Date: 2014-01-11 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Paranormal; Supernatural; Romance; Paranormal Romance
Description: Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ASIN B00HTCHQLI. When Glory’s life was taken, her reign was appropriated—her precious charge, given to her by the Creator himself, was removed. Even worse, the king, that at one time she swore she shared her soul with, was also taken, or at the very least, had done nothing to avenge her death. An eternity had passed thus far, and he’d yet to charge through the cathedral gates of The Reaper’s personal throne and beg for her return. That is, until the night Glory caught the encroaching scent of mint lingering in the veil of death that surrounded her.

Imperial

By

Jamie Magee

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to any real people or event is purely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 by Jamie Magee

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the express consent of the publisher and author, except where permitted by law.

Other Books by Jamie Magee

All series mingle at some point creating a “web of hearts and souls”

Insight (Book 1)

Embody (Book 2)

Image (Book 3)

Vital (Book 4)

Vindicate (Book 5)

Enflame (Book 6)

See (Book 1)

Witness (Book 2)

Synergy (Book 3)

Redefined (Book 4)

Rivulet (Book 1)

Where To Find Jamie Online:

http://authorjamiemagee.blogspot.com

Facebook

Twitter

“Anger Is A Gift”― Aristotle

For one of the kindest Leo’s I’ve ever met ...Sabrina Wells.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter One

Death; a journey we all must make, more than once, is just as riveting—if not more so—than life. The aftermath is, anyhow. The process, I admit, is by no means a pleasant stroll into the sunset. It’s as confusing as it is terrifying. Sadly, a vital decision must be made by your soul at this juncture. I’ve seen it so many times, I can almost call it every time—which way they will choose: to rise, fall, or sustain.

I’ve died twice. The first time, I never made it to the Veil. I was…well, I guess I was claimed. Claimed by someone who surely grew to regret that decision. The second time I chose death, I chose it to protect my closest friend, Mazing. I chose death to protect my line, too. Not to mention the human souls that will never know my name or my role in the grand scheme of things. But that is not really the point, now is it? The point is that the second go around, Sirius chose not to let me pass. I was rejected. No surprise there.

I wasn’t bitter. The Reaper had grown to be a wise advocate of Mazing and me. He welcomed our offer to guard The Fall, the one and only passage that led to the twin reality. The one point that every Escort was fighting to pass through. We all wanted to go home. To the other half of our life. We wanted the power in, around, and behind The Fall. It was the next frontier. Or, well, the old frontier that got wise and burned the bridge down. Now we are all stuck here. Fun. Not.

I always kept my gauge on the procession of death. When it was massive, there was not a doubt that somewhere in the mix of mayhem there would be an Escort or two. I was in the mood for a good hunt. It had been days since I was given a solid release of power. Days since I’d been fed properly.

The procession began when dusk reached the Veil. Those that did not pass into the calling light or felt they should plead to continue their path were granted permission to speak with the Reaper, to approach his throne and humbly state their reasoning—reasoning that rarely made sense when fear and confusion were seizing their soul, reasoning that had no meaning in the larger scheme of matters. More times than not, by the time they reached the Reaper's throne the people they left behind had either passed on or were a few feet behind them in line. They were all blind to each other in this state of existence.

Often the Reaper would offer a glance or a simple word that would convince the souls to move on. Yet, there were others that remained, stubbornly refusing his persuasion. Some lingered in the enormous cathedral that I call home. Others ventured into the Veil, seeking to find their own way home. More often than not, those were the ones that became haunts, or worse, nourishment for my kind: Escorts. But hey, we all make our own choices now, don’t we?

The throne the Reaper sat upon would change—as would his appearance—with each new soul that was brought to him. I asked why once. If the way I saw him was even real, he grinned and very politely told me that I was one of very few that knew his true form. The change was made for the comfort of the soul, to frame the beliefs their energy was emanating. When I thought about it, I realized it was a foolish question to have asked in the first place. The soul is in a constant state of manifestation. Sees what it wants, hears what it wants to, and feels what it wants to.

I was standing one story up and a few feet in front of the Reaper. From here I could not only watch him and his gracious decisions, but also keep a weathered eye on The Fall.

I leaned against the white marble column as I gazed out at the wonder of The Fall. It was just that, a fall of liquid, yet there was no beginning and no end. A solid wall of what looked like water but was pure energy, stretching in each direction as far as the eye could see.

Sirius, the majestic star, rested in the center of this wall, only a few thousand feet above the highest peak of the cathedral. At least that was what I was told. I see nothing when I look up.

All I see is the overgrown, dark, mystic forest that precedes The Fall. I’d stared at this forest for so long that I knew every branch on every tree. I knew how the wind teased them with a sway. How the moonlight caressed each branch.

I knew exactly when the soul of an Escort was lurking. I didn’t see one now, but I felt the air. I felt that drawing sensation. The energy moving to one source. It wouldn’t be long now.

The pungent odor of a pipe singed my nose, causing me to glance to my side.

“Cowboy,” I stated with a slight nod as I stood from my lean.

Cowboy had been in the cathedral for all of seven moon rises, yet I’d grown familiar with him. He was inquisitive in a simple kind of way.

“Glory,” he stated gruffly to acknowledge me.

“You remembered. The Veil is accepting you. Bravo,” I said in the same absentminded tone he offered me.

Chances are, if the souls remembered who they were and how they died they would become lifers. Not really a good thing, but I guess it was better than being a mad haunt.

The grant the Reaper offered those who were determined not to move on was only a transitory stay. A stay that had the underlying clause that the moment you were forgotten by your previous life, you moved on. It was a pretty cut and dry deal, one that most wanted anyway. If they were forgotten, that meant one of two things: either their family had passed on as well, or there was no one holding on to them anymore—both good reasons to move on to the next dance with life.

The only mishap with that stay was when parks, benches, or buildings were established for souls to be remembered by—great in the real world, not so awesome in the Veil if you took that deal. It put you way off track, real fast and for what could conceivably be a really long time. It’s best just to move on. Honestly, souls should never even see the Reaper. They should follow their guide and move on. Easier said than done, I suppose.

“Hard to forget your name, pretty lady,” Cowboy said as his aged sky blue eyes slanted at me and he tipped his overgrown tan cowboy hat. I was pretty sure I knew what century he died in, along with what dimension.

Time is funny. It loops. So at any moment, a soul from each century, each dimension would be in the procession. It was a glorious history lesson. Interesting the first time around. The thousandth, it became a bit of a bore.

I’d learned to alter my words with each soul I bothered to speak to. That act had given me a well-rounded range of slang words to use, to say the least.

The Cowboy’s eyes were trained on the procession below. Most of the souls in line tonight were soldiers. My guess, they were from the Twenty-First Century, far ahead of my cowboy friend’s time. It wasn’t odd to see soldiers before the Reaper. Soldiers took the meaning ‘no man left behind’ quite literally. Each was vanishing into light as they approached the throne. The Reaper graciously assured them their path was complete with a nod of appreciation.

“Looking for someone?” I mused.

“Perhaps.”

“These souls are not from your time, Cowboy.”

“Oh, sweet lady, I’m aware. I’m in waiting.”

“Special girl,” I assumed.

“What lady would not be?” he offered with a wink. “Just looking for an old friend I made a promise to.”

“You do realize they could have moved on?”

“Not my first walk into the sunset. We agreed to meet at this point in her existence.”

“Some promises are forgotten within the dance of life,” I grimly offered, knowing all too well how true those words were.

“No man of worth would have forgotten you, Glory. I swear to that.”

I grinned, wishing I were what he assumed I was: a pure soul.

“Tell me. Are there no children?” he asked as his eyes moved through the procession.

I offered him a humble glance before I spoke. “We are all children.” I let my words settle for a moment. “The young question everything, with the exception of thine own heart. They always go with their guides. Well guarded. Cherished and protected each step of the way.”

“Good to know,” he responded with a sense of relief, letting me know he was pleased not to see any young before him on this night or any other.

Mazing manifested at my other side at that moment. She was dressed as I was, tight dark jeans, tall boots, a leather corset and a dark jacket. It was a universal outfit. The dead do not care much for changing their attire, I’ll grant you that, but all we had to do to become more formal was shed the jacket and wrap a long skirt around our waist. Warrior to lady in under a second.

Mazing looked like most of my line. Auburn hair and eyes that held the color with a hint of gold, pure skin that would glow when we were appeased.

Always wanting to be different, Mazing had thick streaks of blonde racing through her long, thin dreads. I could never figure out why she liked that style. It was too constricting for me.

“Lordy, now the second hymn has arrived,” Cowboy said to her.

Ah, so that was how he was remembering our names, through association. He wasn’t far off the mark with Mazing. Her real name eons ago was Gracelend. I suppose the family she had before my line claimed her and added ‘Amazing’ as a nickname. Had to do with a song the Cowboy was obviously familiar with. I’d always called her Mazing, and so had everyone within our line.

‘Glory Glory Hallelujah’ was some song he had sung to me not long after I met him. Smart man. That is, if he was trying to change his address to the Veil. It was better to forget. Let this place be a dream.

Mazing offered him a nod, then glanced at me. “You feel the air?”

“I do.”

From her tight leather jacket, Mazing pulled out a velvet pouch and offered me the salt within it. I took a handful and slowly rubbed it across my hands, feeling chunks of it settling in each crease and behind each nail.

“Oh, ladies, trust me, you do not need sugar to draw any soul to the likes of either of you. Sisters, is that what you are?” Cowboy said with a puff on his pipe.

“What a charmer you are,” Mazing said with a wink, blatantly not answering his question, simply because it would confuse the old man.

Mazing was in a sense a child of mine, even though I had never carried a soul within my vessel. Never would.

I’m a sovereign. An original Escort of dark energy. When my energy is magnified, or should I say was magnified, it absorbs into the cosmos, and that energy is infused with souls that felt called to it. Sometime in their first life, their dreams call to me. That is when I pull them into my line. Mazing was the first. There were more than I could count after her, but she is one of only a few souls I’ve let get close to me. She was my first in command, closer than any sister, child, or best friend as far as I’m concerned. Proving that had landed us both here.

The cowboy opened his duster to reveal a set of steel guns. “I’m always up for defending a damsel in need.”

I smirked. “Not sure those weapons will do you much good here, Cowboy.”

“Thought I’d offer,” he said with a wink and another pull on his pipe.

I caught a glance from the Reaper. His eyes had the appearance of near pure light and appraised me as he offered a nod. He’d felt the pull in the air as well and was bidding us a good hunt.

Escorts pull energy, light, dark, both—energy is not their main course; it’s their only course of any real value, though. Skilled Escorts that had evolved through time could move through The Realm and find themselves in any period of time. When soldiers marched through this Cathedral, you could bet anything that an Escort was in tow, hoping that the mass would hide them long enough for them to seep through the cracks of The Fall, cracks that recently had allowed a few pure lights through. Well, a house, too, but that was forever ago. There was no telling where the war of light and dark was at this point. And I didn’t care.

I just wasn’t going to let any line past that Fall. Mine knew better, and the other seven had no right to pass as far as I was concerned.

“Bid you goodnight, Cowboy,” I said with a slight bow.

“Happy hunting, ladies,” he said with a pull of his pipe before leaning forward on the banister.

I offered Mazing a nod, then we both vanished from sight, only to manifest at the edge of the forest.

“Caramel,” Mazing said with disdain.

Every line had a distinct aroma to its energy. Ours was something like the smell of fresh, warm honey. Caramel belonged to the one line that had landed us here: Xavier’s. Mazing thought she and Xavier’s first in command had a fever, what we call a passion between Escorts. She was wrong about that. Very wrong. Disastrously wrong, in fact.

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy this,” she said under her breath as she rolled her neck and loosened her sleek shoulders.

No fury matched a woman that was scorned. I was all for a little action, but I could vow that caramel odor had a clean scent laced within it. One that brought back too many memories and killed any appetite I might have had. I’d let her feast first tonight.

We eased behind one of the large trees and stared into the darkness. For any Escort to make it this far, they had to be top level. Their energy was so powerful that nature would sway toward them, not by choice, but by the sheer pull of their essence.

I rubbed my hands together, feeling the chunks of salt that had settled there. I could almost see them. There were at least three approaching. At this point in the forest, you could see The Fall. I’m sure they thought they were home free, that a throne of their own was moments away. Wrong.

Mazing vanished in that instant. A second later, I heard a scream and saw black smoke rushing toward the sky. I vanished, too, and appeared right behind the strongest caramel scent of the three.

The Escort was at least six-three, almost a solid foot over me, and at least three times my width. The males were always built like warriors. Good for combat, not so awesome when it came to stealth maneuvers.

Before he even had a chance to sense me, I ran my arm through his back, easily piercing his flesh. He bellowed and fell to his knees as I gripped his soul. The salt was pure agony and left him powerless to retaliate in any form or shape. I could feel his energy pounding, seeping into his flesh, infecting his vessel with one of the most deadly emotions: fear.

“You’re a myth,” he breathed.

I leaned down, and next to his ear, after I let a sinful smile come to my lips, I whispered, “This myth,” I squeezed his soul, feeling his energy pulse against my skin, “is sending you back to The Realm.”

He exhaled, “Please.”

He knew that meant that his freedom to walk the Earth had now ended. That now he must beg and plead for nourishment. That he would be pieces, not a whole.

“I believe your master stated ‘this pleases me’ once in my direction. Who am I not to return the favor?” And with that, I pulled his soul through his vessel and watched the black smoke soar through the air of the Veil. Clearly, he was an addict. That is what black smoke meant. Our souls are made of light, our essence is, but when we walk with evil, when we forsake a sacred charge, our essence dims, becomes darker. Some even have a theory that it takes on its very own life form within you. There was no surprise that anyone from Xavier’s line would be infected. They were all addicts, taking more than they ever should from the souls we were designed to protect.

I had already heard the cry of the third Escort, so I was free to take my time and consume some much-needed nourishment. Nourishment that I despised but had to have.

I held my hand over the vessel and beckoned the remaining energy into my flesh. Within that essence, I tasted the one emotion Xavier’s line was known to invoke and meant to reprieve: shock. I could sense every soul that had provided for this Escort. I didn’t take it all. I never did. Those souls needed their energy just as much as, if not more than, I did. I let the rest seep into the air with a simple command for it to return to the souls that had blindly given it away. Once the energy took its course, I called upon the flames of power to diminish the rest of the vessel.

It always takes a second or two to feel the effects of the energy, which is why Escorts are known for taking more than their fair share. As the energy absorbed into the core of my soul, I seized. Something was wrong.

I realized that my senses never betrayed me, and they hadn’t failed me tonight. Beyond the caramel, there was the distinct aroma of mint. That cool, refreshing scent was too powerful to ever be masked. Especially to me.

A warm, humming sensation reached through every shred of my soul, causing a sigh that had not left my lips in an eternity. A flash of fever raced across my skin before I could tell myself to be furious and demand that my soul despise the sensation it was greedily absorbing as if it were the essence of life itself.

Mazing manifested at my side right then.

“Glory,” she said quietly, looking into my wide eyes. I’m sure they were a mix of colors right now; a deep auburn with a ring of emerald green, and of course a warm glow of honey behind them. Each color represented a sensation. The auburn was the base, the green was a sign of rest or peace, and the glow was a reflection of being fed. Surely, the green was confusing her. I hadn’t felt peace in eons.

“Why?” I swallowed. “They are crossing lines.”

She inhaled deeply, trying to see what had left me bothered. Nothing ever left me this twisted. Well, one person did. And he was the source of my fading trepidation.

Mazing flushed with anger. “If that is not the lowest of all lows. Ass. That’s what he is: an Ass. The whole stock of em.”

“I dare him,” I seethed as my soul finally decided to listen to me and back out of its euphoric state.

All sovereigns could sense their lines at all times. Wherever Xavier was right now, he knew he’d lost a few of his warriors. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was that the sovereign that carried the aroma of mint now also knew this Escort had perished. And he knew exactly who could have accomplished a task such as this with little to no effort, which also meant he now knew exactly where I was. Not good.

Chapter Two

Every soul has a beginning. A creator. Beyond the one that created us all. My Creator found me on my deathbed. A deathbed that I laid in at the human age of eighteen.

My mother was insane. I never knew my father. My mother had said that I didn’t know him because an evil spirit had left her with his seed, which in turn bore me. And because of that, she was beyond crazy. I doubted she ever adored me or even wanted me. More than once, she tried to drown me when I was too young to fight back. Something always stopped her. When I became ill, no medicine was ever given to my vessel. Food itself was rarely given to me. My mother stayed in a constant state of fast and believed I should, too, so I could repent for my birth.

My world was dying, as they all do from time to time. War had pushed both humanity and nature into nothingness. Disease was rampant. Almost as if the divine had planned such a thing, I became ill. Very ill.

Camps were set up to heal those that they could. Vaccines were given, and the strongest managed to live to die another day.

My mother refused to take me to any healer. She said the evil I was had brought our world to the brink of its demise. I knew if I did not flee from her that her insane mind would convince her to kill me before long.

I all but crawled to the camp that was three miles from our home; shack, rather.

Healers found me at their doorstep in the middle of a raging storm. I passed out before they were able to pull me in.

When I woke on a pallet of blankets on the floor, I saw a beautiful man above me. His eyes looked like the ocean, with white clouds passing within their refection. His skin was so pure. Even though it was clear he was aged he seemed flawless, perfect.

He was not who had captured my gaze, though. It was the boy that was my age behind him that had Jet-black hair and eyes that were like diamonds were fixed on me. Power and strength emanated through every inch of his body. From his broad shoulders to his lean warrior stance, there was a presence about him that refused to be ignored. The world vanished as I gazed into his being. The sweet, clean, powerful aroma of mint flooded through my soul, allowing me to feel the true desire for life for the first time ever.

I don’t know how long we stared at each other—it felt like an eternity. All I remember is my mother charging into the healer’s camp with a man she worshiped with. She had him carry me away, and as she did the image of the man and the boy vanished, leaving me to believe that they were an illusion of my sickness.

My mother cursed my very soul as we left, and the haunting alarms of our world rang out. We were being invaded. Our end was imminent, but she did not care to let me die without hearing her scorning words once more. She told me the end was my fault. That children and men alike would now perish because I had forsaken her.

They carried me to the nearest hilltop. Night was born in the core of the day. My mother lay behind me, chanting a prayer, offering me up as a sacrifice to the doom that was lurking.

She told me over and over to repent. To clear my mind and ask to be forgiven for my birth.

I did no such thing. Instead, I thought of those eyes that were a deep metallic grey with shards of light piercing through them. Those lips that curved into a disbelieving smile as his gaze took away all my pain. I imagined how they would feel against mine, how his arms would feel around me. I imagined a life where my mother's insanity could not reach me, could no longer cause me harm. With my last breath, my mind committed sins that would have surely put my mother in her grave if she had heard them. Yet, that is where we are all headed anyway.

A blinding light broke through the horizon and everything it touched absorbed into the great cosmos.

The next thing I remember was the Creator. He was there when I awoke. He was at my side for days, maybe years to come, silently teaching me.

When my hate for my mother was a distant memory, I met the seven sovereigns, all male.

The Earth provides everything that a soul needs, and sometimes more. Their purpose was to hinder the emotions that weaken the soul. It was an honorable purpose that never should have been challenged, but obviously an eternity of peace and equality was far too boring for the seven at my side.

By mere accident, one of the seven pulled too much energy one fateful day and when he did, he felt a rush of power. He felt knowledge. He decided that he didn’t want to be equal with anyone, not even our Creator. The war was born then. The death of our reality began. Instead of taking what was overwhelming for the souls to feel, we took more than our share.

Seven deadly emotions belong to the reign of the sovereigns: anger, grief, fear, shock, trepidation, obsessiveness, and exaltation. I know exaltation seems odd, it’s not the ‘Oh, I’m so happy emotion;’ it’s the winning the lottery emotion. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But what is not great is the fall once that emotion leaves. The soul is an instant addict and will search endlessly for it once more. Not finding it sends the soul plummeting into despair. Whoever said that there was no such thing as too much of a good thing had clearly never felt that emotion. Souls mistake exaltation for bliss, the one emotion we were all meant to feel constantly but rarely do.

Seven emotions, and eight of us. I was the youngest original, so clearly I had no say. Vade, the soul that emanated the aroma of mint—the soul that was my fever, at one time my rush, divided his reign with me. His emotion was anger. And with anger, there is a mass of other emotions. Wrath and rage, to name a few. Those were emotions that I knew all too well, emotions that any abused child knows very well. Wouldn’t my mother be proud of me now? Not.

A power struggle began. The sovereign Escorts began to invoke the emotion in their charge, each trying to grow their lines to the point where they could claim supremacy over all emotions. Some even took human roles so they could not only consume the emotion the moment it was created, but also ensure that the emotion had reason to be manifested. It was quite horrible, actually.

That war was the catalyst that landed me and my First here. Mazing was lured in by lust. Because she was captured, the only act that could be played was war between my line and Xavier’s. But my line was young. Our numbers could not even begin to match Xavier’s. Beyond that, I’d taken a stand against Vade, my rush. I told him that together we held the majority and we should sway all originals back to the life our Creator had envisioned for us. He vehemently disagreed. Therefore, I could not count on his line for any defense.

Vade had zero sympathy for Mazing. He often stated her birth into my line had divided us.

That was foolish. He was just jealous. Her birth proved I was a sovereign, not a chosen fever for him, the oldest and said to be the favorite of our Creator. Vade, the great stoic King of Anger. Vade, the boy that I had met at my deathbed, the boy that I thought was everything at one time.

I took the only course of action I could live—or rather die—with. I went to Xavier’s throne and offered a compromise. Offered that the line of war would not be drawn—that we could end this misunderstanding without any loss. I proposed a dual, one that only Xavier and I would fight in. Dying fighting seemed to be honorable enough for me. And if I did so, Xavier would not have to worry about any backlash from my line, or others for that matter. He could easily state he was defending himself if he were ever challenged.

Xavier despised Vade, so I knew the odds were in my favor. The divide between Vade and me had not been broadcast to anyone at that time. It was too new. In fact, I remember still having Vade’s scent all over me as I approached Xavier’s throne with my challenge.

Of course, Xavier wanted to bargain with me. He asked me to become his fever, at least to portray that for one millennium. He knew that would weaken Vade to the point where he could be overtaken. Sovereigns were highly territorial. I refused to be bartered as property to Vade—or anyone else for that matter. I declined.

Instead, I left the challenge of the dual on the table and added that I would disburse my line, meaning that no one, not even Vade, could control the souls I left behind. They would not be able to control them simply because upon my release, they would forget my existence, their heritage.

This was a win for both Xavier and me. He would not worry about my Escorts returning to Vade—a sovereign’s energy that had my essence laced within his—and I would know that the fate my line blindly chose would not be their end, that they were set free to live out human lives as they wished.

Xavier’s only counter was that both Mazing and I take our own lives as we bowed at his feet. No dual. Just a simple submission.

Everything and everyone can pass through the cycle of death. It is just harder to kill some. There were only a select number of ways to kill any sovereign, and suicide was one of them.

My line came to mind as I knelt down. Souls in my care. Souls that were divine to me. They deserved their freedom, and I would be damned if Mazing, my First, faced death alone.

At least Xavier was a gentleman about it. A poison glass of red wine was given to each of us. A swift, painless death. One that should have released us in the same manner that we had released our line.

I should be at a slumber party right now, braiding hair and painting nails, not taking up residence within the Veil with the Reaper as one of my closest confidants. But who has any say in this universe? Not this sovereign, that’s for sure.

The fact that Vade’s scent and Xavier’s were one and the same in the Escort I’d just ended meant one thing: they were working together now.

Vade had crossed the mark. He’d ignored every plea in our final argument and joined ranks with the other sovereigns, which meant my death was in vain, that the one line—mine—that could have restored the sovereigns to their purpose had been disbursed and their sovereign was imprisoned within the Veil.

I’d always thought that because my line had fallen, that great King of Anger would have come to his senses and taken a stand. But I suppose I was not there to influence his thoughts any longer.

My being ached for the souls of the universe. Grieved for the demise that was surely aimed at them. Soon, that darkness I’d just pulled from that infected vessel would consume their reality.

I stared into the dark forest, still feeling the sensation of Vade’s energy within my soul. Wrath. Yeah, I owned that emotion. It was vibrating my very being at the moment.

I couldn’t even tell you how long we had been here. How long or how many chances Vade had to find me.

At first, I assumed he was enraged and busy killing off Xavier’s line, then I assumed he was searching each and every dimension for my human form, that finally he would search the Veil, ask for a conference with the Reaper. Find me.

When the time for each of those acts to transpire had come and passed, only one conclusion could be made: he had another one bringing him fever. I was nothing but a lost memory of a forgotten world our Creator had borne me into.

That made killing Escorts that tried to invade this Fall all the more pleasurable. I may not be alive, but I would be damned if I let them reach their ultimate goal: to rule both realities, to create a feast of darkness. Too much of a good thing was bad. I didn’t care what they said.

Vade’s line had never reached this point. Knowing that his was the strongest, the one line that could reach this Fall with little effort, always led me to believe that meant he was in some way fighting or forming fruitful alliances with the others.

That hope was dead now. Surely as dead as I was.

I caught the sway of the distant trees and tensed as I breathed deeply.

“This one is all yours, Glory,” Mazing bit out as the aroma of crisp mint penetrated the air.

She vanished, not to leave me alone, but to spread the aroma of warm honey that we were known for in every direction, confusing the prey that was now in my sights.

I vanished and appeared again behind numerous trees, finally settling on a branch just above my next kill. The core of my soul was at war within itself. Half of me screaming No, this is wrong. The other demanding that justice was due. Seeing Vade’s image in my mind, feeling his tantalizing touch race across my skin was not helping matters. One side yearned for loyalty to that memory. The other saw a new girl under his flesh.

This was business. I finally forced myself to believe that. The Fall could not be penetrated—by anyone. I didn’t make this choice. Vade did, apparently long ago.

As the moonlight touched the Escort’s face, a sharp pain tore through me. It was Rasp, Vade’s First. Might as well have been Vade himself. When I killed Rasp, it would take Vade down for some time. The loss of energy would not easily be reversed. Well deserved, the dark part of me thought. Not Rasp’s fault, the kinder side of me argued back.

Rasp was always kind to me. Not warm, just kind. He had served as a guard of mine before my status was clearly acknowledged. Knowing that you were about to end a soul that had vowed to protect yours was not an easy sensation to swallow.

In my mind’s mid-argument, I jumped down, landing just before all six-foot-five of Rasp. His shoulders were as wide as my body was long. Well, maybe not as wide, but close enough. His body was toned, sleek, lean muscles over every inch of his perfectly sculpted warrior vessel. His eyes were like deep ice, not as intense as Vade’s, but damn near close. The dark hair and mesmerizing image was apparent not only within him, but everyone in Vade's prodigious line. Walking heartbreakers, that’s what they were.

Before he could utter a word, my hand pierced through his gut, grasping his soul. He didn’t moan, flinch, or fall to his knees as the others had done instantly. No surprise there. Strong line. Strong sire. My intent was not to kill. Not this time.

I peered up at him. “Long time.”

He smirked, glancing down at my arm, then to my eyes. “Sovereign.”

“I see that time has not stolen your memory,” I said as I gripped his soul tighter. “This is the part where I kill you.”

He offered no fight whatsoever. He knew me all too well. “Remember that if you ever come near my Fall again.” I squeezed him tighter. “Give Vade my best.” And with that, I thrust him upward with every ounce of my power. Instantly, he was out of sight.

It would be decades before he or Vade were even close to out of my mind.

The lingering scent of mint encased my skin. Before I could stop myself, I brought my hands to my face and breathed in deeply, feeling rage-filled tears threatening to spill from the edges of my eyes.

Mazing manifested at my side and let her hand rest on my shoulder. I could not bear for her to see me fall apart, not now or ever. I vanished and appeared in my quarters, the highest floor of the Cathedral.

I leaned forward on the banister of my stone balcony and breathed in and out heavily, mentally screaming at myself every time a moment from my past fought to surface. Vade was not going to get to me again. I would be damned.

Just as I caught my breath and settled my thoughts, I saw a warm light ease across the room behind me. I should have known this was coming.

Chapter Three

I straightened my stance as I held my gaze on The Fall before me. All these years, all this time, time that was endless, had now been marked. I thought I was over my past. Over the childish war that was fought. That I had my own little corner of this vast universe. One job and one soul beyond my own to protect. But I was a fool. The war was fated to find me here. My one little job had now become the last line of defense for The Fall and the twin reality behind its powerful wall of energy.

I could not singlehandedly stop Vade’s line. If I did, eventually I would stop myself. Too much of his essence was within mine. I wonder where one goes when they die when they are already dead? Was that even possible? I suppose I should offer that musing to the Reaper, glean his thoughts on the matter.

I glanced over my shoulder to see him ever so graciously approaching me. His robe was dark, highlighting the glow of his flesh which was filling the elegant room that I spent most of my time within. If you didn’t intently focus your eyes on him, he could easily be seen as light itself.

“Reaper,” I stated heavily with no emotion to be heard.

“Child,” he said as he drifted to my side. After a moment, he spoke again. “You’re troubled.”

Those two words had often launched us into discussions that would seem to last centuries. He was a gifted listener and often offered complex, yet simple answers. Complex because at first they made no sense. Simple because once you did understand them, you felt like a fool for not seeing them as what they were from the beginning.

“I’d tell you that death was beckoning me, but I doubt that statement would make much sense whilst speaking to the likes of you.”

That made him grin ever so wisely.

“The Fall is in jeopardy. Apparently, Vade has no loyalty to you either.” I shifted my weight as I flexed every lean muscle in my body. “His line dared to cross tonight,” I offered, feeling ashamed by pure association.

“Are you telling me that the mere brush with his essence has reunited your thoughts with his?”

When energy was divinely connected, on a level that supposedly could not be broken, thoughts could be heard between rushes. For most Escorts, that only happened for the course of uniting, but for Sovereigns and those near the top of the line the effects lasted much longer, so long that the insight never had the chance to wear off before the next union was commenced between the two souls. The Reaper doubted my words. Doubted that Vade would cross him. Fool.

“No. I’m telling you that Rasp was in the forest tonight.”

The Reaper nodded once. “And you asked him to leave ever so politely.”

I clenched my teeth and looked away. “If he returns...” I swallowed hard before my stare returned to the light of his. “Tell me. Did Vade ever seek me and you have not made me aware?”

No answer, which might as well have been a no as far as I was concerned. “The next time Rasp or anyone from Vade’s line—or any line—passes through this forest, they will be fed into The Realm—slowly. Very slowly. But let me warn you, Reaper. You may want to look into finding yourself another army. There will come a point where I will destroy myself, which will in turn destroy Mazing.” I moved my stare forward to The Fall. “That is, unless you have a ‘get out of deader’ card in that robe of yours.”

“You have a deep compassion for the souls on both sides of The Fall.”

I nodded weakly as I glanced away. I had no reason to care for souls that I would never know. It was not my nature. My nature was to consume the emotions they were too weak to bear in their purest form. I should not care if they were harmed. I should only care for my survival. Maybe it was because I was the only sovereign that could clearly remember my human form, or maybe it was because I was the youngest or even the only female, but I did have compassion. I did seek equality. A lesson I forgot for a brief time. A lesson my time here had restored.

Witnessing the procession of death at dusk each day warmed my being. I saw souls in their purest form. I saw them grasp their past lives. Not for material matters that were left behind, but for the souls they left behind. The souls they often ignored for material means whilst living. I saw the regret in their eyes. I saw souls crave another chance. Souls strive to become more within their next dance with life. They’d inspired me. They’d forced me into daydreaming about what I could have done differently with my past reign. How I could have had my line lead by example. That I should have done that the moment my Creator was challenged. I should have done that before he vanished, never to be seen again.

“Is this my punishment?” I asked the Reaper. “I asked for no stay, yet I am here. And now I shall fall further into the vacuum of death. Has my Creator charged you with my watch?”

His gaze moved to The Fall. “You, of all souls, by now should know the procession of death.”

“Are you telling me that I am not forgotten?”

He only offered a subtle smile.

If I had asked for a stay and someone remembered me in my past life, that would explain why I was still here, in this form. I could only assume that it was Vade—that his energy was powerful enough that it would override any stay I could have asked for. Vade had imprisoned me in his memories.

“Fantastic. So, since my ex is an immortal, I’m confined. I swear that boy should have come with a warning label.”

That internal argument began again, part of me cheering that I was still in Vade’s memories, the other furious that he’d shelved me. I wondered if in his all-knowing mind Vade realized it would come to this; a quarrel between two adoreds that would kill millions, maybe billions, if his line had grown.

“The only prison a soul can reside in is the one it creates itself,” the Reaper eloquently responded.

“I did not create this Veil. And you know I have tried more than once to leave here. We cannot move past the forest. A wall of energy barricades us within your immediate reign, yet any other soul that you grant a stay is free to move through all of the Veil, to watch over their adored.”

He let silence take over the night, as he often did. You would never find a subtle argument with the Reaper. I never even heard him break the level tone he always uses.

“Pray tell. What adored would you seek out?” he finally said.

Well, if that wasn’t a stake through the soul, I didn’t know what one was. My line forgot me—that was my last act as a living sovereign. My mother—never. I still had rage for that woman. Vade—not. He did nothing to appease after our last fight. My Creator had vanished long ago. The Reaper was right. Everything I had was right here. Mazing and the Reaper himself.

“I seek change, Reaper. Each of our kingdoms should be free to pass through The Fall without question. The greed of my fellow sovereigns has not only stolen that right from my kind, but from all of humanity. There are lessons that are not only escaping us, but breeding ignorance.”

Mazing manifested at my side as the aroma of mint wafted through the air. Before I could turn or call forth a battle plan, the Reaper reached for my arm, keeping me from vanishing from his sight.

“Do you seek a momentary reprieve from my watch?” The Reaper stated, as if he had not sensed Vade’s line approaching once again.

I glanced to Mazing’s wide, waiting gaze, then to him.

“Is that offer on the table?”

He smiled humbly. “You are granted the first and only reprieve that I have ever given to your kind.”

I swallowed nervously, knowing there was a lesson or test here, one of the two. The time that I needed to guard this Fall in earnest was now. In the past, the Escorts I stopped would have ultimately failed. The Fall itself would have disbursed them, simply because their energy was not as powerful as Vade’s line.

The Reaper was giving me a chance to run like a coward or stay and meet my ultimate demise. Either way, I was doomed. If I ran, I would still find an end, but it would have been like my first death, the result of others’ actions—an effect of their ignorance. If I stayed, I would have a front row seat to the end of time and die fighting. I would be the cause that failed.

“I decline.”

Mazing let out a deep breath, obviously seeing this the same way I had. The Reaper only smiled vaguely.

“I shall rephrase. I’m sending you away from my watch for a brief time.”

I could not fathom why he would do such a thing. Was he trying to end Vade and his line singlehandedly? The thought enraged me for some forgotten reason.

The aroma of mint was growing stronger, moving closer. Close enough to strike. “Is it my Creator that wishes this, or Vade himself?”

The Reaper turned to face Mazing and me. “My child, by some measure the answer is one and the same.”

He lost me there. “How long? How long is our reprieve?” He had to know that I was not leaving here without Mazing.

“Your time is marked by the words you speak.”

“Meaning?”

He looked down, then to the threshold of my doorway. There, Rasp stood. There was no way he should be standing there. The power I used to send him away should have harshly landed him dimensions away from here, and weak as hell. That is, unless the Reaper had protected him.

“I have been assured that my most cherished confidant will be protected. In exchange, I have also assured Vade that no harm would come from you.” With that, the Reaper touched my arm, sending a warm, tingling sensation through my soul. I knew that tingle was meant to take my will to bring harm to anyone in Vade’s line away, including Vade himself, but not even the Reaper could subdue a scorned woman.

“You can’t be serious!” I seethed as Mazing held my arms back. She knew striking the Reaper was what my reflexes were aimed to do, that the act would have had horrible consequences. “You are going to send me away with his line, the line that basically has no care or compassion for me—and you took any power for me to defend myself away? What have I done to deserve this! How have I forsaken you in this manner?”

“You have honored me,” the Reaper responded, “and for that I granted this desire.”

“A desire of Vade’s, apparently. Boys club. Dead or alive. It’s a boys club.”

His smile was subtle. “No man is whole without his adored. Therefore, the club you have manifested in your thoughts does not exist.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” I bit out, throwing an evil glance at Rasp.

“I bid you safe passage.” And with that, the Reaper vanished.

I was now alone with my First, Mazing, and Vade’s First, Rasp. If I let this scorn in my soul rise and strike Rasp, I would not only have forsaken the safe haven the Reaper had given me for countless moons, but I would strike Vade. Creator help me, I still lacked the strength to do that, but I would be damned if anyone beyond me knew of such a flaw.

Slowly, I sauntered toward Rasp. Before I could reach him, he bowed to one knee. He was so tall and so broad that he was only just below my line of sight.

“I shall not bid you to rise unless you speak the truth to me,” I stated with the regal power I was meant to have.

“I am bound to do no less,” Rasp said with the deep whisper he was known to have.

“So if you were not bound, lies would come from you,” I pushed with an anger he had never deserved from me.

His ice blue eyes looked at me from beneath his brow. “I would never wish to not be bound to a grace as beautiful as thee.”

Oh, he knew how to melt my heart. Just how to oppose my wrath. “Speak the truth you are bound to. Has Vade’s line merged with Xavier’s?”

“Has not,” Rasp said with a glacial tone, clearly trying to suppress the anger that was bred into him, “nor will ever, so say Vade himself.”

“Why was your scent lingering with one of Xavier’s?”

A sinful smile echoed on the corners of his perfectly shaped lips. “I struck him. But then I understood where he was going. I chose to let him live, knowing that he would lead me to you.” Seriousness returned to his image. “Time is of the essence.”

“Do you honestly believe that your king could not have found me in an instant if he put one ounce of effort forward?”

An ache waved across his stare. “It was my charge to retrieve you.”

I see. It wasn’t worth Vade’s time to travel to the Reaper’s door. Nice. Good to know. “Where are you taking us?”

“Home.”

My gut clenched. The only home beyond the shack my mother raised me in, and the endless light the Creator redeemed me in, was Vade’s mansion which rested at the highest level of The Realm.

“Did you at least ensure that all of his recent adoreds had vacated the premises?” I uttered with disdain.

“Sovereign, there were none for me or my sire to ask to leave,” Rasp responded humbly.

“Have there been in the past?” I pushed.

Mazing clenched my arm, and in a whisper she spoke, “Do not ask questions that you do not want the answer to. I learned that the hard way, my dear friend and queen.”

Wrath was my emotion, one that I could sense in an instant. Wrath was seething off Rasp as his icy eyes fell to the marble floor. It was hard to understand if that rage was for the fact that Mazing had been forsaken by a false adored or if it was because that act took us both away…then again, it could have been for the fact that Mazing had basically told me that more than likely Vade had been with others in my absence.

Mazing had every right to assume the worst of all men. I could bear witness to that.

“Rise.”

Rasp did so within the blink of an eye.

“Why now?” I asked, peering up at him.

“It is not my place to speak of such things.”

“Well, you better get permission. You can take me to the mansion if you will, but I do not wish to speak to the likes of Vade.”

I saw his jaw ripple as obvious emotion coursed through him.

“Speak freely, Rasp. I cannot harm you, obviously.”

His eyes bore into mine. “Sovereign, I have missed you dearly. I humbly ask that you not forsake my sire for the acts of less worthy kings.”

“I fault him not for my death. I fault him for his silence.”

He bowed graciously. “Then there is no fault to be had.”

That made no sense to me. None at all. What the hell had they been doing on the other side?

He extended his arm, telling me to lead the way.

I reached my hand for Mazing to ensure she was with me, and then we both vanished and reappeared at the edge of the forest, the beginning of the rest of the Veil.

The Veil always had a mass of souls within its field, but souls were temporal. That was not what I saw before me now. The majority of the souls around us now were aged. Chained. They were souls that I knew I had not seen in the procession, recently or ever before. This was torture. Something that should never be done. When a soul was trapped within this place, the life it was meant to live in its future went unlived. That set the course for destruction. The divine plan was forsaken.

I’d heard of other sovereigns threatening to do such a thing before my death, trap souls in order to have a constant source of energy. All but two of us agreed with their plot. Something told me they had gotten their way. They had created a feeding ground. Fools. This act would end all energy within time.

I wanted to turn back and tell the Reaper that the souls under his watch were imprisoned, that his Veil was in unrest, but something told me he might very well already know of such things. That it very well could be the reason, at least in part, that I was freed.

The barrier between the living and the dead was so thin that I could see countless realities set in various time before me. I could see the energy seeping into the Veil. Death seeping into reality. Two worlds that were not meant to cross for any length of time.

Each of the souls stopped their haunts, their conversations, and let their stares rain down on Mazing and me. A moment later, they all bowed.

The girl that I still was deep inside wanted to turn and ask Rasp who had forsaken them, but the sovereign I was bred to be held her head high as I passed them by.

Not long after that point, the gates to The Realm were before me. Their pure gold entrance opened wide, inviting me home.

The Realm on its purest level is a shared dream world. A dream that can be as wicked or as blissful as any soul would wish. In the beginning, it was the place that my kind delivered their sacred charge. In this place, souls of the universe would dream, and in their dreams their subconscious would release the emotions they could not bear in reality. It was a balanced meeting ground. Human souls would never even know we existed or had brought them much-needed relief, and our charge would be fulfilled, in turn nourishing our beings.

Once the war began, that all changed. This place became the breeding and grooming ground for each line of Escorts. Those that chose to fan the flames of emotions in reality and bring back such emotions to the rest of us were the ones that had faced every past deed in their existence. They were the bravest in my sight. I’d lived in the real world, and it was no easy feat.

Others, when tested, hid from their deeds and their blindly chosen heritage. They became a part of The Realm, the energy that created the scenes that the living needed when they dared to share a dream, something that should be done but was now more dangerous than ever.

The Realm had changed, too. I could sense the mark of each of the lines in the air. I could feel battles that had recently occurred. Battles that should not have occurred. I sensed living souls within this spectrum. If my senses were on point, the playful war I left behind had now become ominously deadly.

Were humans aware and now opposing us? Were we now at war with the one race we were created to provide reprieve?

No one was in sight. I could feel them, though, meaning they were either cowards or that Rasp had cloaked us. Something only a sovereign or the first in line was capable of doing.

Massive moving stones ascended before me. It was the stairway that would lead me to the home that at one time I so mournfully dreamed to see once again.

Mazing shared one with me whilst Rasp took the one behind us.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Mazing said in a low tone to me as we began to ascend into the aged orange sky.

“I couldn’t agree more. Did you sense the recent wars? Humans?”

“Worse. I sensed the one Colton had forsaken me for.”

Not good.

Chapter Four

The First in every line is the fiercest soul within the line. Lore stated that they are created that way to be guardians of the sovereign. Not only are they deadly, but they are also the most beautiful. Only their sovereign surpasses their exquisiteness. In my case, I would never consider my name to be linked with beauty. I’ve been told my perception is faulty in that regard.

The First are precious to all sovereigns. Their every care and desire is heeded, and an abundance of respect and honor is returned. So, when mine found herself swooned by Colton, Xavier’s First, I should have been told. But Mazing was ashamed and shielded what she thought was a passing fever from me.

If Escorts find a fever with another Escort, they always find one in their own line, or not at all. Simple as that. Truth be told, commitment was not really our thing. In most cases, permission to be coupled only arose when an Escort developed a fever for a human. When that occurred, lengthy judgments were set in motion to ensure that the Escort was not under a spell or being threatened by an opposing race, simply because the opposing race often wanted what we could not freely provide—our kind could not state or feel the four letter word that begins with an ‘L’ in the English language.

The lore has various reasoning for that as well. One is that the word and emotion unite all beings as one, which is the goal, of course, but if we are one with them we cannot take the emotions that harm humans away. If we dared to, it would infect the masses. Can we say end of creation as a whole? Yeah, that would happen, no doubt.

It was an extreme tribulation to couple with a human. Basically, the Escort would be stripped of any knowledge of their heritage, yet the dreams and cravings would remain. More than likely, they would go insane and harm not only themselves, but also the one they chose to leave their race for. Because of that, some never bother to seek permission; they feel that they can control their urges and not harm their adored. They are always wrong. Death comes to the human, and the Escort lives out his or her existence in misery. Good for our kind. Not so awesome for the tortured soul of the Escort or the one they dared to adore.

Some lore, really old lore, has different reasoning for why that word—in any language—is our poison. It states that it is not felt simply because the sovereigns had not sensed such a thing. That until they not only lived through it, but also produced a symbol of that emotion, it would continue to be our demise. Basically, it stated we had to transcend. That when we did so, the souls we were meant to relieve would also transcend into a level of consciousness that would allow them to feel and set free the emotions that were too much for their souls to bear in the first place.

I didn’t believe that for an instant. In fact, in my opinion I would have told you that Vade and I had proven that to be a false lore. But then again, considering how we ended…I suppose there still may well be a shred of hope that one day we could all openly feel the emotion that is at the core of all creation.

Fever was our word for passion—rush was meant to be an eternal commitment. But like I said, commitment was not really our thing.

No one in the history of our existence had dared to cross lines or found an attraction with the opposing sovereign lines.

And even if there were a precedent—I never would have allowed one of my own to cross with Xavier’s line, especially my First. The emotion Xavier created was shock. He was known to be unexpected, to surprise his prey at the most unlikely moment, and when that strike occurred the victim of the emotion discovered they had been deep within a web of fate for quite some time and there was no way out at that point. That emotion usually led to fear, which was why Donalt, the sovereign of fear, and Xavier worked well together in the past.

Donalt was the first of our kind to take human form, to live and breathe in that state for an extended period of time. I’m not really sure how well that worked out for him. I died not long after he not only mocked the life of a current human king, but also convinced the entire kingdom that his name had always been Donalt. As far as I was concerned, Donalt could stay in his little world below and take Xavier with him.

Mazing should have known from the first flash of fever with that line that it was more than likely a ploy. I would have told her as much if she had come to me with this confession.

Instead, she and Colton met in secret. I assume that Xavier had no idea at first, but I have no doubt that soon after he discovered this treason he declared that Colton would be coupled with a petal, simply because the timing for that announcement was too perfect for my liking.

Petals were near the lower end of the line. They knew they were Escorts, had served bravely for a few lifetimes, and were beginning to blossom into a name we would claim and use at our will. The only class below them was mists. Those were the youngest Escorts. In most cases, they didn’t know of their heritage and were blindly living out other courses of their existence—never really knowing why they didn’t seem to fit in. Square peg, round hole.

Coupling a First with a petal was an ostentatious move. It stated that Xavier was openly breeding his line. Forced fate is a dangerous game to play within any race.

Like I said before, we cannot carry children, but our essence is our power. Any blast of deliberate power or energy from a sovereign extends their line. Those in our kingdom can extend our line as well, but it is more complex than when we do so. First and foremost, they must be coupled. It takes the power of two to bring forth one.

When Escorts that are coupled produce a fever that has the slightest tinge of a rush—their essences create a ‘bloom’: Escorts born human, only to be claimed later in time. The claim must come from the sovereign, which is why we must approve all couplings. Without our approval, the newborn Escorts will live troubled lives, to say the least. They will feel what they are but never clearly see or understand it. Some have even been known to blindly fight against the race of Escorts.

Rarely have our lines chosen to disobey the laws of our race. Therefore, strength and vitality were built into our immortal race.

Because the Petal, Cadence, if I remember correctly, was younger and was chosen to couple with a First, there was no doubt she would not only have a fever for Colton but also a near instant bloom. Maybe not a powerful bloom, but creation would occur. Colton’s energy would ensure those newborns would rise quickly. Along with their insatiable hunger.

Now, I knew this was occurring, all of the sovereigns knew it was occurring, obviously Colton knew it was occurring…but Mazing did not.

One night she went to Colton, and in the end she was the one that was in shock. A distress that I felt at my core so intensely, it brought me to my knees.

That night, Colton didn’t confess to Mazing that he had been chosen to couple with another. No, if he had, I’m sure I’d still be alive. Instead, Mazing caught them together. She found Cadence in his bed, heard him whisper the same words to her that she had heard the night before, watched him caress her skin in the same exact way that he always touched her.

Catching your fever cheating on you is not nearly as bad as knowing that the words you thought were sacred to you were nothing more than verses used to get you right where he wanted you. I’m sure the fact that she was a petal didn’t help the matter.

Mazing lashed out, as anyone in her case would do, only she was born with lethal capability.

I understand that she broke twenty-four bones in his vessel, which was not really a big deal. We heal at the speed of light and only feel the pain for an hour or so afterward. Mazing didn’t stop there. With her nails she carved her name across his broad chest, the ‘M’ started at his shoulder, and the ‘G’ finished just above the opposite hipbone. She then poured her essence of wrath into the wound, causing it to scar for the rest of his existence. She was on her way to clawing out his eyes when Xavier’s guards overpowered her.

Mazing had permanently damaged the First in Xavier’s line. A declaration of war whether she’d intended it or not.

What I found odd about the entire event was that Cadence never made one move to stop Mazing. I mean that told me she was smart, that she knew it would only take one blow from Mazing to send her back to her low level rank in pieces. But still, she didn’t call for a guard or plead for Colton’s life or anything. Instead, she provoked Mazing. Long after Colton lost the will to speak, she continued her taunt, telling Mazing exactly how Colton had touched her, what words he had said.

It almost made you wonder what her motives were. Why she would provoke the death of a soul that would have forevermore pulled her from the status of a petal.

I’ll give you one thing—Colton had nerve. Once he recovered, he came to me, told me what my soul already knew—what happened and where to find Mazing. He was prepared to help me plot her escape. I declined.

If I took his offer, it would have meant that I was claiming him as my own, which put not only my line at risk, but any and all of our descendants. Not to mention he was from the line of shock. Couldn’t trust a damn word that came out of his mouth. The lot of them were gifted manipulators causing you to look in one direction as the world around you fell apart.

I glanced to my side to find Mazing’s waiting auburn eyes. We had never discussed this incident. There was no reason to. My mind’s eye showed me, in flashes, what had occurred during that deadly fight. Scolding her or lashing out was pointless. I knew she felt guilt, pain, and regret.  Emotions I knew all too well.

“Glory. Something isn’t right,” she said in a hushed whisper as she glanced at the level of The Realm we were leaving.

She had a point. If that coupling had occurred between Colton and Cadence, then Cadence’s scent would not have been on a lower level; she would be with Colton.

“I didn’t sense Colton,” I replied as I tried to read her rigid body language.

“Lilies,” she said in a whisper.

That one word caused me to freeze. A lily was the scent of grief. An entirely different line, one that never caused any trouble at all. At least not during my reign.

“Are you telling me that the chosen petal for Colton was not from his line?” I seethed.

She swallowed harshly. “I’m telling you that the girl I pulled from Colton’s bed carried the scent of lilies. If she carried his line’s scent, I would have realized it was not in his control. I understood that he was playing me. Having his way with any and all lines.”

Wrath. That was seeping through my soul. It was so powerful that I felt the stare of Rasp and glanced behind me to find him gazing up at us from the stone he was on.

I glanced to Mazing once again. “So the Veil is as thin as a cloud, dead are trapped, battles have occurred on the first level of The Realm, humans were involved—lines crossed long before this day—and the Reaper suddenly decided to offer us a reprieve from death,” I summed up sharply, still not comprehending what was occurring now, why we were pulled back into this world.

Mazing rolled her shoulders once, a tell that said she was getting ready for a fight. “Bring it,” she fumed. “They would not be pulling us out unless they needed something from us. There is no telling what this boys club has been up to while we were chilling with the dead in the Cathedral.”

“No one is getting anything from me,” I stated with a stern stare. She was my only possession and she knew that. She also knew that she and Vade were never the best of friends—that the fact that her acts took me away from him was not going to win her any favors. “What happened between me and Vade had nothing to do with you. He will not harm you,” I swore.

Gently, she reached for my arm. “He would never do anything to bring you misery. For that I know I am safe.”

A sly smile edged to the corner of my lips. I reached to squeeze her hand before I casually brushed it away. I was beginning to tremble, and I didn’t want her to sense that weakness. “He already has. He left us. He did not avenge us.”

“How do you know that his actions have not led to what was below?” she asked as we rose further into The Realm, to levels where Escorts were more freely seen, not that I could see any now.

I was sure Rasp was cloaking us at this point. He was deliberately hiding our return. Something Vade could not have done. If anyone had seen Vade enter the Veil and return cloaked, they would have no choice but to believe I was with him. That he had finally woken up and claimed the rush that once was his.

That didn’t make me any happier. I never gave a damn what anyone thought of my actions. An argument Vade and I often had. He’d tried to teach me to rule with absolution, something that could only be done if you took your time and weighed every action, every outcome, and always saw your line as an extension of yourself. I understood my line was me. But with the emotion of wrath as my power, taking the time to think was not my style—at all.

I stared forward into the now purple sky. “Vade is anger. The one emotion that resides within every emotion. If he had acted out, there would be nothing left.”

“Is that what you would wish?” she asked humbly.

I really didn’t have an answer for her. I would not wish for destruction, but I wished to be vindicated. I wished that Vade had at least sent word that I was still in his thoughts.

Instead, he was calling me home breaths before everything our Creator had envisioned was sure to vanish.

“We are eternal, my dear First, and we will always be.” My words eased some of the tension in her body, but not all. “Did you sense Colton below, or now?” She would be able to sense him even if he were cloaked.

“I do not. And I did not sense him within the lilies below. I sensed her king.”

“Fielder?” That was the name of the sovereign of grief, though it did not do you much good to memorize it. He often changed his name and lurked within the human race. His emotions were habitually found in the fields the dead lie within; hence the name we call him by.

I’ve never spent much time with him. I really couldn’t see eye-to-eye with him either. He felt his emotion, grief, was the most powerful, the one the human race needed to be relieved of first and foremost. It was one emotion that my soul had never truly endured, so that reasoning was lost on me. Not to mention that, in my opinion, if you were saturated with grief you did not move forward, but lived in the past.

All the other emotions moved you to a new point. Anger tore everything apart, forcing you to rebuild the way it should be. Shock gave you a reality check and pushed you forward. Fear forced you to find new paths. Obsession pulled you toward your goals, whether they were material or ethereal. Trepidation plotted a new course, preventive actions. Exaltation pushed you to find that ecstasy once again. But grief, grief pushed you to live in a past that will never occur in the exact same way again. Pointless.

I was told often by those that had felt it that grief was the worst, and in most cases Fielder was considered a saint by those he relieved.

I’m sure the fact that he was built like a God had nothing to do with that. He was a charmer. Often gave gifts of paintings and such to those he adored. The paintings would capture a moment that had a deep meaning to whomever he adored—cute, huh? Yet what did that do but trap them in a past memory?

I knew there was grief on the first level of The Realm, but I didn’t sense the power of a sovereign in the energy, which meant Fielder was masked. Not really an odd thing for him in the human world, but it was in The Realm.

Then again, I would hide myself, too, if I’d partnered with Xavier against Vade. If that were even the case.

With each second, more and more questions arose. I was assured by Rasp that Vade had not crossed with anyone, but this revelation that Mazing had displayed now said that the kings of grief, shock, and fear were working together. Against Vade. That enraged me.

We had passed more levels now, the sky was brighter, and in that light I could see how Mazing was near translucent. One glance told me I was, too.

We had not been nourished properly in eons, and it clearly showed. Before our death, I was already teaching my line—or trying to—that they did not have to create the emotion of wrath to pull from it. I knew from my human life that there was enough anger in the world without someone fanning the flames.

My only issue was that once you taste power, you crave it. To heed that, I was teaching them to find energy that was given freely. Energy from masses of souls, or even nature—water was the most powerful source we’d found. That was in part what my and Vade’s last fight was about. He thought I was starving them. Moving the race backward. We were the first line to ever show signs of hunger: being translucent.

I was honestly amused by the argument when he brought it to me. I thought he feared that I’d vanish from his arms. Apparently, that was not the issue. It was politics. Power. Boys club. Creator forbid that a female shake things up a bit.

That was why Mazing and I only took what we needed from the Escorts we stopped from reaching The Fall. If we took it all, I’m sure we would have found our own way out with the power we would have gained over time. But we are both stubborn. And we had a point to prove.

“When we get to the mansion, I want you to go to the springs. Feed. Learn what you can from the others,” I ordered.

“I should not leave you until we know why we are here.”

“I need you to be strong, you have to be nourished. And you will learn more if I am not at your side.”

Truth be told, I didn’t want anyone to be near me when I saw Vade. I didn’t trust myself to stay strong.

The highest level of The Realm was near. Storm clouds gathered above us, lightning spider-webbed across them. It was our own little electric gate.

The wind did not sway us as we passed through the next level, but I felt my insides quivering, my breath becoming short.

The mansion was in view now. It reached the width of the finest cities of the Earth below. Its height could barely be seen through the clouds that the rooftops reached to.

White, black, and red were Vade’s colors. Mine, too, I suppose. The mansion was as white as the moon itself.

The stone drifted to the massive front entryway.

I stepped forward on the white marble. Doves, the symbol of peace, were lingering around the massive oval room. That was odd. But what was insane was that I sensed not only my scent, warm honey, but caramel, Xavier’s scent.

Rasp had lied to me. Someone from Xavier’s line was here, not long ago. Maybe within this moonrise. And someone with my scent was here as well.

What the hell? Is that why? Is that why that low-lying—I couldn’t even think of curse words fast enough—hadn’t come for me? He had replaced me—with someone from my own line? A line that I had perished for!

Mazing gripped my arm, pulling me closer as every muscle in my body tensed. “I smell no roses.”

That was the only reason that Vade was still breathing at this point. Roses were the scent that passion had, a scent that clearly stated that a fever had occurred.

“Go to the springs. Feed,” I ordered.

Rasp stepped up behind us, judging my every emotion with his icy eyes.

“Mazing is feeding now. Take her there,” I said to him.

“I will take you both. Then I will take you to the throne,” he replied respectfully.

I reached for his dark shirt and balled as much of the soft cloth as I could into my fist. “I do not need a guide in my home. You do as I say.”

“Sovereign,” he replied with a quiet whisper whilst glancing at my arm, which was not only trembling but also nearly transparent.

“Do as I say. That is, unless you believe the actions of your king warrant protection from me.”

He let his eyes fill with sorrow, then bowed slightly. I let him go, and he offered a simple nod for Mazing to go with him. Both of them glanced warily back at me. Smart ones, they were. This was going to be the fight of a lifetime. It was possible there wouldn’t be a mansion standing by the time I was through with the likes of Vade.

Chapter Five

Normally I would manifest my way through this massive mansion and appear at his, well, at one time our chamber doors, if not within the walls of them, but I was trembling.

I decided to push forward with a slow, calculated stride. Once you passed the grand entry hall that was made of white marble, you entered the great hall. The most elaborate part of this was the red stairway which was two hundred feet wide with a dark mahogany railing that brought out the clash of red and white the elegant room was laced with.

Balancing each side of the stairway were columns that were close to fifty feet in width and had water flowing upward around the marble of which they were made of. Those columns were a part of the springs where I’d sent Mazing.

Within the springs, you could not only pull energy that petals had brought to The Realm, but you could also see every dimension, each city within them from there. It was a tremendous source of power that sovereigns kept in their establishments. Vade’s was the most elaborate of them all, obviously, as two lines at one time shared that power.

With each step, my soul quaked. Part of me wanted to rip Vade apart with everything I had left in the way of supremacy; the other part was panicky about looking him in the eyes once again. What kind of being could give you fever with just the thought of them?

I kept remembering the first time I saw him—from my deathbed, at the end of a tormented life. I remembered how much care the almighty favored king had given a broken human girl. I remembered the feel of his humming skin against mine. How each powerful movement of his lips felt. The sound of his voice, that powerful, sensual way he pronounced every sound that left his perfectly shaped mouth. I remembered how the room would fill with electricity when he felt any emotion. I remembered how his rush felt. His fever.

Cursing myself, I let the last fight soar through my thoughts. The one where he told me I could not change who we were. That it was called progression. That I had to learn to give a damn about someone besides myself before I even began to try to experiment with our power. The one where he told me I was selfishly killing my line by not feeding them or ruling them properly. I remembered telling him that I didn’t need him or anyone to tell me how to care for my own—I told him he was threatened by me and that I would give him every reason to rationalize those fears.

We both had solid points within that raging argument, ones that we were too stubborn to let go; that was nothing new. We were both passionate souls. The thing was, if he had chosen any other time to talk to me about how I was leading my line to feed, our lives would not have ended up this way. After that fight, I was determined to show him that I could lead without his advice or power. Sometimes stubbornness gets you in more trouble than anger, or any other emotion for that matter.

Time would have allowed us to see past that fight, find a compromise, much like we did with all the ones before that point. But time was something that was not afforded to the pair of us.

Instead, my First was betrayed. My line was disbursed. I died. And he did not come for me. And now, now I have no idea what the hell has happened. All I know is that sacred rules were broken, that our Creator was most likely hanging His head in shame. That our demises were on the horizon.

I knew that within this moon there were two females in this mansion. That his scent, one that was a rich mint, was within the same room with those girls.

Horrid visions filled my thoughts of him with others. The idea of him with another was far more wicked than the notion that crossing lines was now openly accepted when it came to fevers. He was mine, and the thought of another near him enraged my soul and allowed me to push those girlish thoughts down into the cage of my soul.

With a firm grip on my raging emotions, I began to manifest through the mansion, passing priceless paintings, sculptures, and all things regal that Vade had collected over his interminable existence.

After one more deep breath, I gathered all my rage and appeared before the double red doors that led to his private world inside of this mansion.

My emotions were so powerful that a wind picked up as I gazed at the closed doors, blowing my long auburn hair off my bare shoulders. The mansion rumbled with the power I was pushing through my soul.

That instant, the doors flew open and thunder erupted, the bright lights of the mansion dimmed and flashed on and off, trying to find balance with the ethereal electrical current that was now saturating the air.

He was standing there with his classic stoic pose. Just a few feet back from the doorway. His hair was just as dark as I remembered; silk strands of jet-black locks were gently rustled out of his eyes. Those eyes. Gun metal gray if he was near rest, but otherwise shards of light pierced through them, making them seem like ice in one glance, diamonds in another.

He was dressed in all black, enhancing the darker tone of his well-nourished skin. His broad shoulders tensed under his tight black shirt, along with every muscle I could see exposed in his lean warrior stance.

I screamed at myself to hold the anger I had when I felt the wind around me die down.

The wrath welcomed the call, and my power grasped everything within my reach and flung it forward. Priceless vases, paintings, and furniture from across time flew through the air at him. I boldly stepped forward and focused, ensuring that my wrath hit its target.

Within that breath, everything returned to its home, the wind ceased, the lights remained on. Vade was grasping a vase—one of his favorites—that I had sent soaring at him. Holding my stare, he gently released it from his long, powerful fingers and let it rest on the table beside him.

The doors behind me slammed closed, but I was not letting this end. He may be all big and bad, able to counter my power, but he was about to see how powerful a ticked off woman could be.

Before I could blink, he’d vanished. Coward.

Wait. No. Were those his hands sliding down my waist? His breath on my neck? His firm body just behind mine? Yes. Yes, it was. Oh, he was playing dirty.

Before I could lash back at him, his long, powerful arms surrounded me. His fiery lips brushed against my neck, sending a vibration of energy through every part of me, yet focusing squarely on the core of my vessel, the part of my body that had only belonged to him. My knees buckled, but he caught me, holding me firmly against him. All this time, and my vessel had not forgotten him. In the past, my body would always react before my mind could rationalize the response; this wasn’t the first time I’d melted in his arms. Creator help me, I didn’t want it to be the last.

I was numb. His touch, his essence was fortified with a powerful hum, one that was so deep that all you could do to fight it was sigh, and not surprisingly, that usually encouraged him to continue his pursuit.

Which was exactly what he was doing at this moment. Vibrations of his essence were wavering over me, swirling deeper and deeper, saturating my soul with his powerful presence.

But I was mad. Furious. He’d left me in the Veil. Everything I had or was had been taken from me. That’s what my mind was telling my soul right now. That was the rational side of me trying to block his sensation, what was bellowing in my thick skull. I didn’t want to feel this good in his arms, I didn’t want him to sense how much I craved him. I didn’t want him to find equal pleasure in my response. I wanted to be in pain. I wanted him in pain.

I felt the heat of his breath rise higher, and just under my ear he breathed, “My Glory…I’ve got you…let go.”

His voice filled my soul, and I felt tears that I was too stubborn ever to let fall sting my eyes.

Rage, wrath, fury—every word under the defined emotion of anger was coursing through me. Enough to make this mansion and every level of The Realm crumble. That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because he had sealed us within his essence.

A storm raged around our bodies, and as it did I thought of my human life, my reign, our fights, the betrayal that had landed me in death. I thought of every single hour I’d spent lurking in that vast cathedral. Every moment I’d secretly yearned for Vade. I thought of all the souls I released from my line. I thought of this day. The revelations and the clear signs that stated the life I once had no longer existed.

Maybe this was what grief felt like. My chest ached; there was a heavy weight there that produced visions of my worst fears not coming to life, but existing. It was an agony I never wished to feel and craved amnesty from.

My knees gave way, and even though Vade had a firm grip on me, we slowly fell to the floor. Somehow, I turned in his arms and buried my face in his warm, broad chest. As the scent of mint and the hum of his touch filled me more and more, rage came. So much time had passed. So much agony, confusion, and fury.

Half of me wished I’d never known him, that at least if that were true then I would not have had to remember the torment of his absence. The other part was grateful I was in his arms right now. That for the first time in eons I felt something close to peace. Peace was letting this storm out. Peace was the release.

I was no fool, though. A girl obsessed with her adored. I was a sovereign, for Creator’s sake. So, in his embrace, through the raging storm I analyzed his energy. I searched for the lingering scent of another. I searched for a past fever. I searched for a reason to find hatred for him.

I found no such thing. Instead, I saw my auburn laced with emerald green eyes staring back at me. My ivory skin, my long auburn hair. I saw my image a million times over. There was no essence beyond my own within him. There was no room, I consumed his every thought.

He pulled me onto his lap, encasing me within the tangle of his powerful arms and legs. With a deep, hypnotic tone he breathed, “I would never forsake you, my Glory.”

Those foolish tears spilled from the corners of my eyes. He lifted my chin and gazed into my being, which could not find one solitary emotion to grasp.

Those eyes, the light behind them had dulled, much like the light that turned mine to a warm honey shade had, but with each pulse of our souls the light was breaking through. Diamonds were before me now, exquisite diamonds.

Ever so slowly, he leaned forward. His warm lips framed one of mine, gently teasing me, trembling ever so slightly, as if I were a forbidden fruit. I responded shyly, much like the first time he had dared to kiss me. I felt my soul throb with raw energy. His arms tightened around me as he pulled me closer to his firm chest. His will to remain gentle was losing its battle, the way that every muscle in his chest would flex and then release was telling me that. His lips teased mine softly once more, then the warmth of his tongue reached out for mine. The heat of him, along with the sensational flavor of mint, was causing my very being to beat wildly in time with my heart. I missed him. I hated that I did. That I needed him. But I did. I really did.

Life, ecstasy, that was what we were both feeling as our kiss grew deeper. Fierce one moment, then gentle the next. All the while, the storm around our bodies raged on. All the while, I let loose the caged emotions that had entrapped me in misery.

I felt his long fingertips frame my face just as his thumb dared to catch that dreadful tear that escaped my closed eyes.

He slowly let his kiss end before he dared to lose control. Gently, he pulled my head to his chest and let the hum of his essence caress my weary soul. The storm within was subsiding. He’d managed to quell my soul once more.

My power, my essence, lurks within my emotions. When it is elevated, the world responds, wicked storms are birthed, humans I’m meant to reprieve are forced to face the wrath of nature.

One of the first lessons my Creator taught me was how to control such a power. How to live with it in my soul. I dare say that was the hardest lesson to grasp, one I continue to find myself struggling with from time to time.

When Vade and I began our life together, our Creator told Vade that he had to let me release. He told Vade that I could hold in that power for eons, but at some point I would have to be held, caressed, as my power found its balance and I found my respite. The Creator knew that Vade’s essence was powerful enough to shield not only our world, but also the ones below from such a wrath.

The Creator’s blessing of our rush, the way He promised me that Vade’s energy would always give me a reprieve, made me believe that Vade and I would never fail as one.

No one beyond the Creator and Vade knew of this weakness of mine. Of the internal battle my soul often had. In the Veil, more than once I wished for this release. In fact, not long ago I asked the Reaper how powerful his energy was, if it could withstand raging emotions. I never confessed this weakness, but I think he knew. His only response was, “My power serves its purpose, as does yours and whomever your Creator entrusted with the knowledge of your gifts.”

When he said that, I almost had hope that this moment would come. That the Reaper was telling me that not only was Vade the only one in existence that could witness and withstand this, but that I would see him again. I would find my release once more.

The winds settled, the thunder lost its vibrating rumble, and the lightning ceased. Yet, Vade’s embrace grew stronger.

“You let me be. You left me there,” I said in a hoarse whisper.

“I have never once endured a harder trepidation,” he responded, gently caressing my long hair out of my face.

Anger came back to me, but I had released enough of my rage that no sound was uttered in the room around us. “Yet you endured it.”

He leaned me back slightly so his eyes would find mine. His firm jawline rippled with emotions before he spoke. “It was your safe haven. The others believed you were now a part of The Realm. If I had come for you, even in thought, they would have known that the Reaper was shielding you.”

Oh, so his line was above me? He knew if he came for me, he would be invoking war with Xavier, maybe even with all the kings?

In an instant, I was standing feet from him, glaring down to where he still rested. “Why must you always care what others think? Why must you subdue your power? You put other kings’ wishes before our rush, a rush that your absence murdered.”

In a beat of my heart, he was before me, staring down, almost painfully. “Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder. If a rush was murdered, it was done so because it was not felt within the core of both. The hearts and souls, that sacred rush belonged to, slaughtered the emotion.”

That was painful. I knew he must have forgotten me long ago, but hearing him say that our rush was not truly felt before was agony. “Mortal souls must have spoken those words, for immortals, sovereigns, never forget a bond. Therefore, there is no absence that would cause anyone to be forgotten.”

A gentle sigh escaped his lips, which I craved to feel against mine but was too stubborn to claim. Was he relieved that I agreed without a fight? Or did he read between my words and understand that I never forgot the likes of him?

“What have you done in my absence? Tell me why I sensed the scent of my line within your entry hall? Why not only that scent was there, but also the scent of one of Xavier’s line? Why were white doves present? What wars occurred on the first level of The Realm? Why are humans fighting against a race that they should not know exists?”

His eyes pored over me. “You need to be nourished.”

“Back to that argument, are we? Well, guess what? I proved you wrong. Mazing and I survived on less than you could have imagined. We could have taken more, trust me, but we held our ground. I stand before you now no weaker than before.”

He clenched his fist

, causing every muscle in his long arms to flex, the air in the room to ripple with the raw power that he was. “Your soul is feeding you. You need to be nourished.”

“What’s wrong, Vade? Are you afraid that I’m going to vanish before your eyes? That I will perish once again? If so, I see no need for you to worry. You have managed quite well in my absence, looking all the more powerful because of it, in fact.”

Before I could finish my rant, one of his arms was around me as his hand urged my chin upward, giving me no choice but to gaze into his eyes, which were inches from mine. “Obviously, your hunger is hindering your memory. Look into my eyes and tell me that I look stronger than before. Tell me that there is no agony there, no anger. Tell me that this isn’t the first time a clear breath has passed my lips from the time you left our bed until now. Tell me that the weight of the universe is not squarely placed on my shoulders; a weight that our Creator is all too happy to let me bear. Tell me that I look at peace. That holding you right now is not the most euphoric state I have ever been in.”

A crimson blush spread across my ivory skin. I knew exactly what his euphoric state looked and felt like. I didn’t see it now, but I felt the power in his words. I felt him telling me that I was his now and forevermore.

I reached for his beautiful face and pulled him to me. My lips grasped his, and as our kiss grew deeper he held me against him, allowing his hands to move across me, clearly assuring himself I was really there. Before the hum of his energy could blind my thoughts, I pulled away from his hungry touch. “He would not give you more than you can bear. Speak to me. Tell me what they have done to you. To us.”

He pulled me firmly against him, and in that moment we vanished, only to manifest outside of a pair of regal, golden doors. “You need to be fed.”

I glanced up at the angelic structure of the building and felt the vibration of bliss in the air. This was a place of worship, or something close to it.

“No, I will not invoke an emotion here. I will not return, only to fall back into habits that are clearly outdated and evil at their core.”

“Glory,” he whispered with that velvet voice of his. “We are still within the temporal realm. No emotion is needed for you to invoke, for they give such an energy freely.”

I lifted a brow as I felt the bliss of the air. Like all bliss, there was pain within the energy, sacrifice and hardship, but that didn’t matter; these souls had risen above those damaging emotions, and for this moment, they were in bliss.

“I listened to you,” he said tenderly. “I heard your raging words over and over in my thoughts. I saw the face of our Creator, the peace He wanted us to bring to the human souls, the agony we were invoking in His absence. I knew there had to be a middle ground. There had to be answers that anger was masking.”

The golden doors that stretched hundreds of feet in the air opened, and a rush of energy pushed my long hair off my bare shoulders. Warm chills eased across my skin, but before I could clearly feel them Vade held out a light jacket that he’d manifested. I pushed my arms through the soft material. Slowly, he adjusted the collar before he buttoned each of the large round buttons. With one swift move, he tied the belt around my waist then clenched his hands around my hips. “You’re cold because you’re famished. Because you have not immersed your soul in all that is divine.”

“What is this place?” I asked gently, knowing that I was not cold, not with him this close to me. Yet I welcomed the care he always provided for my every need.

A ghostly smile echoed on the corners of his lips. “A temporal realm…when souls engage with their gifts, they ascend to this place, they give all that they are freely, they take all that they need freely. It is a balanced meeting ground.”

I glanced forward into the vast dark room before me. “Is this the new Realm? Is this the place where we help them now?”

His pain took over his grin. “No, this is where they help us, where they help everyone.”

Vade reached for my hand and gently urged me forward. With my next step, I heard a violin. It was not alone; others fell gently into place, as did a piano, then horns. A full symphony began to serenade the air.

The doors behind us closed slowly and before me darkness still reigned, yet I could sense the souls of others. Their essence, as always, was beautiful.

“You can see them if you wish,” Vade said as he squeezed my hand tenderly. “Their energy will shape their corporeal beings.”

As soon as he said that, it was if someone were slowly turning the lights up in the massive hall.

I could see them, a vast orchestra, instruments and their beings as far as the eye could see. The space around was most varied. I could see Earthly chapels and theaters just as clearly as I could see their homes, fields, anywhere they chose to craft this gift their Creator had given them.

I refused to breath in, to accept something this divine. My purpose was to take what they could not bear, not take what was precious to their souls.

A few steps further, a massive choir began to sing; the men first, the women following delicately. As they embraced each word that left their lips, I felt the male voices vibrate deep within my soul and heard the angelic sounds of the women whisper to my thoughts. As with the orchestra, the space around their images varied, displaying for us exactly where they were at this moment in the corporeal world.

I wondered if they knew, if they felt this where they stood. If they were aware that their souls were reaching up and they were meeting in this sacred place, that together they were displaying a power that any sovereign could only dream of harnessing.

Among the voices of the souls and the majestic instruments, there were others; dancers, artists, every creative experience was laid out before me.

“Breathe in, Glory,” Vade said to me as he pulled me in front and allowed me to lean against him and gaze up at the wondrous sights surrounding us. They seemed to go on for an eternity in each direction.

“This belongs to them?” I replied humbly.

His arms tightened around me. “You give them power when you accept the gifts within them. They know when they are heard, felt, and seen…they will feel your grace, your divine approval, and they will create more energy, and that energy will be even more pure than what is in the air at this very moment.”

That was impossible. I was sure of it. Nothing could be more divine than witnessing this many souls across so many dimensions embracing their righteous gifts.

When the choir of children began to sing, I knew that thought was wrong. The air was laced with their innocence. The harmony, the beautiful sound that escaped their souls was so stunning that it was painful.

I felt Vade’s lips against my neck. “Breathe, my adored. Breathe in this power.”

It was not his words but his warm breath that forced a gasp I never would have volunteered. With that sharp inhale of air, my soul was charged, the beauty of each instrument; each voice swam through my being.

Unlike the Escorts’ energy I’d taken for eons, this energy was instant. Like a raging flood, it swarmed through my being, washing away the dullness that vacant time could manifest. It was a warm rush that I felt electrify my soul. I’d never consumed something so precious. I’d never felt this satisfied.

Numb, humming from within, I began to sway, but he held me tightly against him.

“That’s it, my adored, once more.”

At this point, I wasn’t sure if it was hearing him call me his adored or the energy in the room that was searing my soul with utter bliss, but I knew I felt a heavenly power beaming from within. I knew that the auburn laced with green had left my eyes and that right now I was glowing from my core, that the glow was now seen in my honey eyes.

As if the souls in this room knew they had been heard, they pushed more energy into their gifts. The symphony harmonized perfectly with the voices of the choir, the dancers shaped the sound beautifully with every angelic movement of their vessels, the artists manifested images that were of pure bliss; they were all ushering their gifts into a perfect harmony to nourish me.

I closed my eyes, focusing on the angelic voices of the children, souls that my kind are rarely called to relieve; they live in peace, and knowing that I was standing this close to those precious souls was almost more than I could handle.

Vade let his voice fall into place with the others. Though it was just a whisper against my skin, it was so powerful that my focus shifted; his voice, the hum of his skin, and the regal authority that he always had, pulled me closer, dared me to see the side of him that no other soul had, the giving, compassionate, soul that he was.

He leaned his shoulder back, allowing my head to shift just enough for his lips to find mine once more. His kiss was deep and powerful, laced with the commanding flavor of mint. He released my lips just as quickly as he claimed them. He was a brilliant spirit. I knew he was purposely causing me to gasp, causing me to pull in more energy than I would have if I were given the opportunity to abstain.

The power swarmed within my core. I felt an awakening. For an instant, I would swear to you that I had no idea what the emotion of wrath or anger felt like, that I had no idea what any of the other sovereigns’ emotions felt like. I would swear to you that all of existence was euphoric. At this moment, I felt more powerful than when my Creator retrieved me from death, more powerful than when my reign was established, my First was created… almost more powerful than the first time I felt Vade’s rush.

The room didn’t weaken as I took all I needed and more; it intensified, the souls gave more, as if their gifts were endless, as if noticing and appreciating them were vital for them to rise to the next level of their existence.

How could that even be possible?

“There is more to see, my adored,” Vade murmured as he urged me to walk forward.

Chapter Six

I began to gain my senses as I stepped forward away from the energy source that had provided for me so abundantly. I felt like the sovereign I once was, powerful and deadly. I remembered that I was furious that I had been hidden in death and now war was engulfing the world I’d left behind.

Carefully, I began to arrange my arguments in my mind. I knew Vade had had eons to shape his point of view, and I would only have an instant to rebut them.

If that power I was just immersed in existed, why was there a war? In fact, was there even a need for my kind in the first place? Maybe that is what this was all about: our Creator had no need for the role our souls were meant to play. Maybe that is why lines were crossing. But that didn’t explain the wars in The Realm, the dead I saw trapped, or why I’d had to be cloaked to escape my sentence of death.

The voices grew silent, as did the music, and in the darkness we moved forward. I knew that Vade had progressed us from one place to another. Manifesting with Vade into new rooms was always gracefully done, sometimes so gracefully that it took you a moment to realize you’d gone from one place to the next. The only reason I was aware that he had moved us was that I sensed my First, along with his line…and of course the ghostly essence of mine. We were at the mansion but in a room that I had never seen.

Out of the vast darkness, a small candle came to life in Vade’s hand.

Curiously, I glanced to my side at him. A candle was a rather weak display of any essence of his power.

He turned to face me as he raised the candle so the glow of this simple light revealed each of our faces.

“Each day I came here,” he began in that sensual voice of his, “I let your memory move through my being.” His eyes moved across my confused expression. “I remembered every word you ever spoke to me…every touch of your skin…of your soul. I held that memory and drew power from it. I dreamed of this day…one candle.” He glanced down to the innocent white candle in his hand. “I lit one candle for each day we were apart.”

And with those words, light came. For as far as the eye could see in every direction, there were candles lying across the floor. And within the thin line of smoke they produced, I saw my image, I saw his memories of us.

A sharp pull of air was the only response I could fathom.

The first time I looked into Vade’s eyes from my deathbed, I felt a rush. A young, girlish rush. When I became clearly aware of who he was, the power he had, I pushed my girlish ways deep down and forced myself not to reveal what he was to me. I thought if I did, he would find me unworthy, a lowly human girl his Creator had taken mercy upon. I wanted him to see me as fierce, respect me as much as, if not more than, his fellow kings.

In the images around me, in my eyes I recognized that girl I tried to hide. She was there when my eyes followed every move of his godly body, when I shyly tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear, when my ivory skin would blush for an instant when he spoke the simplest words.

The images revealed something new to me, though. They allowed me to see Vade in a new light. As I watched the smoke images in utter astonishment, the ones with the two of us did not show a king holding me; they showed a boy, a boy whose eyes could never find a reason to stray from my body, a boy who would blush when I whispered sweet nothings into his ear as he held me. A boy that was just as addicted to me as I was to him.

“You were never forgotten. I worshiped your memory. As did my entire line.” His velvet voice caressed every word.

His hand carefully sent the candle on its way, and it floated across the room and settled next to billions and billions that were just like it. Only this line of smoke, the memory it revealed, showed him holding me through my last storm, showed his lips framing mine. The forced control that he reigned in as my storm poured out of my soul. They showed the ache in his eyes when my energy questioned his loyalty.

Vade’s hand was cradling my face in the next pulse of my soul. As the hum of his flesh swarmed through me, he leaned his forehead against mine. His fingertips traced my bottom lip. Painfully, slowly, he spoke the words I yearned to hear. “You are my rush.” The scent of roses reached out for me.

My knees gave way, only for him to catch me. A fever flashed across my skin before coring itself within my soul.

“If you have forgotten, my adored, I will wait for you to remember. I will never forsake a gift as precious as your soul,” he said as his eyes tenderly rained down on me.

Those stubborn tears encased my eyes once more.

I had infinite power within my soul, but at this moment it was barely enough for me to shape the words of my next confession. “Every thought, every breath, you were within. I never forgot you. I waited, from moon to moon. I waited for you to have your vengeance and bring me home.” The girl I was deep inside had been revealed. She openly told him that, though she could have found her way home, she waited. She waited for him to prove his devotion, and time had soured who that girl once was.

Apparently, those words were just as painful to hear as they were to say. Agony echoed in that diamond stare of his.

The girl deep inside was finding her stride, her voice. She was coming to life just in time for me to find the will to take away that pain I could see in his eyes. “Rush, fever. You are more than both.”

He smiled. Oh, that smile; it could light the world if he would let it—if he would let anyone beyond me see it.

An old fear, the one I had gone to war with over and over, surfaced. In my mind, moments like this are always fleeting. So fleeting that it was painful to enjoy them simply because I knew they were numbered.

I glanced away to catch a glimpse of the masses of candles; to the images the smoke was creating. “I will have to return to the Reaper. He told me my stay was measured by my words.” My eyes found his once more. “We both know that my words and deeds will be laced with wrath. That my time here is not unlimited…it is near nonexistent. A dream we will look upon for eons to come.”

When his lips feverishly claimed mine, it was hard for me to tell if he agreed or not. I was sick of holding back, fighting the rush his soul gave mine. I reached my arms around his shoulders just after the coat I was wearing found its way off my body.

Hungrily, my hands moved across his shoulders, his chest, letting the scent of fresh cut roses course from my being. As he returned that essence to me all the more powerfully, we were basking in the sweet aroma of a feverous rush.

We were quenching an undying thirst for one another.

My flesh was aching for him. I felt starved for this. The bliss was near painful. There was so much emotion in every movement of our embrace that I felt my soul quake.

Before I could even gasp, we were lying across a bed that had manifested in this room. Surrounded by silence and candlelight, we explored what belonged to each of us.

Every girl remembers her first, the first soul that seized every emotion within her…the one that took her precious innocence and replaced it with an emotion that changed everything she knew about the world around her.

With time, those girls become women, and they embrace their last with a force that has grown with time and experience. Vade and I were each other’s first, last, only, and knowing that—knowing that the rush between us was so sacred that it could never be shared with another—was more than empowering. It was a regal sensation that we had never once taken advantage of. At least we would not take advantage of that in this moment.

Gradually, with care, the clothes that bound our bodies were released. Skin-to-skin, soul-to-soul; that was our destination. But we had waited too long for this moment to be anything but slow and deliberate. Once a new part of our bodies was exposed, we took the time to kiss the warm skin sensually that was hidden before. I could tell it was killing him to hold back, to be tender, that his embrace was just as greedy as mine. It was painful, but I have never felt such a glorious aching in my life.

Passion is called a fever for a reason. The heat comes from within—the craving is unmistakable. It burns. A divine pain that most would kill to feel endlessly. Your very being is on fire, and it craves the one that created that heat. It fights to get closer to that source, yet at the same time it caresses and calls gently to its other. For if the pure fever were released suddenly, it would nearly destroy the souls. It was just that powerful. An addictive, potent lust.

I sighed as his lips moved across my skin, which was no longer translucent, but now glowing against the candlelight. As I felt his powerful hands embrace my flesh, the ache in his every movement dared me to believe that he feared I was a dream, an illusion his mind had created to appease him.

They call it a rush for a reason, too. A rush is felt in moments like this for almost any soul, but once an Escort claims a rush they feel this emotion near constantly, most definitely when they are in the presence of the one who created such an emotion.

Escorts are in tune with emotions, to every movement of the vessel. Naturally, they know exactly what to say, where to touch, where to caress, and where to kiss to bring forth an even more intense fever. The goal is to pull as much passion as the other soul can give—which is near infinite.

The soul’s essence rushes to the skin, to the waiting vessel of our other. Once that energy is connected, every movement and every touch is electrified to a point where breath and thought are near impossible. A rush is defined and produced when souls are connected. True rushes, rushes that are everlasting, are felt long before the first touch; they are felt at first glance.

The power that an Escort gives its adored is unmatched by any other race. A regal fever accompanied by a rush would last through several moonrises. It is intense and consuming. And if we had any sense at all, we would never leave this state.

Though the movement of the vessel was blissful, enticing, it was nothing compared to the energy that a rush creates within the soul. Each soul is raised to an enraptured state.

Rapture was the state I was in when Vade’s thoughts began to connect with mine. At first I saw this moment. We were reading each other’s desires and honoring them, but as time moved, as I felt the emotions of his touch, I reached deeper into his thoughts. I had to know who had crossed him, who had forced his hand to keep us apart. Who was hurting our kingdom.

He was careful to guard his deepest trepidation, but I could see flashes in my mind’s eye. I saw the moment he was told of my execution. The raging storm that nearly ended creation below us. I saw him call a council of kings and demand that Xavier accept his challenge to a duel. Like a coward, Xavier denied him.

Vade assured Xavier that his demise had been forecasted, but before Vade could strike him he saw something in Xavier’s eyes, something that caused him to smile coolly and to step back and listen to the other kings. What Vade saw, I could not fathom.

The kings openly stated that because I could be destroyed without any fury from our Creator that I was not a sovereign; that in order for me to die my line would have had to have perished first, not be released. They claimed I was a toy sent to appease the mighty king of anger for the time being, that I was a distraction and now that The Realm had claimed me, that Vade should see things clearly, that he should rise and command his line to invoke the emotions we all needed so desperately to survive.

Wrath and anger poured through me as I saw this in his thoughts. Sensing that emotion, Vade’s lips and hands found a new way to distract me.  He wanted me in that moment with him. I wanted to be there, too, but the thing is, Vade would never reveal any worry to me, so this was my only way of figuring out clearly what had happened when I was gone.

I engaged the passion he was drowning me in, took control for a moment or two, playfully pinning his strong arms so I could feather kisses across his flesh. That always drove him mad with passion, leading him to fight for control once more. I let him have the control he asked for, let him carry me to a new high.

Once I caught my breath, I dove back into his thoughts, finding the moment I left behind.

The council of kings was something rarely called into place, but when it was, it was by no small feat. Each sat on a throne, gloriously spaced inside of a golden oval room, with the exception of mine and Vade’s, which were side by side. Because he was the king of anger—the one emotion that resided in every emotion—his chair was higher, slightly above the others.

Something happened as the other kings stated their case. Vade’s eyes drifted behind them. In his thoughts, I could only see a blinding light with sky blue eyes within its essence. Our Creator.

If the Creator was not speaking clearly to you, you would not sense Him. That was just how He worked. Plain and simple.

Though all of His children, with the exception of me, were in that room, Vade was the only one that sensed Him, saw Him. And because his gaze never moved, the other kings had no reason to know that the favored king was receiving a sweet revelation from our Creator. They simply thought that Vade was listening to them, that he was silently agreeing with their arguments.

Idiots. You do not cross the King of Anger without some form of retaliation, and that revenge would be just like the king that would deliver it: cool, flawlessly designed, and everlasting.

“Be with me now,” Vade whispered to me, asking me to leave his thoughts be and surrender everything to him.

He’d caught me lurking in his mind again. I felt like a bad lover, that I was hurting him right now. I could not let that happen.

I shelved the sovereign I was and let the girl deep inside rise.

My eyes connected with his, fire to ice. He held my stare as the rhythm of passion carried us away. He wanted my mind, body, and soul at this moment, and I granted him that request.

Breathlessly, we lay side by side. A beat later, his energy had pulled me against him once more. As I lay on his powerful chest and gazed at the endless candles, I tried to understand what thoughts I had seen of Vade’s. I still did not understand why he’d waited so long to come for me. Had he forgotten how beautiful what we had was, how we both allowed the other not to be a sovereign in each other’s arms? That together we could be real, we could let our true selves rise without judgment?

My fingertips traced the defined muscles of his stomach as my thoughts raced in various directions. I’d never shown it before, but I often let what the other kings thought of me tangle with my emotions. I was the last to believe that I was one of them. I knew that it was a dangerous claim. I was content to have risen from death, to be at Vade’s side. But Vade was not. He claimed I was a queen long before Mazing called out to me. Long before any of the other kings even considered me to be more than a passing thought.

I once thought that Vade gave me the reign of wrath just so I could use it against the other kings. But he calmly told me that the most efficient way to retaliate against them was to prove them wrong. To create my own success on the word-laced daggers that were thrown at me.

“What did He say to you?” I murmured.

I felt Vade’s powerful arm tighten around me. When he gave me no answer to what the Creator had revealed or spoken to him that day, I moved my head back so I could stare up at him.

He was gazing into the glow the candles were creating around us. “Vade,” I whispered.

He sighed deeply as his glowing eyes drifted down to me. “He said that…that it would never be the same. That my fellow kings would be overthrown.”

“I suppose He was wrong about that,” I said as I furrowed my brow and silently questioned how intense his stare was.

“He is eternal. Nothing is instant with Him.”

“But you believe their demise will come?”

“I believed the reason the Creator gave me for them to be overthrown,” Vade said under his breath.

“Power? They would charge The Fall and fail?” I assumed aloud.

Vade’s intense stare told me The Fall was not even in his thoughts at that moment. “Do you remember our last bloom?” he whispered gently as his fingertips caressed the long strands of my hair, which was resting on my shoulders.

Blooms were not the same for us as other Escorts—we are sovereigns. It did not take two to create one or extend the line; it took one. Our energy would rush from our souls and define two separate lines.

Much like what just occurred between us.

Before this night, our last bloom had been moments before our last fight, mere hours before my death. “I released the line before that energy could have found hosts,” I assured him, looking away from his stare as I held myself up on one arm.

I doubted he knew everything that occurred when I’d approached Xavier’s throne, that Xavier had asked me to be his adored for a millennium—I doubt Vade would have bothered with a call to the kings if he did.

“You released the line whilst my energy was still entangled within yours.” His hypnotic voice displayed a painful anger that caused my eyes to meet his once again.

“You lost a part of your line that day?” I whispered.

His stare told me that he had. Beyond losing me, losing his mist, future Escorts of his line, would have been a tragedy. Vade’s energy was too powerful to be left unguarded. That was why Vade rarely had mists lurking in the real world. He assigned petals to watch over them, even as children. He guarded his essence closely, dearly. So much so that more than once Escorts from other lines had asked to be claimed by him.

The ache in his stare screamed a yes to me.

“How many?”  I stated as my skin turned crimson with rage.

Xavier’s punishment did not fit the crime my First had committed.

Vade raised his other hand and let his long fingertips massage his eyes, which were now closed, a tell that told me that right now words were too hard for him to grasp.

I felt horrid. I caused that. If I had just swallowed my pride and told him my First was at risk of death, that war had been declared—this could have all been avoided, at least delayed long enough for his mist to be unraveled from my energy. It was bad enough that we’d been apart this long, that my entire line was sacrificed. This, this was salt in a wound that would never close for either of us.

“Tell me,” I pleaded sorrowfully. I had to know.

“A few,” he murmured as his hand fell from his eyes and he adjusted how he was lying on the satin pillows below him.

A few could be in the thousands, so that didn’t give me an answer. I was reading his rigid body movement. The anger that was settled beneath his pristine skin. It wasn’t aimed at me. Real anger, anger without passion, had never been cast at me from his essence. I knew that he was grieving deeply for the souls he’d lost.

I didn’t even realize that his energy was released with mine that fateful day. We had just passed an eternity cycle, a point marked in corporeal time as four million, three hundred two years. It is the point that the stars return to their beginning.

It is also the only point in time that Vade extends his line. Sounds like a massive amount of time, a span of time that would barely allow any of us to have more than a few souls in our line. But time is not measured the same in our realm of life. We rarely perceive it at all. But if I were forced to explain the length of time to a mortal soul, I would say the cycle comes around for us as often as a new moon comes to the heavens.

Every chance I had, cycle or not, I sent my energy out.

The only reason for Vade to send out his energy outside of a cycle would be to create Fated Escorts, souls that had the power to rise quickly. Something he had talked about often but had never dared to try.

Though I had never witnessed the creation of a Fated Escort, I believed they were indeed possible.

Fated Escorts, by all accounts, are regal. Old souls that knew that anger was a gift and used it for change. They understood the balance of the emotion. How it could equally create and destroy. These beings would have an instant pull to them. Masses would find an undeniable attraction in their magnetic stare, in the essence of their energy. They would serve as ambassadors for our kind. One of them, in a carefully chosen dimension, could sway the entire mood of the world, and in turn the universe.

Their cravings to relieve or express emotion would haunt them, but they would not feel the need to feed for lifetimes, that is, unless they accidently tasted the power of raw energy. They wouldn’t, though. Vade was too fierce a leader to let anything happen to those he led.

“Could you sense if they were Fated? Did I take that from you?” I asked in a meek whisper.

He let out a sigh as he rolled to his side to face me. I let my arm fall and pulled my pillow closer to my neck so I would be level with that diamond stare of his.

There was something in his stare that told me they were more than that. I had a horrible feeling that I had taken more than Fated souls from him.

I cringed as I recalled another dream of Vade’s. One that he had only shared with me. To create an Escort with both light and dark energy. To create metallic energy.

Vade wished this for a very simple reason: he wanted peace. He wanted mortal souls to be powerful enough to rise above the emotions that chain them. He never came out and said it, but I think he intended for his Fated to rise with unheard of metallic energy. In Vade’s mind, if that were to occur then the other kings could invoke dark emotions all they wanted, but the souls would rise. In effect, we would return to our given charge without war, without the loss of life.

Even though I believed metallic energy to be impossible, the thought that I had hindered him from, at the very least, disproving himself was overwhelming.

“They are Fated,” he said as he reached to caress my lips.

“Are,” I repeated with wide eyes.

He leaned in and let his humming lips caress mine. “Are,” he breathed against my skin.

I smiled, thinking that maybe that was why I was freed today: his ambassadors were restoring our race, and any threat to me had vanished. “Congratulations, your majesty.”

I felt him tense and questioned him with my eyes. When he offered no answer, I pressed him for one. “What?”

“They were stolen,” he said as his pristine eyes became drowned with anger.

“By whom?” I asked as I rose fiercely from the bed. With little effort, he pulled me back to his embrace.

“By several,” he responded as his fingertips traced across my brow in an attempt to wipe away my anger.

“Why are you calm? Why are you not out destroying every single line that has crossed you!”

The hum within his skin intensified as he eased his hand down my shoulders and along my waist before pulling me against him.

“Glory, it is a very complex problem.”

“No, it’s not. They stole what belonged to you, and they will return them.”

“My adored, they have taken so much more from you…they have declared war, they have signed their death warrant.”

Chapter Seven

I had never heard words so fiercely spoken in that classic seductive tone of his. They were so powerful that I felt myself quiver. Not understanding the response of my vessel, Vade pulled me closer to his humming skin.

“You will be avenged. I swear to you.”

“I don’t understand what they could have taken from me. You are in my arms, Mazing is within this mansion, and I released my line.”

His brow furrowed for an instant, then he gained control over the emotions he was clearly fighting.

“You cannot release a line completely, not in the way you assumed. They were freed from you, they were blinded from your existence, but their cravings and desires remained. They ached to be claimed by anyone that would explain their purpose to them.”

My breath stopped. The very pulse of my soul stopped. “Are you telling me that my line exists still? That another sovereign is ruling them now?” Before I could rise with well-deserved fury, his powerful arms flexed around me.

“Yes. And that sovereign will release them to you the moment we decide that we no longer want to be in this room which, for me, is not this one or the one after.”

“Who?” I breathed, feeling agony. I’d always imagined my line living out lives of peace. I admit in the back of my mind I searched for them in the procession of death, for I knew their souls would not understand why death had come for them, that they would seek a stay from the Reaper. I never saw a single one of them. Never even came close to sensing the essence that I would know as well as my own breath.

Knowing that they were harmed while I was imprisoned was more than I could handle. It also meant that I had every right to go after Xavier–two wrongs do not create a right. He’d breached our agreement, or rather allowed me to make an agreement that had no merit.

A smile reflected in that diamond stare of Vade’s. “I found them all, claimed each by name. Rasp called them home the moment you stepped foot within these walls.” A slow, sweet smile infused with an amber blush enveloped  his visage. “Do you feel them, Glory?” he whispered.

Every lean muscle in my body relaxed as I breathed in. I felt them. I’d felt them long before this moment, but I assumed it was their ghostly memories. “You did that for me.” That young girl deep inside was speaking now. It was as if he had arrived at my doorstep with endless roses.

“Would you have expected any less from your rush?” he questioned as he gently tensed his brow, so much so that his luscious eyelashes nearly masked his eyes.

Those words made me smile, like the girl I was deep down in my soul.

All exaltation is short-lived, as this exaltation I was feeling surely was. “So are you avenging the kings for taking my line from me?” I asked in a disbelieving tone. That wasn’t Vade’s style. If the matter were resolved, then he would cause no further turmoil.

“No,” he said in a near whisper. “I’m avenging your mist…as well as mine.”

“What else are you avenging, Vade?” I asked nervously, not recognizing the cold look in his eyes.

“In time, I will tell you,” he murmured.

“Tell me now,” I demanded.

“I cannot and I will not right now. You have a line to claim…we have a web of misted souls to untangle.”

“A web? I did not call my mist. They were not accepted into this life—how could anyone claim my mist or yours? Tell me what I do not understand.”

His jaw tightened as a rage-filled emotion rippled across his image. “They planned your downfall for eons. Every move was precisely calculated and meticulously orchestrated and carried out.”

Wrath was swarming through my being. “How was my First’s betrayal planned?”

Slowly, his eyes appraised my image. “Tell me this: if Colton were a true First, would Xavier have executed him?”

“He did what!” I couldn’t have heard him right.

Vade cocked one eyebrow to push his point. “Xavier ripped Colton’s energy into shreds moments before you appeared at his throne.”

“Who would do that to their First?” That was foolish. Anyone with any sense would have claimed that energy, at least part of it, as their own to grow their line. And the king who did it would be so weak that he would not be able to stop it from occurring.

“No one.”

“So why did he?”

“I doubt Colton was Xavier’s First. I think Colton was a ploy.”

“Were you not there when his First was claimed?”

The reserved look in his eyes told me that he did not wish to speak of the king’s beginning, and that was fine by me. I knew the past between him and the others had been troubled for a while. I just needed to understand what the hell he was trying to tell me.

“No. That surprised none of us. He is the king of shock. Hiding his true First is not an ostentatious idea. I fear his real First will never be clearly seen by any of us.”

“So he had us all believe that Colton was his First, declared that he would be coupled with a petal—from another line, mind you—and then he felt validated to execute my First, along with me?”

“What?” Vade hissed as he rose up on his powerful arm and every part of him tensed.

“Cadence. Or whatever her name was or is now—she was from Fielder’s reign. Mazing told me that she reeks of lilies. That she taunted her. Mazing also stated that the scent of that Creator-forsaken petal was on the first level of The Realm when we returned today.”

Vade’s anger rippled through the room, and you could feel the electric charge vibrate around us. The candles responded, flaring up for an instant, but like always he found his control and the flames settled.

“You didn’t know that?” I asked in pure bewilderment.

“No, but it makes sense.”

“How does this make any sense? Why would they cross their lines? Do they not realize that an act like that will produce Escorts with a hunger for both emotions, and that hunger will send us further down this twisted path that is nothing like the charge we were given?”

“They were not trying to cross their lines. They were trying to end ours,” he stated disdainfully.

“I—what?” Who would dare to counter Vade? I doubted all of them combined had the courage to do that. That is, unless those low-lying, soulless kings were clever enough to make the assault seem self-inflected. The fact that I was the one that disbursed my line, not them, was pointing to that course of thought.

“I have no idea when this began. For all I know, it was the moment the Creator took me to your human deathbed. All I know is this: Colton was not Xavier’s First. His true First remains hidden from each of us. You released your line, set your energy free along with not only your mist, but also mine. Our lines drifted, and the kings we served with had every right to reach out to them, to pull them under their reign.”

“How would taking them from us bring you down?”

It didn’t make sense to me. If you wanted to hurt Vade or me, the most efficient way would be to take out our Firsts, Mazing and Rasp.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “The mist, from each of us, created Fated Escorts.”

“Both?” I gasped.

He nodded once. “Both. The Creator came to me. He told me under what alignment to send our energy out.”

“And you decided not to tell me this?” Fated Escorts. I had Fated Escorts. That was like having a First all over again. Unbelievable!

“I did in my own way,” he said as he lay down and stared at the glow around us.

“Exactly how did you tell me?” I bit out as I rose and wrapped the sheet around me.

“I told you that you needed to be nourished, that your energy had no choice but to be strong.”

“You told me that because we were not invoking emotions, because we were finding energy in nature or any other natural source, not because the Creator had spoken to you,” I argued.

“You heard what you wanted to,” he said under his breath.

That was his classic line. The King of Anger knew all too well that you cannot listen or see the manifestations of life when you are enraged.

“You know what? Sometimes it’s better to just be blunt. Would it have killed you to tell me that before our fight became laced with fury?”

“I cannot tell you what to hear or what to see. It was clearly explained to me that you see life the way you are meant to. That you are not me. That you are under no one’s control. You heard what you wanted to—and in that fight, you declared that you did not need me to tell you how to care for your line.”

“Do you really want to relive that fight? Right now? We can. I’m sure I have it memorized.”

“No,” he stated flatly as he reached for my arm and let his fingertips send a powerful hum straight to my core, causing my toes to curl. Thankfully, I was strong enough to hold in the sigh that wanted out, the urge to seize his rush once more and let these revelations come to light in a delayed fashion.

“I assumed that you knew something that I did not, that the Creator had spoken to you as well. That you were seeking a new source of energy for your mist. I was overprotective. I’ll give you that.” He glanced at my dark auburn hair which was resting against my ivory skin. His eyes grew distant as a thought took him far from this room for an instant. “Still am.”

I reached into his essence, searching for that thought, what would cause that fierce protectiveness wrapped in tenderness to come to light, but he was valiantly shielding it from me.

All I could do was stare at him as I heard that last fight in my mind. During that fight, he was viciously overprotective. You would have thought that my essence was his. In the past, he had guided me, let me find my own way. Not that day. He was demanding for the first time ever with me. Even now I didn’t understand his actions, and clearly he was not ready to explain them to me, which wasn’t odd; our Creator works mysteriously. He will tell you of your course but strip your words from you. Even when asked, you cannot clearly explain what you are doing or why. Until now, I’d always seen that as a precious gift. If you did not speak your path aloud, then there was no one to talk you out of it. No one to put damning thoughts into your mind.

“Who has our mist? Can we still claim them? Is that why you delayed coming for me? Were you trying to right all the wrongs first?” He offered no quick answer. “Can you at least tell me how the kings taking our mist would hurt you?”

“Us,” he stated contemptuously.

“Okay, us. You’re guarding your intentions and thoughts from me, Vade. You are going to have to use words.”

He stretched his shoulders wide as he took in a deep breath, finally allowing his eyes to meet mine again. “Our energy is entangled. I would dare say it was from the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

“I knew that,” I murmured, failing to hide a crimson blush.

The scent of roses left his skin at that moment. For some reason, it always amazed him that I adored him as he did me. Which was foolish, he was the king, the favored king at that. Even though I never saw him that way. I always saw a boy that had claimed my soul. It was still humbling to think that he would find my emotions for him hard to believe.

“The only way for a line to be properly disbursed is for it to die from the ground up. It can only perish if the sovereign ends each by their own hand.”

“In hindsight, that makes sense,” I said, clenching my jaw.

“Everything is clear in hindsight,” he said. “The only other way for a line to be destroyed is if the line is at war, civil war, if marked petals or Fated Escorts fight to the death.”

“And neither of our lines would do such a thing,” I offered, knowing that we were seen as the kindest sovereigns, ones that had never forsaken one soul under our watch.

“At first glance, no, but if our Fated Escorts were taken as mists, raised by another sovereign, blind to their regal essence, then set on a course where they had no choice but to end each other, it could occur…it will occur.”

“Our mists are at war?” I gasped.

“A war of hearts, it seems.”

The only way to stop any war of hearts was for the sovereign to end those who were raging against each other. These wars rarely occurred because our lines knew we had such a power, that without notice or reason they would perish with a thought from us. That is why they never occurred. Yet, if Vade’s mist and mine were blind to us, they would not know of such a risk.

Vade had the same weakness I had; he could not strike anyone in my line without seeing my image. He knew I would feel the pain, and pain was something he would never volunteer to let me feel which meant if my mist were at war with his, there was only one way to end it: each of us would have to end the ones in our own line in order to save the others, to save our kingdoms.

Being torn into shreds and cast into the life of The Realm would be far less painful than ending one of the precious souls under our watch. The pain would be eternal, felt in our essences forevermore. Whether it was necessary or not, no one could get over ending something that was created from the core of our being.

“They are ours, though. I have been absent. If I go to them, claim them, and explain how they were played against each other, they will see. They will stop.”

I needed him to tell me that my words were true. It didn’t matter that I never knew the Fated. They were mine. They never should have known the evil they are surely fighting now.

Vade’s fingertips caressed my arm as he spoke. “I fear that the one that I am struggling with now will throw down his own life if he is made aware of his true heritage…” He wrapped his hand around my arm tightly, ensuring his hum was present before he continued. “He was claimed by no line, but as a Witness…at least that is how he has lived out his recent existence.”

A Witness. I was spellbound. I could not comprehend that one of mine could be claimed in such a manner.

The admiration that I saw in Vade’s eyes was terrifying right now. Did he see this as a promise that one day my energy could create the metallic energy he was searching for?

Witnesses were in a sense archangels. They lived like warriors for eons at a time. At their human death, they were offered a charge to protect darkness from invading pure light. And honestly right now, souls of pure light were the only ones that could lead us back to balance. The only ones that could open The Fall naturally.

The only issue was that Witnesses were established to fight the course that Donalt and Xavier were on. So, my dear mist, the one that was chosen to become a Witness, would surely despise what he sincerely was…in his mind, I was the same as Donalt and Xavier. I was sure of it.

“Why are you struggling with him?” I asked in a whisper, hoping against all hope that this mist of mine’s actions were not ones that couldn’t be forgiven.

“Well,” Vade breathed, “he is plotting to kill one of my Fated Escorts, actually more than one.”

“His reason?”

“Beyond that he thinks he is a Witness?”

“Your Fated Escorts would not be evil. They would be fighting the same as he.”

“Glory…life has changed in the corporeal realm.”

I swallowed nervously. “How so?”

His jaw clenched before he answered. “Donalt and Xavier have succeeded in not only extending their lines to a massive level, but in invoking harmful emotions…their mist are found early, given a taste of power, and told to seek out potential lights. The pair of them, Xavier and Donalt, are fools, though. Their lines have grown so massive that only half the mist even know what they truly are. Some even have a foolish idea that if they gain enough power, find a blinding light to subdue, that they can rule The Realm.”

“You’re not serious.” Had those kings lost their minds? The idea of all those lost mists, blind to the splendor of what they were meant to be, sickened my soul.

“Sadly, I am.”

“The war—the humans I sensed in The Realm—they are fighting us, assuming that we are all the same.”

He narrowed his eyes. “They are fighting against our fellow kings.” Clearly, he took ‘us’ out of my summary.

“Then we shall fight with them.”

That brought a ghost of a smile to his face. My fearlessness often left him breathless. “When Xavier and Donalt assumed Earthly vessels, they assumed the consequences of such actions. Pure lights have fought the obvious misery they produce, in turn the kings retaliated. A web of intent, and blind deals were cast. And unfortunately, our lines are at the center of this battle.”

“I still do not understand how.”

“If they belong to us, you know their intentions were born pure, so pure that wholesome lights were attracted to them, claimed them. And in that claim there lies an unrest.”

“My head is spinning. Our Fated Escorts have coupled with human lights? Is that what you are saying? How could they?” I knew how dangerous it was for an Escort to have a fever for anyone beyond our kind.

“Our mist was in the wind. Donalt was the first to pull one of yours into his grasp. He could not openly claim her because he was in human form. Instead, he plotted to destroy her in corporeal form. But in that lifetime she was adored, and has been for each lifetime since then.”

Fear. That was Donalt’s reign. I could only imagine what she would have endured. Flames from the candles exploded, reaching the endless ceiling, mocking my rage.

Within a pulse of my soul, Vade was lying on top of me, pinning my arms above my head. The hum of his body, along with the scent of roses, caused the raging flames to fall to their subtle light. “She is fiercely protected,” he swore.

His mind played out what he knew of this Fated of mine for me at a slow, calculated pace.

Chapter Eight

Vade wanted me to know the story of all the Fated that belonged to us, their journey so far, but he needed me to focus on the one that was causing so much trouble presently. He knew I would not do that without knowing the others were somewhat safe now.

Before, when I sensed my line in the entry hall, I’d sensed one of my Fated and had no idea that I had. Vade had spoken to her, came to her aid when her back was against the wall, when both Donalt and Xavier chose to charge her in unison. Vade helped her save one of his Fated, and so much more.

Vade took her thoughts of him away so that she would be protected, so the other kings would not know that Vade was now aware and preparing to wage war against them along with our Fated.

I witnessed an admirable fight in those that bore our essence. No doubt there. They had been twisted against each other in the cruelest ways, but somehow they found their way to overcome.

I kept staring at the image of those that belonged to us; because they were Fated Escorts, they did not carry the same outward appearance as the current lines. Nature planned it that way, a weapon you could not see coming, but once they were upon you no doubt you would sense their sovereign within.

The tension in my body eased, letting Vade know that I was ready to hear of the one that belonged to me that was causing complications. I was ready to focus on him now that I knew the others were somewhat out of harm’s way at the moment.

“Whom of mine is harming one of yours? Who is threatening us all? Show me the one that believes he is a Witness.”

His image came to Vade’s thoughts instantly. I saw a valiant warrior. Golden eyes and hair, there was not a flaw in his image. He looked like a fallen angel. Silas. His name was Silas.

Vade loosened his grip on my arms and let his hand slide down the length of them before moving to lie beside me.

“Your Silas is opposing my Draven. In the most lethal way. You know as I do if a Fated of yours strikes my Fated, it will bring havoc, weaken us to the point where the other kings could overtake us.”

I searched Vade’s mind, discovering the war of hearts my Silas was engaging in. Silas and Draven were in a sense at war over a girl. Silas assumed Draven would harm this girl, Charlie, pull light energy from her. I suppose that was a risk, but the risk was put there by unworthy kings. The risk was put there so Silas would strike, so my and Vade’s line would weaken and we could be overtaken. It was one of many ploys against us. The other kings were using our children to destroy us, and the only way we could stop it was by destroying our children.

I felt sick, so sick. Who could plot something so evil? Only for the hope of gaining power?

“You understand the risk?” Vade asked me.

I did. All too well. “To stop the threat, I have to destroy the one that is causing turmoil,” I said as I closed my eyes and wished this vile revelation away.

“I’m afraid it very well could come to that,” he said with a heavy grief in his tone. “I don’t want it to come to that. Silas...Silas is special for more than the reason that he belongs to you or was risen as a Witness.”

“He is only seeking to destroy Escorts because he thinks they are evil. I can show him otherwise.”

“I certainly hope so, but you should know that his rage for my line will not be diminished with enlightenment. He feels he is fighting over someone he has claimed, over someone that has claimed him.”

Escorts were a bit territorial, obviously, but when it came to adoreds we were ruthless. No reason or law could stop us from retaliating. So basically, I had a fated Escort—born in my line of wrath—that felt that a Fated Escort—born in Vade’s line of anger—had taken his adored. And if that weren’t enough, he thought he was a Witness, and that more than likely he had been destroying souls cut from the very same cloth as he.

I cringed when those thoughts came to mind. With little effort, Vade had reached into my mind and read those beliefs clearly.

“He has not destroyed anyone from either of our lines. He has no reason to…but let me ensure you understand me clearly—our energy is one at this point. If he strikes any Escort in our line, we will both feel that blow. If he strikes a Fated Escort…he very well could end both lines with that one blow. If not an end, at the very least we will lose masses. The kings will make their move to take us down.”

I understood. All too well.

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. To any of the other sovereigns, this would be simple. Send out a thought to destroy said troublemaker and move on. But I was not any other sovereign…it was not his fault. He should be given the chance to see the course and consequences of his actions.

I rose from Vade’s arm and manifested the warrior clothes I had worn for eons. I was going to Silas’ side this instant. I could not let this risk dangle in the air any longer.

Vade was obviously not content to let me do just that. He pulled me back to his side once more. Gently, his hand caressed my long hair out of my eyes as he drank in every part of me.

“I feel your agony. I understand that the beautiful sovereign you are would leave your entire flock for one…that you have done so before. But you cannot do that now. You cannot risk the confrontation.”

“I’m not sending a deadly thought to him,” I bit out.

“And you will not roam this Realm alone,” he countered.

“Mazing will be at my side, as she has always been.”

That cold stubbornness came to his eyes. “I have held you for mere hours after our everlasting absence. I’m not letting you go, now or ever.”

Within an instant, I manifested beside the bed we were in and glared down at him. “I am not property. And if you feel that I am, then you are sorely mistaken.”

Matching my power, he manifested at my side, fully dressed. “And pray tell, why do you think I would consider you as such?” he asked sternly.

“Pray tell? You need me to do that? I have been imprisoned for lifetimes, and when I return I find that the line that I thought was forevermore gone, exists. Not only do they exist, but also I have Fated souls under my reign. The world I knew is gone. Our fellow kings ensured that. And now you are telling me that I can do nothing to avenge this—that there is some web of spells—that we must stand by and watch them blindly destroy themselves. Exactly why am I here now? Did you expect me to hear this and send a deadly thought to him, then bask in a rush with you like nothing happened? Like Silas doesn’t mean something to someone beyond me?”

“Glad to see that basking in an everlasting rush is not appealing to you.”

“Oh, stop it right now. Do not twist my words or even try to turn this into something that has to do with us.”

“This has everything to do with us!” He spoke his words so powerfully that I felt my being vibrate.

“You, my dear, sweet rush—you would not send one damned thought at your Fated Escorts—even if they destroyed the corporeal realm itself, you would let them be and smile with pride.”

“I would not!” he seethed  “Do you think that lowly of me? That I would knowingly let anyone in my line bring harm to you?”

“He has not brought harm to anyone. For all you know, they provoked him.”

“They did no such a thing. That was done by Xavier and Donalt, the pair of them.”

“Then you should be striking them, not demanding that I end one of my own!”

“Exactly when did I demand that you do such a thing!”

“How am I not seeing this clearly? You told me not to go him—not to leave my flock—not to roam this Realm now that you had me back. Why now, Vade? Go ahead and say it.”

He balled his fist and the room responded—the flames of the candles were well over my head at this point. “You must learn to listen.”

“How dare you!”

He raised his finger to stop my words. “I said listen—not listen to me. You are saturated with wrath right now, and you are choosing to hear what you want to, not what I said.”

Okay, so he had a point there. I offered a sharp nod to tell him to explain himself.

“I would never ask you to end any Escort of yours, especially a Fated one. Your Silas is guarding something precious to the pair of us. Something that I cannot speak of until our Creator deems fit. I know you will reach him, and I know if by some horrid circumstance you cannot, that our Creator will move what I deem precious out of harm’s way and together we will grieve for your loss—for the end you must bring to your Fated.”

I stepped forward, holding my glare firmly on him. “What is Silas guarding, Vade? What did the Creator show you the day I perished?”

He clenched his jaw.

“Why would He take your words? Why would He not allow you to speak of something that clearly involves me?”

“The both of us.”

“The both of us. Therefore, I should be well aware of what is, has, and will occur.”

“Then you need to take that up with the Creator,” he said as his eyes became hooded. Agony was exhausting him, an agony that I could not see.

I threw my hands in the air. “Do you think that I have not called out to Him daily—hourly? That I have not asked Him what I did to deserve such a hardship?”

“Are you telling me that you were hurt in the Veil? That the Reaper was cruel to you?” he bit out.

That was not a sarcastic comment. He was sincere. How could he not understand what I went through?

“I was hurt. You hurt me. I yearned for you. I yearned for the bliss of the life we had. For the kingdom we dreamed of. For the souls under my reign that I lost. The Reaper was gracious, as always, but my thoughts imprisoned me. I thought I was forgotten. And now I don’t know what to think.”

Misery filled his eyes. “We shared the same prison.”

“I didn’t see you there, and still do not understand why now. Why you waited.”

“I assure you, the reason is precious. That if you were aware of it, you would have not only endured the Veil with a smile on your face, but you would have gladly extended your stay…the kings had to think you were gone. We had to wait for corporeal time to move. We had to plot for this day, as they have plotted for theirs.”

“I should be aware of such plots. You and the Reaper have no words, and the Creator refuses to speak to me.”

“He is not refusing you. His silence teaches us just as much as His words. You know that.”

“Nothing could be worth this agony,” I said with utter disdain.

In that instant, I was in his arms. I didn’t fight to move away. One arm pulled me against him as his other hand gently held my face. The smell of roses filled the air. “Something is…I swear to you it is.”

I held in the tears I was too stubborn to let fall and nodded once before I reached for his face to pull him closer. “I trust you…but you have to trust me, too…Silas deserves a chance. They all do. If I have to drag them all here and draw them a map so they can see how they all connect, I will do so.”

“In time, they will know. I swear.”

“In this time,” I said as I looked away.

His hand urged my stare to return with a gentle turn of my chin. “In this time, yes. I only meant for you to see your line first. They have suffered with grief. Let them know you have returned, that you are there for them. They will help us with this feat.”

“I ache to see my line, and doing so before I reach out to Silas is a request I can honor, but I will not send them to tell this soul that he is mine.”

“I would never ask that.”

I was so confused. Did I imagine that argument we just had, or did I truly not hear him correctly?

“Rasp will be with you. I want to ensure Mazing is cloaked as well.”

“Why can you not tell me why my return must be masked?”

“I can tell you that.”

“You just said—”

He raised his brow, asking me to halt. “I told you that I could not tell you the purpose of our absence. As I said before, the other kings assume I know nothing of the mist they have taken. If you lash out now, we will fail. This is a massive web of souls that must be tenderly unwound.”

“I cannot leave them to face these kings alone.”

“They are not alone. Our Fated feel deeply.” He glanced away. “They are connected with lights—soul to soul.”

I gasped. “Explain.”

“We never claimed them. They fell for hearts that belong to pure lights. They speak the sacred word, for they feel it.”

His eyes poured into mine. I knew he was telling me that our fated could say that four letter word that began with an ‘L,’ and I could almost swear he envied them for that. But that was a foolish assumption. The King of Anger knew better than to even think of saying or feeling such a word.

“And because they speak it, I am more than sure that the kings are assuming them as weak—that the power we are will not rise within them. But they are fools. Our Fated are empowered by the emotion.”

My eyes were wide, full of shock. “Vade…are they metallic?”

He glanced away, shielding his eyes from me, hiding the answer I would see there, and his thoughts offered no answers either. “No...”

“They could create it, though. If they are truly adored by a light, then they could create what you have always dreamed of—couldn’t they?”

His jaw clenched and his body tensed. I didn’t understand—this is what he always wanted: souls perfectly balanced that could teach others to harbor pure emotions and rise above them. This desire of his was deep-seated and powerful, deep enough that I would do anything to give him this dream. It was the purest wish I’d ever heard, peace for souls that will never know that he even existed.

Our dark Fated Escorts coupled with pure lights could pull this off. I knew they could.

The rigged emotions Vade was at war with subsided and his body relaxed as his eyes returned to mine. “Souls that are connected on a divine level are capable of creating such a thing…a precious soul…a powerful soul that will symbolize everything we have ever dreamed of. With the symbol of that soul in place, our fellow kings would no longer be able to harvest the emotions they invoke, for those in our charge will have risen above them.”

We stared at each other for countless seconds. I had no idea what he was thinking, what he was hiding from me, but I could feel a mix of joy and apprehension in his essence.

Vade had always been a stoic being, but right now I was going to weather as much of this conflict as I could. I would go to my Fated and sway Silas to find peace. I would redeem the dead taken from the Reaper, and I would avenge my line. I was going to avenge the time that was stolen from me. And one way or another, I would find a way to give my rush his dream: Metallic Energy.

A moment later, Vade nodded gently in my direction. A warm rush surrounded me just as my warrior clothes vanished and the garments of a queen replaced them to adorn my ivory skin. A long satin dress with a wide skirt and lengthy train was now covering me. The deep crimson was the color my line represented. My long, deep red hair was pulled flawlessly back, revealing my bare shoulders.

Within Vade’s hand now was a precious jewel, the first material gift he had ever given me. It was a necklace made of diamonds, the large ones, outlining the constellation of Leo, the stars that were above me at my birth, death, and rebirth. It was the royal constellation, one that both Vade and I shared. The mark was clearly visible on both of our chests, above our hearts. He gave me this gift so that all could see it, for only his eyes had or ever would see the flesh where my natural mark rested.

Carefully, he stepped forward and clasped the precious necklace around my neck. “My Queen, your line awaits you.”

His hands slowly fell from my neck and slid down my arms. On my finger he placed another sacred gift from him, a ring made of rubies in the shape of a teardrop that failed to meet—that is, unless his hand, his ring, was next to mine; together, the rings displayed the symbol of eternity, the span of existence we had witnessed several times over together.

His royal attire manifested on his body in that instant, a pristine black suit marked with crimson and a white tie. He was breathtaking in any light, but when he prepared to stand before his line his image was so powerful that I often lost the will to breathe properly.

I didn’t know if I could do this, see them all. I knew if I did, I would see all that was at risk, which knowing my almighty rush…that was the point.

Chapter Nine

Assembling the lines in one location is rarely done. In my past reign, it was only done thrice. Once when I was said to be a sovereign, Vade’s line was the only one that assembled at that time. Obviously, the other kings had their reservations. At that assembly, Vade announced that I would rule wrath and rage and those under his reign would assist me in such a manner until my line was established. The second was when Mazing called out to me and was introduced to Vade’s kingdom as my First—that was a glorious night, one that the Creator Himself attended.

The third and final time was when I called my line forth and informed them that we would no longer embark on the journey that the other kings were charging. I told them that though their hunger was intensified, they would not invoke such emotions but find nourishment within natural sources of the universe. I urged them to reprieve the wrath of Mother Nature, to subdue the storms that would harm the souls under our watch. No one in any line would openly protest their sovereign, but we can sense their approval or the lack thereof. That day, not one of them opposed my declaration. They each knew how dangerous wrath was and that invoking emotion would destroy more than it would ever create. Even though we could very well be at risk of starvation, they openly welcomed the stance I had taken.

Vade had no need to ask his reign to do the same. Because the other kings were invoking fear, shock, grief, joy, and obsession, his emotion of anger lingered within each, meaning that nourishment for his line was in abundance in perpetuity.

The gathering of lines was not needed simply because each Escort could sense not only each other, but also their sovereign. We were one without assembly.

Each time an occasion like this would occur, anxiety that I should not have would claim me. I was not one to stand on a center stage or to hold a spotlight. I did not care to roam this priceless mansion while my line carried out our charge. I wanted to be next to them, and often I was, which is more than likely why Mazing was so lethal. She knew she was not only guarding the solitary queen, but that she was the only female that was a First. I was honored to have her at my side each time we followed the path our Creator had given us.

Vade held out his arm, urging me to claim it like the queen I was. Whatever emotions he was fighting had subsided, and right now I saw pride and relief in his eyes. “This time has been long awaited,” he said sweetly to me.

I breathed in deeply, feeling the diamonds of the Leo necklace gently clenching my chest.

Within that thought, Vade moved us. Now before us was a vast stairway. Each step was black, but there was a crimson path down the center, one that we would ascend side by side.

Silence was the only sound. Though I could sense his line, the priceless souls in mine—they were still. I clenched his arm, my soundless retreat. I couldn’t face them, not now. I had to make everything right, I had to bring them vindication and proof that my time away from them had been avenged before I faced each of them.

Vade gently leaned to his side. With one arm embracing my waist, his humming lips met my temple. A rushing calm absorbed my being. He had taken my anger, and in the absence of that emotion I found a calming bliss.

I nodded once nervously as his hand clenched my waist then slowly moved across my back before claiming my hand, connecting our rings, our symbol of eternity.

Gracefully, we began our descent. With each step, I could see their images in my mind. Rapidly, yet utterly slowly, I remembered each one, each call, each time I claimed them. Though I felt bliss with those memories, I also felt agony. They were not all here. I was missing exquisite souls; ones that have never known me, ones that I did not answer when they called. I swore to my soul that one day very soon they would all be here, and that day we would celebrate the fall of the kings that had wronged so many.

I had closed my eyes and was fully trusting Vade to guide me as I remembered each. When he stopped, when the silence reigned on, I carefully opened my eyes to a wonder that was nothing less than extraordinary.

Before us now were countless souls. One half of the room was adorned in the deep crimson that matched my dress, the other in black; only the hint of crimson and white was in their attire.

Mazing was to my right, and Rasp was to Vade’s left. The second my eyes opened, not only did my line silently bow to one knee, but so did every soul before me. In every direction, as far as I could see there were souls, my line, Vade’s, side by side; there had to be millions of them. I would dare say they were infinite, yet I knew their names. I knew each face, each past.

I could not comprehend how powerful my line looked. I had no doubt the nourishment that Vade had given me, that beautiful place where creative beings met and shared that gift, was afforded to them as well. The vitality and power lingering within their souls and vessels capitalized on the beauty that they were in my eyes.

I felt the power of them vibrate the room. I thought to myself that if one soul could create an everlasting change…this many souls working for one cause could not fail.

That was when I realized, like always, that Vade had more than one purpose in each action he took. He wanted me to see them, feel them. He wanted the same for them. He knew that the risk of loss would be clear to me, but also by the same measure I would feel the power of all of us. He knew if I witnessed this that no matter what course was before me, what horrid things that he along with the Reaper and the Creator were shielding me from, I would know that I could withstand them.

“Rise. Your queen has returned,” Vade stated boldly.

My line along with Mazing rose gracefully. His line remained bowed, waiting for his command.

“Rise. Your king has found his rush once more.”

Crimson was the color of my ivory skin at that moment. Openly calling me his rush was something Vade had never done. I can’t recall if there was ever an opportunity that he missed in the past. I just knew that when he called me such, we were always alone, embracing each other. I felt claimed, validated when his line not only rose, but roared with happiness.

I gave a simple nod to my line, and they joined in the celebration as Vade tenderly pulled me to him and let his lips sweetly frame mine. He pulled away slightly so his eyes could see mine. “I swear to you that in time, this room will celebrate the return of all that is ours.”

I could not hold the young girl deep inside at bay; she reached up for him and offered a deeper kiss that made both of our lines’ roars of happiness explode in the air. You could feel the energy dance across your skin, a warm, tingling sensation that made you feel as if we were all truly one.

When our kiss ended, Vade looked deeply into my eyes before he raised his hand and silence came.

He turned to face them and began his speech using his all-powerful, deep, velvet voice. “Each of us is aware that anger is a gift. That within that emotion great change can be accomplished…” His eyes seemed to meet each of theirs as he paused. “A great tragedy fell upon each of these lines, and in turn we endured the emotions that my fellow kings rule…I felt the pleas of each of your souls. I felt the bliss of each of you as Glory’s line was restored. As we became one once again. Today, we end one tragedy and embrace another.” Silence echoed through the air. “We are at war.”

The fierceness in each of their eyes sent powerful vibrations through my being.

“As sovereigns, we along with each of you were designed to be a cure. Several of my fellow kings have decided that it is best for us to be both a disease and a cure. They feel that in order for us to gain power that we must invoke emotions that were already at critical levels, and have been for some time. We are meant to be the cure—the cure that releases the souls under our watch and allows them to rise higher…that act and that act alone empowers us, not the former. We will be that cure and not embrace the savage ways other kings have chosen.” He paused, allowing his words to be absorbed by the masses. “At this moment, we only have one choice: to become an element of calm at the center of chaos. We will prevail in this war—a war that has angered us to our core and caused each of us not to embrace the past, or the present, but the future. A future that will be like no course that time has revealed. A future where our charge will not only be to take the emotions that create evil in souls, but also to help them rise, rise and embrace the royalty that is in each of our souls. We will reach this prized goal by measuring our every step, by evaluating every possible outcome. We will reach this goal by harming no one that has not thoroughly deserved such cause.”

Vade glanced across the masses, then to me. “We are not all here tonight.”

Unrest fell over the crowd before us. His returning stare settled them instantly. “Those that are missing will need our guiding hand and our protection; you will protect them by not hindering their anger…that is the emotion that they will use to defeat those that have imprisoned them. The emotion they will use to bring great change—the emotion that was meant to hinder them but will in turn be the weapon they use to render their enemies asunder. You will return to both the corporeal and non-corporeal realms of the universe; there, you will continue the charge that was given to each of you. You will prevent evil from manifesting within souls that cannot harness the emotions we rule. Every sense you have will be highly elevated. You will tell me of any revelations you find. You will not act until I charge you to do so.”

Vade gently squeezed my hand, telling me it was time for me to speak. Every part of my being was tingling. I think in the back of my mind I assumed that my line would be enraged at me, that they would feel forsaken by me and feel that they could not count on protection under my reign. I was wrong. From the moment they laid eyes on me, I felt their intentions, their emotions. My acts, my sacrifices, were applauded by them. They felt as if I would do the same for each of them, and they were correct.

“There is no finer bliss than hearing your souls call to me…I remember each one…each of your voices…your images. Those moments have saturated my memories in the time that I was away. I never thought I would see the likes of any of you again; therefore, this moment is not only a gift, but also a power that you have given me. Our line has suffered a personal assault. One that I will avenge.” I glanced to Mazing at my side, then to the crowd once more. “I imagined all of you in peace, living lives that brought you bliss. That was my intention—my intentions were not honored. I’m grateful that all of you found your way to Vade, that he found you. That you are in safekeeping.” I clenched Vade’s hand before I went on. “Wrath seizes my being, for I know that we are missing a precious few. Few that do not know of my name or our purpose.” I had to hesitate long enough to ensure that the quiver that was attempting to seize my tone was restrained. “I will avenge them as well, as I would avenge each of you. I’m eternally grateful to call you my own.”

With those last words, they each bowed, my line and Vade’s.

“I bid you courage as you carry out your charge,” I said so quietly that I knew their vessels could not hear my words, but surely their souls could.

The majority of them vanished at that moment to do just as Vade and I had asked. The only ones that remained were the ones that stayed on this level, the ones that managed the springs and the information and nourishment those waters gave us. Each of them went on their way, returning to the charges they had been given.

I knew Mazing was miserable in the gown she was in. I offered her a simple nod, and within that instant her warrior clothes returned.  She moved from my side and leaned against the banister of the stairs. Rasp followed her lead, both ensuring that Vade had the private moment that his essence all but commanded.

Vade gripped my hand. “I ask that you not leave now,” he said under his breath.

Almost timidly, I glanced up at him. “Time is of the essence…Silas is in pain, and that pain puts your line at risk.”

“Yours as well,” he murmured with pleading eyes.

“That is why I must go to him now. You can come if you wish.”

“You know I cannot.”

If I had the strength, we would not only embark on the argument that those words always invoked, but for once and for all end it. I never really cared what others thought, what my actions led them to believe. Vade didn’t either, I’ll grant him that, but by the same measure he plotted his every move. He knew if he went with me at this instant that the other kings would not only be aware that I was given a temporary reprieve by the Reaper himself, but that Vade was aware of the mists that were stolen from each of us. That we were aware that they were silently seeking to bring Vade’s rule to an end. You would think that after what we have endured that he would boldly do so, but I knew this king, this boy that held my rush. He was protecting something that I could not perceive now, something that he had sacrificed deeply for; perhaps as deeply as I had sacrificed on some level.

“And you know that I have no choice,” I replied solemnly.

“You can send for him. Call him here. Let him see this place.”

“You mean drag him here. Imprison him and tell him to behave or I will smite him,” I bit out.

“Glory, you have no idea what the corporeal world is like now. We are enemies to what he has become. Evil that we fought to hinder, has manifested.”

I had no fear of evil, for I knew I was the cure to its existence. “I went to each before him. He deserves no less. I dare say he deserves more at this juncture.”

“You went to them in dreams. Dreams that they called to you in. He never called you, for you were never aware of him, and he is yet to be aware of you.”

“Dreams that I doubt he takes the time to have.”

He could not argue with that. I knew Witnesses barely slept. If he was risen as such, the opportunity for either of us to meet never existed.

After an obvious internal battle, he reached for my hand, and in that instant my dress was replaced with my warrior clothes; only a long black jacket that reached just below my hips was added. The priceless necklace vanished, yet the ring remained. I felt him squeeze his powerful hand around it. Agony pierced my soul as I remembered throwing it at him at the end of our last fight, as I remembered wishing I had it when I was in the Veil, thinking that maybe if I did I could tell him exactly where I was, or at the very least have a part of him with me.

His other hand reached behind my neck and pulled me to his lips. A slow, yet commanding kiss laced with subtle seduction was within each movement of his mouth. As the kiss ended, his long fingertips slowly slid down my neck, across my collarbone, then down my chest bone, stopping just before the peak of the Leo mark on my skin began. “You leave here just as you came, with the mark of royalty on your vessel and my eternal devotion within your hands…Glory, I will warn you of this…your absence from me has shortened any patience I may have had when it comes to the likes of you. Return swiftly, or I will come for you.”

His tone was low and deep and held meaning. It was as if he were standing between his two greatest desires and could not assure himself that the course he had chosen was correct. I knew I was one. The secret between him and the Creator was the other.

“I would wish for no less,” I whispered to him. I didn’t intend for those words to hurt him, but I could see the sting in his eyes. Not regret. No, he still felt that our absence from each other was necessary, but he hated that I was blind to the reason.

“Rasp will cloak you and stay at your side.”

“What kind of sovereign would need another’s First to guard her?”

“I assured the Reaper you would be safe. The only way for you to leave the Veil was for him to hold the majority of your power. Otherwise, your escape would have been felt.”

“Power comes in all forms, and I would dare say that the wrath of a woman scorned is more powerful than any supernatural power I may have possessed.”

His flawless jaw line tightened before he spoke. “I will say this again, you must think of your line as you. If your actions are too dangerous for them to embark on, then they are for you as well. The Reaper may hold part of you, but your line will feel your pain as I do. Rasp comes with you, or the Reaper himself will pull you back into the Veil instantly.”

I suppose I’d forgotten that my stay here was measured by my words, that in the end I would return to the cathedral of the Reaper. Some consequences never leave you. “So be it.”

I offered a simple nod. He kissed my forehead once more, squeezing my arm, then vanished, trying to hide the angst I still managed to see.

Warily, I looked just behind me to find Rasp and Mazing both with crossed arms and in full-on warrior stance.

“The springs,” I stated before I vanished and manifested before them.

The springs were nothing less than majestic. Every soul knows that water is life itself, powerful, tender, moving, still, and everlasting.

Before me now was a vast hall that extended as far as the eye could see. White marble had flowing water encasing it, and within this fraction of water the universe was opened for us to witness.

Vade’s speech before was on point. We were meant to be the cure. Once, I asked the Creator if I was evil because I could not only withstand emotions that others could not but also consume them. He offered a very simple answer: because I exist, evil cannot be born.

What was intended to occur in The Realm was that the souls would dream, and in that state their minds would unravel and relieve their emotions. The Escorts would collect those dark emotions, in turn allowing the dreamers to see a clear path.

The negative energy that Escorts released was sent through the springs, where each of our kind could consume those emotions and cleanse them. The pure energy traveled through the water, returning to The Realm, giving the dreamers the power to harness it and imagine life as they wished.

Imagination leads to creation. Full circle. Creation often leads to more powerful positive emotions. If we had stayed on our course, there was no telling how illuminated our reality would be.

Instead, kings betrayed their charge, altered our purpose, and let loose an evil that never should have existed.

I would stop that. One way or another, I would stop that. The Creator may not be using words with me now, but I felt Him within. I felt Him tell me that I could be the cure I was meant to be. That I was powerful enough to not only cure the emotions I was meant to take, but also the damage that my fellow sovereigns had created.

Metallic energy was the answer. My Fated Escorts may have been lost to me, but pure lights found them. They could create such an energy if they wished. I was sure of it.

Before this time, I would have cringed if any soul from my line asked to be coupled with the likes of any light in human form. I would fear they would harm that light, or at the very least they would both be forced to leave their course of life unfulfilled. My opinion had vastly changed. I knew because they were Fated Escorts that they could do both.

I didn’t understand this web of hearts and souls that Vade spoke of, but I would honor his request and take no action to harm my Fate’s path. If that meant that I could only watch from a blind distance, I would do just that. My only issue was my dear Silas.

The springs were darker than I had ever seen them. I could see the disease of evil lurking everywhere. Those foolish kings. How could they not see the damage they have created?

I glanced at Rasp. “Is there no light?”

“There is…you just have to peer closely to see it.”

My eyes slowly moved across him. He had changed, too. At one time he’d had a dark humor about him, a way of making everything around him appear sensual. This turmoil had either changed him or he was having trouble finding comfort in my presence.

I could only hope that he and Mazing had rekindled their friendship. Once upon a time they’d been the best of friends. They’d really had no choice in the matter. They were usually side-by-side. I remembered thinking that in a distant future the two of them might have asked to be coupled, that they would have changed history with that request because not only would I honor it, but I would also persuade Vade to do so as well—even if it meant that my line would fall with his once again. I knew that no matter the outcome, Vade would never subdue the power that I had, the power that produced a deep, seductive fever within him.

I suppose that request would never come now. Mazing had little trust for the opposite sex, and Rasp would never see her the same after the betrayal she had committed. Rasp placed his king, his line, and me highly above himself. Anyone that would bring harm to us was his forevermore adversary.

I nodded for Mazing to walk at my side as I took in the visions of the springs. Rasp seemed somewhat hurt that I was silently asking him to wait for us, but I knew the conversation that I was about to have with Mazing was one that she would not wish to have in front of him.

“This is a righteous situation we’re in here, Glory.”

“Truth,” I said under my breath as I gazed at the water we were passing. Right now, I could only see the whole. I would have to touch the water to find the one I was seeking, and even then I would be the only one that could see the one I was searching for. It was an authority that only a sovereign had.

Right now, I just wanted to see the world Silas was residing in; that way, I could understand his point of view more clearly when I left here for him.

“I know we have never spoken of your betrayal,” I said to her as I kept my stare on the water and passed through the vast hall. I could feel her energy seize. “We must speak of it now.”

“I will tell you anything, I swear,” she offered with great remorse.

I stopped my walk and faced her. “How long did this fever between you and Colton last?”

She took in a breath sharply before she answered, obviously fighting her mind’s eye as it produced the past I was questioning.

“An orbit.”

A year in Earthly time; that was longer than I would have guessed. Hot fevers last a few nights, maybe a course of the moon. An orbit was quite some time and a heavy burden that she had to carry each moment of that course.

“At any time did Colton lead you to believe that he was not Xavier’s First?”

Her auburn eyes grew wide for an instant. “Not in so many words.”

“Mazing, I know this is hard to remember and to face, but I have to know how long my downfall has been plotted. In what words did he say such a thing, or did he say it to you?”

She blinked, forcing her eyes to swallow tears of rage. “Honestly, until you said that I would have never thought otherwise. If I had thought he was not the First, I would have found the courage to speak to you about my fever.” She glanced at the dark springs, then back to me. “He was miserable. I don’t even know why I bothered to speak to him.” She seized another breath before she spoke. “We were both on the first level of The Realm. I was doing as we were meant to, and those under his watch were causing shock in the dreamers. For the sake of showing off or silently telling him that his actions were foolish, I stood on the other side and pulled the negative emotions out of the dreamers so no matter what he or his line did, the dreamers were safe. It was a foolish display of power, I understand that, but I guess I just wanted to point out to him how cruel his actions were.”

“You realize that was very close to an act of war,” I cautioned her.

“I thought it was too playful to be considered as such. He was smiling at me, then for no reason he began to do the same, yet his line did not know it was him. We both laughed as they scrambled to hold their charge…the next moonrise after my charge was done, I played the game once more. This time, he manifested beside me and sat down in the field and gazed forward. He asked me tenderly if I thought I had the power to take his emotions. If I could make him see his existence differently.”

“How do you know that was not a ploy?” I questioned.

“Oh, I thought it was,” she said as she clenched her fist. “I listened to him talk for days, and before long we were not speaking to each other as Firsts of a sovereign; we became friends. He often stated that he never felt the connection he was supposed to, that when he questioned Xavier about it, Xavier told him that it was because the emotion was shock and it would claim him when it saw fit. Colton didn’t believe that. He said that the rest of the line felt what he could not.”

“So he had no loyalty? Is that what you are telling me?” How could she not see how obvious his actions were?

“He had loyalty to our existence, but not his sovereign. I remember one night we were watching the mists fall from above, watching the energy of you and Vade divide and find beings that wanted to become what we were…he spoke of how fragile those mists were, how fragile they would be when they were born. He even asked me if I thought it was possible for a mist to be taken from its sovereign.”

I hissed as I thought of those stolen from me. “You do realize that more than likely he had heard his king plot of such a course, and that was where those revelations came from?”

“Maybe so, but even after all of this I have my doubts. Xavier never let Colton near him, or anyone really. I told Colton that was why he didn’t feel connected, that both Rasp and I were always with you and Vade.”  She glanced down. “He wanted you to claim him.”

“What?”

“He wanted to be claimed by you so he could couple with me,” she stated nervously, judging every movement of my body.

“Mazing, he could have said that just so you would ask me, and if I had accepted it would have been an act of war.”

“I thought the same. That is, until I found him trying to plot his end. He stared at the mists each time one of you would let them fall, trying to see a defining mark on that essence. He did plot. He plotted to end his life and for me to find his essence and ensure that your mists collided with it.”

“That is beyond believability,” I bit out, knowing that as far as I knew, that was impossible; otherwise, all those in the past that had asked Vade to claim them would have discovered that very course of action.

“I agreed. But he said that he spoke to the Creator in his thoughts often and that he never felt a ‘no’ from him. He thought that as long as he held my image in his mind—your lines—as he perished, that he would find his way into your line.”

“We hear what we want to, Mazing.” That was meant for both her and Colton.

“I agreed, and I urged a delay. Promised him that a change would occur.” Her eyes moved into a past that brought her nothing but agony. “When you announced that our line would not invoke emotions, I told him the time was coming, that a revolution was coming. He said that he was going to come to you and beg to be claimed. The next day, I heard your fight with Vade, and I knew that him speaking to you then would not fare well, especially as enraged as Vade was. I went to tell him to wait, that you and Vade would find a compromise within a day’s time. That was when I saw what I saw. When I all but destroyed him.”

Mazing was tearing at her nails. At one time they were perfect, just the right length, perfectly sculpted, thick and healthy, but ever since that night she tears at them, refuses to let them hold any beauty.

I asked the obvious. “With all that has occurred, do you still feel that his words were true when they were spoken?”

“I cannot answer that.”

“You need to try.”

“That night…he kept saying my name. Like he was in some kind of trance. But my wrath would not let me see anything beyond that Creator-forsaken petal.”

“Did Colton ever tell you that Xavier was working with other lines? Did you sense them when you went to them?”

“No. Not once. Yet it all made sense to me that night. Anyone from Fielder’s line could invoke grief, and in turn the death of something. For all I know, Colton was trying to get Cadence to kill him so he could be with me. Even if that is the case—he touched her, said words that belonged to me. Impatience is one of the many toys of evil.”

“I don’t think he went to her for that reason. Xavier announced the girl’s name, that they would be coupled.”

She let out a sharp hiss before she spoke again. “Then I have nothing but wrath for my memories.”

I swallowed harshly as I prepared to say my next words. “He exists no more.”

All the color from her now nourished ivory skin vanished and she swayed unsteadily. I caught her as her knees buckled. Slowly, we fell to our knees as I held her shoulders up. I had to hold out my hand to tell Rasp to keep his distance.

I then cradled her face as I stared into her eyes, which refused to connect with reality. “I was told that moments before we reached Xavier’s throne, he shredded Colton’s energy.”

She moved her head from side to side in obvious refusal. “I felt him. I know I did. He has been within The Realm recently, on the higher levels.”

“All I know is what I was told.”

She knew Vade was my source. That he never spoke lies to me. That he very well did not have the power to. Silence was his way of hiding anything from me.

“It can’t be,” she said in a tone that was laced with imminent tears. I reached for her, but she pulled away. “Then you must do the same. You must have your vengeance with me before the Creator takes me—that is fair.”

“I have forgiven you, and the Creator will do no such thing.”

Tears streamed down her eyes as she began to shake. “He will. And you deserve to have the last blow.”

“It was a fever. It’s over. We will bring home the lost.”

“You don’t understand…” Her eyes locked with mine as her bottom lip began to tremble. “I coupled with him.”

I felt my energy seize with shock. Coupled Escorts combined everything; therefore, when one perished so did the other. The fact that Colton was shredded meant that if there was any truth to this, Mazing would have died that day no matter what actions I took.

“You did what?” My voice echoed along the streams. I held my hand out once more to tell Rasp to stay put and shielded my energy around both me and Mazing so Vade would not feel the out of control emotions from me and manifest at our side to witness the confession of the most fatal betrayal that has ever existed.

“I didn’t think it was real. Not until two nights before we died.” She was shaking uncontrollably. “One night eight moons after we were together, he asked me to meet him in the corporeal realm. He took me to a chapel and had a priest join us. I took it as playful and told him that was fun but not real. That night, he found three hundred and thirty-three holy men to wed us. He chose a different faith, town, country and dimension each time.” She was shaking so hard, she could not breathe. I reached into her essence and took the rage for herself away, but she kept manifesting more. “I dreamed that it was real, pretended with him each time, took Earthly vows, imagined that fate had not twisted us into lives we could not be together in. I breathed in the prayers spoken over us.” She moved her head from side to side in lost dismay. “He believed from that day that we were coupled in secret. Months later, just before the betrayal, after our rush, I saw our energy connect, I saw the beginnings of a bloom. I stopped it. I was terrified, but he was full of bliss. Told me over and over again that he was right, that the Creator had never told him no when he asked to be coupled with me…that is why he insisted on speaking to you, why I had to stop him, why I saw what I saw.”

I guess I always thought that Mazing’s actions came from wrath, that her pride was hurt that night, but it was very clear to me that it was her heart that was hurt.

I don’t know why, but my mind’s eye put me in her place, and Vade in Colton’s. If for some reason the Creator had placed me with any other king, I would have done far worse than Mazing had to reach Vade, and I know my actions would have been shadowed by the great King of Anger. Vade had told me more than once that his rush for me came before he even saw me, that as he and the Creator traveled to my deathbed he felt me in the air. That he felt life in the air and knew then that he would move heaven and hell to call me his own.

I had an even bigger problem now: I was in a weakened state. If this supernatural blow came to Mazing—if time and circumstance discovered that she was living and Colton was not, then her fall could very well kill me again. Our limited reprieve had just been markedly shortened. This was going to kill Vade on an emotional level so deeply that his line would feel the lash.

If I took out Mazing myself, no pain would come to anyone but her—and my heart. Creator help me, I could not do that.

I went to lean back so I could stand, but she gripped my arms. “Now, you have to.”

“I cannot.”

“I adore you. You are more than any title I could give you, and I know I’m the same to you, but you have to do this. It is the only way.”

“The way I see it—if this coupling was honored, you would have died moments before I made our final deal, or at the very least when we returned just before. You stated that you felt him in The Realm. That must be the case, either that or the Creator feels you have served your time in death for this betrayal.”

Her eyes moved rapidly across my image. “Do you think we were gone long enough for him to be created again, and that is why I still live?”

“I cannot speak reason into a Creator that is forevermore my teacher. I’m telling you that I’m not killing you. That if our roles were reversed, my actions would be near the same. A rush is not felt deeply by many, but I can see this in your eyes. I can see the girl I am deep inside in your eyes.”

She glanced to where Rasp was standing. “Vade will not let this risk be left to chance.”

“And he will not harm you, for it will harm me. We are going to let this be, find the Fated in our line, and move forward in any way we are asked by the Creator.” I looked down at the ring on my finger as I spoke. “True rushes become one…for all I know, you are powerful enough to keep that boy alive in you; therefore, you keep our line intact. I want you to remember the blissful moments with him, and not the end.  That is how you will repay me for this betrayal.”

She swallowed her tears and leaned away from me. Any sign of weakness was gone from her image. She stood slowly, holding the expression of a fearless First. “They are hard to forget…I will repay this grace one day. I do not deserve your mercy.”

I stood before her and let out a deep breath and gently asked the Creator with my thoughts for Him to mend my broken warrior, for Him to sustain her. I hoped against all hope that because I did not honor this coupling that the lore would not harm us.

My other wandering thoughts took over, and after a moment of silence I spoke again. “I don’t understand the past any more than I understand now. Something changed. Vade may not have the will to smite Silas or anyone else that was a part of me, but he could have very well imprisoned Silas and moved on. Why now?”

Mazing glanced over her shoulder at Rasp, who was now coolly staring at the springs. “Rasp told me why…the other sovereigns were invading the Veil. They’d suspended enough of the dead that reaching The Fall was no longer a hard feat. It was a simple few steps. You would have been discovered.”

I felt a sick rage in my core. I suppose deep down the girl inside now thought that Vade could no longer live without me, and he fought to reach me. But this revelation brought the sovereign I was front and center. He not only knew where I was but chose only to come for me when he had no other choice. I was a fool; he’d fed me, serenaded me with glorious music and candlelight, told me I was his rush—all the while knowing that he’d placed me on a shelf, like all of his other priceless possessions.

“So we were removed so we would remain a secret, not because we were missed or needed?”

Mazing recognized the wrath in my eyes instantly. “I believed we were missed, painfully missed.”

“We are not possessions that can be locked away, or worse, set free only to have chains around us, chains that take our power,” I seethed.

“The way I see it, you and I have nothing to lose. Our line is strong and will always be under the reign of Vade. If your absence comes once more, I will stand with you and claim any vengeance you want. It’s hard to fear death when you know exactly what is waiting for you on the other side.”

The internal battle began again. The real me, the girl, had everything to lose, and that everything was Vade, the rush he gives my soul with a thought. The sovereign in me was infuriated and screamed that he could not feel the same way if he’d knowingly locked me away.

“Rasp,” I stated evenly, still staring at Mazing, letting the energy around us fall so he could come closer.

Though we had walked a vast distance from him, he had heard my voice and manifested at my side.

“You are still bound by truth to me.”

His icy eyes glanced to Mazing, then to me as he nodded once.

“Am I considered a possession by your king? Tell me now.”

“In a sense, yes.”

“In a sense?” I fumed, throwing a glare at him.

“Is not one’s soul their possession?”

“One’s soul?”

Rasp smiled; I missed that cool, sensual smile of his. “He states often that you are his soul.”

“Does he?” I said under my breath as my failing glare appraised him from head to toe. He was so strong, perfectly sculpted, a breathtaking creation, one that I could see the likes of my rush within. Maybe that was why I could not take the full effect of my glare from my eyes at this moment.

“I want to know why I was shelved and now retrieved.”

“I cannot give you truth that I do not know,” he said, holding my stare and not daring to waver under the fury he could see there.

“You are at his side near constantly. You never heard him speak of such reasons?”

“I may be at his side, but I am not in his thoughts,” he said, raising his brow in a somewhat humorous way. “What answers has Vade given you to these questions?” he asked when he saw that I was in no mood for humor.

“Nothing clear.”

“Lack of words,” Rasp said tilting his head and letting his eyes rain down on me, as if he were trying to get me to see the obvious.

I turned to walk away, not wanting to look weak in front of him. He reached for my arm as I passed him. Staring forward, in that deep whisper he was known for he spoke, “My king, and closest friend, tried aimlessly to release the command to bring you home long before the Veil was thinned. The Creator chose not to give him words until such a time as He deemed necessary. The desire was there. The fiercest desire you could ever witness…” His icy eyes found their way to me. “I was pleased when his words came, for I feared that very soon my king would lose his faith in his Creator, and if he did so our line would lose the favor of the Creator and would face defeat, for the last symbol of our beginning would perish.”

“It would not, for I believe in the Creator.”

“Do you?”

“Why would you question that, Rasp?” I asked with disdain.

“A beautiful sovereign told me once that when you believe in something, you do not ask questions about how you will reach the point you feel called to—that point and the paths open for you when you believe there is a reason for everything. That if you are walking through hell at this moment, you can guarantee that bliss is on the horizon. That is, as long as you believe the former.”

My words. I spoke them to him not long after I was raised from my first death. All I felt then was bliss, I was young, feeling a deep rush for a favored king, the hell of my past life was gone, and nothing threatened my future. I never understood the hell I lived through as child, but I believed it would be nothing but a distant memory, that I had a fate calling me that I could not see. I held that belief, and because I did, I’d found my way here.

“I have missed you,” I finally said.

He tried to hold in a smile. “Barely noticed you were gone.”

When my mouth fell open, he laughed and pulled me to his chest. “You know they have a word for when old friends meet again; it’s called ‘hello.’ Even phrases like ‘How you doin,’’ ‘What’s up with you these days.’”

I squeezed him before leaning back and staring up at him. “You’re not mad at me for trying to kill you, are you?”  I said as I playfully punched his rock hard gut.

“Me? Mad? Never. What does such an emotion feel like?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m glad to see your humor is intact.”

“Just have a reason to smile now.”

“Right, then. Well, drop the formalities. To do what I have to do, I’m going to have to be what I was in the Veil. Formal words and grace are not going to be in play.”

“Oh, so you mean you have to be real? That blows,” he said with a playful smirk. “But hey, if that is your will, maybe you can work on bringing back my best friend to that level.”

“Has Vade been really intense around you?”

“Intense,” he said, widening his eyes. “You could say that.” He sighed as he brushed off the past. “So what is the plan? Looking for a Fated?”

“I’ll find him when I touch the springs. That is not the hard part.”

“Na, the hard part is that he’s brainwashed.”

“Blind to his true existence. I’m proud that he was claimed.”

“That you should be, but that boy is fierce. He dared to take on two of our Fated at once.”

“And he is alive,” I said, angling up my chin in mock supremacy.

“Because one of yours stopped ours.” He smirked. “With a glance and a word or two. Must run in the line, that appeal you have.”

“Glad to see you find wrath seductive.”

A hum echoed from his chest, along with a sinful smile. “That I do, but she did not use such a power.”

“Then maybe I should ask for her help with Silas,” I mused aloud.

“Not a good plan.”

“Pray tell,” I breathed. The best way to get clear information out of Rasp was to keep him in a playful mood.

“She is the reason that the one he carries a fever for left him.”

“You’re joking.”

“Wish I was. She told Silas’ girl that she would adore one of Vade’s, and she was very right about that.”

“That is downright unnatural,” Mazing said, finally finding her strength again. She had pushed Colton’s memory deep down inside at this point, and she was still breathing; that was a good sign.

Mazing was right. The last thing anyone in my line would do would be to encourage heartache, and for that ache to be caused by another line, even if they didn’t know they were Fated, to me they should have felt that deep inside.

That green-eyed girl of mine must know something that I am blind to just now.

“Nothing about those peeps is natural, I can assure you of that,” Rasp stated with a bit of humor.

“Nice vocabulary,” Mazing said to him with a playful glare.

He shaded a smirk. “Did you not tell me to chillax an hour ago?”

I could not hold in my laugh. When you linger with the dead from across time, you pick up a few words. I kinda adored slang, and I was a bit stoked that they were acting normal with each other again.

“Let’s do this,” I murmured once the light mood between us began to fade.

Chapter Ten

I gazed at the dim streams and called forth the image that Vade had given me of Silas, then carefully stepped forward and touched the wall of water. As the rush of my energy met this sacred spring, it rippled and a low rumble was released. When the water became still again, I saw my lost Fated Escort.

It was not a pleasant sight. Silas was in The Realm on the third level. There were masses of beings around him. He was in a raging war with two others. Black smoke, which was the sign of pure evil, was filling the air at toxic levels. I could sense a mix of aromas that belonged to other kings among those Silas was fighting.

My sharp intake of breath caused Rasp to question me.

“Eyes,” he stated evenly as he and Mazing stretched their long, lean muscles, a silent gesture that stated their warrior essence was flooding to the surface.

“War. A horrid war in The Realm. He is surrounded. Two other Witnesses are with him.” They could not see what I was seeing in this spring.

“What do the adversaries look like?” Rasp asked.

“Men. Black suits. Not formal, but nice. They are moving in uniform. With each that fall, more descend.”

He nodded once, as if that were nothing odd.

I had a problem here. Every ounce of my being wanted to send one thought to those men in suits and smite them where they stood. But if I did so, whoever their king was would know that I had. I wasn’t even sure that with the restraints on my power that I could do such a thing, or fight the consequences of that act.

“Whom do they belong to?” I fumed.

“Several.  I wouldn’t even call them real,” Rasp stated. “The Realm is infected with evil emotions. Those emotions have manifested these famished beings. They have no solid connection with their sovereign because the acts of the kings have been mingled.”

“How many could I kill before the kings would feel it?”

“In a single blow?” Rasp questioned, raising one brow. “A thousand or so.”

Both Mazing and my eyes grew wide. That was a massive number for any race of beings.

“So what are they, like, clones?” I supposed that was the right word I was searching for. This was all new to me. Before I left, every being was precious; it was almost like these men were designed to be soldiers, yet they were poor versions of them because it only took one swift blow to end them.

“That is a nicer word than what I was using,” Rasp said, glaring at the wall, waiting for me to give him an order.

“Which was?”

“Assholes.”

That made me smirk, in turn taking the edge off those protective emotions that were seizing my soul.

“What? I’m G-rated compared to your rush,” Rasp stated, only letting half a smile break through his warrior composure.

No doubt there. Vade was poetic around me, but not so much in his closed circle. I believe the term is ‘cusses like a sailor.’

“I can kill a thousand of these beings and no one would know?” I clarified.

I could not get over these men. They were like savage animals. If they did manage to get their grip on Silas or the two with him, they didn’t really fight; they just breathed in. They were starved beings, the walking dead of all creation.

“He is fighting that many now?” Rasp questioned, not wanting me to push the limits of my hidden return.

“No, maybe a hundred or so.”

“I can do that for you.”

“I know you can, but that is not the point.” I analyzed Silas as he fought. Silas was so graceful, without any clear emotion; only duty. Not surprisingly, he was pristine. No filth fell upon him; only a few marks were on his clothes. No sweat or blood. He had been truly risen, and his human form was more than amplified now, taking away physical pain, the need for sleep or food, along with almost every human need that could be thought of.

“This is what we are going to do,” I announced. “I’ll freeze the scene, stand inside a barricade of energy with him, alone, while Rasp cloaks us.”

“You should not be alone with him on your first meeting,” Rasp’s tone offered little room for compromise.

“Right. I’ll stand with you,” Mazing added.

“No,” I ordered. “He deserves to see me as one, as all the others before. I will not let him feel invaded.”

“Then what? Bring him home? What about the two Witnesses with him? Will they fight us?” Mazing said, clearly disagreeing with me. She wouldn’t feel that way if she could see him, sense him. Silas was mine. He would not attempt to hurt me.

“They should be wiped,” Rasp all but demanded.

Sovereigns and Firsts could not only stop time—as long as good intent was in place—but they could also wipe the memory of themselves from whomever they spoke to. Rasp didn’t trust Witnesses, but I had seen too many of them in the Veil. They brought no harm unless it was called for; it was their sacred oath. Usually, they were too focused on those in their care even to notice you. Eventually, I would have to take the memory of Silas from those with him, but in this spring I could see how he was leading them, how in some way he was teaching them. I wouldn’t do that just yet.

“We will see where this conversation takes us. Like everyone else, he deserves time to mull over this revelation. Maybe even more time considering that I’m about to tell him that the enemy he fights is in his soul.”

“No, it is not,” Mazing said with a growl. “He fights evil and poor kings.”

Rasp nodded once to agree. “And we have no time. He has already made more than one advance against our line and left the threat in the air that he will attack again.”

“I will take any motive he has to attack away the second he hears my reasoning why he cannot,” I blatantly stated.

“Silas is not like any other you or any sovereign has been called to. He was born rogue. Might as well be a wild animal,” Rasp warned.

“He is not either of those. He’s been abandoned, and now I will bring him home. Now he is found.”

“Tread carefully, sovereign. I will be but a breath away whilst you speak with him,” Rasp stated in that deep, powerful whisper of his. There was a reason why Vade trusted Rasp to watch over me: Rasp was downright deadly when the need arose. Creator help whoever crossed him or attempted to hurt the ones under his watch.

Rasp knew better than to kill Silas, that it would in turn be a blow to not only me, but in some way Vade, but that didn’t mean Rasp wouldn’t take Silas to the brink of death.

Which was exactly what would not win me any favors in this situation. Not happening. No, we were going to be nice and smooth with this. Get right to the truth in a sensible, adult manner.

My attention turned back to the image of my Fated Escort which was reflecting in the streams before me.

Silas’ eyes were like warm honey, the scent of my line and the color mine became when I was in bliss, yet he was nowhere near bliss. I could see wrath in them. I could see it ripple off his being. He was mine. No doubt there.

“Time to come home,” I whispered to him as I reached my palm for the spring. Majestically, it opened the essence of its power and pulled the three of us within it.

For a split second, I heard the roaring sound of war, but that ended. Now I was alone, staring at one of my Fated. Rasp and Mazing were feet away, but they were cloaked just outside of the energy sphere I’d placed around Silas and me and could not hear or observe this long overdue reunion.

Silas glared at me as he crouched in a warrior’s stance and waited for me to make the first move.

I could not stop staring at the perfection of him. I had several strong boys in my line, but Silas had something more to him. Some kind of old pain deep in his essence, one that the emotion of wrath found comfort in. I wondered for a moment if before my mist found him he were an abused child, as I was in human form. I tended to attract more than a few of those to my line.

“Silas,” I said evenly.

Slowly, he stood from his crouched position as his honey eyes grew wide for an instant. His jaw rippled with obvious emotion.

This was normal. When we came to the ones that called us, when we spoke their name for the first time, their soul faced an awakening. It was harsh because it was so quick, because the ideas and thoughts in the mind were not discovered, but placed there. Their heritage, the basics of it, was placed there.

Right now his senses were opening, and he was recognizing my scent within his essence, the scents of the other kings; he was taking in those little hints the universe gives every day and seeing them in a new way.

Each that falls within a line knows from the first breath that they take, at least the soul does, each of the senses Silas was devouring now. Which is why the first sight of their sovereign is an epic moment for them. The veil over their eyes is lifted, and they feel the power that we are swell within them.

His stance remained still as his warrior body flexed. Slowly, I began to circle him, taking in all that he was.

If our paths had not been altered, I would see every mark on his soul, every path that led him here. It would allow me to understand him and ensure that as he rose into a petal, that he was cared for properly. I could ensure that his personal demons never haunted him, but that he learned to face them and use that emotion to endure the charge given to all Escorts.

It was different with him. Around his essence there was armor, the armor all Witnesses had. I could see cracks in this golden seal, but his essence, who he was before he became one of my Fated Escorts, was blind to me, making this all the more challenging.

“You are magnificent,” I finally stated as I stood before him.

Silas held his head straight forward. His eyes angled down to me. “If you leave me now, I will not kill you,” he said firmly.

“You have too much fight in your soul to seek death.” The certainty in my voice caused his firm stance to break for an instant as he evaluated me. I’m sure he was looking for a reason that I was so confident that I could hurt him. I was a third of his size, at best. “We are connected. My death brings yours. A blow against me is a blow to yourself.”

“It is not your death that brings mine,” he said under his breath as a smirk echoed across his addictive image.

That phrase caused me to push into his mind and find why he assumed such a thing. I could see her, the girl he adored. She was beautiful, a powerful light. She was utterly devoted to one of Vade’s Fated Escorts. Oddly, that was not my opinion, but Silas’. He knew this girl did not feel the same as he. So…why did we have this issue? Why would he fight for the rush of one girl if he knew she would never return to his arms? How could he almost want it to be that way? Want her to stay in his past? There was only one reason I could think of: one of the other sovereigns had toyed with him, managed to recognize that wrathful rage within him, his heritage to my line, and aimed him through circumstance right at Vade’s line.

What a mess. A pointless mess. Well, I guess its point was to end me, but it all seemed too complicated. Cowards. Using our children to do their bidding.

“She is not yours.”

Silas lunged forward, but without a thought my essence seized him. “You know that to be true. Otherwise, it would not offend you so.”

“I know that though I can smell warm honey around you that you are also saturated with that sickening aroma of mint. That you have every reason to say untruths to me,” he said all too coolly.

“Open your mind. When you do, you will see that harming you could never be my intent.”

He glared as he breathed in deeply. Before this moment, he had never noticed the scent of anyone’s essence. It was so new to him that his emotions were evaluating them before clear thought could place them in his mind correctly.

No doubt mint was not appeasing to him. No doubt he now knew that was the scent of the boy that stood between him and the girl he cared for, yet wanted at a distance. I knew that his time with her would not even qualify as a fraction of his existence. Something told me he recognized this, too.

“You belong with us.”

“I am not evil,” he said with a murderous glare.

“Neither am I. I exist so those emotions cannot form.”

He glanced around him, remembering not only the fight I’d halted so that I could speak to him, but also all those before this time. Now boastfully smirking, he said, “Then, sovereign, you have perished.”

“More than once.” I let my words linger as I shelved the wrath that was swelling in my soul. “Which is why your course was unnaturally altered. You have been played. A pawn in a war that started long ago.”

“Am I? Or were you?”

“Oh, I was played. I’m aware.”

He held his head back as his now hooded eyes looked carefully down at me. “You are an illusion of this Realm. A reflection of my deepest fears.”

“Fears that told you that you are in the wrong place.”

“No. I fight evil. That is my place.”

“Have we not spoken these words already? Neither am I.”

He moved his head from side to side. After taking in a deep breath, inhaling my scent once more, he spoke. “Say, ‘LOVE.’”

I cringed.

“You know I cannot.”

“I know that you are evil,” he stated with audacity.

I had to find a way to explain this to him. I tried to remember how it was explained to me, but the sovereign that took that liberty, Xavier, was not someone I wanted to bring into this conversation, especially since I could see that king surrounding the girl Silas adored.

“Listen to me,” I said firmly. “I died defending our line. My First. My death was a cruel ploy, and in that ploy my essence was released to be claimed by less worthy sovereigns. You are the only one that fell with the reign of Witnesses. The others are entangled within a deep web that very well could bring extinction to our kind. I cannot feel or say the word you speak for a sacred reason, and it is not for the sake of being evil. It is for the sake of preventing it. Our race rises above the majority and consumes emotions humans cannot hold within, for if they do they create evil.”

“They do not create anything evil. Escorts do. Those rotting souls I was fighting just now do.”

“Some do. Some kings have lost their path and crossed a line that never should have been crossed. I know that. But your line has not. The line that carries the scent of mint has not.” I stepped forward, holding my stare with him. “Your actions, your misplaced devotion, will ensure that the last pure Escorts will fall. That you will fall.”

“I’m not one of you.”

“What did you see when I said your name?”

He looked away, as if it were too much to remember. “Agony.”

“A lie.”

“A truth.”  His glare returned to me. “I will admit to you that I have never felt whole or in the right place, that I have known forevermore that I have slipped through the cracks and remained unclaimed, but I will be damned that if after all this time an Escort dares to claim me—dares to tell me that I have no right to be on the course I have chosen.”

That armor around his soul was still hiding his past from me, but his words and thoughts were revealing his reasoning.

Wrath consumed me as I saw them. Vade was wrong: Silas wasn’t claimed by a Witness, he was saved by them. The cycle of life landed him in the vastest, yet youngest dimension, into near savage times. Xavier had found him in human form and placed him head to head with Vade’s Fated Escort.

Mother Nature took charge and death came, but Silas was risen, saved. The girl in question pulled him up into the life he leads now.

I was in debt to that girl because I knew that if she had not saved Silas, there would be no line of mine for Vade to have found and brought under his care. The loss of a Fated Escort was nearly as painful as the loss of a First. It seems my fellow king had attempted and failed more than once to end me and Vade, and with each new attempt they wove a web around our lines, skillfully causing us to aim the barrel of the gun at our own hearts.

“Xavier,” I seethed as my wrath rippled the energy seal we were in. I held out my arm, knowing that Rasp would be looking for any reason to come in here. He could not see me, but he would sense the command to halt.

Disgust consumed that beautiful visage of Silas. “That is my evil. A king you serve with.”

“Served. A king that brought my death. If you want vengeance for him, seek it for that reason.”

“I seek it for more than that.”

“A girl that has compassion but does not find a rush with you.”

“She did at one time.”

“That would be a fever, son. Fleeting and powerful, but not everlasting.”

“You have no idea how long it lasted.”

“I have watched the cycle of life more times than I could recall to you. That time was not nearly enough for you to have this unrest.”

“My life—the girl I love—has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me. You must stop your fight against the boy she adores.”

“Why? So he can kill her? So I in turn die? Therefore taking away the last defense against evil?”

“The only way for you to die would be to harm him. When you strike that line, you strike ours.” That was the simplest way to explain this to him.

Silas moved his head from side to side with a disdainful glare. “Because you love that king, because his wishes are more important to you than whoever has the foul misfortune of having you lead them.”

I almost slapped him, but I held back. “You think I would place you in harm’s way?”

“Obviously,” he said as he held out his arms to point out how evil The Realm was now.

“I thought that with my death, all under my care were released to live out lives of bliss. If I had known otherwise, I would have found a different way.”

“Ah, the plot thickens. Not only will you uphold the king you love over those under you, but you do not think your actions through.”

A bolt of my energy landed him square on his bottom and held him there.

His stare was only a few feet below me now, so I leaned forward so he would catch the full effect of my glare. “Let me be clear to you. If I could feel such emotion, I would because Vade is a great king. One that rules with a sound mind and puts his people first because he found me in a state much like you are in and showed me compassion for the first time in my existence. I did not think my actions through, I will grant you that, but let me explain why. It was because the wrath that I am, the wrath that is pulsing through your soul, had seized that right from me. I thought I had all the answers, every square inch of my issues resolved, and only one sacrifice was needed for that to occur. I would have never left you or any other in the hands of the king that found you. Right now, you are repeating my mistakes and that king is playing you for a fool.”

“What king?” he seethed.

“Xavier. The king of shock. How many times has he shocked you, that adored of yours?”

“He is pure evil,” Silas fumed, clearly not recognizing the title of king, and I respected him for that.

“Evil that knows how to use wrath against you. Xavier played you.”

“And I will end him for it. That is, unless you love him, too.”

I wish he would quit saying that word. It was so hard to face the fact that I could not feel such a thing or even state it.

“I do not.”

“But you do love the other king, the one that reeks of mint. The one who has one of his squires firmly bent on consuming the girl I love.”

“He would do no such a thing.”

“Draven has tried more than once.”

“Tried, or has had trouble balancing who he is with who she is?”

“What is the difference? If nature itself protests the love, then it cannot exist.”

“Easy come, easy go, Silas. She came easily to you. You were literally taken to her side, and she left your side just as easily. This boy you fight—Draven, is that his name?—and this girl you adore did not find each other easily, and they will not let go of each other easily. Xavier knows if you kill him, you strike the most powerful king at his core and in turn bring tragedy to our line. You have been played, and it is time to wake up and come home.”

“I am home.”

“No, you are a lost child entangled in a web against the king that stole you from me.”

“You are the one that is lost, outdated, and blind.”

The energy encasing us rippled, and the aroma of mint seeped through. I wasn’t entirely sure how Vade had heard those scornful words from where he was, but I knew if I did not put Silas in his place Vade surely would.

Silas wrinkled his nose and cleared his throat, as if the scent were agony to him.

“I have limited choices with you. I’m not standing between you and someone you adore. I’m protecting your life. If you continue your pursuit against that squire, you leave me no choice but to permanently stop you.”

No comment. Just a cold stare from him.

“Back away from the girl. Come home and let me show you what a true Escort does.”

“I do not love her to spite anyone.” Silas’ eyes bore into me. “If I come with you and lose the right to feel the emotion that each soul is created with, I will perish. Now, I don’t know what you did to my head or why I smell and see things differently, but something tells me that coming back with you, dying instantly, will do nothing but harm you and the others that you have left behind.”

“Why would death come to you? I’m offering you a clear vision, a way out of this prison your heart and wrath have trapped you within.”

“You are clearly unaware that no matter what you claim I was before or should be that right now I am a Witness. If I forget to love, I die.”

“Your Witness life will die. Not the Escort.”

“Not that it matters, but how sure are you of that? How many people have crossed this line you are asking me to?”

“None.”

“One of a kind. I like that.”

“Like it or not, this is over. You will fight from a different perspective with a higher cause.”

“A higher cause.” He smirked. “You have no idea what I fight for.”

“A girl that cannot adore the same as you do.”

“No.” His eyes grew cold. “I’m more than aware of where Charlie and I stand. That she raised me to this life and left me. But I do not love her for any misguided reasons, or even for the sake of my existence. I love her—feel love—so that I can fight against the evil that is bred here and bring our tomorrow into life. You see, my sovereign, my love for Charlie is a necessary evil.”

The scent of mint intensified, though there was no rumble in the energy.

“Are you telling me that you can feel that emotion for her and not hurt another Escort?”

Silas glanced to his side to the waiting war that was still paused. “No. I plan to kill at least a hundred as soon as you set me free.”

“Those are not Escorts.”

“Then what are they?”

I almost used Rasp’s word, but I held back. “Evil. Evil that you can kill all day long. It is the true Escorts that you cannot harm.”

He clenched his jaw. “When Draven takes energy from Charlie, he kills her, which kills me. I have to stop that so I can live out my duty. A necessary evil.”

“There will be no duty to live out because you will end up killing yourself. How is that not clear to you? How do you not see that Xavier wants this to occur? You are connected to me, therefore connected to Vade and his line, this Draven boy.”

“It’s clear. I know this is a dance with fate, but I rather liked dancing when I tried it before. I’m not going with you. I have a battle to end and a charge to fulfill.”

“You deserve time to mull over this awakening, and that will be afforded to you. Let me be clear: if you do not accept this heritage—if you continue your threats against our kind, I will have but two choices: I either imprison you or smite you where you stand. Neither would not bring me any comfort.”

I let my energy clear so he could see out, so he could see those clones of evil. Mazing was just before Rasp, out of my sight, but I knew she was there. With one thought, I struck each and every one of those clones of evil. One thought was all it took. Instant demise.

My eyes moved back to him. “Now your battle is over. I suggest you find a nice place to sit and think. I will return for you before the next moonrise.”

I released the hold on him, but before he could rise I moved my essence back to the springs, finding Rasp and Mazing at my side.

Chapter Eleven

That did not go the way I wanted it to at all, but I had to hide that from Rasp and Mazing, which didn’t seem like it was going to be hard. Mazing was having a complete come apart; she was pacing viciously and trembling violently as she took in deep, gasping breaths. Rasp was doing his best to help her and figure out what was wrong by pacing at her side, saying her name, and trying to get her to snap out of wherever she was in her head.

My essence reached for her and took the overload of wrath, anger, and terrified emotions that were swarming through her. That took her down a notch or two. One glance into her mind showed me that Colton, the memory of him, was amping her up. She must have caught the scent of lilies in The Realm just before.

One second later, she nodded, telling me she was in control. So she wouldn’t feel self-conscious, I acted like nothing happened by talking to Rasp.

“Did you wipe the memories of those two Witnesses with Silas?” I asked him.

He furrowed his brow at Mazing, gave her a once over, then answered me. “Before we even stopped time, they’re young. Probably the only reason why it was so easy.”

“Great,” I said under my breath. Maybe those two were part of the reason Silas was holding back. He was their leader.

Maybe I should have asked more questions. Listened more intently to him.

“Rasp, I’m done. Vade has made it clear that he wants to see me. You can go.”

Rasp seemed somewhat disappointed that that was as far as I was going today, but he vanished anyway.

I glanced to my side to find Mazing staring at the dark springs.

“Are you all right?” I nearly whispered, seeing how vacant yet alert her stare was.

“I have to figure out why I can still sense Colton.”

“You will stay far away from him,” I ordered, still not knowing how at risk she really was, if the coupling she confessed to had any merit in the eyes of the Creator.

“I think it’s her. That petal. She must know I am out and is seeking a duel.”

“That, you will not engage in or honor without my consent.”

“I wouldn’t, but you know that any act of war is null and void at this point. The lines have already been drawn.”

I knew this warrior to her core. She was right. That Cadence girl very well could be taunting her, holding the scent of Colton out so that if or when we returned, she would know, they all would know. I never imagined that Mazing and I would end up in the Veil, a personal guest of the Reaper, but maybe those other kings knew that was a possibility.

“I will let you leave here—cloaked—to hunt. You will report back to me any findings. You will not engage anyone. Rasp will travel with you.”

At that moment, Rasp appeared again.

“Well, you’re highly tuned in,” I said with a mere glance to him.

“Or a skilled eavesdropper,” Mazing said with absolutely no thrill in her voice; she knew what was coming next.

“Rasp will go with you.”

“Of course he will,” she said with heavy sarcasm.

“What have I done to you?” Rasp said, matching her glare.

“I don’t like the way you look at me.”

“I don’t like the fact that you fell for someone from the line of shock. That you put everyone’s life on the line for the sake of a fever, but you don’t see me throwing that drama in your face.”

“You just did, you tool.”

“Do you want me to throw it in your face? Tell you what, instead of hunting some low-lying, despicable petal, why don’t I give you a tour of The Realm? Why don’t we sit down and I explain to you the raw anger that had eaten my king alive? Why don’t I describe how hard it was to find your line and bring them here? Why don’t I tell you how hungry they were, how vulnerable.”

I raised my hands to stop the bickering, but they were both amped up at this point.

“Tell me he was worth it. I dare you,” Rasp said with a glare as he leaned forward and I dove between them.

“He was, you bastard! He was worth every ounce of that heartache. Who would say that about you? Who would sacrifice what I have for the likes of you?”

Rasp smirked as his scowl all but burned her where she stood. “You! At one time, you.”

Mazing tensed but had no words. They had both hurt each other, but that was fine; now that the truth was spoken, they could work through the pain, something I could not aid them with, that they had to do on their own.

“Mazing, if you leave here you are leaving with him. And when the two of you return, you will be over this fight.”

That was a command that they each knew they had to obey. They vanished at that moment.

I threw my head back and let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding.

As I breathed in again, I took in the sensual aroma of mint, of my Vade. He was close.

I turned to walk down the hall of springs, knowing that would give me time to absorb and process my last few hours.

These springs divided into several vast halls, but one hall was meant for only Vade and me. In that hall, we did not see the dimensions below; we saw our lines, not their sensual private moments, but their path, their challenges. We could look forward and see all their woes and guide them away from harm. Of course, they always had the choice to take in the symbols and signs we were giving them or find their own way. Thankfully, those under our care usually recognized our hand and would follow it.

That was the hall I found Vade. It was the only one that had a spring at the end and on each side. When you stepped down it, a wall behind you would form. You could literally stand in the center and watch all of your creation bloom.

I couldn’t clearly see what he was gazing at through the mass of souls that the springs were producing, but it didn’t matter anyway; the second he sensed me, the water he was gazing at turned black as he turned to face me.

“You called?” I said, raising one brow, ensuring that each step I took reflected the power and supremacy that I had used around him for quite some time.

“I was thinking of you. Did you sense that?” he asked as his eyes slowly moved across me.

I was a bit relieved by that. I’d thought he’d heard how insubordinate Silas had been and I was about to get one of his carefully plotted lessons on how to control and lead my line.

“Must have been some powerful thoughts...your energy moved the air, and your scent was intense.”

The boyish smile I adored so much consumed his alluring image as I reached his side and his powerful hands gripped my waist and he leaned his forehead against mine. “They were of our past…and the future I ache for.”

“Do tell,” I whispered, falling into the gentle sway his hands were guiding me into. I hoped that the Creator had released His words, that Vade was finding the strength to finally tell me what secrets he was protecting.

“I’d rather show you,” he murmured.

At that moment, his regal suit vanished. Now, dark stone washed jeans that hung just right off his hips dressed him, along with a deep crimson shirt. My clothes had changed, too. Now I was wearing a simple summer dress; the blue was so deep that it was nearly as black as the sandals on my feet.

I took in a sharp breath as I remembered the last time I’d worn this.

In the next instant, I was sitting in the passenger seat of a 1967 Chevy Impala. It was painted a deep red and had black flames across the hood, a hood that had the powerful motor protruding out of it.

Vade was in the driver’s seat, sinfully smiling at me. When he turned the key, the roar of the engine vibrated the seat I was on and sent a shocking hum through my core, followed by an addictive rush of adrenaline.

It was dark outside, and a long, straight road was in front of us. He hit the gas, and the engine not only obeyed the command but also roared in agreement, as we thrust forward.

This was one of our firsts.

I had lived a very sheltered and abused life before Vade and the Creator had come for me. And even though the Creator had spent a great deal of time with me, I was still childlike. I was constantly tense and tried aimlessly to be everything both Vade and the Creator thought I was. I tried to hide the timid girl that knew without a doubt that she would wake from the dream I was in and find myself in my mother’s hell.

Any other king would have expected me to come to his side and take in his lessons and move forward with the undeserved role I was chosen to play.

But Vade was not any other king. He asked me very tenderly if he could hold me through all my firsts. I thought he wanted us to consummate our relationship, that he was gracefully asking if he could touch me. Timidly, I offered him a shy nod as I kept my eyes down, but consummation was not what he was speaking of, at least not at our beginning.

Instead, he asked me to meet him at dusk, to wear something that made me feel comfortable, that it was warm where we were going.

This simple dress on me was the only thing I could manage to manifest back then. I’d never worn anything more than rags, dirty ones at that, and I had no idea how to dress for a first anything with a king. I hoped against all hope that the dress I’d chosen was not only sensual, but also managed to capitalize on my youth and inexperience.

Vade told me I was breathtaking, and I thought the same of him. I thought that in those jeans of his he looked younger, more approachable and most definitely more playful.

I didn’t even know what a car was and was apprehensive when he opened the door for me and shut me in. I was relieved when he climbed in but still didn’t understand what we were doing. “This car is a powerful one, one that makes me feel free when I drive it,” he’d said gently to me as he turned the key and the engine roared to life. I jumped back in my seat as my soul pulsed out of control.

I will never forget that smile on his face, the wonder in his eyes when he gazed at me. “You make me appreciate everything when you let me stand at your side,” he’d said when he leaned over me and my skin blushed. He held my stare as he carefully strapped the belt around me. “You do not need this in the form you are in now, but I want you to feel safe.” I nodded nervously, still not understanding how this had anything to do with what I thought he had planned for that night.

That night, and several after it, all we did was go on wild joy rides. The windows were down, letting in the balmy summer air, and enticing music was blaring through the speakers in sync with the song of nature in the tall fields that framed the road we always traveled on. I could still remember the spike of fever he gave me when he gently reached to hold my hand for the first time. It was so innocent, yet sensual.

Tonight, though, time stood between us. Nights that had not only consummated our rush but capitalized on it were between us. So sitting here now, I shouldn’t feel like the timid girl I was then. I shouldn’t feel these butterflies in my core. But I did. I suppose the memory was strong enough to pull me back.

As we raced down this never-ending road, I reached my hand out the window and felt the warm air against my skin, inhaled the complex yet simple scent of the night. I could not help laughing aloud, feeling that youthful awe that I felt back then once again.

My laughter pushed him to drive faster, to turn up the music a little louder. His arm stretched out behind me, wafting his intoxicating scent in my direction. I pulled my arm in and took the silent invitation he had offered, sliding across the seat so my body was against his, something I had done long ago, a move that caught him off guard for an instant, but then he gently let his arm fall around me.

Remembering the past perfectly, tonight his arm fell around me as I laid my head on his shoulder.

I found myself fascinated by his hand, how it controlled this beast with such minimal effort. I reached for it, wondering if the steering wheel hummed with the vibration the car sent through me.

“I never did teach you to drive, did I?” he said as he glanced down at me.

I moved away from his embrace, clearly stating that was not what I was asking to learn.

“What?” he asked with a bit of a laugh in his velvet tone.

I just shook my head no as I slid back to my side. When I got there and glanced back to him, he was gone, but the car was still soaring down the road. I heard him belt out laughter and found him in the back seat. “You better take the wheel, Glory. Don’t hurt this magnificent beast.”

“Vade, you get up here this instant!” I bellowed as I feverishly tried to figure out what to do. On instinct, I moved into the driver’s seat, thinking that if I turned the key it would stop.

“There you go, take the wheel,” he said just over my shoulder.

“Vade, I can’t reach the pedals.”

“I got them. Steer,” he said as he failed to hide the humor in his voice.

One glance down told me that that was true. The pedal that I thought gave the car power was against the floor.

Steer. I can do that. I’m a freaking sovereign, for Creator’s sake. I’ve got this.

With shaking hands, I gripped the wheel and felt the vibration of the car soar through my being. I ever so slightly turned the wheel, and the car weaved from the straight line it was on.

“Not sure I’d go that way. Trees, Glory; trees would hurt her.” The calm humor in his voice was so addictive.

Her. He always called it a ‘her,’ but there was nothing feminine about his car. I managed to move the car between the lines he’d left her in before.

Just as I relaxed and convinced myself that he had control of this, that he would not let me hurt this car, I felt the heat of his skin next to my neck. “I should have done this long ago,” he murmured. I knew that tone; it was one of his more sensual ones, one that he would have not dared use with me the first time I rode in this beast. I glanced to his eyes in the mirror before me and felt my soul pulse, the scent of roses flutter through the car. “Eyes on the road,” he playfully ordered as his humming fingertips outlined the strap on my shoulder.

Before I could glance back to my path, I saw lights behind us, lots of lights; blue, red, white, and an horrid sound was coming from them, one that gave me an awful sinking feeling in my core.

“Vade!”

“Yes?” he said, as if he could not see those other cars chasing us.

“What do they want?”

“For you to slow down, I’m sure.”

Before he finished his sentence, I’d slid down in the seat and pressed the pedal that I knew stopped the beast. But we did not stop; instead, the car spun wildly.

Laughing, he shouted, “Oh, Glory, you have caused them angst.” The car finally stopped with a violent jerk. I soon figured out that it was now facing those lights that were chasing us. On instinct, I braced my arms across my face.

Then all at once, the horrid sound ended and I felt a fading warmth on my arms. Slowly, I let them down to see a sand dune in front of me. He had moved us, car and all, more than likely to an entirely differently side of the dimension we were in, maybe even a new one.

“Did you wipe their memory? Make sure they didn’t crash into themselves?”  I said with a deep sigh.

“Drinking coffee and eating donuts whilst wondering why nothing exciting ever happens in their town,” Vade said from behind me.

I leaned back in the seat and stared into the mirror at the reflection of his deep grey eyes, the shards of light that pierced through them. He was now comfortable in the massive back seat, one arm behind his head as his long legs were relaxed in a wide stance.

This was another first, one that led to an epic first.

Seeing a sun that was not clouded with smog was something that the timid girl I was had never been afforded. Seeing one melt into the ocean was a gasp-eliciting experience. I didn’t understand where it went, why the water didn’t steam with the heat of it as it fell into distant waves. Vade had showed me thousands of them, stating that no one sunset was like another, which was very true.

I gripped the steering wheel. Before us was an approaching storm, behind us a blissful sunset. It was kind of poetic, placing me between two points that have and will occur as I stood between the memories of the girl I was and what I, or rather we, had become. So much had changed, yet even more had stayed the same. I still had questions and wonders that I kept from him. That timid girl had never perished.

Right now I felt ashamed; Silas’ conversation was echoing in my thoughts, how he dared me to say that word, how he accused me of feeling it for Vade.

When this all began, the other kings were kind in their own way to me. They would take me to The Realm and let me witness what emotions their line washed away. Very early on whilst with Xavier in The Realm, he questioned me about Vade. He knew that Vade was with the Creator when I was raised and wanted to know why. I had no answer for that. Xavier also knew that for some time Vade and I had been stepping out on our little adventures, that Vade was waltzing me through an endless sea of firsts. Xavier asked me how serious we were about each other.

Still new to this lifestyle, I did not know all the rules, so I came very close to saying the ‘L’ word, to confessing my blooming emotions for Vade to Xavier. I had no reason to believe that he was a foe; at that time, we were all loyal sovereigns. Just as the word came out, his hand cupped my mouth and he earnestly told me that I could never feel that if I wanted to remain here. He told me why, too: that we had to rise above that so we could complete our charge and not infect the masses.

I remember not understanding why the Creator had not told me that, why if that emotion were deadly to us that He had left that rule unspoken. I can still feel my heartache. I had planned to tell Vade that day how I felt. I knew we’d find our way to this beach. I planned not only to say that word to him but also kiss him for the first time, because though I could see the desire in his eyes, he had left that barrier up. I thought if I told him and made that move, he would know that he was breaking through to that shy girl I was.

According to Xavier, I would have died in his arms if I’d said it. I knew that would have been more than painful for Vade. That advice, I am thankful to Xavier for; he stopped me, and because he had, Vade and I had spent countless cycles of eternity at each other’s side. Of course, thanks to Xavier we had spent almost one apart, but I suppose that is beside the point now.

“Another first,” I said under my breath as I let go of the wheel and turned in my seat.

Vade let a ghost of a smile come to the corners of his lips.

“How do I turn her around?”

He moved his head from side to side as he reached for me. I climbed over the seat and onto his lap, resting my legs on each side of him as I leaned my back against the front seat.

“Why not? You can’t see it from there?” I said quietly as I gazed at the setting sun through the back window.

“It is not as beautiful as you.”

I blushed as I tried to hide a smile. We were in yet another poetic moment. He was forcing me to face the innocence I once was, the beauty of it, why he faced the storm clouds closing in around me.

Vade reached to caress a strand of my hair that the wind had blown across my face behind my ear.

“Do you remember what I asked you right before one of our sacred firsts happened?” he asked tenderly.

That girl I was rushed to the surface, and you would have thought that no time had passed. The sight of him still sent a hum of adrenaline through my veins. I still had to tell my voice not to tremble. “You asked me what I was feeling.”

There was a pain in his eyes, one that was there when this happened the first time. I didn’t understand it any more now than before. “What are you feeling right now?” he said as his hands fell to my legs and slowly caressed the flesh that was there.

“More than I can say,” I said with a sigh. His humming touch could, no, would never get old, become common.

“Try,” he urged gently. I could swear his eyes were glassing over, but I convinced myself that was only the light of his rush; the aroma of roses filling the car was telling me I was right.

My eyes fell from his. He didn’t know what he was asking me to do, that the girl I was and the woman I had become wanted to tell him he was more than a rush, and if I did, this turmoil we were entangled in would not matter because I would perish in his arms.

I remember Xavier telling me that my essence would shatter and become a part of The Realm. I halfway wondered why he didn’t use that word to end me last time. Surely if he had, I never would have found my way to the Veil. Xavier should have forced me to speak my emotions back then. Even though I was furious at Vade, I still would have said it. Now, Xavier was going to wish he had because no matter how temporary my reprieve from the Reaper’s watch was, I was going to ensure that I struck that king.

I had to move my thoughts away from that emotion, that word. I had to figure out how to show Vade how much I adored him.

I placed my hands on his, something I never would have done when this happened before. I slid them forward on my thighs as I leaned in and very timidly tilted my head, inviting him to kiss me.

Over the course of time, we had held each other countless ways, tenderly to aggressively, each time finding a new experience that would never be forgotten. Yet now at this moment, the comfort we had found with each other’s vessels had vanished. It was as if neither of us had ever been touched.

Vade’s hands left my legs and reached to cradle my face. He held my gaze, not letting his lips reach mine. “This is not words, Glory,” he said under his breath as his gorgeous eyes slowly eased across my image.

“The sacrifice I would face for saying them would be worth the relief of telling you…but I swear to you that you would disagree. You would never let me utter them if you knew them.”

“I should be given the chance to disagree. To know the words I see in your eyes.”

I began to tremble in his lap. He could not seriously know what I wanted to say about how I felt, for if he did he would never let me say the words. He would never let me perish. We were the last fragments of what true Escorts were.

“Glory…I have not always given you that chance. I have not always made you feel safe enough to say anything you wish without judgment or ridicule.”

I nodded once, wanting to pull away so I could hide my tears, but his hold did not falter; instead, he caught them as they fell and wiped them away.

I drew in a jagged breath. “If you cannot feel them, then they matter not.”

“But I do—” I stopped him short. I knew he was going to tell me that I was his rush, that he felt a burning fever for me, but if he did I would be putty in his hands and unwillingly say the word that was my final death sentence.

Instead, I all but slammed my lips against his and forced them open so I could feel the warmth of his tongue and taste the sensation of mint. At first he nearly fought me as his warrior body tensed, but my kiss weakened him and his body relaxed as he pulled me forward on his lap and the warmth of our bodies were melded against each other.

I could hear heavy raindrops hitting the car, hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.  I ignored it all.  My kiss would dance between the two people I was. The bashful girl let her lips tremble, her soul pulse as innocently as it did the first time I kissed him; the sovereign, the woman that had held him countless times, pressed my legs against his sides and let my hands roam across his powerful chest.

When the rain began to pour into the windows, Vade moved us and manifested our souls far from this point.

Chapter Twelve

I expected a bed, somewhere beautiful and sensual. I expected the bed we had shared countless times, but that was not what I found.

My legs were still around him, my lips were against his, but he slowly let me fall as his kiss left my lips. I could still smell and hear the rain, but the salt of the ocean was gone.

We were standing in front of one of the most wonderful places in existence, at least in my opinion. It was bakery-slash-coffee shop and bar. Inside, the essence of every single dessert known to man was wafting along with the warm aroma of coffee in the air, and hopefully there was a soulful singer on the modest stage.

Escorts do not need food to survive like humans. Oddly, though, humans rarely consume food for nourishment alone. It’s the taste, the emotions within the taste, and the company with them whilst they divulge in these sensations that attract them to the pleasures of food.

Bread—hard, old, dry bread—and water were the only tastes I had known before Vade. So this first that we were now standing before was one of our more humorous and romantic ones.

My eyes grew sad. Instantly, he questioned them with that protective glare of his. “What happened?” he asked, softly lifting my chin so I would have to look at him.

I pulled away as I leaned against the brick wall behind me and stared at the raindrops that were falling just outside of the awning we were under.

“This feels like goodbye,” I said under my breath.

“Goodbye?” he gasped.

My eyes met his. “Yeah, goodbye. You are walking me through some of the most precious moments in my existence. You could only be doing that if you wanted to live them once more before I truly vanished from this existence.”

“No, Glory, no,” he said as his hand reached for my waist and pulled me against him. “I’ve thought of these moments constantly since you left. This is a celebration for me. This is me swearing to you that we are everything that we were when we first lived through these moments, and so much more.”

“These are the moments you thought of?” I asked in a shameful tone.

“What did you think of?” he asked curiously.

“The end.”

“The fight?” he questioned as his body tensed. “That is how you remembered me?”

Inside, I was kicking myself. It was a natural habit of mine to see the wrong in everything. “Yeah, every day. Every single day. I thought at first that you would still avenge me, still come for me, but the more I thought of that fight, the more time that passed, I understood that was the last fight.”

“That was not our last fight,” he said so quietly that I barely heard him. It shocked me because I assumed he would say something along the lines of we would never fight again. But he was too honest of a man to say such things.

He held my stare as he spoke and moved forward, pinning my body between his and the brick wall behind me. “You can’t always think of the bad things in life. You can’t dwell on them because then you will learn to expect them.”

“Will learn? I have learned. I don’t understand you sometimes. You are the King of Anger. You should have thought of it, too. Used that emotion to bring your wrath.”

“I am the King of Anger, which means I understand the emotion, that I know it is what we use it for, either a gift or a dagger. That fight crossed my mind, and when it did I was angry at myself for not being more clear, for not choosing my words differently.”

“Be clear now. Tell me why you waited so long. Why you waited until you had no choice but to come for me. Why did you shelve me like all of your other material things?”

“I didn’t shelve you.” His eyes reflected the appall that I made him feel. “I didn’t wait until I had no other choice.”

“Mazing was told that the Veil was thinned, that now any of the other kings or their line could reach The Fall with little effort and that you had to move me so I would not be found.”

“Mazing,” he said under his breath.

I clenched his arms. I knew he thought Mazing had the same issue I had, that we only heard what we wanted to, and that was very little because wrath perpetually consumed us.

“Listen. That Veil did not thin overnight. It has been thinning for quite some time. That is not what changed why I found words.”

“Then what?”

He took in a deep breath and turned his head to the street before he looked back down at me. “I lived in the past. I rebuilt it. Everything they took from you. Even though the Creator had made me a promise before I met you and also on the day you left, I still lived in the past, thinking that using my anger that way was best. I was wrong.”

Vade hesitated as he stared at me. “Sometimes we forget to heed our own advice. I stopped listening. I stopped looking for signs because I was in the past. One day, I felt weak. I felt like death and had no idea why. I knew you were still safe, so I went to the springs. My line was intact, strong and thriving. Those of yours that I’d found were strong. I didn’t understand. I fell to the floor, and for the first time in a long time I listened. Really listened. The first thoughts I heard, the first words were of that green-eyed girl of yours. I heard her declare that she would protect and stand up for a pure Escort. It took my breath away because there was so much of your wrath within her.

“I listened more intently, turned the springs back to understand who she was, why she was here, who the ones with her were. I discovered instantly why I was weak. That Donalt, along with Xavier, had not only stolen your Fated and mine, but also had nearly killed one of them.

“I didn’t even have to think about it. I restored my Fated that they had harmed, along with yours. I watched over them until they left The Realm and then looked through the past, discovered how wronged we really were. It was worse than I had ever imagined. I wanted to show them to you, wanted you to see their paths, and for the millionth time I tried to speak the order to bring you home, only this time the words came without fail.”

“You’re telling me that you found words the moment you discovered this web?”

“I’m telling you I found words the moment I stopped looking in the past and opened my eyes to what was all around me, what had been there all along. Anger is swarming through me, but it is aimed at myself, not the kings that harmed me. Our lines, our Fated mists, have suffered because I could not move forward and see the signs around me.”

“There is more. There are words you still are not speaking, words that must be horrid.”

“Why do you think they are horrid?”

“Call me crazy, but when the king of anger, the Reaper, and the Creator Himself are in a silent conference about you the secret cannot be blissful.”

Pain echoed in his eyes. “It is a secret that you will not see or understand until you open your eyes the way I did.”

“Your eyes were closed when you learned of it.”

“No, they were not. They were not closed when I went with the Creator to raise you or when He spoke to me after you were taken. They were focused on our tomorrow, on the next evolution of our kind.”

“An evolution that will never be. The other kings have created pure evil; we have failed as a race.”

“Stop thinking about the other kings. We cannot control them, but we can control ourselves. It is our future, our calling that needs to be in focus. We have to live the lives we were given, not the lives given to them.”

None of his words made any sense to me. There was a death sentence hanging above our heads. There was no way to restore our past.

His hands reached for my arms and squeezed them gently. “Let’s let this debate rest for now. Right now, walk with me as we remember our beginning. Feel those emotions you felt then, and hopefully now…tell me what they are.”

I tensed again, knowing that he had no idea how dangerous that request was, knowing that it was getting harder and harder to fight them. Each request of his, each memory, pushed me to the brink of a final death.

“Red velvet. Cream cheese icing,” I murmured.

A boyish smile that made me melt every time took over his image.

He let his hand slide down my arm and grasped my hand before leading me in this shop I adored in the most childlike way.

It was slow. Not many people were in this eccentric little bakery-slash-bar. I sensed that the kitchen was closing and the nightlife the place had was gearing up. Well, attempting to. It seemed as though the downpour had hindered the normal traffic, or maybe it was the day of the week. I remembered from our past times here that sometimes you could barely move in here, and others it was near vacant. Vade had told me that in this dimension the souls worked through the week and only enjoyed the weekend. That always saddened me. It didn’t seem right to find bliss only on a few days of the week.

Vade led me to the bakery side of the shop. As he went to the register, I walked down the long glass counter that held the most beautiful desserts in existence. I could feel indecisiveness creeping in; though red velvet was my favorite, they were all so tempting.

All of the workers had stopped what they were doing and were silently gazing at the pair of us. I didn’t really understand why; we were both blending in, our eyes were dulled, and our clothes matched the time and the dimension. I glanced at Vade to see if he knew why, but I only found that alluring smile of his.

Just to ensure that I wasn’t doing anything odd, I walked to his side as he reached his arm around me. He smiled at the two girls that were staring at him wide-eyed from behind the counter.

“How can I help you?” the girl said with a pronounced shake in her voice.

Vade glanced down at me as his grin widened for no reason. “We will take two of everything on your menu…to go. And the largest piece of red velvet cake you have here.”

“Everything?” the girl questioned, glancing at the girl next to her to make sure she heard that right.

Vade slid several green papers closer to her. “Everything. And is it possible that you can deliver those delicacies for me?”

I tried not to smile, not to feel the rush of the past, but I turned crimson anyway as my soul pulsed. In the past I couldn’t choose, so Vade ordered it all. I wanted so bad to consume each piece, but I couldn’t even find room for a single bite of everything. That made me feel horrible, and I didn’t want to waste it simply because I knew what it felt like never to have tasted anything so divine. Like always, Vade had a perfect solution.

“Sur-sure...yes, sir. Where to?” the girl asked.

“The children’s home, two blocks over,” he answered, still smiling at me.

I thought those girls were going to faint with his request; they both blushed and began to tally up the order. The girl tried to hand Vade back some of the green paper, but he waved it off.

“Wait right here,” Vade whispered to me as he walked away. I assumed he was going to find a table for us in the other room, even though I was sure we could have our pick of them.

The girls kept glancing up to me and grinning. The other bakers were doing the same as they began to pack up two of each desert.

Vade walked back in a moment later. Just before he reached me, the cashier had finally gathered her nerve to speak to me. “I swear I have never seen a couple so in love. You are one lucky girl. The air is electric with the two of you—and the way he looks at you...wow...just wow.”

I gripped the counter so hard that I thought it would break off. What was it today with that word? Maybe if I stopped thinking about my death, it would stop surfacing. Yeah, I’ll do that.

Vade’s hands came from around me and gently clenched mine, taking the tension from body.

“Thank you,” he said to the girl in that deep, sensual voice of his. “We are in no hurry. You can take care of the to-go order before you bring our cake to us. We’ll be in there.”

Everyone gave him a quick nod and went about their duties as if they knew he was a king and they wanted to honor him.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly, glancing to the cashiers, then to me as we walked away.

“Yeah…just trying not to think of my death.” His eyes questioned me with a deep pain. “What?” I asked shyly.

“Nothing,” he said as he pulled me to him.

In the next room, there was only one other couple and they were in the back booth. The stage was dim, only highlighting a young girl and a pianist.

As we entered, the piano began. By the time we reached the subtle dance floor, the girl began to sing. Her voice was soulful, full of vast emotions that her youth could not have possibly have witnessed. An old soul with a divine gift, that was what she was.

Vade pulled me against him and swayed with me to her angelic voice. At first his hands gently hung on my waist as his forehead leaned against mine, but with each powerful word that girl sang his hands began to move. They reached to caress the outline of my face, traveled down to my collarbone. I couldn’t look into his waiting eyes...I had to keep mine closed...I had to hold in the sighs that wanted out with each movement of his fingers. I felt his hand on the back of my head. He kissed my forehead before he pulled my head to his chest, my body against his, and slowly moved his hands across my back.

The room filled with the scent of roses, so much so that I had no doubt that very soon the others in this place would sense that there were supernatural beings in their presence.

One song ended and another began. I wanted to hear the words so badly, but I had to block them out when they shaped words that we were not allowed to feel.

Each time I tensed, he would hold me tighter, send more of his calming energy through my soul.

“One more song for the generous lovers that have given us all something to hope for,” the singer said into the mic as I heard a subtle clapping. I opened my eyes to see that every worker in this place was leaning against the wall, watching us dance in this near dark room. Our cake was sitting on a table in the corner with one candle and two forks; someone had placed rose petals around the plate.

The song that began was just as sweet as each one before it. Her powerful voice shaped each word with a command that only a gifted soul could feel. These words were easier to hear; they spoke of a couple that was completely addicted to each other, a couple that lived on the edge of fear that they would lose each other.

As it ended, Vade pulled my chin up just as his lips framed mine. I heard howls and cheers from the staff and blushed as I kissed him through the smile that was threatening to take his kiss away from me.

I couldn’t figure out how we had captured their attention so easily, what they found so resoundingly refreshing within us. Maybe it was because it was a slow night and they had nothing better to do.

Vade led me to our own private booth as everyone else left the room.

I pulled one of the rose petals to my nose and breathed in. “Maybe we should take this to go, too.”

My words brought a sinful blush to his image as he reached for the fork and offered me a subtle bite. “I think I would have fainted if the girl I brought here long ago had said that to me.”

“If that shocks you, then you don’t want to know what I was thinking when I died the first time. My mother was screaming at me to repent, but in my thoughts I committed every sin I could think of with you in my mind.”

His eyes grew wide, first with anger, then with disbelief. Vade despised the likes of my birth mother as much as I did, and the idea that I would have thought such things back then was more than he could understand.

“Every sin,” he mused to himself as he took a bite of the icing.

“They were only sins because she thought they were. They were acts I wanted to feel with you.”

His eyes rapidly moved across my image. “All this time, and we are still discovering each other.”

I glanced away, knowing that he had no idea what internal battle I fought, that the girl in rags still existed.

“Acts,” he mused, taking one more bite.

“Do not turn my words,” I playfully scorned. “There were emotions with those acts.”

“Which are...?”

I moved my head from side to side once. “You are relentless.”

“A good trait?”

“For a king, yes.”

“I’m not royalty right now. Neither are you. We are us.”

“Good for us, too.”

He reached across the table and moved our hands so our rings would connect. My side of the eternity ring was feminine, his side was regal and powerful, yet they fit together perfectly. “I would chase you across eternity,” he whispered.

Humans speak of eternity as something that can never be reached, but as a sovereign I had witnessed a thousand eternities in my existence, with Vade at my side and in my heart. That time with him was so blissfully consuming that I knew that it would take an infinite amount of eternities to even come close to satisfying the raw hunger his essence gave me.

After Xavier had told me how deadly that one word was, I fought with my thoughts, my core feelings, and had to reshape them. I needed to do that now because even though in the Veil I thought of our last fight constantly, I also thought that my only regret was not expressing to him what he was to me.

Of course, in my mind those words were shaped into a carefully plotted argument that I would have used to hurt him as badly as his absence had hurt me. I wanted to recreate that fight and prove my point more clearly, prove that obviously I cared about him and my line more than he did. I wanted to redo the fight not to make up or create peace, but to bring him agony. I hated myself for that. I really did, especially knowing that his thoughts were not even close to being as dark as mine.

Come to think of it, the word that I feared to say because it was so sacred, because it was my duty to protect those that felt it, could not even come close to the emotion I felt for him…no word could.

“I’ll let you catch me,” I said playfully.

“Not without a fight. I understand the Reaper had to kick you out.”

I playfully squinted my eyes at him as I took another bite of my cake. I swear, there was not a more blissful taste in all the food that had thus far been created.

I was sure Rasp had told him how cruel I was. That, or he had watched my reaction from the springs.

“I didn’t kill Rasp.”

“A peace offering from the Queen of Wrath,” he teased.

“I couldn’t any more than you could have harmed Silas, or even Mazing.”

“How did that go?” he asked as he reached his finger that was covered in icing to my lips. As I devoured that sweet taste, I almost forgot his question.

“Not good. He thinks he will die if he returns with me.”

“Why is that?”

Damn it. I was trying to avoid the word of the night, not bring it up again.

“As far as you know, has there ever been an Escort that was a Witness as well?”

Vade swallowed nervously as his eyes shifted away before returning to me. “I think it is clear that the past will serve as no clear reference when it comes to our lines. Fated Escorts of ours have not only risen to their fight, but joined with lights.”

I now knew the purpose of his wary glance. “Do you think they will create the metallic energy that you dreamed to create?”

His eyes slowly danced over my innocent image. “I know that they will protect it,” he said in a near ghostly whisper.

I would give almost anything to see the thoughts and emotions he was shielding me from. “Silas states that his emotions for the girl in question, Charlie, are a necessary evil.”

That statement made Vade smirk with pride. “That is a different approach, I suppose.”

“I know he does not have a deep rush for this girl, but he does care for her. I think he would regardless of the predicament they are in, but nevertheless he feels he must have this war of hearts simply because she is a light and the one from your line, Draven, pulls from her. Charlie rose him to what he is, saved him from the grasp of Xavier, and now if she falls, so does he.”

“Interesting.”

“I’m sure there is more. All I know is what I just said, along with the fact that he feels that he must end evil. Silas is protecting someone more than that girl...maybe his army. The Witnesses with him were young.”

I glanced up from my cake at Vade; every part of him was rigid. He was staring at me, waiting; waiting for what, I do not know.

I rushed over what I said in my thoughts, what I had discovered since I had been back. Then it hit me: Vade had told me Silas was protecting something, something that was precious to Vade, to me.

“What is it? What does he guard?”

He just stared, no words. I balled my fist and held back the urge to hit the table.

“Vade, you better tell me. He is glorious, and it would bring me great sorrow to end him, but I will if he continues his threat against your line. Tell me now what he is guarding.”

Nothing.

“Vade. I am obviously close to what this secret is that you have with the Creator. Tell me before I make a tragic mistake. How can you trust Him so dearly? How can you know without a doubt that if I remove Silas from the equation that what you deem precious will not be harmed?”

“You are waltzing all around it with closed eyes. I do trust Him, because He has never failed me.”

“Has He not?” I was deeply offended. I adored my Creator, I really did, but He was gone. He left when the other kings betrayed Him. He left me in that Veil, took Vade from me.

“No, He has not. He has never left you or lost faith in you or me,” he stated evenly, successfully keeping all anger out of his tone.

“I really wish I could see it that way. I’m full of rage. Lost and blind. There is no way out without loss. Have you seen the evil the kings have created? How it lacks any real essence?” I questioned.

“I have, along with the mists and petals they have abandoned, the ones that have no idea who they are, who seek to rule a Realm that can never be ruled by one, for it was created for all.”

“Then tell me why in the hell He left me in that Veil? Why our race was ripped apart? Why it has come to this?”

“If I tell you why, the lesson would be lost on you.”

“You are the only teacher I trust.”

“You should trust Him,” he said with a sigh.

“We are suffering from communication issues at the current moment,” I bit out.

At that moment, the lights dimmed a little more and wind that should not exist blew the rose petals across the table. The pattern looked sporadic to me, but Vade read something within them.

He reached his long fingers to them, adjusting two jagged lines that they had created and the cluster of the pile that they had escaped from.

“What did you do each day there?” he whispered, glancing up to me to ensure that I was staring at the rose petals.

My imagination took over for a moment. “Beyond guarding The Fall, I…I watched the procession of death.”

The petals slightly resembled the path those regretful souls would travel down before reaching the throne of the Reaper.

“What did you witness in that procession?”

“Regret.”

“And how did that make you feel?”

“Horrible. Those souls were focused on their regrets. They had cherished material items and forgotten the ones they cared for, thought that time in their previous existence was infinite. They wanted to freeze time instead of moving forward and trusting that they would find those souls again.”

“Is that all they regretted?” he pushed.

I thought back over the random conversations I’d had with the dead. They were not like the one with Cowboy; he was calm, at peace. He was more than rare, he was a singularity. He was the only one I’d met like that. The others not only held regret, but a tinge of anger. Now at the end of their path, they had discovered that the people they thought had harmed them or hindered them had done no such thing. They had done that to themselves by not letting their wrath for them go. One even told me that he lived his life looking back and not forward, and he would give anything to live it again with his eyes faced forward.

“No,” I whispered. I had left my thoughts wide open to Vade, so he was seeing what I remembered, feeling it.

“What else? What else did that dead soul you are thinking of say to you?”

I cringed. The soul he was talking about had only stayed in the cathedral for one day before he was forgotten by his past life and forced to move on by the Reaper.

We had kinship because he, too, was abused as a child, he, too, trusted very little, and he regretted not trusting more, not understanding that just because that one soul hurt him that it didn’t mean that all others would, too.

“You already know.”

“I also know that the same problem will consume us until we learn our lesson from it.”

“I did not learn anything there.”

“Which very well may be why the Reaper could only offer you a reprieve and not a permanent stay.”

“What, Vade? Just say it. How is this my fault? Beyond the fight, beyond asking the Creator to let me be the example that our kings would follow, and later defending my line, what did I do?”

“You asked Him to be a solution?” he said as his eyes widened for an instant.

“I did. The moment I realized that the other kings had not only crossed the line, but also destroyed it. I vowed to Him through my thoughts that I would be the example, that my example would be so powerful that the other kings would remember what they were supposed to be. I told Him to use me as His weapon—and what did that get me? A wretched fight between us, followed by a demanded sacrifice that benched me from this war.”

“I asked Him, too,” Vade said nearly silently.

“When? After you told me my way was wrong, that I had to stay nourished and strong?”

“No,” he breathed. He swallowed his anger. “I asked Him before you were raised.”

“How could you know then that He would need you to do such a thing?”

He smirked. “I have lived with these kings for more time than I care to evaluate. I knew it was coming, that they’d toyed with the idea of invoking emotions for some time. I knew once they did that it would begin our end.”

I stared at him in utter dismay. I knew after I was raised that there were several cycles of the four million year time span that we called eternity. I had no idea how Vade could have seen something that far ahead, or why the Creator had yet to take either of us up on our offer to aid Him.

“And you still trust Him?” I said finally.

Vade pointed to the table. “Glory, what did you learn? What lesson are you still missing?”

“If I’m missing it, how would I know what it is? I learned how to kill misguided Escorts, how to live off the scraps of essence that they had stolen.”

That wind came back again, moving those petals ever so slightly.

“Hindsight is always clear, not living through it, which is what you are doing right now. I’m going to be blunt. I have no idea if any one of these words will reach you, but I know one day they will ring true,” he stated evenly as he leaned forward.

Chapter Thirteen

I felt my soul seize. Was this it? Was he going to tell me the horrible truth that he and the Creator were hiding from me? Would I finally see how doomed we really were, how our final demise would come?

I nodded once, trying to reflect the powerful sovereign I was meant to be.

Vade adjusted the rose petals once more. “When you hit a wall, it is not really a wall at all. It is a clear sign that you have drifted to the wrong path, that the desire in your heart does not match the course you are on, the one you asked to be on, the course He honored. The Creator will remove you from your surroundings and place the lessons you have to learn in front of you.”

“How to die. Trust me, I heard a million stories on how such occurs.”

Vade clenched his jaw, a clear sign that I was nowhere near understanding this.

“The procession of death. The regrets, the ache, and desire to live on. You witnessed that, and there was a lesson there. Every soul that dared to speak to you, there was a lesson there. I would dare say they vanished into their next life not because they were forgotten by the past one, but because the Creator had used them to witness to you what you continue to be blind to.”

Vade waited for my argument, but I was out of cake and the will to mull over the same words again and again.

“He wanted you to witness last regrets and hear their perspective. He wanted you to see that so you would return and live your life without any regrets…He wanted you to be grateful for your existence and not see it as a design with only one purpose.”

“Even if that were true, we failed to provide for Him the one purpose we were designed to create. How or why would He give us more than one?”

Vade moved his head to the side as he took in a deep breath. “Right, you and I have failed to provide for Him the one purpose He meant for us.”

Something was odd about that agreement, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

“As soon as we live that purpose, He will give us more,” Vade said with a sadness I had never heard in the beautiful voice of his.

“Glad to see that you understand how awful all this is now. We cannot recover our past, heal this race, and restore it to its former glory.”

The look in his eye told me that was not at all what he meant, but he shelved that pursuit and used my own words to get through to me.

“You cannot recover your past, but you can overcome it, forgive those who have wronged you.”

“Are you insane? How could you say such a thing! Those kings will suffer.”

“Your mother, Glory. Your mother.”

I cringed as wrath ripped through me. “What about her?” I seethed.

“Maybe He wanted to teach you that every soul that crossed your path was not meant to hurt you, but to make you grow.”

I fought back wrathful tears. “She did nothing for me.”

Vade reached for my hands, and with his touch I found a deep breath. “Right, very right on a physical level. But she did do something: she showed you hell, so now you appreciate bliss. With her, you saw the darkest hours of life, and that gave you the courage to face any and all evil…unfortunately, she also taught you to search for the negative, caused you to believe that every word spoken to you held false truths, that every path led to doom.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” I asked as exhaustion crept into my voice. This was one topic I hated to think about, much less remember clearly.

“It has everything to do with this, with us. You have to recognize this, how self-destructive it is.”

“It is not. I am the sovereign of wrath. I know the emotion, therefore I can easily relieve it from others.”

“And I am the King of Anger. I understand my emotion, but I do not dwell on the emotion and use it for negative intent. I do not seek it in the beings around me.”

“I do not seek it.”

“You do. Right now, this instant, you are looking for it, looking for something horrible between my words or the Creator’s lessons—and there is nothing.” He glanced down at the table, then to my eyes once more. “You have to find trust. When you do, you find gratitude…and a host of other emotions.”

I squeezed his hand. “I trust you. And I am grateful for you. I thank the Creator each day for you—for every moment.”

“Not fully…to the extreme that He believes you will feel one day.”

“Well, next time you talk to Him, tell him I miss our little talks. That I am a little blind right now.”

Vade’s eyes were full of agony, and I had no idea why. I suppose that he was right before: I didn’t see the lessons of the Veil or the ones I was living through now. I could only hope that he was also right in stating that I would understand them one day.

“Out of cake,” I said in an attempt to change the subject. “Want to go on another joy ride?”

He stood from his seat and held out his hand for mine. I took it, holding his stare. Around us, the little shop vanished. I expected to find his car once more, but I was wrong again; instead, the most enticing scent absorbed me: night blooming roses.

We were in a garden, one that he created for me, that held every single flower known to creation. The grass was as soft as silk, and the moon hung so low that you could swear you could touch it. There was no wind, and it was not cold or hot; the air was pure, and vibrating with his essence.

I doubt I could choose a favorite first with him, but the night when we fully claimed each other would always rank among the most memorable.

He was just as scared as I was, even though he didn’t show it. His hands were steady, powerful, and extremely careful with me. Each caress was tender and offered a pause, a chance for me to tell him I was not ready.

I was more than ready, so ready that I had to hold myself back, that I had to force patience. Before this first, each time we were alone and he would ask me to talk about how I was feeling, how I felt about him, I developed the habit of changing the subject physically. A kiss, a simple touch, anything that would keep me away from saying the truth, to distract him.

During this first, he urged a slow and steady pace. He told me later that fevers were raw and physical; rushes were a sensual dance between souls. He was very right about that.

To this day, I still use a touch to distract him, something he had already called me on once tonight, but I had learned this dance as well.

I let an innocent yet seductive smile come to my lips.

“Look familiar?” he asked as his fingertips reached for the strap on my dress and traced the cloth there.

“Vaguely,” I said in a deep, sensual whisper.

“A lot of emotion in this garden.” With a glance from him, the bed we had shared countless times before manifested. It was solid white; a canopy let lace sheets rain down around it.

“Agreed,” I said as I inhaled the scent of roses; it was not coming from the garden, but from him.

“I always thought that I felt more than what you say to me here…am I wrong about that?”

My hands reached for his chest and slowly slid up to his shoulders. I stood on my tiptoes. He made no effort to lean down; he was waiting on my answer. I pulled his head down and kissed him before he had a chance to move away. He was under my spell now.

The tension left his body as his kiss became more powerful, graceful. He picked me up and wrapped my legs around him before carefully lying us down.

The classic battle of tenderness with aggression began as the scent of roses encased us.

The first time this occurred, I was nervous, terrified that something or someone would wake me up from the bliss of his presence. I couldn’t understand why or how he could look at me, touch me with such wonder and admiration. The stoic King of Anger recognized and embraced the fragile being I was with such care and grace.

Vade knew I’d been hurt, that my heart was black, yet more fragile than glass. It had been shattered so many times that it dared not believe that it had finally found its way to safety, for it knew that any and all bliss was extremely short-lived, and the pain you received for it was never, ever worth the experience.

With every deep velvet word he spoke, every smile and gentle caress of my skin, he polished the darkness away, slowly revealing the real me, the one I didn’t even know existed. In the end, all that remained was a small crack in my black glass heart, one that wrath seeped through, one that never fully allowed me to forget who I once was.

I hated that crack, that weak girl I was in my mother’s care. Because of her, that dark time in my life, I always had my defenses up when it wasn’t warranted. I always looked for negative intent in the words that were spoken to me, which was the reason that Vade and I fought when we did. I started every single fight, pushed him to the limits of any control he could be asked or expected to have. That crack led to me being too stubborn to tell him I had to face Xavier. It led to the absence we had both suffered.

Maybe that was the lesson I was supposed to learn in the Veil...maybe that was what Vade was trying to tell me at that shop.

I did trust Vade. I did have gratitude for him. He had saved me, more than once. I suppose that was why I was so focused on this war of lines. I was trying to repay the favor, save him.

I let the thoughts of my past and the dark future slip away as I focused on his touch, on how his skin felt against mine. We held each other for hours, sometimes tenderly, others more aggressively. We found ourselves laughing, feeling emotions that were so powerful that they nearly stilled us as we stared into each other. More than once I had to close my eyes, demand that tears that were of bliss but mocked weakness retreat.

We held each other like it was our first time, as if it were our last, not taking one moment for granted.

Now, lying in his arms and staring at the low lying moon, I began to pull myself out of the bliss we were in, this manifestation around us. I had to; there was a war waiting on us, one that had waited for far too long.

“You know what I don’t understand?” I said quietly.

He waited for me to go on.

“Why did the Reaper allow the dead to be trapped in the Veil, for those souls not to be brought to him or given the chance to move on? Was it because the line before him was so long that he did not notice, or was it because he was not powerful enough?”

“Don’t,” he whispered.

I propped my chin up on my arm across his chest so I could look into his eyes. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t bring that war into our bed.”

“Just trying to understand,” I mumbled.

He reached for my head and gently caressed my hair. “Listen to understand.”

“I’ve been listening for some time now. If the Reaper protected me as you say, offered me his cathedral as a school for the Creator, then I will repay him. The dead are precious to him, and on my way home I saw how he had been robbed. As soon as I get Silas situated, that is where I will focus next.”

I thought that was a plan that was full of grace and gratitude, but the look in Vade’s eyes told me it wasn’t.

“Any closer to getting those words you are looking for?” I asked, almost sure that the reason he didn’t think it was a good idea was that he knew it would all be for naught.

“The question is, are you any closer? What has this night given you, made you remember or feel for the first time?”

“Everything. I don’t know why the Creator is waiting on me. By now, He should know that I do not do well with analogies, that I need bluntness.”

“We always forget the lessons we are told, but never the ones that we learned through experience.”

“Right,” I breathed. “I have to go back for Silas.”

He nodded once.

“No words of advice? No telling me to tread carefully so he can keep his guard?”

“You will know what to say, what you have to do.”

“Are your Fated as stubborn as Silas is? Did they doubt you when you went to them?”

He grinned. “Very stubborn, but I haven’t gone to them.”

“Why not?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

“The time is not right. They are working together. I will continue my watch.”

“They need to hear you, know that they are protected.”

“Ah, but they fight harder and discover more when they pave their own path. Donalt and Xavier have plotted to use them against me, but they underestimated the fight in each of my own.”

“So not like you,” I mused.

“They are not like any other before them.” His eyes were full of bliss.

I leaned forward and gave him a slow, subtle kiss as I manifested my warrior clothes to my body. “Go make sure they are okay. Silas had no idea that Xavier was a king; if he mentions that to the others, they may falter and think they cannot find a victory.”

He smiled. “I really don’t think they know how to falter, at least not for long. They think they are in a war of hearts, not a war of humanity; souls will hesitate when fighting for masses, but not for their rush.”

“Truth,” I said as I blinked back the dreadful onset of weak tears. “Wish me luck.”

“I will listen closely,” he said as a regal suit appeared on his body. I stood, giving him room to do the same.

He reached to kiss me once more, and I decided to be playful and start a passionate kiss that would have landed us right back in that bed—but I vanished from his arms just as that idea took hold of him, just as those long arms reached down for my thighs and moved forward.

Grinning and still blushing, I appeared in the springs. One glance at the evil that was infecting The Realm took that grin away. I let out a sigh and reached for the water to call forth the image of Silas.

“Forgetting something?”  I heard Mazing say.

I glanced to my side to find her there. “I haven’t left yet, have I? Are we over our fight?” I asked, glancing around, looking for Rasp.

“No, not entirely. He blames me; that, we agree on. What we don’t agree on is the why.”

“The why?”

“He thinks I was too wrathful to see his future intentions of becoming a fever for me.”

“Future?”

“That is what I said, you can’t plan a fever. I told him as much. I told him we would have never been more than friends.”

“So he is hurt.”

“Nope. That tells not only me, but also him that he had seen whatever he wanted us to be, as some kind of contract—arranged. He is mad at me for breaching an invisible agreement and the result of that. Nothing more.”

“Did you leave here? Find what you were looking for?”

She hissed before she spoke. “Yes. Colton’s scent is everywhere, but he is nowhere. I cannot find that godforsaken Cadence petal anywhere. Rasp thinks she must be close to Fielder, that is why she is hidden.”

“That, or she is mirrored.”

“Oh, how I wish.”

If anyone in a line was near their sovereign, they would be hard to sense simply because the sovereign’s essence was so powerful. Fielder, the king of grief, was always in the real world, not in human form like Donalt had done, at least not for extended periods of time, but he was always down there. I’m sure that was the reason why Cadence was hidden from Mazing now, but like Mazing, I hoped she was mirrored.

Mirrored souls were ones that were basically imprisoned by their kings. They had done something horrid, and now their souls were trapped; only their images could roam The Realm, and they would stay that way until the king saw fit to release them.

The springs had manifested my dear Silas for me. He was not in The Realm, but a dimension below. He was sitting under a tree, and a chapel was near him. It was old and decaying, the once white wood was gray and the windows had been blown out by Mother Nature, gray cloths that were once curtains blew through the broken glass.

“I don’t think I need you. He is in the real world.”

“So are the kings that betrayed you.”

“On point,” I said under my breath. “Where is Rasp?” I asked, glancing around.

“Vade called him. That is half the reason I knew you were here.”

“I don’t suppose you learned any secrets with Rasp? Like him telling you there was a big, fat lesson in front of my face that I cannot see?”

“Got that vibe, but no words.”

I clenched my jaw as I stared at Silas.

“Am I missing something?” I asked, glancing to her.

“Just as much as I am, I suppose.”

As much as I needed to go to my Fated Escort, my First needed me now. I turned to face her. “You harbored a deep secret for quite some time. I’m sure it feels new because we are back here, because you are near the anniversary of that cycle of eternity.”

“I just wish I could have heard and felt the promises he did from the Creator.”

I bit my lip and held in a sarcastic grin. I so knew how that felt. “Don’t we all,” I finally said. “It was real. You hear me? It was real for the two of you.”

“I don’t know,” she said as she sighed. “It hurts like hell now, I know that much.”

“We’ll figure out how Cadence is taunting you with his scent and stop it. That might help a bit.”

“What else is on the agenda besides ceasing the memory of my torrid affair?”

“Getting Silas home, then releasing the dead that are trapped in the Veil.”

“Tall order.”

“Even if we find a way to let a few loose, it will appease me. I may not be able to send the Reaper a bouquet, but I can send him a single stem, let him know that my deeds are to help him and others. I don’t want to go back.”

She glanced away. I knew she was in the middle of an internal war. One thought told her that at any second she would perish because she had been coupled with Colton, who lives no longer; the other told her that she wouldn’t because it was not a blessed coupling. I did not envy her for that battle and knew that no punishment I could give her would be worse than what her mind was doing to her.

“All right, then. I guess we are going to do this. I still want you to stay cloaked; Silas deserves to see me alone.”

Her eyes moved up, then beside me to where Rasp was now standing. “Good meeting?” I asked him.

Rasp grinned. “It was good to see my old friend again.”

I turned crimson. “You guys are staying hidden. This is my moment with Silas.”

“Where to, Sovereign?”

I reached my palm for the spring, asking it to open wide for us.

That instant, it pulled me in. I reached my essence around Silas and the scene he was in, shielding us. I hesitated, making sure I could sense Rasp and Mazing; oddly, Mazing was full of wrath. Maybe I should have asked her to stay. It was clear that she was being haunted at this point.

Silas looked up instantly. He breathed in deeply as his eyes filled with judgment. “Mint,” he seethed.

“Yup,” I said, not really caring to rehash words that had already been spoken.

Silas stood as he took in another breath and tilted his head slightly as his eyes grew curious. “Who is with you?”

“They cannot see or hear you.”

He took two dominant steps toward the direction where Rasp and Mazing were standing, but he hit the wall of my energy. He could see the fields that were there, but not them.

“I’m imprisoned,” he said, glancing scornfully over his shoulder at me.

“No, you are shielded to have a private conference with me.”

Silas breathed in again, then clasped his chest as if he were in pain. His eyes squinted closed.

“Still processing the awakening,” I stated. His senses had to be on fire. Every sensation was new to him now, yet it linked him back to a past, one that was clearly showing him each step of the way what he truly was.

“There was no awakening,” Silas said, gaining his composure and turning to face me.

“My line does not lie. Learn that lesson now.”

“Oh, but you have already breathed a lie to me.”

I cringed as my hands formed into a fists. I never should have let him see a weakness in me, know my limits. We were going to end that now.

“I see that you took my advice, found a place to think.”

“You kinda cleared my calendar for the afternoon,” he said with a smirk.

“That power could be yours.”

“Tempting with power...tsk, tsk—that is clearly a trait of what evil does,” he said, moving his head from side to side in a sarcastically playful manner.

“No, evil tempts with fear.”

“True.”

“I did seek counseling about your rare hybrid of energy.”

“Is that what Escorts call it?” he said with another deep inhale.

“Do you need to be restrained in order to listen to me?”

“Not at all. I see now that a sense of humor is not afforded to real Escorts.”

“There is no precedence for you, but basic lore states that when you are risen into an Escort that your past lives are just that, in the past. Any debt you have to Charlie or those in the form of Witnesses will be null and void. They saved you, and I will repay them for that, but you are mine and it is time to come home.”

“I belong to my Creator, and my Creator alone,” he said, raising his brow.

“And He has placed you in my care.”

“Apparently, He took me out of your care,” he shot back.

“Are you seeking a compromise, telling me that you can remain as you are and discard your emotions for Charlie?”

“I told you before, our LOVE is a necessary evil.” I knew he meant that to be damning, or even sarcastic, but as soon as that sentence left his lips pain came to his eyes as he clenched his chest once more.

“What is wrong with you? What is this pain?”

Silas gasped as he breathed through it. “Oh, dear queen, this is not a new agony. But for some reason, your presence enhances it.”

“How is it not new?”

He had regained his composure once more and was standing tall. “I knew I was an Escort or something close to it before today.”

“I know that you did.”

“No, I knew.”

“Okay, then. How?”

“Where do you think that black smoke goes when I pull it from those evil bastards?”

“Home.”

“Evil has no home.”

I had to think for a second. I knew when I pulled blackened souls out of the Escorts that reached The Fall that they went home to The Realm, but those clones I saw Silas fighting—I wasn’t sure they had a soul; therefore, I wasn’t sure where their home was.

“Where does it go, Silas?” I said as I angled my head up at him and crossed my arms.

His fist hit his chest. “Right here.”

“You could not have possibly consumed that evil and still have the will to stand.”

“I do consume it, and I send it to its death.”

“Which is...?”

“The light.”

“You’re telling me that you pull this evil out, take it within you, and rise to some light and let it go?”

“You make it sound so simple. It doesn’t happen that way. Each one that I kill marks my soul, and when the marks tear at my armor I rise and the light cleanses me. It then pulls any remaining essence of that evil out of The Realm.”

“Is evil in you right now? How many battles do you live through before you need this release?” Maybe that was why he was so damn temperamental and stubborn; that darkness was in him.

He smirked. “In the past I could go years, decades; recently, more often than not.”

“And you think that is healthy? That your Creator designed you to be some kind of vacuum? A means to an end?”

“You’re the one that said you were designed for a means to an end.”

I guess I did say that. “We are above it; you are below it.”

“Well, then I guess the goal is to meet in the middle, huh?”

“There are more like you?”

He held out his powerful arms. “One of a kind.”

“You are not consuming evil anymore. That stops now, along with these emotions for this Charlie girl.” How could he want this for himself? I should have been a welcome sign of relief to him.

“Not a chance.”

“Listen to me. I can see into you. You can say whatever you want, declare whatever you want, but I know what is between you and her is not real.”

“Still love her.”

“Because it is necessary.”

“For me to exist, yeah, I have to feel it for someone.” With those words, he clenched his chest again. I knew he was in far more pain than what he was showing me.

“Perhaps someone else then, someone who is not firmly attached to a line that you cannot and will not bring down.”

“Sure, sure, girls that dig boys that can fight and consume evil and live for eternities at a time are easy to come by. I’ll ask one out to a show. Get right on that.”

“Are you always so sarcastic?”

“I’m always a bit of an ass, yes.”

That made me smile. I adored the fight in him.

“Come with me, fight evil the correct way.”

“No. I have a guard to keep,” he said, glancing at the broken chapel behind me.

“Memories. This place will be knocked down with the next swift wind. Nothing here for you.”

“You think I guard this building, that the Creator could find nothing better for me to care for?”

My soul seized. I knew he did guard something, something that Vade saw as precious.

“Do tell,” I said smoothly, not wanting him to see my earnest curiosity.

“I don’t think you can handle it.”

“You have no idea what I can handle.”

“Do I not? Do you think I don’t see the past abuse in your eyes, that pain and agony, that feeling that you are unwanted, appreciated, or loved in the slightest way?” he stated all too coldly.

“That agony did not come from the life of an Escort; long before it,” I admitted.

“I see that the life of an Escort has done wonders for you, allowed you to bury those demons. You should put that on the brochure so when you pop up and tell someone they are yours they can just read about all the perks.”

“Are you quite done?”

“It hurts you because you feel no love; if you did, whoever hurt you before would not even be a memory. I don’t want to wallow in my misery.”

“Yet, you do.”

“No, I don’t. I can’t even clearly remember mine. It’s been entirely too vague—that is, until you put my nose into hyper drive. I know that abuse comes from a scent you know.”

“I already told you that it did. Xavier.”

A hiss left his lips as his chest swelled. I assumed he was remembering that was the abuse he thought he had in the past. I made a mental note to look in the springs and see what horrid things that king did to my Fated just so I could add it to the reasons to kill him.

“I am rare; no other in my line remembers or cares for any harmful past, I assure them of that.”

“Then why do you have it?”

“What are you guarding, Silas? Give me a reason to leave you to do just that.”

“Come,” he said as he vanished and appeared at the broken doorstep to the chapel. I manifested at his side instantly, eager to learn his secret.

Chapter Fourteen

I could smell the rotten, decaying wood and the nature that was slowly consuming what was once a place of worship. I knew whatever he was guarding could not be that sacred if this were the home it was given. What beauty could be within this shack?

Silas glanced down at me. “Are you sure you want to see this?”

“I’m waiting for a reason to let you to stay as I found you.”

He pushed the door open. I expected darkness, a one-room chapel with a few pews, but that was not what I saw.

It was nothing less than majestic.

I had walked through numerous chapels of Earthly kings, but this one humbled them all. It stretched as far as I could see.

I stepped forward, trying to understand how the shack I walked into looked like this on the inside.

With my next steps, my soul seized. I heard an angelic chorus of voices; they were speaking as one, singing as one. Each word was carefully shaped in such a way that you literally heard bliss. They were all youthful, yet you could hear the power of them.

I kept a steady pace as I made my way through this massive chapel, and though I searched earnestly for them, I could not see the creators of this sound. I felt them, though, all around me.

“What is this place?” I whispered, not wanting to cover their voices.

“These are the souls of tomorrow, the children of them. The ones that will raise the human race above negative emotions, allow them to see each other as one.”

I gripped the pew that was next to me. I had lost the strength to move forward. “Are they metallic, their energy?”

When no answer came, I looked up at him to find him staring at me through a furrowed brow. “No,” he said under his breath.

That wasn’t a powerful enough denial for me. These were the souls Vade had dreamed of.

“This is the mist of the light,” Silas spoke so gently that at first I wasn’t even sure it was him beside me. I was glad to see that the awakening I had given him was starting to sink even further in, that the terminology was coming to him now. “I fight with others to forge their path…they are the souls that will end the evil that destroys.”

The mist of light…and they were guarded by one of my own. I knew there was truth to this simply because the voices around me echoed a sacred past and promised a blissful future. No doubt, these were the souls that were needed to defeat the evil I had seen created.

“I have to feel love for them in order to protect them,” Silas said quietly to me. “Your vocabulary lacks that word, for fevers are felt in passion and a rush is something that can only be felt for one. They need me to feel that emotion for all.”

“Yet, you do not. I’m here right now because you have threatened a line that cannot fall—if it does, it kills you. Do you understand that?”

“Not one damn word; it makes no sense to me.”

I slapped his chest for cursing in a place like this.

“They have heard worse. They don’t judge.”

“I’m not judging you. I’m protecting you. That is my charge, just as much as consuming emotions.”

“What do they call it? A catch-22? Instead of talking to me, why are you not talking to the others, raising them up to your palace in the sky, teaching them control so they won’t hurt Charlie? I would have no reason to hurt them then.”

“Charlie will slip away from you. You know that. Even if the Draven boy you fight had more control than the king himself, you’d be in her face, speaking her past. You are stirring the kettle because you know she is your lifeline and you cannot let her forget you.”

“Her life is threatened by more than the Escort that loves her. I have no choice.”

“Then you are not giving me one.”

“Are you telling me that you are willing to leave these souls unguarded for the sake of protecting another line?” Silas asked in utter disbelief.

“That line is connected to mine. I’m telling you that the voices in this room are more powerful than all of the kings combined, that we will find a different way to guard them.”

“You find that way, make it make sense to me, and I’ll come without a fight; otherwise, you are down to those two choices—prison or death—that you were so quick to tell me you had to handle the likes of me.”

Dear Creator, he saw death the same way I did: just another day at the office. I offered him no quick response.

“This is evolution,” Silas stated calmly. “I have no doubt that you—or as you say, our race—is failing. It felt no love, only loyalty to its line, and if they were lucky, a rush for another soul. To fight evil in a soul, you do not need some supernatural king and their line to remove dark emotions—you need love for yourself, for life. Your failure was declared at your creation. You expect humanity to move forward while using old ways. Impossible.”

The voices around me were so numbing that I could not find the wrath that I needed to argue with him. He had scorned my race, my life, and he had no right to do so. He was too arrogant and youthful even to think that he had a clue about evolution.

“I’ll let you mull over that. I’m due for a battle. Might as well do my job while I still have it.” And with that, he vanished.

I should have stopped him, but the fact that he was able to break my energy field told me I was in a weak state. I felt hazy. My first instinct was to flash back and check on my line—their peril would be the only reason for me to feel this way—but then I realized I was weak because I felt no wrath. I couldn’t in this chapel. I could almost see the faces of the voices. Children. Precious children.

I sat down on one of the pews and listened intently for an unmeasured amount of time. Something deep inside told me that my Creator had not left the universe, but had left us, because we had failed…the creation of my race failed. He moved on and created these beings.

I could swear then I was only let out of my death sentence so I could witness the end, so I could see how clearly I had failed. That wasn’t a good feeling to have.

I had accomplished nothing each time I spoke to Silas. He was still a threat to Vade’s line, and in turn, mine. If I protected him, I would ensure all those others under my care would perish—and eventually so would he and I. It seemed so cut and dry, yet I had no idea what my next move was going to be.

Maybe I should get Vade to reach out to his Fated, get him to instill control within them, and hopefully that would buy us some time.

I stood from the pew and bowed to the voices around me, then manifested outside. There I found Mazing viciously pacing back and forth in the distance.

“What happened?” I asked Rasp as I appeared at his side.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I swear every moment she becomes more insane. Each time we’ve been out, she has a come apart. How is it possible to hold in that much wrath?”

“It’s possible,” I murmured. I’d seen her do this right before a big hunt, right when the air filled with the scent of caramel.

“Well, the second we landed here she lost her f—reaking mind.”

“I know what curse words sound like, Rasp.”

“Yeah, but I’m fond of living,” he said, cocking his brow, meaning that Vade would not be pleased with him using foul language in front of me.

I breathed in deeply. “I don’t smell it,” I said, stating that no other line was near us, not Xavier’s caramel or Fielder’s lilies.

Rasp had done the same, coming to the same conclusion.

“Is it in The Realm? Is that what she is picking up from here? Silas said he was going to a battle.”

Rasp looked down with disapproving eyes, not believing that I had let Silas go to fight. But he did not know what I had witnessed in that place of worship, what he was really fighting for.

“No, it’s here,” he said as he focused his eyes on the horizon.

Firsts and sovereigns could see across dimensions, through every level of The Realm as well. Rasp’s icy eyes were firmly focused to the north. When I followed his lead, in the distance I could see a massive blackness, I could smell death.

“There is only one way to calm her down,” I said to him. “Let her kill.”

“Of course that is the only way,” Rasp said sardonically.

We both manifested at Mazing’s side, blocking her fierce pace.

“Something stirring you up?” I asked as if I didn’t recognize the obvious.

“Set me free,” she breathed. “Say it. Tell me to fight.”

I let out a sigh as I looked her over. Her auburn eyes were near red with rage. Her long auburn dreads outlined with blonde streaks were pulled behind her head, and every muscle in her body was flexed. I really had no choice in the matter. Someone was about to die.

“So be it.”

She vanished before the ‘it’ was uttered. Rasp and I followed her essence, manifesting at random points across the north before reaching a black cloud. Mazing was crouched down, peering into it. I nodded my head to tell the wind to clear the way so I could see what that mass was hiding, and when it obeyed me my soul seized once more.

“You have got to be freaking kidding me,” Mazing said as she stood from her crouched position.

“What am I missing here?” Rasp asked as he stared forward at a very beautiful, rather enormous manor.

“That house came through The Fall not too long ago.”

“A house?” Rasp said disbelievingly.

“Yep. Right through the damn thing at a warp speed, took off the top of a third of the forest on its way through,” I said with a sense of awe.

“A house? The other side threw a house at us?” Rasp said with the most awkward expression in existence on his face.

“I don’t know the details, but I saw it pass by.”

“And it wasn’t empty, apparently,” Mazing seethed. “They loaded that joker up with the rank smell of lilies, and it threw it back out. Escorts must have gotten past us. Smarts ones, those on the other side flung our trash right back at us.”

Wrath was strangling her words now. The only scent in the air the night that manor passed us by was ours. Actually, now that I think about it, it was nearly gleaming as bright as the sun. I remember smirking, thinking that the Calvary had arrived, that Xavier and Donalt better duck, along with any other king that was foolish enough to follow their quests.

“She’s under us,” Mazing said as she circled where she stood and stared at the ground that was white with snow.

“Lilies,” Rasp said to me.

Mazing was losing her mind right now because the Creator-forsaken petal that had taken her rush was feet from her. I should have held her back, I realized that...but I didn’t.

“So be it.”

Hearing my reply, Mazing vanished. She was underground now.

We followed.

We walked into a battle zone.

Cadence was there all right, and so was Fielder. They were head-to-head with a pretty little blonde and two good-looking boys. I breathed in. I could see fire in the boys with the girl and the power of a Phoenix all over the girl. They were either in transition or soon would be. No doubt, when these three completed their transition they would be lethal. Clearly, Fielder and Cadence were trying to prevent that from happening.

This was a toxic dance Fielder was engaged in. Phoenixes had common traits with Escorts, in a manner of speaking; eternal lives, and whatever emotion they grasped during their transformation was the one they shielded as a weapon. Call me crazy, but if they were head-to-head with Fielder, then the emotion they had was most definitely not sunshine and butterflies.

As soon as I laid my eyes on that blonde, something told me I knew her, at least her essence, but I couldn’t place it right now. This was not the time for any kind of meet and greet.

I didn’t understand this room, why Fielder had stored souls in the three grandfather clocks that were centering the walls, why I could smell the death of one of his petals in this room.

I didn’t have time to understand any of it. Everything happened too fast. Time was stopped for the soon-to-be Phoenixes as Mazing flung Cadence to the ground. Cadence’s image flashed, telling me that she was indeed a mirror. Cadence reached up to pull Mazing’s soul from her body, and my instinct took over. One thought from me not only diminished her image, but her soul, wherever it may be.

The surge of power I’d used made me dizzy for an instant, and I swayed but caught my balance.

This was not good. I kept trying to figure out why Fielder had not made a move toward me, then I realized that I must be cloaked by Rasp. He was boldly standing before him.

A sinful smile came across Fielder’s image. He glanced to his frozen-in-time prey, then to Rasp.

“An act of war,” Fielder mused to himself in pure bewilderment. He then gazed at Rasp as if he had lost his mind. “And if I wasn’t offended by that, I’m definitely not happy that you interrupted my little role play.”

As Rasp held his ground, I glanced around us, to the clocks that I knew had trapped souls within them. I could sense even more of them less than a mile away, all trapped, all tortured—all robbed from my dear friend the Reaper.

Though their numbers were great, I knew in my soul that this was not even a fraction of the souls that had been taken by Fielder.

It was my fault these souls had been noticed and stolen. This blonde and those with her had been charged with cleaning up my mess. I had to find a way to help them do that tonight so they could press forward and release the myriad souls that were surely imprisoned by Fielder.

I whispered sacred words that I’d heard the Reaper say before. I grew weaker, but one by one the trapped souls in this room began to vanish.

“Who is with you?” Fielder demanded, looking squarely at me, yet not seeing myself or Mazing, who was shivering with rage—or was that weakness? What was happening to us? Why now? Could we really be this weak? Taking out one low-lying, mirrored petal and freeing a few souls had wiped us out.

“Harboring death? Really?” Rasp said to him.

“I’m a king. You do not speak to me that way. Tell me now who is with you. You have no power to kill a mirror and release the dead while staring me in the eye.”

No answer came from Rasp; he was too focused on ensuring that we could not be seen. I could see his warrior body tremble ever so slightly. There was no reason for that because he had the strength not only to hide us, but also fight whilst doing so; something was wrong.

All at once, a roaring thunder shook the stone room we were in and Vade appeared before Rasp and stared murderously into Fielder.

Rasp swayed at that moment. I was right before: he was weak for some reason. Something was hurting both lines.

Even though we were still invisible to Fielder and a bit light-headed, Mazing and I both moved slowly to flank Vade.

“Vade, how wonderful to see you,” Fielder said in his classic charming tone. That was his normal manner; when he ‘role played,’ he could mock any voice.

“What the hell are you doing, Fielder?”

“Me?” the king of grief said, flashing his perfect white smile and seductive little grin. Fielder had to use charm; he was smaller than the other kings, at least by half, and he was still built, lean, and muscular, but Vade had a good three inches on him and so did Rasp.

“Yes, you,” Vade seethed.

“I’m at a bit of a loss here, brother. You show up and smite my innocent little petal and dare to release my dinner into The Realm, and then ask me what I’m doing?”

Fielder breathed in deeply. Now that I was closer to him, he was starting to sense me. Right about then, Vade’s scent of mint suffocated the room.

“You crossed lines,” Vade breathed.

Fielder laughed aloud as he raked his fingers through his dark hair. “Have we been watching twisted replays in the springs? Your adored’s First crossed lines.”

“Your PETAL was in the bed with her FEVER, promised to couple with Xavier’s First.”

Fielder’s olive skin turned as pale as snow.

Vade stepped forward, fully engaging him. I could tell that Rasp wanted to be at his side, but Vade held up one finger. It was clear that for some reason, right now, Rasp could only do one or the other, hide us or fight with Vade.

“Tell me that is a lie,” Vade seethed.

“That was eons ago. It was a little joke, just fun and games,” Fielder said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

Vade thrust him across the room, knocking a hole three feet deep into the stone wall.

A second later, Fielder manifested in front of Vade again. “All right, so it was a bad joke.” Fielder raised his hands. “Listen, Xavier came to me and said that Glory was plotting to take his line, that half of yours was not enough. He saw her First with his.”

“Colton was not his First,” Vade said with a murderous glare in his eyes, daring Fielder to try and play him for a fool.

“Right, then. I suppose you have been paying attention. So he stole Colton from Glory, but still, he claimed him as his First, and therefore that’s what he was. If Glory figured it out, then we have diplomatic measures that we could have engaged. Instead, in the end we figure out she wasn’t a sovereign after all...no harm, no foul.”

“What the FUCK did you just say to me?” Vade bellowed so loudly that I felt my soul vibrate.

Fielder’s eyes grew wide for an instant as he replayed his last words. “Well, well, I suppose you didn’t know that. Which leaves me to wonder why now? Why you came for my petal now? That is an act of war.”

“Like we are not already at war. How did he steal Colton from Glory?” Vade hissed, stepping forward. Fielder took a step back with each of Vade’s. Coward.

Fielder grimaced, hating that he’d let that part out. “It was more like a switch. His First ticked him off, so he imprisoned him and needed a fast replacement. He grabbed one of Glory’s mists and embedded it in a mirror image of Colton. It was supposed to be temporary, but...well, it didn’t work out that way.”

Vade crossed his arms. “You do realize that now I have the right not only to destroy you, but also Xavier?”

“Apparently I don’t, or I wouldn’t have given it to you,” Fielder said as he pulled his shoulders back in a meager display of power, a power that was not nearly prevalent enough to take down Vade. Fielder would need a lot of help with that, and even though he could not see me, he had to sense that he was outnumbered right now.

Vade smirked. “Glory’s First never betrayed her or invoked war. Mazing fell for someone in her own damn line, and by doing so she unknowingly discovered that Xavier had declared war long before that point. You knew he did, and then chose to aid him—not only aid him, but stand up in front of me and tell me that it was for the best, and fair.”

“It was for the best,” Fielder said, rolling his eyes. “When are you going to figure that out?”

“Are you that high?” Vade bellowed. “Can you not see how you are nothing that you were before—nothing like what we are supposed to be?”

“I am high, and well fed. That girl messed with your head. You thought you were all special because the Creator gave you a little toy—and what did she do? Blinded you, stood up and made a fool of you when she told her line to find nourishment from mere thunderstorms—freaking thunderstorms. Who does that?”

“You are killing us,” Vade breathed. Even though he was full of rage, he had grief for this fellow king of his that was now an addict of emotions he was meant to reprieve.

“No, brother,” Fielder said with a tilt of his head, “there are quite a few humans that are doing that. We’re just joining the party. I want to know what stoked your fire. Why you are in my nest right now. Maybe I should ask around.”

“Going to be hard to do when you’re dead,” Vade said with an evil smirk.

“There you go again with all the empty threats. You killed my petal. Debt paid.”

“Shove it. I know damn well as soon as I leave here, you will manifest another image of her to toy with these people,” Vade said with a nod to the three in the room.

“Not people. Not at all.”

Vade glanced to the frozen images of the room, then back to Fielder. “Right, they are your karma...looks like they were faring well.”

There is a call to kings that bellows within their core. It is the sound that brings us all to the round room. That call began to ring.

Vade and Fielder locked eyes.

“Someone is in a fuss,” Fielder stated. “Awesome, now I get to tell them all at once that the great King of Anger struck my petal, then we can have a jolly old time trying to understand why.”

Vade only offered a glare. He wasn’t afraid, but I was. He was walking into a room of seven, and three of the six beyond him were known adversaries.

“See you there,” Fielder stated as he vanished.

That second, the rest of us appeared in the springs, moved there by Vade himself.

Rasp collapsed to the floor and Mazing rushed to his side. I swayed, but I was not near as weak as I was before.

“What the hell is going on?” I said to Vade.

“You’re asking me that?” he said with disdain. “Let me catch you up, my sweet rush. You were supposed to speak to your Fated; instead, you set him free to fight. Considering that Rasp is on the floor weak as hell, you should know what the consequences of that were. And if that was not a fun enough-filled afternoon for you—you decided to invade Fielder. He is no fool; he knows you were in that room. Now I have to walk into a circle of kings. No doubt they know I’m weak because they have struck my Fated. I wonder how this is going to end, Glory.”

“I didn’t let him go to fight you. I would never hurt you,” I said as my wrath made my voice tremble.

“Yet you do every day. I failed you. I failed the Creator. He should have picked a better king for you, a better man.”

My eyes were wide, my mouth open with shock. How could he say such a thing? He stared at me, pleading for something I could not grasp. Before I could tell him that the metallic energy he dreamed about exists, that Silas was watching those souls, he vanished.

Rasp stood.

“How bad is it?” I said to him as a sick feeling came to me.

“It’s not as bad as he made it out to be,” Rasp said. “He’s just protective. It was the echo that hurt our lines. It stopped too quickly to have occurred in real time. Someone stopped it before it became tragic.”

The echo was the voice of the dead. They lived on a different frequency than reality and often could speak of the future. I was grateful that whatever could have happened was stopped, but the risk of it happening again was far too great to ignore. I had to handle Silas. I had no choice.

“Go to them, to the Fated. Do whatever you have to do in order to make them stronger. Move mountains,” I ordered, knowing that even if our Fated had dodged death moments before, they had to be weak, there had to be chaos in The Realm at this moment.  “Mazing, go with him.”

They started to argue, but I raised my hand to stop them. “Mazing, dare not walk with shame, for your heart knew from day one what was rightfully ours.”

“Why are you telling me goodbye?” she asked with wide eyes.

“We all know where Vade is right now. It would take the Creator Himself to get us out of this alive. Those Fated will not perish with us, for we have not gone to them, not connected. You will go now, and use your last moments showing them what we are supposed to be.”

I now understood why Vade had not spoken to his, why he had not told me to call all mine home. He was protecting them, ensuring that the kings would not find a full victory with our end, that they would forevermore face our essence in one form or another.

Rasp and Mazing vanished.

With a shaking hand, I touched the spring and Silas’ image consumed it. He was at the point where the Veil and The Realm met, and he didn’t look good.

Chapter Fifteen

This was going to be hard, the hardest thing I had ever done. I sucked in a deep breath and let the springs carry me in. I manifested a half-mile away from Silas. I couldn’t bring myself any closer, not yet.

He looked exhausted. Though his skin was still perfect, his clothes were torn, his hair was disheveled, and any glow in his eyes had faded.

He was walking away from me, staggering along the field he was in. Then all at once, he stopped and threw his head back and roared.

The skies opened at that instant, and his body became weightless as it bowed backward. That armor around his soul started to break away, and as it did masses of dark smoke billowed from his core, flowing into the sky. That flow went on forever. His body would twitch as he roared in obvious pain; this evil was ripping him apart.

It took all that I had not to stop it. I knew it wouldn’t make much sense for me to do such a thing, stop the pain, when my intent was to smite him.

A powerful, gleaming light poured from the open sky and cradled him as if he were a mere infant. The screams stopped then. His eyes closed as he dangled in the air in a fetal position.

The entire act had left him all but nude. His back was bare to me, and there were gaping holes in his pants.

The light intensified, and as it did he became more aware. He stretched out in the air, inviting the light in. The warm light he basked in pulled him to a standing position just before the ground and slowly spun him as if to ensure that each part of him were cleansed.

When his front faced me, I lost the will to breathe as I fell to my knees. Across his soul was a jagged mark, a mark that spelled out MAZING.

Pure light was shining through each letter. I could swear it was flashing at me, demanding that I look at it.

The armor of a Witness manifested around his soul like a cocoon, shielding the name of my First from sight. Silas was gently let down, and he didn’t stand; the entire event had left him exhausted. Instead, he let his body fall to the grass and his eyes closed as he fell into a deep sleep.

I stood to run to him, but then I froze in place. That was Colton, or was at one time. That was the soul Mazing found a rush in, the one that she had coupled with, the one for which she had both rage and grief for.

There was no way out of this. If I killed him, I killed Mazing, which in my state of hindered power would hurt me to the point of no recovery. It would also hurt Vade immeasurably. I couldn’t do this whilst Vade was in the presence of those kings; they would see it and strike.

This was a tangled web that I could not manage to see through.

Silas was not a Fated Escort. He was a fated soul.

I could not understand what I had done to deserve such a punishment. Why were the two sovereigns that adored their charge tormented this way, whilst the ones that betrayed that sacred charge lived in bliss?

“That was a mighty fine sunset,” I heard a familiar voice say as the smell of a pipe tingled my nose.

I glanced behind me to see the Cowboy sitting on a bench. Not only had he managed to make it to the very edge of the Veil, but he had also figured out how to manifest objects. I guess it wasn’t his first walk into the sunset after all.

He was smoking his pipe and carving a rather large stick.

“Cowboy,” I breathed, not really caring to have company while I stared at my doom.

“Manifested this here bench for you, pretty lady. Now do me the honor of sitting a spell with me.”

Why the hell not? I all but fell onto the bench, keeping my eyes firmly locked on Silas’ sleeping body.

“You look troubled.”

“Family problems.”

“Are there any other kind?”

That kinda made me smile on the inside. “Suppose all roads lead to one.”

“Do tell,” he said with a bit of a grunt as he dug deep into the wood in his hands.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“I’m not asking you to tell me so I will understand. I’m asking you to tell me so you will,” he said with a puff of his pipe.

I didn’t think I had the mind power to play this game, to think of the time he had lived in and alter my dialogue and story to fit something that would have occurred in his time, so he was just going to have to hear it raw.

“My father despises me.”

That caused him to halt his knife against the wood he was carving. “Why on Earth would you think that?”

“I failed Him,” I breathed.

“That is no reason to despise someone. And no child can fail their father.”

“It was an epic fail. I’m sure He regrets my birth.”

“No father does such a thing.”

I smirked. Maybe in his time, but I’d seen quite a few horrid fathers in my time. I never would have placed my Creator with the likes of them, but nevertheless my Creator had a valid reason to regret such a choice. “Well, like I said, I failed Him. I wanted to be His voice, stand up to the others in our family and defend Him, but my wrath stopped me from that.”

“Wrath can be quite powerful,” the Cowboy said, returning his attention back to the stick he was carving.

“And damning.”

“Explain to me how you failed him,” he said with a puff of his pipe and a strong force against the stick he was shaping.

It was hard to say it because I really didn’t know how. “Apparently, He has been trying to teach me something for some time now. I can’t hear Him, so I didn’t learn it. And because I didn’t, I lost those He entrusted in my care. I lost the man I—I care about.”

“I see. What does your Ma say about this?”

“I have no mother.”

“You just appeared here?” he said with a chuckle.

That made me smirk; if he only knew. “A woman gave birth to me and hated me for it.”

“So a vessel brought you into this world, poorly looked after you, then your father took you away and became your teacher?”

How the hell did he gather that so quickly?

“Basically.”

“And you feel that you have let him down.”

“Right.”

“Interesting…tell me, what kind of lesson would he have wanted to teach you?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“You know that he is speaking to you, though? You sense a lesson?”

“I didn’t sense it. I was told that was what was occurring.”

A frown came to the Cowboy. I knew this was too confusing for anyone to understand, no matter in what time you were born.

“That boy in the field, what is his story?” the Cowboy asked, focusing on his stick once more.

I clenched my jaw. “It’s a tragic one.”

“Listening.”

“Well, apparently as an infant he was kidnapped and abused. Later, a girl fell for his heart. When that affair was discovered, they were both murdered. His essence was rescued by a beautiful light, then discovered again by the one that had kidnapped him before. Now, he stands between what he was and what he is…he was given a charge, and if he fulfills that charge he will end up killing masses—including the girl he fell for—which I suppose was my father’s point.”

“Now there, Glory, you’re a beautiful soul, pure at your core. No father of yours would ever plot this course the way you see it.”

“Black and white.”

He leaned forward on his knees and gazed at the sleeping body of Silas. After a pause, he glanced to his side at me. “Mazing.”

“Yeah. He was hers.”

“Seems like ‘is.’”

I moved my head from side to side. “His actions now will destroy her.”

“Does he know that?”

“No, and even if he did it would not matter because he has to feel for another and have that emotion returned in order to hold his charge.”

“Feel?” he questioned.

I cringed. “Yeah. Something my race cannot do. Even if he came to the past that he belongs to, Mazing could not return the emotion he needs in order to fight.”

“Are you sure of that?” he asked, leaning back and adjusting his position on the seat to a more comfortable one.

“Very.”

“I see. I’m right in assuming that you are saying that your dear friend Mazing cannot feel love?”

I balled my fist. “Right.”

“Well, that’s impossible.”

“Trust me, it is not.”

“I’ve stood in her presence. She has a soul.” I glanced at him with questioning eyes. “A soul is love; that is what it is made of. Mazing can love this boy...I would dare say that she does.”

“I’m going to be blunt with you, Cowboy. I was created to rise above that uniform of souls. I guard them, take away what they can’t handle. We cannot feel such an emotion or even state it because if we connect and are later hurt, it will hurt them.”

“What rule book are you reading from, Glory?” he asked with sadness in his tone.

I looked to my side at his waiting sky blue eyes, framed with the cutest little wrinkles. I reached to pat his leg. “An old one.”

“Authored by?”

“Those that came before me.”

“And I assume you trust them?”

“Not all of them.”

“The ones that you do trust, what do they say about this?”

I moved my eyes back to the field. After a long pause, I answered, “I am a sovereign, and this issue has to do with my line of souls. I have no need to discuss it with anyone.”

“Is that a blush I see?” he said with a chuckle. “You love him.”

I tensed and glanced to my side at him, then rigidly kept my stare on Silas. I wasn’t sure what ‘him’ he was referring to, and it didn’t really matter anyhow.

“You only trust one, and you trust him because you love him. You loved him the first instant you saw him.”

“Cowboy, tread carefully. I’m already in a foul mood.”

“Well, I would be, too, if I was too stubborn and afraid to say what I feel, if I buried myself behind an armor of anger, not daring to let anyone see the real me.”

“I cannot say or feel what you speak of.”

“Do you honestly think that you can tell yourself not to? That emotions can be turned off or on at will?”

“I’ve turned off quite a few.”

“You altered them; you didn’t turn them off.”

“Whatever.”

“So Mazing loves that boy in the field. More than likely, considering how teed off she was last I saw her, she has no idea he is alive. And you, too, are in love with a man.”

I wondered for a second how Mazing would react to this. Silas’ vessel did not look the same as Colton’s. I wondered if she would even notice. Then I thought over how amped up she became each time I went to speak to Silas and she was shielded. I suppose it wouldn’t matter. I also knew that telling her, letting her see him, would do nothing more than hurt her more deeply. Death would separate them once more.

“I’m alive. Therefore, I do not feel that emotion.”

“On the contrary, maybe you are alive because you do feel such an emotion.”

I was only vaguely paying attention to him now. I kept trying to figure out what would be the right thing to do for Mazing, if she should know this or not.

“Tell me, Cowboy, at death what is the biggest regret?”

“You want me to be blunt?”

My soul seized for some odd reason. “Yes, that would be nice.”

“They regret not telling the ones they left behind how much they loved them. That is the only request the Reaper hears over and over again.”

“You could hear what they said?” I asked, furrowing my brow. I’d watched that procession more times than I could remember. The words spoken to the Reaper were silent to my ears. I could only hear his response.

“How could you not? Were you not listening?”

There was that seize again, and no reason at all to feel it.

“Tell me again how you have forsaken your Father, how that has anything to do with that boy in the field, and Mazing.”

“They are in my care. Children, if you will. I was supposed to guard them, lead them, be the example and restore my race; instead, wrath and stubbornness consumed me. I lost everything, and whilst talking with the likes of the dead, evil was created. There is no way out now. He is clearly telling me that I have no options, that this race is over.”

“You can’t hear His lesson, but you sense His intent?”

“That, I do.”

“So you are cured from your wrath and stubbornness?”

“Not at all.”

“Ah, but you have at least overcome your past, realized that the words your Ma spoke over you were false, that she made you stronger while assuming she was making your weaker.”

My eyes glassed over as I tried to swallow my emotions.

“You know what I think?” he pushed.

I looked away so I could wipe away the tears that had escaped.

“I think you have felt love from day one in this sacred life you were chosen for, but you did not know that because you never received it as a child. You put a shield around you, a thick armor of wrath. There is a girl behind that armor that wants out, that can show you that it is safe to feel what your fear.” He paused. “You ignore her and instead you look for the fall, the evil, and you find it. Every single time.”

“Maybe, just maybe, Cowboy, I was chosen for this life because my Creator knew that, because He would never have to fear that I would say or feel something so deadly.”

“Or maybe He wanted you to be the example you asked Him to be.”

“How? Mass suicide? Killing the last two lines that support Him?” I bit out.

“What did you tell me in the cathedral about children?” he asked in a very blunt tone.

“They go with their guides. Into the light.”

He pointed to the field. “In a sense, is he not a child of yours?”

“In a sense.”

“And he went into the light. All children go into the light instantly—no pause.”

I questioned him with an absent stare. I wasn’t sure I had revealed that to him, but he was a smart man. If he had witnessed that light cradling Silas just moments ago, he could have easily made that assumption.

“That, he did.”

“Now that boy feels what you fear; Now he needs such a thing for survival, now he has a charge that you hold in high regard.”

“Right.” Metallic energy was more than merely held in high regard. It would be what saved us all.

He leaned back against the bench and adjusted his hat. “Well, then the rest of ‘em in your charge should do the same, go to the light. At least that way Mazing will be with the soul she has ached for—oh, and that charge of his will be intensely protected.”

Now there was an original idea. If I could manage to turn my line into Witnesses, Mazing into one, then Silas would have no reason to make advances toward that girl named Charlie because he would have Mazing, she would be able to give him what he needed to survive. The threat against Vade’s line would perish.

“Good theory, I like it. Happen to have a few million Witnesses in your back pocket that would raise an entire line of Escorts?”

His glance was near humorous. The title of an escort meant something completely different in his time.

He pointed to the sky. “That light looked like it would do just fine, and if that is the only solider it has,” he said, nodding to Silas. “I don’t reckon that it would hesitate to take you up on your offer.”

I let out a deep breath. The Cowboy was right: this light would take in my Escorts at their death and create more of the energy that Silas was. No doubt.

I should feel great agony, for I knew that Silas’ creation had in effect brought about my extinction, but I could not find that emotion. I couldn’t find it because I realized that even though my life would end, my essence would live on.

I also realized that I asked for this creation the moment I asked to be allowed to be the solution to what my fellow kings were doing. That was when this course of existence was put into motion.

I set my energy free, something I would not have done unless my hand was forced, and when I did a Witness was able to claim it…the Creator used me to create His weapon. Quite literally.

My decision was made. I would not now or ever smite Silas. Killing him would kill the next evolution of my kind.  That could not happen.

“Wheels are turning, aren’t they, Glory?”

“You were right, talking to you did help me to understand what was in front of me.”

He didn’t seem to agree as his blue eyes looked over me. “I see no peace in your eyes.”

“It’s there. I just have to grieve for the past first.”

“Why grief?” he questioned.

“For it is over.”

“Glory, you may have found a solution for your children, but I’m still mighty concerned about you. Your father’s intentions began with you.”

“And He is wise, my line will continue the fight that I could not.”

He seemed flustered with me, but he wasn’t angry; he was sad that I thought so lowly of myself.

I rapidly moved my hands across my legs, building my adrenaline up. “Cowboy, I thank you for your ear, but I want to advise you that whomever you promised to meet in the Veil has long moved on, and so should you. Your voice is needed in the world.”

“I’ve met her already.”

“Her. Did she move on?”

“Not quite.”

“Why did the two of you choose to meet in the Veil?”

“We didn’t really choose the place, but the point,” he said as he took one last strike against the stick he had been aimlessly working on, then set it between us.

I halted my hands and looked at him.

“She made me vow to her that if she ever lost sight of bliss that I would guide her back to it.”

I began to tremble. I had said such words. Not to him, but to my Creator.

“How fare thee with that charge?” I said with a wide-eyed stare that was pouring into his blue eyes.

“Not well, I’m afraid. She does not see how precious she is to me and to those with her.”

“She understands the sacrifice. Clearly now,” I said with a nervous swallow.

“I fear she doesn’t. But nevertheless, her actions will get the results that I wish for.”

He glanced to Silas’ body, then to my eyes. “Our children teach us as much as we teach them.” And with that, the Cowboy that masked the essence of my Creator vanished.

Our children teach us, I repeated in my thoughts. Mazing had taught me a lot, for sure. Unknowingly, she taught me that in any form we would know one of our own. She taught me that one way or another, if your intentions were not harmful that you would reach them, and when you did that validation would taste so sweet.

I had to do right by her. If the Creator honored her coupling with Colton, well, Silas, then she would die the instant I struck Silas. Considering the conversation I just had, something told me He condoned their bond. If I let it be, Silas would hurt someone in Vade’s line, in turn hurting Mazing, and they would both perish. There was no way out of this. Mazing had to change, had to become what Silas is in order to survive.

A sick feeling surrounded me. I didn’t think I had the will. I didn’t think I could harm one hair on my precious First’s head. Even though I knew she would openly volunteer with or without knowing who Silas was.

Our children teach us, I repeated once more, glancing down at the stick the Cowboy had left at my side. It was sharp now, could be used as a dangerous weapon if needed. It actually looked like an arrow to a bow. The symbol of eternity was carved into the point.

I breathed in again. How could He possibly ask me to do this? Even in theory, it was sickening.

In order to kill my line, I would have to rip them apart one by one, tear their essences into pieces as I stared into their souls, souls that had trusted me far too many times with their fate.

Our children teach us, I heard over and over in my head. One of the first things Silas demanded of me was to say that word. I didn’t then because it would bring my line down, instantly. Surely by the Creator Himself.

Children teach us, children go into the light, the Cowboy’s words were overlapping in my mind. They regret not telling the ones they left behind that they loved them.

I smirked. How freaking poetic. He told me exactly how to kill them, assured me that they would be risen to be like Silas. I knew if I succeeded in this mass murder that in time Vade would recover, he would understand. His emotion of anger was in every single one of those other kings, and with the help of my risen Escorts-slash-Witnesses he would smite them all and rebuild our race. Only one sacrifice was needed: my soul.

I trembled as I leaned forward and rested my head on my lap. With my eyes squinted closed, I saw rapid-fire images of Vade rush through my mind. I felt his skin against mine, his velvet words.

I cried. I had never once cried. Tears may have snuck out, but I never cried. Not when my mother struck me; not when she starved me to the point of pain or told me I was a wretched devil. I never cried as I died…I cried now. I cried so hard that every part of my soul quivered. The sovereign in me slowly perished, and the timid girl emerged. She felt her first and last heartache so deeply that death would be nothing more than a relief.

I knew Vade would never understand my reasoning, even try to talk me out of it, that he would be in pain for a while, but as our race was restored he would find bliss again. And at least he would know how I felt about him. He would know that I never said it before or allowed myself to feel it because I could not bear to see him in agony, I could not bear to think that anyone or anything could bring down the stoic King of Anger. He would know that I was never a queen, but a girl, a girl that cherished him and appreciated every single moment I’d shared with him.

With each gasping sob, I felt this armor of wrath that I hid behind break a part, I felt all the emotions it restricted flood to the surface.

I tried to hold them back until I was face to face with Vade, but it was a battle that I was losing.

This one emotion, this one word would slaughter my entire line, everyone that I had openly claimed and had openly accepted me. The army of Witnesses was about to expand to a massive level.

Chapter Sixteen

My last word would do more than finally tell Vade what he had made me feel for a thousand eternities. It would also be a command, a desire given to him and my line. The command was to feel that word so deeply that their souls hummed, and the desire was for them to fight for the right to do just that, for them to sacrifice as I did for those that will be our precious tomorrow: those priceless metallic souls.

My energy and Vade’s were more than connected right now. I knew he could sense my call, that I had to call him now.

The circle of kings he was in right now, those meetings, could last the length of a moon or longer; they all tended to debate until they had beaten the topic to death.

I couldn’t wait that long. If I did, I would lose my nerve and sit and wait for my doom.

My thoughts screamed at him long before I manifested myself to the sacred hall of springs. I knew here that I could not only look into his eyes, but around me, in the water. I would witness the fall of my line, but hopefully the Creator would grant me enough breaths to see their rise as well.

I was shaking violently. I had never realized how safe my armor of wrath had made me feel.

I paced the circle of the springs, looking at each of them once more, feeling them, sending my intentions to them so that one day they may understand, that they would know that it was not that I once again could not find the courage to leave one of my own to their own consequences, but that I realized that they all belonged together, that they had a higher calling than I ever could have imagined.

Vade appeared right about then. He looked exhausted and furious, but the moment our eyes met whatever had caused that was the furthest thing from his mind.

Tears poured from my eyes as I trembled once more. Anger came to him. He was prepared to smite whomever had dared to cause a foul emotion within me.

I held my chest with my fist as I slowly began to walk toward him. In my mind, I was reliving all of those firsts, all the moments after them, every instant that he invited me to feel what I dared not. I relived them because I knew he could see them, so that once this was over he would understand why I never told him what I was feeling before.

His deep gray eyes began to shine with shards of light as the anger released him and his shoulders fell ever so slightly.

When I reached him, I stretched my trembling arms up and let my hands run through his dark hair once more. I felt his arms go around me as his forehead leaned against mine, but I dared not close my eyes. I leaned my head back and blinked so I could clear the tears from my vision.

I pulled his lips to mine for one last sweet kiss; he dared not close his eyes either. I was sure I had confused him to the point of no return.

“Vade.” I swallowed as I caressed his strong profile. He began to speak, but I spoke over him. “I love you.”

As the words left my lips, my soul exploded from within. Pulses of energy I had never felt before rippled through me; they were so loud and so powerful that it took me a second to hear what he had said beneath my words.

We had said the exact same words at the exact same time.

No, no, no, no, no! Why did he do that?! My risen line needed a king! His line needed him. They were the last survivors of our kind. Now what? They would all rise into the care of another. That’s what. Our race was dying as we embraced each other.

“Say it again,” he said as he lifted me and wrapped my legs around him.

“I love you. I have from first sight.”

He fell to his knees, still holding me around him. He reached to caress away my tears. “Once more.”

“I love you, Vade, my stoic King of Anger. I love you more than that word could ever mean.” I felt that emotion flooding through me. There was no chance that my armor of wrath could ever suppress it again. It was such a beautiful pain.

His lips connected with mine. It was a kiss like no other. Both of our souls were pulsing at a level that had never been felt before, causing our vessels to hum viciously. I could swear the universe itself was trembling with the power of our essence.

He pulled away slowly, smiling with pure bliss. “Glory, you are love. You are my love, you are everything.” He smiled, caressing my cheek. “I have waited so long, so very long to hear that word from you, to feel it pulse from your soul now,” he said as his hands moved across my back. “Just when I was convinced that I was wrong for you, you saved me with that word.”

“I killed us,” I said with an ache in my voice. My legs and arms tightened around him. I now feared death. I didn’t know where my soul was going to go, but I prayed that the Creator would ensure that it went with Vade’s, that the sacrifice of our race, our lines, was worth that request.

“What?” he said, doing his best to loosen the grip I had on him so he could look into my eyes.

But I was staring at the springs, at the images of our lines, hoping for a swift end for them, that it would not bring them agony. I was dying with bliss in my heart and wanted the same for them.

“Glory, Glory, look at me,” Vade said firmly, shocking me into reality.

I leaned back so I could see into his eyes that had nothing but bliss within them. How could he invite death so openly?

“What are you saying?”

“I killed us. I said it. I felt it. And now we are dying.”

He furrowed his brow in absolute bewilderment. “Now we are truly living,” he whispered.

I guess that was one way to look at it. We had lived eternities, but the last moments were the ones where we were afforded the gift of feeling what the souls we protected did.

I kept moving my stare from him to the springs, waiting for it to come, having a hard time choosing between what I would stare at as I died.

All at once, they went black. My soul seized.

“Now look at me,” Vade said. My soul pulsed again. He had darkened them so I would pay attention to him.

“I want to see their last moments,” I said as I tried to turn the images back on.

“Glory, calm down. Why do you think they are dying? That we are?”

“That word is poison.”

“Who told you that?” he asked, pulling my chin back so he could see my eyes.

“X—Xavier.”

His perfect image turned to stone. “Xavier told you not to love me—and you listened to him?”

“What? No. Well, yeah, but no. He told me of the lore, how we couldn’t feel that, that it would kill me if I did, kill you if you returned the emotion.”

The springs vibrated with the pure rage of his essence. “When?”

With wide eyes, I stared at him. “Before our first kiss.”

Disbelief was shrouding his image. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“I thought you knew,” I said so quietly that I barely heard my own words.

“You thought I knew? If I knew, why would I ask you constantly to tell me what you were feeling?”

“I told you that you were my rush—you said the same.”

“That is not love, Glory. That is devotion between two. You just confessed more than that to me. You just connected our two souls, and so much more.”

My head was spinning...how was he saying that word so freely now?

“No one in our race states such a word,” I argued with a weak defense.

“Right. And I told you the lore regarding why.”

I started to tremble. He had told me why. He told me that word was not spoken because no sovereigns had ever felt it. But that was eons after I knew why it was never spoken.

“I already believed the other way.”

“You believed Xavier?”

“He was not a foe when he told me.”

“He was a foe before you were ever risen,” he said with a bite to his tone. The anger was for Xavier, but I still felt the tremble.

“I didn’t know that. I was a timid girl that thought at any moment something would take you away from me. Still am. Still do.”

His arms embraced me tightly to silently assure me that he was not going anywhere, and neither was I.

“Are you telling me that not once, not one single time that you were with me that I didn’t open the door for you to question such a savage lore?”

I breathed in deeply, exhausted from the onslaught of emotions. From thinking one instant that I was slaughtering my line to the next where I understood that there was never a risk in feeling such an emotion.

“You opened the door, but my wrath forbade me from saying such a thing. The risk of killing you or even being taken away from you was too much.”

“He did take you away from me,” he snapped, his thoughts clearly on Xavier.

“My wrath did. I was furious at you and too stubborn to ask for help.  Now I don’t know where we are. I walked into this spring expecting to die in your arms, assuming that I would slaughter my line with that one word.”

“You thought that was the risk, and you still spoke the word?” he asked with a gasp. I wasn’t sure if he was flattered by that or angry that I would do such a thing.

“If I was going to die again, you deserved to know how I felt, how I always felt it.”

He clenched his jaw before he spoke. “What could have caused you to choose death once again?”

“Metallic energy.”

His body went rigid and his arms tensed around me. “The Creator spoke to you?”

“Yeah, and He told me that my line would be risen to be like Silas, and if they were then Silas and Mazing could be together. That my line in their form could help Silas defend all of those souls that carry that energy.”

“All?” he said as he raised his brow, clearly not believing me.

“You should hear them,” I said as I swallowed nervously.

He let his long finger caress the outline of my face. “You did not hear what you thought.”

I knew I did, and it would be best to show him instead of arguing about it.

“Why have you chosen to couple Silas with Mazing? To break the attraction he has to that light?”

I moved my head from side to side and replayed what I saw Silas go through in the field in my mind.

As Vade saw it, pride consumed his gaze.

“She marked his soul. That is him. Xavier clearly continued his torture on him.”

“You have no idea,” Vade said under his breath.

“I went to smite Silas. I went to stop him from wrecking you. I knew I had to do it right then or the other kings would hurt you, but then I saw that…and I thought of what he was protecting.” Vade went rigid once more. “There was no way out, then the Creator came and told me how I could rise above this.”

“You saw Him?”

“He was in the form of another, but in the end I knew who He was.”

“And somehow you still thought that the word ‘love’ was deadly, that He wanted you to end our race?”

“Vade, He literally carved a wooden arrow and left it at my side. I took in the signs.”

Right at that moment, I heard a clanking sound and glanced to my side; the stick was there.

Vade called it to his hand with a thought. He could clearly see how deadly it was now, how it could be seen as a clear symbol of demise. Vade smirked as he moved his knees from beneath him and adjusted me on his lap. He held it in front of me and slowly turned it. On the other side, there was a carving: GLORYVADE THE FIRST ETERNAL LOVERS. Before I could gasp, he turned it once more: SOULS MADE OF ONE.

“I—I didn’t see the words.” This was an arrow, with our names pointed at the symbol of eternity.

“It is hard to see and feel through wrath, Glory,” Vade said tenderly to me.

His eyes stared into mine. “I told you that before you were risen. I told the Creator I wanted to be His voice of change, His example, that I wanted to carry our race into the next evolution. I knew if kings could not rise, neither could those under our watch…sometime later, He asked me to rest, and I did. When I woke, He was there. We had a very lengthy conversation. He told me that there were seven. Seven lights would prevent my fellow kings from harming those we watch over. He smiled when He saw my relief. As our talk aged, He spoke of energy, how it should be in balance. He spoke of the metallic energy. He placed that dream in my heart.”

“He fulfilled that dream,” I swore to him.

A bashful smile came to his lips as his gaze fell deeper into mine.

“That He did,” he said under his breath. “Once our talk was over, He asked me to follow Him. We descended into a horrid dimension. The air was so toxic that I had no idea how life was still present. We walked the streets, cloaked from the others, seeing their hell all around them. I knew looking into the eyes of those souls that they did not need me to relieve anger from them; they needed something to hope for. Their emotions needed to be elevated, not suppressed.

“Something caught my heart. I felt a rapid pulse for no reason. I began to lead the Creator to that point. I finally stopped just before this filthy shack. He asked me what was on my mind. I told Him exactly what was on my mind, that somewhere in that rubble was what I wanted each of those souls I’d passed that day to feel: bliss, love.”

Vade smirked. “He asked me if I would lay down my reign for the likes of any soul in that rubble.” His fingertips outlined my lips. “I didn’t even hesitate. I all but begged Him for that trade. Do you want to know what was in that shack?”

“Me,” I said as tears glassed over my eyes. “I don’t understand…you are still a king.”

“And you are a queen. He was not asking for a trade, for me to buy a soul to love me. He was testing my devotion, my sight unseen devotion to you. I passed. Without fail, I passed—and the moment I saw you, I knew that it was the best choice I could have ever made, that if the Creator told me the only way that I could have you would be to lay in than filth at your side than I would gladly do so.”

“I was made for you,” I whispered, running my fingers through his hair.

“We are one soul, as all soul mates are. We were made for each other.”

“That was so long ago…are you sure that He has not long since forgotten your request to save our race?”

“He has not forgotten.”

“Then why did He let these horrible things happen?”

“He let nothing happen; we’ve done this to ourselves, but He is a graceful and merciful Creator. Even though we have followed another path, He is still weaving us together. He is still protecting all that is precious.”

“So He does not want to end our race? Use my line to become like Silas?” I was so confused.

“Not that I am aware of,” Vade said with a slight grin. “Say it again.”

I blushed. “I love you.” My soul pulsed violently as the words left my lips.

“Love you,” he said with a smile. “The kings that have crossed us will perish one way or another. The two of us, right now, right here, have made our lines invincible. All those under our watch can now hear the call of this emotion. They can feel it if they so wish, and those that do will be the fiercest Escorts that have ever existed, for they will fight for the right to never lose this.”

“Like our Fated.”

“Like our Fated,” he said with a proud grin.

“I still have to untangle Silas. Maybe now that he can feel this, he will rise with us.”

“Perhaps.”

“I have to do something. I can’t have him hurting our lines.”

“For all we know, there has already been a chain reaction that he has felt, that they have all felt.”

“Turn the springs on so I can see.”

“Not yet,” he said as his breath caught in his throat.

“Why not?”

“Because I feel words coming to me.”

“Seriously? Don’t tell me that there is another doom waiting. What did the kings want anyway?”

He seemed bothered that I turned the conversation back to them, but he answered anyway. I guess his words were not quite free.

“They wanted to restore Donalt.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he said with a clench of his jaw. “You see, Donalt and Xavier are idiots.”

I laughed aloud for no reason, threw my head back, feeling bliss—even though a second ago I was ready to hear of doom. Is this what love does? Makes all the darkness seem pointless in the grand scheme of things?

When I looked at him again and suppressed my laugh, he grinned. “Say it again.”

“I’m in love with the stoic King of Anger. Vade is my eternal soul mate, we are the first, handpicked to love one another.”

His lips found mine, and hungrily I grasped his, tasting that sweet sensation of mint. I almost lost myself, but I pulled away. “Idiots. Beyond the obvious, why or how could they ask such a thing?”

He leaned in and pulled my bottom lip to him, biting it slightly before kissing it. “I really don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“If you talk about it now, if we resolve it, then we can lock ourselves away for moons to come.”

“Tempting,” he breathed as his hands moved up my thighs before grasping my waist and pulling me further onto his lap. “All right, both Donalt and Xavier have engaged in human wars. They have thought it best to shield themselves with spells, words with great intent. Immortality in one form was not good enough for them, so they sought it in many.”

“Why?” That kinda seemed like a waste of time to me.

“I think they did it for show at first, that they thought if they used those spells the people would not question their immortality in that form. But now, there are souls that are unraveling said spells. Donalt wanted us to give him power to regain strength—full form.”

“Full form?”

Vade wrinkled his nose. “In the flesh, he looks like he is a million; half his skin is gone.”

“No way.” One thing for sure about the seven kings was that they were built like gods, beautiful creatures that had no flaws to be seen.

“I guess that is what happens when you toy with your power.”

“He had the nerve to ask all of you for that?” I asked in utter dismay.

“You have no idea,” he seethed. “Donalt swore he was needed, that if he was taken out of our circle that fear would seize creation.”

“Has he forgotten that he has failed to do his job for eons now?”

“Apparently. He also has forgotten that I am not a fool. That this king has been awakened.”

“They still don’t know that you are aware, that they have stolen our mist, or that I have returned, do they?”

“Not a clue.”

“What about Fielder, though?”

“He didn’t have the chance to say a word. The death of his petal was trivial compared to the likes of Donalt.”

“Was a conclusion reached?”

“Mine was. I wasn’t giving Donalt a damn thing. Not sure where the rest stand. They have weaved themselves so deeply that I doubt they even know what the beginning goal was. They’re so high, complete addicts, that they cannot think clearly or long enough to remember their point.”

“I really thought they had hurt your Fated, that Silas was involved, that they were calling you there to kill you, to overpower you.”

His expression changed once more; the angry king was gone, and there was a sense of bliss in his eyes.

“They were stopped.”

“By one of yours?” I questioned.

He breathed in deeply as his eyes closed. “Glory, you’ve felt what you spoke today for the first time in your core in the past, haven’t you?”

I turned crimson. Often when Vade held me, that girl on the inside would escape to the surface and bask in all that Vade was. That was the only way I could appease her whilst I played the role of queen for the rest of the world. “I suppose it was under that armor of wrath, that in my core, the soul I share with you, that emotion was there.”

“I knew that it was.”

“Then why didn’t you say it to me?”

“I would have a million times over, but I was told not to push this fragile soul that was given to me. To let her bloom in my arms, or otherwise she would run from me.”

“Creator.”

“You had to feel it, Glory, really feel it, feel it so intensely that the world could sense it. That was the first step in an evolution.”

“At least you knew I felt it before,” I said with a ridiculous girlish smile. I literally had no defenses up at this point. I was one with that girl inside now.

“The Creator knew as well.”

I furrowed my brow to question him.

“He told me exactly when to send my energy out with yours.”

I felt my soul seize.

“I thought the timing was bad, not because of how we felt about each other, but because the world was horrid. The other kings were already showing signs of addiction. You went from a timid girl to a wrathful sovereign. But nevertheless, I obeyed Him. I suppose one day we’ll know why He thought that was the perfect time…”

“Vade, don’t stop now. Is this it? What you have been hiding?”

His eyes shined. “Yeah.”

The springs around us began to ripple, and the images that appeared took my breath away.

Chapter Seventeen

A mist is absolutely breathtaking. As it leaves the sovereign, it is a pure light, imitating the stars in the heavens. It lingers there for some time, then guided by a divine hand it drifts through the heavens and finds the soul that is seeking it, then a vessel to be created within.

I was seeing mists across the springs. One mist was brighter, stronger and held the slightest tint of purple within it. I assumed it was the Fated that we had let loose just before our tragic fight.

Vade lifted me, then stood behind me as we watched this history unfold together.

When Vade and I sent our energy out, it would always linger together, drift together, then divide like a shooting star across the heavens. That was happening now and it was breathtaking.

But that was not all that I saw. After the shooting lights of the mists descended below, there were two that remained in the heavens: one of mine, and one of Vade’s.

These two mists danced around each other for what seemed like forever. They would move close, then jerk away…they would float side by side, then drift apart…then all at once they divided to the opposite sides of the heavens, refusing to descend with the others.

A wave of energy vibrated the air around their separate places, then the light purple energy turned darker in each and they soared through the air at the speed of light at each other. I cringed, thinking I was about to watch the death of the Fated that had never fallen to their host. I was wrong.

The mists collided with a stagnant force, then a beaming light came from that source, hiding the stars, hiding the darkness.

Vade’s arms tightened around me as I watched this mist pulse with a raw power, as it turned dark, then light, and finally rested with a rich metallic shade, the shade that reminded me so much of Vade’s eyes, the deep gray with light beaming through it.

This couldn’t be; this was unprecedented. How could two from darkness bring forth such a beautiful sight?

I couldn’t ask the questions that were racing through my mind, for all I could do was watch with wide eyes as our mists, now one, began its descent as its path divided the heavens with a bold steak of light.

The mist found its host, a woman with a powerful heart and calm thoughts.

I witnessed the birth. I saw our daughter take her first breath.

“Where is she?” I breathed, stepping closer to the stream, wanting to go to her this instant. I had to see this precious creation, this symbol of love, this symbol of the perfect devotion and love that Vade and I had not only for each other, but also for our lines, for the souls we were created to protect.

Vade’s arms seized around me; they were not peacefully holding me. I knew this embrace. It was the one he used to hold me in check right as my emotions assaulted the universe. Why? Why was he holding me back when I felt bliss?

Then I saw it. Then I understood. She was stolen. My precious little girl was stolen—and the king of fear, Donalt himself, had stolen her.

I bellowed a scream like no other and fought to reach the springs, fought to reach her and pull her from his clutches. I was going to rip Donalt into shreds, burn each shred, then resurrect him just so I could kill him again.

Vade’s hold on me did not fail. His energy encased us, and the raging storm my soul let out beat against it as a stagnant force, enough force to end time for every single dimension below. Vade was the only thing standing between them and absolute destruction.

My wrath refused to die or waver. I kept seeing those dark eyes of hers, a perfect combination of Vade’s and mine, her ivory skin, how just like Vade she was so calm; she was so much of him and so little of me, but she was ours.

I began to feel weak, to quiver, and as my knees buckled Vade fell with me to the floor and turned me in his arms. I felt his hand holding my head to his chest as his lips rested at the peak of my forehead.

“She exists because we love each other, Glory.”

The word I feared that had caused me so much turmoil was now my saving grace. It was forcing me not to see her as a prisoner, as a stolen part of my line, but as a child, a child made of love.

I told myself I would make this up to her, one way or another I would make this up to her.

“Name?” I breathed, feeling the storm calm around me, but Vade refused to let either of us out of the essence he was shielding us in.

“Monroe.”

“How long, Vade? How long did you know she was taken—and why have you done nothing?”

He lifted my chin and caressed my tears away. “He told me when to send our energy out. That last fight we had, it wasn’t about your line feeding properly; it was about you. I wanted you to take care of yourself, for your energy to be as strong as possible because I felt this coming. At the circle of kings, right after you were taken, the Creator showed me our mists, those two dancing above, daring to join but then shying away. I took it as a promise that you would come back, and when you did that energy would find the power to collide.”

“Has her essence been cycling through lives this whole time? How has he hurt her?” I knew our Fated had lived several lives in the dimensions below at this point, and the idea that this precious child was all alone down there was too much. She was different from the others: she was not an old soul that had chosen the path of an Escort; she was a new soul, a new beginning.

“No, our energy carried on that dance until quite recently. She has only lived fifteen years at this point.”

That was too long, as far as I was concerned. “There is no telling what Donalt has said or done to her, Vade. We have to go, we have to go now.”

“Shh,” he said, caressing my cheek. “Her host, her Earthly mother is very wise. Donalt came to her some time ago, swooned her. Even gave her two other children that she loves deeply, but when Monroe was born she sensed that something was very different about her. She sought a Witness to protect her, to take her out of The Realm that Donalt had them all living in. That Witness has guarded her fearlessly, and now he has the help of our Fated.”

“Silas,” I said with wide eyes.

He nodded once. “I turned back to the springs and saw Monroe’s Earthly mother speak to Silas. She trusted him because she said she could sense her daughter in his presence.”

“Donalt doesn’t have her?” I clarified.

Vade nodded to the streams. There, I saw our precious daughter sitting in a field of flowers with two other children. I knew this place was not the place that Donalt took human form in. She was far from him in that sense.

All at once, Monroe looked up, right into our waiting eyes. She edged forward ever so slightly as her dark eyes grew the slightest bit wider and a ghost of a smile that her father was known for echoed on her lips.

The children with her grinned widely and waved in our direction.

“She can see us!”

Still not trusting my control, Vade did not let down his guard just yet. “Those children, and many more like them, are the mist of lights.”

I couldn’t look at him; I was staring into Monroe. “I heard them,” I whispered.

“She is safe, Glory. I will smite anyone who dares to harm her, but right now this distance is needed.”

“No. No way.”

“She is in transition, her powers growing into form. Even if we were there from day one, she would have to leave us now and walk with that light, understand that side of her energy.”

“She thinks her father is Donalt. I can’t let her think that.”

“Look at her, Glory. Do you think she does not know the truth?”

Monroe’s eyes were intently on me. It was hard to tell.

“There are more reasons than her transition. This web, these spells that the other kings are twisted in, that our Fated are fighting, it all ties together. We have to use caution, we have to think of the future and the moment we are in—for I have yet to figure out how tangled we are.”

“Donalt has openly claimed her,” I bit out.

“And that is his demise. Those words were his own death sentence. The other kings will plot to take her, and when they do they will destroy themselves as well.”

“I’m not letting my daughter stand in the midst of that war.”

“She is the end of that war, Glory. Why do you think it took her so long to fall? She was walking with the Creator. She is the only one that can clearly see the web we are each in…and she is telling you now to wait.”

I shook my head no.

“Listen,” he whispered.

I heard no words, but I did feel a message. “She is telling me to become stronger.” I questioned her with my eyes. “Why?”

“Glory, in all truth you are still in the care of the Reaper, and you have only lived moments without your armor of wrath…”

“Seven—she is saying seven. Is she one of the seven?”

“No…you are the queen of the seven, the one that paved their path, the one that will shield them now.”

“What? No. She is saying seven lights, or seven couples in balance with light and darkness. I’m too excited to understand her.”

He reached for my face to urge my eyes to him. “You are my light, and your energy is as bright as the sun. That is how we created her.”

“I’m the Queen of Wrath. I know how dark my energy is. How dark my soul is,” I argued.

“That darkness comes from two sources. One will never fade, as it is a part of me. The other part…comes from you, from a past you have not yet overcome. Instead of using it as a gift, you divided yourself. You will guide the seven that will restore not only our race, but also our reality to the point where The Fall will open and all souls can travel through once more.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Seven kings, seven lights. I was the only king that sought to rise above what I was, sought to grow illumination, so instead of having a light fated to destroy me I was given a light that was fated to love me. The others have lights that will fight them, destroy them. In the end, if I do not falter, if you do not falter, together we will guide the seven new kings and queens of deadly emotions. We will be the warriors that protect our daughter, all those she will bring forth.”

“But our Fated are fighting Donalt and Xavier—right?”

“In a sense, each king will be brought down by a Fated connected to the pair of us. Once that defeat is in place, they will rise to be the next sovereigns and we will guide them.”

My head was spinning. How did I go from the weakest sovereign to the one that would lead the demise of the kings that stood against me?

“I love you,” Vade whispered, stealing an innocent kiss from my lips before speaking again. “Monroe needs you to be strong, needs you to come to life fully, to overcome your past and rule without the armor of wrath, but the gift of emotions. She wants you to do that now so that when her transition is over we can be together.”

I moved my eyes back to the stream. Monroe’s dark eyes were still peering up at me. She nodded once.

Without hesitation, I mouthed the words, ‘I love you.’

A beaming smile came over her innocent image. All at once around us, in the sweetest, most innocent voice, I heard those words from my Monroe. From my daughter.

Vade’s arms flexed, but he let his energy fall so we could hear it more clearly.

“We are going to prevail, Glory. We are holding the winning hand, and the other kings have no idea that we have even been dealt in. They will end each other with their own hand, karma in its simplest form. They planned to force us into destroying ourselves; now, they will in turn destroy themselves.”

Monroe stood from the field she was in and waved, and as she did I saw a ring, the symbol of eternity, facing me.

I sent my thoughts to her, and a wind circled the field of flowers, picking up every single purple petal and carrying it to her. The petals swarmed around her as the children with her danced and laughed. The springs faded at that moment.

I warily looked down. “You tried to tell me…I see that now. When I look back over all our time together, you tried to tell me everything. You spoke clearly and calmly, you held an immeasurable amount of patience in your soul, and like with the Creator I never heard you. My anger and wrath have caused me so much time, so much time that I will never recover.”

That ghost of a smile he loved to use was threatening his precious lips. “We appreciate it all the more now. If this life were given freely to us, we would not see each other or her the same way. Easy come, easy go. I wanted it to be hard as hell to get you to fall in love with me because I knew once you did, you would forever be mine.”

“Forever, Vade. Forever.”

His eyes fell to my lips just before his lips claimed them. I felt my soul pulsing, wanting to get closer to connect core to core, but I couldn’t do that right now. I had to ask for my life back.

Sensing my thoughts, Vade let his kiss end slowly.

The springs around us flickered again, and this time Silas’ image appeared. He was still lying in that field.

“I have advice if you want it,” Vade said to me.

“Always,” I whispered.

“This is going to be hard for him and Mazing. The time they had before they were viciously separated was too short, and the time apart has been too vast. I believe they can find devotion, but walking up to either of them and saying to love her or him instead is going to be more than they can handle, especially in the middle of this war.”

“Then we are at square one. He will still assault your line.”

“Not if you tell him how you feel about him. Not if you open his mind to his past.”

“I should ensure that Mazing and I have a life first,” I said with a fading hope that I would witness all that Vade had revealed to me.

“The procession of death is at dusk, so you have time to do this. I will gather your First and mine. When you get back, we will travel to the cathedral.”

“The other kings will see you go in there.”

“And they better tremble because when I return, you will be at my side.”

I grinned, but then my wrath took over. “I don’t think I can look either of those two kings in the eye without destroying them.”

“Wit. Half of this war will be won with wit.”

That was Vade’s way, why he was such a great king: he thought deeply and wisely before every move he made. I swear, he could see the cause and effect of every action for eons to come, and he had the patience to wait for the effect. I did not.

I kissed him once more before I said, “I’m going to wake him. I truly hope he is not in pain.”

“You have just given him billions of warriors. He will not have to endure that any longer.”

“Our Escorts can take in that energy?” They were still Escorts in my mind. “They did not perish, so they were not risen as Witnesses. Right?”

“We die many times within one life, shed old ways and find new ones. Our lines have the power to take anger and wrath out of every emotion and instill love in its place; our Fated have done as much already.”

“Because they loved.”

“Fiercely,” he said with a wink.

“Wish me luck.” And with that, I manifested into the field Silas was still sleeping in.

I hesitated and glanced back at the bench I sat on with the Cowboy, my Creator; the bench where I shed my armor of wrath.

“I’m sorry I was blind to your signs and deaf to your words. I feel it now. I feel and hear you, and I will swear to never forget that emotion, to hold the soul of Vade forevermore in my heart, if you in turn will protect our girl, our symbol of love. Please don’t let anyone hurt her; please protect her.”

The sky opened, and the sun beamed around me. I felt the promise. It was a promise that assured me in the end that no matter what we endured, we would be safe, that the lessons we learn from agony are the ones that not only make us stronger, but also the ones we never forget.

I nodded once and then began a slow, graceful walk to my dear Fated Silas.

Chapter Eighteen

Silas’ eyes were gently closed as his body lay on the soft grass. The marks of agony were still displayed on the clothes around him that were ripped to shreds.

A gentle nod from me dressed him once more, covering his chest and restoring his torn jeans.

I sat down next to him and let my fingertips slowly caress the locks of dark blond hair out of his closed eyes. His skin was so much darker than mine, making him seem that much stronger. My fingertips traced his eyes, his powerful jawline, my cool touch next to his balmy flesh.

“My dear Fated…I am so sorry, so sorry that you have been tortured so, that agony has paved your path…I adore you.” His closed eyes twitched ever so slightly. “I love you.”

All at once his eyes flew open, revealing the deep, rich, beaming color of honey.

“You what?” he asked, focusing on me.

I smirked. “I love my adored, Fated soul that was chosen for such a precious charge. I love that the Creator used me to bring your power forth, that He used me to create a deadly weapon.”

He pulled himself up, propping his body up on his elbows as he tilted his head slightly. “I must be dreaming, for my queen has but two choices: to imprison or smite me.” The sarcastic smirk that followed that statement made me smile and suppress a laugh.

“Your queen was blind, fooled by the king that took you from me not once, but twice.”

He didn’t seem to understand what I was saying, and I wasn’t sure how to explain it to him.

“I have loved the King of Anger from first sight, but a savage lore was spoken to me. I believed it, and therefore I hid behind an armor of wrath. That armor has vanished and my emotions have surfaced.  My line, Vade’s, and any Escort that chooses to follow our path, can now say and feel what has been absent to us for far too long.”

“I guess that will make it easier to figure out which Escorts to kill,” he said with a sly grin.

“I suppose,” I said with a stagnant grief in my tone. I despised the kings that had fallen into a savage addiction, but I had a hard time despising those they had led to follow them. I was saddened that in The Realm right now, as well as in the corporeal world, there were Escorts that had been forsaken. I made myself vow that I would reach out to them, and if any of them wanted to be claimed by me I would accept them. With that thought, white doves soared above us.

“So where does this leave us?” Silas asked. “Your essence may be a part of me, but I was risen as a Witness and there are guidelines for such a role.”

“Now you can love as you serve both.”

“But if I continue to love Charlie, that still hurts the king you love.”

“If you strike them, it does.”

“Does Draven now have control?”

“I have no idea. Yet, you know the control was not the issue. You needed Charlie to love you.”

“Her heart is vast. She doesn’t have to be in love with me; just love me.”

“Would it not be fair to tell her that she is a means to an end? For her to understand why you need her so?”

“I think she knows.”

“I think not. You have played the guilt card with her.”

He glanced away in shame. “It was not fiction. We had a past. A rather long one.”

“Sometimes the length of the past doesn’t matter as much as the emotion felt in that time. I have witnessed shorter relationships that are vastly stronger.”

He sighed as he sat up further so that we were now face-to-face. “I tried to love her the way Draven loves her. I really did. But I have always been broken.”

“You and your Charlie girl fought hard together, but in the end souls made of one will find themselves, whether they have to become Witnesses, Escorts, Fated Escorts, or whatever title you want to give them. In the end, they are souls of one and they will find each other.”

His eyes squinted as he let out a breath, a sign of obvious pain.

“I meant it, Silas. I am very sorry that you have suffered so, even more sorry that the pain is not over.”

He nodded once as he glanced at the sky. “It is not as bad as it looks, and I would do it an infinite amount of times to guard those I was chosen to.”

A faint smile came to my lips as I glanced to my side and thought of my greatest discovery.

Silas tilted his head to try and catch my gaze. “I know I don’t know the King of Anger, but I can tell you that I see so much of Monroe in you.”

I quickly glanced back to his waiting honey eyes.

“What?” he said with a sly grin. “You didn’t think I knew she was yours? That I knew that you had to be capable of love because you created her?”

I let out a sigh. That was the lesson. When the Cowboy told me our children teach us, he wasn’t talking about Mazing or anyone else in my line; he was telling me to listen to Silas—listen to how he dared me to love from our very first conversation. “I didn’t. Not until this day.”

“I know,” he said under his breath. “When I first saw you, that is why I told you to leave then and I wouldn’t kill you. I could see her in your eyes; hers are darker most of the time, but when she was younger, or when she wakes from a deep meditation, they look like yours.”

That made me smile.

“And though I gave you hell about the mint scent—I didn’t mean it.”

“Her scent is like Vade’s?”

“No,” he said, trying to hold back a smile. “It is a scent like no other, honey and mint, but together it created an aroma that is pure bliss, warm. I’ve never been able to describe it—that is, until I sensed them both on you after my awakening.”

I looked away so I could hide the tears.

He reached for my arm. “I kept her safe, and I’m not going to stop now. I will give you this: knowing that her real mom and dad are watching out for her now will give me a reason to take the first deep breath that I have since she was given to me.”

“Did she ever believe that Donalt was her father?”

“I don’t think so…her mother didn’t either. She gave Monroe to me because she said my energy and scent were near the same. I didn’t get why she thought that, why this lover of a horrid king was handing me their infant Escort, but I knew it was my purpose, that every war before had been fought so I would be strong enough to keep her safe.”

I was reading his thoughts, taking in the images I could see there, wanting to know this child of mine all the more.

“She’s with Charlie,” I whispered.

He nodded once. “That is part of my issue. I know Monroe is a guiding light, and she led me right to her, right to my past—right into a war of hearts.”

“Listen to me. You have the misfortune of having the queen of wrath’s essence within you. This queen often does not see past the turmoil she is in. Even when a sign is carved out by the Creator Himself and handed to me, I still lack the power to read the words He left there.”

“Still?”

“We’ll see,” I sighed. “My point is that my daughter led you to where you are for a reason, and I truly do not believe that it was to find Charlie or to fight the soul she loves.”

“I’m sure you’re right. Monroe knows I’m broken, shattered on the inside. The only time my chest doesn’t ache is when she is near.” He raised his hand. “Wait, that sounded wrong. There is no attraction there. I mean that she is so blissful, so innocent that she makes me forget.”

“Was it her scent?”

“Maybe on an unconscious level. I only really noticed it after you toyed with my nose. I mean, Witnesses can pick up on things like that, but understanding that is an essence is not something I could have done.”

I sighed. “Silas, I’m going to do something. It may hurt. No, it will hurt. For several reasons. But I think it is for the best.”

“Why so?” he asked, furrowing his brow.

I glanced to his chest. “Have you ever seen the marks on your soul?”

“I have been struck many times, Queen.”

“Right.” He really had no idea this was going to be excruciating. “Listen, in a past very long ago you were right before my eyes, and I did not see you as mine. I’m so deeply sorry for that.”

“It’s the past.”

“It is, but the scars of my blindness, the results of it, are on your soul.”

He glanced down, but his armor of a Witness was shielding anything he could have seen.

“I’m going to open your mind. When I do, you will see your past, not only the one I know of, but your beginning. That beginning could have been eons before you fell into my line for the first time.”

He was really confused now.

“As your mind opens, I want you to seize the wrath you want to feel. Xavier will pay, and I have already killed the girl by the name of Cadence.”

“I don’t understand what you are worried about. I already carry a wrath for Xavier.”

“That you do,” I sighed. “The wrath in my line is the strongest at the top of it. My First is woven very close to me, meaning that within that soul there is rage, stubbornness, jealousy, a skilled and lethal warrior, and hopefully now a soul that can feel love without fear.”

“Sounds like a man I would fight with.”

“Not a man.” He moved his head from side to side to tell me that I was losing him. “My Fated soul, tread carefully with these memories, for they were never forgotten by those that share them with you. The emotions are raw, and it will take time to mend the wounds.”

“Are you sure you are not about to smite me?” he asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Silas, do you accept me as your queen? Do you openly accept your heritage of an Escort, a heritage that can now love?”

“I accept it, as well as my fate as a Witness.”

That was all I needed. Now he was claimed, connected to all of us.

I reached my hands for his forehead; beneath them, a glow beamed. He breathed in as he felt the hum of my touch. As I slid them down his beautiful face, my energy was fully awakening him, opening his soul so that he could see all of his past.

He began to tremble violently. I pulled him to my arms and held him with all my power. Right now, everything was exploding inside of him; he was reliving it all, feeling it all. His body fully flexed as waves of wrath rolled off him.

I held him until the trembling stopped, until I heard him gasp and draw in a deep breath. He slowly pulled away from me. His eyes were wide as they stared at his chest.

“You always knew. Feel no guilt. You always knew.”

Silas moved his head from side to side as his hand clenched his chest. “He killed her,” he breathed.

“She has been with me in the care of the Reaper.”

“Reaper?”

“We have guarded The Fall together. And tonight, at the procession of death, I will ask the Reaper to grant us a permanent stay, to restore our lives.”

“I’m going.”

I held my hand out. “No, she knows nothing of this.”

“She thinks I’m guilty.”

“Deep down, I doubt it.  She knows you are alive.”

“How?”

“Because we stepped out of the Veil and she is still breathing.”

That confused him more.

“You coupled with her. You are joined by the Creator.”

“Three hundred and thirty-three times,” he said as his gaze captured that memory.

“Yeah, that was excessive. But anyway, now as an Escort you are linked to her; if one falls, so shall the other. You need to pay your debts to Charlie, explain that you do love her, that she loves you, but you are not now or have not ever been in love with each other. Tell her why you have had no other choice but to use guilt with her. Tell her so that when I manage to restore Mazing, when you go to her, she will see that.”

“I look nothing like before.”

“That might make it easier, son. The past is painful…maybe you should just convince her to fall in love with you again. As Silas. Let Colton rest.”

“I don’t think I can stay away that long.”

“Right now, you need to speak to Charlie. You need to look the soul that loves her in the eye and tell him that you are sorry, that you are cut from the same cloth.”

“He is yours, too?”

“No, but I love his king, and we are one.”

Silas looked down in shame.

“Fight with them, Silas. Put the past behind you. Rise as a Fated soul that sees both sides. You are not broken; you are tested, tried and true, and you will be rewarded.”

“She is okay? You swear she is?”

“She is.”

“When can I come home? When can I see our home?”

Oh, those words gave me so much peace. “When I return from the Veil.”

He nodded once as he stood. “I’ll do as you ask.” He then bowed gracefully.

I was standing in front of him at that instant. “You have to want to mend these bridges; otherwise, your words matter not.”

“They will matter. I swear it.” He glanced up and then bowed to one knee.

It took me an instant to realize that Vade was now standing next to me.

“Rise,” Vade said with a deep velvet tone.

Silas did so gracefully, slowly. His eyes rose to meet Vade’s; in them now was deep respect.

Vade extended his hand and Silas took it. After a moment of staring into Silas, Vade spoke again. “I am in your debt. The Creator chose wisely when He declared who Monroe’s guardian would be.”

Silas’ eyes shifted between me and Vade. “That, he did,” he said with a bit of a sly grin. “I have words that need to be said,” Silas said as he released Vade’s hand.

“And they will be heard,” Vade said with utter confidence.

Silas nodded once, and then vanished.

I felt Vade’s hand slide into mine. “Ready?”

“I’m afraid,” I whispered.

“Why?” he asked in a tone laced with deep concern.

“I have watched the Reaper tell many that their deeds are done, that it is time to move on. I have fulfilled my purpose. My essence not only created the perfect weapon, but the perfect child. My line is stronger now than ever… he may very well tell me that my time is over.”

“Then he will accept me as well.”

“Vade—”

He stopped me before I could go on. “Glory, in part you are right. One life has ended for the both of us, but a new one will begin. Our work has just begun.”

“Then I shall hope for mercy.”

“Speak the truth to him, and you cannot fail.”

Nervously, I nodded once. He moved us to the front steps of our mansion in the sky. Rasp and Mazing were waiting there.

Vade tenderly kissed my forehead before he took the first stone that led downward. Mazing and I took the second, Rasp the final one.

Mazing and I were cloaked from the rest of the world, but I knew Vade’s decent into the Veil would not go unnoticed, that when or if we returned there would be others waiting on us.

Chapter Nineteen

The descent into the lower levels of The Realm was slow, giving me much time alone with my beloved First. Mazing seemed calmer now than she had in eons. I wondered if it was the awakening of Silas that had done that, or the revenge she had gotten against that petal named Cadence—or maybe, just maybe she could feel the love that her queen now could feel.

“You look well,” I said tenderly.

A quiet smile came to her lips. “I’m happy for you.”

“I really thought it was the end,” I said, appraising her deep auburn eyes.

“In a sense it was, I suppose. I feared not, though, not when I saw the Fated below.”

“They are strong,” I granted.

“Vicious.”

That made me smile. “I truly hope we can fight with them.”

“Agreed…”

“Do you feel peace now that you have had your vengeance?” I questioned.

She moved her head from side to side. “Cadence was a puppet for evil kings. My vengeance is not over.” She breathed in deeply. “His scent is stronger now than ever before.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

“I feel everything.”

“Do the bad emotions outweigh the good ones?”

“Depends on the moment,” she said with a smirk.

I glanced at Vade. “Do you know what he said to me?”

“Besides that he loves you?”

My soul seized. Hearing them say such words was going to take some getting used to. “You heard about that, huh?”

“Try felt. Every soul felt it; the Earth danced.”

“Well, at least it didn’t crumble.”

That made her laugh, loud enough that Vade glanced over his shoulder at us. Holding his gaze, I spoke. “He said easy come, easy go. That he wanted it to be hard to convince me to love him so that he knew I would never leave.”

Mazing was utterly confused by Vade’s reasoning, which was a good sign. “It has already been hard for you to find peace with the one you share your heart and soul with; don’t make it any harder on yourself in the future.”

“Unless you have the power to erase a really old memory, I don’t know that I can vow that to you. I never felt pain like I did when I saw what I saw. I could never touch that body or those lips without seeing that Creator-forsaken petal. That may be why, if he is alive, he is hiding from me.”

“Ill will with the vessel, not the soul?” I questioned.

Mazing questioned me with her eyes, but my expression was not offering any clues as to where my mind was.

“In a sense. Our time was short; intense, but short. I don’t know that I ever really knew him. The man I held was self-loathing, wished for death, and showed no loyalty.”

I smirked. That was not the man Silas was now.

“Time not only tells, but reveals all.”

“I suppose.” Her eyes drifted over me slowly. “It has been an honor to be your First.”

“Why do I feel like you’re telling me goodbye?”

“I kinda am.”

“Excuse me?”

She shrugged her shoulders as she glanced away. “We know this game, this walk we are about to take. The Reaper has no reason to give me a stay.”

“He has every reason.”

“No, he doesn’t. The Reaper lets people stay because they want to be with people they love, or because they need to protect them. The Reaper knows I am not needed to protect you, that Vade would do so, if not Rasp. He knows I have left no one behind. He will tell me to move on.”

I knew the Reaper well, and in some ways I knew the Creator well. Mazing may not know it, but she was keeping Silas alive, and Silas was dear enough to be chosen to protect the first child of metallic energy. Mazing had a precious fate before her, but she couldn’t see it because she was full of wrath...because she was just as I was.

That thought made me all the more angry at myself when I thought of the time I had wasted, how I could have very easily wasted so much more if the Reaper hadn’t kicked me out of death temporarily. That act forced me to see what I had taken for granted, forced me to see my own demons and move past them.

“He will speak the truth to you, just as he does to every soul.”

“Like I said, it has been a pleasure.”

This must be how my Creator felt. He always gave me all the signs, all the words He needed to in order for me to see my path, yet I remained blind.

I was going to lead Mazing the same way He led me. I was not going to lay out her fate before her or tell her what to do and how to do it. It was her choice either to follow or ignore her destiny, and I knew that once she saw what she was chosen for that she would see how her pain was a very small price to pay for the gifts life had prepared for her.

“We will leave this Veil together,” I said sternly.

I could feel the instant comfort my words gave her. She was so undeniably faithful to me, to her race.

The stones landed on the first level of The Realm. Vade did not glance back at me. We were on stage now. I could not see what was around us, but I could sense every line. I could sense a recent war.

We moved through The Realm, then entered the Veil. There, the souls I had seen before, the trapped dead, were utterly aware. It was like they were waiting for us, that they knew that the actions that were about to occur, in time, would either set them free or imprison them forevermore.

I held my head high, offering no promises, for the choice was not mine at the moment; it belonged to my dear confidant, the Reaper.

From that point, we manifested to the doors of the glorious cathedral. I was now standing at the place where I had watched countless souls pass. It seemed all the more intimidating from this vantage.

I dared not look into Vade’s eyes as he and Rasp halted at the doors. I couldn’t, for I knew that my foolish thoughts would convince me that it was the last time, that my reprieve had served its purpose. Vade knew I loved him, and now my line was raised to a more powerful existence. In a sense, by feeling that sacred emotion I ensured that my daughter would forever be protected.

On any other night, there would be a massive line of souls, a line that would still be growing when the Reaper left his throne. But tonight, the cathedral was empty.

Mazing and I walked gracefully slow to his throne.

I stared into the blinding light of the Reaper with each step I took. I let all my immoralities pass through my thoughts, all the moments that wrath had blinded me from. I let my last days vibrate through my thoughts. I wanted the Reaper to know that I had awakened. At the very last moment, I had awakened to the gifts that were always mine to claim.

When we reached him, we both bowed to one knee, not letting our eyes meet his.

“Rise, my dear friend,” he said to me.

I did so with hesitation. I let my thoughts plead with him to see Mazing as me, for him to know that I needed her for a million and one reasons. But then I realized that he very well knew that, that at this moment he was going to have me move on and allow her to stay and love the man that was guarding my daughter.

“I expected you long ago,” the Reaper said with a bit of a mischievous grin.

“I had to overcome dark emotions to understand why I was released.”

“And why is it that I released you at this juncture?”

“I can only hope it was because you knew the lessons that I was meant to learn here were near completion.”

“What lessons were those?”

“That any existence is too short to hide emotions that create our being.”

His grin widened as he leaned forward.

“Has Glory discovered what her soul is made of? What all souls are made of?”

“Long ago. But my internal war distracted me from the obvious.”

“How fare thee with that war?”

“The girl within and the sovereign are one.”

“I see. So you feel that your journey is complete?”

“I wish it not to be. I wish to live this existence once more so that I can experience it as it was meant to be.”

“Glory,” he said tenderly. “You cannot live your life over.”

I felt my soul sink.

“That saddens you?” the Reaper asked me.

“It does. I have lost much.”

“On the contrary, your thoughts state that you have gained much.”

“That, I have.”

He settled into his throne as he thought deeply. “I do not feel that you are truly awakened.”

“I feel love. I love Vade, our daughter, my line, and each soul I was designed to protect.”

“Ah, but that is my point. You were designed to love. To guide.”

I had no words to offer him.

“And you have not done that.”

“I am guilty of that. I led them the wrong way. I understand that,” I admitted.

“You have not led them at all.”

That was harsh.

“I’m not speaking of your line or the kings you tried to sway.”

I furrowed my brow. Perfect. I was blind again. At the one moment I should not be.

“Seven. Seven that will be coupled with seven more, and rise. They need their queen.”

“The seven lights.” It was more of a question than a statement.

“The seven loves that will rule and protect our tomorrow.”

This was truly hard for me to understand. For the longest time, I did not think there would be a tomorrow. The Fall had closed its passage not long after I became a sovereign, and since that time our reality had grown darker. Today, this universe, this reality was at its darkest hour. We had brought about our own extinction. And in time, because we had done so, our twin reality would also perish.

Knowing that there was now metallic energy, that there were already souls fighting the kings that had incited this downfall had given me hope, hope that had no reason to exist before this day.

“If you grant me my stay, I will call them each home. Together, we will reach our victory swiftly.”

“That, you cannot do.”

My soul was starting to shatter. I dared to look over my shoulder at Vade. I had to look at him once more before the Reaper pushed me into my next life and found a suitable replacement for my failed life plan.

“If it were that simple, Glory, it would have been designed to happen in such a manner. These seven loves do not need to be told what to do or how to do it. They feel it within, and the paths they take to reach those points will allow them to embrace the reign they were chosen for.”

“I want to see my daughter fulfill her fate. I want to see this universe restored. And I want to be a part of every step.”

“By loving and living your own life, you can do such things. The universe is well aware of what it needs and will guide you like the wind to where you need to be when you need to be there.”

“I can do that with great honor,” I swore.

“You can aid these seven when the wind calls you to, love Vade, your daughter, and your line.”

“I can.”

“Do you plan to seek vengeance?”

“I have a great desire to avenge many, but I understand that there very well may be those that are already chosen to bring such karma.”

“Patience. Have you found that?”

It was not wise to lie to the Reaper.

“I have not.”

“The lack of such emotion leaves you hungry for a victory?”

“That it does.”

“Then in some way it leaves you capable of leading the seven loves.”

I didn’t really understand that.

“You balance Vade.”

“I push him.”

“I assure you, he does not need to be pushed. You may be able to see across dimensions, but the man that holds your heart can see across time, he can see every reaction to each action—and therefore, he has patience. He can watch agony, for he knows that once the hell is over the lesson is in place and bliss is born.”

I knew he was telling me that my impatience would bring more harm than good, that Vade could guide not only our daughter, but also these seven loves.

“You are needed, Glory,” the Reaper stated evenly. “These seven will find common ground with you, and when you finally learn patience they will in turn learn that from you.”

“Are you restoring my life?”

“It was never taken.”

“Excuse me?”

“You wished to be here, to protect your line, your First, and teach Vade a lesson that he did not need to learn.”

I was really lost now.

“He loved you. He spoke the words a million times over in his mind as he held you. Absence would not make him see how desperately he needed you. He already knew that.”

Now I felt guilt, horrible guilt.

“You needed a place to go and think and grow. You had always been in the care of another, the care of a horrible mother, then the care of Vade. You had never once been in a place or position where there was no one to guide you. Here, you guided Mazing, you protected The Fall, and you realized that no matter how much time had passed that you could not forget the likes of Vade, the other half of your soul.”

“That, I did.”

“If you had ever asked me to return, I would have guided you to your home personally.”

I suppose I never once asked to move on. I assumed I was imprisoned by my choices.

“You sacrificed the dead you adore for the sake of the lessons I took so long to learn?”

“And one of your seven has already begun to return them to me.”

Now I was really puzzled.

“Your army is fighting, and they need a leader. A silent, strong leader.”

“How silent?”

If I was free, if I was never really imprisoned, I wanted to make sure that there was no path that I should avoid to keep me from truly dying in some distant future.

The Reaper smirked. “You are the queen of wrath for a reason, my sweet Glory. Do not let that girl inside loose, only to kill another part of you. Become both, rule the way your soul tells you to. Seek what your soul wishes you to.”

I bowed slightly, telling him I would do just that.

“I will warn you of this: this is a vast web you are vowing to untangle. So vast that even I cannot clearly see a rapid escape from it.”

“A web that will teach me patience?”

“Very much so.”

“If I had never perished, that is also true of my First?”

“I’m afraid not,” he said in the ghost of a whisper. “Rise,” the Reaper said to Mazing.

She did so gracefully, which was hard to do considering every muscle in her body was not only flexed, but trembling slightly.

“You feel your fate is complete?” he said to her.

“My queen is safe. I have a debt to pay.”

“What debt is that?”

Mazing struggled to find the words. “I was disloyal.”

“Yet, your heart sought someone who was in fact from your line.”

“I’m aware now, but not then. I openly sinned.”

“As each soul does.”

“I was disloyal to him.”

“How so?”

“I never once released my emotions to him; therefore, I did not trust him. That lack of trust led me here.”

“I see.” The Reaper weighed her words deeply. “Anger,” he mused. A smirk came to his gleaming image. “You are reprieved.”

Mazing gasp, then swayed.

I knew that Mazing was needed to love Silas, to keep him alive so he could protect my daughter, but she did not. Her emotions were of anger right now.

Deep down, she had wanted to run from the scent of Colton, wanted to hide in death like I had done, but the Reaper would not allow that. She was angry right now, an anger that she would forevermore have to fight with when it came to the memory of Colton. Oh, if she only knew what great things were in store for her.

The Reaper stood, a sign that we should bow once more. As we did, he stepped closer, and when I felt his hand on my head I felt my power, the power that he had harbored during my brief reprieve, restoring to me, waving across my soul.

It was not returned to me in the same manner in which it was taken. The wrath, the intense pain of a past I could not change, the raw impatience had vanished from it. It was as if the Reaper had washed those stains away, and now my power as a sovereign was restored to me in its purest form, the form in which it was given to me by the Creator himself.

“Safe passage, my dear confidant.” And with that, he vanished.

I had to smile as I felt the sweet release of agony.

I stood, but Mazing held her bow. She was trying to find the strength to return to the corporeal world, to the scent of Colton—now Silas—that haunted her.

I reached out for her essences and took my warrior’s rage and anger away. She would create more, no doubt, but she was to be given a brief rest, one that she so desperately needed.

Mazing rose at that moment and reached out to hug me. I held her tightly.

“I know it feels like hell now, but trust me when I say that when you walk through hell you are guaranteed to find bliss on the other side.”

She offered no words, only a tight squeeze before letting me go.

At that moment, I vanished from her side and appeared before my Vade.

He smiled tenderly down at me. “I take it that went well.”

“Apparently, I was never dead.”

“You don’t say,” Vade said, raising one brow. That was when it hit me: this entire time I had waited for him to avenge my death, take down all those kings and rescue me from my death—a death that didn’t occur. Basically, I had run from him and he had waited for me to return.

“Hindsight blows,” I teased.

“If you learn to read it, you will learn to peer forward with the same understanding.”

“I’ll work on that.”

Vade leaned down and let his lips tenderly frame mine. “Are you ready for this?” he asked as his lips released mine.

I glanced to Rasp and Mazing, who were waiting at our side.

“Am I ready to turn some heads? Make a few people tremble with fear? Why yes, yes I am.”

He grinned as he took my hand and each of us appeared at the edge of the Veil. A mass of souls had now gathered, and once they saw us each bowed to one knee, which told us that among these souls before us there were no traitors; just souls waiting for their turn at life once more.

This time I looked at them, and with my eyes I promised their release; in some way, whether it was by my hand or one of the seven I was to guide, I would release them.

The gratitude in the air told me they felt that promise.

The Realm was next. Now without being cloaked, I could see each soul that was there. Not surprisingly, it was both Vade’s and my line in the mass around us.

Each fell to one knee. There was no way in the universe that the other kings would not sense this.

The stones that led to our home descended, inviting us on. This time, Vade and I shared a step as Mazing and Rasp took another. I stared out at the crowd, feeling those I knew and those I had yet to meet. Aimlessly, I searched for my Fated, Silas, and I found him.

He was on bended knee next to a young girl, Charlie. His eyes refused to be cast downward like the others; they were firmly placed on Mazing, who was not far from me in one form, but a million miles away in another. She was blind to him. Completely blind.

The stones were moving slower than before, guided by Vade’s intent. Once we were just above them, he whispered, “Rise,” and they each did.

“My love has returned.”

They roared with cheers. Vade’s hand halted them.

“The war of peace begins now. Among you at this very moment are the Fated Escorts of both Glory and I. They will lead this charge, and I swear to you they will not fail.” Vade glanced at me, offering me a time to speak, to add to his words.

“They will not fail, for their sovereigns love them,” I stated warmly. “Tomorrow is born within today’s intentions. Set yours on victory, for it is ours. No web can withstand a determined soul.” My eyes moved across each of them, and then to the sky that I was sure the other kings were peering at me from.

“What is ours will be returned without fail. I am home and will forevermore be your sovereign, a power you can pull from at your will.”

Their cheers roared at that moment, and the sound vibrated my soul to its core. Vade pulled me to his lips as the stone we were on rose into the sky.

I refused to hold back for the sake of the audience. My arms moved up his chest, and he pulled me to him, framing my face with his hand as his lips teased mine over and over before pulling against him.

I loved this man. Together, we had accomplished the impossible and would continue to do so. Tomorrow had never held so many possibilities.

Special note to the reader:

The Imperial series is part of the “Web of Hearts and Souls,” where all of my series combine into one large story. All series can be read independently or as one. The reading order for the Insight and See series combined is: Insight, Embody, Image, See (See series), Witness (See series), Vital (Insight series), Vindicate (Insight series), Synergy (See series), Enflame (Insight series), Redefined (See series), at this point the first book in the third series comes into play: Rivulet (published on 10/7/13)

Playlist

Gin Wigmore: These Roses, S.O.S, Hallelujah, Easy Come Easy Go, Too Late for Lovers, One Last Look, Dying Day, Man Like That, Kill of the Night, Black Sheep, Don’t Stop.

Elvis Priestley: Fever, Trouble, Are You Lonesome Tonight, Always on my Mind.

Of Monsters and Men: From Finner, King and Lionheart, Little Talks, Love Love Love.

Where To Find Jamie Online:

http://authorjamiemagee.blogspot.com

Facebook

Twitter

I am still eternally grateful for every soul that encouraged me to write/ publish my debut novel Insight.... thank you once again.

I also want to thank my husband, Lem, for listening to my random thoughts and ideas as each of these stories came to life, he is not only the love of my life but the man who keeps me sane on this insane adventure. I want thank my children who inspire me to become more than I am today with a simple glance, and the echo of laughter and joy that surrounds me constantly.

I want to thank all of my wonderful beta readers: Sabrina Wells, Crystal Meyer, Alysia Kurtz, Jamie Love, Jennylynne D’Andrea, Michelle Dain, and Steffini Walker,  Carrie Porter, and Jan Galloway.

GWE along with Todd Barselow for editing my daydreams.

Most of all I want to thank every-single reader for sharing this adventure with me! I love you all and I am eternally grateful for your time and support :)!

About the Author

Jamie Magee has always believed that each of us have a defining gift that sets us apart from the rest of the world, she has always envied those who have known from their first breath what their gift was. Not knowing hers, she began a career in the fast paced world of business. Raising a young family, and competing to rise higher in that field would drive some to the point of insanity, but she always found a moment of escape in a passing daydream. Her imagination would take her to places she’d never been, introduce her to people she’s never known. Insight, her debuting novel, is a result of that powerful imagination. Today, she is grateful that not knowing what defined her, led her on a path of discovery that would always be a part of her.

The fun Bio: I’m an obsessive daydreamer. Lover of loud alternative music. Addicted to Red Bull. I love to laugh until it hurts. Fall is my favorite season. Black is my favorite ‘shade.’ Strong believer in the saying: there is a reason for everything, therefore I search for ‘marked moments’ every moment of everyday...and I find them. Life is beautiful!

Table of Contents

Copyright

Other Books

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

About the Author