were around his neck and we shared a long kiss.
“I could get used to that.” He spoke softly against my cheek.
“Where were you? It’s been months.”
He frowned. “I visited you last night.” I shook my head and he huffed. “Guess time is different on the other side.”
“It’s not fair,” I sulked.
His eyes found his journal lying on the floor. “You read that?”
“It’s all I have of you. Why didn’t you tell me about you and Arianna?”
“It was ancient history.”
“About me?”
“I didn’t want you to have all the authority in our relationship. If you knew how I felt…” he sighed.
“I would’ve loved you more, even though I doubt it was possible.”
We lay down on the bed and it felt good to be in his arms again.
“So did you change your mind yet about helping out?”
“Yeah, I know the answer lies with Tanya but I’m scared for Becky and George’s sake.”
He jumped straight up. “I told you that you needed to discover the truth.”
“Sammy doesn’t trust me. Becky and George have got it.”
“Elena…”
“Please just let them go. They’ll find out the truth.”
“No they won’t. I ….” The words didn’t seem to want to come.
“Oh for crying out loud, what is this?”
“I can’t tell you. You need to find the truth. Not them.”
“I told you I can’t. Sammy doesn’t trust me. We already spent a lot of time on this plan to present to the board members. Starting over now will mean another month, if not longer; what if they reject us, then it’s another don’t know how many months and Blake will turn despite our efforts.”
“I got the date wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“He could turn anytime, Elena.”
“What?”
“The answer to the date lies in my foretelling. That’s all I can say. Ask for help.”
I woke up. I didn’t want to and I looked for Lucian but he was gone. Reality kicked in and these dreams, as wonderful as they were, were going to make me sick. My eyes found the journal on the floor. He said the answer lies in the date. It didn’t make any sense.
I looked at his foretelling again. I paged through a couple of pages further and I couldn’t find anything else that was linked to this stupid riddle. There wasn’t an answer. Ask for help.
HE BOYS WERE already searching like mad when we entered the library. I gave Cheng the journal.
“I don’t think the date was about Blake turning. I’ve got a funny feeling it’s about something else,” I lied but I couldn’t tell Cheng that I was dreaming about my dead boyfriend who was helping me.
“Elena,” Sammy asked. “What is that?”
“It’s Lucian’s diary.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had that?” she said using a harsh tone.
“Because it’s all I have of him. I didn’t think there was anything that could help us, until last night. His riddle doesn’t make sense.” I sat down across from Cheng who was paging through the journal. “You have to help me to find the answer, Cheng.”
He nodded and I took him to the page where the riddle was written in Lucian’s handwriting. He read it a couple of times to himself and then looked up at nothing. He was thinking really hard, I could tell. He looked at the riddle again and then at Sammy. “Elena is right. It’s not the date Blake will turn, Sammy. Look.” He showed her the journal. “You see how many question marks there are next to the foretelling. He even underlined the date a couple of times.”
Sammy stared at the foretelling. “He kept questioning the date.”
Cheng took the journal back from Sammy and read the foretelling out loud. We all listened to it.
“Everything is written in the past tense.” Dean said.
“What!” We all looked at him.
“The date is not the future, it’s in the past.” He turned his chair around and started typing away again.
Plenty of 23rd of Augusts filled the screen, and it scrolled as each new one appeared.
“It’s going to take forever to go through them,” Becky said.
“So what does this mean? Blake is already evil?” Sammy asked.
“I don’t know sweetheart.” Dean gave her a hug. “But one thing is for sure, it’s definitely linked to him.”
“How do you know that?” Sammy asked.
“The Viden, she spoke using the past tense. Her riddles are never past tense. It’s a date alright,
but a date that matters. We need to go find out what happened on the 23rd of August.”
“So we have to go through all those dates?” George sulked.
Cheng got up and hit the print