Page 73 of The Discovered
Daelon looked momentarily stunned, but stayed silent, watching me unravel with an infuriating impassive expression.
“Also, he knows where we are. Yet he isn’t here, which I find strange considering he wanted so desperately to elude your protection and find me.”
Daelon’s forehead creased. “How do you—”
“No!” I held a hand up. “I’masking the questions.Whoare you?” I was still chilled to the bone from Nathaniel’s magick. A shudder passed through me as I stood planted before the man I felt so connected to just moments ago.
His eyes softened. “You’re freezing. And justifiably emotional. Let’s go home.”
That place isn’t my home.
I narrowed my eyes, tensing as he reached for me. I begrudgingly let him pull me into an embrace, still holding tightly to the questions he refused to answer.
“I’m so sorry,” he consoled. “I want him dead for touching you.”
I let out a ragged breath, still refusing to relax into Daelon’s hold.
“I know you do.”But you didn’t want me to actually kill him.“You could’ve stopped him from doing whatever he’s about to do—however he’s going to blow up our bubble. Why’d you let him go?” I pulled back, needing to see Daelon’s eyes as he spoke.
He reached for my hands like he wanted to teleport, but I flinched, pulling back. He stared at me wearily, a desperation setting in. “You don’t understand, Áine. Killing him only would’ve made matters worse. It was already in motion. Nothing I could’ve done would have stopped it. I just wish he hadn’t seen…”
“Us? Together?” I asked, the wheels of my mind turning. Daelon resisted our magnetism from day one. He said over and over that he couldn’t be with me.
I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to generate warmth. I still felt the magick’s residual darkness like a storm cloud over my power.
“I—Áine, please. Let me get you home and we can talk more. It’s safer there,” he said, urging me, nearly pleading. It wasn’t a disposition I was used to on my supposed fearless protector, but it was one that was becoming more and more frequent.
I cast a glance back at the ocean, wondering why I had been called here. I thought something important would be revealed to me—like everything would finally fall into place. Instead, I was attacked and violated.
At least I got to see my mothers again, before the chaos ensued. They even seemed to see me, somehow, through means by which I was only beginning to comprehend. I watched as dark clouds began to form in the sky, my stomach sinking. Daelon was right about Aradia being so easily influenced.
Maybe thingswerestarting to fall together. Maybe the problem was that the pieces weren’t completing the puzzle I’d once imagined—one where I finally found the connection I so desperately chased since my mothers passed, one where I finally felt complete and my purpose was clear, one with a happy ending after the fight, one with triumph, hope, and light. Maybe the puzzle taking shape was something else entirely.
The low roar of thunder rumbled in the distance, and the atmosphere shifted decisively.
Daelon followed my gaze toward the now turbulent waters, paling at the sight. “It almost never storms here.”
We stared at each other for a moment, and Daelon reached for my hands once more.
I hesitated before finally giving in. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Hot water cascaded over me as I stared straight ahead through the steamy glass, moving on autopilot as I washed the last traces of ocean from my skin. I couldn’t even remember the few words I mumbled to Daelon after I left him in the clearing and retreated to the cabin without him.
All things change. The fundamental truth of existence was impermanence and transience. I was naïve for thinking that I—we—could defy the very nature of reality. Whatever was coming for us was always destined to come.
I wrapped myself in a soft white towel, studying my face in the mirror. My eyes looked frighteningly empty, my appearance far less vibrant than it had been this morning.
“Áine. Are you all right?” Daelon called from beyond the closed bathroom door.
No.
I stepped away from the mirror, and with a sigh I stepped out into my bedroom, where Daelon sat on my bed in wait.
He glanced over my body. “Are you okay?” he repeated.
“I’m fine.”
He studied me skeptically, his dark eyes probing.
