Glamour (Rae Wilder #1)

Chapter Two

"The sadness it engulfs me, the darkness can it tempt me? My heart bleeds black."

­– Dizzy Darkness by @Autumn_duskflame

 ***

I waited for the fear and for the panic. I waited for the scream of terror to rip from my throat, but it never came. I waited for him to grab me, and murder me, and cut me into pieces and hide me under the small patch of wild flowers over there. But he said and did nothing. The clever thing would have been to get the hell out of there and start running again. But I didn’t want to, and I was curious as to who and what he was. I wanted to know why he was stood in front of me, and what he was after.

His gaze raked over me again and again, looking for something.

“If you didn’t think you were safe you would ask me to leave,” he said. “And, if you wanted me to leave, I would have done so already.”

I hated that his words made sense to me. “Stop trying to be clever, demon boy.”

“I’m trying to help you, demon girl.”

His words hit me like a blow to the head. I twitched like he’d pinched me all over and staggered back.

I knew then something menacing was coming around the corner. I had to accept what he had told me, right? Not to acknowledge the undeniable truth would be foolish. A tear slid down my face and landed with a soft plunk on my front. I had always been different, strange, but within the realms of human strange. Undoubtedly, I now knew I’d gone beyond the boundaries.

He stepped closer, closer still, and our clothes rustled as they touched. Lowering his forehead to touch mine, warm fingers found my hands and coaxed them to entwine with his. I did not like the way my body was reacting to him. It overruled logic and it was beginning to upset me. Something was happening to me and I didn’t understand what. Worse, I couldn’t explain to myself why I was still there talking to him.

His finger tapped my chin up. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that, but I was never good with words.” His voice was serious and complicated. The touch of his hand clasping my chin released the knot that had formed in my stomach and, with a sob, I dragged in a breath to control my tears. “Don’t do it,” he warned and used his hold on my chin to tug my face closer. “To cry over learning the truth is useless. It should empower you.” He stroked my cheek, and wiped the tear there while he watched me fight to control myself. “You’re sad. That tells me I have not done this right. Maybe now is not the time to have this talk. I have responsibilities I cannot ignore simply because it will hurt not to be around you. I’ll explain better when I return.”

With no other option I nodded slowly. And then I knocked his hands off me. Whatever was so important he needed to leave me, well, that was fine.

“You don’t have to justify anything to me,” I said. “I don’t know you and I don’t expect to ever see you again.” He didn’t owe me a thing and I told myself I was happy he was leaving.

I could get back to being lost, and worried about being lost.

“So stubborn. I can admit not to see you will be hard. Can you not look outside yourself for a moment to do the same?”

My intention was to tear into him about his stupid, confusing statements that made no sense, but as my head turned his lips brushed along my chin. Gravity shifted and flowed into his eyes to ground me. The world darkened to nothing as they drew me deeper into their shaded depths. My lips parted in a sigh, and my hands swept around his waist as he pulled me closer. His hands tangled into my hair as my own moved over his lower back. I breathed in the heady smell of sunlight from his chest, and the scent became a taste on my tongue. Exploring the dip in his spine, I glided the pads of my fingers into the shallow groove which flowed uninterrupted to his shoulder blades. My hands left his back then I hesitated in my exploration. The sensation that slicked over my palms was, odd. Hovering a few inches away from his skin the air felt warmer, thicker.