Lucid Nightmares - Fated Flowers Saga

Ch 21: Becoming His Mind

"I don't understand, one minute she's fine and the next she's turning on me! What did I do? Why are women so confusing?" Exasperated, I pace through the beach-themed room before turning towards my brother.

My brother, unhelpfully, rolls his eyes. "You did something to upset her, she explained why she was upset. You believed she was innocent, was that it?"

"She is!" I scoff and correct myself, "Was." I pace furiously across the length of the room wishing I could release my frustrations on the tiki statues. "It's not just that. She has so much going on inside her head, I can't figure out what she wants. Sometimes she wants to take things slow, then she doesn't and Stars above she's hard to tell no, and then she finds my stash—"

Alarmed, he rises to his feet, "Your stash?"

I wave him off sharply, "It's not that. Something else. And I wasn't planning on using them, I just wanted to be prepared if something did happen... then she explodes and acts like I did something wrong! How is having that wrong?"

My brother remains silent but that's what I wanted.

I'm not venting to him because I trust him, but he's the closest thing I have to an ally which is horribly ironic. Somehow I screwed up and lost Juliette in the process, now my brother is all I have left.

I run my hands through my hair roughly and turn in a quick circle. Why does she keep changing her mind? What does she want from me? I tried reading her mind thinking it would help, but it made things worse. Her thoughts make absolutely no sense. It's a wonder she hasn't gone insane from the constant anxiety.

She wants to kiss me. She doesn't.

She wants to be together forever and then she doesn't.

She wants me to seduce her and then she wants reality.

Juliette is a walking paradox of yes and no. Nothing is consistent in her mind. It's like even she doesn't understand what she wants. And then she's mad at me for that? How the fuck is that fair?

Fires below, I'm not that all-knowing.

"Then Maya gets between us when I try to talk to her," I continue angrily, "and tells me to go away! Maya doesn't know what Juliette wants. She's just as lost as Juliette!"

My brother's eyes narrow with offense. "Maya was doing what she thought was best for Juliette," he argues sharply.

I am caught off guard by his sudden defense. I search his spirit with a power like Maya's and sense a flare of rage inside his usually calm heart. I fight my growing smile, exhilarated by his sudden anger. I feed off his energy until Max cuts me off, furious with my power absorbing. It doesn't matter. I already did it.

I scoff at him, "Maya doesn't know what's best for her," I say finally.

If Maya wasn't hellbent on destroying my relationship with Juliette, I would say she's an interesting person. She'd be fun to hang out with if we weren't in the middle of a war. But I can't allow her to get between Juliette and I. Not again. She was the one who ruined everything in the first place with the bombs that sent them back to their world.

I lost Juliette because of Maya's mistake.

"Do not forget that they have known each other longer than you and I," my brother snaps at me. A rush of jealousy makes my anger worse. "We have only just reunited with them today. In their eyes, everything is completely new and that includes us."

I fist my hand and dig my nails into my palm. "It shouldn't be like that. They would still be with us if Maya hadn't tried to infiltrate my base! From the beginning, Maya has gotten between us! She shouldn't have been chosen in the first place! Only one is called, never two!" I shout loud enough for the girls to hear me in the other room.