“Doesn’t this place give you the creeps?” I ask him quietly, speaking as if not to disturb what lingers here. The deeper we go, the darker it gets, yet Kyan never falters or hesitates when we come to a crossway as if he knows exactly where he is going.
“No, I used to play out here when I was a kid. Just don’t stray from the path. I did when I was younger and got lost out here for two days before dad found me.” Kyan tells me, and I step closer to Jonah. I swallow. Who the heck would play in a haunted forest? Kyan, it seems.
“What? Are you scared, Ella?” Kyan asks mockingly, and I glare at him before shaking off Jonah’s arm.
“No, of course not,” I lie defiantly, even though my heart rate has to be a dead giveaway. It beats frantically, and I lose count of the twists and turns, so I know there is no way to get back if I somehow end up getting lost.
“I would be if I were you,” Kyan says, and I raise an eyebrow at him, wanting to wipe that small cocky smirk off his face. He can be so infuriating, but still look so sexy.
“You are just trying to scare me,” I frown at him, and he shrugs while walking along the path. I watch the muscles of his back move and ripple. This is the most casual I have seen him. He only has on a tank top and jeans, looking very unKyan-like. But it also makes him look incredibly handsome as well. My gaze dips to his ass, and I remember his state of undress this morning and look away.
“Maybe, maybe not. Do you have any idea what you are standing on?” Kyan asks, glancing over his shoulder at me. He smirks, and I have a funny feeling I don’t want to know what is out here. I know we are going to the gravesite of Kaif’s first mate, Luna. Is it necessary that I know all the minor gory gruesome details?
“It’s a witch’s burial ground,” Jonah whispers.
“Well, I figured we are going to a graveyard,” I reply.
“The entire place is a graveyard, Ella; look amongst the trees,” Kyan says. I look up at Jonah before looking past him.
How haven’t I noticed before? I thought it is odd that amongst the trees are pole logs. Yet I never questioned it. I look in the other direction and I suddenly see the forest in a new light. Thousands of wooden poles are erected amongst the trees and the bases?
What I assumed were just weird placed rocks became clearer.
“Are all these gravestones?” I gasp, and my feet become rooted to the ground just as strongly at the trees around me. I stare out at the forest, locked in fear. But then, fingers suddenly jam into the side of my ribs and Kaif’s demonic rough voice suddenly comes from behind my ear.
“Boo!” he growls out at the same time he jams his fingers in my ribs, and I am pretty sure that isn’t the sweat I feel as I lurch forward with a blood-curdling scream that rings in the air, echoing through the trees and probably wakes half the dead!
“You idiot!” I cry out. Both Kyan and Jonah are in fits of laughter while I am pretty sure I peed a little. I glare at them both.
“I’m not scared,” Kyan mocks me arrogantly as he gives me a cocky smile.
“Don’t do that or I will go back; I am creeped out enough without worrying about you, scaring me,” I snap at him. This isn’t funny! I am freaked out. I need them to make me feel safe, not to be so dumb and scare me. Stupid boys.
Jonah chuckles. “Okay, we won’t, but it was still funny,” I scoff, oh, hilarious.
“To you maybe,” I growl at him.
“I vote to go home, just putting it out there,” Kora whines, her hackles raised in my head. She is just as spooked by this place.
“So they were all burned to death?” I ask Kyan.
“Only the charred ones you can see.” He gestures to a couple.
“The rest?” I ask as we start down the track again.
“You really want to know, or is it just a morbid curiosity?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Both, probably,” I answer honestly. Although I’m not sure if I actually want to know.
“You can tell by the gravestones. I’ll show you,” he says, holding out his hand to me. I stare at it. Should I take it?
Hesitant, I look back up at him. “I promise not to scare you again,” he smiles. I roll my eyes, taking his hand when Jonah nudges me toward him. Kyan leads me over to where three stands in a line. The stones have weird symbols on them, what looks like bizarre paint.
“See, the symbols are all the same?” I nod. They kind of remind me of zodiac signs.
“These ones were sacrificed and if you come over here,” he says, tugging me through some more trees and further from the track.
I peek back at Jonah, who remains where he is. “Why isn’t Jonah coming?”
“Because he is a keeper, Kaif’s keeper, he can’t move from the track until we get to the main burial ground,” Kyan answers simply, like that is supposed to make sense to me. Maybe it will later, but right now I have no idea what he meant.
“And this one,” he squats down, brushing off the moss attached to the broken headstone. It looks old. The inscriptions are faded and barely readable, it is nearly completely worn off, yet the color of the symbol remains. “She was stoned to death,” Kyan says somberly, before standing up and pointing to another, but it is evident by the charred black pole that she was burned to death.
“So humans killed them?” I ask, just the thought makes my stomach churn.
“Not all, the sacrifices would have been the doing of their own coven,” Kyan mutters.
“Why would they sacrifice their own people?” I ask, feeling sad and shocked by the revelation.
“To try to break the curse on Kaif,” he sighs, looking across the grounds.
“And the one Celeste’s trapped soul,” Dominic’s voice says in my head. I swallow. It is weird, answering him back with Kyan in front of me. Kyan must feel my tension because he glances at me.
“What’s wrong?” I shake my head.
“Nothing,” I lie, but he sees straight through it. His keen eyes study me.
“Then why do you feel guilty?” he questions, closing the gap between us.
“Come on, we should get back to Jonah,” I tell him, tugging him back the way we came. Jonah, I can see ahead, is standing there, waiting on the track. He hadn’t moved from the spot he was in.
Kyan pulls me to a stop, refusing to take another step. “No, tell me, I can feel something is off since I spoke of Kaif’s curse,” he says. He is right. I feel terrible that I have a link to his father and can talk to him when he would probably do anything he could to have that chance again. It is unfair, and I can’t help but feel guilty.
“I don’t want to upset you, Kyan,” I tell him, and his brows pinch together. I think I see his tattoos ripple oddly, making me blink, thinking something is wrong with my vision. Strange, maybe being in this place is making me feel funny. Well, that actually isn’t a lie; it is eerie and feels ominous.
“Nothing you say will upset me, so say it,” he replies coldly, his displeasure rising.