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She nodded.
“Yes,” I said in a breathy sigh. He’d surpassed my expectations a long time ago. His strength not only sent my heart into a rapid ocean of lust, but it made me trust him. “I don’t think there is one thing he can’t do. I just think he needs to believe in himself first.”
Fern smiled at me when I felt his eyes crawling over me. I looked up to see him staring at me. His forearm rested against the trunk of the tree, and his gaze was heavy. His dirty blonde hair was pushed from his face showcasing his handsome features.
I was sure no illustrator in a book could capture just how perfect he was. Most of the drawings were of his side profile and didn't hold a flame to the real thing.
I didn’t dare look away. I hoped he saw the confidence that I had for him. The trust I had that he could save this realm, save me, and bring Deidamia down to Hell, where she belonged.
Ernest decided we needed to get closer to the Dark Woods, since Deidamia needed to be killed in her dragon form. I saw her over the woods a few times while I was in my dream state.
She was large. I couldn’t imagine how Kellan would kill something so big. We had no idea when she turned or how long she stayed that way, but we had to get close to kill her.
Kellan was oddly distant most of the day. When night fell, we set up camp in a clearing in the middle of the woods. I’d camped many times with my father growing up, but this time, my entire body was full of nerves.
Kellan started a campfire as we ate the remains of our bread. The feeling of someone watching me had become normalized, so when I heard Deidamia’s crow land on the branch above me, I didn’t flinch.
“Who wants to sing?” Fern asked.
Kellan shot her a look from across the fire, and Ernest did the same. Fern sat back against her tree and shrugged at me.
“It was worth a shot, Fern,” I said.
Kellan’s heated stare sliced through me across the fire. I met it, knowing seeing his village had brought up buried trauma.
When he stood and gestured for me to follow him, I was surprised. I dusted off my clothes and followed him several yards into the woods.
The moonlight did enough to give me a path through the trees. Kellan stopped abruptly and interlaced his fingers on the back of his head.
I stopped next to him, looking to see how far away we were from the others.
“I know you believe in me,” he said, his voice gravelly from silence. “But I don’t want you to have false hope.”
My brows pulled down in confusion. “You don’t think you can do it?”
Kellan slid his tongue over his teeth. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying that if I don’t succeed ... I-I don’t want you to mourn me like I did my family.”
I bit my bottom lip and attempted to keep my emotion in check. Kellan didn’t believe in himself because he’d failed before. Because Deidamia was powerful, and he didn’t see his power.
I shifted as a chilly breeze slithered down my spine. “Kellan—”
He stepped back and shook his head. “Promise me that you will move on.”
It hurt me to think my soulmate didn’t see a future with me. That he imagined himself dying at the hands of Deidamia.
“I promise,” I whispered, not knowing if it was something I meant or not.
It felt like acid coming out of my mouth.
Kellan nodded and looked down at the ground.
“Why don’t you think you can do this?”
He looked back up with a heated stare. His chuckle was humorless and harsh. “Have you not seen anything that’s happened the last several days? Heard the stories? We’re going off a storybook, Josephine. We don’t know that I’m supposed to do this. We’re doing this because I look like a cartoon drawn in a book that was written however many years ago. It’s absolutely absurd. I-I’m not sure I’ll make it out, and I need you to be prepared. If I don’t make it out, you run. Follow Ernest. Follow Fern. Hide. You do whatever it takes to get back home.”
I wasn’t able to hold back the tears in my eyes. I felt myself grow angry at his acceptance of failure.
My bottom lip trembled as he glared at me without any empathy.
