Chapter Five: Truths

Torin and Kye end up on the beach, and some secrets start to be revealed.

           Torin sat on the white sands of the beach, looking out over the ocean and the starry night sky that surrounded her. She had been outside the entire day, having been in the woods with Kyrill that morning and then taking Moren out for the remainder of the day. She couldn’t help that she liked outdoors so much, and her skin was beginning to get slightly darker, which was just an added bonus to the freedom she felt underneath the summertime sky. Encantados were always so pale.

            Lost in her thoughts, the heated summer breeze blew through her hair and across the ground, stirring up loose grains of sand. She didn’t exactly know why she was here, but it was just so beautiful that she was glad she had come. Not to mention relaxing.

            The quiet sounds of the waves crashing onto shore were calming, and Torin laid down on her back on the warm sand, not caring that it would end up tangled in her hair. She found over the past weeks she had spent in Dritton that she really liked the place; everywhere else she had been before didn’t seem like it had the potential to be a permanent home. But this was somehow different. Dritton was exciting, and the people were a lot more accepting here than they were anywhere else. She could actually be herself, even if that meant not telling anybody about being part encantado. They all respected her wishes to keep it a secret until she was ready to tell.

            “What are you thinking about?” arose Kye’s voice from somewhere behind her.

            Torin smiled, still looking up at the stars. Maybe she didn’t want to be alone after all. “Life.”

            “My favorite thing,” he said, lying down next to her, his arms behind his head. “So what are you doing out here?”

            “I could ask you the same thing,” she teased.

            He rolled his eyes, though she couldn’t see it. “I was up by the cliff, and I saw somebody down here.”

            “Do you sneak up on all the girls?” she asked playfully.

            “What? No! I was just curious,” he protested.

            “Kye, I was joking,” Torin responded, trying to hold in her laughter.

            “Oh.” There was a pause in which they both lie there, listening to the waves and relishing the perfect salty air. “So why are you here?”

            “I came here to think.”

            “About life?”

            “For the most part.”

            “You still never told me,” he said after a short pause.

            “Told you what?” Torin asked, turning her head to look at him.

            “What you are,” he replied calmly, still looking up at the stars, his black hair falling around his face.

            “Oh,” Torin said quietly. She had to tell him eventually, didn’t she?

            “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said, trying to make her smile again. He didn’t want her to stay quiet, that was no fun for either of them.

            “No, it’s alright, I already told Kyrill, so it’s only fair.”

            “Okay. Wait, what?” he rolled over on his left side to face her. “When did you see Rill?”

            “This morning around sunrise. I was out in the forest and he and I started talking.”

            “What did he tell you?”

            “Not much, but I know about Evlyn.”

            “Really?” his green eyes grew wider than Torin could have thought possible. “He must really trust you.”

            Torin shrugged, though it wasn’t very easy when lying in the sand. “I guess so.”

            “He really misses her,” Kye said softly.

            Torin sighed. “I know. He seemed pretty broken up.”

            They relapsed into silence for some time again, both letting their minds wander.

            “So are you going to tell me?” Kye asked. He seemed to always be the one breaking the silence.

            Torin hit his arm playfully. “You just don’t give up, do you?”

            He shook his head. “Not when it’s important.”

            “Half encantado,” Torin answered shortly.

            “Really?” Kye asked, turning back to her. He looked at her, realizing why she always seemed so uneasy when somebody called her beautiful. But what she had was more than beauty, it was something much better.

            “Yeah. You want the whole story?” she asked, half hoping he would say no, but knowing she’d have to tell him eventually.

            “If you’re willing,” he responded, not wanting to force her to do anything.

            Torin launched into her story, staring at the night sky as Kye watched her. “My mother was young when she met him, about seventeen or so. Around my age, maybe a little older. He was a musician at a carnival she went to, and they had one night of… passion, I guess. Anyway, she found out she was pregnant later, which obviously shook her up a bit. She was still a teenager, and unmarried. She ended up falling in love with her neighbor, and they got married sometime after I was born, I’m not exactly sure when. I always called him dad anyway; though it was pretty obvious we weren’t related. I knew that from the beginning. When I was eleven, I had come home from school and found them dead,” Torin grew quiet, trying to brush away the tears. “There was blood everywhere, and I didn’t know what to do; I don’t even know who did it. After that I lived with my grandfather for a while, until he passed when I was fifteen. I spent the next two years jumping from city to city until I found here.”

            “Torin,” Kye started, trailing off at the end of her name. He didn’t want to see her sad. Nothing but happiness was meant for her.

            “I know. Sympathy, right?” she shrugged. “It’s expected.”

            “No, not sympathy.”

            Torin turned to face him, blue eyes meeting green. “What then?”

            “Understanding. Our father left us when we were still little, and…”

            “What?” she arched her eyebrow, knowing he was upset about something.

            “Rill and I accidentally killed our own mother.”

            Torin felt as if her heart would leap out of her chest. “What do you mean?”

            “We got really mad at each other one night when we were five. Nobody knew about the whole lycan thing, so we turned and just kind of lost it. We fled the city, and have made it on our own ever since.”

            Torin turned back to stare at the stars. “Life is so unfair.”

            Kye laughed, still slightly pained. “No kidding.” He looked at her, trying to figure out how to make her smile again. “Hey.”

            “What?” she asked, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

            “Catch me!” he exclaimed, pushing himself up out of the warmth sand and running down the thin line of the ocean water.

            Torin laughed. He certainly did know how to lighten a mood. Two could play at that game. She stood up; brushing the sand off her clothes she ran after him, her bare feet squishing through the slightly wet sand.

            He was near impossible to catch, but she could see his dark shadow not too far away, taunting her. She picked up speed, tackling him into the water, getting herself soaked in the process.

            One moment they were both dry, running across the sand, and the next they were on the ground, little streams of water washing across the beach. Torin found herself on top of him, hands on either side of his shoulders, straddling his stomach on her knees.

            They both laughed, in what seemed to be the best mood they had been in in quite some time. Until they realized the position they were in, that is. They blushed at the same moment, and Torin pushed herself off of him and stood, offering him help up.

            There was a silence for a while, in which both just stared at each other.     

            “Race you home?” Torin suggested, glancing up at him.

            “You are so on,” Kye replied, taking off into the shadows as Torin sprinted after him, laughing.

Author's Note

Forward with the romantic tensions! Let me know what you think!

Reviews

[Skye]

I have only one thing to say.. Next chapter please!!

[T. Logan]

I don't even know what's happening in the next chapter. This whole book is kind of a surprise for me too. haha

[Skye]

Then I will wait patiently (a very hard thing for me to do) for your imaginative juices to get flowing. :)