Cursed by Desire

Chapter 6: Discovery

Leila’s POV:

Ascelin, Corbin and Lux all keep trying to convince me to change my mind, but I remain resolute on my decision. We argue back and forth for a while before they eventually relent, leaving me to my own devices. I wave goodbye with a forced smile on my face and watch their backs as they disappear, following the pale blonde, chestnut brown and golden blonde heads as they grow smaller and smaller before vanishing from view.

When they’ve gone, I sigh and kneel back next to the water’s edge. Staring at my reflection, I remain impassive, staring at the unchanging reflection, until something shifts. One minute, I can see my own, defeated, reflection before it changes, and another image is beamed up at me from the surface of the water. With a strong bone structure and chiseled jawline, he looks distinctly handsome, but that’s not what draws me to him. It’s the compassion and sadness in the gaze that I can somehow tell is golden.

Golden eyes. Gold like candle flames and black hair. Black as night. The unbidden thoughts flash across my mind, and I’m surprised I could glean those details from the reflection, since the river offered no color beyond the dark blue of the water. But somehow, something inside me knows those details are right. But it’s like I said. It wasn’t the surprise of seeing a different reflection that caused me to inhale in shock. No, that was down to the feelings that raced through me.

Sharp and sweet, I would have cried out in pure pleasure had I been able to make a sound but nothing came out. Eyes shining with new tears, I find myself reaching to see if this reflection was real or just a dream. Hand shaking, I reach a tentative finger towards it, feeling the water ripple underneath me. Small ripples spread out from where my hands had touched but the expression on the other person’s face doesn’t change, at least not immediately. Instead, I hold my breath and wait to see if they will do the same or if they’re just a spectator. That or a figment of my imagination that’ll vanish as soon as I look too long.

Nothing. The reflection and I stare at one another for the longest time, neither moving nor breathing (at least in my case.) But then something extraordinary happened. Whereas before I’d been the only one of the pair of us to reach towards the other, I saw something in his gaze change before he did the same. It’s like the water acts as a mirror and I can almost see our hands touching, though I can’t feel it. Until.. I can. I can feel something.

It’s like sticking my hand into a live electric current or being in the path of a fresh bolt of lightning. Static electricity spreads through my hand where I’d pressed it against the surprisingly solid surface of the river, which now feels like glass under my shaking hand. Testing a theory, I place my other hand against the first one and see the mirror-vision do the same thing, almost as if compelled to do so. An impossible wave of longing settles over me when I look into this stranger’s eyes and I find myself wanting to reach further, to be able to properly see him.

Who are you? I ask him, not expecting to hear a response, the reflection still watching me with an infinitely sad expression. Who are you, and why do I feel as though I know you? I keep thinking over the same set of questions when it feels like I’ll receive no response from the other figure, so I am surprised when I hear it.

I wish I knew, I really do. His voice sounds just as shocked as I’m sure mine did, but it also sounds.. I don’t know. Not fondness exactly, but something close. A cross between fondness and protectiveness. Both, yet neither, at the same time. Who are you, and why do I feel connected to you? The figure asks though their lips don’t move, just as mine hadn’t. Who are you?

I just stare in shock. Utter shock.

Ash’s POV:

When I black out, something odd happens. One minute I’m just suspended in this void of darkness and shadows and the next I can see something that looks scarily similar to the strange vision that had come over me when I’d been walking with Rosa. Even down to the details of the stream and surrounding trees.. And the girl.

She’s the same one I’d seen before, but I could see other people were with her. She looked worried, but I couldn’t help but feel slightly relieved when they came to help her where she’d been unconscious before, though I’m surprised she didn’t let them help much beyond supporting her into sitting and then standing. Why?

But the answer to that question came a second later when I realized I could hear what she was saying, at least in part. “You have to, it’s the only way to keep both of us safe.” She sounds like she’s pleading with the people who’d arrived to help her but not for them to help– to leave. “Please, you know this is the only way,” Her voice is soft, and I can’t help but feel worried. Why was she pushing them away? “Please go, and tell them you didn’t see me.”

Her friends - at least that’s what I presumed them to be - try to talk her out of whatever was going on with her, but she remains adamant that she’s okay, and they eventually leave. Though once they do so, some of the strength she’d been carrying. She watches her friends leave for as long as she can see them before dropping to her knees. Fear washes over me when I remember the last time she’d collapsed by the river, but she remains both dry and on the bank, sighing when she contemplates the reflection she’s watching.

And that’s when it all changed.

Suddenly, I went from being able to see the side of her to looking directly into her eyes. She inhales in shock and I can’t say I blame her given how spooked I was at what had happened. Had I suddenly become trapped in the water and that’s why she can see me like this? That seems the most likely expression, since I can see her face fully, the sadness trapped in her eyes like stars. She takes an unsteady breath and, after a few seconds, reaches a shaky hand towards me. Holding my breath, I wait for her touch to disrupt the image - vision or whatever it was - but that doesn’t happen.

Instead, I remain able to see her, though the image of her ripples like she’s disrupted the surface of the water, and it’s naturally rippling in response. I can see her blue eyes clouding over with shock and sadness, and it hurts me to see that expression in her eyes. For a few long seconds, we just watch each other before I try copying her. Reaching toward her, I place my hand on hers as if to link our fingers and for a second it feels like I’ve just pressed my hand against a window, the feeling of the water glassy until it changes and feels like more. Much more.

Whereas before I’d only been able to feel the water, now it was as if our hands had physically touched. The best way I could think to describe how it felt was like sticking my hand in the middle of an electric current or standing in the path of a bolt of lightning. Hot and sharp, the pleasure from the simple actions courses through me and rouses Storm from where he’d been silently curled up in the back of my mind into a bout of frenzied yapping of one word. Mate, mate, MATE! He kept howling the words at me, and it froze me in place, hand pressed against the girl’s.

She was my mate?

Puzzled, I watch as her eyes widen and know that she’s felt the same exquisite emotion that’s ravaging me from the inside. Almost as if someone has taken the most intense feeling of pleasure and jammed it into me, so it races around my bloodstream. She shivers and clamps her lips shut tighter than before, her eyes swirling with desire. Unsure as to the veracity of Storm’s continual yapping, I block it out, for now, choosing instead to focus on the girl. She remains with her eyes fixed on mine but her other hand moves to place it next to the one already on the surface of the mirror-like water. Feeling compelled, I follow her action and the same sharp feeling of pleasure shoots through me again, causing me to force back a moan of exhilaration and pleasure. Who was she, and what was she doing to me?

“Who are you?” Her eyes remain fixed on mine, “Who are you and why do I feel like I know you?” She thinks the words to me and I can see them pass over her lips silently as she mouths them to herself. What surprised me more is that I could hear them as clearly as if she’d been in the room with me and said them to my face– something I didn’t expect to happen given the fact that we were separated by at least a realm’s distance. Focusing my eyes on her, I can see she’s warring with herself, her instincts half telling her to keep her distance (something that hurts me to realize), but most of her looks like she would contemplate trying to drown herself again just to see if she could reach me.

“I wish I knew,” I think to her, seeing her eyes widen. I'm guessing, like me, she hadn’t been expecting to be able to hear her reflection’s answers. Longing shoots through my chest with bittersweet pain that after Angel I hadn’t thought I’d ever feel again, certainly not like this. The feeling now is like that of my soul longing to find its other half. MATE! MATE! MATE! Storm kept shouting the words at me, louder and louder until I couldn’t block it out any longer and just gave a tortured sigh to quieten him down and let him know I'd heard him (not that I knew what to do with what he’d said - assuming it was true). At my continuous doubt, Storm whines a little and I send him a consoling thought that quietens him fully, though his gold eyes keep glancing at me to see what I do next. “I wish I knew, I really do,”

Her eyes betray the same shock I know is laced in my tone, and she looks, for a second, like she’ll tip herself into the river again out of pure shock, but luckily she stops herself seconds before that happens. Staring into the troubled sky-blue eyes, I felt a strange mix of fondness and protectiveness wash over me, pinning me underneath the weight of the feelings. Though I know that what I’m feeling isn’t either one of the emotions or the other - being more of a blend of the two that creates such an exquisite pleasure-pain that I have to hold back another moan. “Who are you and why do I feel so connected to you?” This time I can’t clearly figure out which one of us says the words, but I can see the emotions in her eyes, shining like searchlights.

And me? I just stare at her. I just stare in shock.

“Ash?” Rosa’s low whisper snaps me out of whatever daze I’d been stuck in, and I blink awake slowly, not remembering falling asleep. “Ash?” Rosa shakes me slightly, and I look up at her to see a measure of relief in her expression. “I thought you’d passed out permanently.” She watches me closely, her brows are drawn down into a confused frown. “Are you okay?”

I frown back at her, “I passed out?” I can’t remember that happening, just the image of the girl which seems to be branded into my brain. “When? Why?” Running a shaky hand through my dark hair, I see Rosa’s expression has once again morphed back into a puzzled and fearful frown. “Rose, what happened?” I keep my eyes on hers and see the emotions swirling behind her eyes.

“That’s what I was hoping you’d be able to explain, Ash,” She communicates each word slowly and keeps watching me with the same puzzled expression. “Do you remember what happened? What did you see?” I nod slowly but don’t explain, just letting her see the images still stuck in my mind as if they’d been branded by fire. “How?” Is the only word she utters when I stand, and she follows, her dark eyes looking vaguely troubled. “How did you–”

“I have no idea,” I answer honestly, showing her the rest of what happened as well as the feeling it provoked inside, though I keep Storm’s words to myself. Still not sure if they were true. “I was kinda hoping you could help me unravel this,” I look at her hopefully, but she just sighs and shakes her head slightly. “You can’t or won’t?” I ask slowly, seeing a faint smile play across her full lips.

“Can’t,” She responds firmly, showing me that she’s just as confused as me. “Can't because I don’t know what to make of it,” She frowns, her dark eyes showing that she's lost in thought as we keep walking back to Hunter. “I could ask Hunter, Eris and Jax if they’ve got any ideas.” Rosa eventually replies, turning her attention to me and, unintentionally, dazzling me with her hazel, smoky brown, gold and amber mosaic-like gaze that never fails to leave me feeling like I’ve stupidly looked at a star. Or the sun. “Unless Storm can offer any advice?” She queries, a brow raised in question.

Already have. Storm grumbles, clearly put out by my refusal to explain what he’d been all but shouting at me for the past, however long I’d been trapped in the vision. Been there, done that, and he still won’t listen to me.

That’s because I don’t know if you're telling the truth. I mumble towards my angry wolf, who huffs grumpily but says no more on the subject. Although I can tell he’s still put out that I’m refusing to accept what he kept saying. And it’s not for lack of acceptance, but rather that I just don’t understand what’s going on, and it’s not like Storm’s offering any constructive advice beyond the word he kept yelling at me. I just don’t get it. At all. Rosa’s still watching me and I find her looking at me quizzically, clearly still expecting an answer. “Not really,” Storm’s indignant howl sounds in my head, but I make a point to ignore it.

If Rosa finds it odd, she doesn’t say anything. And neither do I as we walk in silence.