by Quinn Loftis
“Halfway done,” Rin said, just as calm and collected as Cush was.
Elora waved them on. “You guys go on ahead,” she said still attempting to catch her breath. “Really, we’ll be the look out, if we see any dark elves we’ll totally yell for you.”
Cush laughed. “Babe you can’t even talk; how on earth are you going to yell?”
“Technicality,” she wheezed out.
He walked over and took her hand, tugging her behind him. “Let’s go, tough girl,” he teased. “Keep breathing like that and you might just scare away anyone headed our way.”
“Ha, ha,” she retorted. “You are freaking hilarious.”
The others followed behind Cush as he led them to a side door. His head tilted to the side as if he was listening, though Elora couldn’t imagine what he could possibly hear over the blaze they had set and the screaming dark elves out in the fields trying to deal with the chaos. After several minutes, he put his hand on the door handle and pulled it effortlessly open.
“Was that unlocked?” Elora whisper shouted.
“If I tell you no, will you think I’m awesome?” he asked her with a spark of mischief. It was then that Elora realized that he was enjoying himself.
“You like this sort of thing, don’t you?”
He ushered her inside and let Oakley take over holding the door. “It’s what I’m trained to do. So I guess you could say that yes I enjoy doing what I have been trained to do.”
She followed him into a long, clinical looking hallway. Lights lined the ceiling and the florescent bulbs shining on the stark white walls were annoyingly bright. Elora watched Cush as he moved, his body poised and ready to attack. His words echoed in her mind, it’s what I’m trained to do, yes I enjoy doing what I’ve been trained to do. For the first time since he had told her he didn’t want a Chosen, she finally got it. Cush was a warrior. It was who he was and what he did. Not only that, but he truly loved it. And she—well—she was a worry and a distraction. He hadn’t wanted to bring her in with him because he was worried she would get hurt. He probably didn’t even fully realize it, but Cush wouldn’t be able to enjoy himself doing what he loved because he would be too busy worrying about her. As she stared after his incredible form, she couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take until he would begin to resent her. If she was what kept him from doing what he truly enjoyed doing, how long until when he looked at her his light blue eyes no longer held the tenderness she saw in them now.
Cush stopped suddenly and reached for her. Elora had never tried to block her thoughts from him, but she didn’t want him to know how she was feeling in that moment so she pictured the thickest, highest wall imaginable and mentally put it between them. As soon as his fingers intertwined with hers, she knew she had been successful based on the frown he gave her. She returned his look with a shrug.
“We will talk about this once we’re done with this mess,” he told her sternly.
Damn straight we will, she thought to herself safely behind her wall, and between now and then I’ll figure out how to let you go.
Chapter 12
“I’m a selfish human being. I’ve never denied that, nor have I ever attempted to claim otherwise. But now I suddenly find myself wanting to do the right thing and frankly the right thing sucks. No, I take that back, the right thing absolutely blows chunks of the sickest kind, and really all I want to do is stomp my foot and scream that I don’t want to and you can’t make me.” ~Elora
Cush was momentarily shocked as he tugged Elora along behind him, her hand still clutched in his. When he had taken her hand in his, Cush felt his soul reach for her. But to his surprise and frustration, the minute his hand had wrapped around hers, all he got was a stone cold wall of nothingness. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. What are you hiding, Little Raven, he asked, even knowing she wouldn’t hear him. All she gave him was a shrug in response to his glare, the little vixen. He didn’t have the time to question her further about it, not when they were in the middle of enemy territory, and that only frustrated him more.
He found a door with a biohazard symbol slapped across the front of it and decided to take his chances. He had hoped that by setting the crops on fire it would draw out most of the dark elves that might be working there, giving them better access to the drugs that had already been created. As he pushed the door open he listened for any movement. He didn’t bother with looking behind, he trusted Rin to handle things on his end.
He caught site of several huge silver vats lining the walls. Cush walked over to the closest and turned a spout located at the bottom of the tank. Dark red liquid began spilling onto the floor.
“Jackpot,” breathed Elora.
Once they were all in the room, Cush motioned for them to back up against the wall where the door was located.
“Why do I have a feeling this is about to get very messy?” Lisa asked.
“That’s why you should always wear black, Lisa,” Elora explained as she pressed her back against the wall. “Nothing stains black.”
“Hey!” A sudden shout grabbed their attention.
Cush whipped around at the deep voice. Immediately he located the owner of the voice and judged his proximity to Elora. A tall dark elf stood just inside the doorway, only a few feet from his Chosen. The dark elf noticed immediately who was easy prey and started for the humans, but Rin and Cush were already moving.
Rin barreled into the dark elf like a pro lineman and drove him into the back wall. They hit it with such force that it shook the building around them. Cush turned back to face the room and he closed his eyes and called on the energy of the wind. His people were close to nature. They had a communion with it that most did not, and so they were able to draw on its power. Nature was a force to be reckoned with. The wind whipped through the room, toppling the vats over; red liquid spilled out onto the floor as an ocean of Rapture drenched everything in its path.
Cush turned back to see Rin still struggling with the dark elf. He started towards him to help but Rin yelled, “GO!” Cush paused, but then realized that his comrade had assessed the situation correctly. They needed to get out quickly before more dark elves returned. He grabbed Elora’s hand once again and motioned for the others to follow.
“What about Rin?” Lisa yelled as they ran back down the long corridor.
“He can handle himself,” Cush called back over his shoulder, believing his words fully, knowing that Rin was a talented warrior.
They made it back outside where the fires continued to rage. Cush fought back a smile as the dark elves heaped water onto the supernatural flames, unknowingly making it worse. They ran, following the direction they’d come, but giving a much wider berth than the first time. Cush knew that the humans needed to rest but he couldn’t stop; he wanted Elora as far from that place as possible, as far as possible from the dark elves that would kill her without second thought.
By the time they made it back to the vehicle, Lisa, Oakley, Tony, and Elora looked like worn-out horses that had been run for days. Their hair was windblown and plastered to their heads with sweat, their eyes wide with fear and shock, and their clothes a jumbled mess from the branches that had slapped at them as they ran. Their shoes were all soaked with red fluid and now covered in dirt as well. All four of them fell or leaned or knelt on the ground, attempting to catch their breaths. Moments after their return, Rin leapt through the overgrown field and landed beside Cush. He looked every bit as un-flustered as Cush did, not even the least bit out of breath.
“Did you eliminate him?” Cush asked.
Rin gave a solemn nod.
“Right, we need to go,” Cush told them as he walked over to Elora and pulled her to her feet. He cupped his hands on her face and looked down into her wide eyes. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Just a normal day in the life of my warrior boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” His lips twitched with the hint of a smile.
“What do you want me to call you?” she asked as
she brushed off her dirty pants.
“Just so long as you call me yours,” he whispered into her ear. Cush didn’t know why he felt the need to remind her, but for some reason the possessive side that had reared its ugly head the minute she had walked into his life was snarling to be heard. He turned to lead her to the vehicle just as Rin hollered at him.
“CUSH, WAIT!”
He froze and then turned to look at his friend. Rin was listening to something. Cush attempted to tune out everything around him and tried to listen to what nature was saying to them.
“Bomb,” Rin finally broke the silence.
“In the car?” Oakley asked and backed away from the vehicle that he was nearly touching.
Rin nodded. “Do you hear it?” he asked Cush.
Cush did hear it. The wind was crying out to them, telling them that there was something wrong with the vehicle. Elora looked up at him in question.
“I’ll explain when there isn’t a bomb waiting to go off.”
“Good point,” she added.
“I take it this means we’re going to have to run again?” Tony asked.
Cush didn’t answer but instead hoisted Elora up into his arms. He looked at Rin and then to Lisa and Rin understood what he was asking him to do. Once an arguing Lisa was in Rin’s arms they started off at a decent jog heading away from the valley and towards the last town they had come across. It was going to be a long run.
“He’s captured them, my liege.” The words grated on Lorsan’s last nerve and it took everything in him not to strike the messenger down. But what good would that do? What purpose would it serve to kill one of his own just because he was irritated with Triktapic. The assassin’s—no wait, the king’s—very name made his blood boil and his heart pound. He wanted his head on a spike to decorate his garden. He wanted his glory shredded and his might and power stripped from him until he was as naked as the day he was born. And he would have it. Trik wasn’t a coward; he wouldn’t hide behind the walls of the light elves forever. He would attack soon and when he did he would finally see just why Lorsan was the dark-elf king. Trik would finally see that there remained a power that was greater than all others, Forrest Lords or not. There were some things that couldn’t be destroyed.
“Come on, Trik, I’m waiting for you. Come see you’re old king,” Lorsan muttered into the empty throne room.
Cassie opened the door at the sound of the soft knock. Syndra stood just outside looking as regal as ever.
“I came to see how you are,” she told her.
Cassie smiled. “Did Trik send you?”
Syndra laughed. “Oh child, haven’t you learned yet? I don’t do anything anyone tells me to do, king or no king.” She stepped into her quarters and shut the door behind her as Cassie took a step back. “No, I’ve come of my own accord. Being attacked in your bed while you’re sleeping, and not by your mate, well that can be a little taxing.”
Cassie didn’t try to stifle the near hysterical laughter that boiled up. Only Syndra could have put something that had been so terrifying into terms that sounded so blasé. “Taxing,” she repeated the she-elf’s words.
Syndra nodded and moved towards the large couch. She sat down and made herself comfortable and then motioned for Cassie to take a seat as well. Cassie knew there was no dissuading Syndra so better to just go along with her.
“Is he going to kill them?” Cassie blurted out suddenly.
Syndra’s eyes widened slightly and her brow rose. “Do you think he should kill them?”
Cassie huffed and threw herself back into the chair. “I hate it when you answer me with a question. It reminds me of my mom. She’s a lawyer, you know. She’s so good at getting a person to argue in circles, and by the time she’s through with you, all you can do is nod your head and say yes ma’am.”
Syndra didn’t respond. She simply stared at her and waited.
Finally Cassie answered. “I’m worried that if he does kill them that he will allow that side of himself to rule. I mean, let’s just face the facts, Syndra. Trik was a bad dude for a very long time. Those, um, those,” she stumbled as she tried to come up with the right word. “Those impulses don’t just go away. He told me once that it was in his nature to be evil, that it was a part of him.”
Syndra rolled her eyes. “Leave it to Trik to be melodramatic. Look,” she said, grabbing Cassie’s eyes with her own. “I’m not saying that Trik didn’t do some pretty awful things in his past. I mean as closets go his is overflowing with skeletons, and I mean that literally,”
“Not helping, Syndra,” Cassie said dryly.
Syndra just kept right on talking. “What I am saying is that we all have evil in us. We all have the capacity to be cruel, to do harm, to turn a blind eye when we should speak up—all of us—not just dark elves.” She smiled then as her face filled with something Cassie recognized as hope. “But just like we all have the capacity for evil, we are also all capable of good. You need to have more faith in him, Cassandra. Do I think it is wise of you to question him? Yes, he needs you to say those things to him so that he will think before he acts. But after you have made him think, you need to support him and remind him that you know he is capable of being a man of honor.”
Cassie sat speechless as she watched the light-elf queen stand and walk gracefully from the room closing the door quietly behind her. She frowned at the now closed door. “So was that a, no he shouldn’t kill them?” she called out, knowing Syndra would hear her and no doubt ignore her.
“Why did he send you here to take Cassie?” Trik asked the two men for the third time. Still they knelt staring at the ground, neither one willing to speak. He could get them to speak if he felt like making a mess, but the truth of it was, Trik was tired of torturing people. He had grown tired of it a very long time ago, but before he hadn’t had a choice, now he did.
He looked over at Tamsin who no doubt was expecting him to ask for some sort of tool. Instead, he said, “They touched my queen with the intent to harm. For that reason, they forfeit their lives. I’m not going to get any information from them, and Cassie is safe. Frankly, I don’t feel like having body parts strewn about the room. Kill them, and then send their bodies back to Lorsan.”
Tamsin nodded but didn’t let the surprise that Trik knew he felt show on his face.
“Don’t die before her,” one of them finally spoke up just as Trik was turning to leave.
“What did you say?”
The dark elf who Trik knew as Agog spoke up again, “If you die before her, he will do horrible things to her. Things you cannot even begin to imagine.”
Trik narrowed his eyes on him and then knelt down just in front of him. “Did he tell you to tell me this? Do you think to scare me?”
Agog shook his head. “No, I know you aren’t easily scared. But if anything should scare you, it should be what he will do to your queen, and what he will allow others to do to her.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” Trik asked.
“I’m going to die. Maybe I can redeem myself in some small way. You are the rightful king; you always have been.”
“You are a traitor to your people,” the dark-elf Tran spat at Agog.
Agog shrugged. “We are but dead men; we have no people.”
“I will not grant you your life,” Trik told him. “But I will make sure your death is quick.”
Agog gave him a final nod and then met his gaze. “I hope you are victorious.”
As Tamsin pulled the door closed behind them blocking the two prisoners from view, Trik let out a tired sigh and shook his head. “I’m getting too old for this.”
Tamsin chuckled. “You and me both.” He paused and looked back at the door as if he could see beyond it to the dark elves. “You’re doing the right thing,” he assured him.
Trik nodded. “I couldn’t let them live, but I don’t have to rip them to shreds either. We leave at first light. I’m tired of waiting. I’m ready for Lorsan to be destroyed and to know that my C
hosen is safe as well as our people and the humans.”
“I’ll make sure everyone is ready,” Tamsin assured him.
“Tamsin,” Trik said before the light-elf king could walk away, “thank you.”
“Did you kill them? GAH!” Cassie growled. “I feel like all I do is ask if you are going to kill someone or if someone thinks you should kill someone.”
Trik paused as he stood in the open door to her room. He looked at his obviously frazzled Chosen and couldn’t help but think how beautiful she was, even in her stressed out state. She stood staring at him with wide, earnest eyes and he knew what she wanted to hear, but it wasn’t what he could tell her.
“They are scheduled to die,” he finally said as he shut the door behind him. He walked towards her and when he was within arm’s reach, he pulled her to him and held her close against him. He knew in that moment it was more for his own comfort than hers. He could not give her what she wanted, no matter how disappointed it might make her in him.
“Trik,” she pulled back and looked up at him, “Honey, I’m not disappointed in you. Is that really what you think?” she asked him, obviously having picked up on his thoughts.
“I know you don’t want me to be a killer,” he told her.
She took another step back from him putting space between them that he didn’t want. She held her hand up to keep him from stepping closer and he frowned at her.
“Wait,” she said sternly, “you need to hear this. I am NOT disappointed in you. I’m the opposite. I’m so freaking proud of you. I’m in awe of you, and, yes, I’m scared for you. Don’t you think I’ve seen inside you? You’re constantly telling me that you’re an open book to me and that you don’t hide things from me. Well, news flash, quiver boy, I’ve looked. I’ve seen. And I know that you don’t want to be who you once were, and my only worry was that if you killed those men then the darkness that I’ve seen you battling inside would gain new ground.” She took a deep breath and then let it out as she brushed wisps of hair from her face. “Please don’t think that you have disappointed me. Please know that I stand beside your decision and I get it; I understand.”