Ambrosia Shore (14 page)

I sat forward in my seat as we drove into my neighborhood just a few blocks away from my house. Then, a sudden flash of terror crashed through my thoughts. Heather and all my friends at school knew Rayne as my very loyal boyfriend of five months now. There was no doubt they would ask me about him once I saw them again. But I told the Council I met Rayne just last week. They would know I was lying.

Another terrible thought crossed my mind. My mom was there that day at Voss’s penthouse when my father showed up out of the blue. What if she tried to talk to me about him? What if she said his name while Orion’s henchmen were listening to my every word? Who knew what kind of trouble that could bring? My hands clamped tightly together in my lap. I already had to focus to keep my newly transformed Watermark from getting noticed, and now I had to figure out a way to make sure nobody ever said the wrong thing around me too.

If in doubt, just keep your mouth shut
, I told myself.
Run away if you have to
. I had to do whatever I could to avoid Orion’s men hearing anything that would discount my testimony. Rayne’s freedom was depending on me.

The agents parked their black line of vehicles a few houses down and waited while I walked across the sidewalk to my house. My mother’s car wasn’t in the driveway. As much as I longed to see her, I hoped that meant she wasn’t home. Realizing that I didn’t have my keys at the front door, I turned the knob slowly, almost wishing it would be locked. It wasn’t. The knob slid easily to the side, obliging me to step inside.

“Mom?” I called out weakly. “Are you home?”

I took a quick circle around the kitchen. When I didn’t see her, I went back toward the hall outside her bedroom. The door to her room was shut, something she typically only did when she was asleep or in the shower. I doubted I had ever witnessed my mother sleeping in this late, so a shower seemed more likely.

I quickly swallowed before tapping lightly on the door. “Mom? Are you in there?” I waited a moment but didn’t hear a response.

I moved forward to check inside, but as soon as my hand touched the knob to her bedroom, a strange noise distracted me from a few feet away. My legs froze in place. My head jolted to the side, where a man in a suit held a gun, aimed in my direction. He looked like an agent, but I didn’t recognize him. He wasn’t one of Orion’s men.

Before I could respond, the door to my mother’s room swung open and my eyes bulged wide at the sight. It wasn’t my mom in her bedroom as expected; it was my father.

We both stared at each other for the longest two seconds of my life.

“It’s okay,” he instructed the agent. “She’s Leena’s daughter.” The guard nodded and retreated back to where he came from, which apparently was my bedroom.

I continued to gape at my father, my head shaking in disbelief.

“Sadie,” he said in earnest, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

I shook my head again in shock, waving my hand in front of my mouth to urge him to stop talking.

“Mom, is that you?” I quickly blurted, trying to cover my tracks. “You sound hoarse. Are you sick?”

My father looked at me, puzzled. I started mouthing words to him without a sound, trying to get him to read my lips. I pointed to the back of my neck. “I have a voice tracker,” I explained silently. “Orion can hear us.”

My father nodded quietly, acknowledging my plea. He looked like a complete mess compared to the last time I saw him, like he hadn’t showered in days. His hair was straggly, his face covered in whiskers, and I was pretty sure he was wearing the exact same clothes that I saw him in before.

“You guys need to get out of here,” I mouthed again. “They can’t see you here.” He stared at me intensely, as if analyzing my words.

A second later, his hands gripped the sides of my shoulders. “No, it doesn’t matter,” he said out loud. “I don’t care who knows I’m here. Sadie, I have to talk to you about your mother.”

I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Orion’s men couldn’t find out who I was talking to. I had to run away. It was the only thing I could think to do. I could tell Orion that the person I was talking to was just some creepy guy my mom used to work with at the hospital or something, a stalker that I had to get away from for my own safety.

“No, stay away from me!” I said, hoping to make my flight convincing. I peeled away from his hands and started running toward the living room.

“Sadie, please don’t leave,” he cried after me. “Your mother needs you. I think she’s dying…”

My feet stopped. That couldn’t be possible.

My father followed me into the front room with eyes full of despair. “Please, you have to see if you can help her.”

“Where is she?” I demanded. “Is she at the hospital?”

He looked down. “No, she’s here. She’s in her room.”

Without waiting to hear more, I pushed past him and rushed to my mother’s bedroom. When I saw her back, lying on the bed facing away, I called out to her, “
Mom
…”

Her body didn’t move. I hurried around the edge of the bed. “Mom, are you okay?”

She still didn’t answer. She didn’t even stir.

I knelt down in front of her face beside the bed. “Can you hear me?” I pled. “It’s Sadie. I’m back now. I’m fine.”

My mother’s eyes stared blankly at the wall, like she couldn’t even hear me. Her face was sallow with dark rings under her eyes, the skin along her lips chapped and cracking apart.

I felt my father’s presence move in across the room.

“What’s wrong with her?” I begged.

He looked at me weakly. “I don’t know.”

I jumped to my feet. “Then we have to either take her to the hospital or find her some Healing Water.”

My father stepped toward me slowly, shaking his head in defeat. “I’ve already tried.”

“Well, if the hospital couldn’t help her, then we have to go find her some Healing Water—right now.”

I moved forward to push past him, but he reached out for my arm. “No, Sadie, that’s what I’m trying telling you. I already gave her Healing Water. It didn’t work.”

My brow pinched together. “But, that’s not possible. The whole point of the Healing Water is to heal people.”

“I think it’s the only thing keeping her alive at all,” he said. “But it’s almost like her mind is fighting it, like she doesn’t want it to work.”

My mom was dying of her own free will? Even the Healing Water couldn’t save her? I didn’t want to believe it was true. It couldn’t be true. I shoved my father’s hand away as tears started to burn in my eyes. “Why didn’t you come for me?” I sobbed. “You could have tried to find me.”

As if he couldn’t bear it any longer, my father fell to his knees before me, face twisted in pain. “It was my fault…everything was my fault from the very beginning.” His chest began to shake as he gazed up with grieved eyes. “I couldn’t find the strength to leave her again. I couldn’t
leave
her.”

“But that’s what you do,” I said bitterly, wiping the wet streaks from my face. “You leave people. No wonder my mom has turned into a vegetable. Her heart had to shut down just to save itself from being destroyed again. Everything she ever loved has been ripped away from her; my grandparents, you, even Dr. Jensen is dead now. She watched me get shot; I saw the terror in her eyes as that madman ripped her away from my arms, covered in blood. Does she even know that I’m okay? Did anyone think to tell her that I was still alive?”

My father’s jaw shook as he replied. “By the time we got word that you were okay…it was too late. She was already gone.”

I darted back to the bedside and clamped my mother’s face between my hands. “Wake up, Mom. Please? Look…it’s me. I’m not hurt anymore. I’m fine; I’m safe.” I stroked her hair and waited to see the light return to her eyes, but nothing changed.

New tears sprouted as my lower lip trembled. “I just need to be alone with her, okay? Can you please just give me a moment alone?”

My father lowered his head and backed away out the door.

Once we were alone, I stroked the skin across my mother’s ashen cheek. “I’m not going to leave you, Mom. I’ll be right here by your side until you’re ready to wake up.” Then, I crawled into the bed beside her and wrapped my arm around her side, not ready to let go.

I lifted a strand of my mom’s hair and let it slide through my fingertips. “Remember that song you used to sing to me when I was sick or would wake up scared after a bad dream? The one about the fish?” I whispered. “I remember how much better I would always feel after you sang it to me; not because I would suddenly never have a bad dream again, or because I would jump out of bed like I’d never been sick in the first place, but I felt better just because I knew it meant you would always be there for me when things got tough. I knew that I could get through the hard parts because I had a mom who loved me and would never leave me all alone when I needed her most. That was why I loved the fish song so much, because you were always there to sing it to me.”

My arm squeezed tighter around my mother’s side, desperately wishing I knew what I could do to bring her back to me. I sat up and pulled her shoulder gently toward me. When I saw her body move easily at my touch, I pulled her off her side completely, until she was lying on her back. Her face was still unresponsive, eyes looking vacant and lost.

“I’m here for
you
now,” I said. “You were always the one cheering everybody else up, helping others with their problems, helping people who were sick feel like there was hope. I know you still have that in you, Mom. Somewhere inside you, you know there’s still a reason to live. I’m not going to give up on you, no matter what it takes.”

I gazed at her intently, wishing that somehow she could hear my words and would suddenly look back at me and smile. I waited, watched her, but she didn’t respond.

My heart began to sink inside my chest. “I know that you can hear me,” I murmured. “I have to believe that you can hear me. Everything’s going to be okay; we’ll figure it out together. I promise I’ll be here for you. I promise…”

The words to the fish song started playing through my mind. I felt the need to sing it to her, to make her feel safe and taken care of like she always did for me. I didn’t have to think as the melody floated to the tip my tongue. “Oh…if I were a fish I’d swim out to the ocean, I wouldn’t have a care in the world. Oh…if I were a fish I’d—” The word caught in my throat, overcome by emotion. I tried to continue through broken sobs. “Oh…if I were a fish I’d swim beside the dolphins…” My voice cracked, and I paused again. I couldn’t even finish the song.

I crumpled down against my mother’s chest. “Please don’t die, Mom… Please don’t leave me. I need you. I can’t do this without you.” I clung to her body, as if holding tighter could keep her from slipping away.

Everything was too crazy right now; everything too hard. I didn’t think I could bear it if she left me all alone. All the pressure inside me seemed to burst out at once, and I had no choice but to let it rupture. I let the tears spill over, causing my body to shake.
You have to live
, I pled inside my heart.
You have to find the will…

As my longing grew stronger, a strange sensation began to tingle through my body. It was like I could sense the source of my mom’s pain. It seemed to be spread throughout her entire being, but the more I focused my energy towards finding it, the clearer the solution became. It wasn’t a tangible solution; it was an impression, an understanding. I didn’t even comprehend how or why I was doing it. I just knew.

When I understood my mother’s pain, the strength within both my body and spirit united together and searched through every hurt, every heartache inside her, replacing it with light. I could feel the source of life pouring out from within me, leaving my possession completely to repair the affliction that plagued my mother’s soul.

I felt the pain leave her, watched the agony lift away. It was the most exhilarating sensation I’d ever experienced.

It was also the most depleting. The energy that had left me didn’t seem to return. Near the end it was almost too difficult to control the release. I could feel that my mother’s ailments and sufferings had been healed, that my work was done, yet I couldn’t rein it back or shut it off.

I sensed my mother stirring, both body and mind. Even if the life drained completely from my body, it would be worth it to save her.

I finally heard her voice echo beside me. “Sadie?” she said quietly, almost confused.

When I didn’t answer,
couldn’t
answer, she tried to lift my shoulders from her chest. “Sweetheart, are you all right?”

Even though I had no physical strength left in my limbs, my body still clung to her forcefully, like the momentum from the outpouring still constrained us together.

My mother’s voice grew more frantic. “Sadie, what’s wrong? Can you hear me?”

I didn’t want to upset her. I wanted to tell her everything would be okay, but my body wouldn’t move, my mouth wouldn’t speak. A burning sensation grew at the top of my thigh. It didn’t really hurt, though. It was more like a pulse of energy than of heat.

My mom finally thrust my body away from hers, as if she needed to assess my injuries. Instantly, I felt free. The connection that had compelled me to her was finally broken. Peace spread over me from the release, like I could finally rest.

My head fell back against a pillow as I wheezed, “You’re okay now, Mom; you’re safe.” Then my weary mind was distracted by a magnificent glow, no,
two
magnificent glows—one emanating from the pocket of my pants where the Water Briolette was hidden, and one from my wrist, from my Watermark. My eyelids drooped and blinked. I tried to hold them open, tried to fight the pull, but it was too strong, and I was too weak. Then the pull grew so heavy that it carried me away.