The Guardians - Between the Worlds (Book 2)

“It’s like it never ends”, Dean tells Mark.

“It’s all almost done. The Magicians are doing a very good job”, he answers.

“Yes, but I would have wanted this disaster not to end this bad. Just look how many Guardians we have lost.”

“But we won the fight. We gained our freedom.”

There’s a moment of silence stuck between the two of them. Tamara’s heels are making a loud noise in the hallway, and she appears on the balcony behind them.

“Almost done. Seven days of work, but it was all worth it. Everything looks much better than before”, she says.

Dean replies with a sigh.

“What do you think the others are doing?” he asks in a low voice.

“It’s been quite long time. Do you really make this long until you get to the Unity? What if they have taken them hostages? What if something went wrong?” asks Mark.

“Let’s not think of the worst now when everything finally ended well”, Tamara tells them.

Dean sighs again, and his thoughts are far away, somewhere on the way to Unity, trying to imagine how it looks and where it is, or what are the Guardians who had left on that road doing. He’s thinking if he will ever see Lily again, but her image leaves inside his mind a trace of sadness. She had chosen to walk away, and he couldn’t understand her decision. He had thought that there could have been something more between them but, at the end of every day, he realized that he still couldn’t understand that child’s tormented soul. He puts his hand on the forehead, but when he wakes up from his dreaming he notices that he is all alone on the balcony. He looks around suspiciously, and then he walks into the hallway, heading to the fountain.

Irene crosses his path again and, it doesn’t matter how much he tries, his facial expression betrays his feelings. He had avoided her the last few days, even if she had been following him all along. He had explained to her that what they had wasn’t going to continue anymore because, from what he was telling her, there was nothing there from the very start. Just physical attraction and that was what he had said. But Irene wasn’t bothered at all by this thing, even if she wanted much more.

“It looks like you’ve done a good job in here”, she says. “You managed to make this Base to be welcoming. Tamara did the right thing to put you in charge of this place.”

“Thank you”, he answers as if he was looking through her.

Irene puts her arms on his shoulders and, despite the fact that he pushes her away twice, she doesn’t give up. Like every man, he finally gives attention to her courts, lifts her up on his arms, and takes her straight to his room.

A knock on the door makes him jump out of bed, and he instinctively covers Irene’s body with a blanket. Artemis walks in determinedly, bringing news to the leader of Base R, who is found now in a compromising posture.

“We’ve brought the children…Oh, I thought that you said yes!” says Artemis making excuses.

“You hear whatever you want, anyway!” shouts Dean covering himself with a pillow.

Irene walks out dizzily from the room, passing covered in the pillow by the person she would have wanted as a mother-in-law.

“Excuse me, have a nice day”, she says blushing and slamming the door.

Artemis starts laughing. She hasn’t had a nice opinion about her anyway, but she didn’t want to be a part of her son’s choices. She considered her a two-faced person and not a very intelligent one.

“Well? Are you going to let me dress?”

“I’m telling you what I have to say and you get dressed after. We’ve taken the children to their parents and we have arranged the whole third floor for the orphans.”

“And how are they after what has happened?”

“Just like you were after the explosion…” she answers him.

Dean looks into the ground. He had asked a silly question. Artemis looks at him, putting her hair away and leaving her scar to be seen.

“I hope that the Unity punishes Leonor. I hope that the Guardians will do a good job there. From now on, we are prepared to welcome them. Maybe they will give them cars to come back or they will escort them back.”

“It’s normal to take this long?”

“You’re worried, I get it, but I don’t know what to tell you. We can’t do anything but to wait.”

“You’ve never seen the Unity? You’ve been out there for quite long…”

“No, and I’ve heard that’s a long way to it. But what can go wrong? The others have no idea that we’re free, and the rebels are here now. There are no other dangers out there.”

“I hope so…”

“She had a choice, you know. She has chosen to walk away. The truth is that you needed her here. But I’m sure that she will be their leader out there too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lily. She’s the one I’m talking about. That girl is special. You would have used her help. I saw that you had something special with her… you shared a connection…”

“Mom, stop talking about your connections. We didn’t share anything.”

“Not even the bed?”

“Mother!”

Artemis laughs.

“Sorry. I will get out now and let you get dressed.

“You’d better!” mumbles Dean while she closes the door.

He throws on the couch, with his palms covering his face. His mother’s words resound on his mind. You needed her here. He puts on the clothes just in time. A knock on the door breaks the silence.

“Come on in!”

Tamara puts her head inside the room. Her perfume reaches his nose and, surprisingly, pleases his senses.

“I’ve chosen my room on the same floor with yours… I hope that’s not a problem”, she speaks.

“It’s not. I thought that we agreed.”

“Yeah.”

She sits on the edge of the couch and takes a sip from his glass of wine.

“Are you alright?” she asks him.

“Why wouldn’t I be? The Base is ready, I am its leader, I have an intelligent woman as my right hand, and a loving kid who follows me to every corner and pleases me.”

Tamara laughs contagiously.

“Loving kid. Elegant, as usual. Why don’t you tell her that you don’t feel anything for her?”

“I told her. It remained something, I don’t know, weird, like a friendship with benefits…”

She rolls her eyes, remembering the days when she was for Dean what Irene was now for him. She still had feelings for him, but she understood the situation. But what she couldn’t understand was why did Lily choose to leave and break his heart, because she had always thought, like the rest of them, that the tension between them was going to explode into something too special. But it had remained an inconsumable love, which seemed to bother Dean more than he let others see.

“You know, I miss her sometimes”, says Dean sipping some wine.

“I noticed that.”

“And I wonder why she left. I don’t judge her, but I don’t understand. My heart was jumping around every time I saw her. She fascinated me with her innocence, but it was like something has broken inside her when the revolt started. Something happened to her. I saw the look in her eyes when she hit Zoltan.”

“She will return. Everything will be fine, you’ll see.”

Tamara realizes that the alcohol has taken over Dean’s mind, that he wouldn’t be talking nonsense if he was thinking clearly. She makes the smart decision to leave the room before she does anything stupid that she would regret later.

The way back to the Base seemed too long for the Guardians, and it was poured with tears and regrets for the disaster they had left behind them. Lily’s still trembling when she looks at the two little girls. Lysa is in her arms, and Jasmine’s holding Alice’s hand.

The dust is rising behind them, and Gloria looks back after every step she takes.

“Why are you so stressed?” Betty asks her.

“I don’t want to be followed by them.”

“What can they possibly do worse than kill all of us?” answers Addison, who had heard their conversation.

“Very optimistic”, says Leo.

His hand is on Brook’s shoulder, who has nothing against this. Lily looks ahead, to the next ruins. They had slept there one night before they arrived at the Unity, a sign that they were traveling as fast as they did before, even if they felt the time passing so slow. She sighs because they have a long way until they arrive there.

A sparkle makes her wince, and she feels the Dragon’s Sign lightening up on her arm. She stops and makes a loud and sharp noise, while everyone’s staring at her with doubts.

“Lily? Are you okay?” Isaac asks her.

“Yes”, she whispers grabbing her arm.

He comes close and looks at it, but he can’t see anything. She asks Alice to hold Lysa who, even if she was healed, was still pretty traumatized. Lily notices that when she heads left her sign is sparkling more, so she starts walking in that direction, and the others have no other choice but to follow her.

“Lily, can you explain to us what the hell are you doing?” asks Addison angry.

“Shut up!” says Lily hurrying up.

“Seriously now, Lily!” says Brook as well.

But she continues walking until her sign remains lightened. She feels a strange energy around her, but she can’t see a thing. It burns her though, and it’s a lot more painful than usual.

“What’s this?” asks Addison pointing behind Lily.

Something’s sparkling, something small, like a purple stain. The more she gets close, the more Lily realizes that’s the color of the Portal’s Wall. She lifts up her hand and touches it, and the stain becomes bigger, in some other kind of universe which is opening in front of her eyes. Lily sees trees, greenery, lakes, seas, animals, and she feels a fresh air, one different from theirs. The view fascinates her and she turns around to the others.

“What is this magnificent place?” she asks.

“What?” asks Brook.

“What can be magnificent with a purple stain?” asks Addison.

“It’s the Portal’s Wall color… it’s a piece of the Wall. How the hell did it end here?” asks Alice.

“You really can’t see what I see?” asks Lily.

They got closer, one by one, but neither of them can see a thing. Just a purple and sparkling stain, which gets bigger and bigger.

“It’s not good. It’s not supposed to get bigger. It isn’t supposed to be here in the first place!” shouts Alice.

“Lily, get away from it!” says Isaac pulling her sleeve.

But something weird happens when Lily touches the stain. The sign from her arm lightens up powerfully, and all around her can see an orange thing on her. They can’t realize yet what it is, but they know it can’t be good.

“What the hell…” says Addison.

Isaac grabs her and pulls her strongly, but two waves of purple energy lift Lily from the ground, catch her tight and don’t let go of her. When he touches her, Isaac is thrown several meters away. Lily winces, trying to struggle to escape, and Brook rushes to grab her from the air. She is thrown away as well in a tough way.

“I can’t get down!” shouts Lily.

“You, idiot! You needed to go there and see what was that!” shouts Addison extremely pissed off.

Lily is lifted higher and carried above them by the waves. She feels like she’s flying, she feels light, and she has a strange feeling of safety. She’s not afraid. Leo jumps with the sword at the piece of the portal, but he falls down when he hits it and the sword is swallowed inside. Alice sends a wave of energy to the portal, but it passes through it as if it wasn’t there at all. The piece of portal suddenly starts getting smaller.

“Look! It’s going to let you go!” says Leo rushing to catch her.

But the purple stain disappears in a second, and Lily along with it. They remained confused, staring one at another, without any logical explanation. Isaac and Brook had seen everything like in a dream, and they were now staring at the sky because that was the place where Lily had disappeared.

“Lily!” shouts Isaac.

“Where the hell did she go?! How? Under our noses!” shouts Brook as well nearly crying.

“Crap”, says Addison briefly.

“Maybe she will appear again like she did on the Unity’s roof?” asks Gloria.

“And what if she doesn’t?” continues Leo.

Brook throws away the backpack angrier and starts walking around. That’s the moment when she realizes that she can’t feel Lily’s presence and experiences anymore.

“I can’t feel her.”

“What do you mean?” asks Isaac.

“Like you heard! Just like when she was on the roof!”

“But she was alive then! She had fainted! That’s what she said!”

“Yes…”

There’s silence between them for a couple of minutes.

“Now what are you planning? To wait here until Madame Missing appears again?” asks Addison ironically.

“You can go ahead! I won’t move until Lily appears! She just couldn’t vanish like that!” says Brook angrily.

“But this is how it happened… pretty much… We all saw it” states Gloria with her specific intelligence.

Brook throws her an angry look, and she starts pushing aside the sand with her sword, looking for a trace to find Lily. Isaac joins her, but with no use.

The darkness catches all of them walking around, shouting Lily’s name. It’s getting cold, but they don’t feel it anymore. They just can’t understand where and how she had disappeared because they hadn’t heard about something like this in their entire lives.

“I still can’t feel her. It’s been hours! I just can’t believe that she’s gone!”

“You should believe faster, so we can finally leave this place! It’s getting cold and we can’t see a damn thing! We should go further at least!”

“Shut the hell up!” shouts Isaac.

“I don’t want to say that Addison’s right, but we need to get going… We need to arrive at the Base and let the others know about what happened”, says Leo.

“And what about Lily?” asks Brook.

“When you’ll feel her again, we’ll see…” he says with his head in the ground.

“You don’t think that she will ever feel her again, don’t you?” asks Gloria.

It’s silence again, and Brook leaves some tears to fall down her cheeks. Leo grabs her arm and pulls her off the ground. Isaac looks one more time at the place where Lily had disappeared. He feels guilty because he had said disturbing things to her right before she disappeared. Maybe if he had a little more patience…

“I’ll stay.”

“I believe that you have some brain issues!” says Alice.

“I can’t walk away and abandon her like you!”

“We’re not abandoning her!” says Brook. “I would never abandon my sister. But Leo is right. I will feel her. I know it. When… this is what I don’t know. But maybe we can find out more back at the Base. There we have the means to do the proper research. Maybe that someone has heard something! And they still need us there! And do you know what Lily does when someone needs her? She goes there! So let’s do what she would have done! We can’t help her if we stay here. We don’t even know what happened!”

Isaac makes a long sigh. Alice pulls his arm, and he slowly gets up from the sand. Their steps get lost in the cold sand, while the full moon shines above them, big and orange.