Where did you go? (Infatuated fae #3)

23. Eli

23

ELI

I hurried my pace as I followed the path Cal had gone down with that brown-haired woman. I needed to talk to her before tonight was gone. I hated feeling like we were in some kind of a fight. Of course I knew she hadn’t meant to take her anger out on me; I wasn’t upset about that. I was upset because I knew she was feeling a lot of things right now and she was being her usual self and trying to cut me out of parts of her.

I needed her to know that it was okay, that we were okay. I could only imagine all the feelings she was going through right now, and with us fighting off and on, I needed to make sure she was okay, to let her know that I was still here for her before she closed me out completely.

I rounded the corner and stopped, nearly tripping over my own feet when I saw the stream, the field. I would have recognized this view anywhere. This was what I saw every time I went to visit her in the human realm. This was the exact stream we would play all day in. It was where I first realized I was in love with her.

My feet moved faster through the familiar meadow where we used to chase hawks and falcons. Finally my eyes landed on the back of Cal’s small house before they dropped to the familiar picnic table?—

And landing on Zef and Cal talking.

Why would he make her relive this? He had no idea what he was doing. He was going to break her. He didn’t know how she got?—

I stopped myself from running to her aid.

What if he did know what he was doing? What if he could actually help her?

I saw a small spot of blood on his shoulder. She sat on the floor in a heap as they spoke. She was talking to him. Was it possible that was why he replicated this scene for her? I could hardly imagine anything that could break her walls down quicker than this place.

I moved behind a large tree at the side of the yard. It was one—or the replica of one—that I had pressed my back to so many times as I waited for Cal to come outside. I couldn’t help but feel a little gross for listening in on their conversation, but I wasn’t going to just leave her, not when she needed me the most, but I also didn’t want to get in the way. So I stood and I listened.

And then I listened to the words that would change my fate forever.

“She is trapped in Tartarus until she can be reunited with that last drop of powers and the remainder of her ashes,” Zef told Cal.

As they began to walk toward me, I realized my window of talking to Cal was probably gone.

I ran all the way back, not stopping until I was at the entrance of Moirai.