Hidden Darkness (Hidden Saga Book 4) (18 page)

              “Yes.” He nodded and relaxed again, staring up at the night sky. “That’s exactly what it feels like. I can’t ever imagine even wanting to do that with someone else.” Gazing down into my eyes again, he said, “You were always the only one for me, Ryann. I feel like you were born just for me. I was meant to find you that night in the woods. Thank the gods you wanted me, too. Otherwise, I would have had to re-enact some of the darker faery tales and kidnap you and drag you down to my underworld as my prisoner.” He laughed.

              “As if I could resist this.” I tightened my arm around his waist, loving the texture of his skin, the heavy muscle under my hands, the feel of our bodies pressed close together. “I never want to leave this nest.”

              He folded me even closer against him. “Me either. I never want to do anything—ever again—except love you.”

              “Then don’t.” I kissed his neck and let my toes wander up his bare leg. I was flattered to feel the racing pulse beneath his hot skin. He was excited again—already.

              He let out a combination laugh-growl and rolled to his back, dragging me onto his chest. “You won’t get any argument from me. I
suppose
we’ll have to eat something eventually. Or maybe I’ll just—” 

              A huge thunderous noise rolled through the woods, quite literally vibrating the tree and our nest. Lad lifted me to the side and we both sat up straight, alarmed. My heart throbbed in sharp, painful pulses.             

“What was that?” I hissed as he got to his feet. “It sounded like an explosion.”

              He was staring at something over the nearby treetops. He gave me his hand and tugged me up to stand beside him. “Look.” His outstretched arm pointed in the direction of town.

              Just as I turned my head to follow his finger, another powerful blast rocked the woods. I jumped and cringed, raising an arm defensively out of instinct.

An eerie orange glow lit the horizon. My fingertips dug into the tensed muscle of Lad’s forearm. It had definitely been an explosion—and now something big was burning in Deep River.

One of my hands came up to cover my mouth. “Oh my God. I hope no one’s hurt.”

              “Ryann.” Lad turned me to face him, gripping my shoulders tightly. His face was grim. “I’ve spent most of my life watching the world from this vantage point.” He paused, his lips pressing into a tight line. “I’m not certain, but I think… I think that was your tea factory.”

Thank you for reading HIDDEN DARKNESS, Book Four of the Hidden Saga. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on
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There is more to come in the Hidden World. Book 5 of the saga, HIDDEN DANGER, releases in May 2016, and is
available for pre-order now
. Here’s the story:

The Dark Council has struck a shocking and powerful blow against the Light Court and its human allies, defying their own king, Nox, and seeking to re-establish Dark Elven influence and domination over the human world.

While Ryann and Lad work to restore production of Magnolia Sugar Tea, Ava is forced to return to the Dark Court to face her mother and Audun, the head of the Dark Council, and learn the consequences for disobeying their orders. With no other choice, she sets off on a road trip with her former fiancé Culley, whom she does not like and does
not
trust, and leaves behind Asher, the intriguing and much too tempting human boy she met in Deep River.

Along the way she’ll discover the truth behind Culley’s mission in Altum and the disastrous effect it will have on the human race. But there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to this mysterious Dark Elven guy with his alluring and deceptive glamour, and Ava will find herself torn between two possible futures as she sets her own course through the Hidden world.

The blood rushed to my head, making it hard to think.

All I knew was one minute I was sitting at one of the three stoplights in this dinky little town, and the next my car was being blown across the intersection as if it was a cardboard paper towel tube tumbling in a windstorm.

              I wasn’t hurt—at least I didn’t think I was. I was still strapped into my seatbelt. In fact, it constricted my chest and ribs painfully as I hung suspended from it, my hair in my eyes, my hands still clenching the steering wheel.

              Trying to get my bearings and figure out what was going on, I glanced to the right—
oh God
. The passenger side was crushed. That’s why the car was tilted to one side. I seemed to be in the one pocket of the front seat that remained intact.

Chunks of glass protruded from the frame of the windshield like the few remaining teeth in a bare-knuckle fighter’s mouth. Through the opening, the upside-down view of the street portrayed a chaotic scene. Debris was strewn across the road—things that did not look like car parts. And people running. Everything looked orange. Maybe I had a head injury after all. No—the orange glow was fire. I could smell it.

Something—a building, or maybe a huge truck—was engulfed in flames. I could feel the heat of it, though I didn’t have a clear view of exactly what had exploded. Yes—an explosion. That was what it was. Had to be. I remembered something slamming the car, rocking it up onto two wheels. And then, just as the car righted itself again, another blast hit and sent me rolling side over side.

Maybe one of those big fuel trucks had crashed into a power pole and blown up. I strained to see more but in my restricted, and increasingly uncomfortable, position, I couldn’t spot what was burning. What if it
was
a fuel truck and it was right next to me? My car could catch on fire, too. That thought brought me out of my dazed state.

I need to get out of here.

Pressing one hand against the ceiling for support, I fumbled for my seatbelt clasp, pressed the button. Nothing. Ugh. It was stuck or something.

There was a metallic screech as someone wrenched open my car’s door, which now that I was looking at it was oddly bent.

“Ava? Ava!” Asher’s face peered through the opening, shockingly white and creased with concern. Then his expression relaxed. “Oh thank God you’re alive. When I saw this little convertible on its top…”

Elation and relief rushed through me in a cool stream. “Hi,” I said. “Can you get me out? My head feels like a water balloon that’s about to burst.” My voice was shaky. Before I’d seen his face, there had been no tears threatening, but now it was all I could do not to lose it.

“You bet. Just hold on a minute, baby. I’m gonna getcha.”

Dropping to his knees, Asher slid an arm under me, taking some of the pressure off of my chest. I drew in a breath, the first full one I’d been able to take since the crash. The influx of oxygen was heavenly.

Just as I had done, Asher pushed the seatbelt’s release button then pushed it again. He turned his face toward mine. At this angle, our noses practically touched and his eyes were a bit out of focus. Beads of sweat covered his forehead.

“I’m gonna have to get something to cut this with, okay? I’ll be right back. You just hang in there.”

“Ha ha.”

He smiled at me. “That wasn’t meant to be a joke, but I’m glad to see your sense of humor didn’t suffer any damage.” His eyes scanned me quickly. “Anything else hurting?”

I shook my head, jostling what felt like the entire volume of my body’s blood content. “No. I’m just shaken up. And it’s a little hard to breathe.”

The creases came back to his face. “Okay. I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t take too long, okay?” The words were an anxious whine.

“I won’t. I promise. You can time me if you want.”

He withdrew from the car, and I watched as he got to his feet, watched his boots retreating. Because I had nothing better to do and I was starting to feel a little claustrophobic and panicky, I did count. “One, two, three, four…”

By the time I got to twenty, Asher’s boots were back in sight. At twenty-five, he was once again crowded into the squashed front seat with me, this time holding an open pocket knife.

“How’d I do?” he asked as he slid the knife under the seatbelt near the clasp and began moving his hand in a sawing motion. His other arm was beneath me again, I supposed ready to catch me when the belt was severed. I could hear his rhythmic breathing as he worked.

“Twenty-five seconds. Not bad.”

He grinned and shook his head then paused in his sawing motion. “You know, before I finish up this heroic rescue, I’ve got to say something.”

I furrowed my brow. “What?”

“Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but… I do believe you’re having a problem.”

In spite of my bizarre circumstances, I laughed. Which hurt my ribs. “Maybe,” I conceded.

“No, come on now. Admit it. You’ve got a problem, and as promised, I’m helping you solve it.”

“Are you going to leave me hanging here all day if I don’t play along?”

“Maybe.” He smiled.

“Then yes, Asher, I have a problem. Now would you please get me the hell—”

Before I could finish the sentence, he made the last cut and sort of dived beneath me so when I dropped the short distance from the belt, I fell onto him and not the car’s roof or the shattered windshield. For a second we lay there, his arms wrapped tightly around me.

“I got you,” he said into my hair. “I got you. You’re okay now.”

I allowed myself to soften against his chest and breathe deeply. He smelled like freshly cut grass and yummy guy shampoo and smoke. Oh yeah, the fire. I lifted my head and looked around.

“We should move—”

“It’s okay,” he said. “The fire’s across the street—the factory. You lie still. I’m going to slide out and bring you with me, in case you’ve got a broken bone or something and don’t realize it yet. You may be in shock. Just pretend I’m a stretcher.”

I nodded and clung to him, wondering for the first time why a teenaged boy was performing my rescue instead of a firefighter or someone more qualified, someone with an actual stretcher for instance. Not that I was complaining—I couldn’t let human paramedics examine me anyway. 

And then we were free of the wreckage, and I understood.

The scene outside the car was utter pandemonium. I stood to take it all in. The beautiful church I’d been admiring was blackened on one side, those multi-colored windows in jagged pieces or missing altogether. Across the street, a low, stretched-out building was fully engulfed in flames. It looked like a factory or a one-story warehouse.

Several other wrecked cars were scattered on the street, in various stages of annihilation. Mine hadn’t gotten the worst of it. Or the best.

I turned to look at the wreckage of my little convertible and all the air deserted my lungs at once, leaving me struggling for breath once again. It was smashed. How had I even survived it? Feeling dizzy, I rocked on my feet.

Asher’s arms came around me again. “You okay? You should sit down until the EMT’s can take a look at you.” He walked me to the nearest curb and guided me to sit, his supportive arm still around my back.

“What happened?” I finally thought to ask the obvious question.

“I’m not sure. That’s the Magnolia Sugar Tea Company. I was down the road near the park when I saw the blast. I drove up as close as I could and got out to see if anyone needed help, and then I saw your car. That’s as much as I know.”

I stared at the flames, the black smoke pouring from the open roof of the building. The heat of it was immense, even here across the street. It was hard to even look at it without squinting.

“Do you think anyone was inside?” If they had been, it was unlikely they’d survived.

He shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. It’s closed for the night. My buddy’s checking inside the church.” Lifting his eyes, he scanned the fiery scene. “Oh man, Ryann’s gonna be torn up. Her grandma, too.” He turned back to me. “She’s one of my classmates. It’s her family’s business.”

A cold sensation gripped my heart. Ryann’s tea factory.
Culley’s mission
. Was that what he’d been talking about? Had he been sent here to take out the source of the tea that was freeing humans from Elven influence? I twisted away from Asher and dry-heaved over the sidewalk.

His hands came to the sides of my head, sweeping my hair back from my face. After waiting for my spasm to pass, he said, “I’m gonna see if I can get somebody to check on you. They’ve got their hands pretty full, though. God this is a mess. You’ll be okay here for a minute?”

I nodded weakly, but I was
not
okay. How could Culley have done this? I didn’t know him well, but after spending the past week or so with him, I didn’t think he had this kind of evil in him. Yes, he’d advised me to just do my job, not to “think about whether it was right or wrong.” He said that was what he always did. But this was so extreme. He might have killed people tonight.

Asher hustled toward a nearby ambulance where uniformed paramedics were loading a writhing man into the back. I glanced around again. It seemed like everywhere I looked there were shocked faces, some people crying, others running toward the destruction or away from it. A mother shielded her young child’s eyes from a pool of blood in the street near another one of the ruined cars.

Within two minutes Asher was back, kneeling in front of me. With a hand under my chin, he tipped my face up so our gazes met. Those incredible turquoise eyes were so serious, so full of concern.

“Listen, they know you’re here, and they’re going to get to you as soon as they can. There are a lot of people who need help—a lot of people hurt. I need to help out—there aren’t enough emergency personnel to handle it all. You stay right here, okay? Don’t get up and wander off. You need someone to check you out. I’ll be back for you as soon as I can.”

I nodded, but he wasn’t satisfied.

“Promise me Ava. Don’t leave before I come back.”

“Okay. I promise.” It wasn’t a hard vow to make. I had no way to leave. My car was a lopsided pancake in the middle of the road. I didn’t feel like moving anyway. I was sort of numb and disconnected. This was horrible. And I felt responsible, like I should have prevented it or something.

Maybe it had been an accident? My spirit lifted for a second then immediately sank again. Not likely. It was too coincidental that Ryann’s factory had blown up the night after Culley had left Altum. He must not have headed for L.A. right away as he’d said he would.

I’d been wondering how he planned to get to the airport anyway. I had picked him up from the airport in Memphis last week after driving cross-country myself. He’d had a modeling gig in New York City and couldn’t drive out with me from the west coast—not that I’d
wanted
to share a three-day car trip with him. Now I was hoping I never saw his face again.

From somewhere behind me I heard the screech of car tires. Another town resident getting a first look at the carnage, no doubt. At the sound of footsteps hitting the pavement at a dead run, I twisted at the waist to look. I’m not sure why. I guess that’s just what you do when you hear someone running toward you.

It was Culley.
Great
. I got to my feet, now feeling stiff and sore all over, prepared to walk away from the devil approaching me with his designer clothes and tense expression and treacherous beauty.

With his unnaturally good looks and tall, athletic physique, he looked like an actor on the set of an action movie instead of a real person happening upon a real disaster scene. Of course he
wasn’t
a person, not in the literal sense of the word.

When he spotted me, Culley’s pace slowed to a saunter. And I didn’t walk away. No, I wanted to confront him, make him account for what he’d done.

By the time he reached me, his face had lost its worry and reeked of his typical unconcern. His eyes roamed over me, assessing, perhaps checking to see whether his plot against the humans would lead to any unfortunate Elven casualties. Then his gaze slid to the side, taking in my destroyed car, and back to me.

“Good thing you dumped me, Angel. If I’d been in that passenger seat, the world would be minus one Culley Rune.”

“Yes, that would have been tragic,” I deadpanned. “What are you doing here, Culley? I thought you’d be long gone by now.”

“I was. I made it to the airport in Memphis.”

“But then you decided to come back to the scene of the crime. I guess criminals do that sort of thing—I’ve seen it on cop shows.”

His eyes flared. “Criminals? You think I had something to do with this?”

“Didn’t you? Wasn’t this your mission?”

For a moment, I thought I saw a glimpse of hurt in his eyes, or insult, but then it was gone, replaced by flinty blue obstinance. “I did not. It was not.” He reached toward me, laying a hand on my arm. “So, you’re okay? You’re not hurt?”