I’d been told by several credible sources that Adelaide had gone through the portal with John and Jesse. I’d tried several times to follow them, along with most Aurathions left behind.
“Do you believe him?” Damien asked, looking at me intently. His Nexus had also gone through the portal. Unfortunately, she was alone.
“I want to. I haven’t been able to feel my connection with Adelaide in nineteen years. I’d assumed at this point that she was dead along with John and Jesse.”
I rubbed my chest in the spot over my heart that still ached from her loss. Even though other bonds had been forced upon me, I still felt the phantom pain of losing Adelaide. It's much like I imagine losing a limb feels.
Damien looked at me with understanding, “I know the feeling, old friend. Jasmine barely got out, I told her to go with the promise that I would be right behind her after retrieving our baby boy.” His eyes welled with tears.
He didn’t like talking about this stuff and neither did I. Rehashing it just brought pain and a feeling of complete devastation to the forefront. We had too many lives dependent on us not to keep our heads in the game.
“You know Jasmine would understand. You both left Blaze with her sister to keep him safe. We didn’t know that our ability to access a portal would be destroyed that day.” I reminded him that he wasn’t at fault, as I’d done too many times to count over the years.
“I know in my heart that’s true, but finding Rose dead and Blaze missing was devastating. How am I ever going to tell her? How in the hell is she ever going to forgive me for the loss of her sister and our son? All these years, I’ve searched and never been able to find him.” The look of sorrow and loss on his face was heartbreaking.
We’d known each other since before the war. Adelaide and Jasmine were best friends at the academy. Even after all our Factions were formed and we graduated from Emberhold, their friendship remained strong. Lucky for us guys, our friendship with Damien came easy. We just clicked like we’d known each other forever.
Lucky for me, our friendship had grown over the years. Now, we were as close as brothers. Without each other, I doubt we would’ve made it this far. The things we’d gone through together to survive were unbelievable.
“I don’t have all the answers to the questions she’ll ask. But I know even with everything I must explain, and the chance Jasmine might not forgive me, I still want to see her face again.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.
I nodded my head in agreement, “You’re right. I dream of it every night.”
I understood how he felt. I winced at the thought of the things I’d done and had been forced to do that would bringshame to my Faction. If by some miracle Adelaide were alive, the things I’d have to confess would likely cause her to break our bond. I wouldn’t blame her if she did.
Still, the chance to look into her beautiful amber eyes once again would be worth everything. I dreamed of them at night and how they must have looked going through the portal without me and Rue. The tears that must have made them shine in grief… the way they would look when she found out about my transgressions.
As much as looking at her beautiful face and listing the ways I’d betrayed her would kill me, the chance to see her once again would be worth it. Even if she only let me hold her briefly before discovering what a disgusting failure I’d turned out to be, it would still be worth it.
“Even if everything he’s said is true, it doesn’t sound like he knows how to get back. From our experience, you know that the academy doesn’t return you until your task is done, and if Emberhold returns him, it will still leave us here in the same position we’ve been in,” I ran my hands down my face. Damien nodded along with what I was saying, but it was apparent he was deep in thought.
I quieted and waited for him to speak. When he got like this, he was processing all his information and trying to formulate a viable plan of action.
Damien’s ability lay in collecting knowledge. He never forgot a conversation he heard or participated in. Anything he read or saw was stored in his brain, and the pieces would come together over time; his reasoning and problem-solving skills were exceptional. He could identify patterns that most Aurathions could not. His ability had kept us both alive and thriving in this new environment.
Thriving may be too strong a word, surviving was more accurate.
I thought back to the days and weeks after the war's conclusion. I’d stayed back to keep Rue safe; we were in his lab trying to collect all his data and destroy what we couldn’t when I felt a stabbing pain in my neck. I blacked out and when I woke up, I was in a cell, in what I now know was deep under the coliseum. There was no sign of Rue and a deep stabbing pain in my chest from a lost connection to my Faction.
Later, I was told by witnesses that Adalaide was seen going through the portal with the twins. The pain in my chest told me she was dead, but I clung to this information with both hands. If there was the slightest chance she was alive, I still had a reason to keep living.
Soon after, I was forced to join the Tempest Faction and its Nexus, Selene.
She managed the entire coliseum for the Brummond Faction, which was the second most powerful of the Dark Factions, only surpassed by Trent Storm. That motherfucker was one of the instigators of this whole thing. I’d love to get him alone for about fifteen minutes.
After my bond was broken with Adelaide, I lost all my power. Our Faction had been made stronger by the fact that we were able to share our abilities. We’d used everything in the war, but it hadn’t been enough to defeat the Dark Factions. I blamed most of that on being betrayed by the Council and their families. It was hard to win a war when you had to watch for enemies fighting beside you and not just against you.
I was forced to receive an injection of the serum that caused the war, regaining my ability to levitate along with new skills. I wasn’t as strong as before, but I had learned to cope with it. To keep my sanity, I had been assigned to Selene, not that I had any other choice.
The bitch was going to make me lose my sanity faster than the serum ever could.
Being forced to bond with her left me devastated, as it felt like a betrayal to Adelaide and my love for her. The only comfort I found was knowing that Adelaide wouldn’t want me to lose my sanity or die. I never doubted our love and I know I would want her to do whatever was necessary to survive, no matter what that entailed. I felt in my heart that she would want the same for me.
Selene was a cunt. When I wasn’t dreaming of my Adelaide, I was dreaming of squeezing her fucking neck until her head popped off. She was a complete sadist, and I wasn’t the only one in her fucked-up Faction that wanted to kill the evil bitch.
“What if I could come up with a way to attach us to the boy so that when he went through the portal, we were pulled through, too?” Damien narrowed his eyes at me in question, breaking me out of my dark thoughts.
“I’d say let’s do it, even if it’s a long shot,” I answered with no hesitation. “Since my last attempt, Selene is watching me much closer and the sensor in mine and the boy’s neck also needs to be dealt with. I have no idea how it’ll react to a portal. I know in the past we’ve found that certain technology is vulnerable to that kind of travel, but I don’t want to be the one to test it.”
