Velocity: The Gravity Series #2
Page 20
“You shouldn’t be here.” I said.
She tilted her head to the side. Even in the dark I could see she was beautiful, creamy skin and fair hair under a cap and net. “I can be wherever I like. And so, could you.”
I looked at the lock on the door. Nothing would get through that, and anyway, I no longer had the energy left to move, starvation would do that.
She stepped forward and I was sure she was brightening the cell just by being in there. A soft glow that reminded me of height of summer roses seemed to emit from the space around her. “You need to remember who you are.”
I stared at her wide eyed. “I know who I am. Who are you?”
“A friend?” She offered me a small smile and crouched down on the filthy floor, her beautiful dress falling in the muck and grime. “He will try to save you, he always does.” She looked at me earnestly through the bars. “But I don’t think he will today.”
“Who’s he?”
“He’s the one you're always looking for.”
She reached her hands through the bars and I shifted forward so I could place my hand in hers. “You’re the only one that can undo the punishment. You have to work it out, not just for your sake but for his.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. Who you are talking about.”
She nodded slowly, her lips turned down at the corners. “I know.” She stood and brushed the dirt from her skirts. “I’ll see you again, my old friend.”
I frowned. I knew after today I wouldn’t be able to see anyone again. No one survived trial by water. Looking up, I went to tell her this, but she was gone, the dark gloom seeping back into the corners of the cell. In my hand was a single sprig of heather. It meant something to me. I just didn’t know what. I tucked it into the arm of my shift, sure that when my time came, having the heather with me would give me the strength I needed.
I sat with a gasp. I must have slumped down; my head was in Lauren’s lap and she was asleep with her hand resting on my hair. She didn’t wake with my jolt so carefully I placed her hands in her lap before moving away.
The dream was so real and it was with a shock I realised I’d replaced the bars of the cell in my dream with the cage I was in. In this nightmare.
It had been Celeste in the dream, I hadn’t known it then, but I knew her now. Celeste. I wondered where she was. Was she with Nick? Wherever Connor had sent them?
My stomach ached, the broken connection to Nick tearing me apart in a way that words would never be able to describe. Celeste’s words from my dream spun in my head. “He always tries to save you.”
Why?
Why was he always saving me? Why was I always needing to be saved? Who was I?
“Who am I?” I wondered out loud.
“You’re Bronte,” Lauren murmured. “We don’t have to go through this again do we?”
I shook my head and stared at her, the whole time my brain whirled with possibilities. So many unanswered questions.
Nick was scared to tell me the truth. Why?
Why was this time different? Why this time did I know what he was? Why did that change anything? If I died, I’d come back, right?”
I gasped when a shock of truth hit me. I wouldn’t come back. If Aaron and Connor drained my energy it must affect my soul. Maybe I couldn’t reincarnate from that. Maybe if I died in this body, that was it. Or maybe, there would be nothing to reincarnate to, because if Eleanor had my energy, the world would go dark and Nick would continue to live forever without me.
I remembered the girls from my dreams. The girls I’d been jealous of because Nick had loved them all before me.
I wanted to know them. I wanted to know me. To understand.
If I died now then Nick would never know I’d believed, that I’d wanted to understand what we were, even if it seemed a daunting prospect. All he’d know is that I broke our connection and left him.
I scrambled to my feet.
“What are you doing?” Lauren straightened herself up, stretching her neck and wincing at the motion.
“I’m getting us the hell out of here.” I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought about it before. It’s what Celeste was telling the girl in the other cell, the witch. Although why Celeste thought the girl from my dream could achieve it, I didn’t know. I was the last Star child. Me. This version of me.
“It’s funny,” she closed her eyes again and slumped, “but we are in a locked cage.”
I grinned at her and her expression lifted, although mainly into confusion. “That’s the funny thing about locks. There’s always a way to undo them.”
I glanced at Eleanor still sleeping on the chair. I didn’t even know if she was still alive. She hadn’t moved during my own muddled doze. I hoped she was. I wanted to tell her everything, after I’d saved her.
I clapped my hands together and created the unique violet glow that was a part of Nick and I, and I concentrated on the lock. Wrapping my hand around the mechanism, I waited just like Connor had taught me. I waited for the wheels and levers to respond to my will. And they did. The first one clicked, and then another until finally all the connections unhooked and the door sprung free.
“That’s very cool.” Lauren scrambled up beside me. “Now what?” She looked at me expectantly.
“Now we grab Ellie and we run.”
My knees creaked and gave way as I put my weight on them. I wobbled a little until I found my balance on my dead limbs and stepped towards the chair. My hand reached out to grab her but it felt wrong. A tingle spindled its way along my spine.
Eleanor’s head lolled back and I shrieked. It wasn’t Eleanor. It was me. My eyes were glassy, my skin pale and cold.
I was dead.
My legs shook. There was no air to breathe. None.
I gasped repeatedly as my slippery hands slid over the cold skin of my face. “What the hell?” Using shaking hands, I swept back the blonde hair hanging from my neck. Protruding from my throat was a slender golden arrow. What was that? A Sun Ray? But that couldn’t kill me. I turned for Lauren who had her eyes on stalks.
“It’s not you, it’s not you.” she shook her head as she repeated the words, “it’s not you, it’s not you.”
“No. Because I’m me. Aren’t I?” Wasn’t this the definitive question of my life?
Who was I?
A clatter from the other side of the wall made us startle. Lauren grabbed for me, her hands finding my skin and holding me harm.
“You’ve got to go. Please.”
My mouth ran dry. “I’m not leaving you. I don’t even know how.” We were in a locked warehouse. Where was there to go!
“Please, Bron. They will kill you. They aren’t playing. You will die.” Hearing her say the words made it even more real. I looked down at my other self. The one with the gold arrow through the throat.
“I’m not leaving you.” My entire body shook like the last leaf of Autumn clinging to a tree.
My mind spun to Connor opening the portal, the violet pulse of light that sent us across the country in mere seconds. But he said it was dangerous. That I could get lost in space and time?
A chain rattled.
Could I even do it? Could I take Lauren with me? She read my mind.
“No.” She shook her head. “They don’t want me, and I’m pretty damn kick ass at taekwondo.”
“You’ve never done taekwondo in your life.”
She grinned at me. Through the frantic panic and the imminent end of my life, her smile cut through it all. It was like a pure musical note through static. “There’s always a first time.”
“I’m going to find Nick.” My mind was made up. I needed him. I needed him to tell me who I was. I needed to learn everything so I no longer needed rescuing. So I could love him for the right reasons. I felt it in my soul. Together we were the answer. That’s why we were being kept apart. We were the future, the key. I just didn’t know why.
“Okay.”
“Actually.” I changed my mind as I p
almed my hands together and concentrated on using the energy I could feel in my veins. The power that could bring back memories, break steel locks, the power that could do anything. I found it and used all my force to punch a hole into the atmosphere around me. It wasn't the way Nick and Connor had done it, but somehow I knew that I could. I could feel the fabric of time tear beneath my fingertips. It was exhilarating, knowing that level of power ran through me. It was time to find out what else I could do, and why. “I’m going to go and find myself.”
I stepped into the haze, watching Lauren straighten her shoulders and face the door. It opened just as my violet doorway diminished. Through the violet veil of my doorway into space, I could see his face. It broke with shock as he caught sight of me stepping away.
“Bron,” he shouted. His hands reached for me, his fingers just slipping past the tips of mine.
It was too late. Time swallowed me whole, as I became one with the universe, and all that it was.
To be Continued . . .
Acknowledgments
With thanks for the love and support of my family, especially my children and husband.
Thank you to the Indie Girls for their continuing support—world domination will be ours!
With thanks to Holly Baker for editing and Samantha Leighton for proof reading.
Finally, thank you to my readers. I love writing for you and getting to know you all it makes everything that I do worthwhile.
Anna Bloom is an emerging author of Contemporary and Fantasy Young Adult Romance.
At her happiest when with her children, husband and dog. She loves wine, chocolate, reading and making up stories at her computer.
To find out more, meet Anna in her Facebook reader group by clicking the link here.
For more information
@annabloombooks
AnnaBloomBooks
www.anna-bloom.co.uk
admin@annabloom.co.uk
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