AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I frowned but knew she was right. This was all happening because of me. I was putting everyone in danger. Finally, I nodded.
“We are going to have to move very quickly. Try your best to keep up, but let me know if I’m moving too fast.” I dipped my head in understanding.
“Ok. Let’s go.” She said, and I followed her down the street as we ran for our lives.
44
My mind kept going to absurd, desperate ways to solve the problem in front of us. All of the emergency reactions that had been drilled into my head since I was a child kept leaping to the front of my mind, only to be immediately shot down by the reality of the situation.
The reality was we were on our own. There was no one to save us. We could only save ourselves. I was in the cotton shorts and beer-branded t-shirt I normally slept in. I had been too dazed to heed Conrad’s warning to change when I had woken up. Unlike Clair, I hadn’t even had the foresight to put on shoes, and my bare feet slapped on the sidewalk as we ran.
Unlike the time I had forced myself to run with Rycon, I seemed to be tireless. I didn’t feel the tiny stones that bit into the soles of my feet. Adrenaline was keeping me going, and I felt like I would never stop.
We turned onto Cornwall and were sprinting full force towards River Street. Clair spoke into my mind, not bothering to waste breath calling out to me.
‘I know a safe place we can go until we can figure out what our next move is. We’re almost there.’ I nearly sobbed with relief. We were going to be ok. We were going somewhere safe. We were going to make it.
We peeled across Cornwall and even this late, there were taxis ready to honk at our reckless jaywalk. We hit the other side of the street and all but skidded into Oak Street Park. The slight patch of grass that it was, seemed like a tiny sanctuary and I felt myself relax as my toes touched the springy sod.
Then, up ahead, what looked like a swarm of bees began to crowd into a dark shape. Under one of the glowing, golden lanterns, one by one, the dark specs joined together to build the outline of a man. The way he was standing as he fully materialized with his back to us, reminded me of Amon. Was it Amon?
Clair ground to a halt in front of me, throwing her hand out to catch me in the chest as I almost stumbled past her.
“Don’t move.” She hissed, her voice catching in what could only be fear. The dark shadow of the man slowly turned to face us, before stepping into the light. It wasn’t Amon.
“Hello, Clair.” Kieran said, his voice coated in familiarity. I froze. My blood turned to ice in my veins as I looked into the face of my waking nightmare.
“Out for a stroll?”
To anyone else, it would have seemed as if Clair was smiling, but to me, it was more of a baring of teeth.
“Kieran.” She said, her voice lower than I’d ever heard it.
“Kieran?” He asked, mock surprise in his voice. He took a casual step towards us. He was still wearing his modest suit. His hands were in his pockets, as if he were indeed ‘out for a stroll.’ The sickly rumble of his aura told me otherwise. The aura that he had hidden from me in Mr. Abbey’s house. He wasn’t hiding anymore.
His kind face was sharper somehow, his grey eyes flashed in the dimly lit park. “Is that anyway to greet your father?”
I turned to Clair, my eyes so wide I felt as if they might fall right out of my head. That was why he had seemed so familiar. His kind grey eyes, his dark blond hair...
“Mom…” I started, but she held a hand up, silencing whatever else I had to say.
‘Do not say anything in front of him. You will only give him ammunition.’ She warned in my mind, and I hoped that Kieran couldn’t hear.
“Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Clair. I expected more of you. Out here in the middle of the night, running around with this... half-breed. ” He nearly spit out the last word, as if it were a malediction.
“I pray to the goddess that you don’t sit up at night wondering why I emancipated myself from you, when you continue to conduct yourself as such a close-minded bigot! ” Clair snapped. Her voice shook, but the hand that she still held up, guarding me from him, never wavered. My mind was reeling. Emancipated ? Slowly, the realization dawned on me. Clair was the Nightshade whose emancipation triggered my supernatural birth. How was it that she had come to adopt me? I was dizzy. This was too much.
Kieran was unhurried as he walked toward us, almost as if he were savoring every moment.
“You had so much potential, Clair. I had planned to groom you for leadership. You could have been my successor.” He took another easy step forward, his hands still in his pockets, a sickly grin on his wicked face.
The power that reverberated through Clair made me catch my breath. The light that emanated from her, beat back the thick, suffocating energy that pulsed toward us as Kieran advanced.
“I never wanted it. I never wanted anything that you had planned for me, father .” She said ‘father’ with the same disdain that he had said ‘half-breed’, as if it were a disgusting word. As if it was revolting for her to apply that term to the likes of him.
“You ruined my childhood, and you took my adolescence from me. I will not let you do the same to my family .” She snarled. There was no other word for it. The raw pain in her voice and the ferocious desire to protect the ones she loved made my throat tighten. Kieran just smiled, now only a few paces away.
“We’ll see about that,” He sneered, and without any other warning, he fired a bolt of lighting at us. I screamed and ducked; but Clair reacted instantly, her right foot fell back behind her and her left leg bent. she held both hands forward and absorbed the bolt without flinching. Electricity jumped around her, sizzling the grass and singeing both of our hair.
