Touching Fire (Touch Saga)

by Airicka Phoenix

  I could feel my forehead creasing as I took another glance over the desolate place. “Where is here?”

  Amalie shrugged, her gaze following mine. “Home? Limbo? I don’t think anyone knows.”

  I looked at her. “Why are you here?”

  “We can’t leave.” Sadness passed over her pretty face … my face.

  I’d only ever seen her face once and that had been through glass, but she had my face, or rather, I had her face. We had the same small nose, same heart-shaped lips and narrow chin, all set against a round face. We were both pale and gangly, but the similarities ended there. She had a beautiful mane of copper that tumbled in perfect curls down her back, and piercing blue eyes that could have been patches stolen from a crystal clear sky. And she was soft, not just her skin, but she looked soft. She looked gentle, sweet and delicate. I knew I didn’t look like that. I was too stiff and awkward and always braced to run, which gave me a sort of spooked appearance. Amalie was my opposite, like the twin sister I’d only ever met in my dreams.

  “Where have you been?” I asked her. “I haven’t seen you—”

  “I know. I’m sorry.” She threaded her arm through mine. “Things have been complicated since you found my diary.” She paused to nibble on her bottom lip. “Have you read it yet?”

  I dropped my gaze to our feet. “Uh, kinda. We haven’t had much time,” I explained quickly. “Plus I feel weird reading someone else’s diary.”

  Her blue eyes found mine, wide and innocent. “But that’s why I wanted you to find it. So you would know…”

  “Know what?” I pressed when she abruptly broke off.

  She looked away. “Know what happened.”

  I stopped walking and placed a hand on her elbow, pulling her up short with me. “I know what happened. I know what you did.”

  Patches of pink rode high on her cheeks. “But you need to read the rest. You need to know why.”

  I snorted bitterly. “I’ve met your father. I know why.” She sighed and I felt a spear of guilt shoot through me. “I promise to read it.”

  She smiled. “Thank you.”

  Still smiling, she led me to the gazebo and the figure waiting at the top.

  At first, all I saw were tiny feet encased in strappy gold sandals peeking out from beneath a dress of soft, emerald green. I followed the material up a willowy figure, and froze.

  It was as though someone had dropped an elephant down on my chest. Every drop of oxygen was squeezed from my lungs, sending my system into a panic. Alarm bells roared in my ears, so loud, I couldn’t hear her when she said my name. My own lips moved, but no sound came out. At least, I didn’t think any sound came out. I couldn’t be sure of anything except the illusion in front of me.

  The figure descended the steps, her movements as graceful as I remembered them. Her warm, green eyes reflected the familiar smile curving her lips. Her image blurred behind a film of tears that I was too scared to blink away. I was too scared to blink at all in fear that it would all vanish if I so much as breathed. My throat closed around the avalanche of words pounding to be free, forming a tight ball suffocating me.

  She stopped inches from me, so close I could feel the heat coming off her. I could smell the familiar scent of her citrus shampoo and chamomile hand lotion. The sweet fragrance became overpowering when she reached out a small hand and touched the side of my face. The gentle caress broke me like nothing else ever could.

  “Mom?”

  Her smile broadened. “Hey baby girl,” she murmured.

  Tears rained down my cheeks. The sob wrenched from my chest a second before I threw myself into arms I’d felt wrapped around me my entire life. My own arms banded around her ribs, so tight I was sure I heard something crack. My fingers closed in the soft material of her dress, clasping her to me in pure desperation.

  “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry for everything,”

  “Hush,” she said into the top of my head, brushing the spot with her lips. “You have nothing to be sorry about, Fallon.”

  My heart raged, slamming against my chest with such ferocity, I was sure it would just burst out. Its roar pounded in my ears so I couldn’t even hear my own wails.

  “I killed you. I’m the reason you’re dead. I’m so sorry.”

  Her hands clasped around my arms. She tried to nudge me back, but I wasn’t having any of that. I clung to her as though I would die if she let go. She ceased trying and returned her arms around me.

  “You did no such thing.”

  “I said such horrible things.”

  She stroked my hair, lifting the strands off the back of my neck in a gesture so familiar it sent a fresh wave of grief through me.

  “You were upset. I don’t blame you.” She pressed a kiss to my temple. “Fallon, we don’t have much time. There are things we need to talk about.”

  Sniffling, I drew away, using the back of my hand to wipe away the tears and snot from my face. “What are you doing here?”

  “This is where all my father’s victims go,” Amalie said, moving forward. “They just appear and lately there have been a lot of new faces.”

  I swallowed hard as I glanced at the figures around us. “Garrison killed all of these people?”

  Amalie nodded, taking my arm. “But your mother is right, we don’t have much time. I won’t be able to keep you here for very long.”

  They led me to the gazebo. I kept a tight grip on my mother’s hand the whole way, even when we sat down.

  I turned quickly to my mother. “How are you? Are you okay?”

  Mom laughed. “I’m fine, Fallon. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  I shook my head. “I’m fine.” I hesitated, wrinkled my nose. “Okay, I’m working on it.”

  Her smile vanished. “No, my baby, you’re not fine. You are in so much danger.”

  My heart sank. “Do you mean Garrison, because I already know?”

  “No, you don’t know. He has gained so much strength. His army has grown as has his power over them. He has already caused so much chaos and confusion by starting a war in the mortal world.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “The attacks,” Amalie said quietly. “He is the one causing them.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I exclaimed. “Garrison’s the reason the entire country’s under lockdown?”

  “Yes,” Mom whispered urgently. “He and his men have been terrorizing the people in the hope of drawing you out.”

  I rocked my head vehemently from side to side in disbelief. “How do you know this?”

  “Just because we’re no longer alive, does not mean we cannot see what’s happening in the other planes.” Amalie bit her lip. Her gaze darted to the field of dead. “Come.”

  She took my hand and dragged me to the north end of the gazebo. She pushed me as close to the railing as she could without shoving me through and kept her hands fastened tightly around my arm.

  “Do you see them?” she whispered into my ear.

  I did see them. So many of them. An entire ocean of faces I would never be able to erase from my mind.

  There were those who had once been human, men and women with flesh and blood. Then there were the others. Bear-sized beasts with arms the size of tree trunks and bodies covered entirely in a thick, shaggy carpet of hair. Serrated fangs gnashed from snarling mouths. There was no longer anything human about them, except their eyes. Such human eyes, it was horrifying. They ambled around the clearing, turning up soil with their talons the size of butter knives. Long ears twitched atop massive heads with long narrow snouts. They swung their spiked tails with every powerful stride.

  “What are those?” I gasped.

  “Monsters,” Amalie whispered back. Her voice gave the slightest tremor and her nails dug into my arm.

  She was wrong. They weren’t the monsters. The monsters stood at the back, immobile beings that glinted under the filtered light. A low hum, like wind whistling through metal piping echoed from that end of the field and
I knew immediately why.

  There were children with mechanical arms and legs fused into the place of their real ones. Some had guns in the place of hands, or their faces were hollowed out like pumpkins and replaced by wired cages containing whatever was now in the place of a skull.

  There were men with sheets of copper cut into their bleeding chests and tubes jutting from their skulls to their necks. A few had metal slabs bolted just over their hearts like protective covers and metallic hands that were sharpened at the tips.

  The women seemed somehow infinitely worse. They were naked and hairless and where their female parts had once been, there were square patches of copper and metal. Their limbs were severed; shoulders, elbows and wrists and extended by patches of copper piping, giving them an almost double jointed appearance. Parts of their faces had been peeled away and replaced with a robotic skeleton with no eyes.

  There were dozens of them, a parade of human brutality at its very worst. The chilling horror was a slap of reality I was definitely not prepared for.

  Something gentle touched my shoulder.

  “Do you see now why you must stop him?” Mom murmured.

  As though her words had the power to sucker punch me square in the gut, I gasped and staggered back from the sight. My head was rocking side to side before I even knew what I was protesting.

  “No.” I choked on a breath. “No. I can’t do this.”

  “Fallon—”

  “No!” I whirled around on her. “I’m not Harry Potter, Mom! Nor am I Frodo, who, by the way, was never the hero of those movies. It was always Sam. I can’t…” I mashed my fists into my face. “I can’t fight him. I’ll just get more people killed.”

  “And that is why you are the leader this war needs.” Mom pulled away my hands to peer into my face. “You care, but more than that, you were born with all this power for a reason.”

  “He has a mechanical army!” I exclaimed, waving an arm towards the grotesque museum of mutilated horror. “Oh and did you miss the giant werebears?”

  “That’s not all he has,” Amalie said quietly, still watching the automatons. “The newer ones, they sometimes still have the ability to talk.” She looked to me, her face a mask of terror. “They tell us how they died. Some of them,” her voice dropped to a near whisper, “have been mutilated so badly, they’re no longer even human. But lately, there’s been talk of a serum my father has been injecting into his patients.”

  My own self-doubts were temporarily set aside as I concentrated on her words. “What kind of serum?”

  “The kind that makes you feel invincible before boiling the blood in your veins and killing you in the worst sort of way possible.”

  I recognized the man ambling up the gazebo steps almost instantly. I grabbed my mother’s hand out of pure reflex and yanked her back.

  “Get back!”

  “Hey, easy.” Lew, Garrison’s bodyguard once upon a time, raised his hands palm up.

  “What are you doing here?” I hissed.

  “I kind of live here now,” he said simply.

  Mom touched my arm. “It’s all right, Fallon. He can’t hurt you here.”

  “He’s one of Garrison’s goons,” I said, never taking my eyes off the creep. “He tried to kill me.”

  “Well, you did kill me, so I figure we’re even,” he muttered.

  I stilled. “What?”

  He slipped his hands into the pockets of his black trousers. “After the limo incident, Garrison took us to his lab. Bruce and Johnson were already dead.” He shot me a glare. “But I was taken to get patched up. Only he didn’t patch me up. You pissed him off. He started talking all crazy about how time was running out and he wasn’t ready.”

  “Who wasn’t ready?” I wondered. “Garrison?”

  Lew shook his head. “I don’t think so, because he kept saying he wasn’t ready, like he was talking about someone else. I mean, I’ve worked with Garrison since I was a kid and I have only seen him that crazy once, when you tried to escape.” He gestured to Amalie. “Whatever he’s working on, it’s huge.”

  “What about this serum stuff?” I asked.

  “I don’t know what it was, but it hurt.” He rubbed the crook of his elbow as though he could still feel the injection going in. “It felt like fire going in and then it was just raw power. I felt like I could take over the whole world with my bare hands. But it only lasted for like a minute. Then it just hurt like I was getting cooked from the inside. Next thing I knew, I was here.”

  “Could be anything,” I muttered. “I want to know more about this thing he’s creating.”

  “I couldn’t tell you. The only person who was allowed in that part of the lab was Garrison himself.”

  I eyed him warily. “Why are you helping us?”

  Lew’s own eyes narrowed. “Thirty-five years,” he said slowly. “That’s how long I worked for that man. I killed for him and did things no one else ever would and how does he repay me? He kills me!” he shouted venomously. “But not before he tortured me for almost two weeks. Screw him, I say. I hope you tear his limbs off.”

  “Hey, whoa!” I put my hands up. “When did I volunteer to become the revenge guy?”

  “Since it’s your destiny.” Mom touched my shoulder.

  “I’m just one person.” Why was no one else realizing this?

  “Maybe.” Mom closed her hand around my forearm, dragging my attention over to her. “But you are the only one who can make all these deaths right again.”

  “Let me guess, I’m stronger than I look,” I muttered dryly. “Maybe I can cause an earthquake and drop him into it. That seems to be the only thing I can do.”

  “It’s not.” Amalie shook my other arm vigorously. “That’s why I brought you here. Your mom has told me who you are. What you belong to.”

  I stared at her. “What I belong to? Like the human race?”

  “Like an ancient race,” Mom replied smartly. “You are the daughter of the most powerful element known to man. Every hope, dream, desire, is yours to control.”

  “No!” I cried, hating the surge of suffocation building up inside me. “I am nothing like Ashton. He removed everything—”

  “You cannot remove your soul,” Mom interjected. “Being Rem is hardcoded into you so long as Ashton’s blood runs through your veins. You are his daughter.” Her grip became painful. “The only way this will stop is if you make it,” she said sharply. “The world is relying on you, Fallon. Garrison has all but claimed one country as his. Can you imagine if he takes over the entire world? Can you imagine the death rate? This place … there would be no room. You need to stop him!”

  “How?” I cried, frustrated. “Tell me how and I’ll get right on it. He’s too strong … and evil.”

  “He’s still just a man, Fallon,” Mom said. “He is mortal. Flesh and blood and bone. He possesses no abilities, no special powers, no ancient calling. Kill him and his reign of terror will end.”

  “You’re still not telling me how, Mom!” I snapped at her. “Why can’t I just keep running? I’m good at that.”

  Something akin to sadness and regret passed over my mom’s face. “You can’t run forever, baby girl.”

  “Sure I can! He’s old,” I protested. “He’ll eventually die and I’ll be free.”

  “It doesn’t work like that,” she murmured. “Look around you, Fallon. Look at all these souls, forever trapped in this hell, in his hell. There will be many more if you don’t stop him.” She squeezed my hand.

  I opened my mouth to ask how, when Amalie interrupted me.

  “You have Isaiah.” She took my free hand, squeezing it so hard I winced. “You have to trust him, Fallon. Do not let him go.”

  At the mention of Isaiah, my heart twisted in my chest. I shook my head. “I don’t think I’ll have much of a choice once this is over.” I peered into Amalie’s lovely face. “There’s a really good chance he’ll come to his senses once Garrison’s spell on him wears off.”

  “That is
n’t possible.” The unfamiliar male voice made me jump. I nearly leapt to my feet as the figure climbed the gazebo steps and joined us.

  “Isaiah?”

  No. It wasn’t my Isaiah. Yes, they shared the same blue eyes, the same powerful build and dark hair, but he wasn’t, and it had nothing to do with the fact that this Isaiah had shorter hair. He just didn’t feel like my Isaiah.

  He offered me a half smile. “I’m not him. But I can tell you that what you feel for Isaiah and what he feels for you is as real as the nightmare you face. I have loved Amalie my entire life, whether I was alive or dead, and he is me and you are her. That kind of love, the kind that spans time and all odds, it cannot be forged.”

  I gave a weak nod even when my heart was summersaulting in my chest. “What if you’re wrong? I don’t think I could stand it if he left me like you left Dad.”

  Mom blinked. “I didn’t leave Ashton because of who he was. I left him because he lied to me and put you in danger.”

  I moistened my lips. “You didn’t leave him because he was a … a…”

  “A sin?” she supplied with a half-smile. “Yeah, I was upset about that, but I loved your father, Fallon. And I knew from the moment I met him that he wasn’t entirely like other men, but that was what made me fall for him in the first place.”

  “Then why did you leave him?”

  She sighed, turning her gaze out over the lawn speckled with unmoving forms, but I knew she was looking into a place only she could go. “When I met your father, he was just leaving Garrison’s office. I was on my way to drop off a blood report I had just finished. He walked out and I…” She laughed, slowly shaking her head. “I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. He was beautiful, so beautiful, but not just physically. He had that sort of beauty that radiates from the inside so it washes over you like sunlight. He smiled at me and I was completely gone over him. I would have walked over hot coals and broken glass if he’d asked me to. Instead, he asked me to dinner, then to a walk on the beach. Every day he took me somewhere new, somewhere exciting and romantic. I knew I was in love with him before the first week was even up. Silly, I know, but we were so happy, Fallon. We were so unimaginably happy.”