There's a low sound, almost like a groan, and my chest rumbles. I realize the groan in coming from me.
I'm swathed in darkness, and slowly, very slowly, I crack my eyes open, only to be met with my dim room.
I'm lying on the bed, on top of the covers, and even though I'm not in pain at the moment, I'm scared if I move it will come back.
With this in mind, my eyes drift to the side to see Max kneeling by the bed, one of my hands in his, his eyes tightly squeezed shut. Only when I see the soft, glowing light coming from his hands do I realize he's working his healing magic.
There's a soft gasp and my eyes dart to Max's side to see Becky there, glaring down at me. I wince internally.
"You're up." She says flatly.
What happened? I want to ask, starting to sit up, but then everything that happened before I woke up here flashes before my eyes and I fall back onto the bed, panting.
"What's happening to her?" A voice demands, and I manage to creak my eyes open enough to see Lager appear on the other side of the bed, staring down at me with something similar to worry.
I groan again, my head hurting even worse than before.
"It's the strain on the bond between Zero and her." Max explains, hovering his hands over my head and flitting them around over me. I admit it helps a little and slightly numbs it, but the pain always breaks through triumphant.
"Somebody...."I say, slightly out of breath. "Explain."
They all exchange glances, hesitancy clear in their eyes as Max helps me sit up and rest against the headboard.
"Now." I plead, my voice cracking.
I want, no, I need to know what's going on. I remember Zero, the kiss, then the words he uttered that sent me spiralling into darkness. I must have fainted.
It's not true. It's not true. It's not true.
I keep repeating those words in my head. There's no way Zero can be the reason behind these headaches and my impending death. He would never do that intentionally.
And oh God, the kiss.
"Dammit!" Lager curses, turning sharply on his heel and pacing the length of the bed, tugging on his dark blue hair. "I knew this would happen. That's why I didn't want that idiot to tell you, but he never listens." Lager rants, my mind half keeping up with everything he's saying.
"You're saying you knew." I demand, feeling betrayed and hurt at this discovery.
Lager pauses, before nodding. "I knew the second I met you." He says, his eyes meeting mine, before darting away.
This makes me feel hurt and betrayed. He kept something this huge away from me. I mean, we've only known each other for a few days at best, but I thought we had developed a bond of trust and friendship. What the heck happened to that?
"Why did you keep it from me?" I ask, the headache a dull pain in the back of my head as I focus on our conversation instead.
"Because I knew something like this," Lager snarls the last word, gesturing to where I lay on the bed, "would happen."
"That's still something you shouldn't have kept from me! This is my life were talking about." I snarl right back, resisting the urge to flinch at the pain it cost me.
Lager's golden eyes turn molten, and he opens his mouth to respond, and most likely yell at me more, but Becky speaks up.
"Enough bickering you two. It's getting on my nerves." She rubs her temples, acting like she's the one with the really bad headache. The irony of that kills me.
Lager and I 'harumph' at the same time and look pointedly away from each other, both our arms crossing.
Becky rolls her eyes while Max softly smiles from where he had been watching the exchange like a tennis match, his head jerking from person to person whenever they spoke.
"We need to get onto more important matters, like for instance the fact that Zero has run away." Becky snarls.
The world slows, and I find my mouth parting open, but the rest of me is frozen. "What do you mean by "run away"?" I whisper.
"I mean gone!" She exclaims throwing her arms out. "Escaped! Vanished! Ran like a Lyncher was on his heels!"
Max stands from his position by the bed, resting a hand on Becky's arm. She seems like she's going to shrug it off, but at the last moment she lets it stay, her tense body deflating slightly.
"We all need to calm down." Max says, and I'm surprised to see that for once his usual joking demeanor has been replaced with a calm, serious one.
"Easy for you to say." I laugh humorlessly, wincing when my head aches again. My mood has suddenly shifted again from shocked to spiteful. "You weren't the one who just kissed a person, found out they were the reason their dying, fainted, and woke up to an angry Becky all in on hour."
Becky gives me a look showing exactly how much appreciation my comment earned me, which judging by her gaze isn't much.
"I think we should go." Max says, sliding his hand down from Becky's shoulder all the way to her hand, where he entwines their hands.....or at least tries too. This time Becky steps away, pulling her hand behind her back and flushing in what seems like embarrassment and guilt.
Max pretends it didn't happen. I almost feel sorry for the guy.
"But someone has to explain." I rush out, watching both of them shuffle to the door.
A throat clears and I look to see Lager still standing there, staring down at me with his intense gaze. I hold in my groan. Nothing against Lager, but I've grown tired of him explaining all these things to me. How can one guy know so much information? But then again he is the High Commander, isn't it his job to know these things?
There's a moment after the door closes shut behind my friends, where there's only a tense silence. I shift on the bed uncomfortably, and this seems to start Lager out of his stupor. He clears his throat again, which only makes the situation more awkward. Wouldn't people know by now not to clear their throats to make a situation not awkward when it's the universal sign for awkward!?
"May I sit?" Lager says after a second, gesturing to the open space on the bed by my hit.
I debate internally for a shot second, before nodding. Lager swiftly sits down, like I expected, but what I didn't expect was for him to swing around and lean against the headboard so we're side to side, kicking his legs up beside mine.
My face incredulous, I try to shove away from him but a piercing pain enters my head, rendering me immobilized.
"Careful!" Lager snarls, turning to me and gently wrapping his arm around my waist. He then proceeds to carefully lower me until my head rests in his lap. All the while my eyes are squeezed shut, trying to stop the pain from returning again.
It's only when I feel a soft pressure on my skull that I fling my eyes open, staring up into Lager's amused one's.
"What are you doing?!?!" I demand, attempting to sit up, but Lager keeps me down with an arm banded around my torso. I give up struggling almost immediately, scowling as Lager moves both his hands back to my head.
"I may not be a Lightling healer," He mutters, "but I can give a fairly good massage."
Silence permeates the air again, and against my wants I find myself shutting my eyes to the gentle ministrations Lager applies to my head.
It's easy, too easy, to lose myself in the moment, letting myself sink into the relaxation and shutting my eyes. I underestimated how easy it truly was though, because the second I close my eyes a new pain shoots through me and not the head ache kind.
I reach a hand up and lightly touch the back of Lager's hand, making him pause. I open my eyes and meet his, trying to use them to beg with everything I have.
"Please," I say, not finishing the sentence with the word 'explain'. He understands though and clenches his jaw, before exhaling heavily through his nose.
"A long time ago," he begins, his voice soft, "The Kinlings started getting rebellious. They kept causing disturbances, injuring my soldiers and even killing them."
I think back to Becky, and her father's death, caused by those "disturbances".
"They were getting greedy," Lager continues. "They have always been a very nomadic group, sticking to their land, but always travelling. I thought they were fine with that way of life, after all they had much land on the island to move around in, and we minded our business so why shouldn't they? But when Zero came into power as the first Kinling High Commander, things changed."
My body goes tense at his name, and I almost can't believe my ears. First Kinling High Commander? As if seeing the question in my eyes, Lager starts to explain.
"Kinlings work very different from Lightlings and Darklings, besides the fact that they're nomadic and we are not. We have a court and High Commander, they had something similar to a tribe leader, but never officially a High Commander."
"Until Zero." I finish, hating the longing I feel in my chest upon saying his name.
"Until Zero." He agrees. "He changed the Kinlings view point completely. After officiating himself as their High Commander, they started getting restless. They didn't want to be some powerless nomadic tribe anymore. They wanted a court, and a Capital, like Highclere. To do this though, they needed a little more land, because even though the land they had was already huge, it's not very big when compared to Lightling or Darkling territory."
He looks down at me to see if I'm following and I nod, completely captured in the story.
"Being that Darkling territory is the largest territory on Dalton, they targeted us. They didn't dare much at first, just riots and rallies, testing our boundaries, but the second they killed one of my Darkling soldiers, my patience was thin. I was ready to declare a war."
As he says this his liquid gold eyes harden, and I swallow, almost feeling sorry for the poor Kinlings who are faced with his wrath. Then his features suddenly soften though, and he glances down at me, before briefly looking away.
"That's when I started getting this feeling." He says gently, staring off out the Windows in the room. "It was almost like this, this tug, I felt in my gut. It came from somewhere off of Dalton, somewhere out there in the sea."
I feel my eyes widen, starting to put puzzle pieces together of what he sensed. The island.
"I had no idea what it was at first. I was very confused, but the tugging was almost a near constant, and I just knew I had to investigate. But I couldn't leave my territory, and then a plan formed. I called upon Zero, and he came to Highclere, wanting to discuss a peace treaty. He didn't want this war any more than I did, and knew just as well as I that if we engaged in one it would be long and bloody, but the Darklings would emerge triumphant. Without help from the Lightlings, the Kinlings with their meager force wouldn't stand a chance."
"Instead of offering a treaty though, I gave him a bargain. He would go to the island, and find out where this feeling I had was stemming from, then he would report back to me. If he did this, I would not start a war that could make his race go extinct."
"That's why...." I trail off, everything suddenly clicking in place.
Zero was never caught by our scientists, he chose to get caught. And he could have escaped any time on the island, he never needed me, he just needed to scope out what Lager was looking for.
"That still does not explain what Zero has to do with the reason I'm dying." I say quietly.
I try to sit up, and Lager doesn't stop me this time, helping me up and guiding me to where I'm leaning against the headboard, my arm pressed against his.
"Darklins and Lightlings," he pauses seeming to think before speaking, "have special bonds with people, like your bond with Zero."
I snort. "So everyone is killing each other with these bonds?"
He winces. "Minus the killing part. The bonds are just a way to unite two people, make them a team that is unstoppable when paired together."
"So is this a soul mates kinda thing or....?" I ask trying to understand.
He narrows his eyes, sighing. "Yes, I guess that's what your mortal mind can comprehend the most effectively."
I glare back, before getting back on topic.
"So if Zero and I shared this bond, then why would it kill me? Isn't it supposed to pair us together?"
Lager laughs low and bitterly, sending shivers crawling up my spine.
"I told you about how Kinlings are different from Lightlings and Darklings, and one of the major differences between us and them is the bond. We don't get a choice on who were bonded with, it just happens. Kinlings on the other hand......".
He pauses hesitating, and I nudge him with my shoulder to continue.
"Kinlings are given a choice. They are allowed to bond with anyone they want, or not at all, but it can only be done once."
He speaks the words softly, so softly that my brain takes a few seconds to register the weight they carry.
"No." I gasp, finally completing the puzzle.
Lager opens his mouth, but something inside me is fracturing, and I listen to what I already know come from his mouth.
"Zero formed a fake bond with you, and normally, it would have been harmless since your just a human, but recent symptoms have shown that the bond is acting as a virus right now, and slowly killing you."
Symptoms, being the head aches.
I think back to the X-Ray my dad showed me a long time ago, of that little cord twining around my heart. I had thought it was unnatural, but had paid no mind to it, not knowing that really it was a viper slowly strangling the life out of me.
Zero.......how could you?
My heart hurts, but not from the fake bond, but the betrayal. He has used me, then left, right when I felt that maybe the bond was starting to be a really good thing. Turns out it was all lies.
All we've been through, on Braun island and here, has amounted to this. And instead of facing it and giving me his own explanation, he has decided to run.
Anger swells up inside of me, turning from a leaky faucet of rage into a raging torrent of fury.
I need to know why he created the fake bond with me, but I'm not asking Lager.
I'm going to find Zero and take the words from his own mouth, in his own explanation. He owes me that, heck he owes me a lot more.
I look up to find Lager studying me, and open my mouth to ask where Zero has gone, but suddenly the door bursts open, and I whip my head around to see Peter standing in the doorway, Sylvia behind him.
"I thought I told you not to leave your room." Lager barks, quickly getting off the bed and almost making me fall over from loss of support.
"He said it was urgent." Sylvia speaks up, earning a hard glare from Lager, which makes her wince.
"What's wrong?" I ask, making Peter's eyes dart to mine and soften in relief.
"Ashley," he says, not breaking my gaze, "I know where your father is."
Dear readers, here's a super long update! As promised another one will be out before the week is over in honor of 200k views, and I have given you the option of it being an extra chapter, or a previous scene in Lager's p.o.v. many of you have voted for extra chapter, but I ask you to reconsider, because while you may want another update, it's also bring you very close to the book ending, which isn't that far away. If you do vote for a Lager chapter, please also comment what scene from the book you want to see from Lager's view.
On another note, I have my first ever fan fiction! EEEEK! It written by Thimona80712 and is called Her Protector, so check it out if you want.
Vote, comment, and write your own fan fiction (it doesn't have to be about my book).
Lots of love,
Dangeroustoken