Secrets [5] Echoes: Part One (9 page)

“Why hasn’t she called?” I cried.

“Have you called her?”

“I can’t get through. I just figured everything was okay, you know—I
…” I bit my knuckle. “I’ve gone four weeks without speaking to them before. I just didn’t think anything of it.”

“It’s not your fault.” Blade rubbed firm circles over my back. “Why not give her a call now?”

I nodded, reaching in to my back pocket to get my phone. But when I dialled the number and put it to my ear, it went to message bank.

“What is it?” Blade asked.

“She’s not answering.”

“Try Sam,” he suggested.

My face dropped. “I didn’t think of that.”

“That’s what you’ve got me for.” He grinned.

Sam’s phone rang only once before he picked up. “Ara!”

“Sam. Is Dad okay? I only just got the letters. I’ve been trying to call, but Vicki’s phone goes straight to—”

“I know,” he cut in. “It got stolen at the Cardiologist’s office a few weeks ago. She has a new number.”

“Why didn’t you send it to me?”

“I did! I sent it to David.”

“He’s been away on business! His phone’s been off for three weeks.”

“Why would his phone be off?” he yelled back.

“Because he was in—” I stopped just before saying Paris, then going on to say he didn’t have International Roaming. But that would sound weird considering we supposedly lived in Paris. “Okay,” I said quietly, simmering down a bit. “I don’t wanna argue, Sam. Just
… is Dad okay?”

“He’s—he sleeps all the time, and … he looks really old, Ara, like he’s sixty or something, and skinny,” he said in a shaky voice. “He’s not doing as well as he should be.”

“Where’s Vicki? Are you at home right now, can you—”

“Hang on,” he said, and I heard a lot of shuffling, followed by footfalls on stairs, then the sound of the blender in the kitchen stopping suddenly.

“Ara!” Vicki screeched down the line. “Oh, God. I’ve been so worried. I thought maybe something had happened to David, I—”

“No, he’s fine, Vicki. We’re all fine. I’m so sorry we worried you. I only just got your letters.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Ara, you must have been terrified. But he’s okay,” she assured me. “He’s looking great and he feels so much better now.”

“That’s not what Sam says.”

There was a long pause. “I … I think you should come home tonight.”

“Vicki, is he—”

“He should make a full recovery. But he needs to see you. He misses you terribly.”

I nodded, sliding up and sitting in the big old arm chair. “I’ll book a flight and be there in a few days, okay.”

“Good. And…” she added before I could hang up. “How are you and David? Are you coping all right after the news?”

News?
“Oh, his diagnosis?”

“Yeah, have they done any more tests?”

“Um, yes, actually, and…” I could feel the true joy radiate through me for the fact that he no longer had to die. “They were wrong, Vicki—”

“What!?”

“He’s gonna be okay.”

“What? Oh, Ara, I can’t believe it. That’s so fantastic. And it’s just the kind of news we need right now. Oh, your dad will be so happy to hear that,” she said, and I could hear the noise in the background of a spoon scraping something plastic. I pictured her with the phone between her shoulder and ear, scooping cake mix into a pan.

“I know. And we have more good news, too.”

She gasped. “You’re pregnant!”

“How did you—”

“Oh, my
gosh! You are. Oh, Ara, congratulations. How far along are you?”

“Um, well, it turns out that, last time we spoke, I was actually already pregnant. So, I’m twenty weeks now.”

“How wonderful. Did you have an ultrasound? Do you know what you’re having?”

“Um, yeah,” I lied. “We’re having a girl.” I pulled the phone away from my ear while Vicki squealed. Nothing of what she said after that was comprehensible.

“Ara?” Sam said, clearly having been passed the phone.

“Still here.”

“She’s hysterical.” He laughed. “And congratulations, by the way.”

“Thanks. Will you tell Dad for me?”

“No way. That’s something
you
need to tell him.”

“Ara.” Sam suddenly turned into Vicki. “I agree. You should just show Dad when you get here. He’ll be so happy. I’ll tell him about David, but we’ll keep the surprises to a minimum for one day, okay.”

“You worried he’ll have another heart attack if he finds out I’m having a baby?” I joked.

“Oh, Ara, no. Of course not. I—”

“I was joking, Mom.”

“Oh.” She stayed silent for a second. “Well, he’ll be thrilled, just as I am. And … did you get the package?”

“Package?”

“Yeah, the big square one.”

“The one that looks like a book?”

“Yes,” she said excitedly. “Open it while I’m on the phone. I want to hear your reaction.”

“Okay,” I said, frowning up at Blade. I’d half-forgotten he was there. He handed me the package and helped me, with my one free hand, to rip the brown paper off, and when I saw the words
David and Ara’s Wedding
on the front cover, I drew a breath so shaky that Vicki laughed.

“I thought you might like that,” she said.

The spine cracked a little as I slowly drew the cover back and laid eyes on the very first page.

“Now, there’s not many there,” Vicki explained. “It’s all we could get since you two ran away from your own wedding, but we gathered everything friends and family had taken, too, and it was just enough to put an album together for you.”

“Vicki, it’s—” I covered my mouth, catching my tears before they dripped on the paper. I’d never seen David in a photo before—except for the war pictures at the museum—and to see us both so happy on a page right in front of my eyes made the last few weeks pile down on me like a collapsed building. “It’s amazing.”

“I’m so happy you like it. Now, you just enjoy those, and I’ll start making up the spare room for you and David.”

I snapped out of the awe I was in. “David?”

“Yes, I assume you’ll bring him home to see Dad?”

“I—” Oh, crap. Blade and I looked at each other. “Um, yeah, sure. If he’s not busy.”

“He’s not too busy to see his sick father-in-law. You tell him that for me.”

“O … kay. Sure,” I said.

“Great. I’ll see you in a few days. Call us once the flights are booked.”

“Sure.”

“Okay, bye now.”

“Bye.” I hung up the phone and lowered my head dramatically, letting out huge huff.

“Damn,” Blade said.

“Uh, yup. That’s gonna be awkward.”

Blade laughed, patting my shoulder. “You’ll get through it. Are you okay?”

I nodded, looking down at the second picture in the album—one of me stepping out onto the porch in my wedding dress. So many emotions came flooding into my heart for everything I was then and everything that followed. I was so innocent and naïve. I could never have imagined what waited for me just half an hour away from that simple and perfect moment and, on the happiest day of my life, I should never have had to. I was exactly as innocent and naïve as I should have been.

“You were a
beautiful
bride.”

“Yeah, pity I can never pass my dress down to my daughter, though.” I touched my belly. “Jason butchered it.”

Blade sat down on the arm of the chair, quietly looking over the picture. “I’m sorry, Ara. I wish I’d been in your Guard back then. None of that would ever have happened to you.”

“It’s in the past.” I smiled, turning the page.

“Oh, look at that.” He pointed to another picture of my dad and Mike. “Mike looked younger then, don’t you think?”

I laughed. “He’d been through a lot less stress.”

“Yeah, poor bastard.” We both flipped the page again and, there, smiling back up at us, as if nothing bad had ever happened, was David. His eyes were small with a sparkle and his teeth were showing under his smooth dark-pink lips; it was one of the most honest and open-hearted smiles I’d ever seen on him, and it was captured perfectly right here for me to keep for eternity.

“This must have been taken before the wedding,” I said, smoothing my fingers over his perfect face.

“He looks pretty darn happy.”

“He was.” I nodded. “It’s—”

“What are you doing?” David said from behind, peering over my shoulder.

I snapped the book shut and spun in my chair. “David, I didn’t see you there.”

“Clearly,” Morgaine added, stepping into view.

Blade’s jaw came down on one side, his black eyes saturated with the tension we all suddenly felt.

“Blade,” David said, his shoulders going straight as a ruler all the way across. “You can leave.”

“But—”

“Now.”

“Yes,
your Majesty.” He shook his head apologetically at me and bowed to the king, then wandered out of the room. He didn’t stay by the door, though—he continued onward, disappearing completely.

I quietly wondered what he was doing, but only until David reached into my lap and snatched the book.

“Hey! Give that back,” I demanded, springing to my feet.

He flipped through it for a second, more disgusted by each page, then stopped to look over at Morgaine. “Throw it in the fire,” he muttered, handing it to her.

“No!” I reached across and snatched it back before her traitorous paws got anywhere near it. “You can’t just throw it away because you don’t love me anymore.”

“Watch me.” He yanked it so forcefully from my hands that I stumbled forward, grasping at the air it left behind.

“No! David, please,” I yelled. “I know you hate me, but that’s our wedding album.”

“And it shouldn’t exist,” he said coldly, tearing out the first page as he stomped toward the fireplace.

“Don’t.” I ran forward, making it just within reach of the book when Morgaine rushed in and yanked me backward, pinning my arms behind me. “Let me go.”

“No,” she said smugly, then looked at David. “Don’t worry, my king. I’ve got her. You go ahead and do what you have to.”

“David! Please don’t,” I screeched, but he lowered his arm toward the flames as though I wasn’t even in the room, as though tears weren't streaming down my face right before his eyes, and let the first page float downward, the corner catching fire as it neared the heat, igniting before it even came to rest. “No.”

“I’m not the one burning our past, Ara,” he said, his empty tone taking all hope from the room. “You did that all on your own.”

“But they’re just photos,” I pleaded, watching the third page shrink and curl inward, all Vicki’s hard work melting into ash.

“Then it shouldn’t concern you for me to burn them.”

I scrunched my eyes tight and angled my head away. “Please. Stop.”

“Stop begging,” he ordered with cold determination. “The fact is, you have no right to look at these. No right to relive that memory, when it should never have happened.”

“How can you say that?” I cried, my wrists going raw in Morgaine’s grip. “We loved each other then, David. No matter what happened in the future, that is still our past.”

He shook his head and dumped the entire album on the fire.

“No!” I screamed, jerking downward, but it was no use. My arms merely bent awkwardly up behind me as my knees buckled, forcing Morgaine’s hold to tighten, like she wasn’t afraid of hurting me if the need arose. “Let me go. Please.”

“My orders come from the king,” she said, using the full strength of her Pureblood Lilithian power to restrain me. And all I could do was watch on as the flames melted the cover, turning the corners inward, tarnishing the face of the man I married. I’d seen him burn before, and the flames took my mind back to that night when I thought I’d killed him—lost him for forever. Through every minute since David and I first met, we’d fought so hard to be together, and on that night I would have given anything to save him, and for what? For him to hate me so bad he’d destroy our past this way.

I took a long, deep breath, filling my chest up, and switched my focus to Morgaine’s hands, finding them by the outline of her aura—its damp, dark energy guiding my aim. And using words as a kind of spell to give my untamed power strength, I ordered my blue light to attention and sent a short, snappy jolt of electricity right through to her core. Her fingers stiffened like a corpse, cutting off my blood supply, then came loose a second later as her body jolted back and a mighty crash sent a blast of books and wood-chips scattering across the hardwood floors. Powdered sawdust rained down around David’s feet, dirtying his shiny black shoes in the same second I landed on my knees right in front of them.

Time took no measures against me—holding still while I watched my past burn. And David didn’t move. Didn’t grab me and haul me away. I wasn’t even sure he noticed me down here on the floor, and I had no idea what state Morgaine was in after that shock either. Not that I cared.