Thirty-Seven
Kallie
After Donni brought me home, she wanted to stay until Callum returned, but I insisted she leave. Not because I didn’t want her company, but she also has her own life to get to, and selfishly, my plans for the evening include a shower, dinner, and some well-deserved sleep. Thank the Goddess Callum took so long, because she finally relented, and I saw her off.
After my shower, I rummage through the kitchen, trying to find something that would resemble a decent meal, when the front door bursts open. Instinctively, I snatch a knife from the block and duck behind the counter, listening for the intruder as they come closer.
I see the toe of a boot and don’t hesitate before slicing the knife through the air and across their leg.
“Gods damnit, Kallie!” Callum’s voice rings true, and I quickly stand. He doesn’t look to be in pain. His face gives more pissed-off vibes.
“Really?” he berates.
“You scared me! Barging in here like a complete lunatic. Who enters their house like that?” If I look close enough, I’m sure I can see smoke wafting out of his nostrils.
“Everything alright?”
“Just peachy. Some psycho thought it was a good idea to act like he was breaking into his own home,” I fill Voraxis in.
“I haven’t been able to reach you all day, Kallie. I thought something happened, and I was coming here to make sure you were alright.” His admission sends flutters through my stomach.
“Awe, was someone worried about me?” My eyelashes flutter, my tone dripping with condescension.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Princess. If you were kidnapped, my parents would have been really bent out of shape.”
“Oh, right. I honestly should just go stay with them. They seem to like my company a lot more than you do.” I hear the faintest growl leave him as I turn around to wash the blade.
“So where did you scurry off to this morning?” I question.
“I had some business to attend to.”
“Yes, I do believe that was what the note said. But what was the business?”
“It’s not important. But what is important is what you did today.”
“Oh, you know, your note strictly prohibited me from leaving the property, so what was I to do? I was the perfect little housewife while you were away, just counting down the seconds until you came home.”
“Kallie,” he pushes through clenched teeth.
“It was nothing of importance.”
“I’ll find out one way or another.” His breath skates over my ear, and both of his hands clench around the sink, caging me in.
My heart rate picks up, but I try to even out my breathing before replying, “And what do I get if I tell you?” It doesn’t matter; my words still come out breathless. Where did that come from?
His hand begins tracing up my arm. “What is it you’re after?” I try to focus on scrubbing the knife free of his blood, watching as the suds pour off the blade and the hot water turns pink. I don’t want to focus on the way his breath feels against my neck, how the trailing of his fingers leaves goosebumps in its path, or how the scent of eucalyptus encompasses me.
My eyes start to close, and before I know what I’m doing, I’m leaning into his touch, until I feel something poking me from behind, and my eyes spring open. Quickly spinning around, I take the knife with me and hold it against his throat.
A playful smirk dances on his lips, mischief gleaming in his eyes. He moves faster than I can think and wraps his hand around the blade, pulling it away from his throat and out of my grasp. My eyes bulge as I watch crimson run down his arm. This guy is clinically insane.
Before I can process, he turns me around and lifts me up onto the island, holding the back of my head with one hand, and returns the threat with the other, holding the cold blade against my throat. Shadows hold my hands and feet at bay, like shackles, completely immobilizing me.
“Come on, little fighter. It hasn’t been that long since we’ve done this. Surely you wouldn’t let me win this easily?”
“Of course not,” I say with a wicked smile, right before I’m engulfed in flames. Immediately, the fire eats away at the shadows, and they dissipate, but he doesn’t move from where he stands. “A little fire never scared me, Princess. You’re gonna have to try harder than that.” He pushes the tip into my neck, drawing a bead of blood.
Instantly, my body morphs into fight-or-flight mode. My foot pulls back as much as it can, ready to send it flying into his groin. Before I can make contact, his shadows return, twining around my legs, holding them together like a cocoon. Then another forms around my throat like a boa coiling around its prey.
I grab at it, but it doesn’t matter how many times I burn it away. It just resurfaces. He pushes me down, and I hiss as the cool counter hits my flesh.
“Cal—” I barely get it out, my words suffocated by the growing noose around my neck. “Can’t breathe.” There’s a wild look in his eyes, like he’s enjoying this.
“What are you going to do? You’re all tied up and at my mercy. The things I could do to you.” Spots dance in my vision, my body fighting against unconsciousness. I scratch and thrash as best I can, but it doesn’t do anything.
No, no, no. Not again. Memories flood my mind, and I feel like I’m drowning, like a cinder block is strapped to my ankles, and I’m being dropped into the deepest part of the ocean.
My hands release the shadows around my neck, and I slam both of my palms on Callum’s face, scorching his cheeks.
In an instant, everything stops. My body lurches up, coughing while trying to greedily take in lungfuls of air. I claw at my throat, trying to scrape the sensation off me.
“What the fuck was that?!” I yell, scooting my ass across the counter and hopping down on the other side, creating as much distance as I can.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist. Clearly you need more training if that was what you do in a life-or-death situation.” He’s so nonchalant, like this wasn’t a big deal.
“You’re joking, right?”
“You’re the one that held the knife to my throat first,” he points out.
“Yeah, but that was…that was because…” I make aimless hand gestures toward the sink, not wanting to say anything else.
“Stop with this too-good-for-anything attitude. In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t all fun and games. The shit that’s coming…it’s very real. And you need to be prepared.”
“I never asked for this!” I scream, my anger rising to the surface, the heat threatening to escape from my body.
“Newsflash, Princess: none of us did. Do you really think any of us want a war? You need to wake the hell up. This is bigger than you, bigger than all of us!” Callum seethes, venom coating his words.
“You have no idea what I’ve been through, what my life has been like. I just want some sense of normalcy! Is that too much to ask for?”
“You’re not normal. You’re far from it, but you can’t change who you are or what you’re destined to become.”
“I don’t want it! The responsibility, the powers, none of it! I miss my dad, my friends, my life!”
“What life? Being around your one friend while trying to not place your burdens on your father? Of being scared and helpless? What kind of life is that?” He antagonizes.
“Shut up.” Despite the ember of rage flickering inside, my voice comes out more timid than I intend it too.
“No, tell me what was so great about your life before.” He pushes and pushes getting closer with every word. I retreat, backing up and never taking my eyes off him until my back hits a wall.
“Shut up! Shut up!” I cover my hands with my ears, not wanting to hear him belittle what my life was. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but I always had my dad, Kate. That was enough, wasn’t it? That was all I needed, all I wanted.
“What demons have you buried so deep inside that you can’t let someone in, help you carry whatever pain and resentment you’re harboring?”
“Shut the fuck up!” My voice isn’t my own, a deeper foreign tune escaping me.
“Or what? What are you going to do, Kalliope?”
Flames erupt over my arms, coating my entire body in licks of orange. Shadows whip through my hair, like tentacles emerging from my back. I can feel them, dancing in the wind I create around me as I stand there, trying to keep my walls from crumbling down.
“Oh perfect. Give it your best shot, little fighter. Let it all out. Show me there is a person in there willing to fight for something. Or has your perfect life kept you so sheltered that all you can do is care about yourself?”
“You don’t know what it was like!” I wail, but I don’t recognize the sound that comes out. “To live, day after day, not knowing what was wrong with me. To have your mother hate you for something that wasn’t your fault! To wish, every single day, that the pain of not being good enough would vanish. That I would vanish.” My feet move forward of their own accord, but he stays where he is, rooted in his stance.
“I was a burden, a mistake that my own mother didn’t even want to deal with. I was so broken that all I wanted was to end it all, take my own pain away so maybe, just maybe, I would know what it would be like to know peace.” My voice booms, ricocheting off the walls.
“I was weak. I was helpless. But not anymore. My past is in the past, but I have carried the events with me every single day of my fucking life! I was assaulted, taken against my will, and that made me stronger.” The last sentence seems to momentarily stun him, but I don’t care. I don’t want his sympathy or his pity.
“All of this is something you and whoever else can tell yourselves at night to make you feel better about the circumstances we face. Good for you, you saved a damsel in distress. But guess what, Callum? I didn’t need to be saved. I didn’t need a knight in shining armor to whisk me away to an unknown land and make me promises of rainbows and unicorns. I didn’t need you to bring me here and dig up feelings that I have no business having, because since that night, I have been fucking dead inside, waiting to finally be set free. I made myself stronger. This power has always been inside me, lying in wait to be unleashed. I kept myself afloat in the roaring rapids. Not my dad, not your parents, and most certainly not you. Me.” Vines crash down through the ceiling, wrapping around his arms and legs. I pull water from the sink, letting it pool around his feet before it forms a box, and I let it freeze into a block of ice.
I can feel something pulling at me, a tug for me to stop, but I can’t. This feeling is absolutely liberating.
A look of uncertainty flashes over his face before it turns back to his usual stone-cold exterior, completely void of any emotion or feeling. “You really think you have me all figured out, don’t you? Well, let me tell you, Callum Bellmore, you don’t know the first thing.” I guide the shadows to him, mimicking what he did to me not long ago and tying them around his neck.
The wind picks up, and I feel it flow through me, like the lid on top of the well containing my powers is bursting with joy, finally ready to release mass destruction.
“Try me, Kallie. Enlighten me, let me be the one to help carry your pain. You just have to let me in!” he yells over the thunder above, like his voice is begging to be heard, to answer his pleas.
“I don’t know how!” I crumble, shatter into a million pieces in front of him. The realm falls eerily quiet as the wind falls to rest. I watch the vines recede, the shadows slowly making their way back to me. I fall to my knees, and the tears welling up in my eyes makes my vision blurry, but I make out Callum’s figure as he cautiously makes his way toward me.
I shake my head vigorously as he gets closer.
I don’t need him.
I don’t need him.
I don’t…
A singular sob escapes, and the dam breaks. I throw my head in my hands at the same time he wraps his arms around me. I try to wiggle out of his hold, beating against his chest, but he only pulls me tighter.
“It’s okay. You’re okay.” His voice is soothing, like he’s trying to tame a rabid animal. Maybe that’s what I am now—a feral beast. Am I really incapable of letting someone in? I can’t. I can’t fucking do this. The walls are closing in, and I can’t fucking breathe.
“Kallie, it’s fine. Stay with me, Princess.”
“I don’t know how. I don’t know…how.” The words come out on choppy inhales and exhales.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what’s happening. I can’t control it. I can’t do this. I can’t, I can’t…” I bury my head in his chest and let the eucalyptus take over, only focusing on his scent. He makes soothing strokes down the length of my hair, slightly rocking us, like we’re on a raft floating in the middle of the ocean. I’m just waiting for the wave to come that’s going to pull me under, but it never does.
Callum is my life raft.
Pulling my head back just a fraction, I look up at the man that is holding me, the one that, despite everything I just did to him, everything I told him, came to make sure I am alright.
His eyes search mine, like he’s waiting for the next wave to hit, but I think we’ve hit calm waters, and we’re slowly making our way to shore.
“Why?” is all I can manage.
His head tilts a fraction. “Why what?”
“Why are you here? Why this?” These don’t feel like real words, just a conversation in my own head.
“Because you need someone. A person you can lean on and be there for you when things get tough. I want to be that person for you.” I can’t speak, in my head or out loud, afraid anything I say will start the waterworks again. How did we get here? How did this guy that I loathed not so long ago become the one person I find solace in?
Callum leans down and brushes his lips over mine. It feels like a question but, at the same time, like a ghost passing through, leaving me covered in goosebumps. He waits a breath. Then another. Before crashing them down onto mine.