The Immortal Blade Trilogy: Book #1: Fate's Destiny.

The Reality of it All.

"Seriously Quinlan! I'm not letting you pick me up, especially with your newly broken arm!" I shout as Quinlan attempts to grab my arm. I evade it, of course, and jump back.

"Alexandra! You aren't strong enough to walk the distance we have to go today! Your still too weak from the armour." He protests and lunges towards me again. I let him get as close as he wants.

"Don't call me weak." I hiss. I don't know if I'm imagining it or not, but I thought I might see a tiny bit of fear in his eyes. I could definitely see the amusement and stubbornness in his eyes though.

He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close to him, so our bodies are pressed against each others. I'm still staring into his eyes, and he's still staring into mine. Our faces are inches away from each others and I can't seem to process anything. It all seems like a dream. Nothing seems real. It's all moving in fast motion, but slow at the same time. I can feel his warm breath against my face and I'm loving the feeling. My brain unfreezes and I feel my face blush so I look down to keep Quinlan from seeing me like this. I feel a soft but firm hand under my chin, guiding it up to look into his eyes once more. Those dark, mysterious, brown, eyes. Once you look into them, there's no looking anywhere else. He saves me from drowning in his eyes by pulling me into a one armed hug again. And yes, off the ground. He pulls back, but keeps me off the ground. Oh, so now he's teasing me. How nice.

"Hey! Put me down!" I say as I try to squirm out of his arm.

He is a lot stronger than me, but I keep struggling until I get myself in a really awkward position. My back against his chest, nothing holding me up, except for his arm which was right under my bust. I felt really uncomfortable in this position, so I reached around his neck with my arms and lifted myself up further. I turn around and see him laughing his head off.

"What are you laughing at?" I hiss.

I'm embarrassed, and he's just laughing! He falls on the ground laughing, and starts rolling around, clutching his stomach.

"You're just... so..." He attempts to say something, but he's laughing too hard to understand anything.

"I'm just so what?" I snap as I try to calm myself down.

I feel so awkward with nothing covering my stomach. He starts taking deep breaths, and trying to calm himself down.

"You're just so cute!" He says, then bursts out laughing again.

"Excuse me?" I say, as I try to figure out if he actually said 'cute'. He calms down then looks at me. He takes a deep breath, then bursts out laughing again! Whatever. It's no use.

When Quinlan finally does stop laughing, he get's serious and orders us all around. We get all packed up, and Quinlan asks once more,

"Alexandra? Can I hold you while we walk?" He sounds and looks so sweet and innocent I almost agree, but then remember that he just broke his arm again.

"No, Quinlan. Not until your arm gets better." I reply then start walking.

"It's well enough to hold you." He protests. I turn around.

"No, Quinlan. You can't hold me. Not yet..." I say, then turn forward again and start walking. Suddenly, I'm picked up off the ground and thrown over Quinlan's shoulder.

"Quinlan! Put me down! Quinlan!" I scream at Quinlan, and start pounding his back.

"Can I hold you now?" He asks.

"No!" I yell.

"Alright, well tell me when I can." He replies.

And that's how we walked for the next couple of hours. Me slung over Quinlans shoulder, yelling insults, as Quinlan walks to wherever were going. Bentley hasn't said a word since yesterday. He's probably still feeling too guilty to say anything. He just walks behind us, with his eyes on the ground.