Page 111 of The Dark Rising
I start at his words. “Since when do you two talk,” I mutter.
He huffs. “Not much, and not often. After you told them about our lives when we arrived here and collapsed in the dining room, I went to the room you were put in to see how you were and we talked for a little while. Darius hadn’t left your side.”
My chest warms at his words, at the thought that Darius stayed by my side when I was deeply asleep. Thinking about it, when I did wake up, he always came to me everyday, stayed with me until he left at night for a while. But he always came back even though I wouldn’t talk to him. I wasn’t able to shove all my emotions down to function and I was letting my hurt spill out.
He never faltered though, and when his patience ran out with me, he helped me wake up from the slump I had found myself in. When I think about it, Darius has helped me a lot while I’ve been here.
Taking a steady breath, I lean forward and take Josh’s clenched fist in my hand. “I forgive you,” I murmur, just wanting things to be right between us. “So much has happened, I don’t want this distance between us. I want my brother.” He grabs me suddenly and yanks me to him, crushing me into a hug. My legs dangle on either side of him as I wrap my arms around his neck, holding him close. I’ve missed him.
“I’ll make it up to you, Rhea.” He squeezes me tighter. “I prom—“
The door to the bedroom slams open, and I jump, my head snapping up. Darius stills in the doorway, looking over me on Josh’s lap and his eyes turn murderous, hard and cruel as they move to Josh.
“Get, the fuck, off of her. Now,” he growls deep, his dominance spilling into the room. I scramble off Josh’s lap, wary of the last time Darius fought with Josh. I go to speak when he says. “Charles is on his way here. We need to move you and the others somewhere else.”
My blood turns cold.
“I’ll grab Sarah,” Josh says in a rush, leaving the room to do just that, but not without giving Darius a wide berth as his eyes track his every movement.
I look around the room, noticing some of the clothes that have been given to me thrown haphazardly around the room. I start to head for them, wanting to hide them just in case anyone comes in here when a hand grips me roughly by the back of my neck. I’m yanked into a hard chest. Lips graze my ear next, and I shiver, before hissing at the slight sting as Darius nips it, his anger filling the room.
“Leave it, someone will clean it up. As for what I just walked in on, little wolf,” he growls low, pressing himself into me so I can feel all of him. “I think we need to have a discussion about why you were sitting in the lap of another fucking male.” He moves his lips from my ear to my shoulder, biting down through the fabric of my t-shirt hard enough to make me whimper. “But that will have to come later, and it will come, Rhea.”
He spins us, his grip on my neck guiding me out the door and down the hallway. “He’s like a brother to me, Darius, you can’t—“
“Quiet. Not now.” It’s a command, his voice dripping with it and I know now isn’t the time to push him. I walk down the hall in silence, turning down the winding hallways until we reach the end of one.
Darius opens the door and shoves me inside, still pissed at what he saw in the other room. His scent wraps around me along with traces of mine, and I wonder why he brought me to his bedroom. I spin, about to ask him when I see him closing the door, him on the other side. I move toward it, grabbing the handle. I pull but the door doesn’t open.
“Darius,” I whisper hiss. Wondering what in the Gods he’s doing.
“I’ll come back when they are gone,” he tells me through the door, his voice slightly muffled.
“I’m not staying in here on my own, where are the others?” I ask, panic rising within me.
“Safe,” is all he says, and then I hear his footsteps retreating.
“Darius!” I shout, banging on the door but he doesn’t reply. “Bastard,” I growl, and then call on my power to break the fucker down. Mist like strands reach the door, trying to force it open but nothing happens. “That fucker.” My breathing picks up and I lean back against the door, my heart beating out of control. Runa whimpers inside of me.
Shit.
What if Charles does something? What if he hurts someone and then finds my pack here?
What if Darius has lied all along and sides with Charles and tells him?
No. No, we are past that.
Trust,I remind myself. We made a blood oath to secure that. To put my mind at ease that he wouldn’t intentionally do something to hurt me. I look down at his bite mark on my forearm, a reminder that he made an oath to me. It gives off a subtle violet glow, like it’s reminding me that he wouldn’t put me in danger. And after everything he’s said and revealed to me lately… no, he wouldn’t do that to me, I’m sure of it.
But that doesn’t include the rest of my pack.
You are mine, I have a responsibility to protect you from any threat that isn’t me. Your pack is an extension of you, so they will also be protected as long as you are.
Remembering what he once said settles me, because he has stuck to that, especially when I wasn’t under his protection.
I rub my hand down my face. Darius hates the Highers as much as I do now. He wants Charles’s head on a pike. I need to remember that.
My eyes move to the door I haven’t been through yet, and I walk toward it, picking up the last carving I did, curious what’s on the other side. It opens to a large sitting and dining area, and I kick myself for not coming in here when Darius last locked me in the room. Beige walls and dark flooring give it a more neutral feel than the dark of his bedroom, and I instantly like it. I go over to the floor to ceiling windows and peer out. I can see the willow trees from here where Darius and I try to coax Runa out, and then further back I can see the same mountains in the distance like I could if I were on the balcony. I sit on the floor and lean my head on the window, waiting as the sun shines down on a lake further east, the water glistening in the light.
