Treasured Secrets (The Coveted Saga 1)

The one place I thought I would be able to escape wasn't strong enough to take my mind off the pain. It only made it worse. Now I was so far away from him that it was torturous to even think about him at all. Considering he was all I could think about, the pain was verging on the boundary of unbearable.

The sun was lower. I must have been there for at least six hours. I continued to scream at the forest, making my voice feel strained and rasp.

"Why do this to me?" I asked through a sobbing hiccup.

I tried to compose myself, but it was pointless. The pain refused to dull. I was crying harder, and my words were muffled by the stabbing waves of piercing heartbreak that paraded itself in my tone.

"Why can't he just see how much I really do love him? Why can't he believe it's real? Why can't he believe I am his one?"

My once smooth fingertips felt like sandpaper as they brushed the cheeks that had been left ravaged and raw from the ruthless, never-ending flow of scalding tears.

Still sobbing, I dropped back down to the rock, and my sketch book fell from my lifeless hands to the ground. I wept for a few minutes longer as I thought back to the first time I saw Tallis. The way his touch burned through to my soul with such captivating power. The way his lips felt so soft against the bits of my skin he had touched with him. The first night he slept in the bed with me, and how safe and peaceful I felt just being with him. The first time we almost kissed, when our bodies were radiating such magnificent heat. How intensely surreal it was the night when our lips had just brushed, before Taryn interrupted.

I lay on the ground, crying, looking up at the streaks of sunlight escaping through the leaves of my once serene giants. Even they looked smaller and sadder now. Nothing was as it should have been. There was no peace and no escape from my insufferable misery.

Chapter 17

The Foul Smell of Danger

When there's a voice in your head telling you something bad is going to happen, listen to it.

I stopped thinking, suddenly feeling danger. A chill ran up my spine, making every hair stand on end. I felt the unwelcome eyes of someone watching me. I smelled something putrid invasively stifling out all other smells, and I became sick to my stomach.

"Oh no," I gasped, feeling the warning prickles of death consume me.

I knew that smell and the imminent danger that followed it. I knew what was watching me. I knew it was there for me and there was no escape. No one to save me.

"How did you find me?" I screamed into the forest with absolute panic.

There was no sense in trying to run, hide, or call for help. All I could do was end the game of cat and mouse.

I felt the swishing winds that made the leaves shake. Then a face came into view - a deceitfully young face.

He smirked, letting his eyes rake over me as he licked his lips. I grew sicker, and my body was conflicted with hot and cold chills.

"Mmm," he hissed softly. "I can't smell your essence, little witch, but I can smell the Bradbury blood that runs through your veins. I can smell the power that surges through your weak, pathetic mortal body."

He licked his lips again with sadistic delight as he inhaled deeply, searching for the scent of my absent essence. I stood there, shaking, unable to say anything threatening in return. I tried to speak, but only a squeak crept through my tight lips. I was going to die a trembling young girl instead dying with any dignity at all.

He circled me from a distance, and I stayed frozen, letting him analyze me. I wanted to cry, just like I had done every time. I wasn't made for this. I wasn't strong enough. Magic made a mistake in choosing me to join its cause.

"I'm supposed to bring you to Graven, but I may just keep you for myself," he said, smiling wickedly.

He was far more intimidating than the guy I had encountered in the woods of Grayford. His yellow long nails hung from his hands like twisted vines drooping from the limbs of trees. His teeth were just as yellow as his nails, and his stench was far more grotesque than I had smelled thus far. He was so skinny that his bones showed clearly through the pale layer of skin that seemed to barely cover them.

I tried to block out the pungent odor, the chilling sight, and the promise of death. I had to try something, anything. I didn't want to die. I didn't want this monster to have me.

"You'll be slaughtered by my family if you try anything," I murmured in a hoarse whisper, not sounding intimidating or convincing at all.

"I don't think so, little one. The Bradbury's have been a peaceful coven for a really, really long time; too scared to stir up any trouble without Isis to protect them. I'm not too worried about any retaliation from them. They'll just weep over any remains left of you - if there are any to find."

His low hissing tone was mocking me now. He really did not fear them in the least bit. I could only imagine the agony my family would have to suffer now because of me. I was such a fool for doing this to them.

The smell was so atrocious that I fought back the overwhelming urge to vomit... until I couldn't anymore. I leaned over and heaved forth all the meager possessions of my stomach. Now I would be dying with even less dignity.

As I wiped my mouth and stood up, my eyes found him again. An eerie smile spread over his lips, as if he'd enjoyed my body's sudden crude expulsion.

"You're scared, little one. That's a natural reaction when you're about to die."