Page 29 of Shattered Heir
“Shad told me some things, too, like about kissing and how important it is and how special it is on Terra, but then he kissed me in the cave, so—”
“Yes, kisses are special. Your first kiss is a marked kiss—a sign of sorts of who belongs to you— You belong to each other.”
“So, I am this marked-thing with Shad?”
“It doesn't appear so.”
“Why is that?”
Mary turned her back to me, and I wondered what it was that she wasn't saying. “Mary, is something wrong with me? If Terrans mark when they kiss—”
“No, dear, nothing is wrong withyou— Ask Ryker about these things. He knows more than I ever could.”
“This is all so overwhelming.”
“Well, I won’t be leaving you.”
“My parents left me; Shad left me; even Ryker left for a time. Who is to say something bad won’t happen to you, too?”
“You are right. I do not know what will happen. I only know that for the duration of this life, I have, Emma, I will be at your side.”
“Thank you, Mary.”
“Now, School.”
I rolled my eyes. One thing I was sure of, my life was not boring.I set my dishes in the sink and slung my backpack over my shoulder.
There is no subject in school that teaches you about loss. Life is the only thing that can teach you that. When loss after loss hits you, that’s when you discover how strong of a person you really are. Even if you are bloody and bruised and broken, if you are still standing, it means you haven’t lost yet.I woke up to those words buzzing around in my soul.
If you are still standing, it means you haven’t lost yet.
You haven’t lost yet.
Those words spun around me and wouldn't leave. I wished that they were true, buthow could they be? Me? I am not strong. I am weak,but that doesn't matter becauseI hate, and hate is stronger; hate can do many things. I have seen the power that it holds.I know; I know that I shouldn’t be thinking like this, but the monster, she saved me on top of that mountain when Shad had swatted my hand away. If I hadn’t had that hatred given from the monster to keep me walking on, so that eventually I could kill Cade, would I have just collapsed and remained there until something wild caught my scent and killed me? The monster, I understood her. She was bad, but she was also so strong; her power was so alluring to me.
It really isn’t fair that I lost my parents in a horrific car accident. It isn’t fair that my entire life has been a lie. It also isn’t fair that my best friend is a magical knight assigned to protect me, and that the boy I love is a soulless person. No, my life isn’t fair.
Mary was attempting to force me into anormal lifeagain. But the time for that had long ago passed. I had been there and done that, or well, I tried, and it was useless.
I, Emma Warren, will never have a normal human earth life.
Others might say that I was destined for bigger and greater things. It might have been true. If I could have had Shad at my side, I knew that I could do anything, but the Shad who was still with us, wasn’t the Shad I fell in love with. I needed to save him. No matter what Ryker or Ash seemed to believe, I had to have hope that I could save Shad, even if no soulless had ever been saved before.
I wanted vengeance. I wanted to kill Cade. He was pure evil, pure corruption, as all the Terrans had said, and after all:Evil should die.He thinks others’ pains are funny, and he mocks those from whom he takes happiness.His corrupted grin and laughter make my blood boil in rage, and my monstrous beast and I want to find him and tear him apart.The beast inside, the hollowness I felt, roared at that thought, and I smiled because I knew if I was patient enough, I would find Cade, and I would get the revenge that I needed in order to move on with my life and become happy, finally be free.
Maybe, there was a better way to free myself, but maybe not. Maybe to kill the beast that was inside of me, I needed to kill the person who created it—Cade.
Maybe the monster will die with him.
Keil told me that Cade had not left Earth.
He might just show up out of the blue.
I hoped that he would so that I could rip his heart out of his chest, just as he had done to me when he stole Shad’s soul. There were reports of Terrans hearing Shad’s melody. Regardless of what was holding him back or why he had not left, his hesitation to leave Earth was a positive for me. I would find him, and I would end him.
“Have I mentioned yet how glad I am that you are back?!” Ash said with a smile and a hug as I walked onto campus. It was a cold, dark day, and I was happy about it—happybecause it was fall, the season of death and dying. It meant that nature would not mock my pain with its sunshine any longer. I would be equals with the grey clouds and the dead leaves. As I looked at Ash, I wondered more than ever about her and Glasson. I ached to know more about that world which was so foreign to me, and yet such a huge part of who I was, who we both were.
"Thanks, Ash, I wish I could say it is good to be back,” I smirked at her, then frowned. I'd find a good time to ask her more about Terra, eventually, but I was sure that the first day back at school wasnotthe time.
