Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook)

by Michele G Miller

  “Xander?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Did you ever think of me as your sister? When we were growing up?”

  FOURTEEN - I TRUST YOU

  Xander

  I was silent for a moment as I thought about her question. The truth was, I’m sure that as a young child I probably thought of her as my sister. But I would have been really young, and I couldn’t recall that feeling anymore.

  “That feels like a trick question,” I replied lightly, teasing her.

  “No, not a trick. Did you think of me as your sister?”

  “My Dad taught me from around the age of five who you were and who I was, Skye. I knew about my duty. I knew I had to protect you.”

  “So I was a duty to you?” There was a slight catch in her voice.

  “No…” I started, but she interrupted me.

  “Am I still a duty to you?”

  “Skye! No! You were never just a duty. My parents, your parents too, knew from very early on how connected we were. When we were kids I always knew what you were doing, even how you were feeling before they did. Way before I had any Guardian training at all, we were still connected. Our parents knew that our bond was inseparable.”

  Her eyes darted to my face.

  “Then why can’t I remember any of it, Xander? If everything was so wonderful until that last day, why can’t I remember?”

  Sighing again, I gave her the only answer I had. “I don’t know.”

  “In my dream, the one of the day my parents - I mean, your parents - died. In that dream, I remembered you and me racing.”

  “Yeah, we were racing each other back home from the park. We stopped by the park every day on our way home after school to play. You always challenged me to a race, and I always let you win,” I added with a chuckle.

  “The happiness I saw in my face - the joy! - I could tell, even in my sleep, that I felt it. Xander, I’ve never felt that before. I’ve never known a happiness like that. Not that I can remember, anyway.”

  “God, Skye, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry we didn’t find you after the fire.”

  “I’m not trying to make you apologize. I’m…” She sat up and clutched her small hands to her chest as she spoke. “I’m trying to tell you that the only memories I have of feeling happy - of feeling loved! - are because of you. I don’t want you to think of me as a sister…”

  While she spoke, I stood up and moved towards the bed. Her voice trailed off and she stiffened as I leaned in and hauled her up by the arms. I saw her sharp intake of breath when I pulled her to her knees. Pinning her body to mine, I corrected her, almost angrily.

  “I’m going to say this ONE more time and you are going to believe me! You are not my sister. Got it? I do not have brotherly feelings towards you. Hell, my feelings are way more intense than anything a brother should ever feel for his sister, Skye!

  “Now, I told you before at the store, and I’ll tell you again now. I love you. I want you for myself. I always have. I’ve had to fight those feelings for almost two years, but I can’t do it anymore!”

  Sweeping down, I claimed her lips in a kiss. My mouth brushed over hers…back and forth, back and forth. I lightly kissed and teased her soft mouth until she opened it. It was just enough for her to take a breath, but it allowed me to dart in and deepen the kiss.

  A small moan escaped her throat. God, she tasted so good! I just wanted to lay her down and love her for the rest of her life. I started to pull back and let her go, but when I released my hand from her arms, she rose up and held my face close to hers.

  “Don’t,” she said; her breathing ragged and her voice thick. “Don’t stop kissing me. Don’t leave me here in this bed to go back to that chair.” Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

  As a typical red-blooded male, there was no way I could refuse that plea. Who could? I carefully climbed onto the bed as she pulled me against her body and scooted back to make room for me. Her hands never released my face. Our lips were just a whisper away from each other, and her hot breath mingled with mine.

  She lay back and pulled me down with her, touching our lips together again. This time the kiss was slower. Skye teased me with her teeth. She lightly nipped my bottom lip, and then ran her tongue over it with a soft chuckle.

  I pressed my hand to the small of her back and held her closer to my body as we lay on our sides. Our mouths lightly played together, giving small pecks, little nips and soft licks. We didn’t deepen the kiss, we just explored each other’s mouth.

  The duty-bound voice in my head chose that very inconvenient time to step up and yell at me. “You can’t have her, Xander! She is the Princess, if not the Queen! She is meant for someone else. Let her go!” I argued back with it while I wrapped one hand in Skye’s long hair and inched the other one to the hem of her t-shirt.

  As I slid my hand under her shirt and touched the soft skin on her back, I argued. “I love her. I need her. We could just run away together!” Her fingers played in my hair and ran over my face and neck. Her sweet mouth opened up to my kisses, and her tongue playfully darted into my mouth and out again.

  “You can’t have her! She will need to take her place on the throne and you’re only hurting her if you keep this up. You will have to walk away!” The annoying voice wouldn’t relent and the crux of it was, it was right!

  “Damn it,” I muttered as I pulled back.

  “What? What’s wrong? Did I do something?” questioned Skye.

  She looked all tousled and delicious, and her lips were red and swollen from our kisses. Her normally pale face was flushed pink from passion.

  “No Skye, you are absolutely perfect,” I reassured her. “It’s just that…we can’t do this. We need to slow it down.”

  “Slow it down? Xander - we were just kissing!”

  “Sure, right now…but I want you, Skye. And kissing you is the least of what I want to do with you. So it’s best if we just slow it down.”

  Skye pulled back, and if possible, her face turned an even deeper shade of red as she got my meaning. I pressed on to make sure that she still knew how much I desired her.

  “You make me lose control. I’ve been training and controlling my emotions and feelings for the past ten years. Yet somehow when you’re around, I just lose it! All I can seem to think about is wanting you, and being with you, and…” I ran my hand through my hair and sat up next to her. My voice rasped out to finish with, “Don’t ever assume that I don’t want you, okay? Promise me that you’ll remember that I’m always going to want to be with you.”

  The desperate urgency in my voice was not lost on me. I needed her to know that if I had the choice, I would choose her every time. I didn’t want to freak her out, but I couldn’t tell her that I simply didn’t have that option. I didn’t want her to decide to run from her destiny. Tyalbrook needed their Queen as much as I did. Unfortunately, in my life, Tyalbrook would always come before my needs. That’s what I was born for. It’s what I would do.

  Skye

  His words caused my heart to flutter so fast, I felt like it would jump out of my chest. For starters, he’d just admitted that he wanted to go further than just kissing. Even with all of my crazy exploits and drinking, I had always been very careful to remain a virgin. I had never wanted to just ‘give myself’ away to some guy. My body, that part of me, was the only thing I ever felt like had any value.

  I didn’t think I would have gone that far with Xander, but there was a part of me that really couldn’t be sure. He was amazing, strong, kind, protective…and he loved me. He loved me with a passion that was so evident, it stopped my breath when I saw him steal a glance at me.

  The second thing that weighed on me was the pain, the urgency, that his voice held as he made me promise to remember he would always want me. That part of our conversation had me at a loss. Why was he afraid I would think otherwise?

  I crawled back over to him and nudged him to lie back down. I maneuvered myself so that I lay against his side and rested my h
ead on his chest.

  “Xander, I promise I won’t forget how you feel, if you can just promise me one thing.”

  I heard a slight intake in his breath before he answered me. “What?”

  “Promise me that someday, hopefully soon, I’m going to understand all of this. You’re still hiding things from me, I can tell, but for now I’ll allow it because I trust you.”

  Those words surprised me the moment they were out of my mouth, but I continued on.

  “I do trust you despite all of this. I know that you must have reasons for not filling me in on everything. Just promise me one day that I’ll get to hear all of the secrets,” I finished, and propped myself up on his chest. I stared up into his face and waited for a reply.

  “I promise, Skye. Soon it’s all going to make sense to you.” His fingers lightly brushed my hair away from my eyes.

  I leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth, and then lay back down into the crook of his arm and chest. Snuggling into his side, I yawned loudly enough to make Xander chuckle.

  “Let’s get some rest. Selene should be calling us soon with more directions.”

  Feeling his fingers stroke my arm, his steady heartbeat and breathing lulled me into a peaceful sleep.

  “Skye? Sweetie, wake up…” A tickling in my ear pulled me from sleep.

  At some point in the night we’d ended up spooning, and Xander’s warm chest and legs were pressed against the full length of my body. Even with his warmth, or perhaps because of it, his breath on my neck caused my skin to prickle up as he whispered into my ear.

  “Skye?”

  “I’m up…barely,” I moaned as I tried to pull away, but his arms were like bands of steel; trapping me to him.

  “Selene just sent me a text. She’s already on her way to the cabin and should arrive here in about thirty minutes. We should probably get up.”

  Shoot!

  That disappointed thought shocked me. It made me realize how important Xander had become to me. I realized that I would rather stay there in his arms then to get essential information from Selene.

  I patted his hands to get him to release me and rolled up and away from him reluctantly. I couldn’t stop my hands from running up to my hair to try and comb it straight with my fingers as I turned to look at him.

  “Thank you for sleeping with…or um, in the bed with me.”

  “My pleasure,” he winked, smiling at me. That little gesture really did something amazing to his already amazing face. He was happy. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because we had spent the majority of the night in each other’s arms.

  As he rolled over and sat up, I noticed his bare back and a streak of pure lust hit me like a rogue wave. His smooth tan skin was perfect. His back and shoulders were covered in muscles that flexed as he stood and stretched. It occurred to me that when we had first gone to sleep, he’d had a t-shirt on.

  I could see the faded swirling marks of a tattoo that ran along his back and up his ribcage. My fingers itched to get closer and touch the markings.

  He turned back towards me and saw the incredulous look on my face as I watched him.

  “What?” he asked innocently.

  My mouth went dry instantly as I took in his bare chest. ‘Damn,’ I thought to myself. I found myself wishing that I could have felt his bare skin against mine.

  “Well, I thought you had a shirt on when we first went to sleep,” I hinted, as I tried to control the heat that flowed through my veins.

  “Huh,” he looked confused for a moment and then as he looked down at himself, recognition hit him. “Oh, that. Yeah, I can’t sleep with a shirt on, so I pulled it off once you fell asleep. Sorry.”

  Xander looked a bit mortified. I didn’t know why! Most guys who looked like that would be modeling Calvin Klein underwear. He had nothing to be sorry about, and I couldn’t help but tell him so.

  “No apologies necessary.” I smiled a little wickedly and winked at him like he had at me earlier.

  “Are you flirting with me?” He smiled, and then crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Perhaps,” I jested, and turned towards the bathroom to get changed. As I walked away I heard him mutter ‘tease’ under his breath. I threw back my head and laughed, as I firmly closed the door behind me.

  FIFTEEN - SELENE

  Skye

  The knock at the cabin door startled me from the delicious task of admiring Xander. After washing up, I’d curled up in an over-sized chair that sat next to a picture window overlooking the forest. Xander had come out of the bathroom a few moments earlier, and had proceeded to pace the length of the room; allowing me to admire him openly.

  Now that I’d seen his bare chest, I couldn’t resist staring at him even more. His new thermal shirt molded to his chest in a way that made my knees shake. I pictured the markings of his tattoo and was about to ask him about it, when the knock sounded.

  Xander jumped at the sound of the knock, which proved that he was as much on edge as I was. He sent a warning glance at me as he grabbed his dagger off the counter and walked to the door.

  I watched as he stood there with his eyes closed, looking like he did when he tried to sense danger around us. I kept quiet and watched his face for any sign of threat. After a few tense moments, Xander looked at me and nodded that all was good.

  ‘Here goes nothing!’ I thought, as he pulled the door open and saw the woman on the other side.

  “Hi Xander.” Her musical voice filled the room. “I’m Selene.”

  I wished that I could see Xander’s face as he looked at her. I stood up by my chair, but couldn’t seem to force my feet to move towards the door. Xander stepped back and invited her in, and I got my first full glance of the sorceress who had supposedly brought us here fifteen long years ago.

  Selene was gorgeous. Her raven black hair waved and curled to her waist. Her skin was dark and her complexion luminous. Her eyes, a piercing blue, bored into me from across the room.

  She wore a simple cream gown and a black cape. It reminded me of a Halloween costume, with laces at the waist and wide bell sleeves that draped over her arms. She held bags in both of her hands, and as she stepped into the cabin, she handed Xander one and placed the other on the floor.

  “I brought you some food.” She nodded towards the bag she’d handed to Xander. “I knew there wouldn’t be any food here, and you must be hungry.”

  “Yeah, I could definitely eat. Thank you,” Xander acknowledged, and closed the door.

  He turned towards me and spoke, “Selene, this is Skye.”

  “Princess Skye.” Selene stepped forward and bowed slightly. “You don’t know how pleased I am to see you well.”

  I coughed a little at her formality and extended my hand. “Please call me Skye. I’m kind of new to this whole Princess thing.”

  “Of course you are!” Selene smiled and shook my hand lightly, while her intense eyes took me in. “You look so much like your mother.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just stood there while she continued to stare. Xander rifled through the bag of food and pulled out a box of doughnuts and some orange juice. He smiled at me as he waved the donuts in the air.

  “Your favorite!” he teased.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Selene muttered, looking at Xander. “I meant to tell you right away that I heard from Rioden.”

  “You did? Where is he?” Xander asked anxiously, as he strode across the room to stand by us.

  “Yes. He was able to get McClintock’s men to follow him away from the two of you, but he’s still playing cat-and-mouse with them. He thinks they are following him in hopes that he’ll lead them to Skye.”

  The look of relief on his face was evident, and Xander lightly squeezed my hand as Selene continued.

  “Xander, he wants us to get Skye to Tyalbrook as quickly as possible, and then find the remaining Guardians.”

  “But what about him?” I interrupted. Xander squeezed my hand again, sending a comforting war
mth through my arm.

  “He will follow along as soon as he can. If he doesn’t, then I’ll come back myself and find him.” Selene’s voice held a firm tone of resolve. I couldn’t help but think that there was definitely more to the Selene and Rioden story than we knew yet.

  I pulled my hand from Xander’s and walked over to the kitchen to grab the doughnuts and juice. As I brought them back to the coffee table, I leveled my gaze on Xander and Selene and motioned for them to sit.

  “Selene, I would like to ask you some questions. Please, let’s eat and talk.”