Astherin's POV
I didn't turn around. "You again."
He came around the side of the bleachers and sat next to me, not touching, just existing close enough that the air hummed again. "You saw Riven."
"I didn't just see him. He said we're bonded. That my soul called him and somehow, I'm having his memories the way I had yours."
"It did," Taryn said simply, like that was a perfectly normal sentence to say to a girl trying not to scream.
I turned to him. "What am I?" I paused long enough to catch an insight of my first memory trance "I just remembered you're an alien…wait you're the alien prince"
Taryn exhaled slowly, like he'd been waiting for the question and he didn't seem surprised by my realization. I won't blame him, I'm a bit slow for everything that is going on. "You're some sort of signal. A ripple or um a reminder. I don't know how to put this to you."
"Of what?" I asked making sure the confusion and frustration is written evidently on my face.
He looked at me then really looked. "Of who you used to be. Before the in between and before time was bent to erase you."
I blinked. "That doesn't help at all. Speak English Taryn, you're on earth."
He leaned forward, elbows on knees. "There's something inside you. It's older than this planet, older than any of the realms that exists within and outside of time. When you died the first time, it fractured. And now, with every awakening, it's pulling the fragments back together."
"What fragments?"
"Fragments of the multiverse. And no not in a saving the world coming together. It's the Apocalypse I don't know much about it but the elders mumbled something like that."
I stood. "So, you are telling me that I'm some sort of magical being that is awakening heaven knows what?!?! And when you say fragments coming together are you trying to say there's more people tied to me?"
He nodded. "One arrived this morning. Riven. Two more are coming. And Solon…" he paused.
"Who the hell is Solon?" I asked, but the name scraped something raw inside me.
Taryn didn't answer. Just gave me a look like he'd said too much already.
I stared down at him. "Why can't I remember? If I'm this…this, being you say I am, why don't I know anything?"
"Because remembering would kill you."
Silence… Stone cold silence.
"What?"
"You're not fully awakened. Your body is still human. If your mind remembered everything your soul holds, you'd burn alive from the inside out."
A breeze whipped my hair across my face.
"Great," I muttered. "So, I'm walking around with a live grenade in my soul."
"It's more beautiful than that," he said softly. "But yes."
A chime echoed through the air.
The school bell, lunch period ending.
I should've been worried. About detention, about teachers, about Alexis texting me to ask what the hell I was doing. But I was too busy staring at my arm and the little star like figures glowing around it.
The mark wasn't glowing anymore. It was burning like the one on my chest.
"Taryn," I said quietly. "It's not stopping."
He reached for me instinctively, then paused, his fingers hovering just over mine. "They're close."
"Who?"
And then he looked up eyes going sharp.
"Another one's arrived."
The mark on my arm and chest was burning hot by the time we reached the school gates.
Taryn didn't say a word as we walked. His silver eyes scanned everything, every movement, every shadow. Like he expected something to leap out of the hedge and drag me back to whatever realm he came from.
I clutched my hoodie sleeve tighter, trying to hide the glow radiating through the fabric. It was worse than before, angrier somehow. Like it was responding to something close or someone.
We barely made it through the back doors when I felt the shift.
A weird atmosphere, like a chilling air through the hallways.
Then I saw him.
He was also tall. God why are these men this tall. His eyes were a kind of storm gray that didn't belong on Earth. His presence bent the hallway around him like gravity didn't know what to do with him. His hands were in his pockets, and his expression was somewhere between distant curiosity and… regret
I stopped walking.
He looked up straight at me.
"Azier," Taryn murmured beside me.
Azier didn't speak at first. He just walked toward us like he had all the time in the universe and no intention of wasting any of it.
When he stopped, it was less than a foot away from me.
"I've seen you die in every life time." he said softly.
My heart froze.