The Alphas Guard

Chapter 52

My body felt as though it were a star collapsing in on itself - dense and hollow all the more. I groaned, rubbing at my eyes before opening them. I immediately regretted doing so as the seeping sun seethed into my vision, forcing me to shut my eyes just as fast as I opened them.

"Leila, take it easy," Luca's velvety voice oozed into my ears like a lullaby.

The sound of blinds being shut echoed throughout the room, compelling me to slowly open my eyes.

After blinking for a few beats, my blurry vision finally registered the wonderful being of a man that stood in front of me, brows furrowed in concern as he leaned against the bed I laid comfortably in.

"How are you feeling, verde?" He asked, voice ushering shivers down the length of my spine.

"Like a mountain just crashed on top of me," I replied, voice raspy, "I feel heavy everywhere,"

I didn't know where to begin.

To me, only 13 minutes had passed since I'd last seen Luca, but to him, 26 years had. I was uncharted territory to him, and that consulted in the making of cracks into my heart that spilled white hot poison into my organs. 

So much could have happened for him, so much I did not get the opportunity to see.

As I examined him, head tilted, everything about him was different just as much as it was the same. He was the same Luca I had met a month a go, but he was also not.

"Where were you, Leila?" He asked, voice shaky.

His eyes were so distraught as he asked me that question - the question I was dreading to answer. I looked down, fiddling with my fingers as his eyes were much too burdensome to look at. My heart already ached with the force of my lands ripping in half, why did he have to make it worse?

Tears burned into my vision.

Luca placed a finger underneath my chin and lifted my head upwards, forcing our eyes to meet once more.

His eyes roped me into his soul - in fact, everything about him pulled my being into his. 

I could feel his warmth despite the inches separating our bodies from meeting. 

I could taste his lips despite the supposed years that have passed.

I could inhale his scent as though I had met him just yesterday.

But all of that seemed far away.

It was all at the tip of my tongue, unable to manifest into what it was born to be.

"Talk to me, verde," He pleaded, inching his body closer to mine, "Let it out. Tell me everything. I need to know where you where, I need to know what happened to you. I cannot rest if I don't,"

My jaw shook at his words as tears drove down the apples of my cheeks.

"I-" I looked down once more, shaking my head, "I- I don't where to begin,"

"What did the witch do to you?" His eyes flashed a bright amber as he palmed my neck in his hands, squatting so that our eyes levelled with one another, "How did she keep you from me for all this time?"

Images of my fight with the witch flickered through my memories, pulling at the knotted strings of my heart.

"She made me kill my mother again," I croaked, wrapping my hands around his wrists as I stared into his eyes, "She made it so that every minute I spent with her was 2 years to everyone else . She made it so that the birds no longer sang so long as I stepped into her coven," My body shook as I tightened my grip on his wrists, "She made me watch as mother's eyes dulled once more. She made me miss so much. She made me lose everything,"