Page 90 of A Second Dawn
“Oh? I’m happy to give you two a reading if that’s what you want?” Claudette perks up.
“Hmm, only if we have a happy ending,” Ade replies, his gaze lasering in on me.
His longing and desire are palpable. The intensity in his gaze wakens up my corresponding emotions. It’s like a live-wire crackles to life between us, feeding energy back and forth.
Claudette clears her throat to gain our attention, and I’m sure I’m red like always, feeling like I’ve been caught in the act.
“I was just about to tell Ella a story,” she says, rubbing her chin.
Ade walks toward us and sits down next to me on the floor. He holds his hands out to the fire, soaking in its warmth.
Poor Ade. I feel responsible for his frozen state. If I hadn’t told him about Tiero being a third of our triple flame, he wouldn’t have spent hours outside. I pour him a cup of tea and hand it to him. As he takes it, our fingers brush against each other, sending jolts of awareness through me, re-enforcing that live-wire.
Claudette watches us, biting her lower lip to suppress a smile.
She looks expectantly at us. “Are you ready?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ella
Claudettegetscomfortable,sittingcross-legged across from Ade and me.
“This is a story from a long, long time ago—”
“Shouldn’t you start it withOnce upon a time,then?” I interrupt her, giggling.
This reminds me of when I was little, and Oma used to tell me goodnight stories.
“Perhaps,” Claudette chuckles. “Or withTake this story with a grain of salt.”
“Why would you start a story with that?” I ask, puzzled.
“Just so you don’t blindly believe it. Listen to it with an open mind and a critical ear.”
Ade and I share a look. We’re both a little intrigued.
“Okay. Go on,” he says.
“So… once upon a time in India, in the colonial times, there was a man who was immensely powerful. For the story’s sake, let’s call him… Rajendra. He was instinctive, with a sharp mind and a passionate heart. One of history’s real movers and shakers.
“Rajendra had many responsibilities, connections, and relationships. He had a reputation for being violent. Though no more than was expected in those times.
“With such a temperament, you can imagine that some of those relationships soured. It threatened a loss of power and prestige.
“Troubled by this, he decided to resist the use of violence and become more diplomatic, abstaining from the use of force. He sought the guidance of a spiritual master, and over time he turned to a path of light, dismissing everything dark in his personality as abhorrent.
“But it came at a terrible cost.” Claudette pauses for dramatic effect, I think, and I glance at Ade to see how he’s doing.
He seems enthralled by the story, probably wondering why Claudette is telling it to us. Should I have mentioned it’s the story of how our soul split? Presumably, Rajendra is us all that time ago. It’s a strange thing to contemplate.
“A dispute with a neighboring king arose and his enemies tried to rid themselves of Rajendra and his family. Previously, he would have taken up arms and gone to war, but he honored his promise not to resort to violence, trying hard to resolve the conflict peacefully.
“He failed. Unable to protect his family, his wife was murdered in an act of retribution.”
Brown eyes that seem familiar flash in my mind.
Holy shit, is the account of what happened jiggling a memory?