Wanderess

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

He did not seem a Prince. He was built like a soldier at best. A fighter at worst. The muscle filling his clothing was clearly from expansive training, his angular face no older than twenty-two. The dark mop that was his hair now seemed darker than the onyx of his eyes. Although they seemed lighter even still than the last time that she saw him. No more did the pupil blend with the iris. Now there was a distinct different shade of black colouring the iris. Still black as night, but different...somehow.

His eyes were extraordinary. Truthfully, she couldn't look away.

Had he noticed that his eyes were changing? That they no longer mirrored death itself?

She couldn't help but wonder why that was.

"You came," she breathed.

He only nodded once.

"I wasn't sure it would work. Or if I was just going crazy."

He stayed silent. Waiting for her to talk.

She took a deep breath, "Okay, here goes nothing." Looking him straight in the eyes, she asked, "Do you know where the Halo is?"

He shifted, crossing his arms over his chest, posture stiff as a damn tree. She waited for the blow, whether it be physical or verbally- she wasn't sure which would be worse. She flinched inward as he opened his mouth to speak, she awaited the abuse.

"I knew it was you." His voice was soft, kind almost towards her. She straightened at the tone. Not at all what she was expecting. She tilted her head in anticipation. He knew what?

"I don't know how. I don't know what happened, but I knew it was you. I knew you were calling me. No one else could hear it... it was in my head. I heard you the first time. I didn't even know what I was doing, I just took off. I flew like a bat out of hell to get here. I don't know how I knew where you were. I don't know how I knew how to get here. I-I just did." His voice was like velvet. Smooth and soft at the same time. It wrapped around her like a safety blanket, secure and reassuring.

He was just as confused as her. That's what his confession told her. She read between the lines and figured that he didn't know what was happening either.

"You didn't answer my question."

"What question?" What an infuriating smirk.

"The one I asked you. Do you have cotton in your ears?" She needed to maintain the façade that she was tough, that she had a sort of arrogance to her. She needed the shied it provided. "Do you know where the Halo is?" The gritting of her teeth wasn't faked. She didn't need games right now. She needed answers.

"I may. I may not. Why do you wish to know?" He stepped forward, inching closer to her.

"I don't see how that's any of your business."

"It becomes my business when you ask me for the location of my people's artefact."

"Your people? You stole the Halo from Cael and doomed us all."

"We didn't steal it, Amon did. And that action caused it to become ours."

He couldn't be serious. Finders keepers.

Finders keepers her ass.

"Are you a child? You-" she corrected herself, "Amon, stole what belonged to the Angels and now I need it to save my people. All the damn living creatures on this continent actually, possibly other continents too. Thanks to your King's actions, Darkness spreads, consuming everything and anything in its path. All will perish, your kind included."