Anna had sprawled on the floor with Ryan to look at a book on fantasy creatures that had been created by human imagination over the last few centuries when she asked, "Are any of these real?"
"Hmm." He flipped pages. "Most of them are loosely based in some form or another on something real, like there are lots of variances on the dragons of course, but most of these I think are just pure imagination. Hey, Tasi!" he called. "Calling she who knows everything."
"Are you corrupting my child, Ryan?" She looked out of the kitchen where she had been getting something to drink.
He grinned. "Of course not. Much. She just asked me something I don't know. Are any of these fantasy creatures real?" He shoved the book over when she sat down on the floor beside him and Anna. "We can tell which are loosely based on the dragons, but we don't know which others may be real or not. A lot of worlds are pretty different from what we're used to, and it's only in the Resurrection Era that all the alliances are fully back in place with full space travel again, but most everyone I've ever seen is, maybe deceptively, human."
"Deceptively for sure! For example, you know how the idea of a mermaid was supposedly invented within the last fifty years here in Rebirth? Well, actually, they do exist. They live mostly on the world of Tav, which is in a galaxy out past the Tarmol galaxy holding Aria and Celia. Right past, actually. They visited often enough back before the fall of the kingdoms, but losing magic meant a lot of other things lost like space travel and transporting. It'll be another two thousand years from now before Protea is strong enough again to start sending and receiving ships, which will again alter the population as a whole, so that it's back to that wonderful blend we have in Resurrection." Tasia traced a finger over the image. "Tav is pretty unique, actually, thanks to the narcissus flower at her Core. Someone leaving the world will trade fin for legs—because most other worlds, even Orchid, tend to require them—and someone entering the world will do the opposite. It can be consciously switched if wanted, though."
"Are any others real?" Anna asked eagerly.
"Hmm." Tasia flipped through more pages. "Ah, okay, this is one sort of based on a real species. Well, sort of species? Maybe sub-species is a better term. It's a really rare off-shoot of humans." She lifted her hands and silver-gold majik welled to create illusory images in the air of a winged human. "Basically, wings on a human come in two varieties: one, like Shana and Siobhan, they're a mark of arcane power, or two, they're evidence of a human born not in the physical realm. The latter only have little wings anywhere from a couple feet long to a few inches. Shana and Siobhan have wings large enough they could fly on them."
"Where are your wings, Mommy?" Anna asked.
"Pardon?"
Reasonably, she said, "You have arc-an-is-try. Arcane power. That's what Aunt Shana said. So why don't you have wings?"
"You just found out your mother is part dragon and you're concerned I don't have wings?" Tasia shook her head. "I actually don't know. Maybe it's connected to the fact that I have not reached my peak. Remember, I've started evolving again, somehow. It's not important right now, alright? If I grow wings, I'll tell you, promise." She swirled the majik to make more images. "Anyway, as I was saying, humans not born in the physical realm get wings. Specifically, I refer to children born inside the Realm of the Gods. Yes, it can absolutely happen."
"No kidding?" Ryan boggled at her.
"No kidding! We're talking it happens once every hundred thousand years, though, and it always involves a Ruler or Defender Cultivator, and I think roughly ninety-five percent of the time, it's an Ice Flower Element with it! Which is ironic when we Ice sorts are not known for being exactly the best at encouraging life to grow."
Ryan poked her belly and made Anna giggle. "Proof says otherwise."
Tasia swatted his hand, but she was grinning. "Quit sassing the teacher, kid. It's worth mentioning anew, or new to Anna, that those in the Realm are not technically dead. As far as the physical realm is concerned, yeah, they're dead and gone and dying takes them there, but Cultivators especially don't actually die. They ascend to another plane of existence. So, inevitably, rarely, humorously, some Ice Flower Element Cultivator ends up pregnant. Any child born in the Realm gets wings, as I noted, as well as magic, even if they don't get a Seed. Actually, they never get Seeds. Go figure. The magic varies across the board as far as Flower Element, which means what magic they have varies, but usually they end up with some powers not classifiable as anything other than 'holy', like most gods or demi-gods, and then one or two skills related to either the Ruler or Defender tree."
"So they're basically Caretakers with an upgrade?" Ryan asked.
She thought about it. "You know, that's accurate. And as I think about it, I get the feeling that each of those rare births was a Caretaker. Intriguing."
Even Anna had learned pretty fast to not ask where Tasia got her information or how she always seemed to know exactly what she needed right when she needed it. Only Shana ran close to her for just knowing things, but she herself had admitted that Tasia had her beat and she didn't know how either of them did it either. Letting go of it, Anna asked, "Are there species not in the book that exist that aren't common in the physical realm?"
"There's one, in fact!" Tasia held up a finger. "The fae. They're rather alike to dragons in being basically raw elemental beings, but they were not deliberately made by a god. They just sort of started appearing in the Immortal Fields wherever Flower Element magic sloughed over. They stay almost exclusively in the Fields because it's really hard for them to get the magic they need to survive outside of there. Some bond with witches and can be sustained by majik instead, but they still exist on the Plane and only appear invisibly here. They have wings that mostly resemble different insects and are pretty tiny. Anywhere from about three inches tall up to maybe a foot max. If a fae wanted to live outside of the Fields, it would need access to either me or Siobhan because of our infinite magic. Well, Shana too, but her magic is really small in scope despite being infinite."
"So your magic is as infinite as your majik," Ryan murmured.
"Well, if it isn't, it's damn close enough. I rival both Apexes equally, honestly, and not just Shana. Who knows where things will stand whenever I become . . . whatever it is I'm becoming. Strange dragon sorceress human Cultivator immortal hybrid thing."
"With wings!" Anna piped up.
It made Tasia laugh. "And if my daughter gets her way, yes, with wings. Up with you!" She got to her feet and tugged Anna up as well. "Time for some different lessons; get yourself into the kitchen with Storm and Kari. Ryan needs to get that book back to the library before it's overdue anyway."
Ryan grinned as he sat up and picked up the book. "Yes m'am."
Emily walked into the house with the mail in her arms at that point and handed him a letter. "For you!" She continued sorting as she made her way toward the kitchen. "Quit flirting with your girlfriend," she complained at Storm. "You two are making me lonely."
Ryan tore into the letter curiously and discovered an offer from the library to have access to the deepest and restricted archives. He had asked not expecting to get permission, but they had cleared it with all levels of approval. Excitement welled up so hotly that it echoed across the house clearly.
Beth had been trying to design some lovely new maternity clothing she intended to blackmail Tasia into wearing, but she was promptly diverted by the happy bubbles now floating around her head. "Now what?" she shouted down the hall. "You're distracting me!"
Ryan was too busy dancing in place to respond, so Emily plucked the letter out of his hands and read it. She then rolled her eyes and tossed the letter over her shoulder as she walked back into the kitchen. "Books for the bookworm." She linked her hands behind her head as she went and had nearly made it to the fridge before Ryan suddenly latched onto her arm and looked up at her with big and pleading eyes. She groaned. "Oh no. You can't be serious."
"But we might find some interesting things about the different Eras that we've never seen or read before or about anything else!" Ryan said eagerly. He held onto his sister's arm and continued to look up at her as his sky blue eyes glimmered with possible tears. "Em? Please, Em?"
"Mush," was all Tasia said.
Emily would have protested, but the simple fact was that she was mush when it came to her little brother. She sighed and raked her hands through her hair as she looked longingly to where Storm and Kari stood hip-to-hip with Anna and taught her how to make cookies. They were determined Anna not suffer her mother's inability to cook, and therefore the kitchen already smelled wonderfully of chocolate. Emily looked down again at Ryan and sighed. "Alright. Fine. For a while."
"We'll save some of the cookies for you!" Storm promised her on a grin.
"Yay!" Ryan dragged his sister over to the door and dug out his shoes from the pile. He hopped on one foot to put them on and pulled the door open to run out into nippy morning air; it wouldn't warm to sleeveless levels until the sun rose a little higher. He shivered as he reached the sidewalk and then blinked as his jacket was dropped on his head. "Oops."
"Idiot," Emily said, but it was said with affection and Ryan didn't take offense. Their hands linked together as they headed down the street together, and Ryan chattered a mile a minute about what he hoped to find. His enthusiasm proved surprisingly contagious, as usual. The future historian had a knack for getting people interested in his addiction. Emily realized she was beginning to look forward to the investigation as well. Normally only chemistry and biology books got her interested. Okay, and maybe Tasia's books. When had she become a bookworm?
Potentially around the time everything else in her life had changed. A metric ton had happened in the last four years. She had found incredible friends, discovered she was a Dual Cultivator, and had been adopted by some of the—in her opinion—most wonderful parents ever. A queen and king of a Lower world no less! That made her a princess. She had even gotten to go to university to study her beloved chemistry with biology on the side, and Shanae had arranged for her to have a lab space in the castle where she could experiment; one would be added at the Hyacinth Castle as well. Her life felt perfect.
Well . . . mostly perfect. Maybe there really was a tiny fragment of loneliness in her heart every time she saw her happily paired off friends. She knew it was an inevitable thing that she find a Caretaker and soul mate because, hey, she had to have a kid, but both the idea of loving someone that much and the idea of kids alike sort of scared her half to death. Maybe she could get a million years to work around to the idea.
They had reached the library. She banished the thoughts and followed Ryan inside. At the front desk, a cheerful clerk told them, "Welcome! You'll have company back there, since we can't just let you in by yourselves. There are some really important books back there, right? So Silas and Gail Kalri, two of our interns, will keep you company and can answer any questions."
Something about the names felt eerily familiar to both Ryan and Emily but they shrugged it off and followed the signs toward the more restricted section. As they rounded a tall bookshelf, both came to a quick stop in sheer surprise at what they found waiting for them. Another brother and sister pair, both with lavender hair, fair skin, haunting silvery-black eyes, unfairly beautiful features, and heights that skirted them closer to six-foot than not; Emily, at five-eight, was still shorter than both. Both had similar slim physiques, but the male had put on a fair amount of muscle tone while the female had the softer almost plump edges that meant she leaned to the magical side—and they both had magic. Ryan and Emily alike could feel it as a sting in the air from a Thunder Flower Element.
The man looked over and then grinned cheerfully. "Hey! You must be Emily and Ryan, right? I'm Silas. This is my elder twin sister, Gail. We're interns here, and we get to babysit you in the archives." He offered a hand to Emily, and his black eyes sparkled. "I look forward to spending time with you and getting to know you better."
Unwillingly breathless—he sincerely rivaled Rodi for sheer beauty—she slowly put her hand on his. Remembering, she hastily flipped her hand over to put the back of her hand instead of her palm. A churning inside her blood and low in her body of sheer desire warned her she might not get that million years after all. The temptation to kiss those lips that seemed eternally smiling felt hard to squash. "Uhm. Hi. I'm Emily."
Gail turned a smile no less powerful on Ryan, but it had an almost sultry edge to it, as if she had noticed the way he kept staring at her. She offered a hand to him and rather than ignore that he also gave the wrong greeting, she slid her hand back a bit to let their fingers lace together in a far more intimate variation. "Hello, Ryan." Her voice also resembled her brother's as well, yet, again, had a slightly more intimate tone. If Silas was charm incarnate, then Gail might be seduction. "It's nice to meet you both. I'll admit we've seen you around town, so we were happy at a chance to be much . . . closer."
"Uhm." Ryan felt heat climbing his neck. A powerful swell of hungry desire he had not expected seemed to surge up inside him as he stared up at her. Could it be possible that Kari was not the only Caretaker as part of this Pivot? Had he and Emily found theirs in the past too? If he felt any concern, it was for his sister. He knew her fears, knew all too well she would run before letting herself be vulnerable. For all she had seen happen to Tasia and Rodi, she could and would run from her own soul mate if she let her anxiety take hold.
"Hey." Gail tugged him a little closer and lowered her voice. "Don't be so scared. It'll be okay. Trust in Silas, okay? We both knew what we were getting into almost from the moment we saw you. We're not . . . normal either, in our own way."
His shoulders relaxed and he smiled. She had to be his Caretaker. He could not imagine anyone else could have ever made him feel so . . . safe. The beginnings of love had already begun to blossom inside him, and he knew it would not be long until he got to feel the fall. Until then, "Lead the way into the elusive archives! We promise not to touch anything without permission."
Silas opened his mouth and then closed it, and Gail started laughing. "Can't find anything that isn't indecent to say?" She released Ryan to unlock the door.
"You can't blame me," her brother grumbled. "He opened that one wide open for someone to take advantage of. I just don't think it's polite for me to do so on first meeting."
"Okay, then I will." Emily shook back her hair as she sauntered past him. "Ryan, set me up."
Obligingly, grinning, he repeated, "We promise not to touch anything without permission."
"And that rule goes double for you," she told both twins, "because looking is free but touching isn't cheap." She sashayed into the archives, and Ryan followed her quickly, still grinning.
Silas could only sigh. "Gail, trade with me."
She snorted. "Sorry, but I'll stick with what Destiny already decided. Besides, you know all too well you're the only one that will suit Emily. Aunt Krysta said it to your face."
"And laughed at me."
"Well . . . do admit that was fair."
* * * * *
Divide and conquer, Alloran thought as he looked into a mirror that reflected the images of Emily and Ryan with the unusual twins in the library. He had this one last shot at getting pure Life Orbs before the master lost all patience with him and lashed out in a potentially permanent fashion. He had taken the blame for Arabella's 'failure' to spare her, and more than ever he could feel himself wavering between what he thought he knew and what she had told him she believed. She had told him Beth had not been trying to hurt her, that they had discovered their shared Empathy, and it had rattled him more. If everything he had ever thought about his father was wrong . . . then he could not call himself any better. It would not be necessary evil. Just . . . evil.
He needed to split up these last two Defenders if he wanted any hope of taking one or both down. Like Raine and Tasia, majikal bonds existed between them that made them literally siblings even if they shared no blood, and that meant they became exponentially stronger as a team. He needed to attack them at the same time with one Gensome per each, and he needed to get them off familiar territory and into someplace they would not easily escape. He already had just the thing in mind, but getting just them and not those two archivists with them might be more difficult. He would have to wait a bit.
Even though the clock kept running out.
* * * * *
It took less than an hour for Gail and Ryan to be talking and laughing together like old friends. They poured over books with their heads together and talked about every subject imaginable. Like Ryan, Gail had an unquenchable thirst to read and learn and she split her attentions between history and music. She and her brother were just past twenty-six in age, making them younger than both Ryan and Emily, but they mutually possessed a maturity past their years. Well, Gail did.
Emily looked at where Silas had slipped off a ladder and sighed. "You're an idiot."
He grinned up at her unrepentantly. "At least I'm fun." He took her offered hand and hopped to his feet.
She could not deny that! He had proven to be a very enjoyable companion, and he seemed to have no care for poking at her temper to make it flare. He also seemed to have a strangely familiar way of almost immediately diffusing her ire again. She honestly could not stay mad at him, even though he definitely had a proclivity to be frustrating. But also charming, sweet, witty, and he kept watching her as if he had no desire to ever watch anything else again. Now if only her damn pulse would stop trying to leap out of her skin with each of his smiles.
He suddenly moved closer, and she back-stepped only to bump the shelves behind her. He leaned in closer with his hands beside her head, and her pulse took off racing before it had a chance to slow. That close, she could see the silvery lights in his eyes looked more like stars. His breath smelled like coffee and felt hot as it touched her skin. "Y-you're crowding me," she whispered. "Remember the rules."
"I'm not touching you," he pointed out softly. "But I'd like to. Each time you've yelled at me, I've wanted to just . . . grab you up and kiss you. What are you afraid of, Em? That we might be soul mates? We both already know that answer. Let yourself fall for me. I'll catch you."
Too little, too late. She had been falling since she looked at him. Each smile that crossed his face just dug him deeper in her soul. "Oh, screw it." She caught his face in her hands and kissed him a little wildly, a little desperately, needing to imprint his taste inside. His hands shot down to catch her hips and he dragged her tighter against his body. He felt as incredible as he tasted, and if it hadn’t been for some pesky laws, she might well have started peeling his clothes off. Remembering, she broke the kiss quickly. "Wait."
Deprived of her lips, his mouth explored her neck hotly and made her knees go weak when he found some nerve she hadn't known existed. "Why?" he asked thickly. "Pretty sure we're on the same page here."
She had no desire to blurt out 'if I sleep with you, I have to marry you' so she kept her mouth shut. "We just met," was the best she could manage. "And it's . . . complicated. Damn it, stop that. I can't think." She bit back a little gasp as his teeth nipped at her ear. "It's . . . I'm . . ." His mouth found hers again, and he kissed her with an edge that felt wildly thrilling. As he released her again, only his hands and arms kept her upright. "Wow," she breathed. She shook her head hard. "Damn it, let go."
He did so, but his hands took their time leaving her body. "As you like." He grinned. "But you're welcome."
She almost rose to the bait before remembering he apparently liked her temper. Instead, she whirled and stalked off deeper into the shelves. Where was Tasia when she needed her? Someone needed to turn her temperature back down before she overheated. She also needed to find a mirror because damned if she would walk back over to their siblings looking as damn kissed as she felt.
Ryan noted Gail fanning herself with a book and lifted a brow. "Are you warm?"
"My brother is," she responded absently without looking up from the volume they had been reading together. "We've got the Thunder Flower Element but we've got a strange connection where we share the same temperature most of the time; we suspect influence from our mother's Ice Flower Element. I have a feeling he got his hands on Emily. I'm trying to help by keeping my temperature down for him."
Ryan shook his head on a smile. "I'm fairly sure you can't help there." He absolutely could not resist easing up a bit to brush a kiss over her chin. She had almost a half-foot in height on him. "But if you want to return the favor, I wouldn't mind amending some of those rules. So to speak. I've been thinking about kissing you since I saw you, so, you know. Just an offer."
"I'll take you up on that soon enough," she promised, shooting him a smile from under her lashes. "I'm enjoying the anticipation of getting there." Her free hand under the table walked her fingers down his leg. "You're pretty calm about this, you know. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I guess I should have seen this coming. Water Flower Elements really do go with the flow. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a Water Element that didn't just . . . calmly carry the current."
"That was my parents." He smiled as he said it. "Both Water. Mom says they just flowed together like two rivers meeting, that they never strayed or doubted. Dad says that's mostly because no one dares tell her no, but it's probably a little of both. Is this a terrible time to mention I'm a lot like my mother? I get what I want most of the time." He caught her hand and put it on the table. "Stop teasing me. That's not fair."
"All is fair." She grinned a little wickedly. "Besides, I'm just doing my job. It's a very sacred one to Caretakers, you know."
That was his clue to put a bit of distance between them before he tumbled her onto the floor and gave Silas some backwash heat of his own. "Behave yourself." He got to his feet and headed into the stacks, but he was smiling. He had not told her anything, yet she already seemed to know. In fact, he strongly got the feeling she knew far more than she or Silas had let on. She did not feel like a normal Caretaker, even compared to some of the more powerful ones he knew.
Still thinking about it, he rounded the corner of an aisle only to discover the floor had disappeared into what looked like an illusory projection of space. "Oh, hell!" he yelped. He swung around hastily. "Gail! Emily! Silas!" He was too late to run. The aisle behind him had changed as well and he skidded onto the empty space. His sight blurred briefly, and when it cleared, he was no longer in the library.
A massive wall loomed behind him and stretched alongside him until they opened to create pathways. He carefully approached the crossroads and felt his stomach sink as he realized he had been trapped inside some sort of maze. "Em! Gail!" he shouted, but the only sound that came back was that of his own voice echoing.
He squared his shoulders and began to cautiously creep through the maze, hoping that his still-developing sixth sense was strong enough to see him through.
"Ryan!" Emily ran down the hallway in front of her but heard nothing in response. The maze had come up from out of nowhere, and she hadn't even had a chance to call out before it had isolated her. She couldn't sense her brother, or the twins, nor did she hear any response to her voice. She could only assume they had been isolated via some sort of creepy magic.
Worrying and standing still would get exactly nothing done, so she braced her shoulders and began to run down pathways a bit blindly. She wanted to change into a hunting animal, but something kept blocking her majik and she couldn't call up any of her spells. Damn it, where were the pattern masters when she needed them?
As he rounded the same corner for the fiftieth time, Ryan felt tears backing up in his throat, and he slowly sank down to the ground against the wall. He had never been more helpless in his life; even on Aria, he had not been so utterly useless. All of his majik and spells were suddenly blocked, and being without them felt both disorienting and frightening.
Something caressed his cheek. He turned his head swiftly and found a single gold feather floating through the ar. He let it land on his fingers and slowly brought it to his cheek. The touch of the feather felt a bit like soft hair he had only recently caressed. Maybe the fall had happened and he had not seen it. She felt engraved inside him already. The desire she had brought to him, the way her smiles had captured his heart, the way she had just somehow made his world so right . . . he had fallen in love while they laughed and talked and whispered together in a dusty place where history came to life.
Emily stopped to reorient herself and braced her hands on the wall as she struggled to fight the sensation of despair and helplessness that gripped her tightly. She had been wandering the halls for ten minutes and was still covering the same ground over and over again. She had even attempted that old myth about putting her hand on the wall and not lifting it. No go. "Damn it," she whispered. The most powerful urge to call Silas' name again kept welling inside. He could save her. She knew he could, somehow. That was what a Caretaker did. She just . . . felt too scared to try.
She felt something brushing her cheek and opened her eyes to see gold feathers fluttering down through the air around her. She lifted her head and turned slowly as the little bits of fluff rained down on her. Somehow, she could just sense his presence. He was already there, looking for her, waiting for her to need him. "Silas."
Ryan pulled himself to his feet, steeled his shoulders, and began walking down the paths again. It proved just as futile as before. Minutes passed and he was right back where he had started. The despair had his eyes closing, but they opened again swiftly when he felt something tickling his face. Small feathers fluttered down through the air like a gold storm.
He held out a hand to catch some of the feathers on his fingertips, and he felt her somewhere nearby. She waited for him to need her, trusting in his ability to save himself first. And somehow, as if those feathers had cleared his mind, he just knew what to do. He closed his eyes for a moment and then began to concentrate so hard that the very air around him hummed softly.
Emily closed her eyes and focused her abilities as much as she was able, following that little sense of knowing the feathers had brought. She could feel as her enemy tried to push back to stop her, but her will was greater, and her aura began to glow brilliantly gold with her majik.
Ryan's aura began to glow with gold as his majik awakened and broke with a sharp suddenness through what had blocked him. The area around him went deathly silent as he opened his senses completely.
A tender melody reached him from a distance, and his eyes widened. A guitar played the same song he had heard Gail humming more than once. The song she had laughingly said she could not finish writing. Almost holding his breath, he turned and began to run down the paths, following the music, knowing only that he had to find his Caretaker wherever she waited.
Emily got her senses open again and felt triumphant that she had managed to get her majik strong enough that she could actually do something like that. The air felt motionless around her, and she could hear nothing but utter silence.
Then, distantly, she heard the sound of a flute being played, and the notes curled around her almost teasingly. Her heart stopped for a moment and then began to race even faster as she recognized the song being played. Silas had been humming it to himself, more than once. A song he had said he made up just for her. So stupid and flirty but charming all the same. It couldn't not be charming.
Trusting her instincts, she turned and began running down the halls as she followed the sound of the flute as it played. It got louder and she knew she was getting closer and closer to where she needed to be. Wherever he was could only ever be the place she belonged. She knew it for fact, no matter how it scared her.
Ryan sensed the center approaching and ran even quicker. He had his Mask in hand just in case he may find whatever trouble had started all this, but as he burst into the large center area, he was startled to realize there was no one there at all. No Gail, and certainly no Gensome. Had he imagined everything after all?
He suddenly heard a sound and turned sharply. He was too late, and the Gensome's fist struck him in the stomach. He went hurtling into the wall with a cry and felt the edges of his vision gray out. He could only watch with blurry eyes as the monster took aim at him. The blast struck with searing pain, and he blacked out instantly. It was just too much to endure at one time. Even Defenders had their limits.
Emily shot into the center like an arrow from a bow and realized a split second later that there was a monster in there with her and not a cute smartass. She dove to the side to avoid the first blast, and she rolled to her feet with her Mask in hand. She braced her shoulders as she stared in mounting horror at the sight of a robbed skeleton watching her malevolently. A chill went down her back. She really hated skeletons. She had hated that part of her biology classes.
It took aim at her again and she went diving across the floor to avoid the hit. Thank goddess for the lessons she had been taking from her Lead Defender! She had to dive another direction to avoid another blast, but that one had been feinted. The real attack smacked into her with such force that she hit a wall with a painful thud. She sank to the floor in a daze and watched the Gensome creep toward her. She knew she could not stop it. Even if she had grabbed her Air magic, it was only defensive, and she could not find the strength to even try.
She really, really hated skeletons.
The robed zombie looked down at Ryan's prone form and then at the brightly glowing gem that slowly revolved in the air above him. It glimmered with purity that couldn't be hidden. The Gensome gleefully reached out its ugly claws for it. It needed to take it back to its master before something went wrong.
A blast of purple and yellow lightning streaked through the air and struck its hands before it could grasp onto the Life Orb. The monster staggered back and whirled to see Gail standing in the entrance to the center. Thunder magic still crackled around the amethyst at the end of the long magical rod she held.
"How did you get in here?" the Gensome demanded in a rumble.
"Strange, right?" She twirled the rod and made lightning rain from the ceiling, striking the monster hard enough to knock it backwards across the room. She then calmly walked across the room and knelt beside Ryan.
The Gensome gained its feet and nearly start to lunge toward her but changed its mind and began to slowly back up in abject terror. Wings. Small but distinct gold wings perched on her back. She had been born in the Realm of the Gods.
Emily tried to get back to her feet, but she couldn't breathe or move, and she fell back to the floor in an unconscious heap. The skeleton ignored her as it viewed the Life Orb hovering in the air and glowing brightly with purity. It eagerly reached out its skeletal hands, intent on returning to its master with its prize to be rewarded.
Purple and yellow lighting streaked through the air and across its hands. Black scorch marks scalded the bone as the sparks ate all the way through. It staggered back from the Life Orb and turned sharply to see Silas standing in the entrance. He held a sword propped on his shoulder while his other hand still crackled with lightning.
"How did you get in here?!" the Gensome demanded. It hastily backed up as Silas advanced a step. The man did not feel . . . entirely human, but he did feel entirely dangerous.
"You really shouldn't leave those floor portals just sitting around, y'know?" He grinned slightly and flung his hand in the air. Lightning went shooting from his fingers toward the Gensome and sent it flying through the area.
The Gensome could only watch a little dazedly as Silas crossed to Emily. That had not felt like normal Flower Element magic, and as it stared at the warrior kneeling beside the fallen Defender, it began to understand. With understanding came fear. The small gold wings perched on Silas's back could only mean he had been born of the Realm, and that meant his magic could be exceptionally potent. It might even be as detrimental as magikry, if only for it being holy in origin.
Gail knelt next to Ryan and eased him into her arms. She ran her fingers gently over his cheek to soothe them both, and her power reached into him to start bringing him back. She grabbed the Life Orb to bring it down, and Ryan's lashes lifted enough to reveal cloudy blue irises. "Hi," he murmured. "I knew I'd find you if I looked."
"I'm always wherever you need me." She handed him the Life Orb and then lifted him onto his feet easily. Because the Gensome had started moving in toward them, she released Ryan and stepped in front of him with her rod held defensively. "You know what to do, Ry."
He did, and he did not question how she knew as well. His hands tightened around the Life Orb, and he stared into the depths of it. The memory holding him back was not hard to find. It was the most vivid memory in his soul, and the biggest part of his childhood. The most defining moment in many ways: his parents arguing loudly and over each other about him until they just up and left the apartment. Neither had remembered him sitting on the living room floor. Neither had come back. It had taken two days for a neighbor to hear him crying and break down the door. To that day, he did not know what they had been arguing about other than that it had been about him. "Me," he whispered. "They left because of me. I'm nothing but a nuisance."
Silas lifted Emily off the floor and hoped she would not kill him for rescuing her. She would probably hate that; ran in the family, really. He brought the Life Orb down where its dark glow bathed them both, and she stirred. His arms tightened instinctively to help reassure her that she was safe.
Her eyes opened, and the naturally pine green color had faded to almost black. She blinked slightly, and then she gave a little sigh and closed her eyes again. Annoyance as much as wry humor was in the curve of her lips. "I was looking for you even though I didn't want to be."
"I didn't expect you to be happy about it." He smiled. "Part of your charm is your crankiness, Em. And you Defenders rarely ever need to be rescued." He helped her up to her feet and kept an arm around her waist to make sure she stayed balanced until she could lean against the wall. As she took the Life Orb and brought it down toward herself, he stepped around in front of her with his sword braced at ready. "That said, I don't mind rescuing when you can't rescue yourself."
"Bite your tongue." She felt tears stinging the corner of her eyes despite her acidic words. She really was falling in love with this impossible man, and she would be damned before she admitted it. She took a deep breath to focus on her Life Orb, and she already knew what memory she would see long before she found it.
It was of her childhood as well. She was watching her father get fancied up as if for a party. A woman stood nearby but Emily did not think she was her mother. Her father picked her up, and all three of them traveled to the Care House—though Emily had not known that was what the place was until later. Her father had promised to return for her, yet he never had. It had taken a year before Emily had given up believing he ever would. "People always leave," she whispered.
"Ryan!" Gail snapped. She ducked as the Gensome took a swing for her head. She came up and simultaneously kicked the monster in the knees while slamming her rod into its head like a mace. "You know better than that! There's surely something in that memory you want to keep!"
"How can there be?" Tears slid down his cheeks as he forced himself to look at the memory again. It did not stop this time, and instead began to remind him of what had happened when he had finally arrived at the Care House. A small child with coal skin and slate hair had opened the door for him and his case worker. "Em," he whispered. "I met Em because of what they did. They gave me my sister." He lifted his head and began to smile. "I got my family because of what happened. I want this memory!"
"Emily, don't make me mad," Silas warned as he shoved the edge of his sword into the skeleton's chest. It broke into a bunch of bones that crawled across the floor, and he bit back a shudder. "Yick." He shook it off as the Gensome reformed and turned to look over his shoulder at the silent Cultivator. "Emily! You know damned well there's a good part of that memory! Find it!"
"Don't boss me around!" She held tighter to her Life Orb and made herself watch again as she was left behind. It did not stop this time and instead fast-forwarded a year to when she had opened the door and found a social worker holding a tiny black haired boy. "Ry," she breathed. "I met Ry because of that." She took a breath and then said fiercely, "I want this memory!"
Both Life Orbs began to glow brightly black as majik circles cast around the feet of their owner. Their Defender Marks started glowing hotter and hotter until their Orbs dissolved back where they belonged and new blossoms sprouted—orchid to Ryan, hyacinth to Emily. They picked up the Masks they had dropped, pulled them on, and called up their armor. As they did, both briefly and unexpectedly felt one another across the empty space, almost as if their own bonds had gotten stronger. Both smiled.
Silas looked at Emily, saw the spruce wand topped with apatite in her hand, and then saw the look on her face. He hastily hacked the skeleton's head off and then ran out of the way. He could stare only in consternation as the Gensome picked up its head and put it back on. "I hate these things," he muttered.
Ryan slowly lifted his eucalyptus wand with its aquamarine top and waited for Gail to clear space. He then drew an invoking pentagram. "Summoning!" He hurled the pentagram at the sky and fat drops of water began to fall and pool. "Immortal Bubble!"
Water welled up under his feet and filled knee-high in the entire area. The drops from the sky began to fall harder until they created large splashes. Each splash began to churn and spew bubbles into the air. The bubbles swirled around Ryan before landing beside and starting to stack. They piled higher and higher and merged together until they had formed the shape of a beast made of bubbles. It should have been cute. It looked utterly terrifying. Ryan snapped his fingers calmly, and the bubble-beast went flying toward the immobile Gensome; it could not move in the surprisingly thick water.
The beast leapt at the Gensome headfirst and consumed the monster whole. The monster found itself floating inside a giant bubble and thrashed wildly but could not get free. Without a sound, the bubble shrank down more and more and more until it and the monster were barely bigger than a bubble from a soap dish. With a little POP, both disappeared, and the water on the floor evaporated away.
"Summoning!" Emily hurled her pentagram at the sky, and felt only a brief marvel at herself and her life and how easily all of this came. "Immortal Tornado!"
Wind gusted in around her and began to whisper as it tore through the space. The walls of the room disappeared so it felt as if they stood in the middle of the opens plains of Hyacinth itself. More and more gusts of wind swept across the ground until the air felt heavy and thick. The gusts pulled in toward Emily and then began to gather in front of her with violent force until the tornado stood impossibly tall. The strength of the wind had Silas dropping flat before he was blown away and more air held the Gensome immobile.
Emily seemed barely affected by the tornado at all as she stepped up beside it and calmly snapped her fingers. The tornado tore across the ground, ripping it up into dangerous pieces of shrapnel that joined its own lethal force. It gobbled up the Gensome and spun it around and around and around as the shrapnel tore into it and then the tornado itself tore apart, taking the monster with it.
Ryan took a little breath and then turned to look where Gail stood. It was the first decent look he had gotten at her since they had reunited, and he finally saw the gold wings extending from her back. His eyes went wide behind his Mask. She slowly crossed to him, and he hesitantly reached out to touch one of her wings. It felt soft and wonderful, and he could see a flare of desire in her eyes. It made his own pulse race. Remembering, he asked softly, "Are you . . . a child born in the Realm?"
She smiled. "I am. When I saw you and Silas saw Emily . . . we just knew we belonged with you. So we asked and received permission to descend." She skimmed a finger over his lips, bared by his Mask only covering the top half of his face. "You Resurrection Cultivators really do need some special Caretakers, I think. And, hey," she wrapped her arms around his waist and lifted him off his feet, "if ever I have to physically remove you from trouble, I can."
He wrapped his arms around her neck for balance and then leaned in and kissed her as he had been wanting all along. When they finally eased back a breath, they both began smiling. "We should probably get out of here," he said huskily. "Any ideas?"
"This is why I don't piss you off."
At the sound of Silas's voice, Emily turned with a scowl. "You've started making a hobby of pissing me off. You clearly enjoy it." She started to say more when she suddenly got a real look at him. She promptly gulped and took a slight step back. She honestly hadn't been paying attention, so it was the first time she had noticed that he had shimmering gold wings. "Are you kidding me?"
"Nope." He sent his sword away and walked toward her slowly, as one would when confronting a dangerous animal. He had come to understand her well enough to know she would either run or try to slug him. She did neither, and he cautiously put his hands on her shoulders. "It's hard to explain," he told her softly. "The wings, I mean." She took a slow breath and he watched her warily. "Em?" Her body tensed, and so did his, but she did not attempt to hit him. She instead threw her arms around his neck and clung on wildly. Stunned, he stared at her. "Gods, Emily, you confuse me."
"Just shut up." She held onto him even tighter and then felt the area begin to distort. She hastily released him and took a step away just as the maze collapsed and they found themselves standing in the stacks again. Books had littered the floor. "Ugh." She scowled. "At least we didn't damage anything."
"Emily! Silas!" Gail and Ryan came skidding around the corner and let out breaths of relief at seeing their siblings intact. "Looks like everyone is okay," Gail said. "And both of you are into your next tier." She held up her hands when Emily eyed her. "It's long, complicated, and it can be covered at a later date. Is it important right now?"
"Well, no," Emily admitted. She pulled her Mask off. "But . . ." She edged a step away from Silas almost unconsciously. "Ry, we need to be getting home."
"But the clean-up—" He broke off when both Gail and Silas shook their heads at him. He removed his Mask as well and fought his unease. Gail and Silas needed to be with them because they were obviously Ryan and Emily's soul mates, but Emily had done exactly what Ryan had expected and retreated into her shell where she felt safer. He had a very un-Ryan like urge to shake his sister, and he immediately felt Gail rest her hand on the back of his neck soothingly.
"Em," Silas said softly. He caught her chin to force her to look at him. "You're scared. I know you're scared. So I'm going to give you time, alright? While you're here, I will step back to the best of my ability and only come if you absolutely can't do something without me. You can return to Resurrection, and I will give you a little time before I find you. We have a future self in Resurrection already because we are immortal, so once the Delay kicks over after you return, we'll remember this. I'll wait a bit, like I said, and then find you."
Emily felt pain welling at the idea. They would be waiting for five thousand years to see them again; the Delay would only take away that loneliness for maybe thirty years. "I . . ."
"Emily," Gail said softly, "do not feel guilty. This would have had to be the way anyway. As my brother said, we are immortal. We already exist in the future Era. We could not go with you when you leave. We would have to wait anyway. It's just a little . . . more painful because we cannot be with you now either. But if you need us while you're here, we will both come. It's scary, Emily. We know that. And for people like you, it is only scarier. You've been burned and scarred and have a propensity to anxiety on top of it. Seems like every generation of Cultivators has at least one or two with that burden. So . . . take the time you need."
It hurt, and Emily wanted to reach out, but she just couldn't. Rather than try, she turned and ran away. Ryan hesitated and then ran after her. It hurt him, too, but for the sake of his sister, he would wait to see Gail again. It might only be a year or two for him and Emily, but the twins would be waiting five thousand years. Then again . . . maybe that might be what Emily needed. Maybe that powerful dedication of her Caretaker would be the thing to make her believe he would never leave her again.
Still . . . another question lingered. All ten Resurrection Cultivators had entered their next tier, forced themselves to evolve, and become summoners. Tasia had split her True Shadow and merged it again, allowing her access to the critical Light and Dark Flower Elements once more in the whole of her arcanistry. They stood ready to summon Tananeen—however that would happen. Would the enemy finally reveal itself? There had to be more to this than just Alloran and Arabella. Alloran had magic he should never have been able to use, and there was still the question of what the dragons kept sensing.
Just what was around the corner?
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
