Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Kellan

This has been the longest day of my entire life.

Not only was I being led through this hellish realm by a faerie and carrying an unconscious woman, but her spirit was thinking ungodly things about me, and I felt like I would combust at any moment.

How did I hear her thoughts? Beat the hell out of me. It seemed to be a new perk of being an immortal that I'd rather not have.

The strength it took me not to lay her unconscious body down and push her against a tree rivaled anything I'd ever experienced in my life.

Part of me felt the need to give my body what it asked for. The rational side that lived deep down still said my wife's name like a mantra. It'd been too many years to count. Josephine was the first one to ever get a spark out of me.

The battle between wanting her and hating her was ongoing. It sucked the breath out of me sometimes.

She felt the same invisible connection as I did. Josephine had images going through her head that startled me, and I'd been around for a long time. It fed the spark I hid deep inside of me, and I felt one second away from breaking.

The day had turned into dusk when the faerie stopped in the middle of a clearing in the woods. "We should stop for the night."

I inwardly groaned. "I didn't realize this person lived on the other side of the universe," I snapped.

She lowered her head. I felt like a prick. She'd been pimped out and pushed around. I didn't need to add to her insecurities.

"Good things come to those who wait," Josephine piped in.

The faerie seemed to like her and smiled her way. Josephine sat down against the base of a giant tree and watched as I laid her body down. The loss of her weight in my arms nearly made me stumble from carrying her so long, but I caught myself and sank down beside her.

The faerie sat down beside Josephine and cradled her knees to her chest. "Would you like to sing a song?" she asked.

I cut my gaze to her and over to Josephine's smiling face.

There wasn't anything worse than singing at this moment.

"No," I answered. "I would not like to do that."

Josephine rolled her eyes at me. "Gah, you're such a grouch, Anti-hero. Yes—wait, what's your name?"

"Fern," she said softly.

"Yes, Fern," Josephine said. "I'd love to sing a song."

Fern looked excited about singing and sat up on her knees. "There is a song that my mother sang to me growing up."

She started in on this whiney song that I had no urge to listen to, so I closed my eyes, and within seconds, I fell asleep.

When I made it two miles to our house, I knew something wasn't right.

I didn't hear any laughter from the town"s children or chatter. The quietness of the birds and wildlife slid over me like a weighted blanket.

I played it off in my mind. They were having a late lunch inside. My girls were eating. I smiled to reassure the feeling deep in my stomach. I was only a few miles away from seeing my girls.

They were safe with the townspeople.

Clouds billowed in the sky from an incoming storm and tossed leaves around me. The vacant road that led toward the town felt lonelier than it usually did.

Little did I know, it would lead me toward the end of my human life.

I hurried down the road with the feeling of someone watching me. The fact my stomach twisted into knots told me something was wrong. I wasn't one to worry.

And I was worrying.

The feeling of dread began to pour down on top of me, forcing me to run faster without thought. Warm ash began to rain down. I smashed it between my fingers, seeing the black streaks against my flesh. Something was on fire.

With tunnel vision, I raced toward our small town and in between two houses.

The quietness and lack of people stabbed me in my stomach.

Several men were sprawled around our community fire with no sign of life.Some looked peacefully asleep, but I knew better.

They were dead.

The community dog didn't greet me like usual.

I pulled my sword from my holster and prepared myself for something that could do this to an entire village. My heart pounded in my chest forcing me to take quick, shallow breaths to keep myself level.

The more I walked, the heavier my feet grew.

More bodies were littered around the town.

Our livestock had been slaughtered.

I swallowed the deep ball of fear in my throat, my gaze searching down the lane toward the house I called home. Had my family made it out? Had someone hurt them?

My fingers tightened around the handle of my sword, and each step took me into a deeper part of myself. A dark place that I rarely visited.

A crow swooped above me, landing on the corner of a porch railing. He cawed, most likely signaling to his owner that I was there.

I pointed the tip of my sword at him when I noticed someone hunched down on our neighbor's porch.

When she stood, my blood ran cold. The edge of her robe touched the ground as she stood, and two elongated horns curled out from her head.

I didn't know what or who she was, but I knew by the blood on her mouth and her stained clothing that she'd killed our village.

It was the first time in my life that I stared into the face of evil. The brightness in her eyes as she smiled with my neighbor's blood on her lips like a real-life vampire would forever haunt me.

"Did we miss one?" she asked, stepping down the porch. "I like the look of—"

I slung my sword at her, nipping the side of her face near her eye. She flinched at the impact and turned back to look at me with glowing green eyes.

Her pet cawed relentlessly beside me.

A warning.

A knowledge of what she was. Of what she would do.

Deidamia's face transformed into something out of my nightmares. Something that haunted my dreams to this day. A real-life demon.

"Wake up!"

I sat up, my forehead coming in contact with something hard, and then someone groaned loudly.

"Crap!" Josephine shouted.

I gripped her chin in my palm swiftly, moving her face from side to side to examine the bruise forming above her eye.

Her blue eyes shifted toward mine. "Are you okay?" she asked.

I chuckled under my breath, eyeing her sleeping body beside me and then the faerie staring at me with wide eyes. "What did I miss? Am I okay? Are you okay?"

She looked at Fern. "You were having a nightmare."

I dropped my hand from her chin, noticing the sunlight and the fact we were still camped here. "Why didn't you two wake me?"

I stood, picked up Josephine's body and turned to look at them.

Fern stood up next. "I'm sorry. You looked so tired, we wanted to let you sleep."

I shifted my gaze toward Josephine, who gave me a skeptical look as she stood. "What were you dreaming about? Who is Anali—"

"Don't," I snapped, startling myself at the volume of my voice. "Say that name," I finished in a whisper.

Josephine stared at me, daring me to look away, until Fern cleared her throat. "We should probably get going. We can make it there by lunch."

Josephine blinked slowly and looked over at Fern. "I'm so ready to be there."

Fern fell into step with her while I carried her body behind them.

My muscles ached from carrying her. What I would do for a neck massage.

"When we get back to Louisiana, I know a good masseuse," Josephine said over her shoulder.

I halted. Did she just hear me?

Fern looked back and stopped when she noticed I had.

Josephine glanced over her shoulder. "What?"

I stared at her for a long second, feeling too many emotions bubbling up in my gut. Why in the hell could we hear one another? Fern couldn't hear me, and I couldn't hear her. I'd never been able to hear anyone's thoughts before, and I'd never wanted to.

"He didn't say anything," Fern whispered, cupping her hand around her mouth.

Josephine lifted a brow at her. "Oh, so we can hear each other's thoughts now. Strange." She busted out laughing after a few moments. "You better keep your thoughts clean, Anti-hero, or I may find out your true feelings about me."

Giving her a bored look, I stepped around her and said, "I don't have any feelings for you."

"Poppycock," she said. "Of course you do. They may not be a true hero's thoughts on saving a beautiful woman, but I'll sort through that at a later time. We need to get me back into that body. I'm starting to feel a little detached from her, and I don't like it."

She continued the way Fern led us, leaving me with a growing headache. Everything that came out of her mouth drove me insane. Where she came up with half of it, I'd never know.

We trudged along for what felt like another three hours when Fern raced forward, up a small hill, and stopped at the top of it.

She looked pleased that she'd led us in the right direction.

"There is it. His cabin."

I walked up the hill and looked down at the small cabin next to a giant garden. Smoke billowed up from the chimney, and two lazy cats sat on the front steps licking their paws.

A small cobblestone walkway branched off from the porch and disappeared around the house.

Fern smiled up at me. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Is this person going to welcome us, Fern? Who is it?"

"He's an old man from my village."

"A fae?" I asked.

She nodded. "He kept the fae away from me for a long time until he was forced out because of his inability to use his magic. He uses herbs and natural substances to heal. The fae didn't like it."

Josephine glanced over at me, but I didn't look down. Her thoughts had rambled the entire three hours from fear, lust and something about a boy back home.

It wasn't the thought of him that ran my blood hot but the fact that I hated that she had someone.

It made no sense.

None of this did.

The cabin's door open, and an elderly man walked out onto the porch. I could see the points of his ears behind his long white hair. He cupped his hand over his eyes and smiled brightly. "Fern?" he hollered over the distance.

"Mr. Ernest!" she yelled, sliding down the hill like a small child.

Josephine glanced over her shoulder. "Coming, Anti-hero? I'm sure you're ready to get me back into my body." She chuckled as she took a step. "Though, I hate to break it to you, I'm going to be just as fun as I am now."