Crave ✔

Chapter 3

-&-

       Light shined brightly down onto my closed eyelids, and I groaned. My body ached, and my chest and lungs felt sore- from what, I had no idea. I took a few ragged breaths and gently clutched at the sheet beneath me before slowly opening my crust-shut eyes.

       Despite the few beams of light shining through the window, the tiny room I was lying in held a thinly lit candle sitting on a little wooden table in the corner of the room- with that big sleeping teddy-bear of a town leader sitting beside it.

       A small smile pulled at my cracked lips.

       "Hey Lei." My voice was hoarse and rather weak, and I cringed as the sound reached my ears. Leikos jerked awake, and his large brown eyes flashed to mine.

       "You're awake." He let out a tired sigh but shot me a wide smile as he stood from the wooden stool so he could kneel beside me. "I was so worried about you, Little Cub." He mumbled as he reached up and gently rubbed down my hair, the dark brown of his eyes shined down at me in worry.

       "I'm okay." My throat was dry and it hurt to speak as my voice croaked past my lips.

       "Here, drink this." He commanded instead of answering and held a small cup of water up to my lips. I drank from it greedily and pouted when he took it away. "Not too fast, you'll get sick." I gave a weak attempt of rolling my eyes, but he just laughed. Then all the humor faded from his voice.

       "Do you know how scared I was when Mae came storming into the house shouting all these crazy things about the King of the North's guards chasing you?"

       I dropped my gaze in shame, but couldn't stop my breath from catching in my throat. Just hearing his title sent the memory of our disastrous adventure surging to the forefront of my mind. Oh my god- what had happened? What had made the gold-power lose control like that? Why did it want him so much?

       Why did- why did it try to kill me?

       "What the hell were you thinking?! Running off into the King's territory like that! You know it's forbidden. You know no one is even allowed near the border!" I flinched at his tone, and my eyes widened as his strong hands gripped my upper arms tightly.

       "I-I'm sorry Lei. I wasn't thinking-"

       "You're fucking right, you weren't thinking Emrie! What do you think would have happened if you had been caught before the King knew you were his-" His dark eyes flashed and he snapped his mouth shut before glancing away from me.

       I felt a frown pull at my lips. Did healing the King make me something to him? His healer? Because if that's the case then they could all forget it. I was never going to use the gold-power again.

       "Before he knew I was his what?"

       Leikos licked his lips and let out a heavy sigh before standing from the side of the cot I was laying on. "Let me go get the Elders. They wanted me to wait to talk to you until they were present."

       "W-What? Wait, why?"

       Dealing with the Elders was never fun. They really only ever got involved with villager business when something very bad had happened, or a decision regarding the entire town had to be made. They let Lei usually handle everything, and his dad before him. I didn't even want to wonder why they were suddenly interested in me. I blinked up at him in confusion as he turned to leave the room.

       "I'll tell you everything in a minute." The anger from my disobedience seemed to have vanished from his gaze, but it was only replaced with a thick sheen of worry. It made my frown grow.