Below the Peak (Sola)(79)
“Then what happens when you find the murderer?” Calemir snapped, cocking his head toward her, “Have you never thought the killer might be dead, Tarron himself might have killed him before he died?” he let his anger out instead to hide the fear and lies he kept. “There were dead bodies around his body when he was found, and his killer could’ve been among them.”
The air strained around them
Leena’s face tightened, her eyes filling with pain that’s only caused by the intense grief of someone you loved. He realized he’d hurt her, so he focused back on pulling clothes from the gunnysack. Leena took a deep breath, “I know what my guts tell me Calem” she insisted coolly, swallowing past the pain of the wound he just inflicted deeper by his sharp words. “His killer is alive, and I’m going…”
“I understand you cared for Tarron, and his death hurt” he interrupted her, “… but remember he was my brother and he meant a lot to me too. I want his soul to be at peace and what you’re doing isn’t letting him go” he said tiredly. She stared at him intently, brows burrowing and gaze dropping she murmured. “Forgive me, my selfishness makes me forget sometimes he was your family…just forgive me.” Calemir nodded grimly. Silently the two covered the boy’s body with the clothes he pulled from the gunnysack. Taking a step back, they murmured the light prayer. An elf receives light from Faethurin and when the elf dies, a prayer is said to return the light to the giver or else is the light is forever trapped in the vessel which is the elf’s body. A white light emerged from the boy’s body into the air, it lingered for several minutes then dissipated like smoke.
Not a word to another, Calemir and Leena mounted their horses and continued to their destination.
Home sweet home, Calemir thought without much enthusiasm. A house shrouded in darkness and loneliness was all he needed. Blackness and silence welcomed him when he pushed the oaken doors and stepped inside the house. Not needing light, he stomped up the stairs, straight to his room. Jarring the door open, his legs with their own mind dragged him to the cabinet at the far end of his spacious room. He grabbed the glass bottle filled with hard liquor. He moved to his bed and sat on the edge of it. Taking the wood stopper from the rim of the bottle, he tipped the bottle to his mouth. He gulped the sour and bitter liquid. His chest and throat burned. He gulped some more and more, welcoming the burn. He needed it to numb the torturous pain clawing in his chest and mind. He took several swigs until there’s nothing left in the bottle as he tipped for another drop. Cursing, he threw the bottle on the bed. As nausea rolled in his stomach, his whole skin, body felt alight as if someone dosed in him in oil and set him on fire, only that he was alight with terrorizing emotions. Anger, jealousy, shame, sadness, guilt, pain, hurt. It all antagonized him, crushing in drowning torrents. He brought his palms to his face and burrowed in them.
“Forgive me Tarron” Calemir cried silently.
A shadow hovered in his doorway. Calemir froze and stared at the shadow almost touching his boots illuminated by the moonlight spilling from the un-curtained window of his room. A small wave of panic rippled through him. Had he said too much? Did the intruder hear his confessions?
He drew a shuddering breath then lifted his head, finding Nara standing by the door. Surprise flickered in his eyes. What did she want? His eyes traced over the traces of her long raven soft hair, round face, smooth skin, soft lips and beautiful honey eyes. He noted the tensing of her shoulders, clearing making her uncomfortable yet his eyes continued their journey down to her blouse and trousers and stopped at her bare feet. His eyes crinkled at the corners as they lingered to admire her feet. He surely must be drunk that he found her feet pretty. He lifted his gaze back to her face, finding unblinking piercing eyes looking at him. There’s bravery in them like it had taken everything in her to hold his gaze. Her eyes were also invasive, unnerving as if they knew every dirty deed he has ever committed. It made him feel ill. “What is it?” his curt cut through the blackness in the room.
“How do you kill the cursed spirit?” Nara asked.
“You come into my room uninvited, and you ask me such question?” he stood, taking the bottle from the bed.
What should she ask?
“I’m sorry, the door was open, so there was no reason for me to knock” Nara began to apologize, her gaze following him as he strolled to a cabinet and placed the glass bottle in. He closed the cabinet, and moved toward her and posed just an arm’s reach away from her. She regarded the way the harsh white light of the moon painted his strong jaw, sharp nose and thick eyebrows. With his fair hair pushed back behind his ears, he seemed taller and broader than ever. His green eyes held a predatory light as they peered at her. Nara’s stomach fluttered.
“Why do you want to know?” His brow arched slightly.
“I want to kill them” she spoke honestly.
He chuckled humorlessly. “You’re not serious.”
“I am” Nara deadpanned.
Calemir’s pressed his mouth into a hard line, his expression inscrutable. He felt the bleakness fighting for him slowly. “You’ve finally decided to return back to your home, and you’re planning on how you’re going to get through the border?
Nara frowned. Cannot he just tell her?
Fed up already living in this haunting house with a murderer? Calemir bitterly mused, taking her non-response as a reply. Somehow Calemir felt disappointed that she wanted to leave. Her choice shouldn’t affect him knowing the human never wanted to be married to him in the first place nor reside with, but it did. “You believe that you can take them down on your own once you know how?” Calemir said cruelly, purposely letting her feel the meanness in words. How pathetic she sounded.