Kissing Danger ✔️

FOURTEEN

Word Count: 1678

The moment the group is gone, I fall to the floor in front of my mother, tugging at her binds.

"You're okay," I breathe, pulling the rope away from her wrists, wincing at the red marks that tarnish her skin. She's shaking, although there is a steadiness in her gaze. "You're safe now."

I'm not sure who those people were, and why they thought to tie my mother up like that, but if they thought I would come willingly with them, they are insane. At first I could have convinced myself that they are people breaking in for mother's money, but their strange ramblings matched up with Eryk's too perfectly, and now he is here, saving me once again.

Black boots stop right next to me and mother, Eryk stooping down to help my mother up. She doesn't flinch at his touch, in fact she doesn't even look at him twice. I would expect her to be frightened of him, to start asking questions about why he is here. She may not want answers, likely in shock, but I do...

"Eryk...What are you doing here?" I growl. He can't have possibly driven all that way behind me that fast? We left him without a car, so unless he stole one...Nothing is making sense anymore.

There is a moment of hesitation in Eryk, his dark brown eyes meeting my mother's gaze.

"It's okay. She knows now," Mother murmurs softly, sounding somewhat broken. My stomach twists, fear gripping me as I realise that Eryk and my mother are acquainted in some way. "It's time."

"What's going on?" I ask warily.

"It's time to go, Aven. It has come to the point where you are no longer safe here in this realm," Eryk claims, letting go of my mother to grab my arm. His touch on my bare skin feels hot, but as I go to pull away, his grip only tightens in response, narrowing his eyes slightly in warning.

I look toward my mother, who still looks shaken, yet not at all concerned with Eryk's deranged talk. "Do you hear this? He's insane."

"You can trust him, Aven. He's trying to help you," she assures me.

I can always tell when my mother is lying, she wears all her emotions on her face. Right now, she isn't lying, showing that she knows and trusts Eryk, verifying that whatever he has been telling me is likely real. Mother isn't always reasonable, but she is smart, and wouldn't lie to me about something like this.

"You know about this?" I question, unsure if I feel angry, hurt or both. When I asked her about Eryk after the ball, she lied to me, telling me she never heard about him.

"It's no coincidence that you bleed another colour, Aven. You're special," she explains, brushing Eryk off me to grab my hands herself. I'm too stunned to pull away, for once, not comforted by the feeling of her familiar grasp. "I've known it since you and I first met."

"This must be some kind of sick joke," I claim, grasping at straws at this point.

"We need to go. We can't wait around here anymore," Eryk mutters impatiently, looking over his shoulder. Panic immediately replaces my apprehension. They are serious about me going away, but I don't want to. I don't want to leave this place, not with Eryk or anyone else. This is my home, whether I belong in this realm or not. I'm not even convinced yet that another realm even exists.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I growl, backing away from the man dressed in all black. Behind him, Lei stands, staring at us all with a stunned expression on his face.

Eryk ignores me. "The entrance to the other realm is close by. I'll explain everything on the way there."

"Mother...Tell him no," I plead, wishing she would cave in and tell him he's insane, that everything he is saying isn't true and that he needs to leave and never come back. When I thought about how sick of my life here I am, this is not what I wished would happen.