Parallel Hearts (Parallel Hearts Trilogy, #1)

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

You don't know it, but when you fall in love, you're actually falling in two different directions. In one direction you're falling towards what you hope to be eternal bliss. You've finally found that special someone who "completes" you. But then there's the other direction, the direction no one warns you about, the direction that could potentially drop you into a black hole of misery.  You don’t see the signs or the sharp edged knife barreling towards your chest because you’re blinded by the colors of happiness. You trust that the one you love would never do anything to hurt you… but love is a drug that puts you under a spell, and makes you believe that all of your hopes and dreams can come true. But what happens when the one you love does something unexpected, something that isn’t written within the pages of your storybook? What if they leave you for someone else? Die? Lie? Make a mistake that can’t be undone? Love is a strategic game of give and take, and with one wrong move, the one you love can drop you.

“I don’t understand,” I say outright to Aaden as he quickly calls Gram and leaves her a message about our whereabouts before returning his gaze to the sky. It’s almost nightfall, and we’ve moved uphill, lying sheltered beneath the umbrella shaped branches of the tallest tree. The stars sparkle between the curved branches shedding tiny spots of light across his blank face. I watch the rise and fall of his chest and wonder what’s going through his mind. His eyes are vacant, like he’s off imaging a different place and time where things are exactly that­—different. I can see the outline of his Everly necklace hidden like a secret beneath his black t-shirt, and I want to reach out and touch it, but I don’t know if I can­—if I’m allowed. “What’s going to happen to us?” I ask with knots twisting and raveling in my stomach. His face breaks hearing the worry in my voice, and I can’t help but sense the sharp edged knife headed straight for us.

He shifts and turns onto his side, facing me and props himself up with a bent arm. He gently takes my hand in his and begins to play with my fingers. “I don’t know, Anna,” he says, his voice tormented like it hurts to speak the truth. “All I know, is that it doesn’t matter how you and I feel. It can’t matter because we can’t be together. It’s that simple. You’re a Descendant of the Infinite Eight and I’m not,” he finishes, dropping his eyes like he’s not supposed to be looking at me. “You’re meant to be with your own kind.”

“My own kind?” I ask with hostility. “What does that even mean?” I sit up on my side, mirroring his position.

“Anna,” he says, in the way he does when he’s about to tell me something I don’t want to hear. “Have you ever wondered why your necklace is so different than mine?”

“No.” I shrug, wondering what my necklace has to do with anything. “I guess it never mattered to me.”

“Well, it’s going to matter,” he states, making the knot in my stomach twist even tighter. “Your necklace represents something different than what you’ve been led to believe.”

I look down at the platinum infinity symbol hanging from around my neck like it’s a foreign object. “What is it then? What does it mean?”

Aaden looks at me with intensity. “The sapphire doesn’t represent the month you were born, Anna. It represents your Founding Family, and at the Promising Ceremony, you’ll be given your matches’ family stone to wear, as he will be given yours.”

I go numb and Aaden’s hand falls out of mine as a look of betrayal washes over my stunned face. I know it’s not his fault that the burden of revealing this has fallen on his shoulders, but the thought of having to wear someone else’s heart around my neck makes me sick. All this time I’ve been living my life not knowing the necklace my parents gave me defines my future. It makes me want to take it off, rip it from my neck and throw it back from where it came. How am I supposed to carry my fate around my neck like a ball and chain?