The Lost Girl... (Faith, Hope and Tranquillity #1)

CHAPTER 16

Silver’s POV

Something was off, I knew it, Sere as having dreams again last night but this time I was unable to enter them to help her see the truth. I was trying hard to communicate with her now and I felt how uncomfortable she was feeling. I’d sent Estel to check on her this morning, but she wasn’t home. I didn’t want to see her; I was worried about how I felt. I definitely didn’t want to force her to kiss me again. However, I know she needed the support right now, after having forgot everything and living normally as a human for so long she must feel extremely lost right now. I wished I could just tell her everything and scoop her back away to our homeland to keep her safe, but I knew she would hate me if I did that. She needed to find out for herself.

When I got home last night I had spoken to Estel and told her exactly what had happened. She wasn’t angry but annoyed that I gave in so easily. She thought we needed to take things slow and find the threat before we got Sere’s memories fully restored. There was a danger that Sere had been compromised and we could make things worse. I knew she was right but I had missed the other part of my soul for the last seventeen years and wanted to hold her close. I wanted to protect her. Estel warned that whatever dark magic was at play would be stronger than the minimal dark magic I had picked up to try and help Sere when we found her.

Id decided to get an iced coffee from the coffee shop near our house then head to the beach to be near to the tree Sere had created for me. I walked towards the coffee shop but something stopped me just outside of it. I sensed Sere and heard our song before I even turned to look inside. I hesitated, I wanted to see her but I knew I should keep away for now, she needed to fight whatever was blocking her memories. Suddenly as if Sere was talking to me herself I heard her. I was absolutely astounded that she was able to do this and stared through the window in absolute awe.

Please don’t come in here, please walk straight past, I don’t have the strength to face you right now, please turn away. I’m sorry…

I listened intently and stared at where she was sat, not worried about making eye contact now. I was greeted by dark eyes glaring at me, she was with that human again. Our boss… I looked at her, it was clear she was hurting again.

How? How was she communicating with me? I could only do that because I had gone to Sere’s uncle (Her dad’s cousin) who was half dark elf, he was able to help me learn a little, enough to communicate through the mind, enough to jump into visions and dreams and enough to see through disguises. Had Sere picked some of that up before she went missing? I would talk to Estel, we needed a plan to train her, stop the dark magic taking over her completely. I scowled at David and stalked off to a different coffee shop answering Sere as nicely as I could.

Lily’s POV

As you wish my love…

I opened my eyes; I had heard his voice again. Had he heard me praying for him not to come in? The reply was sweet but with a slight grinding of teeth in it.

“Everything ok sweetness?” David asked looking at me with concern.

“Yeah, I’m just…” How did I feel? I was in pain, I was tired, I was absolutely confused as heck. “…tired, this has been a lot to take in…” I sighed, clasping my hands on the table. That seemed like the only emotion I could express right now.

“I can imagine, I think we need to research more into this memory blocking. Maybe we can completely unlock your past memories and figure out what happened to you…” He put his hand on my cheek. “Then we can continue our lives any way you want…” I looked at him, this man had been by my side for over 5 years without telling me any of this, to protect me. I had trusted him with my past as well as other things, he had looked after me at work and been my friend. I really cared about this man but as my soulmate. I wasn’t sure… I leaned in and gave him a slight peck on the lips which took him by surprise. Even if he wasn’t actually Celeb, he clearly cared about me enough to keep me safe and sound the last 5 years.

“Thank you for always being there for me David…” I said, blushing, not from loving feelings but just from the fact I had kissed him on the lips without asking. “I think I need to go and rest. Can we talk more after work?”

“I think that’s a good idea…” David answered, a little dazed. “Oh! Speaking of work, I’d better head out, I still have work to do…” He winked, letting me know he was joking. “Remember you have the week off, as do your newbies, the campaign doesn’t start for another week. Please get plenty of rest and I’ll see you in about 6 hours” He said whilst looking at his watch. He leant down and kissed my forehead before settling our bill and leaving for work. I sat there for a few more minutes, I had no intention of resting today. I needed answers and fast. I downed my coffee and waved goodbye to Mrs Sanderson and headed towards my apartment building.

I walked to the apartment where Hope and everyone else lived. I hesitated outside the door and took a deep breath in and out. Did I really want to open this can of worms? I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere by running away and if Silver really was Dae and was controlling everyone I needed to know and figure out a way to fix this. I didn’t know if I believed David, but enough people were now telling me my dreams were real, I needed to confront Hope and Faith one way or another… They were definitely who I thought they were… Estel and Voronwe, my triplet sisters…

I knocked on the door, my heart beating so fast I thought I might have a heart attack. What was taking so long, why aren’t they answering the door? Was I being impatient? Was I hyperventilating? I couldn’t cope, I decided to turn around and leave just as the door opened.

Faith had answered the door. Before she could say anything I turned around and burst into tears, full on ugly crying. I launched myself into her arms. She was clearly shocked but held me tightly.

“Are you ok?” She dragged me into the house and shouted for Hope. Upon seeing Hope the tears ran more. I knew they were my sisters. I could feel it, David telling me this was the truth finally got me to accept what I knew deep down. Our birthdays were the same day. We were the same age (technically) and they looked exactly how I would imagine my sisters would look now they were older. I tried to tell them, through the tears, that I knew who they were but words wouldn’t form together as I took deep breaths trying to recover from the tears. I grabbed Hope and pulled her into a hug with Faith.

“What?!” Hope asked as she was forced into the small group hug. “Are you ok? What’s happening?” The second question was aimed at Faith. I tried to choke out words but I only managed one word.

“Estel!” I coughed through the tears. “Voronwe!” I could see their eyes widen in shock. It took a few seconds before they answered me. I could see their eyes adjusting from worry to sadness to shock.

“Y… you… remember us?” Hope/ Estel asked shocked. I still couldn’t speak properly due to my hiccup crying but I managed to nod into Faith/ Voronwe’s chest. “Really?” She shrieked; I could see she was holding in her excitement. I nodded again. She started screaming causing the boys to run into the front room. Estel was dancing around the room whilst Voronwe held me, stroking my hair to calm me down. Black, or should I say Morna was looking confused between a clearly happy Estel and a weeping me. Alda on the other hand just shrugged and proceeded to turn on the kettle, clearly, he realised we needed some soothing drinks. Once I had calmed down enough to see again, I sat up, where was Silver? It hit me that I was suddenly thinking of the others with their real names, their elven names but Silver was still Silver for some reason. He had said he was Celeb, but I still wasn’t sure. I didn’t know, but I wanted to know where he was. I needed answers from him more than the others. I trusted them completely, but Silver was different, there were too many holes.

Voronwe saw me staring and wasn’t sure what I was staring at. She turned to see that I was looking around for something and she seemed to understand in seconds.

“Celeb has… gone out for a bit.” She answered. I picked up that she called him Celeb now. I looked surprised at her. “What? You didn’t know Silver was Celeb?” She asked, looking baffled.

“It’s not that…” I twisted my hands in my lap. How could I explain what David had told me? If Silver really was Celeb, then that meant David could potentially be a threat, knowing so much about me. However, if David was really Celeb, then Silver was most definitely dangerous. I couldn’t chance my sisters being in danger any more than they already might be. I needed to figure this out myself. “It’s just that, I don’t fully remember everything. I just know that my dreams might be actual memories and not dreams. Then things started clicking into place and well, Celeb kind of gave himself away to me.”

“I KNEW IT!” Estel screamed, charging out of the apartment. I looked worried and confused at Voronwe. She was just laughing.

“Don’t worry about it, they had a fight about telling you stuff the other day and Celeb told her he hadn’t told you anything.” Voronwe said, patting my hands which were still twisted tightly in my lap.

“Oh…”

Silver/ Celebs POV

“CELEB!” a voice shouted, despite it sounding gentle I knew what could follow if it didn’t calm down.

“Estel?” I said, gently, trying not to anger her any more than she already was. I rose from my spot on the bench I was reading on not too far from our house. Close enough to help if needed but far enough away from Sere and these confusing feelings.

“SO! guess who I just spoke to?” She asked, hands on hips, glaring at me. I had no idea, so I just stared at her. I was not going to “poke the bear” as the saying goes. “Your dear beloved! That’s who and guess who she landed in a pile of mess…”

“Erm…” She started towards me with her arms outstretched and I panicked. Holding my hands up I blurted out. “When you asked me, I didn’t lie, I hadn’t said anything. I said stuff after but even then, I didn’t actually tell her anything concrete, more just acknowledged that what was happening was correct. But I had no choice Estel!”

“You had plenty of choice…” Estel said through gritted teeth. “She recognises us all, but she still doesn’t know everything, so this leaves too much at stake. What if whoever is blocking her fate is also watching, trying to get information to destroy us all?” Her hands were still held out and I could hear the wind picking up.

“That’s not possible, even the most powerful dark elf can’t listen into conversations, they can only communicate through thoughts or access memories, and they have to have a connection to do that…” He stopped. “Unless they already have a connection…” Estel stopped her advance and the wind calmed down.

“What do you mean?” Estel asked, tilting her head in interest.

“What if the person isn’t a dark elf or someone evil from our world, but human being controlled by them?” Why hadn’t I thought about this earlier, someone who was close to Sere and had been around her for a long time. Someone who spent more time with her than apart from her. Someone who knew where she lived and where she worked. Someone who had gained her trust and could manipulate her.

“What are you saying?”

“David…”

“What about him? Surely, you’d have sensed something by now, plus he’s known her 5 years, if he was going to harm her he would have done by now. You’re getting it all wrong, this is why we needed to wait!” She stamped her foot in anger. “You better come home, Sere wants to talk to you…”

Estel was right, he could have harmed her but what if there was something we were overlooking? What if he had a reason to wait. What if this thing that had stolen Sere away was waiting and biding its time to get stronger or for some reason? Maybe we needed more answers?