Salvation : Book 3

CHAPTER 34 : Is This The End?

I sat cross legged in front of my mother's grave. The grass was green around it and small low growing white flowers bloomed by the tombstone. The sun set behind the tall pine trees. Yellow, orange and red streaks of light scattered across the sky as the woods grew darker, dusk was rapidly falling. I took in a deep breath, holding it in my lungs for a moment then letting it out slowly. I dug my fingers into the grass, tightly squeezing my eyes shut before sighing heavily and opening them up.

    Abby had left me in my room to sleep, I couldn't sleep. I'd crept out of my room an hour later and made my way out of the safe house. The air was cool as a breeze blew past me. I felt exhausted. I knew I should have tried harder to sleep but honestly, I couldn't stand being in that room, alone with all my thoughts. I thought I'd feel better if I took a walk, alone, with all my thoughts; I didn't think that one through. I'd tried to push away all the negativity circling my head but no matter what I did I couldn't escape it. It was deeply lodged inside my mind. It was making me anxious and paranoid.

    What if Adrian was right? And we'd already lost this war. We'd lost so much already, and I knew before this was over, win or lose we'd lose more. I didn't want to lose more. I just wanted to protect my loved ones and I wished there was a way to do that without any bloodshed. I knew there wasn't. Blood would be spilt.

     A sudden caw startled me from my stupor and I raised my head. "You again," I said as my eyes landed on a black feathered raven perched on top of my mother's tombstone. It ruffled it's feathers, using it's long beak to preen the feathers on it's wing, methodically nibbling then stroking every feather from its base to its tip to get it aligned just so. It was the same bird from before, I was sure of it.

    "Why are you following me?" I asked the bird. It looked at me, tilted it's head to the side for a bit then squawked loudly at me before it flew away. "Great," I whispered to myself. "Now I'm talking to birds, maybe I do need to sleep."

     "It wouldn't be a bad idea," the voice came so suddenly I yelped before whipping my head behind me. Standing at just above six feet, chiseled muscles, deep almond skin, golden eyes and dark cropped hair was none other than the wolf boy.

     "Kane," I looked up at him. "What are you doing here?" He smirked.

    "Marcus, right?" He asked. I nodded and he settled next to me. "I got bored in the meeting."

    "Bored?" I said almost indignantly. He smirked again and I rolled my eyes. "You do know that meeting is to decide weather the vampires, werewolves, elves and trolls decide to help the witches in the plan to stop Ashon and Geun, two beings so hell bent on revenge they're willing to end the world. You should be taking all this a little more seriously. This isn't a game." My words were heated with frustration and anger that wasn't really meant for him.

     He shrugged then said, "Never said it was." He turned his gaze to my mother's tombstone. "Why aren't you in it?" He asked. I dropped my gaze to the grass before bringing my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs.

     "I'm supposed to be resting," I murmured.

     "But you're not," he pointed out. "Couldn't sleep?" He asked and I nodded.
 
     "I just have too much on my mind," I explained. He nodded before he brought his eyes back to me.

     "I am taking this seriously," he said. "It's just that this morning I woke up in my room like it was just some ordinary day and now we're prepping for war. It just seems so...surreal, you know?" he admitted.

    I met his golden eyes and nodded. I'd known this day was coming for a while now but it still didn't feel real. Nothing about any of this felt real. I was sitting in front of my mother's grave next to a werewolf talking about a war with demons, how was this my reality or anyone's reality. I missed when things were simpler. When it was just Jack and me laying in the snow, staring up at the cloudy sky and making bad jokes. That used to be my reality, it was like a dream now. A far away dream I feared I'd never return to.