Wicked Path (The Daath Chronicles Book 2) (34 page)

dropped the fish on the sand and scanned the beach, but Jeslyn was nowhere in sight.

Assuming she went to relieve herself in private, I started a fire to cook the fish. It had been centuries since I had to cook for myself, and back then, the only cooking I did was during the trials.

Dago and I went on our trials at the same time. While we were forbidden to help or interact with one another, we were both aware of the other’s presence. Carcasses left on the ground, the remaining meat destroyed on purpose. It was always a game with us. Who was the better hunter? Who was the strongest? Dago desired to be in my seat, to rule, but with no noble blood in his line, our race would never accept him as king.

The fish was too big to roast whole on a stick. I’d have to cut it into pieces. Using my short nails, I ripped the fish into chunks. It was too much for us to eat and would go to waste, a shame. Two sticks lay beside the fire. Jeslyn must have put them there. I grabbed them and stuck chunks of the fish on it, then leaned the sticks against the rocks to roast by the fire.

This had gone too far. I should have heeded Romulus’s advice and stayed in Mirth. If I didn’t return soon, someone would notice my absence. Is this what Krischa saw? Me stranded here with Jeslyn?

“You’re back!”

Jeslyn walked out of the brush with a blue bird sitting on her shoulder, a rather large blue bird. “You found food. I’m starving.” She sat on the sand, grabbed one of the roasting sticks, and blew on it.

“Weren’t you supposed to be cooking us an egg?”

She blew on the fish again, took a small bite, stopped, then blew again. “The egg hatched.” She glanced to the bird sitting on her shoulder.

The bird squawked and snapped its beak.

“Hold on, Hadda.”

“Hadda? You named the bird?”

She pouted. “Yes, I named the bird.” She made a clucking sound with her tongue and fed the bird a piece of her fish.

I took the other roasted fish and ate, watching Jeslyn and her new pet interact. The fish tasted extremely bland. Eating without spices wasn’t appealing, but I doubted I would be able to find anything usable on this island.

Jeslyn fed the bird while gawking at me.

“Why are you looking at me that way?”

Her eyes widened. “I didn’t think you ate…”

“Food like you?” I finished for her while ripping a piece off the freshly cooked fish. “Have we not eaten together many times before?”

“Yes, but after I learned the truth… I thought maybe you
pretended
to eat.”

I leaned back on my elbow. “What did you think I ate?” Apprehension crossed her face as she averted my gaze, and I could only imagine what her mind had concocted. “Well?”

“I thought you ate humans.”

I nearly choked on the flesh of the fish. “You do know I am half human?”

“Yes, but the rest of your kind isn’t. Why else would they be sneaking around, if not to eat us?”

I grinned at her childish accusations. “We eat food similar to yours, but the tastes are more potent.”

She placed the bird on her lap. “Why did you come to Luna Harbor?”

When Jeslyn looked at me with that unwavering glare, I found myself intrigued and obliging. “To find you.”

Her nostrils flared. I wasn’t sure if she was angry or upset.

“What do you want with me?”

Telling Jeslyn the truth about what I needed was never an option, but I had to tell her something, a speck of truth big enough to make her believe anything.

And lies are always best told with facts.

“My world is dying. It’s why we’ve come here to—”

“We?”

She doesn’t know?
I assumed her brother told her about the others. “Yes. There are many of my kind already living here.”

Her mouth hung open. “And they’re walking around posing as us? As humans?” The fish fell from her hands and the bird jumped off her lap to grab it.

Jeslyn’s normally arched eyebrows straightened in an angry glare. “What is going to happen when all your people are here?”

“When my people are ready to gain control, your people will have two choices: either serve us, or die.”

“Serve you how?”

“As a slave serves his master.”

“And if not, you’ll just kill them?” She stood, her hands resting on her hips. “You can’t come into our world and do as you please! My
people
will not go quietly.”

“I do love a challenge.”

Her cheeks reddened in a fury. It was quite becoming. “What about my family?”

After another bite, I realized the fish wasn’t that bland. It carried a delicate taste with a hint of sweetness.

“What about my family!” Jeslyn eyed me with a hateful gaze, and I realized I should have kept this to myself, although her antics did provide entertainment.

I gazed back into her cold eyes. “Let’s hope they cooperate.”

Her eyes filled with tears and she spun around on her heels.

“Where are you going, Jeslyn?”

“Far away from you!” she yelled over her shoulder.

She grabbed a stick and stormed off into the jungle, her bird flapping after her.

I’d let her wander for a bit. Someone had to eat all this fish.

“Jeslyn!” Cupping my hands around my mouth, I screamed her name, searching the jungle.

Night had come and I didn’t want to spend the evening hours in this dark place. The noises from the previous night could be from any kind of creature, though my instincts told me they came from a predatory beast, and one that hunted at night. Any number of animals could attack Jeslyn. I shouldn’t have allowed her to wander off alone.

I reached the waterfall we had found earlier. Jeslyn sat on the edge of the lagoon with her legs dangling in. The bird nestled beside her.

“Why didn’t you answer?” I attempted to ignore how the moonlight shined on her hair, illuminating the soft waves. She must have taken her hair out of the braids after she left me.

“Go away,” she said without turning around.

I kneeled next to her. She jumped a bit and glared at me.

Her eyes were wet and red. Her cheeks, blotched pink and slightly puffy. The hair around her scalp had frizzed, causing the rest of her hair to fan around her face in waves.

I reached to touch the pink of her cheek. She slapped me away.

“Don’t… touch… me.”

“Jeslyn.”

She shook her head, tears leaving the corners of her eyes. “I don’t want to be here. I want to go home to my family. I want to be away from you!”

She stood abruptly and I stood with her.

“You won’t touch my family or anyone else. I’ll kill you myself if I have to!” She pushed me back with a force that threw me off guard.

The golden color of her aura changed red. The hue that had promised me power and more began to vanish before my eyes.

“Calm yourself.” I touched her arms.

“Don’t touch me!” Her arms went rigid and she balled her hands into fists. “How could I be such a fool? I thought you cared, but you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

I released her as red surrounded her in a halo and fury filled her eyes.

“That’s not true.”

“It is. Now go away!” She pushed me again.

“Stop it,” I said, my voice even, not wanting to upset her further.

“Or what, you’ll kill me? Could you do that, Lucino? Could you kill the girl you were supposed to marry? The girl you swore to protect? The girl who you promised everything would be all right?”

Tears slid down her cheeks and she shook her head. “You said to trust you… and I did…”

Her words were mine, and I knew exactly when I had said them. On that day, I’d meant every word. “Jeslyn…”

She flicked her gaze in every direction but to where I stood.

“Do you think everything I’ve said since we first met has been a lie?”

She covered her face with her hands and fell to her knees, sobbing. The action froze me in place, unable to speak. Blackness spread through the red of her aura, a color I’d only seen around the most destitute of humans.

Seeing the darkness engulf her and her body rock with pain dropped me before her. What was happening? Was I the cause of this spreading blackness?

I touched her arm and she sobbed harder, the sound loud and ripping through me. Her body heaved and the wailing shredded my defenses. The hurt washing over her flooded into me and, like a poison, it worked its way deep into my veins.

I could stand it no longer.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

She uncovered her face and sniffled. “What did you say?”

The apology slipped out without my thinking. In my entire life, I had never been sorry for anything. Nothing ever deserved it.

“I said, I’m sorry.”

Her chest rose and fell, and each time, I heard the sadness in her breath. The blackness receded and only specks remained, but her golden hue wasn’t the same.

I had done this. I had destroyed the one thing I wanted most.

A thing I suddenly realized I couldn’t live without.

The jungle quieted around us, her breaths and sniffles etched inside my body… inside my heart. Was this what it meant to be human? To hurt? To feel a pain so intense it removed any free thought or logic?

Her gaze was no longer cold and angry, but emptiness wandered in her pale blue eyes.

“What?” she asked.

“I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused you and for the things that can never be taken back. I’m sorry for trapping us on this island… and I’m sorry for this.”

“For wha—”

With gentle hands, I grasped her face and kissed her. She stiffened, her lips refusing to move with mine, but then her body softened into me. I held her as the delicate creature she was, afraid she would break and I wouldn’t be able to hold her together.

This is what it meant to be human.

To hurt.

To feel.

To love.