Unexpected: Forever His (Book 1)

Chapter 44: The Empty Space of His Broken Heart

*****With Eleric*****

I stepped to the edge of the balcony and stared down into the empty space. The soft waves of my hair hung down and tickled my neck and sparkled in the brilliant light. I sighed as I felt his presence swirl around me and leaned back into him when he stopped right behind me.

"Your destiny awaits, Katherine. Why are you here instead of where you belong?" He lifted his hands and ran his fingers down my arms. I shivered with his touch, and he lifted his hands and I turned around and smiled timidly up at him. "Such loneliness drives you, Eleric. You tested us so much to be sure he was worthy enough of me because I am your Katherine. But I wonder if you ever intended us to make it through some of the tests. Your wisdom makes it necessary for you to let me go, but your heart still fights to hold on to me because of what we shared lifetimes ago."

He shook his head and stepped back a step. "You speak of my wisdom, but yours surpasses my own. You are Katherine, but you were never meant to know that in this life. I failed you before, so I was meant to guide you in this life..." He hesitated and his eyes seemed to turn a hazy gold. "But I wanted to be selfish with you, and I didn't want to believe that he deserved you. It angered me to know that he would take my place at your side." I turned around and faced the open space again.

"I wanted to know, Eleric."

"Know what?"

I started to walk with my hand on the rail and heard Eleric follow me. "You gave me up, but I never understood why. I wanted to know..." I turned back around abruptly to face him just as the empty space flashed and sparked behind me. He glanced at it and back down at me. "You sought an answer that you knew all along, Katy. You chose not to remember it because you did not want to believe it." He looked behind me again at the cloud. "I am not the first to have this role. It was always meant to be mine, but I ran from it. I wanted no part of it." He started to pace in front of me and I watched and waited. "Eleric is the name that was given to me upon birth with the knowledge that I would be the one who would lead an army of warriors to the front line of a battle between good and evil." He stopped and stood facing away from me. "From the moment I was old enough, my father trained me and did everything he could to turn me into that leader." He sighed and turned around to face me. "My Katherine, I couldn't have chosen a life with you. The day we were to be married, I chose instead to marry Alina. A marriage not of love, but of politics. A marriage that appeased my father and designed my life into the one I was destined to have."

He stepped closer to me, I gasped as he grabbed my face in his hands. "I thought I was protecting you, but I destroyed you. I didn't want you to know of the life that I was supposed to have. It would have eventually sought me out so I pushed you back from it not realizing that by doing so, I signed your death warrant." I blinked a small tear and Eleric released his staggering hold on me so I could regain my composure.

I breathed deeply and looked back up at him. "You, Alexander, Amari, Dante...I can't keep feeling these emotions wrapped around each other inside of my head."

He laughed and pulled me against him by my waist. "If I did not know that it would destroy everything I would erase all of those feelings except for the ones you have for me..."

I pushed away from him, anger swirling around me like a haze. "You would assume I would wish to not remember a blood bond with Dante? I have sacrificed too much to get to where I am with him. I would not..."

He grabbed me again and I braced my hands against him, but his strength overpowered my own and his lips found mine. His kiss caused a reaction from me, although it did not match my reaction to Dante closely. When he released me, I stepped quickly to the railing and held onto it. "When will it be enough for you, Eli? He has proven his significance to you repeatedly, and yet you hold onto the past as if I will cease to exist once more." I turned around to face him. His face showed nothing, but his eyes held an ocean of pain and I caught my breath before I gasped. "Now."