“What is the emotion?”
“It wouldn’t make sense to you right now. It’s all right. I’ve made mistakes I’ll have to answer for - sure of it - but I just want the chance to answer for them, ya know?”
“Did you cheat on somebody?” I asked, instantly glaring at him.
“Can’t remember.”
“So...um...meditating?” Draven said to help change the subject. I guess that was like a guy code or something, to stop the thrashing I was going to give my newfound brother.
By then, we had climbed a sand dune, and now we could see the fire that Cashton had built. It was modest, but what was so inviting about it was the blanket around it and the guitar lying there.
That was smart: to teach Draven through music.
“Yeah, you need to learn that, but we have to figure out where we are on this time table,” Cashton said just before throwing a few more sticks on the fire.
He sat down, then nodded for us to do so. Draven leaned against one of the large logs framing the fire, straightened the blanket, and reached for me to sit in his lap. I nestled up against him, feeling nothing but warmth between him and the fire.
“What is a ‘first’?” I asked Cashton as I watched him start to draw in the sand with a stick.
I could see his mind struggling to hold on to images of suppressed memories. The only issue was that most of them were in that den where I found him - or at least the one it resembled - and in that room, talks of wars, dimensions, and twin realties were rarely discussed.
Those memories I could see in him were doing nothing but bonding me to him, making me realize that I loved him the same way I loved Kara.
“Kinda like a first child to the master Escorts,” Cashton said.
“Why were you looking for that person?” Draven asked.
“Because we are on a time table. I just don’t know where on that table we are.” He glanced at me. “You have no kill marks on you, so that makes me think we are in the beginning. But it doesn’t make sense that Xavier was trying to get you to remember Pompeii.”
“‘Kill marks’?”
“Yeah. Maybe it’s because Draven is still in transition.”
“What is a ‘kill mark’? You are losing me,” I said.
His lips turned into a straight line as he gazed at the sideways figure eight he was drawing. “I really didn’t want you in the middle of this. I know that much. You are too good at making peace. You are the calm in the chaos of any storm. But the mark on your back grew after I left. That circle in the center of your back will grow lines with every kill you make.”
“I’m not a murderer,” I said as a sick feeling rose in my throat.
I may have said I was going to kill Bianca a million times over, but I’m not sure how literally I took myself. And if I did, it was only because I saw her to be unreal.
“I know,” Cashton said as Draven positioned his legs around me and pulled me to lean against his chest. “These lines you are fighting are hard to end. The fastest way is to take out the first because that will be a direct blow to the master, but even the first will be hard to take down unless you are strong.” He glanced up at us. “Considering you are not sharing energy and have been convinced that the act is bad, I can only assume that you’re not.”
Draven started to move his hand slowly across my back. I could tell by his curious stare that he wanted to know exactly how to make me stronger, and he was prepared to make sure that I never single-handedly killed anyone.
“When the first mark appears, you only have three more to kill before you have to strike the first. The fifth blow has to be for the master. The fifth is supposed to bring a final change. You have to be strategic, though. If you waste your five blows on petals, then you will remain unarmed and a very easy target.”
“Everyone has five blows - or just me?”
“You are from the other reality from the heritage of The Selected. Obviously, so is Madison. Landen looked familiar to me, but if he did become a phoenix at any part of his life plan his mark is going to be gone because he has the power to recreate himself over and over again. Good to know that is an option down the road.”
“So Madison and me so far?”
Cashton glanced at Draven. “Maybe Aden. Your image looks familiar to me, but the energy is way off.”
“Is that like a world of doubles over there? Is that why Madison and Willow look the same? Why Draven is a twin?”
“Not a world of doubles, but there are some that have vessels that look the same. They always have opposite energy and are said to be warriors – quite deadly when they are together.”
I didn’t want to hear that. I didn’t want Draven to adopt an absolute plan where he and Aden teamed up to end this.
“The thing is, I only have a fraction of the memories I need to help you, and even after the queen of the veil rises - and if I convince her to let me out - it will take some time for them to surface, time that I am sure we do not have.”
“Why do you need her again? And how are you stuck in the veil if you are not dead?” I asked, knowing Draven was more than likely just as lost at this point.
Cashton drew a huge circle beside the eight he had been tracing, then divided it with a line. “This is The Fall.” He moved the sand to make it darker on one side of The Fall, and on the far side of the other half he darkened the sand. “On this side the veil backs up to The Fall and the worlds are further away. They move faster, too, which is why life is so short and seems to move quicker.” He pointed the stick to the other side. “We lived against The Fall, so life is way longer. In the past, a large number of souls would pass through this Fall. They would learn something from one side and be the innovators on the other side in the next life. The thing is that since life is so long in our home reality, we could come through The Fall, live a whole life, and then go home - and only a month’s time would have passed. It worked beautifully until this side started to crumble.”
Sadness filled the blue in his eyes as the outer layer turned even darker. “I came through that Fall some time ago, but I fell inside the veil. The veil had grown more than we had thought - well, everyone but you, little one.” He sighed. “So, the veil thinks I’m dead when I’m not. If I were dead and all was right in the universe, then I could request to see The Reaper, and he would let me out. But these master Escorts have control over the veil. Very few make it to The Reaper or even know that he is a way out. The queen of the veil, when she has taken her reign, will be able to release any and all supernatural souls to fight again. And she will also be able to usher souls that have no reason to be in the veil to The Reaper’s doorstep so he can divinely convince them to move on.”
“We’ve released the dead,” Draven offered, clearly wondering if we could help Cashton.
“You release what is left of the dead. That energy is like leftover food to these master Escorts, and they need to be released. You need to do what you do. You guys are fighting the emotion of shock. The biggest shock is our own death. The ones in the veil are all on different levels.”
“What level are your girlfriends on?”
That didn’t create the smile I thought it would. Instead, Cashton looked furious at himself.
“The queen of the veil will move them on, too. Cowards...they are afraid of life, so they dance with death.”
“So I’m supposed to kill Xavier?” I asked, moving away from that touchy subject.
“Apparently. But I can’t understand his strategy. Why he is so focused on what you remember about Pompeii? I wonder if his first was there, if you know what they look like, what their energy feels like - and he wants to make sure you forget.”
“That or remembering anything past that point would be a strain on anyone. That was forever ago,” I countered.
“No,” Cashton said as he moved his stick back to the figure eight. “Time moves on a loop. We often planned exactly where we would land in that cycle. Life before that could have been in the future, for all you know. The thing is, you are all here. So either we planned it or they backed us into this corner.”
“I doubt they would have planned for me to save Draven in a past life and fall into this one.”
Cashton grimaced, showing that he halfway agreed with that. “It doesn’t make sense that Britain came for you either, unless that was just dumb luck on his part.”
“He seemed like he had a plan, wanted my light so he could take over The Realm.”
Cashton pointed the stick at me. “That right there makes me think he is unclaimed - a pack of wild dogs. Yet his energy states that he is more powerful than that. Besides, you can’t rule or control The Realm because it is all. That is like an ant saying he is going to grow up to be an elephant. Great to have dreams, but seriously.”
“Bianca, then. She is pulling all the strings. Took Drake and Landen a few days ago, toyed with Draven before.”
“I’d have to see her to know. But it almost sounds like Xavier is trying to get you to waste one of your kills on her.”
“Tried. Can’t kill her.”
“Yeah, but what if he puts the real one in front of you and you do? Then he’ll know for sure you are who he thinks you are, and your clock will start ticking at a rapid speed.” He scratched out the sand drawing. “It’s going to hurt really bad.”
“Killing? It’s not going to be easy,” I said with a sigh.
“No, the mark. It will hurt when it is created. If you are not strong, it could be enough to take you out. You guys have been played, which isn’t a surprise considering that you are up against shock. Never really know what to expect with him.” He reached for the guitar beside him. “We need to figure out who Xavier’s first is.”
“Do I need to ask Silas? He was in Pompeii.” All that got me was glares from each of them.
“He was there in the end. For Xavier to go and get someone to kill Aden or whoever, he had to have known who or what you saw - that if you and Draven saw each other, it would all click into place.”
“Aden.”
“Which doesn’t make sense either. Why would they open him up just for you to see the plot of the war?” Cashton said as he began to adjust the strings. “Maybe they were trying to throw him off his target, crash his mind so he couldn’t move forward.”
“Which is...?” Draven asked sternly, knowing that any enemy of his brother was an enemy of his.
“Not a clue. Thinking maybe the emotion of worry, the master of that emotion. But I get the impression you guys are the closest people to him.”
We both nodded to confirm. “Yeah, well, that means he has to find the people he needs to fight his master. It’s not Madison or the two of you. I know that much.”
“Mom and Dad did not say one word. That whole time you said you saw Dad in the veil and thought he was someone else – he didn’t say anything.”
Cashton smiled disdainfully. “Charlie, that boy that was my age in the veil helped me break a lot of bad habits and got me back on track. I don’t know that I would be this prepared to help you with what little I have if it wasn’t for him.”
“Why are they like that? Why can they not just lay it out?” I asked him, knowing he had to feel the same way I did: completely abandoned.
“Forced fate is the worst sin where we come from. They would never tell us what to do or think. Your soul is supposed to tell you all you need to know and when you need to know it.” He nodded to me. “She gave you those seven sheets, though. That messes with my timeline, too. They are blank, which means none of us have started.”
“Landen and Willow killed Donalt, though,” I argued.
“No,” he said with a bit of smirk. “They killed the vessel he was in. When the kills are done, the masters are brought down, and those pages will fill so the story can be told forevermore. A new original book, if you will.”
“So we are looking for first, or something like that,” Draven clarified.
“See, I just put that idea in your head. Not exactly. You go at any first as weak as you are, and it will be over. You have to climb the ranks, figure out who is in charge so you know where and how to strike. I’d keep releasing the damned because soon enough the more corporeal dead will start talking - telling you everything you need to know. I’m sure you have already built up a reputation. The dead can sense almost anything in a soul. They know you did that because you wanted to, not because you had to. So don’t change your reasons for what you do now. That is like the one thing you have been on track with.”
“Plan to do that tomorrow night. It’s supposed to help Landen weaken Esterious,” Draven said a bit apprehensively, wondering if that was a good idea.
“It’s all good. Landen is smart. He is not going to let you cross a line you shouldn’t. Do your thing. Let him do his,” Cashton stated absentmindedly. He was focused on his guitar at that moment.
I really wished Cashton would just come out and tell Draven to drop any idea of joining up with Aden to take down Xavier. In his own roundabout way, he had. But I knew Draven: blunt worked best when it came to my stubborn boy.
“I’m about to bail,” Cashton said as he toyed with the strings on the guitar. “You guys just chill or whatever. No worries about Silas. I can get to him since he is linked to Charlie. It’s not going to matter anyway because nothing unnatural or un-normal or dangerous is going to happen tonight - because my sista and the boy she loves do not engage with ignorant souls who think they know the game when they have not even stepped on the field yet.”