Page 1 of The Lands Defying
One
Darius
When I was a boy, I wanted to be strong like my father.
I wanted to make my mother proud, and protect my baby sister.
I wanted to be an Elite to the lands, doing anything I could to make sure it was safe for my sister to grow in—so she could thrive and live, and my mother could grow old in peace.
But when my mother and sister died, something inside of me went with them. I loved them deeply. They were my source of warmth and comfort, of softness and calm.
When they were no longer here, everything else turned cold.
Who could I make proud now? Who could I make sure the lands are safe for? Who would be the softness to my roughness to balance it out somewhat?
There was no one, until her.
Her, with ice-blue eyes that remind me of moonlight.
Her, who met my arrogance with snark.
Her, who was soft against my roughness.
And Ihurther.
It doesn’t matter that I was given an ultimatum, that my men would be hurt if I didn’t do it. I wasn’t strong enough to be able to refuse Charles’s order.
And that weakness makes me fuckingsick.
At first, I raged upon the lands when I helped Rhea escape. I killed every creature that could be a threat, I hunted every rogure, anything to release this anger over what I had done.
But then I realized I wasted all that time when I could have been punishing myself for what I did to her.
Her justice.
I needed to bleed, I needed to hurt. I needed a reminder of what I fuckingdidto her.
It doesn’t matter that I finally said aloud what I had done, that I told her I’m sorry, that it’s my deepest regret.
I will bleed for the rest of my life for what I did to her.
What do words fucking matter anyway? It won’t make it better, it won’t go back in time and remove that whip from my hand.
Words are meaningless.
It meansnothing.
And I knew they never would.
So when I wasn’t looking for her or hunting for creatures, I would take the whip, one that is exactly the same as the one I used on her, and I would use it on myself.
At least, at first.
But it wasn’t enough.
I couldn’t hit right. I couldn’t get an acceptable position for it to be truly like the way I did it to her. I couldn’t get the angle.
So Leo had to do it.
