Page 64 of The Discovered
“Has Daelon not been forthcoming?” He smiled, goading me.
I clenched my jaw, my power awakening and shifting to the offensive. I knew Lucius’s game was to intimidate and confuse me. He tried to shake my trust in my protector before, and I nearly shuddered at the memory of Daelon’s grip around my throat.
It made sense that Lucius would want to drive me away from Daelon and his shielding. How else would he be able to find me? He wanted me vulnerable for attack back in the physical—because he saw me as a threat to whatever power he had here, a power that I knew in my gut was inherently unnatural and stolen.
“I’ve hit a nerve,” Lucius purred. He stepped closer, his light blue eyes dancing with a malevolent humor.
“How could you when I don’t believe a single syllable that comes out of your mouth?” I fired back. My palms tingled with electricity.
“You should.” His lips curled upward, his eyes alight. It was like I was the punchline of a joke I wasn’t privy to. “Iwouldn’t lie to you.”
I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. His energy didn’t lie, that was for sure. It was so dark and suffocating that I couldn’t tolerate reading it for more than a couple seconds.
“He will betray you,” he said, quiet and insistent, watching me closely.
My stomach dropped at those words, my greatest fear and most haunting doubt. I tried to maintain impassivity, but I knew I’d failed when Lucius smiled again.
He looked confident now, staring at me with his head slightly to the side. “Has he seduced you yet, little witch?”
I couldn’t hold back any longer, wind whipping all around us. Lucius reveled in my unraveling, and I was unable to stop myself from unleashing a shockwave of energy out from my body. It spread out over the tall grass and slammed into Lucius, and I watched as he struggled against the force.
He stumbled backward but caught himself, a flash of shock quickly transforming back into his menacing grin.
“Well, that’s surprising,” he called out, still toying with me.
Why did he act like he knew Daelon? Dread swam in my gut, threatening to take control over my power. I fought against it, reminding myself that this was all a game to him. He probably saw Daelon’s thoughts when he possessed him, and now he was using them as ammunition.
This realization soothed me, and I held fast to the trust I had just placed in Daelon hours ago. I wouldn’t let Lucius’s lies change that, especially after seeing the pure, white energy field surrounding our little house in the woods, after feeling how much Daelon worried and cared for me—no, I would not let Lucius pollute these facts.
“Why are you so threatened by me?” I asked, throwing him off guard. I watched his eyes darken.
“I think I’ve proved on multiple occasions that I have no reason to be threatened byyou,” he spat.
“Then why am I here?” I raised my voice, planting myself firmly in the soil. I sensed the earth’s energy beneath my feet, strong and grounding. I closed my eyes, picturing my body in Daelon’s bed, feeling the warmth of his body wrapped around mine, the silkiness of the sheets, the pressure of the comforter…
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll see you soon, foolish girl,he said telepathically as I snapped back into my body.
Chapter19
My return to my physical body was jolting but welcomed. I was still fuming, enraged at Lucius’s attempts to drive a wedge between Daelon and me.
Has he seduced you yet, little witch?
Those words somehow stung even more than the promise that Daelon would betray me. My stomach soured, and I rolled over on my side into a fetal position. I breathed in deeply in an attempt to self-soothe. I failed to block out the frenzied, dark thoughts that rolled in like a storm cloud.
Daelon stirred at my shift in position, moving onto his side so that his chest was to my back. “Are you okay?” he asked, brushing his fingers through my hair.
I leaned into the pleasurable tingles along my scalp, and I allowed myself to melt into the safety of his body so close to mine.
“Bad dream,” was all I said, and much to my relief, he didn’t ask for elaboration.
He just wrapped his arm around me and kissed me above my ear. I wanted to ask him if he knew Lucius more than he had let on. I wanted to ask him about kings and castles.
I wanted to ask him if he was going to betray me.
But I didn’t.
The next couple of days were uneventful, and I welcomed the reprieve. Daelon helped me cast circles around the bed at night to ward off unwanted astral summoning. I kept my mouth shut about my recent encounter with Lucius, content to bury it in the back of my mind until I was forced to confront it again.
