The Guardians - Between the Worlds (Book 2)

Lily heads to the entrance when she meets Brook there. She had known that she was there from the beginning, but she had given her the time to calm down. It was late in the night, and the cold made her skin purple. Her hand which touches her on the shoulder makes her tremble, and there’s no need for words there. Brook walks her to her room, where she offers Lily some clothes and lets her rest. She splits the beds with her soon, for she can’t leave her alone even if she wanted so badly to spend the night in Leo’s room.

“I heard what happened”, Artemis speaks to Dean when she finds him thoughtfully at the window. Did you find her?”

“Brook… She’s asleep now.”

Artemis looks on the ground.

“Dean, you have no idea how sorry I am…”

“I don’t even know what to tell her. I don’t understand why all these injustices are happening. Why to her…”

“Someone said once that everything happens for a reason. Maybe it’s time to take those words seriously.”

The words coming out of his mother’s mouth seem wise, but for Dean, they don’t have a meaning at this point. He hears footsteps behind them, and he catches Isaac’s look. He doesn’t have the strength to look with hatred at Dean anymore, with envy or any other negative feeling he had before. It was like everything had broken apart in a certain way, and he felt like his entire life was a lie. And who was to blame? Zoltan? Did he know that Isaac was Claire’s son? Well, he had taken with him in the grave of the ruins those secrets, leaving him here to struggle.

Isaac associated the loss of their mother with losing Lily somehow, for they both had vanished like illusions, in a second, while he didn’t even manage to take a breath.

When Dean leans on the bed, in the darkness, he notices a bright light coming out from his wardrobe. He stands up astonished, goes straight there, opens the door, starts searching for the light, and he finally finds it inside the pocket of some old cloth. It’s the dragon necklace, that dragon which he had seen drawn on the wall the night he had run away from the Base with Lily. He hears footsteps on the corridor, and he realizes that the shadow in front of his door was a person’s shadow all this time, for now, it was walking away. When he opens the door he can’t see anyone there, so he looks again at the necklace. It doesn’t glow anymore. He puts it on the nightstand, and he lies on the bed, sighing long.

Lily runs down on the stairs, for she hears the door from Dean’s room. She has no idea why and how she arrived there, but she had a feeling that he might have kept his old room. She was leaning on the wall and taking a breath, thinking of what she was doing there at that time of the night. But she sees the sun rising soon, and she realizes that’s already morning, so she stands up and runs again, passing by the front of Dean’s door.

The necklace starts glowing powerfully, waking him up with its bright light.

“What the hell?” he mumbles.

He grabs it and starts walking around in the Base, searching for Artemis. Maybe his mother knows what this weird object is and what represents its glowing. On her rush, Lily sees Isaac stepping out from his room, and she blocks there, and her legs refuse to move. When he notices her, he has the same reaction, for what he can possibly say to this being he can’t consider his sister yet?

She gathers her courage and goes near him, trying to avoid an embarrassing moment.

“How are you?” Lily asks from two feet away from him.

“Lost”, he replies.

He would have wanted to say much more, for instance, that he had no idea what to do with the feelings he was carrying on his shoulders, or how weird it was for him to have another type of love for his sister, how his soul has been broken into a million of pieces, but his answers still remain “lost”.

“And idiot”, he continues. “I’m the one who should ask you this. How are you?”

“Same as you.”

“I am so sorry… I just found out that I have a family, and it all disappeared as fast as it appeared, and I know that I’m acting weird now, and it will take some time for me to recover from it, but I want you to know that I am here for you. Always”, he says finally finding his words.

“Now I know why I felt that I’ve knows you for a lifetime. From the first time I saw you I had no idea why I couldn’t walk away from you. And we were so stupid, we mistaken feelings, we got lost in them, we were wrong and it’s so embarrassing, but now I know that I haven’t lost you.”

He approaches her ashamed, and she hugs him with her small arms. Their approach feels strange, but she doesn’t feel this is wrong anymore.

“Liam”, she whispers with her huskily voice.

“What?”

“Liam. Mother named you Liam. But you will always be Isaac for me.”

He sighs and hugs her tight.

“It will be so damn difficult…”

“I know…”

“But I will learn to live with it, for now, I realize that you were feeling deep in our connection, even if I was denying it.”

Lily feels guilty, but at the same time released when she hears his words. She had thought that he wasn’t going to speak to her again, that he will hate her for her strange behavior, but it was proven that she had always felt that desire to be there for him, not because what she was feeling for him was wrong, but for it was the same blood through their veins.

“I’m sorry for everything I did, for how I made you feel”, says Lily breaking her self-pride.

“You don’t have to say sorry for doing what you felt. I knew that you will choose him, and I don’t want to lie and tell you that it didn’t hurt me, but I wanted you to be happy. And believe me, I wanted to hate him, but I couldn’t. Dean is a good man, who saved me when I needed to be saved, and I know that I can get through this, but I just need time.”

“I don’t want to lose you. Regardless of what you may think of me, I really love you. I know that not the way you do, but I don’t think that I can imagine my life without you.”

Her words make Isaac tremble, but not the way he used to, for now, things are different. He needs to learn to love her as she loves him, and he knows it will be damn hard to do it.

“I won’t be going anywhere”, he finds the strength to say.

Dean still walks rushed through the Base, looking for his mother. He finally finds her in the big hall, looking in one of the books with broken covers.

“Mother.”

“Dean”, she lifts her head from the pages.

“I need you to tell me something.”

“Sure. What is this about?”

Dean takes out from his pocket the necklace and hands it to his mother.

“Where did you get this?”

“I took it with me when I left Base P. I found it through our stuff. Do you know what it is?”

“Well, it’s a necklace, but I think that you figured that you already. Your father was keeping it along for some time. He was saying that he had it from his father, who had found it in a mysterious way in its pocket during a field search. He had found it when he got back to the Base, and since then he was taking it with him everywhere. He didn’t tell me what was with it, but he told me that he was reminding him of his father.”

“It seems that I have found it through my stuff. I thought that I lost it in the battle. It lights in a strange way… only sometimes.”

“Now it seems normal.”

“Yes, but I thought that you know something more about it.”

“I don’t”, says Artemis giving the necklace back to him.

Dean puts it into his pocket and steps away ready to leave.

“Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asks.

“Because you didn’t go to see Lily yet.”

“I wanted to give her some time alone.”

“I think that she’s had enough time alone. I saw her walking down the hall with Isaac earlier. If you have something to tell her, you’d better tell her before he steps in.”

“Mother, you don’t understand… Isaac is her brother.”

“What are you saying?”

“I thought that you knew. You told me last night that you know what happened. All the Base is talking about it…”

“Oh, I’m not the gossiping type. I believe that they forgot to tell me this detail. It must be so harsh for them. This has probably broken at least one heart.”

Dean sighs and walks away from Artemis, and when he steps on the hallway takes out the necklace from his pocket and puts it around his neck. His steps take him to Brook’s room, and he knocks. But no one answers so he walks in to check if Lily’s in there.

“What are you doing?” asks Brook taking him by surprise.

She was accompanied by Leo, who nods at Dean.

“I was looking for Lily.”

“Well, she might be…”

“I know where to find her now”, he says walking away.

“I thought that you knew”, she whispers entering her room with Leo.

Dean steps on the rooftop, and he is not surprised to see Lily there. She’s leaning on the edge, looking at the horizon. She seems like a child who enjoys every piece of nature, especially now, when the sun lights up her hair, making it seem golden, and the wind blows in it, making it glow. She doesn’t feel Dean’s presence there, neither when he is just two steps behind her. He thinks if it’s right to touch her, what to tell her, because he has come here to see her, and he was now out of words.

She turns around and winces when she sees Dean standing there. The necklace doesn’t glow when he goes near to Lily.

“You’re silent. I didn’t hear you coming.”

“I… came to talk to you. Well, I came to see you, for I have lost my words on my way up here. I have so much to tell you, and I don’t know what, to begin with.”

Lily smiles. She sees him lost through the words and she finds it funny that exactly him, the tough guy, with all the plans in order, and the head on his shoulders to remain without words in front of her.

“I was preparing to leave”, she says.

“Oh, then I…”

“But now that you’re here, let’s stay a little longer.”

She turns around again, sits on the edge of the roof, and she looks at Dean, offering him with her eyes an invitation to sit there. He wakes up from the thinking and joins her.

“When I see this empty wildness I feel sad. In the Human’s World, everything is so different, happy… And in the World of the Sun’s Children, everything is so green, full of life. This is a dead world. Maybe that’s why some of us believe it’s not fair to have feelings here. But I’ve passed this stage already.”

“I want to know about the places you’ve been through. I saw you and you seemed so happy…”

“I was. But I forgot that I had people waiting home for me. I almost let myself stolen by the pleasures of that world. I’ve met beautiful people, brave, simple people with feelings. And they’ve changed the way I think about life.”

“And the World of the Sun’s Children? I barely heard you talking about it.”

“Well, there’s where I landed when the portal pulled me the second time. But they sent me back, through the World of the Moon’s Children. I’ve visited them all. They sacrificed to send me here because of…”

Lily realizes that she had spoken too much already.

“What do you want to say?”

After a moment of silence, she realizes that Dean’s one of the few she can really trust.

“I’m the Great Guardian, I have all the powers any Guardian would dream of, but I’m something else too. Even if you don’t see it, I’m wearing a mark on my arm. It’s called the Dragon’s Sign, and I don’t know if you heard the legends about it…”

“What? The legend about the Wall? The Marked One is the one who can stop the Wall’s collapse.”

“Exactly. I see you did your homework”, she jokes.

“I can’t believe it. I’m standing in front of the Great Guardian who will save us all if there will be the case. Luckily, the Wall doesn’t send us signs that it’s going to collapse soon because a war is the last thing we need.”

“The Children of the Sun told me that my landing there wasn’t random. A prophecy has come to life when I first stepped in there, and they said that was one of the signs of the beginning of the collapsing.”

Dean remains silent for a second.

“I’m sick of bad news. I want peace, silence, and safety.”

“Well, let’s not talk about that now. We have enough time. Let’s talk about peace, for I felt my heart was warming up when I set foot in the Base again. You made this place feel like home. Warm and welcoming.”

“Thank you. I took into consideration what you said before you left. I wanted to be a good leader like you called me.”

She smiles and looks straight into his eyes. The sun gets lost in his black hair, and she wonders how it can always be so perfect, without making any effort at all.

“When I left… I wanted to do the right thing. But on my journey, I realized that I should have done what I was feeling at the time.”

“You don’t have to justify your feelings.”

“Oh, but I do. For I was an idiot and I wanted to do the right thing. But the traveling between the worlds made me realize that the most important thing is what you feel. And I felt with every step I made that what I was doing was wrong.”

“And what do you feel now?” he asks touching her face gently.

She’s crossed by a shiver, which makes her body tremble. She wants to tell him so much, but her lips won’t move, her heart starts beating fast, and she touches back his face with her small palm. His skin is so soft under her fingers, and she lifts up on her toes to be at the same height with him.

“This”, she says and kisses him, without thinking twice about it.

She puts both of her palms on his face, and the time seems to stop for a couple of seconds, for this is the kiss they were both waiting for so long. The sun warms up their hugged bodies, the wind makes Lily’s hair to cover her face, and Dean puts it away from an instinct. He holds her in his arms, but not too tight, because he feels like if he will he might break this gorgeous being in front of him. He feels close again the Lily he had met, that shy and innocent Lily, a little fearful, but at the same time willing to fight for what she wanted.

The rays of the sunshine between their faces when their lips are apart, but something else shines more powerful than them. The necklace from Dean’s neck. Lily notices it for the first time, and she realizes that this thing looks exactly like the mark on her arm when it lights up. She looks quickly at her arm, and Dean remains astonished.

“The Mark”, he whispers. “I can see it.”

She points at the necklace, and Dean takes it off and puts it next to Lily’s arm. They are the same, and neither of them stops from shining. Dean puts the necklace around her neck, without thinking too much about it.

“It was you. I was wondering why it shined every time when I heard steps on the corridor. It was searching for you, and now it has found its place.”

“But it’s not mine”, says Lily.

“My mother told me that my father had it from his father. She has no idea what’s with it, but now I realize that it ended here for a reason. And whatever it is, I know that it belongs to you now”, he says putting her hair behind her ear.

“Now that you see the mark… My mother told me to keep this a secret. This will keep me safe and alive.”

“And, with all these, you still told me”, he says surprised.

“I trust you. I don’t know… that’s what I felt. No one knows about this, so please don’t tell anyone. No one can see it.”

“I will take the secret in the ground with me”, he says in a serious voice.

Lily rolls her eyes and starts laughing, and Dean takes her by the hand.

“I have something to show you”.

He pulls her after him on the stairs, to the fifteenth floor, and he stops in front of a door next to his room.

“Open it”, he says.

She does that, and she finds a big room there, beautifully arranged, in warm and peaceful colors, red and blue. The bed is huge, the bathroom is red as well, the curtains the same, the carpet is a gorgeous dark blue, and everything smells new.

“I put my Magicians to work hard on this one”, he says.

“This is so beautiful!”

“I’m glad that you like it because I made it especially for you.”

She turns around surprised and jumps into Dean’s arms. She had never had a room just for her, a place where she could have privacy, but she had it now due to him, and she was so grateful.

“You made it even if I left”, she says ashamed.

“I knew that you will come back. You weren’t gone forever.”

“Theoretically. I was just lost on my way”, she laughs.

“This time you won’t get lost, and if you leave again, I will join you.”

“I won’t leave this time. I’ve learned my lesson and I know what I want. I know who I want, what I want, what I feel.”

“What do you want?”

“You”, she says, and Dean doesn’t wait any longer, and he kisses her intense, lifting up her small body.

He puts her gently on the soft bed, and she pulls his clothes carefully, even if everything happens pretty fast, it seems like forever for them. She pulls the blanket over them, and Dean takes off her blouse, throwing it on the carpet from the middle of the room. She trembles when his lips touch her chest grabs his head in her hands, and then she starts moving them down his back, searching every inch of his body. She wanted for so long to get at this point with him, even if she was ashamed to admit it. But now, seeing herself in this situation, Lily lets the waves of energy carry her, under Dean’s gently touches, who certainly knew how to make her feel nine feet above the ground.

At that moment, Lily realizes that she’s falling in love with him even more, and notices that getting close to him makes her more of what she is, for this is how love should make you feel. And about Dean, he felt he was holding in his arms half an angel being, but he knew so well that the other half of her could have brought the hell around them when she wanted to. Lily was a little from all, and he had tasted both her parts, and they both made him want her more, to think about her, to fall in love with her. Because she was like the sea, peaceful and calmly, and when you were adventuring on it you were going to discover that its fury might turn your boat upside-down if you were not holding on it tight. This what Lily was, a little from both, sweet and innocent, but also a fighter with an iron will.