Then it hit him. He was finally,
Yet for the longest time he had thought about nothing else. But how? One, two, three slaps to his forehead, the blood from his cut staining his skin. How could he have let it come this far? Some part of him had to have known what kind of monster David was. Did he simply ignore the truth because he wanted to be accepted, because he wanted approval? How pathetic could he be?! Well, no more! That was it. The pathetic, lonely boy who could be mesmerized by a madman, Svengalied by some psychopath who stroked his ego, was officially dead. He was absolutely going to continue on with his research, because that’s what Science Boys did, but there was no way in hell that this Science Boy was going to give any information to David. Not even if David threatened to kill him or worse, turn him into one of Them.
David could take his body, do whatever his sick, twisted, blood-guzzling mind wanted to do with it, but there was absolutely no way that he was going to get his dirty, unholy hands on Ciaran’s soul.
chapter 22
Standing at the foot of their bed, Ruby didn’t think a more beautiful couple could possibly exist. It had nothing to do with their physical appearance, though Michael and Ronan were both quite handsome.
Ruby saw beyond their exteriors. She didn’t possess sight, but she could see into their hearts, and even deeper, into their souls. She could see their souls despite the fact that they were no longer housed within their bodies, but had been offered to The Well and currently existed within its cold, shiny waters. Ruby was able to see their souls, intertwined as one, because she wasn’t really Ruby; she was being possessed by a spirit. It was just one of the things she thought it was time that Michael and Ronan should know about.
“My spirit name is Rhoswen,” she said.
Asleep, Michael and Ronan each saw Ruby in their dreams. When she spoke to them, her lips didn’t move. When she opened her eyes, they both saw they were completely white. When she took them each by the hand, they accepted her touch and felt themselves being pulled out of their beds. Standing on Inishtrahull Island, the boys knew they were staring at Ruby’s body, but whoever had led them here was definitely not Penry’s sister.
“I have been watching the two of you and so many others from afar,” Rhoswen explained. “The time had come for me to join you, and to do that I had to borrow Ruby’s body.”
Even though this Rhoswen spirit used the word
“Who are you?” Michael asked, his lips as still as Rhoswen’s.
“And what do you want?” Ronan added as silently as the others.
Rhoswen smiled, delighted by the questions, heartened by the fact that these two acted as one. She brought their hands up to her cheeks so she could feel the cool flesh against her skin for a moment and then set them free so they could fall. “I am a friend,” she answered. “And I have come, in part, to remind you of your destiny.”
The boys looked at each other. Their expressions were mirror images of doubt and skepticism, and Michael spoke for them both. “What about the
Just as Rhoswen reeled her head back and roared with laughter, a huge wave crashed noisily onto the shore, and neither boy thought it was a coincidence. They also knew instinctively that they weren’t going to have their questions answered to their satisfaction. Ruby or Rhoswen, or whoever they were looking at, was in control of this dream.
“The other part of my journey is none of your concern,” she replied, her voice friendly, but final.
“All that you need to know, all that is important to you, will be told.”
The boys watched Ruby’s hair and nightgown blow softly in the early dawn breeze, and this time they didn’t need to look at one another to know they shared the same look of impatience. Rhoswen saw it too, and she responded to it. “Now.”
She clutched their hands and once again they travelled. This time their distance was short, but their destination symbolic. Hovering over the ocean, The Well somewhere underneath their bare feet hidden by the miles of water below them, Rhoswen held onto Michael and Ronan, and together, hand in hand in hand, they floated effortlessly as small waves crested and rippled just inches from their toes.
Despite Rhoswen’s benevolent smile and the bucolic setting, Michael had an uneasy feeling; the last time one of his dreams took place in the ocean it had ended in horror and left him unsettled for days.
Sensing his apprehension, Rhoswen understood it was time to honor her promise.
“The prophecy of The First and The Other is your destiny,” she announced.
This was not the first time Ronan had heard this theory. Edwige had told him the very same thing when she became aware that he had fallen in love with Michael, an outsider, but hearing it from Rhoswen and not his mother made it sound like possibility and not interference.
“The legend of The First and The Other describes the origin of my people,” Ronan said. “Are you saying that Michael and I are destined to be part of that legend?”
“You’re already a part of it,” Rhoswen confirmed. “You were from the day you were both born.”
Ronan reached out to grab Michael’s hand; he just had to touch him, and the three of them formed a circle above the ocean. “I knew from the first night I saw you, love, that it was fate.”
Odd, even though they weren’t alone, even though he was holding Rhoswen’s hand and she looked just like Ruby, Michael wasn’t embarrassed by Ronan’s sweet confession, perhaps because it was the truth.
“It isn’t a coincidence that you are both from places of water,” Rhoswen continued. “Ronan from Inishtrahull Island and Michael from Weeping Water.”
Then again, maybe it was all a lie. Michael was glad he didn’t have to speak the words; he barely had the strength to think them. “But I wasn’t born in Weeping Water. I was born in London.”
The human circle didn’t come unbroken, but it definitely lost some of its tension. Michael and Ronan felt as if a spiteful wave had just slammed into them and they were struggling to maintain their balance. Rhoswen merely smiled. “But where were you conceived, Michael?”
What? His conception was not something Michael had ever thought about. Besides the fact that he knew it wasn’t immaculate, he really didn’t want to know anything else about it. “Um, where I come from, Miss Rhoswen,” Michael stammered, “that’s what we call a really personal question.”
Another hearty laugh, another watery explosion. The wave rose, and Michael and Ronan felt its power shudder through them and crash onto the ocean’s surface, yet they remained dry. And Rhoswen remained amused. “Didn’t your mother travel to the other shore that touches this same water when she was a young woman? And wasn’t it there that she met your father?”
Ronan was staring at Michael who was staring at Rhoswen, but he could still see his eyes grow wide and his jaw drop. “Oh ... my ... God! My mother came to Atlantic City to be in the Miss America pageant when she was a few years older than I am right now!” Michael exclaimed silently. “You’re saying she was pregnant with me before she got married?”
A nod of Rhoswen’s head explained everything. “You were both conceived on shores of the ocean where The Well resides,” she explained. “Created out of love, christened by the same sea, bestowed with the same destiny.”
Amazing and yet so simple. And very reassuring. At least now Michael had proof that his parents had truly loved each other, for a brief time anyway. Their love might have died when Grace found out that Vaughan planned to become a vampire and wanted his firstborn to follow in his eternal footsteps, but for a while they had been happy, and when he was conceived his mother must have known happiness in his father’s arms. He was grateful for that knowledge even if it made his head throb.
