Page 33 of Shattered Heir
“Emma, just go; I love you, I don't want you to get hurt,” Shad said softly.
“You know nothing of love!” Ryker exclaimed. “You, soulless prince, are incapable of it!”
The halls were nearly empty, and I was surprised that all the screaming had not caused a teacher to come to check on us. I looked down the hall and saw someone walking toward us. I stepped back, further and further, so confused at what I was seeing. I looked back to where Shad was pinned by Ryker; then, I looked to what appeared to beanotherShad, the soulless one, walking toward us, up the hallway. I looked at Shad again. Ryker still had him pinned to the wall. Finally, I saw it. I saw the way his jaw was a bit different, the cheekbones on his face more harsh, more defined—in an unhealthy way. His eyes, they were not purely golden, but light brown. It couldn't be,could it?
“Cade?” I whispered and stepped even further back. No, it couldn’t be true.
How could this be real?
“Hello there, sweetness. Miss me?” He winked at me, and I ran at him, slapping him in the face, he deserved a slap and much more. He looked at me with shock. His melody reached for mine.I guess I did deserve that, sweet, but can you kiss it better now?It was disturbing that Shad had tried that same thing in the hospital. I shook the thoughts away.
Don't talk to me like this.
I wanted to die as the realization hit me that Cade had been there the entire time, inside of my soul, speaking to me; it wasn’t Shad at all. It was Cade.
You and I are special, Emma.
No, Shad and I are special.
He looked over to Shad and smirked.
I wanted to dig myself a grave and be done.
And how is my brother doing, eh?
“Get him out of here, Ryker,” I ordered with clenched teeth. Cade slipped away from Ryker and started walking backward, his soul reaching out for mine.
You know you want me, Emma; do not deny yourself,he spoke into my soul.
I thought you were Shad. How am I supposed to know that you got a nose job?
I did have my nose fixed. Thought it was time for the world to see me as I truly am.
An uglier, less than worthy copy of Shad?I sneered back.
Oh, sweet, you thought I was perfect a few moments ago. But, my, you do have a dark side to you, don’t you?
I turned away from him, and as his melody, Shad’s melody, still tried to speak to mine, I refused to answer back.
“Who is that? Why does he look like me?” the real and soulless Shad asked as I turned away from the retreating figures of Ryker and Cade.
“You don’t remember your brother?” I asked, looking at his face and seeing how horrible I was to have thought, for even one moment, that Cade was that perfectly beautiful man standing before me.
That hurts, sweetheart, Cade spoke inside my soul. I pushed him away. I focused on Shad, the real Shad, the boy I loved.
He does not remember that Cade was his brother?
“I did have a brother, but he died when we were small. I heard talk of him, I think.” He touched his head as if his memory hurt him. “He is alive?”
“Yes, Cade is alive, but he is evil, Shad. You don’t want to go near him.” I paused, “I mean—he’s corrupt.”
“He has a strong melody. Yes, Cadian. That was my brother’s name.” Again he bowed his head, squinting his eyes as if that information was hurting his brain.
I worried about him and moved closer to him. “You can sense it, can’t you? You can hear his soul’s melody, huh, Shad?”
“Yes, I am Terran. I can hear yours, too, although strangely, no one else's,” he shrugged as if that wasn’t important information, but it was.
I couldn’t help but wonder what it meant. “It’syourmelody,” I whispered, not understanding how rare it was for a soulless to actually hear melodies, but it seemed like something important.
