A green arm and leg appear out of it, and all too soon, the ogre and his wife appear.
Oh, shit. My legs are heavy and my heart is beating so fast it may just burst from my chest. "Oh, my word." The lady ogre claps her hand and laughs. "I've always wanted to see Earth before."
"Shhhh, Barbara." The ogre places his finger to his lips, but a wide smile fills his face. "We don't need to wake anyone up."
"Don't be a fuddy duddy." She rolls her eyes, but her tone is quieter. "They are kissing your ass right now because of what went down the other day. I can't believe that I was able to take us to Earth."
"How were you able to?" He glances back at where the portal was. "I mean, you've never been able to do that before."
"I have no clue." Her eyes are wide, and she places a hand on her chest. "I was reading something and saw an image. And my fingers started tingling and something inside me knew what to do." She grabs his arm and smiles. "This is amazing. We can go anywhere."
Shit. What does this mean? Could her soul splinter like Becca's? My worst fear has now been confirmed, and there isn't anything I can do.
How come whenever I try to do something good, the opposite seems to happen? Am I doing more harm than good? Fate must have made a mistake when they gave me these powers.
Barbara throws her arms around her husband and gives him a large kiss on his lips. "I can't believe it. We can now go visit anywhere our hearts desire." She pulls back and places her hands on his chest. "We can even go to that waterfall you've always wanted to see. I can take us there."
Huh, Becca never acted like that. She was always scared or worried about herself, but Barbara is thinking of her husband and where he would like to go. Maybe Becca was some sort of exception since I didn't have the artifacts and had no clue what I was doing. Maybe everything will be okay after all.
My powers begin pulsing inside me, the vibrant purple of the Flame burning bright. It swirls and then flashes as if energizing my mind. I blink, and when I open my eyes, my senses are on overload.
The couple begins to walk toward the house, and I take one last glance at them before they make it inside. My heart stops in my chest. With the Flame coursing through me, I can see the woman's soul as clear as day. And it's cracked with light spilling through. Oh, shit. Her soul is already cracking.
15
The couple enters the house, leaving me outside and all alone with my thoughts. I can't believe that my worst fears were confirmed.
My power is pulsing inside me now even with the amulet on. Dammit, I better hurry up and get back before this gets out of control, too. The last thing I need to do is have an episode right after what I found out.
I turn around and head back in the direction of Ria's. The power swirls inside me almost as if it knows that it screwed something up. My feet move faster and faster until I'm almost in a jog. The only thing that keeps me steady is the sound of the waves crashing. It seems to calm my nerves even if it's just a little bit.
Now isn't the time to freak out and think irrationally. I'll figure out what my next steps are when I get back in bed.
Turning the corner, I pace myself so I can get back as fast as possible but without hurting myself. My power is clawing me from inside once again. The colors separate from one another, and it's almost as if they are attacking each other. It would be a pretty light show if it weren't so painful.
In what feels like hours but is just a few minutes, the door comes into view. I open the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. I don't want to wake anyone up. My goal is to sneak inside with no one the wiser.
When I enter the den, I almost shriek when Charlie appears right in front of me.
His blond hair is a mess, and his body seems tight. "Where the hell have you been?"
Yeah, we aren't talking about this out here in the open where Ria could overhear. "Let's go to our room. I don't want to talk out here."
"Oh, don't worry." Charlie's tone is rough, and he lifts an eyebrow. "Ria left a few minutes after you."
What? How is that possible? "What do you mean? I heard her come in."
"And we heard you leave." He runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "She got up and tried to follow you, but thankfully, you were already out of sight when she got out the door."
Shit, obviously I'm not meant to be a spy. "I couldn't sleep.
“Why didn't you take me with you?" He tightens his hands, rubbing his fingers together. "I thought we had gotten past this and we were finally a team."
Great, now I've hurt his feelings again. "I'm sorry. It wasn't that. You were sleeping so well, and I wasn't realm jumping. Nothing bad was going to happen. I just wanted to check on the ogre’s wife. I was afraid and panicking."
"About what?" He takes a few steps toward me and frowns.
My power is picking up in intensity even though I'm inside and protected. What the hell? It should be calming down. "Well, the ogre said she was healed, so that made me think of Becca."
His forehead wrinkles, and he stares off. "I'm not following."
"Well, being a reaper is part of me just like the artifacts now." So he's making me spell this out. I lower my voice to a whisper. "What if I killed her and brought her back?"
"No..." He inhales sharply, and his
