Page 18 of Devastation
This is Hale and only Hale.
"Look at me, Lana," he demands gruffly, making me instantly raise my head.
We're eye level with each other now, and intensity sizzles between us. He pulls his hands away from my breasts and trails them lightly down my sides to rest on the small of my back.
"Yes?" I inquire breathlessly, curious why he made the demand.
"I felt your body tense, and I know you are in your head about something. Will you let me just hold you for a few minutes?"
Hold me? That isnotwhat my body is demanding of him. But, maybe that's what my mind is demanding and he sensed it before I did.
Not trusting myself to not slip up and curse at him for withholding the orgasm my body is craving, I nod and smile gently.
As he falls back onto the mattress, he pulls me to lay snuggly on top of him. Wrapping one arm around my waist, his other comes up to lightly trace circles on my back, soothing the anxiety still riding me.
Closing my eyes, I listen to the thump of his heartbeat.
I am safe. I am home.
Chapter Seven
Lana
After lying with Hale for a few minutes, I doze off until he rubs my shoulders, pulling me from my sleep. He announces that he’s going to the kitchen to grab some water and give me time to look through my journal from Gaia alone.
He leaves me in a state of blissful tranquility, and I roll out of bed, shimmying back into my nightgown before plodding back to the room I woke up in earlier.
New flowers have bloomed in the ceiling as the sun fades through windows. It's as if these bloom the darker it gets. Gazing at them for a moment, I notice a few of them are actually beginning to glow a beautiful shade of purple.
Stunning.
Moving further into the room, I head toward the small nightstand next to the bed in the center of the room. I take a moment to marvel over the clean beauty of the white oak bedroom set. The bed is made now, and it has a beautiful cream comforter over white sheets, with about ten decorative pillows in the middle.
The whole room screams both of nature and subtle elegance, and I'm dazzled. The color scheme allows the plants to be the focal points with vibrant pops of color where flowers bloom.
Reaching for Gaia's leather bound journal, I grab it and settle myself amidst the bed's pillow mountain, snuggling in for maximum comfort. Opening to the cover page, I run my fingertips over the dried ink with a short message from Gaia inscribed.
"To my dearest daughter,
I never wished for you to need this journal, because that means that I am no longer with you.
But may the pages within fill your head with knowledge and your heart with love.
Gaia"
Inhaling a shaky breath, I move on to the next page, having skipped through many of them last time in my hunt for the section on tethering.
"You are now Mother Nature.
My powers have passed to you, and with your demi-god status I truly am unsure of how they will flourish within you. Do not fight the power, or I fear it could permanently damage something within you.
Embrace the power, I know you can handle it.
At various times throughout my lifetime, I have had to establish tethers to future queens of their realms in order to help me hold the balance of the world. I have presided over the human realm, with a queen in each of the others. However, I have a suspicion that you will need to establish your own tethers.
It is such a personal and intimate experience, finding the one your soul feels is best to take on such a role. It is something that is decided without thought.
I do not know whether the tethers I had with the current queens will perish, or if they are something you can change. You will need to visit each of the realms to find out.
