“I get the feeling you don’t have my best interests at heart.”
“On the contrary, I care very much. It’s amutualinterest, you see. I need you just as much as they do.”
They? As in…the elementals? Why would any of them needher? Isla swallowed. “Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about. This is all a dream, anyway—it isn’t even real,” she insisted. She now knew that the world of magic and elementals and spirit beings existed, but she drew the line at whatever this…dark god was.
He released his grip on her chin and was behind her in a flash, his hands holding her arms at her sides. Her breath hitched as he ran his nose lightly along her neck, a trail of icy fire igniting under her skin. “I assure you, this is very real.” He spun her to face him and smiled wickedly, his fingers wrapping around her forearm as he lifted it to his lips. Without breaking her stare, he placed a searing kiss against her wrist. She flinched at the sting where his lips made contact, the slight heat making her gasp.
“I’ll see you soon, Isla.”
And then he was gone.
Isla shot up from the cocoon of blankets with a shuddering breath. Within moments, a solid figure knelt at her side.
“What’s wrong?” Rynn murmured.
She wasn’t sure how to explain what had happened. The fire burned low in the center of the cave, its warmth and glow calming her erratic heartbeat, assuring her that she was no longer within the grasp of the mysterious man. “I don’t—I think it was a dream. But…it was so real.” She traced the path the man’s nose had made along her neck, his scent still ingrained in her mind. “Someone—a man—was there.”
Rynn’s eyes, which had been focused intently on hers, snapped to the hand still raised to her neck. “What is this?” he asked, something like a soft growl escaping him.
She looked at her arm. “Impossible,” she breathed. There, on the inside of her right wrist, was the faint outline of lips. The stranger’s kiss, branded to her skin.
It was real.
Rynn lightly touched the mark. The contact made her burn for an entirely different reason. “What did the man say?” he asked urgently.
Isla relayed the conversation, how the stranger had told her the other elementals were coming and she was supposed to go with them. She also told Rynn about her first encounter with the man back in Lockhurt, and how this time he hinted at having some sort of ability that apparently didn’t work on her.
“Who do you think he is? And why is he bothering me? Gods, why is all this happening?” she mumbled under her breath.
Isla was inclined to believe that the events of the last few days were stress-induced hallucinations or a byproduct of high anxiety, except she had lived them. It had all beenreal, and that terrified her. Why was she getting mixed up in the lives of such powerful beings? She needed to get home and forget this had ever happened. If there was some disastrous force coming, or if the world was going to end, at least she’d be with the people she loved.
“I don’t know.” Rynn looked like he had more to say, but as usual, kept his true thoughts to himself. He stood and paced across the floor, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.
Isla abruptly rose from the bed and made her way to her small pile of dirty clothes. She was done with all of this—with new threats bombarding her daily, with one earth-shattering revelation after another, with unanswerable questions and unthinkable magic.
“What are you doing?” Rynn asked.
“I’m going home,” she said matter-of-factly as she grabbed her cloak, boots, and dagger. “There’s no way I’m staying here with some man who can control my dreams on the loose, and a bunch of old, immortal elementals on their way to bust down this mountain or who knows what, while my father might bedyingback home.” Her hands shook as she laced up a boot. She was unraveling and couldn’t quiet her mind enough to pull the threads back in.
Rynn approached and took her trembling hand in his sturdy one. She didn’t understand how he could be so calm when she was falling apart.
“This is too much. I don’t evenknowany of you. Why does he want me?” She choked back a sob, her breaths uneven spurts as her mind conjured all of the terrible things the mystery man could do to her. “Is he going to kill me?” she whispered, finally looking into Rynn’s eyes.
“Listen to me, Isla,” he said, softly but firmly. “He is not going to hurt you. I will not let him. But I think it would be unwise to leave when we know so little about this man besides his need for you. Whatever he wants, we are going to figure it out and stop him.” He gently brushed his finger across her uninjured cheek, catching an escaped tear. “Do you believe me?”
Isla took a deep breath, heart hammering in her chest. After a moment, she nodded. As insane as it was, shedidbelieve him. If anything, he was probably one of the only people who could keep her safe. And if she went home, what would stop this man in her nightmare from coming after her there, from hurting those she loved? As much as she longed to be with Papa and Arden again, she couldn’t bring this threat into their lives.
She was foolish for believing that leaving would be the wise thing to do.
But she still couldn’t stop thinking about her family and the idea of them being in danger. If this man, this dark god, had really been watching her, then he already knew where they were.
The thought seized her limbs, and she clutched at Rynn’s hands. “My family. He knows who they are. He’s even been to my town. What if he does something to them?”
Rynn looked down at their intertwined hands, then back to her face and asked, “Would you like to communicate with them?”
Confusion and surprise flitted through her. “Wh—of course! But how?”
“I did not fully explain the abilities we elementals possess during our conversation earlier. Aside from controlling the element of air, I am able to make contact with a recipient’s mind using the wind.”
