Jack of Hart- Wild Card

by Violeta Bagia

  ‘I’ve never heard of this.’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t have, this, like other Divine Sensitive lore, is hidden in our caves, in the deepest deserts of your world, hidden by shields only the worthy can cross.’

  ‘Why would that be hidden from us?’

  ‘Because of the raw power The Source is, it’s impossible to harness and control, only us, only those directly bonded to the stars can use it.’

  We paused. A kind of normal silence filled the space and I inched closer. ‘Can I ask you something?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘This whole, power sharing thing. Did that happen with me and Dalca?’

  Aaryon looked unsure of the right way to answer me, but then he finally did.

  ‘Yes. When he held you captive and created that final push of evolution for you, it bonded you.’

  ‘More than the Connection.’ I mused.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So, what does the Source mean for me?’

  ‘The Source, as I’ve mentioned, can be utilized for good and evil, depending on who controls it.’

  ‘Dalca.’ My mouth dried up. ‘He controls is.’

  ‘That is why he has beaten you at every turn. More recently, it was used to hide you from me. It is why I couldn’t do anything to help you, I couldn’t see you, but Troy could.’

  ‘The Sensitive I always sensed around…’

  ‘Yes.’

  Oh God, I’d thought after Alex appeared at my door that night that it had been him, but it was Troy, somehow watching, protecting me.

  ‘But if he controls it and we’re bonded…’

  Aaryon smirked, ‘Now you’re thinking like the Divine.’

  Oh my God, of course, it all made sense.

  ‘Now, the important part about the Source is, you are the only person who can take the control back from him, but if you link up with him, like he explained—’

  ‘Game over.’

  ‘Yes. In your current state. Until you become strong enough to control him when you are linked up, you will lose.’

  I felt sick.

  ‘You’ve been fighting with limited power on Earth, you haven’t had your full ability since meeting Illarion and killing Troy.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Your connection with Illarion has gifted him with some of your power, and you know about Troy.’

  This was all too much.

  ‘Have other Divines done this, before me?’

  ‘Some yes, it depends; love rules you at your core, for some it has been power, it manifests differently in each Divine.’

  ‘So, I subconsciously did this for a reason?’

  ‘I’m sure of it, we just don’t know what your reason was yet.’

  ‘Then I guess we better start working it out.’

  Aaryon smiled and held his hand out to me. I sucked in a deep breath, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.

  ‘Now, shall we try this again?’ A smile met me.

  ‘Yes.’

  Chapter Forty

  Aurel

  Illarion sped away and I stood where his car had been just seconds ago.

  Christ. I ran my hand through my hair and turned back to the building. Had I been wrong? A part of me wanted to believe that somehow it was Dalca, that he made me do the things I had, it wasn’t impossible, was it?

  He’d done things like this before through Ace…but I knew that was a lie.

  This was on me.

  I made those choices and I had to live with the consequences.

  Bitter, consuming anger coated my insides.

  It didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel like this was over. It didn’t feel like I had killed my friend.

  As I rounded the corner and spotted Elena, she stormed up to me, catching me by complete surprise and slapped me.

  I averted my gaze and inhaled sharply, letting the sting settle.

  Raymond walked over, gently pulling her away from me setting her down in a plastic chair a few feet.

  Alex stood back. His eyes cast down, Peyton comforting him while Matt didn’t let his stare falter. The lump in my throat doubled and I looked back at Elena.

  I bit down hard, forcing the wetness in my eyes to fade. I let out a long breath and came face to face with Josh. I’d never seen Josh angry, but the rage that filled him now was consuming him and there was so much pain in his eyes.

  ‘I would strongly suggest that you leave right now, Arcos.’ He said quietly.

  I glanced across at Elena, but her eyes were tightly shut as she sobbed into her hands. She’d lost everyone. I let out a low breath and looked over at Ace.

  She was so still; nothing could have ever prepared me for seeing her like that. She looked dead. She didn’t look peaceful, or asleep. She just looked dead.

  I looked over at Alex, I wanted to say something, apologize, explain. But the more I watched him break, the more I realized there was nothing I could say. Instead, I gave Ace one last look and I left.

  ***

  A deep sadness settled over me as I pulled up to the gate, I keyed in my code and drove down toward my house. I’d gone over this conversation a dozen times and it never got easier.

  I parked the car and sat in silence, collecting my thoughts. More than ten minutes had passed when I looked up and saw Anna walking over to me. Her eyes narrowed as a small, curious smile found its way to her lips.

  She was happy here, much happier than at the safehouse and at least I could offer her that. Because everything else was a lie, I was a fraud and I’d hurt people more than I could ever make amends for.

  She pulled open the door and the smile disappeared as soon as she caught my eyes. ‘What’s going on?’

  I pulled her hand into mine and pressed a kiss to it.

  ‘Honey?’ She squeezed my hand. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘You know I love you, right?’

  ‘Of course I know. Why?’

  When I failed to reply, she knelt beside me, resting one hand on my knee and the other on the door.

  ‘Aurel, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.’

  I couldn’t stop the angry tears that began to fall.

  ‘Aurel?’

  I closed my eyes against her touch and let out soul consuming sob. She quickly got up and wrapped her arms around me.

  ‘Please talk to me, what’s going on?’

  When I finally managed to open my eyes and blink through the haze, I found her bright eyes and broke.

  ‘Ace…’

  She cupped my cheek. ‘What about Ace?’

  ‘She died.’

  Her breath caught, and she quickly pressed her hand to her lips, pulling back.

  I swallowed hard and got out of the car.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I was wrong.’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I was wrong about everything.’

  ‘Oh no.’ Her eyes welled up and she didn’t hide the tears.

  I pulled back and the full force of everything I’d done, come crashing into me wave after wave, memory after memory. Everything I’d been so wrong about, hit me without any signs of slowing down.

  Anna wrapped her arms around me again, burying her head against my chest.

  I couldn’t let my mind wander to Illarion, I couldn’t even imagine what he had been going through, what I’d put him through.

  I’d abandoned my best friends.

  There were no words to ever make that better, no apology that could ever suffice.

  Illarion’s pain ripped through me as Anna ran her hands, soothingly across my back and held me up.

  My body shook with each violent sob that I’d allowed to consume me.

  Anna’s hands landed on my face and she brought my eyes to hers. Red rings surrounded her irises.

  ‘It’s my fault.’ I breathed, letting the pain in.

  She shook her head, holding onto me tightly. ‘No, honey, don’t do this to yourself. This isn’t your fault…’

  ‘It is.’

  �
�Aurel.’

  ‘I turned my back on them. Christ. Illarion called me because he trusted me, and I turned my back on them. I might as well have killed her myself.’

  She flinched.

  ‘Where is Illarion?’

  ‘He’s gone.’ I whispered. ‘He shut off.’

  In our world, having the ability to shut off was rare. Only the strongest, most experienced Sensitives could do it. It meant that emotions took a back seat and only logic and reasoning ruled. It was useful when you needed to survive through a tough mission, or something you couldn’t deal with.

  And this…this was definitely something we never wanted to feel or deal with.

  But I couldn’t help the fear I felt for him, Illarion was heading down a dark and dangerous path and I knew where it would take him—not that he’d care. Life without Ace was an impossibility for him. They weren’t just in love. There was a connection that no one in the known world had. Her soul lived for his and his soul lived for hers. Without each other, they would never be complete. Life would always feel empty and they’d always feel alone, and I was responsible for it.

  ‘Please don’t do this to yourself.’ Anna breathed against my ear. ‘Please, Ace wouldn’t have wanted that.’

  I Shook my head and laughed.

  ‘Ace wanted me to be there for her. And I turned my back on her. That is on me.’

  Anna’s eyes closed briefly and then she looked up again, bringing her hand to my cheek.

  I couldn’t look at her, not knowing how much pain I’d caused, not only was it on me that Ace was dead, it was on me that Illarion had shut off, it was on me that Ace had hurt Anna when she needed my help, when Illarion begged me to believe. I sucked in a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut pressing my forehead to hers.

  Anna quietly sobbed in my arms and when she pulled back, I wiped the tears from her cheeks.

  ‘Will they hold a funeral here?’ She breathed, trying to keep her voice even. ‘I know she was from Canada…and her parents are there…’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I’ll make some calls, I’ll find out.’

  ‘Elena won’t want me there.’

  ‘I’m sure that isn’t true.’

  ‘You didn’t see her today, An. She’s lost everyone. She blames me, so does everyone else there.’

  She remained quiet, but she saw it. She knew the truth as well as I did. When Illarion and Ace first came to visit, she wanted to believe what Ace was saying, she gave them more than I did.

  I scratched the back of my neck and let out a low breath.

  ‘Let me call them, you need to be there.’ She said again.

  I nodded and quickly pressed a kiss to her forehead before I turned away and walked up toward my house.

  The only thing I knew now was that I needed to find Illarion. I was going to do everything in my power, to make things right.

  If I could save him, it was a start. I had to try.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Ace

  Aheavy, almost suffocating blackness started to surround me. I gripped the edge of the concrete bench, desperately willing myself to stay grounded and not pass out.

  Aaryon was teaching me how to hold myself down, how to force my presence to stay in the realm I was trying to stay grounded to. But whatever I was doing here, wasn’t cutting it, I couldn’t do it.

  ‘We should stop, she’s hurt.’ I heard Troy’s voice somewhere between the blood rushing in my head and Aaryon’s power charging up.

  ‘I can do it.’ I ground out.

  ‘She’s can’t, look at her.’

  I shot him a look at focused my eyes on Aaryon, ‘I can.’

  If I couldn’t hold on now, then I couldn’t do a damned thing to hold my own against Dalca when he found me. Aaryon was keeping me away from him and safe, but we couldn’t stay here forever. We’d both felt the pull against the fabric of this time whenever Dalca tried to break through.

  He found out what we were doing a lot quicker than I’d anticipated and now, we had to work quicker and smarter.

  ‘On your feet.’ Aaryon shouted, or as close to shouting as possible for Aaryon.

  Troy stepped into the training field, but I forced a tiny burst of power to my hand and thrust it his way, he threw his arms up in front of him and absorbed the shot.

  ‘Stay out of this.’ I muttered, a trickle of blood pooling at the corner of my lip. ‘This is my fight.’

  ‘Fine.’ He threw his hands up and moved back. ‘You got it.’

  As another bout of forceful energy came toward me, courtesy of Aaryon, I held out my hand, grounding my essence as Aaryon’s threatened to consume me.

  I bit down hard, every ounce of energy was getting pulled and pushed, torn and woven back together, everything inside me coursed and rushed, and Aaryon pushed harder.

  The sonic force field around us intensified as his pulsed against mine, fighting, trying to overpower me. But I was growing stronger. Aaryon’s eyes flared, burning bright with each push of my power and with each pulse, it brought me down, my left knee crashing into the pavement where it started to crack under the pressure.

  As he pushed harder, I fought even more and the ground under my knee sent ripples of stones and dirt escaping outward as the earth trembled and bucked.

  Troy was shouting something off in the distance and through all the noise, I could make out a few words, mostly they were of encouragement, some were of shock and awe.

  As Aaryon pushed even more into the blast, I screamed and got up, one foot and then the other, holding out both hands, forcing the power back against him.

  I stepped forward, sick of being helpless, sick of feeling weak. I moved, gritting my teeth with each painful step. It was like pushing a mountain, my muscles were protesting but I kept going.

  Aaryon’s eyes grew wide with astonishment, they burned bright as I pushed the power from within forcing it forward through both hands.

  Somehow, I was learning to merge the forces inside me, but slowly, as Aaryon moved toward me with his hands outstretched and his eyes flaring white, I felt them join.

  The merge was overwhelming. A. breath broke free, somewhere between a gasp and a gargled cry. A power so fierce I’d could have never prepared myself for, ripped through me. A violent shudder began to build inside, staring from my heart, first it was like ice, familiar and comfortable and then it began to heat.

  The burn was intolerable, my insides felt like liquid fire had replaced my blood and as it formed, spreading from my heart outward, Aaryon smiled, he held out his arms, releasing a full bout of power—he’d stopped holding back.

  Just as he released his sonic pulse, I released mine.

  The crash echoed around us like a jet taking off, throwing Aaryon backwards and into the air.

  Off to my side, I saw Troy brace himself, his hands went up in front of his face and then he squared off. The blast hit him, like it did everything around us, but he was holding fast.

  A breathless scream filled the air, and I realized it was mine as the power simmered down and sent me crashing to my knees.

  Tears slipped out from the corners of my eyes.

  ‘You’re far more powerful than we anticipated, Acacia.’

  Aaryon’s voice filled my head.

  I grit my teeth and forced my face up to him.

  ‘I know you hate hearing that.’ He said, moving toward me in slow, graceful steps. ‘But it’s the truth.’

  ‘It’s not the words that bother me, it’s what it means.’

  ‘It means you’re ready to face him.’

  ‘We thought I was ready then and I didn’t do shit.’

  Aaryon remained silent as I pushed up to my feet again.

  ‘You did.’ Aaryon said. ‘You slowed him down, if you hadn’t done what you did, he would have come back quicker than this.’

  ‘And now I’m dead. For real.’

  ‘I will help you.’

  ‘I’m almost worried that you won’t be able to this t
ime.’

  ‘Why do you think that?’

  I let out a sigh. ‘Because I’ve exhausted all my second chance cards.’

  ‘Do you really think that?’

  I wasn’t used to having two sided conversations with him, it kind of caught me off guard. I looked across at him, smoothing my hair behind my ear.

  ‘How can I not?’

  ‘Do you think I’m tricking you, to work hard for us, and then I’ll just dispose of you?’

  ‘I don’t know what I think.’ I said truthfully.

  ‘I think you need rest.’ Troy added coming to stand beside us.

  Aaryon stayed quiet. Digesting my words. I could almost hear the cogs turning in his head.

  ‘I’ve been burned by people I’ve trusted.’ I said instead.

  My mind snapped to Aurel, without even meaning for it to and then I felt even worse. Did he even know in the end? After it all that I wasn’t crazy?

  ‘He knows.’ Troy said quietly. ‘He saw.’

  ‘That’s something.’ I mused, all while Aaryon remained silent. His eyes returned to the oddly comforting soft hue of grey.

  ‘What happened with you and Dalca, it wasn’t our intention.’ He said finally.

  ‘Do you know what he did to me?’ I hated how my voice shook. ‘Because I don’t think anyone can be prepared for something like that.’

  ‘I do.’

  Both he and Troy sunk back, which should have bothered me, yet it barely made me think twice anymore.

  Aaryon stepped forward, bringing a cool hand to my cheek.

  An odd numbness settled over me.

  ‘You hid it from Illarion.’

  ‘Those are things he should never know.’

  ‘Are you afraid he’ll not love you the same way?’

  ‘No.’ I breathed with a sad smile. ‘He’ll never stop loving me. He’s not like that.’

  ‘Then what is it you’re afraid of?’

  Tears coated my eyes and I turned away before I let him see them fall. Troy didn’t move though, he’d seen it all, he was there when Illarion brought me back. I suppose, in a way, I was glad he was here and knew all the things I didn’t want to talk about anymore.