A Demon Made Me Do It(82)

With my eyes closed, I hold out my cloak and feel him take it from me.

He chuckles. “It’s okay, you can look now.”

I open my eyes again.

“Through those trees is the Portal…I can’t go further as a beast, only as a man.”

“How much further to the cabin?” I ask, glancing around. I search my memory for this place, but although it’s vaguely familiar, I know that once I exit Thiberoux the scenery will change dramatically.

“I’m guessing about ten miles? It’s quite a walk…I can run and carry you in my arms…”

I have to smile. “Seriously? You can do that?” I don’t know if the idea frightens or excites me. Then, I look into his eyes, and know I desperately want to be in his arms.

“I’ll be careful, promise. We’ll be there in no time.” With that, he scoops me up as if I’m no heavier than a feather and carries me over the threshold into a different world. My world. Once again, I clasp my arms tightly around his neck and squeeze my eyes shut. The blast of wind rushing past my face tells me we’re travelling very fast, but I’m too afraid to look. I bury my face in his chest, feeling his soft, warm skin on mine.

Unfortunately, my ride is over in only a few minutes. The rushing wind stops and Bones gently sets me down. I open my eyes and see the cabin a few hundred yards away.

I turn to him and smile. “Thanks, Bones. I really appreciate it.” Impulsively I hug him, savoring the sweet feeling of his arms around my body.

When he holds me, I want to swim in his skin, and I take several deep breaths of his intoxicating scent. Now that we’re here, I don’t want him to leave. I can’t imagine not seeing him again, and I don’t want to blink for fear he won’t be here when my eyes open. I want him to ask me to do something, anything, just so I can have the pleasure of obliging him. I feel that the whole reason I was born was so I could meet him and have him look upon me the way he is looking on me now. He is the reason for my existence…he is my everything, always. If he leaves me, I shall surely die.

“You take care of yourself, girl. And don’t be such a stranger. I miss you.” He disentangles from my eager embrace and hands me back my cloak.

“Wait…please don’t leave me…” I beg, reaching out for him.

But he’s already gone.

******





“Oh, Liora, thank the gods you’re all right. I have been worried sick.” Tatiana rushes at me the moment I walk through the door. She angles her body away from me awkwardly as she hugs me, and I remember I’m still wearing the magical black diamond. I was warned as a child how it’s fatal if any human, like Tatiana, comes into contact with it.

Yet for some reason, I haven’t turned to ash.

“It seems there were some problems last night. Lucky got stuck in Thiberoux,” I say as I make my way across the room to sit on the couch. A small fire burns in the fireplace, and I’m so tired right now, I could sleep for days.

Tatiana pours two cups of tea and brings one over to me. “Yes…I knew you were there, but I couldn’t see you. That worried me.”

“It was…okay. Everything worked out.” I remember Bones, but for some reason I’m not feeling as swoony about him as I was a few minutes ago. Then I think of Kieron and my heart turns to ice.

“What’s the matter dear? You’re upset, I can tell.” Tatiana sets down her gold-rimmed cup and turns to me.

I take another sip. “Nothing. I’m just really tired, is all. Tat, look, I know I agreed to finish school, especially because I came back that day with my ‘one good thing’…” My voice trails off as I recall the morning I didn’t want to go to school, and Tatiana made me, saying if I couldn’t find ‘one good thing about my life’ then she’d let me drop out. That was the day Kieron showed up and took me fishing at the magical meadow.

That was the day I started to fall in love with him.

So, like an idiot, I’d told her of my ‘one good thing’, thereby sealing my fate to graduate high school. But now that good thing was gone. Truth is, it was never there in the first place...it had all been a complete and total lie.

“Yes, Liora?” she prompts when I don’t continue.

I shake my head. This is too much to process right now. I give a deep sigh, and look at her compassionate face. “Nothing…I’m just tired. I really don’t feel well. I know school’s starting back up, but I can’t go today. I’ll go tomorrow, I swear.”

“And you’ll graduate with your class?”

I sigh again.

“Yes.”