CHAPTER 11: Tethered by Fate, The Alyx Rayer Chronicles
Daylight peeked through the branches of the trees, waking Alyx from her broken slumber. She hadn’t slept particularly well and wasn’t in need of a wake-up call in the form of a white peacock.
She rolled to the side and sighed through her nose. She had hoped by sleeping she would gain new perspective over everything, but it was business as usual – she wanted Isaac, but had to return to Samuel, whom she would have to explain her unannounced absence to.
She crawled from her hideaway and ran through the forest at full speed. Her Elders didn’t mention what the day would bring other than more training, but either way, she couldn’t be late.
She broke through the tree line and raced through the field. Samuel stood by the fountain alone. He saw her approaching, and his expression brightened as he hurried to meet her. Her legs slowed to a jog, and she forced her breathing steady. “Hey, you,” she said as evenly as she could, acting as though her absence wasn’t an issue, and that she hadn’t just betrayed him the night before. Sadly, her talents of ‘lies and acting’ grew stronger.
“Hey!” he echoed and wrapped his arms around her, slinging her feet in the air, “I missed you last night. Did you sneak away on your own? Did Lumen bother you that badly?”
Alyx nodded into his chest with a hint of a smile. His assumptions were the perfect excuse.
“Cindra said you like to be alone sometimes,” he said, and she closed her eyes with relief. Thanks, girl.
He released her, and they strolled to the courtyard. “The others aren’t back yet. I assume they’re still wandering the island with their mates.”
“Oh really-”
“Alyx!” Prolificent’s snarl rang through the courtyard.
They stopped in their tracks, and Samuel’s fearful eyes drew down to Alyx. “What was that about?” he asked.
Prolificent appeared from around the corner of the tent. Bitter fury colored his face with red. She patted Samuel’s arm. “I better go,” she said in a hushed voice.
“Do I need to come too?”
“No, you stay here.”
She jogged to her Elder who turned on his heels. “In my tent… now.”
Only one thing could make him this livid, and Alyx knew exactly what it was – and who was responsible.
Unlike the last time she followed him into his tent, dread didn’t fill her heart. Despite the fear Prolificent tried to inspire within her, that he lived to instill, she felt confident now that she had moved past all of that. He would probably threaten and yell, but punishment is not what she feared from him anymore. Even if her worst fears came true, that she and Isaac would never see each other again, a part of her had already accepted it.
Not bothering to sit this time, or offering for her to do the same, he stormed to the middle of the tent and whirled around. “We do not keep secrets on this island,” he said, his eyes narrowing, “but this is what you and Oman insist on doing.
Alyx stopped by the opening with her hands still by her side like dead weights. She wouldn’t confirm or deny anything to this man, or say anything that might incriminate anyone further. She would just let him rant.
“I suspected the night before last that you were somewhere you shouldn’t be, because I couldn’t feel your presence anymore, it was as though you had disappeared. And only one person – or should I say Spirit Guide – on this island is capable of pulling that off.
Alyx blinked with a frozen, indifferent expression.
He stepped toward her, his chest rising to intimidate. “I spoke with your friend Oman, and he refuses to tell me anything. He only tells me that this is “all above me” and that it wasn’t something I should be concerned with.
Wham!
His fist smacked into his open palm, and Alyx flinched. “I will not be toyed with!”
He inhaled deeply to regain his composure and clasped his shaking hands behind his back. “So I commissioned the help of my own accomplice who informed me that you were in a field last night – which I also couldn’t see – with your former Marked, Isaac. Would you like to explain to me why you think that’s acceptable?”
Alyx remained still, the corner of her mouth drawing into a smirk. “When you say “accomplice”, you mean Christineth, right?”
“Irrelevant!” he barked, and she flinched again.
“You, Alyx, have a penchant for rule breaking,” he said as he spun in the other direction and paced away with a heavy stride. “And rule breakers meet a certain end, do you understand?”
Alyx bit back another snarky retort, and her eyes hardened. Go ahead, threaten me.
“But because Oman allowed the little ‘meeting’ between you and Isaac last night, I cannot have you sent away. Believe me, I asked.
I’m sure you did.
He turned, his eyes glaring into hers. “But I assure you, when this is all over there will come a time of reckoning.
I’m sure there will.
Prolificent flicked his wrist in the air, looking away in abhorrence. “Now go, I cannot look at you any longer. I expect you to be at training when we summon.”
Alyx darted through opening, quite impressed with herself that she didn’t fight back. She despised the man, no question, but it wasn’t within her to disrespect her Elder by mouthing off – not yet anyway. He hadn’t pushed her that far.
When she emerged from the tent, her eyes blazed to the other side of the courtyard and into Christineth who stood in the middle of the others, informing them of every juicy detail. “And then they kissed,” she divulged.
What the-
There was one thing Alyx dreaded, after all – Samuel finding out. Her blood turned hot, and she marched toward the crowd with fire in her eyes. Christineth might have witnessed what happened last night, but it was nobody else’s business.
Before she reached them, Samuel burst through the middle, his eyes smoldering with their own fiery rage.
Her face blanched. Shit!
Isaac’s crippling fears had officially come to fruition – her Warrior had knowledge of their tryst in the woods. “Sam!” she cried, and he charged forward. She stumbled out of the way as he barreled past her and into the air. She crouched to fly after him, worried that he might go after Isaac, but he veered to the left toward the mountains.
Her body relaxed, and everything in her sight burned red as anger flickered inside her like the licks of a wild flame. A growl rolled from her chest, escaping her bared teeth. “CHRISTINETH!”
