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“What the fuck was that? You’re making decisions behind our backs now?” Wilder snarled out and I wasn’t surprised he spoke first. My visions had waivered between him or Madden being the first.
As if on cue, Madden followed up immediately. “We’re fighting. No fucking way am I staying behind.”
Both continued to curse at me, Eli glaring as well, until finally I cut in. I wanted them to get their anger out but if I didn’t stop them at some point they would go on for hours.
“I didn’t make this decision lightly. And Isawwhat your reaction would be, hence why I made the decision without you. But those creatures out there are deadly. And right now, we’re in a new place with a very shaky foundation of leadership. What do you think will happen to our people if all four of their new leaders are killed?” I sternly looked each of them in the eye, hoping my words would seep into their brains and they would understand where I was coming from.
We all had to make choices. And some were worse than the others.
“Halley wouldn’t stay behind.” Eli’s quiet words broke through the tense silence and everyone turned to stare his way.
He had broken the unspoken rule of the last four months. We all thought about Halley. Hell, half my dreams were of holding her in my arms, all the things we missed out on because I had my head up my ass for too long. And yet, we didn’t speak about her. We pretended like she wasn’t missing, like there wasn’t a gaping hole in each of our souls where she used to reside.
“And she won’t want to return to a world where everyone close to her is dead either.” I spit out before storming out of the room, knowing all I would see would be disbelief on their faces.
Because if Eli broke the unspoken rule, I crossed the line. Speaking of her was bad enough, but uttering the existence of hope that she would return to us? Simply futile. And yet, I held onto the hope anyways, knowing it was the only thing getting me through each and every day.
Shaking my head from those thoughts, I strode down the dark corridor, headed towards the room I shared with the other three Heirs. Turning the corner that led to the east section of the castle, a figure stood in the shadows, halting me in my movements. Rarely anyone came back this way during the day since there were only bedrooms down this hall.
“Can I help you?” I questioned, trying to vision on who stood before me, but something blocked my power. Something I was all too familiar with.
A lithe voice spoke up, tinted with immense power I had never felt before.
“No but I can helpyou.”
Chapter Four
Halley
After my night among my enchantment, I woke up restless. Staring in the mirror in the bathroom, I took in my appearance. Dark bags adorned my eyes, my hollow cheeks straining against my too pale skin. And my eyes, once alight with fire as Madden loved to tell me, were now dull, still reflecting my inner feelings as they did before.
Turning away from the misery staring back at me, I began to trudge down the stairs, the wind shaking the walls of the dorm. The temperature must have dropped overnight, the cold seeping through the walls and sending a chill up my spine. I wondered if more snow had fallen and crept towards the window, intending to look outside, when a loud banging started on the door.
I knew who it was, there was no one else, and yet for a moment my heart leapt, wondering if it was someone else. Stupid fucking heart; it needed to get in line with our reality. Switching my path, I headed towards the door, opening it and blankly staring at Jay. My shield was strong and I knew that he couldn’t enter, or even touch me, even with the door open.
“What do you want?” My voice sounded dead to my own ears. I couldn’t bring myself to care though. This man deserved no emotion from me anymore.
“The power is out in every building. The storm that came through last night took it all out. Since you built the shield, I can’t leave for help.” Jay responded and I took in the scene more closely with his words.
He seemed to be telling the truth, the wind whipping through the air harder than before and at least an extra foot of snow sitting atop the already accumulated blanket. Jay’s nose and ears were bright red and I could see his body wracking with shivers every few moments.
My two consciouses battled internally, debating on what to do. On one hand, I didn’t care what happened to him. If he froze to death, it meant one less person wandering the grounds and invading the peace I desperately craved and yet evaded me so easily. On the other hand, I didn’t want to be a cruel person. I didn’t want to leave him out in the cold when I had a fire running inside, keeping me warm.
Finally, I came to a decision, knowing that I could protect myself, and lowered the shield, stepping back so that he could step in. Once his foot stepped over the entrance, I turned my back to him, going to the common area and taking up my position on the couch.
Jay sat on the loveseat, and I couldn’t help but frown, his presence ruining the façade I had been clinging too. No one had sat there since the others had been gone. I saw his mouth open, as if he was readying to speak, but even though I had let him into my space, I refused to listen to his bullshit.
“If you speak, I’ll kick you right back out into the cold.”
My words were harsh but they seemed to do their job as Jay’s mouth slammed closed. And then we sat there, father and daughter, the silence of the last twenty years strangling me nearly as much as the loss I constantly felt.
???
For several hours my threat worked. But apparently, Jay wasn’t skilled in the silent game. To my dismay, he began speaking, and either he was ignorant to how I felt or just plain stupid, as the first thing he brought up was my mother.
“You truly look just like Lenora. When I first saw you, I almost believed she was still alive.” Jay’s words held no remorse and I couldn’t help but spit venom back at him.
“Easy to believe considering you were the one who planned to kill her.”
