What Lies Between ✔

The Anticipation

32.

Adrian followed my directions through the city.

The stronger Lidia's presence became the more anxious I felt. I wanted to leave Lidia in peace, to not put her in anymore danger, but what Mariam had revealed to us about Lord Cyril was too disturbing to keep hidden, and more important, Ben was fading away from me right before my eyes.

"We are almost there, hold on Ben. Almost there, stay with me..." I kept repeating such things to him, hoping that somehow he could hear me, that he was hanging on.

"God, he looks pale," Zuri whispered. "Go faster Adrian."

"Where next, Kairos?" Adrian asked me earnestly.

"Just one more left, she's very close." As I spoke the sentence, another energy swarmed my senses, one I was almost as familiar with as Lidia's. My heart jumped at the recognition. "Thorne," I whispered, "Why is Thorne here?"

"Who?" Berit asked.

"Thorne, he is the Lord's son," I swallowed. "He's my friend too."

"Great! Maybe he can help us persuade Galen," Adrian spoke, turning left swiftly. "And maybe he can talk some sense into his father about the whole army situation."

"No, he is the Lord's son, he'll get himself in so much trouble if he were caught helping us!" I practically keeled over in panic. It was already awful of me to jeopardize Lidia, but now Thorne too? And I could just forget about accusing his father of such an atrocity as violating The Morals. He'd think me to be even worse than a Ghost. "I'll have to get Lidia alone; I cannot let Thorne see us."

At that moment a graveyard came into view. Four stone pillars, each designed with black ironed roses arching over them. The entire ground was fenced in by the same beautiful metal work. The name on the middle arch entwined with the flowers of the coiled iron spelled out Brownsville Cemetery.

"That's...ironic," Berit whispered.

"An act of fate, really," Adrian agreed.

"They're in there, a ways back." I said, glancing over the rows of tombstones. "They must believe that I would try to find refuge here with whatever spirits chose to return to their resting place."

Justice clicked his tongue. "This is gonna require some serious stealthiness, won't it?"

"Stealthiness is not a word, but I would think so being that these are otherworldly soldiers we're looking to bamboozle," Berit said, sounding as nervous as I felt.

"All I need is to get Lidia's attention. They've probably split up anyway." I looked to Adrian. "It can only be you and I who goes."

Adrian nodded. "We all still have our walky-talkies, we can communicate with those. Zuri, Grab your gun and take to the left." He pointed to a row of tall oaks lining one of the walk ways off in the distance. "There is where you'll keep watch. Stay low, stay hidden, and shoot anything that looks threatening and ghostly. Justice, you do the same on the right at the other end. Either of you see anyone heading our way, you use your walky-talkies to warn us to hide. Understand?"

"Got it, Chief," Justice said. Zuri nodded with him.

"Good." He looked beside him to Kanoa. "I need you to pull the car around the side where it'll be masked by trees. We look awful suspicious just sitting here. You need to hide our energy as well Kanoa, we don't want to risk being sensed. "