Prophecy

“Ms Dayse, I will suggest that you sign the document. It will make things a whole lot easier for us all.” he said placing a pen before me.

I lifted my eyes from the table and looked at him. “Detective I am sure that me signing that piece of paper would make things easier for you and I would love to make your job easier, but not this way. Despite what your so-called evidence says, I did not carry out any of the acts you are trying to tie me to, and I am certainly not going to put my signature on anything that will say otherwise. So thanks but no thanks for your offer.” I leaned back defiantly in my chair.

“What were you saying about signing? Certainly Detective, you were not trying to get my client to admit to anything without the presence of her attorney.” I turned my attention to the tall, dark man wearing a grey tailored suit, coming through the huge iron door. I’d never seen him before but there was something familiar about his voice.

“Of course not councillor. We were just going through regular interrogations.” he replied, coyly withdrawing the confession sheet and putting it back into his folder. “And who are you?” he said turning to the man.

“I am sorry. I forgot my manners,” he said placing his briefcase on the table. “I am William Sunne.” Adams looked at his hand but didn’t take it. He then dropped it to his side. “Summer I will be representing you. You’re mother called me.” he smiled.

I slowly returned the smile.

“Detective, if you don’t mind I would like to spend some time alone with my client. I would like to find out what exactly she said to you.” he turned back to the detective, who at first, seemed reluctant to leave. He then took up the water bottle and gathered the rest of his things together in the folder.

“Wait, I don’t think my client was finished with the water,” he said holding out his hand for it. The detective reluctantly handed him the bottle before striding out of the room. The door clicked loudly behind him.

He then took the empty seat, vacated by detective Adams. “Trying to collect DNA evidence,” he said after I looked at him puzzled. “So Summer, you have to tell me everything that happened up to this point,” he said opening his briefcase.

“I know that Coronas are trying to hide their true identities, but sometimes they make it so easy for others to spot them,” I said lifting my eyes to the man’s face.

“Excuse me?” he said surprised.

“It is just that, you always have some pseudonym relating to the sun and having some fandangle brandishing the angled spiral insignia,” I said pointing to the engraved golden latches of the briefcase.

“Very observant, I see. Your mother raised you well.” he smiled.

“Yes she did. So how do I know that my mother was the one who really sent you?” I said eyeing him suspiciously.

“If it is written confirmation that you are seeking, I do not have that. So you are going to have to trust me,” he said still smiling as if amused by my interrogation.

“Trusting someone who I thought was my friend is what got me here in the first place. So forgive me, but I am going to need a little encouragement.”

“So young, yet so cynical. Maybe your mother had trained you a bit too rigidly,” he mumbled insightfully.

“I am not cynical! Besides who are you to question the way I was raised.” I said brusquely.

“I can question the way you were raised because Aurora Summer Laeyx because I am your father,” he said unleashing the full length of his clear, green eyes into mine.

My jaw dropped open and the frown I was wearing melted into oblivion. It was one of the rare occasions on which I could honestly say that I was truly and unutterably speechless.

“I might have been absent for seventeen years of your life, but I know every single detail about you. I know of Omayra’s attacks and your near-death experiences. I know everything that a father should and would know about his daughter. You may carry your mother’s surname for ceremonial reasons, but you are my daughter.” he said with deft calmness.

The room was quiet. It took me a while to realize that my mouth still hung open and I quickly shut it. My fingers were stiff and my knuckles had whitened as I’d balled my hands into fists and had been slowly rubbing them against each other.

Thorn had told me about the green eyes, and there they were, the very mirror of mine, or maybe mine was the mirror of his.

“Dad?” I asked shyly as I was still unsure.

“Yes, it is me Aurora.” he said placing his hands gently over mine.

“I’d often thought of this moment, meeting you, but I’d never actually pictured it in this setting,” I said.

“I’m sorry about that. I would have come sooner but I had to make a few preventative steps to ensure that I wouldn’t be spotted,” he said apologetically.

“You are still hiding from the Royal Guard. Thorn told me about him seeing you and how you’d helped him to escape before you left Tir na n-Óg.” I said a little worried.

“He told you about that? Although I shouldn’t be surprised given the strength of your bond,” he said. “So how is your fiancé doing?”

"He doesn’t know that you are here?”

“He knows that your lawyer is here, but he wouldn't have recognized me in this form as I was a whole other person in Tir na n-Óg.”

“Oh, I guess he is fine other than the fact that I will be spending the night in jail,” I said slipping back into a sour mood.

“It will only be one night, as I will guarantee that you will be out on bail by tomorrow. Somehow I don’t think that you will be spending the night here alone,” he said with a hint of humour.

“If you are talking about my cellmates, I will not be spending the night with them either as I’d requested to be placed in another cell.”

“And the guards heeded to your request?” he asked skeptically.

“There was a small scuffle in my cell and they thought it best if I was placed in separate quarters,” I said nonchalantly in an effort to downplay the situation.

A frown creased his forehead. “You will be out of here soon Aurora,” he said earnestly. “So please tell me about what happened yesterday up to this afternoon,” he said taking up his pen.

He listened avidly and made notes as I described to him Omayra’s bold attack on me in the cafeteria and everything else leading up to my arrest. I told him of the intense questioning performed by Detective Adams and about him trying to get me to sign the confession slip after accusing me of killing Aunt Liz and Uncle Frank, for the assault of Susan and Caleb, and for the abduction of Elizabeth.

It was around eight-thirty before they brought me back into the cell. I was offered food but I told them that I wasn’t hungry. They left it on the floor of my cell anyways.

It was a long day and I was tired, but I couldn’t bring myself to fall asleep. Apart from the fact that the sheets were scratchy and filthy, and the toilet stunk, I still had a lot to wrap around my mind. For one, I was in jail for god knows how long.

I sat on the lower bunk and pressed my back against the wall. I slowly tilted my head backward and closed my eyes.

I felt a cool touch wisp the hair from my face. I popped my eyes open and jumped up suddenly, crashing my head against the upper bunk. I was about to scream but I felt one hand wrap around my waist and the other clapped over my mouth.

“Summer, it is me. Thorn.” said a hushed voice in my ear.

“Thorn?” my voice was muffled as his hand was still over my mouth.

“Yes,” he slipped his hand from my face and I turned to face him. “Sorry that I woke you.”

“I wasn’t really sleeping. I’d only closed my eyes for a while. I’m so glad that you are here.” I said hugging him. “But how did you get in?” I said searching his face.

“Through there. Shape-shifter, remember. They don’t really make security checks for small birds. ” he said pointing to the grilled window overhead. I’d noticed that he was wearing a light shirt and trousers with the Lune insignia embroidered on the shirt. It was similar to the clothes he wore to our engagement ceremony, except these were silvery-blue and not black. “Enough about me, how are you doing, and please don’t tell me that you are fine.” his face was contorted into a frown.

I smoothed out the lines that formed on his forehead with my fingers. “No, I’m not fine.” I smiled. “But I’m not dying either. I’ve found my time here to be very . . . enlightening.”

“You’ve only been here for a few hours, shouldn’t you have at least spent a few years in lock up before you can say that?” he chuckled.

I smiled back. “Yes, but I’m not going to be in here that long, so I had to make sense of things real quick before I got out and have to face the crazy world.”

“So what did you come up with so far?” he placed his arm around my shoulders and I drew closer up to his neck.

“I found out that I wasn’t so helpless and that I could protect myself, at least against humans and . . .”

“Wait, did something happen to you while you were here?” he said turning sharply towards me.

“There were just these girls who got too . . . touchy and I had to teach them a little lesson, per se.” I heard him growl and felt his muscles grow tense. “I actually enjoyed my little jail fight. It felt good being able to take care of myself and that I didn’t have to be rescued by anyone.” he relaxed slightly.

“You don’t like me rescuing you?” he said sounding a little surprised and probably hurt.

“God knows if you didn’t those other times I would be dead already, but today I finally felt like I was coming into my own. In my dreams and even real life, I’ve always been the one just waiting and covering my face ready to be attacked, ready to die. For the first time, I didn’t feel that way. I felt like I was in control. I know that they were only humans, but it was a start.” I said softly.

“I had no idea that you felt that way,” he said reflectively. “Probably we could arrange for more training sessions for you after you get out.”

I frowned a little. I remembered the last training session I had over the Christmas holidays. The learning experience was good, but the regimen had been pretty rigorous. Sitting in sub-zero conditions until I passed out wasn’t exactly my idea of training. That was more like punishment.

“Maybe we could. But I didn’t tell you the other good thing about being in jail.” I said changing the topic.

“Let me guess, your dad.” he smiled.

“You saw him?”

“We met shortly before I came here. I didn’t recognise him at first with the copper skin.”

“He said that you might not have. I was so surprised when he told me who he was. I didn’t believe for a while, with all the cases of mistaken identities. The moment was so surreal, words couldn’t even describe how I felt.” I said grinning from ear to ear.

“I am happy that your dad’s here.”

“Me too. And it would have been so perfect if I wasn’t in here.” I sighed.

“I thought that you loved being in here.” he jibed.

“Being here may have given me chances to prove things to myself, but I would give that up in an instant if I could be home with you, and the rest of our family.

“Apart from the stinky toilet, cold walls, and scruffy sheets, I am also being held here for the murder, assault, and abduction. Omayra is playing a tight game with my life and as it is at the moment, she seems to be winning. I am scared out of my mind right now about what will happen if she does. Not only will I lose my freedom, but I will end up losing my family, you, and everything I’ve come to know.

“Something also occurred to me while I was here. They are still looking for Elizabeth. That means that Omayra might have actually abducted someone else so that she could take her place.” his face was serious. “You’d already thought of that haven’t you?”

“Yes, since her family filed the missing person report, we knew of that possibility,” he replied sombrely.

Well, don’t I feel like a genius here. It seemed like my mind worked the slowest of all I knew. I wiped my hand over my brow, squashing them together.

“Damn her! Damn Omayra for screwing up everybody’s life like this! I feel so sorry for that family. They have nothing to do with all the madness that encases our existence, but have been dragged into this.” I moaned softly. I rubbed my temples to try and relieve the pressure that seemed to be building there. “What do you think she has done with the real Elizabeth?”

“She is more than likely dead. Omayra has been pretending to be her for at least two years and it is highly unlikely that she would have kept her locked up that long.” he exhaled heavily. “But you shouldn’t worry about all this. We are going to get you out of here and Omayra, she will get her just reward at the end of it.”

I pulled in closer to his chest. I tried wrestling back a yawn, but it soon got the better of me. I closed my eyes briefly, it was no use trying to fight sleep anymore because I was obviously losing the battle.

“Thorn, will you stay with me tonight?” I whispered groggily without reopening my eyes.

“That was always my intention. Now get some rest. It has been a long day.” he said kissing me softly on the forehead.

“Have I ever mentioned that I love you?” I smiled weakly.

“Yes, once or twice.” his chest rumbled softly at his slight chuckle. “I love you too Summer, more than you will ever know,” he added more soberly.

“Hmm hmmm.” I drifted slowly off into sleep. Despite the gloom and grimness that surrounded me, my dreams were painted with colours of the sun and neon lights, and made sparkly by shimmery blue glitter.

It was the first time that Thorn had told me that he loved me with the actual four-letter word. They say that actions spoke louder than words, but sometimes words were good to hear. It might have taken a night in jail for him to say it, but it was so worth it.

And I thought prison was awful.

What a bittersweet sentence.