Page 73 of Treasured Secrets
I almost giggled nervously when we neared. "Stop," I said, deciding that was close enough.
As soon as the car stopped, I got out of the jeep and tossed my bag on the side of the trail. I pulled out my sketch book and started walking down to my favorite spot. I could hear the falling water getting closer.
I sat down on my sitting rock that had gathered more moss in my absence. I stared up at my peaceful giants, all of them looking different. I appraised them, regarding them with more appreciation than I had before.
The waterfall glistened with reflective specks from the radiance of the sunlight. It seemed excited to have me back, and I smiled a true and genuine smile, though it was brief. My pain hadn't left me the way I had hoped.
I started sketching, trying not to think. Unfortunately, I was thousands of miles away from Tallis, and still, his face was all I could draw. I studied as I shaded in each line. My drawings never gave his beauty true justice.
I shook my head. Heartbreak wasn't easy at all. A harsh breath entered my lungs as an unwelcome realization came to light. Haluali was no longer my home. It wasn't the cozy hut I had grown up in. It wasn't the forest I had marveled at for so long. It wasn't my serene hideaway I had come to for peace. It wasn't even anything at all in South America. I thought I had left Grayford to run home. I abruptly assessed I actually ran away from home. Tallis. Tallis was now my home. My broken, screwed up home.
I started shouting at the treetops as the excruciating pain in my voice echoed through the forest. "I think they're all idiots! They're all wrong! I know I love him. I know he's the only person in the world for me! Why can't that just be okay? I hate magic and all of its stupid plans and stupid rules! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's. Not. Fair. Dammit!"
Tears ran from my eyes in such a relentless flow that they rivaled the gushing waterfall behind me. I was weak and wounded. I thought being here would make things easier, but it didn't. I was still in pain - too much pain.
The one place I thought I would be able to escape wasn't strong enough to take my mind off the pain. It only made it worse. Now I was so far away from him that it was torturous to even think about him at all. Considering he was all I could think about, the pain was verging on the boundary of unbearable.
The sun was lower. I must have been there for at least six hours. I continued to scream at the forest, making my voice feel strained and rasp.
"Why do this to me?" I asked through a sobbing hiccup.
I tried to compose myself, but it was pointless. The pain refused to dull. I was crying harder, and my words were muffled by the stabbing waves of piercing heartbreak that paraded itself in my tone.
"Why can't he just see how much I really do love him? Why can't he believe it's real? Why can't he believe I am his one?"
My once smooth fingertips felt like sandpaper as they brushed the cheeks that had been left ravaged and raw from the ruthless, never-ending flow of scalding tears.
Still sobbing, I dropped back down to the rock, and my sketch book fell from my lifeless hands to the ground. I wept for a few minutes longer as I thought back to the first time I saw Tallis. The way his touch burned through to my soul with such captivating power. The way his lips felt so soft against the bits of my skin he had touched with him. The first night he slept in the bed with me, and how safe and peaceful I felt just being with him. The first time we almost kissed, when our bodies were radiating such magnificent heat. How intensely surreal it was the night when our lips had just brushed, before Taryn interrupted.
I lay on the ground, crying, looking up at the streaks of sunlight escaping through the leaves of my once serene giants. Even they looked smaller and sadder now. Nothing was as it should have been. There was no peace and no escape from my insufferable misery.
Chapter 17
The Foul Smell of Danger
When there's a voice in your head telling you something bad is going to happen, listen to it.
I stopped thinking, suddenly feeling danger. A chill ran up my spine, making every hair stand on end. I felt the unwelcome eyes of someone watching me. I smelled something putrid invasively stifling out all other smells, and I became sick to my stomach.
"Oh no," I gasped, feeling the warning prickles of death consume me.
I knew that smell and the imminent danger that followed it. I knew what was watching me. I knew it was there for me and there was no escape. No one to save me.
"How did you find me?" I screamed into the forest with absolute panic.
There was no sense in trying to run, hide, or call for help. All I could do was end the game of cat and mouse.
I felt the swishing winds that made the leaves shake. Then a face came into view - a deceitfully young face.
He smirked, letting his eyes rake over me as he licked his lips. I grew sicker, and my body was conflicted with hot and cold chills.
"Mmm," he hissed softly. "I can't smell your essence, little witch, but I can smell the Bradbury blood that runs through your veins. I can smell the power that surges through your weak, pathetic mortal body."
He licked his lips again with sadistic delight as he inhaled deeply, searching for the scent of my absent essence. I stood there, shaking, unable to say anything threatening in return. I tried to speak, but only a squeak crept through my tight lips. I was going to die a trembling young girl instead dying with any dignity at all.
He circled me from a distance, and I stayed frozen, letting him analyze me. I wanted to cry, just like I had done every time. I wasn't made for this. I wasn't strong enough. Magic made a mistake in choosing me to join its cause.
"I'm supposed to bring you to Graven, but I may just keep you for myself," he said, smiling wickedly.
