Daniel briefly took his eyes off me to give Marsil a nod. “Thank you. If I’m not back soon, you’ll need to return Callie to House of Imperial. Her energy has to be recharged. Right now she’s fine, because we just came from there, and she has been with me, but I’m taking no chances with her.”
“It will be done. Don’t worry about it,” Marsil said.
I made a low, devastated sound. It slipped out before I could stop it. Daniel’s attention immediately returned to me. “You better come back to me,” I murmured fiercely.
“I love you” died on the tip of my tongue again, but I hoped he could see it in my eyes. I’d never said those three words to anyone before, so it felt huge to say them now. And also … it wasn’t the right time. He’d think I was saying it because we were all about to be torn apart again and put in a dangerous situation. Which was definitely not the truth. For now, I’d just have to hope my eyes were telling him how strong my feelings were.
“Come back to me,” I whispered again, and then there was a brief pause before he freed his fingers from my hair to cup my face. This time his kiss was gentle, and a burning started low in my body, but it was soon blazing like a thousand suns inside of me. We both kept it contained, not letting it creep onto our skin. When we pulled apart, my breathing was embarrassingly heavy.
“I have to go,” he said, sounding more than a little annoyed. Next to us, Lexen and Emma were saying their goodbyes, while Jero hugged his sister.
I didn’t like this. It reminded me of the old movies where the women and children sent their men off to war, movies where many of those men never returned. Sobs were building in my chest, but I would not fall apart. I knew Daniel was not doing this just for me – if that was the case, I would be handcuffing myself to him and probably hanging off his leg to make it extra difficult. But this was the same as when I had to walk out of the school … bigger than just one life. It was about saving the treaty that kept two worlds from being destroyed.
I grabbed onto his shirt, tightening my fingers in the soft material so I could pull him closer to me. “Be careful,” I said, wishing that the million other things in my head could be said as easily.
“I will.” He nodded to back up that statement. “If I get a chance, I’ll send a message to Marsil or Chase, but it’s quite hard to connect to Overworld from Earth. So don’t panic if you don’t hear from me.”
Yeah, right. The chances of me not panicking while he was gone were pretty much zero.
With a final brush against my cheek, Daniel turned to join Lexen and Jero. The three crossed to the main group going after Laous. Then they were gone in the transporter.
I almost lost control of my fire power as my worry immediately went into overdrive, but the thought of possibly hurting one of the people around me was enough to halt my flames and give me a sliver of control. I could be strong while Daniel was gone. I would be strong.
Chase stepped closer to us; I had to crane my neck to see his face clearly. He was at least as tall as Daniel, his face billboard advertisement material: perfect bone structure, dark exotic slant to his eyes – which were the color of shimmery green glass, flawless skin in a mix of dark and light … brown, with a slight shimmer.
I thought he was the most “otherworldly” of the four overlord best friends … too beautifully exotic to be real.
“Are you ready to explore the land of Leights?” he asked, a smooth, accented lilt to his words. Holy gods, if I didn’t have Daniel to compare him to, I’d think Chase was the sexiest guy I’d ever seen. Okay, Lexen as well. There was no denying the four overlord best friends were total heartbreakers, but I preferred the one my soul was tied to. The darkness he carried didn’t bother me – it matched my own. The rugged beauty he wore so effortlessly had my body craving him. And more importantly, his care and consideration toward me … from pretty much the first moment we met … was why I considered myself truly blessed.
Come back to me, Daniel.
I was distracted from the heavy thoughts as Chase swung his head toward the land of trees, braids clinking together. I liked the way most of his hair was shorn except for those few longer pieces. It really suited him. His symbols were darker than his skin, but still in the same tone. And they glowed much more brightly.
“Welcome to the House of Leights,” he said, and I focused on the land of trees that spanned out into the distance. I couldn’t see the end. I couldn’t even make out one other landmark, just a single canopy of huge green and gold-tipped leaves. As we took a few more steps closer, I noticed the trunks were not brown but a solid gold. Flaky bark and gnarled whorls gave them a similar appearance to trees from home, but as we stopped right before a massive one – its trunk the width of a truck – I felt the unnatural energy.
I’d always been vitalized by nature, water especially, which was probably why I loved the ocean so much. House of Leights took the normal buzz of nature, multiplied it by a million … and then threw in a few cans of energy drink.
We were on the edge of the platform, huge trees in front of us towering way above our heads, so tall I had to lean right back to see the top. Star and Marsil remained a little behind, allowing Emma and I the first look. We were the newbies here.
Emma’s eyes were wide and filled with wonder and awe. I often forgot that she was an Earthling too. I wasn’t alone with these new experiences.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she murmured. “I never even realized they were so huge. I wish I’d walked over here sooner.”
Chase flashed almost perfect white teeth. Two on the bottom were slightly crooked, but it wasn’t even remotely a flaw. I was just being a picky bitch because he was too much of everything. Dude needed a flaw.
“You’ll have plenty of time now to become acquainted with my land, and if you treat her with respect, she will return the favor.”
This reminded me of what Daniel had said about the trees and Laous. I wanted to know what that meant, so I asked, hoping like heck I wasn’t stepping over the line. Thankfully, Chase didn’t seem offended. He smiled at me, while placing his hand firmly against the golden trunk closest to him. Almost immediately, a literal glow washed over his skin. I thought I saw his body shimmer and grow larger, but when I blinked again he looked like normal-sized Chase.
“They’re calledGalinta,” he answered.“An ancient breed of tree folk. Here, the trees are not inanimate beings like yours on Earth. This is their land. We’re just lucky enough that they allow us to share it with them.”
Not inanimate?“They walk?” I asked slowly.
Chase nodded. “Yes, if they want to, they can walk and communicate. They’re ancient creatures, living here long before Daelighters existed on this world. Most of the time they rest, but … not always.”
Emma had a hand over her mouth. Then removed it to say: “This is why your power is connected to nature.” She turned to me. “Leights shift their shape, turning into beings that are very much like the trees here.”
Chase shrugged. “We’re nothing like the Galinta. They are so much more than we could ever hope to be.”
