The moment the group is gone, I fall to the floor in front of my mother, tugging at her binds.
"You're okay," I breathe, pulling the rope away from her wrists, wincing at the red marks that tarnish her skin. She’s shaking, although there is a steadiness in her gaze. "You're safe now."
I’m not sure who those people were, and why they thought to tie my mother up like that, but if they thought I would come willingly with them, they are insane. At first I could have convinced myself that they are people breaking in for mother’s money, but their strange ramblings matched up with Eryk’s too perfectly, and now he is here, saving me once again.
An overwhelming feeling encompasses me.A feeling of falling has my eyes squeezing shut tighter, my heart nearly stopping as a sense of tension wraps around me, pushing my limbs closer to my body as I fall through a tunnel of darkness. Not once do I feel Eryk’s grasp leave my body, his finger’s only tightening on me as terrifying silence builds in my ears.And then, the tension releases, and my feet are touching the hard ground. I stumble forward a step, but Eryk pulls me back up against him, stopping me from hurtling face first into the ground.Rubbing my eyes, I push off him, looking around.
¬AvenThe air in the room goes ice cold."He's here already?" mother whispers. For someone she is telling me to trust, her face loses all it’s colour awfully quickly at the mention of this man’s name. My heart flutters in my chest as I grip Lei’s hand, glancing at her. She doesn’t look as petrified as me, but I suppose this man isn’t here to see her, but me.Eryk’s hand slips off the door knob as he faces my mother, looking grim. "Yes, and he is going to want to see Aven right away."
~AvenMy feet touch solid ground almost immediately after everything around me transformed into a vortex of darkness.I gasp, bright shining light assaulting my vision for a moment. When I am finally able to open my eyes, I realise I’m staring at the large expanse of an ocean, the dark blues in the distance framed by a sky of orange, sapphire and violet melting together as the sun sinks below.Yelping, I stumble back, my lowered gaze discovering I’m inches away from falling down a sprawling cliff and onto the pale sands below. A hand still grips me - Eryk - who stops me from tripping over my own feet.
¬AvenAn unbearable amount of thoughts flood my mind.There is no doubting a mate bond, the spark that we just shared. Stace is my mate...This complete stranger, a man who I have just met is my mate, and there is nothing that I can do to change that. Many in my position would rejoice, would be overwhelmingly pleased that a man as powerful, as undeniably attractive is their mate. But right now, I can’t feel joy, I can feel sadness or feel.I just feel numb.Stace watches me, careful not to speak while I process this. I can’t keep up w
Stace delivered us, including Eryk and my family, to an estate he argues is my own.I don't believe it for a second, or at the very least, I don't accept it. The place is beautiful, even in the shadows that have settled with night. It's not nearly as big as Stace's, but it is larger than Eryk's, stretching out widely at the edge of a cliff. It's close to Stace's, which is by design, I imagine, but it doesn't matter. Even though he is my mate, I can't accept something as incredible as this.Stace lingers for only a few moments before he disappears, leaving us all to allocate our own rooms, everything already furnished, a dresser filled with clothes that I imagine I’ll fit, thanks to the magic dwelling in this place. I try to ignore it, but I can sense it in the air, controlled by Stace no d
¬AvenImmediately, Eryk pulls me behind him,"You need to leave,” he growls to the approaching strangers. I examine them, trying to see if they have weapons. It’s quite possible they do, considering they are all wearing oversized coats despite the warm weather, each of them staring between me and Eryk, painfully out of place. Eryk has every reason to be concerned about their intentions."This is public land," one of them claims, taller than the rest of them with dark hair that reaches his shoulders. "We are allowed to be here."
¬AvenNightmares haunt me from the moment I close my eyes.It starts off as a blanket of darkness that shrouds me vision, my legs burning with pain as I battle through what feels like thick mud that I can’t see. And then a light explodes around me, and suddenly I’m standing on the beach with Eryk...and Stace. I stare at them, opening my mouth to speak, but no words come out. They are staring blankly ahead of themselves, and when I follow their gazes, I see a crowd of people staring back at us.And suddenly, they all alight in a burst of fire. I scr
¬AvenSaying goodbye to mother and Lei wasn’t easy.We woke before sunrise and spent a few hours talking. The future wasn’t mentioned once; mainly because it would send my emotions into an endlessly painful spiral. At some point, Stace came to collect us, motioning for us to follow him, so we did, out onto his balcony, where we said our last goodbyes. I’m not sure what came over me, but I didn’t cry. Not until Stace grabbed both Lei and mother’s hand, and they all vanished.Now, I sit against the hard floor of the balcony, back pressed against the balcony as I cry. I’ve never felt loss like this, where the future seems so