Sovereign (Realmwalker Book 3)

by Jonathan Franks

  “No, I definitely have the right man. You led the attack on us. Forced us from our rightful homes. Killed my children.”

  The prisoner’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m just a farmer–”

  “Yes, yes,” the tall man said, impatiently. “Right now, in this life, you’re a poor, toiling farmer. But you weren’t. You were Oliver Scott. And I’ve sworn to kill you in every one of your lifetimes, you pig.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I used to be one of you. Colonel Sir James Egan of his Majesty’s Royal Marines. Now, I’m Jeegan. I’m the Master of the Void.” His sneer flashed more sinister for a moment, and he unfurled his tremendous, leathery bat wings.

  The farmer’s eyes widened further and a tear trickled down his cheek.

  Jeegan held up his hand. He held a smooth, black stone between his thumb and his forefinger. There was a rune inscribed on it, filled in with gold. He stepped toward the farmer and placed the stone against the farmer’s forehead. The rune flashed gold and disappeared from the stone. Jeegan released the stone and let it fall to the ground. A faint afterimage of the golden rune remained on the man’s forehead for a moment before fading away.

  The captive slumped in his restraints. His head fell forward, chin against his chest and breathing hard. “Oh, my god. What…?”

  “That’s a linkstone. Some of those past lives should be coming back to you now. These are used to let you tap into memories from your past lives. The ones we’re looking for in particular are about ninety years past. Right before you ingrates took these colonies for yourselves.”

  The prisoner thrashed and jerked against his bonds. He stopped struggling after he smashed his head on the post. “Oh, god. This isn’t me. That’s not me. I didn’t do that. I didn’t set your house on fire!” The memory was clear in his mind.

  “Oh, but you did,” Jeegan said. “You and your cohorts. I’ve already dealt with them. Every time, I save you for last.”

  “But that wasn’t me! I’m not that man! You can’t blame me for something I didn’t do!”

  “The body is different, but the spirit is the same. And that spirit needs to be punished.” Jeegan drew a long, curved knife and gently ran the blade over the farmer’s forehead. Blood trickled from the wound and the farmer shook his head and closed his eyes against the flow of blood.

  “Fine. Whatever you’re going to do to me, do it. Just, please, leave my family alone.”

  “Your wife is fine,” Jeegan said. “But do you smell that? The scent of smoke, heavy in the air? That’s your house on fire. Your children are inside. I’m going to make you feel this every time you’re reborn. Every time you come back. Every lifetime, you’re going to lose everything that’s most precious to you before I kill you.”

  The captive screamed and thrashed. Jeegan closed his eyes and listened to his yelling and shrieking and anguish.

  Jewel clutched the silver thread. Tears ran freely down her face as she watched. She heard the sound of wings and turned quickly. A pair of pixies flew to Jeegan.

  “Master,” one said, “it’s happening. The Sky Council has started closing the Bridges. They’re on their way. We’re holding them off but they’ll be at The Dam in a few minutes.”

  Jeegan frowned. “Very well. I suppose we need to head back home, then. I’m sorry, Scott, that I couldn’t prolong this.” Jeegan plunged the dagger into his prisoner’s chest and twisted the blade. As he wrenched it free, the thread in Jewel’s hand grew cold.

  Jeegan whirled around and instantly shrank to pixie size. He hovered in the air with his men. “Let’s go back,” he said.

  The thread dissolved in Jewel’s hand and then she felt like she was falling. She jerked and opened her eyes.

  She was sitting in Leonard’s front room, holding his hands, surrounded by her friends. Tears ran thick down her face. She yanked her hands from Leonard’s and scooted away from him.

  “What did you see?” Shae asked.

  “The Void Master,” Jewel said. Her voice sounded flat and empty. “He’s coming after Molly.”

  Shae gasped. “But why?”

  “Because in a past life, she killed his family. And now, he’s going to make her pay for it. He’s done it over and over again, and then he wasn’t able to. I think when they closed the Bridges, he couldn’t get back here. Not until now. And now, he’s going to make up for all that lost time. He’s going to kill her, and it isn’t going to be pleasant.”

  Chapter 31

  “How much do you remember?” Geoff asked.

  “All of it, I think,” Gabby said. “I’m sure there are gaps. But I remember so many things about her again. All the times she threw up in the car. When she got caught for shoplifting that stupid Barbie doll we made her pay for. Her dance recitals. Her kindergarten graduation.” Tears spilled out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “She’s back. I remember.”

  “Oh, honey,” Geoff breathed, wrapping his arms tighter around Gabby. “That’s great. That’s so great.”

  “Did you see her, Geoff? She’s so strong. She’s so grown up!”

  “Yeah,” Geoff shook his head in wonder. “Yeah, I can’t believe it. She looks like she’s thirty. She’s definitely not our little girl anymore.”

  “She’s always our little girl.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  Gabby gave him a half smile. “Yeah. I do. She really loves that white-haired fairy. I could see it.”

  “She’s not coming back to us, is she?” Geoff strained to keep his voice level, but failed.

  Gabby shook her head. More tears ran down her cheeks. She sniffled and wiped them away. “No. I don’t think she is.”

  “I’d hate for that to be the last time we saw her.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I’m glad you’ve gotten her back, baby. Like you said when my mom died, as long as we can remember her, she’s not really gone.” Geoff released his wife and dried his eyes. He stood up and looked out the window.

  “Oh, look,” he said. “It’s Jim and that girl.”

  “You mean his girlfriend?” Gabby smirked. “Portia, right?”

  “Yeah. Her.”

  “Oh, stop it. You have no reason to get snide about her. She’s a nice girl and clearly, Jimmy’s crazy about her. Gen left. She’s moved on. Let him move on, too. You had no problem with her before.”

  “No,” Geoff said. “I don’t know why something feels off to me now. Maybe because I saw Gen and Hope together. Hope and Jim really look similar. If Jim was a girl–an older girl–he’d look like Hope. Gen and Hope really look happy together. I guess I just remembered when that was Gen and Jimmy.”

  Gabby gently patted Geoff on the shoulder and looked out the window with him. Jim and Portia were laughing and she tried to bump him into the snow bank. He dodged out of her way and she fell face down into the snow, laughing. She rolled over and stuck her hand out. Jim took it and Portia tried to yank him down into the snow with her but he resisted and, instead, her glove came off in his hand. She rolled in the snow, laughing.

  Gabby couldn’t help but laugh. Geoff smiled and laughed along with her. “Yeah,” he said. “Jimmy’s a good kid. I’m not mad about her or anything. I just have this strange kind of wistfulness in my heart right now. I miss Genny. I wish she was here and everything was back to normal. I miss Greg and I miss Gen.”

  “I miss her, too, baby. But this is the new normal. No more Greg. No more Gen. We’ll survive.”

  Geoff sighed. “I just don’t understand why all of this shit had to happen to us. Why us? And the girls? What about Laura and Shelly? Why all of us?”

  “Language, Geoffrey.”

  “Sorry.”

  Gabby rested her head against Geoff’s shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t know why it happened to us. But it did. In the hospital, I stopped searching for reasons. Either someone has a plan for us, and we have destinies, and we’ll never understand them, or we don’t. And t
hings just happen. Either way, we’ll never know. We just have to keep going and see what happens to us.”

  Geoff was silent.

  Jim helped Portia out of the snow and dusted her off. Portia noticed the Summers watching them from the window and waved. Jim turned around and waved, too, and Gabby and Geoff waved back. Jim and Portia walked up Jim’s driveway and went into his house.

  “Come on,” Gabby poked Geoff in the stomach. “Let’s go start dinner before George and Laurie and Shelly get back. I don’t know why they went to return anything today. Two days after Christmas. Silly move, if you ask me.”

  “Yeah, you mentioned that,” Geoff chuckled.

  Gabby and Geoff went into the kitchen and Gabby started taking things out of the refrigerator and setting them on the counter. Geoff leaned against the counter on the other side of the kitchen and smiled, watching her.

  She caught his stare. “What?”

  Geoff grinned. “I just love you.”

  “I love you, too.” She winked at him and reached into the refrigerator again.

  “You know,” Geoff stood behind Gabby and put his hands on her hips. “We probably have a little time before the kids get home…”

  “Oh?” Gabby turned around to face him. “How much time?”

  “Enough,” Geoff grinned. “I think.”

  Gabby kissed Geoff and took his hand. She closed the refrigerator and led him upstairs to the bedroom.

  She pulled her sweater off and kissed Geoff while he fumbled with his belt. She unbuttoned her jeans and stepped gracefully out of them, then reached down and pushed Geoff’s hands away. “Let me do this for you.”

  She unbuckled his belt and yanked his pants and underwear off, then pushed him down on the bed. She slid on top of him and he groaned and reached up for her, grabbing her hips. She leaned in close and kissed him.

  She stiffened and stopped when a car door closed in the driveway. Almost immediately, two more car doors opened and closed.

  “Every time,” Gabby sighed.

  “Forget it, just keep going,” Geoff panted.

  Gabby looked at the bedroom door that she’d carelessly left open. “No dice. I forgot to close the door!”

  Geoff sighed as Gabby slid off of him. She pulled her sweater back on and put her jeans on, quickly kissed Geoff, and hurried out of the bedroom. She paused at the door and turned around, looking her husband up and down. “Mmm,” she sighed. “Later, for sure! I love you.”

  She closed the door behind her, leaving Geoff on the bed, naked and excited and, sadly, alone.

  “I love you, too.” He sighed and got dressed, then went downstairs to see the kids.

  Geoff reached the bottom of the stairs about the same time that George, Laura, and Michelle came in and closed the front door.

  “No bags means you must have been successful,” Geoff said.

  George rolled his eyes and nodded “Yeah, we got everything returned. It was a mad house in there!”

  Laura shrugged. “The weather said more snow tomorrow, so we needed to get it done today.”

  Geoff and George shared a look. George’s brow furrowed slightly.

  “Okay, baby,” George said. “We got it done. We don’t need to leave the house tomorrow.”

  Laura gave George a quick smile and went into the kitchen after Gabby. Michelle followed.

  Then George cocked his head at his father. “You okay, Dad?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I don’t know. You look a little flushed.”

  Geoff’s eyes flicked toward the kitchen for a moment, then back to George. Geoff chuckled. “Ah, no. I’m fine.”

  George rolled his eyes again. “Oh, Jesus, dad…”

  “Oh, no!” Geoff whispered. “No guff from you on that account! We can hear–”

  “Yeah, yeah.” George held his hands up in front of him. “I concede the point. I’m glad you and mom are back in a good place again. Still, I mean, it’s weird just, you know, like, talking about it with your parents.”

  Geoff smiled and shook his head. “Sure. It’s okay. Come on. Let’s go see what the girls are up to.”

  Geoff and George went into the kitchen. Gabby was showing Laura a page from a cookbook. Michelle was standing at the door to the deck, staring out over the yard.

  Geoff got a beer from the refrigerator and offered one to George and Laura. Laura shook her head, but George took one. He opened the can and took a long drink.

  “You know what I just realized is missing since Gen left?” He asked.

  Gabby looked at him and raised her eyebrows. “What?”

  “Music. She used to have music on all the time, whether we wanted it or not.”

  Gabby smiled. “Yeah, she did, didn’t she? I know we got her a bunch of different pairs of headphones. She hated them all.”

  Geoff laughed. “Yeah, she said she needed her hair to be free, and that she said it sounded more natural when it was in the air, not just in her ears or something like that.”

  “No,” George said. “She used to say that it sounded more pure when she could experience it with her whole body. That it wasn’t the same when it was just injected straight into her ears.”

  “We can put on some music,” Laura said. “I’m not sick of Christmas music yet!”

  “It’s two days after Christmas,” George said. “I think it’s against the law to play Christmas music from now until Labor Day.”

  “Rubbish,” Gabby said. “Laurie, go put on some Christmas music. I think the CD is still in the player.”

  Laura grinned and kissed George on the cheek on her way to the living room. A moment later, White Christmas played from the living room. George groaned.

  “Oh, hush,” Gabby said. “You could use some more holiday spirit. I think we all could.” She glanced at Michelle, who hadn’t moved since she coming into the kitchen and staring out the glass door.

  Laura came back into the kitchen and leaned her head against George’s shoulder. He put his arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze.

  “Now,” Gabby said, “you boys scoot. We’re going to make dinner.”

  Geoff and George left the kitchen and sat down in the living room.

  “Michelle’s keeping kind of quiet,” Geoff said.

  “Yeah.” George nodded and finished his beer. “She didn’t say a word the entire time we were out.”

  “Poor kid,” Geoff said.

  “You know, I honestly think she just needs something to do. I mean, not that that will make everything better. She just lost both of her parents, for Christ’s sake. I’m just saying that having something to do would probably help.”

  “We can give her some chores around the house. Your mom’s picked up everything Gen and Greg used to do. We could hand some of those off if you think she’s ready.”

  “It’s not just chores. I think chores would get her out of her room, but she’d just mechanically go through them, and then go back to her room. She doesn’t know anybody here. School doesn’t start for another week and a half. And then she won’t know anybody there. Maybe she needs a job or something. She needs to feel important. I think she feels like an interloper here.”

  “An interloper, huh?” Geoff smiled.

  “Yeah, like she doesn’t–”

  “I know what it means.”

  “Sorry.”

  Geoff shrugged and finished his beer.

  “She just wants to belong,” George said. “She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere.”

  “I don’t know how much more we can do to include her. She’s had a big loss and she needs time to deal with that. Belonging will come. Wait until school starts. I’m sure the band will be happy to have her. Band was like a second family for Greg. Just give her some time.”

  “Yeah. You’re right. Sorry, dad.”

  “She’s not going to replace Genny,” Geoff said quietly.

  George sputtered. “That’s not… I mean, she… Of course not.” He glared at his dad. “I’m going to
go see what’s going on in the kitchen.” At the doorway to the kitchen, he paused and looked at Geoff. Geoff was still sitting in the recliner. He hadn’t moved. George frowned and went into the kitchen, angry.

  Chapter 32

  Shae gaped at Jewel. “Jeegan is going to kill Molly? She’s just a little girl!”

  “At present,” Jewel said, “she is but a little human girl. But this human murdered the Void Master’s family in an earlier life, and he is thirsty for vengeance. He’s been blocked from the human world for so long, I think he’s going to ensure that it’s… Well, that it’s awful for her.”

  Fall shot to his feet. “But she didn’t do anything! He’s going to kill my human. He’s going to kill me!”

  Jewel nodded. Tears welled in her eyes.

  David stood up straight. “I take my leave of you now, fairies.”

  “Excuse me?” Slynn’s voice was harsh.

  “This is not an angel matter. This has nothing to do with my human, and it doesn’t affect the humans of any other angels. We don’t interfere in your affairs.” He turned to Leonard and Jewel. “Leonard, Jewel, thank you for using your abilities to give some insight into this. I appreciate it. And now, I take my leave.”

  “But…” Shae blinked and stared after him. “How can he…?”

  David didn’t close the door behind him.

  Leonard rose to his feet and put his hand on Shae’s shoulder. She turned to face him and leaned her forehead against his chest. Leonard put his arms around her and she cried. She said something, but through the sobbing and the tears, it was unintelligible.

  Fall looked at Jewel, then at Leonard and Shae. He sighed and headed for the door. “I’m going to find Hope and Gen. Maybe they’ll know what to do.”

  Shae tried to say something again, but her voice was muffled against Leonard’s chest and she was still crying hard.

  “Petal,” Jewel said, “we can’t decipher a single word you’re trying to say.”

  Shae pulled free from Leonard’s embrace and wiped her eyes and nose. She took a deep breath. “I was just saying that I knew David wasn’t going to be with us for very long but I didn’t know why. I didn’t realize he was such a… Such a…”