When Copper Suns Fall (19 page)

“No, I’m not. I—I’m just hesitating. Taking
all of this in.”

“Why be fake? If you’re scared, you just
are.”

“Stop calling me a phony all the time. And
I’m also not one of those girls who waits for prince charming to
figure out his mood of the week.”

Narrowing his eyes, he released my hands.
“Follow me. I need to show you. That is if you don’t mind gracing
me with your presence?” He led me deeper into the silent forest. We
walked down the remains of a gravel pathway lined with what
appeared to be dandelions along the sides. I reached down to touch
one of the cotton heads with petals as blue as the sky.

Faris grabbed my wrist. “Don’t touch
those.”

“Why? I love dandelions.”

“Since when did dandelions start blooming at
this time of year, Chela? They’re screamers.” He turned and trudged
onward.

“Screamers?” I said.

“Satellites. A different type of Tribunal
monitor.”

“Like crowbots? But why have spies in a
forest behind my house?” I said, struggling to match his long
strides.

“Keep up with me and don’t touch a thing,” he
said. I stole one more glance at the screamers sitting silently in
a forest with no wind or animal sounds or anything. What might
happen if a breeze blew on them?

Soon, we came to an opening. The leaves on
the bushes were big like the Elephant Ears growing in Cornice’s
gardens. A haze cast shadows through the trees and onto the ground.
Faris turned to me, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Hm. This is what I figured.” He stared up at
the topless trees.

“And what would that be?”

“We can’t stay in this spot. The sun’s rays
are getting hotter. As I said, someone built a pretty powerful
thrati,” he said.

“Okay, I’m so much
more
confused now
than before I got here,” I said.

Faris stopped walking and turned around.
“Time for a you-asked-for-this reminder, I think. Prepare to feel
even better while we’re stuck the next three days.”

Panic rushed over me. “You’re kidding me?
I’ll miss camp. My family will be arrested. Lexa and Jalen will tar
my naked bottom with thorns for missing the Eight Hills
Gathering.”

“Lighten up, Chela. I’m only joking.” He
turned, studied an arched opening formed in the trees, and spoke
without looking at me. “Are you ready for it?”

“Ready for what?” I asked.

“You wanted to see the cemetery, right?”

The idea of a romp in the cemetery raised
goose bumps on my arms. The answers to my questions waited in
there. Life can be tricky like that. It can tease you with hints
and clues until you fall out breathless, and then one day dump all
of the answers into your lap. Then you have to find enough energy
to carry all those new, burdensome truths around.

After a long moment, he grumbled. Then he
grabbed my wrist and trudged on toward the cemetery. The ground
changed. Mud was thicker here than the part we left behind, and
swampy odors increased. We emerged through a second opening in a
new group of trees. Faris glanced around, checking over our
surroundings, almost as if he expected to see someone else. I
stepped forward. Like a kid intrigued by the honeybee infested
mulch, I studied my new surroundings.

Headstones of various shapes and sizes were
scattered throughout the sparse trees. Marbled cherubim sat on top
of dirty graves. Beyond them, a girl with six wings about the same
size as her body held onto a ball. She was taller than Faris and
smiled mischievously as she stared at the vault under her feet. I
strolled over to the statue and studied her features. She faced the
direction where Cornice would be if it weren’t hidden behind trees.
The dress she wore was familiar. It was like the one I had worn in
the dream with Faris.

“She’s beautiful. What is she?” I stroked the
orb in her hand. It was warm. For a moment, I thought I felt it
vibrate.

“She’s one of the Seraphim.”

“A pure-blooded one?” I said.

“Right. One of the original keepers of the
seven elemental lights.” He studied me, but I couldn’t tear my gaze
away from the marbled jade ball in the girl’s hand.

“What’s she holding?” I said.

Faris hesitated and frowned a bit before he
said, “A seraphinite orb which means the person under her feet was
related to the Seraphim of the First Order.”

“You mean one of the most powerful humans
with angel-blood?” I held my necklace up toward the orb.

He smirked and stared at me. “I guess you
could say that. What are you doing?”

“Shhh. I need to concentrate,” I said.

I dangled the necklace before the orb and
closed my eyes. Nothing. No lights, vibrations, nada. I sighed. My
cheeks flushed as I tucked it back under my shirt.

Bending down, I swatted dirt off the vault’s
name plate. Although the people lying in the grave weren’t related
to me, I still felt as if they held a place in my heart. As if they
could answer my questions about the mystery note. Or they could
tell me about what happened to Micah that day at the park. The
weathered tomb site filled me with too much emotion at once: grief,
happiness, insanity.

I bent down to read the nameplate. “Mr. and
Mrs. Thomas Nathaniel Cornice. As love blossomed below, the magic
soars above.” No dates. Only a plaque written in ode to a marriage.
Mrs. Cornice had been an angel-blood just like me. I was almost
certain my living in her house wasn’t a coincidence. I plucked a
flower that resembled a Lotus from the ground beside the vault and
placed it at the Seraph’s feet. “I think the people in the graves
are alive, but somehow hiding in a memory. The way Micah does, and
my mother.”

“How can anybody hide in a memory?” He
averted his eyes at once and pretended to study a gold object in
his hand.

“In my memories people hide. They fly, change
into mutated animals, and—and do other things.” Watching him
flinch, I wanted to add: “They rescue each other, kiss, and pledge
their life to one another, too.”

Faris kept his gaze locked on the object in
his hand. After a moment, he said, “And in these memories do you
see yourself?”

He was playing the vague role. “Not in the
ones with my mother. But I feel like I’m there, though. It’s a
beautiful place with clear, green waters. Not like dirty or
anything, but sparkling. Angels swim there, too. Quite an
imagination, I guess.”

“Maybe it’s not your imagination. It could be
real.”

“Which part? The colored water or the
memory?” I said.

“Both. Follow me.” He took my hand and led me
through endless trees.

We ran until I figured we’d hit the Great
Wall. But we didn’t.

We passed through yet another opening in the
trees. I caught the salt water scent before I saw it. And when we
emerged from inside the forest, I stepped on sand as white as snow;
I almost let the tears fall.

Dropping to my knees on shores clear of
grime, I stared at an ocean as blue as a gem fanning out across the
sand.

Guilt tried to steal my joy. It threatened to
choke me with remorse in such a joyful moment. I wanted Micah to
share this discovery with me. He’d always believed there was
another world behind Cornice’s monster gates. A place where we’d
finally get to see the ocean lined with white shores and filled
with clear blue water stretching across an endless void.

He was right.

Today, my brother’s dream came true.

Chapter Fifteen – Dreamscape

“Is this what I think it is?” I said to
Faris, hugging my shoulders, as waves sloshed toward me.

“If you’re thinking it’s an ocean, then yes.
Take my hand.” Faris removed his shoes and held out a hand for me
to follow him into the water. Correction. He wanted to lead me into
the ocean, something I’d never seen outside of pictures.

“Okay. I’m scared, now,” I whispered.

“It’s easy.” He eased over to where I stood
in the sand. My lips trembled, and my eyes were wide from the shock
of what they were seeing. Faris helped me remove my shoes as if I
were a child. I took his hand. “Put one foot in at a time. The rest
comes easy,” he said. So I did, and gasped when its iciness washed
over my skin.

“I was told the oceans were all black seas
now. They said places like this don’t exist anymore.”

“It’s all lies, Chela. What better way for
the Tribunal to maintain control than through fear of what you
can’t see?” Faris said. I followed him all the way into the water.
Watching him smile eased the anguish I felt about doing this
without Micah.

Did he hear my thoughts earlier? The same way
we talked in the dream and the evaluation? And just what else did
he see in my mind after he took the memory of his true identity
from me that night?

We wandered around the borderlands for the
rest of the day. Intrigued by the world hidden behind Cornice, I
made him promise to bring me back. And he did many times over the
next five days. Time was different in there, faster. It allowed us
to get back to the Cornice side before nightfall. Sometimes only an
hour or two had passed. Nobody noticed I was gone. Bess and Audrina
would only question me about my huge grin.

Spending time with Faris was a welcome
distraction. We swam in the ocean until our skin wrinkled. I told
him stories about my life with Micah and me and our nicknames. Mine
was beans and his carrots—nicknames that emphasized our differences
everybody always said.

We watched the coppery sun lower.

Its joyous colors fell across the waves like
a painting brought to life with fiery strokes from a magical brush.
A gift that was hidden from those of us living inside the wall.

Wanting our stolen moment to last, I rested
on Faris’s chest. It was so easy to be around him, and he was a
gentleman, too. He never once tried to take advantage of me.

Water washed over our bodies as we lay on the
sand. At some point, the fantasy would end, though. I’d return to
Minders. Faris would go back to wherever he disappeared to after he
left me each night. But until that time came, I planned to enjoy
every stolen second.

“Why haven’t you tried flying anymore? Wings
were given to you for a reason,” Faris said. We stripped down to
our swim clothes, ready to enjoy the ocean, our secret.

I shrugged. “I don’t want to get caught.”
Truthfully, I didn’t want him to see how frightened I was when my
wings came out. It was pretty silly of me to think that way, I
guess. Anybody else would probably be hopping through the roof with
excitement, but not me. Instead, they made me feel more odd and
alone than ever before.

He smirked, shook his head, and crossed his
arms. He was standing in his swim shorts which made getting angry
at his teasing me a bit difficult. Like most kids in Castle Hayne,
he blended in well: muscular body, dark olive skin, black hair,
funny colored eyes. But his perfection went way past what people
claimed to be my best asset: black hair with bright red highlights,
amber eyes, and an oval face. I probably looked like an odd living
jewel when I thought about it. Standing in the sun’s rays shining
over our forbidden hideout, he could talk me into anything.

“I think you’re scared,” he said and plunged
neck deep into the water.

“I’m standing here with you, in a spot where
the water is clear, and there’s no wall. If I get caught, I’m
beyond punished. I think my fear is under control, now.”

“Then prove me wrong. Show your wings. No,
something even better. Race me to that cliff.” He smiled in that
amused, naughty boy way that was so intriguing as he waded across
the water.

“You don’t have wings. You’d never beat me,”
I said.

“Jewel Face is so sure of herself, isn’t she?
Never sleep on a stealth master’s surprise tactic.”

“Okay, ego master. You’re on,” I said and
kicked water onto his head. Then I trudged back toward the
shoreline, and took off running toward the cliff. I didn’t know how
to get my wings to come out.

Like Seth, Faris wanted to train me for
something. I felt it even though he claimed I should know how to
use my wings, anyway. Maybe he was right about my fear. But it
didn’t dampen my joy about the freedom we’d found hidden on a beach
belonging to no one. It filled me with pleasure untouched by rules
and painful memories.

I felt myself rise when, I moved closer to
the cliff. And then I lifted some more, rising higher until the
ocean was a flowing carpet underneath me. I turned my body toward
the cliff, a bit clumsily at first. I knew Faris would have to eat
his words now, for sure.

But when I tumbled onto the dirt, I found a
surprise. Faris. He was standing in front of the widest tree I’d
ever seen. There were no leaves or blooms, just mangled, dead
branches. I stopped and studied him a bit.

“No way. You cheated.” I trudged over to his
side and poked at his arm. My smile faded after I glimpsed his
face, twisted and tormented. “What’s wrong?”

“I know this site. I can’t remember
everything, though. It’s been so long.” He trembled, clenching his
fists until they were pale. I felt as if I should stare at the tree
too, forcing it to tell him what he needed to hear.

“But wouldn’t you remember if you had?” I
said.

He crumpled his face as if in deep thought,
turning to me with an angry look that made my heart flip. “It’s a
protection thing for us.”

“By us
,
I assume you mean others like
you?”

“What others? Monsters, you mean?” he said in
a sarcastic way, eyes glistening. “We can cross doorways into the
mirrorlands.”

“Mirrorlands?” I asked.

“That’s what we call your world because it’s
not half as old as ours. But if we try to return, the doorway is
hidden, memories erased. A protection thing. I’m…”

His sentence drifted off. He seemed to be
fighting something in his head. A memory? But of what? A fight? An
old girlfriend?