Blakeshire (Insight #9)(87)

“You smell it now?”

“I don’t know,” he said as he pulled me closer. “I remember the smell. And heard ‘south.’ It was loud and clear. Your image,” he said as his hand cupped my face. “It was under water.”

“Maybe your mind is just processing your day. Where did you tell Landen to take those people? Was it south?”

“Here.”

“Donalt said whoever set that up would know if you did that.”

“They are not here yet. They should be in the string. If or when something happens, they will be pushed through here.”

“Okay, well maybe that means the next threat is to the south.”

He rapidly moved his head from side to side as both his hands caressed my face. “South. Promise. If I can’t stop whatever this is, swim south.”

“Promise,” I said vaguely as I felt his fear, which was laced in grief.

He caught his breath a few seconds later. “I’m a violent sleeper. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

I moved my head from side to side to tell him I was wide awake during that episode. “I saw the ice.”

He swallowed nervously. “Yet, you’re still in my arms.”

He fell back on the bed and covered his eyes with the fists of his hands before he slugged the headboard with his fist.

I reached for his hands as I saw him prepare for another strike. “Drake—what the hell?”

His eyes were cold as he stared up at me. “Now you know. That evil bastard is inside me.”

“No one is inside you, and even if they were I wouldn’t care,” I said as I pulled his hands closer to me so I could see the busted knuckles. I was almost sure he needed stitches.

“When your fear comes back, you’ll care,” he said in the most self-loathing tone he could manage.

“You want to fight with me? You really want to go there?”

He moved his stare from me as he locked his jaw. I dropped his hand and slammed my hands into his chest. “You listen to me, Blakeshire. I don’t go around telling people I love them for the hell of it. And I surely do not forfeit that emotion because I find out something less than appealing is lurking. If you think my emotion has limits or circumstance, then clearly we are not as far over this wall as we thought.”

His stare moved back to me. “I’m telling you that it’s okay to run from this.”

“I’m not running from anything,” I snapped back as my eyes rushed across his image, as my mind thought over what I witnessed. I was able to make that coldness go away with a touch. What would I be able to do if I were able to go deeper? Could my energy heal him?

My heart thundered in my chest as I felt the yearning to figure that out.

He tilted his head to the side as he reached his hand that now had rivulets of blood rushing down it to my arm, to cradle my face. “Where are you? What are you thinking?”

I knew from his emotions that he thought I was about to run, that I had just put up a front before, that I really didn’t want anything to do with his damaged soul. He was about to get the shock of a lifetime.

“Let me in,” I said to him as I started to calm my beating heart. If I was moving my soul anywhere, I was going to have to find a peaceful mindset.

“In?”

“Let me in, Drake.” I moved my hands up his chest. “I’m going to bring the fire. You’re never going to be cold again.”

His eyes grew wide with the shock I felt jolt through him. He sat up slowly, holding my gaze and reaching his arms around my hips. “Madison Marie…there is no going back after that…we will never be the same.”

I thought over my insecurities, my dark emotions and thoughts before I spoke. “Is that a promise?”

His chest started to rise and fall rapidly. “I could hurt you.”

“Doubt it.”

“I don’t know what this is.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“You need to be strong right now, Madison Marie.”

“Well, then stop standing in my way. Tell me no once more, and I might take it personally.”

Right then, the palace rumbled and through the sides of the drapes a flaming glow lit up the room. Then all at once, the violent shaking stopped—yet, the ray of orange light stayed.

“What was that?” I exclaimed as I went to move off him.

His arms clasped around me. “I’m sure it was the holy city exploding.”

“It hasn’t been twelve hours!”

“No, but it’s been six.”

“You have to go. You have to make sure your people are okay,” I said, pushing his shoulder so he would snap out of the gaze he had locked on me.

“I stopped time. No one is suffering right now.”

“You did what?”

He didn’t bother to smirk or smile as he reached to trace my bottom lip. “My father taught me that long ago.”

“How are they stopped and we are not?”

He tilted his head as I felt his emotions shift to awe. “It should have stopped you, too. It has before.”

“You’ve stopped time around me?” He was blowing my mind, and why in the hell did he do that in the first place?

“When I came back from The Realm…you froze then. But today you didn’t.”