CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

**OLIVER**
“Oliver…”
My eyes snapped open at the strange yet familiar voice and my brows furrowed in confusion as I took in my surroundings. The sun shone brightly above, its rays illuminating the green grass beneath my feet and the flowers that surrounded me. I looked ahead, and as far as the eye could see, there was no civilization…no sign of life.
“Oliver…”
My head snapped towards the sound of the voice, my eyes watering as I beheld its owner. Jamie stood a few feet away from me, a wide smile on his face that mirrored mine. I closed the gap between us, my arms wide open to hug him, to touch him. I let out a sigh of sadness and disappointment as my hands went right through him.
“Jamie…”
As his name rolled off my tongue, I realized that it had been a while since I had said his name, and up until this moment, I had almost forgotten how he sounded, how he looked, how his blue eyes were a mirror of mine, how he smiled in a way to hide his cracked tooth. Tears blurred my vision and I quickly wiped it away.
“Is this a dream?” I asked as my brain began to register that I was speaking to a dead man.
Jamie threw back his head and laughed. “Well, what do you think?” He asked cheekily.
I smiled. I had missed this. I had missed him.
“I’ve missed you so much, Jamie…”
He smiled sadly. “I’ve missed you too, brother.”
“So much has happened here,” I said. “I’m tired. I can’t wait till I can join you wherever this place is,” I said and looked around one more time.
Jamie smiled sadly. “It’s not your time yet. You still have a lot to do,” he said. “So much to achieve.”
“What more is there? I honestly don’t think I can take any more. The lies…the surprises…I…I don’t think I have it in me to continue whatever this is.”
“You do. You’ve always been the stronger brother.”
I and Jamie stood there, looking at each other, exchanging silent words of encouragement and acknowledgment. My heart wrenched in a pain that was familiar yet strange, the great feeling of loss overcame me. I felt the tears gather behind my eyes, and this time, I let them flow. Tears for the time that was lost, tears for the pain that we had faced, tears for battles we hadn’t even known we were fighting.
“It’s going to be okay, Oliver. You’ll pull through.”
I nodded and smiled, not quite sure I understood what he meant.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Jamie’s face soon turned serious. Grave. His voice took on a deadly tone that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. “The goddess,” he began. “She has started making her demands, hasn’t she?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes, she has. She has this obsession to return to the mortal world. She needs a vessel to make it happen.”
“Yes,” Jamie nodded in acquiescence. “I found that out in my research. I also found out another interesting fact.”
“Which is?”
“The consciousness of the goddess can be moved from a person to an object.”
My brows furrowed in confusion as my brain ran to catch up with the concept of what Jamie had just said.
“I don’t understand,” I said finally, my brain failed to make sense of that one sentence.
Jamie nodded and continued. “In my research, I found that the priest of the goddess can move her consciousness to an object. A weapon, a pendant, a chain…something. As long as that thing is something that can and would be worn on the body of the priest.”
“How does this affect her?” I asked.
“She has less autonomy over her priest, and the priest is capable of optimizing her power to the fullest,” Jamie said. “When it is transferred, you seal it with a blood covenant. A blood covenant that can only be broken by your descendant.”
A slow smile spread across my face, and happiness filled my heart. Finally, a way. A breakthrough. Through my happiness, a thought filtered through. There was darkness on the way, and I would need her, was now the right time? Do I wait? But the more I wait, the more I become.
I nodded my head in conclusion. “I'm going to do it,” I said firmly, deciding that she was the reason that whoever was after me wanted me in the first place.
Besides, I wouldn't be powerless to fight…and I had Gabriel.
“Not so fast,” Jamie said.
My brows drew down. “What?”
“There’s something else you should know.”
“And that is?”
“And that is you might die before the ritual is complete.”
My heart sank, the news dashing any iota of hope that resided in my soul.
“Why? How?! I don’t understand…”
“The goddess…she’s not a fan of this ritual, and there’s a chance she might kill her host before the ritual is complete.”
“But that means she goes without a priest.”
“Yes,” Jamie replied. “With priests, there’s always a bloodline. She just has to follow the line. With an object, she’s almost nothing. So far, the success rate of this ritual is 30%.”
My heart sunk even further, but I nodded encouragingly. “At least it’s not 10…”
“It’s still a chance…”
“And it’s not 0…I have a shot at this.”
Jamie opened his mouth to speak but instead but down on his lip. “Think about this. Think about it long and hard…think about Gabriel…”
“I have to go,” Jamie said. “Be strong.”
“Wait…”
I opened my eyes to see that it had all been a dream. Tears gathered in my eyes and I lay there and let them roll down the sides of my face, crying silently to make sure not to wake Gabriel. The moonlight streamed in through the window, and outside the night was still and quiet.
Suddenly, the room began to fill with black smoke. I wiped the sides of my face and sat up on my bed slowly. I looked over at Gabriel who was still sleeping peacefully next to me, and I draped my hand protectively over him. In the corner of my room, a strange figure stood, and even in the darkness, I could feel its piercing gaze on me.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
Through the darkness, I could see the smile on the entity’s face, and his silence sent shivers down my spine. My hand tightened around Gabriel’s nightshirt and I began to shake him vigorously, beating my hand repeatedly into his chest. But he didn’t budge.
“Don’t bother…” he said, a light chuckle escaping his chest. “He won’t wake up.”
My heart began to beat an unsteady rhythm in my chest, and in a last-ditch attempt, I turned to Gabriel fully and began to shake him violently, praying under my breath that he would rouse from his sleep.
He didn’t.
Panic built inside me and I leaned down and checked if he was still alive, if this man had somehow, for whatever reason, killed him before I had woken up. He hadn’t. Gabriel was still alive.
I sighed in resignation and turned to the shadow. “Who are you?”
The shadow laughed again, his voice causing a strong uneasiness in my chest, an unsettling in my soul.
“You’ll know who I am soon enough,” he said. “There’s no need to rush.”
“Why are you here?” I asked.
The shadow laughed. “There’s no need to rush, Oliver. We’ll meet soon.”
My skin felt as though spiders were crawling on it, and I broke out in a cold sweat. “What do you mean?”
The shadow’s voice turned sinister, “Get ready to give back what doesn’t belong to you, Oliver.”
And with those last, touching words, the shadow disappeared, and the smoke hovering over the room cleared just as mysteriously as it appeared. I sat still on my side of the bed long after the shadow had disappeared, and pondered on what had just happened. The dream with Jamie, and the parting words of the shadow. My heart beat loudly in my chest. What was he talking about?
I looked over at Gabriel who lay next to me, sleeping peacefully and snoring lightly, completely oblivious to the threat that had just presented itself in our abode…in our room. Gently, I slid under the covers, and closed my eyes…but I couldn’t find sleep, it had deserted me.