Silver Skin

25

The end as we know it
~
Accalia
~

They departed early hours of the morning when the sun was barely showing and the dark skies were fading.

Cole's lasting scent was followed by heavy boots and hard-hitting steps.

Rexton led the group and Alexene brought up the rear, hanging a distance away by the coverage of trees.

Faintly, Accalia brushed a loose strand of baby hair out of Cadence's face and watched as she made a disgruntled face beneath her touch. "You haven't slept, Cadence."

Cadence whacked the hair back in the position it was hanging and gave her cousin a warning glare.

Accalia ignored it. Cadence wasn't accustomed to certain displays of affection, even if she gave it from time to time, oddly and peculiarly like flicking someone on the nose or ear.

"I haven't. I was worrying about that idiot in front of us." Cadence muttered and gestured in front of them.

Accalia knew she wasn't wavering her concern on Tristan and found Rexton up ahead, his long legs taking him further from the group.

"Why's that?" Accalia hardly remembered the night that enveloped them.

Shortly after finding a place to rest and setting up a fire, Accalia slept on the earth's floor with no tears to flood her eyes. It was a change. She would typically cry into the silky bed sheets of her lost mate. Perhaps that was why she slept so soundly, she wasn't thinking so much about Lycus as she did every other night because her focus was on Cole that could hopefully lead her to Lycus.

Cadence's stalk suddenly turned frigid and her mouth opened, then closed. "I—er, Rexton had a nightmare. When I got him out of it, he nearly bit me. Alexene was the one that stopped him."

Accalia released a strangled gasp. "You should have woken me."

Cadence peered around and shushed Accalia, waving her off, almost desperately with dejected black eyes. "No, everything was fine. Don't worry about me."

Accalia rolled her eyes angrily and had the sudden temptation to whack Cadence at the back of the head.

"I always worry about you, I have for years, don't expect me to not worry now, Cadence," Accalia whispered harshly, not wanting anyone to overhear them even if they were in a pack of supernatural beings. "Rexton had a nightmare when he slept next to you on the couch before we left for Gabriel's. Last night wasn't the first time."

Cadence gave a specific kind of look only reserved for Accalia. "It scares him."

Accalia's irritation ebbed away and she clutched the handle of her sword tightly to take some of the edge off. The plaguing and unnerving fear of what loomed within those dreams.

Dreams seemed to fixate their way through Rexton's subconscious, affecting not only himself but Cadence too.

"And you're not experiencing these dreams?" Accalia questioned.

Cadence shook her head and Accalia's shoulders sagged, a sense of relief elating her. But it wouldn't last, if these nightmares provoked Rexton to attack Cadence, the one person he adored with all his heart, something sinister must be behind it. Accalia's fear slowly crept back in.

"If it scares him, then it should scare all of us," Accalia said nervously and they settled into stiffening silence, not knowing what to say.

___

What was left of Cole was direct trails that didn't rest or squander. The paws of his lycan were left into the dirt and stamped onto his path that continued beyond unknown caves and forests that eclipsed the sun from shining through.