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“No, no it’s not that! It’s just?—”
“You don’t have to explain anything.” Kade turns on his heel and starts stomping away. “ I get it.”
“Kade! I don’t regret it! I like it! I love it! It’s just, it’s so much… And what am I making you forget.” She lets out a groan. “Please don’t go. Please?”
The begging desperation in her tone makes him freeze in place. He can feel her coming closer even before her arms snake around his waist.
“I don’t know what this is, why I’m drawn to you… I’m scared, Kade…”
Kade turns and wraps his arms around her. He rests his chin on the top of her head and closes his eyes with a sigh. “I don’t want you to be scared, Elara. Not ever.”
“Will you walk me back home? It’s dark and I didn’t tell my parents I was going anywhere…”
Kade only nods before he wraps his fingers around her hand and begins to walk back toward her house. They step into the backyard, into the garden her mother planted, and stop under the cover of the large maple tree. He tries to let go of her hand, but she grips it in her other and pulls him close again. He can’t refuse her, his body answers her unspoken question and he seals his lips to hers with a breath of relief.
“Why does this feel so right?” Elara asks as the kiss breaks and she rests her head on his chest.
Kade doesn’t know why, or how to answer.
They both hear the front door open and her mom's voice when she calls her name.
“I have to go,” she says, but she doesn’t pull away.
Kade looks towards her home, where her human parents live. They have no idea the world they truly live in, have no idea what he’s made their daughter. He swallows hard. He never should have let her see him, but for the life of him letting her go now feels like it might kill him.
“Will you stay and watch over me, like you always have?” she asks.
“Always…” Kade says, looking deeply into her eyes before kissing her one last time. He pulls away finally, reluctantly, but in the corner of his eye, he sees the wolf’s bane. “There’s something I can tell you, Elara.”
“Yes?”
The excitement in her voice makes him wince. It’s not something vital, something she wanted to know, but it’s something she needs to know.
“That flower there, the purple one?” he points to it and watches Elara’s face scrunch up in distaste.
“I don’t like that one. It’s pretty, but it burns.”
“It’s wolf’s bane. Highly toxic to our kind. Please, stay away from it. For me?” he brings her hand to his lips and kisses her knuckles gently.
“Why would my mom plant something poisonous?” Elara gasps.
“She probably doesn’t know. Humans don’t know anything about the supernatural world, and that's how it should stay. Elara, your parents…you’ll have to protect them from the truth.”
“I know, I’ll be careful, I?—”
“No, you don't understand. You have a wonderful family, which means you have so much to lose.” Guilt unlike anything he’s ever felt grips his heart and squeezes. He made her the thing he is, the thing that killed his family, the thing that was cursed by the witch. He did this to her, he’s risking everything she holds dear, and for what? For Guy?
Kade drops her hand and turns away.
“When will I see you again?” Elara calls out.
“I’m always here, Elara. I’m always with you.”
Until I won’t be.
The final lines of the prophecy are all that accompany Kade as he walks away. It was a twist he didn’t see coming, but one that intuitively feels right. One that explains everything.
In stone its sheathed, a binding depth,
