The Cobra of Smoke - The Burden of Sight

PROLOGUE

“What’s wrong?” The hair on the back of my neck stuck up in alarm when I caught his eyes blazing murderously. At me. 

In response to my question, he took a stride towards me. Nostrils flaring, fists clenched, his spartan shoulders bent in a predatory bow, eyes glowering red. His wolf had taken over him. The sight was far from a pleasing one. Dread crawled over my body, prickling my skin.  

“wh… why are you staring at me like that?” my voice came out tight and cracking as I backed away. 

“Why did you hide it?” he growled through his clenched teeth, causing goosebumps to break out all over my arms. What is he on about now? What did I hide? I had already handed over his laptop to him after deleting the pictures. But by the way he was glaring at her, it seemed he was talking about something more important.  

Then it struck me. 

There is no way he is talking about that? Right? I felt my stomach contracting into a tight knot. No..no..no…If he knows the truth then I am done for. 

“What are you talking about?” I pushed past my lump and interrogated. I needed to find out what he was talking about. The fury in his eyes deepened. 

“Do.not.test.my.patience,” he roared like an enraged beast before smashing a glass candle against the wall. My breathing shattered. I let out a scream and cower down in pure horror. I was terrified to my soul. 

In my state of panic, I didn't notice when he bounded over to me. I felt his deadly presence only when he curled his long fingers around my dainty neck in a tight grip like the claws of death. Harsh and painful. 

I glanced up at him through my blurred vision, pleading with him to let me go. But what I saw in his eyes had my knees buckled. Madness. He was planning to kill me.          

“You still wanna play, huh?” He challenged me, the tightness of his grip getting firm. My eyes instinctively flickered to the curtain and turned wide in horror when I noticed orange blazes of fire leaping up the white draperies. The candle. 

“Zav..Zavion…the fire,” I turned to him and informed him in a shaky tone. Zavion, didn’t even bother to take a look at it. 

“Speak the truth,” he pressed my body against the wall and gritted out, totally disregarding my words. I gulped, my eyes darting back towards the fire.  

“The fire will catch us if we didn’t move,” I pleaded with him. 

“Until you speak the truth, no one’s moving,” his tight grip grew firm around my arm. I winced, feeling his nails digging into my skin. I shook my head at him but to no avail. He was out of it.  

“ Speak up, damn it. Is she mine?” he appeared to be at the end of his rope now. Tears ran down my eyes. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the giant flames of fire greedily swallowing everything in its way to us. I was caught between fire and the devil himself.  

“Please, don’t,” I pleaded with him. I didn’t want to reveal the truth. I didn’t want to go back to the beginning. 

“I will ask one last time. Is Aspen my daughter, Evangelina?” he thrusted his face closer and repeated in a tone that warned me cold against bluffing him. I felt so small and weak in that moment.   

My head dropped to my chin in defeat. Tears rained down my eyes as I gave him a weak nod. His hand fell away from my arm in an instant. 

This is all over now. 

A profound silence fell over. Suffocating silence. All I could hear was the crackling of fire and my pounding blood.  

The silence was broken by his mirthless laughter. 

“I went to the ends of the earth, bent the sky in search of my mate.All this time…. “ he sounded like a maniac, scaring me to my quivering bones. "All this time when she was right here…….right here watching me making a fool of myself. You must have a good laugh, didn’t you?” he roared and punched a hole into the wall, eliciting a whimper from me. I will never forget the venom in his eyes. 

I looked up to tell him my reason but what caught my eyes froze me to the spot. A flaming wooden plank was collapsing down on us.