Page 42 of The Lands Defying
“Any moment,” Darius says. “We will have to travel in winter clothing.” I nod.
Winter.
My birthday is in winter, along with my supposed only heat. I wonder if I will have a cycle this year, considering I have already had one early.
Remembering my last heat cycle isn’t much of a pleasant memory, and I look to Darius, taking in the strong lines of his face, the large set of his shoulders.
Honestly, how this male didn’t destroy me that night I will never know. Or any other night since.
Leaving Darius where he is, I step back into his bedroom and go over to the pack on the floor. Opening it up, I move over Belldame’s bone and some of the carvings Darius saved for me, then I pick up the letter.
I read over my mother’s words again, needing her comfort more than ever when I feel so damn helpless.
A shadow falls before me, and Darius peers down. “Your mother?” he asks.
Instinctively, I bring it to my chest, afraid it will be ripped from me, but then I settle, holding it back out in front of me.
Things are different now.
“Belldame gave this to me. Apparently my mother was a seer of sorts, and she knew her death was coming.” I cough over the lump in my throat. “She wrote me this letter before I was taken, while I slept in my room.”
He sits down beside me, a mass of magic curling around my back. His fingers trail down the side of the paper, looking deep in thought as I let him read it. “You are lucky the old witch gave you this.”
I smirk at his name for her. “You like her, don’t you?”
He frowns. “Of course not.”
I chuckle. “Liar.” He side-eyes me, but his magic moves along the top of my back, and my shoulders relax under the cool feel of it.
“What do you want to do with the book we found at my father’s?” His voice is tight as he asks, like he didn’t want to even do it.
My shoulders tense right up.
“You still have it?” I mutter, not wanting to think about it.
“In my office, I haven’t read any more of it.”
I sigh. “There isn’t anything helpful in there, just what they did to me.” Strangely enough, I don’t feel like someone is choking me as I say the words. With Darius’s magic caressing me, his scent filling my lungs, it’s like he’s opened my throat and let me breathe. “I didn’t ever think I would come across a record of what they did to me. Stupid really, as your father always recorded what went on down there.” A rumble builds in Darius’s chest. “I want to burn it. I’m so sick of it having a hold over me.” I turn to him. “I want it gone. I want to not relive that part of my life. I will have every single scar that was put on my body for the rest of my days.” He flinches, and I reach up hesitantly to stroke his cheek. “But I will bear them like I have done. But maybe now…maybe now I can begin to see them as something I survived, instead of something I am ashamed of.” I tell him, scratching at his stubble and his jaw ticks.
He reaches up and threads his fingers through mine. “Your scars arenothingto be ashamed of,” he says vehemently. “Never. They mark you as a warrior.”
My eyes bounce between his and I nod. “I want that book gone, and I want those who hurt me, dead.”
His eyes flash black. “Their deaths are waiting for them, I will make sure of it. None will be left,” he growls, and his power pours out from his feet. I nudge it with my foot, calling my own to caress his.
He shivers as they touch, and I move my foot back and forth through it, somewhat calming him. “Their death will be by my hand.”
“And mine.”
“Just mine,” I say forcefully.
“There is no just you, only us.”
This damn male.
“What are you doing to me?” I whisper, letting my hand drop to his chest as I release his fingers, feeling his strength.
His magic comes out in a tiny tendril and wraps around my fingers.
