Souls of Fire

by Vanessa Black

  He was almost certain she would shove him away any second, seeing as their lips were still touching. But to his surprise Persephone grabbed his arms and held onto him instead of moving away.

  It seemed she was holding on for dear life, as if he was her life raft in the middle of the storm-ridden ocean without which she would drown.

  Aidan and Persephone remained in that position, eyes closed, lips touching, for several minutes before Aidan finally pulled away.

  “Persephone,” Aidan said softly, “we need to get back. Follow me home.”

  Getting up off the floor, Persephone’s and Aidan’s images slowly moved away from the blinding light and dense darkness of her energy and followed a long path that led to a different kind of brightness.

  Like the light at the end of a dark tunnel, it signified the entrance to another world, the world outside her mind … reality. Stepping through the gateway, Aidan suddenly found himself back in his body.

  As Persephone’s body started to stir again, Aidan was very aware of the position they found themselves in. She was sitting on his lap. And although Aidan couldn’t help but like the proximity they shared, he knew it wasn’t a good idea to remain that way. He needed to distance himself from her. Anything else would just be too confusing … and dangerous.

  “Well, you’re back now, so …,” Aidan said uncomfortably, trying to convey that it was time for Persephone to move off his lap. He didn’t want to be so rude as to push her off. Luckily she seemed to cotton on to his meaning.

  “Oh, yes … sorry,” Persephone said quickly. With shaking legs she carefully stood up and walked over to her bed, where she lowered herself down on top of the cover, her legs hanging over the side of the four-poster.

  Clearing her throat, she quietly said, “Thank you … Aidan … for bringing me back.”

  Aidan’s heart skipped a beat, when she spoke his name for the very first time.

  “You’re welcome, Persephone,” Aidan managed, a sudden aching feeling in his chest.

  The atmosphere in the small room suddenly seemed charged with something other than sexual tension … something that didn’t bode well. Trying to put some distance between them, he suggested she relax in the Jacuzzi tub for a bit while he got some rest.

  Making himself comfortable on his bed, he waited for Persephone to leave for the bathroom. When she was gone, he finally let out the shaky breath he’d been holding since she had come back to reality.

  He had just shared his soul with her … something he hadn’t ever thought of doing with anyone. But he had done it in a heartbeat in order to get her back. Something had changed between them, he could feel it. And it would make being with her even more difficult.

  I lay stretched out in the warm bubbling water of the Jacuzzi. While my body floated on the bubbles and seemed at ease, my mind was not. Looking out through the high window onto the frothing waters of the sea far below, I perceived the thrashing wild waves as a mirror to my mind.

  Just like the waves, my thoughts were in turmoil, overrunning and crashing into each other in their haste and unrest.

  My mind kept replaying everything that had happened since I had tried to access my power. I remembered first seeing that terrible darkness, my body shuddering violently as I recalled the hopelessness that had rolled over me in waves as I had gotten lost in it. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back in darkness … in despair. I had been so afraid … I had never been so frightened in my life.

  And I was certain, beyond a doubt, that I never would have been able to free myself of its clutches on my own. When the bright shining rays of light had flooded my dark world, I had felt such a profound relief. And I had felt Aidan … felt his soul filling every last part of me until all I could feel was … Aidan.

  For the first time in my life, I had felt the true essence of someone else. And … he wasn’t what I had expected.

  His soul was filled with light; there was no darkness inside of him … at least, none I could see. Not like my soul. He was pure … he was good … he was so beautiful…

  The way he had held me, comforted me, brought me back…

  He had been so gentle, unlike the Aidan I had encountered before. If I hadn’t experienced it first hand, I wouldn’t have thought it possible.

  But now things had gotten worse between us. There was a new kind of awkwardness between us now; some kind of new understanding that neither of us had actually agreed to. It had just sprung up to make things harder on me.

  As if matters weren’t already pretty bad, now Aaron’s twin brother was not only incredibly hot but also my gentle savior.

  What next? I thought morosely. Why was this happening to me? A few weeks ago I had never even been tempted by the opposite sex, and now I found myself emotionally entangled with twin brothers.

  I almost wished I’d find myself on candid camera. Then, at least, nothing of this would turn out to be for real … and my life wouldn’t actually suck beyond belief!

  Every couple of minutes I replayed the feeling of Aidan’s soft lips touching my own, of his strong hands holding me tight. The way he had brought me back to safety … he had been my anchor … he hadn’t let me go … he hadn’t left me alone in the dark … he had given me light … his light.

  He had literally bared his soul to me. And what a beautiful soul … it had felt incredible to be bathed in his light.

  But why would he have done that … for me … I asked myself. It seemed like such an intimate gesture. I knew I would not share my soul with just anybody … would he? Or had it meant something special to him that he had allowed me to glimpse his soul?

  He had been so sweet and gentle with me that I found it extremely hard to get a grip on my emotions. I felt so raw … it was probably for the best that he had encouraged me to have some time to myself. He probably had wanted to get some time to himself as well. Maybe he was just as shaken, I wondered.

  With a pang of guilt I thought of Aaron, of what we had gone through together … of the times he had kissed me … touched me…

  Aaron had tried to protect me as well. He had started to open up to me … and I felt as if I was being ungrateful and unfaithful every time my thoughts turned to his brother.

  But I couldn’t help myself. They seemed to be essentially similar and … beautiful … on the outside as well as the inside … both of them … each of them in their own special way.

  I felt helpless in their presence. I was unable not to like them … both. And I despised myself for it. But there was nothing I could do about the way I felt.

  One thing I would not do; I would not lie to myself. I knew with perfect clarity that I was developing feelings for both of them … even if it was wrong!

  Before I could further ponder any of this, the door to the bathroom suddenly flew open, and Aidan rushed in, his hand held before his eyes to ward against my nakedness. I was about to complain at the top of my lungs when Aidan said, “I’m sorry, but we have to go, now!”

  “What? I don’t understand―,” I started.

  “We have to leave, now! They’ve come for you … they’ve found you.”

  “Who―,” I was about to ask. I didn’t get very far, before Aidan seemed to decide not to waste any more time. He seized the towel I had set on the floor next to the tub and rushed to my side.

  Slinging an arm around my wet, naked body, he heaved me right out of the Jacuzzi and wrapped the towel around me while running to the bathroom door.

  We had just entered the sitting room when the door to the landing was suddenly flung open to reveal a menacing looking boulder of a man swinging a battle axe. His face was a mask of white-hot rage as he charged us.

  Before Aidan could even blink, the brute had knocked him to the ground, grabbed me and yanked my head back by my hair.

  It seemed he wanted to personally get his hands on me and hurt me before he killed me. Throwing me forcefully against the wall, he then got ready to let the blade hit its mark.

  I saw the cold, glinting b
lade of the battle axe swinging right for my neck in what seemed to be slow motion.

  Just before it hit my flesh and severed my neck, Aidan crashed into the man’s back and flung both of them away from my trembling body.

  I couldn’t hold myself up any longer, my knees coming up to meet my head as I slowly slid down the wall, the towel just barely covering my naked body.

  Everything that followed, I witnessed in a daze. Remotely I was aware of the danger both Aidan and I were in … but none of it really seemed to register on my brain.

  I watched as the stranger swung his axe at Aidan, missing him by mere inches as Aidan arched backward out of harm’s way.

  I watched as the stranger’s fist came out of nowhere and connected with Aidan’s jaw, sending him flying against the opposite wall, where he lay as a crumpled heap on the floor.

  I watched the brute walking toward me, unhindered.

  I watched the axe soaring through the air above my head.

  I watched it rushing down toward my exposed neck…

  I watched the man in front of me falling to his knees without even having been touched…

  It seemed Aidan had finally found an unguarded moment to release the strength of his power on my attacker. I could feel the charged air around me hum as the man who threatened me was hit by a bolt of lightning and sent crashing to the floor, unmoving.

  Aidan seized my arm and dragged me across the room to the bedroom.

  Entering the room, he ran toward one of the brick walls, ran his finger along it in the shape of a door and mumbled something under his breath.

  Suddenly the section of brick wall he had outlined separated itself from the rest of the wall and swung inward, creating a doorway where there had been none moments before.

  Aidan swiftly grabbed a small backpack that sat resting against the wall and motioned for me to rush through the doorway. Numb from shock and disbelief, I had to be shoved through.

  Once we were on the other side, the bricks shifted back into place, and the border was suddenly replaced by the rough stone wall of the tunnels underground. When I turned around I could see the familiar tunnel system stretch out before us.

  Not being accustomed to the use of magic, I had trouble accepting what I had just witnessed. We had just travelled from the top floor to the underground tunnel system through a door that didn’t really exist. It all seemed as if in a dream. It was so unreal…

  “Come on, we have to hurry,” Aidan said, moving me along in a headlong sprint through the tunnels, the rough ground underneath ripping through my flesh as my naked feet pounded over the ground.

  When we reached a particularly long, narrow tunnel, we followed it until we finally reached a dead end. I thought we must have taken a wrong turn … Aidan must have gotten lost in his frenzy to escape.

  We were facing a bare stone wall. There were brackets with torches to each side of the wall … and nothing else. I was just about to suggest we turn back, when Aidan reached for one of the brackets and tugged on it.

  Something clicked into place, and the wall suddenly rode up toward the ceiling, scattering dust and debris, revealing another darker tunnel behind it.

  After we walked through, the wall shifted back into place, and we were plunged into total darkness.

  “Stay calm, I’ll have a light right away,” Aidan said, sensing my uneasiness in the inky blackness. Before my panic could overwhelm me, Aidan had managed to procure a flaming torch that lit our way. I guessed he had probably made it appear out of thin air.

  Since we seemed to be in a safer place now, Aidan didn’t rush me along but took a moment for us to catch our breath.

  “You must be freezing,” he suddenly exclaimed, eyeing me standing before him with nothing more than a flimsy towel wrapped around me. He shrugged the backpack off onto the floor, took off the leather jacket of his uniform and hung it over my shoulders.

  “Here,” he said, then concentrated hard and spoke some words I could not make out. A few moments later he held a whole bundle of women’s clothing, socks and shoes in his outstretched hand and offered it to me.

  “Wow,” I breathed, “that’s a nice trick,” I said, astonished.

  “Thank you,” I added, remembering my manners.

  “You’re welcome,” Aidan said softly, turning around to give me some privacy while putting his leather jacket and the backpack back on.

  I quickly got dressed ― he had even thought of underwear ― and we continued to walk along the tunnel.

  “Where are we?” I asked in a hushed voice. I didn’t know if we could be overheard wherever we were, but I didn’t really know how far our voices would carry. And I wasn’t keen on going through another attack on my life.

  Aidan had saved me from the brute with the axe. It had been swinging toward me when he had crashed into the man’s shoulder and then again before he had struck him down by magic.

  That made three times now that Aidan had rescued me. First he had rescued me from darkness, then twice from a murderous mad man. How was I ever supposed to repay that debt?

  “We’re in a secret passageway that connects Ireland and Scotland,” Aidan answered matter-of-factly.

  “You’re kidding me,” I exclaimed, dumbfounded. “You are kidding me, right?” I asked, uncertain.

  “Sorry,” Aidan answered, “not kidding. This tunnel leads from our ancestral castle in Ireland to another one of our family estates in Scotland.”

  “So … what … are we actually underwater right now?” I asked, stunned. I thought I detected the slight tang of saltwater in the air around me.

  “Yes, this tunnel runs underwater and was magically created by my family many hundreds of years ago. The magic keeps the barriers of the tunnel intact; it keeps the walls from collapsing in from the pressure of the water around us.”

  “So, what awaits us at the end of the tunnel, another castle?” I wanted to know.

  “No, it’s not a castle but a manor house. We only have the one castle. But we actually have manor houses in various countries around the world.”

  “Of course you do,” I muttered under my breath.

  “What?” Aidan asked, not having heard me clearly.

  “Never mind,” I said quickly. He probably didn’t even understand how intimidating Aidan’s family’s wealth seemed to me.

  Aidan was Malcolm’s son, son of the leader of the Haven. That meant he might inherit his father’s position one day, if that’s how it worked. He would also inherit all of the Haven’s real estate.

  But so might Aaron, I suddenly thought. I found the thought of either one of them being heir to so much wealth incredibly intimidating.

  “So, how come you didn’t just magically open a door that leads right inside the manor house?” I asked Aidan, curious as to why it was necessary to walk all the way there when we had magic at our disposal.

  “Magic is not without its difficulties. There is a limit to how much the body and the mind can endure. I haven’t been practicing magic for quite some time now because I hadn’t needed to. So, I’m a bit rusty right now, and my energy wanes faster than if I practiced it regularly.

  When I pulled you back into consciousness, it took quite a bit out of me. Then I magically struck down our attacker. Opening that one portal to the tunnels was all I was able to do right then.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said guiltily, “I didn’t know it had drained you that much.”

  I felt bad that I hadn’t been able to properly thank him. I hadn’t known what he had given to get me back. It seemed it had drained a lot of his energy. It might even have been an actual risk to his life to share so much energy with me.

  The mere ‘Thank you’ I had offered in return seemed very inadequate to me now.

  “It’s alright,” Aidan responded, “don’t worry. It will take a bit of time, but I will get my energy back. For the time being, though, I’m afraid we’ll have to walk all the way to the manor house.

  I can create little things that will help
keep us comfortable as we travel, but opening a portal involves a much higher degree of magical energy than I am capable of right now. I’m sorry.”

  “No,” I exclaimed rather vehemently, “no, don’t say you’re sorry. You’ve saved my life … you keep saving me. There’s nothing to apologize for. It’ll be alright … I don’t mind walking.”

  Aidan stopped in his tracks and just stood there for a moment looking at me. He seemed to have something on his mind. But rather than say what he was thinking, he turned back around, said, “Alright.” and resumed walking.

  “So, what happened to the others … are they okay?” I asked in a small voice, thinking about Aaron more than anyone else, though of course I didn’t want anything to happen to any of the others. But Aaron was the one person whose safety was foremost in my mind. I hoped he had gotten out as well.

  “They’re alright. Malcolm guided them to safety. They’re probably already at the manor they were headed toward. Malcolm does magic so often that he probably opened a portal directly to the manor house. He would have opened one for us as well, but unfortunately there was no time.”

  “But why didn’t we all go with Malcolm?” I wondered. There had been time for him to open at least one portal. Why not bring all of us through together?

  “Malcolm wanted us to go separate ways. He said that you and Aaron, the ones who initiated the curse, have the trace of the curse’s magic on you and can be tracked as long as the people looking for you are in the immediate vicinity.

  Because they had already entered the castle grounds, they could feel both of you. Splitting up, meant that we could divide their forces instead of leading all of them to us.”

  “But, I thought the castle was guarded by magical barriers to keep outsiders away,” I stated, confused.

  “Yes, it is. But it cannot protect us from our own kind. I believe the people looking for you are the ones who left our family some years back because they did not agree with Malcolm’s leadership. They wield magic … just as we do. And the barriers will not work against them.”

  “But the man with the axe, he didn’t use magic,” I argued.