Chapter Fifteen

I do my best to remain calm as I make my way to the shadow witch's home, but my heart feels like it is going to explode. Normally, I do not get worked up over situations. I can't remember a time I was so worried about something. But my mate's life is on the line, and that isn't something to take lightly. It didn't help that I stopped by Jhai's room again, and he wasn't there. His neighbor said he had seen him only a few minutes earlier, but I'd already decided I can't trust anyone.

Is Charen lying to me?

I do not know Charen well enough to say. Though he is a shadow, and we can usually be trusted, it is clear there are some who hold loyalties to only certain shadows—whoever is behind all of this. I cannot trust someone solely based on them being a shadow, which is disheartening. Being a shadow used to mean something. Now? It's nothing but another being that makes up this universe. We may as well be low life demons.

Jhai is a friend, and I am concerned for his safety. He tried to give me information. He knows something that he felt I needed to know but didn't get the chance to tell me. Something he was most likely told not to share. Jhai risked his life to give me this information… Is he okay? Has he been killed? Is this my fault?

I breathe a small sigh of relief when I reach the rusted gates of the shadow witch's home. I push away the thoughts of Jhai for now, because even though he is my friend, my mate takes precedence, and he would agree with me. A woman's voice sounds through the speaker before I am able to press the buzzer, startling me.

"I have been awaiting you, Vesperon. Hurry inside," the voice hisses.

The gates creek open as I take one last look around to ensure I am not being followed and note the vast emptiness of where her home is located. There is nothing over this way besides trees. Amber wood—tall, thick trees, a deep orange yellow color. The older they get, the darker they become. They hold no leaves, only crooked and thin branches, like broken fingers.

I fit through the opening, then rush up the stone walkway. The shadow witch meets me at the front door but does not meet my eyes. She looks past me, glancing both ways before ushering me in. She lingers a moment before slipping inside and shutting the door.

"You've been awaiting me?" I ask, turning to find her sliding the thick metal locks closed. She then holds her hands up, palms facing the door, and whispers an incantation. I recognize it by the language it is spoken in, but do not understand what it means verbatim.

"I knew it was only a matter of time before you would return," she says once she is done, giving me a weak smile.

She guides me down a cramped hallway, and a feeling of familiarity washes over me. Everything in this home sets off little bells in my head, telling me I've been here before, though I've no recollection of it. Even the witch looks familiar, but she is not the one who put the spell on me all those thousands of years ago when I first became a guardian. Witches do not live as long as guardians. Their lifespan is that of a human.

She turns into a dimly lit room, and I follow her. It is packed full. Shelves full of jars and books line the walls. There is a small dark wood table with chairs, a desk that is piled high with papers, and a lime green armchair that seems to be the only thing untouched, but I swear it looks as if it is breathing.

I turn to face the witch and say, "I do not know why I am here."

She taps her chin with her forefinger, contemplating something.

"Do you not remember our conversation?" I shake my head, and she frowns. "That is curious… but you are here for a reason?"

"Well, yes. I have a purpose for coming, but do not understand it."

"Your mate?" she asks carefully.

I nod, a smile coming to my lips. "She is my purpose."

The witch smiles at me, big and bright. "I assumed as much. Have a seat." She gestures to the table.

"You know why I am here?" I ask as she rummages through a drawer in the desk, odds and ends dropping to the floor in her haste. Most of the items look like human objects—a pencil, bandage, a small fuzzy ball, and a few other things I do not recall the names of, but they all look as if they came from the human realm.

"Not entirely, but I have information for you," she says, still digging through the drawer. "Ah-hah!" she exclaims, pulling out a long black feather that looks as if it could belong to a crow. I've seen them many times while stationed. They are beautiful creatures with a negative reputation in the human realm.

The witch scurries to a bookshelf beside the armchair and pulls a large leather-bound book from the top shelf. She takes a seat across from me, her eyes wide as she skims over the cover of the book. "Listen and listen well, Vesperon. I have a lot to say and am not sure how long I have to say it."

She opens the book, flipping blank pages frantically until she finds one toward the end. Her eyes light up as if she's found the correct one, but I do not understand how she knows that, considering it is blank. She runs the tip of the feather down the page in a zig-zag motion, and words appear on the page like a waterfall. They are in a language I do not understand.

"When you were here last, I was certain I knew who you were. I put some spells on you, all of which should have given you the answers you seek, but considering they didn't… I can only assume there is something else going on. Especially since you remember your mate, but nothing else."

"Something else? What more could there be?" Isn't there enough going on already?

"Magic I am unaware of. A curse, perhaps."

"Curse?" I question. How could I have been cursed?

The witch nods, flipping the page and doing the same with the feather on this one, causing more words to appear. She keeps her eyes on the pages as she speaks to me. "A curse is child's play. You found your way to me, and I am going to help you."

"Why?" I ask cautiously. The more information I find out, the crazier this all seems. So crazy that it almost seems fake. Like a joke.

She looks up at me, her face deadly serious. "My duty is to the realms, Vesperon, not only to the guardians. This is bigger than just the shadows."

Is this why the radiant is here, too? I consider asking, but she continues to speak before I get the chance.

"Vesperon, one of the spells I put on you the last time you were here gives your mate the ability to cross into this realm." My eyes widen. She can? Lexia can come here? "This way you can mate to create the connection so she can stay—"

"That is not the plan," I say with a shake of my head.

She frowns deeply. "I don't understand. You must mate with her," she urges.

I nod, then explain, "There is much going on in her realm. She is being attacked by shadows, and I do not feel this is the safest place for her. There is a radiant with her, who—"

"A radiant?" the witch gasps. She leans closer to me, then says in a hushed voice, "You're certain?"

Anxiety settles in my chest. "I met him myself."

"Gods above, Vesperon," she whispers, frantically flipping to the middle of the book and finding the page she needs and runs the feather down it. Her eyes zip back and forth, reading line after line until her eyes are wide as the moon. She gives a small shake of her head, then reads out loud, softly but quickly.

"When the overflow of magic becomes too vast for the realms to cage, a reckoning shall dawn upon our existence. The veils between the dark and the light, the realms of the living and the forgotten, shall thin to near insignificance.

"Darkness, luminescence, and the nebulous shades standing as one will be your salvation. The ebony tendrils of shadow, the ethereal radiance of celestial essence, and the nebulous hues between shall unite in an alliance unforeseen.

"Should this union falter, and the trifecta remain sundered, the boundless torrent of magic shall surge uncontrollably, unfettered by the constraints of mortal understanding. All realms shall spiral into an unremitting void, where entropy reigns supreme and existence fades into eternal dusk.

"Seek harmony among the shadows, the brilliance, and the shades unknown, for in their union lies freedom. Embrace the convergence, lest the unraveling of magic becomes the harbinger of ultimate demise, casting all into everlasting darkness."

A thin sheen of sweat breaks out over my form as she reads the last words. They sink into my mind, and I slowly process what she's just told me.

"Are you saying—"

She nods carefully, her silver eyes holding mine. "That you, Vesperon, along with your mate, a radiant, and a grey, will be the salvation of our world. Every realm, every being, all of existence, relies on you to save us." Her eyes are on me, but her hands are carefully tearing the sheet from the book. Once it is free, she hands it to me. I take it, glancing down at the small, neatly inked words upon the paper. "I thought I knew who you were, but I was mistaken. What you are is much more important than I first thought, and it is imperative that you reach your mate. What's more important is that she finds all three of hers."

There are many things spiraling in my head. My anger tries taking a forefront over knowing the radiant who is with my Lexia is her mate, too. They could be mating as we speak. How is a shadow to withstand such a thing? And not only that, but a grey? Good gods in the heavens, this is not good news.

But I cannot worry about that in this moment. I cannot allow my anger and jealousy to get the best of me because my mate's life is on the line. If she has more than one mate, I will learn to handle that. I must, if I want us to survive. Right now, I need to make sure she is safe.

"How many people know of this prophecy?" I ask her.

"I cannot say," she says with a shake of her head. "It is old. Thousands of years. But with everything going on, I'm confident in saying at least one other person does. And they know it well. What has happened to you and your mate is purposeful. Planned." She points to the paper. "You can take that with you. It has been spelled to allow you to carry it."

I nod, closing it between my palms and allowing it to soak into my being, becoming one with me. This way I can travel with it and not lose it. The way we do with items made from the darkness. She gets to her feet and so do I.

"There is one last thing I must share before you go," she says quietly, wringing her hands together.

"What?" I question. More bad news is not what I need, but if it is something that will help, then I must listen.

"Whoever it is that knows of this prophecy has known for a very long time."

"How do you know that?"

She sighs, darting her gaze away from me for a moment, before bringing it back. "This is not the first time you have lost your memories. This lifetime is not the first that you and your mate have found each other."