I looked down and noticed the chains barely hid something attached to his arms. They were wrapped around some sort of metal plate with symbols on there. It was a circle with words around the edge and in the centre… was that…a star?
“Who is doing this to you? Who is keeping you here, Draven?” I asked looking up at him so he could see the level of pleading in my eyes. But no matter what I expected him to say, it would never had prepared me for the blow he was about to deliver, not to my mind nor to my heart but this time…to my very soul…
“You are, Keira…
Only you.”
Chapter 16
Terrifying Little People
I woke with a jolt that felt as though my heart had actually stopped for a short time. Of course now it was thundering within my chest like a jack hammer. I took in the dark room that only let in a thin slither of moonlight where the curtains hadn’t been closed properly. I scanned the room and it took my fragile nerves a minute or two to calm enough to realise where I was.
My mind took me back to the night before after getting out of the car with Draven. Sophia had been there to meet me ready for our ‘girl time’ and thankfully I hadn’t seen Draven again that night. I didn’t think I could face him and I think Sophia could tell something had happened as for once she didn’t ask. In fact she didn’t mention her brother at all for the rest of the night. Instead she just made it her mission to distract me with what deemed her version of a sleep over and made me laugh at every opportunity.
By the end of the night I think I was well on my way to being drunk after all the champagne she made me consume. But if I had to choose the highlight of our night, it would be seeing Zagan’s face when he walked in and looked on in absolute horror when seeing his wife with a lumpy pea green face mask on. I actually spat out some of my drink I laughed that hard. It was only after Sophia tried to drag him in the room to paint his toenails that he fled in fear.
So now here I was, in some guest room I had never seen before, lying upon an elaborate metal bed that looked like some black iron rose garden, shaped so at least four bodies could sleep amongst it all. I vaguely remembered being shown this room after I continued to nod off on Sophia’s gothic pink and black couch…but wait…I was missing something. The more I thought about it the more I didn’t think I was led to this room but more like carried to it.
“Draven.” As soon as I whispered the name the sound of someone inhaling sharply sounded in the room and my gaze shot up to a shadow of black I now knew belonged to a man’s frame. I held my own breath as I watched him take the first steps from the shadows and into the line of moonlight, bathing his features in an ethereal glow. My eyes scanned the length of him and I could just make out on the side facing the window where his long sleeves looked charred along his forearm.
“The chains.” I said before I could stop myself and watched as he tensed his fists at his sides.
“You had a nightmare.” He stated with his voice sounding gruff.
“You carried me in here last night…didn’t you?” I asked as the snippets of last night came back to me.
“Go back to sleep, Keira.”
“Do you know what I dreamt of?” I asked ignoring his demand.
“Don’t over analyse what you don’t know.” At this I scoffed, making a little snorting sound in disbelief.
“Well what else am I to do, when you obviously won’t tell me the truth…? Hell, I’m not sure you even know what that is anymore!”
“What I do know is that the truth will never be something you could handle knowing, so it would be wise to leave it at that.” Draven snapped back taking another few steps toward me.
“Oh right, I forgot…I haven’t had to handle difficult shit before…nothing like say, my boyfriend faking his own death just to get away from me!” I threw at him like a verbal slap. He actually growled at this and looked like he was fighting shaking me or storming out the door.
“Yes and can you possibly imagine the level of severity which caused such drastic actions…? Can you even grasp what would drive a man in love to do such an unforgivable act?” He shouted down at me as he was suddenly at my bedside but it wasn’t in anger. No, it was nothing short of undiluted pain.
“Why can’t you just tell me…does it have something to do with…” I took a deep breath knowing the explosive side of Draven that would probably erupt when I finished that question…
“…Tartarus?” And just as I thought as soon as the name passed my lips Draven ignited into a purple fuel that coursed through his body like an uncaged beast running riot beneath the surface. His wings burst forth and spread out, plunging the room into darkness. I shrank back against the metal roses at my shoulders and I suddenly felt trapped as he slowly leaned his frame in and over me. It was only the current of his other self that I could see traveling his veins that lit up my startled features.