To Those Who Wait by Hayden Sharpe (lightest ebook reader .TXT) 📖

“Mon dieu!” he shrieked, scrambling away.

I gasped when I got a glimpse of his face. Without hesitation, I shifted into my own wolf-form and lunged forward, taking Annaleigh by the scruff of the neck.

“Papa!” she barked, squirming in my jaws. “Papa, let go!”

“Stop that,” I growled, and set her down a little ways off. “Go chase a rabbit, sweetheart. I need to talk to this one.”

“Papa-”

“Go.”

She pouted and turned on her paws, pointedly smacking me in the face with her tail.

I shook my head and turned back to the young man. He was backed up against a tree, terrified. “Y-You’re going to eat me now, aren’t you?” he stammered. “I must say, I probably taste horrible. And my children taste worse, so you wouldn’t want them either-”

“No,” I shook my head, shifting back into a human. “No, I’m not going to eat you.”

The young man screamed, and collapsed to the ground before he recognized me. “Eli?” he gasped. “Brother, is that you?”

I smiled at my twin. “Hello, Matthias. It is good to see you again.” From an outsider’s standpoint, one would not even think we were brothers, and especially not identical twins. But when we were younger, everyone always had difficulty telling us apart. Then I got lost. My skin tanned and my hair grew wild over six years, while my brother’s similar hair was quite tamed. Our eyes and our features were the same. That would never change.

Matthias rose from the ground and embraced me tightly. “I heard what happened,” he murmured. “But when I tried to find you, you had left.”

“I had to,” I sighed.

“Father was distraught. Again.” He shook his head. “You must stop doing that to him, hm? The next time you see him, you must stay for longer than a few days or months.”

“I’m sorry,” I shrugged. “I couldn’t stay.”

“What, exactly, happened?” Matthias was bewildered. “I heard something to do with you and Avelina, but-”

“I love her,” I said simply. “I love her, and people hated me more because she loved me back.”

“Oh, Eli,” my brother sighed, and hesitated. “Then you won’t want any updates from home, I take it.”

“Tell me.”

“But-”

“I can take it,” I assured him. “It’s been seven years.”

He frowned. “She has since wed,” he eased out. “And they have two children. A son and a daughter.”

“I am happy for her,” I nodded.

“No you aren’t.” Matthias pursed his lips. “I know you. I know your facial expressions, and I know when you fake things.”

“I

am happy for Avelina,” I protested, and looked away. “I told her she should wed after I was gone.”

“You regret it.”

“Somewhat.” I shrugged. “But I have done the same, to an extent.” I looked back into the woods. “Annaleigh,” I called. “Annaleigh, you can stop hiding. Come out here.”

My little daughter slid out from behind a tree, ducking her head shyly. Matthias gasped. “She looks like you,” he murmured.

I had to smile. “Annaleigh, apologize to your uncle, please.”

“I’m

sorry,” she huffed, kicking at the dirt.

“Why are you sorry?” I prodded.

Annaleigh shot me a glare full of daggers. “I’m sorry for attacking you, and trying to make you piss yourself,” she sighed.

“So you were that little wolf?” Matthias laughed. “All is forgiven, little one.”

“I’m not little!” she snarled, and I covered my mouth to keep from laughing. “Mama says I’m gonna be as tall as Papa!”

“Probably not,” I chuckled, ruffling her hair and tickling her. “You’ll always be my little girl.”

“I’m telling Mama!” she screeched. “I’m telling Mama you said she was wrong!” She dashed off into the woods. I was sure her mother, Léa, would laugh as well. We had a good relationship, I supposed. But I thought of Avelina from time to time, and I felt awful about that. I was once coerced into telling Léa about Avelina. She was surprisingly understanding, and had only hugged me and told me, ‘I hope you can find a place in your heart for me, and for your daughter.’ I told her of course I could, and it was true. I did love Léa. But… I didn’t know.

I wanted to get over Avelina.

I wanted to just be able to pretend it never happened. I wanted to learn to love someone else, like Léa, the same way I’d loved her. But I always realized… if I learned to love another that way… she would always be mortal. She would die eventually. I couldn’t put myself through that kind of loss.

“Eli?” Matthias stood at my shoulder, shaking me from my unfocused daze. “Eli, are you alright?”

“Hm? Yes,” I assured him.

“No.”

“Perhaps not.”

“If it makes you feel better,” my twin shrugged. “She doesn’t seem to be terribly enamored with her husband. She loves her children, naturally, but she doesn’t dote on her husband like Aven dotes on hers, or like Marellus’ wife dotes on him. Or-”

“Or how Mother loves Father?” I suggested.

He smiled. “Yes. Oh! By the way! They have since had two more children, each with Illusion. Mother was pregnant when you stopped back last time.” He looked at me. “She was upset that you didn’t visit her.”

I sighed. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t go back.”

“But you could make love to Avelina every night?”

“I never made love to her,” I bristled.

Matthias laughed. “Your face is red,” he sniggered. “I believe you, trust me. But you could have at least let Mother know that you were alright at some point.”

“I know. And I’m sorry.”

He hugged me suddenly. “I miss you terribly, brother,” he whispered.

I held him tightly. “I miss you too,” I said, and I did. “I miss you all.”

“Morgaine and Edana the least, if at all.”

“Yes.”

“And Avelina the most, I’m sure.”

“No.”

“No?”

“In truth, I miss

you the most, Matt.”

I leaned back in the grass, blinking hard. It killed me that I hadn’t seen my brother in so long. I missed him so much. He was my equal, and always understood my feelings, even if the logistics didn’t make sense.

If he were there, what would he say? What would he do if he was in my position? I heard his voice in my head.

You’ve always got to go with your gut

, it echoed. No matter where it’ll lead you.

I would listen, I decided.

I fell asleep near that cliffside, drowning in memories of my youth.

Avelina

“…It’s a-alright. I-I’m not going to h-hurt you.”

It was the little voice that woke me up. It threatened no pain, no wounds, no nothing. It was a baby’s voice; maybe not an actual infant, but a little one.

My eyes adjusted badly to the darkness, I was no Abrahil or any other Specter, but I saw a faint light outside the bars of my cell. The outline of a little boy was sitting, cross-legged, in front of the bars. His hands were over his ears. Why?

“H-Hello?” my voice came in a croak.

He dropped his hands from his ears and wrapped his arms around his knees. “Thank you for stopping,” he mumbled.

“Stopping? Stopping what?” Just the effort of speaking drained me.

“Screaming. You were screaming. Loud.”

Screaming?

“W-what year is it?” I breathed.

He paused. “I… I don’t know. Last I knew, it was eighteen-ninety-six. But I don’t know.”

Eighteen-ninety-six?

I froze. The last year I remembered… It was eighteen-forty-seven, then Aleron had thrown me in that cell. He’d kept me well prior to that.

“H-Hello?” the boy whispered, tapping on the bars. “A-are you alive?”

“Yes, little one,” I whispered. “How old are you?”

“I don’t know. When I was outside last, I was eight.” He sniffled

“Why are you here? Where is your mother?”

“Dead,” he said simply.

“Poor one.”

“What’s your name?” he asked, rubbing his eye with his fist.

I hesitated. Names had changed over the centuries. Morgaine had been renamed Morgan, Matthias was Matthieu, and Edana was Evelyn, of all things. I had been known as a few things myself, Lina, or Avery, to name two.

“I was known as Annie,” I murmured. “And you are?”

“I dunno.”

“You must have a name.”

“Mama called me Max. Short for Maxwell.”

“Well, Max,” I smiled softly. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“And you as well.” He was polite. Adorable. I looked into his mind, and saw a tumult of emotion that threatened to overwhelm me. The poor child had had an awful past. I decided to ignore his mind, just talk to him for a while. He needed a friend, a confidante. I wouldn’t burden him by showing him what could have been. It was an ability I’d developed; seeing consequences of present and past actions, alternate timelines. It was fascinating. That was why Aleron took me; I had an ability that he wanted to understand, that I would not explain.

We talked for a while, before someone barged in and grabbed him by the wrist. The little one began to cry hopelessly as he was pulled away; obviously his captor had threatened him or harmed him in some way.

I drifted into fitful sleep again. Apparently, I screamed in my sleep, but could not lose the hopeless dreams that plagued me constantly. Threats made the dreams worse, Aleron hitting me and keeping me here… I couldn’t bear it. My mind was shattering beyond repair.

In the dreams, I was reaching for something… something or someone? I did not know. But it slipped out of my grasp time and time again.

And I would hear myself shout something, a word that I knew had some meaning, but what that meaning was I could not place.

Eli

.

Eli