Chapter 24
Alchera
When I wake up and feel Raighne’s naked body lying partially on top of mine, a sleepy smile spreads over my lips.
I glance down at where his head is resting on my chest, and careful not to disturb him, I brush my fingers through his longish dark brown hair.
I struggle to process everything that’s happened between us, still finding it hard to believe he loves me.
My eyes drift over his muscled back, and there’s an intense fluttering in my stomach.
This over-the-top attractive and strong-as-fuck man loves me.
My thoughts turn to last night and how it felt to make love to him. Safe to say, my mind’s officially blown.
When I got to feel his emotions and how much he loves me, it was the highlight of my entire life because I’ve never been loved so intensely before.
I’ve finally found a place where I belong, where I can be myself, and it’s with the man of my dreams.
God. Thank you.
Raighne stirs, and a moment later, his eyes open. He lifts his head and stares at me for a few seconds before the corner of his mouth lifts .
“I’m surprised your body isn’t numb from me lying on top of you all night,” he mutters sleepily.
I shake my head, my fingers trailing over the stubble on his jaw. I love the feel of the scratchy bristles.
He pulls himself up and presses a kiss to my lips before he moves off the bed. When he sees the tinge of blood on the sheets, his eyes flick to mine.
“No pain?”
I shake my head, but when I move, I feel tender between my legs. As soon as I feel the ache, it disappears, and my eyes snap to Raighne.
“You don’t have to take all my pain.”
He doesn’t comment but instead says, “Let’s shower so we can get back on the road.”
“Shower?” I ask as I scoot off the bed. “Together?”
“Yes.” He gives me a cocky grin before walking into the bathroom and opening the faucets in the shower.
Things feel completely different between us, and I love it. I don’t have to be on guard anymore, and it’s refreshing.
I join Raighne in the shower, and when he starts to wash my body, I can only stand and grin at him because I adore having his attention and hands on me.
“I love it too,” he murmurs.
I tilt my head and narrow my eyes on him. “Can you hear all my thoughts?”
He pauses for a moment before saying, “Don’t freak out, but yes. Now that you’re not fighting the bond any longer, I hear and feel everything where you’re concerned.”
I start to feel mortified, but he quickly lifts a hand to my cheek and locks eyes with me. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Alchera. Remember when you got to look inside my mind and how amazing it felt?”
I nod, hating that it’s not permanent and only something that happened because we were making love.
“That’s how it feels for me, and it’s important I know everything. I can protect you better that way.”
“It’s going to take some getting used to,” I mutter. My eyes narrow on him again. “And don’t you dare use my thoughts against me. They tend to be intrusive.”
The corner of his mouth lifts. “I’ll never do anything that’s not in your best interest.”
When we’re done showering, I dry myself. Finding my clothes have dried during the night, I’m relieved and quickly get dressed.
Walking into the bedroom, I’m just in time to see Raighne fasten his belt, and my abdomen flutters at the sight.
A crooked smile forms on his face, telling me he knows what I’m thinking about.
“Get used to it,” I mutter, figuring there’s no use fighting our bond. “You’re hot, and I can’t help how I feel.”
He lets out a chuckle. Then closing the distance between us, he wraps his hand around the side of my neck and leans down to press a tender kiss to my mouth, sending a wave of tingles through me.
“I feel the same way about you,” he admits. “Especially when you’re wearing nothing but pink lace.”
My cheeks warm a little, but I’m too happy to feel awkward.
His eyes capture mine, and a serious expression tightens his features. “The next nine days are going to be rough, but I’ll be there every step of the way. Lean on me, and don’t bottle things up again. Okay?”
I nod but say, “I’m used to weathering storms alone, but I’ll try.”
The intense look in his eyes softens a little. “You’ll never be alone again. It’s you and me forever.”
“Forever’s a really long time,” I chuckle.
He shakes his head. “And still not long enough with you.”
My heart.
Once again I’m hit with amazement that Raighne feels the same way about me.
I wrap my arms around his waist and press my face to his chest, then whisper, “Thank you for loving me.”
Raighne engulfs me against his body, and I feel his breath in my hair as he presses a kiss to the top of my head. “I’m the one who should thank you. I was worried out of my fucking mind that I’d have to watch you build a life with another man.”
I shake my head and admit, “Since you walked into that classroom and sat down beside me, it’s been only you.” I tilt my head back so I can look up at him. We stare at each other for a few seconds before I say, “This feels surreal. Like a dream.”
He shakes his head. “It’s not, my little dreamer. ”
A knock at our door pops the intimate moment between us, and Raighne pulls away from me. He straightens the covers over the bed so whoever's here won’t see the tinge of blood on the sheets before he opens the door.
Brenna, Finian, and Jason look at us from where they’re standing in the corridor, then Finian asks, “Ready?”
“Yes,” Raighne answers.
I grab my bag and glance over the room to make sure I’m not forgetting anything.
Sucking in a deep breath, I brace myself for whatever might happen today, then I walk out of the room that will always hold a special place in my heart.
As the men go to the reception to settle the bill, Brenna’s eyes flit over me.
“You look much better,” she mentions. “Did you get a good night’s rest?”
I nod, struggling from grinning like an idiot. “Yeah. I feel good as new.”
The corner of her mouth lifts. “You accepted your bond with Raighne, didn’t you?”
My eyes widen. “Is it that obvious?”
She nods. “You look healthy, which can only mean he’s healed you completely.”
“Yep,” I murmur. “No more aches and pains.”
The men join us again, and we all pile into the station wagon. This time, Finian takes the front passenger seat, and I sit at the back between Raighne and Brenna.
When Raighne places his arm around my shoulders and tucks me close against his side, I don’t bother feeling uncomfortable with the public display of affection and lean against him.
“Where are we going?” Jason asks as he connects his phone to the car’s GPS.
“I think we need to go to Ireland. Can you Google a street name and a hospital?”
“Yeah. Give me the names,” he replies.
He checks the details, then nods. “It’s in Ireland. Dublin, to be exact.”
Not knowing how we’re going to get there, I mutter, “Well, that’s where we have to go.”
“Where is the nearest waterfall, Jason?” Finian asks.
Jason just stares at him, and it makes Brenna chuckle.
“We can’t travel by waterfall,” I mention. “I originally planned to go to Fish Creek Falls, but I had a vision just as I shifted and ended up in Jason’s pond.”
“What?” Worry instantly tightens Raighne’s features as he stares at me. “You could’ve been killed.”
Yeah, I didn’t think about that. It would’ve sucked ass if I had a vision of anything that didn’t have a body of water.
“Raighne’s right,” Brenna agrees. “She could’ve died if that vision was any different.”
“I have a pilot's license,” Jason mentions. “We can find an airfield and hire a plane.”
It’s our turn to stare at him.
“What? I’m a man of many talents,” he mutters. “Alchera didn’t just dream me up for no reason, you know.”
A smile forms on my face, then I ask, “Are you a professional pilot?”
He shakes his head. “No, I’m a veterinarian, but sometimes I need to fly out to farms to check on livestock.”
“Makes sense,” I say. “Let’s go to the nearest airfield.”
Jason checks on Google Maps, searching for one that has planes for hire, before he starts the engine and drives away from the motel .
It’s early in the morning, and the roads are practically empty as we drive to our destination.
“We’re going to have a problem if we can’t use a waterfall,” Finian mentions. “Flying all over the world will take time we don’t have.”
“Why are waterfalls important?” Jason asks.
“We travel through them,” Finian replies.
The car swerves before Jason regains control, and he shoots a you-must-be-crazy look at Finian. “You’re shitting me, right?”
“Nope,” I say from the backseat. “It’s all going to take some getting used to, but we travel through waterfalls, and if your mind’s not blown enough, some of the people on Vaalbara have powers.”
“Like superhero stuff?” Jason asks, the expression on his face telling us he doesn’t believe a word we’re saying.
He pulls the station wagon over to the side of the road then glances at us. “Powers? Show me.”
Finian opens his hand, and a second later, a white light starts to glow. He squashes it quickly, then explains, “I have the ability to stun someone with a streak of electricity.”
“My brother, Raighne,” he tips his head to the back seat, “can move objects, and my twin can levitate almost anything.”
“Holy fuck,” Jason mutters, shaking his head in disbelief. “This is all a little too much to process, so I’m just going to pretend you’re all normal.”
He steers the car back onto the road, and silence fills the cab as we continue to drive.
“It’s for your safety,” Brenna says. “We’re all here to get you to Vaalbara in one piece, so you don’t have to be afraid of us.”
“Ah-hah…” Jason mumbles before switching on the radio just in time to catch the tail end of a news broadcast.
‘… uncontrollable fire is destroying parts of the Amazon forest. Everything is being done to stop it from spreading. And in other news just in, more than twenty whales have beached on the shores of Norway, causing chaos as rescue teams try to move them back into the ocean. Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station is unstable after another earthquake struck off the coast of Iwaki. ”
“Jesus,” Jason mutters before turning off the radio. “Usually, I’d care about world news, but right now, I’m a little too stressed.”
I glance at Brenna and whisper, “Has it started?”
She nods, worry tightening her features.
Twenty minutes later when we reach the airfield, we wait near a hangar while Jason makes the arrangements to hire a plane.
I’m glancing around at the area when Jason comes into the hangar, an anxious expression on his face. “Let’s go.”
He leads us to a medium-sized plane, and just looking at it makes my stomach turn with nerves.
“I need someone up front to help me fly this baby. Who’s the fastest learner?” Jason eyes Finian and Raighne.
It’s literally the last thing I want to hear before boarding a plane for the first time in my life.
“I will,” Finian says. “I want to know what’s going on at all times.”
When we board the small eight-seater, everyone’s too damn calm. Am I the only one nervous about flying?
“We’ll be okay,” Raighne tells me mentally as he makes sure my safety belt is strapped on tight.
“Uh-huh,” I mutter.
It takes a few minutes before we taxi down the short runway, and when the plane leaves the ground, I shut my eyes while my stomach rolls with queasy waves.
I open my eyes again, and a wave of confusion washes over me. I’m looking up at enormous buildings. Skyscrapers made of crystal-clear glass shimmer in the sunlight as they rise to great heights.
People are going about their business when the ground starts to shake forcefully beneath my feet. I try to find my balance, but the ground is shuddering so severely that I fall backward, landing on my butt.
I hear glass shatter, splintering, and jingling high above me as the giant buildings start to crumble. They come down on us in a horrible rain of glass, concrete, and steel.
I only realize it’s one hell of an intense earthquake when the ground starts to tear open on the other side of the road .
At first, the crack is small, but as it rips jaggedly through the concrete, it grows bigger until gaping holes appear.
Debilitating fear and panic fill me, and I scramble to my feet, wildly looking around me.
God, I want this vision to stop.
The glass raining down on the mass of people pierces them. There are injured people everywhere, the gaping holes swallowing cars, buildings…everything in its path.
Wake up, Alchera! Wake up.
Horror soaks into my bones as I anxiously search for a way out of this disaster.
One after the other, the tremors grow stronger and they come faster by the second until it becomes near impossible to stay on my feet.
I hope with everything I have in me that one of my chosen ones isn’t here.
A sign crashes down next to me, barely missing me, and I let out a shocked scream as I scurry away from it while reading the words printed in bold.
SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS DISTRICT
ShitShitShit. Doesn’t San Francisco have the worst earthquakes?
I scramble away and start running as fast as I can. When the ground shudders horribly beneath me, I grab hold of the nearest lamp pole and hang on for dear life while letting out a terrified sob.
A huge gorge opens up not even a hundred feet from me, making horror bleed into my soul.
The ground slants upward in such a way that everyone and everything around me is sliding into the gorge, and I cling with all my strength to the pole.
Horrified out of my everloving mind, I can only gasp for air as I watch people plummet to their deaths.
I want to cover my ears. I can’t bear to hear their cries and terrified screams, but I’m forced to listen as I hold on to the pole.
Sobs tear from my chest, and I keep shaking my head, the devastation around me too much to handle.
“Raighne!” I cry, despair soaked into my voice. “Get me out of here.”
The piece of ground that tears loose is so big I can’t see how far it stretches, but I know it’s about to cause devastating destruction .
It’s as if the whole Bay Area is being torn loose from the mainland, becoming its own fiery island of death. I look up at the sky, wanting to scream for help, but my breath gets ripped from my lungs.
Thana is hovering far above us, a light as bright as the sun shining from her.
No.
My sister is the one responsible for all this destruction and death.
While I suffer the experience of this nightmare, she has to suffer the reality of knowing she’s killing so many people.
My mind reels at the thought that this is what Awo wants. The horrible death of millions.
A sob tears through me, and my heart aches for my sister and all these people.
The suffering around me is devastating, and I’m unable to breathe past the sorrow suffocating me.
A crying baby rips my attention back to the chaos happening around me.
People are being crushed, while others simply drop to their deaths. It’s a gruesome sight that changes me forever.
The tremors below me keep coming. It’s like a roaring beast has awakened from its long hibernation and now demands blood.
My arms are tired from the vibrations, but I hold on with all my might.
Suddenly, a woman grabs hold of the same pole I’m hanging onto in an attempt to save herself.
I try to take hold of her, but my hand goes through her.
“God…oh God,” she hyperventilates with terror etched deep into her face. “I don’t want to die!”
Seeing her struggle to keep hold and knowing I can’t do anything to help her, I start to cry violently as an unspeakable heartache crushes my chest.
“No!” Her fingers grow white as she tries to cling to the pole. She screams, and it’s a raw sound filled with absolute dread.
I have to close my eyes when she finally slips away.
Then the unthinkable happens. I begin to feel the racing heartbeats of many and how they’re snuffed one by one.
A strong wind begins to tug and blow as the ground finally tears loose from the mainland .
A thunderous boom echoes through the air, vibrating every particle in the air. Deafening screeches slam against my ears as if a billion fingernails are being scraped across a hellish blackboard.
A strong wind surrounds me, and I struggle to breathe. Wrapping my legs around the metal pole, I try desperately not to be blown away.
Panic and terror stain everything around me as the cries and prayers for mercy of the dying fill my soul.