Shui’s dress covered in blood. He sat down holding his ground. “She insisted I leave with her, leaving Shui to die. I’ve tried to get her comfortable enough for me to realize what she’s thinking about or planning but it’s too hard.”
Klog Mor stood up from the couch. She paced around. Her usual smiling lips were pressed into a thin line, her eyes lost, looking nowhere specific. “It has started.”
“What’s started?”
“The mark’s a powerful thing, Edan.” Klog Mor’s hand trembled with uneasiness. “It doesn’t just call Azazel, it has a way of bringing the worst out in its carrier.”
“Is the mark turning Synthia dark?”
“It isn’t making her, she already is.” Klog sat on the same couch Edan was. “The mark is a mirror of your soul, it never transforms. It enhances her own way of being. The more darkness her soul has, the faster and stronger the mark will affect her.” Edan twitched the corner of his mouth. His fingers were curled in a strong fist. “I’m sensing regret,” she said.
“I should’ve killed her back in Truckee.”
“Yet you chose not to. Forget about the ‘should’. You can’t change your past. Instead think about the ‘now’.” Her hands took hold of Edan’s and opened his fists. “Now, what are you going to do?”
“I can’t kill her.” He accepted her hand. After all those years it still calmed him. “Gaia would never forgive me.”
“Never.” Klog Mor laughed. “What will you do, then?”
“I’ll have to keep an eye on her,” he said, knowing that whatever choice he made, he needed to keep it a secret from Gaia. At least for now.
Klog Mor took her beer. She leaned forward and stretched her legs. “Great idea, now spill it.” Edan’s twisted frown let her know he had no idea what she meant. “You and Gaia. I’ve been waiting years for this talk. Did she remember?” Klog Mor beamed with excitement. “She was incredible that day. I think the parliament is still in shock over it.”
“She didn’t remember.” Edan felt his worries and problems slide away from his mind. “I told her.”
“You did?! How?”
“You are my match,” he repeated, with the same flat tone he used when he told Gaia.
“And then?”
“I left,” he said, as if it was an obvious reaction.
“Of course you did.” She hugged Edan. He was zero percent romantic but she knew that, for Edan, a gesture like that meant more than hundred red roses. “I’m happy for you.”
CUCKOO, CUCKOO!
A wooden yellow bird flew out of a rustic cuckoo clock marking the noon hour. “I have to go, Mor.” He took a map from his black leather jacket. “Here is our route. We are planning to reach the door in a little more than a week.”
Klog Mor opened the map. Her long fingers lingered on their drawn path stopping on Huntsville. “I’ll see you there, my boy.”
* * *
“Do you have your crossbow?” Floyd asked, taking the knife away from Priyam’s dangerous hands.
Smiling, Priyam turned around showing Floyd the crossbow that hung from the leather vest he made for her. “Every second of the day.”
“Good.” Floyd tapped the wooden table. “Leave it in there.”
“I thought you were going to teach me.”
“I will. Not the crossbow though.” Floyd unhooked Priyam’s crossbow and left it on the table. “We both know you know how to use that.”
“What am I learning then, Master Kenobi?”
“Mhh.” Floyd scratched his square chin. “I pictured myself in the Miyagi type.”
“Sorry, that’s Donovan.”
“No worries, I dig Kenobi.” Floyd opened one of the big black duffle bags. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Donovan doesn’t have anything close to this,” he said, taking out a .338 Lapua Magnum sniper rifle. “Meet Janie. I’ll lend her to you, and I’ll use my sister’s.”
“It looks unbelievably heavy.”
“Try it out.” Priyam held the rifle but Floyd didn’t let go of it. “Principal rules of all firearms, always assume they are loaded and never point at anything unless you or people you love are in danger. Got it?”
“Got it.” She carried the rifle, its weight almost causing her to fall over.
“Get ready to use it,” he ordered as he took out his own rifle.
“I’m going to use this?”
“That’s pretty much the point of the class.”
“You’re teaching me to be a sniper?” Priyam beamed with joy.
“I am.” Floyd snatched a bunch of bullets from the table and put them into one of his big pants pockets. “We’re lucky the house is in the middle of nowhere with a view to the mountain. After you, Snowflake,” Floyd signaled Priyam to a place right at the end of the house's garden.
Priyam held the massive rifle with both hands. “What are we shooting?”
“Veter already placed the different targets.” He indicated an area far from the house. “The first one is fifty yards, then five-hundred yards, one-thousand five-hundred yards and the last one is two-thousand yards.”
“Two-thousand yards?”
“Those are for me.” He grinned and took out a pair of headphones and a goofy orange helmet. “Put this on.”
“What is this?”
“Those headphones will cancel Janie’s noise but you’ll be able to hear me talk through the mike. That one, is a helmet.”
Priyam held the helmet like a foreign object. “Are we wrestling after or something?”
“Not unless you want to.” He laughed, taking the helmet back and helping Priyam put it on top of the headphones.
“Then why do I need a helmet?” she asked, while Floyd secured the strap.
He put on his headphones. “Safety of course, one can never be sure with you.” He gave it a little shake to see if it was tight enough. “There you go. Now place Janie on the ground, use the legs to support it.”
“Like this?” she asked,
feeling stupid wearing such an unattractive helmet on her head.
“A tad to the left.” He fluttered his hand. “Ace! Lie down on your belly,” he commanded.
Priyam got down towards the grass when Floyd stopped her by holding her from her vest. “Wait!”
“What?” She panicked, not knowing if she’d done something that could’ve killed someone.
“You are going to squish this lad.” Floyd saved a tiny red bug from dying underneath Priyam’s elbow.
“A ladybug?”
“Hello, fella.” He placed the bug on a leaf close to them. “There you go, be free.” He turned to Priyam. “Now you can lay down. Stretch your legs, spread them out, and hold Janie tight against your shoulder.” She did her best at making the sniper pose.
“Great.” Floyd jumped and took position. “Distance shooting is not something to play around with. This is a last-resort thing. It requires a lot of patience and self-control.”
“Patience?” Priyam raised her eyebrows. “Nobody said anything about patience.”
“Exactly why I’m teaching you this.” He laughed, which made Priyam feel slightly annoyed. “First, relax. You need to become aware of your breathing and never look into the scope for more than fifteen seconds.”
“Why fifteen? Would they notice I’m aiming at them?”
“You can get eye fatigue,” he said. “And no, since they are cans, I doubt they would notice.”
“The rifle is on my shoulder, my eye is not fatigued, now what?”
“Now aim.” Floyd breathed in, breathed out and shot one of the cans two-thousand yards away. “Try to hit one of the cans.”
Priyam aimed, shot… and horribly missed. “No! I missed! What if I hurt someone?”
“Don’t worry,” Floyd reassured her. “Willow made a protective barrier so you can’t hurt anyone. I would’ve never let you shoot if that wasn’t the case.”
“I like that.” Priyam aimed at one of the fifty-yard cans once again. “You are constantly making sure no one gets hurt… or killed, from humans to ladybugs.”
“I like weapons,” he said. “I don’t like hurting living things.” He aimed and hit a faraway can.
“Except trees,” Priyam joked around.
“They always appear out of nowhere,” he laughed, before hitting another target.
“How are you so good at this?”
“My grandparents.” He lifted his gaze from the scope. “My nana owned a shooting range and my papa was a history professor. He was obsessed with samurais, ninjas, and knights.” Floyd lay down on his back next to the unloaded rifle. “When my parents passed away, we moved in with our dad’s parents. If we thought we were miserable, boy, were we wrong. Our grandparents couldn’t deal with the death of their son. It didn’t take us long to figure out how to make them smile again.”
“You started to ask them about weapons and samurais?”
“Exactly.” He smiled. “They loved teaching us everything they knew. The time passed and something that started as a way to keep them happy and occupied, turned into something Pink and I grew to love. Plus we are exceptionally awesome at it,” he joked.
“Sort of.” Priyam aimed and failed again. “You learned how to fight out of love?”
“People learn different things for different reasons.” Floyd grabbed the fabric of Priyam’s shirt between his fingers. “In a way, you are also learning this out of love for your friend.”
“I thought it was to improve my patience.”
“That too,” he chuckled.
Priyam shot again and by a miracle she didn’t miss. “I hit it!” she cheered.
Floyd rolled onto his stomach to see the great hit. “Now try one from the next row.”
“As in the cans at five-hundred yards?” Priyam grunted. “No, thank you. I’ll stick to my fifty yards.”
Floyd took his rifle. He loaded it, aimed and hit every single one from the fifty-yard section. “Oops… I missed. I guess you’ll have to hit from the five-hundred yards”
“I hate you.”
Floyd laughed and pinched Priyam’s cheek. “Your eyes say otherwise.”
“My eyes are tired from looking at the scope.” She glared at him. “They don’t know what they are doing.” Priyam sat on the grass. She took off the helmet and headphones. “By the way, I sort of have a surprise for you.”
“One of your cookies?” he asked, full of hope as he mimicked Priyam and took out his headphones too.
“No. Close your eyes,” she said, as she dug into her backpack.
“Can’t, I have a rifle in my hands.”
“Then take the finger away from the trigger.” Priyam took out the cassette player and forwarded to song number five. “I’m going to touch your ear, don’t react by taking out one of your hidden knives and stabbing my arm.”
“Noted.” He nodded with his eyes closed.
Priyam grabbed her earphones; she placed one side of the earphones in Floyd’s ear and turned on the recorder.
Floyd’s eyes opened immediately. He stared at Priyam in awe, which pleased her.
“Too loud?” she asked because of his reaction. She tried to lower the volume.
“Stop.” He pulled her hand before she could reach it. “It’s perfect. How did you know?”
“I fixed it for Pink. She told me about your parents listening to it.”
Floyd closed his eyes for a moment. He enjoyed the warmth in his heart the song made him feel. He smiled, opening his light-blue eyes. “If she told you about this cassette, then you know there’s something missing in your almost perfect plan,” he said, leaning on his elbows.
“Popcorn?” she guessed.
“OK, there are two things missing,” he corrected. “Popcorn and…” Floyd put the other side of the earphones in Priyam’s ear. “There, much better.” Floyd lay down on his back and closed his eyes. “I want your hand too.” Without opening his eyes, he stretched his hand towards Priyam.
“You want everything,” she complained, intertwining her fingers with his.
With their eyes closed and holding hands, they listened to the whole tape.
Chapter 17
Highway to Hell
EDAN STARED AT GAIA as she fought against Donovan, Willow and Veter with their elements. She was a natural. She wielded the water in Hunter’s bottle and used it to attack Donovan. With her other hand she wielded the grass to trap Veter.
Edan’s eyes slowly trailed towards Synthia, who was using one of the berries to paint her lips bright red. What’s on your bloody mind? Edan wondered, yet he knew he needed to be smart about this. He had no idea what Synthia was going through or if she was planning something. No matter what it was, he just needed to keep everyone safe until they reached Terra’s door.
Edan shook his head and returned his attention to Gaia. He could feel that she was beginning to lose it. There were too many attackers, too many elements. Gaia was struggling with what to do next when Pink threw a ninja star at her. The sharp end made a small cut on her forehead.
“Damn it!” Gaia cleaned the blood with her hand. “This is too much.”
“No it’s not,” Hunter signaled her. “Stop thinking about what to do and just let your body react to it.”
“How?” Gaia opened a bottle of water and drank from it. “I’m new at this.”
“You are not.” Hunter sat in front of her. “You’re not just Gaia. You’re all Mother Nature reincarnations. You might not remember how but your soul does.” Hunter noticed Edan. He pointed at his watch. “Next time, let your instincts decide.”
“I’ll practice that more. Thanks, Hunter.” Gaia ruffled the teen’s hair and jogged back to the highway’s ledge where Edan and the rest were waiting for the training to be over. “Time to go?”
“Indeed.” Edan passed Gaia her seed pouch. “Wield some. This is our last stop before reaching Huntsville. We need to supply the food stock.”
Gaia opened the pouch by pulling its strands. “Let me guess, apricots
and strawberries?” Edan nodded. “By the way, you never told me what happened with Mor.”
“It was late when I got back and I had to ride the bike on our way here.” He explained but Gaia kept staring at him. “She sent her best. She’s very happy… for us.”
“You told her?” Gaia took a few of seeds and threw them on the ground.
“Didn’t have to.” He leaned against the van and watched Gaia wield a few fruit bushes to grow. “She guessed.”
“She always does that.” She brushed her hair away from her face. The soft red waves were almost reaching her waist; after all, it’d been almost six months since the necklace broke. “I’m beginning to have suspicions about Donovan’s animals. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re the ones telling her everything.”
“Forget that.” He laughed and lowered his voice. “She was like that even before Donovan could talk to animals.”
“I should’ve come with you.”
“And ask her about the match memory?” He grabbed two of the baskets that Hunter handed to everyone. “Never.”
Gaia took one of the baskets. “You’re so stubborn.”
“Says the girl who keeps wanting to know.” Edan pulled Gaia and held her by the back of her neck. He pressed his forehead against hers. “Let’s make a deal. If you haven’t remembered by your Resurgence…” Edan kissed her neck. His lips caressed her skin. “I’ll tell you how it happened after the ceremony.”
“Deal.”
“I’ll go check on the others.” Edan let go of Gaia and walked away.
* * *
Smiling, Gaia plucked a succulent orange apricot from the tree she’d grown.
She placed the fruit in her basket and proceed to do the same with the berries. “Is this enough?” She showed Willow the basket.
“Get a few more strawberries and we’ll be good to go.” Willow snapped her fingers. “Giant! Stop picking Bobby’s flowers and be useful! Take this basket to the van,” she interrupted Veter from giving Shui one of the First Tree’s flowers.
Veter gave Shui the dazzling golden flower before running to get the basket. “Twelve years living in Canada and you couldn’t learn to be nice?”
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