Page 159 of The Lands Defying
What if he’s frightened of me?
“Breathe, little wolf.” Darius’s calm tone hits my ear as he whispers into it. “I’m here.”
I know he is, but maybe he shouldn’t be.
“I’ll go in first.”
“No.”
“Darius.”
“Rhea.” He moves until he’s in front of me. “I won’t leave you alone with him until I know it is safe to do so.”
I look at Josh. “It’s just Kade, I will be okay, won’t it?” Josh’s eyes move away from mine, and I swallow. “Before I fell, I… I put my magic into him, like I did with you, Darius.”
He tilts his head, his eyes darkening. “And that’s why you had none left.” He realizes.
“I cleared the wrong in his mind, I felt it. I thought it had worked but...” But what if I wasn’t enough?
“He is confused, Rhea,” Josh says. “Sometimes he’s okay, sometimes he’s not. We don’t know the mood he will be in.”
“Okay,” I whisper.
My palms sweat as I take a step forward. Darius is at my side in an instant, moving with me as we climb the short, wooden steps.
He opens the door for me and I take a breath before I enter the room. I expect to see Kade straight away, my eyes going to every corner to find him, but all I see is furniture.
I look over my shoulders at Josh and he tips his head toward a door at the back. I clench my hands and wipe them on the pants that Darius gave me. I step toward the door, apprehension swirling inside of me.
Don’t hate me, don’t hate me.
Reaching the door handle, my hand shakes as I grab onto it. I don’t push it down yet though, something inside of me is too scared to.
I don’t know what I will do if he reacts the same as he has done? What if he doesn’t evenwantto see me.
Runa whines within and I feel her sorrow so deeply that I have to take a few ragged breaths.
A hand comes on top of mine, and Darius wraps himself around my back, breathing into my nape.
I can feel his want to take me away from here, from something that could hurt me, yet here he is, trying to comfort and reassure me because he knows it is what I need to do.
He places a kiss to the side of my neck, a nip of encouragement, and that gives me the strength to push down on the handle and open the door.
It creaks, the sound deafening in the silence, and I move forward and take in the room as Darius’s magic swirls around my waist. Smashed furniture litters the floor, holes in the wooden walls as though fists have crashed through them, windows half-broken with glass on the floor…
And then a lone figure, sat in the corner of the room at the back.
My heart clenches with the sob building in my throat as I look to my cousin who has always been a son to me.
His head is in his hands, elbows to his knees that are pulled to his chest as he huddles against the wall. He doesn’t even look up as I enter, doesn’t even tense or twitch.
I shuffle forward slowly, not wanting to startle him with Darius at my back. Reaching a hand back, it lands on his hard stomach as I halt him. I stroke there in a silent question.
Will you stay back?
I sense his body tensing, locking up in a way that screams he isn’t going to allow it, but after a moment, he runs his hand over mine, withdrawing his power.
I breathe a sigh of relief and continue forward.
