Sophia questioned him. “And why not?”
He spoke again in a deep stern voice. “Number one, she interrupted my training for today. Number two, all she had to do was get close enough to my new trainee to knock him onto the floor. And number three, nobody here today wants to see anyone die.” He turned to me. “You can leave.”
I had nothing to say back to him; I would probably hurt Duncan no matter how the conversation went. I started to back away, and I turned, heartbroken that he didn’t want to see me.
I started to walk back to the mansion, and I spoke softly to Sophia. “I can’t stay here.”
I went to take another step when I heard him. “No. Don’t go.” He stood there at the door, sweaty and breathing deeply. “We should talk.”
I nodded my head at him in agreement.
He grabbed a small towel from just inside the barn and then started walking to the mansion to get away from the crowd. I wanted to ask him questions, but he spoke first. “They told you?” I couldn’t look him in the eye. He didn’t say anything but nodded his head a little bit. “I do not want you to choose me because you know what will happen; however, you will have to make a decision.” I just looked at him, everything I wanted to ask him flew out of my head, and I had no idea what I was going to ask him. “All I am saying is that I will be here as your friend until you make your decision. And I would do it all again.” I smiled at him.
I was distracted so much that it took me a while to get back on track and then I remembered at the last minute. “I needed to ask you something.”
He rubbed the towel back and forth through his hair to remove some of the sweat. “What was it?”
I wetted my lips, remembering what I wanted to ask, and then gained the courage. “After you kissed me, your eyes glowed red like mine do, yours are always blue. Why?”
He smirked at me. “Because, I gave you my whole heart, don’t you think it would only be fair for me to take a small piece of yours?” He chuckled and then looked into my eyes. “Do you remember picture day when we were about six or so? You wore that pink frou-frou dress and my sister made fun of you. Then you sat in the bathroom and cried because you were so embarrassed. Did you know I thought you looked like a princess?”
I realized that he got to visualize some of my memories also. “I was so embarrassed. I hated that dress.”
He laughed. “Yes, you did.”
He gave me a smug little smirk and then it was quiet for a moment. “They want you to start your training in combat tomorrow.” He looked back at me with the sun in his eyes. “You will have a private teacher, of course.”
I shook my head. “I’m not ready, and I don’t think I should stay here any longer.”
He threw the towel over his shoulder. “Okay, where are we going to go first? I will make arrangements for protection.” He motioned to one of the guards. “We will be leaving tomorrow. I need to see routes to our nearest territories for travel.”
The guard spoke. “Yes, sir.”
I shook my head. “No. You can’t come with me.”
“Well, you damn sure aren’t going alone. I promised that I would look after you and that is exactly what I will be doing. And when we’re done with your journey, we will return home.”
I turned away from him. “There is no way that I will make this decision during my life. You may have a piece of my heart, but now no one will ever have it all.”
I walked away from him through the front door of the mansion.
Sophia quickly ran to catch up with me. “Oh my god, I can’t believe that you just gave up the possibility of love to save them both.”
I had tears streaming down my face. “I can’t lose either of them.”
Sophia looked at me. “Shay, a life without love is no life at all.”
I continued to walk to my room. “No, nor will I ask someone to give theirs up for me.”
Sophia stopped and looked back at Duncan, who was still standing where I had walked away from him.
“Sophia?”
She rushed up behind me. “Shay?”
I looked at her. “I need to get a message to Declan, a personal letter, not to be opened by anyone. It needs to be handed directly to him and no one else.”
She nodded her head. “I can have a member of the council take it to him.”
I sighed. “Yes, that will work.” Now I have to figure out what it will say. He has to know that I care, but that I will never return to see him. I went up to my room and sat, I had to find the words. We sat silently in my room for hours. Until I began to write.
Declan,
There is not an explanation for what you had come for, Rather an apology. I am not the person from the woods. We cannot Unite. My parents betrayed me. Duncan saved me. I owe him my life Now. I know You would be very proud of the man he is becoming. When we heard that you had broken through the border. Terrified Of what would happen to you. Duncan came up with a plan to tear the bond between Us. It was the only thing to do in the time that we had. To save your life And I had to break your heart. He did this not to challenge you, but Rather to save you. I will not choose between the two of you Ever. I cannot break your heart more than I already have. I will Not be returning home. You need to try to move On. You need to find yourself. I know the Truth now. Don’t come for me. I will always love you. Be SAFE.
—S
I breathed in deep and then folded it up.
“Shay? Are you sure?”
I looked at her. “Yes. He has to know that there is nothing for him with me.”
She nodded her head in agreement. “You know, when Declan challenged Duncan to win Hellena she was torn about her decision also. But in the end it was her real love for Declan that she chose.”
I looked at her. “Are you sure, because what I feel right now is every inch of my body wants to go to Declan? But I can’t stop thinking about Duncan. His life is in my hands. And a broken heart is much better than a death.”
Sophia looked at me with tears in her eyes. “Do you think Duncan was her choice?”
I looked at her. “Honestly, I don’t know. But I still know how I feel about Declan. I’m hurting right now because he is.”
She looked surprised.
I didn’t know if she would ever have to know how I felt about this, and hopefully not. No one should have to go through this. And to be honest, it sucked that these two boys got so many chances for love and had to go after the same person. They were both super selfish for that. Now, Duncan had become my protector and he would follow me anywhere, and I didn’t want him to follow me. This was something I had to do for myself. I needed to get out of there before he saw me.
I started to stare out of the window.
“Shay, are you sure about this?” said Sophia.
I brought myself back to reality. I looked at her. “About what?”
She walked toward me. “I don’t want you to leave. This is the first time that this house has had a purpose in a very long time. And you haven’t learned about the ritual.”
“You know, Sophia, I never told you about the ritual I was getting information on.”
She turned away. “My father spoke of it. I had only figured.”
“Sophia?”
She turned around to me with glowing red eyes that startled me with disbelief. She stood there a moment. “Think of us as distant cousins. I never transitioned, but I did get some unique abilities.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
She took a few more steps closer to me. I was extremely cautious.
“I needed to know what you knew, which isn’t much, but all we want is to be rid of Cas Corach and Aodhan O’Dorcha. I needed you to trust me again like when we were little.”
I didn’t know who to trust now. I stood there silent. “The Morrígan needs you to go back to her estate. She has to prepare you for the ritual.”
I was still silent. I took a small step back toward the window. “Okay, I need to know more about this ritual.”<
br />
She smiled. “I was hoping you would be agreeable. So this is how it works. The blood from all three bloodlines of her daughters will be used. I have agreed to be used for one of the bloodlines. She only needs a drop of my blood and for me to speak the ritual. She has found the last bloodline in the Western Territory and she will be arriving later this week. Your bloodline is the most important because you are a descendant of both The Morrígan and Aodhan O’Dorcha.”
I took another step back as she approached me. “I don’t want to die.”
She shook her head. “No, the Morrígan would bring you to the brink of death, but bring you back.”
I became more worried when she said that. “Do you honestly believe that she’s telling you the truth? Have you ever heard that there was a ritual and nobody died?”
She looked shocked. “Why don’t we do the research and find out what it will take to get rid of this Aodhan O’Dorcha and Cas Corach?”
She stepped toward me again. “My father told me the truth, and you have to believe it.”
I took another step back. “Sophia you’re scaring me.”
She kept walking toward me.
“Stop. Sophia?”
I turned to the window. By this point in the day the sun had started to go down. I had to do something to get away from here. Duncan was still out in the barn and my friend was trying to keep me here. I couldn’t stay. I could feel that my fingertips were heating up and I knew what was coming.
“Sophia, I want you to listen to me very carefully. They do not want us to think this through. They want us to be in the dark. There is something that your father is keeping a secret about the Morrígan. Don’t just let things happen to you in life.”
I looked out the window again and then at the desk where my letter was sitting. I gently put my fingertips on the letter that I had just written to Declan and thought about him with all my heart. The letter started to smoke. It caught on fire within seconds.
“Shay, what are you doing?” She tried to approach me quickly.
I made sure that the letter was completely ash and then looked at her. “Living.” I felt the heat from my toes up. There was a burst of fire all around me. I turned my full body to the window and ran at it.
➢16 Not a Damsel
The window shattered. I was a little surprised that I had broken through it myself. I landed on the ground in a very animal like way, and then I was running toward the barn lighting the ground on fire as I stepped. My vision had turned to a red shade and I listened to hear movement inside the barn. I had to get to Duncan. No one would ever be hurt because of me.
The door to the barn slid open so quickly. “Get her,” someone yelled from inside.
All I was thinking was, Let’s do this. I ran so quickly that I was inside the barn before they could assemble. I made a deep rumbling of a growl toward them. I didn’t see Duncan. I was worried about him; I growled again, baring my teeth at them.
The same man I had met earlier that day spoke to me. “Miss Evans, Duncan is unavailable right now. And I’m going to need you to back up out of a very flammable barn.” He chuckled.
This was crap. I growled aggressively again, this time taking a step forward. He put his hands up. “Okay. Okay. Show Duncan to her.”
Two guards had him; his face was beat up more than it should have been. I turned my head with a sad look and then put my anger to the ones holding him, I barked aggressively at them.
“You need to return to the mansion, now.”
My tension lessened and I started to return to my human form, if that’s what it was called, and I continued to walk forward toward them as I had transitioned. My bare feet were touching the ground and making burning footprints as I stepped. “I will not go back. Release him!” I never broke eye contact with the man in charge.
“Then we have no other options.” The rest of the guards started to move forward toward me.
I looked over at Duncan; he was looking straight at me. Even with the impending danger I was wondering if he was only looking at me because he challenged my bond with Declan. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get us out but I knew that I was angry. They turned my friend against me, put me in a situation to refuse my mate, and now they have Duncan held hostage. I could feel it happening again. My hands heated up, and all I could see was red in my vision. They all took a step back. I looked at my hands that were completely engulfed in flames. I felt the wind brush my hair against my back. I couldn’t breathe and had to calm down and try to take a deep breath to speak. “I am not leaving without him and I will not be going back to that mansion. Is that understood?” The flames came off my fingertips and rushed toward the man in charge. He dodged out of the way and the flames hit another guard. The man in charge looked over to the guards holding Duncan and nodded his head to let him go.
They released him and he took a step toward me in hesitation. As he moved closer to me never looking away from my direction. “Shay?”
I didn’t look at him.
“Shay?”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Duncan move to grab a towel from the table by the door. He held it up to my body and wrapped his arms around me with it. When I felt his warm skin touch mine my knees collapsed and I dropped down in exhaustion and Duncan caught me in his arms. I felt my eyes roll back into my head as it flopped back onto Duncan’s shoulder.
Duncan looked at the guards.
“Leave them alone,” someone behind us said.
Duncan turned around with me.
“My boy, she will only get worse. There is no saving her now.” Duncan looked at me then at Victor Gahlonaghan. “The end is coming for us. You must decide which side you are on.”
Duncan looked down at me again and said, “I am always on her side.” He started to walk forward to the barn door with me in his arms. “I will take my chances.” He walked out with me and kept walking.
As we walked I saw the trees change as we reached a road. There wasn’t traffic, but he continued to move. “Why did you choose me?”
He didn’t look down at me. “Why wouldn’t I choose you?” He turned quick. “There’s a car coming. Are you ready?”
He set me down and I looked at the road in the distance. “Yes.”
The car came up to us quickly and stopped and rolled down the window. “Are you okay?” A man and woman were in the car.
I spoke. “No. We need help.”
Then Duncan looked at me. “We were attacked. Can you please take us into town?”
The woman looked us up and down. “You need to go to a hospital.”
“Ma’am, please?” said Duncan.
She looked at the man in the car. “Of course, get in.” They drove on. “So what happened?” she said.
“We were attacked last night in the woods,” I said. “We’re not really sure what happened.”
The man driving kept looking in his rearview mirror at me. Duncan noticed this, and I was starting to feel uncomfortable. We hit the edge of the town.
“I think we can make it from here,” Duncan said.
The man looked back in the mirror and then hit the lock on the doors.
I tried to open it, but I couldn’t. “What are you doing? Open the door!”
They didn’t say anything.
Duncan couldn’t take the silence. He broke the car window with his elbow, grabbed my hand, and pulled the door open from the outside of the car. Then the man slammed on the brakes, and we jumped from the car and ran.
We ran behind a brick building. Duncan had my hand in his as he looked around the corner of the building. He turned back to me; his face had started to heal. “I need to find some clothes for us.” He looked down at my towel just barely covering me and chuckled.
I looked down. “I can’t go into any store like this. There will be too many questions.”
He smirked. “I can’t leave you here like this.”
I had an idea. “That’s no problem.” Within a few moments I was back into wolf form,
and I walked under some wooden steps and lay down in some tall grassy weeds.
He chuckled more at that than anything. “So what am I supposed to get for you?”
I poked my head up from the overgrown weeded grass under the steps and then put it back down.
“Thanks,” Duncan said sarcastically.
He walked away from me, and I didn’t see him for hours. I was worried about him. Every sound made me look up over the grass for him.
Finally, as the sun started to come up the next day, he came around the corner of the building. I came running from under the steps, wrapping the towel around myself, and threw my arms around him. “What took you so long?”
He slowly put his arms around me. “I’m sorry.”
I pulled back from him. “Seriously, what took you so long? I was worried about you.” I shoved him away.
“Well, I had to find both of us clothes and some gear. It took some time.”
I looked at him, confused. “Gear?”
He turned back and pointed at a black SUV. “We need to be able to drive. It will be easier for us than traveling naked.”
I laughed.
“Plus I thought we could use some help,” he said. He pointed as Tommy and Matt got out of the black SUV.
I lit up when I saw them. “Oh my God, how did this happen?” I ran to Tommy and threw my arms around him.
“I’ve missed you so much.” When he spoke I became so overcome with happiness that I had tears running down my face.
“I missed you too, Goobs,” he said.
I laughed. “I needed this.”
I turned to hug Matt. “I missed you too.” He smiled at me then bear hugged me, his hands wrapped around my sides as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
I could hear a quiet deep growl from behind me, but I ignored it. “How is this supposed to work?”
Duncan walked over to me, and Matt, and he held his hand out to me. “Come on. I’ll show you.” I reached out for his hand. I could see that Matt being here was an issue for him, but I didn’t care. He walked me over to the SUV and opened the back to all the supplies we could ever want.
Crimson Secrets Page 18
