I didn’t believe that would be the last time I would see my father, but there was something in the air that day, something that made me cling to the importance of what my parents stood for.
Two passes of the sun over the hatch window, and I was still alone. I waited a third to be sure, but by then the emergency supplies were gone and I had no choice but to reach the surface. It took me half a day to build the courage needed, but as I pressed my palm against the glass, my heart raced, fear controlling me, and with good reason.
Death.
As far as the eye could see.
A deep breath from beside me pulls me from my thoughts, and I glance to the woman who is engulfed with a different kind of pain, one that’s the complete opposite of mine.
I lost my family that day.
Today, with the sun in the sky, she’s regained hers.
Cracking my neck from side to side, I try to unwind the tension from my limbs as I stare at her still body. I don't know how to be what she needs,but there's one thing for certain: I want to be her everything.
I need it more than my next breath, because breathing without her is pointless. I can’t live without her. Not ever.
My mind wanders as Elodie brushes her finger across her cheek, and I balk.
Has she been crying?
I internally berate myself for being so self-absorbed. I’m moving without thought, curling my fingers around her chin. Tilting her toward me, I search her eyes. I hate how much pain I see, but the wonder and curiosity shine just as brightly.
Desperation claws through me, the need to ask her what she needs to make it all better, to make her troubles disappear, runs deep, but it's obvious she's too far gone to have the answers to that. I can see it in her distant gaze, raised shoulders, and tightness of her jaw. It’s like reading a book when I stare at her.
The reality is, she doesn't need to talk right now. She needs something to ground her.
Running my tongue along my bottom lip, my mind swirls once more, but this time it’s with thoughts and ideas of how to do that for her instead of getting lost inmy own troubles. When the roles are reversed and it’s me who needs grounding, her voice soothes me in a way I can’t explain. It’s tranquil, keeping me rooted to the spot. Maybe I can offer her the same, or even just a sliver of what she gives me in those moments.
The second I part my lips, I almost wish I hadn’t.
“They will rise with fire in their bones and ruin in their wake, step the shadows that you reap and give more than you shall take. Blood shall bind you, love shall break you. Only in the face of death shall the path be clear; the world mourns with the final tear.”
I run my thumb across her chin as the words leave my lips, and her eyebrows gather in confusionas the corners of her eyes crinkle.
“I don't know what that means,” she whispers, and I gulp, feeling a tightness in my limbs as my shoulders bunch higher and higher despite my efforts.
“Those words have been with me my whole life,” I explain. “I thought they were to guide me, but now I'm not sure. I thought they were about you, but then… I saw meaning in myself too.”
She blinks at me softly, nodding, and I can almost see her mentally reciting the words, pinning them to each of us in an effort to understand. “I can see why,” she rasps before exhaling slowly. She tries to tilt her head away from me, but my grip tightens, my thumb gliding over her cheek as I stare deeper into her eyes, refusing to let her drift away again.
I hate the red rim around them, and not the one marking her eye from her magic. I mean the hue to her skin, the color that confirms tears have fallen without me even being aware. I hate that I wasn't present enough to see that she was breaking.
Desperation burns hotter through my body, but to my surprise, she opens her mouth and speaks more firmly than ever.
“Only those who drink without thirst may find me. Where the water meets the shore, the darkness you shall see. Four elements circle as one. But in your eyes shall they be gone. Look deep inside, and the book shall no longer defy.”
My heart thunders in my chest, the same feeling I imagine she just experienced as I shared words with her that she didn’t understand. “What does that mean?” I ask, tilting my head, and she clears her throat, her eyelids falling to half mast for a moment before she looks at me again.
“It's the key to finding The Fractured Book of Souls, or more simply, what seems to be The Book of Scythes. I learned about it in one of those booksin the restricted library,” she offers as she takes another deep breath. “It’s believed to be the greatest treasure that the scythes believed in. It’s apparently what encouraged them, what they poured their deepest, darkest secrets into. Yet, no one knows where it is. That’s the riddle to find it, to find anything out about myself from the words of my kind instead of the words of The Sanctum. Well, that and my parents, but that’s not simple either, since they’re currently being held hostage by Jude.” She exhales a big sigh, like the words took all of her energy to share.
I nod, digesting what she’s saying, and it only makes my pulse pound louder as ideas come to mind. “Do you think solving it would help get Odie and Ellie back?” I ask, my heart racing as wonder and possibility take hold.
Her eyes dip, downcast as a sense of bleakness fills the air between us.
“No,” she mutters, making my heart sink, but the resilience that vibrates through her in the next breath steals my own from my lungs. “I think the only way to get them back is to encourage Jude’s rebellion.”
“What?” I ask, and she nods fiercely. Her whole demeanor changes as anger courses through herveins, widening her eyes and adding a snap to her jaw.
