Shadow of the Sun (38 page)

CHAPTER 26: TIMELESS

There was a cold so penetrating I thought I would choke on ice. The scene before me burst into a million tiny wisps of smoke. My body trembled, a little unhinged, as I cried out. I jerked upright, silencing my voice.

“
Abelie,” I breathed. The infinite sadness resonated in my voice as my mind pulsed and churned.

I took in my surroundings. I was back in her bedroom—not on a battlefield. It felt as if I had just fallen back to reality with a thud.

There was movement in the darkness, and I jerked away, startled and a little frightened. “It’s just me,” Andrew whispered as he lightly traced a finger down my cheek. A small spark of electricity followed his touch.

My chest jumped up and down rapidly as I tried to regain my composure. Fear and grief continued to boil in the pit of my stomach. Andrew whispered something, and a lamp in the corner sprang to life. I blinked, trying to adjust my eyes. My back was pressed against the wall, my knees pulled up to my chest. Andrew sat up, the covers over his legs. I looked down at the top of my knees, Abelie’s silk robe barely covering them.

“
Gabriella?” Andrew ran his fingers along my jaw. He had a pained expression on his face with eyebrows knitted together. “Are you . . .” he trailed off when my eyes shot to his face. He examined my expression and must have seen the panic in my eyes. “Oh, Gabriella,” he sighed. “What did you see?”

My breathing slowed but not my thoughts. They exploded in my mind like a hammer slamming into a mirror. “Your death.”

“
What—”

“
The Ladies of Light,” I cut in. “It was them all along. From your death to the Shadows.” I shook my head. “It was them. Always, it was them.”

I glanced over Andrew’s shoulder, my sight going unfocused. He cupped my cheeks between his palms so I had to stare at him. His eyes were still a brilliant blue, just as somber as before.

“
Tell me what was in your dream. Please,” he pleaded softly. “Let me help you.”

I inhaled deeply before speaking. “The Ladies of Light are after me. They’re after the Illuminator.” A blast of realization hit, so hard and rough that it knocked the breath from me. “And now I know why. It’s because I know, because Abelie knows—knew.”

“
I know they attacked us before, but—” I put a hand up to stop him. He needed to know the truth.

“
It’s more than that. I know why Karen, Soul Stalker, didn’t remember the Halo of the Sun. I know why Abelie wasn’t married to Aiden like you remembered and why he’s a Shadow. It all makes sense. I understand. I know why.” I blinked a few times, trying to rid my eyes of the pictures from my dream.

Names didn’t define good or evil, it was the soul within. The Shadow of the Sun might have caused death, but those full of light altered their minds. I saw it happen. The Ladies of Light wanted the power; they were hungry for it. They turned the Guardians into Shadows. They altered Abelie’s mind. In the dream, I felt what she did, heard what she did. She didn’t remember Aiden when she stared at him after he turned into a Shadow. She felt terror. And in her mind, she didn’t know why she was there or who the Halo of the Sun were.

Andrew pushed a piece of my hair behind my ear, startling me from my reverie. There was a faint frown line between his eyebrows. “Tell me. I want to know; I want to help,” he begged. “What did you witness? I could sense your feelings while you slept; they were a mixture of emotions. You were angry and irritated, you were afraid, and you grieved. And all I could do was hold you and try to take those feelings away. Please, just let me do that now. Let me be your peace.”

I nodded slowly. I felt like I could cry again at any second, but I was dry—there were no more tears left in me. Plus, I was tired of crying. The whole concept of tears was still new to me, and I didn’t like them.

“
I saw it all,” I breathed, my voice husky with sleep. “The answer to everything.”

“
Which is?”

“
It’s best if I tell all of you together,” I told him, my voice barely a whisper. “It pertains to you all.”

He nodded and looked down, deep thought. “I’ll gather everyone.” He peered back up, a look of avid anticipation on his face. “Will you be okay while I . . . ?”

“
I’ll be fine.” I gestured with my hand for him to go. “I’ll meet you down stairs in a few. I just need—”

“
Some time alone.” He stood and grabbed his shirt. He shot me a small half-smile before he bent and kissed me on the forehead. “If you need me . . .”

“
I know where you’ll be.” I attempted a smile.

He nodded once and opened the door to leave. He hesitated for a second in the threshold, glanced over his shoulder, and shook his head once before exiting.

Getting up, I tried to shake off the emotions from the dream. When I looked in the mirror, the green of my eyes had faded into that same bright blue as Andrew’s. Automatically, my hand rose to the dark circles under my eyes. I was never going to get a good night’s rest with these dreams. My gaze followed the line of the beautiful silk robe. It was more like a dress. It was beautiful and even more stunning on Abelie, I remembered from one of my dreams. I went straight to her closet and opened it to see more robes just like this one but in different colors. I put my nose to the first one I grabbed and drew in a deep breath. It was her scent—her lovely smell that I would never. . . .

I pushed the thought aside and closed the closet doors.

I dashed down the stairs and peeked onto each floor. I wondered what kind of mysteries this place presented. Voices wafted up the stairs, and I started to take them two at a time, eager to reach the bottom.

On the first floor, I peered through the entryway. At the end of the tunnel of books was Abelie’s body. I made my way warily toward the silhouette, as if I waded through deep water.

“
Let’s go this way,” Andrew whispered in my ear, seemingly out of nowhere. He placed his arm around my waist and pulled me in another direction. “Everyone’s waiting for you.”

Aiden sat at the head of a long table, the same one we had gathered around the night before. Ehno and Lucia were beside each other on Aiden’s left. Joseph was on his other side, an anxious expression on his face. Andrew and I sat beside Joseph as everyone turned toward me, all of them nervously waiting for me to speak. I was uneasy too. I stared at Aiden, trying to look past the charcoal-like skin, the fiery eyes, the lava-filled cracks of his skin. It was hard to believe he was a Halo, a part of the elite.

“
Aiden, how long have you been a Shadow? Where did Shadows even come from?” If the Ladies of Light altered the Shadows’ minds, I wondered what they did to blanket their time of being angels instead of Shadows.

Aiden appeared confused by my questions. “I’ve always been a Shadow,” he stated. “If there was a life before this, I don’t remember it. Rumors are we’re from hell, cast out of light to forever be tortured in shadow. Of course, I can’t remember any time in hell.” He snorted and rolled his eyes.

“
That’s because it’s a lie,” I told him with a straight face, straight to the point.

The fire in his eyes brightened. “I don’t unders—”

“
You’re the leader of the Halos.” I said it in present tense because I knew, no matter what, he was still a leader, one of the good guys. “You’ve always protected mankind. You were Abelie’s husband before you were ever a Shadow. That was why you were so attracted to her: you always loved her, long before—”

“
Wait,” Ehno cut me off. “This truly is Aiden?” He pointed at him, eyebrows raised. “The Aiden that reigned over all the Halo of the Sun? But he’s . . . and . . .” His speech faltered.

“
What was the last thing you can remember doing before you woke up on the plane?” I asked Ehno. I had to admit I was curious.

Ehno’s expression hardened.

Nothing made sense. If Andrew, Ehno, and Lucia were all “murdered” when I saw their deaths, then they would have known about the Ladies of Light. In my dream they knew of their plans and were prepared to stop them. No, something was undoubtedly off. It hit me then, like a bright light bulb had turned on over my head. A consequence of being turned into a human was the loss of memory. I knew that first hand. But then how did they know anything about the angel world? And how had I been able to see the things that I had through Abelie’s memory if her mind was altered? Was it because the lie had not been planted deeply enough? My head began to hurt from trying to jam the puzzle pieces together.

“
Andrew, Aiden, and I were working with the newly trained Guardians, explaining what their assignments were,” Ehno conveyed. “Zola had informed us only days before that there would be a fire in Istanbul that would destroy ten thousand homes. We wanted Guardians there to help save as many human lives as possible.”

Andrew nodded in agreement. “I remember. Lucia interrupted to notify us of a meeting the Ladies of Light had requested we attend. Of course, you don’t argue with the Ladies of Light. After that I can’t remember a thing.”

“
It’s true,” Lucia chimed in. “But no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember what the meeting was supposed to be about.”

I frowned. “I know what it was about.”

They stared at me eagerly, like I was about to disclose the solution to a mystery. I had no solutions.

I inhaled a weighty breath before I spoke, as if I was about to say it all in one breath, and explained about the Ladies of Light and their “plans.” As I retold my story, they were frozen in place as the impact of my words hit them.

There was a spasm in Lucia’s face. “That’s ghastly,” she spat.

“
Intolerable.” Ehno stood, exploding with anger.

“
That’s what you saw in your dream?” Andrew searched my face intently as he rested his hand over mine on the table. “Are you sure?”

“
That’s only the beginning,” I said in my desperation to make them all understand how dire this really was. The dispiriting realization crept up my veins as they grew silent.

Andrew’s hand tightened over mine, and he broke the silence first. “Of course,” he said in realization. “Your emotions while dreaming . . . you were livid and aggravated, which explains what you told us. Next came . . .” His face paled. “Fear.”

Ehno lowered into his chair, exchanging a dark look with Andrew and Lucia.

I barely nodded. “Lucia joined your side; she disagreed with what Liz and Mimi had decided.”

“
Absolutely,” Lucia agreed. “How would I ever let them get as far as they had?” Her voice rose to a shout, and she shot up from her chair just as Ehno had.

“
There was another meeting,” I continued. “Except the Ladies of Light were left out.” I gestured for Lucia to sit down. She did. I leaned toward her. “Lucia, you were there. Everyone had agreed and planned to stop the Ladies of Light before they were able to go through with their hideous plan.”

Lucia folded her arms and huffed indignantly. “I knew they enjoyed their power more than one should.”

“
Sadly, the Ladies of Light won against the Halos, Guardians, and even you, Lucia.” I stopped, not wanting to go on.

Ehno took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I can see it.”

Andrew’s eyes snapped to Ehno. It was as if I could see the thoughts crowding behind Andrew’s eyes.

“
That can’t be,” Andrew said in a scandalized voice.

“
What do you see, Ehno?” Lucia asked, placing her hand on his forearm. “Show me.”

Show her? I watched them curiously as Lucia’s muscles tensed.

“
They came to battle against the Guardians,” Ehno said, his eyes closed as if he were watching the scene in his head. He explained the events I dreamed in grave detail. With each word, his voice rose in fury. “Lucia sacrificed herself in hopes the Ladies would back down.” Ehno’s eyes snapped open and found Lucia’s “They turned you human. Then they killed you.” The words were choked.

“
How is sacrificing yourself an effective strategy?” Joseph asked incredulously. He instantly realized how his words sounded and looked rightly sheepish.

“
I don’t know,” Lucia whispered.

We were all quiet. Ehno stared at Andrew as if communicating silently. They probably were. Ehno finally spoke, his voice numb with comprehension. “They tried to kill the Halos and Guardians. Instead, they turned them into Shadows.”

Lucia made a funny noise. When I turned to her, she looked as though someone had just slapped her across the face.

Ehno’s jaw tightened as he continued with the story that I had witnessed only an hour before, though he had more insight. “The Ladies of Light were frightened when they realized the Guardians and Halos didn’t die—that they were Shadows. They panicked when the Shadows woke from the spell, and that’s why no one remembers. The Ladies of Light altered their minds. All of them—Shadows, Elders, all the angel world.”