Haunting Shadows (Book 2)

Chapter 65

For several moments I was stunned and completely petrified. I had almost gotten myself killed and for no other reason than I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. And that was the only reason, I argued, that Andreas was able to push me back into the manor so effortlessly. I unfroze almost instantly, and started fighting against his strong hold.

“Let me go!”

“Why won’t you ever listen?” he yelled at me, his midnight eyes a very vivid blue now. Anger rolled off of him in waves, transforming into the visible dark cloud that followed him everywhere.

“You are not the boss of me. You do not get to order me around and expect me to listen like some obedient puppy!” Rage was filling every fiber of my being. “I am not a child and you have got to stop treating me like one!”

“Trust me, that absolute last thing I want to do is treat you like a child! But you were outside for what, a total of maybe thirty seconds and you almost got yourself killed! You made my point for me!”

His words awoke something inside me. Something dangerous and incredibly pissed off. “You locked my in my room!” I lifted my hand into the air, palm facing the ceiling and my anger suddenly manifested in my hand in the form of a vivid blue fireball, the same color my eyes glowed. A fireball I wanted nothing more than chuck at Andreas’ head. His eyebrows furrowed when he noticed the fiery ball in my hand getting bigger. And without another word. I threw it at him.

He was caught off guard, but managed to diffuse the fireball before it hit him still. My anger had still not subsided, and I threw another one. And another one. Until the actions became automatic. He deflected them, extinguished them, did everything he could to keep them from touching them. But I was throwing them more quickly by the second, and I could see that he was starting to have a difficult time keeping up.

“Well, I see you aren’t afraid of fire anymore,” he commented dryly as he moved further away from me. His words served no purposed other than to increase my rage. Months of pent up anger at him was finally coming out. But fury showed no hints of lessening, even with each flying fireball.

“You.” A fireball flew. “Are.” And another one. “The.” He deflected the fireballs as another went his way. “Most.” More fireballs. “Infuriating.” More deflections. “Man.” Several fireballs, each a vivid blue flame. “I.” He extinguished them effortlessly. “Have. Ever. Met!” I sent too many fireballs this time for him to handle at once, and one made contact with his skin.

The flames was extinguished quickly, before it could’ve done much damage… but then I noticed a burn mark on his arm. A very bad looking burn mark and the guilt that flooded into me dissipated the anger. My hand flew to my mouth and Andreas noticed what I was looking at.

He smirked. And all feelings of guilt vanished.

“Don’t worry little witch, this wound was not inflicted by you.” Since I had stopped throwing fire at him, he decided that it was once again a good idea to close the distance between us.

“You are making me want to seriously injure you,” I replied through clenched teeth.

He was close enough now to touch me. With a small, barely distinguishable smile, he reached out and brushed a lock of my hair from my face. “Even if you could injure me, you never would.”

My reaction was automatic and I placed zero thought in it. My hand lifted and started to strike to slap him, but he caught my hand a split second before it connected with is face. “I have allowed you to slap me twice before. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, and I don’t believe I have done something now that makes me deserving of one of your slaps.”

I tried to yank my hand from his steal grip, but it was as useless as trying to hit him with a fireball. “You locked me in my room like a petulant child. Forced me into a position of helplessness. I would say that warrants a slap in the face.”

“Lana, the last thing I could possibly think you to be is a child. Trust me on that. I only wanted to keep you safe! Is that so hard for you to understand?” His control on his usually carefully placed mask was slipping.

“I don’t need you to keep me safe! Is that so hard for you to understand?” I was yelling.

“Yes,” he answered simply, his voice cracking. My mouth dropped open. “Lana, don’t you get it? I watched you die. I saw you burn and take your final breaths. I thought you were dead! You have no idea what that did to me. No idea how much the thought of losing you… destroyed me. What is it going to take for that to sink into that thick skull of yours? I don’t want to experience losing you again! I won’t survive it a second time.”

All the fight drained out of me and I stood there gaping at him. Of all the moments he could have chosen to be so open and honest, he had to choose now. I was at a loss for words. I grasped for anything, anything at all to try to make sense of it. Because surely, surely this could not be true. Not after everything. Andreas Scott Grigoli couldn’t care that much about whether or not I lived or died. I could not have that big of an effect on him. Not if he was able to move on so quickly after he thought I had died.

“If that is true then explain Leita….” I said, my voice small.

“Fuck Leita!”

“That’s what you’ve been doin—“ His lips crashed against mine, cutting me off before I could even finish my sentence.

“Well, well, isn’t this sweet,” Leita said from somewhere in the room, her tone cold, but beautiful it cut through the air.