Page 59 of Touched By Darkness

She defeated the enemy and found herself back inside Eden, but the sun’s warming rays and the scent and colors of the wildflowers no longer held the same appeal. The angel found herself longing for the twinkling stars in the night sky, the owl that hooted in the distance, and raven feathers, as dark and smoky as the ones sprouting beneath the downy white feathers of her own wings. The enemy still lived inside her mind, entrapped until her dying breath.” I dig my finger into my temple. “Haunting her every nightmare, taunting her with the darkness that was growing inside her like a festering disease until she could no longer deny the call of the woods that traveled on the warm breeze to tease her hair. So she struck a deal with the enemy. A deal to set her free.” I lower my hand and step back, my throat clogged with emotion. “When she returned to Hell, now a fully fledged fallen angel, she found herself in a different timeline. One in which her tormentors had never met her. Never touched her. Neverlovedher. One in which she was a stranger.

And the truth she saw in their eyes slayed her. While she stared at them with longing and love, they looked back at her with cold detachment… indifference… And somewhere, in some distant timeline, those same three boys still love her. She knows it deep down, despite her enemy telling her that the timeline no longer exists, that it was somehow erased by her mind. But love, once it touches you, never dies. The universe—God—couldn’t be so cruel as to erase her from their minds so completely, yet keep them engraved on hers like the markings of a tombstone.” My eyes prick with tears, but I walk away before they can fall, refusing to subject myself anymore to this pain. If they want to hurt me, then so be it.

Much to my relief, they don’t follow me outside into the silent night. I let my tears fall freely while I walk down the gravel path that leads through the tall trees. The wind whistles through the crooked branches, and the rustle of leaves in the canopy overhead soothes my aching soul.

I have so many unanswered questions.

When Lucifer walked out of Eden, he wasn’t alone.

I am.

And I feel so lost.

The loss of light inside me echoes loudly, and I don’t yet know how to control the darkness slowly filling up the empty void that used to house the blinding rays.

Hell darkens my soul like an eclipse.

Leaving behind a trail of destruction in its wake.

Maddening hunger.

Blood lust.

Aching fangs and a red mist that crawls along the forest floor like tendrils of smoke.

My thoughts scatter when I look up and spot the hooded figure in front of me. The same hooded figure that chased me in the library.

I step back, and he steps forward.

“What do you want?” My voice trembles as my gaze slides down to the knife in his hand. The curved blade reflects the moonlight when he cocks his head and lifts his finger to his shadowed lips.

Fear sinks its talons into me and steals my breath, my voice, my ability to think rationally. One minute, I’m staring at the hooded figure, and the next, my feet move, and I bolt through the trees.

Branches catch in my hair, tearing it out at the roots, and grab for my arms, cutting through flesh like curved, sharp nails. I don’t stop running. My heart thunders in my chest, my thighs burn, and my heavy feet pound the soft moss. A whimper escapes me when I feel hands reach for me from behind.

I dart to the left, stumbling over a fallen branch, but manage to right myself at the last minute. As I whirl around, my breaths gust out of me in the cool night air. There’s no sign of my pursuer.

The night is silent, eerily so.

I suck in a breath and hold it, then yelp when a stick snaps nearby. My gaze darts around almost frantically. I can’t pinpoint the sound of footsteps. They seem to come from my left, my right, behind me, and everywhere all at once.

“What do you want?” I scream, then spin around when a branch snaps back into place to my right.

Silence descends once more, pressing in from all angles and stealing the last bit of my breath. I don’t dare move.

I’m hunted like a rabbit by a snarling wolf—no,a fox.Where a wolf is vicious, a fox is cunning. Always three steps ahead.

A hand clamps over my mouth from behind and pulls me into their hooded body, making me yelp, but the frightened sound dies in my chest when the sharp blade digs into my throat. The stinging pain has me panting through my nose as blood seeps to the surface and slides down between my breasts.

Quick, shallow breaths waft over my ear, and for a moment in time—a brief moment filled with fear, panic, and regrets—I let my eyes fall shut. I don’t want to die. Not here, and not like this.

Flames flicker at my fingertips, tingling my skin, but before I can wrangle my fear enough to let the flames grow, the person behind me is gone as if they were never there.

I whirl around, my hair sticking to the tears on my cheeks and the trail of blood on my chest. The silent night stares back at me, intruded upon by the hooting owl in the distance.

ALARIC

Daemon joins me at the bar, where I lean with my elbows on the sticky surface while eyeing up the human behind the counter.

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