My phone dings.

“Why do you still have your phone with you?”

“Good question.” I check the notifications. It’s Adam. The ol’ ex-boyfriend who has left dozens of texts and way too many voicemails. “It’s nobody.”

The air is breezy and cool. The sky is expansive on the ridge we stand. The path we follow continues on around a knoll which seems to be the top of the mountain we’re on.

“Where are we?”

Talis stares out over the bright blue waters far below us and adjusts one of the many bracelets. A black car zooms below. Then an obnoxious orange. But then, Talis points to a car zigzagging along with the road. If it wasn’t on a road, it’d be unrecognizable, it’s so far away. “The red car,” he says, glancing to me.

“Uhm, good job Talis. That’s a red car. But I said, where are we?”

He side-eyes me. “Big Sur, California. Now, let us talk about the red car.”

“Actually, before we do that, can we talk about the mirror thing? Or the Siegrist thing?”

“We have less than two weeks until the Blue Moon and much ground to cover.” He gestures for me to follow him. “Let us talk while we walk.”

I trail right behind him, the path hugging tight to the grass-covered hilltop. The dirt path is eroded every few feet, dirt falling far down the slope and tumbling into the trees, far below their canopies. Laughter is somewhere below too. Like children and a mom and a dad and I remember this place from a trip we took when we visited my g-rents place. It’s a park and though the path isn’t the safest, it’s traveled a lot. “A family-friendly hike, little Zameen,” dad said. “A place to remember the end of, my cinnamon bun,” mom said. And Levon? He threatened to push me off the ridge Talis and I were just at, where the mirror frame still is and shattered glass bits cover the ground.

“The Sun and the Moon are polars,” Talis says. “Levon and his Protector went towards the moon, wherever in the world Mangha decided to take them and the mirror is towards the Sun and she decided to bring us here.”

“So we are exact opposite of Levon in the world right now?”

“More or less.” He stops and turns to me. “The red car,” he says, “do you remember who drives it?”

“Uhm,” I say. There’s one person I know of. “I mean, a lot of people drive red cars.”

“What about a red Buick car?”

The hair on the back of my neck stands. It’s impossible, really.

The giggles echo in the valley and brings a gentle smile to my lips. “So where do we go from here to get to the sewing machine?”

“Sewing Tree.” He gestures to my feet. “You will need to take your shoes off.”

“Oh my, oh my, Talis. First, snakes.” I count on my fingers. “Mountain lions, scorpions maybe, what else? Spiders.” I push on Talis’ shoulder to turn him and nudge him forward. He doesn’t budge. A brick wall. Heavier than a boulder. He glances back to me, a smirk on his face. I push harder and he finally takes a step forward, chuckling under his breath. “All of those things, Talis, I do not want on my feet.”

“You are afraid to step on mountain lions, though?” he says, finally walking at his normal pace.

“Well, if I have to run or something, you know?”

“Alright, Lyla.” He looks back to me once more, the corner of his upturned lips makes me duck my head down with my own smile.

“And you,” I say, as we round the corner. “What about your shoes?”

“Mine are leather, made of the animals which walk this earth.” He pauses and looks down the slope. “Yours are of rubber and plastic. Byproducts of oil waste.”

The tops of the trees have lost a lot of leaves and needles. The branches brown. It’s from acid rain. Number one biology question asked on college entrance exams.

“Oil is from dead dinosaurs though.”

He shakes his head in response. A man of little words. I’m going to annoy him. A lot. We continue walking. Just around this corner should be the top of the mountain with a little lookout platform, a picnic table, and a beautiful, unobstructed view but what we round the corner to is not that.

It’s a fork in the path. One continues straight and the other snakes left to the viewing spot.

The path in front of us is lined with huge trees, curving inward, shading the path of all sunlight and to peer down it is exactly what I image the word perilous feels like but thankfully, Talis turns left.

And you know, once I tripped going down the stairs at home. It was probably sometime between Freshman year and when I got my license. But I stumbled coming down the last step. Completely whiffed it. Missed it. Then I went to school. Stumbled every single time I went down, right at the last step. All day it happened. Every single time, my heart stopped pumping and my breath held in my lungs. A mini-adrenaline rush attacked me too. Like my brain, my feet, forgot where they were and the rest of me was scared about it. Embarrassing? How could it not be. Snickers and giggles and my horrified, worried face. What could possibly be happening? A brain tumor growing where ever the process for perceiving steps works? But a trick of the eye is what it was, what I wrote it off as. But mom said, “Dual realms sometimes merge at the feet of powerful beings.” Nonsense at the time. But not now.

I sit at the table while he walks around the hill top, muttering to himself. He pulls a piece of paper from somewhere inside his furs, reads it, and tucks it back in. He breaks a branch off a tree, a Sassafras tree, and chews on the end of it. And now that I’m thinking about the smell of root beer and watching Talis chew on a stick, Sassafras is all around us. I’m sure I wouldn’t have remembered the type of trees growing here when I saw it last but I would’ve remembered the smell. At least I think I would’ve.

“So, what’re we doing here because I thought we had a lot of ground to cover?”

The splintered wood peels away easily from the table. A little ant crawls from the crevice I uncovered and scurries across the wood.

“Waiting.” He sits diagonal from me and offers the chewing stick.

“I’m good, thanks.”

He huffs and goes back to chewing it. “We have lived many lives, you and I.” The ant reappears from under the table and walks in front of Talis’ arms. He holds his finger and thumb out, slowing moving them together. The ant slows its walk in tandem to Talis’ fingers moving closer and when his fingers touch, the ant turns gray and falls to ash. “This is the first we have lived apart, though.” He brushes the dust off the table. “We always live in unison for it is much safer for both of us but this was the one, and I pray the only time, we live like this.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“As in me, totally normal and you, a man living in the year one-thousand?”

He chuckles under his breath. “Sure.”

“What happened to Siegrist?”

“Like the ant, I accelerated his time,” he says. “But unlike the ant, he did not die and send his ashes back to Mother Earth.” The corner of his lip raises with the last two words, but it’s momentary. Sad, even. “Siegrist cannot die,” he says, “not yet. If he did, he would share with the Underworld who you are and who I am and our lives would be even more at risk. The Siren would be here already, waiting on us. The shadows would have made it here before her. So Siegrist lives,” he says.

“For now.”

Talis’ eyes search mine. I have no idea why I said that, I really don’t. Sure, if I was some assassin, I would love to kill Siegrist after he nearly ended my life but I’m not. I’m just me. Just Lyla.

“I don’t know what I mean by that,” I say. “Never said anything like that before.”

His shoulders move along with his breathy chuckle. He continues to chew on the stick and glance around him. “Try your magic,” he says.

“No idea how to do that or what it is or anything-”

He leans over towards the ground and then passes a blade of grass to me. It sits in front of me.

“Wood,” he gestures to the table, “and life. You do not need much for magic. Something made of earth is all you need which is why you should take your shoes off and then you will have three means of magic.”

“Definitely not comfortable with that,” I say. I blow the blade of grass from in front of me. It floats high enough for the breeze to catch it and carry it behind. “So where do you think Levon is?”

“You would be the one to know,” he says. “Place your skin against your skin and you shall find out.”

I sigh. “Weird thing to say so no.”

My phone dings again. I thought it was on silent, but guess I was fooled by the phone.

“Adam?”

“Yep,” I say, “it’s Adam.” I’d read the text but what do I say? Hey, I’m a Leaver now with apparently my soulmate near me and you’re just a regular human so leave me alone and find another girl, a regular one, to date. Also, another thought occurs to me. “How’d you know?”

“I have been with you every moment of your life.” He strips a piece of wood from the table. “I know Adam,” he says, “unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?”

The family must be gaining on us. Their voices are clearer. Lots of laughing, some arguments, facts about mountains are being thrown around, the dad is afraid they’re being stalked by mountain lions.

“You know, there are many things attracted to you. The Sun and Mangha are examples.”

“You could just call her Priya and moon-rat. That’s a lot easier to understand.”

“Sure,” he says. “And Priya and moon-rat. And,” he looks over his shoulder, “Adam.”

A storm brews over the ocean. Heavy, dark clouds form and rain is out on the horizon. Lightning cracks across the sky but the storm is too far away to hear the rumble. A fly lands on the table. Talis spreads his finger and thumb apart and brings them together slowly, draining the life from the fly. The ash crumbles and he brushes them through the crack.

“Have you wondered why Adam has been in your life?” Talis adjusts a bracelet. “Do you know where he came from?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about-”

“Tell me of Adam. Tell me where he is from. When and where you met him. What you know of him. Share with me.” He taps his fingertips on the table. “We must wait anyway, why not pass the time?”

He has a good point. He does.

“What’re we going to do when this family comes here and sees you? You look like a mountain murderer who got lost after he stabbed someone.”

Talis laughs. Like actually laughs. Fully. It makes me smile, though I’m not sure why and I’m not sure why I love his laughter so much but I want more of it.

“We will be gone by then. Answer my questions, Lyla,” he says, sobering from his laughter.

The storm edges its way towards us. Thunder finally follows just seconds behind lightning flashes. Rain grays the ocean and the air above it and the smell of sassafras mingles with rain and it’s a mix I’ve never smelled before.

“Lets see,” I say. “Adam is from, I think Idaho? Wait. No, maybe from Wisconsin. No, that’s not it. I think he’s from Texas?”

“You sure know exactly who he is,” Talis says with a smirk.

I wave his words away. I’m genuinely considering what Adam told me. I don’t remember. Moving on.

“Alright, who cares about that. I met him when I was a freshman in high school. Freshman? Where was I? In the performing arts hall. Why was I there? I don’t performing arts at all. Wait.”

My memory of Adam is hazy. So hazy, it makes my heart pulse.

“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “I don’t remember. It’s all such a blur and part of me thinks I met him last week but I don’t think that’s right and another part of me thinks that maybe we grew up together as neighbors but that’s definitely not it.”

I can’t tell if Talis is amused or concerned. He tugs at a bracelet, waiting for me to figure something out. What could it be?

“Why can’t I remember?”

I jump with the thunder clap, storm nearing the coast. Talis reaches across the table and touches my hand. I’d move it but it’s so warm and brings back so many memories of me holding my charm close and asking it questions. And I remember now. I remember meeting Adam, sort of.

Nine years old. I was on my bicycle, circling the cul-de-sac where I lived and I felt something near me. I looked behind me and it was a boy standing a block away, watching. But when I say boy, I mean this was a teenager dressed in a red shirt. The boy ran towards me. I clawed for my charm tucked into my pocket. I held it tight and went straight to our garage and ran inside, locking the door. The charm pulsed in my hand but it could’ve just been my own.

And then when I was a freshman. I was in the girls’ bathroom and I stepped out into the hallway. I saw the same boy, the teenager in a red shirt at the end of the hallway. He didn’t run at me this time but when I turned from him, I ran into Priya. She whispered in my ear, “Meet me in the Performing Arts Hall right now,” and I did. I sprinted towards it as soon as I was out of sight of the boy and I waited on Priya for a whole hour which I was so nervous about because I never skipped class ever. But I held tight to my charm and asked if I was safe and the charm warmed my hand.

Then there was last week. I met him last week, that’s when it was. We exchanged numbers and went on a date. Mom and Priya constantly called me while we went to get ice cream. I was so annoyed with them because Adam, dressed in his red shirt, was enamoring. I mean, I wasn’t that into him but he was so kind and so sweet to me. Doting and obsessively handing me napkins and making sure I was okay and then he asked me if I wanted to go to a park with him. The only park around us is a three-hundred-acre public hunting area that has no hiking trails or any park-like features for the regular, non-hunter. The question churned my stomach so I grabbed onto my charm and I asked if I was safe and it didn’t warm me. Instead, it tremored, something I never felt before and then I went straight home and that’s how Adam has my number. That’s why I wasn’t upset when we broke up because we weren’t dating. That’s why I don’t care about all his calls and all his texts.

“Talis, what’s wrong with me?”

And then, the warmth from his hand moves up my arm just as the first raindrop touches my skin. I see so many colors. All the ones I know and all the ones I don’t know.

“Nothing,” he says. “Adam is a puppet of the evils. They stole his soul from heaven, from the Otherside, without God, without Wisdom infused inside. They brought him to this life to seek and destroy you.” I pull my hand back. “And he is without Eve, is soulmate.”

“His twin flame?”

“Yes.” He draws his furs around his shoulders more as the rain sprinkles over us. “So he is without his God, without his Wisdom, and without his soulmate. He is not the Adam we know. Our Adam. The one we saw drawn up from clay but it is also our Adam. We must tread carefully as his real soul is locked inside the Adam we see.”

“And the red car is him, you think?”

“Yes.” He stands. The voices of the family are closer. They aren’t happy as before but they’re closer. “Our vessel is here.”

Talis stands on the top of the table and motions for me to join. The rain falls harder but Talis looks towards the sky. He finds my arm and holds tight. The storm whips air around us so loud, I can’t hear the family anymore. He yells above the noise, “Look up, Lyla.”

I try but rain pelts my eyes. I squint and shield my eyes from the rain. Lightning charges below the ground. The hair on my entire body raises. The air around smells so heavy with rain and lightning, it distracts me for the briefest moment. A blink of an eye. And in that moment, lightning strikes us.

I’m not sure where we’re at except the only thing I see is the ground below us. The viewing point, picnic table. The sassafras trees are gone though, replaced with pines. The family comes into view but no rain touches them only sunlight from somewhere I can’t place. A mom, a dad, a girl and her brother. The girl and the boy run to the picnic table with sack lunches. Pizza is pulled out and the two eat them.

Dad looks towards me and points to the sky. Mom looks too. She waves, the little bird on her charm bracelet tingling. The charm on Tessa’s bracelet. The one my mom wore for such a long time until Levon left her little nest.

Higher and higher, we rise. Just white noise in my ears, rain soaking me, and Talis’ hand clutched around my arm. We rise so high, the parking lot on the other side of the mountain comes into view.

A red car parks and a boy in a red shirt steps out.

IN ABSENTIA LUCIS, TENEBRAE VINCUNT

In the absence of light, darkness prevails