--->Essence of Lydia<---

Essence of Lydia---> Chapter 16: Atticus' POV

“Okay now. I will allow you two to know the prophecy, but do not stray too far from destiny now.” Kam said in a soft voice, bringing our attention back to her. Embry and I both nodded before Kam sighed and began to read the prophecy to us. After she read it, I could tell that she knew that we had no idea what she was talking about, so I guess you could say she broke it down for us. So basically, the time that Lydia was to come again, was when the prophecy should be done. It was supposed to be on the 16th of Lydia… just a month away. I looked over to see how Embryae was taking the news and it seemed as if she were having an internal battle with herself. So, we were to travel into the Realm where Lydia first came into existence and then we would have to protect it, as the prophecy had foretold evil was lurking in its depths.

Then suddenly, Embry stood up abruptly and began stalking out of the room. I followed after her, feeling a burning need to comfort her. She stopped at the opening into the woods, as if she could sense my presence following her, which she probably could. I heard a sigh escape her lips before her voice spoke.

“What do you want Atticus?” She asked sharply. I stayed silent for a moment to calm down my nerves a little bit. I seemed to be taking this prophecy a little calmer than her, but that might just be because when we were split at birth, I had been the one to go to the Underworld; A place where almost anything was possible.

“Where are you going Em?” I asked in return, wanting to start a conversation. I saw her gulp visibly before she spun on her heel towards me. Her expression had me tensing; she looked absolutely infuriated. She seemed to notice my anxious expression I was unable to hide fast enough and tried to calm herself before she spoke.

“I don’t know. I just needed some air after hearing that we would have to risk our lives in one month. It just doesn’t seem… plausible for us to pull off in such a short amount of time is all.” She had looked down as she spoke, but finally, she lifted her head slowly up to mine and met my gaze. I gave her a small smile of reassurance, knowing how she felt about it. It was quite overwhelming, but I knew that I had to stay calm for the both of us. She turned, as if she were about to head off into the forest, but I didn’t want her to go alone just in case something happened. Before she could walk off, I put a hand on her arm to stop her. I turned her towards me, getting an eye roll in response to that, but decided to ignore that as I spoke.

“You can’t just go running off like that. Who knows what could happen when our emotions are out of control. You shouldn’t allow yourself into the woods when something like this happens.” I say, trying to persuade her to not go off on her own like that. She rolled her eyes once more at my words, as if it were the most ridiculous thing ever.

“Don’t get so uptight about this. My emotions aren’t really out of control right now, I’m just a smidge worried about what will happen to us in that amount of time. Will we die?” I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to hear the last part that she had mumbled, but I had. Sighing because of her negative behavior, I put my hand gently on her chin to lift her face towards mine. Her beautiful eyes met mine before I spoke.

“We have to at least try Embry. It’s what we were created for.” It seemed to not calm her down one bit when I said that, as I saw fury enter her eyes once again.

“We were created to die, is that what you’re trying to tell me Atticus?! That if we don’t follow through with this destiny, that we will have been a mistake; that we will have no purpose in this world?!” I face-palmed by the way she was taking my words. I hadn’t meant it like that! Taking a deep breath as she seemed rage off in her head, I tried to soothe her.

“That’s not what I meant Embryae. I hadn’t meant for you to interpret it like that. We are important. These people need us. Our lives may be at risk, but so are everyone else’s lives. We’re the heroes in the end Em.” She sighed at that, seeming to think over what I said and find that it made a lot of sense than her rage. When she was calmer, she gave me a curt nod as if in confirmation that she was fine now, although she didn’t look into my face while she did it, so I couldn’t see her expression. “Anyway, I uh… I wanted to talk to you about what happened at the… graveyard earlier.” I cursed myself when the words slipped out on their own accord. Her eyes seemed to widen at the words as well, taken completely by surprise.

“What about it?” She finally asked, as if she were calm about the whole thing. I sighed in frustration, not knowing how to put it, because I knew she was only doing this to avoid the topic, but I just couldn’t wait for it because I was anxious to know what she thought about it.

“Don’t act as if you don’t know what I’m talking about Embry.” I said, “I know you know what I’m talking about because I know you felt something there too.” I hated to sound mushy, but I was just allowing the words to flow at this moment, not really thinking about what the words were that were flowing. I heard her let out a shaky breath before she spoke.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” She said, trying to sound nonchalant once more, but I knew she wasn’t because she was still refusing to meet my gaze. I thought about how to say this to her, knowing that I wasn’t all too keen on speaking my feelings to someone.

“Okay, but don’t be getting mushy on me now. I can’t promise anything… but I’ll try.” She said, looking away once more in embarrassment to what she had said. She tried to pull out of my grip while I stared into space, thinking about what she had just said to me. It was probably… one of the nicest things she said to me since I’d arrived. I snapped out of it though when I felt her pull herself away from me. Before I could even try to get my hold on her again though, she ran. But by the way she ran, not too fast, I could tell she was just teasing me. I smiled at how cute she was being at thing moment before I snapped out of it once more and ran after her.

While I ran after her, I didn’t really know where she was headed, but I just focused on catching her. She seemed to stop all of a sudden and I took this as my moment to catch her. I tackled her to the ground and she let out a small squeak of surprise before I allowed my breath to caress her neck. She shivered, making my pulse skip a beat at the effect I just had on her. I leaned in towards her ear and then whispered into it.

“Caught you.” She shivered once more at my words and then turned herself in my arms so that she was facing me. Her eyes were bright from the chase, looking all the more enchanting.

“Have you now?” She asked quizzically, having almost a flirty tilt to her words. My heart skipped a beat at how beautiful she was. I leaned my forehead against hers, but then I noticed the scenery, bringing my flirting to a standstill.

“Did you intentionally bring us here?” I asked softly, wondering why she would come here of all the places.

“I hadn’t been paying attention, but when I found out where we were, you tackled me mister.” She said teasingly, but I could see the anxiety in her eyes that she seemed like she would feel every time she was around a graveyard. She didn’t trust herself to not raise anything. Her anxious look was absolutely adorable and I wondered whether she was doing that on purpose; but after a moment of thought, I knew she probably wasn’t. I slowly stood up and offered her my hand. She looked at it for a moment, as if she were confused, and then it seemed to dawn on her what I was holding out my hand for and I let out a chuckle at how cute she was being.

She huffed her cheeks out at me in response to my chuckle before grabbing a hold of my hand. I pulled her up before looking around the graveyard once more, wondering if we should leave right now. It seemed that every time we were actually somewhat getting along, that it was always here. I smiled at the memory from earlier before turning my gaze towards her. She seemed to be surveying the place, tense at being here.

“You wanna leave?” I asked quietly, bringing her big beautiful eyes back to mine.

“Yeah, let’s go ahead and head back to Kam’s.” She murmured quietly, but instead of moving away from the graveyard, I pulled her closer to me. She seemed confused by my action, but I let out a chuckled and leaned in towards her. Her eyes widened the moment she knew what I was going to do. Before she could protest in any way, my lips met hers.