Kissing Danger ✔️

NINE

Word Count: 1713

Mindlessly flicking snow off the branch in front of me, I look across at Lei, who sits on another branch with her legs hanging down below her.

"You always pick the coldest places to hang out," she mutters, wrapping her woollen coat around her more. "You know I only like this place in summer."

We are in a forest close by to home, one I come to often when I need to think. This morning I woke up, after last nights dinner, needing to get away from the manor to clear my head. Although worried, Lei followed me up into this tree so we can sit and talk. I've spent the last twenty minutes speaking to her about Eryk and why everything confuses me, but she doesn't have any answers.

"I think I want to go travelling," I mutter, tiredly.

"I thought we were waiting until we were done with university," Lei muses, picking a stem off the branch, admiring the glistening ice that consumes it.

I shrug half-heartedly. "We have a few months break. Why not make the most of it?"

Running away for awhile wouldn't usually be the best idea, but right now, I'm not sure I have much other choice. I woke this morning with many questions that mother wouldn't answer. She couldn't tell me much about Stace, the strange yet beautiful man who was at dinner. She simply said he is a Noble from another pack, someone I shouldn't worry about.

Yet I can't get it out of my head.

Eryk is an entirely different problem. I haven't seen him since, but I'm still convinced the only reason I'm alive is because of him. Whether he wants to admit it or not, he is trying to save my life...Why? I don't know yet.

"And where are we going to go?" Lei asks, oblivious to the fact that we just talked everything out, yet it's still swirling around my head, not making any sense.

"Far from here," I admit, looking up through the canopy, seeing the steely grey sky and the clouds that pass by it. "Somewhere with sun."

Lei grins. "I love this new, spontaneous Aven."

"You mean the Aven before the incident?"

"You nearly died, Aven...No one is blaming you for changing," she says quietly. I nod, although there's a dark feeling in my stomach that weighs heavily on me. As much as I have tried to be normal since it happened, I haven't been able to shake the way it made me feel having something like that happen.

Especially since I still haven't got answers to the burning internal questions that I have about being saved, and yet never meeting my saviour.

"I nearly died this weekend too. I stupidly ate fish to prove a point, and my mother didn't even have medication, and yet I somehow survived," I mutter, tucking my gloved hands into my jacket.

I still can't believe I did that. I've reached the point of insanity with everything that has gone on.

"Hmm, Passion Pack it is," Lei says.

"Beaches?" I note. "I agree."

Eventually the cold scares us down from the tree and we begin our walk down the road toward the estate. The sound of the Passion Pack is quite compelling; the sun, the beaches and the separation from everything strange going on here. Even though I have questions about Stace and questions for Eryk, I need to get away from it.

"Maybe you can find a guy there to distract you..." Lei brings up, making me roll my eyes. This is always brought up when Lei has found someone to be interested in and doesn't want to be a bad friend by investing all her time in them when I don't have anyone.