AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But it was too late.
My mother slipped from my grip and plummeted toward the rocks—a mocking smile planted on her face. As if she knew I would never save her. As if my failure was expected.
No!
Her face disappeared behind the misting spray of the waterfall…
“Mother!” I screamed, startling awake. Sweat dripped down my spine as I straightened, wiping the crusted drool from my cheek.
I took in the half-finished drawing in front of me.
The abrupt awakening left me disoriented, my head clouded, with the lingering echoes of the dream—the waterfall—still clinging to the edges of my consciousness.
“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, jumping out of the chair. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”
Racing to the wardrobe, I ransacked the drawers for my trial attire, turning my chambers into something resembling a pig pen. I couldn’t believe I’d slept in.
Talon would be here any minute to escort me to the trials, and I wasn’t remotely ready. If he were to find out I stayed up all night drawing, he might rethink letting me keep the parchment. There was also no telling the extent he’d punish me during training—a hundred and fifty push-ups would be child’s play.
A knock on the door sounded, and I jumped.
“I’ll be out in a second!” I yanked and stretched the fabric until I got it past my knees, squatting, and thrusting to get them to my thighs, but they wouldn’t budge. Between the nightmare and the possibility of being late to the trial, the thin layer of sweat that coated my skin made putting on clothes impossible.
“Let’s go, Elowyn, you’re pushing the message we’re trying to send.” Talon’s velvet timbre sounded from behind the mahogany doors, and I tripped, my arms straining to tighten the vest behind my back. “King Harkin will have your neck if you’re not in this hallway in twenty seconds.”
Tugging on my boot, I hopped to the door and opened it to reveal an annoyed Talon leaning against the frame. Good.
“Sorry about that. Girl stuff.” I wiped the sweat off my flushed neck.
“Is that so?”
“Mhm.”
He sucked his teeth. “I see. Do you mind?”
“Mind what?” I rested a forearm against the wall as I pulled on my other boot.
Talon outstretched his hand—his fingers grazing my temple, and I held my breath. “Your tardiness would have nothing to do with this, would it?” He held out a charcoaled smudged finger.
I laughed nervously, thinking of a reason that’d be on my face, however, the only thing that came out was a string of incoherent sentences. “Huh! Strange. Oh well. We need to get a move on it, right?”
Talon stepped in front of me, blocking my path, and I crashed into his firm body, engulfed by his warm scent and strong arms.
His hand met my waist, keeping a respectable distance between us. It did nothing to quell the way my skin burned under his touch. He drank me in, his gaze running down my body like a pair of gentle hands, and I shifted under the weight of his gaze, feeling meek and hyperaware of every inch of my body. There was never any doubt about how handsome he was. How strong. Lethal. Yet, those things never caused me to yield to him before. The golden flakes in his irises never caused me to falter in his presence. If anything, it irritated me.
But that look? That look was like drinking sunshine.
“Careless to stay up all night coloring, no?”
My body went rigid, but I kept his gaze, hyperaware his hand was still on my waist. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No?” He poked his head into my chambers, clicking his tongue when he saw the parchment and charcoal still splayed out on the table. “If you won’t take this seriously, I suggest you speak up now.”
I clenched my teeth but said nothing.
“I didn’t think so. Are you ready?”
“Of course,” I lied, “there’s nothing else I’d rather do than chance death first thing in the morning.” I pulled my arm away, and slipped past him, needing nothing more than to put as much distance between us and whatever that twinkle of longing was before it caught up to me.
