Aiden nodded and walked out the door.
The yearning I had to be around my soul-song was becoming extremely difficult to manage. I could hear her soul reach out to me, and the anguish inside of her made me pause. I needed to be near her. I didn't know how many days I could last so far away from her. At night, her green eyes haunted me, beckoning me to go to her.
There was one thing, though, that I needed even more than her, and that was the missing piece of my soul. My soul, which I had reclaimed from my brother, was not completely intact. I tried to remind myself that getting it back was the sole purpose of getting close to Emma, but my melody seemed to make life fuzzy. My plans were crumbling around me.
My brother had broken away a single note from my melody, and placed it inside of Emma’s soul when they had kissed goodbye just before I took back my soul from him. Without that note, without my full melody, I could not return to Terra. Also, the desire to have Emma as my own kept overpowering my every thought, complicating my plans. Still, green-blue eyes from my dungeon dreams flashed through my subconscious thoughts whenever I became tired, and I often wondered why my insides continued to beckon for me to discover those eyes, to find her–because I had already found her, and her eyes weregreen, not that green-blue color—notturquoise.
Emma’s face was beautiful,her lips so soft, I thought, as memories of Shad kissing her hummed through my soul. On most mornings, Shad’s memories would just come bursting out, and I tried repeatedly to fight them back down. I needed to find a way to avoid being at the mercy of my brother's memories, but they, of course, were embedded withinmysoul because Shad had occupied it for so long. I relived Emma’s and Shad’s shared kisses in the cave, for what seemed to me the thousandth time, and I ached—yearned to have Emma in my own hands, in my own arms, my lips caressing her skin. I stopped myself—suchthoughts and feelings—I needed to get a grip on them; I could not let my feelings get in the way of my plans. Emma played a huge part in all of the plans I had been conjuring, no matter how many times I wrote and then rewrote possible outcomes. They all involved her. I needed her. However, for the sanity of my mind, body, and soul, I needed to be patient and not compulsive with my desires. I took a glass from the cupboard. I focused on the reflections on the glass cup, how light reacted to the reflective coating on the glass. I turned on the kitchen faucet and watched the water swirl around, filling up the cup. I tried to clear my mind–forcing myself into the present moment, and out of my soul and emotions. It worked for a few moments before I started to think of Emma again.
I needed to get close to her, I had spent enough time away. I took a long drink before setting the cup gently down on the counter. I watched a few drops of water slide down the sides of the cup to the bottom of the glass. I was taken from that distraction when I heard the door click. Looking up I saw Aiden and Kara. Kara took one look at me, then hurried down the stairs. Aiden locked the door and hung up his coat.
“I am going to Oak High,” I said, picking up the glass and walking into the living room only a few feet away.
“You are?” Aiden asked, following after me. I turned and he bowed slightly.
“I need to be near Emma,” I said, swirling the last sip of water in my cup focusing on the movement.
“I see,” was his reply. Why did I wonder what he would say?He is soulless, and his opinions don’t matter.
I lifted one hand to touch my face and nose. My nose had healed, and the bruising was almost completely gone. I looked more like my dear twin brother than ever before.
“I will see you tomorrow,” I said, gulping down the last of my water and placing the then empty cup on the side table.
I walked to my bedroom, hoping to sleep so that next morning I could finally be with her—be with my song—myEmma.All would be well,I attempted to calm myself. Yet memories haunted me. I focused on the ones with Emma–and remembered her parents' funeral. The memory took over me and the emotions burst inside of me.
She doesn't belong to Shadrict. I will replace every single memory of them together with my own. I will make her realize that it was my melody all along–our connection she felt. We are the ones that truly belong together.
Chapter eight
Iwatched again from a distance as the group broke apart, people giving their condolences, and the knight holding Emma up so that she wouldn't topple over into the open grave. She had been wobbling throughout the entire ceremony, her sorrow affecting her body’s capability for accessing even the most basic functions. Sorrow poured from her melody. I could hear the pain and the hurt that curled its way inside of her, winding down deep and like a snake coiling up, preparing to remain silent until the ideal time to deliver the death strike—with venom.
“What should we do, Sire?” the soulless who came with me asked as I watched Emma and Rykerian, the knight, walk away from the grave. I counted their steps as they walked across the lawn, back to their cars: twenty paces.
“What we need to do,” I said, flexing my fingers which hung at my sides. Her melody was being shielded by both Rykerian and Mary, her knight and her aunt, and although they could not shield it completely, they did a decent job. What she really needed, though, was a seeker's crystal. I walked back to my car,slowly. The soulless came trailing behind me. I stopped. “What is your name?” I asked without turning around.
“Ten.”
“Ten?"
“Yes, I was the tenth child of my mother.”
“Ten children?”
“I am all that is left; well—soon there will be no more left at all.”
“Do you remember, Ten, which kingdom you came from?”
“I was from the Kingdom of Tolston.”
“Tolston,” I said, raising a brow. If my recollection was correct, he had to be an old soulless, and I wondered how he’d hung on for so long.
“I spent most of my youth in the Kingdom of Sorra before it was destroyed, however, Sire.”
“I have hardly met any from that kingdom,” I said, sliding my hands inside my pockets, still not turning to face him.
“Yes, well, everyone is dead, and any who stilllive,they are actually dead, as well, even if their bodies still breathe.”
“What do you mean?”
