The Coalition (Book 1)

Chapter 70

Shai smiled as she watched the image of a younger Aliah with a boyish grin and thick, dark hair that he constantly brushed off his forehead. His expression changed whenever he was near her, and she watched as her own cheeks flushed pink every time they bumped elbows, with each brush of their fingers. Next she saw Remiel, his strong hands and gentle smile. She saw the tug-of-war on her face whenever she was with both of them. She saw the image of herself clasp hands with Aliah while ignoring Remiel. Aliah constantly interrupted her conversations with Remiel and she continually chose to be with him over Remiel. I remember that. She turned her face away.

Samael poked her in the back. "Watch!"

She turned back to the wall in time to re-live the moment when she had stood near the bridge in Lael talking to Remiel as Aliah approached. The scene seemed to move in slow motion. She gasped as she watched Aliah attack Remiel and shove him face-first into the water. Then Aliah flipped Remiel over and slammed his fist into Remiel's face again and again. Shai watched herself cover her face with her hands and scream, "No! No!"

That singular memory came back in a flood while she watched herself jump on Aliah's back, who shoved her onto the embankment. He left bloody fingerprints on her tunic and arm. Even back then I had worn Remiel's blood. She watched Aliah push Remiel's lifeless body into the water.

"Stop!" She cried out. I can't watch this! She began to turn away again, but something made her heart nearly stop. The wall flashed an image of Samael in Lael, handing out pendants. Then it flashed to Samael and Aliah talking with each other just out of Shai's earshot. A second later she saw Samael's fingers on her throat as he fastened a pendant around her neck. She shivered at the hungry look in his eyes as his hands lingered on her skin.

She watched scenes of her friends in Lael as they walked around with long faces and empty eyes, dutifully obeying the Mothers' instructions. Every color and pleasant sight or sound seemed to drain away, leaving everything drab and grey.

It revealed her own internal change. Suspicion and anger towards Aliah. Irritation instead of enjoyment. Remiel was gone and no one mentioned him. He seemed to be forgotten.

Next, the Readings were displayed on the white wall in front of her: a girl exiled for her infraction and the Laelites fearful faces, as a boy was sentenced to isolation. Another young child was chastised with ten lashings from a leather whip. And so on, until the moment she was called up for her 'reward.'

Shai watched it all with tears dripping off her chin. She re-lived the mistakes she had made, felt the anger that simmered just below the surface every second. She stared at the moving images on the wall and grieved for the pieces of her earlier past that she could barely remember. For Aliah, who was laying cold and stiff on the floor not far from her. For Remiel, who was tacked to the wall just a few feet away, whom she couldn't bear to look at.

The scenes skipped then repeated. The same events, same Readings, same punishments, same reactions. Everything on fast forward. The scenes repeated again. And again. And again, until they blurred on the wall in front of her.

Samael laughed. "Do you like that? It's your whole life in under three minutes. Then the last twenty-one days on repeat for the last five years."

What was he saying?

"That part was my gift to you! No one grew old and no one died unless they took off their pendants and their memories returned. Aliah wanted his infraction erased from everyone's minds, so the easiest thing was to keep everyone on a memory loop. Twenty-one days of repeated events. No harm done at all unless you were to wander too far from Lael. Then the pendant's poison would erase your mind permanently." Samael reached out and rubbed a lock of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. "Shai, your mind is being erased right here, right now, while your body is back in Kent. If it weren't for Remiel, you'd be nothing but an empty shell soon."