Echo Soul Seekers

am I supposed to see it?” Practically spitting the words.
    I sit quietly, refusing to rise to the bait. I just stare at my hands, noting the way my finger grows more swollen and red with each passing second.
    “And, while we’re on the subject, how am I supposed to feel knowing you knew all of this and couldn’t bother to tell me?”
    I tip my chin until my gaze meets his. Aware that the word sorry doesn’t quite cut it, but it’s all that I’ve got. “I wish I’d told you, believe me, I do. I wish you never had to find out this way.” I shake my head and sigh. “Thing is, Paloma made me promise not to tell you. She said you’re a truly good and pure soul, and that it wasn’t my place. In this case, I’m sorry I listened to her instead of my heart.”
    “A good and pure soul?” He scowls. “I’m an abomination! The result of an act so evil—”
    “You’re not !” I cry, refusing to let him venture along that path. “That’s your brother, not you.” I shift my gaze to his arm, staring at the place where Coyote attacked. Wishing he’d let me do something to tend to it, but when I tried, he waved me away, reached for a dish towel and wrapped it around the wound.
    “He’s a monster.” He unwraps the blood-soaked dish towel and drops it into the sink, before replacing it with a clean one. And though the words came out like a statement, his gaze holds a question.
    “He is.” I nod to confirm it.
    “And yet, we’re an Echo of each other.”
    I sit silently, kneading the worn linoleum floor with the toe of my shoe, having no idea how to respond.
    His voice bleak and hollow, he says, “We can’t see each other anymore.”
    The words come out of nowhere.
    Slamming me sideways.
    Knocking me senseless.
    “ What? ” I stare blankly. Aware of the floor shifting under my feet, threatening to drop out from under me, swallow me whole.
    “I’m sorry, Daire, but we have no choice. I have to protect you, and the only way I can do that is by refusing to see you.”
    His words leave me mute. Unable to do anything more than gape.
    “I’m not completely in the dark here, you know.” He swipes a hand through his hair, scrunches his brow, as his gaze drifts from mine. “I’ve heard whispers through the years. Seen the way the elders, Leftfoot especially, looked at me when they thought I was too busy to notice. I was a quiet kid. A loner, a reader, a thinker—all of which made it easy to go unnoticed. I became very good at eavesdropping, collecting random bits and pieces through the years that never made any sense until now. I always knew I was different, I just didn’t know how different. I also had this profound understanding that I was headed for an unusual destiny, and while I still don’t know exactly what that is—it’s all starting to come together. The puzzle I’ve been sorting for years is now that much closer to completion.”
    I look at him, so bereft I have no idea what to say.
    “You’re the Seeker,” he says.
    I close my eyes, wishing I could rewind my life. I never would’ve come here. I never would’ve let it get to this point. And because of it, I would’ve ended up just like my dad—dead before my time. So, in an effort to avoid that, I decided to claim my destiny, only to find myself nothing more than a cog in its wheel. Steered by circumstance, with no say of my own.
    So lost in my thoughts I nearly miss it when Dace says, “And Cade is Coyote—a member of the El Coyote clan, which all Richters are.”
    My shoulders sag. I wish I could disappear, vanish straight into the ether.
    “And I’m the Echo of Coyote.”
    I rub my lips together, growing increasingly uncomfortable, having no idea where he’s going with this but sensing it’s about to get worse.
    He takes a deep breath, scratches hard at his chin. His voice a chilled whisper, he says, “This won’t end well.” His eyes light on mine. “Someone is destined to die. I’ve had dreams—dreams I now recognize as prophecy. We can’t all survive. And while I can’t stop loving you, Daire—while it’s far too late for that—I can stop…” He grinds his jaw, speaking the words with great effort. “I can stop feeding our love. Now that I know it strengthens him, I’m left with no choice. It’s like he said, he’s the beneficiary of every loving thought that I have for you. And there’s no denying that the more time I spend with you, the more my love for you grows. But now, knowing what we know, we