5. Still Falling.

CARA

Dear Selene….

I think I am hearing auditory illusions all of a sudden. My ears must be playing games with me.

Dane!?…. Dane can't possibly be here. He can't possibly be back. There is no way he is even an inductee in this ceremony!

Silence settles all over the atmosphere once again, and steady footsteps begin to echo down one of the aisles leading to the podium.

The central aisle….

Rhia turns around, and before I can stop myself from joining her, I am already staring wide-eyed…. at Dane.

He is here.

He is really here.

And he is walking down majestically towards the podium to receive his warrior mark.

All the air in my lungs evaporates. I struggle to breathe properly, and my heart thunders for all the wrong reasons.

All the pent up emotions rush back up my throat like bitter bile, and I fight with everything I have not to puke out the delicious cereal I had for breakfast this morning.

Every cell in my body ignites to life as I continue watching Dane wordlessly and breathlessly as he climbs up the podium. As he solemnly swears his oath before everyone and folds up his shirt from the wrist to bare his upper arm in order to receive his mark.

The muscles of his arm ripple in a way that makes me swallow, and I curse myself silently for still lusting after this bastard.

He is taller now. More manly. More muscular with broader shoulders and chest to fit. The lights of the chandeliers above the podium glimmers all over him.

And I suck in a breath I desperately need.

The few dispersed strands of blonde hair that is spread across his short wavy deep brown hair looks more shiner and prominent. His jawline looks more angled and a little bit harsher than I can remember.

And that mouth…. his mouth seems to have undergone a major resculpturing during these past two years. It is now a fucking luscious masterpiece that I can't seem to get my eyes off from.

And speaking about eyes…. his eyes are still that shade of deep forest green that I lost myself into years ago, but now, they seem to bear some sort of fierceness as they stare at the stylus in my father's hand applying the mark on him.

A sharp scar that he did not possess two years ago now bisects his left upper eyelid and runs all the way through his eyebrow to disappear around the side of his forehead in a curvy fashion.

By mere looking at him, I do not need a soothsayer to tell me that Dane has changed a lot. A whole fucking lot.

The rest of his physical body features speak volumes of that change. They look so carved like they were sharpened by the harshest of elements….

And yet, somehow, they still make him as captivatingly perfect as ever. After all these years, he is still fucking gorgeous.

The tons of mouth watering males I have lived with in the Defense Academy for the past two years do not even come a close second to him.

Finally, he descends down the stairs of the podium after receiving his warrior mark. I quickly avert my eyes away from him, not ready for him to see me, even by mistake.

Two years was enough to change him, but that same two years was not enough to change my stupid, lingering feelings for him.

Other inductees are mentioned. Rhia and Killian are marked. Al receives his mark too.

When my name bounces off the walls of the auditorium, it takes me a hazy while and the squeezing of Rhia's hand around mine for me to recover myself and get my paralyzed ass up from the pew.

With my heart thudding wildly against my chest, I walk down the aisle and ascend the podium.

All of my painstakingly efforts and hard work, with the huge support system I had, led me to this very moment. And I am going to grab the reward with everything I have.

My arm is already bare to receive the mark due to the strapless dress I am wearing.

“Hello darling,” my father whispers quietly to me with a proud smile. His smile offers me some sort of relief and comfort.

I let his loving gesture absorb into me as I relax. I smile back at him before facing the crowd.

Forcing my eyes to glue to one of the exit doors and not to wander around looking for a certain green eyed jerk, I begin to say my oath boldly in front of everyone.

“I, Cara Griffin, do solemnly swear to honor and uphold the virtues of courage, integrity, strength and sound wisdom, both in duty and in character. I pledge my allegiance to the guidance of Selene, and to my home. In my moments of doubt and weakness, I shall find clarity and strength within the truth, and within the purity of the bonds I share with the people I love. I carry within me the flame of hope, the beacon of light that guides through the darkest of nights, and the legacy for the generations to come. I vow to defend, to protect, and to uphold this sacred oath, until my last breath.”

I exhale after saying my oath. My dad nods with a smile, dips the stylus into the crucible, and after seconds that felt like celestial eternity, I eventually receive my mark.

Finally, I am now a Greenwood full fledged warrior. I am no longer a warrior in training.

But I can't help but feel that I am still that eighteen year old girl who was left behind by the one person she ever loved.

The one person she can't fucking erase out of her head.

And he is back. He is here.

☆ ☆ ⁠☆ ☆ ☆ ⁠☆

Later in the early evening, after the whole buzz of the induction ceremony, Rhia is at my side as we walk towards the banquet hall, the venue where a cocktail party is being held.

This is an after party of the induction ceremony that lasts till nighttime. In some occasions, even till midnight.

Killian and Al are suddenly MIA. But I am very certain that they went back to the packhouse definitely to sneak in some bottles of booze they will enjoy later in the dead of night.

But what if they are wi—

“My mark still tingles.” Rhia chuckles happily as she examines her arm. “What about yours?”

“Me, I don't feel anything.” I say flatly, recollecting myself from my thoughts.

Her eyes narrow at me.

“Cara, are you alright?” She asks just as we enter inside the hall, which is already filled with people strolling around with glasses of wine in their hands.