The Parallels
SIXTEEN

Flowers surround me.

“Time to practice.” A woman looks down at me. I am a child. Her eyes radiate warmth. Her fiery hair yields to a gentle breeze. I know her. She kneels and reaches out her hand and caresses my cheek. Magic blossoms inside of me. “Now,” her smile is sheer pride, “take us to our favorite place.”

“Yes, mama,” I say.

I crash through a rapid. My back scrapes against the riverbed before the current pushes me upward. I inhale the lung-shattering cold just before the water claims me again.

“Out of all the places I’ve Bridged to in Lanel,” the ocean kisses our feet, “this is by far the most beautiful.” She opens her hands to the water and sunlight of Lucent Bay.

The rolling waves gently lull back into the turquoise expanse of the sea. All there is, is the deep water and the possibility of what lies beyond its horizon. I think we’re alone until I see a woman running to us. Her graceful footsteps barely touch the sand. The sea and sky swirl together in radiant waves of blue as she scoops me up and twirls me in the air.

She brings me to her. “I missed you, my heart,” she says softly before turning to my mother. “I didn’t know you’d be visiting again so soon!”

They squish me between them as they embrace. I wriggle out of her hands because the ocean is calling, and I know we won’t stay long.

“Mama.” I tug on the white folds of her billowing skirts. “I’m going to swim now.”

I run to the foamy waves before the last words even leave my lips. The wind and water embrace me with open arms.

Mire take me. My arms break through the river’s surface, and I grasp something solid. The undercurrent drags my feet forward, but I hold tightly to the floating branch. Within seconds, the river widens and slows to a crawl. I kick to the shore and collapse onto the half-frozen bank. The cassiterite band warms as it connects with the ground. My eyes flutter and the world spins. There is no one here to grant me Passage.

Blood - it covers my hands. She lies still before me, her eyes dull and far away.

“I will see you again.” I lean down and kiss her cold cheek. “May you know both sides of life, have felt air in your lungs and ground at your feet. In peace may I bear you hence, and in love may I send you forth.” I had spoken these words to Laurel not knowing I’d said them years before. “I’ll replace you soon, mama.” I say this last part because I believe it.

“Julianne!” It’s the blonde woman from the beach, though she’s older now. “Please get up, my heart. We need to keep moving!”

A high wall of violent, red lightning brands the sky behind her. His storm is coming; one that’s already swept over my home. We’d been running from him for days. I take her hand, and we keep running. We run from the person responsible for my mother’s death. His voice mixes with the air around us, as if it’s carried on the lightning itself.

“Julianne!” His voice is fury from the Fade itself. “Come back to me!” The words break with the thunder.

Finally, what we’d been seeking comes into view. A bronze archway shines ahead of us, it’s a Bridge, and on the other side awaits Lanel. Lightning strikes inches from me and hits the woman. She spins in the air, then lands with deadly thud onto the ground. Magic’s signature vibrations flow through the air around us as I run to her and take her hands. She stares up at me and tightens her grip. Her magic pours through me with such ferocity that my hands burn.

“Take it all, child. Let it protect you.” It’s the ultimate gift – all her magic. I try to pull my hands away, knowing the sacrifice she’s making, but she’s too strong for me, and her will to protect makes her magic that much more potent. “Jules, you are my heart.” Her emerald eyes shine as she takes her last breath.

I scream into the red skies around me. He emerges from the thicket of red clouds like a shadow from my nightmares, but I won’t be scared. I know the plan. Mama made me repeat it over and over these past few days, until it came to me like a memory. I know the plan, and it doesn’t involve killing him, not yet at least. Before he comes any closer, I draw upon the tiniest bit of magic that flows through my veins and veil myself invisible. He will never replace me again.

I sprint to the Bridge only steps away, and as I pass through its archway, I draw upon every bit of my mother’s magic she’d given me days before.

“Mire watch over me,” I say, as I channel my mother’s magic and seal off the Parallels forever.

The river is gone. Instead, the sea kisses my feet and welcomes me back to its wondrous edge. The blonde-haired woman stands by my side.

“Lilian,” I recall her name from a life I barely remember living.

She turns. “How you’ve grown, Jules. You look just like your mother.”

I know her now. “You’re my aunt, aren’t you?” I stammer.

She touches my hands, and I double over with the weight of memories. She reads to me about twin souls and love stories at night. She teaches me to use my magic by taking some of hers. I look up into her turquoise eyes, eyes like the sea.

“And you are my heart, Jules,” she says.

The sand beneath my body trembles. There’s magic at work.

I quickly stand. “Is this an illusion? Are we in a veil or something?”

She shakes her head. “This place is of my creation from my fondest memories in life.”

“Where are we?” I ask.

“It’s beyond the naming of names,” she calmly says. “But I once called it the Mire.”

I try to decide which reaction to run with first. Shock. Anger. Sorrow. Regret. They all scramble over each other. Oddly enough, it’s resolution that wins. The question spills out before I realize it’s there.

“Does that mean I’m dead?”

“Not for much longer, the cassiterite is reviving you as we speak.”

“How do you know about that?”

She stands. “Come,” she offers me her hand, “there’s much I need to show you in the little time we have. It’s time for you to remember.”

“Remember what?” I ask.

“Who you are.”

I take her hand and a memory takes mine.

I hide in the shadows. I took some of Lilian’s magic before she awoke this morning. Now, I stand no more than a few feet from where she and my mother talk in hurried whispers.

“If we fail, you must veil her completely,” my mother says.

“You can’t deny her magic to her.” My aunt’s voice pierces the air a bit louder than she expected because she breathes in deeply to steady herself. “You can’t deny her who and what she truly is.”

My mother wraps her hands tightly around Lilian’s. “We must. He’ll never stop hunting her. Look at what he’s already done to our home, sister.” My aunt’s shoulders slump in defeat. “You’re the strongest veiler in all the Parallels,” my mother continues, “when it’s time, you must protect her. She deserves a normal life, Lilian. The least we can do is give her that.”

Before the memory fades, I swear my mother looks right at me.

My vision blurs, and the ocean reappears. “Why don’t I remember anything?” I ask.

“Because I did what your mother asked.”

“You veiled me? Why keep me in the dark my whole life?”

“So you’d have a chance to live, Jules!” She pleas.

The red lightning flashes before my eyes. “Who was he?”

She squeezes my hand, looking both relieved and fearful. “You are already remembering, which means that the veil is disappearing.” She draws her mouth into a thin line, then speaks again. “That man was her husband,” she says darkly.

It’s as if this nightmare couldn’t get any worse. “My father?” I ask.

“No, never your father.” A dull hum rises around us, overpowering the sound of the waves breaking against the sand. Lilian looks around eagerly. “There’s not much time.” She looks around and I too notice the blurred edges of the sky. “That man is not your father. Your grandparents forced your mother to marry him, to keep peace between the families.” The vibrations increase. “When your mother became pregnant, and he realized that you were not his child, something in him changed. He’d always been a powerful mage, but shortly after your birth, his power increased exponentially and then it started to change him. He couldn’t remember things; even his parents eventually became strangers to him. It was like he was no longer the same person he’d been all his life, but someone else altogether.” She shakes her head.

Images of Morren Blackthorne’s writhing figure come back to me. “Like he’d been enchanted and taken over by someone else?” I ask, hoping to the Mire that I’m wrong.

Her expression assures me that I’m not. “How did you know that?”

I look out onto the waves. “Because I think it’s happening again,” I finally say.

Lilian searches my face. When she speaks again, fear laces her words. “Then he’s still searching for you.”

“But who is he, and what does he want from me?”

She wraps her arm around me. “That I do not know. Your mother searched for answers within the Ventresca Primary, but by the time we realized what was happening, it was too late. We had no choice but to try and hide you before he destroyed the Parallels trying to replace you.”

The sky darkens around us, and I feel paper thin. Even though Lilian’s still embracing me, I barely feel her touch. “What do I do?”

She folds me into her arms. “Protect yourself,” she whispers into my ear. “Your veil is already crumbling which makes you vulnerable. Trust your magic; it’s unlike any power that’s come before. You still have our magic in your blood; it stays with you forever.” She holds me in front of her and cups my face in her hands. “You were born into a long line of powerful mages.” She begins to slip away. “Your magic is as old and powerful as the Parallels themselves.” Her voice comes from far away and her body fades into the sky.

“Who am I?” I ask. I focus on her face as the world blurs around us.

“You’re Juliane Faren, daughter of Sunna Faren and rightful heir to the Faren Primary.”