Chapter 23

Nova arrived early and stood there for ten minutes having an internal debate with herself on why she needed to be here, the other side of the argument was she should leave. Having breakfast with a complete stranger, the stranger from the journals was a bad idea.

She could honestly count on one hand how many times she’d gone out with someone. She looked at her hand, the few other times were when she was around eighteen or nineteen. At twenty, her soul decided she was old enough to see everything and from that point on her life had never been the same.

Pulling her phone out of her jacket, she decided she should call Bastian and reschedule this. Glancing up, she realized it was too late. He was walking down the sidewalk with another man. He was clean-cut as Bastian’s brother had been. He was taller than Bastian, his hair longer, touching his shoulders, and almost as dark as his. The other man was looking all around them at any person nearby. Bastian was looking only at her. Nova’s heart sped up, just seeing him.

His guard said something to him, and Bastian nodded but didn’t look away from her. She took this time to study him. He didn’t look like a prince, she decided. He was in jeans, a black shirt, and a leather jacket, his hair—was living its own life from the looks of it. Both of them looked like normal men. Not like they were from another realm and lived as long as they did.

They stopped several feet from her. The first thing she noticed was his guard’s eyes were just as dark as Bastian’s and his brother’s had also been. Was that a Solrelm trait?

“I wasn’t sure you’d be here.”

“I almost wasn’t,” she confessed. His guard was standing with his back to the wall, looking all around them.

“He’s unhappy with the public location.”

She nodded. “I’m not usually out unless absolutely necessary.”

His guard looked at her. “You’ll be safe.”

“Thank you—Tor?” He nodded. She gave him a polite smile.

“Go inside,” he told Bastian.

Bastian stepped over to the door and held it open for her. Glancing around, out of habit, she quickly moved by him into the café. Stopping, she looked around, it was still early, so there were only two other customers seated at the tables. Moving over, she sat at the table in the back corner, where she could see the door and street outside. Tor was now looking inside the window at him, then turned and stood with his back to the building.

Bastian sat across from her, turning his chair so his back wasn’t facing the door either.

“You don’t look like a prince,” she said quietly then glanced around.

"What should I look like?”

Nova opened her mouth and then smiled. “I’m not sure.”

“If it makes you feel better, I have the fancy robes and sashes at home.” He gave her a playful grin.

“No crown?”

His expression blanked for a second. “I have no idea. Truth be told,” he whispered, “I’m the rebel in the family, so I’m not into all the pomp and protocol.”

She grinned. “You, a rebel?” She glanced at his hair. “You do fit the part.”

His smile was fast and teasing. “I’m so relieved.”

The waitress came over. “What can I get you?”

Bastian motioned for her to go first.

“Could I have a black tea in a to-go cup and a cranberry muffin with butter on the side?”

The waitress nodded and then looked to Bastian.

“Large coffee.” He held his hand six inches over the table. “And two scones.”

Nodding the woman turned and went behind the counter.

“I’m sorry if I woke you earlier.”

He looked amused. “If you hadn’t, Tor would have a few minutes later, I preferred you.” He winked at her.

She felt her cheeks flush. “No pampered life for the prince?”

His smile was quick. “How boring would that be?” He sat back as the waitress set their order on the table.

She busied herself with her tea and muffin for a moment, needing to catch her breath. The tingling was starting in her chest again.

“Just take a deep breath,” he said softly as if he knew exactly what she was feeling.

She closed her eyes for a second and then blew out a breath before looking at him again. “It’s unnerving.”

Tilting his head, he studied her for a moment. “It’s more a revelation for me. I’ve never felt it before in my life and as you know it’s been quite a long life.”

Nova glanced at the waitress and then around the café. “I have questions about that too, but I don’t think we should discuss a lot of it right now.”

Bastian looked around, then shrugged. “I’m happy just sitting here looking at you and not chasing you down a street, over a bridge, across the docks, and so on.”

She took a piece of her muffin and put it in her mouth, taking her time chewing it before speaking again. “I suppose you’ve been chasing a while.”

He smirked at her over his cup. “A long while.”

“Why? What are you chasing?”

“Honestly?” He set the cup down. “I’m not entirely sure.”

“You’ve been chasing after it for this long and don’t know why?” she smirked.

“When you say it that way, I don’t seem very intelligent.”

She put her hand over her mouth, so she wouldn’t laugh and spit muffin all over him, “I didn’t mean it that way.” She swallowed and then leaned closer. “None of the women knew why either.” Nova paused and watched a few people come into the café. There was a woman with a young boy, maybe six with her and all she could see was the bright hue around him, the one that said he was dying. She looked away and then slowly raised her eyes to Bastian. “Can you help him?” she whispered, her voice shaking with emotion.

Bastian looked at her for a moment, concern on his face and then he turned to look around. She knew he was seeing what she had in the little boy because he took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly as if he needed a moment before he spoke. Looking at her, he opened his mouth and then closed it and shook his head. “I’ll explain. Not here.”

She nodded and put the lid on her cup. “I’ll just go pay.”

He stood up and dropped more than enough money on the table. Grabbing his cup and one of the scones, he held his hand toward the door.

They stepped out the door and Tor was right there. “Everything all right?”

Bastian gave him a quick look. “The state of the little one’s soul upset her.”

Tor gave him a blank look and then glanced at Nova. “You can see that?”

She nodded, still not sure if she could put it into words, how hard it was when she saw that with any person of any age.

Bastian motioned to walk. He took a bite of his scone but didn’t look like he was planning on speaking yet. She always felt better moving. Standing still made her feel like a target more often than not. Walking in the silence was fine with her.

“Sometimes, souls get misplaced or are only meant for a short duration.” He held her look for a moment, searching her face. “I don’t know the why’s of it though.”

“You don’t help them?”

He shook his head, pausing to drop the rest of his scone in a trash can. “We only watch over them. Make sure they move on to the next peacefully.”

“I wasn’t sure.” She looked straight ahead. “The princesses weren’t very clear on your purpose either.”

“It’s difficult to explain.” He glanced behind them.

Nova did the same to see Tor following a short distance from them. Turning back, she looked at Bastian, searching his face. “How do you do that day after day? Watch them dying?” She’d tried once to help someone that was on the brink when she’s come across them. After she felt that no matter what she tried they were going to die regardless of her efforts.

“I don’t see the death. I see the next birth, the new life.” He blew out a breath. “Thinking of the deaths would destroy me after this many years.”

Nova hadn’t thought of it that way at all. “I couldn’t do it,” she whispered as she followed him around the corner.

“Your soul has seen much, Nova.”

She nodded. “Not all of it good.”

He stopped walking and looked at her. “I don’t know how it is, that you remember all the lives.” He shook his head. “I will figure it out, you can be sure of that—but to be able to see other souls, I’m completely mystified to the reasons.”

“Not all of them,” she confessed, “just the sick ones and those dark ones.” She hugged her waist with her free arm. “What do they want, Bastian? I’m tired of being afraid of them.”

He stopped and then turned around and walked back to Tor, handed him the cup of coffee, and then jammed his hands in his pockets, and came back to her. Motioning for her to go with a jerk of his head, he followed alongside her. “They are part of a lawless faction, that takes souls that aren’t ready to be reborn.”

“What do you mean take?” She envisioned a person lying on a table and them cutting the soul from their body.

“Their exact method we can’t be sure of. We’ve recently detained a few of them for the rest of their lives, so we plan on finding out.”

“The ones that were after me the night you warned me about the bus?”

Bastian nodded.

She felt relief to know they had caught them, and those men weren’t lurking around somewhere.

He stopped walking abruptly. Nova looked away from him to see that we were at the end of the alley right near her home. He continued to stand there and look at her for a few moments before smirking, “you have to trust me. We need to work together, Nova. Nothing is more important to me than your safety and longevity.” He stepped closer and then put his hand out in front of her, his palm open. A frown creased his forehead. “You’re very safe with me. That amulet is some strong juju. One of the Gemini women give it to you?”

Nova nodded. “Crystal.”

He smirked. “I thought so. You and your soul are very safe from me and all my kind.” He glanced at the stone. “And I suspect the dark-souled ones as well.”

She touched the pendant. “I had no idea what it did, if anything. Is this the cause of the tingling with us?”

Bastian shook his head. “No. I have a theory about that, but I don’t want to start spouting off any details until I’m certain.”

Tor chuckled. Bastian glanced at him, an unamused look on his face.

She wasn’t sure what it was about but now suspected Bastian didn’t throw his status around. “I’m safe from the dark ones with this?” She held the pendant away from her body,

Bastian looked at her for a long moment. “No.” He said it in a way that made her think he had considered lying to her. “They’re not after your soul. They’re after you, Nova.”

“Why me?” She bit her lip and held her breath. Having watched far too many paranormal movies, the ridiculous notion of the woman being the ‘chosen’ mate of the evil creature popped into her head.

“I imagine it’s because you can see them, their darkness.”

That felt right and wholly terrifying at the same time. “It’s not like I can do anything to them. Calling the police will just get me locked up in a mental health institution.”

“That’s true, but if you tell us and we can round them up.” He glanced at Tor, a look passed between them, then Tor sighed and tilted his head to the side.

There was more, something they weren’t telling her.

“This is all quite complicated, and it hurts me to know you’re involved in any way.” Bastian searched her face, looking for something. “I can’t explain it all right now, but know that I will not let anything happen to you.”

“The dark ones take men.” She blurted it out and then frowned. She hadn’t intended to tell him yet. “Were they like me?”

The men exchanged another look before Bastian turned back to her. “You’ve witnessed this happening?”

She shook her head. “Not directly.” She should have kept her mouth shut. “There’s journals, from others this soul was in before me.”

“That’s where my sketch is?” She caught the look Tor gave him. It clearly stated ‘now was not the time’ for that.

“Yes.”

Bastian’s expression changed to excitement before he sobered. “I don’t think they were like you, but...” He held up a finger. “If it is for the reason I’m thinking, then you have just given us the last clue to a very complex puzzle we’ve been trying to solve.”

“Would you need the journals?” It was going against all the rules in the red book, to share them, or remove them from the hidden house.

“I’d like to see them if I could.” He turned when Tor stiffened and looked back the way they’d just come. “What is it?”

Tor held up his hand. “I’m vibing company.”

Bastian moved closer to her, his eyes scanning the other end of the alley. “Do you live close?”

She bit her lip and forced herself not to look at the door to her home, three buildings away from them. “Yes,” she whispered.

Tor held out Bastian’s coffee without looking away from the open end of the alley. “Take her home, I’m going to take a look around.” He pulled something out of his coat. It looked like a portable curling iron, but she was sure it had a much different purpose than him wanting to do his hair.

Bastian touched her arm, making her look back at him. She noted the amused look he always seemed to have was gone. Whatever was happening was very serious. Nodding, she started walking to her door. He already knew more than any other person ever had—and he had the answers she needed. Answers for her peace of mind and any keeper after her. She could pretend she lived upstairs, that’s what it was set up for. Of course, getting the journals from downstairs would mean she had to use the ladder down from the fake bedroom closet to her real bedroom closet, which she didn’t like because it was a lot more cramped than the main one. Stopping in front of it, Nova took a deep break and pulled her key out of her pocket, and unlocked the door.

He glanced at it with surprise on his face and then looked around the area. “Doesn’t get any closer than this,” he said in a hushed voice.