03 Reckoning - Guardian Page 13

  On the third night this habit became more than I could stand. Rolling back against my pillow, I released a frustrated exhale and felt my face twist to a frown.

  Unable to ignore it, he briefly broke his rigidity, risking uninhibited reaction to sharing a private bed with me, and rolled towards me to whisper delicately in my ear, “Not long, Magdalene…We’ve been patient. I think we can refrain a bit longer.”

  When I heaved another discontented sigh, he chuckled through his nose and then groaned, equally as bothered. “If I don’t get my mind on something other than the privacy of our room…” He rolled towards me, propping his arm on my pillow, and peering down at me through the dark. He watched me for a moment and I got the distinct impression he was absorbing the memory of every detail of my face. Then he focused entirely on my lips before asking, “Do you remember our kiss just before you left for this lifetime on earth?”

  Instantly, my muscles tightened. I did recall it and it had been unexpected by both of us.

  When I was silent, he quietly recounted it, a light smile lifting his lips. “You appeared at the cabin…in a huff, I’ll add. And you had every right to be upset with me. We were existing between this life and our last. I say existing because it certainly wasn’t living, what you and I endured.”

  I nodded, that time running vividly through my mind. It was unheard of in the afterlife to live in despair and yet Eran had, while overcoming the upset in having taken my life in Gettysburg, and I had as Eran separated himself from me during his recovery. Time is not thought of in the afterlife, not in the way it is considered or dominates here on earth, and yet that duration was the longest I’d ever experienced between lives.

  By this point, Eran’s smile had faded away. “Being apart from you was punishment I hope to never suffer again, self-imposed or otherwise. I had worried…” He suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I had worried that your love for me might have weakened and that possibly…you found someone else.”

  “No,” I whispered, my head lifting from the pillow, closer to him, in response. “No, Eran.”

  “I know that now but…” He shrugged and allowed himself to progress through the discomfort. “I wasn’t sure of it then…That was difficult, to say the least…My worry of it didn’t end until you appeared on the dock.” His eyes glossed, recalling a far happier memory. “You wore a white dress I’d never seen before…Your hair was down, flowing in the breeze and glistening from the daylight…You seemed to be glowing, Magdalene. The sight of you…” He finished with a trembling sigh, unable to express what it had done to him in words.

  I smiled, familiar with that reaction.

  “You marched right up to me and without a word took my face in your soft hands and…with fire in your eyes…you reached up and your lips landed on mine.”

  “Were you surprised?”

  He chuckled. “To say that would be an oversimplification. It woke me up, Magdalene. I’d been living in a void, a cave, while trying to deal with the turmoil inside me. But your kiss, soft but so firm, brought me back to…well, to life. I suddenly smelled the fresh air, heard the birds in the trees, felt you on my skin. Your hands on my face were so delicate but…determined. I felt that. You, Magdalene, brought me back to life.”

  While my heart fluttered, I played it off teasingly. “I had no idea what my kisses do to you.”

  “No…” he agreed reflectively. “You have no idea…”

  “That kiss was unplanned,” I admitted, and his eyebrows rose, questioning. “When I arrived and saw you on the porch…The sight of you filled the emptiness in me that had been so present during that time. I couldn’t stop myself.”

  “I am truly thankful you didn’t. There is no telling what might have happened if you hadn’t broken the spell I was in.” He tried to hide the shutter that shook his body but I still felt it, our bodies lying so close.

  “My leaving for this lifetime was prompted by your seclusion,” I explained. “I couldn’t live without you any longer. And thinking it was safe to return here, to earth…thinking it was safe from the Fallen Ones, I-I came to replace the pain of your distance with a distraction.”

  “Well, you certainly found one,” he replied, frowning playfully.

  I rolled my eyes. “Now that is an oversimplification.”

  “I always wondered…why did you come to the cabin in the first place?”

  “To see you one last time…before I departed.”

  He nodded, understanding. “Couldn’t help yourself?” he asked, smirking.

  My jaw fell open and I playfully attempted to shove him. He caught my hand well before it made contact, drew it to his lips, and tenderly kissed each of my fingers. When he’d finished making my stomach turn flips, he didn’t release my hand. Instead, he held it and placed it against his chest, the warmth of it calming me instantly.

  “When you did leave,” he said quietly, “I followed you. Well…I tried to follow you.”

  “Really?” I asked, intrigued. “What do you mean…tried?”

  “I went looking for you…after you chose to launch yourself from the porch and flee from me without a single word,” he said, lifting his eyebrows insinuatingly at me.

  I sighed and gave him the answer he hinted for. “I was…nervous.”

  “I see…” he replied. “Please try to overcome that in the future.”

  “I promise to try.”

  He accepted that statement as enough for the moment and continued on. “When I didn’t find you in your realm in the afterlife, I realized where you’d gone. Back to earth. But, I thought you had planned to fall during this lifetime as you’d always done with each lifetime prior. So, I fled to the steps where we fall for earth. And I waited there, not knowing you were already in the womb. When I realized that you were gone, I…” he let his voice trail off, the unmistakable sound of regret tainting his beguiling English accent.

  I slipped my hand up his cheek, enjoying the feel of his skin against mine. “Eran…” I whispered, pulling him from his thoughts. “I’m here now.”

  “Yes, you are,” he said, drawing me closer, sliding me against the bed sheets towards him.

  Our lips came dangerously close to touching and in reaction his breathing staggered. His eyes traced the features of my face before he released me and rolled on to his back.

  “Speaking of distraction…I need another topic of conversation.”

  I laughed and moved closer to him again.

  “That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking,” he warned.

  “I know,” I replied softly. “I’m only getting comfortable so I can get to sleep.”

  My head landed gently on his chest again, rising and falling with his breaths, which were gradually becoming more regular.

  “Sleep is a good idea,” Eran murmured. “We leave tomorrow. We’ll want to be rested for it.”

  “Right,” I said. “Tomorrow…”

  The last thing I felt before I awoke in the Hall of Records was Eran’s hand rubbing my arm, gently and with the purpose of touching me without allowing it to go too far.

  The next morning, I no longer felt Eran’s hand. Where he’d been laying was now a cold, vacant spot with an indent where his body had been.

  I lifted myself up and found him at the narrow window, one hand holding back the drape.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked, ready to heave myself out of bed.

  “Not exactly…” Eran replied, though his tone was suspicious.

  I stood and walked to the window, only to find myself pleasantly surprised.

  In the courtyard below, the Alterums had paired up and were now sparing with each other using wooden swords. They were haphazard, slow, and contrived motions, but they were trying.

  Neither Eran nor I openly critiqued them but we both knew that if a single Fallen One were to suddenly land in the middle of them, not a single Alterum would survive.

  We found later that we weren’t the only ones to notice.

  While preparing to leave,
Eran, me, and our friends collectively entered Ms. Barrett’s office, which continued to remain mysteriously unoccupied, to replace the weapons we’d taken from her armoire.

  Ms. Beedinwigg, standing at the window overlooking the mock fighting practice taking place just outside, commented, “It seems they could use a little guidance.”

  She glanced over her shoulder to find Eran and me nodding in agreement. “Could we be leaving too soon?” she offered.

  “These are the same Alterums who imprisoned you,” Gershom reminded, tenuously.

  “And the same that are allowing us to walk freely now,” Ezra countered.

  The room fell quiet then as we individually assessed what it would mean to stay or to leave. Those Alterums outside hadn’t given us freedom. We’d taken it. They could just as easily imprison us again. The only reason they didn’t haul us back to our specially-designed cells was because we’d saved them from a fate they didn’t believe was coming. Now they did and were preparing feverishly for it.

  Still, I couldn’t help but realize that I had brought the fight to them. Yes, the Fallen Ones had preyed on them, and humans, for centuries, but it was my actions, my hunting that had drawn our enemies to the fortress. It was my actions that would make them return.

  “Maggie Tanner?” said a voice behind me.

  Shaken from my thoughts, I rotated at the waist to find two men and a woman standing at the door.

  “Maggie Talor,” I corrected, sensing the pride flushing Eran.

  The woman stepped hesitantly through the door, revealing Evelyn behind her.

  “They’ve come to ask if you’ll deliver their messages to the other side,” Evelyn explained, clearly hopeful I would agree. “Time moves so slowly here and their wondering how their loved ones are faring.”

  I scanned the rest of their faces finding expectant hope there too.

  “Uh…sure…” I said, looking around the room in preparation, hearing sighs of relief in response. “Eran, do you mind if I…”

  He smiled knowingly. This hadn’t been the first time we’d been prepared to leave when someone had overcome their timidity to ask me to deliver their message.

  “Thanks,” I said. “It should only take a minute. There are just three of them.”

  “Um…” Evelyn stifled a smile. “It may take a while longer.”

  She motioned for me to approach the door. When she did, I peeked around the corner and found a line forming down the hall.

  My jaw dropping, I didn’t know what to say. Then Eran’s hands came over my shoulders, squeezing lightly, comfortingly. “It’s all right. I’ll wait,” he said against my ear.

  I sighed in gratitude. Then I said something completely unexpected, something I had never realized before. “You seem to wait a lot for me.”

  Not certain whether he took my comment with my unintended sexual undertone or not he whispered, “You’re worth it.”

  It only took a moment longer for the rest of those in the room to agree to wait too, although they thought it would be best to wait outside the room and allow my customers their privacy.

  When the room emptied, I sat in a wingback chair similar to the one I owned in New Orleans and motioned for the first one in line to sit in the wingback chair opposite me.

  One after another, the Alterums outside Ms. Barrett’s office entered, gave me their message, and left but not before giving me a mention of support.

  “I’m glad you’re all free.”

  “Wish I had spoken up in support of you…”

  “…embarrassed at my behavior.”

  I didn’t bother to question their sincerity. It was apparent, and welcomed.

  A few hours later and with over twenty messages memorized, I took a brief break to glance out the window, the same one Ms. Barrett had been peering from earlier. There, in the courtyard, I found her, my housemates, and Eran’s army coaching the Alterums on the art of warfare, their expressions holding the same gratitude as the ones requesting their messages be delivered.

  All this gratitude couldn’t last long, I figured, and sure enough, it was disrupted.

  The day wore away quickly and the sun had just disappeared over the edge of the fortress’s walls when my final customer entered the room.

  She was the last one I expected to see and my reaction was nothing less than open hostility. I was on my feet before she had the second foot through the door.

  “Please,” she said, gesturing me to stop, as if she were concerned I would cross the room towards her. “Please stop. I’m here to apologize.”

  Eran, having sensed my discomfort, raced down the hallway and through the door in seconds.

  “Magdalene?” he inquired, coming through the door.

  “I’m okay,” I told him. “Though, I’m not sure for how long.”

  Ms. Barrett’s mouth snapped shut but she seemed to consider that my statement was deserving because she chose not to address it. Instead, her eyelids closed briefly and when opened they revealed a redefined sense of purpose.

  “I was wrong,” she said, bluntly. “Wrong to have made accusations against you and your friends-”

  “Family,” I stated. “These people are my family.”

  She conceded. “Your family. I was wrong to have incarcerated you all. I was also wrong to have suggested we deliver you to our enemies.” Her lips pinched closed, ill at ease with recounting her actions. “I am deeply sorry.” She released a deep breath and moved across the room to take a seat in the chair opposite from where I stood.

  Eran and I watched her speculatively.

  Once seated, she began again, her forehead in her palm, her eyes downcast. “I was out of options. Having no idea what else to do…Unable to formulate a single plan that might protect us. Trying to keep the rest of us…the Alterums safe is just…mindboggling.” She lifted her head then and leveled her gaze at me. “I understand now that I imprisoned the ones best equipped to defend us…you and your family. In doing so, I endangered the very ones I was meaning to protect.” Shaking her head, she continued wistfully, “Regardless, incarcerating you was wrong. I just…I just didn’t see any other option. You deserve better treatment from us. You deserve better treatment from me.”

  “There are other options,” said Eran, remaining in the room but having relaxed his pose. “Look outside.”

  Ms. Barrett half-stood and then leaned forward towards the window, her jaw dropping a moment later. Then, slowly, a smile crept up.

  This was unexpected, since I was beginning to wonder if she had it in her to smile.

  “They’ll return,” I warned her and she fell back in her seat. “Our enemies are preparing as we speak. I can guarantee it.”

  “I know…I know. That is why I made a trip to your residence.”

  I was suddenly on alert again. “Our residence?”

  “Yes,” she replied plainly, showing no sign of noticing my apprehension. “In New Orleans. I brought something back with me, something I hoped would prompt you to stay a while longer. I left it in your chamber upstairs but I’ll tell you what it is now…Your combat suit.”

  “Combat suit?” I reiterated, confused.

  “Yes, the suit made of leather…with weapons secured from it. I found it in your room.”

  It was then I unequivocally understood Ms. Barrett. Clearly, she lacked any social skills, but this wasn’t her most distinct trait. What stood out among the rest was her tenacity. Nothing would stop this woman, social mores and trespassing included, from protecting the Alterums. Ironically, we both had the same goal. We were simply going about it in opposing directions.

  Eran recognized this around the same time I did and released a long and resounding laugh in reaction. It startled Ms. Barrett but by the end, as it dwindled down, she smiled again, faintly, but it was there.

  “So…will you stay?” she asked, insistently.

  I looked towards Eran, who shrugged in response. The decision was left up to me.

  “On one condition,” I stated. “A
s we prepare the Alterums for the Fallen Ones return, I will continue my hunts.”

  She nodded agreement without flinching, which I took as a good sign.

  “And I will select the top candidates to accompany me.”

  She bristled at this request but after a pause nodded again, hesitantly.

  “Then we will stay…until this fight is over,” I concluded.

  “And when will that be?”

  I knew she was asking when I expected the Fallen Ones to strike with full force but that wasn’t the answer I gave her.

  As she waited for me to respond, I stood and stared out the window at the Alterums fighting vehemently, dedicated to their lesson.

  “When every one of them is eternally dead.”

  CHAPTER TEN: RAID

  That night, I left the fortress, although not for New Orleans. As the rest retreated to their bedrooms and the hallways grew silent, Eran and I were busily preparing for the evening hunt.

  I pulled on my black leather combat suit and attached the weapons I would be bringing while Eran collected an alternate sword from Ms. Barrett’s armoire.

  There was one vital piece missing from my hunts now. The book of dossiers, which Ms. Barrett had burned in order to prevent me from further hunting, was now gone. Thankfully there was another solution.

  Earlier in the day, I’d pulled Gershom into a private study and told him that his help was again needed, explaining he was the only one I knew who could track down our enemies, who could help us locate them.

  Again, he’d nervously declined but in the end he conceded and then left the rest of the day to prepare his nerves.

  Gershom, having lived amongst the Fallen Ones for several centuries, had every right to fear them. He had seen firsthand the terror they’d inflicted and this time there was a possibility he’d be on the receiving end.