Chapter 25 #2
I exhaled another puff of smoke. “That’s good. I’ve been worried about her.”
Running his hands down his face, he looked to the sky as if it held answers. “So,” he started, readying to change the subject. “I take it you talked to Peri today?”
Nodding, I flicked the cigarette. “I did. She told me about the plan to search for the Endarkened.” Another hit of the cancer stick flourished down my throat. “I support it against my better judgment.”
“I’m truly shocked.” Slate grabbed a knife from his sleeve, with the blade’s sigils igniting blue, he began to clean out underneath his fingernails as we walked through alleyways. “When are y’all planning to go down there?”
“Tomorrow. At noon.”
“I’ll be training with the princess, then. Our session got moved due to some scheduling that the king has arranged for her.”
I nodded. “Good. Can’t risk having too many of us caught. I’m already risking enough going down there with Onyx and Peri.” Needles pricked the back of my neck at the thought of taking my sister down there. What the fuck was I thinking?
“Makes sense, but I wish I could be there for backup if needed,” Slate added.
“It’ll be fine,” I said, more to convince myself than him. It had to go according to plan. If not, everything could be lost, and all the careful work I’d put into keeping her protected for so many years would be for nothing. Then there was the princess.
Slate nodded, running a hand through his stone-tinted hair, his sharp fringe falling just above his brows. “Yeah. You got this.”
I took another drag of the cigarette while keeping my senses open for anyone nearby who wasn’t human.
“So,” I started, feeling my heart speed up and a gurgling sensation in my stomach.
“You and the princess. What’s going on between you two?
” The interaction between us yesterday in the aftermath of Kale hadn’t left my mind.
I watched the red taillights of passing cars and trucks on the street before they halted at the stoplight ahead.
I tried to feign like I couldn’t care less what his response would be by tossing the cigarette butt to the ground.
Then, I thought better of it. I wasn’t about littering, so I tracked the filter down and disposed of it in the city’s wastebasket several feet ahead of us.
Slate cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders back. The black leather jacket crinkled with the motion. “Nothing right now, but there’s a connection between us.”
Slate might as well have taken his knife and plunged it through my heart.
I gritted my jaw, keeping any emotions stifled.
He couldn’t possibly understand my love for Gray or the depths our bond reached.
But I couldn’t help but wonder if Gray felt the connection with him, too.
Or maybe this was just hopeful teenage shit on his end.
A cloud of pressure drifted over my body like a blanket. My arm dropped to my side, suddenly heavier than usual. If Gray felt some connection to Slate, then I stood no chance. My mind spun, my legs struggling to carry me forward at the strong potential of those two ending up together.
“The more I’m around her, the more I like her,” Slate added, basically taking my pierced heart and tossing it to the street for the Atlanta traffic to flatten. “There’s something special about Gray,”
“I see,” I sighed, pulling out another cigarette, trying to smother the tightness in my chest with the smoke.
Hopefully, the nicotine buzz would help a bit, but I doubted it.
The lighter blazed the flame to life as I took a massive inhale—probably much larger than was considered normal.
I held my breath, giving the smoke a chance to potentially do what I had hoped, but nope.
The tightness remained, as did the shattering of my heart.
“What about you?” Slate side-eyed me as we strolled. “You’re extremely protective of her in a way that goes beyond the mission for the insurgency. Does it have to do with the bond you have with her?”
My throat squeezed closed as I struggled to form words to give him. I took another hit of the cigarette, noting the strong menthol in the tobacco that gave it a minty flavor. “No.”
Slate walked with me in my silence, waiting for me to continue.
“Yes, we share a bond,” I said, my voice strained, breaking the quietude, “and as you know, I have always been able to feel her emotions. But it doesn’t go past that.
I can’t even get close to her, much less get to know her.
How could I possibly have feelings for someone under those circumstances?
I just need her to be safe and protected.
” I pulled on the cigarette filter with my lips, sucking in another lungful of smoke. “And happy.”
Up ahead of us, a couple walked together with their arms wrapped around one another’s waists.
The woman’s head rested against the man’s shoulder as he held her against his side protectively.
My blurry gaze remained fixated on the two.
I couldn’t pull away from it, no matter how much it sent sharp lashes of longing through my chest. I refused to blink the burning moisture from eyes.
In my periphery, Slate nodded, releasing a heavy sigh. “I get that,” Slate started, “but now, we know Forest plans to use her. Surely, she’s not too unsafe anymore, right? If she becomes too powerful, he could turn her against us and—”
I slung my right arm to the side, slamming into his chest. On alert, he withdrew a dagger from his weapons belt a breath later.
We stood in the wide-open city street on the sidewalk, where humans still strolled about at eleven o’clock at night.
The light hoodie with a cloaked hood hid my currents and chromatic hair, while Slate’s black leather jacket and dark hair did the job just fine.
“Elemental,” I whispered, my eyes swiveling in all directions of the city lined with skyscrapers and streets as I tried to pinpoint their location.
“Let’s go,” I murmured, motioning for Slate to follow me as I ducked into a dark alley to the right.
Once we reached the back end, I turned left and followed the adjacent street we’d just been walking.
The familiarity of the Elemental aura sent shivers up my arms and neck the closer we approached. I strongly suspected who we’d meet in the end.
Slate’s shoulder brushed against mine as we stalked the tight, shadowed alley. Following the energy from the aura, I hooked a left between two buildings, coming face-to-face with Orion Silas. My uncle.
The Elemental Regent King stood before us, his chin held high and bare of any weapons. “Chrome,” he greeted. His sandy blond hair was swept to one side, highlighting his skin’s golden sheen beneath. Judging by his looks, he shouldn’t be older than thirty-three, but I knew better.
Holy shit, his aura was strong. I imagined feeding from it would be euphoric, no doubt making me more powerful on a level I never knew existed.
My heart lodged in my throat at my train of thought. Never. Not once in all the times I’d come in contact with an Elemental had I desired to feed off their auric field. The disturbing craving had me reaching into my cigarette pack again.
“If you’re here to tell me—” I lit up again.
I couldn’t stop the urge to suddenly chain smoke.
I had never been one to do shit like that before, but the weight of everything had seemed to triple in recent weeks.
At least the burn of the smoke down my throat was somehow soothing.
I’d take anything that felt good at this point.
“I’m not. I’m here to talk to you about King Forest,” Orion said, his aura further enticing me.
I clenched my jaw and squeezed the tobacco stick wedged between my fingers. “What about him?” I said between clenched teeth, attempting to leash myself.
“He plans to start a war with us. Or more like frame us into starting one with him.”
I didn’t say anything. It seemed my suspicions were accurate, but I wouldn’t let him know that.
“Just be cautious. Use your intellect so you don’t fall prey to his schemes. Please don’t become a pawn in his lust for ultimate power.” Orion’s eyes narrowed, sliding his gaze down to the cigarette I held between my fingers dangling at my side. “Why are you smoking?”
I flicked the filter again, ash drifting to the concrete. “Because I want to.”
Orion stepped closer to me, his eyes searching my body and aura for something. “What’s happened? Something’s changed with you since the last time I saw you.”
I chuckled, desperate to mask my growing urge to feed from him. “Acting like you’re my dad now? Kindly fuck off.”
Orion ignored me and stepped closer, and Slate closed in on my side in my defense. Orion seemed unbothered. “Your energy…” My estranged uncle’s brows furrowed in concern. “It’s darker, like little blotches on the outer edge of it. What happened?”
I felt Slate tense beside me, suddenly shifting his attention to the space around my body in search of what Orion saw, but he wasn’t quite strong enough to see it yet. “Chrome?”
“It’s nothing. I’ll be fine. Just need to find the Endarkened that the king is hiding in the prisons,” I answered, stepping back to get some breathing space.
“I knew it,” Orion murmured, shaking his head.
Up close, I could see the unique bright teal in the Regent King’s eyes, a physical trait of Elementals.
They reminded me of the Caribbean sea. Now, they had shifted from the confident look of a leader to holding a wild fear within them, further unsettling me.
“Come home, Chrome. Soon. Do what you gotta do, then come home.”
I held his alarmed stare in apathy, taking another drag, then let the smoke slowly drift from my lips into his face. “I don’t have a home.”