Growing Into You (First Draft; Unedited)

lxvi.

Devi

It took every ounce of being in me not to cry out in pain. A cold burning pain was sliding underneath my skin and into my head. I could feel Jinan’s breath before me and I could hear the labored breath of Jayen behind me. Everything was so much and so little. I could barely see anything. The scene before me morphed and dripped into the night sky until there was nothing left but stars.

Everything we were and everything we would ever be was laid out before me. The stars twinkled and shone as if to say they welcome, we missed you. An unknown power surged through my veins, burning it’s way deep into me, making sure I was aware of it. I reached out to the stars hoping somebody would reach back to me but we are doomed to never again meet, to never again embrace. I have tasted the sweetness of eternity and I wanted nothing more than to consume it. In that, there was a sense of cruelty at denying me what the stars had so graciously offered me mere moments ago.

Alexandra

I took an uneasy breath as we were bathed into blue light. Jayen moved even closer to me, as if she were trying to become a part of me and hid. I wrapped an arm around her as she shook violently. Was there any more meaning to his apology than a desperate attempt to continue in this world on his own terms?

Jinan had watched me ever since he came to work for Lord Alarie. His dark piercing eyes followed me wherever I went like he was trying to catch me doing something wrong. Those same eyes that had followed me for so long were now covered and they would never gaze upon me or Jayen ever again. 

I had chosen this golden orb for him to be sealed in because it was my husband’s favorite possession. He tried to pass it off as a gift to me but only kept it in his room. I wanted to be able to keep it somewhere where I could see it, somewhere where nobody else would have to see the monstrous design or the monstrous person inside it. My husband had brought this man into our home and now his gift would be Jinan’s new home.

Jinan raised his head, his dark blindfold had blood seeping through and my stomach dropped. I had done that to him. I had electrocuted his face. I gripped onto Jayen tightly, I had hurt so many people. What if I hurt Jayen? Or anyone else? No, I wouldn’t, I wasn’t like them. They hurt people for their own perverse fun. I was trying to save her life. I would rather die than ever hurt Jayen. 

The light grew so bright that I had to close my eyes and turn away, pushing Jayen’s head away from the source of the blinding light. Then it was all gone.

Then he was gone, leaving nothing behind but chains and a small puddle of blood in the grass.