The Pain in My Heart [Completed]

Chapter Thirty-One ~Crista

No! I remember screaming. No, no, no. This can't be happening. Anyone but him. But none of my screaming matters because it was all just in my head as I feel myself getting pulled out of whatever fantasy I had been swept into.

"No... no...no......."

And that's when I felt it. Axil's hands grip my shoulders as he shakes me violently. My back hits the ground over and over.

"Crista! You... you..." he trails off and I can tell he's furious. I know he's thinking he never should have allowed me to follow him and that he'd just blame this on himself, and it's the only thing that can make me open my eyes to reassure him it's not.

"Axil..." I say, but it comes out more in a slur.

"Crista, wake up! You wake up right now!"

"Axil..."

I don't pick up him rummaging through his bag or the sound of him unscrewing the cap of his canteen, until all of a sudden—

"AXIL!"

The ice-cold water on my face surges my adrenaline and I snap fully awake.

"Oh, good. You're awake," he says sarcastically. "Crista, what happened?!"

I rub the back of my head as it throbs from him slamming me into the ground. "You..." I start. "You had to have heard that too."

"What? The screams or the voice?" he asks out of breath, still in a bit of hysterics.

"What exactly did you hear?" I ask cautiously.

"Stay away from the man with the answers," he repeats. "You know who that must mean?"

I shake my head as I take a deep breath.

"John."

"Mr. Griffin."

We look at each other both confused.

"What?" I ask. "What does my father have to do anything with this?"

I've been absent from some dinners at the palace to catch up together as a family; roast some meat and bake some bread just like old times.

It's the strangest feeling ever. It sounds awful, but I was getting used to it being just my father and I, and when I had come up with a plan to get her back I... thought it would be different. I hate myself for feeling almost ungrateful when in reality I am more than grateful to have her back.

I remember what he told me when I said what I was going to do.

***

"Don't do it, Crista." He shakes his head. "You're messing in arts you should never associate with. It's dangerous and to get her back you have to go to Eden. No!"

"But I do know her," feeling quite betrayed. "She's your wife. Your everything. And that woman took her from you. took her from me!" I take a step closer. "You know that girl that I told you about? Zaria? The one who doesn't know she's a witch?"

He nods his head.

"Her mom was killed too... at the same time, Mom died. You can't tell me that's a coincidence!" I yell in his face. "So, what? What, you want me to just do nothing? Not even try?"

His face tenses. "It's not that at all," he says calmly, reaching his hands out. "I've lost one of you to her." He shakily says looking me deep in my eyes. "I'm not going to lose you too."

***

That had been the last night before the ball. I had gone there to invite him to come with me. I could finally introduce my father to Zaria, who is my only friend outside the palace.