“Do you breathe?” Rin laughed, “Because you nearly started turning blue in the face on that little tirade.”
Elora narrowed her eyes at him. “Watch it quiver carrier, you have to sleep sometime.”
“I wanted to tell you,” Lisa interjected, “really I did, and there were so many times that I spoke with Syndra about it, and then when Cassie wound up being Trik’s Chosen, I nearly just spilled it all.”
“Why didn’t you?” Oakley asked.
“Fear, shame, and any other reason a parent can come up with for not telling their children the truth,” she answered sheepishly. “I just wanted you guys to have a normal life. I wanted you to grow up and get married and not worry about whether your love was going to be killed by a dark-elf king. A fat lot of good that did me, huh?” She smiled at both her kids and was relieved to see that there was no judgment in their eyes.
“So I’m assuming that Lorsan killed our father? That he didn’t leave us when we were babies?” Elora asked.
“Yes, but you should know that your father’s name wasn’t Ben Thomas.
Lisa smiled and her eyes seemed to glaze over as her mind went back to another place in time. “His name was Steal.”
Elora covered her mouth as she laughed. “Your man stole the elf book and his name was Steal?” She looked over at Rin and Cush as she shook her head. “What is with you people and your messed up names?”
A single brow on Cush’s face rose and his lips quirked as he looked at her. “You people?” he asked. “Don’t you mean our people?”
“Dude, I might be half elf, but my name doesn’t mean butt pillow.”
“Ouch,” Oakley laughed. “Is that why she calls you Cush?”
Cush didn’t answer; he just continued to hold Elora’s stare.
“Okay you two, the sexual tension in this room is enough to strangle an elephant. How about we don’t make direct eye contact,” Lisa told them and though it was obvious she was teasing, it was also equally obvious that there was a tiny drop of seriousness in her admonishment.
Elora finally broke eye contact with Cush and rubbed her hand across her face. Her mind felt like mush, her body ached, and though she wanted to know everything and anything there was to know about her dad, she also just wanted a shower and a bed. Now to figure out which of those wants was the greatest?
“Okay,” she said looking at Cush, “so you could probably read what’s in this elf book right?”
Cush nodded.
“And it might shed some light on how to open up the portals?”
Cush shrugged, “I honestly do not know, but I suppose it could be a possibility.”
“Well then, I say tomorrow we get this book and let you and Rin have a crack at it.”
Oakley nodded. “I agree. We need to start somewhere and what better place than our history?”
Lisa smiled at her son and then looked over at Elora who was also looking at her brother. “We?” she asked him.
Oakley frowned. “Don’t think for a second that I’m letting you two do this alone.”
“They won’t be alone,” Cush spoke up.
Oakley rolled his eyes. “Dude, don’t even get me started on the other reasons I’m staying around, which has everything to do with you not knowing if you want my sister but knowing you can’t live without her. Sword, quiver, arrows, or whatever…if you hurt my sister, I will take you out.”
Elora tried not to laugh, but seeing her computer nerd brother tell an elfin warrior that he was going to take him out was nearly too much.
“Okay, Oakley, that’s enough.” Elora stood up and walked over to him and gave him a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“I really will kill him if he hurts you,” he whispered back.
Elora pulled back and looked up into his sober eyes. “I believe you,” she told him finally and then turned and headed towards her room. “Night,” she called out over her shoulder without bothering to look back. She was drained. Her head hurt; her emotions were raw and she felt like every nerve in her body had been exposed to the elements, and she was ready to be alone.
She took a quick shower, brushed her teeth, put on her favorite black tank top and gray sweats, and climbed into her bed. Just as she was drifting off to sleep, she heard a soft knock on her door. She knew it was one of two people. It was either her mom coming to check on her, in which case she didn’t feel like doing the whole mom–daughter I love you scene, or it was Cush. And she didn’t have a clue what he wanted and, at the moment, she was so tired that she didn’t really care. So she ignored the knocking and let herself drift off to sleep.
Cush stood listening to her breath on the other side of her closed door. He could tell that she wasn’t quite asleep yet, which meant that she had chosen to ignore his knock. This both irritated and amused him. He didn’t know why he had sought her out. Maybe it was to make sure she was okay after learning that her father was a dark elf and that her mother had lied to her her entire life. Those seemed like pretty big pieces of information for a person to learn, and a part of him worried that she was in her room alone dealing with this new information without any support. He didn’t want a Chosen—but she was his, and he hated the idea of her hurting, and he wanted to be the one to comfort her.
“Get a grip, man,” he growled at himself as he finally walked away from her door, accepting that she wasn’t going to answer. He went back to the room that Lisa had given him and Rin to share and found that his comrade was already snoring softly, sound asleep, which was well and good since he wasn’t in the mood to hear his little remarks about how he couldn’t get around fate. Rin had already shared his two cents with him about how Elora was his Chosen and he should be embracing it, not fighting it. When Cush didn’t respond to that, Rin dove right into the do you know how many warriors would take your place argument, which had made Cush want to kill something.
Yes, he was well aware of how many men would be happy to find their Chosen and even more ecstatic to see that it was Elora—
beautiful, exotic, sexy, Elora. He huffed as he undressed and climbed into the bed that was entirely too small. But then he had volunteered to come on this little mission so he couldn’t very well complain. He closed his eyes and immediately her face popped into his mind. His eyes snapped back open and he stared up at the white ceiling. He didn’t know how long he lay there fighting his instincts, his need to go to her, before he finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.