[The Watchers 22.0] Everlasting Fire - Between Worlds

by SJ West

  Silas lifts his right hand to mine, which is still on his chest, pinning the note to him. He takes the IOU and looks at it. I see his lips tighten as another wave of pain washes over him.

  “All right,” he whispers. “I’ll listen to him for your sake, but I won’t make any promises, Liana.”

  “I know that,” I tell him. “If you did, I would think you were lying to me anyway. I know you don’t want to forgive your father for the things he did to you, but doing that wouldn’t really be for him. It would be for you, so you can finally move forward and leave your past behind. I think you want a chance at a real life, and this will give it to you.”

  “We’ll see,” he says before backing away from me until he reaches the corner of the loft a few feet away.

  “You really need to go now, Liana,” he says, clutching his stomach with both hands. “You don’t want to be here when I transform.”

  “Why? Am I in any danger of you hurting me when you’re in werewolf form?”

  He shakes his head. “No, but you don’t want to watch me turn into that monster.”

  “If I’m not in any danger, then I’m not leaving you,” I tell him stubbornly.

  “Please, Liana,” he begs as he begins to take off his sweater. I presume he doesn’t want to ruin what’s probably his best set of clothing. “Leave! I don’t want you to see me change!”

  “I’ll go downstairs and wait until it’s over,” I reply, thinking this a fair compromise. “How will I know when you’ve transformed?”

  “You’ll know,” Silas says, reaching for the top button on his pants. “It’ll be obvious.”

  “I’ll be back,” I promise him just before I leave. I phase myself down to the exact spot where I left the lantern earlier. I turn it on to fend off the darkness and wait for Silas’s transformation to begin.

  I know exactly when it happens because I hear Silas moan in pain as bones begin to crack. There are other wet sounds that accompany the transformation, and I can only attribute those to the fact that his skin and muscles are being stretched along with his bones. After a few minutes, I hear a heavy thud come from over my head. A few seconds pass and I hear another one. It sounds like Silas is signaling for me to return, so I do.

  When I phase back up, I take the lantern with me for added warmth and light. I’m thankful I braced myself before facing Silas’s alter ego, because his new face is definitely not one I could have imagined. His skin is now the color of alabaster and his facial features are definitely dog-like in structure with a protruding snout and pointy ears that stand up on top of his hairless head. His backward legs look oddly shaped, but I can tell their bowed shape must aid him in running faster and jumping higher than he can in human form.

  “You can look away if you want,” Silas says to me in a voice that sounds almost like a growl. “I know I’m hideous.”

  “How can you speak so well?” I ask in amazement. “I didn’t think you would be able to talk at all.”

  “If you’re told to either speak or be tortured, you learn to speak,” he replies, still remaining crouched in his corner. “You can leave now, if your curiosity has been satisfied.”

  My back stiffens after hearing his remark. “I didn’t stay because I was curious to see what you looked like as a werewolf,” I reply testily. “I stayed because I didn’t want you to be all alone afterwards. I would imagine you spend a lot of nights by yourself when you’re in this form.”

  “Why would you want to stay with me?” he asks warily. “What do you gain from it?”

  “I get to spend more time with you,” I reply, as if the reason should have been obvious to him. “And I get to make your night a little less lonesome. Or do you want me to go? Is that what you’re really getting at?”

  Silas doesn’t reply right away. Finally, he says, “No. I don’t want you to leave.”

  “Good,” I reply, setting the lantern down on the floor and looking around the area. “Now, I’m going to go get some things. While I’m away, I want you to set those bales flat on the floor like a pallet.”

  “What are we going to do? Have a sleepover?” he scoffs derisively.

  “Actually, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Now, get to work!”

  I phase back to my room in Cirrus and grab two pillows, the large fluffy comforter from my bed, and a throw blanket. When I phase back to the barn, Silas is setting the last of the bales down to form a soft bed of hay for us to lie on. I arrange the pillows and comforter just like I would any regular bed and set the lantern down on my side to provide us with added heat and illumination.

  “This is strange,” Silas says, eyeing my makeshift bed warily.

  “Well, you can either stand there or climb on,” I tell him. “Either way, I’m going to lie down. It’s been a tiring day for me.”

  “I will stay here,” he says, crouching down on the floor on his side of the hay bed.

  “Suit yourself,” I reply as I lie on top of the comforter and spread the throw blanket over me. “But you’re going to get cold if you just sit there all night. At least this way we can snuggle and keep each other warm.”

  Even in werewolf form, the look on Silas’s face is easy to discern. He doesn’t quite know what to think of me.

  “You are unlike any person I have ever known,” he says. “Most people would want to run away, not snuggle me like some stuffed toy.”

  I smile as I look at him. “I can still see the real you,” I tell him. “You’re still Silas to me, no matter which form you’re in. Good night,” I say through a yawn as I close my eyes. “See you in the morning.”

  I don’t go to sleep right away. I am tired, but I force myself to stay awake long enough to find out if Silas decides to share my hay bed with me. After a few minutes of huffing and puffing through his snout, he does climb up on top of the hay and lie down next to me. I feel his warm breath caress my face just before I fall asleep.

  When I wake up the next morning, I feel colder than I thought I would since Silas should still be lying next to me. When I open my eyes, the sunlight filtering through the slats of the barn’s wooden ceiling shows me that Silas is nowhere to be seen. I quickly sit up.

  “Silas?” I ask, hoping for a response back but getting none.

  Something white catches the corner of my eye, and I see the napkin with the IOU on it laying on top of his pillow. I reach out to grab it and instantly notice something missing from my wrist. My silver bracelet—the one that protects me from my Aunt Helena’s emotions—is gone. I quickly stand up and begin to search through the hay that I slept on. I know the act is a futile one performed out of desperation because the bracelet isn’t large enough to simply slip over my hand accidentally. I snatch the napkin off the pillow and realize it was left for a reason. Silas didn’t leave it in an act of refusal to meet with his father. He left it because he took my bracelet. That must have been his real mission all along, and I was stupid enough to fall for his sad boy act. He made me believe I could help him find a life beyond what he’s lived so far. It was the quintessential “good girl changing the bad boy” scenario that a lot of women fantasize about.

  I’d been played for a fool, and now I would have to pay the price.

  Chapter 17

  I sit on my bed of hay in stunned silence, trying to cope with what’s been done to me. I feel both heartbroken and angry, so I try to focus on my rage more than the sadness. It’s an emotion I can hide behind and find a safe place to pour all of my energy. There’s only one place I can go and only one person who might be able to help me. I phase to Hell to find my Aunt Helena.

  “I was wondering how long it would take you to come see me,” my aunt says as she sits in her usual spot on the couch in her cottage. “How are you feeling this morning, Liana?”

  “Like I want to kill Silas,” I tell her, not bothering to hide my anger from her. “Where is he?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” she says with a small hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

/>   “Did you send him to me to take my bracelet?” I shout.

  “Yes,” she replies without an ounce of remorse or hesitancy. All I see on her face is triumph. “I’ve waited a very long time for your bracelet to be complete. I knew if even an ounce of it was left out, your parents might be able to use it to keep you blocked from me forever. So I remained patient until Brutus used all of that heavenly silver to make it as large as he could for the very last time.”

  “Why would you take it?” I ask, unable to understand her reasoning. “Were you that desperate for me to feel just how much you hate my mother?”

  “Oh, sweet child, you’ll be feeling far more than that in time,” my aunt assures me. “Having you hate the self-righteous bitch who gave birth to you is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.”

  “I do not hate my mother,” I tell her, even though I can feel my aunt’s hatred for my mom seeping underneath my skin even as I say the words. “She’s done nothing to you. Why do you hate her so much?”

  “Because she has everything I can never have!” Aunt Helena storms, her blue eyes filled with loathing.

  “Then you’re just jealous of her,” I state. “It’s not her fault you’re trapped down here.”

  “No, but it’s her fault I’m here alone. If she hadn’t taken our father away, I would at least still have him.”

  “I don’t understand why you want me to feel your anger,” I tell her. “What good does that do you? It doesn’t give you the ability to leave this place.”

  “Who said I wanted to leave?” my aunt asks. “I’m far more powerful here, and in time, you will help me become even more powerful.”

  “How?” I ask, needing to know what her plans are for me.

  “You’re not ready for it yet,” she answers. “When you’re ripe for the picking, I’ll tell you, and when you fulfill my destiny for you, the universe will tremble at our feet.”

  “So all of this is just a power play on your part?” I question. “You’re the ruler of Hell, Aunt Helena. Why do you need more than that?”

  “Until your mother feels as trapped and desperate as I do, I will never find peace. You know, there was a time I promised someone I loved that I would never harm the people he cared about. I plan to keep that promise, but I think I can still get my way by making others do my dirty work for me.”

  “Isn’t orchestrating harm to be done to these people the same thing?”

  “Not to my way of thinking,” she replies, smiling tight-lipped. “I consider it a loophole in the deal.”

  “You do realize that this is the last time I’ll ever come see you,” I threaten. “I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done to me and will do to my family through me. I’ll fight the hatred you’re trying to funnel into my soul with every fiber of my being. I won’t bend to your will as easily as you think.”

  “Brave words,” my aunt taunts me, “and yet, even as you say them, every new beat of your heart pumps in more and more of my anger into you. I doubt that resolve of yours will last a day. By nightfall, you’ll finally be all mine. And as far as you coming to see me, I don’t think you’ll be able to stay away. You’ve always craved my company, Liana, and having our connection to one another unobstructed will only make that need increase.”

  I phase out of Hell because I can’t stand looking at my aunt’s smirking face anymore.

  When I arrive back at the castle in Laed-i, I decide to phase onto the veranda outside the ballroom where Cal’s party was held the day before. I really don’t want to see my parents yet for a lot of different reasons, but the one that frightens me the most is how I’ll react to my mother when I see her. Now that I don’t have the bracelet to protect me anymore, I’m not sure what I’ll feel for her.

  “Liana?” I hear the one person I was trying to avoid say from behind me.

  I turn around and find my mother standing in the doorway to the ballroom. She rushes over and hugs me as if I’ve just come home from a long and arduous journey. In a way, I suppose I have, but it isn’t one I feel like I’ll recover from anytime soon.

  “Liam told us everything a few minutes ago,” my mother says as she pulls away from me but keeps her hands on my forearms as she looks into my eyes. “Are you all right?”

  I shake my head as tears begin to stream down my face.

  “I lost it, Mom,” I cry because I know losing the bracelet was all my fault. I hold up my arm and show her my naked wrist. “Silas took it from me.”

  The stunned look on my mother’s face tells me everything I need to know. She doesn’t let go of my arms. In fact, she squeezes them a little tighter.

  “I love you,” she tells me as tears begin to well in her own eyes and course down her cheeks. “I will always love you no matter what you say to me in the future or what you do to hurt me, do you understand?”

  I shake my head vehemently. “I won’t let her win. I won’t let her turn me against you.” I throw my arms around my mom and hug her tightly. “I love you too much to let her use me to hurt you.”

  I feel my mom tremble in my arms, and I know she’s crying because she believes my Aunt Helena has already won.

  “You won’t mean to hate me, and I know it won’t really be you who tries to hurt me,” my mom says. “I swear to you, Liana, I won’t let her use you in her plans. I will find a way to keep you safe.”

  “Mom, you have to tell me what you believe she wants me to do,” I say. “What could I do that would give her more power?”

  My mom pulls back from me and looks me in the eyes. “Is that what she said to you?”

  I nod. “Yes. She said when the time is right, I’ll be able to make her more powerful, but I don’t understand how.”

  “We should wait and discuss this with your father,” my mom says. “He and Liam went to the down-world to find you.”

  “And Jered?” I have to ask. “Did Liam tell Jered about Silas?”

  “Not yet,” she replies. “Your father wanted to wait until he found you first and brought you back to me safely. Can you wait here for just a few minutes while I go get them?”

  I nod. “Yes.”

  My mother phases to the down-world, and I stand in my own sinking hole of desperation. I usually pride myself on being pretty smart, and the fact that Silas had me wrapped around his little finger so tightly that I believed every word he said makes me sick to my stomach. How could I have been so naïve? Yet when I think back to the kiss we shared, I know he felt something for me too, and it wasn’t just physical desire.

  The look of horror on my mother’s face when I told her that he took the bracelet has me more worried than Aunt Helena’s words to me. She’s scared of me now, and to be honest, I’m scared of myself and what I’m capable of doing. My aunt doesn’t do anything without thinking it through first, and I know she’s had this planned since the moment of my birth. I may not know what she’s scheming, but I do know whatever it is won’t be good for my family or the world. Perhaps not even the universe.

  I turn back around to face the back courtyard and spy Cal’s birthday present sitting in the middle of it. Telling my mother how foolish I’ve been was hard enough. The prospect of telling my dad the idiotic things I’ve done isn’t something I’m ready to do just yet. I make an impulsive decision and run over to the hover car. If I just phase somewhere, my parents will be able to follow my phase trail and find me. If I’m riding in a moving vehicle, they can’t just phase inside it to make me come back and talk to them.

  Luckily for me, Cal left his car unlocked. I’ve never driven a hover car before, but I presume it’s similar to the shuttles we have in Cirrus. I push the button that is labeled “Engines,” and sure enough, the four engines controlling the propellers start. I pull on the steering wheel and the car shoots up off the ground, showing me just how sensitive it is to my touch. I bank it to the right—away from the castle and over a blanket of fields with a variety of crops growing in them. I decide to fly even farther to the east and over the vast ocean Cal’s
home is built by. I begin to lose myself in the exhilaration of the flight because it takes my mind off my problems. I don’t want to think about Silas or my parents or my lost bracelet. I definitely don’t want to think about the plan Aunt Helena has in store for me because I know it won’t be anything good. It will more than likely cost me everything and everyone I love.

  Maybe it would be better for all considered if I was dead. Then my Aunt Helena wouldn’t be able to use me, and I wouldn’t have to go through her plan of transforming me into a monster who hates my mother and the world. Whatever plans she has for me will more than likely end in my death anyway, and what’s one life if it can potentially save millions of souls? Before I lose my nerve, I angle the trajectory of the hover car straight down into the ocean. I know I have a Guardian Angel who can bring me back to life, but what if he can’t find my body? Oceans are fathoms deep. Who’s to say he would be able to find me before some shark or other predatory creature devoured my body, making resurrection impossible? It’s only after the car crashes into the water and breaks apart around me that I regret being so rash, but that thought only lasts for a second because my head slams against the steering wheel causing everything around me to go dark.

  The next thing I feel is a soothing warmth that seems to infuse my entire body. I taste something so pure and sweet against my tongue that I moan in dismay when it’s taken away. I slowly open my eyes to find a young, handsome man with short blond hair leaning over me. The sun shines brightly behind him in the sky, making it difficult to see all of his features clearly, but the brightness of his blue eyes draws me in as if I’m seeing the light of his soul.