Faith Heights

Chapter 24

Jackson was hesitant to answer my next questions. I went to apologise for perhaps overstepping any boundaries when he sighed, eyes turning distant. 

"I can remember some things of my time under the full moon. Running through the woods, howling with the others, seeing my own foreign reflection in the river..." He smiled pensively. "We're still ourselves, but only in the most primal, animalistic sense. Everything is stripped away, but we're still conscious of our own natures. That's mostly what our training here is for- to try and improve that self-awareness when we're not totally in control."

"And with self-control comes the ability to remember your time as a wolf?"

"Basically. Then, from that point, I should be able to control my transformations without a full moon." Jackson paused. "And as much as I appreciate you trying to understand this, it's not the reason you dragged me out here." He looked at me pointedly.

I drew my knees up to my chest and discarded the notebook from my lap. "I guess I still need to work on subtlety."

"Yeah, I wouldn't say it's one of your strengths. So... what's up?" He looked across at me expectantly, an amused glint catching his brown eyes.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times before finding the right words. "Lucas is arriving in just two weeks, and I really don't know a thing about our past. I need to-"

"Lila, there's no need to panic. It doesn't matter what you know and what you have yet to find out. Lucas isn't going to give you a pop quiz." He assured. 

"I know. But I still want to have all the facts before he arrives."

"What kinds of facts?"

I let my head fall back against a dry branch. "Like... how did we meet? How did we fall in love? Who was I in my first life? You said that I was, if I am who everyone thinks, the first recorded reincarnated soul. At least, the first to be recorded by programs like Faith Heights'. But why? Do you know anything more about the myth surrounding my first life?"

Theo's words at the bonfire had brought to mind an onslaught of questions and doubts that I hadn't even thought to fret about before. If I was going to be this lost angel's soulmate, then I needed every facet of the truth before I agreed to meet him. 

Jackson groaned, slouching down from his mossy log. "You really didn't need to ambush me for this kind of information. I'm sure Theo or Dylan would have been excited to share what they know. I'm still kind of new to all of this; I wasn't born into a supernatural life. I grew up reading Grimms' Fairy Tales as fiction, not as an interpretation of history. I don't know all the details of your past."

"But you do know some." I insisted. "And I trust you."

Jackson sighed, his lanky frame awkwardly sprawled against the damp ground. After a few tense, expectant minutes, he relented. "According to legend, you were the sole child and heir of a future tribe, with great  supernatural power. I'm not entirely sure what kind of power, but you were human, that much is known. You were being groomed to take over your father's position as leader. But before you could formally ascend to his position, you found an injured body at a river bank, and tended to him until he was back to health. You nursed him, he told you he was a fallen angel, bla bla bla...classic love story ensues. Your father condemned your love at first, but eventually agreed to wed you two." He paused, tilting his head and scrunching his nose. "Why is there always a disapproving parent in the romantic legends we hold on to? You'd think a fallen angel – of all people – would be able to avoid the 'forbidden love' cliché."

"Jackson," I chided. 

 He continued with a dismissive wave. "Anyway, on the night before your wedding, the union that could have made the tribe infinitely more powerful...you fell ill and died."