“It was a good day for sailing. There was a substantial wind, but nothing outrageous. We weren’t all that far out but around a cove. I was on the boat because we had come out for the weekend. Mom insisted and said I spent too much time tucked in a book.
“Something rammed the boat. I remember the main mast shaking wildly and the sails losing their billow. Mom screamed and…disappeared over the side. Dad went after her.”
I gasped and snapped my head around to the water.
“They were soul mates, Elex. Bonded soul mates. He would never have been able to live without her. That’s why he went after her. He didn’t care if he lived or died, just as long as he followed her. And when the… ropes…nets came and pulled me off the boat...
“I saw my mother dead on the bottom.”
Elex barely had time to get the bag over to me before I vomited.
My mother’s dead body was caught in a fishing net, and she floated in the kelp there.
“My father swam over to me and used every ounce of his magic and energy to get me out of the nets. He swam me back to the boat and shoved me up out of the water and onto the dive platform on the back of the boat.”
I smeared the tears off my own face.
“He never came back up. Why didn’t I remember this? Why was all of this missing from my mind? Someone murdered my parents!”
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see for the tears that were crowding my vision.
Someone had murdered my parents.
Why?
I didn’t know what happened in the next few moments, but somehow we were on the platform for the train, and I could smell the fresh ocean air tinged with salt.
“Breathe, Kimber. Breathe,” Elex whispered
“I’m trying.”
I was, desperately.
It wasn’t easy, though, after thinking for forty-five years that my parents had died in a boat accident, and they hadn’t.
Elex had me tucked into his side on the bench and just waited for my hysteria to clear.
It did, eventually. Only took about three more hysterical outbursts.
“And you were never able to remember that until now?” Elex’s voice was low and kind.
“Not until we just got here.”
“Someone suppressed the memories and left this area as a trigger if you ever came back.” He smoothed my hair carefully.
“Why? Why did they kill them?”
“We don’t have to figure that out right now.”
“They were only twenty-five years older than I am. They were young. They were so lucky…”
“Please breathe, Kimber.”
It hit me that he was horribly worried about me, and I sucked in a few deep, slow breaths to steady myself.
“Back to the city, Elex. Take me back. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be near this place.”
Nodding, he helped me stand, then we walked toward the train, and he helped me on. We ambled to the seats.
