Page 15 of The Human Element (The Human Element Collection #1)

“What do you think is going to happen when we get to Stonehenge?”

This question stumped him. He had no idea. If it was really true that only Lorelei could unlock the answers, he wasn’t sure how she would.

“I don’t know. You’re always surprising me though. Maybe something at Stonehenge will call out to you. I’m not sure…but it’s our best start. Which is better than nothing to go off at all.”

Lorelei sighed, and Daemon’s heart ached while hearing it.

Lorelei leaned on her arm, looking out the window.

So much had changed for her in such a short time, and Daemon worried for her, worried for how the weight of the literal world might affect her.

They may know where to go next, but that didn’t mean she would be able to do anything once they arrived.

Daemon’s eyes darted over to her several times, her silence became unsettling, forcing his brows to scrunch uncomfortably. He cleared his throat.

“Lorelei, are you…alright?”

Upon his question, a flooding of emotions gushed out of her unexpectedly. The fears and doubt that she’d successfully kept at bay, now had no other recourse but to release.

“Daemon, I don’t see what there is that I can do. I..I am only human. I have nothing that screams hero. What...what if I fail? What if I can’t figure out what to do and I am the reason humanity dies?”

She tried to keep the wavering in her voice to a minimum as she spoke, but it was hard when Daemon opened and closed his mouth several times, as if to say something that might comfort or reject her statement.

When at last his mouth remained closed, and that hardened expression remained, Daemon felt totally defeated, unable to think of anything encouraging to say.

He looked at Lorelei and felt his heart might break.

Tears started to stream down her face, falling like rain droplets on a windowpane.

And despite stopping being risky, as the colors of purple and orange of the sun setting began filling the car, he pulled the car over on the side of the small country road they were on.

Putting the car in park, he pivoted to face Lorelei better.

Tears were dripping from her chin onto her lap, and although she made no noise while she cried, he could hear the sound of her own doubt and fear rushing through her body, leaving her untethered.

Another energy shift was felt, but it was different than prior.

This energy shift was heavy, suffocating, and incredibly dark.

It shook him to his core, seeing that she was starting to crumble in on herself emotionally.

The first major breakdown since he found her a couple of days ago.

She was staring down at her feet and as her body began to shake, he huffed loudly and with his hand, placed it on her cheek and forced her to face him.

“Look. You’re not alone. I know that the odds are against us, but look at how you have handled everything so far. You have held up when most humans wouldn't.”

Lorelei only gazed back into his eyes. Her own shifting into a dark, cloudy grey as tears continued to fall from them.

This entire time, she had not shed a single tear.

Hadn’t let the stakes stacked against her take her down.

And now, seeing her look like she might collapse from the pressure, killed him.

Because he wasn’t sure how to comfort her.

He didn’t know if their mission was going to succeed.

He didn’t know how she was going to save humans.

But he knew she was stronger than any human he’d ever met and he knew that even though he was terrified that saying it might open a door he may never be able to shut again, a door leading to his own heart—he had to tell her that.

Tilting her chin up for her eyes to lock with his, he melted.

That cold, outward demeanor fading with one look into those captivating eyes.

There was no sarcasm he could conjure, no desire to shift the moment to something more lighthearted.

He wanted to be there with her, to pull her from this darkness he saw rupturing her.

He needed her to feel he was there, fully with her.

His guard lowered, and when their eyes met, lip quivering, he thought his heart might explode out of his chest altogether.

Continuing to gently hold her chin to look at him, he mustered up all the encouragement he could.

“Lorelei...from the moment we met, you have surprised me at every turn. You have been so strong… ”

His voice trailed off as he wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb, the gesture igniting a desire to pull her even closer, but he kept his current stance and continued.

“If anybody can figure it out, it’s you. This is your destiny. You have the power within you, Magnus told us as much.”

As she looked into his eyes, and as the tears began to recede, she blinked several times.

A faint smile started forming, her eyes changing from doubt, to longing.

Her lips parted and Daemon’s heart quickened—rattling beneath his chest. Temperature rose within him and he hesitated, unsure if words indeed comforted her and she was relieved, or if her gaze suggested something more.

Abruptly, Lorelei’s facial expression turned to shock, and she quickly pulled away from his hold on her.

Lorelei merely continued to stare at him.

He was afraid he'd said something wrong.

“ You . I saw...a memory flash through my head. It can’t be true…

You were there that day. You were doing the same thing, holding my face like this, checking into my eyes to see if I was responsive.

You saved me when I was 6 years old. Didn’t you?

The mission Raphael mentioned, the one you didn’t follow through with. You stopped me from dying.”

When Daemon couldn’t find the words to respond, Lorelei’s voice no longer held back, and its intensity shook the car; anger radiated from her, ricocheting like a boomerang in the energy around them. Daemon could do nothing but stare at her as she shouted.

“Didn’t you!”