Dark Swan 2

by Yumoyori Wilson

  “I know,” I said. “It comes down to our own survival.”

  “It’s more than that,” Sophia said.

  I was on the brink of caving at the pleading look in her eyes. I couldn’t resist her, no matter how much my mind told me to pursue my own instincts. I stroked her hair. “At least let me talk to Leo. He is trustworthy. I’ve known him since I was a little kid.”

  There was compromise swirling in Sophia’s eyes. “Okay. We can do that, but don’t mention it to anyone else. If it backfires, we will have to find a way to pick up the pieces.”

  “Thank you,” I said and gave her a kiss. “It won’t backfire, I promise. And if it does, I will take responsibility. I’m at ninety-five percent at agreeing to head out with the crystal woman,” I said. “I know that the risks are rising higher the longer we stay here.” It was like the rebellion camp had a target on it now that the Master had escaped.

  Sophia rested her head on my chest. “That’s all I need for now. Just to know that you are thinking about it brings me comfort.”

  I held her for a little while longer, wanting to savor the softness of her body pressed up against mine.

  29

  Blaze

  We left with the crystal woman after dawn, when Cameron was able to go with us. None of us even knew what her name was, but we had enough faith combined among the five of us that we were willing to follow her back into the woods on a trail that seemingly led to nowhere. But we had been promised shelter and refuge.

  I had no idea where she was taking us, because she wouldn’t tell us, but Sophia was adamant, to the point of threatening to go without us if we didn’t agree to follow the crystal woman to her safe haven, which had yet to be revealed.

  Since none of us would never agree to leave Sophia alone without at least one of us within a hundred-yard radius, whether or not we agreed with the plan, there was no way we would let her go off with the aloof woman.

  “So what if she’s a little peculiar?” I chuckled as we set off into the smoky-looking forest. “She hasn’t hurt anyone.”

  “Yet,” Ayden reinforced.

  I swallowed down my resentment at Ayden’s scoff. “Can you try not to be so negative all the time, man?”

  Now it was Ayden whose eyes flashed with offense. “I’m not always negative. I am, however, realistic.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Keep your voice down,” I hissed. “You don’t want Sophia or the crystal woman overhearing you, do you?”

  Ayden pretended to ponder and then shrugged. “Maybe I do.”

  “You don’t know what you want,” I said.

  “That may be true,” Ayden said. “But I know what I don’t want.”

  I looked at him as we walked along. “What’s that?”

  “I didn’t want to leave my friends behind.”

  “Well,” I sighed. “If we get to the crystal woman’s camp and determine that its safe, perhaps we can find a way to notify them that they are in the clear to join us.”

  “Not if she has anything to do with it.” Ayden pointed a bitter finger at the crystal woman.

  “Hey,” he shouted ahead.

  “What are you doing?” Panic drummed my heart furiously in my chest.

  Ayden ignored me. Everyone stared at him, including Sophia.

  The crystal woman turned around to see what the ruckus was about. “Yes?”

  “What is your name, anyway? Can’t you at least respect us enough to tell us that much while we follow you into oblivion?”

  “No one is forcing you to follow me.” The edges of the woman’s lips curled into an amused grin.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.” Ayden scowled.

  The woman continued to smile. “You will know soon enough.”

  Ayden stared at me as if the anticipation was going to destroy him one cell at a time. “Can you believe this crazy lady?”

  “Well, what can we do about it now?” I said. “She doesn’t want to tell us her name right now. We’ve gone this far without knowing it…”

  Ayden frowned as if that wasn’t going to be a sufficient answer for him. He never was one to exercise patience.

  I glanced at James, exchanging a wary look with him. One thing that set him apart from Ayden was the fact that he knew when and where to keep his mouth shut. I hoped Ayden wasn’t going to get us killed with his enormous ego at the front and center of every conversation.

  After a while, we stopped to rest. We didn’t make a fire, but we sat on a few damp logs with fluffy green moss growing out of the bark.

  “I feel like this thing is going to crack beneath me,” James chuckled.

  “Just don’t put your full weight on it then,” I said, teasing him. He was larger than the rest of us, but he was built with solid muscle.

  “I don’t want to admit it to Ayden or Sophia, but truth be told,” I whispered as I panned the group to make sure no one was tuning into our conversation, “I’m a little hesitant that this was such a great idea in the first place.”

  “What? Leaving with the crystal woman?” James asked, keeping his voice low as well so that it wouldn’t carry.

  “Yes.” I flicked my gaze down at my boots, ashamed for admitting my apprehension out loud. It felt like a betrayal to Sophia. I planted my elbows on my knees. “It’s just…there were hundreds of shifters back at that rebellion camp and now I just feel so—”

  “Exposed?” James eyed me as if he understood exactly the point I was trying to get across.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “That’s right.”

  James wilted his head and studied the ground as if he was going to find the root of all the answers right there in the soil.

  “We are vulnerable in a small group,” I whispered. “Much more likely to succumb to a threat if we come across one.”

  James raised his head and peered at me. “Just don’t think about it like that, man.”

  “It’s hard not to,” I admitted.

  “Yeah.” He nodded as if he was on the same page I was but didn’t know how to overcome the challenges that we might face. “It’s the fear of the unknown that gets me.”

  “Not knowing what might be lurking out there?” I asked.

  “We need to watch our backs, that’s for sure.” James cast a glance at the others over his shoulder. He looked guarded.

  “I know that all of us except Sophia have our reservations, but it was impossible to let her go alone,” I said.

  James had a gleam of acknowledgement in his eye. “Tell me about it. I’d rather rip my own arm off than see something terrible happen to her.”

  I shuddered at the thought. “She needs us as much as we need her.”

  “But it’s hard for her to see that when she is so enthralled by the crystal woman,” James said.

  “That’s why we need to remain behind her every step of the way,” I admitted.

  “I don’t plan on ever leaving her,” James said. “I will be her shadow forever, for as long as I live.”

  “Me too.” I nodded and glanced at Cameron and Ayden, who appeared to be deep in conversation.

  Sophia approached us from behind. I pushed myself to the side a little to allow her access to the little stump I had claimed.

  “I know that you guys have your doubts,” she said with chagrin. She gave us a sexy little pout, “But just wait and see. Everything will work out for the best.”

  I smiled and touched her hand, cupping it gently over mine. “We know that you have the best intentions. We know that you have the ability to predict and feel the energy of danger…”

  “And I don’t feel it in the crystal woman,” Sophia admitted diplomatically.

  “Very good.” I kept my gaze on her and nodded.

  “If you can trust me, you can trust her,” Sophia said.

  James gave her an affectionate smile, but his words were contradictory. “We can’t exactly trust someone we don’t know…”

  “I know that.” Sophia wrinkled her nose. “Of course not. But over time—
”

  “Yes,” I said. “Over time.”

  I hoped that we still had time left.

  “I just want you guys to give her a chance.” It was hard to miss the pleading tone in Sophia’s voice. Something resembling urgency reflected in her eyes.

  I didn’t say anything, and suddenly James went quiet too. It was as if the entire camp went silent, as if we wanted to be able to hear each other’s thoughts.

  Sophia’s voice was hushed, barely audible when she spoke again. She looked at me and cradled my hands in hers. I felt the warmth of her body surge into mine. I felt a million rays of light, peace and comfort radiating my soul from the inside out.

  I felt no pain. I had assurance in the profound way she boldly met my gaze. She was speaking to me specifically, directing her thoughts and attention onto only me. It made me feel like the most significant shifter ever born.

  “Think about the day we met,” she said with a begging tone. Her fingers clutched mine with a tight grip.

  “I remember,” I said with a nod. “At the river.”

  “You fetched me out of the river with no questions asked,” Sophia reminded me.

  “That I did.” I nodded again, mesmerized by the magnitude of her intoxicating gaze.

  “You brought me back to your bunker without a second thought,” she said. “I didn’t know you, and you didn’t know me, but we trusted each other. We felt that instant energy and chemistry.”

  “That’s what you get with the crystal woman?” I asked and felt my eyebrows raise.

  “Exactly.” Sophia beamed in acknowledgement. “I feel as if her energy is pure.”

  James rubbed his palms on his knees as he glanced up at the rooftop of tree branches and leaves.

  “We will give her a chance,” he finally said after a pause.

  “But only because you want us to,” I added.

  Sophia seemed gratified. She blushed slightly, but it was with satisfaction. “Thank you.”

  The crystal woman was weird, but that didn’t mean we had to judge her for it. Sophia had a point. We had taken Sophia under our wing, and she had gone with us. Her leg had been broken at the time and she was almost out of options, but she still could have refused. How could we ever refuse her? It was impossible. She was the most important, shining star in our lives.

  30

  James

  “We’re almost there,” Sophia whispered to me.

  Her eyes looked tantric in the shadows cast by the forest, flickering with mystery and excitement. She was the trailblazer of this whole operation, so I did my best to remain optimistic.

  “How do you know?” I asked, craning my neck to see above the bushes and smaller trees.

  “The crystal woman told me,” Sophia said, keeping her voice low.

  I gulped down my fear and trepidation about what might happen to us once we made it to this new camp and nodded. “Good.” But was it good? I had no way to predict that yet.

  “Are you feeling a little apprehensive too?” Ayden leaned in and whispered to me, making sure that Sophia couldn’t hear him.

  “Yes, but I suppose there is nothing we can do about it now,” I said with chagrin.

  “I can hardly breathe,” Ayden said. “Lions aren’t meant for this kind of climate.”

  I chuckled. “The altitude up here feels pretty thin to my lungs too.”

  Ayden enveloped his arms around his chest and squeezed them snuggly. His teeth visibly chattered.

  “Why don’t you just shift into a lion?” I asked. “At least your fur will keep you warm.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I will once we get to the crest and I figure out what kind of danger we’re in.”

  “Everything will be fine,” I said, trying to keep my voice level even though I had no idea what to expect.

  I shot him a look of subtle confidence for good measure. I heard him audibly sigh. It was going to be a long road ahead. I couldn’t blame Ayden, not really. The cold was so bitter that it felt like a current of ice was running through my bones and freezing my core.

  My legs ached. My thighs burned from the relentless trek. We were almost there, so close to the finish line that I could smell the victory in the frigid air.

  Sure enough, not even five minutes later, the crystal woman turned her head and poked her neck out to scrutinize the group.

  “We are here,” she stated. Her tone was impossible to read.

  I exchanged a look with Sophia. She gave me a confident nod. I had no choice but to look into her gorgeous eyes and trust her blindly. One single glance into those beautiful, sensual eyes was all the fuel I needed to press forward like a puppy following its owner. When it came to Sophia, my very foundation crumbled around me and my expectations soared through the roof.

  When we reached a plateau in the mountain crest, I exhaled deeply, relieved to be back on solid ground that wasn’t pitched. The air was still relatively thin, but now that I wasn’t climbing upward and exerting myself, it was easier to pull in oxygen.

  The woman had been at the front of the group, leading us along. As soon as we reached the top, she began wandering closer toward the darkness in front of us. It was impossible to tell what she was doing, but she was behaving as if she had a plan.

  Her shoulders were squared and formed a straight line across her back. She moved with elegance and grace that I hadn’t noticed before. It seemed noble and remarkably out of character for her. It was as if she was in her own element and knew exactly what driving force was behind her ambition after all.

  The air suddenly felt lighter, as if invisible clouds were breaking all around us. I felt like I was floating in an emotional state of tranquility, but I had no idea what had caused the sudden mental shift.

  I glanced around at my friends. They each wore perplexed expressions and stared at the woman as she slowly drifted forward.

  “Do we…follow her?” Cameron asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  I instinctively gave Sophia a glance, hoping that her demeanor would give away a clue, but it didn’t. She was merely staring at the crystal woman as if she were the saving grace of the world. Maybe she was. Who was I to know? Every step I took was a guess into the future.

  Little by little, the woman edged forward until I started to notice something very incredible yet ominous happening.

  The woman stopped at the edge of a cliff and gazed down several feet to the clearing below. Dozens of people began appearing out of the shadows in the forest and from behind enormous cliff rocks and mountain boulders.

  It seemed like dozens at first, but those dozens turned into hundreds in a short span of time as more and more droves of people began to seep through the cracks of nature.

  One thing I noticed about them was the fact that each of them kept their eyes locked on the crystal woman. They stared at her as if they were fascinated with her and in awe of her very presence. They looked at her as if they had waited a hundred years with the resolute hope that she would return to them.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ayden whispered to me with a dumbfounded expression on his face. His eyebrows were raised in shock. “They are staring at her as if they are in love with her.”

  “More importantly, who are they?” Blaze looked as stunned as everyone else did.

  Cameron shifted his weight nervously and began to fidget. “There’s too many of them.” His eyes darted around the massive hordes of people. “We won’t be able to take them on our own, even in a shifted form.”

  “Let’s just wait and see what happens,” Sophia whispered. “We don’t know that they are a threat. They seem exclusively focused on her.” She nudged her chin at the crystal woman. At long last, I could finally see a little bewildered bafflement flickering in her eyes.

  “Look at them all,” Ayden said, mouth agape. “There are hundreds of them. Perhaps even thousands. They just keep trudging forward like they are in a trance, coming from the horizon.”

  “It’s peculiar…
” I trailed off, too shocked to know how to fully react.

  A sea of people continued to stretch in rows that went on for as far as the eye could see, and then forever after that. They began clicking their tongues together to make a strange sound, much like that of someone snapping their fingers.

  One by one, they pressed their swords together like an assembly line. Then, as if a chain reaction was happening, the tips of their swords began to glow with a magnificent orange flame. They each took their swords and held them up, raising them to the sky.

  “What are they doing?” There was a noticeable trace of angst in Blaze’s voice.

  I stared at them, waiting to see if they would lunge forward and come at us like a stampede, rushing to plunge their swords into our hearts with one fluid swoop.

  “I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Sophia said. She was glancing around at the growing numbers of people as if she were enthralled with them.

  “Hopefully we aren’t seeing our future murderers,” Ayden grumbled under his voice.

  I twisted my lips and gave him a sideways glance. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.”

  “Or let our imaginations get carried away,” Blaze said cautiously, although fear twinkled in his eyes.

  Sophia still seemed at ease. I knew that she could sense danger if it was around, and she wasn’t raising any alarms just yet. There were plenty of red flags, but if she wasn’t running back into the woods from the same direction we just came, then I hoped that we were going to be in the clear here.

  Nevertheless, I hated instability and uncertainty, two factors that were causing me anxiety as I waited to see what these thousands of people were going to do. Were they shifters? Only time would tell.

  One by one, each sword-wielding person touched the tip of their fiery blades toward the surface of the sky.

  “Are they…worshiping her?” Ayden asked, clearly confused as he pitched one eyebrow in a pointed shape.

  “It seems like a warm welcome to me,” Sophia stated with a shrug, keeping her gaze fixed on the large crowd swelling around the crystal woman.