SHATTER

Chapter Five

Third person POV:

Breathe! Why couldn't she breathe? Raine launched up in her bed gasping with a layer of salty water covering her skin and tried to peel the silk sheets away from her. She breathed harshly through her nose and out her mouth to slow her rapid breaths.

             Light. She needed light. The darkness of her memories was trying to consume her and it made her sick. She tried to quickly make her way to her balcony, fumbling and stumbling with each step. Raine threw the doors open with haste and basked in the rays that the moon so graciously provided.

Those memories are scars on her mind and no matter what she did— no matter how many shields she put up, they would never leave her. They were from a time long ago when she was a child. Even back then, she was no stranger to pain and the cruelty of life. Raine twisted the ring that was connected to a thin chain around her neck with her right hand and tried to contain the growing sickness swirling in her belly. It had been a long time since she thought about the past, she knew that because he was coming that her mind wanted to remind her why her heart is the way it is. Cold.

          The mid nights breeze didn't even affect her as she stood there in creamed colored night pants and a top. The smooth marble surface of the balcony cracked with the amount of pressure Raines' left hand was putting on it. Raine looked back into her room that was placed on one of the farthest ends of the castle. It was big enough that there was a generous amount of walking space from the bed to the desk to the fire place. But, it was small enough for her to still fee like it was her own little place in her own little world. It was her sanctuary. The walls were made of brown wood that gave the room a warm feeling and the floor was grey stone like the rest of the castle. The canopy bed was queen sized with red curtains draped down the sides. Every chair and couch inside her residence was lush and either red or black. As rugged as she may seem, she still liked the finer things in life.

       The grand mahogany desk was pushed in the corner and was covered in maps, books, and papers. In front of the fire pit there was a thick rug with plush pillows that had been smushed down with the amount of books that had been laid on them. That was Raines favorite spot. It was in front of the fire, on her soft rug, while reading a good book. Raine had tried hard to make this little room tucked away in a forgotten tower her own. There were little slices of happiness everywhere whether it be a good book or a plush blanket thrown about. This was her home.

     Raine looked past her wide balcony doors and the heavy thick red curtains that blocked the sun when it came barreling through the door windows in the high of day, and out towards the moon. It held, brightly gleaming over the lively green forests were the animals went bump in the night and creatures of darkness moved and plotted. The sick beast that crawled under her skin couldn't wait to be released with that much darkness crawling the grounds a long ways away from the walls of the kingdom. Raines eyes flashed red— she gripped the railing hard with her nails digging into its surface. Rain pushed her lungs to expand filling them with air. Wisps of black hair unraveled themselves from her ponytail and tickled her brown cheeks. Heat rose all over her body as her beast frantically swept across her skin, begging to be released. The marble  rail crushed further into pieces of dust under her palm.

Time to get another rail. The thought swept across rain quickly causing a little laugh to escape her pursed lips. That laugh eased the pressure and pain her beast was putting on her mind.

       This was natural to her, this little feeling of danger lurking in the back of her mind and it calmed her. She was no longer a child who was defenseless. She was a killer— A beast unnatural to the world. Her mate was a micro spec of an issue that plagued her life. Something was coming, something wicked.