Angeldust

by Peach, Hanna

  “We’re not sure yet,” said Jordan. “Marin said she was screaming for you when she burst into Tara.”

  “So she remembers me. That’s good.”

  “Lukas,” Tobias said slowly. “Ana didn’t remember who Marin was.”

  Lukas gritted his teeth. Tobias’ hand felt as heavy as a block of stone on his shoulder and pity exuded from Tobias like a smell.

  Was Lukas okay? Tobias asked. He lost his son and now…this, whatever this was exactly, had happened to his wife? How could he be okay?

  “I’m fine,” he shrugged his shoulder out from Tobias’ hand. His voice came out harsher than he intended it to, but at the moment he was so focused on the woman sitting on the other side of this door he didn’t care. How much of her…his Ana, the love of his life, was left?

  “I just need to know how bad it is.” If he just knew, then they could just deal with it, right? Lukas readied himself and knocked.

  Hearing her familiar soft voice calling out “come in” sent a stab of hope through his chest. It was her voice. Ana’s voice. He would recognize her voice in his sleep. How ridiculous he was being. Of course she was the same woman. It was her. It was his Ana on the other side of that door. She would remember him. Her love for him would shine through whatever gaps there were in her memory.

  He pushed open the door eagerly. Ana was sitting up in a chair near the window. The bed was made as if she hadn’t slept at all. Her heart-shaped face was turned towards the door, pale and delicate features framed by soft golden waves. Her eyes locked onto his. Lukas felt his breath steal away the way that only his wife of almost a decade could do.

  She had taken his breath away the first time he saw her, over twelve years ago, lost and wandering through the forests around the outskirts of Michaelea, dressed in white and looking like an angel lost. He had begun to fall in love with her that day. The truth was he had never stopped falling in love with her.

  Ana’s green eyes widened, her cheeks colored and her pink lips parted as she inhaled. She recognized him. She did. She recognized him. She stood up hurriedly from her chair but managed to do so in the fluid, graceful way she did everything, like her limbs were made of silk.

  “Lukas,” she said, and the sound of her voice breathing around his name brought the life back into him. All the hairs on his arm rose as if to reach out for her. Ana felt what was between them. He could see it. She knew him, deep down. She felt their love. “Thank God you’re here. I need you.”

  His wife had come back to him. “Ana,” he said her name as if it were a prayer. Joy seemed to lift him from where he stood, moving him forward to her, his arms out so he could draw her in for a kiss. He ignored Tobias’ calls for caution.

  She seemed to melt into his arms and she turned her lips up to meet his. At the last moment a shocked look came over her face and she turned her head. “What are you doing?” She pushed him away, her small hands flapping against him like a pair of dove’s wings.

  He let go of her, stumbling back like a wall had grown out of the ground between them. “Ana, I−”

  She stared at him, blinking rapidly. “And why do you keep calling me Ana? My name is Siana.”

  Siana. That was a name Lukas hadn’t heard in over a decade.

  Tobias stepped up to stand between them, holding an arm out between Lukas and his wife. As if he were a danger to her. He wasn’t a danger to her!

  “An-Siana,” Tobias corrected himself, “how much of Lukas do you remember?”

  Ana − he could not think of her as Siana − stared between him and Tobias. “I don’t understand why you’re asking me these questions. Everyone is being so strange.”

  Lukas heard the fear in her voice and he moved towards her to comfort her out of instinct. He stopped when he saw her flinch at his approach. She was afraid of him. His entire body felt drenched in ice.

  “Please, Siana,” Tobias said. “Just answer the question.”

  Tobias, don’t call her Siana. Her name is not Siana.

  “When did I meet Lukas?” She stared back at him and their eyes locked. He felt something pass through them. A flutter of hope lit inside his heart. She tore her eyes away from him and focused on Tobias. “I met Lukas just after I left Michaelea.”

  “Which was when?” Lukas asked.

  Siana frowned. “Lukas, don’t you remember when we met?”

  “I remember. Please, just tell me, when did you leave Michaelea?”

  “Why…only a few days ago.”

  Hope within Lukas died, extinguished with her words. Ana thought that they had only met a few days ago. Which meant she remembered nothing of who they were to each other. She remembered nothing about falling in love with him and of the family they made. The stab of pain in his heart almost floored him.

  “No,” he said. “No. When I came in, you said my name. You said you needed me.”

  “I need help. Yael has been kidnapped and I need help.”

  Jesus Christ. Yael is back.

  When Lukas first courted Ana the ghost of Yael, the first man Ana had ever loved, hung over them. But time heals all wounds and soon Yael’s ghost had faded to nothing. Lukas had stopped seeing that faraway look in her eyes when he knew she was thinking of Yael, wondering where he was and what he was doing.

  Lukas could do nothing but stare at Ana as Tobias spoke to her gently, trying to explain to her what had happened to her. She looked the same as his Ana, but she wasn’t his Ana at all anymore.

  He had already lost his son, Ky, and because of that his grieving wife began to withdraw from him. But now, Ana was gone completely. Gone along with all her memories of them, their love…and their son. The last twelve years of their lives, of their love, were erased just like that for her.

  His already broken heart crushed under this weight.

  * * *

  Siana couldn’t believe her ears. Her memory, gone? All of the last twelve years, gone?

  As Tobias spoke, Siana found her eyes being drawn continuously to Lukas’ face. With his strong nose and jaw and his dark deep-set eyes, he looked…regal, like a Native American prince.

  Lukas was a broad-shouldered man, not as broad as Yael, but there was a strength to him that she had liked the moment she met him those few days ago. But the way her heart fluttered before when he had touched her and almost kissed her... Why was she reacting to him this way?

  Of course she had pulled back in time. But that didn’t lessen the horror she felt when she realized she was attracted to Lukas when she was in love with Yael. It didn’t matter that she had stopped the kiss; even momentarily wanting it was a betrayal. If Yael knew…

  Lukas’ eyelashes raised and he caught her gaze. Siana felt her stomach flutter. She looked quickly away and forced herself to avoid Lukas’ eyes as Tobias finished speaking.

  “I know it’s a lot to take in,” Tobias said, kindness filling his voice.

  “I just can’t believe any of this,” she said. “Lukas, I thought we were friends. Tell me the truth.”

  Lukas spoke, although it appeared painful for him to do so. “We were…are…more than friends. You are my entwined, my partner. You are the love of my life and…I am yours.”

  Her eyes widened at him in shock. She was in love with Lukas? They were entwined? Which means they had been intimate. He had seen her naked. They had slept together. Her mutinous body heated at this thought as her mind scrambled to remember. How could she forget falling in love with him?

  No. This was a betrayal to Yael. She wouldn’t believe it.

  “We had a child,” Lukas continued. “Ky. He died. It almost destroyed you. I think that’s why…that’s why you tried to tinker with your memory. But it all went wrong.”

  “We…what?” She shook her head, trying to dispel all these strange feelings and thoughts and things that just didn’t make sense. A child…an entire life and love and family missing from her memory. Her true love supposedly standing right in front of her instead of in a prison on an island. All these things spun i
n her head, trying to find a place of truth to land on. They didn’t fit anywhere. “No. No. I love Yael.”

  “You got over Yael twelve years ago,” Lukas said, his voice rising.

  “No. You’re lying to me. Why are you making these things up?”

  “You were asking for me at Tara. You were screaming my name. You know me.”

  “Of course I know you. I met you days ago. I came to Tara to find you because I thought you would help me.”

  “You’re my wife, Ana. You love me.”

  “I’m not Ana. I’m not…” Ana couldn’t hold it all back anymore; her worry for Yael, the horrible things she had seen, and now Lukas screaming at her, desperate for her to believe his story; everything piled up into a crushing weight that broke her façade of strength. It all spilled out as tears into her hands.

  “Lukas,” she heard Tobias say, “I think you should wait for me in my office.”

  “I’m not leaving until she admits that she’s my wife.”

  “Lukas,” Tobias said his voice taking on a firmer tone. “You getting upset isn’t helping matters. Go and wait in my office. Now.”

  “But−”

  “Now. I will see you there soon.”

  * * *

  Lukas leaned against the wall near the door to Ana’s room, breathing as quietly as he could. He hated himself for making her upset. But she just needed to believe him. Why wouldn’t she just believe him?

  He could hear Ana’s sobs slowly subsiding.

  “I apologize for Lukas,” said Tobias. “He is understandably…upset.”

  “I just…I don’t remember.”

  “I know. I know.” There was a pause. “Do you want to tell me about what you do remember?”

  “Yael. A few days ago I found him at our meeting place. He didn’t remember me.”

  “I see.”

  “That’s why he never left Michaelea to be with me as we planned. Do you understand? Yael loves me, he wants to be with me, but the Elders did something to his mind.”

  “If memory loss happened to Yael, can’t you see how it could happen to you too?”

  “I… I can’t think about that right now. Yael is in danger.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “Yael agreed to leave Michaelea but he wanted to go back one last time just to say goodbye to his friends. I had this horrible feeling, so I followed him.” Ana’s voice broke off in a sob. After she composed herself she continued, “He was taken, kidnapped, by his own flock members. He was taken to this island, to this Seraphim city…it’s hidden. I never knew about it.”

  “An island?”

  “I know it sounds unbelievable that the Elders would keep a fourth Seraphim city a secret from us, but it’s real. It exists. I saw it.”

  “I believe you. Where is it?”

  “Off the coast of Egypt. I can give you the coordinates. I followed him there, the seraph who captured Yael. I managed to sneak inside…” Her voice quieted. “At first I thought it was some kind of training center. There were rows and rows of Seraphim fighting with weapons, training rooms, huge steel barracks. These Seraphim were like the warriors from Michaelea but…they were relentless, so uniform, almost like machines. But it wasn’t just a training camp… There were other buildings, ones with no windows. I saw inside one of them, through a skylight. Oh my God, Tobias…” She broke down in tears again.

  “You take the time you need.” Tobias shushed at Ana until she was able to speak again.

  “Inside…there were rooms. At first I didn’t know what I was looking at. I never in my deepest nightmares could conceive of such a thing.”

  “What was inside?”

  “The room filled with seraphelles. They were all pregnant and strapped, legs spread into beds like animals. It was some kind of…breeding facility.”

  “Dear God.”

  “I recognized one of the seraphelles. I knew her from Michaelea but she disappeared and the Elders told us that she had gone Rogue. How could they do that to those women, Tobias? How?”

  “I… I don’t know.”

  “And they have Yael,” Siana said with a sob. “We can’t just leave him there. We have to rescue him. Please help me.”

  “If we can help you, we certainly will. But for now you need to rest. You’ve been through a lot. I’ll come back to check on you later.”

  Moments later Tobias stepped out into the corridor. His eyes narrowed when he spotted Lukas waiting for him in the hallway. Tobias closed the door to Ana’s room before he spoke. “I thought you were going to wait in my office.”

  “We can’t mount a full-scale attack on Michael’s army to retrieve one Seraphim,” said Lukas.

  “I agree,” said Tobias. “But we still need to know what’s happening on this island.”

  “I’ll go,” said Lukas.

  Tobias froze. “Lukas, there are others who could go. Vix or−”

  “No,” Lukas all but yelled. “No,” he said again in softer voice. “I want to go. She is my wife.”

  “Lukas, I don’t think that’s wise.”

  “Tobias, there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

  * * *

  Jordan stormed into Lukas’ room. It was an absolute mess. Lukas’ clothes and shoes were thrown around the room. He froze for a moment when he saw the single woman’s dress − a dress that Ana left behind when she had lost her memory − laying out on her side of the bed.

  Lukas glanced up from where he sat on his side of the bed, cleaning his sword, an array of blades lined up alongside him. “Sure,” Lukas muttered, as he went back to polishing the weapon in his hand, “don’t bother knocking, come right on in.”

  “Lukas, what are you doing?”

  “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m cleaning my blades.”

  “I just spoke to Tobias. He told me about you and Ana.”

  “Have you come to try and cheer me up? Don’t bother.”

  “Why did you volunteer to go?”

  “I just can’t stay here with her like that.”

  “But you could stay, spend time with her, maybe jog her memory.”

  “You really think it’s that simple,” Lukas hissed. “I can’t just show her a few photos of us together or tell her stories about our time together, Jordan. You, you, of all people know how completely memory is stolen from us. She has lost everything − everything − from the last twelve years.”

  “She’s your wife. She needs you.”

  “She doesn’t know who I am!” he yelled. He composed himself, taking several deep breaths.

  “Lukas, I get that this is a horrible shock to you. It’s a shock to me too.”

  “You have no idea.”

  “You’re too close to this. You’re not thinking straight. You shouldn’t go to this island.”

  “I’m thinking just fine.”

  “Lukas, you just volunteered to rescue the man Ana thinks she is in love with. I mean, really?”

  Lukas narrowed his eyes. “What are you insinuating?”

  “You won’t be objective in rescuing Yael if indeed there is a chance that he can be rescued and with his mind intact.”

  Lukas stared wide-eyed at Jordan. “Do you really think that little of me?”

  “No. I’m saying that you’re hurting because of the woman you love. Men can do stupid things when they are hurting, even without knowing. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  Lukas glared back at Jordan. “I’m going. You can’t stop me.”

  Chapter Six

  “Tobias, we need to speak with you.” Alyx stumbled into his office without knocking, Israel behind her. Hot on their trail was Tii’la who had been about to knock on Alyx’s door when Alyx and Israel rushed out.

  Jordan was also in the office, and he turned in his chair to look at her.

  “Sorry to interrupt…it’s about the missing Amulet piece,” she clarified.

  “Of course. Come in,” Tobias said. “Jordan and I can talk later.”

  The three
of them, Alyx, Israel and Tii’la piled into his office. Tii’la closed the door behind her. Alyx moved around to stand near Tobias’ side. She could feel Jordan’s eyes burning into her but she ignored him. She held up the charm. “Raphael left this for me. Engraved on it is a riddle hidden by a mirage. ‘Look inside your soul to find the path to the truth.’ Mayrekk said that it was only meant for me, the Guardian, to use. And when I use my…well, I call it Soulsight, I can see that it’s not just a charm, it’s also a compass. I can see a blue trail going out from it.” Alyx strode over to the old globe standing on the corner of the round table on the far side of Tobias’ office, the others following her to gather around it. She spun the globe, then stopped it. “Here. I followed the trail. It ends here.” She pointed to a blue space in the Atlantic Ocean. “But it leads to nowhere. I don’t know what this means.”

  “Is it broken?” asked Tii’la.

  “No,” Jordan said. “It’s not broken. There’s something there, you just can’t see it.”

  “What are you talking about?” Alyx asked.

  “Could it be?” Tobias said. He and Jordan traded a look.

  “Could what be? What’s there that we can’t see?”

  “Atlantis,” Tobias and Jordan both said at once.

  Alyx blinked and stared at both of them, then back at the map.

  “Of course,” said Tii’la.

  “What’s Atlantis?” Israel asked.

  “See for yourself.” Jordan opened his palms and a blue mist rolled out, filling the room.

  “What the hell?” Israel said.

  “Relax, I’m just creating a DreamScape.”

  “Jordan,” said Alyx, “we’re all awake.”

  “No problem. This one will be like a daydream.” The mist seemed to affect the air, changing it. Tobias’ office disappeared. Crystal structures rose up to the sky, like glass mountains, creating a city around them. The sun shone through them like prisms, breaking out rainbows across the sky and through the trees. The levels of the structures were open, making this a city of glass and air. “Welcome to Atlantis, the original Seraphim city.”