Page 20 of Rising Out of the Darkness (Divine Guardians Duology #1)

Elena

A s the sun began its descent behind the horizon, the Royal Guards began to pack up once more.

Griff, the injured guard, had been making great progress.

Before taking a moment to rest against this boulder, I’d told Declan I was positive Griff would be able to make the journey to the next town.

It was a few days away, but I had collected enough sidra root to make more poultices to help in the meantime.

Shortly after our conversation, he’d growled at me when my eyelids drooped and ordered me to rest. I’d grumbled right back, but hadn’t argued.

With my back against a boulder, I tried my best to rest my eyes, but as usual, unwanted thoughts invaded my mind, keeping me restless. Lost deep in thought, I hadn’t even noticed the body that had slid down next to me.

Not until a warm palm slid over my upper thigh, sending a million volts of electric tingles running through me. Noticing my shock, he slid his thumb back and forth in calming circles. It did quite the opposite—it sent even more shivers down my spine and a flush of heat to my center.

I winced as my cheeks burned. Every emotion seemed much more sensitive, almost heightened, since my Ascension. Declan pulled his hand back, his hand clenched against his thigh.

“I—I apologize,” he choked out. “I was just trying—I can imagine these two days were…well, a lot to take in.” He cleared his throat. “Your dynamis seems to react when you’re faced with extreme emotions. Controlling them is something we’re going to have to work on.”

“Ha!” I snorted. “That’s an understatement for sure. Gods only know the reason they would bless someone as unstable as me with an equally unstable dynamis.”

“Perhaps they’re getting bored in their old age? Maybe they needed a little excitement? A good laugh?”

My mouth gaped wide. A flicker of a smile twitched against Declan’s lips before it faded.

“Dearest Shadow Lord, did you by chance just try to make a joke and smile?”

“Perhaps. In my ripe old age, maybe I needed a little excitement myself.”

“How old?”

“A man never tells.”

Another snort escaped. “I think you have that saying a little backwards, but I’ll excuse it. You can’t help it if your memory is starting to falter now that you’re ancient.”

Leaning into him, I gave his shoulder a nudge and laughter passed between us for a moment. Then, silence. My hands fidgeted relentlessly on my lap.

“Thank you for helping today.” His eyes bore into mine, and there was a sincerity there that made me hold my focus.

“This group of guards…” Declan cleared his throat and shifted his body so that his arms were resting on the tops of his knees.

“They’ve become like family to me. They’ve done a lot for me.

” He paused. “If anything ever happened to them or if I couldn’t protect them from harm, I would never be able to forgive myself. ”

I nodded, his words striking a familiar chord in my own core values. I knew all too well the burden of never being able to find forgiveness for yourself.

A rush of emotions crashed like a tidal wave into me again. My body jarred against what felt like sadness and guilt. The emotions took on a life of their own; it was almost like they were trying to pull me under.

I used all my might to shove them out of me. As I did, a gust of wind flowed through my hair.

Stunned, my lips parted. Had that happened the last time?

“You felt something, didn’t you?”

“Huh?”

My body stilled under his intense scrutiny. Green eyes blazed at me, his jaw clenched. Then, he slammed them closed, exhaled, and then opened them slowly.

Declan was suddenly the portrait of calm. What was going on with this man? Perhaps I wasn’t the only unstable Elysian in the kingdom?

“Try again,” he commanded harshly, making me flinch.

“You really need to learn how to spea?—”

“Again!” he growled, and my eyes widened. “Try. Again.”

Flustered by his impatient tone, I huffed, turning my body to face Declan. “I don’t understand what you would like me to do…y-y-you… ass !” Trembling with rage, I realized the filter over my mouth had slipped, and to none other than His Royal Highness. Kill me now .

He leaned impossibly closer. His leg brushed against mine and I could feel his breaths against my temple. “Try to feel it.”

“Excuse me?” I scoffed. “Yeah, there’s no way that I’ll be doing tha?—”

His hand slapped over my mouth before I could continue.

Declan’s nostrils flared as he ran his other hand through his thick wavy hair.

He took another deep breath. When he spoke this time, he was a little more careful with his words.

“I want you to try to read my emotions. I’m curious if you can feel them. ”

“Oh,” I mumbled against his hand. “You could have just said that the first time.”

He dropped his hand. “Try again, Elena. Please.”

Inhaling deeply, I prepared myself for whatever was about to happen. “Fine, I’ll try.”

Instantly, my body jolted, overwhelmed with a searing sensation.

This must be what rage, anger, or maybe even frustration felt like.

Its flames scorched their way through my body.

I could feel it burn everywhere . My skin sizzled uncomfortably, my legs squirming.

The pressure was unbearable. There was no way could I hold onto this any longer. I needed to release it, now .

A bead of sweat slid down my neck as my teeth pierced my lips. Grasping an imaginary hold of the feelings burning through me, I shoved them out of my body. A rush of wind tousled our hair.

“Whoa,” I whispered.

“What did you feel?”

“Anger…I think? A whole lot of it.” I shivered, remembering the feeling. “It felt like I was burning alive.”

“Hmmm…”

“What are you thinking?”

“Something tells me that you may have several more layers inside of your newfound dynamis we’ll need to uncover.”

I swallowed deeply. If only he knew that there was so much truth in that prediction, in the form of a whole other dynamis I hadn’t told another soul about.

“Try again.”

“I—I don’t know if I can handle that again.”

“Just—” He pinched the bridge of his nose, and his tone grew impatient. “Trust me, Elena.”

With a heavy sigh, I debated whether to share the truth of my dynamis or not. Uncertainty hovered over this entire journey, and I wasn’t sure if admitting I had two unique dynamis to the king’s son was such a brilliant idea.

“Try again,” he pleaded.

Against my better judgment, I met his gaze. They lacked any anger at all. Only genuine curiosity stirred inside them as they stared patiently into mine.

“I’m also an Empath.” I paused as his brows rose nearly to his hairline. However, he didn’t utter a single word. My nerves clawed their way up my throat, and I swallowed them back down. “The gods blessed me with Empath dynamis before they made me the Light Phoenix.”

Silence passed between us for longer than felt comfortable. He ran his fingers through his hair as he processed my words. Finally, he shifted his body back towards mine, and there was no escaping the full attention he was giving me. “Right, well…let’s try one more thing then.”

I sat stunned, surprised that that was all he had to say. “ Okay .”

“Good. This time, I want you to use your dynamis to search inside for my emotions. Without me sending them out to you.”

Hesitation prickled for a second before I relaxed my body and cleared my mind. Eyes closed, I waited for the worst. It was an unnatural feeling to be searching for someone’s emotions, but I tried my best to will my mind and dynamis to continue its quest.

When I was ready to surrender, I felt something dark and turbulent ahead. The skin between my eyebrows scrunched together as my mind felt its way around this seemingly inflexible emotion. Impatiently, I launched my mind forward, trying to capture it.

Instead, a flurry of clouds, thick and gray, swallowed me up and shoved me. The feeling of falling felt so real that it wasn’t until my body twitched that I realized I was sitting firmly on the ground.

“What in the Hells was that?” My fingers wrapped around my nauseous stomach. “I don’t think I ever want to feel that again.”

A smile spread across his lips as he opened his own eyes. Smug bastard, he really did like watching me in pain, didn’t he?

“That was my ward.”

“ Y ou ready, Elena?” Killian shouted as Declan and I approached the rest of the group.

“As I’ll ever be.” I sighed dramatically, causing Killian to laugh.

He was already mounted on top of his horse, so he adjusted himself to the back of the saddle to provide room for me to join. Killian lowered his hand and I reached up to grab it when we were interrupted by His Royal Highness.

“No, you’ll be riding with me, Elena.” He bellowed the command from on top of his saddle. The man was fast. How the Hells had he got up there so quickly? He sat staring at me with furrowed brows and lips pursed in their infamous thin line.

“Seriously?” I began to argue.

“Now. Hurry up.”

Gone was the soft-spoken man who had combed through my hair last night, helping to lull me to sleep. All that was left now was the Lord of Grumpiness.

Rolling my eyes, I lifted my hand and placed it into his. Before I could lift my foot, he yanked me and I flew into the saddle in front of him. Several obscenities tore out of me under my breath, until a sharp pain poked my side.

“Ow! What the Hells was that for?” I rubbed my tender side where he had pinched me.

Anger fueled my fist as I tried to punch him in the gut. He grabbed my wrist and swung me back around, trapping me with his arm cinched uncomfortably tight around my stomach. With a harsh tug of the reins, we were off in a gallop. A chorus of snickers arose from behind us as the guards followed.

Once there was a sizable gap between us and the rest of the group, Declan slowed the horse down to a trot.

I tried to tug my arm away from him, but his grip tightened as he pulled me in closer.

Still trapped between his arm and his chest, I shivered as I felt his heavy breaths rolling over the side of my neck.

“That was for arguing with me, Elena, and the pinch was for rolling your eyes at me yet again,” he growled next to my ear.

I forcefully blew out a breath, still wiggling to try to escape his hold on me. “Gods, are you always this surly?”

His broad chest crashed against my back as his mouth hovered next to my ear once more. “No, I just save that for contemptuous, arrogant bastards like yourself.”

He’d used my own words against me. Touché, Prince , touché .

I curled my neck around just in time to see the delighted smirk stretched across his face. Whipping my head back around, I murmured several fouler obscenities under my breath.

“What was that, Elena? You’re mumbling again and I can’t hear you.”

Extending my elbow with maximum force, I launched it back into his stomach.

A deep grunt bellowed out of him as he shoved me away. “Was that necessary?” He growled.

“Absolutely, Your Highness.” A devious smile spread across my face.