Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2

by Angela Corbett

  That realization also made me think about my own lives, and all the things I still didn’t know. Had my soul come into existence with the birth of Cassandra, or had I lived longer than that? If so, was it possible I might eventually get those memories through flashbacks?

  Emil moved toward Tate. Alex stood back, letting Emil take the lead. His muscles were tense, ready for anything, but he was giving Tate the benefit of the doubt—and letting Emil handle the situation since Emil was Tate’s brother. Emil reached out and hugged Tate tightly before taking a step back. “It’s been a while,” Emil said.

  Tate nodded. “Since you left last summer.”

  Emil slid a glance in my direction. He looked back at Tate, the two of them sharing a silent communication—like they could read each other’s thoughts with a glance. Do all siblings have that? As an only child, I’d always wondered how that would feel. I thought I’d eventually get that feeling from the person I loved. So far, I’d been too busy dealing with shadow figures, soul stealers, and two soul mates to cultivate any telepathic relationship skills.

  The silent conversation continued. Tate shifted his weight, like he was anticipating Emil’s question, and tilted his head in my direction. “She’s the one you’ve never forgotten. You always chase after her. It’s your pattern.”

  “I’d do anything for her, Tate. You know that. Trackers were missing and she was in danger. I had to be here.”

  Tate’s gaze slid from Emil, to me, and back again.

  “When did you get here?” Emil asked. “How did you even find me?”

  Tate took a deep breath, bracing himself. “I followed you.”

  Emil’s eyes got huge. “What?” he sputtered. “When? I’ve been here since August.”

  Tate pressed his lips together for a few seconds, gathering his composure. “So have I.”

  Emil’s mouth dropped open. I shifted my eyes to Alex who was wearing a similar expression. “How did I not know about this?” Alex asked, dumbfounded. I’d been wondering that myself. Alex was my Protector. He was supposed to be able to find these threats and neutralize them. But in a college town where people from all over the world constantly come and go, identifying anyone out of the ordinary would be difficult. The Daevos should be forced to wear some sort of Daevos alarm, or something that couldn’t be covered up, sneaky little buggers.

  Emil turned to Alex. “How did you not know?” he asked. “How did I not know?”

  Tate leaned back against the stairs. “How would you know? I didn’t want you to see me, so you didn’t.” He lifted one side of his mouth in a cocky grin. “Aside from one incident with Evie seeing me at a store in August, I kept pretty well hidden.” He paused as everyone took the information in. “I couldn’t leave you alone. Not with everything that’s going on between the Daevos, Amaranthine, and especially our Clan.”

  Clan? Emil and Tate were part of the same Clan? I mean, it made sense, but I guess I hadn’t put two-and-two together while I’d been sitting in the living room waiting for Alex and Emil to get back and wondering what methods they’d use to try and imprison me for going to the party without them.

  Emil pushed his brows together, confused. “What’s going on with our Clan?”

  Tate shook his head, biting the inside of his cheek. “You always do this,” Tate said, exasperation coming through in his tone. “You find her, and you run off to make sure she’s okay. At least this time, you had the balls to actually be with her. But this isn’t the first instance you’ve left for an extended period of time. Our Clan members are starting to get suspicious about what you’re doing, and where you go on these little sabbaticals.” He paused, pegging Emil with a hard stare. “If they find out you’ve found her again, they’ll expect you to take her soul.”

  I widened my eyes. “Umm…what?”

  It was like I hadn’t even spoken.

  Emil adamantly shook his head at Tate as anger flashed in his eyes. “I’ll take their souls instead.”

  Tate winced. “And there lies the danger, Emil. You make the mistake of choosing love—something the Daevos are wholly against—over loyalty. To you, nothing is more important than Evie. Our Clan won’t understand that, and you know it. Love doesn’t make sense to them. You’re in danger of breaking up our Clan. Loyalties will be divided and we’ll end up in an eternal fight. It’s not worth it. You need to come home.”

  I glanced at Alex and could see his mind working overtime. Another Daevos threat to consider, but this was one Emil could control. Alex knew if Emil left, he’d have some time with me to himself. Judging by Emil’s tight expression, he was well aware of it too.

  Emil shrugged. “If fighting is what it takes, then that’s what will happen. It would be a last resort, but I’ll do it. I won’t let anyone hurt her, and I’m not leaving her this time, Tate.” His voice had the hint of a plea in it. “I can’t.”

  “Hey!” I waved my hands in the air. It finally got their attention. “Could someone please tell me why Emil would have to take my soul?”

  Emil took a deep breath. “Since you were my wife, you were my responsibility. I brought you into our world. When my Clan found out you’d left and you knew our secrets, they demanded we find you. Alex was able to get you out of the city and keep you safe. But, if my Clan had found you, taking your soul would have been my responsibility. It still is. If they ever learn we’re together and your soul is still intact, it will be a problem.”

  “Seriously?” Sheesh! “Isn’t there some statute of limitations on these things?”

  Emil shook his head.

  “If tonight is any indication, she’s doing fine on her own,” Tate said. Strange, that’s not what he’d told me back at the house. In fact, he’d lectured me on why I needed watching. It seemed Tate wasn’t above lying to get what he wanted—which was Emil out of Gunnison, and back in Greece. “You could at least come back for a while so the Clan sees you’re still around. The whole point of you staying with the Daevos was to keep our Clan from finding her. Now you’re practically leading them to her. You need to come back. At least for a while.”

  Emil pursed his lips, not liking Tate’s rationalization. “Things have changed. The whole situation between the Amaranthine and Daevos is changing. The Rebel Protectors want to attack the Daevos, Daevos Clans are looking for Evie, Trackers are still being taken, and shadow figures are floating around. I’m not leaving her, Tate. Not now, not ever. I’ve waited too long to be with her just to go back and play a role to make people happy.”

  “It’s not a role, Emil. Your Clan needs you.” He gestured toward me. “Right now, she doesn’t.”

  “Yes, she does. You were there tonight. People are searching for her, and it’s probably because of what happened when Caleb took her.”

  Speaking of that, if Tate had been here as long as Emil, he should have been helping us fight Caleb’s Clan in the cave. But he hadn’t. “Why didn’t you help Alex and Emil find me when Caleb took me?” I asked, trying to keep the accusation from my voice.

  “Because I wasn’t here.”

  I assessed him. “You said you’ve been here since August. So which part are you lying about?”

  He plopped down on the couch, his foot making a thud as he put it on the coffee table. “I wasn’t lying about either. I’ve been here as much as possible, but with Emil gone, someone has to help keep things organized. I’ve been running interference, going back and forth between Greece and Gunnison, trying to make excuses for Emil.”

  Emil rolled his eyes. “You’re making it sound like it’s a big deal. It’s not. I’ve left before.”

  Tate nodded slowly. “Yeah, but not with things as unstable as they are right now. Rumors about the missing Trackers and possibility of Amaranthine attacks have been swirling. Most Daevos Clans are on the defensive because of it.” He put his foot down and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “You need to come back and help us provide a united front.”

  “I told you, I’m not leaving Evie.”

  He
shook his head. “The Amaranthine and Daevos are about to go to war. You don’t need to be in Gunnison.”

  I glanced at Alex, wondering if that was true. Judging by his clenched jaw and shallow breaths, the war statement was probably pretty accurate. The meeting must not have gone well.

  “That’s exactly why I need to be here.” Emil’s voice was low and calm in a way that was far more powerful than yelling.

  “She,” Tate said, pointing at me, “is the last person you need to help right now. She has an Amaranthine Protector, plus she can take care of herself.”

  “Why do you think she can take care of herself?” Alex asked.

  Tate held Alex’s eyes. “Why don’t you?”

  Alex stared back like he didn’t understand the question.

  “You’ve been watching her longer than I have. You know what she’s become capable of. She can protect herself as well as you, Emil, and all the Amaranthine combined. You just don’t want to admit it.”

  Alex regarded Tate coolly, but didn’t say anything else. I had a sudden new level of respect for Tate. I’d been trying to explain that same thing to Alex for months. Tate was able to accomplish it in a couple of sentences. At least someone in my life thought I was older than five.

  Emil shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. The more people she has keeping her safe, the better we’ll all feel.”

  “Speak for yourself,” I said.

  Emil met my eyes. “I’m not leaving.”

  “Our Clan is starting to lose faith in you as its leader,” Tate said. “You need to fix that and come home.”

  “You’re the leader of your Clan?” I asked.

  Emil looked at me, nodding slowly. “Tate and I share the responsibility.”

  “Why would you share it?” I asked, genuinely curious. “He’s your younger brother.”

  Emil looked at me, surprise flickering over his face. “How did you know that?”

  “You were a Duke. So you had to be the oldest.” Again, things I’ve learned from historic romance novels.

  Emil held my eyes. I could tell he was curious how I knew the Duke information. I hadn’t mentioned that flashback to him. Alex didn’t seem to pick up on it, or maybe he assumed Emil had told me.

  “They’re twins,” Alex said.

  I looked from Emil to Tate, and back again. There was definitely a family resemblance between them, but they didn’t look like twins. “Funny, Alex.”

  “It’s true,” Emil said, “We’re fraternal twins. I was born a few minutes before Tate. I was the Duke per societal rules, but we’ve always ruled our Clan together, and since we’ve never had heirs, we traded off the Duke title in different lifetimes.”

  No heirs. So Emil hadn’t knocked up my Cassandra incarnation. How many kids I’d had, or if I’d had them at all, was one of many things I’d wondered about my previous lives.

  “Which is why you need to come back,” Tate said. “I’m sick of doing it on my own.”

  They were going in circles, repeating the same argument. I thought it could go on all night. Emil must have realized the same thing because he gave Tate a lethal stare before turning to me. “It seems there are things Tate and I need to discuss. If you’re okay, we’ll go and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I nodded my assent.

  “I’ll stay with her tonight,” Alex said, folding himself down onto the couch.

  Emil sliced his head down once. Tate stood, annoyed that he hadn’t gotten his way—yet—and followed Emil out of the house.

  Alex leaned his head against the back of the couch, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath.

  “So,” I said, crossing my legs in the chair, “what happened at the meeting? Are we going to war?”

  Alex opened his eyes. “Not yet.”

  “How did you convince the Rebels to hold off on attacking Daevos Clans?”

  He lifted his head. “Emil helped. He told them the same information he’d told me: that the Daevos are trying to figure out what’s going on, and that their Trackers are also being taken.”

  “They believed him?” Considering what Simon had said about Alex trusting the Daevos too much, that surprised me.

  “They were reticent, but Emil’s convincing. He’s the leader of a Clan, and even among the Amaranthine, he’s respected for his leadership abilities, and for being fair—well, as fair as a Daevos member can be.” He ran a hand through his hair. “The Rebels’ patience is running out, though.”

  Emil was respected by the Amaranthine? That seemed like something I should investigate further. “Will the Amaranthine support the Rebels in an attack?”

  Alex lifted a shoulder. “They might not have a choice.”

  “And still, no one can figure out who’s taking the Trackers? No one’s seen anything?”

  Alex shook his head.

  “What about correlations to other things? Are there any patterns in the abductions?”

  He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Just the shadows being seen in areas before Trackers are abducted.”

  “And we don’t know any more about the shadows?”

  Alex shook his head again. A heaviness had settled over him recently, like he was holding the weight of the world on his shoulders. To an extent, he kind of was. “We’ve been looking into it, but the shadows don’t stay around long enough to get much information. Your accounts have been the most informative so far.”

  I gave a slow, I-told-you-so smile. “Good thing I stuck around after ice cream with Jasmine to try and battle it then, huh?”

  Things went downhill from there.

  The night had gone as usual when Alex and I were being pissy with each other. He’d been flippant, I’d been snarky, and we’d both retreated to our corners for the night to regroup for the next round. I’d had a reprieve from him today, however. On my way out the door for karate, he’d told me he wanted to do some research with the Amaranthine, and wouldn’t be around until late tonight. He’d also said Emil was dealing with Tate and wouldn’t be with me either.

  I’d stared at him, a little stunned, especially after my decision to go to the party without backup. “You’re really leaving me alone? Trusting me?” He stared, arms folded across his chest. “That’s uncharacteristic of you.”

  He raised one brow, nodding once in agreement. “I know, especially after your huge error in judgment last night. You should consider it a gift, because what I really want to do is lock you up in my house.”

  I didn’t think he was talking about handcuffs and role playing, so I wasn’t too enthused. He’d left with a warning not to do anything stupid, and said he’d be checking in on me with his ring.

  Karate had been a good way to take out my aggression. After I showered, I worked on some essays and reading for class. I also got an email from Hutch saying sorry for leaving the party early. I was just glad he and Vicki had gotten out of there safely. When my phone chimed in the middle of my homework, I picked it up and saw a text from my mom.

  You have a care package coming. I sent some things for your friends, too.

  I loved my mom’s care packages! They always had something yummy in them. I texted back. Thanks! You’re the best mom ever!

  I got a smiley face. I wasn’t sure how many to send…?

  She’d probably seen my Facebook relationship status updates, so she knew things were complicated. Granted, I hadn’t given her the paranormal details, but she was aware I had feelings for both Alex and Emil, and had no idea how to choose. I can share what you sent.

  There should be plenty. Have a great week, sweetie!

  I smiled. I love you!

  I finished my homework, and then sat down to try muddling through what Tate had said. I mentally tabulated what had happened the night before. Went to a party I shouldn’t have, got in a fight with some Daevos, met my old brother-in-law, fought about going places alone, and fell into bed exhausted. I still was. One of these days, I’d like to wake up tired because I spent the night doing something fun.

  I
was on my second cup of caramel flavored coffee when Jasmine came down the stairs. “Hey! How’s your studying?” She had a big test coming up in one of her math classes. I’d rather get a Brazilian wax than do fractions. Jas excelled at it, though.

  “Ugh,” she said, slumping down on the couch next to me. “I’ve been at it for hours, but it feels like days. What are you up to?”

  I took a few seconds to answer. “Thinking.”

  “About?”

  The fact that the people who have known me longer than I’ve known myself don’t seem to know what I am or who I want, so what chance do I have at figuring it out? “Life, school, guys, where I want to be in ten years.”

  “That sounds serious.”

  I nodded. It was.

  She stared at the mantle with me for a minute before leaning over. “You know what you need?”

  Yes. I need a lobotomy.

  “You—and I—need to relax. Let’s order pizza, watch a funny movie, get a bunch of Pixy Stix and Slurpees, and have a fun girls’ night.”

  I turned my head to the side to see her better. “Like we used to have in high school?”

  “Exactly! You need to get out of your head for a couple of hours.”

  I smiled, thinking that sounded better than anything I could come up with. I wasn’t expecting Alex for a while, and I needed break. Plus, there was safety in numbers. Jas had an excellent yelling voice if we needed it. Alex was watching me with his ring, and I had the SOS bracelet if anything went wrong. There was no reason not to go get some food and have a good time. “All right, let’s do it!”

  Jas threw her books on the couch as I texted Alex and Emil about my evening plans, and grabbed my keys off the table. We ordered pizza in the car and stopped at the store first. We got a bag of Pixy Stix and some chocolate, then went to 7-11 for two monster size Slurpees. On our way to get pizza, I sucked down my grape Slurpee while Jas did the same with hers—though she’d gotten blueberry. It looked like Barney the dinosaur had exploded in my mouth and Jas looked like the cookie monster was living on her teeth and tongue. The gigantic Slurpees were half gone by the time we got back to the house and popped in the movie from my DVD collection.