The Parallels
TWENTY

I return to the cavern as I promised Niall only to replace Darius looking skyward to the flickering stars above. When I come to take my place by his side, he doesn’t stop looking at the sky, and I don’t stop looking at him.

“Do you think it looks the same in every Parallel?” he asks.

“I hope to one day replace out.” He looks at me. “I hope one day we replace out,” I say taking a step closer. “There’s something I’ve wanted to try.”

My gaze rests on his topaz eyes and not knowing what exactly to do; I focus on the splashes of grey I replace in them. I imagine a cord connecting my thoughts to his and then send my words down its length.

Can you hear me? I push the question out to him.

A luminous smile as dazzling as the stars above breaks over his face and the unmistakable current of magic stirs within me.

Hold out your hand, I say through the cord.

He brings his right hand out and holds it palm up toward the Mire. I tentatively remove my glove and bring my hand inches from his then close my eyes. My mother’s gentle words come to me. I picture the ocean and match my breaths to the ebb and flow of the tide, letting the sounds of its methodical song fill my body. Magic wells up in me then trickles down my arm and into my fingers as if it’s carried on the waves themselves. When I open my eyes, the space between our hands glows with golden light.

“How are you doing this?” he asks quietly, staring at the faint luminescence.

I’m mesmerized by the metallic lustre that my voice seems to come from a faraway place. “It’s what cleavers do.”

The memory of my mother saying it years ago settles in my head as clear as the night sky above.

“It doesn’t hurt when I take magic, does it, mama?”

I’m sitting outside trying to braid blades of grass into a bracelet as I’d seen her do countless times before. It’s one of the rare moments we’re not at the citadel or training, so she’s bridged us to the North Woods of Faren.

“Not at all, my love.” She’s laying on the ground gazing at the clouds above. Suddenly, she sits up. “I know,” she exclaims. “How about cleaving?”

I look up from the bracelet in my hands. We’d be searching for a word to describe my magic since none like it existed before.

“Cleaving.” I consider the word. “I like the way it sounds but what does it mean?”

“It means attaching to something or someone, sticking to them almost,” she says. “Like what you do with magic. It’s a part of them you’re connecting to, and that part stays with you always.”

“Cleaving,” I say testing it out. “I guess that makes me a cleaver then.”

“Jules?” When the memory subsides, and I’m back in front of Darius. The space between our hands still shimmers, but that’s not what draws Darius’s attention. “Your eyes,” he gasps.

He brings his other hand up to my face, and the second his fingers touch my cheek, the golden light encircles us. I panic for a moment, scared that I’ll somehow hurt Darius, but something inside me knows that there’s nothing dangerous about this magic, in fact, it’s the purest magic I’ve ever felt.

“Darius.”

Whatever else I was about to say is lost as he presses his lips to mine. Magic explodes inside of me. He drags his hands through my hair and cups the back of my head kissing me fiercely. My lips part just as his other hand slides over the curve of my back pulling me closer to his body.

“Mire be!” He pulls away quickly and grabs his right hand. When he lifts his sleeve, I draw in a breath. Imprinted on the delicate skin of his inner wrist is a single line intersected by several horizontal and diagonal lines.

“Argh!” I cry out.

My fingers tremble as I turn over my hand to reveal the same marking on my wrist as well. He closes the space between us and takes my hand in his.

“Are you hurt?” he asks.

“No more than you.” I look down at his marking. “What does this mean?” I’d been accustomed to being branded with magic’s signature every time I cleaved it from another, but this was something else entirely. Before we have the chance to say more, Niall walks out from the cavern looking considerably more worried than he had before.

“Come with me,” he says to me. I look at Darius and start moving toward the cavern when Niall calls out, “you too, Darius!”

I grab Darius’ hand, and we follow Niall into a small chamber just off the larger cavern. Other than the two cots pushed into the furthermost corner, the nook is barren. Niall takes a seat on the smaller bed and motions for us to sit as well.

“I wanted to tell you outside of listening ears,” he says. “Are you aware of what type of magic the Ventresca Primary was known for?” he asks. Both Darius and I shake our heads. “I thought not.” He folds his hands together. “We were once called seers.”

“What does that mean?” I ask wearily. I don’t let go of Darius’ hand, replaceing strength in its warmth.

“It would always depend on the specific mage of course, but some of our bloodline could look into the future while others could stare into a person’s mind.” He glances at Darius. “A bit like your friend Arthin and the Blackthorne Primary.”

“And what about you?” Darius asks.

Niall smiles. “Usually, I see all a person was, the memories that their magic and soul collect from this life and from all the ones that came before. Because the soul and magic are intrinsically bound, the only thing that changes is the vessel you’re born into. Which means that no matter what form a person takes in their life, the stream of memories should extend out like a line back to their first existence.” He pauses, collecting himself. “When I touched you, I saw something I’ve never seen before.”

“What did you see?” I ask.

His eyes crease into tiny slits as if he’s trying to decipher it all. “I can’t say for sure,” he hesitates, “but it seems as though your line isn’t a line at all. The memories I saw flowed through themselves like water, folding over each other continuously.”

I shake my head, none of this was making sense. “I don’t understand. Is it because of the veil?”

“I don’t think so,” he says solemnly. “A veil is like a blanket. Take it off, and you see everything underneath. But with you, it’s as if your memories, your magic, your soul...it’s like they’re interwoven with someone else’s.”

“But how is that even possible?” Darius tries to figure out the answer I was already realizing. I’d been hunted by a stranger my entire life but maybe I, Julianne Faren, wasn’t the one he was looking for.

Niall edges closer to me searching my eyes for answers. “It shouldn’t be possible, but there’s so much about the Parallels we don’t know, not since Gethin destroyed our people’s history. Does any of this make sense to you, Jules?” he asks in earnest.

“Before my mother died, she’d searched for answers with your kin,” I say to Niall. “She wanted to know about the thing that possessed her husband, the thing that tore Faren apart in search of me.” I feel Darius watching me, but his grip does not waver. “She made me…” My voice trails off.

Niall slowly takes my hands in his own. “Made you what?” he asks in barely a whisper.

I look at Darius and hope to the Mire that he can forgive me. “It was the only way she knew how to protect me,” I say to him.

“Jules, what did you?” For the first time since I’ve known him, I see real fear in his eyes.

I turn back to Niall. “I closed the bridges and sealed off the Parallels.” Niall’s eyes widen, and Darius’s hand slips from my own as he stands.

“Darius,” I plea. When I rise to my feet, he backs away. “Darius, I couldn’t have known what would have happened!”

The coldness in his eyes knocks the breath out of me. “No mage has that much magic,” he mutters to himself then looks at me puzzledly. “Everything that’s happened: Lanel, Blackthorne, my kin.” His words are tortured.

“I couldn’t have known what would have happened. I was just trying to survive.”

I feel a touch on my shoulder from Niall who’s come to stand by my side.

“It’s all any of us can do in these times,” he says. “Survival is the only certainty we have left.”

Darius’s gaze flickers between us and he takes a step forward just as the blaring sound of a horn ricochets off the cavern’s walls.

I press my hands over my ears. “What is that?” I shout.

“The alarm,” Niall steps past Darius who hasn’t stopped staring at me. Niall pulls him along as they leave the cavern and I follow along.

Niall finishes whispering something in Darius’s ear before he pushes him away. Darius gives me one last agonizing look and retreats down the pathway back to Northpoint.

“Darius!” My call is lost to another deafening sound of the alarm.

My bracelet vibrates at my wrist, but I tell it to shut up. Magic has brought nothing but death and destruction, and now it has pushed away the one person in all the Parallels that I’d come to care for the most. This wasn’t the goodbye I’d wanted for us.

Niall shifts beside me, but I can’t stop looking at the space where Darius was. The alarm subsides.

“There’s something else Jules,” Niall whispers.

“What more could there be?” I ask, defeated.

The answer comes slowly. “When I’d lost control of my magic, and he took over, the feeling when I opened my eyes and he saw you, well it was overwhelming.”

I turn and face Niall. “What feeling?” I ask.

“Love,” he says plainly.