Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Alexa's Point Of View

Scenery flew past the carriage but I wasn't as interested in seeing the sights as might have been if the circumstances were different. The only thing I could think about was the fact that I was leaving home and I didn't know if I would ever come back. I had no way of knowing if I would ever return to Lockwood Castle and that frightened me.

I stared at Alex for a moment. She was laying across Tristan's chest, her long hair covering her face. We were identical but the difference between us was obvious. She was the dominant triplet, the one that always had an answer for everything. And yet now she had no answers for what we were going to face in the future. For once since we were children she had no answer to this question. To be honest it scared me because Alex had always been the one everyone turned to when they had a problem. She could solve anything...except this.

I switched my gaze to my other sister. Adalyn was staring out the window. Her blue eyes didn't seem to be staring at anything in particular, they were just staring blankly ahead. She had her soulmate's hand and was holding it against her chest. He was staring down at her the same way I'd often seen Tristan and Zach staring at Alex and I, with the gaze of a loyal protector. Adalyn glanced up at him her eyes filling with tears. He brushed away her tears but they kept coming. She met my eyes then and whispered softly. Her words brought Alex jolting awake.

"What's going to happen now? What if the prophecy was wrong and one of us does die?"

"No one is going to die." Alex said, her voice suddenly hard.

"It could very well happen Alex." I said, staring into her eyes.

"Not if I can help it. If someone wants to kill my sisters they're going to have to kill me first."

"And after they kill you?"
"They'll have to kill me before I do the same to them." Tristan murmured, staring down at Alex.
"It's possible that that's exactly what they could do. We're dealing with Esmyth. He's done...horrible things to people a million times stronger than us." I said.

Alex's voice finally broke. "I know but we can't think of the possibility that we might die. If we think of that, we'll never win the battle. If we allow ourselves to doubt for even one second we will die. And I will NOT lose someone else like we lost Justin."
I fell silent, thinking of our brother. Justin had been killed by one of Esmyth's warriors last summer. Alex had been the one to find him and it had given her nightmares all summer. It was rare for her to mention even his name and I knew what it made her feel to do it then. Looking up into her eyes, I sighed.

"I'm sorry Alex. You're right, we shouldn't doubt this. If the prophecy says that no one is going to die, then no one is going to die."

"It's okay Lexa. I just...I hate thinking about Justin."
"I know but thinking about his death, and the person who ordered it, should give us motive to complete the prophecy though."
"You're right. Esmyth ordered his death, and we're ordering his."
"Justin will be avenged."
"By his little sisters."
"He'd hate that one."
"Only because he liked being the older brother."
"I know."

We all fell silent after that. Alex and I were thinking about Justin. I remembered him the way he wanted to be remembered, as the loud and overly obnoxious brother he'd been. Justin had been the protective older brother. Since Michael had left he and our other brother Dante had made sure we were protected. The reason for his death had been because of us. He had been killed because he wouldn't tell Esmyth's warriors where Adalyn was. (Of course we hadn't known that then but it was obvious now.) When he wouldn't tell the warriors got angry and killed him. I pushed away from that thought, knowing it would only bring pain for me to remember that.

"Lexa?" Zach whispered, looking down at me.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

I stared into his green eyes, watching as they explored my face. When he met my eyes I found his lips crashing down on mine. As usual, the moment he kissed me, I felt a spark light within my soul. It was always like that between soulmates. The fire that lit within your soul when you kiss your soulmate was one of the many signs of a soulmate.

"Lexa?" I heard Alex ask softly.

I broke Zach's kiss. "Yeah Alex?"
"Do you think that Justin is watching us right now?"
"Yes I do. And I think he's smiling at us. Or probably making a joke out of the fact that his baby sisters are going to avenge him."
She smiled softly. "I think you might be right."

"Of course I am."

I stared back out of the window, watching the ocean waves crash onto the shore. A thousand memories flew at me as I watched it. The first time I ever met Zach was on the beach as well as our first kiss. Alex and I used to go there at night when it was warm and lay on the sand until the sun came up. So many of our happy memories were spent on the beach. And now we were leaving. There would be no more happy beach memories. Instead there would be memories made in unknown places, memories that could end up haunting us for the rest of eternity.

Soon we were past the border of my mother's kingdom and into the land of the humans. People stared at us as the carriage drove past. I remembered that they drove funny contraptions called cars instead of riding in carriages. I stared out the window as we drove past some of the cars around us. They really were funny looking things. I couldn't imagine how on earth they were driven without horses, but I suppose even humans have their own ways of traveling. I mean some witches drove cars but most of us preferred the old ways. Besides, it was much more interesting to watch the humans stare at you when you drove past in a horse drawn carriage. They could come up with the funniest things to say about us as we drove past and I had always enjoyed listening to it.

"What are you thinking about?" Zach whispered, looking down at me.

"Currently or five seconds ago?"

"Currently."
"Humans reactions to our carriage."
"Only you would think about something like that."
"Yeah I suppose so. But that's why you love me."
"Yes, that it is. You have always made me laugh."
"That figures."
"Why do you say that?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow the way he always did when something puzzled him.
"I say that because you were laughing at me the first time you saw me."
"Only because you and Alex were wrestling and you kept screaming like a banshee."
"That's mean."

"Yes but you know that I love you."
"Yeah I know you love me. And I love you too."

I kissed him again at the same time that Alex and Adalyn were kissing their soulmates. We all laughed when we broke apart and discovered that we had all kissed at the same time. Alex grinned, returning quickly to her usual self. Tristan, her soulmate, laughed and kissed the top of her head. It was quiet for a few moments before Tristan and Zach got tired of the silence as they always did.

"Dragons. I cannot believe that we're going to ride dragons." Tristan told Zach excitedly.

"I know. They're supposed to be really fast."
"They are really fast. It just takes a while to get them to pick up speed." Dakota, Adalyn's soulmate, said.

"Really?"
"Yeah. That guy Liam we're going to see is my uncle. I go to his house every summer to visit him. He taught me how to ride dragons."
"That's awesome. I can't wait to meet him." Zach said.

"He's a pretty cool guy. He raised my brother after our mom died and grandma couldn't take him. And I've stayed with him every summer since I was ten."
"How many dragons does he own?" Tristan asked.

"Over a hundred in all. And I think the females just gave birth so that's another fifty to a hundred."

"Alexa I think our boyfriends are going to leave us for dragons." Alex said, rolling her eyes.

"Possibly."
"I agree. They seem to love the dragons more than they do us." Adalyn said with a laugh.

"You're all wrong." Dakota said.

"Yes. I wouldn't leave Alexa for a dragon because dragons kill people and I prefer to have a girlfriend that won't kill me." Zach said.

"Me either. But in my case both are killers. Alex kills people for even looking at her wrong." Tristan laughed.

"Hey!" Alex exclaimed.

"I'm just kidding babe."
As they kissed once again the rest of us pretended to gag ourselves. Zach rolled his eyes at the ceiling, pulling me towards him. Suddenly I found his lips crashing down on mine and heard everyone else groan in protest. Someone - probably Tristan - made a gagging sound and Zach flipped him off. I laughed against his lips, letting myself sink deeper into his arms. He tightened those same arms around me as our kiss broke and I laid my head against his chest. His heart thudded against my ear and I smiled at the sound. That was my favorite part of him: his heartbeat. His heart beat was a sound unique to Zach. It was the only sound in this world that I knew like the back of my hand. I could tell you what the exact rhythm of it was without even hearing it.

"I love you Alexa." he whispered, kissing the top of my head.

"I love you too Zachary."

"You two are the most disgustingly mushy couple I have ever had the misfortune to meet." Tristan said with another fake gag.

"You and Alex are the same way if not worse." I told him.

"She's right babe." Alex told her soulmate with a laugh.

Silence fell over us then as we reached the harbor. I looked out of the window, staring out at the dock. Our driver stopped and opened the door for us. We all looked at each other. Why had we stopped at the dock? Were we taking a boat to Elizabeth Cault's home? Questions swirled around in my mind as we walked over to the boat my family had owned since we were babies. As we climbed on board the driver turned to us with a smile.

"We are traveling to the island of Dark Cove. Elizabeth Cault lives there and that is where I am supposed to take you first." he said.

"Okay. Thank you Marcus."

"You are welcome Lady Lockwood." he told Alex.

We walked down into the house part of the boat as Marcus began pulling the boat out of harbor. I lay on the couch with my head in Zach's lap. Alex and Tristan lay across the chair and Adalyn lay with Dakota on the floor. As Zach began to stroke my hair I closed my eyes and was soon asleep. I slept dreamlessly and woke five seconds later (or so it seemed) to Zach kissing my forehead.

"What's up?" I asked groggily.

"We're at Elizabeth Cault's house love."
"Oh."

I sat up and looked around. It was dark out now, the moonlight streaming through the window. Alex was stretching in Tristan's arms and Adalyn was being picked up by Dakota. Looking up at Zach I threw my arms around his neck and told him to carry me. He smiled a little and picked me up. Soon my sisters and I were being carried out into the warm night air. I looked around at my surroundings to find that we were walking towards a large beach house. The moon was shining on the ocean, making the scene look like something out of a movie. Off in the distance a dolphin flipped out of the water. I smiled up at Zach, leaning my head against his strong chest. Suddenly a voice startled us.

"You guys must be the Lockwood sisters."

We all looked towards the front door to see a tall woman with long brown hair and crimson eyes waiting for us. She was wearing a thin white dress that barely reached her thighs. Looking at her you couldn't tell that she was old enough to have a child. Then I remembered that she was a vampire as well as a witch and I realized that her appearance would stay the same no matter how old she got.

"That's us." Alex said hopping down from Tristan's arms.

"Come on in guys. I have rooms set up for all six of you."

Alex stared at her for a second before speaking. "Actually ma'am we share rooms with the boys. They're our soulmates."
"That's fine you can share if you'd like."

"Thank the Goddess for that one. I can't sleep without Tristan."

Elizabeth just laughed.

I hopped down from Zach's arms and followed my sisters into Elizabeth's house. She turned on lights as we walked and I looked around at her home. It was really beautiful. The walls were painted a lovely burgundy color and the lights were chandeliers. Along the walls she'd hung paintings of the ocean as well as the countryside. We walked into a large living room where she instructed us to sit down. We all did. For a few long moments she didn't speak. Then she smiled at us and began her speech...