Page 71 of The Book Reader
“She wants it.”
“It’s our powers.”
“Send us away.”
The voices in my head, the ones I haven’t heard from since the restaurant. They get louder, and I collapse to the floor. They’re much more audible this time. It feels like it’s crushing my body, drowning me.
“Ari?’
I hear Gaelan next to me, but his voice is muffled. The voices in my head are getting louder and louder, making me scream outand bow to the ground. Gaelan reaches out to touch me. I grab his hand and move quickly onto his lap, burying my face in his chest.
“Let me take us home.”
I shake my head, “No… just wait.” He kisses the side of my head and cradles me closer to him, his scent wrapping around me. Bringing me comfort. “Talk to me, Gaelan.” The voices are still rushing around in my head, making me wince in pain, but I like the sound of his voice. The feeling of me touching him; they want me to be close to him.
“There’s this little cave, it’s in the mountains of the Ethers Lands, it’s so hard to climb that many daemons use it to test how strong they are.” My body settles a little, the voices lowering to a whisper as Gaelan talks. “I climbed it once when I was younger. My mother and father told me not to try, that I was too young, but I didn’t listen. It took me four days to climb it, and then I got stuck up there for a week,” he laughs. I smile, lifting my head to look up at him.
“Who rescued you?” I ask, the voices are barely a whisper now.
“My mom,she shimmered in to bring me food every day without my father knowing, and after a week, she told me to get home, or I was going to live in the cave forever.”
I laugh. “She sounds like a clever mother. Where is she now?”
Gaelan’s eyes turn hard. “Tate came to our village and killed everyone; my mother and father were taken and executed to show other lords what happens when they refuse to follow his ways.”
“I’m so sorry, Gaelan. That’s awful.” I look down at the inside of my wrist, at the two puncture marks that remind me of a time I wish I could change. “I know what it’s like to lose family.” My voice is low, filled with emotion. Gaelan reaches out and runshis fingers over the scars on the inside of my wrist, making them tingle.
“What happened?” he asks. “Who marked you?”
I closed my eyes for a second, remembering it was the first time I hadreallyheard the voices in my head. Before, they were more like whispers. Something my grandfather had always told me about. He would say that they would get stronger as I grew up.
Leaning back, I look up at Gaelan. I start my story. “I was young, I think ten, when my grandfather, Lou, picked me up from dance class—I loved to dance when I was younger,” I laugh. “I used to make my whole family watch me dance around our living room, so my grandfather promised me dance lessons for my birthday one year. He would take me every week, sit and watch me twirl around in my tutu. He would never leave. He said that I was his joy in life.” I can feel my throat getting tight. I’ve not spoken about that night since the police interviewed me—losing my parents so young, then losing my grandfather, was a hurt I tried to lock away, it was almost as if I didn’t talk about it, then it never happened. I remember Aunt May saying it might help to find the killer. It never did.
“We had a show coming up, and I was going to dance a solo, so in the lead-up, I had extra lessons for practice. My grandfather got tickets for him and my aunt.” I smile sadly. “He was so excited. One Sunday, on the way home from practice, we were in an elevator with a man. I didn’t know who he was, but he kept asking my grandfather questions about our family. I could tell my grandfather was getting worried, and then this man just suddenly attacked him for no reason. The last thing I saw before I was thrown out of the elevator was this man’s red eyes. I was so scared. I watched as he held my papa by the throat and buried his head in his neck. At the time, I didn’t know what was going on, but now I know he was feeding on him.” My voice catches.
“My grandfather tried to fight him off, but he was no match for the man; the only fight he had left in him was telling me to run.” A tear rolls down my cheek. “I didn’t want to leave him, but he kept telling me to run, he yelled at me to go… so I did. I ran so fast that I thought my legs were going to fall off. I thought I had found a good hiding place, it was a small tunnel next to the car park. Whoever this man was, he found me, he grabbed my legs and pulled me out of the tunnel.”
I look up at Gaelan; his blue eyes have darkened in color. They are still glowing, but they look like there’s a storm swirling around his irises. “It’s funny what you remember when fear is the only emotion you feel. I remember how cold his hands were as they wrapped around my ankles, how, when he pulled me out, the ground cut into my knees and ripped my tights. I thought he was going to kill me; he punched me in the face, and he wouldn’t stop punching me. I’ve never felt pain like it; blackness started to cover me, and the last thing I can remember feeling was this sharp pain in my wrists before everything went black.”
Tears are freely running down my cheeks now. “I woke up a few days later with a broken nose and cheekbone; he had broken my left leg almost in half, and I had some internal bleeding; he also left a mark on my wrist.” I hold it up and study it; it’s never faded—my constant reminder of that night. “They told me my grandfather died, but I didn’t believe them. It wasn’t until I got home that it finally became real. I cried for days. Three members of my family were taken from me—my parents had died five years before, my aunt always told me that they were in a car accident, but I’m not sure I believe her now. Now I think it was daemons that killed them, that they were after my book.”
Gaelan lifts my wrist and places a soft kiss over the mark. Anger still swirls around in his eyes. “I’m sorry, my Rose. Surviving a daemon attack so young… I wish I could have been there to save you; I would have made him pay.” He wipes thetears from my cheeks before leaning forward and kissing them away. “Are the voices gone, my Rose? I don’t want to stay here any longer than we need to.”
“They’re still there, but less, no pain.”
He kisses me lightly. “Ari, where did that power come from? Your eyes were glowing when you threw me from the hut.”
I shrug. “I don’t know, Mekhi said that they would glow when I would sleepwalk. I always thought he was lying. Have you seen any of my past lives do that before?”
“No. You’ve always had the voices, but never have I seen you use the powers from the book before getting it… that was new.”
“What do you think it means?” I ask, my voice still shaky.
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out.” Gaelan stands with me still in his arms and starts to walk us back toward the horses. As soon as we’re close enough, Gaelan clicks his tongue, and they turn toward us. “Home,” is all he says before they disappear. “We’ll shimmer home from here.”
“Wait. So, you’re telling me we could have shimmered here in the first place, that I didn’t have to risk breaking my neck?” I gasp, feigning outrage.
He laughs. “Ari, you were fine. The horses are fun. I often like to ride them when I’m home.” He looks down at me, and the love burning in his eyes is evident. I wonder when he’s going to tell me he loves me. I also wonder if I’ll say it back when he does.
