Mountain [18+] ✔️ Complete

Ten • Sensei

When Lyla woke me, I could still feel the ghost of Marius' lips on mine. For a brief moment I innately cursed her for interrupting us, but then realization dawned on me, and my heart started to race. I sat up quickly, eyes darting around.

"It's okay," she said, running a gentle hand down the back of my head. "Nothing's happened, I'm just starting to space out a bit and I didn't want to fall asleep. It's been a few hours I think."

I blinked away the shred of grogginess that was left in my sleep addled brain and stretched my arms up, groaning at the delightful crackle of my spine.

"Did you dream?" She asked as she stood to pile some more wood on the big fire.

"Yes," I admitted, touching my bottom lip gingerly. I dropped my hand fast, glad she had her back turned and hadn't seen it. "Damien's with him, he's safe."

"Oh, good," Lyla let out a deep breath of relief and turned back to me. "That's really good news."

I nodded in agreement. I opened my mouth to relay what I'd learned, but I didn't know how to start. Hey, also, we're somehow super powerful witches? Marius is hundreds of years old? This demon thing could destroy the world but it's cool, the sexy Irishman will save us? The same sexy Irishman that I'm so attached to that it's scary?

"Hey, cut it out." She snapped her fingers in front of my face and I jumped. "You are entirely too far up in your own head. Come back to me."

"I should have asked him more questions." I lamented softly.

"It's okay, the main thing was finding out about Damien and getting them here," she assured me. "It'll be easier for everyone if we bombard him with questions together." Easier for us, maybe.

I kept the fire high and bright while Lyla curled up next to Archer's still naked form to get some sleep. My senses were on high alert, every little whisper of wind causing my imagination to go into overdrive.

I stared up at the crescent moon, and couldn't help but wish we'd never set foot on this mountain. But it was half hearted. I felt responsible now.

Marius had said he belonged to me. He'd once belonged to someone else, and they died protecting him from this demon. Was history repeating itself? Even though we had no idea how to use our fucking abilities, let alone do whatever ritual required to get rid of the thing.

But it wasn't gone. Had it been trapped? Hibernating? Waiting for four humans with their own hibernating magic inside?

He'd said that the magic binding us together was something he'd never seen before. Did that mean that we could somehow deal with this in a different or better way than his witches? Could we beat this demon and survive?

I sat watch over my friends, mulling over the multitude of questions in my head. When the first rays of sunlight created the horizon, I was shocked at how long I'd stayed in one spot.

My shoulders sagged with relief and I realized how afraid I'd been that we wouldn't survive the night. I crawled over to the stash of cooked meat skewers and set to warming them up over the embers of the little fire.

It wasn't long before Archer groaned and rolled towards me, rubbing his eyes.

"Morning, beautiful," he greeted me, and I couldn't help but laugh. "How come you didn't wake me?"

"You almost drowned less than a day ago," I scolded gently. "You needed the rest."

"You hear from the wizard?" He sat up and yawned, gently tucking Lyla's arm back against her as he slid away. He kissed her sleeping forehead and stood, stretching his arms above his head.