--->Essence of Lydia<---

Essence of Lydia---> Chapter 11: Embryae's POV

My mind completely blanked for a moment. My feet were beginning to move of their own accord. I watched in a daze as my feet began pulling me closer to a certain grave. I tried hard to stop myself from moving, but it just wasn’t working out. Not wanting to panic anymore than I am, I just allowed my feet to move.

The ground began to tremble in the background, and I knew what was to come. I felt a tight grip on my arm, and a voice calling my name… but my feet wouldn’t stop. I was wondering who could possibly be calling my name. I tried to come back to reality to see who it was, but my mind would not allow such thing as my feet drug my closer to its destination.

With a huge tug on my arm, my body finally snapped out of it…sort of. It stopped completely, leaving me frozen about 6 feet from the grave it had just been so focused on. The person that had a grip on my arm suddenly spun me to face them. I would’ve gasped, had my body not have been responding. There, standing in front of me was the most gorgeous boy I’d ever laid eyes upon.

I gazed at him, hoping that maybe I’d be snapped out of my trance just looking at him. It didn’t seem to work though. I was about to give up on looking at him when he began leaning forward.

What the hell was he doing?! I thought frantically as his face came closer and closer to mine. Just as his lips were about to touch mine, I snapped out of the daze-like state. My eyes widened as I realized that it was Atticus in front of me. I was about to back up, but that was the moment his velvety lips caressed mine.

Electricity ignited my veins, making my whole body hum as our lips began to move in sync. I’d never felt anything like this before.

I froze when he began to pull away from me. I didn’t want him to move away at all, but I knew that we weren’t even supposed to be kissing to begin with. I refuse to allow the fates to decide who I will love. I didn’t like the fact that they seemed to be right at this moment. I suddenly became extremely aware of how close we were standing and that out lips were now disconnected. I gasped as the full weight hit me right in the face. This couldn’t have happened; I was supposed to be strong-willed. Furious, I pushed away from him. I looked up to meet his beautiful eyes; they held absolute confusion as to why I’d pushed myself away. His eyes seemed to be glazed over still from the mind-blowing kiss we’d just shared. My lips still tingled from the kiss and I hated it as much as I loved it. It was such a contradiction and all these new feelings left me in utter confusion. Slowly shaking my head back in forth, I turned away from Atticus and ran… like I did with all of my problems.

I hated myself for even allowing that tiny kiss to get to me. I cursed myself for being too weak as to have to run away like a coward instead of facing him. After a moment or so, I heard his light footsteps as he jogged to catch up to me. Not wanting to face him, I picked up my speed just a little. I heard the increase of his pace as well and knew that this was going to be like the race before. Except this time, I wasn’t so sure whether I’d win. My knees seemed to still be unstable from when I’d allowed myself to be vulnerable with this mysterious stranger.

Tears started to flow down my face, blurring my vision as I thought of how idiotic I’d been. I was not a princess. Princesses were stronger than this. I was weak, useless, I didn’t deserve to be princess; neither did I deserve to be the original part of the Essence of Lydia.

I finally collapsed, unable to keep myself going after all these thoughts processed in my brain. Not even a few seconds passed before Atticus was in front of me, his expression coated with worry. I tried to wipe away the traitorous tears, but they just kept coming, unable to stop the river they seemed to be making. Not wanting him to see anymore of my weaknesses in a day, I buried my face in my knees and tried to calm myself down.

This wasn’t supposed to happen to me. I blamed him… the beautiful stranger. I wouldn’t have to think of all these new weaknesses if he’d never come into my life. I guess I found my Achilles heel. I smirked at the reference I’d made, thinking about the story of Achilles. Sighing, knowing that I was now calm enough to talk, I looked up at Atticus.

“Have you gone through that summoning ghost thing yet?” I finally asked, surprised at how nonchalant my voice seemed to sound after the waterworks. He seemed taken aback as well, as it took him a moment to reply.

“Uh… yeah. Actually I raised some ghost before I came here. Although, it wasn’t as dramatic as yours was. It was just a slight tremble of the ground and this cold feeling thing. It was a weird feeling all in all.” He said, smiling gently at me. I returned it with a weak smile and then stood up, looking at where we’d ended up.

We were already almost back to Kam’s house.

I guess we’ve gotten to know each other a little more. More than was comfortable. I thought, remembering the kiss again. I glanced at Atticus and then motioned for him to follow me. Somehow, I knew that it was time for us to figure out more about this… prophecy that seemed to be so important to these people.