Chapter 5-2

Angie

Soon after the canisters fell I became aware that my younger brother Jake had the ability to contact me from the Far Beyond.

I knew this was a rarity and it scared me. Over the years I’ve spent countless hours working at fortifying my defences. Guarding my secret. Today was no different.

THIS VERY INSTANT

‘Em, Em, Em and Jam.’

I came to a skidding halt. Jake. Jake was back, but thanks to the bushberry core, he was well on the other side of my barriers.

‘Won’t, won’t, won’t be long before he sees through your scam.’

I turned around. Jake was referring to Stevron. I looked around. Had he followed me? Then I smelled bushberry.

‘He, he, he knows. You, you, you better-’

“Shut up!” I snapped. I needed to concentrate. Where was Stevron? How close was he to me?

Stevron stepped into my view.

“Has Jake always talked to you?” he asked me.

Stevron was one of the few people who knew, other than Carter, that Jake was my younger brother and that he had died the day the canisters fell.

‘Told, told, told you so.’

I gritted my teeth.

‘You, you, you need to know?’ Jake demanded.

I shook my head and growled. “No, I don’t.”

Stevron stepped closer. “Don’t what?”

I swallowed. My panic was ebbing. I gave Jake a mental push. I focused back on Stevron.

“I don’t need to stand here wasting time. Playtime is over.”

Stevron wet his lips and I saw the flash of his perfect white teeth as he spoke. “Straddling two worlds is no joke, Angie. You’re putting yourself in danger.”

My anger flared up. Was Stevron really a member of the Sapphyre Wings people? Could he read my mind?

“Serious danger.”

I didn’t need to be reminded, by anyone, that everyday I walked a very thin line. That at any second I could take a misstep and-

“You need to talk to me.”

I bristled. “What I need is to get back to my sister and brother.”

Stevron took a step so close to me that I could see the swirl of silver in his dark blue eyes. He must be a Sapphyre Wings. Far Beyonds didn’t have eyes like that.

“Jake opened the portal for Em today. Did he do the same for Jam?”

His question surprised and terrified me. How did he know Jake opened portals?

I lost what little composure I had left and found myself shouting. “Dammit, how should I know?” I could feel the spit spraying out of my mouth. “I was too busy trying to keep my sister, here. Alive! How am I supposed to know how much my stupid brother showed Em or if he even showed Jam anything at all?”

Stevron absorbed my fury. His next words slammed hard into my chest.

“You should have prepared Em.”

I curled my upper lip.

Any idiot could have told me that I’d failed my sister. That my attempts at shielding the truth would eventually come back to bite me on the ass.

I shook my head sharply. No, revealing the truth had never been an option. It had been simply out of the question.

“Then you should have at least told her the extent of what is happening to you and Jam.”

I pressed my lips together at Stevron’s condemnation. He was broaching another subject that I had fought hard to keep from my sister.

I felt disgusted with myself but I couldn’t let on to Stevron how deeply his words cut me. I growled at him. “That’s your opinion.”

He didn’t spare me any slack. “Yeah, just my opinion. Still, Em deserved to know.”

I didn’t like it, but Stevron was right. I had owed it to Emmalee to tell her that the canister that had fallen in the vicinity where Jam and I had been, had basically accelerated our ageing. At twenty-four, the same age as Stevron, I looked more like I was in my late thirties, possibly early forties. Our brother Benjamin hadn’t fared much better. No wonder Em had taken one look at me and thought she was dead. I looked just like the mother Em remembered.

It was my fault. All my fault that Jake had been able to find a crack in Em’s defences. He’d opened a portal to her and I hadn’t thought enough to have given Em the tools in which to fight against him. I’d failed. Had I failed Jam as well?

The burden of guilt crushed my shoulders. I’d been selfish again. Put myself, my pride before my own sibling’s well being. I hadn’t changed one iota in seven years.

I lowered my head. I couldn’t let Stevron see the shame in my eyes.

“Angie.”

His voice was low and extremely seductive.

I shook my head, trying hard to control the clenching of my stomach. I blindly backed a step away from him. His voice followed me.

“Lower your defences. Let me in.”

I sensed his movement and my eyes flickered up to see him reach out a hand to me.

“I’ll take your pain away. If only for a little while.”

The shame in my eyes grew. I wanted to give in at that moment. To act on the sexual pull between us that had only grown over the past months. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

I backed away another few steps. “It ain’t going to happen, ever.”

“It can be just sex if that’s what’s worrying you. Nothing more.”

My head snapped up. I clenched my teeth. I didn’t appreciate his bluntness.

The clouds moved across the moon and for a second Stevron’s large body was once again just a silhouette.

“I’d accept more. I’ve always thought you beautiful.”

Stevron’s attempt at flattery made me angry. I knew exactly how I looked. How much I had aged in the last year and a half since we’d met.

“This has nothing to do with my vanity,” I snarled. I found myself having to squint at Stevron to bring him into sharper focus. “The fact is that Em now knows that Jam and I are ageing at a much faster rate than she is. Another seven years and we could very well be dead.”

Stevron took a deep breath, then he stepped forward and swiftly grabbed my arm. His grip wasn’t painful but firm.

“You’re right,” he said in a hardened tone. “You could be dead. We all could be. Seven years ago our worlds collapsed. Seven years from now, who knows what? That’s why you should think about dropping that wall you’ve erected around yourself and open your eyes. No one knows what’s going to happen next week let alone next year. It’s time to take action. Stop wasting time.”

For a second I stared up at him and I thought that in his sudden passionate outburst that he would yank me up against his rock hard chest and kiss me. I even imagined that he leaned closer.

Stevron however released his grip and stalked away. Leaving me alone, standing in my still bloodsoaked clothes.

©Legend of the Sapphyre Wings by Janet Merritt