Lightning Forgotten

by Lila Felix

  The group of women actually cackled at that.

  “Oh, dear Colby. You are closer to the truth than you think. Now, before we discuss whatever you’ve come here to discuss, why don’t you introduce us to your friends?”

  Regina was stalling, but that was okay. She could stall all she wanted. From the looks of things, we weren’t the ones at the disadvantage. New anything was in short supply at the Synod.

  I pointed to Omar, who had already stepped forward. “This is Omar, leader of the Clandestine. This is his daughter Malynn. And you already know Collin, the cousin of Thor.”

  Collin cleared his throat. “Female, you test me.”

  Carlita stood and wasn’t as surprised as I thought she would be. I wanted her to be ‘I’m so glad I wore this yellow skirt’ shocked, but disappointment seemed to be my thing of late.

  “I thought we were just hitting a road block. You said it was a bump in the road. But this sort of proves it’s more than a pothole, don’t you think?” She wasn’t talking to me. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly who she was talking to, but she was surveying Omar like he was Tom Hardy without a shirt on.

  She sneered. “Omar, is it? The law says that you are not allowed to approach the Eidolon. He is only allowed to seek help from you.”

  The Synod was more worried about their rules than they were anything else. But looking at Carlita’s face, I knew why. That was all the power they had. They hid behind rules that made them powerful—that made them the last decision makers—and created a race of beggars and monitored lives.

  We’d just sat back and let it happen too.

  Omar bowed, although I thought it was just for show. “Of course. We obey all the laws.”

  One day, I would learn to be that diplomatic—in my dreams.

  “Then the tide has turned indeed. We’ve actually been waiting for this. Colby, I’m assuming you have some terms?”

  Regina’s eyebrows might not be on point like they used to be, but she could still confuse the hell out of me with one sentence. But I wasn’t the scared little Lucent girl who used her smart mouth to cover up her blind fear of these women anymore.

  Now they were speaking to the Eidolon’s mate.

  “You’re not running this meeting, Regina. I am. Why don’t you take a seat before your heels break? Those look like last season’s Vuitton’s.”

  She scoffed but did as I said, sitting down in a chair that had seen better days.

  “I believe I’ve figured everything out. Well, not everything, but that doesn’t matter. I have the clues I need.”

  Collin looked at me with his eyebrows raised.

  “After all this time, I was wrong about one key element. You didn’t kill Rebekkah. You probably wish you did, but you didn’t. So why didn’t you correct me? Why let me think you did?”

  Eliza, the member of the Synod who I mostly ignored because she always sat in silence, straightened her stature and cleared her throat. “We never wished to kill the Prophetess. It was ordered of us to get rid of her before she could divulge anything to you or Theodore, but we declined. This is why we are in such disarray. We were punished for our refusal. You must believe us. We have been through enough. If we had told you before, we would’ve surely been killed. After all of this, we have some semblance of self-preservation.”

  I wished she had kept silent.

  The horrible part was that I did believe them. It sounded like Sanctum to have someone else do his dirty work. He was a weasel like that. That was back when he was trying to convince me that he was not such a bad guy, not with words but by working with me to try to take out the Synod.

  It didn’t make them any less guilty of the crime.

  “You declined? You declined? It wasn’t an invitation to the prom, Eliza. This was Sanctum playing you like a puppet, and you yanking on the string and saying no to murdering my grandmother. And while we’re on the subject, who thought it was a good idea not to warn us that someone was putting a hit out on her? I would’ve hidden her. Theo could’ve taken her to the Fray—something! I would’ve spent my life getting her away from him!”

  They all looked at each other and nothing could’ve infuriated me more at that point. Now was the time for full disclosure. I’d had enough of their secrets and falsified propriety.

  They were nothing more than the rest of us now, and they better damned well start acting like it.

  “Colby, we did tell her. We warned her as soon as Sanctum left this room after almost killing all of us for not obeying his orders. She asked that we do nothing—including telling you.”

  I hated the fact that I was about to cry in front of these air-wasting beings, but it couldn’t be helped. The tears that still stung over the death of my most precious family member, even over my mother, barreled over my eyelids and ran down my face. I’d never really had a proper chance to mourn her.

  I screamed, “And you listened to her? What specialized kind of idiots are you?”

  Collin went around Malynn, who was next to me, and put his hand on my shoulder. He was making me remember, whether that was his intention or not, that this wasn’t all about me—this was about all of us and I was getting off topic.

  I barely reined myself in.

  “Why would she do that? She was the last Prophetess.” I hated how weak my voice sounded.

  Eliza spoke up again, but before she started, I wanted to choke her just for the look on her face. “She said it was necessary. She said she had lived a full life, and there was no longer any use for her with our race on the cusp of a new era. I asked her questions—begged her to tell me more and to allow us to tell you and your mother, but she refused. She made me swear. She kept saying that I wasn’t asking the right questions.”

  A swear to a Prophetess wasn’t just a promise made as by child with fingers crossed. The only other more sacred promise was one made to the Almighty.

  And my grandmother saying that Eliza wasn’t asking the right questions was spot on—that was what she did when she thought we didn’t need to, or wouldn’t want to hear, her answer.

  “You’re a coward—all of you are. Who cares if she told you not to tell us? You didn’t even believe she was special—that she was even relevant anymore. When in the hell did you start doing what she said? You had to choose that moment to start respecting her?”

  Regina turned around in her chair, but I had no sympathy for the tears she tried so hard to hide. No. She was the enemy. She wasn’t crying at all. She was probably hiding a shit-eating grin.

  “Colby, it isn’t that easy. Rebekkah wasn’t the only Prophetess in the time when we banished them. She was one of about six, but the other five were not stable. Their times were up, and they were scaring the Lucent around them. People were panicking. We had no leader. The Eidolon was less than useless. We took a stand. The only course in getting power is to stand up and speak the loudest. It just so happens that Regina has the biggest mouth of them all.”

  Regina turned back around and rolled her eyes. “Look, Colby. We assumed you would be here to take us down—or out, whatever the case may be. We are not the leaders anymore. Sanctum or Eidolon, those are the two choices.”

  I took no care in wiping away my tears and addressed them the best I could.

  “We don’t want a leader. We just want to be free. There’s one thing no one is counting on. Sanctum doesn’t know that. He thinks we are still scared of you. That you are still trying to keep us under your thumb and succeeding at it. He is our enemy. And either he is your friend or your enemy, but from what he’s done to you, I’m assuming he’s not your favorite person anymore.”

  Regina looked bored. “What can we do? He has all but stripped us of our powers.”

  I smiled, but only with one side of my mouth, which I knew made me look like the Joker. I was sure of it.

  “What do you mean ‘all but stripped us’? Can you still flash?” I’d assumed they couldn’t because if they could, they certainly would’ve gotten themselves out of this mess. At lea
st they could’ve gone to their homes instead of hanging out in depression central.

  “We can. It’s all we have. He burned our homes. My mate is missing. Eliza’s children are missing. We are paying for our crimes, Colby. Don’t doubt that for a second.”

  No one deserved those things more, but I reserved my empathy for another time.

  I pushed aside all the things I hated about these women. I hated how they had used falsified information to keep me, and the rest of us, terrified. I hated how they had used what I now knew was fraudulent videos of Sevella to torture me. I didn’t care what their motivation was or how much they thought it was the right thing to do—I could work with them, but I’d always see them as the enemy.

  My smile faltered, but my happiness remained. “When Xoana received her gift, it was all she had. She was a poor girl with no prospects of ever traveling or even seeing beyond the fields. She was a female with the gift—the blessing. And now we are all just going to cower because some guy thinks he can run the show? Bullshit. What kind of Lucent females are we? Tell me, Regina, what kind of female are you?

  I could see my words sinking in and growing thorns of revenge and strength in them. That was what we needed—for the past transgressions and what could’ve been. It was time for us to take our race back.

  Eliza stood and pushed away the table, letting it flip over onto the ground. “Tell us what to do and we will do it. I’ve had enough.”

  Maybe that was what her silence was all about. She was building a little rebellion inside. I might just end up liking her after all.

  “Well, there’s a ton of us and only one of him. I need to know where he is, and I need to know where that wench Pema is. We have to find Pema. She is the key to stopping Sanctum.”

  Regina got up but didn’t look as fired up as the others. “Why Pema?”

  I took a little pride in actually knowing information before them. “Because she’s in cahoots with the devil himself.”

  Eliza swayed while still sitting and Regina turned a vulgar color of green. They were as put off about Pema being Sanctum’s accomplice as I was.

  Omar’s tent palace was big—but not big enough to have the Synod in there with us. Not nearly big enough.

  “What are they doing here? You were supposed to get them on our side, but that didn’t include bringing them here.”

  They looked more out of place in this secret place than Collin did, which was a task in itself.

  Colby smiled, but it didn’t work on me. Okay, it totally worked on me. “They are on our team, but we all need to be on the same page. And right now, I have no idea what page we are on. It’s like building a defense team and losing my playbook. I’m stumped. I just know that the devil and his demon spawn have to be stopped, and they are pissing me off in general. You need to be free to do your job, and Pema is stupid. Plus, I can’t use them if he’s killed them, so they needed protection too. Can you imagine the look on Sanctum’s face when he realizes he can’t pinpoint the Synod either?”

  Omar stepped forward. He was still treating me like royalty, so it took him three times as long to say anything to me.

  He looked at the Synod, but he didn’t grin until his face was hidden from their view. “There must be some rules.”

  Colby flopped onto the ground next to me and leaned on my shoulder. “Rules suck. Out with them. I am the worst at following rules but for you, I’ll try.”

  “Oh, um, most of these are for Theo. You must not take Sanctum back to the Fray. That was your first mistake. He could’ve taken that opportunity to grab onto you and flash into Paraiso. From there, he could attempt to take over the Almighty’s army. That’s the easy part.”

  Colby rushed him with her hand in the air, and he got the point.

  “Stopping Sanctum won’t be easy. You both grow weaker by the second, which is why you can’t feel him anymore. You are hidden from him by the protection of the Clandestine—our magic hides this place from all. But your refusal to do your duty is weakening you, and we have yet to find out what’s eating your mate.”

  Colby was losing steam as he spoke, but he managed a little smartass comment. “Maybe it’s the same thing that was eating Gilbert Grape.”

  I ignored her sarcasm, no matter how on point it was. I thought Omar was going to make rules about the Synod being here.

  “I can’t go back to the Fray until we find out what’s happening with Colby. I won’t go until then.” I conjured as much resolve in my voice as I could.

  Omar dismissed it. “She will be well taken care of. The less frequently you go, the more souls accumulate there.”

  Just the mention of the Fray jabbed the knife of guilt deeper into my chest. It was all I could think about lately with any kind of clarity. “It’s my job to take care of her.”

  He cleared his throat and did some kind of bow thing. “It’s your job to take care of your responsibility. But you are no use to her or us in your state. You may be able to quell the voices for a while, but even in the short time you’ve been here, I can see the weight bearing down on you.”

  I looked down on Colby, who had fallen asleep leaning against me. There wasn’t an eye in the place that wasn’t on her. She seemed to be shrinking before us.

  “Ari,” I called, and she came to sit down next to me. “If something happens to her, I will come after you first. And then I will have to throw down with your mate because I maimed you, and then all hell will break loose. So the best thing to do is not to let anything happen to her. Are we clear?” She didn’t answer immediately, so I pressed. “Ari, please. Eu estou com medo.”

  “Dude, you can’t pull that shit with me. It doesn’t count if I don’t know what you’re saying.” She looked at Collin and then said, “It doesn’t matter. I would never let anything happen to Colby. You go and handle your shit and get back here. Don’t make me be the one to tell her that her lover boy is never coming home. Do we have a deal?”

  We fist-bumped. “We have a deal. I’ll even officiate your sealing when I get back.”

  She beamed and her cheeks reddened. “Now we’re talking. You get more flies with Kool-Aid than with pickles.”

  I laughed at her. Sometimes she said things like that just to get a rise out of me. “I’m leaving her while she sleeps again, aren’t I?”

  She nodded but switched places with me, allowing Colby to lean on her. I ignored the part of me that hated seeing her lean on anyone else. Now was not the time for ego. The time for ego was never.

  Ari whispered, “Yep. Go before she wakes up. We will be here when you get back—maybe.”

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I said and walked from the tent.

  “Boring,” Ari called back, and then I was gone.

  ***

  I was back in the milky tide of the Fray. The weightlessness, along with the way the lack of air made my lungs seem like sponges, absorbing any drop of oxygen they could get, felt like drowning.

  I listened, rolled in the silence, and then panicked.

  But this time, there were no voices calling me—no hands grabbing at my clothes—no demands or pleas—no images of families lost and never found.

  If Alice was a Lucent and she fell into the Fray, she wouldn’t be any more confused than I was now.

  And then the Almighty, with a beam of light, brighter and more illuminating than anything I’d ever seen, reached down, piercing the veil between Paraiso and the sea I was in, and appeared next to me.

  “Theodore, I’ve been waiting for you.”

  There are some things I would never talk about to Theo.

  One was how, in the beginning, I’d believed him, but I didn’t think he’d ever put his task before his personal life.

  I was wrong about that.

  The other was how much Colby suffered when he was gone to the Fray. She might tell him from her perspective, but watching her face when she knew he was gone was like watching a child lose their only friend.

  “How long?” Colby woke not five
minutes after he’d flashed away. She knew immediately what was going on. His departure may have been stealthy, but it was noticed by all.

  “Just a few minutes,” I whispered, scared that even the boom of my voice might shatter her.

  “Maybe that’s why I have a complex about sleeping. He always waits until I’m asleep before vanishing. And he wonders why I wake up so often. Asshole Eidolon. That’s what I’m going to start calling him.”

  The collective gasp could have been heard for miles away if this place wasn’t protected.

  She recoiled. “I’m just kidding. I would never call him that. I’m just pissed, tired, and so hungry I think my stomach has started eating my intestines.”

  Malynn was brewing something—had been since we got back to the tent. She was also saying some kind of prayer or chant over the steam coming from the concoction.

  She could be making magic, voodoo, or whatever as long as it made Colby better.

  “It’s almost done,” Malynn called out as though she could hear my thoughts.

  “Colby, when did this start—exactly?”

  Her exhausted state did nothing to help her gather her thoughts.

  “I think it was right after the wedding. The next day, he flashed into the Fray. I could still eat, but there was a weird feeling afterward. It has just progressed since then. Sometimes, I just smell food and it sickens me.”

  I looked straight at Ari and knew we were thinking the same thing. It seemed nearly impossible, of course, for her to become nauseated so soon afterward, but it was the simplest and most obvious conclusion.

  “Colby, are we sure this isn’t something physical? Like a symptom of something that could happen after you and your mate…?”

  She rolled her eyes before jokingly grabbing Ari by the collar of her T-shirt. “Translate for the Viking. He’s making no damned sense, and he’s crawling all over the last nerve I’ve got.”