Forgotten (20 page)

“
Our past is not
forgotten, but has been long forgiven, Reaper.”

He snorted, refusing to
believe me. He grabbed the shoulder of the man holding me. Within
the blink of an eye, I was lying on the ground outside the burning
building. My feet brushed against the ground as my savior held me
in his warm arms.

“
Tell that to your sister,
she won’t be particularly pleased to be on this side of her
scissors. You smell like death already,” he snorted, and then
vanished.

The man gently lowered me
to the ground. “I’ve never asked anything from you, until now.
Please, grant me what my heart most desires.”

I couldn’t swallow. The giant man in
my vision was Marco. However, I wasn’t young like I’d been in my
last vision; I was elderly and dying. I tried to sequence my
visions so I could figure out what would happen on the day of my
death. How had Marco not aged? And how could I sense another
person’s feelings?

When Ashwick’s horizon was in his
rearview mirror, Jace hummed a tune under his breath. It was soft
and sweet. The melody was lively yet had an unimaginable calming
effect.

“
My friend Deino wrote it,”
Jace whispered, like he wasn’t sure if he wanted me to hear. Her
name danced off his tongue. I knew he loved her; that wasn’t
difficult to hear. “She had a way of fumbling words in order to
change their meaning.”

Trying not to sound too eager to learn
more about him, I prodded a bit. “Did she leave you?”

His shoulders stiffened. I immediately
tried to ease the situation. “I don’t mean to pry into your
personal life, but you mentioned her the other day, at the bowling
alley. You said you were looking for her?”

He scoffed, “It’s been a long,
drawn-out game of cat and mouse between her and me.”

“
Why do you insist on
looking for her, if she doesn’t want to be found?” I
asked.

“
She does,” he replied
soberly. “She just doesn’t know it yet.”

“
Severe case of amnesia?” I
asked jokingly.

“
Something like that,” he
answered stiffly.

We drove in silence, for what seemed
like half an hour. Deciding that he’d take whatever I said the
wrong way I kept my mouth shut. The smells of pasture blocked out
the perpetual exhaust I was used to breathing in town.

“
Have you ever seen the
sunset?” he asked.

I jumped in my seat when he broke the
silence. He snickered at my reaction, and then asked it
again.

“
Did you forget I’m
blind?”

“
You’re not blind. Perhaps
your doctors believe it, but in my world, you’re merely vision
impaired.”

It was my turn to laugh. He had no
idea just how vision impaired I was. “Oh, really?”

“
Your blindness isn’t a
life sentence of pure darkness, but then again you don’t see just
darkness like everyone else?” he said and traced his finger up my
arm. “The day you lent me your walking stick –”

“
Stole
my walking stick,” I corrected and placed my hands into my lap
even though the touch of his finger made me want to roll up against
him rather than lean away.

“
You managed to wander
about. It wasn’t as skilled as I’d seen before, but you reacted to
your surroundings better than the true blind would have. You see
life’s shadows. Tell me I’m wrong.”

I couldn’t, but that didn’t mean I had
to admit anything, either. He put the car into park. The light on
the horizon was a couple hours from setting, so I hoped he didn’t
want to chit-chat until the day gave way to night.

“
You answer a question of
mine, and I’ll answer one of yours,” I said.

“
I thought we weren’t
playing games.”

“
We’re not. Telling the
truth isn’t a game.”

He chuckled, like it could be as fun
as any other game he’d play with a girl. I tried not to think about
how many other girls he surely “played with” before he laid eyes on
me. He moved charismatically around to the passenger side of the
car. He knew he had my attention and figured I’d do anything he
wanted now that he had me alone. I wasn’t sure he was
wrong.

“
You honestly believe that
you can handle the truth?” he said, while walking around the car.
“I have my doubts, little girl.”

It was infuriating when he
implied I was some kind of a child. We had to be close to the same
age! Yes, I wanted the truth, not half answered questions. And I
most certainly didn’t want anyone who treated me like a child. What
was it that he called me -
A little
girl?
If I was a little girl, then I’d
throw a tantrum to be proud of. I timed it so the door slammed into
his shins when he was almost to my side. Not enough to hurt him,
but enough to give him the message.

“
There are times that it’s
maddening that you’re mostly human,” he jeered. “Because these
games you say you aren’t playing, are exasperating. It makes me
want to break the Oath and strangle you myself!”

I stood and then moved out of the way
for him to close the door. Heat emitted from around him. I half
expected to see flames dancing from his skin like they did in my
dreams, but he’d have to be shirtless and hold unnatural powers –
or I’d have to be insane.

“
But you say you aren’t
playing games with me, so I won’t have to worry about playing them
either,” he grunted and slammed the door shut. He moved behind me,
picked me up, and much to my protest, he carried me in front of the
car. His hands were fiery hot. He dropped me on the hood. My
backside slammed into the hard, searing metal. I winced but managed
not to let a whimper slip.

“
Manners are a lost art,
don’t you think?” he scoffed.

I glared up at his white shape. “What
are you, if not human?”

He slammed his fists on either side of
me. Jace’s frustration eclipsed my spite. He bent forward, so there
were only inches between his face and mine. “Why do you insist on
claiming only one sister, Gwyneth?”

“
Because, I do,” I said,
instantly furious that he brought my family back into the picture.
I pushed his chest trying to create some distance between us
without backing down. He didn’t move an inch, a testament to his
stubbornness. “Why do you pretend I’m the one who’s obsessive when
it’s clearly the other way around?”

“
Why do you move away, when
you want to lean closer?”

“
Like I’m leaning away
now?” I said defiantly, sitting up straighter. Our faces were
inches apart.

“
Why do you act the
opposite of how you feel?”

I frowned, and crossed my
arms.
Because, I don’t trust you – or
myself.
“I think with my head, not my
heart, Jace. Maybe you should take a page from my book.”

“
Says the fool,” he said,
and reached for my chin like he was going to try to kiss me or
something - just as ridiculous given our intense
argument.

I smacked his hand away, which stung
the moment our skin touched; I pretended not to notice that his
anger seemed to crawl onto my body. “Foolishness is when people
don’t think logically.”

“
It’s done you a bit of
good in the seventeen years of your life. How’s foster care? I’m
surprised the Thompsons took you in with your record of
discipline.” When I didn’t respond, he continued. “Do you plan on
playing the ‘my family got murdered, bit’ forever, or are you going
to grow up sometime soon and accept your destiny?”

I slapped him across the face with as
much force as I could muster. He snickered when I tried to backhand
him a second time. He gripped my wrist and shoved it against the
car’s roof. My hand burned from touching the metal, but my hands
didn’t blister, even though they should have, considering how long
the engine was on. I fought him; he effortlessly pinned me to the
car top. I shoved my knee into his stomach. He backed off, but not
for long. I sat up and was hit with a heat wave that radiated off
of him.

“
Perhaps it’s not even the
whole murdered deal that bothers you so much, Gwyneth. Maybe it’s
the knowledge of knowing a good life was stolen from you, and now
you’re wasting away in this sad –”

“
Like you would know what
it’s like to lose someone you love?” I sneered.

“
Like you even knew your
biological parents?” Jace said. He leaned in closer and his voice
rose. His seemed to take up more space than his body encompassed as
he towered over me. I fell back onto my elbows. They burned, but
healed quickly, impossibly quickly. “Like you even knew Lily? They
could’ve been horrible people, Gwyneth. You’ve made them out to be
this great loving family so you didn’t have to deal with
reality.”

“
What happened with Deino?”
I taunted as boldly as I could, lying on the roof of his car. “You
broke her heart, and were surprised she left you
hanging?”

“
She broke mine!” Jace
shouted, and pushed off the hood.

He pulled at his hair like he wanted
to rip it out. My skin burned and tingled as his anger grew. I
braced myself, unsure of what he’d do if his control vanished. I
sat up, and started to slide off the car. I hit a nerve; his temper
was erupting. I wanted to be on my own two feet when he exploded.
His figure reformed, growing bright. The air became hot around him.
An image of his dark chocolate brown eyes formed in my
mind.

“
Reborn as what I once
was?” I asked, tracing his thumb since he refused to return my
gaze. Smoke rose around us. It seeped over the wheat grass, while
every building around us went up in flames.

“
Playing with your fate is
dangerous.” His voice burned, apologetically. “But I can feel the
life leaving your body. I’ve never asked for you to grant me
anything, dearest. Grant me this.”

I caught myself falling forward, as
the older woman I was in the vision. I leaned in closer to the
young man with haunting dark eyes. In reality, I stumbled once my
feet touched the ground. Unable to stand on my own, I leaned
against the car. I refused to look at Jace until my breathing
returned. My soul ached. Not like how it was scorn in visions
before, but like the heartache of a lover’s regret.

“…
she left me, Gwyneth!”
Jace said, continuing with his rant that had been interrupted by my
vision. “Not the other way around. I’ve spent the better part of my
life searching for her.”

I cleared my throat, trying to regain
my place in the conversation before the vision. I wanted to stand
on my own two feet, but my nerves were jumping. My adrenaline was
pumping from my fight with Jace; my heart was racing from the
vision.

“
Why look for someone who
doesn’t want to be found?” I asked, hoping he didn’t notice the
waver in my voice.

“
She begged me to find
her,” he admitted.

I rubbed my forehead, trying to figure
out the riddle he presented. “What happened, Jace?”

“
Analee’s horde will come
for me if I tell you everything, you know that, Gwyneth,” he said
with growing frustration.

A horde of ghostly white
warriors flickered in my mind. Their eyes were empty holes. Their
mouths were sewn shut, but it didn’t silence their cries. The
forgotten past hacked a part of my soul while I beat on the wooden
coffin.

My soul may as well have just been
divided, because my heart hurt like a part of my very being just
died. The vision was over in seconds, but I was shaken. It felt
like I’d been buried alive in this last vision. In the one just a
moment before, I had been dying in the arms of someone I’d love
who’d eventually kill me. The blood drained from my face as I tried
to figure out what was going on between Jace and me. I didn’t
understand what he talked about or his logic. I wanted to run; I
wanted to hide. I was in the middle of nowhere, with a person who’s
obsession with me had reached unsafe levels.

“…
my temper gets the best
of me sometimes. I should have shielded it from you,” Jace said, as
he stroked my arm while I trembled on the car’s roof.

“
It wasn’t that,” I said,
and immediately wished I wouldn’t have said anything. I knew it
spiked his curiosity. As always, he deemed my reactions to him, and
everything else, as important. His interest in me had always become
profound after I’d witnessed a vision. Pretending like I was simply
frustrated with his answer, I fought to remember what Jace and I
were talking about.

It didn’t matter, I thought bitterly.
In the last dream he walked away. My dreams were beginning to match
my reality – prince charming didn’t exist. I pushed him away and
then put my head between my knees until I remembered why I’d agreed
to come with him in the first place.

“
You think I have two
sisters,” I said, grasping onto the lunatic’s logic once I let
myself calm down. “You believe I’m this Deino chick, so, how do you
prove it?”

“
I fix your eyes,” he
whispered. He acted like he was giving me some great gift or
letting me in on some secret when in fact, his statement only
reinforced my belief he was a total nut-job.