Page 39 of The Dark Rising
I look over back at Darius, who hasn’t stopped his pacing, but now has what seems to be a dark sheen of mist coating his skin. “He would choke me until I passed out,” I continue. “Even that didn’t stop him. I would wake with either his cock still in my mouth or the evidence that he had been there.” Dark mist surrounds Darius violently as he stops in his tracks, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his men look at him cautiously. “He even reminded me at Wolvorn Castle how he would still get to have me, that he couldn’t wait to—“
“I think that’s enough,” Leo says as Darius practically vibrates on the spot, that mist of his moving over his skin like a river of rage. Is he angry at me for telling him this? Or is he angry that he can’t deny my words as lies after he has seen my body? I finally move my eyes from Darius to Leo.
“Do you also want to know how sometimes Patrick would bring a friend down, specifically an Elite?” My voice cracks. “How they would take turns with my mouth, touch my body for their own enjoyment and then add more scars to it?” I look at Damian. “Again, where is that Elite honor you so proudly declared?”
He swallows roughly, and I clench my eyes shut, my body shaking uncontrollably as I try to rub my sweaty skin where I can still feel their touches on my body. “No more, Rhea, I think they understand,” Josh whispers, and I look at him for the first time since he guilted me into revealing my body to them.
I ignore the worry in his gray eyes, ignore that everyone can see how speaking of these things has an affect on me. But then anger rises within me. At myself for showing how this affects me, at them for making me feel I have no choice but to tell them, and at Josh for causing it.
At Darius for not believing me, at the Highers for what they did, the Elites, my family.
“This is what they wanted to hear, is it not?” I snap at Josh. “This is what you wanted them to know after I showed them what was done to me. Do not fucking tell me ‘no more’ when all I give is more! More, more, more.” I bang on the table with my last words and stand, pushing my chair back and feeling my power rush through me, uncontained as my breaths become ragged. “I give every fucking thing I possibly can to anyone who deserves it. I showed them what they did to my body so they would help us get Sarah, because you asked that of me. I agreed to stay in Eridian and help others, bring them in and make sure they had some sort of life because it was the best decision for you, Kade, and Cassie. They needed a home and stability, so we stayed.Istayed. Even though every time a new person would come in and try and touch me, all I wanted to do was run and never fucking turn back, but I couldn’t, because they needed Eridian as much as we did. I do everything I can, and I have always done more, no matter how much I don’t want to, no matter how much my soul cries for the death on my hands that I have had to take to keep us safe, but it was all for fuckingnothing.“ I look at Darius, tears falling from my eyes, and I wipe them away angrily, growling at myself as he now stands still, his focus solely on me. I laugh, but it’s weak.
“The day I went into The Deadlands and planned to kill you all? I did it to protect the secret that was Eridian, to protect my pack. The Highers and Elites would drag them back to where theyescapedfrom.“ I point at Taylor. “They wanted to pin the murder of a woman on him, that an Elite killed after having too much to drink, and she refused his advances. Taylor stepped in to save the woman, but it was too late and Taylor was accused of her murder. They were going to sentence him to death. He escaped and came to Eridian.” I point at Anna. “Blood Witch, that’s it. She’s not dangerous, but she fucking can be if she needs to be. She came to Eridian after she was left, tied to a post in a town she had stayed in for a little while, stones thrown at her for weeks and weeks. All she wanted to do was buy new healing ingredients she was experimenting with as her mother was sick and she couldn’t heal her with what she had. She risked making the journey and got abused for weeks, then her mother died because she couldn’t get back to her with the healing ingredients in time. She escaped to Eridian.”
I point at Seb. “Accused of raping and killing his mate, and his mate’s family nearly killed him and left him to rot in the bottom of an empty well, over something he didn’t do. He escaped and came to Eridian.” I point at Hudson, my hand now shaking, my body vibrating with everything pouring out of me. I can’t stop it. “He didn’t want a pack, didn’t want to declare a home to the Highers and was a lone wolf. He wanted to make his own choices in life. The Highers don’t accept that, so they tried to force him into confinement if he didn’t choose a pack to stay with. He escaped to Eridian.” I point at Colten. “His family left him for dead because he prefers men over women, and he refused to fuck a woman to create offspring in their bloodline. He didn’t turn up to the rite of passage to be an Elite because he could barely move, and was drowning in his own blood from the hands of his own father. He escaped to Eridian.” My breaths become fast pants, struggling to take a full breath, but I don’t stop. “Sybill and Sam escaped from Sam’s dad, who used to beat them daily. Oscar and Katy would be locked in a cupboard while Oscar’s dad fucked other women in their home, then drag Katy out when he wanted to abuse her. Sarah.” I laugh through my tears, but it doesn’t sound right to my own ears. I’m too far gone in all the emotions running through me, feeling too much, hating too much, hurting too. Fucking. Much.
“Sarah. Drugged and raped, repeatedly by her own fucking pack, and when we found out about her, a plan was put in place tosaveher and bring her to Eridian. All who lived in Eridian escaped from the monsters in plain sight.“ I look at Josh then, my chosen brother. “Josh helped me escape my pack, he got me out of the cage I was kept inside of in my basement. I went to the kitchen and saw the knife my father gave me before my seventh birthday. I couldn’t believe I saw it, but it was like he was guiding me, letting me know it was now or never and gave me the hope I needed. When I made the split decision to quickly grab the only thing I had left of him, that’s when I saw Kade.” I let out a sob as I waver on my feet, numbness crawling up my body as my magic swirls violently inside of me. Josh stands with the rest of my pack, and when he reaches out to me, I push his hand away and stumble back, not wanting him to touch me. Not wantinganyoneto touch me.
“Kade was chained to the family dining table that was made with so much love by my mom and dad, he was half-dead, starved and staring out into nothing. Josh and I managed to get the chain off of him and take him with us. I wouldn’t leave my cousin in the hands of monsters.” I let out a hollow sound, like a wounded animal. When I look toward Darius, his eyes are filled with concern and it makes me laugh. Laugh, and laugh, and laugh. “But that’s what happened anyway, didn’t it?” I look at each of the Elites in their eyes, until my ice blues land on fresh green once again. “You forced my hand when you came with the Elites in the Deadlands. And then we were exposed, and my pack was split up, pups taken from their moms, two died, and Kaden is in the hands of people that will only hurt and use him. They want him to rape women, to see if he can produce an Heir with being of my family’s bloodline. AnHeirbloodline. They taunted me with it when he was born, bringing him down and forcing me to do things or they would hurt him.”
I step away from the table, the room shaking as my power comes to the surface, my markings pulsing as the ice-blue tendrils swish around me, lashing out uncontrollably. The fire goes out, empty chairs fly through the air and crash into the walls as an unseen wind travels through the room. I keep backing up until my shoulders connect with something solid, not sure what my power is doing, but not caring as everything within me is unsettled,wild.
Furious.
“All of it was for fucking nothing, wasn’t it?” I shout, shaking my head as they all look at me, look at the weakness I’m showing. “Because this is where we are now. Sarah is with my cousin, Kade with his parents, my pack is Gods knows where. More bodies are piling up, the rogures are getting worse and the whole of Vrohkaria thinks I did it!” I scream. “Charles knows I’m alive, along with my family and what the fuck am I supposed to do!? He will not stop until he has me, and that is not an option. I don’t know why he’s obsessed with Heirs, I don’t know why he did what he did, I don’t know why he killed my parents. He has taken pups from their families since I’ve been gone, to see if they have any traits of being an Heir. Training them like he did me, to get what he wants. And I just hid, to keep my own ass safe!” I pull at my hair until I fling my head back, banging it against the wall, but I feel no pain. “And you all just stood there too, the fucking Elites, protectors of Vrohkaria, time and time again while this has been going on under your noses. And then you took us to Wolvorn Castle. Fuck you,” I wheeze out, the words choking out of me. “Fuck all of you.”
I slump in defeat against the wall at my back, my breathing shallow and raspy, and I know I’m not getting enough air in, I know I’m not fucking breathing properly. My power dwindles, coming back into my body as the air stills. Furniture crashes to the floor and there is utter silence in the room, just a few wide eyes.
Josh rushes from his seat, his face blurry as he steps in front of me. His mouth is moving but I hear nothing at all, just silence as black dots coat my vision.
The next thing I know, the room tilts and the floor is rushing toward me, my face heading directly for the stone floor. Just before I lose consciousness, a soft, black mist encases me, turning the world completely black and I let it take me.
I hope it suffocates me so I can find some peace for a little while.
Fifteen
Darius
IwatchRheasleep,her chest rising and falling with each breath she takes. A sound rumbles within me as I look at her. She looks so small, so fragile. My chest tightens at the sight.
All that she told us, all that she said… My back teeth grind together. She wasn’t lying, she was telling the truth. All this time she was telling the truth.
We have been blind to a lot of things over the years, doing the Highers bidding, going where they commanded when their witches pointed us in a direction. We followed, no questions asked. Not anymore.
I didn’t enjoy being the Highers weapon, I just wanted to do what has been instilled in me since I was a young boy. To protect Vrohkaria, the people. When did we lose sight of that along the way? That’s what I had made my Elites out to be, protectors, and we have failed by following blindly and not asking questions.
The Highers are not fit to rule if this is what they have been doing, and are still doing with what Rhea has told us. How can this carry on? How have I been so fucking oblivious?
Anger swells inside of me and my power comes out of my hands. I look down at it, watch as it flows over my knuckles and between my fingers. What good is it being an Heir after what I have done, or didn’t do?
I have learned about the wolf Gods all my life, reading texts and old scrolls, always curious about them, though Cazier was said to have gone mad. But since Wolvorn Castle, I dove deeper, learning everything I could. I know now that I can’t trust everything I have read. History is always written by the victor, after all.
I glance at Rhea again, another sound leaving me. It’s concern and rightness. Seeing her in my bed, in my room, in my home, even under these circumstances, it feels like it’s meant to be. Having her close and in my space does something to me I have never felt before. Or ever wanted to feel.
Why does this need to keep her here fill me with this possessiveness? I want her scent to mingle with mine, to intertwine so we can’t tell the difference and our scent becomesours. Something more, something heady, sweet and heavy.
Just one smell of either of us, and others would know who we belong to. Whether I like it or not, whether she likes it or not, I belong to her now. I have since The Deadlands, maybe even before then with what she told us earlier.
