Glow (7 page)

21.

Lucy

“Okay, let me see that book,” Colton says, grabbing for the book in my hands. “Junie, can you really see something or is this a joke?”

“It’s not a joke, I believe it,” I admit slowly. “That describes Basil to a T. She’s the strongest-willed person I’ve ever met.” Acknowledging this feels like I’m agreeing to something big. Maybe there’s a reason Charlie isn’t; maybe he’s a distraction from the truth.

That I’m destined for something. That we all are.

Junie has a gift. I could sense her spark, her energy, when I touched her.

“What’s your aura?” I ask Junie, searching her violet eyes.

“I don’t know if I can read my own….” She seems hesitant, like she doesn’t quite believe in herself. I can relate. I’ve spent my life half believing in myself.

“Try.” I urge her on.

She holds out her hands and gazes intently at them, as if trying to draw something out.

“I think it’s kind of purple-y. Is that one of the colors?” she asks, looking at Colton who now holds the book.

“Yeah, violet auras,” he says, then stops and looks at his sister, considering her. “Violet auras are the most sensitive and wisest of colors. It is intuitive, idealistic, magical.”

The room falls silent as we look at one another, look at Junie. It feels real, and as true as anything. She smiles, as though what Colton read is what she always felt, just never put words to before. As she turns up her lips, a slight purple color raises from her head.

“Do you see that?” I say, pointing to the crown of color.

No one else sees it, but I do. Junie is intuitive in ways I’m not. She knows how to take care of Timid, to take care of others. And she’s idealistic too, wanting to remove herself from the bigger problems of the world, and live a quiet life. And she has a violet aura.

It’s real.

“Can I see the book, Colton?” Lukas asks, reaching for it again. I look at him, not knowing the next part in our story. As he starts reading, the words cause a lump to form in my throat. I’m stick still as I listen to him read, because as he reads the words his Light grows brighter, and brighter still,

“
Rainbow Children come to the world when they are needed most. Alone, they are bearers of strong light energy, but when their forces combine, they are able to start a cycle of change that compares to nothing else. These children are born with the purest energy from the universe, rainbow energy, and have the gift to give this energy to others
.

Alone, a white light bearer can transfer this energy to people, but when combined with another light bearer, the energy magnifies. They create a rainbow that spreads healing energy to themselves and others.”

“Stop!” I hold up my green hand, once again, scared of him telling me anymore. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want a book telling me who I’m supposed to be.”

There. I’ve said it. I’ve said the thing that scares me the most. Being bound to something I didn’t choose. I didn’t choose this light. I didn’t choose this life.

The room is quiet, hushed and in awe. Timid smiles brightly, fully awake now and so is Hana, Basil sits with her hands over her mouth. Colton has stopped moving, and his feet are planted firmly on the ground, his face tilted to the sky. Duke holds Junie’s hand, and they breathe in this moment for what it is.

  I know the people in this room are seeing Lukas for the first time, in the way I have always seen him, felt him. Ever since the first time I stepped foot in the Haven and felt his light wash over me. It was like I stood in sunshine, rays showering me with love and goodness. Now we watch as Lukas’s light grows brighter, as though he absorbed the words from this book in a way I clearly didn’t.

He’s accepting his destiny; I’m pushing mine away.

“Lucy, you can accept your fate.
We are Rainbow Children
. We’ve been brought together for a good greater than ourselves.” He stops, and walks to me, taking my hands in his, and I feel it. I feel him. Because when we connect,
we are connected
. In the purest way possible, in a cosmic, organic way.

In a predestined, this is reason for all of it, sort of way.

In a way that feels too big, too much. In a way I never asked for.

“Lukas.” I shake my head, my eyes filling with tears as our kaleidoscope of color returns, spreading around us and covering the room.

“You can choose to accept your fate, without choosing me to be your partner. We can do this, return to The Light, take our place as their Nobleman and Noblelady, without being Bound to one another.” He says these words with his eyes full of the tears that fill mine.

He is letting me go.

Somehow this distinction feels important, vital. Required. I can help, without forfeiting my life. I don’t exactly know what helping means exactly, but as I look around the room, full of people who believe in me, I can’t help but nod my head and agree.

“We can lead The Light,” I tell him. “We must. We are the Rainbow Children.”

With hands clasped, I’m filled with light in a way I’ve never imagined, never seen, never known to be possible.

I lift my hands, and he lifts his, and suddenly my entire body glows.

22.

Charlie

Jax leans against the tree trunk, filling me in on what I missed. A lot, apparently.

“So Reagan went nuts. Like crazy. I mean, we all knew it was coming. Whatever was left of Benjamin’s Cowboy Coalition died a long time ago, right about the time your parents stopped listening to everyone.”

“So what did Reagan do?” I look at the guy who taught me the ropes when I first moved out here to the wilderness with my parents. He was the first friend I had, and the one who got me through the loss of my brother.

“Well, one night, a few days after Colton and Junie left, he was looking for the key to the safe where he keeps his booze. He couldn’t find it. My guess is Colton stole it, you know how he is, always thinking he’s so clever.”

“Let me guess, Reagan went ape-shit?” I shake my head, knowing that man was a bad apple. “But how did you end up here, with people from Headquarters?” I look around at the group he has with him. Most everyone who was left at my parents’ house has followed him.

“No one wanted to stay with Reagan after he decided to start shooting at everything in sight. So the thirty of us left rode fast to the only place left. Headquarters.”

“How was my mom and dad?” I ask, feeling bad, for the first time, to have left them. I know how hard they worked, for how long. But it only takes a second of remembering Grandpa Benjamin’s hands on Lucy, trying to force her into the machine, to stop myself from caring. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

“Maybe you do. They’re a mess, terrified of never seeing you again. I was too, man.” Jax looks at me, telling me without words, that bailing like I did with Lucy, Junie, and Colton was pretty messed up.

I’d been in such a rush when we left though, I guess I didn’t think it all the way through. Didn’t think about who I’d be leaving behind.

“And I probably wouldn’t have found you, if Tess … that one over there.” He points to a girl wearing a red bandana in her hair, sitting on a log. “Hadn’t told us about the conversation she overheard between Junie and Colton. That’s how we knew where to go. Your parents were adamant we track you down, and bring you home.”

“And you needed a hundred of your closest friends to do that?”

“No one wanted to stay there and honestly, I don’t care what you decide to do next. We just needed a mission, a purpose. You know how long we’ve all been waiting for action. We want to do something with our lives. We want to matter.”

Jax is filled with passion and I wish I could muster up some of my own. All I want to do is leave. All of this. The Light, the compound, the cowboys. I want what I’ve always wanted.

Freedom.

“I know where to take you,” I tell him.

“Where’s that?” Jax asks, tucking a dreadlock behind his ears, his brown eyes peaked with interest.

“A place where
life purpose
is verging on obsession. You’ll fit right in.” I fist-pump him, thankful my friend came looking for me.

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Smirking, I answer, “Yeah, I don’t think I’m the boss anymore.”

23.

Lukas

We hear them before we see them. The noise gets us up on our feet, racing toward the front door. We stand outside, lined up in a row, watching as they come.

There are a hundred or more, all riding onto the property, the dark looming above us as night over takes the setting sun.

“Charlie,” says Lucy before any of us can even tell who’s here. My heart drops. I’m thankful that it’s Charlie back, safe. But at the same time, I’m disappointed. It’s impossible to deny the relief in Lucy’s voice as she identifies him.

You let her go.
I did, with words at least. But it’s still hard. My heart is full of her. She and I. And I don’t know how to separate the two. I don’t want to separate the two.

I want everything, and I know that sounds selfish, but it’s as though the moment I tapped into the truth that I truly am the prophet, my hunger intensified. I want everyone to know, to believe --
in me
. I know how twisted that is, even as I think it, but I can’t help it.

The insane thing is I was always this important. The entire time Head Councilman Conviction had me chained to my chair, releasing my energy for The Light, it was me who should have been giving orders. I let the Council dictate my every move.

Not anymore. Now I’ll give the orders.

“Holy crap, it’s everyone from the Safe House!” Duke says, pointing to the dozens of people coming our way. They get off their horses and walk towards us, Charlie leading the way.

Once Charlie is close enough, Junie asks, “Did you find Perfection, is she okay?”

“I found her, all the way on the bridge. She had Humblemen with her. It was bad, guys. A blood bath. But none of our people got hurt. Perfection begged me to stay with her, she wanted to be in her home.”

“A blood bath?” Basil asks. I look over at her and see her shoulders tighten, and fear cross her face. This girl must have seen a lot of things I’ve been sheltered from.

“It was kill or be killed.”

“The Humblemen had guns?” I ask, horrified. The Light is supposed to be non-violent, and our sacred text says we will never wage war.

“No, but I knew what would happen if I didn’t shoot, they’d have followed me back. I wasn’t going to let that happen.” Charles stares me down, his jaw clenched, his eyes searing into mine.

He killed for me, to keep me safe. I don’t know how to thank him, and I clap my hand on his back, and pull him into an embrace. Grateful to have family on my side, even if it cost people their lives.

“You’re real?” The guy next to Charlie speaks up. “I’ve heard stories of you, of this boy who could light up the world. But … you’re no story.” He reaches out his hand, as though he wants to touch the light, but pulls away, scared, like a child. I look across the crowd and realize everyone’s staring at me, and at Lucy.

I suppose I feel normal, being lit up, but everyone else here is seeing me and Lucy for the first time.

“I’m real,” I say to him, but Charlie cuts me off.

Lucy steps forward as she address the guy next to Charlie. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Hi, Lucy,” he says bashfully. “I had no idea how special you are. And look, the thing about being locked up at Reagan’s, that wasn’t what any of us wanted for you. I’m glad you got away.”

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” she says, accusation in her voice,

“I’m Jax, by the way,” he says to the rest of us. “The not-so-notorious cell-keeper of Lucy and Timid.” He gives a slight bow.

“Good to see you, man,” Colton says, and Junie walks over, giving him a hug. If these two trust him, I trust him too.

“Are we cool, Lucy?” Jax asks her. She just nods her head, still giving him a hard time. I get it; she had just escaped The Light when she arrived at the Safe House. She was terrified, and being locked in a cell wouldn’t have helped her feel safe.

“So, how did you all meet up?” Duke asks.

Charlie and Jax give us a rundown of what happened, ending with the bridge battle. I’m torn up inside as I hear them talk about Mom and Dad. But I know enough to realize no one here wants to reminisce about the past. The group gathered here wants a purpose, that’s what Jax has been saying.

I can give them what they want.

“Do you mind if I speak to the Cowboy Coalition?” I ask Jax, who seems to be leading the pack.

“Go for it. We had no idea you were real … and I think … well, everyone wants to meet you.”

I raise my hands, high above my head, sending rays of light across the field. Lucy tugs at my shirt, “Lukas,” she whispers. “Give them the light like you do at the Haven. That light has the most power,” she urges me.

Listening to the one who I trust most, I let the light pour out of me, streaming radiant beams across everyone. Heads lift as they allow themselves to be washed with the glow.

“I’m Lukas, the prophet of The Light. A fold prepared for a world that would be consumed by darkness. When darkness ascended upon the people of the world, we remained. You remained. We are here, and we have the power to rise from the ashes, like the ashes over there.” I point to the remains of the apple tree. “We can rise from the ashes and return to The Light, offering ourselves as the future. We can take back what once was ours, by giving of ourselves. I ask you to join Lucy and me, the Rainbow Children of the future, as we lead in light and love.” I grab Lucy’s hand, clasping it tightly in mine.

Her body radiates with the energy she always had within her, but never fully realized. She never knew her potential, but now we do.

Covered in our kaleidoscope of color, the people around us gasp in what seems like perfect unison. They watch in awe at the marvelous color display before them, as we release our full potential, as we embrace the people we were born to be.

Lucy and Lukas, Rainbow Children, the bearers of light.

The future.