Synergy (See #3)(35)

“When did we figure out what we were? When did the battle with the Escorts begin?” I asked.

He didn’t answer me.

“Silas, I’m asking you for a reason, and it’s not just to save Draven. I’m almost positive that I’ve provoked the devil himself. I have to protect Monroe. I have to figure out how the people I thought would help me now need my help -- if it’s even them. How to do what everyone thinks I can.”

“You have to remember if you’re going to help.”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“Aren't you afraid that if you remember, you’ll know how much you love me? That you see that the love you think you have for Draven can’t compare to what we had? Are you willing to take that risk to help people you don’t even know?”

I felt my stomach tying itself in knots. A thousand scenarios rushed through my mind. I told myself that my mom would never lead me into something that would take Draven away from me, that regardless of what I remembered, I walked away from Silas and into Draven’s arms. The question was not if I would stop loving him as I dove deeper into my memories; it was if I were prepared to live with the guilt, to feel that goodbye to Silas, for it not to be some past life, but a part of me now.

I held on to the idea that those people that I didn’t know, the ones which needed my help, were people that could help stop this, they could help find balance in this world. That if that was Landen with Bianca, that Willow would die with him, that the devil would find victory in that moment.

I nodded. “Open the door, Silas.”

He stared at me for what seemed like an eternity. I knew he was questioning my motives, trying to see if there was a single ray of hope, that my decisions were based on love for him.

“We were in Egypt,” he said finally. “A priest came to where we were staying. He told us he dreamed of us, that it was time for us to leave this world.” He sighed. “We’d lived a long time. We were ready to die, so we followed him to his temple.”

“But death wasn’t what he meant,” I said as I started to see this temple in my memory. The sand stones, the torches that led our path.

“No. When we got there, he introduced us to another couple.”

Silas reached for my hand, and when I felt the hum of his skin, I saw this couple clearly in my mind. I saw an older woman, a woman that looked entirely too much like Madison, standing next to a man that was tall. His eyes were so blue that I couldn’t help staring at them.

“Madison was there,” I said breathlessly.

“No, not there. That soul belongs to the one you’re calling Willow now. The man ... he’s called Landen now.”

My eyes closed as defeat came to me. I was terrified for Madison -- was she a sacrifice? Am I leading her to that?

“I ... I ... I don’t understand.”

“Look closely,” Silas said as he squeezed my hand tightly.

When I focused on this girl, the dinner we had with them then played through my memory. This girl, she seemed older; her soul seemed older. Though the eyes, the long dark hair, the olive skin was the same, the details were different. That wasn’t Madison, but all this memory did was cause more questions. Why did Madison look like Willow? What would happen when they met? How would the dream of the dark prince play into this?

“Are they undead, too?” I asked, glancing to my side at him, wondering if Landen and Willow were like Silas, or like me and Draven.

“No. They had the luxury of dying, though they didn’t see it that way.”

“They wanted to live on and on like we did?”

“Yeah. They despised that they had to die and be reborn in ignorance. That in each life they would not only have to discover who they were once again, but that they would have to find each other. They felt that with each life they only moved a few feet forward. They also felt that they were running out of time, that with each life they became more illuminated. They believed once they’d reached full illumination that they wouldn’t be given another life; that instead they’d be a part of the great cosmos – the spirits that guide us.”

“And what’s so wrong with that?”

“They wanted to finish what they began. They believed that they were destined to redeem another world. They were the ones that put a name to what we fought. They were the ones that taught us the paths of the string, and ... they let us see what we’d been blind to until that point.”

“What else did they teach us? What did they say to us? Did they know this day was coming?”

He tensed as anger engulfed his image. “They told us we’d see them again in another life and that when we did, our paths would collide - but that I wasn’t to tell them what they told me until they were ready.”

“You and not me. So you can help them, but I can’t.”

“I said me for a reason. They knew ... they knew you would die and be reborn before that time.”

“Are you serious?”

His jaw locked as frustration filled his eyes. “I don’t know what Willow said to you then. You just told me that when we met them again, for me not to forget how much you loved me. You told me to forgive you and to protect our promise to not only Isis, but to Landen and Willow ... to each other.”

I felt my heart racing. I knew that more than likely Willow had seen Draven in my future. I wondered what advice she gave me then, if I honored her words or disobeyed them. I knew I held enough of this memory now that I could look back, watch our conversation, but I didn’t want to do that with Silas next to me. I knew I had my reasons for keeping this secret from him.