Chapter 30 #3
Stepping out onto the cliff, I walked and sat on the boulder that overlooked the glittering sky.
I shivered as the memory of the Fates' void came to mind, and I watched as the moon slowly rose. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Zara approached, her gaze burning the side of my face. I didn’t look at her, though, just waited until she sat onto the boulder.
She was too far away, and I desperately wanted to move closer, to feel her beside me, but I suppressed the urge and remained in my spot. My stomach churned with the realization of how fucked up everything was.
With a deep breath, I squeezed my eyes shut, only for them to fly open when something made contact with my thigh.
I looked down to find Zara’s head now resting on it, her body lying horizontally across the rock.
Her cheek pressed against me as she looked out across the cliff's edge into the night sky.
Shivers raked my body, my muscles tightening as I watched a small smile line her lips, and fates did that not ruin me entirely.
It took everything in me not to lean down and kiss her, to pull her so that I was straddling her, to take her right here under these stars.
Zara turned her head to look at me. “Thank you for what you did back there.” Her words came out as a whisper, and I hummed low in my throat, my hand smoothing the chestnut strands that clung to her away from her face.
“You have nothing to thank me for. He deserved what he got.”
I shifted my gaze skyward again, not wanting to see the emotions stirring in her eyes, but continued to rake my fingers through her hair. Her wintery scent enveloped me, and I breathed it in, letting it fill my lungs, my soul. I felt her gaze still lingering on me, and I smiled.
“Do you remember when I brought you here?” The question tore from me, and I glanced down briefly, my hair falling over my face.
She smiled, a hand lifting to push back the strand that had fallen over my eyes.
The white strand only slumped forward again, and I adjusted my neck so that it wouldn’t obscure my vision of her.
“I do,” she said sadly, and a wrinkle formed between my brow.
Zara moved, my fingers tightening in her hair to try to keep her there, but as she continued to rise, I released her.
She moved so that we were at least now next to each other, the heat of our bodies nearly touching as I turned to look at her.
My thighs feeling the absence of her warmth and wishing she had stayed.
“What made you want to bring me to this place?” she asked, her eyes scanning the sky.
“I’ve been coming here since I was a kid.
” I shrugged. “Flynn had to travel a lot after—” I paused, grief filling my chest. “After what happened with my parents,” I said, clearing my throat.
“We had a fight, a big one, and I ran away from him, from the camp we had set up. My uncle had come after me, but I was too fast,” I chuckled, a small smile forming.
“I remember it getting dark. I realized I had been stupid to run off. Every noise made me flinch, and I was afraid that a monster would find me, a daka or one of the creatures my mother told me about at bedtime.”
“Like the Vorrack?” Zara said softly, and I nodded and huffed out my next words.
“My magic awoke then.”
I turned toward Zara, and her gaze was already on me, her eyes wide, curiosity swimming in their glacial depths.
“Shadows started to move and follow me, and I panicked as they began to wrap around my body. I was too scared to feel their comfort or understand what was happening.”
“The almighty King, admitting he was afraid?”
“We are all afraid of something, Zara.”
Her face became serious, thoughtful.
“I kept wishing to be somewhere safe. Screaming it in my head. I had curled up on the forest floor, hoping my uncle would find me.” I turned to face the night sky again.
“My stomach twisted, and it felt like I had stopped breathing. And then light shone on my face, the suffocating darkness ebbing away. I opened my eyes and found myself here.”
My hand patted the boulder underneath us, and Zara’s brows shot to her hairline.
“My magic brought me out of the forest, and I was able to see that the forest hadn’t been swallowing me. My magic had been protecting me.” I smiled at the memory, my shadows licking around my arms just as they did that day. Swirling over my skin in fine lines, as if tattooed there.
Zara watched in awe, as she brought the tip of her finger down onto a tendril and it jumped onto it, wrapping around her finger playfully as she grinned, chuckling.
“My uncle found me an hour later, scolding and dragging me back to the camp. It wasn’t until I was older that I found this place again, but it became a safe place for me, somewhere I could go and escape reality for a while. To lie among the stars.”
The magic disappeared, and Zara’s smile fell.
“I saw you here once, last year, before everything,” she breathed softly, and I nodded.
“It was the first time I ever laid eyes on you.” She brought her gaze to mine, and the emotion swirling there cracked something in my chest. “This place, this cliff, was one of the first places I discovered in Nexia,” she admitted.
“I had come here almost every night and laid right here on this boulder and dreamed of another life, a better life. It was my escape too.”
A tear fell down her cheek, and I reached out and wiped it away with the pad of my thumb, cupping her face with my hand. She leaned into it, more tears falling as she sniffled, her eyes sweeping over my face, and then going distance as if lost in a memory.
Something pushed at the barrier between us, and I hadn’t realized I had it closed. I let her in and images of her walking in the woods, of hiding, of me walking out onto the cliff. Zara taking a step toward me before being yanked away.
Pain flickered across her features, and my heart thundered, the sound of my pulse in my ears.
Her mind raced with endless possibilities, of what-ifs, and things we couldn’t change.
I pulled her into my chest, cursing the Fates for this path we were currently on.
Both of our hearts were broken for the life that was stolen from us.
Our families, our past, present and our future.
Snatched away and used like pawns in a game.
I pushed her back, cradling her face between my palms, my eyes burning into hers with promises I wasn’t sure I could keep.
I crashed my lips to hers, bruising and unrelenting. Her mouth parted for me, my tongue sweeping in and meeting hers. A whimper left her lips as she reached for me, her fingers digging into my chest as she pulled me closer.
I obeyed, my hands leaving her face as I pushed her back.
Her nails dug in, pulling me down with her, until I was laid out above her.
One hand rested on her hip, the other grasped her chin, her neck, tilting her head back.
My tongue plunged into her mouth again as she continued to claw at my chest, my shoulders, my back.
A deep rumble vibrated through my chest–our souls.
We will find a way.
The promise wrapped around us through the bond—fragile, and heavy with everything it carried. I only hoped we could.