Awaken His Eyes | The Awakened Book One

Chapter 10

Maeryn pulled a chair out onto the balcony that had become her refuge. There was something soothing about watching the ocean glitter in the sunlight. Lemus went into the city just after sunrise and she hadn't seen him since. She felt safer when he was gone. He was so unpredictable. She tried to shake the thoughts out of her head and think about more positive things, but it was difficult. Her thoughts kept returning to Adair and why he had abandoned his family.

He didn't abandon you, or anybody else for that matter! she reminded herself. That's not the kind of person he is.

She was worn out by the emotional drain of wavering between bitterness about her situation and anxiety about the safety of Adair. She closed her eyes to picture Adair's face. It came instantly. His deep brown eyes. Strong jaw. His dark hair.

The sound of screaming jolted her from her thoughts. The vision of Adair vanished. Maeryn listened for a second, realizing that it was coming from the courtyard on the other side of the house. Maeryn jumped to her feet and hurried through her bedroom. She ran down the stairs, following the screams. Somehow, she knew it was related to Lemus.

* * * *

When the screams reached his ears, Kael had been watching a grasshopper cling to a blade of grass on the side of the road, just outside of the wall that surrounded the hilltop estate. He knew it was Ajani as soon as he heard it. Though the servant boy hadn't ever screamed about anything as far as Kael could remember, he knew his voice well. Kael immediately rose to his feet and ran between the two guards who were standing at attention on either side of the entrance into the courtyard. Once inside, Kael darted across the gravel landscape and headed for the garden. He took the short flight of stairs at the entrance in two leaps and skidded to a halt. What he saw on the other side of the garden made his body go weak with fear.

Lemus was crouched over Ajani. The servant boy was lying on his side, trying to shield his face. The screaming had stopped, but the dull thud of Lemus' fists pounding the body of the child underneath him was even worse.

"I'll teach you to talk back to me," grunted Lemus between excited breaths.

"Stop it," screamed Kael, but Lemus didn't listen. He just kept hitting Ajani, who had now stopped moving altogether. "Stop it!" he yelled again in the loudest voice he could manage, but Lemus didn't even seem to know he was there.

The paralyzing effects of fear quickly gave way to empowering feelings of anger. I have to stop him! Kael ran back down the steps and reached the supply shed in seconds. He threw open the doors and stepped inside, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. Seeing a pitchfork leaning against the wall, he grabbed it and ran back toward Ajani as quickly as his little feet would carry him.

When Kael reached Ajani, there was an eerie silence in the garden. Lemus was facing away from Kael, his head up to the sky. His arms hung limp at his sides, blood dripping from his knuckles. Ajani was covered in blood and lay on the ground, unmoving.

Rage welled up inside Kael and he ran at Lemus, bracing the pitchfork in front of him.

Lemus continued to stare at the sky until the last second, when he turned and jumped to the side.

One tine of the pitchfork punctured his right thigh and he yelped as Kael kept charging, driving it into his leg. When it hit something hard, Kael let go and took a few steps back, realizing what he had just done.

Lemus yelled at the top of his lungs as he grabbed the gardening tool and angrily ripped it from his leg. Without pausing, he grabbed the shaft with both hands and lurched forward, swinging the handle at Kael.