Chapter 17 #2
“Do it again. Deeper this time, love,” Kade said, his voice low but reassuring as he spoke to Lana. “I’ve been infected for years compared to the few times Ian has. I may need more than one cut.”
Frowning, Lana’s hand trembled slightly as she sliced into Kade again.
“Again,” Kade directed.
Still nothing.
I swallowed down the pain of watching Lana cut time and again, the desperation growing in her movements. My heart ached as her body tensed, and her face fell.
After the fifth cut to his body, Lana’s head dropped as she let Apollo fall from her hand. She took a step back, staring in horror at the blood pouring down Kade’s side.
Barely a whisper of darkness floated away on a breeze after leaving his body, nowhere close to the density of the mist that left mine.
It hadn’t worked.
“I’m so sorry, Kade.” I stepped back, away from the two of them as Kade approached her.
Lana’s expression was frozen in horror and her body trembled as she wrapped her arms around herself. The moment, once filled with triumph, was no longer the joyous occasion from just a few minutes ago.
A heaviness settled in my chest. This was my best friend’s mate, and the one thing that should have rid the darkness from inside of him didn’t work. So what did that mean for eliminating all darkness to destroy Thames? What did that mean for the two of them?
I walked toward Jax, who stared with a look on his face that told me his thoughts weren’t too far from my own.
Glancing over my shoulder back at them, I watched Kade comfort Lan.
“Don’t worry, Little Rebel,” Kade assured her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. “This is not the end. We’ll find another way.”
After the events of the day, we weren’t prepared to begin the journey back to the inn. Exhaustion, both mental and physical, hit the four of us hard. Jax went out to hunt for dinner, and returned quickly with several rabbits, his face ashen.
“The strox decided to ‘help,’ if you will,” he said as he sat by the fire, skinning our soon-to-be meal.
He refused to answer any other questions about his encounter, and we reluctantly let it go—for now.
I was very curious as to how a strox helped catch rabbits.
Especially for Jax, who was the most terrified of the beasts out of all of us.
Perhaps another day Jax would tell the tale.
“I’m heading to bed,” Lana announced after we finished our meals and made plans to return to the inn at first light.
Her mood hadn’t improved much despite Jax trying to rile her up and Kade comforting her.
But she had smiled a few times, which I counted as a win.
“Kade?” She reached out her hand, and he didn’t bother looking at us before picking her up and carrying her in his arms to their makeshift tent.
It brought me so much peace that she’d found someone who made her laugh and accepted our friendship without jealousy. And even with today not ending the way any of us expected, he was still able to make her smile. It was everything I ever could have wanted for her.
“I’m not carrying you to your tent,” Jax said, stretching as he rose from the fire.
“Don’t bother asking, little birdie.” Jax headed toward his own tent for the evening and left me to sit by the fire alone, to take the first watch of the evening.
I didn’t mind. About a hundred different thoughts flowed through my head, all of which would keep me awake anyway.
While we’d learned so much today and knew what we needed to do in order to win this war, it didn’t help ease the dread of all that was left to be done.
A battle to be fought, innocent lives to be lost, and a hope and a prayer to the Fates we would all make it out relatively unscathed.
A cool breeze swirled around me, calming my anxious energy. Nature soothed me, reminding me I was not alone in this fight. Ever since we were kids, nature had played a role in our lives. I’d heed its presence as reassurance.
“Ian?” A whisper of that sultry feminine voice I’d come to know as well as my own entered my head.
My lingering anxiety disappeared altogether the minute Raya’s voice entered my mind.
Yes? I couldn’t help my smile as I dragged the word out, said only in my mind.
“Did you find the journal?”
Mmm… Well, hello to you too.
Raya sighed and an image of her appeared before me in my mind.
She stood in an inky expanse as endless as the night.
This hadn’t happened since she’d appeared to me screaming and bloodied.
Before I knew they were safe during their time in Mysthaven.
I pushed that thought down, unable to breathe thinking about the moment she materialized in my mind, battered and sobbing.
Instead, I wondered if I could be in a physical form. Squeezing my eyes shut, I imagined myself walking toward her, and suddenly my body manifested. A version of myself within myself. Does this mean we’re both physically here in our minds?
“Apparently so.” She stalked toward me in this empty expanse. “Let me ask again, did you find the journal?”
Of course we did, I replied, as I thought about reaching for her hand. Could we touch? We may have even gotten some reinforcements.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
I reached for her, nudging a finger under her chin playfully. Wouldn’t you like to know?
Gasping, I realized I could feel her skin in a fuzzy kind of way. She wasn’t completely solid, but it didn’t feel like touching a cloud, instead lingering somewhere in-between.
Raya frowned, but I wasn’t able to focus on that like I should have.
The simple act of touching her froze me in place.
The smile I wore faded as an overwhelming sensation rushed through my body, rewiring my very essence.
Fates, this was something stronger than I’d ever experienced before.
A small bright tether inside my chest snapped into place, lining up every emotion I had regarding Raya.
I’d fought against what this thing between us was previously, the annoying attraction, my inability to admit that having her closer always felt better. But now? Now there was no way I’d fight this any longer.
The way I craved this woman I hardly knew made no sense.
An overwhelming urge to run to her in the physical realm and wrap myself in her dark, rich skin while I ran my hands through those braids overtook me.
The way they swung with the beat of her hips when she moved.
It drove me mad in a way I couldn’t explain.
“You are insufferable. As this is the only way for any of us to remain in communication, I am forced to be the liaison between our two groups.”
I stared at her cocked eyebrow, and I swear I was a fucking goner. Don’t worry, we’ll be back tomorrow. My hand twitched, daring to brush my finger against hers, touching her hand and tracing my thumb along her wrist. Raya jumped back, surprised by the second, lingering touch.
“What are you doing?”
Don’t you think it’s odd that you can mind-speak to me when you’ve never been able to do it with anyone except for King Dargan?
“I—uhm—haven’t tested that theory.” Her breathing hitched, and her chest rising and falling increased.
Don’t you think it’s strange that we can now see each other while we are mind-speaking? I stepped closer and reached out my hand to her, praying she would take it. Just one more touch might calm my racing heart. Don’t you feel it?
She didn’t take my hand, but she didn’t move away either. She left me in limbo. There was still hope.
“Feel what? You have been nothing but rude to me since I was forced to enter your mind. I feel nothing for you except you are Lana’s friend, and against all of my better judgment, she’s grown on me over the last few weeks. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her after the kindness she has shown me.”
I grinned at how Raya hated that others were entering her life who loved her.
She was about to have to add me to that list. She does that.
It’s hard not to love her. But that’s not what I’m talking about, Raya, and you know it.
There is something between us. Something that neither of us has ever felt before.
“Don’t you say it,” she whispered. Her eyes darted around like she wanted to escape, but I knew if she truly wanted to leave, she could cut me off and disappear. She’d done it before.
I stepped even farther into her space and cradled her cheek in my hand. An electric jolt passed over my entire body and exited my fingertips into Raya. Her gaze flickered between my hand and my face, confused as to what had just happened between us.
See? I cupped the other side of her face. We are something. The Fates themselves know it to be true.
“I know nothing of the Fates or their wishes.” She stepped back out of my grasp. “But whatever it is you’re thinking might be happening—it can’t be. They don’t exist anymore.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. Except we do know it to be true. Look at Kade and Lana.
Raya stormed off farther into the abyss of my mind, but I couldn’t let her leave yet. I wasn’t ready for her to go. Raya, come back. I ran after her and caught up to her in mere moments. I stopped just past her, so she faced me. Don’t leave. Just talk to me.
“There is no talking to you. Not when you’ve got these crazy ideas in your idiot head. Now get out of my way, or I’ll make you.”
Is that a threat? I couldn’t help my smirk. My smile had always worked in the past whenever I’d tried to woo a lady. I was always told it was one of my best qualities. I had a feeling things would be harder with Raya, and Fates, I’d do anything to win her heart.
“Hah, you have no idea.” Without warning, she dropped and swiped her leg out, knocking me off balance.
As I fell to the ground, I grabbed the tunic of her shirt, bringing her down to the imaginary floor.
Raya landed on top of me and proceeded to try to punch my side.
I blocked her attack with my forearms and wrapped my left leg around the outside of hers.
Grabbing her arm, I brought her body close to mine and thrusted my hips up, flipping her over, so I sat on top of her.
She lay there panting. “Let. Me. Go.”
Leaning down, I brushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face and whispered in her ear. You can try to fight this all you want, Raya, but I’ll be here waiting when you’re ready to admit it. Whether in my mind or Brookmere, or Mysthaven, or in Atheria now, I will always choose you.
Shock and then indignation crossed her face, before she disappeared from beneath me, leaving me alone in the chamber of my mind specifically carved out for her.
With my heart racing and anxious butterflies filling my stomach, I left my mind and returned to the crackling fire at the campsite. Breathing in the smoky air grounded me in reality as the stars twinkled above.
I was totally screwed. Raya was mine. I would do whatever it took to win her trust and get her to admit what this was.
I’d found my mate and I’d prove to her that the Fates got it right with us.
For as long as it took.