Page 198 of The Lands Defying
“Don’t do that,” he says, pulling me in tighter. His jaw ticks, seemingly uncomfortable. “I just don’t like seeing it. All I see is you going over the edge, landing in the water and I can’t get to you.”
He looks off to the side and a pang shoots through me. I don’t want him to think about things like that if they affect him so much, but it warms me to know he has to care for it to bother him.
Darius has staked his claim on me many times, he’s told me as much. But I’m not sure what hefeelsfor me. Not really. Is it just possession? Our connection? Or is it something deeper?
I’m sure I see it residing in his eyes sometimes…but having never experienced this, I don’t want to make a fool of myself by asking him.
I don’t even know why I’m thinking about this now, of all times. I guess I’m feeling unsure of what’s next for me, for us…my family.
“I’m here,” I tell him instead. He looks down at me, eyes bouncing between mine and he nods.
We walk to where Darius placed Frederick in silence, the glow of the luicium sap our only light, I begin to feel invisible hands squeeze my throat. Just like Frederick’s.
“You don’t need to be nervous,” Darius says. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
I shake my head. “I just want all of this to end, to be over and done with.”
“We need answers first, and we need to find the other stolen people.”
“I know.”
We move through another set of dead trees, their branches looking even more depleted of life and my brows furrow. Looking around, I sense nothing else close by, but there is an eerie feeling in the air.
I rub my arms.
Bora can be heard in the distance, calling to their family members and luckily, we are far away from them. “Are there any families close to here?” I ask Darius and he shakes his head.
“No, and any that came near were redirected.”
We reach the shack just a little further on, and it’s just that, a shack.
The wood is rotten, barely holding itself together. As we near, I can see through spaces between the walls and see a chained hand on the ground.
I swallow.
Darius nods to one of the three Elites keeping guard here, but my eyes stay fixated on that hand.
It twitches and I flinch.
Get it together, Rhea. You are an Alpha.I chide myself.
Runa growls her agreement and my spine straightens. Fuck him. Fuck them all.
Darius gives me one last look before opening the door. It creaks and whines, bits of wood breaking off as we enter.
It’s small in here. If I reach my hands out at my sides, I can nearly touch both of the walls, but space isn’t what Frederick deserves.
The male in question kneels before us, his chained hands resting on the floor and I’m transported to a vision of me.
I was in a similar position not long ago.
No. Rhea. Stop it.
I have the power here now, not him.
Frederick looks up after a moment, a deranged smile on his face. He doesn’t look like he’s all there. I can see it in his eyes,the way his tongue peeks out and licks his lips, the way his hands clench.
“Hellooo traitors of the lands,” he laughs, his head tilting to the side. I eye Darius as he watches him closely.
