The Inner Self: The Prophecy

by Raqurra Ishmar

  “Why do you care?” Sheya asks

  “I don’t know. Probably because when we first met it seemed like he was into me? And now it seems like he can barely tolerate me.”

  “So? You have two men that would love to do more than ‘tolerate’ you. So what’s the problem?”

  “The problem is that I’m getting greedy.”

  “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

  I direct Zavid as best as I can to the man’s house. The gates are still closed when we get there, but it took nothing for me to open it again. As we pull up to the house, my heart picks up speed with the vibe I’m getting from there. It’s not lust, but it’s something heavier than that.

  “Whatever it is, just wake them up so we can go.”

  “I’ll be right back,” I say to the boys. I hop out before I can hear the complaint coming from Zavid’s mouth. This shouldn’t take long. Entering the house, it’s almost too dark for me to see anything. I blindly feel along the wall until my hand brush across the light switch. I take a deep breath, trying to prepare myself to see my mom laid out on the floor. Flipping the switch, I try my hardest not to start sobbing again.

  Mom and her lover are in the exact spots I left them, and without knowing what I really did to them, they probably would’ve stayed in this spot. My hands are shaking by the time I walk over to them. Deciding that I would rather test my skills on the man, instead of my mom, I focus my intent on him.

  “Awake,” I say, feeling like a fucking idiot as seconds tick by and nothing happens. “Awake!” I say louder, thinking that maybe I didn’t put enough bass in my voice the first time, which is why it didn’t work.

  “Oh for the love of… let me in,” Sheya demands. I drop my shields and we bond almost instantly.

  “Awake,” we say to the man, and his eyes start to flutter behind his eyelids. We run over to Mom and command the same thing of her. As her eyes begin to flutter, we brush a few stray curls away from her face. We stand up and immediately flee from the house. As we get to the doorway, we drop the bond before the guys can see our eyes.

  “Ren?” my mother calls out. I turn around and see her sitting up on the floor, confusion clouding her eyes. I walk backwards, trying to escape the pain that’s splintering my heart. Before she can convince me to stay, I turn around and run out of the house. “Ren, baby, come back!” she calls out, desperation lacing each word that escapes her mouth.

  With tears pouring down my face, I fling myself in the backseat of the truck. “Go go go go!” Zavid doesn’t ask any questions. He throws the truck in reverse and whips it out of the driveway like a pro. By the time we’re straightened up and shooting forward, the front door flies open to reveal my distraught mother.

  “Renee!” she screams out. I bury my face in my hands, trying to stifle my sobs, knowing that I have an audience. The boys ask no questions of me either, because they don’t care or because they can see that I clearly don’t want to talk about it. I startle as I feel something press against the outside of my thigh. I look down to see Titus’ huge hand, resting palm side up. I look questioningly at the man, but he stares straight ahead like the headrest is the most fascinating thing in the world. If it wasn’t for the visible clenching of his jaw, I would think that he was completely impervious to my sobbing.

  I hesitantly reach down and interlace my fingers with his. He closes his hand, gently squeezing my fingers with his. I stare intently at his face, and aside from looking at me from the corner of his eye, he doesn’t move.

  I take several unsteady breaths, calming myself down with each one. “So,” I finally manage to get out. I wish they would’ve played some music or something while I had my mental break down. “How long will it take for us to get there?”

  “We are almost to the portal now,” Zavid answers.

  I nod my head, as if I completely buy this. By “portal” he has to mean the airport, because we’ve been driving towards Tampa this entire time. Though that wouldn’t make too much sense, seeing as we’ll never make it there in the next fifteen minutes.

  “Ok, cool. Also, can we make it back by Sunday? I think a week of school is all I’m willing to miss.”

  “Of course,” Zavid easily says, but the pointed look Caylen gives him makes me think that he’s lying.

  “I’m serious,” I say. “If you can’t have me home by Sunday, we can just turn this truck around.”

  “We will have you home by Sunday, Renee, I promise,” he responds.

  “I hope he doesn’t think his promise means something,” Sheya says.

  “Exactly. It’s not like we trust him or anything.”

  “I will memorize what they do once we get to this ‘portal’. No matter what, I will be able to get us back.”

  “How sure are you about that?” I ask.

  “Uh, about as sure as I was when I tried to make Titus my slave?”

  “Ah, so not that sure. Great.”

  A slight squeeze from Titus has me looking up at him. His eyes are narrowed and he opens and closes his mouth like he has something to say. After a few moments of looking like a fish out of water, he clenches his jaw tight and face forward again.

  Erm, ok?

  “Are you sure you want to do this? It’s starting to feel a little weird.”

  “I’m not entirely sure. Is it just me or did the car get filled with tension after I told them I want to be back by Sunday?”

  “You think I should force the truth out of them?”

  “The only one that works on is Titus, and I don’t know how you’ll be able to do that with Caylen and Zavid in the car.”

  “At the first sign of something being off, more off than it is right now, you need to let me loose.”

  “Roger that!”

  “We’re here,” Zavid says. Now, hear me out. Why is he the one talking to me the most, and Caylen isn’t? Titus has never been Chatty Cathy, but even he talked to me more than this.

  I peer out of the window and I’m met with nothing. Just a large field without a single thing in it, not even a tree. Where the hell are we? I probably should have paid more attention than I did on our way here. All three of the guys get out the car. Titus gives my hand one last squeeze before letting it go, and I can’t explain the feeling of bereft that I’m instantly met with.

  “Show time,” I say.

  “This is the perfect place to murder someone. No one around for miles and it’s midnight. The only person who knows you’re gone thinks you’re going to a mystical new realm, so while they lock her up, they’ll be searching everywhere for you. It’s genius, actually.”

  I was in the middle of getting out when Sheya painted that macabre picture in my mind, and I stop with half of my body still inside and my left leg on the ground. Thankfully, I’m tall, otherwise I’d have fallen out.

  “Do you really think that’s helpful right now?” I ask them.

  “Never claimed to be helpful,”

  “Ren? Everything alright?” Caylen asks, walking over to me in an all black ensemble; probably so he can blend in with the dark as he murders me. He reaches out, and I flinch a little, hating myself for allowing Sheya to scare me so badly. Hurt flashes across his face as he takes a step back, hand up in a gesture of surrender. “Hey? Everything’s ok,” he says, talking to me as if I’m a skittish animal ready to run away or attack. Which I probably am.

  “Uh yeah,” I laugh humorlessly. I climb the remainder of the way out of the truck and close the door. Now that the inside light is no longer on, the entire landscape becomes bathed in shadows. “I guess I’m afraid of the dark or something.”

  That adorable boyish smirk is back as he hesitantly reaches out and grabs my hand. “No worries, I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.” With that promise, his eyes grow serious and he flicks a quick glance over his shoulder before quickly brushing his lips against mine. The kiss was so light and quick, I feel like I imagined it.

  “Caylen,” Zavid barks. “It’s time.”

&nb
sp; “Time to go home, Pretty Girl.” Ew, when did pet names start to give me butterflies?!

  Caylen steps away from me, reaching into the bed of the truck to fetch my bag. I notice that I’m the only one who packed something, but I remember that they live there, so why would they need to bring anything with them?

  Walking away from the truck, I can’t help but look around to see where this “portal” is supposed to be. Right now, the only thing I see are three surly men standing around an open space. You’d expect them to be happier than they are now. Not only are they going home, but they’re going home to a better future once my family pays them.

  Titus turns towards me, holding his hand out to me as a clear invitation. It’s almost embarrassing how quickly I scuttle over to him, eagerly lacing my fingers with his again.

  “This will be a little uncomfortable for you,” he murmurs.

  “Define ‘uncomfortable’,” I say.

  “You may throw up, lose consciousness or get a migraine.”

  “How do you know?” I ask. His and my definition of “a little uncomfortable” is extremely different.

  “Because we all had to deal with it.”

  “So, who passed out?” I ask, leaning around him to give Caylen the best shit-eating grin I could muster. He catches my eye, feigning being hurt before laughing and pointing at Zavid. I gape at the silent giant, trying to imagine him dropping like a sack of bricks. Caylen pretends to swoon like a damsel in distress and I can’t help but crack up at his theatrics.

  Zavid whips his head over to me, eyes narrowing in anger before his face smooths out into a neutral look. Before I can continue with making fun of him, the energy around us starts to rise. The hair on my arms lift up and my heart rate picks up in speed.

  “Oh shit, here it goes,” Sheya exclaims.

  The boys converge closer to each other, shoulders lightly brushing together. They begin to chant in a language that I don’t know, and the energy begins to crackle even more around us.

  “This is some charmed shit, right here,” Sheya states.

  “Shhh, you’re supposed to be paying attention!”

  “Yeah, I can do both. Shocker.”

  The boys speech increases in tempo and I feel as if my heart is trying to beat in time with their words. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but sure enough, there is a little light forming right in front of us. As their voices get louder and their speech gets faster, the light grows in size. After several minutes of the most bizarre shit of my life, there it was, manifesting in front of us, was a glow of light big enough for Zavid to walk into without having to duck or anything. We can’t see anything beyond the golden glow, but my soul rejoices at the feel of the energy coming from it.

  So the portal is real.

  Relvaria is real.

  Fucking hell.

  I cast a frantic glance over to Titus, noting how light his grey eyes are in the glow. He smiles down at me, his face as serene as I’ve ever seen it. Caylen leans forward, his azure eyes look like the sky at first light, and I can’t seem to catch my breath. Both men, so incredibly different, are so beautiful in their own ways.

  Zavid walks into the portal without a word or a backwards glance. Well fuck him, too. Caylen moves forward next, but he pauses to reach back for my hand. I happily slip my free hand into his, and I allow him to pull me with him. I tug Titus along with us, and together, we all step into Relvaria.

  “No turning back now,” is the last thing I hear before my world goes black.

  17

  Renee

  The first thing I’m aware of as I come to is the bitter cold seeping into my body. My teeth are chattering so hard, I’m sure I’ll chip one of them if I keep on like this.

  “Ren, babe, you have to wake up,” Caylen whispers in my ear. I snuggle into his chest, but I stop as my other senses catch up. That was definitely Caylen’s voice, but the chest I’m snuggled into is not his. The smell is all off. As I bury my head deeper into Titus’ embrace, I let the combatting smell of peppermint and his own masculine smell comfort me.

  “That’s called ‘musk’,” Sheya helpfully supplies.

  “I don’t care what it’s called, I love it.”

  “Wh-wh-why is it so cold?” I ask between shutters. Titus tightens his hold on me, curling me into his arms as if I wasn’t as tall as I was.

  “We don’t know what went wrong,” Caylen answers. I open my eyes to see him leaning over Titus shoulder so that he can get a good look at me. His blue eyes are troubled, but he gives me a small smile anyway. Probably more for his benefit than for mine, because I can clearly see how fake it is. I look up to try and catch Titus’ gaze, but he stares straight ahead, jaw working in over time with how much he’s clenching his teeth. He’s going to mess around and need a filling with all of the damage he’s probably doing to them.

  We’re surrounded by trees, only they’re not like anything I’ve ever seen. Despite the snow and the fact that they should all be dead in this winter wonderland, they also look weird. Almost as if an oak and willow tree had a child and created this. Their leaves are the brightest green, it’s almost like each leaf is being illuminated from within. The aroma that wafts from them smells like the sweetest perfume, with a hint of pine? So it’s an oak-pine-willow tree? It’s so bright here, why the hell is it so bright?

  “Stop trying to make sense of it, you’re hurting yourself with all of that thinking.”

  “Why did something have to go wrong?” I ask, slowly starting to panic and easily ignoring Sheya. I glance down at my body, making sure that I have all of my limbs and parts. Wiggling my toes in my sneakers, I exhale a shaky breath as I finish my assessment. Ok then, there’s nothing wrong with me, so there must be something wrong with where we are. “Are we not in Relvaria?” I ask the only logical question I could think of.

  “We’re here,” Zavid answers. I try to turn to see him, but Titus’ has me pressed so tightly against his chest, I only manage to turn my head to the right. I’m debating on whether or not I should ask him to put me down, or snuggle even more against his warm chest, when Zavid takes the choice out of my hands. “Titus, put her down. We have to figure out where we are and we need to find shelter.”

  Titus listens to his brother, but not before pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. I’m struggling with understanding him right now. One minute he refuses to meet my gaze, the next he’s protecting me from the cold and kissing me.

  “Maybe he’s confused, too?” I ask Sheya.

  “How the hell am I supposed to know?”

  “Forget I said anything,” I say, rolling my eyes at their antics.

  Once my feet touches the snow covered forest floor, I immediately begin to put on all of my sweaters that are tied around my waist. At first I thought I was being a little extra with forcing four hoodies around my waist, now I wish I would have been a little more extra and tried for ten, because even with all of the layers, the cold is still finding its way in. I tuck my arms under my armpits, trying to stave off the frostbite that’s going to inevitably happen.

  “Can’t you help me with the cold or something?” I ask.

  “Um, not too sure? Kind of dealing with my own shit right now.”

  “What the hell can you be dealing with that doesn’t involve me?!”

  “If you can’t feel it right now, that’s not my problem,” they snap.

  Oookay? So now Sheya’s feeling a little testy right now? Fine. When I die from hypothermia, they’ll be sorry that they didn’t help sooner.

  “You have your own abilities. I suggest you start trying to find them instead of using me.”

  “What the fuck is your problem?”

  They don’t respond back. Suits me. I don’t have the time to sit here and try to decipher what they have going on. I try to think of being warm, and nothing happened. Ok. Maybe wishful thinking isn’t considered an ability.

  “Let’s go,” Zavid barks. He stomps off through the trees, as if he knows exactly w
here we’re going. The grey v-neck t-shirt and black jeans aren’t really doing him any favors in this weather, but it’s definitely doing him favors in other ways.

  Ugh. Get a grip, Ren. He’s a dick and hasn’t been nice to you since that first day.

  “So wh-what ha-ha-happened?” I finally ask as I tromp behind Zavid. Caylen and Titus flank either side of me and I want to reach out and hold their hands again, but I also don’t want to take them from the warmth of my armpits. The fallen snow brushes against my shins with each step and my toes immediately start to freeze. My thin sneakers and even thinner socks were not made to traverse through a snowstorm.

  “We were supposed to land in Kor, but this is not it,” Caylen answers me. He and Titus seem impervious to the subzero temperatures, and I can’t help but feel jealous as my teeth decide to do the bump and grind against each other repetitively.

  “Wh-wh-wh-wh,” I stop talking, fearing I’ll bite off my tongue if I continue. “What is in Kor?” I force out.

  Caylen tosses an indecipherable look to Titus over my head before answer me. “Kor is where your family is. It’s also where we’re from.”

  I obviously have so many questions that I want to ask them, but I have to focus on taking one step after the other as my feet turn scarily numb. Snowflakes decorate my eyelashes and my lips are so dry, I’m afraid to crack a smile because it might just crack them. The tip of my nose feels frozen and I can’t help but sniffle every few seconds.

  After walking for miles and miles with only the bitter wind as sound, I start to question my sanity. We should have just gone back home to Florida and tried again another night. Now we’re battling the weather in this unknown tundra and I’m starting to get a little worried about my well-being. Even though the guys seem to be okay in the cold, I know that I won’t have much longer. My movements are getting sluggish and it’s getting harder for me to focus. The shivers that wrack my body has increased in ferocity, and it’s taking all that I have to remain upright.