Chapter 17: Tasting Darkness By Jessicahall Chapter 17

Darius POV Lycus was in a terrible mood when I came up to the room. Pushing the door open, Lycus was yelling at Kalen, which was rare; he tried to never raise his voice around Kalen. We all knew how fragile he was.

We had all had to pull him back from the brink at some point, yet walking in, I had no doubt that Aleera was the reason.

“What’s going on?” I asked, opening the door and shrugging off my Jacket. I tossed it over the back of the chair by the fire. Turning around, they were both glaring at each other, yet neither answered.

“This has something to do with Aleera?”.

“Who else, she needs to go,” Lycus snaps at me, finally turning away from Kalen.

“What is this about? What did she do?” If she has disturbed the peace, she will be back in the cells.

“She did nothing; Lycus is the problem,” Kalen says before storming toward the door to leave.

“Where are you going?” I asked him.

“Out,”

“Kalen!” I growled at him, and he stopped with his hand on the door handle.

“No, Darius. We are mates. You don’t get to control all of us,”

“If it is to do with your safety, I do. You leave this room before I know what is going on. I will have her placed back in the cells, now sit your ass down,” I growl at him. Kalen’s knuckles turn white on the door handle, where he gripped it before he slammed the door. I raised an eyebrow at his anger.

I watch as he goes and lays on our custom-made bed. Finding a bed that fits four men was impossible, so we made one. Lycus watches him and moves to the couch by the fireplace. Despite his anger, Kalen’s behavior was as expected, and I could feel a hum of satisfaction come through the bond when Kalen lays down, snatching Lycus pillow to use.

I wasn’t even sure he noticed he did it, but it’s always the same when Kalen was in a mood. He would just lay in bed and sulk or stare off blankly when he is depressed, clinging to our pillows like they were a safety net. I watched, amused as he reassembled our pillows so he could steal our scents from them.

Tobias walks in and pauses at the tension in the room. I turnt o him, and he nods, letting me know he dropped Aleera’s dinner off to her. He glances at Kalen, and I shrug, and he rolls his eyes before climbing on the bed and sitting next to him. Kalen rolled instantly, placing his head in Tobias’s lap.

Tobias leans back against the headboard and brushes his fingers through Kalen’s hair and, I could feel Tobias magic oozing out and calming him.

The tension leaves the room, and guilt flashes through the bond. Both Tobias and I look at Lycus, knowing it is coming from him. Kalen was our weak spot in more ways than one, and we hated upsetting him. His mind was fragile. One minute he was fine and overly excited and bouncing around.

The next, he refused to get out of bed, would harm himself, or try and kill himself. I lost track over the last six years of the number of times he wanted to end it, the number of times he actually did, and we had to pull back from death, each time we brought him back, each time he was more mentally unstable.

It is not natural to die and come back so many times. The last time was the worst. We actually thought we lost him for good. 1 2 minutes he was dead for. For 12 minutes, he hung from the rafters unmoving.

I had all the cameras pulled down that week. When I checked the footage, it sickened me. I couldn’t unsee it. Kalen on that damn tablet wondering why she never opened his message, staring at the screen when he tossed it aside. He spent weeks begging her to come back or let him know she was ok.

I didn’t see the rope around his neck until he jumped off the staircase.

It was the last class of the day. He planned it perfectly. He knew no one was in the castle watching. He knew we wouldn’t get back in time. Luckily, Lycus went back feeling sick. Kalen was dead before he walked into the castle, and Lycus found him hanging from the second floor. He cut him down and performed CPR until Tobias got back. We all felt his bond sever, yet Tobias didn’t stop. He kept feeding his blood to Kalen, and by some miracle, his heart started up, and Tobias’s blood healed his broken neck. Since then, for the most part, Kalen was fine until he wasn’t.

We finally got him to a good place recently, and then she called on us. Kalen had never been happier until we had to remind him she could leave again, not to get his hopes up.

Lycus crawls on the bed beside him before tucking his arm over him.

I shouldn’t have taken his magic, it always made him worse, and I couldn’t believe I was stupid enough to take it from him, blinded by my anger With Aleera.

I moved toward the bed and sighed. “Come here,” I tell him, but he doesn’t budge, just stares off blankly.

“You wanted to heal her?” I asked him and Kalen nodded.

“Are you angry at Lycus because he wouldn’t,”

“He also yelled at her,” Kalen mumbles.

“She did the wrong thing,” I tell him.

“She didn’t understand,”

“Because she didn’t ask, she didn’t want us, Kalen,” I tell him. Kalen shakes his head.

“If you let me speak to her, I can prove it. We can get her back, “Kalen says, looking up at me. It was too dangerous, and I knew he wouldn’t get the answers he was hoping for. Tobias tried to muffle his anger and block Kalen from feeling it.

She destroyed all of us, one woman, and she near killed all of u s. She destroyed what we could have been.

“I can’t let you do that. You know why, Kalen,” I tell him.

“If I heal her?” I ask him before gritting my teeth. I hated the idea of doing such a thing but to bring his mood up, I would. I couldn’t risk him seeking her out.

“Can I sleep in there with her, or maybe she could come in here? I will sleep on the floor with her.”

Tobias growled at his words, and I didn’t miss the flicker of anger in Lycus’s eyes.

“No, I am still angry I caught you in there last night,” Tobias scolds him. I chewed my lip. Kalen could be child-like, could b e crazed, insane. So many different sides of him, and he had too many triggers.

“She must be lonely,” Kalen mumbles, looking at me like I would back him up, and usually I would but not when it comes to his safety.

“I will heal her, but you will remain in here with us,” I tell him.