The Guardians - Between the Worlds (Book 2)

Images, lights, colors, memories. This is what Lily sees while she’s carried through the blue light. She loses the track of time, and she is not very convinced that she will land home. But the light turns from blue to purple, then she feels her body light like a flake, and she is thrown through the Wall’s Portal, which gets smaller around her. She lands on her feet, and the purple light suddenly disappears.

Isaac stands up from the sand, Claire and Earl are holding hands tight, while Brook’s already running to get to her, without managing to hold back her tears. Dean stays where he is, shocked, staring at her and examining her from the bottom to the top, while she’s running to her friend. Her parents follow her closely, and they can see their daughter’s face after such a long time. Lily feels such a happiness, and she rushes to jump and take Brook in her arms. During the jump, she examines all the faces in front of her. She sees Isaac, and then Dean, who were both looking at her with teary eyes.

But Lily can’t jump into Brook’s arms because both are pushed and thrown dozens of meters away. Their bodies light up in a purple explosion of energy, and for a couple of minutes, none of them moves.

Everyone winces out of fear, for never has expected such a twist.

“This can’t be happening”, says Dean putting his hands on his head.

The Guardians gather around Brook, and Lily has to get up on her own. Claire is right next to the invisible wall which is separating them, and when she touches it she currents as well. Everything lights up in a purple color, and Lily feels all her hopes vanishing into thin air. She can’t get to them.

“No…” whispers Claire.

“We need to do something!” shouts Brook.

“Alice, do something! You are the Magician! What the hell is going on?” Isaac asks her.

“Lily, are you okay?” Claire asks her.

Lily steps back to the place where she was thrown away from, carrying her legs with sadness and lack of hope. She examines all of them once again, only this time with more attention because she has all the time in the world.

“I’m home”, she whispers hopeless.

When she arrives in front of the portal, she touches it slowly, and it lights up hurting her finger. She pulls back, looking insecure at the ones in front of her.

“She’s stuck in there!” shouts Claire.

“What’s to be done?” asks Earl.

“It’s not like we can walk in there to grab her…” says Alice.

“And what shall we do? Stay like this forever? There must be something we can do!” shouts Isaac angrily.

The despair from their voices makes Lily become insecure, to feel lost, isolated, and the high tone of the Guardian’s voices, who were fighting like she wasn’t even there, makes her put the palms on her face. She starts breathing faster because the despair had overwhelmed her. She realizes that she’s stuck, that the end of her might be in there, neither in the Guardian’s World, nor in the Human’s, but somewhere between the worlds, blocked there because of her curiosity or maybe because the lack of courage to make the right choices at the right time. Either way, her choices brought her here, and she was now covered in remorse and fear, amplified by the shouting of the ones in front of her. She starts trembling, she feels the tears on her face, but she suddenly calms down when she sees Dean’s face.

He is not a part of the fight, but he was looking for her eyes this whole time, and he was now face to face with her, and between them was only the wall that was throwing from time to time purple sparks of energy. He sees that she’s ready to break down, to fall from her feet and to scream, to cry, to let go, so he puts his palm wide open into thin air in front of the invisible wall.

“It will be alright”, he whispers to her with a calm look.

When she hears his voice, Lily just believes him, without any reason at all. The despair vanishes from her soul, she takes a deep breath, and she puts the palm in the air too. It is now exactly where Dean’s palm is, and she finds peace in his yellowish-green eyes.

“I heard you”, she tells him clearing her voice.

“Me too”, he replies.

They can only hear each other’s breathing, for a couple of seconds, and Lily wants to make that wall between them disappear, so she can jump into his arms after that.

“Where have you been?” he asks her.

“In the Human’s World. It’s so different from ours…”

“And how are you?”

“I’m fine.”

Lily would say more to him, but she suddenly stops and looks behind him, for the fight had stopped, and all the eyes were on them. Even split by that wall, their approaching seemed to generate sparks and tension, and the others were feeling it as well.

Dean realizes that they are watched, so he turns around his head. Isaac won’t stop looking at them, and he feels some kind of betrayal when he sees them, but also profound disappointment, even though they hadn’t spoken or did anything compromising. When there’s chemistry between two people, others can feel it as well, not only the ones involved. And this is what Isaac realizes that has been missing between him and Lily.

Tamara is the one who saves the situation when she appears running, and she breaks the silence that was upon them.

“Tribute!” she shouts.

They all turn their eyes on her now.

“Lily, you’re here”, she says astonished.

“Not really! She’s stuck there!” says Alice.

“You were saying something about a tribute?” asks Claire.

“Yes. I have found something. Now I understand why she’s stuck in there. When a Guardian breaks the Universe’s rules and passes into another world, if he manages to get back, thing which I see she did, he will need to pay a tribute so he can set foot again on the Guardian’s land.”

“What kind of a tribute?” asks Lily from beyond the portal.

“One Guardian’s soul for another Guardian’s soul, that’s how the tribute is called.”

“So someone needs to get in here in order for me to get out? That’s not an option!” says Lily walking away from the wall.

“They all throw each other weird looks, but Tamara continues.

“Not only to pass in there for you. Sacrifice. He needs to enter and die in there because, when the sun sets, the Guardian between the walls will take its tribute and will vanish.”

“So, in other words, if Lily stays there she will be killed at sunset by the Guardian of the wall”, Isaac states with his hand on his forehead.

“Or the one who will be beyond the wall at that time”, says Tamara.

“That’s not going to happen! No one will take my place and die for me! I am here because of my stupidity, and if I’ve been through so much just to die now, so be it! Maybe this is my destiny!” says Lily.

“I’m going to find something. A solution. It can’t be this way. There must be a loophole, something!” shouts Alice running to the Base.

Tamara goes near to Lily and looks at her sadly.

“I’m sorry, child.”

Lily turns with her back at the wall and walks away.

“How can someone take her place?” Dean asks Tamara.

“Well, Lily must agree to it, so they can exchange energies after that. She will come out and that person will go instead. Nothing is possible without her consent, as long as she is inside.”

Dean watches her walking away from the wall, thoughtfully. He knows that she will never accept someone to take her place and die for her.

“Lily!” shouts Claire.

“I need a minute…” she says.

“I say we go inside and don’t waste time anymore. Let’s find a solution and get her out of there until the sun sets!” says Earl.

“We will be back, Lily”, says Claire and rushes to the Base.

There are only Dean, Tamara, Brook, and Isaac left with Lily. Brook can’t stay in one place, and she’s walking around, while Isaac wishes to talk to her, but he has no idea what he might say to her.

“Lily!” Isaac finally calls her name.

She feels shivers and turns around, for she had no idea what to tell him either. She approaches the wall fearfully, walking insecure.

“Isaac… I’m…”

“Don’t say that you’re sorry because you don’t need to. Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“We will get you out of there.”

“How, Isaac? I won’t accept someone to take my place for nothing in this world!”

“Do you want to get out of there?”

Yes, but if someone has to die, then no!”

He makes a step near the wall and touches it with his finger. The purple energy explodes, but he doesn’t put away his hand, even though he feels his energy leaving his body.

“What are you doing?” asks Lily. “Take off your hand!”

“I’m coming in there”, he says.

“How can you do that?” she asks and jumps back as burned. “You can’t do it if I don’t want you to, and you’re only hurting yourself this way! Stop it!”

Tamara sees what’s happening, and Dean rushes to pull Isaac away from there at her indications.

“What the hell are you thinking?” asks Brook angrily.

“What do you want me to do? Sit here and do nothing while the time passes? Do you think they will figure something out until the sunset? The only option is for someone to get in there!”

“No one will do that!” Lily shouts from the other side. Maybe you should use the time you have left with me to communicate and get along, not to try to piss me off! It doesn’t matter how this ends, I just want to tell you that I…”

But she doesn’t get a chance to finish her idea because two energy fields, just like the ones who had caught her some time ago and threw her into the Human’s World, grab her again, lift her up, pull her through the wall that was now purple and visible, hit her on it, and Lily disappears again, right under the terrified and desperate eyes of the Guardians.

“What the hell?!” shouts Tamara.

“Lily!” Brook screams.

“What the hell did just happen?” asks Isaac shocked than ever.

Dean is just staring at the purple wall, which was throwing energies at them, and he looks for her everywhere with his eyes, but he can’t find her. She had vanished again, right under their noses, and this time they had no idea where and how.

“Go inside and tell Alice! Maybe she has an idea about what had just happened!” Tamara tells Brook.

She rushes to do that, desperate and sad, without looking for an explanation for the thing that was happening right in front of her.

Lily opens her eyes and she sees in front of her powerful colors. Plants, trees and flowers, all of these bother her eyes because the colors are too bright. The Dragon’s Sign is lighted on her arm, but she has no time to think things through because she finds herself surrounded by beings with sharp ears. Their skin is yellow, and their claws are long. Even though they don’t seem dangerous to her, or at least that’s what Lily hopes when she stands up. One of the creatures approaches her and smells her, and then it jumps back. They are not very tall, but neither short, but they are smaller than Lily. They seem more like small people than ferocious creatures, leaving aside the sharp claws.

“The Great Guardian!” says one of them.

“She’s the Marked One”, says another.

They all bend in front of her, keeping their heads in the ground.

“What are you? What is this World?”

“The World of the Sun’s Children”, replies one. “And you are the Marked One. I believe that the true question is what are you doing here?”

“I don’t know… I was simply thrown in here.”

They all wince as they were stroke by lightning, and Lily continues to look at them insecure.

“You don’t know? The prophecy…”

“What prophecy?”

“There’s a prophecy among us. They say that the day when the Marked One will arrive into our world is the day when the end will begin.”

“The day when the Wall will begin to collapse. It will be inevitable.”

“We must send you back because you will be the only one who can close the Wall’s Portal when the day comes. If you will fail, the worlds will be flooded with dragons, demons, and other evil creatures.”

“But it’s not me… My mother is…”

The information fell like bullets over her, and she wished for everything to be over, for her not to be the chosen one anymore, not to be in the center of all the problems, maybe only for a second. She couldn’t understand why they were talking to her as if she already was the protector of the wall, while Claire has told her other stuff.

“But I…”

She would have wanted to tell them that she couldn’t be saved anymore, that someone had to die for her to get back to her world, and she wouldn’t accept it for anything in the world. Then she remembers her mother’s words, that the Dragon’s Sign was going to be passed on to the closest blood relative if she died. So someone could have saved the Worlds after her death if the Wall wasn’t going to collapse while Claire was still alive.

“How do I get back?” she asks.

“We will send you. We know how the energies work, so you will have to connect yours to ours because the time passes faster in here than to your world. You will pass by the Moon’s Children World in your way, but you will only see them in a flashlight. They are permanently in energetic connection with us, so they won’t hurt you.”

“How do you know about the Dragon’s Sign?” she asks them following them between the blooming trees.

“We can hear all of it in here, from all the worlds. Nature talks to us, it sends us messages. We hear everything, but we just can’t interfere. Sometimes we even know what’s about to happen. Such a pity… because we could have stopped disasters from happening.”

The creatures make a circle around her and hold hands.

“Just sit there and grab your legs”, one of them tells her.

Lily does that and continues to watch them closely.

“Now relax and send us your energy. Connect with us. Be one of us. You will feel you’re flying, how your body is light like a flake, and we will use our last drop of energy to send you back.”

“What do you mean the last drop?”

“We will do what needs to be done for you to get back where you belong.”

She doesn’t get the chance to ask what needs to be done, for she feels their energy spreading around. She gets up, she feels light and free, and she sees a green light this time which is surrounding her. The Sun’s Children make strange noises, and when the light covers Lily, she sees them turning into green dust, which is thrown over her, just before she is pushed through the portal.

That’s the moment when she understands that they had sacrificed themselves to send her where she belonged and, judging by what they had said, they knew everything, even the fact that she was going to die at sunset. Did they know something that she didn’t? Their sacrifice couldn’t have been in vain, but she still feels the guilt and sadness. She was sick of seeing creatures dying.

Everything becomes darker soon, and then the image is turning yellow, bright, and she sees exactly as she has been told, tall creatures covered in golden powder, which look at her as if she was a part of their world.

“Why?” she asks.

But the thoughts are not something intimate in this strange world, and the answer comes straight away without any meaning for her at this time.

“Because the one who would be your legacy to protect the Wall is not strong enough to carry the mission.”

She sees yellow lights in the dark, and she is thrown again in the purple light, back to the Guardian’s World, where she creates screaming on the other side of the portal. She falls on the back this time, hitting her head hard. She doesn’t faint though, and she stands up suddenly, and she sees the others staring at her. Her parents were there, but also Isaac and Dean, they were standing just where she had left them. Only one thing wasn’t the same. The sun. It was now close to the horizon, ready to begin his glorious descent. It wasn’t so glorious for Lily though, who makes a despairing shout, awakening fear on the other’s faces. A trace of blood pours on her neck, and she wipes it with her hand. She doesn’t believe in the nice words of the creatures she had met earlier because she’s witnessing her last minutes of life.

Alice appears just in time to see Lily’s appearance, and she has an important message for the ones who are there.

“We can try and get Lily out of there but, for me to create the energy I need to try and give the Guardian something it might take as a tribute, I need to extract half of your energy. Do you agree?”

“Just do it! The sun is setting!” shouts Isaac.

They all agree with this plan, and they hold hands to let Alice do what she does best.

“During the process, it will be revealed one of your most hidden feelings, something that you feel inside you that is true. We will all go through that feeling, as we will feel it as if it is ours. Are you sure that you want to go on with this?”

“Yes”, they all answer together.

Alice squeezes her fists and says some words in the ancient language, and then the Guardians start feeling, one by one, emptied from their energies. Earl sees an image with him standing aside during the revolt, wondering if it isn’t better if he lets the Guardians kill each other, and then to join the winning team. So, the feeling that describes him is a hypocritical one, making others look differently at him. They don’t let go of the circle though, for the sadness and painful feelings which are coming from Isaac take them over. He is faced with the disappointment, the moment when Lily walks away from him forever when she shows him that her love for him is not that strong as his. He feels ashamed because they all feel what he’s feeling, but he has to go on for her. He is capable of letting himself being humiliated for her if this is what will bring her back.

On the other side, Lily can’t understand anything, she doesn’t feel or see what they are going through. The only thing that she sees is that the sun sets soon, and she will be gone forever is their plan fails.

It’s Dean’s turn to be tormented by some hidden feelings, and what appears in front of his eyes is the image with Lily disappearing forever, but she’s walking away like she had walked the last time when she had left the Base. His words, the ones he had whispered when she was walking away, are screaming so loudly in all their minds, making him tremble: I need you. This is what he had told her, only after she had disappeared in the horizon, a thing that he was feeling now more than ever.

This feeling makes Isaac shiver in a strange way, but he has no time to think about it so much, for Claire is next, and what she sees gives everyone goosebumps. The explosion, the fire, her dead son. The screaming of the child in the room on fire and smoke. And then something that wasn’t really planned happens. A truth is revealed to her, when in front of them appear images with Lily and Isaac fighting, the bond they share in the battle, the feelings between them, Lily choosing him over and over again, protecting him, but also Isaac protecting her, their twisted and inexplicable love, the way they couldn’t give up on each other, trying to make the right thing one for another. Isaac feels he is about to faint, and so does Claire, and the face of Liam overlaps in her mind with Isaac’s. Claire has always known deep down in her heart why Lily always chose Isaac, and the energy is slowly drained from them, leaving them all to fall.

The wall starts throwing energy bunches at them, and Lily rushes to jump through it. She is once again thrown away.

“Lily! Listen to me!” yells Alice. “You will jump through it as fast as you just did, but have to do something in order to be able to pass on the other side. You have to run straight to the person who your soul is attracted to. Not your parents, for it is assumed that your feelings for both of them are the same. Just run to whom you love the most, Lily! And do it now because the sun is setting!”

Alice hadn’t been so focused on the images inside the Guardian’s minds because she was focused on sending the energies to the Guardian of the Wall. Neither the Guardians weren’t sure about what they had just seen, but they were about to find out that it had worked.

Lily looks insecure at them because she doesn’t know what she feels. She starts trembling, crying because she had tried with all her being to deny, to hide away, to do the right thing, but life has brought her here, in front of a choice which her survival depended on. And not only hers, but also the ones around her, because she was the one who could have stopped the evil creatures after the Wall’s Portal breaking. She takes a deep breath, bites her lips, and she looks at the sunset. The sun slowly disappears under the horizon.

“Today, Lily!” shouts Claire desperately.

Lily starts running to the purple portal, but she has no idea to whom she is heading to yet. Images and feelings take her over, and she simply jumps with her eyes closed. She knows now where she’s heading, so she passes fast through the purple wall and lands in Dean’s arms, holding and squeezing him as she had always wanted to. He manages to get over the shock of the moment, but the others are still changing looks between him and Isaac.

The wall collapses, just under their eyes, in dozens of pieces, and Lily can’t let go of Dean anymore. He holds her tight, with his big palms around her small head. He hears her crying, and he has no intention of letting her go soon. She is too ashamed to let go now because she doesn’t want to see Isaac’s reaction.

He’s just looking disappointedly at her, living all over again what he had just lived a few moments before. He was right, and his fears had become reality. Lily didn’t love him as he wanted her to.

“I don’t want to…” says Lily, but Dean stops her.

“It’s okay. You’re here.”

She feels safe, safer than ever in his arms. She always has this feeling when Dean hugs her. She feels like a child, one who is free to feel whatever he wants, without the fear of facing the ones around him alone. Just like she felt back in the days when she had chosen her weapon, when the chip had broken, just like in the rest of the times she had lived inside the Redfeed Base, during Zoltan’s tyranny.

So, Lily decides not to follow her brain ever again, for that vile had given her too many incorrect indications, which had brought her on heavy roads. She decides to only follow her heart from now on, and not to regret anything that makes her happy.