by SJ West
“It was all my fault,” my mother said, coming to stand on the other side of Dracen. “I shouldn’t have teased her so hard.”
Dracen- my father- looked up at me and winked in a conspiratorial manner.
“Yes, your mother should have known better considering how old she is,” he said, which earned him a light slap on the arm from my mother.
“I am not that old,” my mother professed. “And you’re one to talk about being old. What are we celebrating today? You’re one thousandth birthday?”
“I’m not that old,” Dracen said, sounding mildly offended by my mother’s over exaggerated assumption.
“You know father will never tell us exactly how old he is, mother,” a new voice chimed in. “He likes to maintain his ‘man of mystery’ persona.”
I looked up to the entrance of the kitchen and saw a blonde haired boy of about fifteen standing there with a grin on his face. A light scattering of freckles ran from one cheek to the next, and his blue eyes danced with mirth.
“It doesn’t matter how old I am,” Dracen said with a small shrug. “My life didn’t really begin until your mother came into it.”
The boy rolled his eyes at Dracen’s sentimentality, but when I returned my gaze to my mother’s face, I saw a smile as bright as day take shape.
“And don’t you forget it,” my mother told him. “I’m not sure what you would have done if my sister hadn’t badgered me into coming here to be your new apprentice.”
“At first, I wasn’t sure why Nuala sent me such an old pupil,” Dracen said with a shake of his head in dismay, which earned him yet another playful slap across the arm from my mother.
“I was only seventeen!” She protested. “Besides, I think Nuala wanted you to fall in love with me. She probably thought if you did, she would have the greatest sorcerer who ever lived at her disposal. She never does anything that doesn’t benefit her in some way. You should know that by now.”
“Aqueous consto,” Dracen said, making the water from the faucet stop. He reached up for a small hand towel hanging on the wall to the right of the sink and slipped it off its hanger to begin drying my hands.
“They’ll be a little sore for a day or so,” he told me. “So no more running in the tunnels, my little love, is that understood?”
“Yes, papa,” the child me answered. “I promise I won’t run.”
“Why don’t the two of you go play chess?” My mother suggested to us. “Orin and I can finish making the birthday cake. We’ll let you know when it’s ready.”
Dracen easily picks me up in his arms again.
“Do you feel up to a game of chess, Kira?” Dracen asked.
I nodded my head, which earned me a smile from him.
“You may only be seven-years-old,” he said to me as we walked out of the kitchen while my brother walked further in to help my mother, “but you’re one of the best adversaries I’ve had in long time. Though, I chalk that up to you being my daughter. I mean, I am me after all, why wouldn’t my own daughter be as brilliant at chess as I am?”
I giggled in the memory and wrapped my arms around Dracen’s neck as he continued to hold me.
“I love you, Papa,” I declared with my whole heart.
I feel Dracen turn his head and kiss one of my cheeks.
“And I will always love you, my little love. Always.”
Dracen came to a stop and sat me in a chair in front of a chessboard. He walked over to the other side of it and sat down in his chair opposite mine.
“You make the first move,” he told me.
I moved one of my pawns forward and sat back to wait for him to move his first piece.
Dracen leaned towards the board with his chin resting in the palm of his hand, his fingers lightly tapping against his lips. He looked up at me sitting across from him and winked mischievously before making his move on the board laid out between us.
I gasped because I recognized the scene as the vision I had while we were at the Royal Academy.
I let go of Vincent’s head and took a step back. I placed a trembling hand against my chest as if it would help calm my racing heart.
“Sarah,” Aurora said, rubbing her little head against the side of my face. “Are you all right?”
“Did you see it?” I asked Aurora. “Did you see the memory?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
“Why didn’t he tell me he was my father?” I asked, both Aurora and Vincent.
“I would assume,” Vincent said, “that Dracen had his reasons. It was obvious in the memory how much he loved you. A parent who loves their child so much would do anything they had to for them. It’s evident to me that drastic measures were taken to keep your memories hidden from you. I am having a hard time finding many of them from your first life.”
“Is it a spell of some sort?” I asked. “Did Dracen use his magic to erase my memories?”
“No,” Vincent said with certainty. “A magical spell is not shielding your memories like they are Dracen’s. That much I can tell.”
“Then what was done to me?” I demand. I knew my question was irrational. How would Vincent know what happened in my past? Yet, I needed to find the answer. I needed to know why the life I was born into was all but erased from my mind.
“I suggest you let me search for more of your memories,” Vincent said. “Perhaps an important one is still intact and will provide an answer to your questions.”
I hesitated for only a moment before I retook my position and held my forehead against Vincent’s once more.
Dracen and I are walking arm in arm down a cobblestone sidewalk of a small, quaint village.
“Why do you think it’s been so long since Aunt Nuala sent you a new apprentice?” I asked Dracen.
Just from the height of my perspective and the mature tone of my voice, I know that many years have passed since the first memory Vincent was able to uncover. I’m just not sure how many.
“I asked her not to,” Dracen told me. “At least not until you and your brother were older. Now that Orin has left to make his own way in the world, I assume you won’t be too far behind.”
“Is that your subtle way of telling me that I need to leave the nest?” I asked him.
I can feel my counterpart’s conflict between wanting to start a family of my own and wanting to stay with my father. I had a yearning to see the world beyond the small village we were in, but I also felt a need to stay with him so he wouldn’t be lonely.
It’s then that I realize my mother has died. Flashes of her being ill and taken too soon from this world are remembered by me as I study Dracen’s features. I don’t want to leave him all alone in his mountain sanctuary because I fear he would shy away from the world and become a hermit.
“I would never ask you to leave your home,” Dracen said to me with a melancholy smile. “But, I’m selfish that way. I would keep you with me forever if I could, but that would not be a very fulfilling life for you, Kira. You deserve so much more in your life than just me.”
I tighten my arm around his as we continue to walk down the street.
“My life with you has been filled with magic and more wonders than most people get to experience in a lifetime,” I told him. “Every time we come to this village for supplies, I see what the world has to offer, and I can honestly say that I would miss my home and you desperately if I were to leave it.”
“But don’t you want a family of your own one day?” He asked me, filled with concern. “There is so much joy to be had in loving another person and building a life with them. How can you deny yourself such happiness?”
“If I’m supposed to pick a husband from the men I’ve seen in this village,” I said, “I think I would rather remain an old maid.”
Dracen laughed. “We could go to Iron City, or even Nuala’s home on the Fae side to find a better match for you.”
“If I’m destined to find true love, it will come of its own accord. I’m in no rush, father. I have years left for it to happen. I’m only six
teen.”
“You would already be considered an old maid in some realms,” Dracen teased.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Perhaps. But when have you ever known me to care much about what other people think?”
“True enough,” Dracen agreed. “I’m surprised you care what I think most of the time.”
“You’re the wisest man I know,” I praised.
“I’m basically the only man you know, my dear daughter,” Dracen scoffed, trying to downplay my compliment.
Out of nowhere, a young boy around my age, dressed in shoddy clothes, and wearing a tattered newsboy cap barreled into me at a full run, causing me to lose my balance and fall backwards onto the sidewalk.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, miss,” the boy said remorsefully. “I should’ve been watchin’ where I was goin’.”
“Yes, you very well should have!” I huffed indignantly, my pride hurt more than my bottom.
“Are you all right?” Dracen said, kneeling down beside me to help me into a sitting position.
“”Yes, Papa. I’m fine. I just got the wind knocked out of me is all.”
The boy reached out a hand to help me to my feet. I looked at it skeptically because it was covered in ground in dirt. I briefly wondered if the boy knew what a bar of soap looked like.
“I’m truly sorry, miss,” the boy said. “Please, at least let me help you up.”
I let my eyes meet those of the boy and found myself looking at a rather handsome face with sparkling green eyes. My heart began to race inside my chest as we continued to stare at one another, and I saw from the softness that entered his eyes that I was affecting him as much as he was me.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
“My name is Jacob, miss,” he answered.
I took his offered hand and let him help me to my feet.
“Please accept my humblest apology,” Jacob said, covering the hand he still held with his other one. “I was late for work, miss. I wasn’t even lookin’ where I was goin’.”
“It’s all right,” I said, feeling my hand tremble slightly as he held it within the warm confines of his. I felt embarrassed by the way I was reacting to him and slowly slipped my hand out of his.
The boy hesitated as if he was uncertain about something, and a small part of me wondered if he simply wanted to prolong the chance encounter.
“Good day to you, miss,” Jacob said, tipping his hat to me. “I promise it won’t happen again.”
Jacob brushed by me and hurriedly made his way down the street.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Dracen asked me, still looking worried.
I nodded my head, not trusting myself to speak.
The encounter had left me shaken, but not in the way my father was probably thinking.
I looked down at the hand Jacob had held and saw that there were smudges of dirt from where he grasped it. I didn’t mind my hand being dirty until I saw something else that was out of place.
“He has mother’s ring,” I said, feeling my earlier romantic notions of Jacob quickly turn into loathing. “He stole it!”
I didn’t even wait for my father to respond. I spun on my heels and ran down the street intent on getting my mother’s ring back.
I’m not sure if Jacob sensed me running after him or not, but he picked up his pace and quickly ducked into a nearby side alley.
When I turned into the same alley, sure I had caught up to him, he was nowhere to be seen. I said a few choice words under my breath at allowing him to slip through my fingers.
Dracen was soon by my side.
“I know he ran into this alley!” I said to my father in frustration.
“He did,” my father confirmed. “Don’t worry, Kira. We can still find him.”
“How? Are we going to ask the sheriff for help? I’m sure this isn’t the first time that pickpocket has stolen from someone.”
“No,” Dracen said looking somewhat troubled. “I don’t believe we’ll need to involve the sheriff in this matter.”
“Then how exactly are we going to find him? Do you have connections to the criminal underworld that I don’t know about?”
Dracen laughed. “No, I do not have any scandalous connections with the criminal element. I don’t need them. There’s no way for him to hide from me.” Dracen turned to face the alleyway and called out, “Come on out, Jacob. I know where you are. There’s no reason to hide from us. We won’t press charges against you. Kira simply wants her mother’s wedding ring back. It was the last gift her mother gave her before she died. I don’t think you are the sort of person who would purposely steal such a sentimental item from someone. And…I know what you are. I can sense it.”
I heard the rattle of metal and saw one of the covers over where the sewer drain ran underneath the alleyway being lifted up by a pair of hands.
Jacob peeked out at us.
“How can you know what I am?” He asked suspiciously from his place of safety.
Dracen took a couple of steps forward.
“Because I can sense the difference in you, Jacob. I know you are a shifter, and my daughter and I are probably two of the few people in the world who can help you better understand why you are.”
I gasped at this revelation. My brother and I were the only shifters I knew personally. My father had been forced to tell me what I was when my mother died. I needed an explanation when he refused to let me hold her hand as she passed away. At the time, he told me there were others like us out in the world, but this was the first time I ever came face to face with a shifter who wasn’t my brother.
Jacob looked over at me, and I suddenly felt nervous under his scrutiny. He returned his gaze to Dracen.
“Is that what you call things like me?” Jacob asked, his voice full of self-loathing. “Shifters?”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Dracen assured him. “Where are your parents? We should probably discuss things with them as well.”
“I don’t have any parents,” Jacob said. “They died a long time ago.”
“How long have you been living on the streets?”
“Since the time I turned into the old groundskeeper who used to work at the orphanage I lived at,” Jacob said, lifting the grate he was hiding under completely out of the way and stepping out of the hole. “He died and I suddenly found myself becomin’ him.”
“And how did you come to be in the body you have now?” Dracen asked.
“He was a boy who befriended me when I had nowhere else to go. He was closer to my real age and livin’ on the streets. He showed me how to survive on my own and didn’t think I was crazy when I told him about becomin’ the old man.”
“And how did he die?” Dracen asked. Even I could hear the unasked question in his voice.
“I didn’t kill him,” Jacob answered irrefutably, obviously having heard the real question as well. “He had just lived on his own for too long and was half-starved and sick. He ended up dyin’ in my arms.” Jacob narrowed his eyes on Dracen. “Is that how it happens? I was holdin’ the old groundskeeper’s hand when he died too.”
“Yes,” Dracen answered. “If someone who is a shifter is touching a person when they die, they become that person. I’m sure if your parents had been able to raise you, they would have told you this. Are they dead?”
“I don’t know,” Jacob answered with a shrug. “All they told me at the orphanage was that someone left me there in a basket. They didn’t leave a note or anythin’ else, just me.”
Dracen holds out a hand to Jacob. “Then come with us. You shouldn’t be living out here on the streets. It’s too dangerous for you and other shifters.”
“What do you mean?”
“The two times you transformed, did anyone else see you do it?”
Jacob shook his head. “No.”
Dracen breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good. Can you imagine the hysteria you would have caused if someone had? You were lucky no one else was around, or they might have tried to kill y
ou while you were shifting into your new body. They would have thought you were some kind of monster or worse, a demon. Just come live with us for a little while. At least until you’re ready to accept the responsibility of what you are. I can promise you that our home is better than living on the streets.”
“And you’ll let me go if I decide I don’t want to stay?” Jacob asked, eyeing Dracen as if he were judging whether he was someone who could be trusted.
“Yes,” Dracen replied. “We won’t keep you prisoner in our home, if that’s what you’re really asking. You will be free to leave at any time of your choosing. I will personally escort you back here to this very spot if that’s what you want.”
Jacob looked down at the street and kicked at one of the cobblestones as he considered Dracen’s offer. Finally, he looked back up at us and said, “I don’t know why you’re bein’ so nice to me, especially after I stole from your daughter. But, I would like to go with you if I could.”
Dracen smiled and his body looked more relaxed.
“Good. I’m glad you’ve chosen to come with us. Now, if you would be so kind as to return my wife’s ring to my daughter, I would appreciate it.”
Jacob walked over to me, keeping his head tilted down until he stood in front of me.
“I’m sorry, miss,” Jacob said before daring to look at my face again. His emerald green eyes swam with regret. “I was just tryin’ to survive.”
“There are better ways,” I told him with a small smile, no longer feeling mad at him. How could I be when he was looking at me like a lost puppy dog?
Jacob nodded in agreement with my statement and reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out the simple gold band with a sparkling yellow stone in the mounting. I held out my right hand and he slipped it onto my ring finger.
Suddenly, the memory changed. Jacob was still holding my hand and slipping my mother’s ring onto one of my fingers, but this time it was my left hand’s ring finger.
“I now pronounce you man and wife,” a man who was standing beside us declared.
In the memory, my heart was filled with happiness as I threw my arms around the neck of a slightly older and much cleaner Jacob. I kissed him on the lips to seal the marriage vows we had just made to one another.