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Damien looked back to me, and I smiled weakly. “I’m okay, really,mea sol.”
Damien rubbed the bridge of his nose, taking a deep controlled breath. “Never again. Promise me, Cas.”
“I won’t push myself like that again, I promise.”
He stood there a moment, staring into my eyes before he eased a little, letting out a deep breath. “Thank you, Johnson. You’re dismissed.” Johnson bowed his head before returning to his work. “Can you stand?” he asked, glancing back to me.
I nodded, pushing myself up. I felt stable enough and the pain had begun to fade. Thankfully, I’d pulled out of his mind when I did, or the recoil could have been far more severe. A part of me grew worried, thinking about Selene’s warning, knowing the impact my powers would inevitably have on my body.
Her body will not be able to handle the powers at their peak. They will destroy her.
Selene was right. I didn’t have much time left. I wanted to cry. I still had so much to learn.
Even with my limited time, if I could help Damien destroy the darklings, that would be enough for me, just to know he would be safe when I left this world. He, however, was going to find out sooner or later at this point. I wasn’t ready for that though.
I wasn’t ready for our time together to end.
26
Istared up at the ceiling of our bedroom. Our bedroom. It would take a while for that reality to not leave butterflies in my stomach. My cheeks heated when I remembered how Damien had pressed me against the hallway wall at the complex the night before, remembered the things Damien said he wanted to do to me inour bed.
My heart raced in my chest, and I shifted to my side, eager to distract myself from those thoughts. I checked the time on the wall clock. It was nearly one in the morning.
It had been almost four hours since Damien and the others had gone patrolling for darklings. Only Vincent remained downstairs, having been put on standby to guard the house while I rested. I was supposed to be sleeping and recuperating to resume training tomorrow, but that wasn’t going well. I desperately wanted to continue.
The drawings from my childhood lay scattered across the floor. I’d spent the last few hours trying to distract myself by reading the book I’d loaned Damien, but I couldn’t sit still long enough to get into it. Not while Damien was out there fighting. Was he fighting a darkling at this very moment?
I took the time to comb through my childhood drawings my mother had given me, finding drawings of memories that had been nothing but dreams just a few days prior. I recognized so many of them, numerous drawings with black masses that resembled darklings. Maybe there was something in here that could help us.
In my hand was a drawing of a huge hall with people dancing in gowns, the colors resembling the celebration with Moira I’d seen through Damien’s eyes. I rose, eyes scanning over the mess of doodles for anything that looked like it may involve Damien, the darklings, or the immortals.
Nothing particularly stood out to me.
My frustration grew, and I flopped back onto the foot of the bed, unsatisfied. There was so much I wanted to know. I wanted to know everything Lucia, Elena, and Moira knew, to know how to defeat the darkling leader. It had been done before. How did they do it? How helpful it would be to have my memories back in full. I could be more useful.
I raked my fingers through my hair, folding my legs beneath me as I settled onto the mattress. I wondered if I could use my abilities to tap into the memories of my past lives. Maybe it would be easier to access my own mind than others? Damien had told me it’s easier when you’re grounded by touch. No better grounding than yourself, right?
The darkling leader had been destroyed before, and I was curious about the last time she’d existed. Damien had called the war they’d fought, The Fall of Kingdoms. That was during Lucia’s time. Maybe I could get some more information from her; anything that could help at this point would be worth it.
I took one last deep breath, relaxing my body as I let the air leave my lungs. Closing my eyes, I focused on myself. Lucia, focus on Lucia. Like a target, I honed in on her, and nothing else, before diving deep into my own consciousness.
The air around me grew warmer, the humidity thick against my skin. The smell of damp earth filled my nose, and I opened my eyes. It must have been a new moon, for the darkness that surrounded me was thick. Dirt and rocks pressed into my knee as I crouched low against the ground, hidden from something. Adrenaline pumped through me in fear and anticipation. I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was. The warm air led me to believe it was summer, and we were deep in the woods, wherever we were.
“Don’t be a hero, Lucia. You can’t push yourself like you’re used to. You have to pace yourself now,” Damien whispered, hidden at my side. He didn’t look at me, eyes scanning the darkness for something, but his jaw was tight as he spoke. His eyes briefly drifted to me, unable to mask the worry in his eyes. “Take it slow and stay with us,mea luna.”
“If I see the daughter of Matthias. I’m taking her down, Damien.”
Who was the daughter of Matthias?
“We’ll do it together,mea luna. I understand how you feel.”
I paused, feeling the life growing inside me. Our child, our daughter, so small that I couldn’t yet feel her movements, but I felt her presence, her energy within me. “I’m sorry,mea sol. I just want to be done with it already. I can’t sleep thinking about trying to bring Emilia into a world where these creatures roam freely, mutilating our—”
The subtle sound of a branch snapping behind us ended our conversation. We twisted around, eyes darting around in the darkness. I stopped breathing, hand going to the hilt of my sword.
The tree groaned, leaves scattering to the ground, and my eyes shot up. From within the pitch, I could just barely make out a creature unlike any I’d ever seen, hidden in the darkness. It was perched on a large branch, and it leapt down to the ground. Terror flooded me at the sight of it.
The beast stood up to its full height of nearly eight feet as its lips curled back, baring long, serrated teeth down at us. A low, feral, growl rippled from its throat as its head dropped low.
