The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 54: Air

"Yes, of course." Peggy stood to leave, but before she did, she looked solemnly around at us all. "I'm sorry it has to be like this."

And then she was gone.

Harry immediately rounded on Skylar. "You're offing yourself so you can be with Jamie?" His words were intended to hurt, I could tell by the way he was standing, but there was no punch to them; only pain.

"No!" Skylar shook her head. "I'm just saying, it'll be easier for me in the end."

"What about me?!" Harry roared loudly, causing Skylar to take a step back out of fear. "How do you think this will affect me?" He was standing menacingly over Skylar, eyes darkening.

Skylar was shrinking down, backing away from Harry, but he took another step closer.

Everyone was frozen to their seats in shock. What the hell had gotten into Harry?

"You think I'm gonna be okay with you voluntarily killing yourself so you can be with your precious Jamie?" Harry snarled.

"Harry, please! That's not why I'm doing this!" Skylar pleaded, shooting a panicked look around the table.

Seeing the unadulterated terror in Skylar's eyes, Derek, alongside David and myself, stood up, ready to pull Harry away from Skylar and out of this dangerous room.

The room, I realized, covered in demon summoning symbols, drew out our demon side, making us irrational and inexplicably angry; we lost control to battle mode.

But we were too late.

"Bullshit!" Harry bellowed. He drew his hand back and violently slapped Skylar across the face. The force of the blow sent her stumbling to the ground, hands flying up to break her fall.

David, Derek, and Tony launched themselves at Harry, wrestling him to the ground, as everyone else rushed to Skylar's side.

"Skylar! Skylar, are you okay?" Diamond grabbed Sky's shoulder, and rolled her over. Skylar's cheek was an angry red color, swelling and bruised. She was gasping in pain, her eyes wide and terrified.

She grabbed my hand, as she struggled to sit up.

"Woah, woah, take it easy, Sky." Evie immediately moved to sit behind Skylar, helping her sit up. "How you feeling?"

"She just got slapped by her monstrous sized boyfriend, how do you think she feels?" I muttered under my breath, earning a death glare from Evie and Diamond.

"He hit me. He hit me," Skylar gasped, watching Harry being forced from the room. "What did I do wrong, why did he hit me?" Her voice was broken, and shaking. It was quite obvious she was close to tears.

"Hey," Evie said firmly, wrapping her arms tightly around Skylar. "You did nothing wrong, you hear me? Absolutely nothing. This was not your fault, you understand?"

"But he hit me." Tears started to fall freely down Skylar's face, and I squeezed her hand. Evie shifted Skylar in her arms so she was facing her.

"Exactly. He hit you. But you didn't deserve it." Evie's serious green eyes stared into Skylar's.

"Of course I did!" Skylar sobbed. "I always did! I deserved it, every hit, that's what he said!"

My heart stuttered in my chest, my eyes flicking over to meet Diamond.

"Who?" Evie demanded. "Who said that, was it Harry?"

Skylar shook her head, her whole body shaking with sobs.

"Her father." Diamond's said quietly. "He wasn't just emotionally abusive, was he?"

Skylar shook her head again, finally forcing words out. "Harry promised me! He said he would never hurt me like that, he said he loved me too much." She fell into Evie's arms, leaning heavily on her, convulsing with tears. "He was my new family."

*** David's POV

"What the hell is the matter with you?!" I shouted at Harry the moment we have him in another room, far away from Skylar. "Why the fuck would you hit her, you know what her father was like!"

Harry didn't answer; instead, he just sat down on a chair, blinking rapidly.

"Answer me!" I roared, grabbing Harry by his shirt and yanking him out of the chair.

Harry was limp in my grasp, his caramel brown eyes looking defeated, yet still refusing to answer.

"You sick bastard!" I angrily threw Harry against the wall, seeing red. "Do you have any idea what you just did?! How badly you fucked up?!"

I stalked toward Harry who was sitting against the wall. Ignoring the shouts of Derek and Tony, I grabbed Harry's shoulders in my hands and roughly shook him. "Give me one good reason not beat the shit out of you." I snarled quietly.

Harry's eyes suddenly came to life, and he began gasping like he had been deprived of air. "David?" He rasped. "Where the hell are we? Where are the girls?"

Confusion over powered anger, and I let Harry go. "What?"

Harry's chest was rising up and down so quickly, it looked like he's going to have a heart attack at any second.

"What's going on?" He said as clearly as he could. "Did I black out? Where are the girls?"

"Harry, what's the last thing you remember?" Derek asked.

"Um," Harry closed his eyes, struggling to remember. "Peggy started asking questions. And then I think I blacked out, right?" He opened his eyes, and took in our expressions, half anger, half confusion. "That's...not what happened?"

"No, Harry." I was struggling to wrap my mind around what was happening. "Tony, go see how Skylar is, maybe Diamond knows why this happened."

"What happened?" Harry asked. "What's wrong with Skylar?" Harry's voice rose in pitch and he immediately stood. "What happened, damn it!"

I took in Harry, one of my best friends for years. He loved Skylar more than life itself and only did what he did in what he thought were her best interests, at least when he was in control of his actions. I suddenly felt my heart break for this poor, confused man and my eyes stung with tears.

"David!" Harry sounded alarmed. He took a step towards me, but I shook my head and he stopped. "David, what's going on!" He begged me.

I turned to Derek, silently pleading with him to not make me tell him. Derek nodded in understanding, and motioned for Harry to come talk to him.

"Harry, whatever he tells you..." I tried to keep my voice neutral. "It wasn't your fault, okay? It wasn't you."

"What?"

"Not. Your. Fault." I said fiercely. "Okay?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

I turned and quickly left the room. As soon as I shut the door, I leaned back against it and burst into tears.