There was too much weighing on her mind now. The income that would soon vanish. The fight that would take him away from her. She should have known she would never have a future. It was impossible. She wasn’t meant for happiness or success.
“Will you listen to me?” he begged.
“Do you really not remember the time you spent in the lake?” The question was so strange. She could barely believe she was asking it. But she believed him.
Just, not completely. There were gaps that needed to be filled. He was missing so much. She didn’t like that it was her job to patch the holes, but he didn’t have anyone else. She would do it for him because he needed it.
His only response was a small muscle tic in his jaw.
The weight of the world pressed down on her shoulders. She tightened them as if that would keep her from collapsing under it all.
“I wasn’t there for a lot of it,” Chelsea confessed.
“Then how do you…”
She cut him off with a look. If he wanted her to stick around, then he was going to have to listen. She wouldn’t accept another man who cast her thoughts aside. It wouldn’t work.
They would be a team or nothing at all. Chelsea wouldn’t settle for anything less. That was, if they were going to move forward with this. She wasn’t sure if they even would. Could her heart handle it? Was she willing to risk her sanity for love again?
Especially over this beast of a man? She was no beauty, with a loving heart and a head on her shoulders. Chelsea was pretty, but not a savior. This was no fairy tale. It was real and the fallout could cost her so much.
“Just listen to me for five minutes,” she asked.
Slowly, he nodded. His jaw was still tight, and he looked like he might implode, but he didn’t utter a word. Which she appreciated.
“The day we met, I was drunk at the beach because I was angry. A couple months ago, a big wave came off the lake and swept everything on the beach away. It left me absolutely terrified. The only reason I’m here today is because Asher fished my sorry ass out of the water. Now, who was trapped in the lake by a magical curse?”
His lips thinned into a scowl. She couldn’t tell if he was mad at her or himself. The shadow obscured so much. Her heart puttered, afraid of his anger, but she pressed on.
“Zara and her family said the spell gave you extra powers. I don’t know how much of that is true, but you could fill me in. Can you…can you control the water?”
The sound he made was strained. It came from the back of his throat. The shadow over his eyes vanished and revealed his torment. When he spoke, it was from between clenched teeth.
“Yes. I can.”
She pursed her lips and twisted them to the side. Nervously, she played with the paper straw wrapper. “Do you think there’s a chance that you weren’t aware of what you were doing while you were under the lake?”
“No, I would never hurt you. All I remember is…dreaming.” He sucked in a raspy breath. “The nightmares.”
Someone to their left gave them the stink-eye. Chelsea hadn’t showered. They were talking about fantastical nonsense. And Zane might have left finger indentations in the table from where he gripped it. Chelsea didn’t give a damn. She bared her teeth at the onlooker, feeling like a feral creature.
All she wanted was to curl into Zane’s chest. She missed his touch. Her core ached for him. It was unfair, this need that crouched inside her when she knew it would break her later. It couldn’t be love. She refused to give in to love.
“Zane, you are the one responsible for the wave.”
What was Chelsea trying to tell him? That he was the monster? Zane didn’t want to believe it. She was wrong. The clan had messed with her mind. He worried that he wouldn’t be able to sway her back to his side, though.
This could be the end of them. If she was so determined to believe the worst, then he didn’t know if he could save this.
And yet, doubt riddled his thoughts. The nightmares tried to return. They were like a cold hand around his insides, squeezing so tight he thought he might burst. The things he did in those nightmares frightened him. In them, he was the monster she described.
But they were just nightmares. They were part of the spell the witch had crafted, a penance Alistair should have paid. Alistair should have been the one to watch the horrors over and over again. He should have been the one to drown in despair while the clan screamed.
“Waves happen all the time,” Zane argued.
Chelsea straightened in her seat. The look she served him was hard and unforgiving. He was going about this the wrong way. Every step he took forward was in the wrong direction. Why couldn’t he make this right? Twice, he had saved her. Couldn’t she trust him?
Why was it so hard for her to put a little faith in him? She should have been enamored with him. They were mates. His thoughts were almost exclusively of her. She filled his mind and distracted him from what he should have been doing.
Yet, it seemed like she didn’t feel the same about him. There was no affection in her. No faith.
His appetite vanished. He should have been flexing his wings. If he could make them stronger, then maybe he could fly again. Maybe, if he got away from the lake, he would become the man he used to be. He wouldn’t have to be the cursed beast forever.
The dragon inside him told him there was no going back. It tried to tell him that Chelsea was right. Zane shoved his beast back. He silenced it. What did the creature know?
It was foolish of him to think he could have love. The curse was still holding him. It would never leave. Just because Chelsea freed him from the lake, didn’t mean she would be on his side. In her eyes, he was a monster. It didn’t matter that he loved her, that he would throw away everything for her.
He stood. His chair screeched, and everyone in the restaurant turned to stare. Their eyes fell on him with unspoken accusations. To them, he was a monster. They all saw it. Everyone saw it when they looked at him. Even Chelsea.
“Where are you going?” The hitch in her voice was unmistakable.
It nearly dragged him to a halt. He didn’t stop. He couldn’t. Her fear wasn’t out of love. She probably didn’t want to unleash a monster on the town. That was the only reason Zane could think of, the only reason she kept him around.
“You don’t have to worry about me anymore,” he told her.
“You can’t just get up and leave. That’s not how this works!”
But he shoved through the door anyway. Chelsea only half-heartedly ran after him. He knew she wouldn’t put too much effort into it. She didn’t want him. It was all a ploy.
11
Zane moved unnaturally fast. Chelsea couldn’t keep up with him. If he wanted to disappear, he did it well. By the time she fumbled outside, there was no sign of him. She looked to the sky for a sign of a winged beast, but it was as if he had vanished. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he turned to water and slipped down the drain.
She cursed and gripped her hair tight. It’d been a long time since Chelsea was in a relationship. This wasn’t an official one, but her heart begged for him. Too bad he was a total dunce and couldn’t listen to her.
No, they were both to blame. She didn’t know how to talk to someone just released from a decade long curse, let alone someone she liked. She’d been so focused on keeping him at an arm’s length to protect herself that she stopped thinking about him. This whole time, she threw accusations at him. He believed himself to be the good guy, but here she was telling him he was the villain.
She swore again and dug out her phone. The first thing she saw was her ex because she’d been too distracted to close out the message app. Her heart would have twisted on any other day. She would have buried her head in bed and mourned the classes she should have paid more attention to.
She had a new mission today.
Find Zane and keep him from starting a war over a misunderstanding. That started with figuring out who he thought was the real threat. Maybe if sh
e could find the man he thought was Alistair, then she could clear everything up.
Caught in the middle of a supernatural misunderstanding as a human terrified her. She was small and weak and had a tendency to stumble into danger. It wasn’t so much that she thought anyone would hurt her, but rather she worried she would find her way into the fray. The fight inside her apartment had been an eye opener.
The way Zane and Cole hit each other would have crushed anyone else. They broke more than just drywall and glass, but she hadn’t wanted to tell Zane to keep from upsetting him further. Great job she’d done considering how he walked out on her.
She wished she had grabbed him. If she was better at expressing emotion, then he never would have left. She would still have him, and they would be able to talk things out. It hurt, how badly she wanted him back. This wasn’t right.
She told herself she would never want anyone like that ever again. The kind of pain that accompanied this was unfair. After the divorce, she never wanted to feel it again. Here she was, though, wading into the deep end for a man she’d known for only a few days.
A man that made her breakfast without question, a man that massaged her scalp like he was looking for any reason to touch her. Damn it, she was going to get him back.
One way or another.
Chelsea called Zara and found herself heading closer to the lake. Entering Zara’s home felt very much like walking on enemy territory. Chelsea told herself that was all in her imagination. Even if she looked at Asher and recalled the fight outside her house, they weren’t the enemy.
It was all a big misunderstanding.
She hoped.
Zara pulled her into a tight hug and listened while Chelsea explained everything that happened after they left. Her old roommate was surprisingly helpful. Chelsea knew she hadn’t been the best friend. She really didn’t deserve Zara’s compassion, but Zara gave it anyway. She squeezed Chelsea’s hand and assured her everything would be alright.
While Zara stepped out of the room, Chelsea went up to the photo she found last time. She took it off the wall to inspect it. Nearly every face was familiar now. None of the wives, or mates as the shifters called them, were in the photo. It must have been taken long before the men met their lovers.
Ten years ago, Chelsea realized. That was how long Zane was trapped in the lake. Cole was young, but serious. His face was shaven and there were no scars on his skin. Asher was a lanky teen. Among them were three other faces. She hadn’t yet met everyone, but in the center of the photo stood a man with a firm jaw and cold eyes.
Chelsea trembled. She could have sworn she saw a face like that in some of Zara’s photos. The man she recalled had smiled, though. Could Zane have been right? Chelsea didn’t want to think her friend would take part in something evil. Not that she fully understood what made the clan evil.
She figured it had something to do with the scars that crisscrossed Cole’s skin, but she was too afraid to ask. This wasn’t the life she thought she would lead. This was larger than her in so many ways. Chelsea was well aware of her mortality. The fear that followed wasn’t a new sensation to her, even if it left her shaking.
What scared her more was the thought that she could mess this up. She couldn’t keep a marriage together. Hell, she couldn’t even keep her grades above a C. Whatever force in the universe that handed this task to her must have been cackling somewhere. She was bound to make a mess of everything.
“Do you know where he went?” Zara asked upon returning.
Chelsea quickly put the picture on a nearby table, too afraid Zara would notice her hanging it on the wall. She spun around to face her friend. If Zara saw, she didn’t mention it. She only gave Chelsea a concerned look.
Chelsea opened her mouth, but found she had nothing. She didn’t know where Zane would go. The only place she’d seen him in the past days had been in her own home. It was the only place he had, besides the lake. When she glanced over her shoulder, she wondered if he was out there, watching her.
If he could see her, would he think she was betraying him? That wasn’t her plan, even if she stumbled into it like everything else she messed up. These hands were meant for holding him, not fighting against him. If she had told him that, then he would still be with her.
She realized, too late, that he left because he couldn’t see how she loved him. Big, dumb idiot that she was. She let her past relationships ruin anything good that had come her way. This was something great, it could be the single best thing that happened to her.
She stepped outside and went closer to the water. Zara made a joke that everyone else was still uncomfortable near the lake.
“He was having nightmares,” Chelsea explained. “While he was trapped down there, I mean. He doesn’t remember anything that happened.”
More footsteps crunched through the grass. Chelsea looked over her shoulder and her heart thumped in response. The whole clan had gathered. Among them was an older woman. Her hair was suspended by the power of hairspray alone and deep lines carved her face. She lifted a cigarette to her lips and leveled unamused eyes on Chelsea.
When Zara took a step in front of Chelsea, she realized something was happening. Once more, Chelsea had found herself in a tense situation. Once more, she found danger.
Zane flexed his wings. He stretched them out, up, and down. The thin skin between the fingers rippled in the wind. Craning his neck, he looked into the sky. Nothing would stop him. He would become king of the skies and reclaim his lost prowess.
Before the curse, Zane had been a nimble flyer. He was narrower than his old clanmates and he would do his best to use that to his advantage. If he could outmaneuver the others, then there was a chance he could win.
If he couldn’t…then he would take Alistair down with him. Zane no longer had anything to lose.
When he stepped out of the lake and saw Chelsea for the first time, the raw torment on her face was enough to bind him. He wanted to ease the scream that ripped from her throat. All he needed to do was hold her close and remind her that she was safe. He could do that much.
Yet, she pulled away at every turn. He realized she was never meant to be his. The curse had handed him a mate who would rather drive a knife in his heart than cradle it. For three glorious days, he believed they could have a future. He thought he could escape despair if only he did one last thing.
He stamped the ground and tossed his head. His beast growled, a sound that never stopped rumbling his bones. The creature whispered lies. It tried to tell him that he truly was responsible for all the horrid things that happened along the lake shore. The beast whispered that he had been the monster all along.
It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.
Zane had been plagued by nightmares, ones that placed him in the role of the monster. He had to stand by and watch as he hurt the people he called friends. The beast’s rage had consumed him until he almost believed the things it roared. He watched as his friends fell in love and waves consumed their mates, dragging them into the deep water.
Zane should have been free of those images. He had escaped the curse.
But the curse was woven into his soul. It was as much a part of him as the new power that coursed through his body.
He ran and pushed off the ground. Air streamed over his scales. He wobbled from side to side. His heart lurched into his throat when he dipped forward. The water glittered below. It was a palace made just for him, inviting him back so he could reign.
In his mind, scenes of water slamming into a beach played over and over in his mind. He could hear Chelsea’s ragged scream. It was one of terror, not the rage he heard when he broke free of the curse.
Now wasn’t the time to think about his nightmares. Now was the time to act.
From above, he saw the row of cars parked outside Asher’s house. The small castle huddled close to the lake’s shore must have held most of the clan. Zane tilted and turned toward the cabins. The place he once called home. There, he would look for clues.
<
br /> He would track Alistair. Then, once he found the man, Zane would do whatever he could to keep the world safe.
If he was lucky, Chelsea would think of him from time to time. She would think of the single night they shared, buried in one another. She might even think of the rare moments when it was just the two of them and nothing else in the world mattered.
12
“W-w-who is this?” Chelsea asked.
Cole put a heavy hand on the woman’s shoulder and pushed her into a seat. Chelsea started to protest, but no one listened. Asher yanked the cigarette butt from her lips and crushed it in his hands, not at all bothered by the embers at the end.
Zara slipped away from the group to stand beside Chelsea. She leaned in and whispered, “This is the witch that wove the spell Zane was under.”
Immediately, cold rage blossomed in Chelsea’s chest. Her attention snapped to the woman and all concern she had fell away. Sour words filled her mouth, but no one gave her the room to speak them.
“He doesn’t remember the things he did in the lake,” Jude said. Her voice was particularly even. Everything about the shifter was controlled.
Zara whispered that Jude was their leader. She was a kind of dragon that the others respected. Not just because she had regal gold scales, but because she used the great power that came with it to protect her family. And they were all family.
Even Zane, who Jude barely knew. The only time they met was when Zane punched her mate in the face. Multiple times.
Chelsea chewed the inside of her cheek until it bled. She forced herself to stop. She wasn’t a shifter like the others. The self-inflicted wound wouldn’t heal in minutes like Zara’s.
The woman in the chair met Jude’s gaze in a daring challenge, or so Zara called it. The witch tilted her head and grinned.
Zane (Keepers Of The Lake Book 6) Page 10