Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 3 - Darius - Nimue Lake

Ever since the Dearg Forest, I've been afraid to let my power out more than just a sliver to train with or use to take the edge off of its gathering amount. I don't want to tear down any more forests unless I have to, and seeing as we sometimes travel into well-populated towns, I'd rather turn a busy street into a ghost town. I'm not Xaxias. I won't go killing innocents to force people to get what I want. I won't let my rage and anger and fighting emotions decide what wind and flame do. It's not what Clare would've wanted.

So I've been watching the moonlight skitter across the silent ripples for hours, thinking back on when we played tag with the children, or when she stood atop Melody and we chased after her. How she wasn't braced for when the mare took off, but I was, and she gripped my arm as if her life depended on it. Or that last night, when her legs were wrapped around me because she didn't want to let go just yet. I told her we'd have all the time in the world for that later, and she knew what she planned to do even then. It makes me feel like an idiot. Yes, she's an assassin, but her darkness is what I miss and what I crave just as much as the chaos and the good.

We all miss her. You can see when one of us makes a stupid remark and we all turn to hear her snappy retort, but it doesn't come and we drift into that draining silence. The only thing that breaks the quiet is the sound of the wind ruffling the trees behind us and the nightly critters skitting about. Being able to hear all of the animals still up has me closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths. I can only hear such things when my power is beginning to rise past a point where it's boiling over. I let a little of it out, hearing through the entirety of the forest and redirecting the breeze ever so slightly until the tension in my shoulders loosens. The slow to wake storm starts to calm inside me, but it catches the ever so soft whisp of approaching footsteps before it retreats altogether. I blink quickly when my eyes open, readjusting myself once again.

I know it's Arthur who sits next to me. He's the only one that can only be heard through the air element. Otherwise, he's a ghost floating over the land without making a peep. I suppose spending most of your life training not to be seen can do that to someone. His silent feet remind me of hers. How she'd sneak up on Kat and scare the living shit out of her. I have to shove away the thought before it ends in more than just the breeze shifting.

Kat, my parents, Ella, the orphans, Thea, Melody, Siscilla, Aillard, Thomas, and the three Jades all stayed at the cabin. Kat wanted to come, but Arthur refused to let her in case we ran into trouble. The argument was loud and long, and the rest of us took a walk through the Dearg Forest to try and drain out their voices. Clare would've settled the matter in seconds whether with name-calling or a threat or just by pulling on their ears.

Arthur doesn't say anything, and I don't look over at him. "I still have another hour," I tell him.

"I know, but I wasn't sleeping anyway. Thought you might want some company." The air around him shifts, though his body remains perfectly still. Another side effect of bearing the power of the element. I can sense someone's real emotion just based on how the atmosphere around them churns. Right now it's staggered, running small but gentle zig-zag lines that have no direction or purpose. His fingers sit still as does his foot, and his eyes don't skitter over every inch of the landscape around us, yet he's anxious. Aside from rage which presents itself as sharp arrows firing in every direction from him, and sadness which turns cold and motionless, anxiety seems to be one of the only things he feels in the passing days.

He's been doing this more recently. Sitting with whoever's on watch for an hour or two, not saying anything. Though I was needing someone to just sit with, I can't help but think that he was the one who can't do anything without someone else's presence near him. He misses his sister, and it's starting to make him unsettling more quiet than usual. It's why I use the element with him so often.