The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 103

REMY

I didn't understand what I was doing wrong. I willed my magic to dive into Cain's timeline, just like I willed it into my own, but it wasn't working. Cain had described doing the research about the prophecy to the best of his ability, but there wasn't much to go on. It made sense that it wasn't as easy to access Cain's timeline. I didn't have a clear image of what I was trying to see, and I didn't have my own hidden memories. But I was out of time. I heard Caulder approaching, even though I pretended like I didn't. I wanted just another second to breathe, focus, and try to figure out how to break through my plateau. Just a few more minutes.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Caulder asked.

I spun around and made eye contact with him. That was it. I could feel my magic reaching out to him, and it made sense. It was easy to look at our timeline last night when our magic came together. We didn't even try. Our magic was two branches of the same tree, and we would be stronger together.

"Hold my hands," I said, holding my hands in front of him. "Maybe if we try to do this together, we'll be strong enough to find what we are looking for."

Caulder grabbed my hands and gave me a quick nod. "Okay. What are we doing?"

Cain moved around to the side of us, so he could look at both of us at the same time. "Imagine sending your magic back to the past. Specifically, tell it to look into my timeline. Think about the prophecy and research and keep looking for that moment in time. Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing."

With Caulder's hands in mine, I already felt my magic recharging. It buzzed with excitement, and I could feel my hands growing warmer each second. I closed my eyes and took deep breath after deep breath. I could feel Caulder's lungs moving, and I matched my own breathing to his pattern.

Our magic began to flow freely, and our hands acted like a conductor, allowing the magic to move back and forth between us. It grew stronger the longer we held hands, and I found myself willing it to search through Cain's timeline.

My previous attempts had gotten me nowhere, and it had felt like I was hitting a brick wall over and over again. Now, with Caulder's help, I could feel my magic searching through the past, moving faster and faster, searching for the right moment. I didn't know how long it was searching, but it came to a sudden stop when it found what I was looking for. If I hadn't been holding onto Caulder, there was a chance I would have lost my balance, falling forward from the sudden motion. I opened my eyes, and I was standing in a dark room, lit by only a small lamp in the corner of a desk.

Caulder was standing next to me, looking around completely bewildered at the sudden change of scenery. I was getting used to this, especially after the training session, but it was still different, since this wasn't my own memory. For Caulder, this was completely new for him.

"Can he hear us?" Caulder asked.

A man was sitting at the desk, hunched over as he looked through paper after paper. His hair was dark brown, which matched his eyes. He looked like a slightly older version of Caulder, and the resemblance was incredible. I had no doubt that this was Cain sitting here.

"I don't know. I don't think so, but I've never tried it before," I said.

The younger Cain seemed completely unphased by our presence. I let go of Caulder's hand and walked towards the desk. It was covered with papers and books and old-looking scrolls. It reminded me of how Daniel's house looked but on a much smaller scale. Caulder approached the desk after me and waved his hand in front of Cain's face. The man didn't even flinch. "I guess it's safe to say he can't see us."

"That makes sense. If he could, it could affect the timeline." I leaned forward to get a better look at the paper on his desk. He had notes scribbled in the margins, and it almost looked like the writing of a mad man.

"He was desperate to find a solution to this prophecy," Caulder noted. "His eyes are bloodshot, and it looks like he hasn't slept in days."

"He was doing this for Mom, for his family," I concluded. My heart pounded in my chest as the words came out of my mouth. This version of Cain was desperate to protect my mom from a prophecy that predicted she would cause harm to this world. He gave up his family to protect them, and he wouldn't have done all of this if he didn't care. It made me wonder how he went from this man to a man who tried to tear my mom away from everything she knew. The thought made my heart ache.

"Look at this," Caulder said. He grabbed a piece of paper from the desk, and I was surprised he was able to actually interact with the environment.

I moved over to him and looked at the piece of paper in his hands. It looked old and had some burn marks around the edges of the paper. I took the paper from his hands and started reading it. The date of the paper was from the eighteen hundreds. "I didn't realize the prophecy was this old," I said. I knew it was a couple of decades old, but I had never imagined it being centuries old.

"I wonder where the prophecy came from," Caulder said, scanning the rest of the material sitting on Cain's desk.

"Maybe it was a sorcerer that had some sort of vision," I said. I had been wondering about the origin of the prophecy for a while now. It hadn't just come out of thin air, and if I knew the original origin, then maybe that would lead me closer to the truth about the meaning of the prophecy itself.

"That would make sense. I can't imagine someone just made it up. There are a couple different versions of the prophecy here. I'm curious about which one is the original," Caulder said.

"What does that one say?" I asked, looking at the new paper Caulder picked up.

"When all seems to be lost and the darkness encroaches on the world, the Woman born of the Beast and Enchanter will join with the Man born of the Night and Enchanter, creating the only source of light in the world. Together, they would defeat the darkness at the cost of the world. Destruction would reign, and the world as we know will be lost." Caulder set the paper down. "The wording is a little different, but it seems to have the same gist."

"I wonder what it means when it says, 'The world as we know will be lost," I said. "What is 'the world as we know?"

"What are you getting at?" he asked, looking at me with a slightly tilted head.

I hadn't had a chance to tell Caulder about my theory. "I don't know if this makes sense, but I have had this feeling recently that this prophecy isn't as bad as everyone thinks. When someone hears the word 'destruction', of course, they are going to assume the worst. But right now, there is so much prejudice between vampires, sorcerers, and werewolves. For the most part, we keep our lives separate, and the others are seen as enemies. Look at how our pack treated vampires initially, but Blade is nothing like we imagined. "That just doesn't seem like a great world to me. What if the destruction refers to breaking down the barriers between the different types of beings? What if destroying the world we know leads to a world where we can live among vampires and sorcerers in peace?" "That sounds like a nice world, one people need." Caulder said. "After experiencing the Council of Magic first hand, I fully understand how cruel they are. They don't care about sorcerers. They don't protect those in need. They only care about power. That's not a safe world for the lesser sorcerers."

I could hear the pain in his voice, and it made me reach out to him. I grabbed his arm, hoping it would provide some comfort. I wasn't sure if I would ever fully understand the things Caulder had seen and gone through, and I was fairly certain I never wanted to. "I hope you're right about the prophecy," Caulder continued. "Working to fulfill it sounds nicer than trying to stop an ancient vision from coming true."

"Agreed." I grabbed another piece of paper and scanned it with my eyes. "I don't know how much time we have here, but try to find something that tells us something new about the prophecy or origin."

"Right." Caulder started looking through the information on the side of the desk he was closest to, while I worked on the documents closer to me.

A lot of the papers either had repeated information or nothing useful, and even though it had only been a few minutes, my eyes were already growing tired. Finally, I found a book that had a bookmark in the middle of it. It seemed different from the other things I had seen, so I started reading it out loud.

"On the day the darkness drowns out all that is good, the daughter of the shapeshifter and sorcerer would clutch to the son of bloodsuckers and magic, joining in power and strength. All would fear the couple, even the darkness, as they would destroy everything around them. Only then could the change begin." I lowered the paper and looked at Caulder.

"That's promising," Caulder said.

"It is," Cain said, making Caulder and I both jump. I had forgotten his presence completely, since he had barely moved since we arrived. Now he was staring at us with his young face, completely aware of our presence.

Before we could say anything, the world around me spun, and before I knew it, I was standing back on the field next to Cain and Blade. I let go of Caulder's hands the moment my mind was back to the present time, and I stumbled backwards, still shocked by the younger Cain suddenly speaking to us.

Blade pressed his hand against my back to stabilize me. "Are you okay?"

I looked at Caulder, who was staring at me with big eyes that looked just like the younger Cain we had seen. "That was weird," he said. "He actually saw us. I didn't think that was possible."

I nodded my head, still feeling strange about the interaction.