the butterfly effect | l. garmadon

forty-three

  He was getting tired of fate testing and taking. He would lose himself to save me. He would become a monster for my sake. And that, coupled with his prophesied powers and his future directly inherited from his grandfather, made him very, very dangerous.

  He had evil in his blood. How much of it sung for him? Just how balanced was he?

  But I couldn't distract myself from my horror by evaluating Lloyd forever. The panic wormed its way through my shock and struck me with an indrawn breath, a shrill sip between my lips after a long moment with none. Lloyd turned at the noise, a man puffed and imposing and wronged, and then he was soft and pliant once more. His hands on my shoulders kept my body in its shape, kept me from drifting away.

  "I won't let him touch you," Lloyd vowed, but that couldn't stop the shallowing of my breathing, the raspiness of it. He searched through the haze of my eyes for my focus. His fingers gripped into my flesh so tight it hurt. "Y/n, I promise you. Nothing will hurt you."

  Blearily, I nodded. Lloyd brought me into his chest and stiffened again. If his arm had been marble before, then now it was diamond.

  "What else do you know?" he ordered from Chen.

  "Th- that's all," he answered.

  Lloyd exhaled low and heavily, a drawn out conclusion he wasn't happy with. In his steeled hold, I was sick with panic. I began to tremble. His hand stroked my spine in a slow rhythm I tried my utmost to breathe in time with.

  "We'll hasten our plan," he said. "Until then, I'll ask someone to watch over your family."

  For the first time that evening, Chen relaxed just a tiny bit. "Thank you."

  Lloyd moved an inch, as if he wanted to say something; a dismissal of his thanks, perhaps, or an insult to skin him to the bone. He said neither. Chen's thanks was dismissed when Lloyd turned his back to him and addressed him no further.

  I felt Chen's lingering gaze on me, felt his hesitation as if he, too, wanted to say more. Even if he did, I wouldn't have been able to listen. My attention was scattered to the wind that billowed around us.

  The trees creaked and groaned, and I flinched closer to Lloyd. Was he here now? Was he watching us? When was he going to try and kill me? The unknown was terrifying and I suddenly sympathised with Chen's fervid glances amidst our surroundings. The park was too open, too exposed.

  I could stand up to a malevolent ghost who possessed my boyfriend just fine, but my false mask of bravado all came crumbling down around me when it turned out that he'd always been the collateral, and not myself. I was brave for Lloyd because I had to be to get him back, because I thought he was the sole target they all wanted dead. I didn't know how to be brave for myself.

  "Y/n." Lloyd's low, velvet hum of my name was demanding of my attention. With some struggle, my gaze turned to his steadfast stare. "Y/n, sunshine. Are you with me?"

  I wasn't. I was splintered into facets, into different shades and tastes of prickling dread. I'd become a kaleidoscope of terror.

  Lloyd cursed under his breath. Chen flinched when his red eyes turned back to him. "Did you bring your car?"

  A little stunned, it took a moment before Chen nodded.