Page 2 of The Coveted
I frowned. A soothing feeling reached out from her to me. Even in the darkest depths of my sadness and confusion, it felt like a trickle of light at the end of a long tunnel.
“You should be gone already,” Mom said without turning to them, her voice riddled with concern.
“We had to see him before we left. We just wanted to—”
A blast erupted from beyond the sand dunes, startling us all.
“We love you so much, Daelon,” Mom whispered, resting her forehead to mine. “But I need to help Celeste and Jane now.”
She gripped my shoulders even as I squirmed and fought against her. I didn’t want to be sent away. I wanted to stay with her and protect her. I wanted to protect us all. She touched my forehead with her soft fingers, and I felt a pressure in the space between my eyes. It was like a flower of knowledge taking root and blooming.
“Do you understand?”
I nodded even as I continued begging her with my eyes. She kissed my forehead and then sent me spinning through space once more.
My ears popped and my vision spun. As soon as my feet collided with the cobblestone street, I started running back toward the ocean to be with her again. “Mom!” I yelled.
Everything was aflame. I heard shouting in the distance. Flashes of light leapt into the sky. My feet were bare, tired, and scraped. I could still feel the smoke working its way from my lungs, and my eyes watered and burned. The sky was now completely dark.
Everything I’d ever known was being taken from me. Everything I’d ever loved. I needed to go back and save my mother before I lost her too. I didn’t want to follow the path that was now set out before me.
“Hello there,” a woman called, stepping forward from behind burning rubble. She had a little boy beside her, his hand in hers. He looked to be the same age as me—seven or eight years old. They were both dressed in strange, modest, dark clothes, with black hair and piercing blue eyes.
I could hear my heartbeat thumping in my skull. I took an instinctive step back from her, but something about the warmth in her eyes eased my fear. The flower of wisdom my mother rooted between my brows bloomed and breathed. My path came alive, and I had no choice but to follow.
“I think they killed my dad,” I said, sniffling. I needed to make myself seem small and weak. “Who are you? Will you help me find my mom?”
I wanted to run, but I knew I couldn’t. I had to stay for my parents. I had to stay for all of them. For Celeste and Jane and their baby blessed by the Goddess, for my friends and elders, and for the land that was burned to rubble and ash.
“Mother?” the little boy said. He narrowed his eyes at me as his lips quirked up. The confidence in his voice made him sound much older than he was. “I have a feeling. Can we keep him, please?”
The woman cocked her head, peering down at the boy and then back to me. She sighed and closed her eyes, an almost imperceptible energetic spark flickering from his palm to hers. She opened her eyes again and regarded me with curiosity.
“Your father won’t be pleased, Lucius.” She clucked her tongue, her features softening in defeat. “Let’s go, then. It’s dinnertime.”
Luciusstepped forward, unclasping his hand from his mother’s. His black hair whipped in all directions, his eyes resolute and his posture straight. He moved like respected elders did, unfazed by the crashing, screaming, and burning all around us.
I wiped the tears from my soot-covered face, and when he stretched out his hand to mine, I took it.
Chapter1
The wooden floorboards were cold against my cheek, smelling faintly of lemon, and their stability and stillness soothed the broken, shattered parts of me. I lay in the fetal position, tracing shapes into the space where the floor met the green, patterned rug. The morning sun wasn’t as warm as it should’ve been against my exposed skin, and as the seconds, minutes—or maybe hours—passed, it began to creep higher on the walls of my lavish prison until all was illuminated, from the ornate bed to the burned, tattered clothes lying idly next to the dresser. I wanted to burn the whole place down, but my new babysitter, Taryn, interceded before the flames could engulf anything but the garments that reeked of betrayal and shame.
The sound of voices from the living room of my chambers did little to rouse me from my motionless state. The power and connection that once threatened to consume me lay dormant; it curled up at my feet like a wounded animal and whispered tales of every great defeat that was and is to come.
I hadn’t seen anyone in two or three, maybe more, days—not since I slammed a burst of my own pain into Daelon’s chest, so he could feel just a fraction of his own betrayal in that snowy forest. He shattered my trust in the magick I thought would deliver us—crumbled my trust in myself and everything I thought I knew. Now I was lost and scrambling to grab hold of any kind of anchor in this stormy ocean of power.
“She still hasn’t eaten anything?”
Footsteps approached as the voices became clearer. The sound of Daelon’s pierced through me like a cold blade.
“I wouldn’t go in there. It’s like someonedied,” Taryn warned.
The floorboards creaked, and without seeing I knew that Daelon’s hand was on the doorknob. I wanted it off.
Heat.
He grunted, sucking in air through gritted teeth. I imagined him inspecting his now burned hand. I imagined his clenched jaw and narrowed eyes, and his defensive, dominant stance. It transformed my power from wounded and weak to a thirsting predator. It was easier to live inside the anger than the pain.
