Dark Spirits by Rebekkah Ford

considered by both parties, not just one. It’s understandable he wants to keep you safe. I can’t blame him for that.” He paused, and when he spoke again his voice had a biting edge. “But how’s an infant going to learn how to walk on its own if Daddy keeps encouraging it to crawl instead, all because he’s afraid the infant will fall down and get hurt?”
    I didn’t like his analogy because it implied Nathan was my daddy, and I was the infant. Yeah, technically Nathan was old, but he certainly wasn’t my daddy. I could feel my face getting hot, and it must have been turning red because Brayden quickly backpedaled.
    He raised his hands in a halting manner. “I didn’t mean the way it came out. What I meant was, how can you learn to stand on your own two feet in this new life if Nathan won’t let you?”
    I took a deep breath, feeling the heat from my face subside. “I agree.”
    We fell into a comfortable silence, and I wandered to the window overlooking the deck. I held onto the wooden sill, allowing the cool breeze to stir my hair about. In the distance an elk bugled. I closed my eyes, loving that magnificent sound. It pulsed through me, and a longing followed it I didn’t quite understand. But it felt ancient, where there was not one God but many. Reaching out with my keen sense of hearing, I heard critters scurrying in the woods, a chorus of crickets serenading each other, and the trees whispering across the vast forest.
    “I know what’s going on,” Brayden softly said, his voice low and careful.
    My heart stopped, and I opened my eyes. He couldn’t possibly know what was really going on. Or, could he? I turned around. “What do you know?”
    He leaned forward on his knees, folding his hands between them. “I know the ‘old one’ has the ring and wants you to find the incantations for him. I know about Aosoth and what Nathan did to her, which I commend him for. And I know you have witches’ blood running through your veins.”
    I raised my eyebrows. “Anything else?”
    A small painful smile twisted his lips. “There are dark spirits who want you dead.”
    I swallowed hard. “How do you know--”
    “My mentor, Cassondra, told me.”
    “How does she know?”
    By the look on his face, if he had glasses he’d be looking over its rim at me, as if I just asked a ridiculous question, like what color the sky was. “Everybody in our world knows.”
    “Then why won’t they help me?”
    “I asked her the same thing, and she told me because they’re in their own battle with the dark spirits. She thinks the dark spirits are keeping the others occupied, so they won’t get involved in this matter.”
    I looked away. “Oh,” was all I could say because an overwhelming feeling of total loneliness engulfed me. But then Brayden was suddenly in front of me, standing so close, I could feel his body heat.
    I didn’t move.
    “But I’m here,” he quietly said. “I won’t abandon you, and together we can figure this out.”
    A lump formed in my throat, and the corner of my eyes prickled. Why couldn’t Nathan be like this? And what Brayden had just said was like a slap on the forehead.
    Duh!
    The core reason for my hurt feelings wasn’t only because I felt like Nathan didn’t believe in me but because I felt abandoned by him too. But Brayden said he wouldn’t do that, and when he said it, my heart clenched because it should’ve been Nathan saying it, not Brayden. Regardless, though, it meant everything to me, and the way he’d said it, with such passion and determination . . .
     I bit my bottom lip to keep it from trembling and bowed my head, willing myself not to cry.
    Before I became immortal, I’d cried a lot because everything I’d kept buried inside me for years had been exposed. But I’d dealt with those issues, I reminded myself, and now knew my parents had loved me all along, and I wasn’t a freak. However, I wondered if a person would ever recover from issues that she or he had for