An Eternal and The Mortal [ ON HOLD ]

Chapter 15

Druig's hands fell from mine as he took a step back. Confusion, hurt, all of it was written in his features. The sight of him backing away breaking my heart in a million ways. All the feelings that seemed to be in his expression, I felt the same about myself.

"Those...those things!?" I yelled turning to Phastos, who seemed to be a ball of nerves. His eyes moving between Druig and I.

"No that's not true. You're lying," I said shaking my head.

"Amara...you have the same energy in you that we as eternals have. You're only a small part deviant but it's there," Phastos said motioning between himself, the page and me.

"Hold on," I said sliding off of the table before walking over to Phastos. He handed me the sketch of the woven ropes. Standing beside me he pointed at the page.

"This is called a string of DNA. This is a deviant's string," he pointed to the strand, each part of it thick and woven a million times on end, resembling a 7 strand braid.

"This is what a string of my DNA looks like," Phastos pointed to the drawing beside it. Even drawn with pencil I could see the celestial glow he was conveying in some of the strands that were mixed in with thinner and thicker pieces.

"And this is yours," Phastos said as he placed his hand on my elbow, pulling me to look up at the golden screen he was tapping on at the foot of the table. He tapped on the string of DNA, making the picture larger.

My DNA was a combination of glowing golden, thin strands that resembled Phastos' and the thicker strands that resembled that of the deviants.

I looked past the screen to look at Druig, his eyes taking in the screen before falling on me. There was no look of hurt or confusion anymore. He wore a look of sadness as he held my gaze.

"What does this mean?" I asked looking at Druig, my question directed at both him and Phastos.

"There's more..." Phastos said waving his hand over the image of my DNA before hitting several buttons. The screen changed to a golden projection of a small yellow ball.

My eyebrows pinched in confusion as I looked at Phastos. He pointed to the small ball then pointed to his upper chest, just near his collarbone.

"You have a sphere inside you. It's here," he said pointing to the space in between his collarbones. My hand reached to my chest, my fingers tapping my skin in the same place. It may have been my mind playing tricks but I could almost sense a power radiating from that same spot.

"You can communicate with Arishem the same way Sersi and Ajak could," Phastos continued and I shook my head unsure of what he meant.

"Who is Arishem?" I asked turning to look between Phastos and Druig. Druig kept his distance, not even daring to take one step closer.

"He..uhm.. Arishem. He said I failed my mission, something about me being 'put on earth to keep the eternals and deviants under control,' ," I said looking up at Phastos who wore a somber and soft expression. He put his hand on my arm and opened his mouth to say something before shaking his head.

"I need to get back to the other lab, to finish the idea for putting a celestial to sleep," Phastos rushed over his words as he spoke with his hands. After taking a moment to breathe he rested his hands on my arms, an apologetic look on his face.

"I-I'm sorry," he said nodding to me before hurrying out of the room.

Leaving me alone with Druig.

I turned to face him, a wide distance between us. His features were pulled together, a look of deep thought on his face as he looked at me. His hands rested at his sides as his eyes raked down my body. A motion of his that would've made me melt had we been back in the jungle. Standing there before him after what we had learned, I felt none of that love coming from him. I looked down at my feet, a tear rolling down my cheek. I was disgusted with myself. And judging from the look on his face I believe he felt that as well.

"Amara, no," Druig's words echoed in my mind, cutting my thought short. I closed my eyes tightly a small sob escaping me as I heard his foot steps run to me.

"Amara,"  he says my name aloud this time. His tone making my name sound more like an apology.

"Please make it stop," I paused, my words sounding more like a whimper.

"Druig, I don't want to be here anymore," I say taking a step back. Druig takes a step forward as I do. Wrapping my arms around myself, I can't help but squeeze my elbows to hold back the tears of frustration. The grip of them so tight there may be bruises tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow.

"Why's that?" Druig asks placing his hands over my own. His question so gentle as I move his hands, avoiding his touch as I look up at him. A flash of hurt in his eyes as we hold each other's stare.

"I don't know what I am or who I am anymore" I say, my words turning into sobs as tears fall again.

"My beautiful Amara," Druig cooes softly, his hand reaching up to wipe a few tears from my cheek as my tears fall even more uncontrollably. This time I lean into his touch, letting his words take root in my heart in the midst of the hurt.

"That's who you are. The one who sees the good in everyone, even me," he continues and I laugh a little. Druig's hand moves to the base of my jaw, his thumb tapping my bottom lip before leaning forward, placing the softest kiss to my lips. Softly he placed another kiss to my forehead before pulling back looking at me.

"I...I think just want to be alone, go focus on Tiamut," I say with a small smile as a tears falls down my cheek.

Druig laughs softly wiping the tear away. He shakes his head softly.

"Looks like we'll be alone together then," he teased and leans his forehead against mine, our eyes pinched shut as we held each other for a moment. In that moment every terrible thing that had happened recently was gone. I realized I'd been fantasizing about life with Druig and the jungle as if the jungle was the only place I'd ever been happy.

But that wasn't true.

The only place I'd ever been truly happy was with Druig. Whether we were in the Amazon or not. I was happy and loved. As I pulled away from him I we looked into each other's eyes and I didn't see any of the confusion or hurt in his face as I did earlier.

All I saw was love and want.

"I love you," Druig said reading my thoughts, "Nothing with change that."

I smiled as his hands moved to hold my waist, pulling me flush against him. I nodded to his words, leaning up into my tip toes to kiss him.

"I love you," I said as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Now, we need to get back to work. To deal with a celestial so that I can spend a million more days telling you that I love you, in every way possible," he said taking my hand placing a soft kiss to the back of it before leading me out of the lab.

"You'd do that for me?" I teased as he pulled me along.

"I'd do a lot of things to you," Druig said turning back to look at me with a wink. I rolled my eyes playing off that I enjoyed his quick, sexy remark.

"for...FOR me," I said emphasizing my words with a smile.

"Of course that too," Druig said nonchalantly,a smirk on his face as he pulled me to his chest, walking me to the wall till my back was pressed against it.

"So many things I could for you," he whispered as his eyes fell on my lips.

"If only the world wasn't ending," I teased as he pulled my waist to him. His eyes held an intense gaze, lust dripping from his tongue as he wet his bottom lip before shaking his head. Holding my gaze, Druig's hands held my waist as he fell to his knees.

"The end of the world can wait," He whispered as he undid the button of my pants, placing a kiss on my exposed hip, sliding them down my legs. And in that hallway, Druig put my pleasure before anything else, even the end of the world.