The Dark

by Cheyenne McCray

  She belonged to Jake. Heart, soul, mind, body.

  Several trees shook hard enough that the rattle of branches and shaking tree leaves broke any semblance of quiet. Was that a Dryad grumbling?

  Who cares?

  Jake kissed her thoroughly. His taste, his delicious scent, the feel of his warm, hard body as she wrapped her arms around his neck, made the world disappear.

  More trees shook their branches. The magical sparks now circled them completely. Light flickered through her closed eyelids that she barely noticed. But she felt it, and harnessed it in a warm embrace.

  Jake drew away and she opened her eyes. He looked down at her with a gaze so filled with emotion that it took her breath away. Was it too soon for love?

  No, it wasn’t. They’d known each other over six months. It wasn’t too soon at all.

  He started in a husky murmur, “Cassia, I—”

  “Cassiandra!” This time the male voice saying her name didn’t sound pleased at all and came from directly behind her.

  She turned in Jake’s arms to see Daire, his shirre clenched tight in one fist and a furious expression on his handsome face she’d never seen before.

  Jake drew her close but pushed her behind him as if to protect her.

  He said in a low, controlled, and most definitely possessive tone, “Cassia is mine.”

  18

  Cassia’s heart hit her rib cage hard as she looked at Daire from behind Jake’s shoulder. The whirlwind of sparks and golden light she had wrapped around Jake and herself dropped to the ground. Like a small flood of gold, the sparks flowed away and vanished as if sinking into the earth.

  “Come here, Cassiandra.” Daire rammed one end of the shirre into the earth beside his foot.

  A wash of heat slammed into Cassia and she clenched her fists. “Who do you think you are to order me to do anything?”

  Daire scowled. “We have much to discuss once I rid us of the human.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” Jake’s voice came out in a low, steady, deadly tone as he gripped Cassia’s shoulders. “And I’m definitely not handing the woman I love over to you.”

  Cassia went entirely still as her ears started to ring. Jake loved her?

  His body tensed as if he had startled himself by his own words.

  Daire stalked toward them. His strides were smooth, fluid, and silent. The navy blue tunic and breeches he wore accented his broad shoulders, chest, and powerful thighs. His long white-blond hair flowed around his shoulders.

  There couldn’t be a more flawless-looking man—and Cassia had no interest in him more than the friendship they had shared over the centuries.

  No matter how beautiful Daire was, Cassia found everything about Jake more attractive. From his sexy, stubbled jaws to his carved biceps to the way his jeans hugged his long legs, he was delicious. Absolutely perfect.

  Daire reached them, his expression so furious that Cassia almost took a step back. “You are not worthy to touch a female so special and powerful, human.”

  Fury rocked Jake so hard he couldn’t have stopped himself if he tried.

  “You sonofabitch.” Jake took one step forward and slammed his fist into Daire’s chin.

  Daire’s head snapped back, an instant expression of shock on his features.

  Jake expected the element of surprise to be on his side, but the Elvin man reacted in a movement almost too fast to see.

  Daire spun and brought up his leg, slamming it into Jake’s liver.

  Pain blasted through Jake as he dropped. He planted his left knee between Daire’s legs and Jake wrapped both hands around Daire’s thigh.

  Jake had no doubt that down and dirty was the only way he was going to have a chance at fighting with a being who had trained for centuries.

  He pressed his chest hard against the Elvin man’s legs and pushed his head against the right side of Daire’s ribs. With a loud grunt, Jake moved forward with his right leg and hooked his foot behind one of Daire’s as he drove his shoulders forward against the man’s thighs.

  Daire was so goddamned strong, Jake barely managed to move forward and shove himself against the Elvin bastard’s hips. Daire lost his balance and Jake took him to the ground.

  Daire moved so fast Jake was barely aware of what happened next. Daire anchored his thighs around Jake’s midsection and flipped him backward, over Daire’s head.

  Jake landed hard on his back with another loud grunt, but he rolled to the side even as he hit the ground.

  Before he could get to his feet, Daire was on top of him. Jake saw a flash of a furious expression through the long blond strands of Daire’s hair.

  Daire pinned Jake to the ground, his right hand against Jake’s throat, cutting off his air supply.

  Jake choked as he struggled for breath. He grabbed Daire’s wrist and twisted it to release some of the pressure that was making him start to see black spots.

  Without stopping, Jake raised his hips in a bridging motion and forced Daire to use one hand on the ground to keep himself balanced.

  Jake pushed off one foot and rolled over onto his shoulder. When he and Daire hit the ground they both started to roll, each now trying to choke the other.

  A loud crack sounded in Jake’s ears.

  The next thing he knew, a branch as thick around as a tree trunk slammed down on him and Daire. Pain ripped through Jake’s shoulder and chest. The sudden weight of the branch forced Daire and Jake to lose their choke holds.

  Still Jake and Daire tried to reach for each other to continue fighting, but neither could move. They struggled as they glared at each other, their arms pinned beneath the branch.

  “You idiots!” Cassia was between them now, on the other side of the huge branch.

  She gave Daire a furious look and started yelling something in a language that had to be Elvin. It was like French—it sounded beautiful, even though he knew she was telling Daire off.

  Cassia turned her glare on Jake. “What in Anu’s name do you think you’re doing, and who the hell do you think you are, fighting like this? You’re both a couple of underworld trolls and you’ll be lucky if I don’t leave this branch on top of you for a week.”

  Jake felt the heat of Cassia’s fury like a punch of fire to his solar plexus. His anger at Daire faded as he looked up at Cassia’s beautiful but furious features.

  “My apologies, Cassiandra,” Daire said before Jake could respond.

  He scowled at Daire before he eased his expression when he looked back at Cassia. “I’m sorry,” Jake said. “I shouldn’t have started anything.”

  “You’re blessed right you shouldn’t have.” Cassia still appeared livid as she flicked her fingers at the branch, and it suddenly wasn’t as heavy.

  She braced her hands on her hips and continued glaring at them. “Now I have to apologize to the Dryads on top of everything else.”

  She spun and marched away, leaving Daire and Jake alone.

  “She’s something else,” Jake said as he watched Cassia stomp into the forest.

  “That she is.”

  Jake glanced at Daire, and then they both looked at the branch. “On three?”

  Daire looked like he had swallowed something bitter and disgusting, but he nodded.

  Jake counted off and, as one, they braced their hands on the wood and pushed it away. Daire’s Elvin strength no doubt made it easier to move.

  Bastard.

  Smaller branches and twigs scraped Jake’s face and hands as they thrust the big branch off of them.

  When they finally got to their feet, Jake rubbed his palm over his head, knocking off leaves and grass, before wiping dirt and more crap off his jeans.

  Scratches from the branch stung his skin, and his throat ached from where Daire had tried to choke him. Not to mention that his side hurt like a sonofabitch where Daire got him in the liver.

  Daire looked unruffled and clean, and Jake had the instant desire to knock the shit out of him again.

  Jake had no doubt, tho
ugh, that Daire could have used some heavy-duty magic on him. If he had, Jake probably wouldn’t be breathing right now.

  * * *

  “I cannot believe those two,” Cassia muttered to herself as she marched toward the Dryad Queen’s tree. Sparks crackled at her fingertips, and she tried not to catch anything on fire.

  “Daire calling Jake unworthy and Jake punching Daire—” She ground her teeth as she repeated, “Idiots.”

  After apologizing profusely to the Queen and putting herself in debt to the Dryads, Cassia returned to the meadow where Daire and Jake were again glaring at each other. They probably hadn’t stopped giving murderous looks since she left them.

  “It doesn’t matter what you feel for the Princess.” Daire’s words had a sharp bite as she reached the pair. “Cassiandra cannot mate with a weak human. Her future, our people’s future, the Otherworlds’ futures—all ride upon her shoulders, and her choice of a truly powerful male.”

  Her anger vanished as stark reality hit her. It was as if every bit of her fury and magic evaporated, and she was left as nothing but an empty shell.

  Of course. There was no ignoring her destiny and the countless lives depending on her.

  As all warmth in her body vanished, she was vaguely aware of Jake saying, “I don’t buy that anyone’s so-called ‘destiny’ can’t be changed. No one’s life is mapped out like a goddamn chart, with little boxes that get checked off when a marker is reached.”

  “Cassiandra’s is.” Daire’s expression turned impossibly more arrogant. “From the time of her birth she has followed her preordained path prophesied by the Seers. Cassiandra must continue it until the completion of her destiny.”

  More cold flowed through Cassia’s veins when Jake moved to stand inches from Daire.

  Cassia glanced up at Jake’s dark expression as he said, “So you’re telling me nothing has happened with Cassia that wasn’t on your chart?”

  She cut her gaze to Daire’s. “Nothing,” he said.

  “You know that’s not true.” Cassia shook her head. “No one knew I’d be fighting a monumental battle in one of the Otherworlds.”

  “Yes. We did.” Daire’s voice quieted. “The outcome is unknown, but your path was to participate in an Otherworld war. Then to return home and ascend.”

  Chills rolled down Cassia’s spine. “That’s not true.”

  Daire nodded slowly. “It has always been so.” He moved his attention to Jake. “You are simply a blight on her journey, as many others she has faced.”

  Jake’s expression hardened even more and his blue eyes darkened. His body was tensed, coiled, as if ready to take on Daire again.

  She’d seen this side of Jake when he had fought the demons from Underworld, but this was the first time she’d watched him in a one-on-one confrontation.

  Before Jake could respond, Cassia moved between the two men. She tried to summon her magic for strength, but Daire’s words had left her feeling drained and almost hopeless.

  “Jake and I have a task we must fulfill,” Cassia said, almost unable to gain the strength to raise her voice much above a whisper. “When we return, we will discuss this.”

  “I will accompany you.” Daire wasn’t looking at her. He was staring at Jake. “I will not let you go alone with this human.”

  “His name is Jake.” Cassia sighed.

  All the fight and spark left her. Even the battles waged in an Otherworld were preordained. How could anything become of her and Jake if the Seers had not visioned the two of them, come together as one?

  “Jake and I will complete this task together,” she continued. “It was given to us and us alone.”

  Daire opened his mouth to argue more, and she had no doubt Jake was about to say something, too.

  “You are forgetting your place, Daire,” she said. “I am your Princess and a Guardian ascending, and you will argue with me no longer.”

  To make it even clearer that she wasn’t going to tolerate this anymore, Cassia added, “This discussion has ended,” with a regal tilt to her head.

  “Of course, Princess Cassiandra.” Daire gave a stiff bow, his words stilted.

  He gave Jake a hard look before he walked to his shirre, jerked it out of the ground, strode into the forest, and vanished from sight.

  For a moment she and Jake remained silent. When she looked up at him she saw him pinching the bridge of his nose, his eyes shut, as if he had a headache.

  “I shouldn’t have hit Daire,” he said when he dropped his hand away from his face and looked at her. “But I’m not sorry.”

  Cassia studied him for a long moment. “I apologize for how my people have treated you.”

  She moved closer and rested her hand on his biceps. “The Great Guardian—she had no right to use something from your past to hurt you. And Daire—he shouldn’t have spoken to you the way he did.”

  “I can’t let go of you, Cassia.” He studied her with his deep blue eyes. “It’s not in me to give up. I care about you too much.”

  She sighed again, wanting to cry instead. The words “preordained,” “destiny,” and “path” kept running through her mind. Along with the fact that Daire and her mother kept pointing out that entire Otherworlds depended on her ascension.

  “It’s time to get moving,” she said when she couldn’t take her thoughts or the silence between them any longer. “We need to meet with the Mystwalkers, then return to speak with the Great Guardian.”

  The next thing she knew she was wrapped in Jake’s embrace. They held on to each other and now she did cry. Her tears wet his shirt, and he squeezed her tighter.

  He rubbed one of his hands up and down her back in strokes that comforted her but at the same time made her want to cry harder.

  Her mind kept turning over and over the fact that he had said he loved her.

  It didn’t matter that she loved him, too. Telling him would only make it harder on both of them. She should never have allowed it to get to this point.

  She backed out of Jake’s arms and avoided his eyes. “The Mystwalkers are waiting for us.”

  As Cassia started into the forest, Jake felt like he’d been stabbed in his chest by a Stormcutter. He’d gone and opened his heart and soul. He’d let Cassia in.

  God, he didn’t even know why he’d said it. He’d flung the words out before he stopped to think.

  Jake tried to take back the thoughts and feelings, but he couldn’t. It had felt too right to tell that Elvin bastard that Cassia was the woman he loved.

  Because he did love her.

  He watched Cassia for a moment as she walked away. He ached even more as he took in the gold of her hair in the afternoon sunlight, the T-shirt that hugged her delicate frame, the jeans that showed her every curve.

  She was so beautiful, but there had always been something about Cassia that had drawn him to her.

  His gaze met the startling turquoise blue of her eyes when she paused and glanced over her shoulder. She looked so sad. So small and alone.

  No way was he going to let her feel like there wasn’t someone beside her who cared about her in every way a person could.

  He jogged to catch up with her and took her hand as they went deeper into the forest. Her hand was cold in his.

  “Are you okay?” He squeezed her fingers, but she didn’t look up at him and she didn’t answer right away.

  He noticed then how silently she moved through the forest. He probably alerted every being within two hundred yards of him with each step he took, the way branches and leaves crunched beneath his boots, and from the slap of bushes and tree branches against his now sore body. For Cassia, it was like the brush moved aside for her.

  “I don’t know if I’m okay with any of this,” she finally said. “All these years I’ve prepared to ascend to my place as a Guardian. And now I’m supposed to mate with Daire.” She looked away as a powerful shot of jealousy dug into his heart.

  Jake had never faced the green-eyed monster before and he didn’t like it o
ne bit.

  He had to take a good lungful of air before he could speak without sounding pissed off. “So this has been something that’s been planned all along—Daire taking you through your transition?”

  “Apparently.” Cassia’s brow wrinkled. “But I didn’t find out until the day of my ascension.”

  Her cheeks took on a blush pink enough that he could see it as they walked in the thick forest. “I was supposed to go through the transition that night, and I couldn’t stop thinking that it should be—” She met his gaze. “You.”

  Jake took her by her arm, came to a full stop, and jerked her to him. “Even then, Cassia? You wanted me then?”

  She tilted her chin to look up at him. “It will never come to anything, but I wanted—I wish it could be you.”

  “Cassia.” Jake crushed her in his arms, making her gasp. He breathed in her soft perfume of vanilla and woman, and the scent of magic, like cinnamon, that was distinctly her own. “There’s got to be some way to work this out.”

  “How many times are we going to go over this? The sacrifices we would both have to make.” She gave a deep sigh. “Frankly, I don’t think either one of us can give up what we would have to in order to be together. We need to stop thinking about it.”

  “I refuse to accept that.” His chest felt heavy, as if someone had parked a SWAT vehicle on top of him. “I don’t believe for a minute we can’t change our destinies. I don’t even believe in destiny to begin with. Life is what we make of it.”

  “There’s no changing this, Jake.” Cassia rested her cheek against him. “I’m sorry.”

  “No.” He mentally shoved at the weight he felt inside. “There’s got to be some way.”

  Cassia pushed herself out of his arms and started walking again, and he followed. Twigs, dead leaves, and pinecones crunched beneath Jake’s shoes no matter how quiet he tried to be. The smells of pine and loam reminded him of backpacking in the Sierras with one of his academy buddies.

  Only the scents here were richer, the air so much cleaner. Not to mention colors were crisper, brighter. And some were unusual—like trees clutching blue or purple leaves tightly to them like a miser gripping thousands of dollar bills in his fists.