~~~
“I can’t find it.” Edeen pulled her essence from within Alexander’s flow of memories, yet kept her palm upon his chest, grounding herself in the lift and fall of his unconscious breathing. She’d searched his essence for what felt like hours, sifting through memories and dreams, trying to pinpoint any time in his life before jumping to this year where he might have encountered any of the Sifts.
She looked for any strange occurrence, any dream, any clue, knowing his younger self wouldn’t know what the monster was so it could be masked as a nightmare in his consciousness.
Doing so while he was unconscious was hazardous at best. The risk of being swept up in a dream where the sleeper couldn’t differentiate between dream and memory was high, but they didn’t have the time to squander.
He wasn’t rousing.
Why wasn’t he rousing?
The fear that they were already too late, that he might never awaken again fueled her determination to keep looking.
“Nothing?” Lenore stared at her across Alexander’s body laid out on the mattress. Shadows lurked in her distraught eyes. She’d used everything she had to heal the ragged hollow of pulp the Sift had chomped out of his side. It already looked better, muscles and veins knit together with only a rough reddened indent above his hip to show there had ever been a crater of torn flesh.
“Nothing.” Edeen pushed her hair back over her shoulder to keep it out of the way. “Unless ‘tis something buried deep within a dream…”
“Maybe he’s repressed it.” Bekah stepped back into the room, brining mismatched cups of steaming tea. “Are you able to find repressed memories?”
“Aye.” Edeen accepted the tea gratefully, cradling the warmth of the cup between her palms. “If it’s there, I’ll find it.”
Bekah’s fingers curled lightly over her arm. “Unless there’s no memory to find. It’s possible that Col got to the Sift first and young Alexander never had an encounter with the beast at all.”
Lenore flinched at Col’s name. “Then why doesn’t Alexander have a memory of meeting Col? Better yet, why isn’t Col here? If he killed the Sift, he’d be able to go to Toren and Toren would open a time rift back to us. He would be here. There’s no way Col wouldn’t come back to me.”
Unless the Sift got to Col first. Edeen’s heart took a little lurch at any number of possibilities that could have befallen her beloved brother.
Lifting her hand from Alexander’s chest, she took Lenore’s wrist. Healing took its due from both healer and the one being healed. Judging from Lenore’s level of exhaustion, ‘twas no mystery Alexander remained unconscious. The wound had been brutal and deep, tearing away a shank of flesh.
Alexander was safe in the here and now as long as the Sift didn’t find him in the past. The healing had taken its toll, that’s all. He would soon awaken. He had to. Lenore had done what she could.
‘Twas left to Edeen to discover when in time that horrible beast had gone to.
“I’ll try again.” She was exhausted, didn’t know if she’d have the strength to fight if one of Alexander’s dreams sucked her in, but she had to try.
Taking a steadying breath, Edeen placed her palm back atop the young man’s side, readying to plunge her essence within his when his back arched up off the bed and he drew in a horrible agonized gasp, eyes shooting open…and beneath her hand a jagged scar formed, curving in a slant up across his collar bone.
Edeen flinched back.
As suddenly as it happened, Alexander’s eyes rolled up into his head and he fell limp back to the mattress unconscious again.