She Awakens
Page 18
“Yes… What are you saying? Is your mother alive?”
“Well, she was until about a week ago.” I stop for a second glancing down at the red dry dirt next to me. Then I peek back up to James and say the words, which flipped my world upside down these past few weeks.
“She was Fae, James. I’m part Fae”
James drops me out of his lap, and I tumble hard onto the ground. He jumps up and away from me like I’m contagious; like if he touches me for too long, he might become Fae too. I sit up, stare at him, and plead.
“Please just hear me out James—” I say while putting my hands out like I’m trying to calm a wild animal.
I tell him the whole story exactly as I’d heard it from my Father. I tell him everything that’s happened to me since we last saw each other. Halfway through the story, he sits down against the opposite wall facing me, keeping his distance, making sure our bodies don’t touch. He doesn’t say one word until I am finished with my story. His eyes are as big as dinner plates while I’m talking, but as soon as the story is through, James takes a long breath and glances at me with his soft eyes.
He crawls over to where I’m sitting and wraps his arms around me. “Well, I already promised myself to you so I guess I’ll figure out a way to get past this.” Then he puts his arm around my waist and helps lift me up off of the ground, but as soon as I’m up on my own two feet everything goes dark again.
24
Attina
I’m running away; from what, I have no idea. I see a huge hill in front of me and all I can think is I have to run up this hill, I have to get away.
Up, up, up. The hill turns into an unending mountain. My legs ache and my calves groan against the pressure pushed on them. I just need to make it to the other side of this gargantuan mountain. I can do it. Only a little further—
I wake with a start, my whole body aches and sweat pours off of me. I feel like my insides are too big to fit inside my chest. It’s so dark wherever I am. I’m lying on what I assume is a bed with a pillow under my head and blankets over me. To my shock and embarrassment, I realize I’m only in my underwear. Someone must have put me to bed and undressed me while I was unconscious.
I hear shuffling outside of the room I’m in, and what I assume is a door to my left shakes. I jump out of bed groping for anything I can use to defend myself. It’s too dark in here to see much except the outlines of objects.
Not finding anything, I steel myself for hand-to-hand combat. I think to myself, keep calm Attina, you can do this, you are a warrior. Father trained you for this.
The door creaks open and I throw my hands up, ready for whatever or whoever is about to walk through that door.
First thing I see is the light illuminating from a candle that someone’s hand is holding. I sneak over to the door so when it opens completely, I can be positioned behind it, and behind my attacker. A figure walks through the doorway. I see rounded ears and thick muscle corded arms, so it must be a male human.
I take in a deep, steadying breath of air and throw my punch. My punch lands on the base of the man’s skull. The mystery man falls down to his knees, I can hear the crack of his knees landing against the hard rock floor as the man grabs at his head.
Before he can get up, I have my legs wrapped around his middle and my arm is snatched around his throat in a choke hold Father showed me during one of our training sessions. Then I hear it. A choking sound.
“Attina! It's me, Attina! Let me go!”
It takes a second for those words to sink in. Then the voice finally registers in my mind. With my arms still wrapped around his neck I ask, “James?” The man nods his head a fraction and pats my arm in a defeated gesture. I release him, unhooking my legs from him and I back away.
James kneels on the ground for a minute rubbing at his throat, regaining the breath I stole out of his lungs. The candle James brought into the room is on the ground now, but by some miracle it’s still lit. The metal candlestick holder also didn’t break after falling to the rock-hard ground. So, I step over to the candle and pick it up, leaving James on the ground while he gathers his wits.
I walk around the room with the candle in my hand, checking out my surroundings. The room appears to be cut out of some form of red rock. It appears to be the same rock the canyon Allister and I fought in was made of. There is a wash basin on the wall, across from the door. The bed is on a rock slab cut into the wall. A wardrobe is standing across the room from the bed with my sword leaning up against it. I walk around the small room, but it is only the bare essentials, and windowless, no wonder it was so dark without the candlelight.
By the time I’m done checking out my meager surroundings, James has collected himself and is standing by the now closed door, staring at me. I glance down, only now remembering I’m only in my underwear.
Now James’s hungry, predatory stare reminds me how close to naked I actually am. I throw my hands up, almost burning myself with the candle as I try to cover my body in embarrassment. I don’t want him leering at me like that, it makes me feel like a piece of meat he wants to consume.
James prowls over to me. “Do you remember what happened, Attina?” James says in an oily, wrong voice I’ve never heard leave his lips before.
I back away from James’s approach until my thighs hit the edge of the bed. I stand there with my arms wrapped meekly around my body with what I know is a muddled expression on my face, thinking. How did I get here? What’s the last thing I remember? I remember fighting that Fae, he was taunting me, Allister. He knew I wasn’t technically human. Then I got bit.
I take a deep breath and my glance drifts down to my leg where the Solis bit me. Even in the candlelight I can tell the bite is still extremely red and angry James smirks at me with a menacing grin framing his face. His eyes travel excruciatingly slowly from the bite on my ankle up my body and his gaze sticks to my breasts. I wrap my arms around myself tighter. I hate the way he’s ogling at me. He’s staring at me like I’m his coveted possession.
James cuts in. “You remember now?”.
“Yes James, I remember. Where are we? Where is my horse and why are you looking at me like that?”
“You made it to Sanctuary, and I don’t know where your horse is, but we have your father’s horse here in the stables at the compound. She found us shortly after you passed out in my arms.”
“Sanctuary, so we’re underground.” I instantly feel a wave of claustrophobia at the realization. I take in a deep breath, calming myself and continue, “The compound? What’s that?”
His mouth turns up into a snarl and he prowls over to me slowly, his hands fisted the entire time. “Who’s Allister?” he asks through clenched teeth.
Hearing Allister’s name spit out of his mouth with such venom shocks me.
“How do you know that name?” I say with more alarm and confusion than I want.
“That’s the name you called for when you first woke up after I found you. You called to him like he would save you. You haven’t ever called for me like that before.”
I can hear the anger in his voice and now with him standing right in front of me I can see the anger coating his features. What scares me the most is the unending hatred I can see written in his eyes. The anger making his whole body shake.
“Allister is just someone I met while I was on the road to you.” James stares at me questioningly. I lift my hands and blurt out with more exaggerated force, “He’s no one. I promise. Only the last person I had contact with before being bit.”
James reaches his hands out to caress my arms. I try not to flinch from his touch as his hands strokes me. His caress is soft, dragging down my arms until he gets to my wrists, then he grabs and squeezes my wrists with so much force and anger it feels like he might crush them.
He’s so much stronger than I am even with my Fae blood coursing through me, his rage must be making him inhumanly strong. I try to rip my wrists away but it only serves to make him hang on tighter.
I yell
, “James let me go of me! You’re hurting me.”
His eyes darken as he says in a deep composed voice, “No Attina, you are mine.” He growls.
“James you’re scaring me, what’s going on?” I cry out.
James stares at me with a blank, dark expression on his face. His smile turns into a malicious grin, as he holds onto me tighter.
His voice takes on a deathly cold tone “Attina, you are mine whether you realize it or not. You are mine.”
My mind is running a mile a minute. There are so many questions flipping through my thoughts. Why is he acting like this? Has something happened? Did he change, or was he always like this and I just didn’t see it?
I coo with the most soothing voice I can muster. “Okay James, I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”
At hearing this his shoulders sag like a weight has been lifted and he pulls me into his arms. James whispers in my ear, “You are mine, Attina.”
As he leans his head against my shoulder, I feel my own lower, and the tension I hadn't noticed before, leaves me.
“Yes James, I’m yours,” I reiterate.
James leans over and presses his lips hard to mine. It feels like he’s trying to claim me, and I let him, for now. Whatever I just saw spill out of him scares me. It isn’t the James I know. It is something inhuman.
His kiss deepens as he pushes me back toward the bed as I feel his need for me growing. I get it, he's claiming me, but this is not happening right now.
I sit down on the bed, breaking our kiss and glance up to him.
“I’m really not in the mood tonight.”
His eye’s flash and the craziness from a second ago is slowly coming back before my very own eyes but I push on.
“I’ve had a rough couple of weeks. Can I just rest?” Almost as an afterthought I add, “You can stay and we can cuddle.” I try to force some hopefulness into my voice.
James’ eyes soften. He cups my head gently between his hands.
“Yes of course we can cuddle. You must be exhausted after what you’ve been through. We can always get reacquainted when you’re well and rested up.” His eyes fill with something close to anticipation before softening again.
He pulls back the sheets and lets me crawl in. Then he shucks off his clothes down to his underwear and follows me into bed.
“Go ahead and rest now, you’re safe,” he whispers in my ear.
I’m not sure I believe him, but I am utterly exhausted. I’m completely on edge after what just happened. No matter how much James just scared me, my body knows his and it relaxes almost as soon as James settles in next to me and wraps his arm around my midsection. My eyelids quickly grow heavy, and I fall into a fretful night's sleep.
25
James
As soon as Attina relaxes next to me I feel myself unwind. She’s been through so much, I shouldn’t be acting like this, but I can’t seem to help myself, I’ve been worried about her since the townspeople, and I left Daruk.
When Nathan told me before we left town that Silas took Attina on one last father and daughter camp out, I was livid. I couldn’t believe Silas took Attina away from me without asking. Nathan was able to calm me down, however. He said Silas and Attina would be right behind us and reassured me Silas could take care of them, but obviously that wasn’t true.
Before I stumbled upon Attina on my team's mission, I’d been begging my commander to send a search party to find her, but he consistently shut down the idea. He’d say one rogue person who wasn’t even one of Sanctuary’s citizens didn’t warrant a whole search party. I had even talked to him about it the day I found her.
Then when I found her, I went through every emotion you can think of in those few seconds it took me to realize she was okay. I walked down that small rock corridor and when I laid eyes on her lifeless body, I felt so broken and devastated, like the last bit of me had died away.
My family was taken away from me as a child and there was nothing I could do about it. Then I saw Attina lying there on the ground and I thought I’d lost the last piece of my family forever. I lost my mind for a moment, and started screaming her name over and over.
Right as I was vowing to burn down the world for taking everything I love from me, her chest started slightly rising and falling. When I saw her breathing, I felt the happiest feeling I’ve ever felt in my life; but I was also more scared than I’ve ever been. She has obviously been bitten by the Solis that was next to her. She was coming back to me but was she coming back as Attina or as a Solis creature?
Her eyes focused on me and I knew it was Attina, not a Solis in my arms. As soon as I realized she was still herself, I was so happy I cried out of pure bliss, until she called out for another man.
Who the hell is this Allister?
She said she called his name out because he was the last person she saw before she was bitten but I don’t believe it.
I know Attina better than she knows herself, and she wouldn’t ever call out some random man’s name. The jealous monster, who lives inside me has been scratching at the back of my mind since the moment another man’s name slipped from her lips.
When I saw her tonight the first thing she did was attack me, clad in only her underwear no less. She should have been vulnerable the way I left her in just her underwear, but she attacked me. When I realized she again didn’t need me, the jealous monster just broke out of its cage. There was no turning back after that, but I’m not sorry for it.
She is mine and she obviously needs to be reminded of the fact.
My parents left me, but she doesn’t ever get to leave me. Only the death of her or me will allow either of us to leave. I will die before I let anyone, including her, take my family from me ever again.
As she sleeps, she shakes restlessly. I brush some rogue hairs behind her ear so I can look at her face. I smile as I see how beautiful she is. She’s mine, and finally here in my arms. I can’t believe it.
I know it’s her dream to travel the world and find new adventures, but she's so young, she doesn't actually know what she wants. We will get married and before she knows it we'll have a few kids and those dreams of adventures in far off places will be gone forever. She'll be happy taking care of her family; I know it. Besides she’s kidding herself if she thinks I’m ever going to let her leave. If she thinks I’m ever letting her go back out in such a dangerous world, she has another thing coming.
It’s time for us to settle down, get serious, and become a real family.
Epilogue
Allister
After what’s seemed like months, I’m back in this dark chamber. I walk back into the throne room, and all of Henrik's soldiers’ golden heads turn toward me.
Under my arm, I carry Attina's fascinating bow and quiver set. I’d wanted to grab her sword with the Fae runes on it; she was wielding so inexpertly. But once she got bit by the Solis and killed it, she somehow had the presence of mind to fling her sword away before I got to her. I searched, but I couldn't find where it clattered off to before those humans got close enough for me to lead them to her.
The thought of her throwing it somewhere I couldn’t find it makes me smile. She’s absolutely full of fire.
This bow was obviously made by Fae hands, and after Attina passed out, I was able to smear some of her blood on it. Now, it smells like her. I’m guessing Henrik knows the half Fae’s scent, and hopefully it will be enough to convince Henrik I killed her. It’s not much but I’m hoping he’ll want her dead so badly he’ll just believe me.
Sounds like a lot of hoping in my plan but it’s all I’ve got.
I stop at the foot of the dais and place my fisted hand over my chest as I bow to Henrik, then nod over to my blank-faced mother.
"Is it done?" Henrik’s booming voice fills the room.
"Yes, sire. I’ve brought back her bow. I gutted her and her blood spilled all over it.” I give him a wicked grin, absolutely looking the part of the bloodthirsty, evil, obedient Fae he expects me to be.
I bow again, but keep my feet planted.
"You dare defy me?" Anger rides his booming voice and fire flares in his eyes.
I kneel down on one knee. “Never, but I have one more thing I wish to speak to you about.”
"Then spit it out," his tone bored.
"I may have found a human stronghold." Henrik sits up. I guess I got his attention now.
"You what?" Surprise coating his voice.
“Yes, sire. A human man happened to stumble along after I killed the half-breed. He must’ve known her because he cried, and then took the body with him. I followed him out of curiosity.
He went back to a huge canyon carved out of the earth. I followed him to a dead end where he disappeared into thin air. There must be a hidden door there. If the whispers about a human stronghold are true, that could be where it's located."
Henrik strokes his chin and thinks on what I said for a second before he opens his mouth. “While I find it hard to believe a sizable group of humans could’ve survived unnoticed this long, I don’t like the fact that a human disappeared with the half breed’s body. There is a small chance they could be a threat." He places his head on his fist on the armrest of his throne.
"I want you to investigate and see what you can find. I want reconnaissance Allister, only reconnaissance. Once you’ve gathered enough information, report back directly to me."
"Yes, sire.” I dip my head and rise.
"Take your time. See if you can find out the intricacies of that place, whatever it is. I have faith in you. You will help me crush those humans once and for all."
I bow to him. “Yes, sire. Nothing would make me happier. I will not fail you.” I stand to my full height and with a newfound confidence, I turn and walk out of the room. I’m surprised at how our conversation played out.