I want to go to sleep, not only my powers can recharge, but so I’ll stop stressing out about everything for a bit. I also want to take a break from the hunger humming under my skin. Although, that did dim down a notch when Porter walked out of the room.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Sky, can I come in?” Foster says through the shut door.
I push up on my elbows. “Yeah.”
The door creaks open and Foster walks in, tugging his fingers through his hair as he peers around the room and then at me. He looks nervous and the link is flowing with anxiety.
“Are you okay?” I ask as he slowly crosses the room toward me.
He nods, pausing at the side of the bed before climbing onto it and lying down beside me. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine.” He rolls onto his side, facing me, and his eyes skim across my face. “It’s you I’m worried about. All of this… It’s a lot to take in.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assure him, chewing on my bottom lip. “But you seemed upset when you left the room earlier and I’m worried about you.”
“I was just struggling to process all of this.” He traces my cheekbone with his fingertip. “I’m fine now, though. I understand why the link needs to stay the way that it is.”
I shake my head. “No, you’re not fine. I can tell.
A exhale eases from his lips. “No, but I’ll be eventually. It might take some time, though, but I’ll get there. ”
I nod as if I understand, but I’m uncertain if I fully do. “Maybe if you talk about it, I can help make you feel better,” I say through a yawn.
A small, sad, heartbreaking smile touches his lips. “You do make me feel better just by being here.”
If that line had come from Easton, I would’ve teased him about being a player, but it sounds more genuine coming from Foster.
“Are you tired?” he asks when I yawn again.
I shake my head, but my eyelids lower, contradicting my words. “No, I’m totally awake. I promise… We should… talk… more.”
He smooths my hair out of my face. “You should get some rest. Your powers will recharge more quickly if you do.”
I shake my head from side to side as my eyes shut. “I want to talk to you more… I’m worried about you. You seem upset… And I felt anger through the link…”
“I’ll be fine,” he assures me as he slips his hand underneath my neck. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up and we can talk some more.”
As he kisses my forehead, I cuddle closer to him. “Maybe just a quick nap…” Sleepiness starts to overtake and I start rambling about my worries. “Fost… I don’t want to have to… become… like Porter…”
I feel him tense, then he whispers, “I promise you won’t ever have to.”
Nodding, I give in to my exhaustion, drifting off to sleep…
“Hello, my queen,” Darkness voice immediately fills my head. “I may not be able to see you when you’re awake, but we’ll always have your dreams.”
Dammit, for some reason I thought since he couldn’t touch me while I was awake that he wouldn’t be able to communicate with me when I was asleep.
“Leave me alone!” I shout, trying to make my eyelids lift open, attempting to force myself to wake up back up.
His laughter fills my head as darkness takes over my vision. “You never used to talk to me like that. Living with the humans has turned you into an ungrateful brat.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whisper shakily, my heart pounding in my chest. “I don’t… I don’t know you.”
“You don’t?” he whispers in my ear.
The veil of darkness lifts from my vision, revealing a world full of towering, grimy buildings surrounded by a wasteland of ash and covered by a polluted sky.
“What is this place?” I whisper.
Deep down, though, I feel as though I know the answer.
“Don’t you remember?” darkness purrs in my ear. “This used to be your home before you helped me destroy it.”
“This is Elemental,” I whisper, shaking my head as tears burn in my eyes. “But I didn’t do this.”
“Yes, you did, my little power source. You are the cause of it. You are the power that ruins lands—that destroys everything you touch,” he whispers. “You’ve done it once and you’ll do it again. Together, we’ll destroy all the worlds.”
“I didn’t do this,” I whisper in horror. “I couldn’t… I wouldn’t… I’m only seventeen years old. I don’t know you. I’ve never been your queen.”
But deep inside my mind, a shadow of a memory flashes through the darkness, of me wearing a dress spun of wisps of darkness and a crown of shadows is perched on my head. Standing beside me is a man made of smoke and charred ash—the god of darkness.
But if I’ve never seen him before then how do I know what he looks like? Unless Hunter’s theory was right and my memories were erased.
Pain and guilt press down on my shoulders, and this time I have no one to help me block it out. And if the god of darkness is right and I did somehow destroy Elemental, maybe that’s what I deserve.
Hunter
“Where are you going?” Max asks me as I slip on my jacket.
After Porter, Max, Holden, and I left Sky in the room, we headed downstairs to chat more about what was going on. They wanted to know all of the details of what Camille told me about Sky, and I pretended to tell them everything, but I kept one small thing from them. Well, it might not be small, depending on how much truth there is to it.
“Out,” I reply to Max as I reach for the door handle.
“You’re going out right now?” Holden gapes at me. “With everything going on?”
I shrug as I open the door. “It’s not like it’s going to do anyone good to sit in this hotel room. Answers aren’t going to come to us. We need to go looking for them.”
He lifts his brows in skepticism, but I ignore him and walk out the door.
Rain is drizzling from the sky as I hike through the trees toward Camille’s tree house located a few miles away. At first, I take my time, but as my thirst starts to increase, my throat becoming very dry, I quicken my pace to a jog, puddles splashing up and soaking the bottom of my jeans.
By the time I arrive at Camille’s place, I’m soaked.
“That was quick,” Camille remarks as she opens the door and lets me in.
I drag my fingers through my wet hair as I step inside the living room lit up by glowing violet flowers dangling from the branches growing from the ceiling.
“I’m hungry,” I say, turning to her. “And I’m kind of worried what you said was right.”
She closes the door, gathers her dress, and makes her way over to me. “There’s only one way to find out.” She leans over, collects a teacup from off an end table, and hands it to me.
I take the cup and breathe in the scent of the blood inside it, my mouth salivating. “How did you get this anyway?”
She sinks down into a chair and stares at the flames crackling in the fireplace. “I keep some on hand when I know you’re going to be visiting.”
“Oh.” Cupping the cup in my hand, I sit down across from her.
Then I lower my face to the cup, not drinking, but breathing in the scent of what my body is craving.
She watches me curiously. “You’re hesitating.”
“I’m worried,” I admit. “That what you said about the link is going to be true.”
“More than likely it is.” She crosses her legs and rests her arms on the armrests, watching me. “I’m rarely wrong about my readings.”
“Rarely, but not always,” I say.
She shrugs with a trace of an amused smile on her lips.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re enjoying this?” I ask, resting back in the chair.
She shrugs again. “Maybe I am.”
I eye her over suspiciously. I like Camille and everything, but she’s a faerie, which means it’s in her nature to be tricky and manipulat
ive. “Why, though?”
She gives another indifferent shrug. “I’ve been around a long time, Hunter, and not much entertains me anymore. But this thing with your brothers and this girl… I find it very entertaining.”
“I’m glad our problems are so amusing to you.”
“Me too.” She gestures for me to hurry up. “Now come on. Stop stalling and drink up. The suspense is driving me crazy.”
Rolling my eyes, I lift the cup to my lips. “Well, here goes nothing.” I gulp down a mouthful of blood, at first feeling the hunger quiet inside me. But then a wave of pain sears at my throat and I spit the blood out all over the floor.
Camille glances at the blood then at me. “That was messy.”
I wipe the blood from my lips as I cough. “Fuck, this is bad.”
Her lips quirk. “Perhaps, but at least my reading was correct.”
I narrow my eyes at her but then sigh, slumping back in the sofa and staring at the blood I spit all over the floor, proof that Camille’s reading was correct. That the longer my brothers and I stay connected to Sky, the more it’s going to affect us to the point where all of our abilities and cravings will have to be connected to Sky, including my blood thirst, which means if I want to feed my thirst, I’ll have to drink Sky’s blood. Which is going to go over really well considering I haven’t even told most of my brothers about the vampire blood pumping through my veins.
“We’re so in trouble,” I mutter, shaking my head.
Camille doesn’t respond, but her silence is enough to let me know she agrees with me. And since she can read almost everything about a creature…
Yeah, my brothers and I are definitely in trouble.
About the Author
Jessica Sorensen is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who lives in the snowy mountains of Wyoming. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading and hanging out with her family.
Also by Jessica Sorensen
Enchanted Chaos Series:
Enchanted Chaos
Shimmering Chaos
Iridescent Chaos
Untitled (coming soon)
The Breathing Undead Series
Breathing Lies
Shadowed Whisperers (coming 2019)
My Cursed Superhero Life:
Grim
Untitled (coming soon)
Capturing Magic:
Chasing Wishes
Chasing Magic
Untitled (coming soon)
Chasing Hadley Harlyton:
Chasing Hadley
Falling for Hadley
Holding onto Hadley (coming soon)
Cursed Hadley:
Cursed Hadley
Enchanting Hadley (coming soon)
Tangled Realms:
Forever Violet
Untitled (coming soon)
Curse of the Vampire Queen:
Tempting Raven
Enchanting Raven
Alluring Raven
Untitled (coming soon)
Unraveling You Series:
Unraveling You
Raveling You
Awakening You
Inspiring You
Fated by Darkness
Untitled (coming soon)
Unexpected Series:
The Unexpected Way of Falling
The Unpredictable Way of Falling
Untitled (coming soon)
Shadow Cove Series:
What Lies in the Darkness
What Lies in the Dark
Untitled (coming soon)
Mystic Willow Bay Series:
The Secret Life of a Witch
Broken Magic
Untitled (coming soon)
Standalones:
The Forgotten Girl
The Illusion of Annabella
Confessions of a Kleptomaniac
Rules of a Rebel and a Shy Girl
The Heartbreaker Society:
The Opposite of Ordinary
Untitled (coming soon)
Broken City Series:
Nameless
Forsaken
Oblivion
Forbidden (coming soon)
Guardian Academy Series:
Entranced
Entangled
Enchanted
Entice (coming soon)
Sunnyvale Series:
The Year I Became Isabella Anders
The Year of Falling in Love
The Year of Second Chances
The Coincidence Series:
The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden
The Redemption of Callie and Kayden
The Destiny of Violet and Luke
The Probability of Violet and Luke
The Certainty of Violet and Luke
The Resolution of Callie and Kayden
Seth & Greyson
The Secret Series:
The Prelude of Ella and Micha
The Secret of Ella and Micha
The Forever of Ella and Micha
The Temptation of Lila and Ethan
The Ever After of Ella and Micha
Lila and Ethan: Forever and Always
Ella and Micha: Infinitely and Always
The Shattered Promises Series:
Shattered Promises
Fractured Souls
Unbroken
Broken Visions
Scattered Ashes
Breaking Nova Series:
Breaking Nova
Saving Quinton
Delilah: The Making of Red
Nova and Quinton: No Regrets
Tristan: Finding Hope
Wreck Me
Ruin Me
The Fallen Star Series:
The Fallen Star
The Underworld
The Vision
The Promise
The Lost Soul
The Evanescence
The Darkness Falls Series:
Darkness Falls
Darkness Breaks
Darkness Fades
The Death Collectors Series (NA and YA):
Ember X and Ember
Cinder X and Cinder
Spark X and Spark
Unbeautiful Series:
Unbeautiful
Untamed
Iridescent Chaos: (Enchanted Chaos, Book 3) Page 14
