Chapter Nineteen

We made camp at the top of a hill that overlooked a large valley. I could see what appeared to be buildings in the distance, the path we had been following leading directly towards it. My curiosity about what a city in the Forgotten Realm might look like, peaked at the possibilities.

I looked over my shoulder to signal for Baer to come have a look as well, but found that he and Aurora had mysteriously disappeared again, leaving me and Sasha alone in the camp.

My attention to the distant city vanished as I looked at my mate. Her shoulders weren't as slumped as earlier. Whatever Aurora and she had stopped to talk about must have eased her mind.

It had killed me seeing her so broken. Even more so knowing that it had been my words that had put her in that state. I had wanted to talk to her myself, but I could feel through the weakened bond between us that she hadn't been ready to hear anything I had to say to her yet.

‘She is now,'my wolf assured me.

I had to agree. Whatever it was that Aurora had said to her, it had worked. Her face regained its color and she had a smile on her face as she looked up at me. It put her in the perfect mood to hear my apology wholeheartedly and not think that it was insincere.

My feet moved before I could talk myself out of my plan. I must have moved even faster than I had meant to. My wolf most likely having taken over, because Sasha looked up with a startled expression as I stood in front of her.

"Listen," I blurted. My hand reaching out reflexively for hers. "I want to tell you how sorry I am. I wasn't thinking clearly when I said what I said. There were other variables that I hadn't considered but I see them now. I can't tell you how sorry I am, Sasha."

"What?" She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you mean by variables?"

I shook my head, reluctant to reveal the possibility that the prophecy she had received was not from The Fates. The point of talking to her was to ease her mind, not frighten or upset her more. I had to think fast.

‘Why not just tell her the truth,'my wolf offered.

‘I can't. It will make her think she's some kind of vessel for evil still.'

‘You don't have to tell her that truth,' he yawned. ‘But there is another truth you can tell to help her understand.'

Images of her flashed through my mind then, a smile lifting a corner of my lips as I realized what it was my wolf was getting at.

"The way you used to help the kids at school. The little ones, like that little girl from the Portland Coven. Someone with darkness inside them would never have done anything like that. Or how you always make sure that your family is taken care of before you even worry about yourself." I stepped closer to her, my hand reaching out for hers once more.

Her crossed arms and stance loosened, her hand drifting down towards mine.

"I didn't stop to consider all of that. I was too wrapped up with the things that I knew about the darkness, I never thought about the things that show your light."

She let out a choked sob as my hand finally wrapped around hers.

"Ayden," she said between sniffles. "Ayden. It hurt so much more than you could know. Everything you said. I thought them too."

I frowned and shook my head as I pulled her to my chest. I cradled her head against me, her tears soaking through my shirt quickly.

"Shh," I coaxed. "It's okay. Everyone has some dark thoughts. That doesn't mean they're right. Even when people speak those thoughts out loud, it doesn't mean that they're suddenly validated."

I ran my hand along her arm, up to her hair and back, in gentle circles as she cried.

"The voice came back. It was so much clearer than it had been before. It's like the static is lifting in my head and I can hear him even when I try to drown him out. He's always there."

She buried her face deeper into my shirt.

"I thought you had said you couldn't tell what the voice was?" I asked, the hairs on the back of my neck rising.

"I couldn't then but I can tell now. It's almost like he is there with my wolf. Inside me. Watching through my eyes and listening through my ears." She took a deep breath. "Ayden, I'm really scared. It was that voice that told me exactly what to do to the kelpie. It had urged me to use that magic. Convinced me it was my only chance to survive. What if….?"

"No," I said sternly as I leaned back to look her in the eyes. "I already told you. You have too much heart to be evil. Too much empathy for others."

I hugged her back against me, uncertain how I could help her against an enemy that lived inside her mind.

"Do you hear it now?" I asked, my voice low, as if it might stop the voice from hearing me ask her. "Can you feel the voice there?"

She paused for a moment, her hands clutching tightly to my shirt.

"No," she sounded surprised. "I don't hear or feel him at all. Neither does my wolf."

She leaned back and looked up at me, her tear-filled eyes now sparkling with surprise and awe.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

I frowned. "How did I do what?"

"How did you get him out of my head? I've tried to shove him back, but the most I got was just the outskirts of my consciousness. You got him completely out of my mind."

I shook my head. "I didn't do anything. I only wanted to know if the voice was talking to you now."

Her face fell into a mirror of my own confusion as her fingers dug deeper into the fabric of my shirt.

"It's just like before," she mused. "The voice went away when you held me like this the last time. And he had been gone when we slept together. He only came back when the kelpie pulled me under water."

She gripped me tighter. Her face pressed into my chest as she let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a cry.

"Please, Ayden, just hold me," she whispered. "Keep him away from my mind."

I slowly tightened my arms around her, my chin dipping down to rest on top of her head. "I got you," I assured her. "I won't let go."

I could hear the others approaching the camp. My gaze going over everything left to do, finding that the only thing that was not finished was lighting a fire. I decided that Baer could handle that on his own and lifted Sasha into my arms.

"What are you doing?" she asked, startled by the sudden movement.

"I'm taking us somewhere a little more private. Unless you don't mind your cousin and her mate seeing you like this."

Sasha looked over my shoulder in the direction of Aurora's voice before nodding to me. "Okay."

I didn't have far to go. My tent was private enough. At least the other two couldn't see, as Sasha clung to me for the comfort she needed just to stay sane.

We laid down on top of my sleeping bag. Her head rested on my chest as I propped myself up with my bag.

I felt guilty for not taking her more seriously before when she mentioned the voice. I should have had alarm bells going off long before we got to this point.

Lightly, I began to draw sigils on her back. Each symbol aimed to protect her mind from outside forces. I could feel the fear still deep inside her. Fear that if she let go of me that the voice would come back to taunt her.

The sigils were ancient. Symbols that I had once come across in my family's library of diaries courtesy of my ancestors. Their original use was to keep vampires out of human minds as a way to protect them from compulsion, but I had hopes that they could help Sasha with the voice as well.

"Why is this happening to me?" she asked as I drew the symbols over and over across her back.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"If I'm not evil, then why did this voice occur in my head?"

I paused my drawings as I tried to think of the appropriate response to her question.

"Sometimes, the brightest light is what all beings follow. Maybe you are like a beacon compared to the rest of us. A challenge to dim your light." I offered.

She looked up at me and frowned. "That's a hell of a way of telling someone that they might just be too perfect."

I laughed. "I never said you were perfect."

"Oh? So, I'm not perfect? And here I thought that I was the most magnificent creature you've ever laid your eyes on?"

I stuttered for a moment before seeing her lips curl into a mischievous smile.

"And here I thought you hadn't had an evil bone in your body," I teased her back.

Her smile dimmed a little.

"Too soon?"

"Just a little," she said with a nod.

She laid her head back down on my chest, her fingers playing with my shirt as I returned to the sigils I had been tracing over her back.

"What do you think the voice is? And why is it he isn't there when you're with me?"

I gave a shrug, my fingers still moving along her back. "This is the Forgotten Realm. Who knows what beings are around here. As far as it being gone when I'm near you, that's simple." She looked up at me curiously. "Come on, you know this."

She shook her head. "If I did, I wouldn't be asking you."

I laughed. "Because I'm your mate. Even without the mark, we feed each other strength. Together we are completely whole, so your mental wards and your strength is amplified by me."

I watched as she ran that information through her mind before giving an agreeable sound.

"That does make sense." She was quiet again, lost in her own thoughts as her head rested back on my chest.

I couldn't help the sigh of contentment from passing my lips as I continued to trace the sigils and listen to her breathing. Her body was warm against mine. Her scent filled my senses, and a feeling of rightness settled over me.

This was where we belonged. Together. In one another's arms.

Everything about this situation felt right. Why I had fought it so hard bewildered me now.

‘Never question The Fates,'my wolf chuckled.

I smirked in response as I pulled my mate even tighter to my chest.

My head leaned back against my bag, my eyes drifting closed as I relaxed. The only thing that would make this moment better would be for it to be in my bed instead of a tent in the middle of the Forgotten Realm.

I slowly teetered between sleep and consciousness, my hands running up and down Sasha's back again. It was only when I felt her shift that my eyes drifted open to check and make sure that the voice hadn't returned to her mind.

Sasha peered up at me with her sparkling blue eyes. Her chin rested on her arm and her fingers played with the seams of my sleeves.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm just debating."

I chuckled and moved my finger to twist a strand of her hair.

"Debating what?"

She tilted her head to the side as she looked back at me, her hands trailing up to my jaw to trace the lines there. My body shivered as her finger traced her where her mark would belong should she ever choose to do so. A temptation that I was finding myself wishing for more and more.

She swirled the finger along the tender spot again, my blood racing through my body to one singular location.

"Debating what?" I asked again, my voice raspy as I choked on the words.

She smiled. "I want to know if the voice will stay away for good if I have your mark on me."