Page 80 of The Dark Rising
“A lot,” I tell him softly, thinking of how many innocent beings are being taken from their homes. “The Highers have been taking them for years, I didn’t know. I thought it was just me when I was younger. I never imagined this is what was going on.”
“And how do you know, now?” he demands, and I scuff my boot into the ground.
“I can’t tell you that.” He raises an eyebrow, but I can’t tell him about Edward being the one who told me what was really happening, it would put him in danger. The less people who knew about him, the better. Though I haven’t heard from him once, and I’m getting worried. He said the Highers were leaving him out of decisions, being kept out of the inner workings. Are they getting suspicious of him? “I’m serious, Darius, this is something I can’t tell you. I’ve had help with bringing people to Eridian over the years, getting them to safety there. They even helped me. I didn’t know Eridian even existed. I probably would have been dead a long time ago if I wasn’t told about it. I can’t tell you who I had help from, just that they are on my side and it’s less dangerous for them if less people know.”
He examines my face closely. “You trust them?” he finally asks.
“I would trust him with my life.”
“Him?” His arms flex.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It fucking does,” he growls while I hold his stare, unflinching no matter how my insides swirl at his possessive tone.
“Listen here you big, fucking asshole babysitter,” I snap, taking a few steps toward him. He watches my every move, his eyes bleeding black, a wolf ready to pounce. But I don’t falter until I’m four steps away from him. “I am notyoursto be possessive over, or claim, or protect. We have been through this.“ He dips his head slowly, never once taking his eyes off me. The move was so animalistic, I have to work hard to control my breathing as my heart speeds up.
“You are what I say you are.” His voice is quiet, full of gravel and a threat that I don’t know about.
“No.” I shake my head harshly. “I will not become some plaything to you, I am my own being!”
“You’remybeing.”
My bravado falters at that for a moment, the words dragging that hope, that yearning that’s deep within my soul that I have kept buried foryearsuntil him. How can he say such things to me after what he has done? Why does he have to be the one saying this to me?
“You know the connection cannot be helped, that’s all this is, Darius,” I say tiredly. “It’s not real. I won’t let it be, not with you.” His whole body tenses. “It will go, I’ll make it so. I will drag it out, I will pull it out, I will tear it out piece by piece.” My heart cannot take anymore.
I’m on my back in the next second, he moved so fast I had no time to react. My hands are pinned by my wrists at the side of my head and his face is inches from mine, his nostrils flaring. “You even attempt to rid anything,” he snarls down at me, his eyes fully black now. The only color left the green of his pupils. “I will chain you in my room, I will lock you in there, never letting you out, never letting you feel the sun on your skin until you see fucking sense.” His eyes burn into mine as I stay frozen beneath him, his power coming out and floating around the back of him. “You drag it out, I’ll shove it back in. You pull it, I will push it. You tear it, and I will grab every, single piece and put it back together again.”
I flex my hands in his hold, and he growls. It’s low, full of dominance, and I can’t help my reaction. I slump in the grass, my body limp in his hold. The purr that comes from him is full of satisfaction as his power moves over my sides, the coolness settling me.
“I do not want it, Darius.” I whisper the words softly, letting some vulnerability show in my voice. His eyes bounce between mine. “I have never really gotten what I want in my life, I’ve not asked for much, if anything for myself. But this, I want this.” He presses his weight further into me, making me completely immobile as he slips between my thighs. “I want to not have this connection to you, I want to not be tethered to you. I don’t—“ My lips begin to tremble as desperation rushes through me. “I don’t want it to be you.”
Silence. Utter silence surrounds us. The branches cannot even be heard with the rustle of leaves from the wind. Darius’s eyes start to move then. He slowly peels them from my eyes, trailing down the bridge of my nose until his eyes connect with mine once more. His power comes to his hands, and I feel its calmness against me. I suck in a sharp breath, my lips parting as it caresses my skin. The call of my own comes, greeting him and I have to close my eyes as the feeling of home rushes through me.
Why does he make me feels so good, but hurt me so bad? His power connecting with mine is like finding water after having none for days. Finding the sun after beings kept away.
It’s not fucking fair. But then. When has my life ever been?
“Open your eyes, little wolf.” I do. With his power connecting with mine, I’m unable to deny him. “You feel that?” he asks, pushing more power against me and I breath out a shaky breath. I feel it all. “That is something neither one of us can deny. It’s a higher power, more than me and you combined. Whether from the Gods or something else, it is the path they have chosen. I will not come off that path.” My eyes sting, and I bite the inside of my cheek. “You may have not asked for much in your life, you may have not been given the choice. You also have no choice here,” He says, and a noise leaves me. It’s sad, resigned. “But it doesn’t have to be terrible, it doesn’t have to be hateful. I’m a selfish asshole. I’m not good at sharing, not good at compromise, and especially not good at letting things go that I deem mine.” He dips his head, running his nose up the side of my neck. “And I won’t, Rhea,” he says, and I tense in his hold. “I won’t let you go again.”
I sit down in the grass, running my fingers over the strands as Darius sits a few feet away from me, watching me closely. After he let me up, we were silent for a long time. The sun is close to setting now, but I haven’t felt the need to break the silence. Not after everything he said to me.
He won’t let me go, he won’t let me choose. I can’t say I’m surprised. Darius isn’t the type of male to let something go. As he said, he’s selfish. Even though his words wanted to burrow under my skin, wanting to feel content with the fact that he will be a constant thing according to him, I can’t let them. Too much has happened.
He eventually breaks the quiet first. “The Highers, especially Charles, have a lot of followers. Even though there is an uprising happening at the moment, some people are demanding that the Highers step down as they are not fit to rule Vrohkaria,” Darius tells me, and I can’t help but feel a sliver of hope that some are rebelling. “Despite the fact that they won’t let anyone have a safe haven inside the castle walls from the rogures, they still have alliances amongst the packs.”
“Probably packs that some have given their children up to gain titles, power and authority.” Pieces of shit. “How deep does this go? How many are on Charles’s side?”
“A lot,” he says.
“Charles and the other Highers have been kidnapping children for years, and no one knew apart from those involved. Then Sarah tells us a deal was made with her father for her, and she has heard of others who have done the same. All involved deserve to die for what they have done.”
“You want to go around packs and kill the ones involved?” He tilts his head, waiting for my response, but he hasn’t outright shut me down.
“Some gave their children up for their lives to be comfortable while their child lives in misery. They abuse, rape and break their own flesh and blood, their own pack members. They don’t deserve to live, Darius. How can they stand there and watch their child get taken, watch as their pack rape others. It’s sick,” I spit. “The Elites were made for hunting Heirs, yet you think they were made to protect the lands. What will you do? Will you turn a blind eye to it now that you know?”
Shadows dance at the back of him as his nostrils flare. “I can’t turn a blind eye to it, I told you that. But I also know that right now, we can’t take Charles down, or his followers when we find them without evidence to show people. We don’t have the power to fight them and win right now.”
