“By then it won’t matter,” I mumbled. “He’ll have no recollection of the feelings he once had for me.” I sighed. “Won’t he know there was something, anything at all?”
“He’ll remember there was something, but it won’t come rushing back to him when he sees you,” Edmund said softly. There was a catch in his throat, and he changed the subject. “I also bring news to the mortal boy of his father.”
“Please tell me that he’s okay,” I groaned. “Adam won’t be able to bear it if someone tells him his father isn’t.”
“No, no. His father is doing quite well in fact. I think he has finally grasped this whole thing, the idea that there is more in the world than just humans. He actually finds Kim’s water play quite amusing.” Edmund smiled and let me go. “I’ll find you again shortly and answer any and all questions that I can.” With that, he stepped away and went to find Adam.
I had a great many questions for him. I wanted to know what Aaron was becoming, what changes he was undergoing. I wanted to know if his family were on our side, or would the opposing side recruit them. I wanted to understand how Aaron could just forget how he felt about me. I mean, really, how does a person just forget they loved someone? I never questioned my love for Wesley. I accepted it, no matter how destructive it became. If I saw him standing on the battlefield across from me, sword in the air, I wouldn’t hesitate in rushing him. I might love him, yes, but that was for the boy he had been, not the creature he might become.
I wondered if that was how I might come to feel about Aaron. Edmund had said that I would be seeing them sooner than they anticipated. They had no idea who I was or that it was my war they were choosing to fight in, no matter which side they chose. How would I be able to look at Aaron and not want him to remember how he had felt for me? I may not have wanted his love in the beginning, but by the end, it was his love for me that made me care so much about him.
What was once supposed to be nothing more than a filler had become something very different. Maybe I didn’t have it in me to use someone for my amusement after all, or perhaps the guilt that I felt had made its way into my conscience.
I had to get some air. I was starting to suffocate, thinking about what was going on with those that I cared about. I stepped out into the fresh night air and took a deep breath. This place was captivating; why had my parents ever left it? They had enough power to make the town forget what happened with John. Then again, perhaps that would be interfering with the forces of nature.
Was Helen the celestial form of Mother Nature?
I couldn’t help but think it as I looked at the sweep of green grass that led to a cluster of trees to the right of the field. If she harnessed the power of earth, wouldn’t that make her Mother Nature herself? I laughed to myself at the idea. We were vessels for the shards; we weren’t the shards themselves. Or were we? I was starting to feel like this wasn’t the end. There was far more to the story of our being than what we were told or learned over time.
I wrapped my arms around my shoulders and gazed out at the beauty before me. Then my eyes fell on the round burnt patch in the center of the yard, and I had to look away. I had definitely made my mark on the land.
Suddenly I started feeling dizzy and had to fight to stay on my feet. I failed miserably and crashed to the ground. I just didn’t feel any pain.
****
“Oh, shit, Dawn! I didn’t know you were still awake.”
Wesley’s voice came out of the darkness as I stood up, rubbing my face.
“Oh, I quite enjoy being summoned to the astral plane and arriving face first,” I groaned.
“Again, I apologize for the… heck, I hope it doesn’t bruise.”
I looked up and saw he was standing right in front of me. I took a step backward.
“You look… well!” I said, noting the color in his face. His eyes were almost as blue as the day I met him, and his lips were pink. He didn’t look like he was dying. Sudden hope surged in me.
Wesley held up a hand in warning. “I’m not… this,” he said quietly, indicating himself. “This is a projection. I’m lying in a tent in the middle of New Mexico, nearing my last breath.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I argued. “The last few times you summoned me you looked so ill. Unless…” His appearance unnerved me, no matter how much he tried to call it a projection.
“Something is amplifying my power,” he muttered vaguely. “Listen. I know about Aaron. I overheard her talking in my tent the other night. I may not have been there in body, but I do hear things. The good news is that he was taken to an undisclosed location. Neither Miranda nor her mother has been able to locate him.”
He took a step toward me. I automatically took one back.
“I don’t know where he is, before you ask,” I said slowly. “They won’t tell me.”
“Probably for the best that they don’t. However, where are you at? It took you longer to get here than usual.”
“I’m at home,” I lied.
He smiled. “No, you aren’t, Dawn. Honestly, I tell you where I am… why can’t you tell me where you are?” His smile was funny; it wasn’t my Wesley’s
