The Silvia Saga: Boxset

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Dara

Much to my disappointment, I roll off the bed and follow Harlan out into the hallway. I wish I could stay on that bed for the rest of the day—I’m exhausted. I think going through the portal knocked me around a bit.

“Yep. You are right. The portal does take away a lot of your energy. You should be okay after a good night’s sleep. Don’t worry. I won’t take up too much of your time. I just wanted to show you the rest of the house and fill you in on what will happen starting tomorrow,” Harlan explains, breaking me away from my thoughts.

I am seriously sick of them getting inside my head. “You have to stop reading my damn thoughts. There must be a way to block you all out, right?” I may come across as rude, but whatever. Give a girl some privacy.

Harlan shakes his head and continues up the stairs. I reluctantly follow him.

“When we start training, Jolie will teach you how to block us from hearing your every thought. But it is important to know how to release if you’re in trouble. That is the true purpose for it—so we can still communicate even if you’re miles away. It is reciprocal, you know? You can read our thoughts, but you won’t know how to until we teach you. Jolie is the master in that department,” Harlan explains.

It is pretty cool that we are able to communicate this way. I will just have to learn how to block them out from every other thought.

We make it to the next level, which Harlan explains is his parents’ retreat. It houses their bedroom and a luxurious living area. I take in the space and smile to myself. This is insane. They must come here a lot to get away from their kids. We don’t stay here long, for which I am grateful. It is their personal space, and I don’t want to invade their privacy. We continue up the stairs again to another level. My God, there is more?

We reach a heavy-looking door made from red oak wood. Harlan opens it, and we walk out into the space. I stop in my tracks, and I am amazed. We are at the top level of the tree. It is like an outside retreat—more like a penthouse.

The tree’s branches surround us, reaching high into the sky. The platform we stand on reaches out like a balcony and the ground is the same beautiful grass that seems to be a constant thing here. I walk over to the edge and hold onto the vine railing that continues throughout the whole space. Looking out into the open forest, the views are breathtaking. I have found my new favourite place. The tree’s branches block out anybody seeing us from the ground, but you can still get an amazing 360-degree view of Silvia.

Harlan comes over and stands beside me, his breath tickling my neck. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

I take a few minutes to respond as I am too speechless from the views. “Oh, my god, yes,” I whisper back, not taking my eyes off the forest.

He laughs. “You may have to share it with all of the guys and Jolie. They love coming out here.”

Turning around, the rest of the balcony houses five hammocks on the opposite side. They are made from beautiful vines. I hop into the hammock and let out a sigh. If this isn’t the most comfortable thing I have ever laid in, I will sell my body to a stranger. I open my eyes and Harlan comes over to join me. He lies on the one next to me and relaxes. This is the first time I have ever seen him completely relax, and I honestly can’t blame him. This is pure heaven right here. I don’t ever want to move. I shut my eyes and enjoy the sound of the birds and nature.

All too soon, Harlan gets up. “I hate to interrupt you, Princess, but we must get moving. There is one more thing to show you,” he says, breaking me from my little daydream.

I reluctantly pull myself out of the hammock and whisper to it that we will be meeting again soon. Harlan shakes his head, his lips curling back into a half smile. He quickly turns around and moves for the door. We go back down to the ground level, and I follow him to another door that I didn’t see before. It is in the living room, opposite the couch. He opens it and we walk down a set of winding stairs until we end up underground. I glance across the space and don’t stop the groan that comes from my mouth.

Great, it’s a torture chamber. I quickly spin around, ready to run back up the stairs.

Harlan’s arm shoots out, grabbing me and stopping me from my escape. He pins me with a heavy glare. “You’re not going anywhere, Dara. I’ll show you around. You will learn to love this space—just give it a chance. Starting tomorrow, this will be your training centre where you will learn everything you need to help with retrieving the crystals.” He slowly lets go of my arm.

“It’s not that bad. Come on. Have a look.” He motions to the room.

Fine. I take in the space to humour him. It’s broken into five different spaces. It is huge, possibly the biggest area of the entire house. Starting to my left is a gym set up with everything you could possibly need from huge weights to treadmills to some weird machines that I have never even seen before. That area looks like it will be my worst enemy. Wanting to stay clear of there, I peek to the next spot.

There’s an archery setup with five targets lined on the back wall and a number of bows and arrows sitting in cabinets. I have never shot one in my life, so that is going to be interesting. I make a wish that Blair will go easy on me. He is the sweet, caring one, so I may just get lucky with my wish. Who am I kidding? They will all be going hard on me. Can I just go and hide in the corner, never to be found again?

I continue to the next area which is similar to the bow and arrow setup. This one has five targets ready to go on the far wall and cabinets full of all different kinds of knives—from the smallest to the largest. Hmm, that looks interesting. Declan will have his work cut out for him with me.

We continue on finding a huge red mat on the ground. This looks to be where Harlan will be teaching me combat and Oliver martial arts. That should be a fascinating session since I have never fought anyone in my entire life.

I quickly glance at the final space. It’s a huge blocked-off dome that has only one entrance. It locks once you have gone through the door, judging by the handle. It’s a completely blocked-off area from the rest of the space. Interesting. I wonder what we will do in there. I walk over and peek inside. There is nothing within. It’s empty. Weird as hell. I turn around ready to ask Harlan what that space is for.

He must have read my thoughts as he answers me before I can ask him. “In that space, Jolie will be teaching you things—things that I can’t explain just yet. I don’t want to overwhelm you more than you already are. Jolie will clarify it all tomorrow. Try not to worry about it too much.”

Try not to worry too much? Are you fucking kidding me? This is a torture chamber. I am beyond worried about what tomorrow will entail. I’m not ready for this.

Not wanting to be in here another minute, I quickly walk to the stairs and run up them two at a time. I yank open the door and run straight into Blair. He grabs me before I fall over. I don’t even think about what I am doing. I hug him so tight that I swear he might pop. I don’t know what comes over me, but the need to feel someone close overpowers my thoughts.

Blair stands there shocked for a second, but he eventually relaxes into me. The feeling that comes over me is pure bliss. I practically melt into his body, his hard abs press against me and his soft hands rub my back. I sigh. The sound of Harlan’s boots echo off the stairs before he opens the door behind me.

Blair lets me go and he lifts my chin up to look at him. “Are you okay? What’s wrong, my princess?”

I nod, unable to talk as I am afraid that the tears I am holding back will fall. One tear escapes and Blair rubs his thumb over my cheek, catching it. Not wanting to see the pity on his face, I glance down and try to get out of his embrace. He holds onto me, not letting me go.

Finally, I stop struggling against him. “Fine. I am not okay. Please just let me go. I need some time alone. Everything has been too much,” I say.

He lets out a sigh and lets me go.

As fast as I can, I run up the stairs to my new bedroom and slam the door shut. Falling back against my bed with a huff, I just want to forget everything that has happened.