Light Speed by Arkadie, L. (accelerated reader books .TXT) 📕

But there’s something different about theway he’s touching me. My eyes are closed and I compulsively suck inair between my teeth. His touch is so sensual and my thighs longfor him. I felt this sensation before. It’s what Cl’auta felt whenthe Selell Ze Feldis mounted her on the Ridge of Way.

I force my eyes open to see what’s happeningto me because I don’t understand why Tryst is lighting this firewithin me. However, it’s a pure white face that’s looking down uponme. I’m shivering because, oddly, it turns cold and because of theanticipation that inflicts me.

His fingers remain on my belly—each oneslowly creeps up toward my face. I curl my neck forward to see whathe’s doing to me. I don’t understand why he chooses to make me feelthis way.

“Stop,” I feebly plead. In truth, I don’twant him to stop. I’m eager to learn what his hand will do next asit snakes upwards between the bone that separates my breasts. Thewhite haired Selell freezes his hand. But he lowers his face closerto mine. This Selell has breath and it’s extremely cold.

“Are you dead?” I whisper.

Although he’s close and my words reach hisears, he doesn’t honor me with an answer. Instead, he snakes hisfingers up the round of one of my breasts. My eyes expand. I gulp.What is he doing to me? Why? His lips part at seeing what I see. Mybrown skin shows through the wet garment that conceals mynakedness. His fingers circle my nipple which has never beentouched before, and I tickle all over, although it’s not the sortof delight that makes me want to laugh.

“You know what we are, don’t you?” He askswhen he finally chooses to speak.

I can’t answer him. I can’t take my eyes offhis fingers and what they’re doing to me.

“Please, stop,” I plead.

“You want me near you, don’t you?” hewhispers.

“No…I mean yes.” I shake my head,confused.

His lips are so close that they narrowlytouch mine. I swallow hard in anticipation of what is to come.

“You want me near you, don’t you?” herepeats.

I’m unable to speak.

But then the white-haired Selell’s lipsmove. “Ad’ru,” he says, but it’s not his voice that I hear.

“Na’ta?” I gasp.

Instantly, the white-haired Selelldisappears and I’m no longer in the Meadow of Whispers. I’mstanding on dry, cracked ground. A blood-red sun bears down over mein this desolate forest. It’s brazenly hot, so hot that my throatheats up with every intake of the sooty air.

“Help me, Ad’ru,” I hear Na’ta whimper in apained voice from behind.

I whip myself around and my eyes travel uptoward the branches of the tree, dreading what I can’t avoidseeing. The branches spiral, twist and turn in precarious ways. Thesmoky gray wood looks smooth but is sharp at its edges.

You have to come and free me… Na’tamoans.

Tueka’lek’mak! She’s staked throughthe heart by a branch high in one of the trees. More branches coiltightly around her arms, legs, and even her torso, holding hercaptive. I clench my chest at the sight of her face. Her normalpink lips are blue and they shiver like she is ice cold in thestifling heat. I can tell that she is weak and barely clinging tothe little strength she has left.

I try to push off on my toes to lift off andsave her but instead of gaining ground, my eyes flick open. I’mstill on the bed in the room where I am being held captive. TheSelell with the white hair is standing over me, wearing his usualfacial expression. The two corners of his mouth are pulled down andhis brows are furrowed. Although I’m shaken by how I had to leaveNa’ta, I’m also paralyzed by that look on the Selell’s face.

“Bad dream?” he asks. I’m waiting for him tolean back but he doesn’t budge.

“No,” I hear myself answer him in a smallvoice. “I don’t dream. What I experienced was real?”

“All of it?” He lifts his eyebrowscuriously. He knows what happened in the Meadow of Showers.

I skip a breath, remembering the way hetouched me.

“You’re not used to sleeping?” he says, andit’s strange that he asks that.

I want to answer him but my natural instincttells me to be very cautious. How was he able to invade my mind andbe with me in Enu? Finally, he takes a step back so that I can situp. I cannot erase the sight of Na’ta in the tree from my memory.How did this happen to her? The last we faced each other, shevisited me in the East Orb, at father’s cavern; we stood on theplank, gazing out over the White Sea where I told her all aboutCl’auta and Falu. This was after Falu had been fed the mirk by theSelell, who deceived her.

“You must release me,” I say as I move withgreat speed to stand on my own two feet. I get close to him andclamp a hand around his wrist. I hurry and give him the light,rendering him incapable of wriggling out of my grasp.

He goes stiff as he gazes down to study thehold I have on him. I’m also caught off-guard by what’s happeninginside of me. I was growing accustomed to being continuously cold,but the shift in my body temperature is alarming. I’m warm. Andit’s not just any warmth; the sunrays that fall over the land ofEnu have exploded inside of me, filling me from the tip of my toesto the crown of my head. It’s the best feeling ever; better thanbasking in the Enuian sun itself.

“Who are you?” I ask past my tightenedthroat.

“You know who I am, Adore,” he says withincredible repose.

“But you haven’t revealed your name.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“You’ll hate me.”

I determinedly shake my head. “I haven’t thecapacity to hate.”

He nods. “I know.”

“You do?”

“I know a lot about you, Ad’ru and you knowa lot about me.”

Now I’m very confused. “I don’t understand,”I say, hoping he’ll elaborate.

He lifts his arm, the one I’m holding.“There are seven daughters of the house of Benel and you have thepower to affect.” His eyes examine each one of my fingers. “We havethat in common. I’ve made men who’ve called for my head