Page 24 of Rising Out of the Darkness (Divine Guardians Duology #1)

Declan

E lena’s eyes were blown wide, her body frozen between fear and shock. The longer the silence passed, the more energy seemed to fill the air around us.

“Are you going to answer me?” I growled, taking another step towards her, caging her body with my own.

I already held her wrist above her head, but her other palm had found its way to my chest when I stepped closer. Shoving my knee between her thighs, I had her completely immobilized.

“I—I…” she stuttered, trying to shove me back. Her head dipped in defeat as I grabbed her free wrist and made it join the other.

Clutching both her wrists in one palm, I let my free hand fall to her forehead where her hair concealed her face. Using my index finger, I traced over her temple, eliciting a faint whimper from her lips.

“Wildfire, I warned you what would happen if you angered me.” My voice scratched against my throat, making it sound deeper than usual. “You broke your deal, again ,” I hummed as I tucked the hair around the shell of her ear.

Leaning back, I trailed my fingertips along the side of her jaw, tilting it upwards to meet my eyes. Our chests were so close together that the rapid pulse of her heart thundered into mine. My bottom lip hovered dangerously close over hers.

“Whatever shall I do with you now?” I breathed.

Her eyelids fell shut as she captured her bottom lip between her teeth. If only I could trap it between my own.

A low rumble of laughter filled the space beside us, and it felt like we had been doused in cold water. The electricity evaporated from the air instantly. Our heads tilted in the direction of the sound as I separated our bodies.

“Well, hello, you two.” Liam’s smile was about as large as his ego. As he waggled his eyebrows up and down, I groaned into my palm.

“I was just about to escort Elena back to her room.” My voice taut as I scowled back at him.

“Mmhmm, I bet you were.” Liam crossed his arms across his chest. Elena tried to cover her crimson cheeks with her hands.

“Move,” I barked at Liam and grabbed Lena’s wrist while pulling her behind me. “Don’t you have a watch to be on?” I snarled behind me.

Only a faint laugh answered as I stormed away with Elena in tow. Shoving the front door of the tavern open, I barreled through the dining room and stomped up the stairs.

It wasn’t until I stopped in front of the door and fiddled once more with the most insufferable lock in the entire realm that I heard her sniffling beside me.

Lena slumped against the wall, her back towards me as her body shook. In my haste to leave the stables, I hadn’t stopped once to look back at her.

She flinched as I wrapped my palm around her shoulder. “I’m fine,” she whispered, angerly wiping away the tears that had fallen.

“No, you’re not, Lena,” I turned her towards me and gathered her into my arms.

Sobs unleashed in waves as I nuzzled my head on top of hers.

She twisted her hands around the back of my tunic as if she was holding on for dear life.

Each tear felt like a rock as it crashed inside of me, vibrating all through-out my dynamis.

In that moment, I wished for nothing more than to absorb all her pain so she would never have to feel an ounce of it ever again.

“Come on, let’s get you back to sleep,” I hummed against her lavender-scented locks. When I felt her head nod against my chest and her fingers unclench from my tunic, I tried the lock once more. Bless the gods, it opened on the first try.

Once inside, I herded her towards the bed and helped her sit down on the edge. With every movement she winced, no doubt from the ungraceful leap she took from the window earlier. As she stared off into the distance, lost in her thoughts, I bent down and unlaced her boots.

Her tunic was covered with dirt and hay, not something I wanted her to be sleeping in, especially in the state that she was in.

In the chair behind us were our satchels.

I rummaged through hers but only found another pair of pants.

Without a second thought, I grabbed one of my tunics instead and handed it to her.

“I’ll turn around, but you need to change out of that. ” I nodded towards her tunic.

Lena avoided my gaze and her hands fidgeted inside her lap. “I…I may need some help,” she whispered. “Everything is so sore. I don’t think I can lift my arms above my head without help.”

Her red-rimmed eyes rolled up towards mine, and a shiver ran down my spine. I had to fight every muscle in my face to not react. All I mustered was a grunt and nod as I made my way over to her.

Smooth, real smooth, Dec.

Lena’s arms quivered underneath my touch while I struggled to raise them without causing her pain. She winced as I tugged the fabric over her arms. With one more pull, her limbs were freed, and I lifted the rest over her head before I tossed it to the chair behind me.

Even though her breasts were covered by a thin band of fabric, she shielded them from me with her arms. As she did, I noticed a long pink scar that ran along the inside of her right arm. The sight stirred my dynamis as my lips pursed.

Elysians didn’t scar. Either this had happened before she’d received her dynamis, or someone had used an iron blade on her. The only Elysians who utilized those were the Nightshades, and sometimes my father. The thought made a growl tumble out of me as I clenched my tunic in my hands.

Elena shivered under my stare as I slid the new tunic over her and lifted the covers back for her to climb inside. Kicking off my boots, I lifted my own tunic off and stuffed it inside my satchel, where I grabbed something else I needed.

Her gaze followed me as I grabbed my pillow and blanket from the floor and rounded the bed to the other side. When I climbed under the covers, her breath hitched, which she smothered with a cough.

“Give me your wrist, Wildfire.”

Wide eyes turned thin as she glared at the iron shackles within my hands.

“Please…” Her lips trembled as she pleaded with me. “Please just let me leave, Dec.”

The way her eyes clouded once more ripped me wide open. It made me want to tell her everything I had sworn to her father I wouldn’t.

“I just don’t want to hurt anyone any m-more.” She sniffled into the rough blanket clutched between her fingertips. “I’m tired of feeling like I can’t control anything in my life.”

Her confession shook my soul. If only she knew how much we shared that in common. Elena swallowed deeply, closing her eyes. “My weakness, one way or another, always finds a way to bring everything around me to ruin.”

Just as another tear fell from her lids, my thumb brushed against her cheeks and swept it away.

“Lena.” Her cloudy eyes opened and met mine.

“It’s in our fears and our weaknesses that we reveal our strengths.

” Her brows furrowed as I spoke. “Let me put it this way, if we were never knocked down, how would we ever learn the strength we have inside us to get back up and try again?”

She chewed on her lip as she pondered my words. “But every time I get back up, those fears and weaknesses just knock me right back down. Declan, I’m exhausted from fighting a battle I’m never going to win.”

She grabbed the shackles and locked one around her wrist before I could stop her. Before she latched the other, I swiped it from her hands and latched it around my own. “I’ll help you fight the battle. You don’t have to do this alone, Elena.”

“Why—”

When I silenced her with my palm, her eyes grew wide. I lifted our wrists, causing the heavy links of the chains to clink together. A grin spread across my lips. “This is just so you don’t try to run away from me again, Wildfire.”

Releasing my hand from her lips, I pulled the sheets over her shoulders and began to comb my fingers through her hair.

“Like I said, we’re in this together now.

Rest, and I promise you in the morning we’ll begin to figure out your dynamis.

” This time, I was the one who pleaded. “Please, let me help you.”

With a heavy sigh, she nodded against her pillow as she closed her eyes. I stroked her hair for a few more moments until her breath became slow and even. Only then did I allow myself to sleep as well.

M orning rays cascaded over the wavy locks of the woman lying peacefully beside me, making them look alive with fire.

I’d been staring at the ceiling for hours.

The mess I’d thrown myself into weighed heavily on my mind.

The beats of my heart tripled in pace, just like the intrusive thoughts that flooded my mind.

All the while I felt a steady throb inside my chest, an unmistakable pull towards the woman tucked snugly underneath the sheets. Everything about my building attraction towards Elena was forbidden.

The more I learned about Elena, the greater the need had grown for me to keep her away from my father and his advisor. Unfortunately, if I didn’t deliver the Light Phoenix to the capital, there was no doubt in my mind that both men would use every resource they had to hunt her down.

Warren had persuaded me that Elena would be the perfect distraction inside the castle while we continued to get closer to finding the mole.

He was positive my father would gather all the dignitaries together to show off the dynamis of the Light Phoenix.

It would give us a chance to reassess their roles in this kingdom and uncover any leads that might help us.

There was also the possibility that the strength of her dynamis would be enough of a lure to entice someone to slip their cover.

Another reason why Warren trusted me to take Elena. He believed I was the most capable of teaching her how to embrace her dynamis, and the most capable of keeping her safe.

The pressure of these tasks threatened to cave in my chest. Every muscle tightened, creating a cage over the upper half of my body.

The more I thought about it, the tighter it constricted.

My mind flashed back to when I had told her I would protect her in the first town, and she had replied, “ What if that’s not enough? ”

Those words had ruptured through the secure hold I’d had on my intrusive thoughts. Now, they roamed freely inside my mind, and that was never a good thing.

Anger lashed its way through me. That last thing we all needed was for me to doubt myself, but here I was worrying about not being able to protect the Light Phoenix.

My head began to feel hazy, the breaths flowing faster than they should have. Closing my eyes, I began to count the stars the way my mother had taught me during the first time panic invaded my body as a child.

“One… two…three,” I whispered between shallow breaths. “Four…five…six…”

While I focused on the counting, the claws that dug into my chest began to lift. Licking my lips, I steadied myself to keep counting when I felt the unfamiliar warmth of fingers interlocking within my own.

Elena hovered over me. Concern creased her brow as she placed her other palm over my chest and rubbed soothing circles with her thumb.

Lena’s aqua eyes glistened in the morning sun, as they rippled over me like a tranquil river.

Her delicate lips moved, and I realized she had begun counting where I had left off.

“Seven…eight…nine…ten.” She paused, raising one eyebrow. “Keep up Shadow Lord.”

My lips curled up as she gave me a playful tap across my chest, and I counted alongside of her.

When Elena had interlocked her fingers within mine, it had jolted me out of my spiral.

However, pure selfishness took over and I continued to count along with her until we reached twenty.

I savored a few more moments of her peaceful gaze before it vanished.

Once my breaths had steadied, her thumb stopped its circles as she asked, “How long?”

“I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember.”

Her head dipped. “Me too.”

There had been several signs I’d picked up through our journey that had made me wonder if she was afflicted with the same burden. Now I had my answer. It appeared that Lena and I had a lot more in common than either of us thought.

Reaching over to the table beside me, I grabbed the heavy keys and unlocked the shackles chaining both of us together.

Releasing the heavy iron weight from around my wrist should have felt freeing, but instead it felt more like a loss.

Like a severing of the connection between us.

The way Elena longingly smoothed her hand over the empty space around her wrist made me believe she felt similarly.

The pull within me took over, all other fears tossed aside, as I cupped her chin.

Lena’s eyes went wild as I pulled her towards me, leaving her lips hovering inches from mine.

Her mouth barely opened to accommodate more air for her increasing breaths.

I dragged my thumb over her bottom lip and watched the skin pebble across her arms.

We lingered in silence, our chests rising and falling against the tension that sizzled between us. I ran my thumb over her lips, inwardly groaning as a meek whimper fled from her.

“ Wildfire ,” I rasped as I continued to trace her pouty lips. “Do you know how much I think about these?” I pressed my thumb harder against her bottom lip. “How much I crave to find out what they would feel like against mine? How they would taste?”

Desire clouded my gaze as her body shivered in reaction to my words. It only fueled me further. My hand left her lips and leisurely trailed down the sensitive skin of her neck.

There was nothing I wanted more than to cross the line, to rip it apart and tear it to damn shreds, but reality started to claw its way back into my mind. As I pulled away, the lusty haze in Elena’s eyes fell, replaced with one laden with disappointment.

“Time to go, Lena.”

The silence in the room was stifling. We shifted tentatively around one another as we got dressed. With my satchel thrown over my shoulder, I opened the door and motioned Elena towards it.

As she walked past me, the air filled with the scent of her. The sweet scent of lavender overwhelmed my already sensitive senses. I’d watched her place the lavender oil behind her ears for the past few days, and the scent had become uniquely her.

I closed the door behind me, and her shoulders slumped as she walked down the stairs. As I tilted my head towards the ceiling, I prayed to all five gods to give me strength.

It was going to take divine intervention to keep me away from that woman.