Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Parrish

Waves pounded against the side of the boat. It was too small of a boat for such rough waters, but they didn't have too much farther to go.

Parrish looked around, part of her knowing she was dreaming, but another part feeling like it was more memory than dream. She'd been here before.

In the distance, she saw the small strip of land and pointed. Her companions nodded and kept rowing. Crash on one side, Noah on the other. Karmen sat at the other end of the vessel, talking to another young man Parrish didn't recognize.

No, that wasn't exactly right.

She didn't know his name and she was sure she'd never seen him before, but somehow she knew him. But how?

Inside the dream, she couldn't think clearly enough to know how she recognized him, but he belonged there with the four of them. They were a group, and they were almost done with their work. Just one important mission left before they could rest.

The boat finally pulled onto the small white-sand beach, and Parrish jumped out, the skirt of her dress floating in the water as she helped pull the boat onto the sand.

"This is it," she said.

Her familiar katana was strapped to her back with a strip of tied leather, but she looked so much different than she did now. She was older and dressed in very different clothing than the kind she usually wore.

The others were different, too. If she had to make a guess, she'd have said Noah looked about thirty or thirty-five years old. He wore black pants and a white shirt, his hair long and wavy, tied behind his neck with a black ribbon.

"Do you have the stone?" she asked the young man. He had dark, smooth skin the color of ebony and his eyes were black and beautiful.

He nodded and handed the stone to her.

She stared at it, feeling its weight on her palm even in the dream. She turned it over in her hand, studying the symbols etched into each of its five sides.

A cross. A bolt of lightning. A rose. A spiral. And finally, an infinity symbol. She ran her fingertip over the last symbol, feeling along the grooves as something important clicked into place in her mind.

This is my symbol. It always has been.

"Let's get this over with," Karmen said, climbing out of the boat. "I want to go home."

Parrish caught her friend's arm as she passed. "We aren't going home," she said. "That's why we're here on this island. We can never go home again, don't you understand that?"

"What if I refuse to stay?" Karmen asked, pulling her arm away.

"We brought her here to this world," Parrish said. "It's our responsibility now to watch after the people who live here. We are their guardians now. It's not your decision anymore."

Tears welled up in Karmen's eyes. Her face had aged, but she was still a beauty even then. Her hair flowed down her back almost to her knees, and the wind carried it up like a sail.

"I didn't ask for this," she said.

"None of us did," Parrish told her. "But we cannot argue against destiny."

Karmen closed her eyes and Parrish grabbed her hand. They had been through so much, and it broke her heart to know that for them, it would never truly be over. Someday this world would need them again, so they had to do this one thing that would guarantee they were still around when the time came.

Together, the five of them made their way to the center of the small island. There was nothing more than a few lonely trees on this land, and Parrish knew that after their spell had been cast, it would be impossible for human eyes to ever see or discover it. This would be their place, the keeper of their memories.

She nodded to the young man and he smiled. He pulled a small dagger from his belt and began to draw an outline in the sand. A circle in the center with five lines radiating from it like the sun. At the end of each line, he drew a symbol from the stone.

When he was finished, he put his dagger away and closed his eyes. With palms raised toward the sky, he knelt at the center of the circle. All around them, the ground rumbled and shook. Black stone rose from the sand, filling in the design the man had drawn and making it permanent.

He opened his eyes and nodded to Parrish.

"Take your places," she said.

Each of them moved to their place around the spire, stepping onto the pillar that held their symbol. Noah on the cross. Karmen on the rose. The young man on the spiral. Crash on the lightning bolt.

Parrish walked to the center of the spire and placed the stone inside a five-sided hole. It fit perfectly and as it descended into its place deep inside the black spire, the line from the center to each of the pillars lit up with a brilliant light.

All except hers.

Parrish stepped carefully through the sand and stepped onto the pillar with the infinity sign carved inside.

A bright light flashed before her eyes and she opened them, sitting up with a choked gasp.

The dream fell away as quickly as it had come and she was back in the farmhouse, sunlight streaming through the windows.

She squinted and looked up at a smiling Noah.

"Sorry to wake you up, but we need to get going," he said. He studied her and frowned. "Are you alright?"

She shook her head and closed her eyes, wishing the dream would come back to her. She had the feeling she'd been on the edge of discovering something very important.

But all that lingered was the memory of the spire on the beach. The symbols etched into the stone. What did it all mean?

"I'm fine," she said. "I just had a vivid dream, that's all. Where is everyone else?"

"Loading up the truck," he said. He lowered his hand to hers and helped her up.

She stared at him, suddenly remembering the image of him standing on the white beach, his hair tied back and his face older, but familiar.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," she said. But the memory of the dream lingered long after they'd closed up the old farmhouse and started the journey to the compound. Something about it had rattled her. Something beyond the fact that it had seemed like a memory or that she'd felt connected to the symbols on the stone.

They were a couple hours into the trip when it finally hit her.

She sat up in the back of the Humvee and glanced over at the new girl. Lily.

Everyone in this truck had been there on the beach.

Everyone but her.