Immortal Light: Wide Awake (50 page)

Lucy, with tears welling in her eyes, stared
in amazement at the love of her life, then glanced back at Jack,
who tried to take no credit at all for the feat of creating her
sword.

Benjamin held her tightly as she gripped the
hilt of her sword with one hand and held him with the
other.

“
Merry Christmas,
Lucy.”

“
Thank you, so much,” she
responded hoarsely.

More playful applause broke out, and Lucy
laughed at her own ridiculous behavior. As the clapping died down,
Jack jumped up from his chair and grabbed the last remaining gift
from under the tree.

“
Okay, now that we got that one
out of the way, here’s one from me and only me.” He made sure Lucy
got the emphasis.

Taking the package from him, she felt that it
was soft, almost like a pillow. She gave him a sideways
glance.

“
Well, open it,” he gestured with
his hands.

“
This is his specialty, you’ll
like it.” Benjamin’s words made the gift even more intriguing, and
Lucy ripped open the white and red wrapping paper.

Inside was a white pad of fabric that when
unfolded revealed a jacket. Holding it in front of her, she saw
that it was a hip-length coat almost exactly like the black ones
the brothers each wore. It had a zipper up the front and a high,
collarless design with a strap at the neck to secure the zipper and
another strap at the waist. Lucy turned it around and examined
every inch of it. It was a work of art in its absolute
perfection.

“
It’s your new body armor,” Jack
said with a proud grin on his face.

“
Body armor?” Lucy wondered how it
could be body armor when it didn’t feel like it could stop a butter
knife.

“
Yeah, it’s my design.”

Jack walked over and took the jacket from
Lucy. Holding it under the incandescent glow of the tree lights,
there was an unmistakable golden glow to the individual fibers of
the coat.

“
See, what I do is weave a piece
of fabric using Kevlar fiber and long, threadlike strands of our
gold.” He held the jacket up for Lucy to step into. “So, when you
wear it and bond with it, it’s the best armor you could ever want.
Watch.”

Walking to the kitchen he grabbed a knife.
“Hold out your arm.”

Lucy obeyed.

“
Now, bond with the jacket like
you would your sword.”

Lucy pushed her
light
into the jacket.
She felt it encompass her entire torso and the jacket, though
easily flexible, felt more rigid.

Jack placed the knife on the sleeve that Lucy
had held up and he started sawing at it like he was trying to cut
off her arm. After a dozen or so strokes, he removed the knife and
the jacket was completely unharmed.

“
That’s amazing!” Lucy exclaimed,
eyes wide.

“
Yeah, I thought you’d like that.
That’s why we wear them.”

Lucy looked around the room at her new family
and felt so thankful that she had them and wished there were some
way she could ever give them anything that even compared to what
they had given her: something to live for.

She looked into each of their eyes. Kat just
smiled warmly and lovingly at her. Peter nodded in approval,
holding a glass of ginger ale. Jack beamed at his handy work, and
Lucy could tell he was ecstatic that she loved it. Benjamin
radiated joy and affection for the only girl he had ever
loved.

As the night grew later, Kat fell asleep on
one of the couches, Peter went to bed, and Jack sat in the chair
nearest Kat and hummed a soft Christmas carol.

Benjamin held Lucy in his arms, their backs
against the couch that faced the fireplace near the front door.
There was such a peace to the scene that Lucy felt she never wanted
to leave his side, but she had questions that remained unanswered.
There hadn’t been time in the week that had passed after their
return from California to ask them; but, sitting in the light of
the fire, she felt the urgency to ask.

“
Benjamin,” she
started. “Why did you stab me in your
haven
that time?” It was a question
that had plagued her for weeks, but with all that had happened
since Homecoming, she never had the opportunity to ask
again.

Benjamin didn’t say anything at first. Lucy
could feel his chest rise and fall as he breathed. She could tell
he was ready when he stopped breathing and opened his
mouth.

“
It’s because you brought
something with you that I had to get out.”

Lucy scrunched her eyebrows together. “What do
you mean, I brought something?”

“
What I saw was
a dark, smoky figure. I’d never seen anything like it before and it
scared me. It was in my
haven
and all I knew was that I had to get it out.” He
took a breath. “The only way to expel someone from your haven is to
ask them to leave or kill them; break the bond by simulating death.
Unfortunately, it had grabbed you, so the only way to get rid of it
was to get rid of you, too.”

Lucy nodded as she began to
understand. She remembered the reaper she had brought to her
haven
.

“
It was a reaper that I brought
with me, then.” She wasn’t asking.

She had seen it before, a
dark smoky figure in her
haven
, but she had deliberately
summoned it that time. When she was in Benjamin’s
haven
, she didn’t even
know what a reaper was. She was confused as to how one would have
gotten to Benjamin’s haven.

Seemingly reading her mind, Benjamin
continued: “All I know is that you brought it with you. That’s not
an accident I would have made.”

“
But I didn’t know any of this. I
would have to be touching one to bring it with me. I was at school.
It’s not like there were reapers sitting next to me. I mean, you
were in the room.”

Benjamin chuckled. “No, that’s for
sure.”

“
But, the only
other way is …
”
It hit her as she spoke, and her heart sank into her
gut.
“
It was
Kenny.
”

Benjamin looked curiously at her.

“
I was thinking
about him right before I went to your
haven
,” Lucy continued. “I brought
him with me and he was trying to get me away.”

Lucy felt her throat swell. “He’s dead because
of me. He tried to save me.”

Benjamin squeezed Lucy tightly.
“You can’t blame yourself for him. He made his choice before that
ever happened. Suen and his army feed on the greedy. Kenny wanted
something that Suen could provide, and in turn he became a
reaper.”

Lucy thought about the boxes of books Kenny
would get mysteriously. He always handled the deliveries
himself.

“
He traded his soul for power;
power to be the boss. That’s probably why he hated Mrs. Breen so
much. She wouldn’t let him be the boss.” Lucy shook her head and
felt Benjamin’s light pour into her.

The two sat quietly as Lucy found peace with
what happened to Kenny and as other questions bubbled to the
surface, more important questions that dealt with the future and
not with the past. There were things that Benjamin had never told
her, and she had to know why.

“
Why did you never tell me of the
prophecy?”

Benjamin stared at the fire. “I really wanted
to Lucy, but it was just never the right time.” He closed his eyes
as if to pray for the right answer. “Peter and I felt that if we
were to tell you all that you were designed to be, it would have
scared you, or driven you away.” He shook his head. “We were wrong.
You were strong enough all along.”

“
But Sukabra said that no matter
what happened, the gods would always provide a guardian. I’m not
the only one they’ve tried to extract.” Looking at Benjamin, she
feared his response to the news of the other two guardians that
Sukabra had killed.

“
We know you’re not the first.
Peter saw the other two. They lived more than three hundred years
apart, and as much as it hurt him, he knew he couldn’t do anything
to save them. He found both of their bodies, and he buried
them.”

“
Then why am I so different? Why
am I the guardian this time?”

Benjamin inhaled deeply. “To
be honest, we don’t know why you were chosen. You’ve shown time and
time again that you are ready for the challenges, but as for why …
I guess it just happened that way.
”

Lucy looked into the fire, wishing for a real
answer, when Benjamin continued. “Now, the reason you are
different, that’s because you were prepared. You found us, and we
prepared you. The others didn’t have that luxury, and they died not
understanding their gift or even why they were being
killed.”

Lucy sat, understanding everything he was
saying, but still not grasping one important detail. “But what does
that mean? Why did we bond and no one else?”

Benjamin breathed a soft laugh. “I don’t know,
but Peter has a theory about that.”

Lucy turned to face him, looking him in the
eyes.

“
There’s a story
in our culture that happened about a thousand years before I was
born. It centers on the King’s special guard—an army, not a single
guardian. Not only did they protect the king, but they protected
the city.
”

“
After the
Queen’s death and the torturing extraction of her
guardian—
”
Benjamin stopped when Lucy inhaled, all of the pieces finding
their correct place in her mind.

“
After they died, the army
destroyed the opposing city, killing every man, woman, and child.
The soldiers felt so much remorse for their deed that they all took
upon themselves the pain of immortality and vowed to wander the
earth until they had found peace to replace the pain of killing so
many innocent people.

“
In the absence of his army, the
gods provided the King with the first-ever King’s Guardian. This
man was granted powers above all others in the kingdom, save only
the high priest and the King, himself.

“
A thousand years later, when I
was only a child, the King was murdered by his own son and the
guardian went looking for the killer. He never returned, but his
body was found by a party of hunters only ten days later, lying
face up in a state of supplication to the gods. His eyes were
closed and besides the decomposition of his body, he was otherwise
completely unharmed.”

“
What happened to him? Was he
extracted?”

“
Well, when my
father—he was the high priest and newly appointed steward of
Zharem—got to him, he determined that his
light
had not been taken from him,
but that the guardian had simply released it.”

Lucy was puzzled. “So it was
like he committed …
”
She gestured an unsure hand toward
Benjamin.

“
Suicide?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Not exactly.
See, when one of our people commits suicide, it leaves a remnant of
the person’s
light
that is cold and sorrowful when a high priest evaluates the
body. This guardian didn’t have that. My father described him as
being “clean.” His
light
left him and was lost or taken, but it wasn’t
ripped from him. Father believed that the
light
of the King’s guardian would
return if a new king and queen were joined together as rulers of
Zharem.”

It was only a few seconds before Lucy put
together Peter’s theory about Benjamin. Her eyes widened and she
sat up and faced him.

“
You mean that
Peter thinks you’re the …
”
She paused, just trying to comprehend the meaning
of what she was about to say, but the concept was too great to even
think.

“
Yes, but it’s
only because of the bond I’ve made with you. You see, when we
touched at the flagpole that first day we met, you bonded with me
like we bond to the gold in our swords. Like my sword, you were the
only thing that could get into my
haven
, and you could use my
knowledge stored in the practice sword. Before long, I discovered
that I was able to do the same things with you. That’s why, when we
found your totem in the library, I was able to bond with it and
literally see the last conversation you had before releasing
it.”

Lucy knew exactly what he was saying, but she
was still troubled for proof.

“
How does that prove you’re the
king’s guardian?”

“
Well, Peter believes that the two
guardians would have to bond with each other in order to be united
in the purpose of keeping the king and queen safe. He thinks we
have just that kind of bond; like we were meant for each
other.”