King of My Heart

FORTY-NINE

When my eyes open the next morning, Liam is already dressed to leave.

"Hey," I mumble, sitting up. "You're up early."

"Yeah, a few of the Alphas are visiting today to talk about some strategy. So I need to get going."

"Oh, okay."

"I'll see you tonight, okay?" He places a quick kiss on my cheek and heads for the door.

Rayna shows up soon and we're back to the same old grind.

"Let's just give up," I groan after half the day has passed with no success.

"No. You need to focus."

"I am focusing," I whine.

"No, I can tell you're distracted," she frowns at me, her hands akimbo.

"I am not." I lie.

I can't help but think about Liam's behaviour with me. No matter how hard he tries, I can sense something is off about him. And I'm scared to admit it might just be because of me and these so called abilities I can't seem to control.

"Fine. Let's try something different," Rayna announces. She raises her hand and mumbles something until a giant rock appears about forty feet high above us.

"Now, I am going to let this drop and you are going to try and stop it."

"Rayna, no," I stare at her in disbelief, my eyes staring wide at the rock.

"April, yes." She orders. "Now get ready. And focus," she chides.

Without any warning she lets go and the rock begins to free fall. I raise my hands towards it and try to empty my mind of everything else, focusing only on stopping it's fall. For a minuscule second I can feel the rock. Feel its weight. Feel the air warp around it as it falls. And maybe for a second, it falters and shakes. Until the next second, it crashes to the ground with a loud thump.

"Again," Rayna announces and with a swish of her hand, the rock, along with some of its broken up pieces, become whole again and return to the sky.

Rayna continues the same torture for a what feels like a million other times, each attempt no better than the last. Even though, nothing seems to be happening, I can feel each try drain the energy out of me. Eventually, after another one of the rock's crash landing, indicating my failure, the frustration and exhaustion makes me give up.

"Come on," I kick the ground, anger flaring up inside me. "Maybe the powers are gone, Rayna. Maybe it was all just one big fluke and it's over now and I'm wasting my time for no reason," I yell, waving my hands frantically.

As if under their command, the rock shudders and rolls over to its side. Both Rayna and I turn to look at it, her with amusement and me with sheer annoyance.
I've spent the better part of my day to get it to move and it decides to do it now, when I wasn't even trying.

"Whatever," I roll my eyes and turn to go back inside, ignoring Rayna's disapproval.

After having dinner, I decide to read a book to distract myself while I wait for Liam. It's almost 11 when he finally shows up. After talking about his meeting for a little bit, which he claims went as well as he could have hoped, he makes his way to change out of his clothes.

"So Rayna told me you gave up on your training today," he states, getting into bed.

"I just got tired," I grumble, placing the book down on the nightstand.

"April, come on. I know it's hard but you have to keep trying."

"I know, I know," I sigh, facing him.

"I just don't want to talk about it," I mumble, sliding towards him and grabbing him for a kiss.

For a few minutes, I just want to forget about everything else. To get away from my thoughts. To get away from everything.

Grabbing Liam's face with both my hands, I deepen the kiss and swing one leg over him to sit on top of him. His hand moves to the small of my back and he pulls me into him. I let my tongue tease his lip until he parts his lips and grants me access.

With my tongue exploring his mouth, I trace one hand slowly down his chest and finally under his shirt. As soon as my hand touches his skin, I can feel him stiffen against me.

My entire body is taken aback for a second and Liam uses this chance to pull away from the kiss.

"April, we shouldn't," he breathes out, trying to catch his breath.

"Liam, please," I moan, dragging my hand up along his chest, not taking it out from under his shirt.

I kiss him again. "I need you," I whisper, my face mere centimetres from his.

I watch his jaw clench as he speaks again. "We can't. It's dangerous," he states. His face is devoid of any emotion as I look at him with pleading eyes.

"Who knows who you could end up hurting unconsciously if we did that," he says avoiding my gaze and lifting me off of him and back into bed.

"Nobody's around Liam. You made sure of that," I say, the anger seeping into my voice.

Liam doesn't respond for a second and takes a deep breath.

"Just go to sleep, April," he turns on his side and faces away from me.

My heart feels like it's locked in my throat and I don't know how many silent tears it takes for me to finally fall asleep.

The next day, Liam disappears before I wake up and training with Rayna is exactly the same. At this point, I feel bad for her. Because she is trying so hard but I know my mind isn't in it. Even if I can manage to get a few seconds to focus away from the thoughts of Liam, Jade is there to remind me of his behaviour. I may be able to convince myself that he has a genuine reason to keep his distance, but Jade only feels the pain of rejection. And she doesn't let me forget it.