Ciardha’s cynical laugh crackled through the air.
“Mortal, that will be the last order you ever give. I should have killed you the instant I met you.”
Ciardha gathered Dark Energy into himself, and his vortex of darkness grew larger. His energy pulsed faster and faster. We knew he did not intend to toy with this one. Ciardha intended to kill the mortal that had dared to make demands.
And we knew the voice of that man. We had to save him.
We instantaneously surrounded the man and provided him a shield of Lucent Energy. We were also in him, a vaccine of light to combat Ciardha’s Dark Energy volts of black fire.
“You are safe, Dad.” Our voice was small and soft, only loud enough for him to hear.
“Emily?” he asked. His eyes were wide with wonder, and they searched, trying to comprehend. “Is it … how can it …?”
“We are Emily, and Jake, and Saorla and Madame Wong and Fanny and all others who know the light of the Goddess. And now we are you, too.”
We felt our strength grow like the coming together of many small water droplets to become a great, thunderous cloud.
Behind Liam and all around him were Lucent beings. Our Lucent Tribe. We knew Greta’s salmon-pink aura and Tristan’s aura that shone white. John and Taisha, Ashley and Tanner and the others. All of them plus many more. We reached out to each of them, a soft caress of Lucent Energy. As we did, their auras grew brighter and stronger.
“We are the Goddess, We are Lucent, and We are Love. You held fast to your light and did not give up on the power of love. You did not give up hope. You have freed the Goddess from her prison.”
“Freakin’ cool,” whispered Ashley.
“Amazing,” said Taisha.
Filled with a surge of Lucent Energy, we felt our being expand to fill the space and beyond. We were no longer confined to a single body or room or place. We were everywhere and everything and everyone.
We opened all of the doors to all of the cells and engulfed Ciardha’s prisoners with a wave of Lucent Energy. Like the ripples on a pond from a single pebble thrown in, wave after wave of Lucent Energy pulsed through the atmosphere. It touched every human soul and filled them with love energy.
We reached into one particular cell that stank of human waste and sweat and despair. We reached in and gathered into our Lucent being a wee child. A small girl with long, thick, brown hair matted by dirt. We gathered her and wrapped her in our Lucent arms.
She blinked her eyes and looked at us. “Are you an angel? Am I goin’ ta heaven now?”
“You are not dead, child.”
“I been waitin’ for my mama. She said she’d come for me.”
“Then let us go to her now.”
We handed Brianna to Taisha. “My sweeting,” Taisha cried.
“Mama!”
“My love,” Taisha said. She wrapped her arms around the child and rained kisses down on her head and her face, their tears intermingled.
Time was immaterial to us. In human terms, the rescue of Taisha’s sweeting took but an instant.
“You bitch!” Ciardha roared. “You took my sweetest dessert. I will toy with you no longer. The games are over.”
“The games have been over, Ciardha. The Goddess will no longer play your games.”
Ciardha breathed in as much Dark Energy as he could gather. His swirling vortex of blackness grew and pulsed out a wave of Dark Energy.
It had only a slight effect on the beings around us. All had been wrapped in a cocoon of Lucent Energy that acted as a shield to Ciardha’s influence. It wasn’t a permanent fix. In time, each of them would need to learn how to open their heart to love in order to build their own shield against Ciardha’s dark influence. But in that moment, our Lucent shield was quite effective against Ciardha’s most powerful Dark Energy blast.
“No!” Ciardha bellowed.
We knew what we had to do. We knew it was the only way to restore the proper balance.
The last time we’d met, the Goddess had chosen to fight Ciardha. She had tried to match his Dark Energy weapons with her own Lucent Energy ones. The Goddess had tried to best Ciardha at his own game.
It was time for the Goddess to give Ciardha what he needed. It was time for the Goddess to display the true nature of her power.
We didn’t hurl bolts of Lucent Energy at him. We didn’t gather light into ourselves and use it as a weapon.
We chose, instead, to embrace Ciardha.
“What are you … what are you doing? Get away from me!” he thundered.
“Ciardha, we are one. Do you not remember our birth?”
“Birth? I am a god. I was not born. I simply am.”
“You were born, Ciardha. As were we. From a singularity to all that is. We are of the same origin. We are one.”
We continued to embrace Ciardha despite his attempts to wrestle himself free. But Ciardha’s effort to free himself of our embrace was in vain. We bathed Ciardha in love energy, and as we did, we felt his power wane.
“I am Ciardha, God of Dark Energy!” he thundered.
“You are our brother, and we need you as you need us.”
“I need no one. I am a god!”
“Neither of us can exist without the other. We are one. Light and dark. Form and shadow. Two sides of the same coin. We are twins, brother.”
“I am Ciardha. I am a god.”
“You are loved.”
Ciardha’s whirling vortex of black fire grew smaller, and his voice less thunderous. As this happened, Dorcha’s body fell to the ground with a thud. We watched as a dark smudge rose from the beautiful woman’s body and got swept into Ciardha’s dark fire.
“Goddess, help her,” Fanny pled. “You have to stop him from taking Dorcha. He tortures her. Please, allow her to stay.”
“We cannot,” we said.
“Why? You are the Goddess and more powerful than Ciardha now. You can’t let her go back to a life of abuse.”
“We cannot sever Dorcha from Ciardha for she is a part of him. She is, like Draicha, simply a piece of the Ciardha puzzle. All of the pieces must be joined.”
As we spoke with Fanny, Dorcha merged with Ciardha’s form and they were one whirling blackness growing ever smaller. And then, the black void was gone.
“Where’d he go?” asked Ashley.
“Ciardha has returned to his home,” we said. “He will continue to reside in the Umbra Perdita. The beings on your planet will continue to feel his influence, though not as strongly as before. Open your hearts to love, and Ciardha will remain in the shadows.”
Emily’s family and friends gathered around us. Their eyes were filled with question and wonder.
Liam spoke first. “Is my Emily, my daughter, dead?”
“The Anam is eternal.”
“Yes, but I mean her body. Does it still live somewhere?”
“And Jake,” said Tristan. “What happened to Jake?”
“We sacrificed much to save our loved ones and our world. But our sacrifice restored Lucent Energy to its proper balance in your world and in the whole of the universe.”
“What are you saying?” Fanny asked. “That they’re dead? Is that what you’re saying?”
“The Anam lives on. Their souls are eternal as are the souls of all Lucent beings.”
“Yeah, well, that may be, but this is all bullshit,” said Fanny. “She brought me back from the darkness, and now she’s gone?” Tears welled in Fanny’s warm, brown eyes.
“There’s got to be a way …” Fat tears rolled down Greta’s pink cheeks. Tristan reached for her, and she let him pull her to his chest.
“I’ll miss ya, Jake buddy,” Tristan said. Tears fell from his chocolate brown eyes.
Liam stepped forward. He tried his best to look into the eyes of the ever-changing countenance of the Goddess.
“Look, I know I’ll be with her again someday. And I look forward to the time when Emily, Bridget and I are once again together as a family. But the world still needs her. And not just the
ephemeral essence of her. Ciardha may be banished to that shadow world, but he turned an awful lot of souls while he was here. The world is going to need a Priestess of the Order of Brighid and her torc to fight for the light. The world needs Emily Adams.”
Her father’s words resonated in our being. We felt he spoke a truth.
Love does not lie.
34. Sacrifice
Emily
I felt as though a rope tied around my middle had yanked me, pulling me hard and spinning me around. I tried to breathe, but it felt like an elephant sat on my chest. All I could think about was my need to get the fat ass sitting on me off.
Breathe.
I gasped with all the strength I had and pulled a big gulp of air into my lungs. I immediately coughed, then gulped more air.
“Emily!” I heard Fanny yell. I felt strong arms pull me up and into someone’s lap.
“Glad you made your way back home, kiddo,” Dad said. He wrapped his large arms around me and squeezed. I appreciated the love, but his hug was squeezing the precious air from my lungs.
“Me too, Dad. You can loosen your grip. I can’t breathe.”
“Oh, sorry.” He loosened his hold on me but kept me in his arms.
Wonder if he’ll ever let me out of his sight again?
“What happened? I thought you were in the Netherworld, at least that’s where we sent you. But then you were here – her face – it was you – but it wasn’t. And it was Jake too, I think, and then …”
“Greta. It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll tell you all about it later. The important thing is that Ciardha is back where he belongs. We did it! And we’re all okay.”
I reached up my hand for a high five, but no one gave me any skin.
“What? Guys, we won! We’re okay. It’s time to celebrate.”
Silence. Fanny’s eyes were filled with tears that she wasn’t letting fall. It looked like she wanted to say something, but was holding it back. Greta looked down and to the side, like she was avoiding eye contact with me.
“What?”
“Not everyone is okay,” Tristan said finally.
“Yeah, I know. We’ve lost a lot of people. Some dead, some walking around without a soul. We’ve still got a gigantic mess on our hands, I get that. But can we at least have a minute or two to feel good about this?”
Fanny walked over to me and took me by the shoulders. “It’s Jake, Em. He didn’t make it.”
“What are you talking about? He’s right here, with me.”
I turned to find him but couldn’t make his face out in the crowd of people that were gathered around.
“Jake!” I called out. No answer.
The crowd parted, and Tristan came forward, his strong arms easily bearing the limp weight of Jake. He bent and gently laid Jake’s lifeless body in front of me.
I vaguely recall thinking that neither of us may survive what I had to do, but I’d done it anyway. Jake knew it too, and we both accepted it. It had been a potential sacrifice we’d been willing to make.
But with his lifeless form lying in front of me, I was no longer willing to make the sacrifice. I take it back.
I’d been to the Akashic Field. I knew that the true essence of Jake resided there, his glorious note in harmony with all of the others. And I knew that one day I’d meet him there again, and we would be together for eternity. Blah, blah, blah.
You know what? It fucking sucks when someone dies, and no amount of thinking about being together in the afterlife makes it suck any less. I wanted to feel his lips on mine. Not on my ethereal lips, on my real lips. And I wanted to feel his strong arms around me, and I wanted to have him kiss me hard and put his hands all over me. And I wanted to sleep in the same bed with him and wake up and look into his sleepy blue eyes and kiss him even though we both have stinky morning breath and not care because I’m so in love with him that it doesn’t matter.
I gathered him into my arms. “Jake Stevens, don’t you leave me!” I screamed. “You hear me? I’m not doing this alone.”
I felt hands on my shoulders. “Em, he’s gone,” Dad said. “Let him go in peace.”
“No!” I shrugged his hands off of me. “You promised. You promised you’d never leave me again. You can’t do this to me. We’re one, remember? You’re my home, Jake.”
I held his cold cheek against mine. I didn’t care that there were dozens of eyes staring at me. And I didn’t care if they thought I was off my rocker.
I looked down at his face, the eyes closed and his long, sandy-brown eyelashes so soft against his skin. His cheeks and lips were covered with my tears. I pulled his head up, and I bent mine down. My warm breath blew across his face, but he did not reciprocate.
“Jake, please. Please come back to me. We are one.”
I bent my warm lips to his cold ones. I gently pressed my mouth to his and concentrated on calling his energy to me like I did when I’d first crashed Ciardha’s little dinner party. I waited to feel him stir like a prince in a fairy tale awakened by his true love’s kiss, the curse lifted. But my kiss went unanswered. My lips alive with love, hope and passion were met by lips as cold and lifeless as stone.
Jake wasn’t a fairy tale prince. He hadn’t been cursed. He’d been killed. Whether at Ciardha’s hand or my own, it didn’t really matter. At the end of it all, I’d set it all into motion, and another young man’s blood was on my hands.
The blood of my love.
I drew my lips from his. I’d asked the Goddess to restore a dead boy’s life once before. What had she said?
“Once life has ebbed, and the Anam is one with the Web of All Things, it is up to the individual whether he wants to return. I cannot force a life to be restored to a body if the owner of that life would prefer to stay where he is.”
Jake’s soul was one with Akasha. He was in a place of glorious joy that I’d known as well. I hadn’t wanted to return to my body either.
But I knew the window was still open. He could come back if he wanted to. The tether still remained. I had tugged on it, but it was up to him to take hold and allow himself to be reeled back.
We are one, Jake. What we experienced together … don’t you want to come back to me? Please, Jake. Please come back to me. I held him to me and tried my hardest to reach out to him – to feel for his mind somewhere in the aether around me. But I could no longer feel the energy of Jake. Like so many years ago when my mother died, it was as if Jake’s station had gone off the air.
“Em, he’s gone. It’s time to let go,” said Fanny. “It sucks, and it hurts, and it’s going to suck and hurt for a long time. But Jake gave his life so that this world – and you and I and your dad – could live without the shadow overtaking us. Let him rest in peace.” I felt her gently tugging on my shoulder.
Rest in peace. He made a promise to me. I wasn’t about to let him rest in peace. I’d been nice. I’d asked sweetly. But nice hadn’t worked. Let’s face it, nice isn’t exactly my style.
Time to do this the Emily Adams way.
I grabbed Jake’s limp form by the shoulders and shook him.
“Jake Stevens, I promised your mom I’d protect you.”
“Emily, what are you doing? Stop!” my dad yelled. I shrugged him off and continued to shake Jake.
“You promised not to leave me. Now stop being a wuss and get your ass back here so I can kiss you for real, dammit!”
35. Alive in the Web
Jake
There was no pain or discomfort in the transition. One minute I was part of an omnipotent energy that was somehow everyone, everywhere and in all time all at once. The next I was amongst a throng of humming, pulsing light energies, connected on all sides by glowing filaments of Lucent Energy.
Emily had told me about the Web of All Things years ago when we’d first come back from Ireland. To be honest, it was the part of her story that I’d had the hardest time swallowing. I chalked the experience up to her vivid imagination and figured it was a hallucination brought on by the sensory de
privation of being trapped in that dark forest.
But there I was experiencing the exact same thing she’d described. I was aware of my own unique note thrumming along in harmony with the others. I could pick out a few individual notes here and there; notes that felt familiar to me though I didn’t feel compelled to try to seek them out or figure out why. I was content to be in that place of peace and joy.
And then I wasn’t at peace. It was as if someone had pulled on one of my many luminous filaments. It tugged and pulled and didn’t stop even when I asked it to. I was happy to be at one with Akasha. There was no place to go. Nothing to do. No battles to fight. No one to save.
The tugging didn’t stop, and it caused me to focus on it. This particular tether did feel familiar. I knew the energy on the other end of that string.
As I put my attention to that tugging string, I knew I was being asked to do something. To be somewhere. To be someone.
But I didn’t want to be any particular place. I didn’t want to be someone anymore. I was happy right where I was.
The tugging became more insistent, and a pulse of energy came through to me. I remembered a time when I’d known a mother, and she had needed me. Was that last week? Or a thousand years ago? I reached out to the web and searched for the energy of the woman who had been my mother, but I found that she was not part of the Akashic Field. One of my tethers still connected to her.
Another pulse of energy entered into my being. I had another tether pulling on me hard. It was like an itch within me. This pull was a reminder. I had something to do. I had somewhere to be. And I had someone to be with.
Her name was like a whisper in my nonexistent ears. Her smell was like a memory recalled. Her touch was like a feather tickling my being, bringing alive a feeling within me that I’d almost forgotten could exist.
They needed me. She needed me.
Akasha was without beginning or end. It would be there for me someday. But it was not the day to allow myself to bathe in the comfort of the eternal luminous energy. It was a day to return to my love’s side. It was a day to show her, finally, what it meant to be loved by me.
The Akasha Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set: The Complete Emily Adams Series Page 74