“Amun, no, stop!” I shook my head as tears spilled from my eyes. I arched my back, attempting to buck him off of me as he pushed down his pants. “Please…don’t…do this,” I sobbed between words.
He dropped his sword next to him and grabbed my shirt with both hands, ripping it apart and exposing my breasts to him. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you, Layna. You are a Natural. A pathetic, magic-wielding Natural. I have to kill you, but I’ll be the first and the last to have you. I won’t let him take you, and I refuse to let a good piece of ass go to waste.”
“Who are you?” I cried out, struggling to break free from his grasp. “The Amun I knew was kind and gentle. You…you are a fucking monster.” I spat on his face.
“No, Layna,” he growled, wiping my spit from his eye. “The man you knew worked hard every day to restrain himself from you. He tried to be nice, play the good guy, but you still refused to give him one second of your life. This is what rejection does to people. It makes them a monster.”
Weak from using my powers earlier, all I could do was lean my head back and stare up at the leaves on the trees gently swaying back and forth. My words weren’t going to stop him. He was too far gone. Some beast had taken him over. A river flowed from my eyes as his mouth closed over my left nipple. I wanted to go somewhere else, wanted to leave this world and never return. Being stabbed by a thousand daggers would be better than this.
My body jerked as he tugged on my shorts. All I wanted was it to be quick. Have him do what he needed to do and slice my throat. My body shook violently with my heavy sobs. My mind closing in from reality without the ability to return. My soul was being ripped from me. Piece by piece. Then, the pressure lifted and he was gone.
“Layna! Layna!”
Hands on my face. Shaking me and shaking me. His voice broke through the hazy veil and I looked at him. Seth.
Chapter 17
“Layna, I need you to get up now!” His voice was urgent and boiling over with a fire that matched the flames in his eyes. He extended his hand out, and as much as I wanted to take it, I couldn’t. My arms were frozen, heavy, like someone had tied them to stone and buried it deep within the ground.
I drew in a deep breath and slid my body backward as Amun approached him from behind, his sword in half swing. “Seth, no!”
Seth spun around, kicking Amun’s feet out from under him. As he fell, Seth grabbed his sword and swung. Amun’s head was gone even before his body hit the ground.
I couldn’t breathe, and the trees surrounding me were spinning and spinning and spinning. My body…the coldness seeped into my bones.
Seth dropped the sword and turned around. He scooped me into his arms, holding me tightly to his chest and raced through the oasis. He reached the water’s edge, and then suddenly, we were inside the cavern underneath the waterfall. Bending down, he placed me on a soft pile of foliage covering the rock.
I hugged my knees to my chest, still unable to speak. My body quaked violently as the coldness threatened to consume me. Seth rummaged through our bag, tossing everything out and onto the stone floor. He came across a white shirt, and rushed over to me.
“Lift your arms, Layna!”
I still couldn’t move to obey his command. The constant shaking had me nearly paralyzed. Visions of Amun came and went from my mind. Flashes of memories that I didn’t want, that I never asked for. The putrid scent of him was still fresh on my skin, making me sick with every breath.
Seth slowly crouched in front of me and watched me cautiously, as if his gaze could be what finally broke me. I wasn’t sure what he saw in the depths of my eyes, but it rendered him speechless. He swallowed hard and shifted his body next to mine, wrapping his arm around me.
I collapsed into him, falling apart into his chest as he rocked me in a soothing and gentle way. I’d always known there was evil in the world. There would never be a boundary line or magical force field to keep it away. It would always end up seeping in eventually, only to seek out and destroy the purest of souls. My soul had been blackened and burned. Torn away from me and then stomped on, like a filthy piece of trash. The life I once knew was no more, and I never thought I’d want to die as much as I did now.
As daylight faded and darkness drifted in, Seth held me tighter with each scream echoing through the oasis. They were high-pitched wails that caused my body to tense each time they sounded. Ravagers had found the rest of Amun’s men. While the ravagers feasted, the men suffered in torturous ways nobody should ever have to endure. I imagined their flesh being torn from their bones. Their blood being sucked dry by the beasts’ razor sharp teeth. If they were lucky, they had died instantly.
Sleep didn’t come that night. My mind wouldn’t let me escape the sick reality I was in. The only thing that kept me going was the way Seth held me, constantly whispering how sorry he was all through the night. I wasn’t sure what he was sorry for. Seth did nothing but share his warmth with me when the ice took over. He thawed me out and held me long after the shaking had ceased. Then he continued to hold me, even after he had fallen asleep.
When the first break of light shined through the waterfall, I carefully eased out of Seth’s arms. I slipped off my shorts and the tattered remains of my shirt and walked through the waterfall, out into the shallow part of the lake. Grabbing a handful of the bright, orange flowers, I scrunched them up in my hand. I scrubbed my arms, legs, and every other part of my body vigorously, determined to erase Amun’s smell, his touch, the look in his eyes. I wanted to erase all of it, but the memory remained. I couldn’t get rid of any of it.
I fell to my knees in the water and tilted my head up to the blue sky. “You… fucking… bastard!” My words broke as I cried big, chest heaving sobs. I wanted to bring him back to life so I could kill him all over again. Repeat the process over and over for infinity. My sobs became louder, uncontrolled, as my body shook in anger. “You…bastard! You dirty, sleazy, fucking bast…ard!”
I was so absorbed in my hatred for Amun that I never heard Seth approach me from behind. Somehow, I was already in his arms. He held me tight as I cried. He held me tighter as my body shook with anger. His hold on me never faltered or loosened or broke. He was patient. Loving. He waited as I let everything out. It was only then I realized I needed to live. I couldn’t let myself drown in this despair. If I did, if I let myself go, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever resurface from the dark place which was pulling me under. I needed to live for him…for us.
“I will survive this,” I whispered in a shaky voice. “I can survive this.”
Seth slowly turned me around in his arms until I was facing him. He brushed my wet hair away from either side of my face with his hands. Then he looked at me with the most loving eyes I’d ever seen. “We will survive this.” He leaned in, placing a soft kiss to my lips.
I may have been broken and damaged, but that one kiss caused the healing to begin.
Chapter 18
I’d left a piece of me behind when we stepped out of the oasis. A part of me which believed light existed inside of everyone, even if it were so small you’d think it wasn’t even there. The truth was, sometimes people could get so consumed by darkness that the light eventually faded away. It would become obsolete and refuse to shine again. My parents had attempted to shelter me from that darkness by erasing important memories from my past. I didn’t blame them at all, but it angered me. By doing so, they’d also made me forget about the true strength I held inside. They’d made me forget about the power I possessed, refusing to train me in hopes that evil would never find me again. They’d kept me hidden, a secret who could never be revealed. In the end, all of their strategies had failed. The evil did find me, but I wouldn’t let it break me. Seth wouldn’t either. I had to take it and change it, build it up, and transform that energy back into the strength I once had. I had to grow stronger and move forward. I refused to let the darkness pull me under.
Walking through the desert with Seth was different this time. He didn’t tr
ail ahead like before, he kept my pace. If I seemed to lag, he would slow down with me. He encouraged me to rest, and when I did, he held me in his arms and offered me water we had taken from the lake. Both of us were famished, tired, and neither of us had the ability to use our magic due to our exhaustion.
“How long before we reach the river?” I searched the landscape in the distance, looking for any sign that water was near. Dunes rippled the sand in front of us, concealing any trees or vegetation that may have been hidden behind them.
“Maybe, an hour…two at the most.”
We were getting closer, but we still had a long way to go. I’d traveled some of the sector with my mother before, but I never realized how vast the land was. When the war had broken out between Tiahna and Zane, she had to bring her border in to protect herself from him, leaving the space outside to be overrun by ravagers. If we were truly able to bring the sector back together, we would have to find a way to rid the land of the blood thirsty beasts.
Seth held my hand as we started up one of the hills. My legs were shaky, causing me to struggle, but his patience did not waver. He took it slow, the strength in his hand guiding me up the dune. When we reached the top, I fell to my knees, knowing I’d need to rest my unstable legs before attempting the descent.
He placed his hand on my back and crouched down next to me. “Do you need another drink?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m fine. I just need to rest a minute.”
“Take your time.” He rubbed his hand over the small of my back. “We have plenty of time before the sun sets.”
He was wrong. We didn’t have plenty of time. Ravagers were out there. Lying and waiting for us under the sand and in their caves. Once the sun lowered into the landscape, they would hunt us down, just as they did with Amun’s men. We were wide open out here. There was no place for us to hide. I stood up, and Seth followed my lead. “We need to keep moving.” When I turned around, a small village not too far away from the dune stood in the distance.
“Seth.” I glanced at him before taking off down the hill.
“Layna, wait!” he shouted from behind me.
Wait? No, I couldn’t wait. I rushed down the hill. We would be able to get food and supplies. The both of us would be able to rest, regain our energy and use our powers. We wouldn’t have to walk anymore. Seth would be able to teleport us to the others.
“Layna, stop!” he shouted again, desperation hanging in his voice.
I didn’t stop, didn’t even slow my pace. We needed to reach the village.
Seth’s feet pounded the sand behind me. I thought he was just trying to catch up with me so we could enter the village together, but instead, he tackled me to the ground.
“What the hell, Seth?” I turned my body around so my back was against the sand and my angry gaze glared in his eyes. “We need to get to the village.”
“There is nothing in that village for us, Layna.” Waves of sadness rolled through his blue eyes. “That village is empty.”
“Why would it be empty?” I didn’t understand why a perfectly good village would be standing in the middle of the desert all by itself.
“When your sister pulled in the boundary, she left some villages exposed. There were no witches to protect them. They were occupied by humans who depended on the border for protection. They had no magic and knew no spells to keep them safe. This was one of them.”
I swallowed hard, knowing something bad had happened for him to stop me from entering. “Tiahna warned the humans before she shifted the border, right? I mean, she had to take them someplace where they would be safe. They were her people, and there are plenty of villages inside the boundary. She took them there.”
“I’m afraid not.” He shook his head. “These humans were never warned of the war going on inside the sector. The Regent shifted the border in the middle of the night.”
“Seth, what happened to the people?” A feeling of dread took ahold of me. “They made it out, right. Please tell me they did.”
“Some may have.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “But they didn’t get far.”
“The others. The ones who stayed. They had homes, places they could hide until daybreak.”
“I’m sorry, Layna. I didn’t want you to see this yet.” He gazed at me, his jaw becoming rigid. “I wanted to give you some time before I showed you the full extent of what the Regent and her council can do.”
“But you showed me in the other village.”
“No, Layna.” He took my hand and pulled me from the ground. “You haven’t seen the worst of it yet. I’m sure you will, though. Sooner than I thought.”
Seth held my hand as I walked silently behind him. I didn’t know what he wanted to show me, but his actions terrified me. He kept squeezing my hand as we approached the village, his steps slow and cautious, as if the ground could collapse underneath his feet.
I gasped in horror before we even made it through the gate. Bones. There were so many scattered outside the entrance. Some full skeletons while others were only pieces. Skull after skull. Twenty or thirty in all. They were the ones attempting to flee. Seth had been right. They didn’t make it very far.
“Why…why are they still here.” My gaze roamed over them, my eyes unable to look away. The pain. The agony these people must have been in. The terror of realizing they weren’t protected at the worst time possible.
“There was no time to give them a proper burial, Layna. Other villagers would have had to travel here. They would have never made it by sunset. Even if they could have, nobody wanted to take that chance.”
“I want to go inside.” The rage boiled up inside of me. The Regent had taken an oath. An oath established by the founding Regent, one of the original Sixteen. She was sworn to protect her people, not take their lives away from them. My sister sickened me. All of this over some stupid dispute she had with Zane. They had both torn this sector down piece by piece, and even now, after all these deaths, the war raged on.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Layna.”
“Take me inside, Seth!” I commanded, unable to look away from this senseless massacre.
We stepped over bones, remains of men, possibly even women, trying to protect their families and the people they loved and cherished from those awful blood sucking beasts. None of them had a chance. After hearing the screams of Amun’s men in the oasis, I couldn’t even imagine what this place was like when the ravagers attacked.
The inside was covered with more bones. Some of the sand had draped over them with time, giving them a temporary burial. The buildings and the streets were slowly crumbling. Some skeletons were hanging out of windows, some lying on the steps of their front doors. They all attempted escape, but none of them succeeded.
I glanced down and noticed a tiny skull mixed in with larger bones. I dropped to my knees and scooped it in my hands as hot tears stung my eyes. I held the small skull in the palms of my hands, and could no longer contain the sobs I’d been holding back. Rain flowed from my eyes as I glanced up at Seth. “A baby. Why, Seth? This baby had done nothing. It couldn’t walk. It couldn’t talk. It couldn’t even run, Seth.” I cried so hard it hurt to breathe.
Seth dropped down next to me and cradled me in his arms. “I know, Layna. I know.” He rocked me back and forth, trying to soothe my tears. “This is why I didn’t want you to see this.”
“No…” I sniffed and wiped the tears from my eyes. I placed the skull back down on the ground, promising myself I would come back and give these people a proper burial. Every single one of them. “I needed to see this. A Regent’s job is to protect her people. My sister is no longer doing that. I will not sit around and watch her destroy everything our original Regent created. The Sixteen divided our world into sectors to save people, to keep not only witches, but humans as well, from becoming extinct. If she can’t keep that oath, then I’ll do it for her, by any means possible.”
Seth grabbed my face and gazed into my eyes. “I’ll be right t
here with you, Layna, fighting by your side. We’ll take her down together.”
“Yes, Seth. We’ll take her down together. My sister will regret the day she harmed any of these people. You can count on that.” I meant every word as I rose to my feet and started back toward the desert. If my sister wanted a war, she would get one.
Chapter 19
The sun sat much lower in the sky, and we still hadn’t reached the river Seth had talked about. If we didn’t make it soon, I feared we wouldn’t make it at all. He had asked me numerous times if I needed to rest, I declined his invitations over and over again, ignoring the creases of worry stretched along his forehead. After witnessing what the ravagers did to the people in that village, I wanted to get us to safety as quickly as I could.
“How much further?” I wiped the sweat from my face with my hand, pushing away the exhaustion that was creeping up on me. I untwisted the cap from the water bottle in my other hand and took a big gulp. It didn’t matter how much water I drank, my throat was still as dry as the sand under my feet. I poured the remaining water over my face, hoping for a little relief from the heat. It only lasted a second before my skin had begun to burn again.
“It should be over that dune.” He pointed at a hill in front of us. Taking my hand, he helped me up the incline.
When we reached the top, I gasped. I’d never seen an actual river before. “Seth, how are we going to cross this thing?” My gaze roamed over the width, the pockets of water crashing together, kneading under one another, and splashing into the air. The very thought of stepping foot in that water looked dangerous. On the other side, though, was a large expanse of trees, more than any of the oases I had encountered. I wished we could fly over the water, or better yet, have Seth teleport us over to the safety of the trees. But I knew both of us were still too weak to use any of our magic. We would have to do this the old fashioned way.
Forbidden: an Adult Paranormal Witch Romance: Othala Witch Collection (Sector 12) Page 8