Chapter Six

Her pained voice echoed in my head as I plucked an Announcer from the shadows in the stairwell at Lucinda's apartment. A couple hours earlier, I nearly broke down her door to see her… that stubborn woman who I adored more than anything else in my existence. A smile spread across my face momentarily as I remembered how the angry, shocked look dissolved almost immediately after I offered her an apology. I whispered it several more times to her lips and the top of her head as I wrapped my arms and wings around her, encasing her in my warmth.

"Please don't go," she begged of me after I explained to her where I had to go to try to fix things. She kissed my hands repeatedly as she looked up at me through her long, thick lashes that almost masked the redness in her eyes. "There has to be a different way. You could just pick a side…"

I lowered myself down to one knee, switching perspectives with her as I looked up at her beautifully tear-streaked face. "I already picked my side and it's you. I promise you that I will come back and when I do…" I reached into my pocket and offered up to her a simple, yet perfect band. "If you agree, we will get married and put this behind us."

I stared into her glossy orbs as new tears formed. Unable to find her voice, she nodded her head vigorously and held her left hand out to me. I slipped my promise onto her third finger and kissed it before caressing her cheek with my hand, interrupting a stream of tears.

"Arriane and Gabbe will be checking on you. I just want you to focus on your paper and I'll be back soon," I said gently as I lifted myself up to her swollen lips. Her sadness was echoed in her kiss and it affected me to the core, but I didn't let her see it.

My hand was on the doorknob before she spoke. "When will you be back?" she forced out.

With my back to her, I closed my eyes tight, knowing it wasn't possible for me to honestly answer that. I turned to face her and forced a reassuring smile on my face. "Soon, Luce. This shouldn't take long." If she had been closer and her eyes weren't blurry from crying, she would've seen the lies in my eyes. Time was a constant and travelling through it didn't stop the passage of it in the time your soul was designated to be in. The journey to the caverns was difficult, entrance inside even more so, and then trying to find my answers in a future time…

I sighed inwardly, but maintained my composure externally. "Don't ever forget how much I love you."

As the door closed, she called out to me, "Don't go. Please? I need you, Daniel. I love you!"

Swallowing my emotion, I immediately pulled my phone from my pocket and called Gabbe and Arriane to go to Lucinda's apartment as soon as they could.

"Be safe, Danny," a serious Gabbe had said.

"Aren't I always," I joked, but took her warning to heart.

Stiff and unwilling to take shape, the Announcer fought against allowing me to enter and reach my destination. I appreciated that this was the easy part of my journey and eventually coerced the shadow to open to me.

Before I reached my destination, a cold hand grabbed me. You should not be taking this journey, the voiceless figure warned.

I forcibly yanked my arm away from the Scale. "I shouldn't have to be forced to take this. Tell me, why didn't you tell me my choice would be passed down?"

It Is not our responsibility to deliver information pertaining to the balance, only to watch how it plays out.

"Bullshit. You have an agenda and I won't allow you or anyone else to force mine and Lucinda's child to play your game."

I felt the Scale move around to the other side of me. Is Lucinda with child then? Has she lost her purity? There was eagerness in the words conveyed only in my head that made me sick to my stomach.

I let the questions hang unanswered in the darkness until I could see my destination. "We'll wed when I've made certain our future is safe," I said as I stepped out and onto a cold, dark beach.

Instantly, the Shadow crumbled and blended with the coarse sand that crunched beneath my feet as I walked towards the acrid smell emanating from the rocks. I hated to bring the stench inside my body, but it was the least of my concerns as I passed through the stone archway into an impossibly black room.

Why have you come? a genderless voice demanded.

"You know why I'm here without me answering. I need to travel to another time."

An Announcer can take you to your past times, it replied, seeming to fade away as the archway was lit with an external light.

"Wait. It isn't the past that holds my answers."

The light faded and I was once again standing in complete darkness. A journey such as that is very costly, Daniel Grigory. Are you prepared to make the payment?

I had never travelled forward in time before, but I knew it was dangerous both in the journey and in the price to pay to make it. I nodded. "Yes. I'm ready."

We require a part of you, something that is most special to you, to insure you will return to your just time without causing interruptions to the future.

My eyes grew wide and I burst out. "No, you can't have her!"

Lucinda Price is not yours to give. We require the part of your soul that is tied to her, though. It is the thing you have always treasured most.

"You want to rip part of my soul from me?" My forehead scrunched and I shook my head in disbelief.

Suddenly the light shown behind me. If you are not willing to agree to the price…

I had no choice; I needed to find answers. "When I return, it is returned to me?"

It will be waiting for you in your right time.

I didn't like the cryptic answer and worried not only what would happen to that part of me when it was severed from me, but also that I would lose the one thing that was driving this journey – the part of me that kept me going forward even in the darkest hours of my existence. I swallowed hard. "Let's begin," I said calmly, stepping forward towards a new, faded, grey light.