A small, sad, heartbreaking smile touches his lips. “You do make me feel better just by being here.”
If that line had come from Easton, I would’ve teased him about being a player, but it sounds more genuine coming from Foster.
“Are you tired?” he asks when I yawn again.
I shake my head, but my eyelids lower, contradicting my words. “No, I’m totally awake. I promise… We should… talk… more.”
He smooths my hair out of my face. “You should get some rest. Your powers will recharge more quickly if you do.”
I shake my head from side to side as my eyes shut. “I want to talk to you more… I’m worried about you. You seem upset… And I felt anger through the link…”
“I’ll be fine,” he assures me as he slips his hand underneath my neck. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up and we can talk some more.”
As he kisses my forehead, I cuddle closer to him. “Maybe just a quick nap…” Sleepiness starts to overtake and I start rambling about my worries. “Fost… I don’t want to have to… become… like Porter…”
I feel him tense, then he whispers, “I promise you won’t ever have to.”
Nodding, I give in to my exhaustion, drifting off to sleep…
“Hello, my queen,” Darkness voice immediately fills my head. “I may not be able to see you when you’re awake, but we’ll always have your dreams.”
Dammit, for some reason I thought since he couldn’t touch me while I was awake that he wouldn’t be able to communicate with me when I was asleep.
“Leave me alone!” I shout, trying to make my eyelids lift open, attempting to force myself to wake up back up.
His laughter fills my head as darkness takes over my vision. “You never used to talk to me like that. Living with the humans has turned you into an ungrateful brat.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whisper shakily, my heart pounding in my chest. “I don’t… I don’t know you.”
“You don’t?” he whispers in my ear.
The veil of darkness lifts from my vision, revealing a world full of towering, grimy buildings surrounded by a wasteland of ash and covered by a polluted sky.
“What is this place?” I whisper.
Deep down, though, I feel as though I know the answer.
“Don’t you remember?” darkness purrs in my ear. “This used to be your home before you helped me destroy it.”
“This is Elemental,” I whisper, shaking my head as tears burn in my eyes. “But I didn’t do this.”
“Yes, you did, my little power source. You are the cause of it. You are the power that ruins lands—that destroys everything you touch,” he whispers. “You’ve done it once and you’ll do it again. Together, we’ll destroy all the worlds.”
“I didn’t do this,” I whisper in horror. “I couldn’t… I wouldn’t… I’m only seventeen years old. I don’t know you. I’ve never been your queen.”
But deep inside my mind, a shadow of a memory flashes through the darkness, of me wearing a dress spun of wisps of darkness and a crown of shadows is perched on my head. Standing beside me is a man made of smoke and charred ash—the god of darkness.
But if I’ve never seen him before then how do I know what he looks like? Unless Hunter’s theory was right and my memories were erased.
Pain and guilt press down on my shoulders, and this time I have no one to help me block it out. And if the god of darkness is right and I did somehow destroy Elemental, maybe that’s what I deserve.
Hunter
“Where are you going?” Max asks me as I slip on my jacket.
After Porter, Max, Holden, and I left Sky in the room, we headed downstairs to chat more about what was going on. They wanted to know all of the details of what Camille told me about Sky, and I pretended to tell them everything, but I kept one small thing from them. Well, it might not be small, depending on how much truth there is to it.
“Out,” I reply to Max as I reach for the door handle.