The Revealing

Damian and I had been walking for a couple of minutes. I had already heard a couple of rumbles, and almost every time I heard one, I jumped. Damian tried to calm me down by talking over the rumbles.

“So do you think that the training you had at the mansion will help you today?”

What an odd question. “I hope that I don’t have to use any of it,” I said.

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “How do you think we are getting past the guards? I will be doing most of the work, but if I can’t get all of them, I want to know if you could handle yourself.”

“Well, I think I’ll be okay as long as you’re around.”

“Yeah, but what if I’m not around?”

“What is that supposed to mean? Are you planning on ditching me?”

He laughed at my accusation. “I would never ditch you.”

“Then what’s the deal?”

“I just want to be sure,” he said.

“Well, I think I’d manage just fine.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, and I nodded. Another rumble close by called my attention, and I turned my head. When I turned it back, for some reason, the light had gone out.

“Damian?” I called out. It was dark, and I didn’t know what was around me. I didn’t like being in situations like this.

“Tell me—are you still okay fighting in the dark?”

I heard Damian’s voice and sighed. “Damian, are your eyes closed? Stop fooling around; we don’t have time for this.” Then I felt the movement of something behind me. I turned around and backed up.

“Bunny, you have to fight, not run.”

“Damian, I don’t want to do this.”

“You can do this.”

I felt another movement, and I ducked. Something grazed the top of my head. “Are you trying to kill me? I am clumsy enough as it is in the light.”

“I know. I’m banking on it.”

The voice came from in front of me, and I backed up. Strangely, I backed into him. His arms touched my shoulders and turned me around. He pushed my back against the wall. Then he closed the distance that he had left open so long ago. I put my hand on his neck, and he pulled me closer. Then he pulled back and opened his eyes. He was beautiful.

“You’re beautiful, Bunny.”

This remark shocked me. Then he turned toward the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t tell which way we had been walking before all of this started. “What was that all about?” I asked, blushing.

“I just wanted to piss you off a little so I could kiss you. I wanted to see if you’d still blush.”

“Did you?” I raised an eyebrow. He slung his arm over my shoulders and nudged me forward to start walking. We moved quickly. I didn’t want to be stuck in there if the tunnel caved in. However, the rumbling kept coming. We had been walking up an incline, and I was worried that this path would lead to a dead end. It was steep, and I slipped every so often.

“Damian, how do we know where this leads?”

“We don’t. This map you drew is a little useless.”

“Hey! It got us this far. Maybe you’re reading it wrong.”

“You didn’t even know this was a map until we told you,” he said. I huffed and crossed my arms, because he was right. Damian exhaled and added, “But I guess you are right; maybe we should stop and see if we can figure this out a little more.”

We stopped on the incline, turned around and sat down. He showed me the map. The little green dot was Peridot. She was so alone. There were circles in odd places around the map.

“All right, well, the circles are the guards, right?” he said.

“Yup.” I wanted to think, but I couldn’t. The air was hard to breathe in the cave. I leaned on his shoulder.

His head tilted and rested on mine, and he kissed the top of my head. “Bunny, I know you’re tired.”

“I want to sleep,” I said in a whisper.

“I know, but we need to get Peridot. I know, Bunny.”

I shut my eyes, and he moved, standing up. “Let’s just wing it,” he said. “If we see a guard, I’ll get rid of him, so you don’t have to lift a finger.”

“I’ll have you know I took on two of those guys on my own,” I said sleepily as he helped me stand up.

“Yes, I know. Big, bad Bunny.”

“That’s right.”

We walked forward, which felt a lot more like upward. He tried to make me lean on him, but I pushed off him, slightly delusional from being exhausted.

“I can walk on my own. Thank you!” I slurred my words together. I walked ahead of him and shouted happily, “It’s just a tunnel! There is only one way to go.” I was unaware that the incline we had been walking on was like an underground mountain, and we had just reached the peak. I took another step forward while looking back at Damian, smiling at his strange expression, and my foot landed confidently on the floor that was not there.

“Obsidian!” he shouted as I fell forward off the edge of the incline.

“Damian!” I wanted him to catch me, but the next thing I knew, my whole body was falling downward. I turned back to grab on to something, but I couldn’t reach anything, not even the hand that Damian shot out for me. I watched his eyes as I fell. I was falling fast, and the light from Damian’s eyes was fading away—but only for a little while, because almost as soon as I had fallen, Damian had jumped after me. I could see his eyes again.

He grabbed on to me, and we spun. He was trying to get underneath me to cushion my fall, but the spin was against our favour. We landed in such a way that almost all of me was on top of Damian, except for the side of my leg, which slammed into a rock. I screamed. Damian was unmoving underneath me. I couldn’t breathe, and my leg stung, but I couldn’t feel it after a second. I could only feel that I was definitely going to bruise. I tried to get Damian’s attention.

“Damian!” I squeaked his name and tried to touch his face. He moved, and I shrieked in pain.

“Obsidian! What’s wrong? What hurts?” He was frantic. He tried to sit up, and my leg pushed onto the rock. Once again, my breath left me, and I cried.

“Let me heal you!” he said.

“You can’t!” I rasped out, and I pulled my leg up and slid off him into the fetal position. “You can’t.”

He sat up. “You need to be healed, Obsidian. Mason isn’t here to do it.”

I pulled my leg away from him and sucked in a breath. “Give me your shirt,” I said. Damian was wearing a black top with a plaid shirt over it. He took the plaid one off and gave it to me. I sat up, sweating and shaking.

“Let me do it,” he said. I shook my head, but I couldn’t move to tie the top. “Let me tie it,” he said.

I gave him the shirt, and he slid it under my leg, wrapped it around the wound and tied it. The action shot pain into my leg, but I bit my lip and swallowed back a cry.

He looked at me, desperate to help me. “There is no damage to the bone, but it is really deep. Obsidian, let me heal you. You’re going to bleed out if you don’t get stitches. It’s already bleeding through my favourite shirt,” he said.

“Figures you would say that in a situation like this,” I said just barely.

“Obsidian, please!”

I could feel the shirt soaking in my blood and already beginning to drip. He was right. I would bleed out if I didn’t get stitches or something to close it. Therefore, against all my judgment, in my longing for relief from the pain, I nodded. He leaned down, grateful, and blew on my leg. I could feel the warmth fill my entire body, and relief washed over me. Damian’s healing was different from Mason’s healing. Damian’s healing was fuller, not as targeted. That seemed wrong.

“Hey. Hey, Damian?” I whispered in a slurred voice.

“What?” His voice was strained and tense from the stress of what he’d just done.

“Your eyes look like nightlights.”

He rolled his eyes, and all around the room, the light rotated. I giggled. “That’s pretty! Do it again!”

“So you’re okay?” he asked, making sure that the healing was all taken care of and that the side effects of healing someone who was not his charge hadn’t appeared yet.

“So you’re okay?” I repeated.

He raised an eyebrow, and then I raised an eyebrow. When he shook his head, I followed suit. He said, “Oh boy.”

I repeated, “Oh boy.”