Shadow of the Sun (34 page)

“
They won’t stay like this forever,” I conveyed.

Lucia was on her feet, and her posture exhibited the substantial beating she had received. Aiden brought Abelie into his arms and cradled her like she was a newborn child. Joseph was covered in soot; his once pristine suit wrinkled and dirty. Again, I noted how well he accepted his circumstances. Or maybe he was just as frightened as I was.

Andrew approached me with his hand outstretched. “I think it’s time we leave.” He gestured behind me with a small nod of his head where several Shadows reoriented themselves.

My hand stretched straight out in front of me as I turned to point at the lumps of charcoal, my eyes fixed threateningly upon them. “Down,” I ordered. “Freeze.” A couple of them dropped back down, one Shadow froze in place. But it wasn’t enough. There were too many of them moving, and soon we would be overwhelmed. My head whipped around to find Andrew only inches away, and his expression was a harsh mixture of grief, awe, and disbelief.

“
It’s time to go,” he repeated. He outstretched his hand again, and I grasped it. The electric current flowed where we were connected.

Several Shadows rose from their fallen states, and the darkened grounds began to light with their fire. We ran. Aiden was ahead of us, Abelie’s head bouncing from side to side against his arms. A sharp pain rose in my throat at the sight. It made me sick, but I couldn’t look away. Each second, each breath, each excruciating emotion threatened to overwhelm me, but I knew I had to keep going. We had to get away before we were out numbered again. Joseph followed in our wake as Ehno and Lucia brought up the rear, chanting in their liquid Italian.

“
We can find shelter in the Divine Library,” Andrew shouted to Aiden. “We can devise a plan once we’re safely inside.”

Aiden made no noise as he lengthened his strides. He was amazingly fast considering the fact he carried Abelie. My mom. She was the one person who had continuously saved my life when I could not save myself. From before I was born, all the way up to this day. All she did was make sacrifices for me, even when it broke her heart to give me away.

As the wind whipped behind me in our wake—the Shadows only yards behind us—the only thing I could focus on was my heart and how it had shattered into a million little pieces. The saying “life isn’t fair” was more accurate than I would have ever imagined. The rush of anger and revenge left me.

As we approached a rocky precipice, a worn path in the stone became clear. My dream-memory flooded back—a time when my mom was still alive. The worn, uneven steps were familiar, and I knew, even from the faint memory, that this would lead us to the Divine Library’s door. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the two keys, preparing to unlock the door. Suddenly, I remembered that I didn’t have the second key. You had to have two keys to enter the Divine Library. Andrew had told me he didn’t know what my other key went to, but that only one of them would open the door here. I felt panicked. It was easy to pick up my pace until I passed Aiden. Maybe we could just break the door down, but there was no way it would be that simple.

“
Hurry,” I yelled as we ran up the stone steps. I led the way with Andrew on my heels. Joseph lagged behind. As we reached the top, I spun around so I could see what was happening behind us. The dark night had twisted into an inferno as the Shadows ignited. Aiden held Abelie in his arms, her body limp in his grasp. Joseph ran to keep up as Lucia and Ehno brought up the rear, running backwards as they cast spell after spell, trying to prevent the Shadows from getting anywhere near us.

I jammed my key in the lock, hoping it would work. It didn’t. “We need the other key,” I cried out when my single key didn’t do the trick.

“
It’s in Abelie’s pocket,” Aiden said, his voice rough with grief.

I just couldn’t fathom putting my hand in her robes, not while her body was limp and lifeless in my father’s arms. Andrew could see the look of angst on my face—the tortured expression must have been clear as glass. He gently reached into her white robes and pulled out a key identical to the one in my palm. At the same time, we put the keys in the locks, turned them, and shoved the door open. It ground against the stone floor as we pushed our way through.

Andrew whispered under his breath, and all the lights sprang to life. Every corner, every wall, from floor to ceiling, was covered with shelves of books or artifacts. It was amazing, with tall ceilings and towering bookcases, just like I had remembered in my dream. Any open space on the stone walls was covered in frescos. Andrew yanked me out of the way when I paused in the doorway and pointed toward a table for Aiden to place Abelie. I looked away as Aiden pulled a drawer out and placed a silken cloth over her body. Joseph tripped up the steps, his breath heavy as he entered the library before he practically fell to the floor.

I bent down to him. “Joseph? You okay?”

He coughed and pushed himself off the ground. “Yeah.” He looked at me funny. “You’re one powerful woman,” he coughed out before he walked past me, a mingled expression of terror and awe on his face.

I stared out the doorway and wondered where Lucia and Ehno had gone. When I looked down the stone steps I could see them battling with the multitude of Shadows. Lucia, even with a slight limp, held her own. Without thinking, I left the safety of the library and stood on the top step. Andrew followed behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist, preparing to pull me back inside. I looked over my shoulder.

“
I’ll be fine.” That was a lie.

He raised an eyebrow in disbelief, easily able to see through me. The look on my face was probably not believable—I couldn’t gather the strength necessary to put up pretenses.

“
Watch,” I said.

I closed my eyes and let my head fall back as I inhaled several steadying breaths. It was odd, this new feeling that grew inside me. It was powerful, and I could control it. Electricity flared between my fingers and crackled.

“
Ehno? Lucia? Duck,” I shouted. And they did. I pointed toward the stairs below them. Electricity exploded from my fingertips, and the stairs crumbled away as lightning bolts collided with the stone. The Shadows fell fifteen feet to the rocky hill below.

Ehno helped Lucia up the stairs, and Andrew grasped my hips and pulled me inside. Once Ehno and Lucia were safe, we pushed the door closed and entered our keys to lock it from the inside. I placed my hand upon the door.

“
Seal.” Sparks lit at all the seams until there was no door there.

“
How?”

I put a hand up to stop Andrew. “I’m not sure, I just know I can.”

He didn’t respond, either he was speechless or had nothing to say. Though something amazing was happening to me, I had no room in my head for those thoughts.

My knees went out on me, and my back hit the solid wall as I slid to the floor. I folded my arms and put my head down to try and create a small amount of privacy for my anguish. My heart swelled with agony so forceful, so jagged, so real, I didn’t know if I could move without crumbling to pieces. My sobs were violent, and I choked on the air—air Abelie would never breathe again. My mind raced around as I looked desperately for some loophole where she would live, come back. But as I replayed the scene in my head over and over, the fire wrapping around her neck, her lifeless body, Aiden’s golden tears, I knew she was gone. In that instant it swept over me—the awful truth—more completely and undeniably: my mother was dead.

It was a brutal end to what should have been a new and lasting relationship with my mom. And it was just taken away with such disgusting ease.

The room was full of quiet despair. You could feel the emotions thick in the cool air.

Karen’s story of how they became immortals flashed through my mind. “We were called
Senza Tempo
. Translated, it means timeless.” No matter what their ancient name might be, it was today I found out immortality didn’t always mean forever.

Words wouldn’t form and tears wouldn’t even flow anymore. The restraint I used to keep myself together was painful. My shoulders shook with my dry, hushed sobs. Even though Andrew remained quiet, I knew he was beside me, silently soothing me. Still, I kept my face hidden in my own personal torture. As the minutes passed, possibly hours, no one bothered me. I didn’t blame them. What kind of words of comfort could they offer?

There were the soft sounds of muted conversations around me, sort of like a fly buzzing around my ear.

“
So it’s really you?” Andrew asked, not concealing his voice. “Aiden? The Aiden?”

I didn’t look up. I only listened to their conversation in the echoing of the large room. The room I should be immersing myself in right now, with all its treasures. The same room I should be enjoying with my mother.

“
Of course,” Aiden replied, his voice rough with sadness. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“
I’m sorry,” Andrew barely whispered beside me. He reached up under my folded arms to hold my fingers. He didn’t try to pull my arms apart; he only held my hand. Andrew continued, “Do you remember me?”

“
No. Should I?” Aiden sounded confused.

“
Maybe you aren’t the Aiden I’m thinking of,” Andrew mumbled. “But if you are, you were an angel, part of the Halo of the Sun. We were friends. You were Abelie’s husband before.” There was a long pause. When Aiden didn’t answer, Andrew continued, “How did you end up as a . . . a Shadow?”

“
I . . .” Aiden paused. “I’ve always been a Shadow.” His voice sounded really confused now. “Maybe I’m not this Aiden that you think I am?”

Andrew’s hand disappeared, and he rose to his feet. “That’s not true. You were an angel. I remember you and Abelie. We were very close friends.” I could hear soft footsteps pace back and forth. “You’re wearing the Guardian’s symbol right now, aren’t you? Let me see what’s on that chain under your robes.”

Curious, I finally looked up to see Aiden pull a necklace from his shirt. “This is the Nebulous Sun.” And it was—the same shield in the middle of a halo. The only reason I knew it really wasn’t was because Andrew had told me differently.

“
No,” Ehno and Andrew both said at the same time.

“
I’ve been wearing it for as long as I can remember. This is the Shadow’s symbol. Those who wear it are cursed,” Aiden disagreed.

Ehno pulled up the sleeve to his white scrubs he still wore to show the same symbol tattooed on his shoulder. “We’re both telling you it’s not the Nebulous Sun. It’s the Halo of the Sun symbol—the Guardian’s symbol. Those who wear it are protectors of mankind, not the other way around.”

Aiden’s eyebrows knitted together, the powdery black color of his skin cracking as he did. “I want you to be right, but I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a Shadow.” A golden tear leaked from his eye. “Abelie would have loved to have made our relationship public.” His voice constricted under a choked sob.

Tears leaked from my eyes again as a new shuddering sob hit me. Andrew turned around and saw my face, his eyes still a luminous blue. He leaned down to my level and placed a simple kiss on my lips.

“
Words cannot express how heart-wrenching these circumstances are. Please, let me comfort you,” he breathed in my ear. Another sob jerked my body, and I wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled me off the ground and just held me to him. And that was all I could ask for.

My mind wanted desperately to think about something else to preoccupy my emotions. The fact that we were in the Divine Library reminded me of the prophecy Abelie read in my dream, and I seized gratefully onto the new subject. After raking in my emotions, I whispered against Andrew’s ear, “The real prophecy is in here somewhere. I want to read it.”

“
Already found it,” Lucia piped in. She looked like she had recovered from her wounds already. I’d never recover from my emotional ones.

<>

As sat around the table, the book of prophecies opened before us, no one wanted to read the words that would dictate my fate. Did it talk about my mother’s death? Did it talk about mine? Was there a secret in there that would be devastating? Would I learn who my enemies were or who the backstabbers would turn out to be? The pages, yellowed with age, the sides softened with use—this was all about my life. Here in these pages was my past, present, and future. Did I really want to know those things? For the first time in my life I was going to decline reading a book.

On a desk, only three tables away, lay Abelie’s body, covered with a soft silken drape. It was less than half a day ago that I was dreaming about that table, the same one my parents were about to make love on. Probably the same one that the Ladies of Light occupied when my parents overheard their conversation. And maybe it was that exact chair that was pulled up underneath the desk that Karen had sat in when she was introduced as the assassin—the Soul Stalker. My heart was incredibly cold, and my limbs were numb.