The Wishing Tree - Book Two [Completed]

Two Birds - Part 28

A piece of grass brushes my cheek and my eyes pop open. My palms flatten on the ground, dampening the long blue grass around me, and I try to still my racing heart. It's the same field as last time, with Mason, but it's daytime and there isn't a war raging. The clouds and the sun are just descending from the cerulean sky. It's my favourite shade of blue; it always reminds me of Ryan's eyes. Slowly, I release my breath.

"Don't come into the village." The voice sounds young, childish.

I turn my head, my heart beating a foreign rhythm. Beside me, lying in the grass is a girl of about eight. Her dark, jet black hair falls all around her in a tangle and her dark eyes are wide-set and hooded. Her light pink knitted shirt and pants remind me of the material Clara used to make my pants. Nothing about her looks familiar, but seeing her face immediately makes me relax. There's something in her dark eyes that calms me.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"Oh, my dear. The soul knows many forms."

"Violet?"

She sits up, crosses her legs and grins. "The one and only. My other body died months ago, but I managed to jump into this one and found the Auspicator camp. It's handy to be small and light sometimes. I had forgotten."

"Your soul jumped?"

She shrugs. "I have unusual powers. I always have. I'll vacate this body and recycle once we've spoken, but when I realized Ryan hadn't been able to save you, I knew we needed to talk." She looks around the field. "I'm sorry I hijacked your meeting with my son. But, I can't have you enter the village. My people will tear Mason limb from limb. He's not welcome, no matter how much he thinks he's reformed."

"He's immortal, Violet. They can't kill him."

She tsks at me. "There is always a way. Somewhere, out in this vast realm, there is a way."

"A knife?" The memory of Grayson being stabbed and gently pushed into the portal by an older, world-weary version of Violet flashes in my mind.

"Perhaps. I'm not here to tell you how to kill him, but to tell you who you are."

I laugh. "Who I am? You mean besides the one who started this whole mess?"

She narrows her eyes. "How this started is far from that simple, my girl. All of this, it's been a long time coming."

"I don't understand."

"You've heard the rumors about my husband? The mass exile of a people referred to as Journeyers?"

"Mason and Ryan mentioned something; a few things. Ryan needs to find them to restore power to the Third Realm." Excitement builds in my chest. "Do you know something?"

"Their banishment, annihilation, whatever you want to call it – I had no idea it was coming. We hosted a dinner – whole family groups, no one was allowed to miss it. We took careful attendance at the door. At the conclusion, the doors slammed shut, a force field fell over the whole room, except for me and Grayson and they were all sucked out."

"That's terrible." I never loved my Third Realm parents like I had started to love those from the Second, but the thought of whole families just disappearing. It didn't make any sense to me. "Why?"

Violet ignores me and continues, "We'd just brokered a deal; they were fine with us staying in power as long as they were free to continue developing their skills. They were progressing at such an incredible rate, and they were on the verge of surpassing even Grayson in terms of ability. One more generation and I think it would have happened." Her dark eyes cloud. "It was incredible." She shakes her head. "It was incredibly scary."