by J Rose
“I just dislocated my shoulder but by tomorrow it should be healed,” I tell her.
“Crystal,” She whispers her voice strained. The panic in her eyes is so clear that I can almost see the attack of today playing out in her eyes.
“When Spencer was attacked, she was thrown off him as well, but she has some minor scratches and bruises nothing to really worry about. She’s taking care of Spencer."
*Howl*
Startled by the noise I can see her posture stiffen and her eyes flash with panic. I want to assure her that we’re safe but I am interrupted by a knock on the door and my father walks in. For a second his eyes flicker to Lyric and then back to me. I know he’s concerned for the both of us. What it’ll do to us, to the kingdom, to our family. I know this situation is overwhelming but I have no choice but to tell her the truth. Simply because in a few days she’ll have to face the council and Cray. Looking at her I can see the sadness in her eyes, the fear of the situation, of Cray. Still, there are so many things I want to ask her about the attack.
My mind flashes back to the shop and when Cray spoke looking directly at her. There was recognition in her eyes. Almost as if she knew exactly what Cray was telling her. Not knowing what to say or how to explain I started with what I already knew.
“Lyric. When we were ambushed in the shop. Could you hear me in your head? Could you understand me?” I ask her. For a second she looks at me unsure of what to say and I can see her trying to remember. Silence ensues for what feels like hours and part of me begins to wonder if she could not have heard me. Was it possible that this was wrong? That this between us was somehow a mistake? That she could hear him and not me? Was it possible that I was not her soulmate and in the end, she did belong to Cray instead?
“Lyric,” I call out to her unable to take the silence any longer. For a second she’s unsure, maybe even afraid of what to say. I have to hold my breath afraid to hear the word “No” leave her lips.
“I. Yes,” She answers and I feel a weight on my shoulders leave but just as it does a bigger question surrounds my thoughts. Could she hear him? I’d never known someone who could hear other Novas. Then again, this wasn’t a normal situation. Taking hold of her hand she seemed confused but part of me needed this. Part of me needed to know that either way she was still connected to me.
“Then. What about him?” I asked her quietly, her eyes seemed confused while she searched for an answer through my eyes.
“The Hyena. Could you also hear him?” I asked and for a few more minutes there was silence. Though her eyes flashed with fear, the hand that I was holding began to shake as time went on. Still, I needed to know the answer to this.
“Lyric? Could you hear him too?” I asked again.
I was afraid to know her answer to my question. The fear in her own eyes, at the thought of what we both knew to be true but did not want to face, was obvious. She began to shake her head frantically in fear but I knew she was more afraid of my reaction at this point more than anything else.
“Yes,” She finally answered softly. Her words echoed out through the room and caused my stomach to drop. I had known the answer beforehand but I could not seem to face it.
“What about Spencer? Could you hear him?” I asked hoping that maybe she could hear all Novas instead of just Cray and I. Maybe then things would be okay for us.
“No,” Lyric answered only confirming what I had refused to acknowledge at this point.
“Do you know who he is? The Hyena? Have you ever seen him before?” I ask her, wondering if he’d ever shown up in front of her.
“No,” She says quietly.
“His name is Maxwell Cray,” I tell her. My next words only further pulling her away from me. Maybe I’ve already lost her. Whatever she chooses I know I have to live with it.
“Lyric. Maxwell is also your soulmate.”
CHAPTER 10:
TWISTED FATE
(Lyric)
Soulmate. The word echoes sirens in my head. Warnings filled with fear and apprehension. How was that possible? How could Maxwell Cray be my soulmate? Looking at Parker with confusion I could see so many emotions flashing through his own eyes just as my eyes did the same. I could feel myself shaking and somehow I found myself gripping onto Parker’s arm tightly. The fear of that other man’s bloodthirsty eyes embedded in my mind, furthering my fear while mind reeled.
“But then-”
“I’m also your soulmate,” Parker spoke, but it was no use.
I was so confused and afraid and I realized then and there that he was going to take me away. Parker was going to let him take me. Parker didn’t want me, he hated me and this was the golden opportunity to get rid of me that he’d been waiting for.
“Lyric,” Parker spoke, snapping me out of my thoughts to look at him. I couldn’t read the expression in his eyes, I’d never been able to do that but now I was far more afraid. The not knowing what he was thinking or what he was going to do only added on to my fears. He was going to send me away to Maxwell Cray and I would be placed back five years ago. Only this time Parker wasn’t going to save me. No one would.
“Lyric,” Parker calls out again, grabbing on to my shoulders and shaking me. I can feel tears in my eyes and I’m so afraid of what he might say.
“Listen to me okay,” Parker says.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve never heard of anything like this but the council’s intervened,” He says.
The council. What was going to happen to me? Would they want to kill me? How could I have two soulmates? That wasn’t normal. One didn’t want me and I’m sure the other would kill me.
“I’m defective,” I thought to myself.
“Nothing’s wrong with you,” Parker spoke.
“Listen to me okay. Tomorrow we’re going to travel to neutral ground and we’ll meet with the council and we’re going to know what to do. For now, try to get some sleep okay. I have to go talk to my father and handle some things. I’ve put someone to guard your door his name is Oliver he’ll take care of you if anything happens,” Parker said. For a second there was silence the look in his eyes was complicated to decipher. His gaze lingered on my own confused and fearful eyes.
For a moment his grip on my shoulders tightens his gaze penetrates my own while my heart raced in fear. Just like that, he let go and moved away. Whatever it was he wanted to do or say he stops and instead begins to walk away. Though I was afraid I found myself reaching my hand out to his stopping myself only inches away from gripping on to his arm and asking him to stay. I wasn’t afraid of him not at this moment. I was afraid of the unknown much like I had always been. Only this time I knew Maxwell Cray was part of this unknown limbo and that scared me more than Parker Archer. I knew he never would stay with me in this moment or any other. Had I asked him, begged him to stay he wouldn’t have. I knew what he wanted more than anything was to get rid of me. Hearing the door of the room shut quietly I found myself alone once again.
There was no one there for me. Everyone had someone but not me. I was like a stray dog, left in the cold rain to suffer. Curling myself into a ball I tried to hide away the pain that seemed to increase the longer I found myself in this place. It was incredibly suffocating. The weight and pressure on my chest only increased, before I knew it, I was crying. I felt so overwhelmed and so out of place, but more than that I felt alone. Parker didn’t want me and he would never love me; that much I knew. I’d never considered loving someone like Parker either, but we were linked together, and that brought me pain. I didn’t love him. I felt it in my heart. That didn’t mean his rejection didn’t hurt. I didn’t think it would hurt this much to be rejected by him but it did. I wanted to rewrite destiny. I wanted to realign my fate and link myself to someone else, anyone else, maybe then I could be happy.
#
I’m in a forest running. The forest is dark with no absolute sound except for my panting. My breath emitting in soft smoke from the cold air. I can hear footsteps behind me. My mind be
gins yelling at me to run, but my feet remain as they are. I know he’s coming. I know he’s after me but I can’t go faster and then, I fall. Though I try to get up as fast as I can it’s too late. He’s already there and all I can do is crawl away from his blood red eyes gazing at me with hate while his mouth foams. I can feel my throat tighten and my mouth go dry as I try to scream. No sound leaves my mouth and my heart pounds in fear. I can’t move and all I can feel is the rough grass against my hands that can only clutch the dirt in fear. Hearing a feral growl across the earth, the silence is cut. Someone stands in front of me protectively and in his Nova form, Parker. He’s growling his posture rigid as he looks back at the hyena ready to fight it when it gets closer to me.
“She’s not yours to have Archer!”
“Give her to me!” Maxwell says. His angry voice make me cringe, fear paralyzes me and I find myself covering my ears trying to protect myself from hearing him inside my head.
“Get out of my head!” I want to shout to him but then Parker turns to me and he is no longer in his Nova form but back to his human self.
“Take her,” He says calmly, his eyes void of any emotion as he looks down at me and my heart stops at his words.
“I don’t want her,” He says before Maxwell moves forward in his Nova form. Maxwell’s eyes look back at me then, increasing my fear. All I can do is turn to Parker and grab a hold of his arm to try to save myself.
“Please don’t! Don’t let him take me! Please!” I plead but he looks away from me, harshly shaking me off him and walking away without a second glance.
“You're mine,” Maxwell says before he lets out another growl. But just like that there’s a pink glowing beam that then surrounds us and he’s gone leaving me alone in the forest.
“You need to stop being so afraid,” Someone says and I realize it’s the orb like thing that has spoken. Remembering the fire, I realized it was there too.
“You were at the fire before Parker came to save me,” I spoke before the orbs glow intensified and almost in a blink of an eye it’s gone. Only this time a girl was standing in front of me.
Her body was bruised and beaten the words UNWORTHY were written on her arm.
Her eyes are an olive green color, her hair a soft chestnut color that is the softest of browns. She wears a white dress while she gazes at me with a warm smile.
“Who are you?” I ask her and she simply offers a smile and walks toward me.
“Angel,” She says before sitting by the tree and pushing me down to sit next to her.
“You have to stop being so afraid of life, and the world. Especially of Parker,” She tells me.
“But I-”
“I know how you feel. You feel alone, hurt, and afraid he’ll reject you… That no one will ever want you,” she says.
“That’s what happened to me,” She whispered, her eyes filled with sadness.
“I was stupid. I couldn’t wait for him and now. I left him behind and caused him pain,” She whispered.
“Who?” I find myself asking before she looks at me and offers me a sad smile.
“My soulmate,” She whispers.
“It won’t be the same for you,” She continues.
“You have Parker.”
“He doesn’t want me,” I tell her feeling a weight on my heart that I can’t seem to push away.
“Are you sure about that?” She asks.
“I can’t say much, and I can’t tell you how to feel about him. He’s made bad decisions in the past, yes, but he’s not a bad person Lyric,” She tells me.
“You’re stuck in the past, thinking of the old him. But yet you don’t look at what’s in front of you. His actions now, even then. There’s so much of him that you’re not seeing and so much of you that you don’t let him see,” She says.
“But now you have a choice to make don’t you?”
“I don’t under-”
“You will. When the time comes. Just don’t make the wrong choice. Everything always has a ripple effect. No matter what you do or who you choose everyone will feel it. Still, there’s always the less dangerous from the more chaotic,” She says.
“What does that mean?” I asked her but she only smiles pulling her knees close to her chest and resting her head on her knees while she looks at me.
“It means be careful. And no matter what. Follow your heart,” She whispers.
“Even if it is confused at the moment. His heart will push yours in the right direction.”
#
The right direction? What could that be? At the moment my life seemed to be set to the opposite of whatever that was. There was so much chaos in my life right now I felt like I’d been put in a blender and someone had hit the purée button on high. It seemed like the more I thought about things the more afraid of the outcome I became. I couldn’t picture my life with either of my two “Soulmates.”
Parker had hurt me once before and knew of a past I wanted to forget. Then there was Maxwell Cray. Cray I did not know, but all I had to do was gaze into his eyes to know of the terrors that awaited me if I chose him. I only hoped the council could make a decision that would be okay with my terrified self. Whatever time I had the previous night to think things over had been spent in fear and without sleep.
“Lyric,” Startled from my thoughts I turned to see a familiar face. She was standing there looking at me with concern and for the first time since arriving in Archer, I felt relief.
“Jane,” I said to her relief clear in my tone. Sensing my distress Jane offered a sympathetic smile and came to sit beside me on the bed.
“We came as soon as we heard,” She said.
“We?” I questioned.
“Andrew’s here?” I asked thinking of my other friend. I realized that having Andrew here would only add pressure to my already complicated two soulmate mess. But I could not help but want to see my friend.
“My soulmate and I,” Jane clarified, her words soft and unlike her. Though I knew I shouldn’t pry I wanted to ask her, mostly to stray my mind from my own problems.
“Who is he?” I ask and for a second she’s silent and I can see her eyes drift away in pain. For a moment I wonder if this is how I myself look when I think about Parker.
“Brad. Brad Jacobs,” Jane says and my mind then drifts back to high school.
I can remember seeing him. He was always a goofy guy. Physically he was like a brick wall and the captain of the football team. What I remembered most of Brad was his booming infectious laughter. The guy was much like Jane when it came to his attitude, cheerful. He had short blonde hair and his eyes were a deep rich honey colored. I had seen him just a few days prior when I arrived. He and Parker had always been good friends in school.
“He and Parker are friends,” Jane said to me.
“I’m sorry you have him. And Maxwell. They were talking about it when Brad and I arrived,” Jane said tears in her eyes but I couldn’t understand her reaction. If anything I knew her just as much as I did Crystal and knew her tears were not for me. Whatever problems she had were overwhelming her.
“It’s not that bad. Parker’s not that bad,” I tell her gently, and she laughs or rather scoffs wiping a few stray tears from her face.
“This is so screwed up Lyric. You get stuck with a bastard like Parker Archer and now I’m stuck with a guy like Brad Jacobs,” She cries. And there it was. The root of her problems. Still, I knew she would not say much unless I continued to speak myself.
“Brad’s not a bad guy. He was a good guy in High School and as far as I know, he’s always been nice to everyone.”
“Including you?” Jane asked.
“I was irrelevant. He wasn’t nice or mean,” I say to her.
“I wish that had been the case for everyone,” She said, her eyes filled with unshed tears while she spoke.
“I don’t.”
“My twenty-first birthday was six months ago Lyric,” She began on the verge of tears.
“I received a letter a week a
fter going to the Nova Labs. I’m not like you. I’ve always been excited to meet my soulmate, thinking that when I saw him and he saw me, it would be like some stupid fairytale.” She spoke quietly.
“I was wrong,” She said, her voice quivering at her words before more tears fell from her eyes
“What happened?” I asked her gently, trying to calm her only to have a sob escape her lips which she quickly tried to stop by putting a hand to her mouth.
“The letter explained I’d have to wait three months. He’d been fined three times by Nova law,” She said.
“Oh no,” I thought to myself, knowing exactly what happened.
In fact, I remembered clearly how many girls hung around Parker and Brad during school. I would hear about Devil’s Creek and the “Fun” unmated and hormonal teens had down there. Brad was a frequent visitor to that place and as far as I knew so was Parker. Knowing that made me feel uneasy thinking about it. The little respect Parker had for me then, how little he valued me now as well. I’d always been set up to be rejected by him. Regardless if he knew it was me back then or not.
“Three times Lyric!” Jane spoke snapping me out of my own thoughts.
“Three different women. Each time they find someone being intimate with someone that isn’t your mate you’re fined. You know what happens then don't you? Your mating gets set back a month,” Jane explained, though I knew this, all I could do was remain silent having no idea how to comfort her.
“It was high school,” I try to say, but she scoffs again while more tears run down her eyes.
“I was hurt Lyric. But I understood that. They’re guys. I get that. But it was what he did after… I thought after three months that would be it. That I could finally see him and we could talk things through but three more fines appeared. He’s such an asshole Lyric! He doesn’t care about me,” She said to me before completely breaking down. Hugging her I tried to calm her but I couldn’t help feel pity for her. Parker had hurt me in the past but I realized he hadn’t done so since I arrived.