Immortal Souls

2: Lifetime

Present Day

Sophia

"Morning, Sophia," Aspen said, giving me a quick back hug before sitting down. "Making breakfast for me?"

I smiled, mixing in the baking soda. "No, actually, I'm making it for the dragon." I poured the batter onto the waffle iron.

"Hey!" Aspen exclaimed, standing up. "You remember Kalliope?"

"Um..." I turned to face her, thinking back through the millions of people I knew. "Yes..." I concluded, fairly sure I could remember her from my Violet lifetime, mostly because I remembered looking up her name.

"She's on a dragon rescue team now," Aspen said.

"Oh! That's awesome." I grinned and checked the light on the waffle iron. "What else has been going on?"

"Um... since you died last, or...?"

"Anything I might not know about." I hoisted myself up and sat on the counter.

Aspen thought about that. "I'm not really sure, I've been keeping to myself most of the time."

I nodded and glanced over at the waffle iron, opening it and grabbing at one before almost burning my hand and grabbing a fork. The kitchen door opened and we turned to see Cassia coming in.

"Hey!" Aspen gave Cassia a hug.

I smiled at her and she released Aspen and turned to me. "Hey, did you stay over?" Her grin was mischievous. Her short curly hair had been dyed since I last saw her, bleached and dyed light blue at the roots and bright pink at the tips.

"She knows," Aspen announced. I hadn't expected her to burst out with the information like that.

"She knows? She knows what?" Cassia looked from me to Aspen.

Aspen crossed the room and handed me a fork.

I sucked in a breath. "You, Aspen, my past lives, I remember it all."

"Oh!" Cassia broke into a smile. She wrapped me in a hug. "Everything, really? That's amazing, how?"

"I don't know," I gave her a hug back. "I've always remembered, I just... hid it."

She took off her coat and sat down at the table. "That's strange, but I'm glad for you! Makes things easier for you two, right?" She looked from me to her. I nodded and Aspen shrugged. "Well, should I still call you Sophia or... you know, I don't know what your name was originally."

I laughed. "You can call me Sophia, it's fine." I said at the same time Aspen said, "Lydia."

"Right... I didn't know Lydia, I knew... Natalie, right?" I nodded and she grinned. "But all the way back to Lydia, wow..." She trailed off, then turned to face me. "So have you seen her new spell room yet?"

"Yeah, last night." Even Cassia didn't want to talk about back then.

"Actually, we were just talking about what Sophia's missed, I told her about Kalliope's rescue team, anything else?" Aspen spoke up.

"Did you tell her about the bakery?"

"Oh!" Aspen exclaimed and turned to me. "I didn't, Kaine offered me a partnership with a bakery he's opening, he wants my potion expertise for magical pastries!"

"That's awesome!" I hopped off the counter and gave her a hug.

"I know, I can't believe I forgot about it!"

"That's why I'm here, honey." Cassia gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"Who is Kaine?" I asked, searching my mind for the name.