To Those Who Wait, Hayden Sharpe [big screen ebook reader txt] 📗

helps enormously. I have a few places I stay, and my sons and daughters are constantly inviting me and providing for me.” I laughed a little. “I didn’t expect anyone would ever

do something like that for me.”

“They’re your descendants,” Abrahil shrugged. “They love you.”

“Yes. I guess they do.”

“So what kind of girls did you end up marrying?” Abrahil yawned, leaning against a wall.

“Eh,” I swallowed, unsure of how to answer Abrahil, the noble knight, who had remained celibate until marriage. “I never truly

got married, really.”

Abrahil’s eyes widened as he looked at me. “What

?” he asked incredulously.

I tugged at the collar of my shirt. “Meaning, I had a few affairs, naturally. Helped a king who needed to father a line but was, ah, unable

. And a few of us technically wed, but they never quite worked out in the end. I fathered their children, that was all.”

“I don’t believe you,” Abrahil shook his head.

“What do you expect?” I shrugged. “I didn’t wholeheartedly love any of them. Sure, I loved them, they were lovely women, all of them, but I never loved

them.”

“But they were your wives-”

“Mates

,” I corrected. “I only plan on having one real wife in my life.”

“All that time you insisted on not being considered an animal,” Abrahil snorted. “And you use a term like ‘mate.’ So who is this dream wife of yours?”

“You know.”

“After all these years?”

I nodded.

Abrahil blinked, and nodded slowly. “Ah. I can’t say I’m surprised. Loyal to a fault, like a dog.”

“You never told me where she is,” I murmured.

“I thought you knew?”

“I haven’t spoken to her in centuries.”

“You really haven’t heard at all,” he breathed incredulously, “have you?”

“Abrahil,” I whispered. “Where is Avelina?”

“Um…”

“Abrahil

,” I repeated more forcefully. “You told me where everyone else was, even if you didn’t know.”

“But you-”

“Where is Avelina?” I demanded, looking him straight in the eye.

“I don’t know!” He shrank a little and looked away from me. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know

,” I spat. “You couldn’t have just said that-”

“Ever since she was taken-”

His interruption shut me up for a good half minute. “Taken

?” I hissed, bristling. “What are you talking about?”

Abrahil ducked his head. “Well… She… She lived around here, you know. Traveled around, but always came back here after a certain amount of time. Anyway, a few years ago, maybe about eighteen-thirty, she went out for a walk. And she never came back. Wasn’t married at the time, so we, that is, I and a few of her children, went to look for her. We found some signs of a struggle, so we felt she must have been snuck up on, but… but she was gone.” His breathing shuddered, and he couldn’t meet my eye. “We tried tracking her, her children tried to reach out mentally…”

He finally looked up at me, a sense of failure shining in his eyes and weariness lining his features. “Eli, I’m so, so sorry.”

I leaned against the wall of the building we stood in front of and wrapped my arms around my stomach. I felt like I was going to be sick. Scratch that- I was

going to be sick.

“Eli…”

I shook my head desperately and slid down to the ground. I put my head between my knees and tried to calm my distressed stomach. Avelina! I cried in my head. Avelina! I should have come sooner!

Once I felt I could open my mouth without vomiting, I asked Abrahil who took her.

He shook his head. “We don’t know.”

I swallowed and nodded, but something was nagging me. “I have a different problem with this whole thing.”

“What is it?”

I shook my head. “H-how do you possibly

sneak up on a Clairvoyant?”

Abrahil shrugged. “I’ve heard it’s possible. If they’re distracted.”

“Av-” I broke off. I couldn’t say her name aloud again. “She never gets distracted.”

He rolled his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Do you know where we found the signs of struggle?”

“No. But you’re going to tell me anyway.”

“We found them in the woods. Near a cliff.”

I froze.

“When Avelina would be around here, she’d go there all the time. Said that, from that spot, you could see the most beautiful sunset in the world.”

I died inside.

“Something tells me,” Abrahil murmured. “She was thinking about something other than a sunset, hm?”

Oh God. It’s all my fault. She was thinking about me. It’s my fault she was distracted. It’s my fault she’s missing, or worse…

I couldn’t bear to think about what was worse.

Abrahil crouched next to me and wiped my eyes with a handkerchief. “Eli, stop that,” he soothed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “She’ll turn up.” He hesitated, as though he wasn’t sure if his next words would help or harm. “She still loves you, you know. She always did.”

It helped, but not much. “T-thanks. You probably made a great father,” I hiccupped, shrugging him off. I shook my head and rose from the ground. “I have to find her.”

“Eli, no one’s seen her in years,” he sighed. “She’ll turn up eventually. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt. I wouldn’t-”

“I have to find her,” I repeated.

“Abrahil!” someone cried. A young man, very young, maybe even a teenager, ran forward, clutching his head. “Abrahil, help me!” His amber eyes were anguished, and he fell to his knees in front of us.

“One of her descendants,” Abrahil whispered to me. “Very

gifted.”

“Abrahil, I keep hearing it!” the boy wept. “I keep hearing the screaming!”

“What screaming?” I asked, trying not to cry again. He looked like her. The shape of his eyes, the shade of his hair, the general brightness in his face. His hair was a little too wavy, but, otherwise, it was the same.

He looked at me and shook his head. “I don’t know! A powerful Clairvoyant, I guess! I tried tuning it out, and it normally works, but then I tripped. I lost focus, and I can’t block it out again!”

“Just relax,” Abrahil advised him, ruffling his hair comfortingly. “Relax, and it’ll fade out. Alright?”

The boy hiccupped and nodded, breathing in and out. He still looked distressed.

Abrahil crouched next to him and patted his shoulder, helping him to breathe. The boy gulped down a little laugh and looked up at him. “W-when have you been so t-touchy-feely?”

The shadow knight sighed and shook his head. “I’m not. But when one of you little rascals needs help, I’m here.”

I saw a bit of resemblance in their faces; they had the same nose, the same strong chin. Something kind of clicked in my head, and I raised an eyebrow at Abrahil in confusion. If he had-

Abrahil followed my thought process with one glance at the boy, and he laughed softly. “No,” he assured me. “I didn’t dare. And she wouldn’t even want to. One of her descendants, though, took a liking to me, and somewhere down the line, someone gave us little Louis here.”

“Huh?” Louis cocked his head, which apparently began to swim, as he began to hold it again. He groaned and tears began to roll down his face. “I don’t know why it’s so loud today,” he sniffled. “Even on other days, it’s not nearly this loud

! I wish I knew who it was,” he frowned somewhat wistfully. “She sounds miserable.”

“She?” I pursed my lips. Could it be…?

Louis nodded. “I’m pretty sure it’s a girl.” He looked me over. “Wait, who are you? I don’t recognize you.”

“My name is Eli,” I whispered, still somewhat numb from learning about Avelina.

Louis’ eyes widened. “Eli

?” he gasped. “You’re…” He looked to Abrahil. “He’s…?”

Abrahil nodded. “Yes.”

Louis looked at me with an awe that made me uncomfortable. “My older sister loves

the stories about you,” he sighed. “Avelina wouldn’t share any of the memories, but some of the girls begged her enough, so they all got together and had some kind of girly party storytime thing, and they came home swooning.” He made a disgusted face.

Abrahil covered his mouth to keep from laughing. I was sure my face was crimson. Avelina told stories about me?

The sad part was that I could see Avelina making the exact same face as Louis; she hated when people made a big deal of romance and love as well. Love was love, a sacred art and feeling, not a sideshow attraction for everyone else to swoon over. Just you two.

“I never met Avelina,” Louis shrugged. “But my sister loved her. She looked all over for her. And she was upset, and she kept saying, ‘what if he comes back and she’s not here?’ and all the girls were upset because you two are their favorite love story or something.”

Pressure built up behind my eyes. My heart was racing, my breathing uneven.

Abrahil frowned, and put a hand on Louis’ shoulder. “You should run along home,” he suggested. “I have to talk to Eli, alright?”

Louis nodded and got to his feet. “My head’s feeling better now,” he commented. “Thanks! Bye!” He ran off.

I fell heavily against the building. “F-for a descendant of yours

,” I breathed, “he sure talks a lot.”

Abrahil laughed. “He’s a good boy,” he grinned after the teenager, but looked back at me in pity. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. Avelina was really uncomfortable telling them, but they insisted on hearing about her love life. She complained and regretted it aloud to me for months afterward.”

“Girls will be girls,” I sniffed, and shook my head. “I’m going to find her.”

Abrahil sighed. “I won’t be able to stop you, will I?”

“No.”

“Good luck, Eli.”

* * *

It grew darker and darker, and the redness was fading from the sky. I sat on the old cliff, taking my shoes off for old times’ sake. I recalled her smiling face, her laughter, her opinions on life and others. Everything was crisp and clear, perfectly preserved. It stung my mind.

I shook my head, and recalled a different instance, further north, a few years after the incident had occurred. It was one of the last times I’d spoken of Avelina aloud. Nearly a thousand years, and I’d barely spoken of her.

The young man was alone. Sitting in the tall grasses, fiddling with a stalk or two.

“Papa,” my five-year-old Annaleigh whispered to me excitedly. “Papa, I bet’cha I can get him. Please, Papa? You haven’t let me get any traveler in months! I can make him piss himself, I know I can!”

I rolled my eyes. “No breaking skin this time,” I warned her. “I had a lot of explaining to do to the wife of the bleeding merchant. You can scare this one, nothing else, understand?”

“Yes, Papa,” she nodded, shifting immediately into a tiny little wolf. I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm, even if it was misplaced. She’d learn how to behave in time.

Breathing for a second, Annaleigh propelled herself forward with a howl, leaping onto the young man. He let out a scream, and flailed around, trying to avoid my daughter’s flying paws. His wavy, red-brown hair fell in shambles around his face, his pale