What Lies Beyond

Part 4

Chapter 4

We embarked on a journey across the US first. We went from coast to coast. Aidonus told me many stories about our past lives together. Each time we fell for each other, but each time it was cut too short. He told me about the times he's spent searching for me.

"You see every time the catalyst event happened I would get a tattoo, it would fade over time, but it always gave me some sort of clue to find you in the next life. Sometimes the clues are simple and I can find you within a week, other times it takes much longer. Like this one. It took me 20 years and now, if we don't stop the catalyst, we only have a year together before you are taken from me again."

"I'm sorry, it must be so painful to have to wait so long."

"Sometimes it is, however, I remember that you are well worth waiting centuries for. I remember those magnificent emerald eyes. How they have looked at me a thousand times filled with love, and how they will look at me thousands more with love."

"I'm sorry you got fated with someone who is so unstable, someone you'll never stop waiting for. I wish..."

"Don't you finish that thought, Thalia. Have you ever noticed that what you wish for always comes true?"

"Yes I have noticed that. Well almost everything."

"Yes. I know you wish for your mother."

"Every day."
"Well that is one of your gifts, and curses. You have the power to will anything into being or will anyone into your wishes, but that gift is only unlocked with the loss of someone close to you, the closest person to you in that life."

"My mom. I lost my mom because of my powers?"

"Well not directly. In some lifetimes, this gift isn't unlocked. But in the majority it has been."

I sat there in the car silently crying. Tears streamed down my face. We were silent for a while. I looked down. How could I have not noticed that Aidonus had taken my hand? How long ago had he done this? It felt so natural. My hand fit perfectly in his. As if they were made for each other. Well I guess they were. He noticed me looking and immediately pulled his hand away.

"Sorry..."

I took his hand again and smiled. He looked at me with those eyes and for an instant I could see past them. And I saw glimpses of all of our past lives together. I think I started crying again because his eyes turned from love to worry.

"Are you alright, Thalia?"

"Yes, I'm quite alright. I'm happy in fact."
His eyes showed relief.

"Well we've arrived at our next destination. I believe this may be the place where we'll find the entrance to the Underworld."

I tensed up at the mention of the Underworld.

"Don't worry my darling. I'll protect you. Don't worry. Hades is an old friend of ours."

"Ah the lord of the Underworld, ruler of free-will and the dead. How comforting."

I laughed slightly and tried to hide the anxiety that was rising in my chest.

"Thalia, I will never leave your side. I promise. Not in this life or any of the next."

There was that smile in his eyes. The smile that said everything will be okay. And I knew that it would be.

However nothing could have prepared me for what we witnessed down there or what we learned...