Page 13 of Shattered Heir
“You don’t need darkness to be strong. Darkness doesn’t have the power to create light, but you do.”
“I just need—”
“You need to know your soul. This is basic training. They go over it in every Terran home. I promise that it will be easy enough to catch on, but it will drain you, so after each lesson, you need to go right to sleep. If you leave your mind and soul weak for too long after the lessons while you are awake, the monster can grow even stronger and then consume you.”
“This sounds dangerous.”
“It isn’t dangerous, not if you follow the rules. After the lessons, Mary or Ryker will be with you to help make sure that your melody is not corrupted even more. I would also advise you not to kiss Shad, as his corruption could attach to you.” I didn't like the sound of that, not that he would want to kiss me, but if he tried to, I wouldn’t turn away. How could I?
“I think I am fine.”
“Emma, I know you don’t understand our world completely. I understand this is all new to you. But you can not affordnotto listen to others who understand things better than you ever could.” Keil was close to me, and his eyes were dark and upset. I closed my mouth and tried to hold back the anger that wanted to spill from me. Of course, I knew nothing; everything had been kept secret from me for my entire life. I had been lied to about everything. The only person who had ever been honest with me was Shad, andnow he is a soulless. I felt the monster rise up, starting to come to the surface as the anger rose inside of me once again.
Keil held my shoulders in his hands, and I wondered if I had said any of that out loud.
“Emma, calm down,” he breathed. “All is well. You must call to your melody. Stay here with me in this room. Think of the present, not the past. The past is something you can not change, but you do have the power to change the future.”
“They all lied to me, everyone,” I whispered, anger raging inside of me. I seethed, and I wanted to snap; I wanted to break something.
“Shad!” I heard Keil call, but I couldn’t see him anymore. All I saw was blood, and I wanted to kill Cade.Where is he?
“Emma—”
I knew that voice. I turned my head and saw two black eyes and a face. It was similar to Cade’s, but wasn’t the same. There was no crooked nose there; no harsh cheekbones. I knew that face. The eyes were wrong, but that face—I loved that face. He walked to me, closer and closer, and the note inside of me that belonged to him, reached out, pulling my melody out one note at a time. His hands were on my cheeks, and my melody swarmed around me as he wrapped his arms around me, and I felt as if all was right in my world.
“What is happening?” I asked as Shad moved away from me, no expression upon his face.
“I just helped,” Shad shrugged and walked away from me.
“Yeah, um, isn't he corrupt? How can he help at all?” I asked, watching as Shad left the room. I stomped my foot in irritation. “Why does he keep doing that, Keil?” I turned to Keil.
“It seems like the only way we can get you to calm down and disengage from the monster is if Shad touches you. I don't understand it myself. The connection you two once shared should have been severed. Tell me, Emma, did Shad do something to you before his soul was taken?”
I heard his note inside of me and nodded. Had I not told them?
“Shad put a note inside of my melody. He said it held memories, and that these memories might be able to help me save him–us. He kissed me.” How had I forgotten to tell them? I knew that note inside of me was there. I loved hearing it, having even just a piece of him with me. It made me feel better, like there was hope.
“That, my dear, is the best news I have heard in a while. Let’s get to work.” Keil’s smile was so wide.
It took hours, long agonizing hours, but Keil worked with me as I tried to memorize my soul’s melody and its notes. I lay upon the bed in the hotel room later that evening, thinking. Ryker would be released the next day, and we would go home. Keil explained to me that I barely even knew the basics of my soul, and I wanted to cry. It was so hard to train my soul’s melody; it drained me and made me feel weak and tired. Having Shad touch me whenever I lost myself to the monster was about the only positive, but it wasn’t like I could even enjoy it, because when Shad was near me, the monster was already raging, I was always just pulling out of the darkness, Shad would come to release me; and then he would leave abruptly, every single time.
“You need to rest right away, Emma,” Mary said, moving some hair from my shoulder.
“I am so tired.”
“Sleep, honey, just sleep,” and I closed my eyes and found blackness waiting for me with open arms, and I sunk into it—into them.
Chapter Seven
We drove straight on through for the entire drive back home. We made one stop before the main highway so that Keil could ask a local Terran group about Cade, but that was it. What information he found wasn’t helpful. There was a new, loud melody that the Terrans had noticed, but that had been it. There was no way of knowing if it was Cade, but I would not lie to myself, and as Keil relayed the news to us, the monster growled inside of me. She and I both knew that it had to be him. It had to be Cade, and we wanted blood.
Before, when we were saving Ryker, we split the trip up into two days, and we had slept at a hotel. It helped us gather more information in order to figure out where we needed to go exactly; however, on this return trip, we went straight home. Keil was eager to get back home to Roseville to continue my training. I sat in the back seat of the compact car, sandwiched between Shad and Ryker. On my right, Shad made the side of me buzz with an electric current. On my left side, Ryker made me feel warm and calm. It was so weird. I tried to huddle into my own spot without touching either of them; it didn’t work. I held the crystal thatShad had given me in my hand and twirled it. It still felt like it held some energy inside of it, and I wondered what kind of magic or Terran energy would cause it to do that. I still had so many questions, questions about everything.
The car ride was mostly silent. I assumed that we were all in shock, still, from what happened at the cave. Ryker was looking better. He had a few bruises that his sleeves didn’t cover, like on his face, but most of his face’s swelling seemed to be going down. The cuts were still bandaged, but he had that light in his grey-blue eyes that lit up the car each time I looked at him. We turned down a windy road, and I smashed into Ryker, and Shad was almost completely on top of me. I was worried about Ryker’s bruised and bandaged body.
“Are you okay, Ry?” I asked, practically jumping onto Shad’s lap to get away from hurting Ryker.
He chuckled and smiled at me.
