The Obsidian Pillar

Chapter Twenty

The rain continued to plummet as I marched through the trees, leaving Sebastien and our heated words far behind me. I let the rain soak me, as though it could go some way to washing away the insults, the passion and the regret. An emotion that I didn't recognise pulsed through my body, so similar to the grief I had felt when I found Rebecca. Whatever it was, it conjured the same frisson of energy that my anger could. The vibrations, the molten heat that ran through my veins, it was simmering within me. What would follow? Surely it was a foregone conclusion. The further away I was from everyone, the better.

I didn't want Sebastien to see me in that state. It would only give him more ammunition against me. He was hot and cold, mercurial and difficult, and it was wearing me down. I knew that I was developing strong feelings for him, but it didn't make it acceptable for him to behave like that.

Then there was the matter of my mysterious ally. Back on earth, it didn't seem real. I could have imagined it all. It had been dreamlike, and despite the darkness and his strange presence, I'd felt safe there. Though, what he planned to do to help me remained a mystery.

I was learning that I could only rely on myself. It was different being out in the world, alone. I had to be everything to myself: mother, father, sister, friend, protector. I would have to sort my own problems out.

I wanted to control my emotions. If I could achieve that, and find an outlet, or a way of stemming the flow of the magic then I could use my gift for good instead of causing the pain that I had so far. What had he said?

No one will be laughing when the world discovers the extent of your powers, or the part you will play in their futures.

To me it sounded promising. At least I hoped it was. Of course, he could have meant that I would destroy their futures, but I didn't want to think about that too much.

The important thing to remember was that I had a choice. I always had a choice. At the river, in the forest, and now, searching for Rainah, the dryad who most likely wanted me dead, in an unfamiliar land, in the dead of night.

I trudged through the mud and attempted to drag myself from my thoughts by surveying the woods, and it was then that I realised I had been walking in circles. Certain sights were familiar: a tall birch tree with a scarred trunk and a low hanging branch that I had walked into numerous times, taunted me from a few yards away.

I turned around, hoping that the path would lead me back to the clearing. I walked for several minutes before I found myself to be lost again.

'Sebastien?' I whispered hopefully when the crunching of leaves sounded from behind me. I turned to confront him, but found a large pair of amber eyes staring at me through the darkness. They looked as though they were embedded in the trunk of the tree.

'You kept me waiting,' Rainah growled.

I stepped back in alarm. 'What do you want, Rainah?'

The dryad refused to answer me. I watched as her eyes narrowed to thin slits and I could no longer make out where she was in the darkness. Sona had mentioned that they were once born from the trees. Could the dryads shift and change into trees?