Page 100 of Frosted Torment

CHAPTER 35

Rubbing my temples, I opened my eyes to the suffocating weight of silence that filled the tent. Everyone watched me, their eyes heavy with expectation that made my skin crawl. The entrance blew open with a gust of wind that sent a shiver down my spine, spurring me into motion.

I bolted up the path toward the bunkhouse, heart pounding in my chest as I pushed past guardian wolves with fur like midnight and eyes glowing eerily in the dim light. When I finally reached it, just as I turned the knob to walk inside, two hands grabbed each of my shoulders and spun me around. Nakoma stood with Jossy, shaking his head.

Jossy’s eyes were wide with concern as he pleaded, “You can’t go in there like this.”

“Leave us,” Vallen demanded, and stepped in front of them both.

Jossy stood to the side, waiting for my signal that it was okayfor him to go, but Nakoma walked around me and slipped into the bunkhouse. I nodded at Jossy that it was okay for him to head back to camp.

Vallen’s finger cupped my chin and tilted it upward until his chest brushed gently against mine. “Look at me, Noa,” he commanded.

My pulse spiked as I found myself caught in the mesmerizing pool of viridian fire that was his eyes. I blinked rapidly, trying to shake off the spots in my vision, only for those hypnotic emerald orbs to morph into a swirling abyss of gold-leafed ivy vines. But the tears wouldn’t stop.

Following the trail of his own touch, he traced the scar above my lip, then wiped away a tear, a dark hunger clouding his eyes. “Yes, I found a way to get your mother and father together. But your dad was a Nephilim,” he explained solemnly. “It was the only way to make this work, but they loved each other.”

“That doesn’t help,” I moaned in agony at what my life had become.

He sighed and thumbed the top of my lip. “I stripped your soul and created this mark on you. That ismyscar, Noa.” My chest tightened under his touch. “I carved it into you so you would survive,” he went on as though his reasoning made the outcome better. And to him, it did. “It’s what gave you the ability to stay alive and hold onto the secrets until it was time to return them to the Veil.”

My body shook so close to him, and he took my hands in his. I looked up at him and wished I could blink him away. “But you want me dead,” I confirmed through my tears. “And it’s not just because I’m the carrier of secrets. It’s because of what I am, isn’t it?”

Vallen’s voice dipped low as he entwined his fingers with mine. “I want to trust you, but you don’t know what you are or what you’re capable of, and?—”

“And,” I cut him off, not giving him the opportunity to finish. “You don’t want to take a chance even when I said you could have the secrets back. Return my soul, but kill the Elioud, right?”

He closed his eyes and I pulled my head away from his. “If you choose my way,” he remarked sternly. “Not only will I get your soul for you, to breathe life and fulfillment back into your body, but together we’ll wipe out every last one of those bastards who thought they could touch you - including Vincent and Maros.”

I felt faint, uncertain that I had heard him correctly. “What are you saying, Vallen?” My eyes narrowed.

His voice dropped an octave lower, sending a shiver down my spine as energy thrummed beneath our wrists. “You’ll rise like the goddess you are to claim your true purpose. And you will save your kind, mine, and what’s beyond the Veil.”

“I don’t understand. You want me to keep the secrets too?” I asked with a shaky breath.

“I didn’t expect you to be so stubborn,” Vallen replied, his voice firm as I stifled a laugh. “Or fight so damn hard. Eliouds turn into something more grotesque than a demon’s plague. Killing you was supposed to be the easiest task I completed. But you’ve fought with the conviction of an angel.”

“And the heart and soul of a human,” I said, letting him stroke the sensitive skin between my fingers and thumb.

“If I kill you now,” he admitted with a flicker of gold in hiseyes, “I’m not convinced that something worse won’t come of it.”

“You mean I might follow Maros and Vincent willingly into hell?” I asked quietly.

“The thought has crossed my mind.” His eyes darkened as he glanced down at my lips. “But that’s not what I mean,” he confessed.

“Oh,” I said as my throat bobbed. Those feelings of attraction brewing in me ever since he saved my life with his essence began to mean something.

“The moment I laid eyes on you in the cave,” he divulged, his deep voice a whisper. “And you challenged me, it woke something in me, Noa. It brought back the fight in me and a respect for you.”

“Vallen, don’t,” I pleaded, squeezing his hands tightly. “I can’t take this up and down of whether I will live or die.”

“You will live,” he promised and pulled me into his solid chest. His hands played with my hair as he whispered into my ear. “It’s the only way to know for sure that our worlds, and others, won’t succumb to the demons or worse.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” I laughed uncomfortably and felt the slow drum of a heartbeat beneath me.

“And,” he added with an intensity I wasn’t expecting. “It’s the only way to make certain I wouldn’t beg to be chained up and tortured again for all eternity.”

I stepped back from him and leaned back against the bunkhouse door. I had been so caught up in killing him that I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t want any of this, much less feelings for this angel, with the entire universe on the brink of annihilation.

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