EVERYTHING FEELS SO FAR away.
I know my eyes are seeing, but my brain isn’t processing. There’s only one thing I’m occupied with and it’s that girl. I can’t get her out of my head.
She didn’t seem like anything special, not in the beginning. I thought I’d play with her a bit, but things got out of hand. I didn’t feel anything at first. Then my beast started reacting to her. It was a negligible sensation, small, insignificant. I flinch as I remember the pain my beast ratcheted up inside of me, making it grow and grow until I thought I was going to pass out as she looked at me with those eyes. She was trying to burrow inside of my soul. I’ve never heard of a human doing such a thing.
“Are you going to kill me?”
Why were her words almost exactly like… I banish the thought.
Her scent lingers and burns my nose. She was potent with herbs that repel darkness, but the memory of that scent doesn’t bother me now. What I dwell on is the memory of a teasing hint of her real scent. My lips against her neck wanted more than a taste. What was teased was absolutely exquisite. She was just asking to be kissed all over. I wanted to bite her in that playful way that comes from my beast’s deepest affections—but I didn’t. The sensation didn’t make any sense.
What is her scent? What is her taste? What is anything about her?
Mysterious.
Tantalizing.
Unknowable.
A perfect image of her is burned into my head. Her subtle curves, soft face, long brown hair, and gentle eyes. Not gentle. Her eyes were fierce. She challenged me. The way she stared at me like she knew me, like she knew everything I’ve ever done, and like she knew, at that exact moment, that I wouldn’t kill her—couldn’t kill her. She challenged me and she won, a mere mortal. My beast submitted to her without question.
My beast rattles my chest with a wave of longing. It wants to go back to her. It stopped me from killing her. That was my original intent that got hopelessly lost in euphoria.
But why?
My logician shuts my beast down, hard. I shouldn’t be feeling anything like that.
I groan and hold my head as someone drags me along a grassy field.
Yuki. It’s Yuki. Always Yuki.
I try to focus on anything but that damn girl. I try to see my surroundings, smell the air, feel the air…
“Yuki.” My voice comes out as nothing more than a low rasp.
“I’m here,” she says gently.
“What happened?”
“That’s what I want to know.”
“Did you kill that demon you were chasing?” I ask.
“I did.”
“Who was it?”
“Chloe.”
“Did she… say something about the angels? About how they have the key to our destruction?”
She offers a slight nod.
“That girl, that human you saw back there. She did something to me.”
Yuki doesn’t reply. She doesn’t believe me. She thinks I’m weak when it comes to humans.
I growl at her. “Let go of me.” I push away from her and stagger, finding my own balance again.
“Arsen, I don’t think—”
“What? You don’t think what?”
She stays calm, the ice to my fire. “I don’t think the girl was alone. I went to find you because I felt an angelic presence closing in. Didn’t you feel it?”
I didn’t, but I don’t want to admit it.
“You need rest,” she tells me. “We’ll lie low for a while. Whatever happened tonight, we’ll forget all about it in the morning. That talk about a key to our destruction was nothing but a ruse.”
“You didn’t feel anything?” I demand. “Nothing when you were in the same room as that girl? You didn’t feel her power?”
Yuki scowls ever so slightly, wrinkling the perfectly smooth skin on her forehead. “Power? Arsen, she was nothing but a normal human. She has no power, at least not any power that could harm us.”
“She stopped me with a look. She looked into my eyes and stopped me as if she were an alpha, a superior, something! Explain that.”
I let my words sink in, but she still doesn’t look convinced.
She speaks softly, “Arsen, you’re tired. We’ve been moving nonstop. You never give yourself any time to recuperate. You’re always hunting, always looking for the ne—”
“Don’t patronize me.”
I need to be alone. I start stumbling away, still not at my best. Yuki comes up behind me, but I growl at her, warning her to stay away. Then I run. I run far away from Reverie, from the people in the town, far away from the supposed angelic presence Yuki sensed, and far away from that girl who claimed my beast with a look. My beast should be the last part of me willing to submit, and yet I’m facing the fact that she tamed the wild side of me with no effort at all.
Fuck.
I keep running until I’m deep inside a forest and stop only when I reach an isolated lake. The water reflects the massive dark sky above it, stars speckling its surface with white.
Reaching down, I splash the cold water on my face. The temperature is declining rapidly in the night, so the water has an icy touch. It’s like a jolt of electricity. I feel more alert already, more like myself.
I breathe in and out and splash myself again for good measure. I close my eyes as I let the water trickle down my skin. When I feel ready, I reopen my eyes and concentrate on the lake before me. I hold out my right hand and slowly move it up and down. The water starts undulating on my command, breaking up the picture-still surface and turning the water body white and frothy. Next, I swipe my hand forcefully to the right, making the lake uneven as the mass of water follows my hand’s direction. If I wasn’t willing it so, the water would be spilling into the forest, but it doesn’t, like an invisible force is holding it still in the air.
I do the same thing, but I will the water to my left this time. The last thing I do is hold out both of my hands, bringing the water up like a spout at the center of the lakebed. I bring my hands together into a unified fist and the water collects into a floating sphere, hovering perfectly in the air without any ties to the earth below. My body starts to tremble with exertion. I’ve reached my limit. The planet won’t obey me.
A jolt of pain snakes up my arms and I let the formation go. I curse under my breath as the water falls back down into the lakebed, while about half of it spills back out into the forest. I fall to my knees, panting.
I hate this world. I hate Terra and its limitations. I’ve grown so powerful here, and yet my bond with the planet is weak. Terra changed everything about me. Terra and one of its mortals. I learned strength I never knew I could possess, but I also learned the pains that come with that strength. The pain is what stayed.
My mind wanders back to the girl, the girl who completely immobilized me. No one has ever done that to me before. No immortal, let alone a mortal.
Yuki. She felt an angel, at least one. Does that mean they were planning on getting rid of me right then and there? Angels are using humans as pawns now? I laugh and cover my face with my hand. Of course they are. There’s no way they could keep up their facade forever. They have no love for humans, just like they have no love for demons. The only love they hold is for themselves. Self-righteous bastards.
“You killed my parents!”
The memory of her voice shoots through my head like an electrical current. My beast balks at those words. I didn’t kill her parents, but she blames me for it. I wouldn’t care—I don’t care—but I also don’t understand exactly how their death fits into this. I didn’t kill them, but someone did. Drake? Did the angels want this murder pinned on me? What about the girl? Is she psychic? Have humans evolved to the point where they can attack demons the way she attacked me?
I’ll give the angels credit for one thing: their new game, whatever it is, is nothing like I’ve ever dealt with. They might have had me tonight if not for Yuki. To think, something as insignificant as a mortal taking me down. Arsen, the son of the most hated. That would be a tale the angels would feed on forever. Good thing I won’t give it to them so easily. I’ll fall back for now—at least from that girl. I don’t know what the angels did to her or how this is even possible, but whatever it is, it’s dangerous. Truly dangerous.