Uendeligt: An Infinitely Forever Novel

by S King

  Shoving against his hold, I tried to ignore the protest from my internal organs and get away from him. The last thing I needed was to become drunk on his cologne and manly scent. This wasn’t the time for my hormones to go into overdrive and I didn’t want to make a bad situation worse because I wanted something I didn’t want to admit to.

  Just when I was about to bite on his fingers, I finally heard the offender and went still as memories of last year roared through my mind. Deja fucking vu.

  “I think they went this way!” An unfamiliar voice hollered from further outside the cave.

  For whatever reason, I grabbed onto the shards of his shirt and stilled. Even though Shang was mad at me because I was acting like a child. He still—instinctively—protected me against his better judgement. He didn’t like the fact he was teetering on the edges of mortal danger, but still he opted for the high ground of saving my ass when I needed it the most.

  “I don’t know who that is,” he breathed against my hair as the voices grew for a second before fading.

  I mumbled against his hand in response.

  “No, it’s not my guard. My sister had dog tags from a different guard altogether.”

  Again, I asked something that just sounded like a bunch of lunatic gremlins having a picnic.

  His brows twitched for a second before he nodded his head. “We have dog tags to make it appear like we’re normal whenever we’re out during the day.”

  The lucky bastards. Oh sure, people like Talay would have to wear contacts to cover their weird eyes but Shang was naturally tall, buff and downright intimidating. What better profession to choose than the army? His cover story was perfect and sadly, nobody from the civilized side of society would question him.

  Finally, he slowly lowered his hand from my mouth and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Whatever she’s gotten herself wrapped into, it’s hell for us now.” He grumbled, limping away from me back to his original rock.

  “What happened between you two?”

  Some of my defiant fire left me as I realized we were in the same boat. It was times like these where we were forced to work together in order to stay alive. He didn’t like it and I wasn’t necessarily excited about the possibility of having to depend on him to keep me safe. But what other option did either of us have?

  Thanks to his bleeding heart for me—whatever the reason behind it was, I had dragged him into my mess and now we had to figure out a way to get out of it. With a sobering breath and my attention latched onto the hope of finding out more about Shang. I found my own rock to sit on and watched him hold a lighter up to examine his knee.

  “That’s a long story,” he stared blankly at the wall for a minute. His face becoming hard as something flashed within his mind. “Don’t worry about it, just know she isn’t one to trifle with.”

  I had wanted to let the burning questions do just that. Burn. Turn into ash and be done with the subject, but Shang’s resistance to tell me anything made me want to know that much more. Hell I was already halfway dead anyway and forcing his hand about the subject wasn’t going to hurt me any. Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on my knees.

  “Shang,” I cleared my throat, glancing out the cave’s opening. “Listen, I’m not trying to be a bitch—”

  “Then don’t,” he warned.

  I narrowed my eyes on him, “however, your sister is after me with whatever guard she’s working for. I have a right to know what type of new threat I’m facing.”

  “No,” he glared at me from his rock, “you have the right to know when to run and when to hide. What happened between my sister or anyone else for that matter?” He shook his head, “that’s not a necessity.”

  “Oh but you can demand to know who I’m fucking and why I haven’t asked something of the people around me?” I scoffed and gave him a once over, “you’re some piece of work.”

  As I turned to leave the cave and head in any direction away from him, he again bolted from his perch on the rock and grabbed me. Clenching my teeth, I glared at him. Why the hell had I left my whip at Demir’s? All of the back and forth with Shang could’ve been resolved by now and I would be halfway back to Castlehedge. Or somewhere.

  “No, Silver Angel, you’re the piece of work,” with a vice grip on my arm, he jabbed a finger in my face. “The man that you’re destined to be with abandoned you to the dogs. He doesn’t give two rat’s ass about whether you live or die and you’re too fucking stupid to see it for yourself.”

  “Then why do you care so fucking much!” I hadn’t meant to scream. I didn’t know if the guard members were anywhere near the cave. But I wasn’t going to continue to have a pointless conversation with Shang if I could avoid it. Afterall, it wasn’t like he and I shared anything relatively close to be considered friends. But we weren’t enemies either.

  Still, it didn’t matter what our relationship was, Shang could at least give me some insight into what the hell was going on around me when I couldn’t see it for myself. If anything he could steer me in the direction I needed to take in order to avoid death.

  I was just about to tell him as much when he did something that should’ve enraged me.

  Without warning or any hints, he crushed his soft, velvety lips against mine. Pressing me into his chest and some other regions I tried to force my mind to not think about.

  Kissing him back would be wrong. I shouldn’t do this. But the devil on my shoulder—the horny bitch, urged me to live a little. If I somehow got captured then my life was as good as over anyway. So, would I want to live with the reminder of not kissing Shang back when I had the opportunity? No. No, I wouldn’t.

  So, listening to my devilish side, I tossed all of my inhibitions away and kissed him back. I didn’t know how, but my hands had found their way up his chest and over his shoulders before digging into the flesh on the back of his neck.

  This wasn’t like kissing Demir—or anyone else. Shang was a completely different breed of man and seemed to have me figured out no matter how I tried to keep my internal thoughts at bay. Maybe this was destiny’s way of telling me it was time to move on from Demir. Start over in Springcrest where I knew only Shang and Fefe. Where I could try to find myself again and live the way I wanted to.

  There’d be no rules, obligations or threats about death, orders, and sects breathing down my neck. At the thought, I kissed Shang harder only to realize one very important thing. He was a hell of a kisser, but he wasn’t the man I had wanted to spend the rest of my nights with. He wasn’t the one I saw myself growing old with. Dying with. And with just that thought alone, I broke the kiss first and looked away from him for a second.

  When we pulled apart, Shang’s hand remained on my back. There was a heartbeat of silence filling the space around us and I’d admit, the warmth coming from his body was soothing at best. But when I looked at him, prepared to tell him this was the last time we’d ever come into this kind of situation I paused. A furrow came over his brow as I stared at him with his eyes closed. As if he were debating with himself about what he should do next.

  “You’re addictive,” he finally whispered.

  “Ok?” I couldn’t decipher where the calmness pushing out of him came from and wasn’t about to thank him for a compliment when it was really meant to be an insult.

  In the blink of an eye, he punched out his hand and hit the wall of rock behind me. Slowly, Shang opened his eyes and stared at me. A burning rage of distrust and something more sinister dancing in the black pools that swallowed me whole every time I looked in them.

  “It’s disgusting.”

  “What?” If I had a place to step back, I’d have done it by now. But with his body caging me in against the wall, I had nowhere to go.

  “Your nerve, drive, everything, Luminous. It’s purely disgusting.”

  I was beyond shell-shocked. I could count the number of times I had been speechless in my lifetime on one hand. But to hear Shang tell me that my desirable qualities were more like pitf
alls, I had no words to shoot his way.

  “Hear me clearly when I tell you this,” something flickered in his eyes turning them nearly wild. But it was his voice that put the fear of god within my bones. “Demir isn’t coming to save you, and neither is your guard. Forget Castlehedge and everything that has to do it.”

  At the mention of everyone I ever cared for being forgotten I had found my strength. I was not going to forget Karina or my sister’s grave site. Everything else was understandable, just not those two.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Shang Wylan.”

  “Do you honestly think anyone in their right mind is going to come save you from the Regal Guard’s clutches?”

  I smirked, seeing Karina throwing Russian Hearts at her targets. Karina had never been in her right mind since day one, so I knew I had at least one person standing in my corner. Focusing my attention on Shang, I hissed.

  “It’s a good thing I have a family of people not within their right minds then.”

  He scoffed, staring at me for a second longer before motioning to the cave entrance. “Be my guest and see how quickly you’re found.”

  I didn’t care for a challenge given the circumstances. But if Shang were determined to prove me just how useless my family—family being Karina, was. Then so be it.

  Straightening my back and kicking my chin up in defiance, I marched to the entrance. Only to stop when a thought occurred to me.

  “You said nobody who was in my corner was within their right mind, correct?”

  “Not in so many words, but sure,” he went to sit back down on his rock but kept his eyes locked on mine.

  “Then what does that make you?”

  §§§§§

  I ripped the dingy hat from my head and fell into the chair sitting in front of the bathroom of the motel room. Stealing a homeless person’s clothing was sketchy on a good day, but given the circumstances? Well, call me Doodle Bob because I needed to focus on me.

  For whatever reason I had shoved my wallet in my pants along with my cellphone before I left Demir’s house nearly a week ago. Sure, I was thankful for the monetary way of life. And I could call Karina if I became stupidly desperate for some form of human contact. However, as the storm clouds rolled in and thunder rumbled from above, I clamped down the urge to call my sister.

  In truth, I had put everyone in enough danger and wasn’t trying to add to it. If I had known then what I knew now, I’d change everything. But time couldn’t be turned around and flipped backward. The only thing I could do was move forward and not look back.

  Crossing the floor of the small room, I opened the curtains and sank into the window seat. What the hell was I going to do now? Karina had her life and obligations back in Castlehedge. Demir couldn’t be trusted for shit. And thanks to his association with the latter, I couldn’t turn to Dristan.

  “Good job, Luminous.” I breathed and dropped my head back on the wall as the first fat raindrops fell.

  Sitting here feeling sorry for myself wasn’t smart. Not to mention it wasn’t going to solve anything when it came to the current state of things. Deciding to turn my heart icy cold. I came up with a shoddy battle plan. One where my actions would end all of this and release me to a life of freedom. But first I needed to hear my sister’s voice.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Karina laughed under her breath as the distant sound of a bomb floated through the phone.

  “I fell down a hill and ran into Shang.”

  “Ok graceful, are you ok?”

  “Yeah, hey, have you ever heard of the Regal Guard?”

  There was a pause followed by another explosion, “no. Who is that?”

  “I don’t know,” I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. The last thing I was going to do was involve Karina in my war. Even though she’d gladly welcome the challenge.

  “Lumi, what’s wrong? I mean,” she sighed, mumbling under her breath about wanting someone to just die. “Outside of the obvious.”

  I flicked the idle tear away as the rain kept pounding against the window. “I’m just tired.”

  “Yeah ok. Try someone else with that, did you forget who you were talking to?”

  I smirked, turning my back to the window, “if the tables were turned. What would you do in my situation?”

  “Blow everyone up.”

  “Karina.”

  “What? You asked, I answered.”

  “Facts.”

  “Do you want the honest truth or do you want something to settle your nerves?”

  “The truth, preferably.”

  “You need to get rid of anyone who is within power and has a vendetta against you. Only then will you be able to get away from all of this.”

  “And how am I supposed to do that, Rina?”

  “Stick of dynamite, couple packs of C4 and a whole lot of gunpowder.”

  I snorted taking in her advice. She was right. The best option in order to make it out of the scientists’ and the judges’ sights would be to put them in the ground. But the problem was simple. Outside of Sadvidge, I didn’t know who was behind wanting me strapped on a table and who was forcing the other judges to call the shots.

  In theory, Karina’s plan was the best one. But in reality, I’d have one hell of a time trying to take out every single person who wanted my head on a platter.

  “Look Lumi, I know you’re tired of fighting and having to run for your life—” another explosion rocked through the phone before she continued. “But you need to know there’s no safe way out of it without a lot of bloodshed and you coming back long enough to handle it.”

  I knew she was right, had convinced myself of the same thing. Yet and still, however, I was getting worn down with all of the fighting to the death and hiding from people who were just following orders. Maybe this was a way for me to pay for my karma. All of the death I had dealt out in the past was finally coming back to me.

  Rubbing a hand over my face, I stared at a black patch on the carpet.

  “Has there been any new whispers on the street?”

  She grumbled something, obviously rigging up a new bomb for her next set of victims. Leave it to Karina to multitask while handing down her own version of justice.

  “Well, there’s—” Something moved in the shadows, forcing my senses to kick in as she was confronted with her own surprise attack.

  Spinning around, I narrowed my eyes on the scene resting outside my window.

  “I’ll call you back.”

  Without giving her a chance to respond, I hung up the phone got off the window seat. Instinctively I scanned the room for anything that could be used as a weapon. If my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me then someone was watching me from the shadows outside. Who it was, was up for debate but right now, I needed something to protect myself with.

  The figure moved again, this time closer to the window. As the shadow grew darker on the floor, I mentally tried to tell myself this was not how it was going to end. I was in Ravendowager with no connections, weapon, or a hint of how to get back to Castlehedge. If my life couldn’t get any better, I thought to myself as I made another quick scan of the room for anything that could be used as a weapon.

  Well, if this was how things were going to end for me. I might as well go out with a bang and nothing less. Grabbing the vase from the desk, I spun around prepared to launch the thing through the glass. Yet, when I tried to lock my sights on the person coming for me. There wasn’t anything or anyone there.

  “What the hell,” I breathed. Frowning, I took a cautious step forward and took the chance to look out the window.

  Only the rain and a few abandoned cars filled the small parking lot. But nothing more seemed out of the ordinary. Maybe a deer here and there but nothing of any threat to me. Had I just imagined all of it? It wouldn’t be unheard of. Afterall, I was under an unmeasurable amount of stress and not getting enough sleep could force the mind to produce things that weren’t really there.

  I sat
the vase down on the desk and shrunk in the corner. Away from the windows, away from the door. All the while, thinking about how I had become a shell of my former self. I was no longer a feared sect leader who handed down orders granted to me by OE. I couldn’t walk the streets in either day or nighttime and arrogantly think nothing could harm me. Those days were long gone and what was worse? I’d be a liar to say I didn’t miss them.

  I crossed my arms on top of my knees and tried to breathe through the pain pulsing in my ribs. Before all of this mess with Demir, the courts and the magical guards happened, I could get healed by one of Silver’s healers and go on about my business. But not now.

  No, now I didn’t any options or someone to depend on when it came to my injuries. The only thing I could do was make sure not even the smallest of traces was left within the room. On the plus side, as long as I didn’t move too much, the wound would eventually clot and some of the pain would ebb to nothing more than a dull ache.

  Resting my chin against my forearms, I stared at a blank spot on the carpet. Thinking about how the mighty Luminous River had fallen so far.

  “Crumbling reality isn’t it?” I jumped at the new voice and whipped my head around to see who was in the room with me.

  “Talay?”

  She stepped from the shadows and smirked at me. Her strange eyes nearly glowing in the faint light coming from the windows. Had my body been up to par I’d have attacked her with the intent of killing her. But this was the end of the line for me, and like her question had caught me off guard. It had also forced me to agree with her.

  My current situation was a crushing reality and there wasn’t one fucking thing I could do in this second to change it.

  “To answer your unasked question,” she pointed to the ceiling. “You really should’ve chosen a better location to hide out.”

  Following her finger, I cursed my lucky stars. She had gotten in through the shabby tiled roof. Of course, I hadn’t checked the roof. Somewhere in my mind I had thought—for a second—nobody would think I would be in a motel. Nobody would waste the time to crawl through the ventilation system just to get me. I had made a rookie mistake and now I was having to deal with the downfall. Great. Just great.