Dead Lines

32: You Are You and No Other

Unedited.

Chapter Thirty-Two

I was back at the edge of the wood, lying on the ground at the base of one of the pines. Shaw stood over me, looking none too pleased about my current position.

“You got lost.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You followed the laughter after I told you not to. You got lost.”

Like I wasn’t lost now? “You’re frowning.” It was odd. Shaw didn’t frown. Not on purpose.

“Listen to my instructions next time.” He held out a hand and I took it. “If you’re through playing with things you shouldn’t, let’s focus on the now.”

I wasn’t convinced what I’d seen wasn’t important. If I wasn’t completely off my rocker, and I was sure I wasn’t, what I’d just lived through again was what happened to me when I was six and got lost in the cornfield. And if it was true then Caelus was playing a much bigger game than I thought. Why the hell he’d tried to kidnap me, I wasn’t sure but I needed to figure it out.

As for the man, the one who’d rescued me…

“I’ve seen him before.”

“Who?”  

“The man from the cornfield.”

Shaw stopped and slowly turned to face me. “What man from the cornfield?”

“Did you not see—what I just saw—there was a man. He saved me and—I’ve seen him—I saw him when I went with Andrzej to the Between.”

Shaw’s back straightened and a strange shadow clouded his expression. “Lycaon.”

I shook my head, confused. “What?”

I made a sacrifice, a faulty one. It tore my family apart.

What’s your name?...I don’t have one. I lost the right to it a long time ago.

My brain was shooting random things at me and it was getting—

“His name is Lycaon. The original Lycaon wolf.”

“You—what? No. That can’t be him. He was cursed to be a wolf forever.”

“After performing an act of profound good, Lycaon is permitted to take human form for a short period of time. He became a pseudo guardian to the patch of land Persephone abandoned when she chose to follow Hades into the Underworld. Lycaon found you in the cornfield, rescued you, and when he prepared to take you back to your parents, he discovered you were poisoned by The Nothing. If he hadn’t kept you in the Between and treated you, Caelus would’ve found and stolen you back.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why me? There were tons of children in the field that night. Cecil—”

“None of them were you.” It was bluntly said. “Not even Cyrus.”

Had I taken a trip down the rabbit hole or something? Nothing was making sense. “What does that mean?”

We’d reached the pond and Shaw maneuvered himself behind me, hands on my shoulders. “You are you and no other. Now, look into the water and see what you’re meant to.”

I looked down at myself in the water and what I saw was—not right. Instead of seeing myself, Gaia was looking up at me, the face she’d had while we conversed in my head and hair as red as the setting sun. “I—that’s not me.” I looked over my shoulder but Shaw gone. “Shaw?” I turned back to the water and found my own face staring up at me, the mirage gone. The ripples of the water shimmered. “Shaw?” I twirled, looking all around for the Siren. “Shaw!”