Rivulet

  Skylynn rolled up the paper in her hand.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To argue for your life. Something tells me he’s in a better mood than the last time I saw him.”

  “You’re wrong there,” I said with a shaky voice, remembering how I’d left him hanging.

  “We’ll see,” she said as she vanished.

  “Who’s in a better mood?” Mason asked me with his familiar boyish smirk.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you guys are the last people that I could tell what’s going on in my head.”

  “Why is that? We could reopen the club, pass some tips on—make sure he sticks around.”

  “Not a good idea on any account…”

  Gavin reached for my hand. “I never felt your skin this warm before. I have never seen you look uncertain. That’s a good thing,” he said as his fingertip traced the falcon on my wrist.

  “What else were you guys looking at on here? Anything? I have to figure out where this key goes,” I said as I turned it in my hand.

  “Even if you do, you’re missing half of it,” Gavin said, glancing at it.

  “What?”

  “Yeah. I told you it almost looked like it,” Mason said, reaching for it. He ran his finger across the other side of it. “The key I found had two sides. You’re missing half.”

  “How sure are you?” I asked, knowing I wasn’t at all sure. I still thought I developed the film I’d found in the camera.

  “Very,” Gavin said to agree.

  “Freaking A. Which clock did it fall out of?”

  “The one on the mantel,” Mason answered.

  “Of course it did,” I muttered, wishing I was still in the room with Phoenix. “At least I can shatter that clock if I wanted to. I assumed the other half of the key was still inside.”

  “I don’t think it’s the same clock. I think it’s a replica,” Gavin said, changing the images on his screen. When he did, I saw the images that I thought I’d developed before only this time when Gavin zoomed in, the clocks I’d moved out of this house, at least one of them, were in every image. Even the one on the docks of the ship showed the small clock strapped down on some cargo in the background.

  “I analyzed these left and right. They were made by different clock makers. I think the one in the library is meant to throw you off, that if you did put that key inside of it or whatever, something that should not happen will.”

  “Why would she switch out the clocks?”

  “I don’t know, but she did,” Gavin said, moving the screen to another image, one that had my parents standing in front of the one on the mantel. He zoomed in and out and pointed to various parts on the clock. They were close, but not identical.

  “She put a hit out on us because we had that key, not because we took the clocks. In fact, because you took the key, she knew you were onto her.”

  “I’m not onto her. I have no idea what this is about, why she just won’t leave my house.”

  “She thinks you know, that’s what our problem is,” Gavin said with contempt.

  “No. Our problem is that we’re dead. You guys need to stop focusing on this and let go.”

  “Not a chance,” Gavin muttered as he changed the screen a few more times, looking for more images. “We need to go through your pictures, the ones you took in this house, figure out when she switched it, if it was before or after that wing was added. If we get a time frame, maybe we can track down the real ones. Your parents inventoried everything that came in and out of this house. It would take some time, but we could figure it out.”

  “I’ll have to ask Cadence where most of those are.”

  They all looked at me at once. “What? She was helping me with my portfolio. She knew it would be hard on me to go through the old images, so she was going to weed through them.”

  “Interesting,” Mason said, nudging Gavin.

  “You two stop it. We’re dead. Let your grudges go already. Yeah, so maybe she has commitment issues, too. She’s damaged. Always has been.”

  “Tell me this,” Gavin said, letting his gaze meet mine. “Why is she so focused on bringing up our past? Why is she so interested in getting us to work through our ‘deep down’ emotions?”

  “Um...gee...I don’t know, maybe because she is majoring in psychology?”

  “She has asked more since we’ve been dead than she did when we were alive,” Gavin asserted.

  “We’ve been dead for all of two days. Seriously? You’re mad. You should be. But if tomorrow never comes, would it matter, I mean really and truly matter?”

  “You know she’s Rasure’s pet,” Mason chimed in.

  “She wasn’t her pet. She dealt with her so I didn’t have to,” I argued back.

  Truth be told, if it weren’t for me Rasure surely would have manipulated the hell out of Cadence. Cadence didn’t grieve for the loss of our family the way I did. She was sad, don’t get me wrong, but it was just another loss, another almost family for Cadence to add to her list. Rasure used to try and make me jealous by giving Cadence more attention, but I didn’t care. About a year after my family died, Cadence came to me and said that Rasure wanted to know how I was dealing with things…she then asked me what she should tell her. She became my voice. I couldn’t lie, so when Rasure asked me or put me on the spot, Cadence was my voice. She had to play the devil’s advocate to protect me.

  “I’ll ask her if she knows anything about the clocks. You guys are obviously not going to rest in peace, but I’ll make sure she does. After the life she’s had, the last thing she needs is a tormented afterlife.”

  Gavin closed his laptop. “We are due to drop off those clocks. I’ll see if I notice anything different this time around.”

  “You guys are being shifted around, too?”

  They all stood. “We’re trying to stop it, but my theory is if our minds keep taking us back to the same scenes, then there is something we are missing or need to understand,” Gavin said.

  “Yeah, like we’re supposed to be dead,” I said under my breath.

  Mason squeezed my shoulder as he followed Gavin out, leaving me alone with Wilder.

  After a second or two of awkward silence, I spoke up. “Look, I’m sorry for that crazy ex-girlfriend thing I pulled. I’m sure it aided in killing us in the long run. This sucks. I know it does. Let’s just not hurt each other anymore.”

  He grinned. “The only time you ever showed any emotion toward me was when you knew I was hooking up with someone else. Why is that, D?”

  “Um, listen,” I said as we both rose to our feet.

  He raised his hand. “I know. Friends. Arm’s length. But D, you need to stay grounded. Don’t let the others get you riled up. Ending Rasure has become a game and addiction for them and had been long before death. This is not a game. This is our reality, and I seriously doubt stepping on the playing field with Rasure before you know all the rules is a wise thing to do.”

  My breath became fog, and the room was instantly covered in ice as I took in that warm, uncalled-for scent he always carried.

  “I never expected…to feel this way about you,” Wilder said under his breath, as if it were a curse. He stepped forward and pulled me against him, leaning his forehead against mine, ignoring the shiver that my touch sent through his strong body. “Fate brought us together for a reason.” He raised his fingertips to trace my jawline. “It’s so we can protect each other. I’m not going to let Rasure hurt you, no matter how bad it gets…remember that.”

  Fearing that he would freeze to death, I moved slightly away from him. “I’ve been promised that if I stay on this path, it will be wicked, that I’ll become vengeful. I don’t want that for you, for any of you.”

  “Wicked is my gig,” he said just before kissing my forehead, causing the room to freeze even more. He walked away then.

  In frustration, I fell back on my bed and reached for the key that Mason had left there. I studied every part of it, wondering if that missing piec
e was still in the lake, and if so, how I would ever find it. As my hate for Rasure consumed me, the ice began to thicken.

  Just as I was about to go and inspect the clock that was here, Cadence walked in the room holding a warm cup of coffee.

  “Looks like you need this more than I do,” she said to me.

  I smirked, remembering this exact same conversation. She really didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to tell her, either. She would be just like the guys, vow to fight at my side.

  “Your head looks better,” I said, noticing that the wound on her forehead wasn’t as red and swollen as it was before. I guess her body was healing, on the outside at least.

  “Crazy. I woke up with this. Gavin is becoming violent in his sleep.”

  “Yeah, you guys looked pretty aggressive when I came in.”

  “He’s deflecting. Every time I try and get him to talk about his past, the next thing I know my clothes are across the room—not complaining, but geez, he needs to face this. Maybe you should talk to him, like start by talking about how you handle grief.”

  “He doesn’t want to talk about it, and Cadence, that is not the issue between the two of you. He knows about you coming on to Mason.”

  Her skin blushed, making her strawberry blonde hair seem redder. “Mason is making up crap to come in-between us, to make you mad.”

  “I don’t care who you come on to,” I said boldly, locking eyes with her, letting her know I knew she came on to Wilder, too. “But you need to make peace with that, make peace with your own past.”

  “Yeah, fine, so what are we doing? School is cancelled, I guess. No one was there. You want to go to the coffee bar early, work on your portfolio—what?” she asked as she set her coffee down on the edge of the bookshelf and started to layer on another jacket that she had tied around her waist.

  All at once, the room became warm, really warm, and I felt a flaming sensation of energy course through my body—two quick beats.

  “Maybe I don’t need this, you’re getting control,” she said, glancing back at me. “Make that hot...hello, and where did you come from?” she said with a mischievous grin.

  Nervously, I glanced over my shoulder to see Phoenix standing right behind my bed. I looked back at Cadence. “Um, the darkroom. Can we have a second? I want to work with the portfolio before we go to the bar. I want to look at all the boxes. Will you get them ready for me?”

  “You sure that’s a good idea? I mean, it’s kinda cold outside,” she said, glancing from me to Phoenix, clearly not knowing if he was aware of my curse and not wanting to let my secret out if I wasn’t prepared to share it.

  “I’m sure. I’ll meet you in the playroom.”

  “Ok, then,” she said, blushing slightly, nervously letting her hair fall over her face before she turned to leave.

  I waited for her to close the door before standing and turning to face him. Slowly, holding my gaze he walked around my bed. When he reached my side, he raised his long fingertips to my forehead and outlined the place where Wilder had kissed me goodbye. I saw the fiery jealousy in his eyes. “It was innocent. We had to close a door,” I whispered as my chest rose and fell rapidly. His touch was so seductive that it was taking away my ability to breathe.

  “He had to kiss you to close that door?” he murmured as his fingertips traced the outline of my cheek, then my lips, one by one. I gasped and swallowed nervously. I had to find control.

  “You know what? Whatever,” I said, looking away from him. “I don’t like repeating myself. I already told you who my beats were.”

  With far too much caress, he pulled my chin up so I would have to look at him. Within that beat, his warm, inviting lips were on mine. Rapture. That was the only word I could fathom to describe how insanely awesome it felt to feel his flesh move against mine. Slowly he pulled away, but not before gently biting my bottom lip. “I’m not mad,” he whispered.

  “Then get that look out of your eyes,” I said, daring to meet his sultry gaze.

  That made him smile. “Never the bashful one.”

  “Life is too short for that nonsense.”

  “That it is, Love,” he said as his grin grew.

  “You’re in a good mood all of a sudden. Did Skylynn show you what Wilder drew?”

  “Why would I care what Wilder drew?” he asked as he reached his hands for my hips and slowly pulled me closer.

  Guardedly, I asked, “What is it, then?”

  “You know,” he said quietly as one arm held me against him and his other hand began to trace my side with his fingertips, sending warm chills through my body, “living a long life has granted me at least one lesson.”

  “Hmm,” I said, tilting my head and slightly squinting my eyes. “One that mine was surely not long enough to learn, I suppose.”

  “Hopefully, it will be,” he said with a ghostly grin. “You see, Love, you’ve always pushed me, known exactly how to drive me to the edge and leave me there—giving me one of two choices: to either fall for your plea, or stop and think.”

  “I never begged you for my life…you have your reasons for not saving me, or whatever.”

  “You can’t become what I am,” he stated with absolute certainty, a heated warning in his gaze.

  “If I understood what you were, then I would be able to tell you if I agree or not. Either way, I’m not going to let go.”

  “Let’s hope that was the truth,” he whispered.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  He smiled tenderly. “It means that one way or another, this choice before us will soon cease to exist.”

  “Do tell,” I said as I tensed. For all I knew, he’d found a way to make me let go.

  “Well…either I win the battle I’m in now and simultaneously make Rasure weak enough for you to kill her, then you move on…or I lose and I won’t have to worry about you facing death’s door alone.”

  “Such grim outlooks. Call me crazy, but I kinda hope you lose.”

  “No, you don’t. At least you wouldn’t if you knew what was at stake.”

  I knew exactly what was at stake. I knew that people like Rasure were breeding evil, and that evil was threatening to take over every ray of light in both realities. I knew that the universe was out of balance, that only a few were even aware of this war, that this war had stolen everything from me. I was only teasing when I told him I wanted him to lose. I wanted him to win. I wanted this all to be over with. I wanted the life I started with him so long ago back.

  “Maybe so. Option three: you fight your war, and I fight mine.”

  “Option four: you’re healed, and we have more time to figure this out.”

  I had to wonder what ‘this’ was. Was it us, or this war he seemed prepared to die in—could he even die?

  “What are you?” I whispered.

  “My name…an eternal soul who lives life on the edge of every wrong line to cross. When it’s too much, when the guilt, grief, and anger become too much—I destroy myself, only to be reborn, all the wiser, all the more determined…but I can choose death…at any time.”

  “Your name is Sebastian,” I said with a quiver in my voice, knowing he wasn’t always what he is now, wondering which boy had actually caused my beats, the one in the past or this one before me.

  “At one time, Love. You are one of two aware today that know me by that name.”

  “What’s her name?” I bit out as instant jealousy consumed me.

  “Guardian,” I heard a new voice say. It startled me so much that I threw myself in Phoenix’s arms. He held my head against his chest as he laughed under his breath. “I see we still share the common demon of jealousy.”

  Finding my calm, I turned to see another boy. He was as tall as Phoenix, built like him. His hair was dark and wavy, and he had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.

  “Guardian,” I gasped as the memories I had of him flooded my mind, quickly leading to the end, to the point where I was supposed to watch over this manor and his lover. “I’m so
sorry.”

  Guardian’s eyes questioned me as Phoenix’s body tensed next to mine.

  “For...?” Guardian asked as a shy smile dared to show, revealing the sweetest dimples. I vividly remembered that smile. He was the sun where Phoenix was the moon, and for every negative Phoenix ever said, Guardian had a positive. He was just as fierce as Phoenix, but he was fierce because he had no sense of self-preservation…as if he thought he could live forever, like the sun.

  “I don’t know where she is. I didn’t keep her safe.”

  Guardian’s eyes flipped to Phoenix, giving him a knowing glance before calmly looking back at me. “I found her, Genevieve. Long ago.” His eyes were troubled, enough to make me wonder if that girl he loved was in the same kind of trouble I was in. Guardian had changed, too. He now carried the fire that Phoenix had. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what either of them had been up to since the day I last saw them.

  “How clear are the memories you have of me?” Guardian asked.

  I glanced up at Phoenix to see agony in his stoic stare. “Crystal. You’re Sebastian’s younger brother. You are precognitive, at least, you dream vividly. You had passed through The Fall. You knew there was hope on that side. You didn’t want our world to seal that passage, for you knew it would rock the balance of our universe. Sebastian agreed. You left with him and promised that if you had one dream, one bad feeling, that you’d return to us.” I squinted my eyes closed. “The very end is a bit hazy.”

  Guardian reached his hand for my shoulder. “We were just too far...we were too late...” He was giving his condolences to me.

  “What’s going on, Mate? Shouldn’t you be doing your thing?”

  Guardian sorrowfully locked eyes with Phoenix and moved his head slightly to the side as if to say no as he let his hand fall from my shoulder.

  Phoenix’s hold on me tightened. “There is nothing you can do?”

  “I can heal, but I can’t bring anyone back, not when they’re this far…I’m sorry. We have to find another way. I don’t like your option two very much.”

  He could heal? Was he serious? I was starting to fear the supernatural path these two had walked in my absence.