Page 123 of The Lands Defying
“You all good?”Leo asks down the link.
“I’ll be back at Lovers Falls soon,” I reply.
His sigh follows.“You need to rest, Darius.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Darius,”he starts, and a deep growl is already building in my chest.“You need to think of the possibility that she may not come back.”I snarl, power exploding out of me so harshly that even the wisps hide within the trees.“Darius, brother,”he says more gently.“Its been a long time. You haven’t stopped, you’re barely talking to us unless you ask us for updates. We’re worried.”I know they are but what do they want me to say?
That my heart isn’t inside of me anymore, that it belongs to the only person it ever could and she’s not here? That my skin feels like it’s eating me alive, and nothing will make it stop until she’s back in my arms?
Or that I will unleash destruction upon the lands if she’s not with me soon because I’m barely holding on.
“I’m dealing,”is all I can say to him. If he knew my thoughts, they would all be here in an instant, locking me down before I go to a place where I can’t return from. A place I didn’t nearly return from after I whipped Rhea and she left to where I couldn’t find her.
“Just,”he begins, tone concerned.“We are here, brother. We can’t know what you’re feeling, but we all have come to like Rhea. She’s one of us, and with what’s between you two, she’s family.”I clench my hands into fist and watch Leif take a drink of water in the middle.“We want her back too. Just call if you need us, I’ll keep you updated as soon as I hear news from the coasts.”
The link closes and I tilt my head back and close my eyes. I rub my chest, feeling the ache there, something only she can fill.
I’ll make sure the Alpha wolf is settled before I head back out to Lovers Falls, hoping I can catch a glimpse of her before I do what the stories told us about the Gods.
Go mad.
Thirty Five
Rhea
I gasp for air, my lungs on fire as I sputter out water. I move my arms, trying to float whilst kicking my legs, but I sink under again as a wave crashes into me.
I swallow the sea, my feet like stone as I raise my arms and move my legs. My head breaks the surface once again, but it’s no use, I’m under before I know it. I claw at the water, desperate to get air into my lungs as panic runs through me.
I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.
A body moves next to me, four legs kicking toward me and I grasp his fur, holding on as he begins to rise. I scramble at his side when we break through, leaning over his back as I throw up the water I inhaled. Waves flow over us as I take in gasping breaths.
The wolf moves beneath me as I cough up anything and everything, but I hold on tight, knowing if I let go, I’m more than likely going to drown.
Once he stills again, I move my wet hair from out of my face and look around us.
Where are we? All I see is water, so far around us that it seems never ending. But I know too well about never-endings. I don’t see the cliffs of Eridian, or the waterfall. I move my head and look behind me, and just there in the distance, I see land.
“Over there,” I tell the wolf, my voice croaking as I point in the direction we need to go. He doesn’t waste any time and turns, heading that way.
I hold on and kick my heavy legs next to him, trying to help us get ashore as my thighs scream for rest. The large wolf may have given me a boost of some kind, I mean, I am alive, but my whole body is aching with a desperate need to rest.
I pull myself up further onto the wolf’s back, my naked body draping over him and he sinks a little. A panicked noise escapes me and I back off, but still grip his fur tightly in my hands to keep afloat.
His head turns my way, and his green eyes flick to his back. Without complaint or hesitation, I climb on and swing a leg over, holding onto his neck as I straddle him. We sink deeper into the water a little, goosebumps peppering my skin, but we are still afloat as he powers his legs.
I shiver from head to toe with how cold the water is, my hair plastered to my back and each drip that falls from it feels like ice stabbing me. My teeth chatter as he swims forward, and I hunch down a little, trying to curl in on myself from the wind that slices against us, but I’m just hit by the freezing waters more.
I don’t know how long I was out for; I don’t know how much time has passed, only that nightfall soon approaches as I turn to watch as the sun begins to dip in the horizon.
A tear escapes me as exhaustion washes over me. I just want a bed and to have Darius curl up around me, holding me possessively like I would leave him in his sleep.
Even though it annoyed me to begin with, I never did leave, and I would give anything to feel it right now. Those strong armsholding me, his breath on the top of my head as I would sleep in the crook of his neck, the warmth from his body seeping into mine.
I want to go in the protection his arms will give me.
