I was packed and ready to go home. I just had a few things left to do before I could make the jump.
"Gabriel. Can I ask you something?"
Gabriel lifted a regal eyebrow.
I cleared my throat and asked, "You said my powers would settle. Does that me I will gain more control over them? That they won't hurt me anymore?"
His face looked sad. The wrinkles around his eyes deepened and his mouth turned down. He shook his head at me and said, "You will gain control of them the more you use them. The pain of the one is part of the whole though. I said before that some gifts are supposed to hurt. I think your gift of energy is one of them."
"But why?" I asked.
"Do you feel pain when you pull into the shadows?"
I shook my head and said, "No."
"Do you feel pain when you read someone's energy?"
Again I shook my head. "No."
"But every time you use the energy, you feel it," he said.
I nodded.
"Then it is part of the gift. It's a strong and powerful gift. There are consequences to everyone, including yourself, whenever you will use it. You will get stronger and you will get more control, but it will always be hard and painful. You will have to decide when you must use it and when you can find another way."
"Power corrupts," I mumbled.
Even though I said it more for myself, Gabriel responded, "Yes, it does."
After a moment had passed I asked, "Will you help me?"
He nodded at me, stiffly. "I will always be on your side. I will help you in all ways. That, you can count on."
"Thank you," I said. Then, "I won't ever be able to repay you."
Gabriel growled at me. "Family is not a debt."
He said it to be big and scary, but all it did was make me smile. I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. "I think I love you, Uncle Gabriel."
"Bah! Don't call me that!" he growled, but hugged me back, all the same.
I laughed. I squeezed him again before I let go. "Watch over Taylor for me?"
Gabriel nodded once.
I started to leave but hesitated.
"He's over there," Gabriel said and nodded his head toward the forest.
I didn't have to ask who. I shot a last smile at Gabriel and said, "Thanks. I'll see you soon." Then I headed in the direction he had indicated.
Lucas stood against a tree and watched out into the forest.
"Lucas?"
"You promise?" he asked.
I knew what he meant. I watched as a gentle breeze blew through his dark hair. "Yes. I promise."
He turned around and took hold of my hands. "It seems like you're always leaving."
He was right, not much I could say to that. So I didn't say anything. Instead I stepped up against him and laid a gentle kiss against his lips. "But I'll be back soon."
I started to step away from him then, but he pulled me against his body again and instead of a gentle kiss, he devoured me. His lips claimed mine, and the next I knew my arms had wrapped their way up into his hair. I clung to him as desperately as he held me. He was the one to pull back.
I wavered dizzily for a moment then said. "Wow."
He smiled and laughed. "Yeah."
"I guess that's goodbye then," I said.
He just kept smiling.
I bit my lip for a moment, as I didn't want the moment to end, even though I knew it had to. With a shrug, I smiled happily, bounced up to him, gave him a quick last kiss on the lips and said, "Bye."
Then, without waiting for his reply, I ran back to the castle where I quickly grabbed my pack and then phased into the shadows. Then before I could worry myself about it, I phased back to my world.
Chapter Nineteen
Home
I landed in the forest up on the hill by the cross. My stomach pitched sickly, but this time, I didn't barf. I had done it, made it through the shadows on my own. Home. I was excited to be there.
I was a bit worried about what would happen between Leif and me, but that could wait for the time being. I was certain he would either come find me at home or he would wait to see what I would do. Since I didn't even know what I was going to do right then, he could have a long wait.
I hurried down through the woods, barely registering the smells of spring that filled the air. Fresh pine, wet dirt and spring flowers. Purple crocus and yellow daffodils lined the streets of my neighborhood.
Right then, I was no one special. There was no world or kingdom full of people counting on me for anything. That day, I was just a kid, home for Easter.
I burst through the door to the smells of turkey and noodles, dropped my dirty pack at the door and screamed, "I'm home!"
Shadow's End
Dedication
To my girls.
Chapter One
My mom peered over my shoulder. A frown wrinkled her brow. "When did you start drinking coffee?"
Since I got home. Since I stopped sleeping. Since I was tired all the time. I shrugged one shoulder and said, "Just trying it out."
"Well," she said in answer, but that was all. She turned to the coffee pot and poured a cup for herself without another word.
I dropped my head onto my hands and closed my eyes. My mom and I had been dancing around each other since I had returned from Acadia. I'd been home a whole month, and everything was still so strange.
After my destructive trip to Acadia, everything seemed so…trivial and stupid. Learning geometry seemed like such a waste of my time. When was I going to need that? Then there was prom. It was one week away, and I could care less about it. I wasn't going. Tara, my best friend, was a bit annoyed with me over it too. She couldn't understand why I wasn't going.
"We are seniors," she'd said. "We have to go."
Truthfully, I didn't see the point of it. Buying a dress and new shoes, and dressing up to dance with people I most likely wouldn't ever see again, and half of them I didn't care to see even then. Besides, I didn't have anyone to go with anymore. Tara had a date; Chris, the boyfriend she'd had for years, while I was suddenly and explicably boyfriend-less.
Which brought my thoughts back…again…to Leif. I hadn't seen any sign of him since my return to the Water Realm, AKA Earth. I had been so certain he would show up. Maybe not right away, but that he would come to at least make sure I made it home, alive. I thought he would want to talk to me or work out where to go from there, or maybe just what the next plan was. Was there even a plan at that point?
I couldn't seem to find my place. "I don't know what to do," I said from within the depths of my hands.
"What?" my mom asked.
I sat up and looked into her face, into her confused dark brown eyes. I wondered if she would understand or if she would be able to help. I shook my head once at her and said, "Nothing. I better get to school."
I put my half empty coffee cup in the sink, grabbed my bag from the floor, and headed out to walk the one block to the high school. Alone.
The day was bright and clear. The air still held a chill, but the sun was warm on my hair and skin. The grass was starting to change from light new green to darker tones of age. Yellow daffodils and multi-colored tulips popped up in rows in flowerbeds everywhere I looked. Spring, a time for re-birth and new life. I snorted out a huffy laugh. New life? More like a wasted life.
I stopped walking and sighed. "I shouldn't be wasting my time going to school to learn things I don't need to know right now," I said to a happy yellow tulip that danced in the spring breeze at my feet.
I needed to learn to fight. I needed to learn how to ride a stupid horse and ride it well. I needed to be learning how to control my energy. And I needed to figure out how to fight a war with no troops.
I shook my head at myself and started walking again. Around and around my brain went. What do I do? How do I fight? I needed to plan. But, plan for what, exactly? Where was Leif? It's no wonder I couldn't sleep.
"Sunny!"
I loo
ked up at the shout. With my brain whirling like mad, I hadn't realized I'd made it to school.
Tara stood on tiptoes waving her arm madly like a flag at me. "Over here!"
I tossed a smile her way and hurried in her direction. "Hey. What's up?" I asked.
"They are asking for volunteers to decorate for prom. I signed us both up. It's after school all week from three to five. It will be great!"
I held in the deep sigh I wanted to emit. Why did she think I would want to help decorate for a dance I didn't intend to go to? "Tara--" I began only to be cut off.
"Look, I know you. I know you don't want to do this," she said.
"Then why did you sign me up?" I asked.
"Because I want to, and you're my best friend, so you have to do it with me," she continued.
That logic would have made sense a few months ago, but she was my best friend, so it looked like I was stuck. "Oh, fine," I said.
"Yeee! I knew you'd do it!" she screeched as she bounced up and down. Her brown curls bounced around her face in tandem with her excitement. "You're the best!"
I wanted to growl, but instead I smiled and shook my head. "You are retarded, you know that, right?"
"Whatever," she said. "Come on, let's get to first period."
~ * ~
The day progressed very slowly for me. History, math, comp, drawing, what was the point of it all? At least there were only four more weeks of school to go, and most of it would be spent preparing for final exams and then taking the exams.
After school I headed straight for the gym, only to be surrounded by twinkle lights and more crepe paper than I had ever seen in my life.
"Ah, so you got wrangled into volunteering, I see," Ben said from directly behind me.
I turned around and felt a real smile ease onto my face. "Tara is a pretty good wrangler. How did you get stuck?"
"Well, if you're part of the prom committee, which I am, it's frowned upon if you don't do your share." Ben then looked around dramatically and said, "But…I get out of here early on account of track practice."
I frowned at him and said, "Lucky."
Ben laughed at that. His voice echoed off the tall ceiling around us.
"You going with…" the name of the girl Ben was dating suddenly escaped my brain. All I could think of was tall, leggy, cheerleader. Perfect for Ben.
"Hanna? Yeah," Ben said. "What about you? I haven't seen your man around lately. He going to make it for the dance?"
"Nah," I replied with a shake of my head.
"Oh. Everything all right with you two?" Ben asked.
"No, not really, but I'm actually doing all right with it," I said, which was a complete and total lie. I was doing better, but I was not doing fine.
"Really?"
"Yeah," I said. "It is what it is, at this point. I'm good. Really."
I looked around the quickly filling gym and said, "So are the twins coming to help?"
That made Ben laugh again. "Shawn and Steve, the destructor boys? Are you kidding? I told them they weren't allowed to help. They would cause more trouble and destruction than actual help."
"Oh, good. Then I won't have to worry about spitballs in my hair tonight," I replied. Since I'd had to clean paper wads out of my hair on many occasions thanks to the twins, those were not idle words.
Tara finally made her way to the gym and over to where Ben and I stood. "Hey, guys. So where do we start, Mr. Prom Committee?"
Ben playfully shoved Tara then said, "Let's go see if anyone has a plan of action for this thing. Hopefully someone is organized and can tell us what to do with all this paper, because I don't have a clue."
I was on my way home, picking glue off the tips of my fingers when I realized that what I needed was to get organized too. There was a lot that I needed to learn and figure out.
I made a mental list, ticking off all the things I knew right off that I needed. First, I needed to deal with the horse issue. Lessons at a stable shouldn't be too hard. I wondered how expensive that would be. I also needed to continue practicing with my bow and arrows. I was pretty sure there was a shooting range in Athens or Lancaster if I couldn't find one closer. Self defense stuff too. Maybe Karate? Maybe just a class on defense would be sufficient. The police department had one specially designed for women. I could check into that first and see how good it was.
"Mom!" I yelled as soon as I entered the house.
"Back here," she yelled back from the depths of the laundry room.
I made a beeline to where she was busily tossing clothes into the washer and said, "I want to take horse riding lessons."
She paused mid toss. A blue t-shirt dangled from her fingers for a moment before it fell with a plop into the filling tub of the washer. "Why?"
"It's something I need to learn," I replied evasively.
"But do you even like horses?"
Sorta. More than I did a few months ago anyway. My horse, Poppy, was being stabled in Acadia at the present time and although I could sit on her pretty well and ride without falling off, most of the time anyway, I was no-where near a decent rider. "Yeah, I like horses," I said. "Besides, most people around here are riders. I thought it might be a good idea to learn."
"I don't know. It's pretty expensive. I'll think about it. Okay?"
"Yeah, sure." I turned and left her there, the running water loud in the background. So the answer was, no. I would need to figure out another way to get the horse lessons then. Damn it. The organizing was not off to a great start.
I sat down heavily on my bed. I was already overwhelmed by the simplest of setbacks. Now what was I supposed to do? I looked at my hands. They were soft, callous free, girlie hands, weak and worthless to look at, unable to control a horse or energy or anything.
"No!" I said out loud. I was not getting caught up in the little things. I was getting organized, not giving up. Who did I know that was good with horses and would be willing to teach me?
Well, actually I knew of several. I would just need to talk them into it. I rubbed my weak, worthless, girlie hands together in glee. I suddenly felt better. I had a plan. That was a start.
"Ma! I'm going out!" I yelled as I ran down the stairs.
"Going out?" she said as she headed in my direction to cut me off. "But you just got home? Where are you going?"
"I'm just going to see if I can track down a friend real quick," I replied as I slid on a jacket. Yes, it was May, but once the sun went down, it was still going to be cold, at least in the Water Realm anyway.
"But dinner's almost ready," she continued.
"Mom. I'll be back in a little while." I leaned in, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, opened the door, and left. Having parents was so inconvenient sometimes. Especially when in one realm you were in control of yourself and answered to no one, and in another you had a set of parents that made the rules and told you what to do. Or tried to tell you what to do.
I shook off the guilt of leaving the way I had and slipped quickly and easily into the shadows. I pulled their cool folds up and over me, effectively erasing me from sight. The world before me was dull and dim within the confines of the shadows, a sight I was used to.
But the shadows were not where I was staying that night. In my mind I pictured a small castle, surrounded by a forest of trees. I concentrated on the trees just outside of the light from the castle. Holding that thought, I took in a deep breath, grabbed hold of the shadows around me once more, tightly closed my eyes, and again dropped the shadows over me. I felt the instant gut-wrenching yank and out-of-control spin as I slipped to the other side of the shadows and into the Sun Realm, the Kingdom of Acadia.
I landed in the darkness of the forest, right where I had intended. Dizzy and sick, I dropped down to the dirt on one knee and bowed my head. I breathed deeply in through my nose and slowly out through my mouth, several times, until I was certain I was not going to hurl. The scent of dirt and leaves was thick within the dry confines of the trees.
I slowly regained my
feet. With one hand against my still queasy stomach, I made my way out of the trees, toward the castle. It rose up out of the darkness, the white stone of the tall walls bright in the night. Warm yellow light poured in waves out of the long wide windows, across the clearing.
"Stop! State your business!"
My eyes snapped wide at the big figure that jumped into my line of sight. An arrow-notched bow aimed at my face. The light from the castle lit him from behind and gave him the appearance of a soft glow, but that only served to obscure his features in darkness.
"Um…Sunny?" I said, not quite sure how to respond. It was not the welcome I had been expecting, that was for sure.
The bow was instantly lowered. The man squinted forward in my direction. I could feel his stare, heavy on my shoulders. "My Lady?" he asked hesitantly.
"Just Sunny," I said and cast him a smile, happy to not have an arrow aimed at me anymore. I'd had an arrow in me once already. I didn't want to try it again any time soon. "Is Gabriel around?"
"Yes. Of course. I'll take you to him." He swung his bow over his shoulder and took hold of my arm to lead me forward. I was finally able to get a good look at him. He was tall, wide, burly and hairy, but clean and well kept. Just like all the others that seem to be around Gabriel.
I looked around in the full darkness of night and saw several fires in a cluster just inside the line of trees around the castle; seven of them, to be exact. What was up with that?
"Do you have a name?" I asked.
He cast a sheepish smile my way. "Yes, ma'am, it's Mica."
I pursed my lips at him in response. Ma'am? I was seventeen years old. I was far from a ma'am. "Nice to meet you, Mica. And really, please, you can call me Sunny."
He shrugged one wide shoulder at me and kept moving. We entered the dwelling through a side entrance and found Gabriel sitting in a wide chair before a window, staring into the night.
"Sir?" Mica said.
Gabriel glanced in our direction. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't for him to stand up slowly and stalk my direction with a frown, fierce on his face. His green eyes shot sparks of anger. He stabbed a finger angrily toward the window where he had been sitting. "Nice of you to finally stop by. Did you come to see the trouble you caused?"
Shadow Dancer Boxed Set Page 30