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Of course, I remembered how she sobbed into his arms when I first made it back, seeing her heartbreak that at the time had seemed to mirror my own. So, I had no clue what had happened during her time in the past. But whatever it was, it looked just as turbulent as mine had.
“A room would be…” I started to say, when Jared quickly spoke for me,
“I am afraid we will have to decline,” he said interrupting me, making my aunt and myself frown. However, just as she opened her mouth to argue, my uncle turned to face her and said something I couldn’t hear before turning back to Jared.
“But of course, there will be cars at your disposal out the front of the building ready and waiting for you.” Then he jerked a head to Zagan, who was quickly on the phone after first nodding in silent reply to his king. I frowned up at Jared, about to question why he wouldn’t stay here or where he was planning on taking me. But then I saw his strained expression, telling me that I was best to question this when we were alone. Which clearly would be sooner rather than later.
“Thank you. We will return in a few days, I suggest you call a meeting for the Table of Kings.” My uncle nodded at this and told him,
“It will be done, for we have much more to discuss.”
But then Jared looked to me and I couldn’t help but shiver when he said sternly…
“Yes… yes we do.”
9
THE GREEN-EYED SNAKE
Once we had been given the use of a car, I soon found myself alone with Jared on the way to I knew not where. Of course, I had asked, but my only reply had been a short and cryptic,
“You will soon see.”
I also got the impression from Jared that he had a lot on his mind and well, I couldn’t say that I blamed him. There felt like a small lifetime of things to say to each other right now, but neither of us knew where to begin. Time felt like it had unraveled for both of us, and we didn’t even know at which point we needed to start from in hopes of putting it back together again.
Although I knew it was the fear of being separated again. A fear that obviously gripped us both, because Jared rarely stopped touching me during the journey, and doing so only when necessary. Like when needing two hands to drive the Bentley Bentayga, which was a luxury SUV and basically was so plush and expensive, I was scared to touch anything in it other than my seat.
But like I said, I had no idea where we were heading, only that it looked to be as remote as the cabin his brother had given him had been. We had been driving for about an hour and I felt like, in that time, we could have spent it telling each other everything that had happened. We could have covered a lot in the time the journey took us, but it was as if we were each too afraid to ask. Too afraid to share and even more afraid of what the other may discover.
We didn’t even have anyone else in the car to break through the silence because his brother, Marcus, and Asher had taken another car and were going elsewhere… I know this because they hadn’t followed us. But again, I had no idea as to where, I just wondered how that car journey had gone with Asher, who I noticed looked as if he had stepped into some technologically advanced alien world after seeing it. And well, with Marcus as his new tour guide into this unknown time, I couldn’t help but also think once again… the poor bastard.
The only thing Jared had said to Orth had been to give us a few days, whatever that meant. A few days to hash this all out, a few days to reconnect and fuck like bunnies… I had no clue.
I only knew that the silence was killing me, and looking out the window as I watched the world rush by had gotten old about forty-five minutes ago. When finally, after turning down a dirt road that had a private property sign fixed to a tree, Jared asked me the question that must have made it to the top of his list.
“How long were you gone, Ella?” I swallowed hard before telling him,
“In all honesty, I don’t really know. The weeks just seemed to all merge together.” I watched as he stopped the car before closing his eyes as if hating the very idea of this. Even his hand on the steering wheel clenched, making me wonder if the material it was made from was up to the task.
“And what about you, Jared, how long were you gone for?” At this he opened his eyes and turned to look at me, telling me without hesitation,
“A minute without you is a minute too long, so whatever time passed, it was the length of my torture.” I felt every word of this as if it had been whispered over my bare soul, meaning the emotions rose up quickly. I felt tears warp my vision just as I threw myself over the center console and into his arms, shouting,
“Oh Jared!” he held my now shuddering frame to him as the car came to a stop, cupping my head and holding it to his neck where he could feel my tears for himself as they soaked into his skin.
“Only the Gods knew of my pain, Ella,” he whispered down at me, making me lift my watery gaze to his, so I could tell him earnestly,
“No, they didn’t. I felt it too.”
There was so much more I could have said here. About everything I had experienced as well as being honest about his own past. But in the end, he broke the silence and shattered any bravery I was trying to find in order to make the words come out.
“Come on, let’s get you inside,” he said after allowing the moment to pass, and with it my opportunity to say more. I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked to see that we had pulled up outside another cabin, this time one much smaller but no less picturesque.
It was an A-framed structure with the walls made from thick whole logs that were stacked together horizontally. They fit tightly to form the walls, and the theme continued with the wrap around covered porch either side, made from thinner logs. Triangular shaped windows faced us, which no doubt would flood the main living space full of light.
Steps let up to the porch on the right side where I gathered a front door would be.
“What is this place?” I asked after getting out the car the same time as Jared did.
