Page 22 of The Dark Rising
Sweat beads at the back of my neck from the summer air, it clings to my t-shirt as I figure out a way to handle this. I’m not ready to see him, not ready to face him. My thoughts are conflicted with Darius, as are my feelings. I’m hurt, betrayal and anger running deep under my skin for what he did. Yet he mouthedsionto me, I’m sure of it. Why? Why did he have to do that and mess with my head? And how the fuck does he know that word?
Decision made, I send a little power into the earth when I hear them come even closer to my position, just enough to do what I need to, but hopefully not enough to suspect I’m here.
I hear a squeak, then the sound of a blade being drawn. “Shit, something just touched me,” Damian whines. Another squeak. “Get it off, get it off!”
“There’s nothing there, brother,” Leo laughs.
“Here,” Jerrod says as I hear grass being sliced. “There’s nothing. Stop being a pup.”
“Something touched me, I swear!” Damian practically cries as the others laugh, even as another howl pierces the air.
I hear them move forward again, and I send more power into the ground, feeling the vibration of their footsteps above my magic. I breathe deep and keep a tight grip on it, slowly directing my power to the moisture in the dirt. Collecting it, I raise it to the surface directly under their feet to soften the ground. I can hear their footsteps more clearly now with sludge-like dirt beneath their feet.
“The fuck?” Damian grumbles, as I send more and more moisture underneath them, causing them to sink.
“Why are we sinking?” Leo asks, confusion evident in his voice.
I move my power to enter the grass stalks around them, traveling to the top as I bite my lip to keep control, my arms shaking from the effort. I feel their body heat against the stalks like it’s against my own, like I’m within the grass itself. With them occupied in trying to move around the sludgy ground, I strike, moving the stalks around them, wrapping them up in a cocoon.
“Whdafush,” a muffle comes from one of them, and I lift my palms off the ground. Carefully moving forward to not make the grass move unnaturally, I creep and hold my power around them, needing to escape toward the others and get away from them.
I move about twenty steps before a low growl and a blast of power flattens the tall grass in the area. Instinctively, I hunch down, losing my grip on my power and hold my hands to my face to not get whipped by the stalks. Shit, I do not want to see him, I don’t want to be near him. It looks like I have no choice now.
I plant my hands on the floor to rise, watching as they shake on the ground before looking ahead to see if the others have reached the hill. Darius has completely exposed the field, every stalk of grass now flat, and I see my pack’s heads peeking over the top of the hill.
“Go,”I command Josh down the link, and I watch as they move out of sight. Then, I turn slowly and face the Alpha of assholes. Who has gone silent.
They are all so silent.
My face is carefully blank, and I casually wipe the dirt from my palms on my leathers as I stand tall, refusing to cower or move from in between them and my pack. I don’t know if they saw them, but I won’t risk it. I may not be ready for this, but my pack comes before me.
I raise my eyes and look at Zaide first, still all dark hair and dark eyes, to the large red-haired male next to him, Jerrod. His hair is still long and in a plaited mohawk. I skip the male at the center and scan over Leo’s face, his wheat blond hair a little longer than I last saw him months ago, his blue eyes narrowed as he looks at me. I give him a hard look before I move my gaze to Damian. His brown hair is shorter, his blade out, hanging loosely by his side as he looks at me in surprise.
Another howl rents the air and we all tense until it stops.
Composing myself, my eyes finally move to the last male of the group, who hasn’t moved a single inch. His black boots are muddy as I scan up his dark, armored legs, stopping briefly at his thick thighs and then up his tapered waist. I swallow, and then continue up his torso, noting again his difference in the colors of the leather strap on his Elite armor, red and gold. My eyes trail up to the tattoos on his neck, knowing his Heir markings are hidden within them, and my own markings pulse gently with warmth, just underneath my skin at the thought.
I keep them at bay.
My hands fist at my sides as my gaze roams across the stubble on his face, his jaw more defined as I move up until I see the dark circles under his eyes. Then our eyes clash, ice blue to light green. My heart works overtime as we freeze in each other’s stare, locked in and unable to look away. It’s been so long since I’ve looked into eyes that remind me of newly sprouted grass after winter, so long since we have been in each other’s presence that it feels that even the air stills around us.
So many emotions blaze in his eyes, more than I thought possible for him, and I swallow roughly, my stomach dropping. Anger shines through the most, then lust next, he can’t hide that from me. I shuffle on my feet under his weighted stare, unable to help it and his eyes go to the movement briefly, a little concern bleeding through that I’m sure I imagined. He doesn’t break his gaze for long though, he’s unable to.
Both being Heirs, I’m sure we will always feel this connection to each other. If it were visible, I imagine it would be tendrils of our power flowing out and intertwining between us, tying themselves in a knot, tethering us together. If he was just an Heir, we could maybe loosen that knot, forever free from each other, just coexisting in the same space.
It isn’t that simple. The Gods didn’t want that for us, and their decision making needs to be reassessed as far as I’m concerned.
Darius tilts his head at me and I tilt mine right back, waiting for… something. But we just stare at each other in silence. It feels like so many unsaid words hang between us, invisible to the eye, but what is there that we can say? The asshole did what he did, and now he and his Elites have been hunting me along with the Highers. I’m enemy number one.
A traitor.
A Liar.
A manipulator.
I’m no one to him, and what I am, he doesn’t want. And neither do I.
How could I after what he has done to me?
