Exaltation (Insight #11)(41)

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Not long after the girls entered Saige’s home the coven managed to put the protection spells back in place. The debate was on then with Saige, Jamison, and Emery going over every way they could to unlock Soren and the girls’ memories without terrifying them.

Tea was what they came up with. Behind a secret passage in Saige’s home there was library, a room which was heavily protected because of the ancient books within it. That’s where they told Soren and the girls to sleep. With them in that room and the core members of the coven upstairs, there was no way they could be sensed by anyone.

There were three couches down there. Ash and River slept head to toe on one and Soren and Raven took the others.

Raven went to sleep with the promise she was safe and her dreams would carefully unlock her memories.

That was not the case. Her dreams were vivid and horrifying.

One second she was peacefully dreaming—skating away, the crowd was screaming—and the next she was standing in the center of Jackson Square during a wicked storm.

Soren stood before her, Ash and River parallel just behind her. Men in black were moving toward them. Most had no soul in their eyes, others seemed to look deep inside.

It became cold, wickedly cold. Raven felt them pulling from her. Instinctively a wave of vim rippled from her, knocking most of the men in black down. No matter how hard they fought, more and more came. Then all at once this guy appeared. A warrior with tan skin, blond curly hair, and eyes that glowed the color of honey. Silas, that was his name. He reached into those men and pulled black smoke from their bodies, their souls. And the smell was awful—sulfur. The air reeked.

Soren followed Silas’s lead and learned to pull the black souls, too. Not long after they all were doing it, but Raven hated it.

There were a few, ones that seemed to be hunting her specifically, that the angel boy held down. Instead of killing them he told Raven to do it. In fact, one of those was the first one Raven killed.

The boy told her to act as if she were grasping a rope and pull. When Raven did, the black smoke soared from his body and she felt a vibration wave through her. It was like being doused in adrenaline. A power surge. Raven assumed it felt like that when the others went down but only two others gave her the same sensation. Two, the boy led her to—one was during one hurricane and the other was in a different one.

Raven’s dream moved to her ride home with Benjamin.

The angel boy didn’t show up to help her with that one. Benjamin had pulled the car over near a bank, and he leaned toward her. When he kissed her he breathed in ever so noticeably. Raven felt the cold pull and fought back. She reached to pull that rope from him, his soul, but he was solid, not like those other beings she’d fought.

The cab of the car filled with so much energy it began to propel itself forward, finally crashing. Other boys showed up and pulled Benjamin away as if he was the victim. Jamison showed up seconds later, saving Raven from the flames encasing the car.

Raven knew her dad was telling her the truth when he said he had explained what happened before. In her dreams she saw him tell her how she was an extraordinary soul. He told her she was chosen to end a line of evil. She, along with her guardians, would take down five points of power. Those points would destroy a monarch, allowing a new one to rise who was full of balance.

It was Raven and the girls who had asked them to lock their memories away. They asked weeks after the trauma. They couldn’t live that way, remembering what they faced and fearing the worst. They’d wanted their lives back.

Raven felt a gentle caress and opened her eyes. Jamison’s fingertips were tracing across her brow. He was leaning over the back of the couch, looking down at her. It was dark, the only light was from a few small lamps in the corners.

“What time is it?” Raven whispered.

“Nine.”

“Night?” she asked when she realized that it was near dawn when she went to sleep. There was no way he would have awakened her that fast, not when he was counting on her dreams to bring her memory back.

He nodded once. Raven glanced to the other couch to see River still sleeping. Kade had asked them all to go to a party that night. River said yes, but Raven was sure she’d agreed because she had her eye on the boy in his passenger seat, the one who was exactly her type.

Raven knew they were not making the party, not when they still had to learn this energy/vim stuff her father wanted to teach them.

She untangled herself from the blanket around her and made her way to the bathroom. Once her face was washed she stared at her reflection for a few minutes, recounting the dream.

She didn’t know who she was in that dream. She didn’t like that person. That person was scared, worried, shocked, and sad—Raven was a happy person.

She didn’t want to feel that way again, and surely didn’t want to fight anyone.

When she finally came out of the bathroom, she heard her father call her name quietly and then made her way to the kitchen. He had two hot mugs on the table.

Still groggy, Raven slipped into the chair across from him.

“Where’s aunt Saige and Miss Emery?”

“Emery is upstairs asleep. Saige is in the study, getting ready for our next step.”

“If it’s more herbal tea I’m good.”

“Did you dream?” Jamison asked, searching her eyes, seeing age in them, lack of bliss. That hurt him. Raven was only herself when she was happy.